Phytotherapy ResearchVolume 32, Issue 3 p. 561-563 LETTER TO THE EDITOR Photoactive plants: Botany bad boys or horticultural heroes? Mark Wainwright, Mark Wainwright orcid.org/0000-0002-7586-9603 School of Pharmacy and Biomolecular Sciences, Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool, L3 3AF UKSearch for more papers by this authorWilliam J. Stockburn, William J. Stockburn orcid.org/0000-0002-2351-2776 School of Forensic and Applied Science, University of Central Lancashire, Preston, PR1 2HE UKSearch for more papers by this authorClare L. Lawrence, Clare L. Lawrence orcid.org/0000-0003-0170-0079 School of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences, Faculty of Clinical and Biomedical Sciences, University of Central Lancashire, Preston, PR1 2HE UKSearch for more papers by this authorHarry J. Stevens, Harry J. Stevens orcid.org/0000-0003-2330-8879 School of Physical Sciences and Computing, University of Central Lancashire, Preston, PR1 2HE UKSearch for more papers by this authorAllison E. Jones, Allison E. Jones orcid.org/0000-0002-9677-3950 Faculty of Science and Technology, University of Central Lancashire, Preston, PR1 2HE UKSearch for more papers by this authorRobert B. Smith, Corresponding Author Robert B. Smith rbsmith@uclan.ac.uk orcid.org/0000-0002-2829-5360 School of Physical Sciences and Computing, University of Central Lancashire, Preston, PR1 2HE UK Correspondence Robert B. Smith, School of Physical Sciences and Computing, University of Central Lancashire, Preston, PR1 2HE, UK. Email: rbsmith@uclan.ac.ukSearch for more papers by this author Mark Wainwright, Mark Wainwright orcid.org/0000-0002-7586-9603 School of Pharmacy and Biomolecular Sciences, Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool, L3 3AF UKSearch for more papers by this authorWilliam J. Stockburn, William J. Stockburn orcid.org/0000-0002-2351-2776 School of Forensic and Applied Science, University of Central Lancashire, Preston, PR1 2HE UKSearch for more papers by this authorClare L. Lawrence, Clare L. Lawrence orcid.org/0000-0003-0170-0079 School of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences, Faculty of Clinical and Biomedical Sciences, University of Central Lancashire, Preston, PR1 2HE UKSearch for more papers by this authorHarry J. Stevens, Harry J. Stevens orcid.org/0000-0003-2330-8879 School of Physical Sciences and Computing, University of Central Lancashire, Preston, PR1 2HE UKSearch for more papers by this authorAllison E. Jones, Allison E. Jones orcid.org/0000-0002-9677-3950 Faculty of Science and Technology, University of Central Lancashire, Preston, PR1 2HE UKSearch for more papers by this authorRobert B. Smith, Corresponding Author Robert B. Smith rbsmith@uclan.ac.uk orcid.org/0000-0002-2829-5360 School of Physical Sciences and Computing, University of Central Lancashire, Preston, PR1 2HE UK Correspondence Robert B. Smith, School of Physical Sciences and Computing, University of Central Lancashire, Preston, PR1 2HE, UK. Email: rbsmith@uclan.ac.ukSearch for more papers by this author First published: 07 December 2017 https://doi.org/10.1002/ptr.5997Read the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat No abstract is available for this article. Volume32, Issue3March 2018Pages 561-563 RelatedInformation

Microwave irradiation was applied to a sequence of condensation reactions from readily available 9-chloroacridines to provide a range of novel acridine–isoalloxazine conjugates. The combination of these two moieties, both of biological interest, was achieved by a chromatography-free route.

From each of four Arabic countries; Morocco, Tunisia, Jordan and Oman, 150 participants produced handwriting samples which were examined to assess whether national characteristics were discernible. Ten characters, which have different configurations depending upon their position in the word, along with one short word, were classified into distinguishable forms, and these forms recorded for each handwriting sample. Tests of independence showed that character forms used were not independent of country (p<0.001) for all but one character-position (this was dropped from subsequent analyses). A correspondence analysis ordination plot and analysis of similarity (R=0.326, p=0.0002) showed that whole samples were discernibly grouped by country, and a tree analysis produced a classification which was 71% accurate for the original data and 83% accurate for 80 new handwriting samples that underwent ‘blind’ classification. When the countries were combined into two regions, North Africa and Middle East, the grouping was more marked. Thus, there appears to be some scope for narrowing down the nationality, and particularly the wider geographical region of an author based upon the character forms they use in Arabic handwriting.

With the recent increase in bacterial resistance to conventional antibiotics, the early-stage detection and control of infection has become imperative in the fight against opportunistic pathogens in healthcare. The traditional β-lactam wonder-drugs (e.g. penicillin and cephalosporins), are rendered inactive due to enzymatic hydrolysis by bacterial β-lactamase enzymes as a bacterial defence mechanism. However, this deactivation mechanism produces different responses in the two aforementioned drugs – with the cephalosporins showing a molecular rearrangement mechanism which could be utilised for prodrug delivery. This unique mechanism could mean that inactive forms of cephalosporin antibiotics, once used as chemotherapeutics in oncology, could once again be used in the fight against disease as sensors to detect and treat bacterial colonisation. Therefore, we hypothesize that cephalosporin-dye bandages might provide an effective method to visually detect, and subsequently control, the early stages of an infection using photoantimicrobial chemotherapy (PACT).

An investigation was carried out to identify the class characteristics of Polish people writing in English and to specifically identify those characteristics that separate Polish handwriting from English handwriting. In the first stage, 40 Polish and 40 English handwriting samples were collected and systematically examined. In total, 31 features were identified that occurred in ≥25% of the Polish handwriting samples and therefore considered class characteristics. Of these, chi-square analyses identified 21 class characteristics that occurred significantly more in Polish compared to English handwriting. Twenty-one of the class characteristics in the Polish handwriting had similar constructions to the copybook pattern thus supporting the theory that class characteristics frequently stem from the taught writing system. In the second stage, an algorithm was developed using seventeen of the class characteristics that successfully discriminated between a further 13 Polish and 12 English handwriting samples.