Binary mixtures of ionic liquids-DMSO as solvents for the dissolution and derivatization of cellulose: Effects of alkyl and alkoxy side chains.

The efficiency of mixtures of ionic liquids (ILs) and molecular solvents in cellulose dissolution and derivatization depends on the structures of both components. We investigated the ILs 1-(1-butyl)-3-methylimidazolium acetate (C4MeImAc) and 1-(2-methoxyethyl)-3-methylimidazolium acetate (C3OMeImAc) and their solutions in dimethyl sulfoxide, DMSO, to assess the effect of presence of an ether linkage in the IL side-chain. Surprisingly, C4MeImAc-DMSO was more efficient than C3OMeImAc-DMSO for the dissolution and acylation of cellulose. We investigated both solvents using rheology, NMR spectroscopy, and solvatochromism. Mixtures of C3OMeImAc-DMSO are more viscous, less basic, and form weaker hydrogen bonds with cellobiose than C4MeImAc-DMSO. We attribute the lower efficiency of C3OMeImAc to "deactivation" of the ether oxygen and C2H of the imidazolium ring due to intramolecular hydrogen bonding. Using the corresponding ILs with C2CH3 instead of C2H, namely, 1-butyl-2,3-dimethylimidazolium acetate (C4Me2ImAc) and 1-(2-methoxyethyl)-2,3-dimethylimidazolium acetate (C3OMe2ImAc) increased the concentration of dissolved cellulose; without noticeable effect on biopolymer reactivity.

Worse Metabolic Control and Dynamics of Weight Status in Adolescent Girls Point to Eating Disorders in the First Years after Manifestation of Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus: Findings from the Diabetes Patienten Verlaufsdokumentation Registry.

OBJECTIVE: To assess indications of eating disorders in girls with type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM). STUDY DESIGN: In total 31 556 girls aged >6 months and <23 years of age with T1DM from the Diabetes Patienten Verlaufsdokumentation (DPV) cohort were analyzed including 155 (0.49%) girls with anorexia nervosa, 85 (0.27%) girls with bulimia nervosa, 45 (0.14%) girls with binge eating disorder, and 229 (0.73%) girls with eating disorders not otherwise specified. Patient characteristics, weight changes, numbers of patients with severe hypoglycemia and diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA), changes of glycosylated hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) levels, use of pumps, and prevalence of celiac disease and autoimmune thyroiditis were compared between girls with and without eating disorders. Multiple logistic regression analyses were performed. RESULTS: Eating disorders were significantly associated with late pubertal age, nonusage of pumps, no migration background, increased HbA1c levels, increased frequencies of DKA and severe hypoglycemia, and celiac disease were not related to eating disorders. Significant differences in HbA1c levels, prevalence of DKA and severe hypoglycemia between girls with and without eating disorders were already detectable in the first years after onset of T1DM. A decrease of body mass index (BMI)-SDS increased the risk for comorbid anorexia nervosa (7.1-fold [95% CI 3.6-14.3] compared with stable BMI-SDS, 6.9-fold [95%CI 3.4-14.1] compared with increase of BMI-SDS). CONCLUSIONS: Poor metabolic control and increased rates of DKA and severe hypoglycemia in the first years after manifestation of T1DM can be hints for eating disorders in girls with T1DM, and weight loss is specific for anorexia nervosa. These clinical features should lead to screening for eating disorders especially at a late pubertal age.

Prognostic Biomarkers and EBV Infection Research in Diffuse Large B-Cell Lymphoma of the Palatine Tonsils.

Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma represents approximately 30%-40% of all diagnoses of non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma and may represent up to 80% of all lymphomas that arise in the palatine tonsils. Several studies have attempted to correlate clinical, laboratorial, and tissue factors with the prognosis of the lymphomas, such as the International Prognostic Index, the tissue expression of some proteins, and the lymphocyte count at the time of diagnosis, as well as to correlate Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) infection with worse prognoses. Patients with palatine tonsil DLBCL, from Salvador, Bahia, Brazil, were studied in order to identify prognostic factors. Twenty-four patients with DLBCL were studied. The factors that negatively influenced the patients' survival rates were the lymphocyte count at the time of diagnosis <1.000/mm(3) and the Bcl-2 protein expression. There was no CD5 expression in these lymphomas, and neither was there an association with EBV infection.

The high frequency of EBV infection in pediatric Hodgkin lymphoma is related to the classical type in Bahia, Brazil.

Pediatric Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) occurring in developing regions is different from HL in industrialized countries due to the higher frequency of association with Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) infection. This infection is related to classical HL (cHL) but is virtually absent in nodular lymphocyte predominant HL (nLPHL). We studied the phenotype and the expression of EBV gene products in 90 pediatric cases by immunohistochemistry and in situ hybridization. EBV-positive tumor cells were found exclusively in cHL. The infection occurred with high frequency in all cHL subtypes, but it predominated in the mixed cellularity and lymphocyte depletion subtypes. These results reinforce the hypothesis that EBV plays a major role in the etiology of pediatric cHL in developing areas. Curiously, the frequency of EBV infection in HL was identical to the previously described for Burkitt's lymphoma in the same pediatric population. As both lymphomas have a postulated precursor cell in the germinal center (GC), the pattern of latently EBV-infected GC cells previously described in Bahia may be related to the development of these lymphomas.

Burkitt's lymphoma of the scapula.

Burkitt's lymphoma may involve the maxilla or mandible, but to date, there has been no reference in the literature to scapular involvement by this tumor. This article describes the case of a 9-year-old child who presented with a huge tumor involving the right shoulder with osteolytic and sclerotic lesions in the scapula. The histopathological findings were suggestive of Burkitt's lymphoma, and the immunohistochemical findings discard a lymphoblastic lymphoma or plasmablastic lymphoma. In addition, in situ hybridization for Epstein-Barr virus encoded small nuclear RNA (EBER) was positive. Although the child also presented a cervical lymphadenopathy, the fact that Burkitt's lymphoma is generally extranodal, the marked swelling of the shoulder, and the extensive involvement of the bone strongly argue that this tumor had its origin in the scapula. This case demonstrates the importance of including Burkitt's lymphoma in the differential diagnosis of lymphoma involving bones in children.