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.     

Studies on metabolism of total glucosides of paeony from Paeoniae Radix Alba in rats by UPLC‐Q‐TOF‐MS/MS

Total glucosides of paeony are the active constituents of Paeoniae Radix Alba. In this study, a novel strategy was proposed to find more metabolites and the differences between paeoniflorin, albiflorin and total glucosides of paeony (TGP). This strategy was characterized as follows: firstly, the animals were divided into three groups (paeoniflorin, albiflorin and TGP) to identify the source of TGP metabolites from paeoniflorin or albiflorin; secondly, a generic information‐dependent acquisition scan for the low‐level metabolites was triggered by the multiple mass defect filter and dynamic background subtraction; thirdly, the metabolites were identified with a combination of data‐processing methods including mass defect filtering, neutral loss filtering and product ion filtering; finally, a comparative study was used in the metabolism of paeoniflorin, albiflorin and TGP. Based on the strategy, 18 metabolites of TGP, 10 metabolites of paeoniflorin and 13 metabolites of albiflorin were identified respectively. The results indicated that the hydrolysis, conjugation reaction and oxidization were the major metabolic pathways, and the metabolic sites were the glycosidic linkage, the ester bond and the benzene ring. This study is first to explore the metabolism of TGP, and these findings enhance our understanding of the metabolism and the interactions of paeoniflrin and albiflorin in TGP. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Syntactic characterization of closure under connected limits

Summary We give a syntactic characterization of (finitary) theories whose categories of models are closed under the formation of connected limits (respectively the formation of pullbacks and substructures) in the category of all structures. They are also those theories whose consistent extensions by new atomic facts admit in each component an initial structure (respectively an initial term structure), and also thoseT for whichM(T) is locally finitely multi-presentable in a canonical way. We also show that these two properties of theories are nonuniform.     

Khillah extract as inhibitor for acid corrosion of SX 316 steel

The inhibitive effect of the extract of khillah (Ammi visnaga) seeds, on the corrosion of SX 316 steel in HCl solution was determined using weight loss measurements as well as potentiostatic technique. It was found that the presence of the extract reduces markedly the corrosion rate of steel in the acid solution. The inhibition efficiency increases as the extract concentration is increased. The inhibitive effect of khillah extract was discussed on the basis of adsorption of its components on the metal surface. Negative values were calculated for the energy of adsorption indicating the spontaneity of the adsorption process. The formation of insoluble complexes as a result of interaction between iron cations and khellin, which present in the extract, was also discussed.     

Au-Au2S复合纳米球壳微粒的空腔谐振及参量讨论

Au-Au2S复合纳米球壳微粒（金纳米球壳），是一种新型复合结构的纳米微粒，其结构为纳米级的Au2S介质球外包裹了一层几个纳米厚的黄金球壳。这种复合纳米球壳微粒可以被抽象为球型谐振腔。报道了它的空腔谐振吸收的实验结果，并且运用经典理论结合介观结构特征，讨论了有关Au-Au2S复合纳米球壳微粒空腔谐振吸收的一些重要参量，其中包括谐振吸收波长、品质因数、谐振能量等。另外，还讨论了金球壳的厚度对这些重要参量的影响。     

Fibrations of bigroupoids

Using Brown's construction (J. Algebra 15 (1970) 103) of an exact 6-term sequence for a fibration of groupoids we show how an exact 9-term sequence can be associated to a fibration of bigroupoids. Applications to topology and algebra are given.     

A geometrical constraint for capillary jet breakup

The formation of thinning filaments is commonly observed previously to the break-up of a very viscous jet. This paper shows that a fluid under capillary forces cannot break-up through the uniform collapse of a filament.     

Asymptotic description of Dirac mass formation in kinetic equations for quantum particles

In this paper, the detailed asymptotic behaviour of the solutions of a kinetic equation for quantum particles is studied. It is shown that this behaviour is sensitive not only to the total mass of the initial data but also to its precise behaviour near the origin. In some cases, solutions develop a Dirac mass at the origin for long times in a self-similar manner that is analysed in detail.     

BEPCII直线加速器相控系统设计研究

为了补偿由于各种因素引起的微波相位漂移,BEPCII直线加速器需要建立微波相位反馈控制系统.能量最大法将用来确定每台功率源的最佳相位.沿直线加速器速调管长廊铺设相位稳定同轴线提供相位参考.现在已经完成了关键部件,如PAD单元、IfA 单元的开发.搭建了相控最小系统对系统进行了验证.     

Nonlinear Free Boundary Problems with Singular Source Terms

We prove the existence of solutions to nonlinear free boundary problem with singularities at given points.