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Two new xanthones smilone A (1), smilone B (2), and a new lignin smilgnin A (3) were isolated from the rhizomes of Smilax china L., together with three known xanthones (4–6), four lignins (7–10), t...

Rhododendron Molle G. Don belongs to Ericaceae family. As a toxic traditional Chinese medicine, its roots, flowers, and fruit are often mixed and substituted arbitrarily to treat rheumatoid arthritis in clinic. To clarify the main chemical basis of each medicinal part, and provide sufficient scientific basis for clinical application, analysis using HPLC-ELSD of the roots, flowers, and fruit from R. molle was established, and characteristic chemical constituents of them were separated by tracking. The structures were determined by NMR methods. Finally, 16, 21, and 18 compounds were obtained from the roots, flowers, and fruit, respectively. Overall, 49 compounds were obtained, of which 25 were identified for the first time in R. molle. Meanwhile, among the obtained compounds, 12, 11, and 6 characteristic peaks were identified from the roots, flowers, and fruit, respectively. Thus, the basic chemical substances of the medicinal parts of R. molle were determined initially.

Position-based cryptography has attracted lots of researchers’ attention. In the mobile Internet, there are lots of position-based security applications. For the first time, one new conception, positioning-protocol-based symmetric cryptography is proposed. Based on one secure positioning protocol, one symmetric model is proposed. In the model, positioning protocols are bound to symmetric cryptography tightly, not loosely. Moreover, we propose one concrete positioning-protocol-based symmetric scheme, its correctness is proved. To our best knowledge, it is the first positioning-protocol-based symmetric scheme.

With the rapid development of Internet, e-learning has become a new teaching and learning mode. However, lots of e-learning systems deployed on Internet are just electronic learning materials with very limited interactivity and diagnostic capability. This paper presents an integrated e-learning environment named iCLSR. Firstly, iCLSR provides an online environment for instruction and collaborative learning, which gets rid of the constraints of time and space. Second, online teaching and learning evaluation data from instructors and learners can be collected by iCLSR and can be analyzed with an improved PSK-means clustering algorithm. Third, the learning object lists can be recommended for learners based on online evaluation results and their learning history. The application of iCLSR demonstrates that it can recommend appropriate learning materials for learners, inspire communication between learners and instructors, save time for users and therefore improve the instructional effects and learning performance.

In an effort to identify novel active constituents on the cardiovascular system, a systematic study on macroporous resin adsorption of extracts from the fibrous root of Ophiopogon japonicus was performed in a human myocardial microvascular endothelial cell line (HMMEC) based assay. One novel spirostan, named ophiogenin (1), together with six known spirostans (4-8, 10), and one new sesquiterpene glycoside, named ophioside A (2), together with one known monoterpene glycoside (9) were isolated from the active fractions, and the aglycone of compound 2 that was a new natural compound was obtained from the acid hydrolysis of 2, named ophiopogonol (3). Their structures were determined by spectral and chemical analyses. Furthermore, their effect on HMMEC tube formation was also determined. Our results indicated that compounds 4 and 8 could significantly improve the tube formation and 2 showed moderate increasing effect, while compound 5 exhibited potent inhibitory effect.

Safflower (HH), the dry flower of Carthamus tinctorius L., has long been used to empirically treat neuropsychological disorders such as stroke and major depression in traditional Chinese medicine, and recently been proven effective for regulating levels of dopamine and serotonin in new-born rat brain. The present study assessed whether HH would be bioactive for functionally regulating monoamine transporters using in vitro drug-screening cell lines. Our current results showed that all solvent-extracted HH fractions, in different degrees, markedly increased both dopamine uptake by Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells stably expressing dopamine transporter (DAT) and norepinephrine uptake by CHO cells expressing norepinephrine transporter (NET), and also showed that chloroform (HC), ethyl acetate (HE), and n-butyl alcohol extract strikingly depressed serotonin uptake by CHO cells expressing serotonin transporter (SERT); wherein, the potencies of ethanol extract, HC, HE, and aqueous extract to up-regulate dopamine/norepinephrine uptake and potency of HE to inhibit serotonin uptake were relatively stronger. Further investigation revealed that the enhancement of dopamine/norepinephrine uptake by HC and HE was dependent of DAT/NET activity, and the HE-induced inhibition of serotonin uptake was typical of competition. Thus, HH extracts are novel monoamine transporter modulators functioning as DAT/NET activators and/or SERT inhibitors, and would likely improve neuropsychological disorders through regulating monoamine-transporter activity.

Group Search Optimizer (GSO) is a swarm intelligence algorithm inspired from animal's foraging behavior. The algorithm demonstrated its obvious superiority in solving complex engineering problems. Based on the strategy of divide-and-conquer and cooperative coevolution framework, a Cooperative Coevolutionary Multi-objective Group Search Optimizer (CMOGSO) is proposed in this paper. In CMOGSO, multi-objective optimization problems are decomposed according to their decision variables and are optimized by corresponding sub-groups respectively. Collaborators are selected randomly from archive and employed to construct context vectors in order to evaluate the members in sub-groups. Experimental results demonstrate that CMOGSO can more effectively and efficiently solve multi-objective optimization problems compared with other evolutionary multi-objective optimizers.

To achieve the realistic simulation of intelligent group animation, a method of generating intelligent group animation by fusing intelligent algorithms and motion capture data is proposed. This method mainly proposed a novel algorithm that can effectively fuse the animation path extracted from experiments about group simulation with particles based on the Artificial Fish-Swarm Algorithm (AFSA) and the original motion capture data, so as to synthesize one new motion data. As a result, we can achieve multi-roles path animation with reality through binding the synthesized motion data to specific roles. Depending on the experimental results, it demonstrates that the method of generating intelligent group animation by fusing motion capture data and intelligent group path planning can generate group animation with higher reality.

Cloud computing is based on several service models such as Network as a Service (NaaS), Software as a Service (SaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). NaaS is a business model that aims to provide virtual network (VN) services over the internet from shared cloud data centres. Virtual network embedding (VNE) is one of the core technologies in NaaS resource allocation. In view of the enormous energy consumption by numerous cloud data centres, energy-efficient VNE becomes a new research focus. In this paper, we propose an energy efficient virtual network embedding (EEVNE) approach for cloud computing networks, in which power savings are introduced by consolidating resources in the network and data centres. EEVNE is based on the evaluation of the energy consumption by hosts, the allocation of virtual resources both in nodes and links, as well as the cost and revenue in network virtualisation. We also formulated a heuristic embedding algorithm based on Group Search Optimiser (GSOVNE) to solve the NP-hard problem. Furthermore, a reconfiguration algorithm is developed to improve the utility of fragmented resources. Simulation experiments show that the proposed algorithm can effectively increase VN acceptance ratio and reduce energy consumption when large quantities of virtual networks arrive and depart over time.

To deal with the disadvantages of Group Search Optimizer (GSO) as slow convergence, easy entrapment in local optima and failure to use history information, a Self-adaptive Group Search Optimizer with Elitist strategy (SEGSO) is proposed in this paper. To maintain the group diversity, SEGSO employs a self-adaptive role assignment strategy, which determines whether a member is a scrounger or a ranger based on ConK consecutive iterations of the producer. On the other hand, scroungers are updated with elitist strategy based on simulated annealing by using history information to improve convergence and guarantee SEGSO to remain global search. Experimental results demonstrate that SEGSO outperform particle swarm optimizer and original GSO in convergence rate and escaping from local optima.

Considering its successful application in solving discrete single objective problems, biogeography-based optimization (BBO) is considered as a new promising intelligent algorithm. Therefore, many studies are conducted to apply it to solve multi-objective optimization problems (MOPs). However, these improved BBOs are not always effective because of the complexity of MOPs. A multi-objective biogeography-based algorithm with mean value migration operator named MVBBO is proposed in this paper. In MVBBO, mean value theory and new boundary constraint rule are adopted to extend the range of feasible domain. Meanwhile, mutation operator and e-dominance-based archive strategy are employed to achieve better convergence and diversity. Simulation on benchmark functions shows that the proposed MVBBO’s final Pareto solution set is better than NSGA-II and other improved multi-objective BBOs in convergence and distribution of Pareto solutions.

Canstatin is a newly discovered endogenous inhibitor of angiogenesis. Previous study has shown that canstatin can efficiently suppress the growth of human cancers, even more potent than endostatin. This study was to investigate the antitumor effects of canstatin gene on human esophageal carcinoma xenografts.Tumor xenografts were induced with KYSE150 cells in BALB/c nude mice, and randomized into three groups: PBS, adenovirus green fluorescent protein (Ad-GFP), and Ad-GFP-canstatin groups. During treatment, tumor size was measured. The mice were killed 30 days later to observe tumor morphology. The expression of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), fetal liver kinase-1 (Flk-1), caspase-3 and microvessel density (MVD) were detected by immunohistochemistry.Compared with that in Ad-GFP and PBS groups, tumor growth in Ad-GFP-canstatin group was significantly suppressed in the first week after gene transfection. The inhibition rate of tumor growth was up to 61% at the sixth day. Necrotic regions were observed in all groups, especially in Ad-GFP-canstatin group. Compared with those in Ad-GFP and PBS groups, caspase-3 expression in Ad-GFP-canstatin group was higher (P0.05), while Flk-1 expression and MVD was lower (P0.05). There was no obvious difference in VEGF expression among the three groups.Canstatin can inhibit the growth of human esophageal carcinoma by suppressing angiogenesis via down-regulating Flk-1 expression.

Monoamine transporters play key roles in controlling monoamine levels and modulating monoamine reuptake. The objective of the present study was to identify monoamine transporter inhibitors from herbal sources. We discovered that bakuchiol analogs isolated from Fructus Psoraleae inhibited monoamine transporter uptake to differing degrees. The bakuchiol analog, Delta3,2-hydroxybakuchiol was the most potent and efficacious reuptake blocker and was thus selected as the candidate target. Monoamine transporter inhibition by Delta3,2-hydroxybakuchiol was more selective for the dopamine transporter (DAT) (IC50=0.58+/-0.1 microM) and norepinephrine transporter (NET) (IC50=0.69+/-0.12 microM) than for the serotonin transporter (SERT) (IC50=312.02+/-56.69 microM). Delta3,2-Hydroxybakuchiol exhibited greater potency (pEC50 for DAT and NET) than bupropion and exhibited similar efficacy (E(max) for DAT and/or NET) to bupropion and GBR12,935. Pharmacokinetically, Delta3,2-hydroxybakuchiol competitively inhibited DAT and NET with partial reversibility and occupied cocaine binding sites. Moreover, Delta3,2-hydroxybakuchiol counteracted 1-methyl-4-phenylpyridinium-induced toxicity in cells expressing DAT with similar efficacy to GBR12,935. In vivo studies showed that Delta3,2-hydroxybakuchiol increased the activity of intact mice and improved the decreased activity of reserpinized mice. In the conditioned place preference test, preference scores in intact mice were unaffected by Delta3,2-hydroxybakuchiol treatment. Bakuchiol analogs, especially Delta3,2-hydroxybakuchiol, are monoamine transporter inhibitors involved in regulating dopaminergic and noradrenergic neurotransmission and may have represented potential pharmacotherapies for disorders such as Parkinson's disease, depression, and cocaine addiction.

Common flowering quince (FQ) is the fruit of Chaenomeles speciosa (Sweet) Nakai. FQ-containing cocktails have been applied to the treatment of neuralgia, migraine, and depression in traditional Chinese medicine. The present study assessed whether FQ is effective in dopamine transporter (DAT) regulation and antiparkinsonism by utilizing in vitro and in vivo assays, respectively. FQ at concentrations of 1–1000 μg/ml concentration-dependently inhibited dopamine uptake by Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells stably expressing DAT (D8 cells) and by synaptosomes. FQ had a slight inhibitory action on norepinephrine uptake by CHO cells expressing the norepinephrine transporter and no inhibitory effect on γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) uptake by CHO cells expressing GABA transporter-1 or serotonin uptake by the serotonin transporter. A viability assay showed that FQ mitigated 1-methyl-4-phenylpyridinium-induced toxicity in D8 cells. Furthermore, in behavioral studies, FQ alleviated rotational behavior in 6-hydroxydopamine-treated rats and improved deficits in endurance performance in 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine (MPTP)-treated mice. Furthermore, immunohistochemistry revealed that FQ markedly reduced the loss of tyrosine hydroxylase-positive neurons in the substantia nigra in MPTP-treated mice. In summary, FQ is a selective, potent DAT inhibitor and has antiparkinsonian-like effects that are mediated possibly by DAT suppression. FQ has the potential to be further developed for Parkinson's disease treatment.

The design of large scale engineering systems becomes more and more complex, therefore collaborative optimisation (CO), one of the multidisciplinary design optimisation (MDO) methods, is often employed to produce optimal solutions. However, CO has disadvantages as increased computational time, slow convergence and unexpected non-linearity of compatibility constraints. In this paper, a CO method based on MLPSO, which is an improved particle swarm optimiser, is proposed to handle above difficulties and is formulated in detail. In the CO framework, MLPSO is served as optimiser both system level and discipline (or subspace) level, which can deal with various objective functions and constraints, some of which cannot be solved by traditional gradient-based optimisation algorithm. An example demonstrates the proposed method and the results show its feasibility and effectiveness.