An improved LC–MS/MS method for determination of docetaxel and its application to population pharmacokinetic study in Chinese cancer patients

Because of its unpredictable side effects and efficacy, the anticancer drug docetaxel (DTX) requires improved characterisation of its pharmacokinetic profiles through population pharmacokinetic studies. A sensitive and rugged LC–MS/MS method for the detection of DTX in human plasma was developed and optimised using paclitaxel as an internal standard (IS). The plasma samples underwent rapid extraction using hybrid solid-phase extraction-protein precipitation. The analyte and IS were separated with an isocratic system on a Zorbax Eclipse Plus C₁₈ column using water containing 0.05% acetic acid along with 20 μM of sodium acetate and methanol (30/70, v/v) as the mobile phase. Quantification was performed using a triple quadrupole mass spectrometer through multiple reaction monitoring in positive mode, using the m/z 830.3 → 548.8 and m/z 876.3 → 307.7 transitions for DTX and paclitaxel, respectively. The range of the calibration curve was 1–500 ng/mL for DTX, and the linear correlation coefficient was >0.99. The accuracies ranged from −4.6 to 4.2%, and the precision was no higher than 7.0% for the analytes. No significant matrix effect was observed. Both DTX and the IS showed considerable recovery. This method was finally applied to the establishment of a population pharmacokinetic model to optimise the clinical use of DTX.     

The effects of resource limitation and consensual incentives on cooperation

Exploring the evolution of cooperation has been one of the most challenging topics and attracted increasing attention in various realms. Hereby, we institute an analytic model where the relationship between the common benefits and contributions is the typical saturation nonlinearity. We investigate the evolutionary dynamics of cooperation with and without consensual incentives respectively. The population always evolves to full defection when the incentives are absent. Cooperation, however, can be promoted by consensual incentives when the degree of cooperators' preferences for incentives is great. There exists an intermediate amount of resources at which the positive effect of consensual incentives on cooperation is minimized. Furthermore, there is a U-shape relationship between the degree of cooperators' preference for an incentive and the evolution of cooperation. A greater basin of full cooperation can be induced when the cooperators' preference for reward is more pronounced than that for punishment.     

Price coordination in distribution channels: A dynamic perspective

In this study, we investigate two important questions related to dynamic pricing in distribution channels: (i) Are coordinated pricing decisions efficient in a context where prices have carry-over effects on demand? (ii) Should firms practice a skimming or a penetration strategy if they choose to coordinate or to decentralize their activities? To answer these questions, we consider a differential game that takes place in a bilateral monopoly where the past retail prices paid by consumers contribute to the building of a reference price. The latter is used by consumers as a benchmark to evaluate the value of the product, and by firms to decide whether to adopt a skimming or a penetration strategy.     

Meyniel's conjecture holds for random d‐regular graphs

In the game of cops and robber, the cops try to capture a robber moving on the vertices of the graph. The minimum number of cops required to win on a given graph G is called the cop number of G. The biggest open conjecture in this area is the one of Meyniel, which asserts that for some absolute constant C, the cop number of every connected graph G is at most . In a separate paper, we showed that Meyniel's conjecture holds asymptotically almost surely for the binomial random graph. The result was obtained by showing that the conjecture holds for a general class of graphs with some specific expansion‐type properties. In this paper, this deterministic result is used to show that the conjecture holds asymptotically almost surely for random d‐regular graphs when d = d(n) ≥ 3.     

珍稀特有植物华顶杜鹃的种群结构和种间联结

华顶杜鹃（Rhododendron huadingense）因分布地域的局限和资源量的稀少，被列为浙江省珍稀濒危植物。基于珍稀特有植物华顶杜鹃主要分布区的样地调查数据，通过分析群落相似性、种群结构，并基于2×2联列表，应用共同出现百分率PC、联结系数AC、Pearson积矩相关系数r_p和Spearman秩相关系数r_s等方法对华顶杜鹃乔木层22个主要物种、灌木层24个主要物种的种间联结的显著性和关联强度进行了定量测定，以揭示华顶杜鹃群落不同结构层次中主要物种的种间关系及其种群濒危的原因。结果显示：（1）华顶杜鹃生长在光照较强的阳坡，不同产地所处群落物种组成差异较大。（2）种群结构显示，各群落均处于不同程度的衰退阶段，幼苗和幼树储备不足，种群呈衰退趋势；各样地的龄级结构不完整，普遍出现断代现象。（3）方差比率VR和统计量W表明，华顶杜鹃群落中物种整体关联性不显著；PC值显示乔木层和灌木层共507个种对，有183个相互独立，其余大部分PC值小于0.6，联结性较弱；AC值显示，乔木层和灌木层中除25个种对具有显著的联结性外，其余AC值的绝对值小于0.6；r_p值和r_s值正负关联比在0.36~0.85，显著检验率在0.06~0.08。表明华顶杜鹃所在群落种间关系较为松散，整体关联性弱；大部分物种生态习性差异较大，在共存时无法达到资源的最佳分配和利用状态，群落尚处不稳定阶段。为抑制其种群的衰退趋势，应加强对华顶杜鹃个体和群落生境的保护，需要适当的人为干预。     

On the non-emptiness of the one-core and the bargaining set of committee games

We study the committee decision making process using game theory. Shenoy  [15] introduced two solution concepts: the one-core and the bargaining set, and showed that the one-core of a simple committee game is nonempty if there are at most four players. We extend this result by proving that whether the committee is simple or not, as far as there are less than five players, the one-core is nonempty. This result also holds for the bargaining set.     

Modeling the depletion of dissolved oxygen in a water body located near a city

Water bodies located nearby cities are much prone to pollution, especially in the developing countries, where effluents treatment facilities are generally lacking. The main reason for this phenomenon is the increasing population in the cities, and the large number of industries located near them. This leads to generation of huge amounts of domestic and industrial sewage that is discharged into the water bodies, increasing their organic pollutant load and resulting in the depletion of dissolved oxygen. In this paper, we propose a mathematical model for this situation, focusing especially on the resulting quality of the water, determined by the level of dissolved oxygen. The model also accounts for resources needed for the population survival and for the industrial operations. In addition, we describe also the decomposition of organic pollutants by bacteria in the aquatic medium. Feasibility conditions and stability criteria of the system's equilibria are determined analytically. The results show that human population and industries are relevant influential factors responsible for the increase in organic pollutants and the decrease in dissolved oxygen in the water body, in the sense that they may exert a destabilizing effect on the system. The numerical simulations confirm the analytical results. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A Hybrid Finite Volume Method for Advection Equations and Its Applications in Population Dynamics

We present in this article a very adapted finite volume numerical scheme for transport type‐equation. The scheme is an hybrid one combining an anti‐dissipative method with down‐winding approach for the flux (Després and Lagoutière, C R Acad Sci Paris Sér I Math 328(10) (1999), 939–944; Goudon, Lagoutière, and Tine, Math Method Appl Sci 23(7) (2013), 1177–1215) and an high accurate method as the WENO5 one (Jiang and Shu, J Comput Phys 126 (1996), 202–228). The main goal is to construct a scheme able to capture in exact way the numerical solution of transport type‐equation without artifact like numerical diffusion or without “stairs” like oscillations and this for any regular or discontinuous initial distribution. This kind of numerical hybrid scheme is very suitable when properties on the long term asymptotic behavior of the solution are of central importance in the modeling what is often the case in context of population dynamics where the final distribution of the considered population and its mass preservation relation are required for prediction. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq 33: 1114–1142, 2017     

害虫种群尖点突变模型的几何分析

基于尖点突变的性质,对修改后的Logistic模型进行变换,并将其化为具有尖点突变的标准模型.利用微分方程定性理论,对模型进行分析,并根据突变理论,给出突变发生的条件.最后利用仿真验证结论的正确性.