Search

Objective: To evaluate the effectiveness and safety of Bushen Huoxue prescription in the treatment of recurrent spontaneous abortion (RSA) due to prethrombotic state (PTS). Methods: Databases such as CNKI, WanFang, VIP, CBM, PubMed, Embase, and Cochrane Library were searched for randomized controlled trials on Bushen Huoxue prescription in treating RSA due to PTS from inception to March 2021; meta-analysis was performed by RevMan Version 5.3.0 following quality evaluation. Results: Seven trials were included, with 496 patients; the meta-analysis indicated that Bushen Huoxue prescription has advantages on the improvement of total clinical effective rate [RR = 1.22, 95% CI (1.10, 1.35), Z = 3.80 (P = 0.0001)], embryo survival rate at pregnancy of 12 weeks [RR = 1.25, 95% CI (1.10, 1.41), Z = 3.53 (P = 0.0004)], D-dimer levels [SMD = -1.59, 95% CI (-2.20, -0.97), Z = 5.07 (P < 0.00001)], and fibrinogen levels [MD = -1.00, 95% CI (-1.29, -0.70), Z = 6.61 (P < 0.00001)], but the statistical heterogeneity was significant; in terms of incidence of adverse reactions, there was no statistical difference between Bushen Huoxue prescription and western medicine. Conclusion: Compared with western medicine alone, Bushen Huoxue prescription alone or in combination with western medicine showed significant advantages in improving the overall clinical efficiency, embryonic survival rate at 12 weeks of pregnancy, and reducing D-dimer values as well as fibrinogen levels, without any significant difference in the incidence of adverse effects; however, the number of included studies is small and there are drawbacks, such as small sample size and low quality; therefore, high-quality clinical studies with large sample size and rigorous trial designs are needed in the future to provide a reliable basis for the effectiveness and safety of TCM in reducing the incidence of RSA due to prethrombotic state.

Physical world adversarial attack is a highly practical and threatening attack, which fools real world deep learning systems by generating conspicuous and maliciously crafted real world artifacts. In physical world attacks, evaluating naturalness is highly emphasized since human can easily detect and remove unnatural attacks. However, current studies evaluate naturalness in a case-by-case fashion, which suffers from errors, bias and inconsistencies. In this paper, we take the first step to benchmark and assess visual naturalness of physical world attacks, taking autonomous driving scenario as the first attempt. First, to benchmark attack naturalness, we contribute the first Physical Attack Naturalness (PAN) dataset with human rating and gaze. PAN verifies several insights for the first time: naturalness is (disparately) affected by contextual features (i.e., environmental and semantic variations) and correlates with behavioral feature (i.e., gaze signal). Second, to automatically assess attack naturalness that aligns with human ratings, we further introduce Dual Prior Alignment (DPA) network, which aims to embed human knowledge into model reasoning process. Specifically, DPA imitates human reasoning in naturalness assessment by rating prior alignment and mimics human gaze behavior by attentive prior alignment. We hope our work fosters researches to improve and automatically assess naturalness of physical world attacks. Our code and dataset can be found at https://github.com/zhangsn-19/PAN.

Protein palmitoylation is a fundamental and reversible post-translational lipid modification that involves a series of biological processes. Although a large number of experimental studies have explored the molecular mechanism behind the palmitoylation process, the computational methods has attracted much attention for its good performance in predicting palmitoylation sites compared with expensive and time-consuming biochemical experiments. The prediction of protein palmitoylation sites is helpful to reveal its biological mechanism. Therefore, the research on the application of machine learning methods to predict palmitoylation sites has become a hot topic in bioinformatics and promoted the development in the related fields. In this review, we briefly introduced the recent development in predicting protein palmitoylation sites by using machine learningbased methods and discussed their benefits and drawbacks. The perspective of machine learning-based methods in predicting palmitoylation sites was also provided. We hope the review could provide a guide in related fields.

Starches from sixteen cassava germplasms harvested at the same time in the Hainan region were evaluated for their physicochemical and structural properties. The granule morphology of all the isolated cassava starch samples showed round, bell or oval shapes and exhibited the same A-type crystalline pattern. The crystallinity range was 26.6–30.8%. The selected cassava germplasms showed a wide variation in granule size distribution: The D[4,3] (the average particle size) ranged from 13.49 μm to 306.27 μm. The water absorption capacity (192.6–226.7%), oil absorption capacity (185.0–216.9%) and transparency (6.8–16.5%) indices varied significantly among the cassava germplasms. However, the retrogradation rates of the cassava starch pastes increased rapidly during the first 1 h and then stabilized. The solubility of starch increased with the temperature. In addition, the FTIR (Fourier Transform Infrared Spectrometer) ratios of 1045/1022 cm−1 and 1022/995 cm−1 of the sixteen cassava starches varied in the range of 1.06–1.78 and 0.78–1.04, respectively. These results indicated that the granule size, relative crystallinity, degree of short-range order, water and oil absorption capacities, solubility and transparency of the cassava starches were greatly influenced by the variety of cassava, which could help in determining the advantages of these starches for applications in different food and nonfood industries.

The continuous cropping obstacle of Panax notoginseng is serious, and effective control measures are lacking. Soil disinfection with chloropicrin(CP) has been proven to be effective in reducing the obstacles to continuous cropping of other crops. In order to ascertain the effect of CP in the continuous cropping of P. notoginseng, this paper explored the influences of CP at different treatment concentrations(0,30,40,50 kg/Mu, 1 Mu≈667 m~2) on soil macro-element nutrients, soil enzyme activity, growth and development of P. notoginseng, and the accumulation of medicinal components. The results showed that CP fumigation significantly increased the content of total nitrogen, alkali-hydrolyzable nitrogen, ammonium nitrogen, nitrate nitrogen, and available phosphorus in the soil, but it had no significant effect on potassium content. The soil protease activity showed a trend of first increasing and then decreasing with the prolonging of the treatment time. Both the soil urease and acid phosphatase activities showed a trend of first decreasing and then increasing with the prolonging of the treatment time. The higher the CP treatment concentration was, the lower the urease and acid phosphatase activities would be in the soil. The protease activity was relatively high after CP40 treatment, which was better than CP30 and CP50 treatments in promoting the nitrogen-phosphorus-potassium accumulation in P. notoginseng. The seedling survival rates after CP0, CP30, CP40, and CP50 tratments in October were 0, 65.56%, 89.44%, and 83.33%, respectively. Compared with the CP30 and CP50 treatments, CP40 treatment significantly facilitated the growth and development of P. notoginseng, the increase in fresh and dry weights, and the accumulation of root saponins. In summary, CP40 treatment accelerates the increase in soil nitrogen and phosphorus nutrients and their accumulation in P. notoginseng, elevates the seedling survival rate of P. notoginseng, enhances the growth and development of P. notoginseng, and promotes the accumulation of medicinal components. CP40 treatment is therefore recommended in production.

Pseudogenes have been reported to play oncogenic or tumor-suppressive roles in cancer progression. However, the molecular mechanism of most pseudogenes in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) remains unknown. Herein, we characterized a novel pseudogene-miRNA-mRNA network associated with PDAC progression using bioinformatics analysis. After screening by dreamBase and GEPIA, 12 up-regulated and 7 down-regulated differentially expressed pseudogenes (DEPs) were identified. According to survival analysis, only elevated AK4P1 indicated a poor prognosis for PDAC patients. Moreover, we found that AK4 acts as a cognate gene of AK4P1 and also predicts worse survival for PDAC patients. Furthermore, 32 miRNAs were predicted to bind to AK4P1 by starBase, among which miR-375 was identified as the most potential binding miRNA of AK4P1. A total of 477 potential target genes of miR-375 were obtained by miRNet, in which 49 hub genes with node degree ≥ 20 were identified by STRING. Subsequent analysis for hub genes demonstrated that YAP1 may be a functional downstream target of AK4P1. To confirmed the above findings, microarray, and qRT-PCR assay revealed that YAP1 was dramatically upregulated in both PDAC cells and tissues. Functional experiments showed that knockdown of YAP1 significantly suppressed PDAC cells growth, increased apoptosis, and decreased the ability of invasion. In conclusion, amplification of AK4P1 may fuel the onset and development of PDAC by targeting YAP1 through competitively binding to miR-375, and serve as a promising biomarker and therapeutic target for PDAC.

BACKGROUND AND AIM Diagnosis of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) is complicated and requires substantial expertise and experience. This study aimed to develop an artificial intelligence (AI) system for detecting superficial ESCC under multiple endoscopic imaging modalities. METHODS Endoscopic images were retrospectively collected from West China Hospital, Sichuan University as a training dataset and an independent internal validation dataset. Images from other four hospitals were used as an external validation dataset. The AI system was compared with 11 experienced endoscopists. Furthermore, videos were collected to assess the performance of the AI system. RESULTS A total of 53 933 images from 2621 patients and 142 videos from 19 patients were used to develop and validate the AI system. In the internal and external validation datasets, the performance of the AI system under all or different endoscopic imaging modalities was satisfactory, with sensitivity of 92.5-99.7%, specificity of 78.5-89.0%, and area under the receiver operating characteristic curves of 0.906-0.989. The AI system achieved comparable performance with experienced endoscopists. Regarding superficial ESCC confined to the epithelium, the AI system was more sensitive than experienced endoscopists on white-light imaging (90.8% vs 82.5%, P = 0.022). Moreover, the AI system exhibited good performance in videos, with sensitivity of 89.5-100% and specificity of 73.7-89.5%. CONCLUSIONS We developed an AI system that showed comparable performance with experienced endoscopists in detecting superficial ESCC under multiple endoscopic imaging modalities and might provide valuable support for inexperienced endoscopists, despite requiring further evaluation.

Membrane proteins play crucial physiological roles in vivo and are the major category of drug targets for pharmaceuticals. The research on membrane protein is a significant part in the drug discovery. The biological process is a cycled network, and the membrane protein is a vital hub in the network since most drugs achieve the therapeutic effect via interacting with the membrane protein. In this review, typical membrane protein targets are described, including GPCRs, transporters and ion channels. Also, we conclude network servers and databases that are referring to the drug, drug-target information and their relevant data. Furthermore, we chiefly introduce the development and practice of modern medicines, particularly demonstrating a series of state-of-the-art computational models for the prediction of drug-target interaction containing network-based approach and machine-learningbased approach as well as showing current achievements. Finally, we discuss the prospective orientation of drug repurposing and drug discovery as well as propose some improved framework in bioactivity data, created or improved predicted approaches, alternative understanding approaches of drugs bioactivity and their biological processes.

The metal-organic framework of Cu3(NH2BTC)2 was synthesized by solvothermal method with the prepared grafted amine-based trimesic acid as organic ligand. The synthesized adsorbent was characterized by XRD, N2 adsorption-desorption, thermogravimetry, FT-IR and in-situ FT-IR. The performance of the CO2 adsorption was studied by the breakthrough curve based on the fixed-bed reactor. The results showed that the amine groups had been successfully grafted into the skeleton of Cu3(BTC)2. The CO2 adsorption capacity of Cu3(NH2BTC)2 was improved to 1.41 mmol/g at 10 kPa and 50°C. The improvement of CO2 uptake might due to the effect of both the physical and chemical adsorption of CO2.

Msalais is a wine fermented from boiled grape juice. Nonenzymatic browning (NEB) greatly affects the quality of Msalais, but to date its mechanism has not been systematically analyzed. In the current study, the evolution of NEB during Msalais production was investigated using models of grape juice. 5-Hydroxymethylfurfural (5-HMF), browning index (BI), yellowness index (YI), sample absorbance at 420 (A420), and b* increased during heating, with a clear transition point at 110 min. The Maillard reaction (MR) was the major contributor to NEB. Vitamin C (VC) facilitated NEB in the late stage of heating. During heating that lasted over 130 min, glucose contributed to NEB more than fructose, while the reverse was true for heating lasting less than 130 min. Proline (Pro) was the most important amino acid in facilitating NEB. BI and A420 decreased during fermentation, while increasing slightly during wine storage. In conclusion, this study identified the evolution of NEB during the Msalais process, which will facilitate the control of traditional Msalais production for improved wine quality.

Context Cinnamomi ramulus, the dry twig of Cinnamomum cassia Presl. (Lauraceae), has been reported to exert several activities such as antitumor, anti-inflammatory, and analgesic effects. Objective This study investigates the effects of an aqueous extract of Cinnamomi ramulus (ACR) on rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Materials and methods TNF-α-induced RA-derived fibroblast-like synoviocyte MH7A cells were incubated with ACR (0.1–2 mg/mL) for 24 h. The proliferation was tested using CCK-8 and colony formation assays. The migration and invasion abilities were measured using transwell tests and wound healing assays. Apoptosis and cell cycle were examined by flow cytometry. The potential mechanisms were determined by western blotting and quantitative real-time PCR. UPLC-QE-MS/MS was used for chromatographic analysis of ACR and its compounds were identified. Molecular docking strategy was used to screen the potential anti-RA active compounds of ACR. Results We found that ACR induced apoptosis in MH7A cells at concentrations of 0.4, 0.8, and 1.2 mg/mL. The proliferation of MH7A cells was reduced and the cell cycle was blocked in the G2/M phase at concentrations of 0.2, 0.4, 0.6 mg/mL. Migration and invasion of MH7A cells were reduced through inhibiting the expression of MMP-1, MMP-2, and MMP-3. The molecular docking strategy results showed that 9 compounds in ACR have good affinity with protein crystal, and benzyl cinnamate (10–100 µg/mL) could inhibit cell migration and induce apoptosis. Conclusions The anti-RA effect of ACR may be attributed to its anti-proliferative and anti-migration effects on synovial fibroblasts. These data suggest that Cinnamomi ramulus may have therapeutic value for the treatment of RA.

To observe the clinical efficacy of minimally invasive acupotomy-injection technique with targeted three-point in the treatment of frozen shoulder.From March 2017 to November 2018, a total of 140 patients with frozen shoulder were randomly divided into observation group and control group. The observation group was made up of 70 patients, including 30 males and 40 females; the mean age was (59.2±11.5) years old; the mean duration of disease was (6.76±4.14) months; the observed patients were treated with acupotomy-injection technique with targeted three-point. There were also 70 patients in the control group, made up of 29 males and 41 females; the mean age was (58.9±11.8) years old; the mean duration of disease was (6.65±3.98) months; the control group was treated with the small needle knife therapy. Before treatment and one month after the treatment, the pain levels of both groups were assessed using the short-form McGill pain questionnaire, and the shoulder function was evaluated using the Constant-Murley Shoulder Outcome Scoring. The clinical efficacy of between groups was compared after treatment, and finally, the improvement rate of pain degree was used to evaluate the therapeutic effect of the patients.The PRI, VAS, PPI and total pain scores of frozen shoulder patients in both groups decreased significantly one month after the treatment compared with those before treatment (The application of acupotomy-injection technique with targeted three-point in the treatment of frozen shoulder shows definite efficacy, easy operation, little pain and high safety. Therefore, it is an ideal method for minimally invasive treatment.

Palmitoylated proteins are important proteins that regulate several biological processes in cells, including protein localization, protein trafficking, and protein-protein interactions. The identification of palmitoylated proteins may therefore contribute to our understanding of important molecular mechanisms and biological functions. In this paper, a simple but effective computational method named MRMD-Palm is proposed for identifying palmitoylated proteins. In developing the method, first, palmitoylated and non-palmitoylated proteins were collected to construct a benchmark dataset. Next, some typical sequence-based feature-encoding schemes related to the amino acid composition, pseudo amino acid composition and physico-chemical properties were extracted. To avoid noise and reduce information redundancy, a feature selection technique named MRMD (Max-Relevance-Max-Distance) was introduced to obtain the optimal feature subset. Finally, the random forest algorithm was utilized as the predictor. Under 10-fold cross-validation, the method achieved a sensitivity of 97.1%, a specificity of 95.9% and a MCC of 73.7%, representing better performance than most current counterparts. Additionally, the experimental results showed that the use of hydrophobicity to encode palmitoylated sequences can improve the performance of the predictor. This finding is consistent with the biological phenomenon that palmitoylation is highly hydrophobic. It is believed that the results of this study will lead to the determination of the protein palmitoylation mechanism.

The predictions of chaotic time series by applying the least squares support vector machine (LS-SVM), with comparison with the traditional-SVM and-SVM, were specified. The results show that, compared with the traditional SVM, the prediction accuracy of LS-SVM is better than the traditional SVM and more suitable for time series online prediction.

Airborne radar reconnaissance system will produce a map projection angle error in actual, which further causing the positioning error. To correct these errors, the paper proposed a map projection positioning error correction algorithm. The algorithm firstly calculate the reference point using the Mercator isometric projection, and then calculate map correction angle with the inverse projection, at last eliminating the error caused by reference distance estimation using the iterative cross positioning, which improving the location accuracy. Experiments show that this method is reasonable and effective.

Code-similarity is the actual indicator of plagiarism in the context of programming assignments. However, the experiences of practical software development have empirically confirmed the existences of other causes for code-similarity. Existing practices usually overemphasis the casual relationship between code-similarity and plagiarism, but ignore the importance to make students understand other causes that also contribute to code-similarity. This paper presents an active learning method to involve students and instructors collaboratively in finding causes of code-similarity occurred in programming assignments. The result shows that most causes occurred in programming assignments are positive. Students can learn the different causes of code-similarity with pros and cons during conducting the active learning method.

The real-time radar signal sorting is one of the key technologies for electronic reconnaissance, first analyzes the defects of traditional main sorting algorithms, and then proposes a comprehensive main sorting algorithm. The method first uses the SDIF algorithm to sort PRI fixed and PRI stagger radar signal, then uses dynamic expansion association method to search PRI jitter radar signal. When using the SDIF algorithm, in order to improve the efficiency of extraction of PRI, first taking amplitude pretreatment, then only accumulate the signals whose amplitude meet certain requirements. After extracting PRI, extract to the original full pulse sequence. Simulation results show that the method of sorting has high accuracy and good real-time.

Steam-exploded cotton stalk was used as raw material in ethanol production through simultaneous saccharification and fermentation by Penicillium Q59 and Saccharomyces cerevisiae P1. The fermentative conditions were firstly examined by single factor experiments to determine the central point in Box-Behnken design, which was explored with expectation to get optimized fermentative conditions for enhancement of ethanol production. The results of optimized fermentative conditions were determined as follows: fermentation time was 10.5 days, bran added percent was 15%, initial pH value was 5.5. Under the optimal conditions, the experimental yield of ethanol was 99.85 ± 4.21 g·kg-1SECS (steam-exploded cotton stalk), which was close to the theoretical predicting value, it showed the model was feasible. The research results will provide technical reference for further exploitation of cotton stalk.

Pramlintide acetate (Symlin ® ), a synthetic analogue of the human hormone amylin. It was approved in March 2005 as a subcutaneous injection for the adjunctive treatment of patients who have type 1 or 2 diabetes mellitus. The objective of current investigation was to study the degradation behavior of pramlintide acetate under different ICH recommended stress conditions by HPLC and LC–MS. Pramlintide acetate was subjected to stress conditions of hydrolysis (acidic or alkaline), oxidation, photolysis and thermal decomposition. Extensive degradation products were observed under the hydrolysis, oxidation or thermal stress conditions, while minimal degradation was found in the photolytic conditions. Successful separation of drug from the degradation products was achieved by the validated chromatography (RP-HPLC and SCX-HPLC) methods. Subsequent to isolation, the molecular weight of each component was determined by LC–MS. The LC–MS m / z values and fragmentation patterns of 4 impurities matched with the predicted degradation products of pramlintide acetate.

In order to improve the efficiency for phased array radar's ESM, an ACO and SVM conjoint method is used in this paper to solve the problem of phased array radar signal recognition. By introducing ACO to supervise SVM parametric selection, the method is able to quickly discover seemly parameter value and improve SVM separation efficiency. Experimental results show that textual algorithm possess upper exactness rate to phased array radar that the whole pulse signals sorting can be identified. With normal-SVM and RST-SVM means to compare, the algorithm SVM parameter access time is short, thereby shorten the monolithic hour.

API usability is a crucial issue in software development. One bottleneck of API usability is insufficient documentation. This study empirically confirmed the inequality of crowdsourced API documentation, which is one of the main sources of API documentation. To manage the inequality, a method for documentation reuse is proposed based on the nature of object-oriented programming language, inheritance. A case study was conducted in Stackoverflow, which is a widely used Q&A site, to study the feasibility of the documentation reuse. Results of the case study indicate that documentation reuse is feasible in improving both the coverage and quality of crowdsourced API documentations.

Two new two-dimensional (2D) lanthanide-organic frameworks [Ln (C10H16O4)1.5(H2O)2][Ln = Tb(1), Eu(2)] have been synthesized and characterized by elemental analyses, IR, XRD, and the X-ray diffraction. And the X-ray diffraction result shows that complex 1 is nine-coordinate and connected through the carboxylate groups of sebacate ligands to generate an extended 2D layer structure. Furthermore, the thermogravimetric analyses of complex 1 and the luminescent properties of all the complexes were carried out.

Today, many cloud storage services have been available to small-to-medium business and individuals by file syncing-and-sharing (FSS) service. To meet the security requirement of FSS, we present a new architecture based on secure Player/Reader box with RBAC-compatible cryptosystem, which supports to access the encrypted data in the cloud, as well as traitor tracing and revocation mechanisms for pirate box. We improve a cryptosystem, called Partially-ordered Hierarchical Encryption (PHE) to realize this architecture. In this system, two security mechanisms, traitor tracing and revocation, are provided to support efficient digital forensics. The result of performance evaluation shows that our scheme is more efficient than the existing schemes with traitor tracing and revocation.

A new linear bismuth(III) coordination polymer,catena-poly[[chloridobismuth(III)]-μ3-1,10-phenanthroline-2,9-dicarboxylato-κ6O2:O2,N1,N10,O9:O9], [Bi(C14H6N2O4)Cl]n, has been obtained by an ionothermal method and characterized by elemental analysis, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, IR spectroscopy, thermal stability studies and single-crystal X-ray diffraction. The structure is constructed by Bi(C14H6N2O4)Cl fragments in which each BiIIIcentre is seven-coordinated by one Cl atom, four O atoms and two N atoms. The coordination geometry of the BiIIIcation is distorted pentagonal–bipyramidal (BiO4N2Cl), with one bridging carboxylate O atom and one Cl atom located in the axial positions. The Bi(C14H6N2O4)Cl fragments are further extended into a one-dimensional linear polymeric structureviasubsequent but different centres of symmetry (bridging carboxylate O atoms). Neighbouring linear chains are assembledviaweak C—H...O and C—H...Cl hydrogen bonds, forming a three-dimensional supramolecular architecture. Intermolecular π–π stacking interactions are observed, with centroid-to-centroid distances of 3.678 (4) Å, which further stabilize the structure. In addition, the solid-state fluorescence properties of the title coordination polymer were investigated.

The research on the present situation of soil and water development and utilization in Shiyang River Basin shows that water resources and eco-environment situation in this area are near the edge of collapse. Since the water crises occurred in the 1970s, problems caused by continuous decrease of water resources have been becoming serious year by year and eco-environment crisis occurred as a consequence. Up to now, 10 380ha of irrigated lands have been abandoned due to sand coverage and water shortage in the basin. Ground water was over exploded in Wuwei and Minqin because of water shortage. Ground water table in many places dropped under 5m (which is the ecology water table level), thus about 3000ha of Elaeagnus angustifolia forest come to dead and another 5800ha become feeble, and wind-drift sand near the oasis become alive. According to the current situation, if water utilization scope was not enlarged, a water transfer volume of 600×106m3/a from other areas will be suitable to keep water resources and eco-environment safety in the basin, and also 70×106m3/a will be left as spare water. Under this condition the water resources and eco-environment of the basin can reach the critical safety line of 2.032×109m3/a; or if 180×106m3 of water can be transferred from other areas, the water resources can reach the safety warning line of 1.732×109m3/a.

To optimize the extracting condition of fatty constituents from Tabanus bivittatus and analyse by GC-MS.Taking fatty yield as index, the extraction technology parameters of fatty constituents of Tabanus bivittatus ere optimized by single factor test and orthogonal test.The optimum extraction parameters were as follows: the ratio of acetone to petroleum ether 1: 2, extraction time 2 h, solid-liquid ratio 1: 50. Twenty-one fatty acids were identified by GC-MS.The process is reasonable and with good reproducibility. The main components of fatty acids in Tabanus bivittatus are palmitoleic acid, palmitic acid, linoleic acid, oleic acid and stearic acid.

Two-dimensional coordination polymers, [M(C8H12O4)(C10H8N2)]center dot H2O [M = Co (1), Cd (2); C10H8N2 = 4,4-bipyridine, C8H14O4 = subaric acid] were obtained from the reaction of the metal salts, bipy and subaric acid at 180 C and characterized by elemental analysis, infrared spectrum, and single-crystal X-ray diffraction and surface photovoltage spectrum (SPS). The single-crystal X-ray diffraction showed that the subaric ligand in the two complexes exhibits two types of modes coordinating to transition metal ions, resulting in the formation of a 1D infinite chain along the c-axis. In addition, the results of SPS for complexes 1 and 2 indicate that these two complexes exhibit positive surface photovoltage responses in the range of 300-800 nm, which can be assigned to LMCT and MLCT, respectively. And the SPS of complex 1 also can be assigned to the d -> d* electronic transition. The SPS spectra of the two complexes are consistent with their UV-vis spectra. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Personal interests can be established through Internet media clipping and collecting in current intensive utilization of Internet world, and those interest collections can be used as future reference. During the clipping and collecting process, the mind of recognition to established personal interests may be mixed or changed while the amounts of their own personal interests are getting larger. This makes these people spend extra time to recall their recognition of personal interests to classify new Internet media correctly. This study defines a linking logic to depict the recognition of personal interest. An Internet media clipper architecture is also proposed to establish personal interests by clipping Internet media without human intervention according to specified linking logic. A case study demonstrates a “News Interest” which is established from clipped online news articles with “cause and effect” linking logic.

The present experiment was conducted to see whether nimodipine, a calcium channel blocker with the potential to protect vulnerable neurons, could improve the survival rate of striatal grafts under suboptimal conditions. The drug markedly improved graft viability of rats with near-term (E21) striatal implants. Untreated rats showed no surviving neurons while all treated rats showed surviving grafts rich in neuron. It did not affect the survival of striatal grafts from E14/15 donors into the striatum, in which the high rates of survival are normally obtained.

From the rhizoma of Cimicifuga foetida L. (Ranunculaceae) a new chromone, 6'-hydroxylangelicain (18), has been isolated together with 20 known compounds. The structure of 18 has been elucidated on the basis of spectroscopic and chemical evidence.

Berbamine, an ingredient of Berberis, which itself is widely utilized in Chinese folk-medicine has been used as a source of leukogenics, anti-arrhythmics and anti-hypertensives. In recent years, the immunosuppressive effects of berbamine has been demonstrated. In order to further investigate the value of berbamine as an immunosuppressive agent, the delayed type hypersensitivity reaction (DTH) response with sheep red blood cells (SRBC), the mixed lymphocyte reaction (MLR) and a skin model of allograft rejection on mice were studied. Berbamine showed suppressive effects on DTH and MLR and significantly prolonged allograft survival compared with untreated transplanted mice. The results indicate that berbamine may be a potential agent in clinical transplantation.

Foetidinol (1a), trinor-triterpenoid with a novel carbon skeleton, has been isolated from the rhizoma of Cimicifuga foetida L., and its structure was determined based on the 2D NMR spectroscopy including HMBC.

From the roots of (Codonopsis)___- (tangshen)___- (Chuan-dangshen) cultivated in Sichuan, China, two new phenylpropanoid gluocosides named tangshenosides I and II were isolated together with syringin. the structures of both compounds including the absolute configurations were elucidated by physical and chemical procedures.

Two alkene glucosides were isolated from Dangshen (Codonopsis Radix) purchased in Chengdu, Sichuan, China. On the basis of proton and carbon-13 nuclear magnetic resonance spectral data, the structures were characterized as (Z)-3-hexenyl β-D-glucopyranoside (1) and (E)-2-hexenyl β-D-glucopyranoside (2).