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Chestnut shell melanin can be used as a colorant and antioxidant, and fractionated into three fractions (Fr. 1, Fr. 2, and Fr. 3) with different physicochemical properties. Antioxidant activities of the fractions were comparatively evaluated for the first time. The fractions exhibited different antioxidative potential in different evaluation systems. Fr. 1, which is only soluble in alkaline water, had the strongest peroxidation inhibition and superoxide anion scavenging activity; Fr. 2, which is soluble in alkaline water and hydrophilic organic solvents but insoluble in neutral and acidic water, had the greatest power to chelate ferrous ions; and Fr. 3, which is soluble both in hydrophilic organic solvents and in water at any pH conditions, had the greatest hydroxyl (·OH) and 1,1-diphenyl-2-picryl-hydrazyl (DPPH·) radicals scavenging abilities, reducing power, and phenolic content. The pigment fractions were superior to butylated hydroxytolune (BHT) in ·OH and DPPH· scavenging and to ethylene diamine tetraacetic acid (EDTA) in the Fe(2+)-chelation. They were inferior to BHT in peroxidation inhibition and O₂·(-) scavenging and reducing power. However, BHT is a synthetic antioxidant and cannot play the colorant role. The melanin fractions might be used as effective biological antioxidant colorants.

Chestnut shell pigment (CSP) is melanin from an agricultural waste. It has potential as an adsorbent for wastewater treatment but cannot be used in its original state because of its solubility in water. We developed a new method to convert CSP to insolubilized chestnut shell pigment (ICSP) by heating, and the Cu(II) adsorption performance of ICSP was evaluated. The conversion was characterized, and the thermal treatment caused dehydration and loss of carboxyl groups and aliphatic structures in CSP. The kinetic adsorption behavior obeyed the pseudo-second-order rate law, and the equilibrium adsorption data were well described with both the Langmuir and the Freundlich isotherms. ICSP can be used as a renewable, readily-available, easily-producible, environmentally-friendly, inexpensive and effective adsorbent to remove heavy-metal from aquatic environments.

Total suspended particulate (TSP) samples were collected at three sites along the coast of Qingdao, China, before and during a major dust storm in March, 2002. For comparison, PM10 (particulate matter with aerodynamic diameters less than 10 μm) samples were collected at one of the three sites. The morphological observation and compositional analysis of bulk and individual particles were performed by using scanning electron microscopy equipped with an energy dispersive X-ray system (SEM/EDX) for the TSP and PM10 samples. The results showed that the particles of different kinds of morphology had different elemental compositions, but the particles of similar morphology did not always have the same elemental composition for non-dust samples. The morphology and composition of non-dust particles were different at different sites. The fractal and spherical particles existed mainly in the coarse fraction for non-dust samples, while in the fine mode (

Aerosol samples of PM10 (particulate matter with aerodynamic diameters less than 10μm) and TSP (total suspended particles) were simultaneously collected from April 2001 to March 2002 at the top of Mount Baguan on the downtown campus of Ocean University of China, Qingdao, China. The concentrations of Al, Fe, Mn, Cu, Pb and Zn were determined by means of inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry (ICP-AES). The monthly variability of the mass concentrations of aerosol particles and the concentrations of trace metals are presented and discussed. The distribution pattern of these metals in PM10 and TSP is also discussed. During the observation period, the mass concentration of PM10 at this site ranged from 13.80 to 306.42 μgm−3, while that of TSP ranged from 31.02 to 568.82μgm−3. Both PM10 and TSP reached their highest concentrations in springtime, while the lowest values occurred in summertime. The concentrations of crustal metals followed the same variation pattern, while those of anthropogenic metals did not. A closer examination led to the conclusion that anthropogenic metals are mainly from local sources. The average concentration ratios of anthropogenic metals in PM10 to TSP were higher than the average mass ratio of PM10 to TSP, suggesting that there was a higher proportion of anthropogenic metals on smaller particles although there were a few exceptions. For crustal metals, however, the metal concentration ratios were close to the particle mass ratio, indicating that the distribution of crustal metals was much more homogeneous on aerosol particles with different sizes. The correlation analysis indicated that Al, Fe and Mn were originated from similar sources and were mainly controlled by the particle mass, while Cu, Pb and Zn were predominated by local anthropogenic sources, with Pb and Zn having similar origins.

The Integrated Ocean Observing System Super-regional Coastal Modeling Testbed had one objective to evaluate the capabilities of three unstructured-grid fully current-wave coupled ocean models (ADCIRC/SWAN, FVCOM/SWAVE, SELFE/WWM) to simulate extratropical storm-induced inundation in the US northeast coastal region. Scituate Harbor (MA) was chosen as the extratropical storm testbed site, and model simulations were made for the 24-27 May 2005 and 17-20 April 2007 (Patriot's Day Storm) nor'easters. For the same unstructured mesh, meteorological forcing, and initial/boundary conditions, intermodel comparisons were made for tidal elevation, surface waves, sea surface elevation, coastal inundation, currents, and volume transport. All three models showed similar accuracy in tidal simulation and consistency in dynamic responses to storm winds in experiments conducted without and with wave-current interaction. The three models also showed that wave-current interaction could (1) change the current direction from the along-shelf direction to the onshore direction over the northern shelf, enlarging the onshore water transport and (2) intensify an anticyclonic eddy in the harbor entrance and a cyclonic eddy in the harbor interior, which could increase the water transport toward the northern peninsula and the southern end and thus enhance flooding in those areas. The testbed intermodel comparisons suggest that major differences in the performance of the three models were caused primarily by (1) the inclusion of wave-current interaction, due to the different discrete algorithms used to solve the three wave models and compute water-current interaction, (2) the criterions used for the wet-dry point treatment of the flooding/drying process simulation, and (3) bottom friction parameterizations.

OBJECTIVE To search for low-molecular-weight neuritogenic compounds from the traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). METHOD An extract library of TCM was prepared. Targeted isolation guided by biological screening led to the discovery of compound 1, and its structure was elucidated by analysis of spectroscopic methods and comparison of spectroscopic data with these reported from the literature. RESULT A neuritogenic compound 1, 3-O-beta-D-glucopyranosyl-22E, 24R-5alpha, 8alpha-epidioxyergosta-6, 22-diene, was isolated and identified from the methanol extract of T. fuciformis. This compound showed a significant neuritogenic activity against PC12 cells at 3 micromol x L(-1)). CONCLUSION Methonal extract of T. fuciformis and targeted compound 1 both showed significant neuritogenic activity against PC12 cells. These results suggested that the extract and compound 1 might be used to prevent and treat neurodegenerative disease such as Alzheimer's disease.

This study was undertaken to evaluate the association of polymorphism of angiotensin I converting enzyme (ACE) gene with causal and ambulatory blood pressure in the Chinese population. Genomic DNA was amplified by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) using primers flanking the polymorphic region in intron 16 of the ACE gene. Alleles were detected on agarose gels stained with ethidium bromide. Causal blood pressure was measured in the 133 normotensive and 122 essential hypertensive subjects; of the essential hypertensive subjects, 65 patients underwent non-invasive ambulatory blood pressure. There was no significant difference of ACE genotype and allele frequencies between the hypertensive and normotensive subjects. Non-significant differences were demonstrated in gender, age, causal blood pressure according to the ACE gene genotypes in the 65 patients who underwent non-invasive ambulatory blood pressure; however, effects of the ACE gene genotypes were observed on the derivatives of ambulatory blood pressure, including sleeping blood pressure levels and circadian blood pressure rhythm (p0.05). We suggest that insertion/deletion polymorphism of the ACE gene should be associated with blood pressure and ambulatory blood pressure might be superior to causal blood pressure at the molecular level.

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