Application of Deep Eutectic Solvents in the Synthesis of Substituted 2-Mercaptoquinazolin-4(3H)-Ones: A Comparison of Selected Green Chemistry Methods

In this study, deep eutectic solvents (DESs) were used as green and eco-friendly media for the synthesis of substituted 2-mercaptoquinazolin-4(3H)-ones from different anthranilic acids and aliphatic or aromatic isothiocyanates. A model reaction on anthranilic acid and phenyl isothiocyanate was performed in 20 choline chloride-based DESs at 80 °C to find the best solvent. Based on the product yield, choline chloride:urea (1:2) DES was found to be the most effective, while DESs acted both as solvents and catalysts. Desired compounds were prepared with moderate to good yields using stirring, microwave-assisted, and ultrasound-assisted synthesis. Significantly, higher yields were obtained with mixing and ultrasonication (16–76%), while microwave-induced synthesis showed lower effectiveness (13–49%). The specific contribution of this research is the use of DESs in combination with the above-mentioned green techniques for the synthesis of a wide range of derivatives. The structures of the synthesized compounds were confirmed by 1H and 13C NMR spectroscopy.

Resistant Starch: A Promising Functional Food Ingredient

Nowadays dietary starches are considered as a tool for maintaining good health. Recently resistant starch has received much attention because of its specific contribution to human health. Resistant starch escapes digestion in the small intestine and fermented in the colon by colonic microorganisms. Resistant starch has wide applications in varieties of food products. In the present study, types of resistant starch, their sources, physiological benefits, have been discussed briefly. This chapter focuses on factors affecting starch digestion, resistant starch content, characterization of resistant starch and various techniques employed to study their structural features.

Introduction

The chapter introduces the topic of music education and social change and shows the need for an interdisciplinary study. It discusses research related to social change and music education critically and shows possible directions for new investigations. It develops the theoretical framework of utopia and utopian thinking as an innovative approach to music education and social change. It offers a much-needed scholarly foundation for music education and social change. Furthermore, this chapter presents the purpose of the present study, and the specific contribution this book will make to music education theory and practice. Finally, it offers a brief overview of the book chapters.

Age-specific Contribution of Contacts to Transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in Germany

Introduction: Current estimates of pandemic spread using infectious disease models in Germany for SARS-CoV-2 often do not use age-specific infection parameters and are not always based on known contact matrices of the population. They also do not usually include setting-based information of reported cases and do not account for age-specific underdetection of reported cases. Here, we report likely pandemic spread using an age-structured model to understand the age- and setting-specific contribution of contacts to transmission during all phases of the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany. Methods: We developed a deterministic SEIRS model using a pre-pandemic contact matrix. The model is optimized to fit reported age-specific SARS-CoV-2 incidences from the Robert Koch Institute, includes information on setting-specific reported cases in schools and integrates age and pandemic period-specific parameters for underdetection of reported cases deduced from a large population-based seroprevalence study. Results: We showed that taking underreporting into account, younger adults and teenagers are the main contributors to infections during the first three pandemic waves in Germany. Overall, the contribution of contacts in schools to the total cases in the population was below 10% during the third wave. Discussion: Accounting for the pandemic phase and age-specific underreporting seems important to correctly identify those parts of the population where quarantine, testing, vaccination, and contact-reduction measures are likely to be most effective and efficient. In the future, we will aim to compare current model estimates with currently emerging during-pandemic age-specific contact survey data.

CSR Education in Economia Aziendale Curricula: An Overview

In the last few years, policymakers have underlined the need for new soft and hard skills about corporate social responsibility (CSR). The main debate about CSR education has been driven by the 2030 Agenda, which explicitly recognized Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) as having a pivotal role. In particular, many academics started to develop qualitative and quantitative studies to evaluate the integration of CSR contents in business schools’ curricula. The paper aims to contribute to the existing debate through the analysis of the contribution provided by Italian HEIs to CSR Education. In particular, we adopted qualitative methods to evaluate the specific contribution provided by Economia Aziendale scholars.

Molecular Mechanisms of Memory Consolidation That Operate During Sleep

The role of sleep for brain function has been in the focus of interest for many years. It is now firmly established that sleep and the corresponding brain activity is of central importance for memory consolidation. Less clear are the underlying molecular mechanisms and their specific contribution to the formation of long-term memory. In this review, we summarize the current knowledge of such mechanisms and we discuss the several unknowns that hinder a deeper appreciation of how molecular mechanisms of memory consolidation during sleep impact synaptic function and engram formation.

Amyloid-Driven Tau Accumulation on Mitochondria Potentially Leads to Cognitive Deterioration in Alzheimer’s Disease

Despite the well-accepted role of the two main neuropathological markers (β-amyloid and tau) in the progression of Alzheimer’s disease, the interaction and specific contribution of each of them is not fully elucidated. To address this question, in the present study, an adeno-associated virus (AAV9) carrying the mutant P301L form of human tau, was injected into the dorsal hippocampi of APP/PS1 transgenic mice or wild type mice (WT). Three months after injections, memory tasks, biochemical and immunohistochemical analysis were performed. We found that the overexpression of hTauP301L accelerates memory deficits in APP/PS1 mice, but it did not affect memory function of WT mice. Likewise, biochemical assays showed that only in the case of APP/PS1-hTauP301L injected mice, an important accumulation of tau was observed in the insoluble urea fraction. Similarly, electron microscopy images revealed that numerous clusters of tau immunoparticles appear at the dendrites of APP/PS1 injected mice and not in WT animals, suggesting that the presence of amyloid is necessary to induce tau aggregation. Interestingly, these tau immunoparticles accumulate in dendritic mitochondria in the APP/PS1 mice, whereas most of mitochondria in WT injected mice remain free of tau immunoparticles. Taken together, it seems that amyloid induces tau aggregation and accumulation in the dendritic mitochondria and subsequently may alter synapse function, thus, contributing to accelerate cognitive decline in APP/PS1 mice.

TAMI-61. EXAMINING THE ROLE OF HYPOXIA INDUCED GENES CXCR4 AND NXPH4 IN INVASION OF HYPOXIC GLIOBLASTOMA CELLS

Hypoxia (low oxygen) has been associated with adverse effects in tumor biology by exaggerating the capabilities of invasion, proliferation, and survival of tumor cells within the tumor microenvironment. We engineered glioblastoma (GBM) proneural cells with a novel hypoxia reporter, HRE-UnaG, to study areas of tumor hypoxia and the effects that these hypoxic cells have on tumorigenesis. Single cell RNA-seq analysis from a mouse intracranially injected with our HRE dUnaG GBM cells revealed a shift to a mesenchymal state upon hypoxia (detected by expression of UnaG). Two genes, CXCR4 and NXPH4, were identified as being specifically induced in the hypoxic population. Our studies focus on the hypothesis that these two hypoxia induced genes, CXCR4 and NXPH4, are upregulated in hypoxic GBM cells, which may allow tumor cells to become more aggressive and resistant to conventional forms of therapies. GBM cells will be transduced with lentiviral vectors for Dox inducible shRNA knockdown of CXCR4 or NXPH4 to test specific contribution of these genes to the phenotype of the hypoxic population, with particular focus on the change in invasion and overall tumor burden upon gene silencing.

Technical Analysis of Tourism Price Process in the Eurozone

This study is a specific contribution to investigating normalities in prices to a well-established cointegrated vector autoregressive model (VAR). While the role of prices in computational economics has been investigated, the real prices vis-à-vis nominal prices in the decision process has been neglected. The paper investigates the transition from nominal to real time-series of prices without losing information in the data set when deflating or de-seasonalizing. The likelihood approach is based on careful specifications of the (co)integration characteristics of tourism prices. The results confirm that the transmission of tourism prices in the Eurozone positively impacts Slovenian tourism prices when the spatial consolidated cointegrated VAR model is used. The theoretical-conceptual and empirical contribution is twofold: first, the study develops and empirically applies bona fide divisor of normality consolidation for time-series in levels instead of routinely utilised inflation integers, and second, the study introduces perfection of prices on a long-run time-series treatment.