Insight into molecular characteristics of a Chinese coal via separation, characterization, and data processing.

Dayan lignite was subjected to thermal dissolution sequentially with cyclohexane, acetone, and methanol. Each thermal dissolution extract was subjected to further separation/enrichment using column chromatography, which was sequentially eluted with petroleum ether, a mixture of ethyl acetate and petroleum ether (vol:vol = 1:1), and ethyl acetate. The three thermal dissolution extracts and nine enrichment subfractions were characterized by an Orbitrap mass spectrometry equipped with an atmospheric pressure chemical ionization ion source. The mass spectrometry data were also statistically analyzed by principal component analysis, which can reduce the dimensionality of data and classify multiple samples according to principal components. Identified compounds in the extracts and subfractions are classified into eight classes according to the heteroatom distribution. Hydrocarbon class is mainly presented in the petroleum ether fraction, and oxygen class, nitrogen class, and oxygen-nitrogen class are distributed in both petroleum ether/ethyl acetate and ethyl acetate subfractions. The combination of different analytical methods enhances the understanding of coal at the molecular level and provides important data for downstream refining processes.

[Multicentral randomized controlled trials of acupuncture at Zhongwan (CV 12) for treatment of peptic ulcer].

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the efficacy and safety of acupuncture at Zhongwan (CV 12) for treatment of peptic ulcer. METHODS: Two hundred and seventy-six cases enrolled were randomly divided into an acupuncture group and a control group, 138 cases in the acupuncture group were treated with deep needling at Zhongwan (CV 12) with a long needle, and 138 cases in the control group were treated with climetidine. The therapeutic effects were evaluated by clinical symptoms and gastroscopy. They were investigated for 6 weeks. RESULTS: The acupuncture group was better than the control group in rapid alleviation of stomachache and improvement of appetite (P < 0.05). The total effective rate was 90.6% in the acupuncture group and 88.4% in the control group with no significant difference (P > 0.05). The symptoms improved significantly in the two groups (P < 0.01), but with no significant difference between the two groups (P > 0.05). There was no significant difference between the two groups in the therapeutic effect of gastroscopy (P > 0.05). CONCLUSION: Acupuncture at Zhongwan (CV 12) has a reliable therapeutic effect on peptic ulcer.

Understanding molecular mechanism of higher plant plasticity under abiotic stress.

Higher plants play the most important role in keeping a stable environment on the earth, which regulate global circumstances in many ways in terms of different levels (molecular, individual, community, and so on), but the nature of the mechanism is gene expression and control temporally and spatially at the molecular level. In persistently changing environment, there are many adverse stress conditions such as cold, drought, salinity and UV-B (280-320 mm), which influence plant growth and crop production greatly. Plants differ from animals in many aspects, but the important may be that plants are more easily influenced by environment than animals. Plants have a series of fine mechanisms for responding to environmental changes, which has been established during their long-period evolution and artificial domestication. These mechanisms are involved in many aspects of anatomy, physiology, biochemistry, genetics, development, evolution and molecular biology, in which the adaptive machinery related to molecular biology is the most important. The elucidation of it will extremely and purposefully promote the sustainable utilization of plant resources and make the best use of its current potential under different scales. This molecular mechanism at least include environmental signal recognition (input), signal transduction (many cascade biochemical reactions are involved in this process), signal output, signal responses and phenotype realization, which is a multi-dimensional network system and contain many levels of gene expression and regulation. We will focus on the molecular adaptive machinery of higher plant plasticity under abiotic stresses.