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In this study, analysis of the chemical constituents and bioactivities of the unpolar fractions [petroleum ether (PE) and chloroform (C)] of fruits and leaves of Alpinia oxyphylla Miq. were carried out, as well as the bioactivities of the main compounds nootkatone and valencene. From PE and C fractions of the fruits, and PE fraction of the leaves, 95.80%, 59.30%, and 82.11% of the chemical constituents respectively were identified by GC-MS. Among these identified compounds, nootkatone was the main compound in all of three fractions, while valencene was the second main compound in the PE fractions of the fruits and leaves. The bioactivities results showed that all of the fractions and the major compound nootkatone showed tyrosinase inhibitory, as well as inhibitory effect on NO production in LPS-stimulated RAW264.7 cells. While valencene only presented inhibitory activity on NO production in RAW264.7 cells. The critical genes involved in nootkatone biosynthesis in A. oxyphylla were identified from the public transcriptome datasets, and protein sequences were preliminarily analyzed. Our studies develop the usage of the unpolar fractions of A. oxyphylla, especially its leaves as the waste during its production, and meanwhile provide the gene resources for nootkatone biosynthesis.

BackgroundFunctional constipation (FCon), is a symptom-based functional gastrointestinal disorder without an organic etiology and altering brain structure and function. However, previous studies mainly focused on isolated brain regions involved in brain plasticity. Therefore, little is known about the altered large-scale interaction of brain networks in FCon.MethodsFor this study, we recruited 20 patients with FCon and 20 healthy controls. We used group independent component analysis to identify resting-state networks (RSNs) and documented intra- and inter-network alterations in the RSNs of the patients with FCon.ResultsWe found 14 independent RSNs. Differences in the intra-networks included decreased activities in the bilateral caudate of RSN 3 (strongly related to emotional and autonomic processes) and decreased activities in the left precuneus of RSN 10 (default mode network). Notably, the patients with FCon exhibited significantly decreased interactive connectivity between RSNs, mostly involving the connections to the visual perception network (RSN 7–9).ConclusionCompared with healthy controls, patients with FCon had extensive brain plastic changes within and across related RSNs. Furthermore, the macroscopic brain alterations in FCon were associated with interoceptive abilities, emotion processing, and sensorimotor control. These insights could therefore lead to the development of new treatment strategies for FCon.

Background: Curcumin (CUR) and baicalein (BAI) are the main active ingredients in Curcuma longa and Scutellaria baicalensis, which are used together in Jiang-Qin-Si-Wu decoction to treat gynecological diseases. On the other hand, zebrafish, as a metabolic model has become more popular, therefore, the metabolism of CUR and BAI in zebrafish is investigated in the present study. Methods: Zebrafish embryos after hatching 48 hours were divided into four experimental groups. The blank group was exposed to 1 mL of ultra-pure water. Three drug-treated groups were exposed to CUR (8 μM, 1 mL), BAI (8 μM, 1 mL), CUR and BAI (8 μM, 2 mL), respectively. After homogenization, they were analyzed by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LCMS/ MS). The structure of the metabolites was determined by comparing their corresponding mass spectra with those of relevant literature. According to the change of metabolite content, the metabolic effect of curcumin and baicalein was explored. Results: Five and six metabolites of CUR and BAI in zebrafish were identified by LC-MS/MS, respectively. Their metabolic pathways in zebrafish were glucuronidation and sulfation. Reduction and methylation reactions also occurred for CUR and BAI, respectively. In addition, after combined exposure of both the drugs, CUR reduced the BAI glucuronide metabolites and inhibited the metabolism of BAI in zebrafish, which is consistent with the mammalian metabolism. Conclusion: Using LC-MS/MS analysis, zebrafish is a feasible model for drug metabolism study. The results of metabolic study indicated that CUR might affect the therapeutic effect of BAI.

Two lignans including a new one, five flavonoids and five coumarins were isolated from the whole plant of Viola philippica (synonymised as Viola yedoensis Makino). The new compound was structurally determined as (7R,8S,8′S) -3,3′-dimethoxy- 4,4′,9-trihydroxy- 7,9′-epoxy-8,8′-lignan 9-O-rutinoside by analysis of its NMR, MS and CD spectroscopic data. The known compounds were characterised by comparing their NMR and MS data with those reported. Among the known compounds, 5-hydroxy-4′-methoxyflavone-7-O- rutinoside, 6,7-di-O-β-D- glucopyranosylesculetin, and 7R,8S-dihydrodehydrodiconiferyl alcohol 4-O-β-D- glucopyranoside were isolated and identified from this genus for the first time. Of these compounds, 5-hydroxy-4′-methoxyflavone-7-O-rutinoside and (7R,8S,8′S) -3,3′-dimethoxy- 4,4′,9-trihydroxy- 7,9′-epoxy-8,8′-lignan 9-O-rutinoside were potently active against α-glucosidase, while the two dimeric coumarins, 5, 5′-bi (6, 7-dihydroxycoumarin) and 6,6′,7,7′-tetrahydroxy-5,8′-bicoumarin potently inhibited HCV protease.

Spontaneous combustion is one of the severest accidents in the process of coal production and transportation. Therefore it is significant to study the mechanism of coal spontaneous combustion. Based on theoretical analysis, 7 kinds of model compounds have been chosen in this paper, which are hyacinthin, anisole, diphenylmethane, phenetole, benzyl alcohol, benzhydrol, and aphenylpropanol. And they contain respectively active groups such as aldehyde group, methoxyl group, hypomethyl bond, hypomethylether bond, hypomethyl bond of a-carbon atom with hydroxyl, hypoalkyl bond of a-carbon atom with hydroxyl, and so on. According to the theory of free radical reactions, taking the model compound of coal above as research object, chemical reaction kinetic parameters, thermodynamic parameters, and products from normal temperature to 150°C have been quantitatively studied by oxidation device and analytical instrument, then the oxidation course can be deduced. The results show that all the model compounds consumed oxygen and produced CO and CO 2 at different degrees after temperature programmed to 150°C. The oxidation characteristic of the active groups in coal and the effect of them on spontaneous combustion can be recognized, and spontaneous combustion mechanism can be exposited systematically in chemistry by means of studying the oxidation of model compound.

Owing to different personal preferences, knowledge backgrounds and life experience of decision experts, divergent opinions always exist in group decision-making, and influence the assembly of the final opinions in varying degrees. Therefore, the determination and treatment of divergent opinions appear to be extremely important. For the existing divergent opinions in group decision-making, this paper proposes a new method. Firstly, in each of the alternatives, we calculate expert closeness degree matrix (the matrix consists of all the close degree between any two expert opinions) based on the concept of closeness degree in fuzzy theory. Secondly, in the light of the extent of disagreement, we take different treatment methods accordingly. Finally, the processed group opinions are synthesized by the evidence combination formula. The new algorithm defines the divergent indexes and divergent experts in order to modify the divergent opinions pointedly, and it is implemented in MATLAB, reducing the amount of computation and the waste of resources.

We introduce a hybrid iterative scheme for finding a common element of the set of common fixed points for a family of infinitely nonexpansive mappings, the set of solutions of the varitional inequality problem and the equilibrium problem in Hilbert space. Under suitable conditions, some strong convergence theorems are obtained. Our results improve and extend the corresponding results in (Chang et al. (2009), Min and Chang (2012), Plubtieng and Punpaeng (2007), S. Takahashi and W. Takahashi (2007), Tada and Takahashi (2007), Gang and Changsong (2009), Ying (2013), Y. Yao and J. C. Yao (2007), and Yong-Cho and Kang (2012)).

Phychography is an important technique in the quantitative phase imaging research domain, which employs the illuminating probes to scan the specimen in an overlapped requirement, and the reconstruction is conducted by using the ptychographic iterative engine. But the contradiction between the imaging efficiency and quality has become a bottleneck for its wide applications. In this paper, we start with the fundamental principle of the iterative algorithms for ptychographical imaging, and propose two parallel schemes based on CPU and GPU, besides the influences of the specimen size, the number of blocks and illuminating beams on the speedup of the two schemes are investigated via simulation experiment. The result shows that the complex amplitude of the specimen can be correctly reconstructed, meanwhile, the speed is significantly improved, which reduces the time consumed by one order of magnitude. This improvement solves the above contradiction, so that we can expect to achieve quasi-real-time imaging. The experimental data also indicate that 1) in optimal partition, parallel speedup is related to the size of the specimen, bigger size is corresponding to more obvious acceleration; 2) the same specimen under different partitions will speed up to different extents, which is closely related to the experimental hardware, however the number of illuminating beams has no significant effect on the speedup.

The successful assessment of structural integrity by means of AE depends on the quality of the recorded AE data and on correct post-test data analysis. AE monitoring and signal analysis of tests on two large, spherical tanks were carried out using a 32-channel AE system (Spartan, from PAC, USA). Water pressurization was used on one, whilst the other was tested on-line. The effects of both the residual and loading stresses on the surface-opening cracks produced by multiple welding passes were assessed by means of AE. AE measurements generally take a rather long time and background noise cannot always be restricted during the test period (a major problem with on-line testing). It is possible to improve the detection of AE in the field by varying the pressure of the operating medium by 10% P ( P = operating pressure of tank). The relationship between the source (a crack growing with load changes) and its associated AE parameters is also discussed.

The ultraviolet-visible-infrared-THz transmission spectra of three oxide crystals, KH 2 PO 4 (KDP), Na 5 B 2 P 3 O 13 (NBP) and PbB 4 O 7 (PTB), have been studied. The band wide of the phonon absorption has been discussed. The maximal frequency ν LO is connected to the lightest cation ions, and the minimal frequency ν TO is connected to the heaviest cation ions for the three samples.

To study the expression of acetylation of histone H3 Lys9, Lys14 (H3K9Ac, H3K14Ac), and trimethylation of histone H4 Lys20 (H4K20TriMe) in ovarian epithelial tumors and the relation with histological grading and clinical staging.The mean optical density of H3K9Ac, H3K14Ac, and H4K20TriMe of normal ovarian epithelium, ovarian adenomas, ovarian borderline tumors, and ovarian epithelial carcinomas was determined by immunohistochemistry, and the relation with histological grading and clinical staging was analyzed.As the malignancy of ovarian epithelial tumors increased, the expression of H3K9Ac and H4K20TriMe significantly decreased (P0.05). Although the expressing difference of H3K14Ac was without statistical significance in each group (P0.05), there were no differences in the expression of H3K9Ac, H3K14Ac, and H4K20TriMe in serous cystadenomas, borderline serous cystadenomas, and mucinous cystadenomas (P0.05). Compared with mucinous cystadenocarcinomas, the expression of H3K9Ac and H4K20TriMe in serous cystadenocarcinomas was lower (P0.05). Although there was no difference of H3K14Ac expression in serous and mucinous cystadenocarcinomas (P0.05), as the histological grade reduced, the expression of H3K9Ac and H4K20TriMe reduced (P0.05), and it was lower in the late clinical stage than those in the earlier stage (P0.01).The decreasing of H3K9Ac and H4K20TriMe is possibly related with the occurrence of epithelial ovarian tumors. The more significant the expression of H3K9Ac and H4K20TriMe was, the lower the histological grading and the later the clinical staging were. H3K9Ac and H4K20TriMe were potential biomarkers for prognosis. H3K14Ac showed no significant relation with the occurrence and development of ovarian tumors.

This paper discusses the classification and relationship of course knowledge nodes, building the network of knowledge nodes, setting appropriate teaching strategies according to different types of knowledge nodes, and established courseware pages using HCI template in which screen layout and color use is defined. Finally, methods and experience of developing network courseware were described combined with the course-data structure.

We observed a photon-phonon resonance or polariton arises in PbB 4 O 7 crystal. We identified this resonance state is a phonon, ν TO =1.56THz and q=1930cm−1, because the transmissivity T(ν p ) is almost zero, the dielectric function e(ν) satisfies the Lyddane-Sachs-Teller (LST) relation, and a split appears at 1.56THz in ν(k) curve.

In E-commerce based-on Agent, The sociality of agent may affect the process and result of negotiation. This paper has defined the dissemination and cooperation two social factors. It proposes a tree calculation model of dissemination according to buyer Agent’s recommend to seller Agent. A cooperation studying and forecasting method was proposed based on BP neural network. It acquires training study of cooperation through MATLAB simulation tests.

We propose a new ptychographical imaging algorithm based on illuminating beam cooperating with rotational phase encoding. Compared with the traditional ptychographical imaging, the proposed algorithm has a diffractive wave front that is encoded with the uniform phase modulator in a block. It leads to the faster convergent speed for the iterative algorithm of the ptychographical imaging. The illuminating method can present fantastic robustness to resist bad influences brought by the noise and transverse shift of probes. Compared with the random phase modulator, the rotated phase modulator introduced into our algorithm is convenient to be fabricated and located into the real configuration. Therefore, the proposed algorithm has a good value in practical applications such as real-time microscopy and superresolution imaging.

A single random phase encoding is introduced into ptychography for the first time. Since the diffractive wave front is encoded with the random phase modulator, the information of the sample cooperated with each probe can be uniformly distributed onto an entire diffraction pattern. It leads to the much faster convergent speed of the iterative algorithm for ptychographical imaging. It is more important for practice that the robustness to resist the noises and especially the transverse shift errors of probes are considerably improved compared with the conventional ptychographic algorithm.

Generalized ptychography is established with diverse probes, which not only extend the core spirit of ptychography that is the overlapping of neighboring probes, but also enhance the imaging quality. We find that in one of suggested configurations with visible light, the performances of two types of diversified probes are improved in comparison with the traditional circular probes. This may open up some new possibilities of ptychographic imaging.

Some key parameters of illuminating beam and the influence on imaging quality are investigated via ptychography in visible light band. The influences of overlap ratio, size and shape of illuminating beam on imaging quality and their relationship are studied using ptychographical iterative engine algorithm. The simulation results show that the overlap ratio of illuminating beam is a main factor influencing imaging quality. Shape of illuminating beam mainly influences the convergence of ptychography. And the size of illuminating beam less influences directly the imaging quality and convergence. Therefore, the simulation results play an important theoretic guiding role in optimizing the beam parameters in visible light, the X-ray and electronic band and other bands.

The surface fluorescence of Rhodamine B (RhB) adsorbed on colloidal silver was investigated. It was found that the 572.5 nm fluorescence band of RhB quenched sharply. However, at the same time the enhancement factor of the other fluorescence band of RhB at 530.0 nm was up to 60 when Ag sol was added.The time-effect fluorescence spectra of RhB adsorbed on Ag surface have been observed by OMA, showing that the quenching and enhancement processes of these two bands were inversed each other at any moment of observation.