Evollionines A–C,Three New Alkaloids Isolated from the Fruits of Evodia rutaecarpa

A phytochemical study of the CHCl₃ extract of the dried unripe fruits of Evodia rutaecarpa (Juss. ) Benth. (Rutaceae) resulted in the isolation of three new alkaloids, evollionines A–C ( 1 – 3 , resp.), together with two known compounds, evodianinine and wuzhuyumide I. The structures of the new compounds were elucidated on the basis of detailed spectroscopic evidence and confirmed in the case of compound 1 by single‐crystal X‐ray analysis.     

Recent Progress on Routes to Spirooxindole Systems Derived from Isatin

Because of their definite or potential biological and pharmaceutical activities, spirooxindole heterocycles have been widely studied, and there has occurred a research boom on routes to these significant compounds in recent years. This review surveys the last 5‐year progress on the construction of spirooxindole systems derived from isatin with typical examples.     

Reliability of disturbance rejection control based on the geometrical disturbance decoupling

In this note, a reliable disturbance decoupled control system based on the geometrical technique is proposed. For this purpose, first, the conditions for nominal disturbance detection and rejection is introduced by using invariant subspaces. Then, the fragility issue of the controller/observer is addressed with appropriate H_∞ constraints in the form of some linear matrix inequalities (LMIs). In contrast to conventional pole placement method suitable for systems by neglecting sources of uncertainty, in the presented method, the disturbance rejection problem reduces to a quadratic stability problem. It is observed that the proposed method has a better attenuation performance than classical observer-based non-fragile controller. © 2016 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Sensitivity and stability in stochastic data envelopment analysis

Sensitivity and stability for Banker's model of Stochastic Data Envelopment Analysis (SDEA) is studied in this paper. In the case of the DEA model, necessary and sufficient conditions to preserve the efficiency of efficient decision-making units (DMUs) and the inefficiency of inefficient DMUs are obtained for different perturbations of data in the model. The cases of perturbations of all inputs, of perturbations of output and of the simultaneous perturbations of output and all inputs are considered. An illustrative example is provided.     

Combining size-exclusion chromatography and fully automated chip-based nanoelectrospray quadrupole time-of-flight tandem mass spectrometry for structural analysis of chondroitin/dermatan sulfate in human decorin

Chondroitin/dermatan sulfate (CS/DS) chain of decorin (DCN) from human skin fibroblasts (HSk) was released by reductive β-elimination reaction and digested with chondroitin AC I lyase. Enzymatic hydrolysis mixture of CS/DS chains was separated by size-exclusion chromatography (SEC). Collected octasaccharide fraction was subjected to fully automated chip-based nanoelectrospray (nanoESI) quadrupole time-of-flight (QTOF) MS and tandem MS (MS/MS). MS of human skin fibroblasts DCN CS/DS displayed a high complexity due to the large variety of glycoforms, which under chip-nanoESI MS readily ionized to form multiply charged ions. Except for the regularly tetrasulfated octasaccharide, the investigated fraction contained four additional octasaccharides of atypical sulfation status. Two new oversulfated glycoforms and two undersulfated species were identified. Remarkably, the series of decasaccharides discovered in the same SEC pool was found to encompass a trisulfated and a novel hexasulfated [4,5-Δ-GlcAGalNAc(IdoAGalNAc)?] species. MS/MS by collision-induced dissociation (CID) on the [M-4H]? ion corresponding to the previously not reported [4,5-Δ-GlcAGalNAc(IdoAGalNAc)?](5S) corroborated for a novel motif in which three N-acetylgalactosamine (GalNAc) moieties are monosulfated, 4,5-Δ-GlcA and the first IdoA from the non-reducing end bear one sulfate group each, while the second N-acetylgalactosamine from the reducing end is unsulfated.     

Comparative analysis of CE‐SSCP to standard RFLP‐CE‐FLA method in quantification of known viral variants within an RNA virus quasispecies

RNA viruses display the highest replication error rate in our biosphere, leading to highly diverse viral populations termed quasispecies. The gold standard method for detection and quantification of variants in a quasispecies is cloning and sequencing, but it is expensive, laborious and time consuming. Therefore, other mutation detection approaches, including SSCP, are often used. In this study, we demonstrate development and the usage of a CE‐SSCP method for quantification of two nearly identical viral variants in heterogenic population of a mumps virus strain and its comparison to RFLP‐CE‐fragment length analysis (RFLP‐CE‐FLA). Analyzed PCR fragments were of the same size (245 bp) with one difference in their nucleotide sequence. The limit of detection of both methods was at 5% of the minor variant. When PCR amplicons of the two variants were pooled, methods' results were very similar. On the contrary, the quantification results of samples in which variants were mixed prior to PCR showed substantial difference between the two methods. Our results indicate that although both methods can be used for detection and monitoring of a specific mutation within a viral population, caution should be taken when quantitative analysis of complex samples is based solely on results of one method.     

A comparison of depletion versus equalization for reducing high-abundance proteins in human serum

In this work three methods to diminish the content of most highly abundant proteins in human serum have been studied and compared. Protein depletion with ACN or DTT and protein equalization with the ProteoMiner^? (PM) have been assessed by 1‐D gel electrophoresis and MS. After treatment 5, 18 and 9 major proteins within the 20 most abundant proteins in serum were identified for the ACN, DTT and PM methods, respectively. The ACN method was efficient for depleting high molecular weight proteins, over 75 KDa, resulting in 10±4% (n=3) of the total protein content remaining in the depleted serum. In addition, 75% of the proteins belonging to the group of the 20 most abundant proteins were not detected, making this depletion strategy a cheap alternative to expensive commercial tools regularly used for removing high abundance proteins from serum. The ACN extract was found rich in apolipoproteins. The dithithreitol method promotes the precipitation of proteins rich in disulfide bonds, mainly albumin, with 73±7% (n=3) of the total protein content remaining in the depleted serum, which was found rich in immunoglobulins. The PM method compresses the dynamic range of the serum proteins, rendering an extract containing 16±2% (n=3) of the total initial protein content. The extract was found to be rich in both apolipoproteins and immunoglobulins. As a general rule the DTT and PM methods provide a compression of the dynamic range of serum protein concentrations while the ACN method allows an effective depletion of the protein fraction above 72 KDa.     

Exact treatment of generalized modifications of finite-dimensional systems by the LRM approach

LRM (Low Rank Modification) is a mathematical method that produces eigenvalues and eigenstates of generalized eigenvalue equations. It is similar to the perturbation expansion in that it assumes the knowledge of the eigenvalues and eigenstates of some related (unperturbed) system. However, unlike perturbation expansion, LRM produces correct results however large the modification of the original system. LRM of finite-dimensional systems is here generalized to the combined (external and internal) modifications. Parent n-dimensional system A _n containing n eigenvalues λ _i and n eigenstates \({| {\Phi_i}\rangle}\) is described by the generalized n × n eigenvalue equation. In an external modification system A _n interacts with another ρ-dimensional system B _ρ which is situated outside the system A _n . In an internal modification relatively small σ-dimensional subsystem of the parent system A _n is modified. Modified system C _n+ρ that contains external as well as internal modifications is described by the generalized (n + ρ) × (n + ρ) eigenvalue equation. This system has (n + ρ) eigenvalues \({\varepsilon_s}\) and (n + ρ) corresponding eigenstates \({| {\Psi_s}\rangle}\) . In LRM this generalized (ρ + n) × (ρ + n) eigenvalue equation is replaced with a (nonlinear) (ρ + σ) × (ρ + σ) equation which produces all eigenvalues \({\varepsilon_s \notin \left\{ {\lambda_i}\right\}}\) and all the corresponding eigenstates \({| {\Psi_s}\rangle }\) of C _{n + ρ}. Another equation produces remaining solutions (if any) that satisfy \({\varepsilon_s \in \left\{ {\lambda_i}\right\}}\) . Those two equations produce exact solution of the modified system C _{n + ρ}. If (ρ + σ) is small with respect to n, this approach is numerically much more efficient than a standard diagonalization of the original generalized eigenvalue equation. Unlike perturbation expansion, LRM produces exact results, however large modification of the parent system A _n .