Abstract Background The clinical use of patient-reported outcomes as compared to inflammatory biomarkers for predicting cancer survival remains a challenge in palliative care settings. We evaluated the role European Organization Research and Treatment Cancer Quality Life Questionnaire Core 15 Palliative scores (EORTC QLQ-C15-PAL) C-reactive protein (CRP), albumin (Alb), neutrophil-lymphocyte ra...

In the course of screening for bacterial predators, a Gram-stain-negative, non-flagellated, gliding, long rod-shaped, and yellow-pigmented bacterium, designated strain HICWT, was isolated from coastal seawater China. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences indicated that HICWT represented member genus Muricauda showed highest sequence similarity to M. aquimarina JCM11811T (98.8%)...

[reaction: see text] The enantioselective synthesis of the (+)-leucascandrolide A macrolactone has been achieved in 20 linear steps from 1,3-propanediol. The key steps in the synthesis are a reductive cleavage of bicyclic ketal 5 to establish the C15 stereogenic center and a diastereoselective aldol of the boron enolate of methyl ketone 3 to aldehyde 4 in preparation for a heteroconjugate addit...

∗The authors would like to thank the Editor and a referee for some very thoughtful and constructive comments on an earlier draft of the paper. This research has been supported by Australian Research Council Discovery Grant No. DP0208333 and a Ph.D. Scholarship from the School of Business Systems, Monash University. All numerical results in the paper have been produced using the MATLAB software....

Bacillus coagulans has been found to produce several surfactins that are powerful lipopeptide surfactants. Four main components with molecular weights 1007, 1021 and 1035 Da were separated. Their structures have been confirmed by spectrometric and spectroscopic studies and by acid hydrolysis. The compounds were found to represent two pairs of surfactin isoforms in which beta-hydroxy-iso-C14 or ...