Bulimia: symptoms and syndromes in an urban population

The widely used DSM-III criteria for the diagnosis of bulimia essentially define bulimia as a syndrome of guilty, secretive and subjectively hard to control binge over-eating. A self-report questionnaire for bulimic behavior was administered to three community and two hospital populations in South Australia. 13% of females in the community samples could be categorized as bulimic according to the DSM-III criteria. Those criteria did not adequately define the behaviour of patients in treatment for bulimia in a Weight Disorders Unit, 85% of whom not only binged, but induced vomiting afterwards. When diagnostic criteria were more closely aligned to clinical experience, the prevalence of bulimia in the community appeared closer to 1-2%. New DSM criteria (DSM-III-R) have been proposed and prevalence rates using them fell within the 1-2% range.     

Analgesic cross-tolerance between morphine and opioid peptides

The analgesic effect, of intracerebroventricular administration of morphine, ketocyclazocine, [D-ala²]-methionine enkephalinamide (DAM), [D-ala²-D-leu⁵]-enkephalin. (DADLE), leuenkephalin, metenkephalin, and -endorphin on acetic acid-induced abdominal writhing (AAW) was investigated in naive and morphine-tolerant mice. It was found that the relative potencies of a series of opioids are different in naive and morphine-tolerant groups. In naive animals, the order of potency (ED₅₀, nmol) was -endorphin > morphine=DAM > DADLE > ketocyclazocine=leuenkephalin=metenkephalin. The morphine-tolerant animals were cross-tolerant to ketocyclazocine and to all the peptides studied; DAM and -endorphin exhibited the highest degree of tolerance. In morphine-tolerant animals, the order of potency was morphine=DADLE=-endorphin > DAM=ketocyclazocine =metenkephalin > leuenkephalin. The results indicate that endogenous opioid systems may be affected by tolerance development to morphine.     

Effect of Age-Hardening Temperature on Mechanical and Wear Behavior of Furnace-Cooled Al7075-Tungsten Carbide Composite

In this study, aluminum alloy (Al7075) composites with a 4% weight fraction of tungsten carbide (WC) were manufactured using a stir casting process and the developed composites were subjected to various ageing temperatures. An attempt has been made to predict the age-hardening temperature with the enhanced mechanical and wear properties of Al7075-WC. The result shows that the composite specimen aged at 250 °C offered maximum tensile strength and the Brinell hardness number was increased by 37.1% and 50.5%, respectively; the maximum impact energy was observed to be 92.2% for the 450 °C aged composites, compared to the non-aged Al7075-WC composites. The strength properties of the Al7075-WC composite decreased to 30.86%, 4.7%, and 24.9% when the composite specimens aged at 350 °C. The mechanical properties of the Al7075-WC composite were increased at the age-hardening temperatures from 150 °C to 250 °C and decreased from 250 °C to 350 °C. The wear testing pin-on-disc setup utilized to determine the wear characteristics of the prepared MMC with wear parameters of load and sliding distance and the wear resistance of the composite specimens increased due to ageing. The fractography analysis of the composite samples carried out by scanning electron microscope (SEM) images revealed that the fracture of the composite during the tensile test is a mixture of ductile and brittle modes.     

Effect of estrogens on the concentration and composition of arterial sterols and steryl esters in male white carneau pigeons.

The effect of short-term (6 months) administration of conjugated equine estrogen (Premarin) on content and composition of the aortic sterols in male shite Carneau pigeons while they were on a cholesterol-free grain diet was investigated. Estrogen treatment resulted in a 38% increase (P less than 0.05) in free sterol concentration, with a 28.8% concomitant decrease (P less than 0.05) in the percent of cholesteryl esters. The total sterol concentration remained unchanged. This finding suggests that estrogens might influence the synthetic or hydrolytic (or both) processes that control the concentration of cholesteryl esters in the aorta. Fatty acid composition of steryl esters did not change significantly. The cholesterol content of plasma showed a mild reduction (14%) whereas the triglycerides increased significantly (30%).     

Oxidant-free,three-component synthesis of 7-amino-6H-benzo[c]chromen-6-ones under green conditions

An oxidant-free three-component synthesis of biologically significant 7-amino-6H-benzo[c]chromen-6-ones was established involving a Sc(OTf)₃ catalyzed three-component reaction between primary amines, β-ketoesters and 2-hydroxychalcones under green conditions. In this strategy, both the B and C rings of 6H-benzo[c]chromen-6-ones were constructed simultaneously starting from acyclic precursors by generating four new bonds including two C–C, one C–N and one C–O in a single synthetic operation. The mechanism of this sequential cascade process involves the initial formation of a β-enaminone intermediate followed by Michael addition with 2-hydroxychalcone, intramolecular cyclization, dehydration, lactonization and aromatization steps. Unlike the related literature approaches, this reaction delivered the products without the addition of any external oxidants to achieve the key aromatization step.

Three-component synthesis of 7-amino-6H-benzo[c]chromen-6-ones was achieved under oxidant-free green conditions.     

Cardiac isoform of alpha-2 macroglobulin as a novel diagnostic marker for cardiac diseases.

BACKGROUND: Earlier we showed cardiac isoform of alpha-2 macroglobulin (CA2M) to be an early marker of cardiac hypertrophy. DESIGN: In this study, we tried to explore the possibility of using this protein as a marker for diagnosis of cardiac diseases. METHODS: A total of 593 samples were analyzed for the presence of CA2M using sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. RESULTS: Samples include various cardiac diseases (230), non-cardiac ailments (263) and controls (100). CONCLUSION: Levels of CA2M in cardiac diseases were significantly higher than other sample groups but moderately elevated in leprosy. This protein could be considered for diagnosis of cardiac diseases as a serum marker.     

Antimalarial efficacy of dynamic compound of plumbagin chemical constituent from Plumbago zeylanica Linn (Plumbaginaceae) against the malarial vector Anopheles stephensi Liston (Diptera: Culicidae)

In the present investigation, the effective root compound of plumbagin of Plumbago zeylanica (Plumbaginaceae) was evaluated for chemical constituent and antimalarial effect against the fourth instar larvae of Anopheles stephensi Liston (Diptera). In the chromatographic analyses of root compound with Rf value of 0.788 and NMR analyses also revealed that the effective compound contain naphthoquinone plumbagin were identified as the major chemical constituent. Larval mortality was observed after 3 h of exposure period. The plumbagin compound showed remarkable larvicidal activity against A. stephensi (LC₅₀ 32.65 and LC₉₀72.27 ppm). Histopathological effects of compound was observed in the treated larvae. Based on the results, the plumbagin compound of P. zeylanica can be considered as a new source of natural larvicide for the control of malarial vector.     

A low molecular weight OLED material: 2-(4-((2-hydroxyethyl)(methyl)amino)benzylidene)malononitrile. Synthesis,crystal structure,thin film morphology,spectroscopic characterization and DFT calculations

2-(4-((2-Hydroxyethyl)(methyl)amino)benzylidene)malononitrile (HEMABM) was synthesized from 4-[hydroxymethyl(methyl)amino]benzaldehyde and propanedinitrile to obtain a low molecular weight fluorescent material with an efficient solid-state emission and electroluminescence properties comparable to the well-known poly(2-methoxy-5(2′-ethyl)hexoxyphenylenevinylene) (MEH-PPV). The HEMABM was used to prepare an organic light-emitting diode by a solution process. Despite the title compound being a small molecule, it showed optical properties and notable capacity to form a film with smooth morphology (10.81 nm) closer to that of polymer MEH-PPV (10.63 nm). The preparation of the device was by spin coating, the electrical properties such as threshold voltage were about 1.0 V for both HEMABM and MEH-PPV, and the luminance 1300 cd m⁻² for HEMABM and 2600 cd m⁻² for MEH-PPV. This low molecular weight compound was characterized by SCXRD, IR, NMR, and EI. Besides a quantitative analysis of the intermolecular interactions by PIXEL, density functional theory (DFT) calculations are reported.

A low molecular weight fluorescent malononitrile derivative showed an efficient solid-state emission and electroluminescence properties.