Comparing international coverage of 9/11 : towards an interdisciplinary explanation of the construction of news

This article presents an interdisciplinary model attempting to explain how news is constructed by relying on the contributions of different fields of study: News Sociology, Political Communications, International Communications, International Relations. It is a first step towards developing a holistic theoretical approach to what shapes the news, which bridges current micro to macro approaches. More precisely the model explains news variation across different media organization and countries by focusing on the different way the sense of newsworthiness of journalists is affected by three main variables: national interest, national journalistic culture, and editorial policy of each media organization. The model is developed on the basis of an investigation into what shaped the media coverage of 9/11 in eight elite newspapers across the US, France, Italy and Pakistan

3α-Dimethyl­amino-20-(N-methyl­acetamido)­pregn-5-ene

The title compond, C26H44N2O, is an steroidal alkaloid isolated from the medicinally important plant Sarcococca saligna. The mol­ecule consists of four fused rings (A–D), having chair, half-chair, chair and envelope conformations, respectively. The dimethyl­amino group is axially oriented on ring A, whereas the (N-methyl­acetamido)­ethyl group is attached equatorially on ring D. The crystal structure is stabilized only by van der Waals forces

Positive Effect of Physical Exercise on University Students’ Creative Thinking

This study aims to assess the relationship between engagement in physical exercise and the level of creative thinking among university students. A total of 120 students were recruited using stratified random sampling to ensure a diverse representation of academic disciplines and backgrounds. The sample was divided into two groups: a research group of 60 participants who engaged in a structured physical exercise program and a control group of 60 students who did not participate in any physical exercise. The Torrance Test of Creative ThinkingVerbal was used to evaluate the creative thinking indicator. Before initiating the experimental activities, a comprehensive questionnaire specifically designed to assess creative thinking abilities. T-test was used to compare the means of two independent groups to determine if the observed differences in their scores are statistically significant. Based on pre-test TTCT-V scores of both research and control groups do not significantly differ. The results of the study confirmed significant differences between the research and control groups by the post-test TTCT-V scores. This result indicates that the research group exhibited a higher level of cognitive flexibility, and an ability to shift between different ideas and approaches. In conclusion, this study confirms that physical exercise has a positive effect on university students' creative thinking during term time

Azide based routes to tetrazolo and oxadiazolo derivatives of pyrrolobenzodiazepines and pyrrolobenzothiadiazepines

Tetrazolo- and 1,2,4-oxadiazolo-fused derivatives of the antitumour, antibiotic, DNA-interactive pyrrolo[2,1-c][1,4]benzodiazepines and their pyrrolobenzothiadiazepine derivatives have been produced as analogues of a 1,2,3-triazolo-fused pyrrolobenzothiadiazepine which was shown to be a Glut-1 transporter inhibitor with potential as an antitumour agent. The tetrazolo-fused systems were produced by intramolecular 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition between an azide and a nitrile. The 1,2,4-oxadiazolo systems were produced by nitrile oxide cycloadditions to pyrrolobenzothiadiazepines which were in turn produced from a 2-(azidobenzenesulfonyl)-1,2-thiazine 1-oxide. The latter species underwent a phosphite mediated one-pot sulfur extrusion, ring contraction and azide to amine conversion to form 1-(aminobenzenesulfonyl)pyrroles. Bischler-Napieralski ring closure gave the pyrrolobenzothiadiazepines

Stress degradation studies and development of stability-indicating TLC-densitometry method for determination of prednisolone acetate and chloramphenicol in their individual and combined pharmaceutical formulations

A rapid and reproducible stability indicating TLC method was developed for the determination of prednisolone acetate and chloramphenicol in presence of their degraded products. Uniform degradation conditions were maintained by refluxing sixteen reaction mixtures for two hours at 80°C using parallel synthesizer including acidic, alkaline and neutral hydrolysis, oxidation and wet heating degradation. Oxidation at room temperature, photochemical and dry heating degradation studies were also carried out. Separation was done on TLC glass plates, pre-coated with silica gel 60F-254 using chloroform: methanol (14:1 v/v). Spots at Rf 0.21 ± 0.02 and Rf 0.41 ± 0.03 were recognized as chloramphenicol and prednisolone acetate, respectively. Quantitative analysis was done through densitometric measurements at multiwavelength (243 nm, λmax of prednisolone acetate and 278 nm, λmax of chloramphenicol), simultaneously. The developed method was optimized and validated as per ICH guidelines. Method was found linear over the concentration range of 200-6000 ng/spot with the correlation coefficient (r2 ± S.D.) of 0.9976 ± 3.5 and 0.9920 ± 2.5 for prednisolone acetate and chloramphenicol, respectively. The developed TLC method can be applied for routine analysis of prednisolone acetate and chloramphenicol in presence of their degraded products in their individual and combined pharmaceutical formulations

Psychometric properties of three measures of “Facebook engagement and/or addiction” among a sample of English speaking Pakistani university students

For researchers interested in measuring the construct of “Facebook engagement and/or addiction,” there are a number of existing measures including the Bergen Facebook Addiction Scale, the Facebook Intensity Scale, and the Addictive Tendencies Scale. Currently, there is limited data on the psychometric properties of these three scales, especially among South Asian samples. The present aim was to address this shortfall. A sample of 308 English-speaking Pakistani university students completed the scales, in their original English versions, on two occasions separated by four weeks. Results demonstrated that for each of the scales, across both administrations, satisfactory psychometric properties were found, including internal reliability, temporal stability, and construct validity. Moreover, for these three scales, using confirmatory factor analysis, a one-factor structure was generally found to be a good description of the data for both male and female samples. These data provide further evidence for the reliability and validity of three scales concerned with “Facebook engagement and/or addiction.