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• Ilizarov technique usually requires long-term placement of external ring fixators for consolidation in the treatment of tibial large bone defects which results in a variety of complications. • Modified Ilizarov techniques have been tried to shorten the duration of external fixation to avoid the related complications and improve the quality of life for the patients. • Bone transport under the guidance of intramedullary nail could reduce the period of external fixation, guarantee the length and alignment of the regenerated bone, improve the comfort of patients and allow early removal of the external fixator, weight bearing and rehabilitation. To compare the bone transport over an intramedullary nail in combination with antibiotic-impregnated calcium sulphate versus bone transport alone with antibiotic-impregnated calcium sulphate for the treatment of tibial large bone defects. A retrospective analysis was conducted by enroling 33 surgically treated patients with tibial large bone defects after the debridement for tibial infection or osteomyelitis who were admitted in Lower Limb Surgery Ward of Traumatic orthopaedic Department, Xi'an Honghui Hospital from January 2018 to January 2021. All the patients were categorized in Group A (transport over intramedullary nail, 12 cases) and Group B (transport alone, 21 cases) based on the surgery strategy. The collected clinical materials and data included gender, age, injury mechanism, smoking habits, comorbidity diseases, initial fracture type (open or close), bone defect size, surgical duration, intraoperative bleeding loss, resorption time of calcium sulphate, bone transport time, external fixation time, external fixation index, weight bearing time, complications and Paley bone and functional criteria. Thirty-three patients were enroled and successfully followed up with an average time of 15.25±4.31 months ranged from 8 to 21 months in Group A and an average time of 17.09±5.64 months ranged from 9 to 31 months in Group B. No significantly statistical differences of the demographic data were discovered between the two groups. There were no significantly statistical differences of the average bone defect size, intraoperative bleeding loss, resorption time of calcium sulphate and bone transport time between the two groups. However, the average surgical duration (P = 0.002) was significantly longer in Group A than Group B and the average external fixation time (P<0.001), external fixation index(P = 0.002) and weight bearing time (P = 0.030) were significantly shorter in Group A than Group B. No significantly statistical difference of excellent and good rate of bone outcomes and complication rate was observed, however, the excellent and good rate of functional outcomes (P = 0.041) was significantly higher in Group A than Group B. Compared with the conventional Ilizarov technique combining with antibiotic-impregnated calcium sulphate for large tibial bone defects, bone transport over an intramedullary nail in combination with antibiotic-impregnated calcium sulphate had favourable external fixation time, external fixation index, weight bearing time and clinical functional outcomes which effectively suppressed the infection and allowed patients earlier removal of the external fixator and weight bearing for rehabilitation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How to deal with large soft tissue defects around the foot and ankle is still controversial. The aim of this study was: (1) to display a new pedicled flap, also named the dual-perforator flap with wide pedicle (DPFWP), and (2) to compare it with the sural neurovascular flap with peroneal artery perforator (SNFPAP) in foot and ankle reconstruction. According to different surgical methods, 82 patients were divided into 2 groups: the DPFWP group (42 cases) and the SNFPAP group (40 cases). All cases underwent a flap surgery after radical debridement. The 2 groups were homogeneous in terms of age, sex, body mass index (BMI), etiology, location, and follow-up duration. Operation indexes were compared, including flap length, flap width, operation time and blood loss. Complications, cosmetic appearance, and functional outcome were analyzed, and statistical analysis was performed. The DPFWP group had larger flap length (24.5 ± 4.6 cm vs 16.3 ± 3.8 cm), and flap width (10.5 ± 2.7 cm vs 7.8 ± 1.7 cm) than the SNFPAP group. In postoperative follow-up, DPFWP group showed a lower complication rate and better cosmetic, functional outcomes than SNFPAP group. In conclusion, this study showed that a DPFWP flap brought better results than a SNFPAP flap in terms of complications, cosmetic appearance, and functional outcomes for patients undergoing reconstruction of foot and ankle defects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the widespread use of sliver nanoparticles (AgNPs), a large amount of AgNPs has inevitably been released into the environment, and there is growing concern about the toxicity of AgNPs to nitrogen-functional bacteria. In addition to traditional anaerobic denitrifying bacteria, heterotrophic nitrification-aerobic denitrification (HNAD) bacteria are also important participants in the nitrogen cycle. However, the mechanisms by which AgNPs influence HNAD bacteria have yet to be explicitly demonstrated. In this study, the inhibitory effects of different concentrations of AgNPs on a HNAD bacteria Zobellella sp. B307 were investigated, and the underlying mechanism was explored by analyzing the antioxidant system and the activities of key denitrifying enzymes. Results showed that AgNPs could inhibit the growth and the HNAD ability of Zobellella sp. B307. AgNPs could accumulate on the surface of bacterial cells and significantly destroyed the cell membrane integrity. Further studies demonstrated that the presence of high concentration of AgNPs could result in the overproduction of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and related oxidative stress in the cells. Furthermore, the catalytic activities of key denitrifying enzymes (nitrate reductase (NAR), nitrite reductase (NIR), and nitrous oxide reductase (N 2 OR)) were significantly suppressed under exposure to a high concentration of AgNPs (20 mg·L−1), which might be responsible for the inhibited nitrogen removal performance of strain B307. This work could improve our understanding of the inhibitory effect and underlying mechanism of AgNPs on HNAD bacteria. • AgNPs affected bacterial aerobic denitrification, cell structure and growth. • Higher AgNPs concentration caused LDH leakage and destroyed membrane integrity. • Higher AgNPs concentration leads to the trigger of antioxidant system. • AgNPs suppressed the key enzyme activity involved in aerobic denitrification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Twenty percent of ankle fractures present with concomitant syndesmosis injury which results in poor clinical outcomes. Surgical stabilization of the syndesmosis can be achieved with either trans-syndesmotic screws or a suture button device. The aim of this study is to investigate the clinical efficacy of suture button fixation and trans-syndesmotic screw fixation in the treatment of ankle fracture combined with distal tibiofibular syndesmosis injury. A retrospective analysis was conducted by enrolling 76 patients with ankle fractures combined with distal tibiofibular syndesmosis injury who were admitted in our trauma center from January 2018 to January 2019, including 34 cases of suture button group and 42 cases of the syndesmotic screw group with a mean follow-up period of 16 ± 7 (range 12-21) months. The demographic data included gender, age, injury mechanism, AO classification and the operation duration were recorded, the radiographic and clinical outcomes were determined by tibiofibular clear space, tibiofibular overlap distance, complications, and the Olerud-Molander Ankle Score at the last follow-up. All the indexes were compared between the 2 groups to discover the related statistical differences. With the numbers available, no significant difference could be detected in the surgical duration, tibiofibular clear space, tibiofibular overlap distance, total complication rate, and middle-term Olerud-Molander Ankle scores between the 2 groups. However, the suture button fixation group showed higher early stage Olerud-Molander Ankle scores (p =.027) and shorter full weightbearing time (p =.018) than that of syndesmotic screw fixation group. Considering the outcomes, we conclude that the suture button fixation not only shows equivalent efficacy to the traditional syndesmotic screw, but also has advantages of allowing early weightbearing, low requirements for routine removal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • Found and molded the relationship between the high-frequency signal of image carrier and steganalysis accuracy. • Posterior accuracy is proposed to evaluate the real accuracy of steganalysis and it can be used to improve steganalysis performance in the actual environment, because we can find a subset with a high accuracy(such as 100%) from the prediction images which have a relatively low accuracy (such as 80%). • Actually, the relationship between image carrier and steganalysis accuracy can even be used to improve steganography performance significantly. Abstract Steganalysis research is committed to distinguishing the steganography media from the normal one correctly. However, individual differences of carriers disturb the detection inevitably and greatly. Existing methods treat all detection results with the same confidence level, or prior accuracy, which may make the prior accuracy overestimate or underestimate the real result. This paper presents a novel performance evaluation method of steganalysis based on posterior accuracy. Adaptive Convolution Feature (ACF) is calculated by the adaptive convolution, then a quantitative value S based on the ACF is modeled to posterior testify and estimate the detection confidence of the image under test. By clustering of carrier noise, we classify the images which we believe they have a similar confidence of the same cluster. The distribution of ACF from each cluster indicates that the S value works well for confidence evaluation. The experimental results show that the S value can distinguish and identify high-confidence samples from the low-confidence, which will greatly improve the real performance of steganalysis. Besides, it improves the steganalysis accuracy of the whole image set by matching S values between training and prediction samples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Air-source heat pump (ASHP) has been widely used in domestic and commercial buildings because of its energy savings, high efficiency and environmental friendliness. However, the heating capacity of an ASHP system is greatly influenced by the frost accumulation on the surface of the outdoor exchanger. To solve this problem, a novel frost-free ASHP system, integrating with Phase Change Materials (PCMs) and dehumidification, has been developed. In this paper, the schematic design of this system is first presented. The effect of the match relationship between the desiccant materials and PCM thermal energy storage on the performance of the novel system is then studied using a dynamic mathematical model. The simulation results showed that the dehumidification efficiency was increased from 31.8 % to 34.7 % with the increase of the solid desiccant mass from 1.9 kg to 3.5 kg when the volume of the PCM was 1000 ml. The system COP was 2.87 when the desiccant was 2.2 kg and the volume of PCM was 1100 ml at a relative humidity of 80 % and ambient temperature of 0 °C. In addition, the water temperature was heated to 55 °C in one cycle which decreased the irreversible loss. Lastly, a correlation of the system COP with the amount of the solid desiccant and the PCM was obtained through a multivariate linear regression. The results obtained can facilitate optimal design and dynamic behavior investigation of this system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• We develop a new modified technique of acute shortening and double-level lengthening for the management of large tibial bone defects after trauma and infection. • Compared with bone transport, our modified technique of acute shortening and double-level lengthening could reduce time in frame and postoperative complications. The aim of this study was to present our experience with a new modified Ilizarov technique of acute shortening and double-level lengthening (ASDL) for the management of large tibial bone defects after trauma and infection and compare it with bone transport (BT). A retrospective comparative study was performed on 47 patients with large tibial defects after trauma and infection from June 2014 to June 2018. Depending on different Ilizarov methods, these patients were divided into ASDL group (n = 21) and BT group (n = 26). The difference in bone lengthening time, time in frame, external fixation index, docking site healing time were recorded and compared between the two groups. Bone and functional results were evaluated according to the Association for the Study and Application of the Method of Ilizarov (ASAMI) criteria. Complications encountered in both groups were categorized according to the classification of Paley, including problems (treated nonoperatively), obstacles (treated operatively), and sequelae (unresolved at last). All patients were followed for at least two years since the lengthening frame was removed. All cases achieved complete union at the docking site and consolidation of the regenerate callus. The mean bone loss was 8.9 cm (range 6.5–16.0 cm) in ASDL group vs. 10.3 cm (range 5.2–18.5 cm) in BT group. The mean bone lengthening time was 2.4 ± 0.7 months in ASDL group vs. 4.1 ± 1.4 months in BT group (p <0.001); time in frame was 9.1 months (range 7.0–14.5 months) in ASDL group vs. 17.7 months (range 13.5–23.0 months) in BT group (p <0.001); and external fixation index was 1.04 months/cm (range 0.83–1.38 months/cm) in ASDL group vs. 1.91 months/cm (range 1.28–2.70 months/cm) in BT group (p <0.001). The incidence of obstacles occurred in ASDL group was significantly lower than that in BT group (p <0.001). There was no significant difference in the bone (p = 0.635) and functional results (p = 0.293) between the two groups. Compared with bone transport, our modified technique of acute shortening and double-level lengthening could reduce bone lengthening time, time in frame, external fixation index and postoperative complications. It showed better clinical effects in patients with large tibial bone defects after trauma and infection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The synthesis of several pyrrolidine inhibitor analogs is described that possess nanomolar in vitro potencies against the neuraminidase enzymes expressed by the B/Memphis/3/89 and A/N1/PR/8/34 influenza strains. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The sorption of pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) on soil and soil components makes an important contribution to the fate, migration and bioavailability of PPCPs. Previous reviews have mostly focused on the sorption of PPCPs on single soil components (e.g., minerals and soil organic matter). However, the sorption of PPCPs within the whole soil system has not been systematically analyzed. This paper reviews the recent progress on PPCP sorption on soil and soil components. We have evaluated the sorption of a wide range of PPCPs in research fields that are usually considered in isolation (e.g., humic acids (HAs), montmorillonite, kaolinite, and goethite), and established a bridge between PPCPs and sorbent. The sorption mechanisms of PPCPs, e.g., cation exchange, surface complexation, electrostatic interaction and hydrogen bonding, are discussed and critically evaluated. We also assessed the influence of environmental factors (pH, ionic strength, organic matter and temperature) on sorption. This review summarizes the knowledge of PPCPs sorption on soil gained in recent years, which can provide new strategies for solving the problem of antibiotic pollution. Unlabelled Image • Influencing factors of PPCP sorption to soil and its components were summarized. • Contrasting trends of PPCP sorption with changes of factors were organized. • Sorption mechanisms of PPCPs on soil and its components were classified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

First synthesis of the diastereomeric mixture of Salbutamol dimer (2) is described. The synthesis provides access to multi-gram quantities of 2 for reference supplies and further analytical and toxicology investigations. It also confirmed the proposed structure by comparison to authentic sample. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Reaction of N-alkylated glycine esters with excess acrolein in the presence of acid, followed by treatment with triethylamine, provided N-substituted 4-formyl-5-vinyl proline carboxylates in good yields with high regio- and stereoselectivity. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

[Display omitted] • Increasing thermal hydrolysis time facilitated acidogenesis, especially acetic acid. • Solubilization/hydrolysis were enriched with thermal hydrolysis time increased. • Acidogenesis was promoted by giving rise to fermentative bacteria enriched. • Key functional genes expression related with acidogenesis are upregulated. While thermal hydrolysis pretreatment (THP) represents a promising technology for enhancing the production of volatile fatty acids (VFAs), the specific impact mechanisms of the THP duration on the acidogenic fermentation process have yet to be fully understood. This study addresses this gap by investigating the influence of various THP times on biochemical processes, microbial components, and genetic mechanisms during the fermentation process. The results indicate that extending the THP duration from 10 to 30 min is advantageous for achieving higher VFAs production and an increased proportion of acetic acid (2876.5 and 28.9% versus 4523.8 mg COD L−1 and 44.6%). Mechanism investigations revealed that longer THP durations are particularly effective in enhancing hydrolysis and solubilization. Notably, The PN and PS concentrations at THP time of 30 min was 68.6% and 83.6% higher than that at THP time of 10 min at 2nd d. Additionally, extended THP durations led to the enrichment of VFAs-producing and hydrolysis functional microorganisms (e.g., Comamonas , Fonticella , Bacillus and Romboutsia), along with the specialized functional genes (e.g., accA , accC , accD and bccA), which are crucial for elevated VFAs production. Collectively, this study provides comprehensive insights into the impact mechanisms of varying THP durations on VFAs production and offers valuable contributions to the field of sludge management and resource recovery research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Deep convolutional neural networks (DCNNs) have exhibited excellent feature extraction and detail reconstruction capabilities for single image super-resolution (SISR). Nevertheless, most previous DCNN-based methods do not fully utilize the complementary strengths between feature maps, channels, and pixels. Therefore, it hinders the ability of DCNNs to represent abundant features. To tackle the aforementioned issues, we present a Cascaded Visual Attention Network for SISR called CVANet, which simulates the visual attention mechanism of the human eyes to focus on the reconstruction process of details. Specifically, we first designed a trainable feature attention module (FAM) for feature-level attention learning. Afterward, we introduce a channel attention module (CAM) to reinforce feature maps under channel-level attention learning. Meanwhile, we propose a pixel attention module (PAM) that adaptively selects representative features from the previous layers, which are utilized to generate a high-resolution image. Satisfactory, our CVANet can effectively improve the resolution of images by exploring the feature representation capabilities of different modules and the visual perception properties of the human eyes. Extensive experiments with different methods on four benchmarks demonstrate that our CVANet outperforms the state-of-the-art (SOTA) methods in subjective visual perception, PSNR, and SSIM.The code will be made available https://github.com/WilyZhao8/CVANet. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using (trifluoromethyl)trimethylsilane (TMSCF 3 ) as the trifluoromethylating agent, MgCl 2 -catalyzed trifluoromethylation of carbonyl compounds proceeded readily at room temperature. In the presence of 10 mol% of MgCl 2 , a variety of carbonyl substrates such as aliphatic/aromatic aldehydes, acyclic/cyclic ketones and esters could be trifluoromethylated in DMF, giving the corresponding trimethylsilyl ethers (ketals) in up to 93% isolated yields. Trifluoromethylketones could be readily obtained after hydrolysis of the trimethylsilyl ketals. The reactions could tolerate air and moisture, and the use of oxygen and moisture-free conditions was not required. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Convolutional neural network (CNN)-based self-supervised visual representation learning (SSL) is a long-standing problem achieving significant successes with traditional handcrafted pretext tasks and contrastive learning. However, existing SSL methods typically suffer from high computational overhead and poor performance due to sluggish convergence speeds and poor detail extraction capabilities. In this work, to address these issues and improve the robustness, we provide a new self-supervised architecture for incorporating a single-branch backbone with hybrid tasks into the representation learning process. Specifically, our method takes advantage of features from both intra- and inter-images by using discrete montage images. Then a single backbone with a novel A daptive D ecouple C onfusion (ADC) module is proposed to improve the feature extraction capabilities and alleviate the confusion regions in montage images. Besides, both concatenated discrete vectors and patch-based global average pooled vectors in latent space are utilized to learn local detailed features and maintain semantic consistency simultaneously. Moreover, our method is optimized by hybrid tasks and enjoys faster convergence speed due to these improvements. Extensive experiments on several datasets demonstrate the effectiveness and robustness of our method. The proposed method has 2.0% improved in linear classification to the conventional single-branch methods. [Display omitted] • A new framework SSH that leverages concatenated discrete and PGAP vectors is proposed. • An A daptive D ecouple C onfusion (ADC) module is proposed to avoid degenerate performance in existing jigsaw-based methods. • We demonstrate the advantages of the above contributions through extensive experiments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interaction between microplastics and soil is essential for the environmental fate of plastic particles. In this study, polystyrene microplastic particles (PSMPs) with a size of 0.047 μm were selected as the representative of microplastics. Five soil samples from different provinces in China were selected (named Harbin S1, Huainan S2, Jiangxi S3, Shaanxi S4 and Hainan S5, respectively) and their interaction characteristics and mechanism with PSMPs were investigated, which provided new insights into the environmental behavior of microplastics. The experimental data showed that the pseudo-first-order model well fit for the sorption kinetics data, and the microplastic sorption ability of the soil accorded with the following sequence: S3 > S2 > S1 > S4 > S5. The sorption isotherm data of PSMPs on soils fit a linear model well (R 2 = 0.998). The sorption of MPs on soils was affected by pH, and the sorption ability weakened as the pH increased. Soil physicochemical properties play important roles in sorption of PSMPs, especially the content of soil organic carbon. The sorption capacity was positively correlated with soil organic carbon (R 2 = 0.999) and Fe 2 O 3 content (R 2 = 0.967), while the sorption of clay showed opposite trend (R 2 = 0.952). The sorption mechanisms of PSMPs on soils included surface sorption, electrostatic and hydrophobic interactions. Results of this study could be useful to better study the role of soil in the fate and transportation of plastic particles. Unlabelled Image • The sorption of polystyrene microplastics (PSMPs) on five soils was investigated. • Soil organic carbon (SOC), clay and Fe 2 O 3 were vital in the sorption of PSMPs. • K d was positively correlated with SOC and Fe 2 O 3 , but negatively with clay content. • The sorption mechanism mainly included electrostatic and hydrophobic interaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• New class of P -stereogenic chiral N H Brønsted acid organocatalysts prepared. • Catalysts were prepared from chiral phosphinamides or secondary phosphine oxides. • Catalysts promoted the asymmetric reduction of quinolones by transfer hydrogenation. • Asymmetric transformation effected by the P -stereogenic chiral environment. • Easily tunable selectivity and reactivity by the substituents of phosphorous. A new class of N H Brønsted acid organocatalysts that feature P -stereogenic chirality was developed. These catalysts were prepared from P -stereogenic chiral phosphinamides and show similar reactivity to BINOL derived phosphoric acid toward the reduction of quinolines via transfer hydrogenation. It shows that stereoselectivity is induced by the P -chiral environment that is created by the substituents attached to the phosphorous atom, which can be readily tuned and modified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Self-supervised visual representation learning focuses on capturing comprehensive features via exploiting the unlabeled datasets. However, existing contrastive learning based SSL frameworks are subjected to higher computational consumption and unsatisfactory performance. To handle these issues, we present a novel single-branch SSL method that incorporates an adaptive feature selection and activation module and a progressive cascade dimensionality reduction module, called APNet. Specifically, our method first fully exploits the unlabeled datasets and extracts intra- and inter-image information via introducing montage image. In addition, a novel adaptive feature selection and activation module is designed to generate the most comprehensive features. Besides, a progressive cascade dimensionality reduction module is proposed to capture the most representative features from latent vectors through cascade dimensionality increasing–decreasing operations. Extensive experiments have demonstrated the robustness and effectiveness of APNet. Specifically, APNet exceeds MoCo-v3 by 3.1% on the ImageNet-100 dataset, and consumes only half of the calculation. Code is available at https://github.com/AI-TYQ/APNet. • We embed feature selection and dimensionality reduction modules into SSL framework. • We design an attention module that selects and activates representative features. • We introduce a dimensionality reduction module to retain discriminative features. • We demonstrate the advantages of the above contributions through experiments. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The cellular instabilities of premixed C1–C3 alkane–air mixtures were investigated at an initial temperature of 400 K and different initial pressures (0.25–1.5 MPa). Flame propagation images were recorded using high-speed Schlieren photography techniques. Cellular instabilities were analyzed using both qualitative and quantitative methods. The results showed that with an increase in the initial pressure, the flame instabilities of these three alkane–air mixtures increased as a result of the enhanced hydrodynamic instability. For a given initial pressure and with an increasing equivalence ratio, the thermal-diffusive instability was the main influencing factor on the flame instability of methane when Φ ≤ 1.0, whereas it was the result of hydrodynamic and thermal-diffusive instability when Φ > 1.0. The flame instability of ethane and propane was caused by the enhanced hydrodynamic and thermal-diffusive instability when Φ ≤ 1.0, whereas it was determined by diffusion-thermal instability when Φ > 1.0. Under the conditions with the strongest cellular instability, the cellular instability of these three alkane–air mixtures tended to increase with an increasing number of carbon atoms in the fuel. • Constant volume combustion vessel and schlieren photography techniques were used. • Flame instabilities of C1–C3 alkane–air premixed flames were investigated. • Critical Peclet number of the unstable flame was evaluated. • Cellular instabilities were analyzed using both qualitative and quantitative methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: A mild method has been developed for the asymmetric synthesis of a variety of chiral diarylmethylamines via the addition of aryl Grignard reagents to chiral N-2,4,6-triisopropylbenzenesulfinylimines in high yields and high diastereoselectivities. Higher stereoselectivity was obtained for most of the examples studied when the reactions are performed at ambient temperature as compared to cryogenic conditions. N-2,4,6-Triisopropylbenzenesulfinamide was shown to be the optimal chiral auxiliary as it provided higher diastereoselectivities when compared to the more commonly employed tert-butanesulfinamide or p-toluenesulfinamide in the synthesis of diarylmethylamine synthons. A rationale for the improved selectivity derived from the triisopropylbenzyl auxiliary is presented. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Expedient and practical new methodology for the synthesis of substituted imidazoles was developed to provide a rapid access to a variety of 2-substituted, 1,2-disubstituted and 1,2,4-trisubstituted imidazoles by the direct CuCl-mediated reaction of nitriles with α-amino acetals in an intermolecular as well as intramolecular fashion. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: A streamlined and practical approach to 1H-imidazo[1,2-α]imidazol-2-one LFA-1 antagonist (1) that features as the key step a novel intramolecular boronic acid catalyzed cyclocondensation of a urea and an amide is reported. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]