Serious About Getting Old?: Variability of Individual Old Age Risk Management in Czechia.

The global trend of transferring responsibility for dignified aging from the state to individuals is conducive to a variability of alternative attitudes and strategies. Despite having important implications for both the state and individuals, the variability of old age risk management has not been fully appreciated by social policy. Social policy cannot adapt to every individual, but it can reflect various categories of citizens and their patterns of old age risk management. In this article, we navigate the plethora of individual choices by identifying patterns of strategic behavior in old age risk management in society. Based on our data from the original 2018 survey, representative for the Czech population, we identify four distinctive strategies: risk taking, risk avoiding, risk neglecting, and risk preventing. We conclude by discussing how the data gathered and analyzed through our research may help social policy actors better understand sources of variability and design more effective policy interventions.

NMR and IR analysis of natural substances isolated from Cordyceps medicinal mushrooms.

There exist about 750 species of Cordyceps at present. A high price of natural Cordyceps and its lack in nature caused that the attention has been focused to its cultivation in laboratory conditions. The demand for this “fungus-parasite” is still quite high nowadays, as shown by the amount of commercial nutritional supplements. Phytochemical diversity has ensured that Cordyceps is used as an immunomodulatory and an antioxidant; it has anti-cancer, anti-inflammatory, anti-diabetic, antibacterial, anti-HIV effects. In the present study we focused on NMR and IR analyses of natural substances isolated from two species of Cordyceps: Cordyceps sinensis MFTCCB025/0216, MFTCCB026/0216 and Paecilomyces hepiali MFTCCB023/0216. Two types of rice substrates (Oryza sativa Indica and Oryza sativa Japonica) were used for cultivation. A total of five methanol extracts obtained by a reflux method of the ground mushroom were analysed. To determine the quality and quantity of the major chemical compounds, 1D and 2D NMR analysis has been used with 1H, 13C, COSY, NOESY, HSQC, HMBC and DEPT spectra. IR spectroscopy was chosen as a complementary analysis to determine functional groups. Linoleic acid, oleic acid and mannitol were identified as major compounds of the methanol extracts. Tyrosine, alanine, urea and the others biologically interesting substances were found as minor components.

Simplified waste-free process for synthesis of nanoporous compact alumina under technologically advantageous conditions.

Precipitated ammonium aluminium carbonate hydroxide (NH4Al(OH)2CO3) is a promising precursor for preparation of nanostructured Al2O3. However, the experimental conditions, such as the low concentration of Al3+ salt solution, high temperature and/or pressure, long reaction time, and excessive amount of the (NH4)2CO3 precipitating agent, make this process expensive for large-scale production. Here, we report a simpler and cheaper route to prepare nanostructured alumina by partial neutralisation of a nearly saturated aqueous solution of Al(NO3)3 with (NH4)2CO3 as a base at pH < 4. Synthesis in the acidic region led to formation of a polynuclear aluminium cluster (Al13), which is an important "green" solution precursor for large-area preparation of Al2O3 thin films and nanoparticles. Control of the textural properties of the final alumina product during calcination of the prepared aluminium (oxy)hydroxide gel was accomplished by adding low-solubility aluminium acetate hydroxide (Al(OH)(CH3COO)2) as a seed to the Al(NO3)3 solution before neutralisation. The large Brunauer-Emmett-Teller specific surface area (376 m2 g-1) and narrow pore size distribution (2-20 nm) of the prepared compact alumina suggest that the chelating effect of the acetate ions affects the structures of the forming transition aluminas, and the evolved gases produced by decomposition of Al(OH)(CH3COO)2 and NH4NO3 as a by-product of the reaction during calcination prevent particle agglomeration. Other advantages of the proposed process are its versatility and the ability to obtain high purity materials without producing large amounts of by-products without the need for washing and energy saving by using a low processing temperature, and the possibility of recycling the generated CO2 and NH3 gases as the (NH4)2CO3 reagent.

Tris(propane-1,2-diamine-κN,N')nickel(II) tetra-cyanidoplatinate(II).

In the title compound, [Ni(C(3)H(10)N(2))(3)][Pt(CN)(4)], the [Pt(CN)(4)](2-) anion with the environment of the Pt(II) atom, lying on a mirror plane, is square planar, whereas the Ni(II) atom in the [Ni(C(3)N(2)H(10))(3)](2+) cation, also lying on a mirror plane, has a slightly distorted octa-hedral coordination geometry. Three chiral 1,2-diamino-propane mol-ecules, which are disordered equally over two sets of positions, adopt Δ(δδδ) and Δ(λλλ) configurations. The average Ni-N and Pt-C bond lengths are 2.131 (10) and 1.988 (10) Å, respectively. The cations and anions are connected by N-H⋯N hydrogen bonds.