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In this research, we investigated possible anti-inflammatory roles of Prunus tomentosa Thunb Total Flavones (PTTTF) in LPS-induced RAW264.7 cells. PTTTF (4μg/ml and 40μg/ml) was applied to RAW264.7 cells induced with 1μg/ml LPS to test the impact of these flavones on neutrophil phagocytosis in vitro. Levels of prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) and two pro-inflammatory interleukin cytokines (i.e. IL-6 and IL-1β) in the supernatant fraction were tested via Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA). Expression of cyclooxygenases COX-1 and COX-2 was detected via RT-PCR. Superoxide dismutase (SOD) content was determined with a spectrophotometric assay (Micromethod). The results revealed that PTTTF at doses higher than 4μg/ml reduces the content of IL-6, IL-1β and PGE2 (P < 0.05), and elevates the activity of SOD in LPS-induced RAW264.7 cells significantly (P < 0.05). PTTTF at 40μg/ml showed no significant effect on the expression of COX-1(P>0.05) but resulted in a significant inhibition of COX-2 in LPS-induced RAW264.7 cells (P

Ginsenosides are active constituents of ginseng (Panax ginseng) that have possible anti-aging, physiological and pharmacological activities, such as anti-cancer and anti-inflammatory effects. Although the ginseng root is generally used more often than the aerial parts for medicinal purposes, the flowers also contain numerous ginsenosides, including Rb2, Rc, Rd, Re and Rg1. Therefore, an extract from the flowers of the P. ginseng could have the pharmacological efficacy of bioactive compounds including ginsenosides. The high hydrostatic pressure extraction (HHPE) is a method that is used for the efficient extraction of bioactive compounds from plant materials. In this study, we compared the yield of ginsenosides from ginseng flowers under different conditions of extraction pressure and time of HHPE. The results indicate that the total yield of the ginsenosides improved as the pressure increased from 0.1 to 80 MPa and treatment duration increased to 24 hours. In addition, the ginsenoside extracts from HHPE at 80 MPa, which possessed a higher total ginsenoside concentration, decreased the viability of the primary human epidermal keratinocytes (HEKs) significantly than the ginsenoside extracts from HHPE at 0.1 MPa. Collectively, we found that the method of HHPE that was performed for 24 hours at 80 MPa showed the highest yield of ginsenosides from the flowers of P. ginseng. In addition, our study provides a foundation for the efficient extraction of ginsenosides, which had a potent bioactivity, from flowers of P. ginseng through HHPE.

Aiming at the nonlinear distortion problem of ROF, the common parameters for evaluating ROF linearity and the nonlinear distortion components commonly used in ROF links are analyzed by theoretical derivation and ROF link characteristics. A push-pull structure combined with adaptive compensation algorithm is proposed. The method was verified by simulation. For the tested two-tone signal, the simulation results show that the method can eliminate the IMD2, HD2, IMD3 and XMD distortion components at the same time.

A probability parameter updating method for Bayesain network with fixed structure and initial probability parameters is discussed, when new data set is available. It should reserve the original probability parameters as much as possible and also reflect the probability distribution contained in data set furthest. Principle of parameters updating based on MLE is discussed, algorithms for complete data set and incomplete data set are put forward. A case study is carried out to show how the algorithm works.

The X1- and X2- or higher class flares in solar cycles 21, 22, and 23 from 1986 to 2008 have been analyzed statistically in this paper. It is found in the statistical study that the number of the X1-class flares accounted for 52.71% of total X- and higher class flares, while, the number of the X2- and higher class flares accounted for 47.29% of total X- and higher class flares. No matter whether the X1- and X2- or higher class flares, most of them occured in the descending phases of the solar cycles. Moreover, the weaker the intensity of the solar cycle, the higher the ratio of the flares occurred in the descending phase of the solar cycle, and the stronger the intensity of solar flares, the higher the ratio of the flares occurred in the descending phases of the solar cycles. In addition, the phase difference between the peak of the smoothed monthly mean number of sunspots and that of the X-class flares has been calculated, which shows that the smoothed monthly mean number of the X1-class flares had a very noticeable time advance of 1 month with respect to that of sunspots in the cycles 21 and 22, but there was a time lag of 13 months in the cycle 23, while, for the X2- and higher class flares, there was a time lag of 9 months in the cycle 21, but a one-month time advance existed in the cycle 22, and again a time lag of 32 months appeared in the cycle 23.