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Three new compounds, polygalapyrone A (1), tenuiside G (2) and polygalapyrrole A (3), together with two known compounds (4–5) were isolated by silica gel, ODS and preparative HPLC from the aerial part of Polygala tenuifolia. Their structures were elucidated by spectrum analysis and compared with findings from the literature. The anti-inflammatory effects of those compounds were investigated in vitro. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Seven new glycosides (1–7) and seventeen known analogues (8–24) were isolated from the leaves of Datura metel L. The structures of these compounds were all elucidated by detailed spectroscopic analyses and comparison with literature values. All isolates were evaluated for cytotoxicity against Hela, MGC-803, Ishikawa cell lines and compounds 6, 7, 14–17 and 24 exhibited different degrees of antiproliferative effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigate the existence and uniqueness issues of the 3D incompressible Hall-magnetohydrodynamic system supplemented with initial velocity u0 and magnetic field B0 in critical regularity spaces. In the case where u0, B0 and the current J 0 : = ∇ × B 0 belong to the homogeneous Besov space B ̇ p , 1 3 p − 1 , 1 ≤ p < ∞ , and are small enough, we establish a global result and the conservation of higher regularity. If the viscosity is equal to the magnetic resistivity, then we obtain the global well-posedness provided u0, B0 and J0 are small enough in the larger Besov space B ̇ 2 , r 1 2 , r ≥ 1. If r = 1 , then we also establish the local existence for large data, and exhibit continuation criteria for solutions with critical regularity. Our results rely on an extended formulation of the Hall-MHD system that has some similarities with the incompressible Navier–Stokes equations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Context: Kangfuxin (KFX) is widely used for the treatment of gastric and duodenal ulcer; however, more research is needed to determine the protective mechanisms of KFX in ameliorating gastric ulcer. Objective: To investigate the efficacy and potential mechanism of Kangfuxin liquid (KFX) in water-immersion and restraint stress (WIRS)-induced gastric ulcer. Materials and methods: Seventy rats were randomly divided into seven groups (n = 10) as follows: the control group (normal saline, i.g.), the model group (normal saline, i.g.), the KFX groups (2.5, 5 and 10 mL/kg, i.g.), the omeprazole group (20 mg/kg, i.p.) and Sanjiuweitai Granules group (1850 mg/kg, i.g.). The WIRS model was applied to induce stress ulcers after 7 days of drug administration. Afterwards, rats were sacrificed at 10 h induced by WIRS. Results: Pre-treatment with KFX (5,10 mL/kg) could effectively reduce the area of gastric ulcers and improve the pathological changes of ulcerated tissue. Moreover, KFX (5,10 mL/kg) increased the prostaglandin E2 (52%) and cyclooxygenase-1 (30%) levels, and improved malondialdehyde (54%), superoxide dismutase (58%), catalase (39%), and nitric oxide (11%) and TNF-α (9%), IL-6 (11%), MMP-9 (54%) and MMP-2 (53%) of ulcer tissue. Furthermore, pre-treatment with KFX dramatically increased IGF-1, PTEN, and Akt protein expression. Conclusions: Our results suggest that KFX has protective effects on WIRS-induced gastric ulcer via inflammatory reactions, oxidative stress inhibition, and pro-survival action, which were the results of activating the IGF-1/PTEN/Akt signalling pathway. Our results provide evidence of KFX for treating gastric ulcer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chemical components of natural spice, foliumArtemisia argyiessential oil (FAAEO) was analyzed by Gas chromatography (GC) and Gas chromatography/Mass spectrometry (GC-MS). Forty-five compounds were identified, representing 98.9% of total oil. The major components were eucalyptol (16.2%), β-pinene (14.3%), camphor (14.0%), artemisia ketone (13.9%), and α-pinene (11.1%). The thermodynamic parameters (ΔG, ΔH, and ΔS) and formation constants (Ká) of inclusion reactions of FAAEO with β-cyclodextrin (β-CD), heptakis (2,6-di-methyl)-β-CD (DM-β-CD) and mono [2-O(2-hydroxy-propyl)]-β-CD (HP-β-CD) were determined. The results showed that the capability of forming microcapsules was β-CD> DM-β-CD> HP-β-CD and the stoichiometry of FAAEO with β-CD derivatives in the molecular microcapsules was 1:1 (molar ratio). The processes of forming microcapsules were exothermic and enthalpy-driven ones accompanied with negative entropic contribution and ΔG293Kwere -15.9, -14.2, -13.7 kJ/mol, andKaat 293 K were 674.9, 343.4, 278.3 L/mol, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present wok is focused on a novel method of aromatic compounds production from biomass-derived sorbitol via catalytic processing. Aromatic compounds including substituted benzenes and olefins have been considered to be very promising in the substitution of diminishing fossil fuels since they are component of transportation fuels such as gasoline. The yield of aromatic compounds was found to be affected to a certain extent by reaction parameters and the catalyst. The effects of reaction parameters such as reaction temperature, weight hourly space velocity (WHSV), gas hourly space velocity (GHSV), and hydrogen pressure on the catalytic performance of the catalyst were investigated. The optimum reaction conditions were achieved as follows: 280°C of the temperature, 2.25 hr−1of WHSV, 2000 hr−1of GHSV, and 4.0 MPa of pressure. Meanwhile, the Ni/HZSM-5 catalyst modified by MCM-41 was selected to catalyze sorbitol into aromatic compounds. The testing results indicated that the catalyst containing metal centers and acid sites had the maximal activity with 100% of sorbitol conversion. Dehydration and aromatization of sorbitol was induced on the acidic sites of zeolite and its shape selectivity, whereas hydrogenation and cracking was carried out on those mental centers. The carbon distribution of the products was also close to the acidity of the catalyst. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The essential oil from the leaves of grapefruit mint (Mentha suaveolens ×piperita) grown in China was isolated by hydrodistillation (HD). The oil obtained with 1.08% yields was analyzed by GC and GC-MS. Twenty-eight components have been identified in the HD essential oil of grapefruit mint. Linalool (41.50%) and linalyl anthranilate (33.75%) are the two main components of the essential oil of leaves, followed by α-terpineol (6.29%), geranyl acetate (3.67%), nerol acetate (2.09%), andtrans-geraniol (2.07%). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: This study evaluates the role of hypothyroidism in obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) by comparing the OSA indices in hypothyroid OSA (OSA-HYPOT) with euthyroid OSA (OSA-EUTHY) patients.Methods: After literature search in several electronic databases and selection of studies by following eligibility criteria, meta-analyses of mean differences/standardized mean differences were performed to compare OSA indices at the time of diagnosis between OSA-HYPOT and OSA-EUTHY patients. Metaregression analyses were carried out to examine the relationship between age, BMI, sample size, and gender vs OSA indices in OSA-HYPOT patients.Results: Twelve studies and five case reports recruiting 192 OSA-HYPOT and 1423 OSA-EUTHY patients were included in the meta-analysis. Prevalence (mean ± SD) of clinical hypothyroidism in OSA patients was 8.12 ± 7.13% and that of subclinical hypothyroidism 11.07 ± 8.49%. Apnea-Hypopnea Index, time of sleep with oxygen desaturation <90%, and Epworth Sleepiness Scale were significantly higher in the OSA-HYPOT patients at diagnosis, whereas there was no significant difference in arousal index, respiratory disturbance index and sleeping efficiency between OSA-HYPOT and OSA-EUTHY patients. Body mass index was positively associated with Apnea-Hypopnea Index in OSA-HYPOT patients.Conclusions: Hypothyroidism is found to be associated with severity of OSA. However, obesity can be a confounder in the outcomes observed herein. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a gold electrode is modified with Carboxyl-C60for the selective detection of dopamine (DA) in the presence of high concentration ascorbic acid (UA). And we also investigated the effects of electrical and catalytic mechanism of the modified electrodes. The electrochemical behavior of the carboxyl-C60modified electrode was characterized by cyclic voltammetry (CV) and differential pulse voltametry (DPV), which showed good performance toward individual detection of DA and UA and even their simultaneous detection in the presence of 5.0 μM UA. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF)/polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) hollow fiber ultrafiltration (UF) membranes were prepared via wet spinning method using polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) as pore-foaming agent, mixture of dimethyl formamide (DMF) and dimethyl acetamide (DMAc) as solvent, and pure water as an external coagulation solution. Effects of PVDF, PVP and PMMA concentration on performance of the membrane were discussed. The surface and cross-sectional morphology, hydrophilic property, the tensile strength and elongation of the hollow fiber membrane were measured, respectively. Results indicated that the performance of the membrane is the best with a pure water flux of 124 L/m2·h and rejection rate of 73% to bovine serum albumin (BSA), when the concentration of PVDF, PMMA, PVP, DMF and DMAc are 18, 0.5, 1.5, 40 and 40 wt%, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focus on low frequency oscillations induced by the flow characteristics deviation of steam turbine. The causes and features of flow characteristics deviation are analyzed and described first. The coupling model between thermodynamic system and power system was established for timedomain simulation analysis, in an attempt to find out the effect mechanism of flow characteristics deviation on low frequency oscillations. The effect of flow characteristics derivation on the responses characteristics of turbo-generator is analyzed through simulation. Results indicate that the flow characteristics deviation is apt to cause low frequency oscillations. Both the amplitude and the speed of oscillations are related to the extent of flow characteristics deviation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Antihypertensive peptides derived from dietary proteins have long been recognised as an important source of developing functional foods with blood pressure-lowering effect. However, most of such peptides exhibit diverse tastes, such as sweet, bitter, sour and salty, which is a non-negligible aspect considered in the food development process. In the present study, several predictive quantitative structure–activity relationship (QSAR) models that correlate peptide's structural features with their multi-bioactivities and bitter taste are established at both sequence and structure levels, and the models are then used to conduct extrapolation on thousands of randomly generated, structurally diverse peptides with chain lengths ranging from two to six amino acid residues. Based on the statistical results gained from QSAR modelling, the relationship between the antihypertensive activity and bitter taste of peptides at different sequence lengths is investigated in detail. Moreover, the structural basis, energetic property and biological implication underlying peptide interactions with angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE), a key target of antihypertensive therapy, are analysed at a complex three-dimensional structure level by using a high-level hybrid quantum mechanics/molecular mechanics scheme. It is found that (a) bitter taste is highly dependent on peptide length, whereas ACE inhibitory potency has only a modest correlation with the length, (b) dipeptides and tripeptides perform a moderate relationship between their ACE inhibition and bitterness, but the relationship could not be observed for those peptides of more than three amino acid residues and (c) the increase in sequence length does not cause peptides to exhibit substantial enhancement of antihypertensive activity; this is particularly significant for longer peptides such as pentapeptides and hexapeptides. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Monolithic titania materials with macro-mesoporous skeleton were prepared through a template-free sol-gel synthesis route, based on the reaction of hydrolysis and polycondensation of titanium isopropoxide. Acetic acid (HAc), hydrochloric acid (HCl), and redistilled H2O were utilized as the starting reagents, without the addition of otherwise commonly used chemical modifier such as poly(ethylene oxide) and formamide. The synthesis method applied herein was economical and convenient, which allowed synthesizing titania monolith with bimodal macro-mesoporosity directly. The titania monolith with more than 10 cm in length, possessed a specific surface area of 88 m2/g (calcined at 350°C), a narrow pore size distribution, an anatase crystallite structure and great mechanical strength, and the porosity texture could be controlled by adjusting the starting composition. Using synthesized titania monolith as HPLC stationary phase, the mixture of carboxylates was successfully separated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A simple and reliable HPLC method for the determination of benzoic acid and vanillin in food samples has been developed, in which a pure titania monolithic column synthesized through a template-free sol-gel synthesis route was used as chromatography column. To fully understand the retention mechanism of benzoic acid and vanillin on titania, acetonitrile (ACN) percentage, buffer concentration, and buffer pH of the mobile phase were investigated. The retention mechanism of benzoic acid and vanillin on the titania monolith column belongs to hydrophilic interaction and ligand exchange. When the high %ACN and appropriate acetate existed in eluent, the hydrophilic interaction was the dominant retention mode. Benzoic acid and vanillin in preserved fruit and jelly samples were successfully determined and quantitative analysis was carried out by external standard method with correlation coefficient (R 2 ) of 0.9994 for benzoic acid and 0.9989 for vanillin. The relative standard deviations (RSDs) of benzoic acid and vanillin were 0.94% and 1.50%, respectively. The developed titania-based HPLC method is simple, rapid, accurate, and competent for the separation of polar and hydrophilic compounds, and this work has also promoted the application of titania monolith in chromatographic separation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An ion-imprinted functionalized sorbent for selective separation of Cd 2+ from aqueous solution was prepared by molecular imprinting technique in combination with the sol-gel process. The procedures involved the synthesis of mesoporous silica through hydrolysis of tetraethoxysilicate with cetyltrimethylammonium bromide as the structure director, the complex formation between Cd 2+ and 3-mercaptopropyltrimethoxysilane, and subsequent co-hydrolysis and co-condensation of the complex with the mesoporous silica. After template Cd 2+ was removed with hydrochloric acid, specific cavity for selective recognition of Cd 2+ was left. The selectivity of the sorbent was investigated by a batch competitive ion-binding experiment using an aqueous Cd 2+ and Pb 2+ mixture. The largest selectivity coefficient for Cd 2+ in the presence of Pb 2+ was found to be over 67, the largest relative selectivity coefficient between Cd 2+ and Pb 2+ over 18. The uptake capacity and selectivity coefficient of the imprinted functionalized sorbent are higher than those of the nonimprinted sorbent. The sorbent offered a fast kinetics for the extraction/stripping of Cd 2+ and good recyclability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A complete mitogenome of Acheilognathus chankaensis was assembled and analyzed in this study. The genome, with the length of 16,926 bp, contains 20 tRNAs, 13 coding genes, two rRNAs, and a D-loop region. The components of the genome are the same as available Acheilognathus mitogenomes in NCBI database, and GC (%) is also similar with other published mitogenomes in this genus. Phylogenetic analysis showed that A. chankaensis was genetically closed to A. macropterus. This complete mitogenome could contribute to the future phylogenetic and phylogeographic studies of genus Acheilognathus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The requirement for vehicles to halt for toll fee payment results in traffic congestion and reduces fuel efficiency. In this paper, hardware and software designs were involved to develop a GPS-based highway toll collection system. The system utilised the Raspberry Pi 2 as the microcontroller. Additional electronic modules such as GPS module, LCD module, speaker, wireless Wi-Fi router modem and wireless Wi-Fi adapter were included to perform specific tasks. The system utilised GPS coordinates to track vehicle and toll fees were incurred at predefined points. The travel summary was recorded in the online database. Furthermore, an automatic delay time adjustment system was studied and was implemented to reduce the power consumption of the system without compromising the accuracy. A personal cloud server was configured to allow online access of travel logs. The developed system promises motorists a smooth travel journey and eliminates the construction of expensive toll booths. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A well-preserved fossil skull from a new locality in Jijiazhuang, Changle County, Shandong Province, China, is attributable to Plesiaceratherium gracile. Other rhinoceroses from the nearby Shanwang Basin of Linqu County, Shandong, formerly described as Aceratherium sp. and Plesiaceratherium shanwangensis are also referable to P. gracile. The new skull demonstrates the presence in P. gracile of the following characters: continuous labial cingula on lower cheek teeth; skull roof with nearly flat profile; and external auditory pseudomeatus ventrally closed, proceeding dorsocaudally in a shallow groove. Comparison of Plesiaceratherium with Brachypotherium pugnator Matsumoto, 1921, suggests that referral of the latter to Plesiaceratherium should be reconsidered. A phylogenetic analysis based on 314 characters scored for 39 terminal taxa places Plesiaceratherium mirallesi in a basal position within Rhinocerotidae, and recovers other species of Plesiaceratherium as a clade that is well separated from B. pugnator and is sister to the [Subchilotherium [Acerorhinus [Shansirhinus, B. pugnator [Chilotherium]]]] grouping. Based on this result and a reevaluation of the anatomy of 'P.' mirallesi, we propose that the genus Dromoceratherium should be revived to accommodate this species as D. mirallesi. The occurrence of P. gracile at Jijiazhuang indicates that the fossiliferous diatomaceous shales of this locality were deposited during the lower Miocene. SUPPLEMENTAL DATA—Supplemental materials are available for this article for free at www.tandfonline.com/UJVP Citation for this article: Lu, X., X. Zheng, C. Sullivan, and J. Tan. 2016. A skull of Plesiaceratherium gracile (Rhinocerotidae, Perissodactyla) from a new lower Miocene locality in Shandong Province, China, and the phylogenetic position of Plesiaceratherium. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. DOI: 10.1080/02724634.2016.1095201. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]