Metabolomics techniques applied in the investigation of phenolic acids from the agro-industrial by-product of Carapa guianensis Aubl

Processing of Carapa guianensis seeds to obtain oil on an industrial scale generates a significant amount of by-product, approximately 66% w/w, which is called cake and is a potential source of biomolecules, including simple phenolic structures. For this reason, studies were carried out on the chemical profiles of hydrolyzed extract from this agro-industrial by-product through High Performance Thin-Layer Chromatography (HPTLC) and Gas Chromatography coupled to Mass Spectrometry (GC–MS). These techniques were used to detect metabolic classes and/or groups, and to identify, for the first time, thirteen simple phenolic acids in this by-product. The sample antioxidant capacity was determined by methods of 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH)and 2,2′-azino-bis(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid) diammonium salt (ABTS⁺) radicals direct sequestration. The hydrolyzed fraction showed a total of 63.47% in the relative abundance of the total of compounds, standing out: p-hydroxybenzoic acid (39.19%) and protocatechuic acid (3,4-dihydroxybenzoic acid) (5.62%), both from hydroxybenzoic acids and 3-(3,4-dihydroxyphenyl)lactic acid, (7.76%) hydroxycinnamic acids derivatives. In these results, the fraction rich in simple phenolic acids was obtained, attributing the prominent behavior of this matrix antioxidant activity, expressed by (IC₅₀: of 16.42 µg/mL and 6.52 µg/mL for DPPH and ABTS⁺ radicals, respectively). The research demonstrated an alternative to applicability that involves sustainability from agro-industrial. These techniques were used to detect metabolic classes and/or groups, and to identify, for the first time, thirteen simple phenolic acids in this by-product, generating a process capable of converting biomass into a bioproduct, consisting of bioactive compounds, in addition to adding value to the industrial chain.     

基于模糊集相容性的模糊控制规则优化方法

在简要介绍模糊模型的完备性和相容性的基础上 ,根据模糊集贴近度 ,提出模糊集相容性的概念 ;通过对模糊控制规则表特征的分析 ,进一步完善规则相容性概念及其定量评价方法 ;最后给出模糊控制规则模型自寻优优化方法。仿真结果表明 ,该方法可以大大提高控制系统的控制性能。     

On a class of new and practical performance indexes for approximation of fold bifurcations of nonlinear power flow equations

Efficient measurement of the performance index (the distance of a loading parameter from the voltage collapse point) is one of the key problems in power system operations and planning and such an index indicates the severity of a power system with regard to voltage collapse. There exist many interesting methods and ideas to compute this index. However, some successful methods are not yet mathematically justified while other mathematically sound methods are often proposed directly based on the bifurcation theory and they require the initial stationary state to be too close to the unknown turning point to make the underlying methods practical.This paper first gives a survey of several popular methods for estimating the fold bifurcation point including the continuation methods, bifurcation methods and the test function methods (Seydel's direct solution methods, the tangent vector methods and the reduced Jacobian method) and discuss their relative advantages and problems. Test functions are usually based on scaling of the determinant of the Jacobian matrix and it is generally not clear how to determine the behaviour of such functions. As the underlying nonlinear equations are of a particular type, this allows us to do a new analysis of the determinants of the Jacobian and its submatrices in this paper. Following the analysis, we demonstrate how to construct a class of test functions with a predictable analytical behaviour so that a suitable index can be produced. Finally, examples of two test functions from this class are proposed. For several standard IEEE test systems, promising numerical results have been achieved.     

涡旋柔性弹簧及组件性能实验研究

本文利用TSL系列弹簧刚度实验仪对用于斯特林制冷机中的单片柔性弹簧及柔性弹簧组件进行了实验研究。测试了四种不同尺寸弹簧刚度的动态特性,研究了单片弹簧的轴向刚度、径向刚度以及力矩特性,然后对柔性弹簧组件进行了实验研究,指出了不同组合方法下的刚度及弯矩特性,得到的数据可以作为斯特林制冷机设计的参考。     

Evaluation of Commodity Trading Advisors using fixed and variable and benchmark models

This paper examines the performance of Commodity Trading Advisors (CTAs) using fixed and variable benchmarking models. In order to avoid the troublesome passive and active commodity and managed futures benchmarks (indices) when examining the performance of CTAs, we innovate by using data envelopment analysis (DEA). Because this alternative class has non-linear returns due to long/short positions, and derivatives (i.e., dynamic trading strategies), DEA can alleviate the problems usually associated with these indices. The effectiveness of using benchmarking models in a DEA setting will provide investors with an alternative technique in assessing the performance and identifying efficient CTAs.     

On the performance of peeling algorithms

The peeling of a d-dimensional set of points is usually performed with successive calls to a convex hull algorithm; the optimal worst-case convex hull algorithm, known to have an O(n^˙ Log (n)) execution time, may give an O(n^˙n^˙ Log (n)) to peel all the set; an O(n^˙n) convex hull algorithm, m being the number of extremal points, is shown to peel every set with an O(n-n) time, and proved to be optimal; an implementation of this algorithm is given for planar sets and spatial sets, but the latter give only an approximate O(n^˙n) performance.     

具有两台专用机,两台通用机的Q4／／Cmax问题的近似算法

本文讨论具有两台专用机、两台通用机的两组工件的同种类平行机的Q4／／Cmax问题，对这类特殊的排序问题，提出一种启发式算法，得到了最差情况下性能指标的严格的界．     

Evaluating the financial performance of bank branches

We evaluate the financial performance of most of the branch offices of a large European savings bank for a recent accounting period. We employ a complementary pair of nonparametric techniques to evaluate their financial performance, in terms of their ability to conserve on the expenses they incur in building their customer bases and providing customer services. We find variation in the ability of branch offices to perform this task, and agreement on the identity of the laggard branches. We then employ parametric techniques to determine that the list of indicators on which their financial performance is evaluated can be reduced without statistically significant loss of information to bank management. Both findings suggest ways in which the bank can increase the profitability of its branch network. A previous version of this paper was presented at CORE, Université Catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, where we received many helpful comments from the audience. We are grateful to three referees for their helpful comments as well.     

Drug metabolite cluster centers-based strategy for comprehensive profiling of Neomangiferin metabolites in vivo and in vitro and network pharmacology study on anti-inflammatory mechanism

Neomangiferin (NMF) is an extremely special xanthone that could be simultaneously attributed to C-glycoside and O-glycoside with a variety of biological activities, such as anti-inflammatory, antitumor, antipyretic, and so on. So far as we know, the metabolism profiling has been insufficient until now. Herein, Drug Metabolite Cluster Centers (DMCCs)-based Strategy has been developed to profile the NMF metabolites in vivo and in vitro. Firstly, the DMCCs was proposed depending on literature-related and preliminary analysis results. Secondly, the specific metabolic rule was implemented to screen the metabolites of candidate DMCCs from the acquired Ultra High Performance Liquid Chromatography Quadrupole Exactive Orbitrap Mass Spectrometry (UHPLC-Q-Exactive Orbitrap MS) data by extracted ion chromatography (EIC) method. Thirdly, candidate metabolites were accurately and tentatively identified according to the pyrolysis law of mass spectrometry, literature reports, comparison of reference substances, and especially the diagnostic product ions (DPIs) deduced preliminarily. Finally, network pharmacology was adopted to elucidate the anti-inflammatory action mechanism of NMF on the basis of DMCCs. As a result, 3 critical metabolites including NMF, Mangiferin (MF) and Norathyriol (NA) were proposed as DMCCs, and a total of 61 NMF metabolites (NMF included) were finally screened and characterized coupled with 3 different biological sample preparation methods including solid phase extraction (SPE), acetonitrile precipitation and methanol precipitation. Among them, 32 metabolites were discovered in rat urine, 30 in rat plasma, 12 in rat liver, 9 metabolites in liver microsomes and 8 in rat faeces, respectively. Our results also illustrated that NMF primarily underwent deglucosylation, glucuronidation, methylation, sulfation, dihydroxylation and their composite reactions in vivo and in vitro. Additionally, network pharmacology analysis based on DMCCs revealed 85 common targets of disease-metabolites, and the key targets were TNF, EGFR, ESR1, PTGS2, HIF1A, IL-2, PRKCA and PRKCB. They exerted anti-inflammatory effects mainly through the pathways of inflammatory response, calcium-dependent protein kinase C activity, nitrogen metabolism, pathways in cancer and so on. In general, our study constructed a novel strategy to comprehensive elucidate the biotransformation pathways of NMF in vivo and in vitro, and provided vital reference for further understanding its anti-inflammatory action mechanism. Moreover, the established strategy could be generalized to the metabolism and action mechanism study of other natural products.     

Cellulase Activity in Different Buffering Media During Waste Paper Hydrolysis by HPLC

The activity of cellulase has traditionally been described by pH and temperature; however, the buffering medium is also an important factor, Taking plain water as a reference medium, three kinds of buffer including KH₂PO₄/K₅HPO₄, citric acid/sodium citrate, and acetic acid/sodium acetate were adopted to survey their effects on the activity of cellulase. Chromatographic assays indicated that xylose, glucose, and cellobiose were the major products and that minor products such as cellotriose and cellotetraose were present in some cases. The activities of cellulase based on glucose production showed that the phosphate buffer acted as a deactivator for cellulase and each of the two organic acid buffers acted as activators for cellulase. The concentration of activation buffer should be high to reach a high cellulase activity; however, this effect would be compensated for by the product inhibition of cellulase. The highest activity obtained was 4.16 ± 0.08 (× 10^?3) IU mg^?1 for the citric acid/sodium citrate buffer under pH 4.80, 40 °C and an agitation speed of 150 rpm.