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In this study, effects of 4 solvents (petroleum-ether, n-hexane, ethyl-acetate, and chloroform) on the chemical characterizations and in vitro antioxidant capacities of oil were assessed to determine the optimal extraction solvent for L. edodes oil. Three data analysis techniques including principal component analysis, hierarchical cluster analysis, and multiple linear regression, were applied to determine the relationship between the nutrient and antioxidant capacity. The results showed that chloroform extracted L. edodes oil exhibited the largest amount of a-tocopherol, flavones, and unsaponifiable matter, chloroform was thus confirmed desirable for extracting L. edodes oil rich in nutrition. While based on the best DPPH and ABTS, the ethyl-acetate extracted oil show the strongest antioxidant property. More than that, the results also showed that different extraction solvents could induce large variations in minor components and free radical scavenging activity among the test oils, and the total phenol content was found positively correlated to the antioxidant capacity of L. edodes oil, which could be well predicted by all MLR models. These findings revealed the influence of solvent on the chemical characterization and in vitro antioxidant capacity of L. edodes oil, providing a theoretical foundation for future applications of L. edodes oil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Kafkas Universitesi Veteriner Fakultesi Dergisi is the property of University of Kafkas, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

We used metagenomic analysis to identify Tacheng tick virus 2 infection in a patient with a history of tick bite in northwestern China. We confirmed the virus with reverse transcription-PCR, virus isolation, and genomic analysis. We detected viral RNA in 9.6% of ticks collected from the same region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Kafkas Universitesi Veteriner Fakultesi Dergisi is the property of University of Kafkas, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Kafkas Universitesi Veteriner Fakultesi Dergisi is the property of University of Kafkas, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

We isolated Brucella melitensis biovar 3 from the spleen of an Asian badger (Meles leucurus) in Nilka County, northwestern China. Our investigation showed that this isolate had a common multilocus variable-number tandem-repeat analysis 16 genotype, similar to bacterial isolates from local aborted sheep fetuses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Justicia procumbens (J. procumbens) is a traditional Chinese herbal medicine which was used for the treatment of fever, pain, and cancer. A compound 6'-hydroxy justicidin B (HJB) isolated from J. procumbens exhibits promising biological properties. However, the mechanism of action and the in vivo behavior of HJB remain to be elucidated. In this study, we investigated the mechanism of action of HJB on human leukemia K562 cells and its pharmacokinetic properties in rats. The results demonstrated that HJB significantly inhibited the proliferation of K562 cells and promoted apoptosis. Besides, HJB resulted in decreased mitochondrial membrane potential deltaPSIm, increased the level of the calcium homeostasis regulator protein TRPC6 and cytosolic calcium. The activity of caspase-8, caspase-9 and the expression of p53 were significantly increased after treatment with HJB. Additionally, HJB has rapid absorption rate and relative long elimination t1/2, indicating a longer residence time in vivo. The results indicate that HJB inhibited the proliferation of K562 cells and induced apoptosis by affecting the function of mitochondria and calcium homeostasis to activate the p53 signaling pathway. The pharmacokinetic study of HJB suggested it is absorbed well and has moderate metabolism in vivo. These results present HJB as a potential novel alternative to standard human leukemia therapies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Locust is esteemed as a traditional Chinese medicine, as well as one of the most important nutritional foods especially in Asian countries. However, some toxic secondary metabolites such as mycotoxins are usually found in different parts of locust to affect its quality and safety. This study aimed to investigate the aflatoxins (AFs) contaminated parts by observing Aspergillus flavus, spores’ diameter, amount and distribution on head, tentacle, wing, belly and shank parts of the locust with scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Furthermore, to assess the residue levels of multi-mycotoxins in the locust, the high performance liquid chromatography with fluorescence detection (HPLC-FLD) was adopted. The technique was used to determine the contents of AFs, zearalenone (ZON) and a-zearalenol (a-ZOL) in locust and the positive samples were confirmed by high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS/MS). The chromatographic conditions, MS/MS parameters and the method of sample extraction were carefully optimized. Results revealed that obvious differences of Aspergillus flavus strains and spores were found, while the spores’ diameter ranged from 3.0 to 13.0 mm in different contaminated parts of the locust samples. The HPLCFLD method for multi-mycotoxins analysis showed good selectivity, linearity, recovery and precision. Limits of quantification (LOQs) were lower than 27.6 mg/kg, while limits of detection (LODs) were in the range of 0.02-8.6 mg/kg. The accuracy of the developed method was validated regarding recoveries of 80.1-118.1% with relative standard deviation (RSD) ⩽ 11.4%. Finally, the developed multi-mycotoxin method was applied for screening of these mycotoxins in 11 commercial locust samples. Only AFB1 and AFB2 were found in six samples, and the contamination levels ranged from 0.12 to 4.4 mg/kg, which were lower than the maximum residue limit and can be used safely. This is the first report on the exploration of contamination parts and levels of multi-mycotoxins in medicinal and edible locust. The combined method of SEM and HPLC-FLD exhibited advantages of low cost, high sensitivity, rapid determination, convenience and especially intuitive judgment, which is proposed for contamination parts observation, for the large-scale quantification of multi-mycotoxins in other medicinal animal matrices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article describes an aptamer affinity column for selective solid-phase extraction of aflatoxin B2 (AFB2). Amino-modified aptamer against AFB2 was immobilized on CNBr-activated Sepharose through a covalent bond. The effects of oligosorbents based on 3'- or 5'-amino-modified sequences with a C6 or a C7 spacer arm were evaluated by UV spectroscopy at 260 nm. The extraction recovery was evaluated by HPLC with fluorometric detection. The extraction of AFB2 was optimized. Under the optimum conditions, the aptamer affinity column has a linear response to AFB2 in the range of 0.5-80 ng, with a capacity of 84.6 ng. Control supports without immobilized aptamers and a nonspecific oligosorbent immobilized with a negative control oligonucleotide were studied in order to demonstrate selectivity. The method was tested with spiked peanut sample (0.5-50 μg⋅kg-1 AFB2) and gave average recoveries of 80.9% and a mean relative standard deviation of 1.9%. The limit of detection is 25 pg⋅mL-1. This is much lower than the maximum residue limits suggested by the European Union. The columns can be re-used up to five timeswithout any loss of performance. The oligosorbent was also applied to clean-up of AFB2 from peanut sample extracts before HPLC analysis. Results were further confirmed by ultra-fast liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry. Conceivably, the method may also be applied to other samples, such as food, agricultural products, and traditional Chinese medicines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new kind of labelled antibody was synthesized by modifying gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) with the fluorophore rhodamine B isothiocyanate (RBITC) and a secondary antibody (IgG). The conjugate thus obtained was used in a competitive sandwich assay with a turn-on signal change. It was designed to detect the organophosphorus pesticide chlorpyrifos. The fluorescence of the RBITC-labeled gold immunoprobe with emission at 575 nm and excitation at 556 nm is almost completely quenched. If, however, cysteamine is added, the fluorophore is released from the labeled secondary antibody and fluorescence increases in accordance with the quantity of secondary antibody bound to the sandwich. This assay was applied to determine chlorpyrifos in dried tangerine peels. The detection results were also independently confirmed by LC-MS/MS. The method allows the concentrations of chlorpyrifos to be quantified down to 4.9 ng⋅mL-1, which is equivalent to 61 µg⋅kg-1 in dried tangerine peels. In our perception, this approach has a wide potential to be applied in the determination of numerous analytes for which antibodies are available. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we study the dynamic behavior of a stochastic reaction-diffusion equation with dynamical boundary condition, where the nonlinear terms f and h satisfy the polynomial growth condition of arbitrary order. Some higher-order integrability of the difference of the solutions near the initial time, and the continuous dependence result with respect to initial data in H¹(O) x H1/2 (Γ) were established. As a direct application, we can obtain the existence of pullback random attractor A in the spaces Lp(O) x Lp(Γ) and H¹(O) x H1/2 (Γ) immediately. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Realgar-containing traditional Chinese medicines such as Xiao-Er-Zhi-Bao-Wan (XEZBW), have been widely used for thousands of years. However, events associated with arsenic-induced ailments have increasingly become a public concern. To address the toxicity of XEZBW, we studied the histopathology and blood biochemistry of rats exposed to XEZBW using technology like high-performance liquid chromatographyinductively coupled mass spectrometry to determine arsenic speciation. Our results demonstrated that dimethylarsinic acid (DMA) increased from 18.57 ± 7.45 to 22.74 ± 7.45 ng/g in rat kidney after oral administration for 7 and 14 days, which was 10-fold higher than the levels observed in controls. Trivalent arsenite As(III) showed a large increase on day 7 (26.99 ± 1.98 ng/g), followed by a slight decrease on day 14 (13.67 ± 6.48 ng/g). Total arsenic levels on day 7 (185.52 ± 24.56 ng/g) and day 14 (198.57 ± 26.26 ng/g) were nearly twofold higher than that in the control group (92.77 ± 14.98 ng/g). Histopathological analysis showed mild injury in the liver and kidney of rats subjected to oral administration of realgar for 14 days. As in the XEZBW groups, a mild injury in these organs was observed after administration for 14 days. This study inferred that the toxicity of arsenic was concentration- and time-dependent. The accumulation of DMA, a byproduct of choline metabolism, was responsible for inducing higher toxicity. Therefore, we concluded that measuring the levels of DMA, instead of total arsenic, might be more suitable for evaluating the toxicity of realgar-containing traditional Chinese medicines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Chagan depression has the greatest oil and gas exploration potential in the Yingen-Ejinaqi Basin, Inner Mongolia, northern China. In this paper, source rocks are evaluated and the thermal maturity evolution of typical wells and the primary source rocks is modeled using BasinMod 1D and Basinview software provided by Platte River Associates, Inc. The results show that the Chagan depression developed three sets of source rocks, including the Baiyingebi 1 and 2 Formations and Suhongtu 1 Formation. The Baiyingebi 2 Formation has been the most important source rock in the Chagan depression, dominated by the medium to high maturity source rocks with type II kerogen. This study also reveals that the thermal maturity evolution of source rocks is controlled by the paleogeothermal fields during the Yingen Formation depositional periods when the maximum maturity was reached. The Bayingebi 1 and 2 Formations both experienced the hydrocarbon generation peak and reached the medium to over mature stage. While the Suhongtu 1 Formation has only reached the low to medium mature stage with lower hydrocarbon generation potential. In addition, the source rocks thermal maturity evolution in the West sag is superior to that in the East sag. Therefore, the Bayingebi 2 Formation should be investigated for the oil exploration, and the Wuliji fault nose structural zone and central structural zone will remain the primary targets for the next exploration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ginger has got increasing worldwide interests due to its extensive biological activities, along with high medical and edible values. But fungal contamination and mycotoxin residues have brought challenges to its quality and safety. In the present study, the relationship of content of mycotoxins accumulation and bioactive components variation in ginger after infection by toxigenic fungi were investigated for the first time to elucidate the influence of fungal contamination on the inherent quality of ginger. After being infected by Aspergillus flavus and Aspergillus carbonarius for different periods, the produced mycotoxins was determined by an immunoaffinity column clean-up based ultra-fast liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry, and the main bioactive components in ginger were analyzed by ultra performance liquid chromatography-photodiode array detection. The results showed that consecutive incubation of ginger with A. flavus and A. carbonarius within 20 days resulted in the production and accumulation of aflatoxins (especially AFB1) and ochratoxin A, as well as the constant content reduction of four bioactive components, which were confirmed through the scanning electron microscope images. Significantly negative correlation was expressed between the mycotoxins accumulation and bioactive components variation in ginger, which might influence the quality and safety of it. Furthermore, a new compound was detected after inoculation for 6 days, which was found in our study for the first time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The asymptotic synchronization at the level of global random attractors is investigated for a class of coupled stochastic second order in time evolution equations. The main focus is on sine-Gordon type models perturbed by additive white noise. The model describes distributed Josephson junctions. The analysis makes extensive use of the method of quasi-stability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we consider the long time behavior of the solution for the following nonlinear damped wave equation ε(t)utt + g(ut) - Δu + φ(u) = f with Dirichlet boundary condition, in which, the coefficient e depends explicitly on time, the damping g is nonlinear and the nonlinearity φ has a critical growth. Spirited by this concrete problem, we establish a sufficient and necessary condition for the existence of attractors on time-dependent spaces, which is equivalent to that provided by M. Conti et al.[10]. Furthermore, we give a technical method for verifying compactness of the process via contractive functions. Finally, by the new framework, we obtain the existence of the time-dependent attractors for the wave equations with nonlinear damping. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An ultra high performance liquid chromatography with photodiode array detection method is developed for the simultaneous quantitative determination of five water-soluble compounds including danshensu, protocatechualdehyde, rosmarinic acid, salvianolic acid B, and salvianolic acid A in Salvia miltiorrhiza Bge. samples. Through method optimization, the five compounds all expressed good linearity (R2 > 0.9990) in a wide concentration range together with satisfactory accuracy, precision, and stability. Moreover, through qualitative analysis of the chemical fingerprint combined with similarity analysis, hierarchical cluster analysis, principle component analysis, and partial least-squares discriminate analysis, we determined that the 13 batches of Salvia miltiorrhiza Bge. were similar in internal quality and the differences resulted from various cultivation environments, recovery elements, and others. Seen from the results of hierarchical cluster analysis and principle component analysis, the classification of 13 batches was in accordance, and partial least-squares discriminate analysis technique was more suitable than the principle component analysis model to provide a distinct classification of test samples on the basis of their different components. Moreover, a permutation test verified the rationality of partial least-squares discriminate analysis and variable importance plot showed that peaks 37 and 38 were the most significant variables in distinguishing the Salvia miltiorrhiza Bge. samples. The idea of the quantitative and qualitative analysis of Salvia miltiorrhiza Bge. was convenient, sensitive, and comprehensive, which could be applied to evaluate the quality of more traditional Chinese medicines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reaction-diffusion equations are considered on a bounded domain Ω in ℝd with a reaction term that is switched of at a point in space when the solution first exceeds a specified threshold and thereafter remains switched at that point, which leads to a discontinuous reaction term with delay. This problem is formulated as a parabolic partial differential inclusion with delay. The reaction-free region forms what could be called dead core in a biological sense rather than that used elsewhere in the literature for parabolic PDEs. The existence of solutions in L²(Ω)is established firstly for initial data in L²(Ω) and in W01,2 (Ω) by different methods, with d ≥ 2 or 3 in the first case and d = 2 in the second. Solutions here are interpreted in the sense of integral or strong solutions of nonhomogeneous linear parabolic equations in L²(Ω) that are generalised to selectors of the corresponding nonhomogeneous linear parabolic differential inclusions and are shown to be equivalent under the assumptions used in the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The existence of a unique minimal pullback attractor is established for the evolutionary process associated with a non-autonomous quasi-linear parabolic equations with a dynamical boundary condition in Lr1(Ω) Lr1 (Γ) under that assumption that the external forcing term satisfies a weak integrability condition, where r1 > 2 is determined by the order of the nonlinearity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new prenylated benzofuran derivative, named flemiphilippinone A, was isolated together with ten known flavonoids from the roots of Flemingia philippinensis. Flemiphilippinone A was identified as (2S,3aS)-5-(1-hydroxy-3-(4-methoxyphenyl)- propylidene)-2-(2-hydroxypropan-2-yl)-3a,7-bis(3-methylbut-2-en-1-yl)tetrahydrobenzofuran- 4,6(2H,5H)-dione, and its structure was established by a combination of HR EIMS, 1H-NMR, 13C-NMR, HMQC, HMBC and NOESY spectra data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Background and Aims Rheum, a highly diversified genus with about 60 species, is mainly confined to the mountainous and desert regions of the Qinghai–Tibetan plateau and adjacent areas. This genus represents a good example of the extensive diversification of the temperate genera in the Qinghai–Tibetan plateau, in which the forces to drive diversification remain unknown. To date, the infrageneric classification of Rheum has been mainly based on morphological characters. However, it may have been subject to convergent evolution under habitat pressure, and the systematic position of some sections are unclear, especially Sect. Globulosa, which has globular inflorescences, and Sect. Nobilia, which has semi-translucent bracts. Recent palynological research has found substantial contradictions between exine patterns and the current classification of Rheum. Two specific objectives of this research were (1) to evaluate possible relationships of some ambiguous sections with a unique morphology, and (2) to examine possible occurrence of the radiative speciation with low genetic divergence across the total genus and the correlation between the extensive diversification time of Rheum and past geographical events, especially the recent large-scale uplifts of the Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau.• Methods The chloroplast DNA trnL-F region of 29 individuals representing 26 species of Rheum, belonging to seven out of eight sections, was sequenced and compared. The phylogenetic relationships were further constructed based on the sequences obtained.• Key Results Despite the highly diversified morphology, the genetic variation in this DNA fragment is relatively low. The molecular phylogeny is highly inconsistent with gross morphology, pollen exine patterns and traditional classifications, except for identifying all samples of Sect. Palmata, three species of Sect. Spiciformia and a few species of Sect. Rheum as corresponding monophyletic groups. The monotypic Sect. Globulosa showed a tentative position within the clade comprising five species of Sect. Rheum. All of the analyses revealed the paraphyly of R. nobile and R. alexandrae, the only two species of Sect. Nobilia circumscribed by the possession of large bracts. The crude calibration of lineages based on trnL-F sequence differentiation implied an extensive diversification of Rheum within approx. 7 million years.• Conclusions Based on these results, it is suggested that the rich geological and ecological diversity caused by the recent large-scale uplifts of the Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau since the late Tertiary, coupled with the oscillating climate of the Quaternary stage, might have promoted rapid speciation in small and isolated populations, as well as allowing the fixation of unique or rare morphological characters in Rheum. Such a rapid radiation, combined with introgressive hybridization and reticulate evolution, may have caused the transfer of cpDNA haplotypes between morphologically dissimilar species, and might account for the inconsistency between morphological classification and molecular phylogeny reported here. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We provide an example for stabilization by noise. Due to the presence of higher order differential operators our approach does not rely on monotonicity arguments, i.e. the preserved order of solutions. Moreover, as the noise is highly degenerate mixing properties of the system might not be available. In our examples already a scalar additive noise destroys the complexity of a high-dimensional deterministic attractor of a PDE on an unbounded domain. The main result shows that by adding a certain amount of noise all trajectories converge to a single stationary solution. Close to bifurcation there is a lower bound on the amount of noise necessary for this stabilization, which depends on the distance to bifurcation, and the presence of small (but not arbitrarily small) noise already suffices. We focus on stochastic PDEs posed on unbounded domains without any decay condition at infinity. This setting allows for spatially constant or periodic solutions of arbitrary period. But we need to work in weighted spaces and establish the existence of random attractors in that setting first. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]