Publications

Spectrophotometric Determination the Content of Ursolic Acid in Kudingcha

5 % vanillin acetum and perchloric acid as color developer, the content of ursolic acid of kud- ingcha growed in Hainan province was determined at 548 nm. The linear regression equation is Y=0. 04473X+0. 08073, r=0.9983. The average recovery was 101.2 %, and RSD=2.01%(n=5). The method is simple, repro- ducible and practicable for the determination of ursolic acid.

A new method for the partition of allelic diversity within and between subpopulations

Multiregional Tumor Trees Are Not Phylogenies

Tumor samples most often comprise a mixture of different cell lineages. Multiregional trees built from bulk mutational profiles do not consider this heterogeneity and can potentially lead to erroneous evolutionary inferences, including biased timing of somatic mutations, spurious parallel mutation events, and/or incorrect chronological ordering of metastatic events.

Influence of Albuminuria on Ambulatory Blood Pressure Regulation in Patients with Chronic Kidney Disease: The Hygia Project

Ammoniation of Dietary Flavonoids Containing a Pyrogallol Group With Amino Acids at 37°C

ABSTRACT New research shows that flavonoids containing a pyrogallol group in ring B react with amino acids at 37°C, forming ammoniated derivatives and aldehydes. Despite this, studies on these reactions and the activity of the resulting ammoniated flavonoids (NH 2 ‐flavonoids) are scarce. This study investigates the amination of (+)‐dihydromyricetin (DMY), (−)‐epigallocatechin (EGC), and (−)‐epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) by reaction systems involving the composite amino acid or single phenylalanine using UPLC‐QTOF‐MS/MS. Amino acid‐induced ammoniation occurs on both the flavonoids and their degradation products, forming unstable N ‐DMY, N ‐EGC, and N ‐EGCG. A method was developed to synthesize these NH 2 ‐flavonoids and their structures were confirmed with MS, NMR, and CD. Compared to the original flavonoids, N ‐DMY, N ‐EGC, and N ‐EGCG have reduced antioxidant, anticancer, and antibacterial activities. This provides a new sight that flavonoids may regulate physiological functions by affecting amino acid levels. Moreover, the pharmacokinetics, metabolism, and broader biological activities of N ‐DMY, N ‐EGC, N ‐EGCG and other NH 2 ‐flavonoids needs to be studied in future work.

A method for fast detection of wind farms from remote sensing images using deep learning and geospatial analysis

Abstract The wind power industry is increasing worldwide every year. Thus, obtaining timely and detailed information on wind farms’ number and spatial distribution is critical for quantitatively estimating wind energy utilization and for planning the construction of new wind farms. Therefore, this study proposes a method for quickly identifying wind farms in a large-scale area. Given that wind farms mainly comprise individual objects such as wind turbines and substations, we labeled sample images of wind turbines and substations on a global scale. Then, these sample images are used to train a target recognition model and an object classification model and detect the specific locations of wind turbines and substations in the study area. Additionally, we deeply analyzed the location features of the wind turbines and further improved the recognition accuracy based on these known features using geographic constraints. Based on the location information of wind turbines and substations, a clustering model organizes them effectively into complete wind farms. A comprehensive evaluation of the clustering model verifies its scientific validity and reliability. Specifically, this framework was systematically tested throughout Vietnam with remarkable results, using high-resolution historical images provided by Google Earth. Indeed, our framework achieved 90.45% recall and 95.73% accuracy for wind turbines and 81.37% recall and 78.96% accuracy for substations. Finally, we successfully obtained the spatial location and distribution of 15 completed wind farms, demonstrating that the proposed scheme can quickly and accurately identify wind power plants in a large-scale area, which supports wind power management and energy utilization planning.

CHRONOTHERAPY WITH VALSARTAN/AMLODIPINE FIXED COMBINATION: IMPROVED BLOOD PRESSURE CONTROL OF ESSENTIAL HYPERTENSION WITH BEDTIME DOSING

Administration of valsartan at bedtime as opposed to upon wakening improves the sleep-time relative blood pressure (BP) decline towards a more normal dipper pattern without loss of 24-h efficacy. Amlodipine, however, has been shown to be effective in reducing BP throughout the day and night, independent of dosing time. A large proportion of hypertensive subjects cannot be properly controlled with a single medication. However, no study has yet investigated the potential differing effects of combination therapy depending of the time-of-day of administration. Accordingly, the authors investigated the administration-time-dependent BP-lowering efficacy of valsartan/amlodipine combination. The authors studied 203 hypertensive subjects (92 men/111 women), 56.7 +/- 12.5 yrs of age, randomized to receive valsartan (160 mg/day) and amlodipine (5 mg/day) in one of the following four therapeutic schemes: both medications on awakening, both at bedtime, either one administered on awakening and the other at bedtime. BP was measured by ambulatory monitoring for 48 consecutive hours before and after 12 wks of treatment. Physical activity was simultaneously monitored every min by wrist actigraphy to accurately determine the beginning and end of daytime activity and nocturnal sleep. BP-lowering efficacy (quantified in terms of reduction of the 48-h mean of systolic/diastolic BP) was highest when both hypertension medications were ingested at bedtime, as compared to any one of the three other tested therapeutic schemes (17.4/13.4 mm Hg reduction with both medications on awakening; 15.1/9.6 mm Hg with valsartan on awakening and amlodipine at bedtime; 18.2/12.3 mm Hg with valsartan at bedtime and amlodipine on awakening; 24.7/13.5 mm Hg with both medications at bedtime; p < .018 between groups). The sleep-time relative BP decline was significantly increased towards a more normal dipper pattern only when both medications were jointly ingested at bedtime (p < .001). Bedtime dosing of the combination of the two medications also resulted in the largest percentage of controlled subjects among all the assessed therapeutic schemes (p = .003 between groups). In subjects requiring combination therapy to achieve proper BP control, the association of amlodipine and valsartan efficiently reduces BP for the entire 24 h independent of dosing time. However, the greater proportion of controlled patients, improved efficacy on lowering asleep BP mean, and increased sleep-time relative BP decline suggest valsartan/amlodipine combination therapy should be preferably administered at bedtime.

Mejora genética y gestión de poblaciones pequeñas

Resumen La gestion genetica de poblaciones pequenas, cualquiera que sea el objetivo perseguido, viene condicionada precisamente por su tamano. Hoy en dia, la distincion entre programas de conservacion y programas de seleccion tiende a difuminarse ya que en ambos tipos de programas hay que prestar atencion tanto al aumento de la consanguinidad como a la mejora o mantenimiento de algunos caracteres de interes. Para el mantenimiento de la diversidad el criterio que debe seguirse es el de maximizar el censo efectivo. Para ello durante las ultimas decadas se han desarrollado unas reglas sencillas aunque tambien existe una solucion sofisticada y al parecer optima. En programas de seleccion existen tambien reglas sencillas y una solucion optima aunque en este caso la solucion implica tambien la consideracion del progreso genetico deseado. El diseno de apareamientos optimos, aunque es mas complejo desde el punto de vista teorico, tiene tambien una respuesta practica satisfactoria. Palabras clave: Mejora genetica, Conservacion, Consanguinidad, Diversidad genetica, Poblaciones pequenas, Censo efectivo Summary Genetic improvement and management of small populations The genetic management of small populations, irrespective of the objective pursued, it is conditioned by their census. Actually the distinction between conservation and selection programmes tends to vanish because in both types of programmes attention should be paid to the increase of inbreeding and to the maintenance or improvement of some traits of interest. To maintain genetic diversity the criterion to follow is to maximize the effective population size. For this purpose several simple rules have been developed during the last decades although there exist also a sophisticated solution, probably optimal. For selection programmes there are also simple rules and an optimal solution although now the desired genetic progress should be included. The design of optimal mating systems, although it presents more problems from a theoretical point of view, it has also a reasonable practical solution.

Circadian Pattern of Ambulatory Blood Pressure in Hypertensive Patients With and Without Type 2 Diabetes

There is strong association between diabetes and increased risk of end-organ damage, stroke, and cardiovascular disease (CVD) morbidity and mortality. Non-dipping (<10% decline in the asleep relative to awake blood pressure [BP] mean), as determined by ambulatory BP monitoring (ABPM), is frequent in diabetes and consistently associated with increased CVD risk. The reported prevalence of non-dipping in diabetes is highly variable, probably due to differences in the study groups (normotensive subjects, untreated hypertensives, treated hypertensives), relatively small sample sizes, reliance only on a single, low-reproducibility, 24-h ABPM evaluation per participant, and definition of daytime and nighttime periods by arbitrary selected fixed clock-hour spans. Accordingly, we evaluated the influence of diabetes on the circadian BP pattern by 48-h ABPM (rather than for 24 h to increase reproducibility of results) during which participants maintained a diary listing times of going to bed at night and awakening in the morning. This cross-sectional study involved 12 765 hypertensive patients (6797 men/5968 women), 58.1 ± 14.1 (mean ± SD) yrs of age, enrolled in the Hygia Project, designed to evaluate prospectively CVD risk by ABPM in primary care centers of northwest Spain. Among the participants, 2954 (1799 men/1155 women) had type 2 diabetes. At the time of study, 525/3314 patients with/without diabetes were untreated for hypertension, and the remaining 2429/6497 patients with/without diabetes were treated. Hypertension was defined as awake systolic (SBP)/diastolic (DBP) BP mean ≥135/85 mm Hg, or asleep SBP/DBP mean ≥120/70 mm Hg, or BP-lowering treatment. Hypertensive patients with than without diabetes were more likely to be men and of older age, have diagnoses of microalbuminuria, proteinuria, chronic kidney disease, obstructive sleep apnea, metabolic syndrome, and/or obesity, plus higher glucose, creatinine, uric acid, and triglycerides, but lower cholesterol and estimated glomerular filtration rate. In patients with diabetes, ambulatory SBP was significantly elevated (p < .001), mainly during the hours of nighttime sleep and initial hours after morning awakening, independent of presence/absence of BP-lowering treatment. Ambulatory DBP, however, was significantly higher (p < .001) in patients without diabetes, mainly during the daytime. Differing trends for SBP and DBP between groups resulted in large differences in ambulatory pulse pressure (PP), it being significantly greater (p < .001) throughout the entire 24 h in patients with diabetes, even after correcting for age. Prevalence of non-dipping was significantly higher in patients with than without diabetes (62.1% vs. 45.9%; p < .001). Largest difference between groups was in the prevalence of the riser BP pattern, i.e., asleep SBP mean greater than awake SBP mean (19.9% vs. 8.1% in patients with and without diabetes, respectively; p < .001). Elevated asleep SBP mean was the major basis for the diagnosis of hypertension and/or inadequate BP control among patients with diabetes; thus, among the uncontrolled hypertensive patients with diabetes, 89.2% had nocturnal hypertension. Our findings document significantly elevated prevalence of a blunted nocturnal BP decline in hypertensive patients with diabetes. Most important, prevalence of the riser BP pattern, associated with highest CVD risk among all possible BP patterns, was more than twice as prevalent in diabetes. Patients with diabetes also presented significantly elevated ambulatory PP, reflecting increased arterial stiffness and enhanced CVD risk. These collective findings indicate that diabetes should be included among the clinical conditions for which ABPM is recommended for proper CVD risk assessment.

Ambulatory Blood Pressure Monitoring: Importance of Sampling Rate and Duration—48 Versus 24 Hours—on the Accurate Assessment of Cardiovascular Risk

Independent prospective studies have found that ambulatory blood pressure (BP) monitoring (ABPM) is more closely correlated with target organ damage and cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk than clinic BP measurement. This is based on studies in which BP was sampled every 15-30 min for ≤24 h, without taking into account that reproducibility of any estimated parameter from a time series to be potentially used for CVD risk assessment might depend more on monitoring duration than on sampling rate. Herein, we evaluated the influence of duration (48 vs. 24 h) and sampling rate of BP measurements (form every 20-30 min up to every 2 h) on the prognostic value of ABPM-derived parameters. We prospectively studied 3344 subjects (1718 men/1626 women), 52.6 ± 14.5 yrs of age, during a median follow-up of 5.6 yrs. Those with hypertension at baseline were randomized to ingest all their prescribed hypertension medications upon awakening or ≥1 of them at bedtime. At baseline, BP was measured at 20-min intervals from 07:00 to 23:00 h and at 30-min intervals at night for 48 h, and physical activity was simultaneously monitored every min by wrist actigraphy to accurately derive the awake and asleep BP means. Identical assessment was scheduled annually and more frequently (quarterly) if treatment adjustment was required. ABPM profiles were modified to generate time series of identical 48-h duration but with data sampled at 1- or 2-h intervals, or shorter, i.e., first 24 h, time series with data sampled at the original rate (daytime 20-min intervals/nighttime 30-min intervals). Bland-Altman plots indicated that the range of individual differences in the estimated awake and asleep systolic (SBP) and diastolic BP (DBP) means between the original and modified ABPM profiles was up to 3-fold smaller for data sampled every 1 h for 48 h than for data sampled every 20-30 min for the first 24 h. Reduction of ABPM duration to just 24 h resulted in error of the estimated asleep SBP mean, the most significant prognostic marker of CVD events, in the range of -21.4 to +23.9 mm Hg. Cox proportional-hazard analyses adjusted for sex, age, diabetes, anemia, and chronic kidney disease revealed comparable hazard ratios (HRs) for mean BP values and sleep-time relative BP decline derived from the original complete 48-h ABPM profiles and those modified to simulate a sampling rate of one BP measurement every 1 or 2 h. The HRs, however, were markedly overestimated for SBP and underestimated for DBP when the duration of ABPM was reduced from 48 to only 24 h. This study on subjects evaluated prospectively by 48-h ABPM documents that reproducibility in the estimates of prognostic ABPM-derived parameters depends markedly on duration of monitoring, and only to a lesser extent on sampling rate. The HR of CVD events associated with increased ambulatory BP is poorly estimated by relying on 24-h ABPM, indicating ABPM for only 24 h may be insufficient for proper diagnosis of hypertension, identification of dipping status, evaluation of treatment efficacy, and, most important, CVD risk stratification.

CIRCADIAN PATTERN IN SERUM ATRIAL NATRIURETIC PROHORMONES IN RELATION TO BLOOD PRESSURE IN AGING MALE SUBJECTS

Hermida, R. C.1; Vesely, D. L.2; Kanabrocki, E. L.3; Bremner, F. W.4; Third, J. L.H.C.3; Ryan, M.3; Shirazi, P.3; Nemchausky, B. A.3; Scheving, L. E.5 Author Information

Development and validation of a rapid RP-HPLC-DAD analysis method for the quantification of pilocarpine in Pilocarpus microphyllus (Rutaceae)

Tuning Size and Sensing Properties in Colloidal Gold Nanostars

Gold nanostars are multibranched nanoparticles with sharp tips, which display extremely interesting plasmonic properties but require optimization. We present a systematic investigation of the influence of different parameters on the size, morphology, and monodispersity of Au nanostars obtained via seeded growth in concentrated solutions of poly(vinylpyrrolidone) in N,N-dimethylformamide. Controlled prereduction of Au(3+) to Au(+) was found to influence monodispersity (narrower plasmon bands), while the [HAuCl(4)]/[seed] molar ratio significantly affects the morphology and tip plasmon resonance frequency. We also varied the size of the seeds (2-30 nm) and found a clear influence on the final nanostar dimensions as well as on the number of spikes, while synthesis temperature notably affects the morphology of the particles, with more rounded morphologies formed above 60 °C. This rounding effect allowed us to confirm the importance of sharp tips on the optical enhancing behavior of these nanoparticles in surface-enhanced raman scattering (SERS). Additionally, the sensitivity toward changes in the local refractive index was found to increase for larger nanostars, though lower figure of merit (FOM) values were obtained because of the larger polydispersity.

Machine learning for authentication of black tea from narrow-geographic origins: Combination of PCA and PLS with LDA and SVM classifiers

Combined effects of berberine and evodiamine on colorectal cancer cells and cardiomyocytes in vitro

Optically Active Nanocrystals (Advanced Optical Materials 34/2025)

PartitionTest test suite mosaic additional

PartitionTest test suite

Prognostic value of ambulatory blood pressure measurements for the diagnosis of hypertension in pregnancy

Several studies have indicated that the use of the 24 h mean blood pressure, mainly using reference thresholds derived from general nonpregnancy practice, does not provide an effective test for an individualized early diagnosis of hypertension in pregnancy, thus concluding that ambulatory blood pressure monitoring is not a valid approach in pregnancy. With the use of ambulatory blood pressure monitoring, epidemiologic studies have reported gender differences in the circadian variability of blood pressure and heart rate. Typically, men exhibit a lower heart rate and higher blood pressure than women, the differences being larger for systolic than for diastolic blood pressure. Moreover, normotensive and hypertensive pregnant women are characterized by differing but predictable patterns of blood pressure variability throughout gestation. However, the diminished blood pressure in nongravid women as compared with men, the added decrease in blood pressure during the second trimester of gestation in normotensive but not in hypertensive pregnant women and the large amplitude of the circadian pattern that characterizes the blood pressure of healthy pregnant women at all gestational ages, have not been taken into account when establishing reference thresholds for the diagnosis of hypertension in pregnancy. This review will describe these issues, summarize previous results from independent groups on the prognostic value of ambulatory blood pressure monitoring in pregnancy, propose answers as to an accurate reference threshold for blood pressure at different stages of gestation and suggest how this information should be used in order to identify those women at a higher risk of hypertension, who will also be more suitable for prophylactic and/or therapeutic intervention in the early stages of pregnancy.