Simultaneous determination of cinnamaldehyde and its metabolite in rat tissues by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry

Cinnamaldehyde (CA), an active ingredient isolated from the traditional Chinese medicine Cortex Cinnamomi, has a wide range of bioactivities. To clarify the distribution characteristics of CA, a selective and sensitive method utilizing gas chromatography–mass spetrometry was initially developed for simultaneously determining the concentration of CA and its metabolite cinnamyl alcohol in rat tissues. Selected ion masses of m/z 131, 105 and 92 were chosen, and separation of the analytes was performed on a DB‐5 ms (30 m × 0.25 mm, 0.25 µm, thickness) capillary column by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry. The calibration curves demonstrated good linearity and reproducibility over the range of 20–2000 and 20–4000 ng/mL for various tissue samples. Recoveries ranged from 86.8 to 107.5%, while intra‐ and interday relative standard deviations were all <11.3%. The analysis method was successfully applied in tissue distribution studies for CA and cinnamyl alcohol. As CA and cinnamyl alcohol may inter‐convert to one another, simultaneous determination of both analytes provides a comparative and accurate data for tissue study. The concentrations of CA and cinnamyl alcohol remaining in spleen were the highest among the main organs, including heart, liver, spleen, lung, kidney and brain. In addition, there was no long‐term accumulation of CA in rat tissues. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

NMR analysis and triad sequence distributions of poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyvalerate)

Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) are considered promising “green” alternatives to synthetic polymers because they are bio-derived, biodegradable and biocompatible. The properties of bacterial PHA copolymers depend on their microstructures, which can be modified with the use of different fermentation processes and feed materials. Thus, it is desirable to have an improved testing method for the determination of PHA microstructures. In this work, a detailed NMR analysis of poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyvalerate) microstructure was made. Previously only two of the hydroxyvalerate ¹³C NMR peaks have been assigned at the triad level. In this work, three of the ¹³C hydroxyvalerate peaks and two of the hydroxybutyrate peaks were found to be split into four peaks each due to comonomer sequence effects. Using eight copolymer samples with a wide compositional range, we were able to assign all these peaks to B-centered and V-centered triad sequences. Through curve deconvolution, the triad intensities were determined. These triad sequence intensities can then be analyzed via both the first-order Markovian and two-component Bernoullian models to obtain more in-depth information on copolymer composition and comonomer reactivities.     

形状记忆合金椭圆孔口问题的有限单元法

基于Lagoudas形状记忆合金(SMA)三维本构模型,假设材料为各向同性,推导了SMA平面应力状态的增量型本构方程,继而编写了ABAQUS用户自定义材料(UMAT)子程序,研究了在双向拉伸情况下,外载荷、温度、椭圆孔口长短轴之比对超弹性SMA椭圆孔口板中应力诱发马氏体相变区的影响。数值结果表明:应力诱发马氏体相变首先发生在椭圆孔口长轴端点部位,在外加载荷作用下逐渐扩展到板内,并由内向外形成马氏体相区、相变混合区和奥氏体相区;SMA板内应力诱发马氏体完全相变区面积与施加外载荷成正相关,与温度成负相关;随着椭圆孔口长短轴之比增大,SMA板内应力诱发马氏体完全相变区面积呈现出先减小后增大的趋势;拉应力差值相同时,相较于拉应力沿椭圆孔口长轴方向较大的情况,当拉应力沿椭圆孔口短轴方向较大时,SMA板内完全相变区面积较大,椭圆孔口周边应力集中现象更明显。     

Global optical model potential describing 12C-nucleus elastic scattering

We construct a new global optical model potential to describe the elastic scattering of ¹²C. The experimental data of elastic-scattering angular distributions and total reaction cross sections for targets from ²⁴Mg to ²⁰⁹Bi are considered below 200 MeV within the framework of the optical model. The results calculated using the derived global optical potential are then compared with the existing experimental data. The reliability of the global optical potential is further tested by predicting the elastic scattering data out of the mass and energy ranges, within which the global potential parameters are determined, and reasonable results are also obtained.     

Statistical structure of the velocity field in cavitating flow around a 2D hydrofoil

Transformation of flow turbulence structure with cavitation occurrence, determination of the flow conditions favorable for nucleation of cavitation bubbles, influence of the statistical structure of turbulence on this process and the inverse effect of cavitation on the flow dynamics are challenging problems in modern fluid mechanics. The paper reports on the results of statistical processing of the velocity fields measured by a PIV technique in cavitating flow over a 2D symmetric hydrofoil for four flow conditions, starting from a cavitation-free regime and finishing by unsteady cloud cavitation. We analyze basic information on the statistical structure of velocity fluctuations in the form of histograms and Q-Q diagrams along with profiles of the mean velocity and turbulent kinetic energy. The research reveals that the flow turbulence pattern and distributions of turbulent fluctuations change significantly with the cavitation development. Under unsteady cloud cavitation conditions, the probability density function of the fluctuating velocity has a two-mode distribution, which indicates switching of two alternating flow conditions in a region above the hydrofoil aft part due to periodic passing of cavitation clouds. Behaviors of the mean and most probable velocities unexpectedly appear to be different with a monotonous increase of the incoming flow velocity. This finding must be caused by modification of the skewness coefficient of the fluctuating velocity.     

An improved particle shifting technique for incompressible smoothed particle hydrodynamics methods

The smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) method is one of the powerful Lagrangian tools for modeling free surface flows. However, it suffers from particle disorder, which leads to interpolation and numerical errors. To overcome this problem, several techniques have been introduced until now, among which the particle shifting technique (PST) based on Fick's law is an efficient one. The current form of this method needs tuning parameters to fulfill numerical stability criteria. In this study, to eliminate calibration factors, a new shifting coefficient is derived theoretically based on particle positions before and after shifting, regardless of other parameters such as velocity, pressure, time step intervals, etc. The only required input is particle positions, and the main concern is conserving particle densities in their updated positions. In addition to the proposed PST, a new distribution index (DI) is introduced for measuring the spatial uniformity of particles. Furthering the research, some novel treatments are also studied to improve particle movements near free surface boundary. The proposed idea is only assessed for ISPH method in this study, and its performance in other SPH schemes needs more investigations. Following this innovative method, it is validated by modeling different cases including dam break flow, paddle movement, and elliptical water drop. In all cases, particle arrangements have been improved by means of the modified shifting method. In that sense, good agreements between simulation results with experimental data, analytical solutions, and other numerical methods approve the ability of the developed method in simulating free surface flows.     

Point availability of Gaver’s duplex system supervised by a safety device unit

We analyse the point availability of Gaver’s parallel system supervised by a safety device. For safety reasons, no unit is allowed to operate without supervision. The entire system is attended by two heterogeneous repairmen. Our methodology is based on the theory of sectionally holomorphic functions combined with the notion of dual transforms. As an application we consider Coxian repair time distributions.     

Quasistationary distributions for one-dimensional diffusions with singular boundary points

In the present work we characterize the existence of quasistationary distributions for diffusions on $(0,\infty )$ allowing singular behavior at 0 and $\infty$. If absorption at 0 is certain, we show that there exists a quasistationary distribution as soon as the spectrum of the generator is strictly positive. This complements results of Cattiaux et al. (2009) and Kolb and Steinsaltz (2012) for 0 being a regular boundary point and extends results by Cattiaux et al. (2009) on singular diffusions.     

三次Gauss和及二项指数和的混合均值

我们用三角和的性质研究一类三次Gauss和与两项指数和混合均值的计算问题,并给出一个精确的计算公式.     

Birnbaum‐Saunders distribution: A review of models,analysis, and applications

Birnbaum and Saunders introduced a two‐parameter lifetime distribution to model the fatigue life of a metal, subject to cyclic stress. Since then, extensive work has been done on this model providing different interpretations, constructions, generalizations, inferential methods, and extensions to bivariate, multivariate, and matrix‐variate cases. More than 200 papers and one research monograph have already appeared describing all these aspects and developments. In this paper, we provide a detailed review of all these developments and, at the same time, indicate several open problems that could be considered for further research.