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We disclose an unprecedented single-step metal-free green oxidation of 2,7-di-tert-butylpyrene selectively into either the corresponding 4,5-dione or 4,5,9,10-tetraone, two key building blocks used for organic optoelectronic applications using hypervalent iodine oxyacids. This new method results in dramatic improvements in terms of yield, selectivity (dione vs. tetraone), ease of workup, cost and toxicity.

Essentials Cancer patients receiving anticoagulants for venous thromboembolism have an elevated bleeding risk. This secondary analysis of CATCH assessed characteristics of clinically relevant bleeding (CRB). CRB occurs in 15% of cancer patients with thrombosis using therapeutic doses of anticoagulation. After multivariate analysis, risk factors for CRB were age >75 years and intracranial malignancy. Summary Background Cancer patients with acute venous thromboembolism (VTE) receiving anticoagulant treatment have an increased bleeding risk. Objectives We performed a prespecified secondary analysis of the randomized, open-label, Phase III CATCH trial (NCT01130025) to assess the rate and sites of and the risk factors for clinically relevant bleeding (CRB). Patients/Methods Patients with active cancer and acute, symptomatic VTE received either tinzaparin 175 IU kg-1 once daily or warfarin (target International Normalized Ratio [INR] of 2.0-3.0) for 6 months. Fisher's exact test was used to screen prespecified clinical risk factors; those identified as being significantly associated with an increased risk of CRB then underwent competing risk regression analysis of time to first CRB. Results Among 900 randomized patients, 138 (15.3%) had 180 CRB events. CRB occurred in 60 patients (81 events) in the tinzaparin group and in 78 patients (99 events) in the warfarin group (hazard ratio [HR] 0.64; 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.45-0.89). Common bleeding sites were gastrointestinal (36.7%; n = 66), genitourinary (22.8%; n = 41), and nasal (10.0%; n = 18). In multivariate analysis, the risk of CRB increased with age > 75 years (HR 1.83, 95% CI 1.14-2.94) and intracranial malignancy (HR 1.97, 95% CI 1.07-3.62). In the warfarin group, 40.4% of CRB events occurred in patients with with an INR of 75 years and intracranial malignancy.

The absolute branching ratio of the K+ -> pi(+) pi(-) pi(+) (gamma) decay, inclusive of final-state radiation, has been measured using similar to 17 million tagged K+ mesons collected with the KLOE detector at DA Phi NE, the Frascati phi-factory. The result is: BR(K+ -> pi(+) pi(-) pi(+) (gamma)) = 0.05565 +/- 0.00031(stat) +/- 0.00025(syst) a factor similar or equal to 5 more precise with respect to the previous result. This work completes the program of precision measurements of the dominant kaon branching ratios at KLOE.

Osteocalcin (OC) has been proposed as a regulator of insulin sensitivity in both humans and other animals. Primary hyperparathyroidism (PHPT) is characterized by high OC levels and insulin resistance. The aim of this study was to evaluate whether in PHPT the link between OC levels and blood markers of insulin resistance was maintained. In a consecutive series of 219 adult PHPT patients, serum OC as well as fasting insulin and glucose levels were measured. Insulin sensitivity was estimated by homeostatic model assessment (HOMA2-S%). The same parameters were evaluated in a subgroup of 45 patients after parathyroidectomy (PTX). PHPT patients were characterized by markedly high OC levels. After subdividing them according to glucose tolerance, it was found that OC was similar in subjects with normal glucose tolerance (NGT) and impaired glucose tolerance (IGT), while diabetic subjects had lower serum OC than those with NGT (P < 0.02) or IGT (P < 0.04). OC was negatively associated with fasting glucose and positively associated with HOMA2-S%. OC independently predicted HOMA2-S% in a multivariate analysis. In the subgroup of surgically cured PHPT patients, OC levels significantly decreased after PTX, while HOMA2-S% did not change. Our findings indicate that in PHPT there is a positive relationship between OC and glucose metabolism, OC being one of the predictors of insulin sensitivity. However, data in surgically cured patients, showing OC normalization in spite of unchanged HOMA2-S%, suggest that OC does not likely play a major role in affecting insulin sensitivity in PHPT.

TDA Research, Inc. is developing a new sorbent that can effectively remove mercury from flue gases. The sorbent achieved 1.1 mg/g mercury absorption capacity on a breakthrough basis under representative flue gas streams. The sorbent also showed resistance to sulfur poisoning by sulfur dioxide.

An altered glucose tolerance and an increased prevalence of diabetes mellitus in primary hyperparathyroidism have been reported due to an increased insulin resistance in these patients [1]. Furthermore, a significant relationship between hypercalcaemia and insulin sensitivity has been reported [2]. ‘‘Normocalcaemic’’ primary hyperparathyroidism (NCpHPT), recently recognized by some authors as a peculiar early presentation of symptomatic pHPT, is not well clinically characterized, as the few data in literature are questionable since its rigorous classification following all the strict diagnostic criteria often was not performed [3]. In particular, at our knowledge, only one case–control study recently reported a non-significantly different insulin sensitivity and glucose tolerance in these patients compared to healthy volunteers [4]. Thus, in our large series of pHPT patients we sought to investigate glucose tolerance, estimates of insulin sensitivity and secretion in the subset of patients rigorously classified as NCpHPT. Patients and methods

Primary hyperparathyroidism (pHPT) is characterized by an increased frequency of glucose tolerance abnormalities associated with insulin resistance. Few studies evaluated the prevalence of metabolic syndrome (MetS) in pHPT and whether there are differences between asymptomatic pHPT patients and symptomatic ones. Thus, we sought to investigate the prevalence of MetS in pHPT patients in comparison to the prevalence of MetS in Italian population.We conducted a retrospective chart review of 294 pHPT patients, of these 154 [age (mean ± SD) 58.7 ± 13.3 yr, body mass index 25.6 ± 4.8 kg/m(2); serum calcium (11.3 ± 1.2 mg/dl) 2.8 ± 0.3 mmol/l; PTH 234.8 ± 224.3 ng/l] met the inclusion criteria. A modified National Cholesterol Educational Program (NCEP)/Adult Treatment Panel III (ATP III) definition of the MetS was used. Prevalence of MetS was compared with that reported for the Italian population (Progetto Cuore Study).The prevalence of the MetS (34/154, 22.1%) was similar to that reported in the general Italian population. Asymptomatic pHPT patients were older (62.1 ± 12.7 vs 56.4 ± 13.2 yr, p0.008) and showed higher prevalence of MetS than symptomatic ones (30.2% vs 16.5%, p0.045). Moreover the prevalence of nephrolitiasis or overt bone disease was not different between patients MetS+pHPT compared to MetS-pHPT, whereas femoral bone mineral density (BMD) was higher in MetS+pHPT (p0.003). In the logistic regression model age and femoral BMD were independent predictors of MetS.The prevalence of MetS in pHPT is not increased in comparison to the general population, thus, its diagnosis is not an appropriate tool to identify the additional cardiovascular risk related to pHPT. Difference in age affects the increased prevalence of MetS in asymptomatic pHPT patients.

KLOE has measured most decay branching ratios of Ks, Kl and K+/- mesons. It has also measured the Kl and the K+- lifetime and determined the shape of the form factors involved in kaon semileptonic decays. We present in the following a description of the above measurements and a well organized compendium of all of our data, with particular attention to correlations. These data provide the basis for the determination of the CKM parameter Vus and a test of the unitarity of the quark flavor mixing matrix. We also test lepton universality and place bounds on new physics using measurements of Vus from Kl2 and Kl3 decays., Comment: 23 pages, 12 figures. Submitted to JHEP

Aims To evaluate the frequency of impaired glucose tolerance (IGT)and undiagnosed diabetes mellitus together with the indices of insulinresistance (IR) in primary hyperparathyroidism (pHPT). Methods Out of 105 consecutive pHPT patients (F/M 78/27, asymptomatic/symptomatic68/37, age (mean ± sd) 60.7 ± 12.7 years,body mass index 25.2 ± 3.8 kg/m2,ionized calcium (iCa) 1.49 ± 0.16 mmol/l,parathormone 200.4 ± 233.9 pg/ml),59 without known diabetes mellitus and controls (n = 60)underwent an oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT, 75 g os).As indices of IR, homeostasis model assessment (HOMAIR)or OGTT data (insulin sensitivity index composite (ISI comp)) wereevaluated. Results In pHPT the prevalence of IGT (mean, 95% confidenceintervals (CI), 40.7%, 27.8–53.6) was higher thanin controls (25.0%, 13.7–36.3, P

The association between primary hyperparathyroidism (PHPT) and increased mortality mainly from cardiovascular disease is still debated. The increased mortality previously reported in PHPT was not confirmed in a recent population based study. A high prevalence of left ventricular (LV) hypertrophy was, however, reported in this disease. Although arterial hypertension is regarded as the principal factor, the pathogenesis of LV hypertrophy in PHPT is complex and not completely defined, moreover the effects of successful parathyroidectomy (PTX) are not fully elucidated. The aims of this study were: to ascertain the prevalence of LV hypertrophy in a series of patients with PHPT in comparison to a control population, to seek for relationship between biochemical markers of disease, blood pressure (BP) levels and LV measurements and to evaluate the effects of successful PTX on LV hypertrophy during short-term follow-up.Forty-three patients affected by active PHPT (16 males and 27 females, mean age 60.2 +/- 12.7 years) and 43 controls age- and sex-matched with the same prevalence of arterial hypertension were studied in a case-control analysis. Each subject underwent a M- and 2D mode echocardiographic evaluation and repeated BP measurement. In 21 PHPT submitted to surgery the echocardiographic measurement was repeated 6 months after successful PTX.Serum concentrations of parathyroid hormone (PTH), total-(Ca) and ionized calcium (iCa), phosphate, creatinine, total alkaline phosphatase (TALP) were measured in patients with PHPT at diagnosis and six months after PTX in the subgroup operated on; BP values were measured in three different occasion; mono and 2D echocardiographic evaluation was performed in control subjects and patients with PHPT either before and after PTX.LV hypertrophy, measured by LV mass index (LVMI), was present in 28/43 PHPT patients (65.1%) and in 15/43 (34.8%) controls, P0.05; among hypertensive subjects, 21/21 (100%) PHPT patients and 13/21 (61.9%) controls P0.05 were hypertrophic while among normotensive subjects, these figures were 7/22 (31.8%) for PHPT patients and 2/22 (9%) for controls, P = 0.67. At multiple regression analysis in a model including biochemical parameters and BP values, serum PTH levels were associated with LVMI values as the strongest predicting variable (0.46, P0.02). Six months after PTX, LVMI decreased (137.8 +/- 37.3 vs 113.0 +/- 28.5, P0.05) without changes in mean BP values and ratio of hypertensive patients.The present data confirm the high prevalence of LV hypertrophy in primary hyperparathyroidism also in a group of patients with an asymptomatic clinical presentation. The correlation between PTH values and left ventricular mass index suggests an action of the hormone in the pathogenesis of LV hypertrophy confirmed also by the decrease of left ventricular mass index after the reduction of PTH levels. The reversal of left ventricular mass index after parathyroidectomy could affect mortality in primary hyperparathyroidism. An echocardiographic study could be suggested in the clinical work-up of primary hyperparathyroidism in order to evaluate heart involvement and the response to successful parathyroidectomy.

We have studied, with the KLOE detector at the DA$\Phi$NE $\Phi$-Factory, the dynamics of the decay $\eta\to\pi^+\pi^-\pi^0$ using $\eta$ mesons from the decay $\phi\to\eta\gamma$ for an integrated luminosity ${\mathcal L}$ = 450 pb$^{-1}$. From a fit to the Dalitz plot density distribution we obtain a precise measurement of the slope parameters. An alternative parametrization relates the $\pi^+\pi^-\pi^0$ slopes to that for $\eta\to 3\pi^0$ showing the consistency of KLOE results for both channels. We also obtain the best confirmation of the $C$-invariance in the $\eta\to\pi^+\pi^-\pi^0$ decay., Comment: 15 pages, 7 figures

A case of a 45 years old woman affected by multifocal eosinophilic granuloma is described. Local irradiation of the most recent osteolytic lesions produced remission of the disease.

In this research we have studied the lipids excretion of skin by comparison of three groups of subjects at first age, young age and old people. We evidence the amount of the lipidic fractions and the differences between the ages in the lipids of skin and their components. We have also underlined the great significance of the skin as an important factor in the homeostasis.