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Malnourished children are at higher risk of mortality and morbidity following diarrheal illness and certain enteropathogens have been associated with malnutrition in children. Very few studies have comprehensively looked at the etiology of diarrhea in malnourished children and most have used conventional diagnostic methods with suboptimal sensitivity. We used a highly sensitive molecular approach against a broad range of pathogens causing diarrhea and examined their association with malnutrition. In addition, we looked at the pathogen diversity of pediatric diarrhea, three years after the nationwide rotavirus vaccine introduction to understand the evolving landscape of pathogens, which is crucial for planning strategies to further reduce the diarrhea burden. Clinical details and diarrheal stool samples were collected from hospitalized children aged < 5 years from three sentinel sites in India for a period of one year. The samples were tested by qPCR for 16 established causes of diarrhea using TaqMan Array Cards. A total of 772 children were enrolled, from whom 482 (62.4%) stool specimens were tested. No specific pathogen was associated with diarrhea among children with acute or chronic malnutrition compared to those with better nutritional status. Overall, adenovirus was the leading pathogen (attributable fraction (AF) 16.9%; 95% CI 14.1 to 19.2) followed by rotavirus (AF 12.6%; 95% CI 11.8 to 13.1) and Shigella (AF 10.9%; 95% CI 8.4 to 16.4). The majority of diarrhea requiring hospitalization in children aged < 2 years could be attributed to viruses, while Shigella was the most common pathogen among children aged > 2 years. These data on the prevalence and epidemiology of enteropathogens identified potential pathogens for public health interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Four new tetra-n-butylammonium spiroborates derived from dimethyl, diethyl, di-iso-propyl and di-n-butyl esters of l-tartaric acid have been prepared and their potential as environmentally benign wood protectants investigated. These compounds showed good activity in a no-choice cellulose paper bioassay with Coptotermes acinaciformistermites. The hydrolytic stability of these spiroborates is not high relative to other spiroborates, yet the tetra-n-butylammonium spiroborate derived from di-iso-propyl-l-tartrate showed remarkable permanence in timber in a demanding leaching test. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In continuation of a program aimed at developing a boron-based, high performing and environmentally benign wood preservative suitable for outdoor use, three lipophilic tetra-n-butylammonium spiroborates, tetra-n-butylammonium bis[naphthalene-2,3-diolato(2-)-O,O′]borate 4, tetra-n-butylammonium bis[2,2′-biphenolato(2-)-O,O′]borate 5 and tetra-n-butylammonium bis[3-hydroxy-2-naphthoato(2-)-O,O′]borate 6 were prepared and tested. The higher molecular weight and lipophilicity of these borates compared with related borates previously examined correlates, in the case of 5 and 6, with significantly enhanced leach resistance while termiticidal activity has been maintained. The racemic spiroborate derived from 2,2′-biphenol 5, in particular, appears to be close to an optimum balance between ease of synthesis, solubility, hydrolytic stability and termiticidal activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stacking interaction energies for ten B-DNA base-pair steps are computed with density fitted local second-order Møller–Plesset perturbation theory (DF-LMP2), and with the spin-component scaled (SCS) and spin-component scaled for nucleobases (SCSN) variants of DF-LMP2. Comparison with existing CBS(T) reference data indicates larger than expected energy differences for both SCS variants. After an analysis of the errors involved, an alternative method of producing reference data is proposed where DF-LMP2/aug-cc-pVTZ and DF-LMP2/aug-cc-pVQZ energies for the whole complex are extrapolated to produce interaction energies that do not require many-body correction and show reduced error in estimation of the basis set limit. A literature correction term from coupled cluster theory with perturbative triples is then added to the DF-LMP2 estimated basis set limit. These new reference data are consistently around 1 kcal mol−1 less than previous literature data. DF-SCSN-LMP2/aug-cc-pVTZ is found to reproduce the new reference interaction energies with a root mean square error (RMSE) of 0.71 kcal mol−1, while SCS consistently underestimates the binding energy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]