[Spectrum-effect relationship of the blood-activating efficacy of Notoginseng Radix et Rhizoma].

This study aims to establish the high-performance liquid chromatography(HPLC) fingerprints of different batches of Notoginseng Radix et Rhizoma, determine their pharmacodynamic indexes of promoting blood circulation, and explore the spectrum-effect relationship between the chemical components of Notoginseng Radix et Rhizoma and the efficacy of promoting blood circulation. Firstly, the HPLC fingerprints of different batches of Notoginseng Radix et Rhizoma were established. Then, the pharmacodynamic indexes were determined after the capillary coagulation experiment and the cerebral ischemia-reperfusion in rats, including capillary coagulation time, percentage of cerebral ischemic area, cerebral water loss rate, and brain-body index.

Discovery and proteomics analysis of effective compounds in Valeriana jatamansi jones for the treatment of anxiety.

Ethnopharmacological Relevance: Zhizhu Xiang (ZZX for short) is the root and rhizome of Valeriana jatamansi Jones, which is a Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) used to treat various mood disorders for more than 2000 years, especially anxiety. However, there have been few investigations to clarify the compounds in ZZX for the treatment of anxiety.

Aim Of The Study: Our previous study has identified five anti-anxiety components, including hesperidin, isochlorogenic acid A, isochlorogenic acid B and isochlorogenic acid C and chlorogenic acid, from extract of ZZX.

Anxiolytic Effect of Alcohol-Water Extracted Suanzaoren-Wuweizi Herb-Pair by Regulating ECS-BDNF-ERK Signaling Pathway Expression in Acute Restraint Stress Male Rats.

Herb-pairs are the basic units of composition in Chinese herbal formulae, where the bridge linking Chinese medicine and prescription consists of two Chinese medicine herbs. The Suanzaoren-Wuweizi herb-pair (SWHP) is commonly used as a sedative or tranquilizer. SWHP has been demonstrated to exert an antianxiety effect in animal models of anxiety.

Identification of Bioactive Chemical Markers in Improving Anxiety in Rat by Fingerprint-Efficacy Study.

(ZZX for short) is the root and rhizome of Jones, which is a Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) used to treat various mood disorders for more than 2000 years, especially anxiety. The aim of the present work was to identify the bioactive chemical markers in improving anxiety in rats by a fingerprint-efficacy study. More specifically, the chemical fingerprint of ZZX samples collected from 10 different regions was determined by High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) and the similarity analyses were calculated based on 10 common characteristic peaks.

Gas/particle partitioning, particle-size distribution of atmospheric polybrominated diphenyl ethers in southeast Shanghai rural area and size-resolved predicting model.

A size-segregated gas/particle partitioning coefficient K was proposed and evaluated in the predicting models on the basis of atmospheric polybrominated diphenyl ether (PBDE) field data comparing with the bulk coefficient K. Results revealed that the characteristics of atmospheric PBDEs in southeast Shanghai rural area were generally consistent with previous investigations, suggesting that this investigation was representative to the present pollution status of atmospheric PBDEs. K was generally greater than bulk K, indicating an overestimate of TSP (the mass concentration of total suspended particles) in the expression of bulk K.

Occurrence and Source Effect of Novel Brominated Flame Retardants (NBFRs) in Soils from Five Asian Countries and Their Relationship with PBDEs.

This paper presents the first comprehensive survey of 19 novel brominated flame retardants (NBFRs) in soil samples collected among five Asian countries. High variability in concentrations of all NBFRs was found in soils with the geometric mean (GM) values ranging from 0.50 ng/g dry weight (dw) in Vietnam to 540 ng/g dw in the vicinity of a BFR manufacturer in China.

Temporal and spatial distributions of PBDEs in atmosphere at Shanghai rural regions, China.

Atmospheric samples were collected using polyurethane foam (PUF) passive air sampling device for every 3 months from June 2012 to May 2013 in Shanghai rural regions in order to investigate the concentrations, profiles, spatial distributions, and seasonal variations of polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs). Twelve PBDE congeners (BDE-17, BDE-28, BDE-47, BDE-49, BDE-66, BDE-85, BDE-99, BDE-100, BDE-138, BDE-153, BDE-154, and BDE-183) were measured and analyzed by GC-MS. The results showed that detectable PBDEs were examined in all air samples, which indicated that these pollutants are widespread in the research areas.

Laboratory study of the particle-size distribution of Decabromodiphenyl ether (BDE-209) in ambient air.

Laboratory measurements for particle-size distribution of Decabromodiphenyl ether (BDE-209) were performed in a 0.5 m(3) sealed room at 25 °C. BDE-209 was manually bounded to ambient particles.

Polybrominated diphenyl ethers in air across China: levels, compositions, and gas-particle partitioning.

Air samples were concurrently collected using high volume air samplers for 24 h every week from September 2008 to August 2009 at 15 sites (11 urban, 1 suburban, and 3 background/rural) across China. Twelve polybrominated diphenyl ether (PBDE) congeners (BDE-17, -28, -47, -66, -85, -99, -100, -138, -153, -154, -183, and -209) were measured. Total PBDE concentrations (∑12PBDEs) in air (gas + particle phases) were in the range of 11.

Eukaryotic evolutionary transitions are associated with extreme codon bias in functionally-related proteins.

Codon bias in the genome of an organism influences its phenome by changing the speed and efficiency of mRNA translation and hence protein abundance. We hypothesized that differences in codon bias, either between-species differences in orthologous genes, or within-species differences between genes, may play an evolutionary role. To explore this hypothesis, we compared the genome-wide codon bias in six species that occupy vital positions in the Eukaryotic Tree of Life.

Identifying the hub proteins from complicated membrane protein network systems.

The so-called "hub proteins" are those proteins in a protein-protein interaction network system that have remarkably higher interaction relations (or degrees) than the others. Therefore, the information of hub proteins can provide very useful insights for selecting or prioritizing targets during drug development. In this paper, by combining the multi-agent-based method with the graphical spectrum analysis and immune-genetic algorithm, a novel simulator for identifying the hub proteins from membrane protein interaction networks is proposed.

Using maximum entropy model to predict protein secondary structure with single sequence.

Prediction of protein secondary structure is somewhat reminiscent of the efforts by many previous investigators but yet still worthy of revisiting it owing to its importance in protein science. Several studies indicate that the knowledge of protein structural classes can provide useful information towards the determination of protein secondary structure. Particularly, the performance of prediction algorithms developed recently have been improved rapidly by incorporating homologous multiple sequences alignment information.

Prediction of subcellular location apoptosis proteins with ensemble classifier and feature selection.

Apoptosis proteins have a central role in the development and the homeostasis of an organism. These proteins are very important for understanding the mechanism of programmed cell death. The function of an apoptosis protein is closely related to its subcellular location.

Multi-agent-based bio-network for systems biology: protein-protein interaction network as an example.

Recently, a collective effort from multiple research areas has been made to understand biological systems at the system level. This research requires the ability to simulate particular biological systems as cells, organs, organisms, and communities. In this paper, a novel bio-network simulation platform is proposed for system biology studies by combining agent approaches.

Prediction of protein structure classes with pseudo amino acid composition and fuzzy support vector machine network.

It is a critical challenge to develop automated methods for fast and accurately determining the structures of proteins because of the increasingly widening gap between the number of sequence-known proteins and that of structure-known proteins in the post-genomic age. The knowledge of protein structural class can provide useful information towards the determination of protein structure. Thus, it is highly desirable to develop computational methods for identifying the structural classes of newly found proteins based on their primary sequence.

Prediction protein structural classes with pseudo-amino acid composition: approximate entropy and hydrophobicity pattern.

Compared with the conventional amino acid (AA) composition, the pseudo-amino acid (PseAA) composition as originally introduced for protein subcellular location prediction can incorporate much more information of a protein sequence, so as to remarkably enhance the power of using a discrete model to predict various attributes of a protein. In this study, based on the concept of PseAA composition, the approximate entropy and hydrophobicity pattern of a protein sequence are used to characterize the PseAA components. Also, the immune genetic algorithm (IGA) is applied to search the optimal weight factors in generating the PseAA composition.

[Research of microbio-remediation of oil-contaminated wetland in Liaodong Bay].

To investigate the effect of microbes on oil degradation, we use the method of introducing selected bacteria to the soil samples. Experiment shows that the combined bacteria are preferable to the single ones because of their synergetic functions. The optimum condition for oil degradation was controlled at pH 8.

A novel fingerprint map for detecting SARS-CoV.

Spike (S) protein is the most important membrane protein on the surface of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV). It associates with cellular receptors to mediate infection of their target cells. Inspired by such a mechanism, an in-depth investigation into the genome sequences of S protein of SARS-CoV and its receptor are conducted thru a mathematical transformation and graphic approach.

Some factors affecting separation and detection of amino acids by high-performance anion-exchange chromatography with integrated pulsed amperometric detection.

Some factors influencing the separation and detection of amino acids by high-performance anion-exchange chromatography with integrated pulsed amperometric detection were investigated. These factors include eluent concentration, column temperature, and detection waveform. The selectivity changes in weakly retained amino acids are slight with changing sodium hydroxide eluent concentration.