Introduction The use of phased-array coils has become desirable for efficient magnetic resonance imaging in both clinical and preclinical biological investigations. Multi-channel receivers are now commonplace, allowing the use of phased-array coils with many elements. Coupling becomes increasingly problematic with more elements, degrading the independence of coil sensitivities required for para...

Organophosphorus poisoning caused by some pesticides and nerve agents is a life-threating condition that must be swiftly addressed to avoid casualties. Despite the availability of medical countermeasures, clinically available compounds lack broad spectrum, are not effective towards all organophosphorus toxins, have poor pharmacokinetics properties allow them crossing blood-brain barrier, hamper...

A strained 1-phenyl-2,3-dimethylphosphirene undergoes anionic ring-opening polymerization upon initiation with n-butyl lithium at ambient temperature to yield polyvinylenephosphine, an unsaturated organophosphorus polymer.

Reaction of a cyclophosphinophosphonium cation with neat MeOTf represents a general and high-yield synthetic approach to dications enabling the isolation of the first derivatives of 2,4,5-triphosphino-1,3-diphosphonium as bis-triflate salts.

Enzyme sensor for organophosphorus insecticides organophosphorus hydrolase in a polymer membrane on a pH sensor is used to catalyse the hydrolysis of compounds with phoshate ester functionality. The detected [H+] change is proportional to the concentration of the phosphate ester insecticide. This is a good example of the use of an enzyme to give selectivity to a specific class of compounds. Unf...

Organophosphorus Pesticide Poisoning Self-poisoning with Organophosphorus (OP) pesticides is a major problem across the Asia Pacific region. They cause the majority of poisoning deaths in India, except in some northern areas where aluminium phosphide predominates. There is no effective treatment for aluminium phosphide poisoning; in contrast, moderately effective treatments and antidotes exist ...

Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC) is a leading cause of death due to diarrheal illness among young children in developing countries, and there is currently no effective vaccine. Many elements of ETEC pathogenesis are still poorly defined. Here we demonstrate that YghJ, a secreted ETEC antigen identified in immunoproteomic studies using convalescent patient sera, is required for efficient ...

A new insertion element of 1,449 bp with 25-bp perfect terminal repeats, designated IS1409, was identified in the chromosome of 4-chlorobenzoate-degrading Arthrobacter sp. strain TM1 NCIB12013. Upon insertion, IS1409 causes a target duplication of 8 bp. IS1409 carries only a single open reading frame of 435 codons encoding the transposase TnpA. Both TnpA and the overall organization of IS1409 a...

The paper by Aardema and colleagues in this issue of the Netherlands Journal of Medicine illustrates well the problems that clinicians face with organophosphorus pesticide self-poisoning. Yet the toxicological literature’s image of this poisoning is beguilingly simple. Ingestion of an organophosphorus pesticide results in inhibition of acetylcholinesterase. The resulting build up of acetylcholi...

Most organophosphorus esters are direct inhibitors or are rapidly converted to inhibitors of acetylcholinesterase (AChE, EC 3.1.1.7) (1-3). Some of these compounds produce a more persistent effect: delayed neurotoxicity. In humans, organophosphorus ester-induced delayed neurotoxicity (OPIDN) results in a flaccid paresis which develops distally in the legs and spreads to the hands and thighs. In...