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Clerodendrum is a genus of ca. 500 species in the family Lamiaceae and widely distributed throughout the whole world. Up to now, many species of this genus have been described in various indigenous systems of medicine and are used in preparation of folklore medicines for the treatment of various life-threatening diseases, and more than eleven species of the Clerodendrum genus have been very well studied for their chemical constituents and biological activities, and 283 compounds, including monoterpene and its derivatives, sesquiterpene, diterpenoids, triterpenoids, flavonoid and flavonoid glycosides, phenylethanoid glycosides, steroids and steroid glycosides, cyclohexylethanoids, anthraquinones, cyanogenic glycosides, and others have been isolated and identified. Pharmacological studies have shown that these compounds and extracts from the Clerodendrum genus have extensive activities, such as anti-inflammatory and anti-nociceptive, anti-oxidant, anti-hypertensive, anticancer, antimicrobial, anti-diarrheal, hepatoprotective, hypoglycemic and hypolipidemic, memory enhancing and neuroprotective, and other activities. In this review, we attempt to highlight over phytochemical progress and list the phytoconstituents isolated from the genus Clerodendrum reported so far. The biological activities of this genus are also covered.

Successful pregnancy relies on the accurate regulation of the maternal-fetal immune system. Without enough tolerance in the uterine microenvironment, the mother and the hemiallogeneic fetus could not peacefully coexist. T cell immunoglobulin and mucin domain (Tim)-3 is a molecule originally regarded as to be expressed on terminally differentiated IFN-γ expressing CD4+ T cells (Th1). The engagement of Tim-3 with its ligand, galectin-9 (Gal-9) could induce the exhaustion or apoptosis of effector T cells, and thus might regulate the tolerance. Tim-3 pathway also participates in regulating the activities of CD4+ regulatory T cells, monocyte-macrophages, dendritic cells and natural killer cells. Dysregulation of Tim-3 expression can elicit excessive or inhibited inflammatory responses and ultimately result in autoimmune diseases, viral or tumor evasion and pregnancy complications. In this review, we will mainly focus on the expression of Tim-3 on local immune cells and its function in pregnancy. In addition, meaningful questions that need further investigation and the potential roles of Tim-3 in fetal tolerance will be discussed. Deeper understanding of the immune checkpoint receptor Tim-3 will shed new light on exploring the pathogenesis of some pregnancy complications, including pre-eclampsia, intrauterine growth restriction, recurrent spontaneous abortion and preterm birth. Tim-3 pathway might be a new target of immune therapy for pregnancy complications in the future.

The aim of this study was to determine whether the Rehmannia glutinosa oligosaccharides (ROS) ameliorate the impaired glucose metabolism and the potential mechanism in chronic stress rats fed with high-fat diet. The rats were fed by a high-fat diet and simultaneously stimulated by chronic stress over 5 weeks. Body weight, fasting plasma glucose, intraperitoneal glucose tolerance test (IPGTT), plasma lipids, gluconeogenesis test (GGT), glycogen content, and corticosterone, insulin and leptin levels were measured. The results showed that ROS administration (100, 200 mg/kg, i.g.) for 5 weeks exerted the effects of increasing the organ weights of thymus and spleen, lowering the fasting plasma glucose level, improving impaired glucose tolerance, increasing the contents of liver and muscle glycogen, decreasing the gluconeogenesis ability, plasma-free fatty acid's level, as well as plasma triglyceride and total cholesterol levels in chronic stress and high-fat fed rats, especially in the group of 200mg/kg; while the plasma corticosterone level was decreased, and plasma leptin level was increased. These results suggest that ROS exert an ameliorating effect of impaired glucose metabolism in chronic stress rats fed with high-fat diet, and the potential mechanism may be mediated through rebuilding the glucose homeostasis in the neuroendocrine immuno-modulation (NIM) network through multilinks and multitargets.

The impact–ejection process on a mixed-grain-size bed with granular packing was simulated with the discrete element method in order to understand the interaction between different sized grains in natural aeolian sand transport. In this model, the granular bed was formed by settling the randomly generated two-sized particles under gravity, and then a foreign particle was shot onto the granular bed at different speeds and angles. The recorded speed, direction and number of the ejected particles were then analyzed. It was found that the probability distributions of the ejection speed and angle for different sized particles are all identical to those for the single size grain-bed collision process, the mean ejection speeds of different sized particles are nearly equal, and the mean ejection angles of different sized particles are all equal to a constant of 60°. The average number of each size of ejected particles grows linearly with the increasing impact speed but remains invariant for various impact angles. Moreover, the smaller particles are preferentially ejected and the ratio between the mean numbers of different sized particles is independent of both the impact speed and angle. Additionally, the ejected particles were found to move in a 3D space, they become distributed symmetrically around the incident plane and jump not only forward but also backward. These results are critical to understanding the grain size-induced inhomogeneity in aeolian sand transport.

In this paper, we propose an epidemic disease model about the effect of awareness programs on complex networks, where the contacts between nodes are treated as a social network. Two forms on increasing rate of awareness programs, which are a constant and the change with the number of infected individuals, are analyzed. Through dynamical analysis, we obtain the basic reproduction number R0 and prove the stability of disease-free equilibrium and endemic equilibrium. Furthermore, numerical simulations about the model are taken to reach that, on the one hand, the two forms, which are increasing rate of awareness programs, respectively, have advantages and disadvantages on preventing and controlling diseases, and they are complementary; on the other hand, awareness programs have more effects on nodes with smaller degrees.

Catalpol is a Chinese herb ingredient with potential for the treatment of neurodegenerative disorders. A high-performance liquid chromatography-atmospheric pressure chemical ionization-tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-APCI-MS/MS) method was developed and validated to investigate the pharmacokinetics and biodistribution of catalpol in both the plasma and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of rats. Methanol was used to precipitate the protein from the biosamples, and the supernatant was collected for the assay. A Diamonsil C18 column (150 mm × 4.6 mm, 5 μm) with a mobile phase of methanol-ammonium acetate (20 mM) (50:50, v/v), a 0.6 mL/min flow rate and a total run time of 3 min was used to separate catalpol and aucubin (internal standard, IS). A triple-quadrupole tandem mass spectrometer with an atmospheric pressure chemical ionization (APCI) source in the positive ion mode was operated in the multiple reaction-monitoring (MRM) mode to determine the concentration of catalpol at m/z 380.0-165.0 and that of IS at m/z 364.0-148.9. The linear range was 10-50000 ng/mL for plasma samples and 20-5000 ng/mL for CSF samples. At both the lower limit of quantification (LLOQ) and three levels QC (quality control) concentrations, the RSD was less than 12.9%, and the bias was -10.0% to 7.1%. The extraction recoveries for catalpol ranged from 72.9% to 109.5% from both rat plasma and CSF. The catalpol was administered to rats in 6 mg/kg doses via intravenous (i.v.) injection, and the pharmacokinetics and biodistribution studies were performed in both plasma and CSF. The results demonstrated that catalpol could be transported into the CSF via the AUC(CSF)/AUC(plasma) of 5.8% with a half-life (t(1/2)) of 1.5 h. Overall, the established HPLC-APCI-MS/MS method is rapid and sensitive, and has been successfully used to quantify catalpol in both plasma and CSF.

Wind tunnel experiments were performed in order to investigate the effect of mixing on the aeolian transport of sands with different grain sizes. Two types of sand with different grain size distributions and an equal-mass binary mixture of these sands were used. Comparing the gradients of their measured mass flux profiles and some published profiles for mixed sand transport with those for nearly uniform sand transport, it was found that for both of these types of sand bed, the negative gradient of the mass flux profile on a log-linear plot varies with the mass averaged grain size of the sand bed according to the same power law. Hence it can be deduced that, during the aeolian transport of mixed sand beds, the mean vertical ejection speeds of different sized grains are nearly identical to that for the transport of monospecific-sized sand with the same mass averaged grain size. Theoretical analysis was undertaken to explore the characteristics of ejections of different sized grains during the aeolian transport of sand with mixed-size grains. It is proposed that the mean ejection angles and the mean ejection speeds for sand grains of different sizes are nearly identical and are equivalent to that for monospecific-sized sand with the same mass averaged grain size. It was also evident that the ratio between the transport rate of each grain size group expressed as the fraction in the whole transport rate and its mass fraction in the mixed-size sand is a combined consequence of both the wind effect on the mean saltation distance of different sized grains and the effect of the mass fraction of each grain size group in the original mixture on its ejection potential responding to an impact of a saltating sand grain.

Wind tunnel experiments were carried out to measure the spatial distribution in equilibrium transport of four types of mixed sand. The flux profiles of each grain size group were calculated. It is found that the vertical distribution of mean grain size has a close relation with the grain size distribution in the sand bed. In a log-linear plot, the flux profiles of main grain size groups are all straight lines and their slopes are nearly equal. It is also found that the ratio of transport rate of each size group to the whole transport rate is directly proportional to the mass ratio of each size group in the sand bed and the proportion value is only dependent on the grain size. This harmonious law is applicable to all four types of mixed sand used in the experiment.

Equilibrium sand transport is simulated by stochastic Lagrange particle tracking method combined with probability distribution of initial ejection state of sand grains. Comparing the simulated vertical profile of horizontal sand mass flux and the experimental profiles, a modified exponential distribution is suggested to describe ejection speed and angle of sand grains in equilibrium sand transport. This modified exponential distribution is proved to be reasonable in slow wind velocity.