Adaptive temporal patterns of echolocation and flight behaviors used to fly through varied-sized windows by 2 species of high duty cycle bats.

As actively sensing animals guided by acoustic information, echolocating bats must adapt their vocal-motor behavior to various environments and behavioral tasks. Here, we investigated how the temporal patterns of echolocation and flight behavior were adjusted in 2 species of bats with a high duty cycle (HDC) call structure, Rhinolophus ferrumequinum and Hipposideros armiger, when they flew along a straight corridor and then passed through windows of 3 different sizes. We also tested whether divergence existed in the adaptations of the 2 species. Both H. armiger and R. ferrumequinum increased their call rates by shortening the pulse duration and inter-pulse interval for more rapid spatial sampling of the environment when flying through smaller windows. Bats produced more sonar sound groups (SSGs) while maintaining a stable proportion of calls that made up SSGs during approaches to smaller windows. The 2 species showed divergent adjustment in flight behavior across 3 different window sizes. Hipposideros armiger reduced its flight speed to pass through smaller windows while R. ferrumequinum increased its flight speed. Our results suggest that these 2 species of HDC bats adopt similar acoustic timing patterns for different tasks although they performed different flight behaviors.

Determination and pharmacokinetic study of chlorogenic acid in rat dosed with Yin-Huang granules by RP-HPLC.

A reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatographic (RP-HPLC) method was described for the determination of chlorogenic acid (CGA) in rat plasma using protocatechuic acid as internal standard (IS). CGA in plasma was extracted with acetonitrile, which also acted as deproteinization agent. Chromatographic separation was performed on a Kromasil C18 column with methanol-0.2 m acetic acid (pH 3.0, 25:75, v/v) as mobile phase at a flow-rate of 1.0 mL/min with an operating temperature of 30 degrees C and UV detection at 300 nm. The standard curve was found to be linear over the concentration ranges of 0.4-2.5 microg/mL and 2.5-40 microg/mL, and the limit of quantification (LOQ) was 0.4 microg/mL. The analytical precision and accuracy were validated by relative standard deviation (RSD) and relative error, which were in ranges 3.14-10.78% and -2.20-5.00%, respectively. The average recovery of CGA was 87.59%. The method was successfully applied to the pharmacokinetic study of CGA in Yin-Huang granules.

Simultaneous determination of chlorogenic acid, caffeic acid, ferulic acid, protocatechuic acid and protocatechuic aldehyde in Chinese herbal preparation by RP-HPLC.

In the present study, a reversed phase high performance liquid chromatographic (RP-HPLC) method was established for simultaneous determination of chlorogenic acid, caffeic acid, ferulic acid, protocatechuic acid and protocatechuic aldehyde in a Chinese herbal preparation (Fufang-Pugongying-Mixture). The separation was performed on a Hypersil ODS-2 column by isocratic elution with methanol and 0.2 M acetate buffer (pH 3.6) (15 : 85, v/v) as the mobile phase at the flow-rate of 1.0 ml/min with operating temperature of 30 degrees C, and detection wavelength of 300 nm. A good linear regression relationship between peak-areas and concentrations was obtained over the range of 2-200 microg/ml for the five marker compounds mentioned above. The spike recoveries were within 96.72-104.07%. The variation coefficient (CV) values of the precision were in the range of 0.89-4.50%. Moreover the developed method has reference value for quantitative analysis of Taraxacum, Lonicera and Angelica.