[Role and mechanism of Cortex Moutan components in inhibiting production of toxic advanced glycation end products (AGEs)].

Advanced glycation end products(AGEs) can lead to many diseases such as diabetes and its complications. In this study, an in vitro non-enzymatic glycosylation reaction model-bovine serum albumin/methylglyoxal(BSA/MGO) reaction system was constructed and incubated with Cortex Moutan extract. High performance liquid chromatography(HPLC) and ultra-high performance liquid chromatography with quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry(UPLC-Q-TOF-MS/MS) were used to detect and identify the active components that inhibited the formation of AGEs in the co-incubation solution of Cortex Moutan extract and MGO, and differential components such as salvianan, paeoniside, benzoylpaeoniflorin, mudanpioside J, galloyloxypaeoniflorin, benzoyloxy-paeoniflorin, 5-hydroxy-3 s-hydroxymethyl-6-methyl-2,3-dihydro benzofuran, and galloylpaeoniflorin were screened out, which were inferred to be the potential active components of Cortex Moutan extract to capture MGO. In addition, BSA-glucose reaction system was performed to investigate the influence of different concentrations of Cortex Moutan extract(decoction concentrations: 40, 80, 120, 160, and 200 mg·mL~(-1)) on inhibiting the production of AGEs in vitro. The inhibitory effects of Cortex Moutan extract and the differential components galloylpaeoniflorin and benzoyl paeoniflorin on the production of AGEs in human umbilical vein endothelial cells(HUVECs) induced by high glucose was further evaluated. Cell apoptosis was observed by acridine orange and ethidium bromide(AO/EB) double fluorescence staining. The results showed that Cortex Moutan Cortex extract and its differential components had certain inhibitory effects on the formation of AGEs, and could reduce cell apoptosis. This study provided reference for the treatment of diabetic vascular complications by Cortex Moutan inhibiting the toxic AGEs.

[Spatial pattern and interspecific association of tree species in coniferous and deciduous broad-leaved mixed forest under different disturbance intensities]. / ä¸åŒå¹²æ‰°å¼ºåº¦ä¸‹é’ˆé˜”æ··äº¤æž—æ ‘ç§ç©ºé—´æ ¼å±€åŠç§é—´å ³è”æ€§.

We explored the effects of disturbance densities on the spatial pattern and the association of tree species in the coniferous broadleaved mixed forest in Pangquangou Nature Reserve of Guandi Mountain. Using three factors including canopy density, stand density and number of stumps, we classified the disturbance intensities of different forest stands into three levels, non-disturbance, moderate disturbance, and severe disturbance. The spatial distribution pattern and the association of different tree species were analyzed by spatial point pattern K2 function. The results showed that the diameter distribution of trees in undisturbed plots was inverted 'J' type, while that of moderate disturbance and serious disturbance plots was under bimodal curve distribution. The stand distribution pattern showed a small-scale aggregated distribution under undisturbed and moderately distur-bance, and a random distribution under heavy disturbance. At the small scale, the coniferous and broadleaved species showed no correlation in undisturbed stands, were positively correlated in moderately disturbed stands, and negatively correlated in seriously disturbed stands. At large scale, they were no correlated in both moderately and seriously disturbed stands. The results suggested that abundance of trees with small diameter in the forests was negatively with disturbance intensity, which led to the lower degree of intraspecific aggregation at small scale. Meanwhile, appropriate levels of disturbance would benefit the collaborative use of environmental resources for trees. Our results revealed the impacts of disturbance density on forest community structure and could provide theoretical basis for forest management.

[Community stability for spruce-fir forest at different succession stages in Changbai Mountains, Northeast China].

Based on the analysis of three forest communities (polar-birch secondary forest, spruce-fir mixed forest, spruce-fir near pristine forest) in Changbai Mountains, a total of 22 factors of 5 indices, including the population regeneration, soil fertility (soil moisture and soli nutrient), woodland productivity and species diversity that reflected community characteristics were used to evaluate the stability of forest community succession at different stages by calculating subordinate function values of a model based on fuzzy mathematics. The results that the indices of population regeneration, soli nutrient, woodland productivity and species diversity were the highest in the spruce-fir mixed forest, and the indices of soil moisture were the highest in the spruce-fir near-pristine forest. The stability of three forest communities was in order of natural spruce-fir mixed forest > spruce-fir near pristine forest > polar-birch secondary forest.

[Impact factors and degradation mechanism for the ozonation of acetaminophen in aqueous solution].

The effect and mechanism of O3 on the degradation of acetaminophen in aqueous solution were studied by the batch experiment. The results showed that acetaminophen could be degraded effectively by ozone and degradation of acetaminophen fitted well with the pseudo-first-order kinetics model (R2 > 0.992). The degradation of acetaminophen was promoted with the increase of pH, the concentration of bicarbonate and ozone. The results of gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and ion chromatography analysis showed that degradation products such as hydroquinone and a series of carboxylic acids were firstly formed during ozonation of acetaminophen. Then, the products were further oxidized. The degradation pathways of acetaminophen were also discussed by the identified products. The result of TOC showed that the mineralization of acetaminophen was ultimately lower. When the initial concentration of acetaminophen was 20 mg x L(-1) and the concentration of ozone was 9.10 mg x L(-1), the mineralization was only 16.42% after 130 min.