Characterization of phenolic compounds in the crude extract of Hedysarum multijugum by high-performance liquid chromatography with electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry

The fragmentation behavior of four types of phenolic compounds: coumestans, pterocarpenes, benzofurans and isoflavones, were studied using electrospray ionization multistage mass spectrometry (ESI-MS(n)) (n = 2-5) in negative ion mode. Losses of methyl (15 Da), CO (28 Da), CO(2) (44 Da), isopropyl (43 Da) and isobutenyl (55 Da) were dominating fragmentation patterns. Different positions and numbers of the substituents also led to the different fragmentation behavior. These fragmentation rules were applied for the identification of constituents in methanolic extracts of Hedysarum multijugum, in which 29 compounds were characterized, including nine new compounds. The method established in this study could be applied to the comprehensive quality control of the herb and its formulations. It could also be applied to the biological and pharmacological research of traditional Chinese medicines.     

Schwarzschild时空中带记忆项的波动方程耦合方程组解的奇性

本文通过建立滞后型脉冲泛函微分方程饱和解的存在唯一性定理,在广义常微分方程与滞后型脉冲泛函微分方程等价的基础上,研究了滞后型脉冲泛函微分方程关于一致有界性的Lyapunov逆定理.     

Unsteady aerodynamic forces and power requirements of a bumblebee in forward flight

Aerodynamic forces and power requirements in forward flight in a bumblebee (Bombus terrestris) were studied using the method of computational fluid dynamics. Actual wing kinematic data of free flight were used in the study (the speed ranges from 0 m/s to 4.5 m/s; advance ratio ranges from 0–0.66). The bumblebee employs the delayed stall mechanism and the fast pitching-up rotation mechanism to produce vertical force and thrust. The leading-edge vortex does not shed in the translatory phase of the half-strokes and is much more concentrated than that of the fruit fly in a previous study. At hovering and low-speed flight, the vertical force is produced by both the half-strokes and is contributed by wing lift; at medium and high speeds, the vertical force is mainly produced during the downstroke and is contributed by both wing lift and wing drag. At all speeds the thrust is mainly produced in the upstroke and is contributed by wing drag. The power requirement at low to medium speeds is not very different from that of hovering and is relatively large at the highest speed (advance ratio 0.66), i.e. the power curve is J-shaped. Except at the highest flight speed, storing energy elastically can save power up to 20%–30%. At the highest speed, because of the large increase of aerodynamic torque and the slight decrease of inertial torque (due to the smaller stroke amplitude and stroke frequency used), the power requirement is dominated by aerodynamic power and the effect of elastic storage of energy on power requirement is limited.The project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (10232010) and the National Aeronautic Science fund of China (03A51049)The English text was polished by Xing Zhang.     

Existence and blow up for a nonlinear hyperbolic equation with anisotropy

In this paper, we study a nonlinear wave equation with anisotropy and a source term. Under some appropriate assumptions on the parameters, and with certain initial data, we obtain several results on the existence of local solutions and the blow up of solutions in finite time.     

Energy decay of variable-coefficient wave equation with acoustic boundary conditions and delay

In this paper, we consider a variable-coefficient wave equation with memory type acoustic boundary conditions and a constant time delay in the boundary feedback. Using the Riemannian geometry method, we prove the exponential decay of the system with memory type acoustic boundary conditions and a constant time delay under some suitable assumptions.     

Stability of spiky solution of Keller–Segel's minimal chemotaxis model

A huge volume of research has been done for the simplest chemotaxis model (Keller–Segel's minimal model) and its variants, yet, some of the basic issues remain unresolved until now. For example, it is known that the minimal model has spiky steady states that can be used to model the important cell aggregation phenomenon, but the stability of monotone spiky steady states was not shown. In this paper, we derive, first formally and then rigorously, the asymptotic expansion of these monotone steady states, and then we use this fine information on the spike to prove its local asymptotic stability. Moreover, we obtain the uniqueness of such steady states. We expect that the new ideas and techniques for rigorous asymptotic expansion and spectrum analysis presented in this paper will be useful in attacking and hence stimulating research on other more sophisticated chemotaxis models.     

A non-targeted approach to chemical discrimination between green tea dietary supplements and green tea leaves by HPLC/MS

Green tea-based dietary supplements (GTDSs) have gained popularity in the U.S. market in recent years. This study evaluated the phytochemical composition difference of GTDS in comparison with green tea leaves using an HPLC/MS fingerprinting technique coupled with chemometric analysis. Five components that are most responsible for class separation among samples were identified as (-) epicatechin gallate, strictinin, trigalloylglucose, quercetin-3-O-glucosyl-rhamnosylglucoside, and kaempferol-3-O-galactosyl-rhamnosylglucoside, according to the accurate mass measurements and MS/MS data. The similarity coefficients between the GTDSs in solid form with green tea were 0.55 to 0.91, while for the GTDSs in liquid form they were 0.12 to 0.89, which suggested that chemical composition variance across the GTDSs was significant. Flavonol aglycone concentrations were higher in GTDSs than in tea leaves, indicating the degradation of flavonol glycosides or the oxidation of catechin during the manufacturing and storage processes. In some GTDS samples, compounds were identified that were on the label. The results demonstrate the urgency of QC for GTDS products.