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.     

Facile non‐lithographic route to highly aligned silica nanopatterns using unidirectionally aligned polystyrene‐block‐polydimethylsiloxane films

Thin films (monolayer and bilayer) of cylinder forming polystyrene‐block‐polydimethylsiloxane (PS‐b‐PDMS) were shear aligned by the swelling and deswelling of a crosslinked PDMS pad that was physically adhered to the film during solvent vapor annealing. The nanostructures formed by self‐assembly were exposed to ultraviolet‐ozone to partially oxidize the PDMS, followed by calcination in air at 500 °C. In this process, the PS segments were fully decomposed, while the PDMS yielded silica nanostructures. The highly aligned PDMS cylinders were thus deposited as silica nanolines on the silicon substrate. Using a bilayer film, the center‐to‐center distance of these features were effectively halved from 38 to 19 nm. Similarly, by sequential shear‐alignment of two distinct layers, a rhombic array of silica nanolines was fabricated. This methodology provides a facile route to fabricating complex topographically patterned nanostructures. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part B: Polym. Phys. 2015 , 53, 1058–1064     

Synthesis and Reactions of Some New Pyrrolylfuro[2,3‐d]Pyrimidines and Pyrrolopyrazinofuropyrimidines

5‐Amino‐4‐methyl‐2‐phenyl‐6‐substitutedfuro[2,3‐d]pyrimidines ( 2a‐c ) were reacted with 2,5‐dimethoxytetrahydrfuran to afford the pyrrolyl derivatives 3a‐c . Compound 3a was chosen as intermediate for the synthesis of poly fused heterocycles incorporated furopyrimidines moiety 4–11 . Some of the synthesized compounds were screened for their antibacterial and antifungal activities.     

Large set of P3‐decompositions

Let G=(V(G),E(G)) be a graph. A (n,G, λ)‐GD is a partition of the edges of λK_n into subgraphs (G‐blocks), each of which is isomorphic to G. The (n,G,λ)‐GD is named as graph design for G or G‐decomposition. The large set of (n,G,λ)‐GD is denoted by (n,G,λ)‐LGD. In this work, we obtain the existence spectrum of (n,P₃,λ)‐LGD. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Combin Designs 10: 151–159, 2002; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/jcd.10008     

On c‐Bhaskar Rao designs with block size 4

Several new families of c‐Bhaskar Rao designs with block size 4 are constructed. The necessary conditions for the existence of a c‐BRD (υ,4,λ) are that: (1)λ_min=?λ/3 ≤ c ≤ λ and (2a) c≡λ (mod 2), if υ > 4 or (2b) c≡ λ (mod 4), if υ = 4 or (2c) c≠ λ ? 2, if υ = 5. It is proved that these conditions are necessary, and are sufficient for most pairs of c and λ; in particular, they are sufficient whenever λ?c ≠ 2 for c > 0 and whenever c ? λ_min≠ 2 for c < 0. For c < 0, the necessary conditions are sufficient for υ> 101; for the classic Bhaskar Rao designs, i.e., c = 0, we show the necessary conditions are sufficient with the possible exception of 0‐BRD (υ,4,2)'s for υ≡ 4 (mod 6). © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Combin Designs 10: 361–386, 2002; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/jcd.10009     

A MODEL OF TROPICAL MARINE RESERVE‐FISHERY LINKAGES

ABSTRACT. The excessive and unsustainable exploitation of our marine resources has led to the promotion of marine reserves as a fisheries management tool. Marine reserves, areas in which fishing is restricted or prohibited, can offer opportunities for the recovery of exploited stock and fishery enhancement. In this paper we examine the contribution of fully protected tropical marine reserves to fishery enhancement by modeling marine reserve‐fishery linkages. The consequences of reserve establishment on the long‐run equilibrium fish biomass and fishery catch levels are evaluated. In contrast to earlier models this study highlights the roles of both adult (and juvenile) fish migration and larval dispersal between the reserve and fishing grounds by employing a spawner‐recruit model. Uniform larval dispersal, uniform larval retention and complete larval retention combined with zero, moderate and high fish migration scenarios are analyzed in turn. The numerical simulations are based on Mombasa Marine National Park, Kenya, a fully protected coral reef marine reserve comprising approximately 30% of former fishing grounds. Simulation results suggest that the establishment of a fully protected marine reserve will always lead to an increase in total fish biomass. If the fishery is moderately to heavily exploited, total fishery catch will be greater with the reserve in all scenarios of fish and larval movement. If the fishery faces low levels of exploitation, catches can be optimized without a reserve but with controlled fishing effort. With high fish migration from the reserve, catches are optimized with the reserve. The optimal area of the marine reserve depends on the exploitation rate in the neighboring fishing grounds. For example, if exploitation is maintained at 40%, the ‘optimal’ reserve size would be 10%. If the rate increases to 50%, then the reserve needs to be 30% of the management area in order to maximize catches. However, even in lower exploitation fisheries (below 40%), a small reserve (up to 20%) provides significantly higher gains in fish biomass than losses in catch. Marine reserves are a valuable fisheries management tool. To achieve maximum fishery benefits they should be complemented by fishing effort controls.     

On isomorphic factorizations of circulant graphs

We investigate the conjecture that every circulant graph X admits a k‐isofactorization for every k dividing |E(X)|. We obtain partial results with an emphasis on small values of k. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Combin Designs 14: 406–414, 2006