We describe herein synthesis of novel hydroxy-bis-2,5-disubstituted-1,3,4-oxadiazoles and their ability to emit green light, through ESIPT mechanism. Unlike previous reports, our compounds exhibit ...very good quantum yields, most likely avoiding the presumed intramolecular fluorescence quenching in presence of the second oxadiazole moiety. Studies regarding behaviour of the compounds in polar and non-polar solvents are also described, indicating the possibility to modulate the emission according to the environment. The solid-state structural analysis, corroborated with fluorescence data, suggest the importance of the tert-butyl group in preservation of the luminescent properties. The corresponding benzyl-protected compounds, precursors to the target hydroxy-bis-2,5-disubstituted-1,3,4-oxadiazoles were also investigated for their optical properties and found to display very intense blue emission, with quantum yields values in dichloromethane (between 0.423 and 0.499) almost equal to the standard quinine sulfate.
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•Highly green emissive hydroxy-bis-oxadiazoles with large Stokes shifts and quantum yields were synthesized by novel approach.•ESIPT-based mechanism of light emission was assigned .•Phenol protection of oxadiazoles yields blue shift of intense light emission, comparable to quinine sulfate.•Aggregation induced emission occurs in aqueous medium and provides variable green emission according to the molecular structure.•The synthesized compounds display intense luminescence in solid state.
After implementing one of the toughest austerity programs in the European Union during the financial crisis, Romania returned to continuous economic growth for eight years (2012−2019), not before ...concluding between 2011−2013 two preventive agreements with Troika to reduce its macroeconomic imbalances. This continuous economic growth was also reflected in the achievement of the national targets under the Europe 2020 Strategy. In order to better coordinate economic and budgetary policies, the European Union has launched the European Semester. Although the main objective of the latter was to coordinate Member States' efforts to implement fiscal budgetary policies aimed at preventing macroeconomic imbalances and controlling public finances, after 2015, the European Semester began to incorporate social policy objectives, especially in the area of employment and social inclusion policies. By using the index of commodification/ decommodification of social policies developed by Paul Copeland, I illustrate, by analyzing the National Reform Programs and Country Specific Reports, that half of the policies taken in the two areas were towards partial commodification or commodification, and other significant measures towards commodification and decommodification, e.g. types of policies addressed to vulnerable groups trying to (re)integrate them into the labor market, even if in conditions that do not necessarily lead to social inclusion. Keywords: social policies; European Semester; Europe 2020; de/comodification; neoliberalism.
For two methods commonly used to achieve canonical-ensemble sampling in a molecular-dynamics simulation, the Langevin thermostat and the Andersen H. C. Andersen, J. Chem. Phys. 72, 2384 (1980) ...thermostat, we observe, as have others, synchronization of initially independent trajectories in the same potential basin when the same random number sequence is employed. For the first time, we derive the time dependence of this synchronization for a harmonic well and show that the rate of synchronization is proportional to the thermostat coupling strength at weak coupling and inversely proportional at strong coupling with a peak in between. Explanations for the synchronization and the coupling dependence are given for both thermostats. Observation of the effect for a realistic 97-atom system indicates that this phenomenon is quite general. We discuss some of the implications of this effect and propose that it can be exploited to develop new simulation techniques. We give three examples: efficient thermalization (a concept which was also noted by Fahy and Hamann S. Fahy and D. R. Hamann, Phys. Rev. Lett. 69, 761 (1992)), time-parallelization of a trajectory in an infrequent-event system, and detecting transitions in an infrequent-event system.
•Extraction and concentration of heavy metals in food was investigated.•ICP-OES was used to determine the concentrations of heavy metals in food.•Seafood, tuna, and poultry proved to have different ...capacities of extraction of heavy metals.
The study aims to provide evidence regarding the impact of the extraction of heavy metals into food products through conventional cooking and preserving of foods like seafood, tuna, and poultry. The optical emission spectrometric technique with an inductively coupled plasma source (ICP-OES) was employed to determine trace levels of heavy metals in the muscle tissue of seafood, fish meat, tuna species, poultry, and turkey that was collected raw, cooked, frozen, and preserved. Conventional cooking increased the concentration of some heavy metals (Al, Sn, Fe, Co, Ti, and Mn) by more than 100.00%, while preserving the mussels promoted the extraction and accumulation of metals such as Al, Fe, Sn, Zn, Cu, Hg, and As, resulting in an increase in concentration of more than 180.00%.
The antifungal agent, ketoconazole, and the anti-inflammatory drug, piroxicam, were incorporated into matrices of xanthan or oleic acid-esterified xanthan (Xn) and polyurethane (PU), to develop ...topical drug delivery systems. Compared to matrices without bioactive compounds, which only showed a nominal compressive stress of 32.18 kPa (sample xanthan–polyurethane) at a strain of 71.26%, the compressive resilience of the biomaterials increased to nearly 50.04 kPa (sample xanthan–polyurethane–ketoconazole) at a strain of 71.34%. The compressive strength decreased to around 30.67 kPa upon encapsulating a second drug within the xanthan–polyurethane framework (sample xanthan–polyurethane–piroxicam/ketoconazole), while the peak sustainable strain increased to 87.21%. The Weibull model provided the most suitable fit for the drug release kinetics. Unlike the materials based on xanthan–polyurethane, those made with oleic acid-esterified xanthan–polyurethane released the active ingredients more slowly (the release rate constant showed lower values). All the materials demonstrated antimicrobial effectiveness. Furthermore, a higher volume of piroxicam was released from oleic acid-esterified xanthan–polyurethane–piroxicam (64%) as compared to xanthan–polyurethane–piroxicam (44%). Considering these results, materials that include polyurethane and either modified or unmodified xanthan showed promise as topical drug delivery systems for releasing piroxicam and ketoconazole.
Objectives
Down syndrome (DS) is associated with multiple complications, including a high risk of leukemia and thyroid dysfunction. This clinical study aimed to examine the complete blood cell count ...in patients with DS without leukemia or transient abnormal myelopoiesis. We also aimed to evaluate the effect of thyroid dysfunction on hematological anomalies in DS.
Methods
We analyzed the peripheral blood cell count in 23 pediatric patients with DS with and without thyroid dysfunction and in 17 pediatric patients without DS with thyroid dysfunction.
Results
Patients with DS showed greater neutrophilia and lymphopenia than did patients with DS and hypothyroidism and patients with hypothyroidism. Surprisingly, patients with DS showed a significant degree of eosinopenia in the peripheral blood. Interestingly, hypothyroidism had an attenuating effect on different lineages in the complete blood count. However, these anomalies were specific for DS.
Conclusions
Our clinical findings support previous data on DS-associated changes in the complete blood count. Our study also shows novel alterations in the complete blood count in leukemia-free patients with DS in association with hypothyroidism. The attenuating effect of thyroid dysfunction on changes in different lineages in the context of DS is novel and deserves further analysis in larger studies.
As IoT metering devices become increasingly prevalent, the smart energy grid encounters challenges associated with the transmission of large volumes of data affecting the latency of control services ...and the secure delivery of energy. Offloading computational work towards the edge is a viable option; however, effectively coordinating service execution on edge nodes presents significant challenges due to the vast search space making it difficult to identify optimal decisions within a limited timeframe. In this research paper, we utilize the whale optimization algorithm to decide and select the optimal edge nodes for executing services' computational tasks. We employ a directed acyclic graph to model dependencies among computational nodes, data network links, smart grid energy assets, and energy network organization, thereby facilitating more efficient navigation within the decision space to identify the optimal solution. The offloading decision variables are represented as a binary vector, which is evaluated using a fitness function considering round-trip time and the correlation between edge-task computational resources. To effectively explore offloading strategies and prevent convergence to suboptimal solutions, we adapt the feedback mechanisms, an inertia weight coefficient, and a nonlinear convergence factor. The evaluation results are promising, demonstrating that the proposed solution can effectively consider both energy and data network constraints while enduring faster decision-making for optimization, with notable improvements in response time and a low average execution time of approximately 0.03 s per iteration. Additionally, on complex computational infrastructures modeled, our solution shows strong features in terms of diversity, fitness evolution, and execution time.
Liver metastases are secondary malignant tumor formations due to the dissemination of primary malignant tumors, which are often the first clinical manifestation of mammary cancer. We present the case ...of a 52-year-old female patient from an urban area who came to the walk-in service at the "Sf. Ap. Andrei" Emergency County Hospital, Galati, for laboratory investigations. These revealed a significant increase in CA 15-3 tumor markers and a slight increase in CA 125 and CA 19-9 markers; however, clinical examination did not reveal tumors in the breast and there were no axillary adenopathies. CT exam revealed a large tumor formation in the hepatic right lobe and, close to it, a smaller one. The mammograph showed millimetric lesions at the level of the left mammary gland and bilateral axillary adenopathies. Subsequently, the patient underwent two liver biopsies in two different hospitals, which produced different histological and immunohistochemical results. PET-CT drew attention to a lung tumor and disclosed a different origin of metastases. In the end, correlating all investigations, the final diagnosis was cholangiocarcinoma with liver metastases and lung tumor with lung and bone metastases.
Assessment of Depression in Patients with COVID-19 Baroiu, Liliana; Dumea, Elena; Năstase, Florentina ...
Brain. Broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience,
08/2021, Letnik:
12, Številka:
2
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
The COVID-19 pandemic is probably the greatest natural disaster of our generation and the 21st century with a great impact on mental health. The present study aims to quantify, with the help of the ...Beck questionnaire, the degree of depression in a group of 109 patients with moderate forms of COVID-19, hospitalized in the Second Clinic of the Clinical Hospital for Infectious Diseases St. Cuv. Parascheva Galati during the period: 1.01-30.03.2021. Of these, 35 patients (32.11%) had varying degrees of depression, and had an age and body mass index statistically significantly higher than those without depression. These patients also had statistically significantly higher Charlson scores of cumulative comorbidities and required longer hospitalization than patients without depression. The severity of COVID-19 and the percentage of favorable prognosis did not show statistically significant differences between the two groups. Our study reveals a lower incidence of depression among patients with COVID-19 compared to existing studies in the literature. This can be explained by the fact that our study is conducted at the end of the first year of the pandemic when antiviral therapy schemes stabilized and population vaccination began. The high genetic variability of the virus, which can determine at any time the appearance of new strains with greater aggression, contagion or with mutations on the spike protein, maintains the need to keep non-specific preventive measures and the mental tension related to this pathology. Thus, intrapandemic psychiatric disorders remain a major public health problem and require strong government prevention and control measures.
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