[Thermal impact of subsurface urban structures on groundwater temperatures in the city of Basel]. / Thermischer Einfluss urbaner Untergrundstrukturen auf die Grundwassertemperaturen im Kanton Basel-Stadt.

In Basel (CH), the thermal impact of various subsurface structures on urban groundwater resources, including five underground parking lots and a freeway tunnel, were investigated by monitoring systems. Data were analyzed together with meteorological and groundwater temperature data and results from heat-transport modelling.Significantly elevated temperatures between 18.8 and 21.1 °C were recorded in the underground parking lots, even in winter. Thus, underground parking lots emit heat into the surroundings all year. In comparison, data recorded in the freeway tunnel indicate that in the winter months heat can also be absorbed from below ground.In addition, the temperatures of underground parking lots show a clear dependence on the type of use: with a higher number of daily entrances and exits, greater daily temperature increases were detected, with differences of up to 2 °C. This became particularly clear in the "lockdown" period during the COVID-19 pandemic between March and May 2020.

Vascular architecture as a diagnostic marker for differentiation of World Health Organization thymoma subtypes and thymic carcinoma.

AIMS: Thymomas and thymic squamous cell carcinomas (TSQCCs) are rare thymic epithelial tumours. Data on angiogenesis and vascular phenotype in these tumours are limited, and no study has taken histological World Health Organization (WHO) subtypes into account. The aim of this study was to compare vascularization, pericytes coverage and expression of angiogenic growth factors in different WHO-defined subtypes of thymoma METHODS AND RESULTS: Vascular density, diameter and architecture and expression of α-smooth muscle actin (SMA), platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF) receptor-ß (PDGFRß), vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) receptor 1 (VEGFR1) and VEGF receptor 2 (VEGFR2) were investigated in WHO type A, AB, B1, B2 and B3 thymomas and TSQCCs, by the use of immunostaining, quantitative morphometry, and tumour vessel isolation by trypsin digestion. Expression levels of angiopoietin 1 (Ang-1), angiopoietin 2 (Ang-2), VEGF-A, PDGF-B and Hif-1α were examined by quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction. A and AB thymomas were characterized by a dense network of capillary-like vessels with tight pericyte coverage, whereas B thymomas showed a loose vascular network with increasing vascular diameters and increasing expression of SMA and PDGFRß from B1 to B3 thymomas and TSQCCs. VEGFR1 and VEGFR2 were expressed in vessels of all analysed tumour entities, and at higher levels in epithelial cells of A and B3 thymomas and TSQCCs. mRNA of Ang-2, but not of Ang-1, was significantly up-regulated in all thymoma subtypes, with the highest levels being found in A thymomas. In TSQCCs, Ang-1 and VEGF were the predominantly up-regulated growth factors. Hif-1α was only up-regulated in B3 thymomas and TSQCCs. CONCLUSION: Thymomas and TSQCCs differ significantly in their vascular architecture and expression of key angiogenic growth factors. The findings could help to improve the differential diagnosis of difficult-to-classify thymic epithelial tumours, and indicate different mechanisms of tumour angiogenesis and functional differences of tumour vessels of major thymoma subtypes and TSQCCs.

Synthesis of tubuphenylalanines via Ireland-Claisen rearrangement.

The Ireland-Claisen rearrangement is the central step in the synthesis of tubuphenylalanine, a key building block of the highly antitumor-active tubulysins. The rearrangement of substituted ß-amino acid allyl esters, in combination with subsequent decarboxylation and oxidative cleavage of the double bond, allows the highly stereoselective introduction of substituents into the α-position of the resulting γ-amino acids.