ERGOBOSS: Ergonomic Optimization of Body-Supporting Surfaces.

Humans routinely sit or lean against supporting surfaces and it is important to shape these surfaces to be comfortable and ergonomic. We give a method to design the geometric shape of rigid supporting surfaces to maximize the ergonomics of physically based contact between the surface and a deformable human. We model the soft deformable human using a layer of FEM deformable tissue surrounding a rigid core, with measured realistic elastic material properties, and large-deformation nonlinear analysis. We define a novel cost function to measure the ergonomics of contact between the human and the supporting surface. We give a stable and computationally efficient contact model that is differentiable with respect to the supporting surface shape. This makes it possible to optimize our ergonomic cost function using gradient-based optimizers. Our optimizer produces supporting surfaces superior to prior work on ergonomic shape design. Our examples include furniture, apparel and tools. We also validate our results by scanning a real human subject's foot and optimizing a shoe sole shape to maximize foot contact ergonomics. We 3D-print the optimized shoe sole, measure contact pressure using pressure sensors, and demonstrate that the real unoptimized and optimized pressure distributions qualitatively match those predicted by our simulation.

Di-aqua-bis-(nicotinamide-κN (1))bis-(thiocyanato-κS)cobalt(II).

In the title compound, [Co(NCS)2(C6H6N2O)2(H2O)2], the Co(II) cation is located on an inversion centre and is coordinated by two thio-cyanate anions, two nicotinamide mol-ecules and two water mol-ecules in a distorted N2O2S2 octa-hedral geometry. The amide group is twisted by 31.30 (16)° with respect to the pyridine ring. In the crystal, mol-ecules are linked by O-H⋯O, O-H⋯S and N-H⋯S hydrogen bonds into a three-dimensional supra-molecular network. Weak π-π stacking is observed between parallel pyridine rings of adjacent mol-ecules, the centroid-centroid distance being 3.8270 (19) Å.

The prevalence of dyslipidemia in patients with diabetes mellitus of ayurveda Hospital.

BACKGROUND: Dyslipidemia is one of the major risk factors for cardiovascular disease in diabetes mellitus. Early detection and treatment of dyslipidemia in type-2 diabetes mellitus can prevent risk for atherogenic cardiovascular disorder. The rationale of this study was to detect the lipid abnormality in diabetic patients. METHODS: Necessary data was collected from the medical archives of 150 patients (73 female and 77 male) with diabetes mellitus registered in Department of pathology and biochemistry of a Ayurveda hospital established at Kolkata, India. RESULTS: The mean ages of female and male subjects were 51.8 ± 10.8 and 53.2 ± 11.3 years respectively. The range and mean value of FBS in females were 113-342 mg/dl and 157.7 ± 6.3 mg/dl, while the range and mean value of PPBS in females were 135-560 mg/dl and 275.5 ± 12.3 mg/dl respectively. Results showed that range and mean value of FBS in males were 111-462 mg/dl and 160.8 ± 7.4 mg/dl, while the range and mean value of PPBS in males were 136-598 mg/dl and 302.1 ± 12.6 mg/dl respectively. Results of serum lipids showed that the mean values for total cholesterol (TC), triglyceride (TG), high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) and very low density lipoprotein cholesterol (VLDL-C) in female patients were 202.2 ± 5.9 mg/dl, 168.3 ± 8.2 mg/dl, 44.9 ± 1.3 mg/dl, 123.6 ± 5.2 mg/dl and 33.7 ± 1.7 mg/dl respectively. The mean values for TC, TG, HDL-C, LDL-C and VLDL-C in male patients were 182.5 ± 4.8 mg/dl, 128.1 ± 10.8 mg/dl, 40.8 ± 1.2 mg/dl, 105.4 ± 4.8 mg/dl and 36.2 ± 2.2 respectively. FBS showed significant positive correlation with PPBS, cholesterol, TG, and VLDL-C. PPBS also demonstrated direct and significant correlations with TG and VLDL-C. CONCLUSIONS: The study showed common lipid abnormalities during diabetes induced dyslipidemia i.e., hypercholesterolemia, hypertriglyceridemia and elevated LDL-C. This study suggests the dominance of hyperlipidemia over increased prevalence of dyslipidemia.

Efficient chemical synthesis of a dodecasaccharidyl lipomannan component of mycobacterial lipoarabinomannan.

Lipomannan (LM) is one of the domains of lipoarabinomannan (LAM) glycolipids, the latter being one of several cell surface organic molecules that fortify mycobacterial species against external attack. Some members of mycobacterial families are pathogenic, most notably Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Mycobacterium leprae, while others are nonpathogenic, and used in the clinic, such as Mycobacterium smegmatis. Additional biological significance arises from the fact that LM has been implicated in several health disorders outside of those associated with mycobacterial pathogens, notably for treatment of bladder cancer. LM is comprised of a heavily lipidated phosphoinositide dimannoside headgroup, from which a mannan array, of varied complexity, extends. The latter consists of a 1,6-alpha-linked backbone flanked at position O2, not necessarily regularly, with alpha-linked mannosides. This paper gives an example of lipomannan synthesis in which all of the sugar components, whether functioning as donors or acceptors, are obtained from n-pentenyl orthoesters, themselves in turn prepared in three easy steps from D-mannose. Assembly of the mannan array is facilitated by the exquisite regioselectivity occasioned by the use of ytterbium triflate/N-iodosuccinimide as the trigger for reaction of n-pentenyl orthoesters.

Regioselective strategies mediated by lanthanide triflates for efficient assembly of oligomannans.

Readily prepared mannosyl n-pentenylorthoesters (NPOEs) serve as donors in themselves and as convenient intermediates for other glycosyl donors, such as n-pentenyl glycosides (NPGs), thioglycosides, and trichloroacetimidates. These various donors are activated by different reagents, and are therefore amenable to versatile, discriminate use. Scandium and ytterbium triflates respond very differently to these donors, with the result that chemoselective discrimination between NPOEs, NPGs, trichloroacetimidates as well as ethyl and phenyl thioglycosides can be achieved. Appropriate NPOEs are also able to provide 2,6 and 3,6 diol acceptors via rearrangement or glycoside formation, and these can be used for one-pot, sequential glycosidations based on orthogonal donors, and in situ double differential glycosidations. Thus NPOEs activated by iodonium ion, specifically generated from ytterbium triflate/N-iodosuccinimide, can be used to monoglycosidate the diols rapidly, with exquisite regio, and sometimes chemo, selectivity. The residual NPOE is converted into disarmed NPG, which is refractory to the reaction conditions, and so poses no threat to the free-OH of the monoglycosidation product. Further glycosidation of the latter can then achieved by direct addition of a trichloroacetimidate or ethyl thioglycoside. This basic strategy has been used to prepare a branched chain pentadecamannan. The success is an example of the efficiency of donor/acceptor MATCH concept for regioselective glycosylation.

Spectroscopic, structural and antibacterial properties of copper(II) complexes with bio-relevant 5-methyl-3-formylpyrazole N(4)-benzyl-N(4)-methylthiosemicarbazone.

The coordination behaviour of the title ligand, 5-methyl-3-formylpyrazole N(4)-benzyl-N(4)-methylthiosemicarbazone (HMPz4BM), is reported with solid state isolation of copper(II) complexes, [Cu(HMPz4BM)X2] (X = Cl, Br, NO3, ClO4 and BF4) which have been spectroscopically and structurally characterised. I.r. data for the free ligand and its Cu(II) complexes indicate that HMPz4BM exhibits a neutral NNS tridentate function via the pyrazolyl nitrogen(tertiary), azomethine nitrogen and thione sulphur. Electronic spectral data are suggestive of a square pyramidal environment for the seemingly pentacoordinated Cu(II) species. E.s.r parameters (RT and LNT) of the reported copper(II) complexes are indicative of a dx2-y2 ground state for the reported species. Cyclic voltammograms of Cu(II) complexes show a quasireversible CuII/CuIII couple and also an irreversible CuII/CuI couple. X-ray crystallography of a representative species, [Cu(HMPz4BM)(NO3)2] (C2/c, monoclinic), has unambiguously documented the conjectural findings from i.r. data that coordinating sites of the title ligand are pyrazolyl (tertiary) nitrogen, azomethine nitrogen and the thione sulphur (NNS); and the oxygen of one of the nitrate ions has occupied the basal plane; the fifth coordination position has been occupied by the oxygen of another nitrate ion in a square pyramidal geometry. The antibacterial properties of the ligand and its copper(II) complexes studied on microorganism, Staphylococcus aureus have pointed out that most of the complexes have higher activities than that of the free ligand.