Thermal Conversion of Methane to Formaldehyde Promoted by Gold in AuNbO3+ Cluster Cations

In addition to generation of a methyl radical, formation of a formaldehyde molecule was observed in the thermal reaction of methane with AuNbO₃⁺ heteronuclear oxide cluster cations. The clusters were prepared by laser ablation and mass‐selected to react with CH₄ in an ion‐trap reactor under thermal collision conditions. The reaction was studied by mass spectrometry and DFT calculations. The latter indicated that the gold atom promotes formaldehyde formation through transformation of an Au?O bond into an Au?Nb bond during the reaction.     

Palladium-catalyzed synthesis of diarylbenzenes from coupling reactions between equal amount of diiodoarenes and arylboronic acids

We reported a highly effective Pd-catalytic system for the synthesis of diarylbenzenes through Suzuki-type reaction between equal amount of diiodoarenes and arylboronic acids. This preferential oxidative addition resulted in such high selectivity.     

Metabolic profiles of dioscin in rats revealed by ultra‐performance liquid chromatography quadrupole time‐of‐flight mass spectrometry

Dioscin (DIS), one of the most abundant bioactive steroidal saponins in Dioscorea sp., is used as a complementary medicine to treat coronary disease and angina pectoris in China. Although the pharmacological activities and pharmacokinetics of DIS have been well demonstrated, information regarding the final metabolic fates is very limited. This study investigated the in vivo metabolic profiles of DIS after oral administration by ultra‐performance liquid chromatography quadrupole time‐of‐flight mass spectrometry method. The structures of the metabolites were identified and tentatively characterized by means of comparing the molecular mass, retention time and fragmentation pattern of the analytes with those of the parent compound. A total of eight metabolites, including seven phase I and one phase II metabolites, were detected and tentatively identified for the first time. Oxidation, deglycosylation and glucuronidation were found to be the major metabolic processes of the compound in rats. In addition, a possible metabolic pathway on the biotransformation of DIS in vivo was proposed. This study provides valuable and new information on the metabolism of DIS, which will be helpful for further understanding its mechanism of action. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Comparison of performance between rescaled range analysis and rescaled variance analysis in detecting abrupt dynamic change

In the present paper, a comparison of the performance between moving cutting data-rescaled range analysis(MCR/S) and moving cutting data-rescaled variance analysis(MC-V/S) is made. The results clearly indicate that the operating efficiency of the MC-R/S algorithm is higher than that of the MC-V/S algorithm. In our numerical test, the computer time consumed by MC-V/S is approximately 25 times that by MC-R/S for an identical window size in artificial data. Except for the difference in operating efficiency, there are no significant differences in performance between MC-R/S and MC-V/S for the abrupt dynamic change detection. MC-R/S and MC-V/S both display some degree of anti-noise ability. However, it is important to consider the influences of strong noise on the detection results of MC-R/S and MC-V/S in practical application processes.