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Introduction: Jian-Pi-Yi-Shen pill (JPYSP) is a Chinese medicine formula developed for the treatment of anaemic patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD). Objective: To investigate the chemical profile of JPYSP in the treatment of renal anaemia. Methods: A method coupling ultra-performance liquid chromatography with quadrupole time-of-flight tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-Q-TOF-MS/MS) was established to characterise the chemical constituents present in JPYSP. Subsequently, a high-performance liquid chromatography method coupled with triple-quadrupole tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-QQQ-MS/MS) was developed to quantify the major constituents from the identified compounds related to the treatment of CKD and anaemia. Results: A total of 71 compounds were tentatively identified from JPYSP, including saponins, flavonoids, sesquiterpenoids, coumarins, phenylpropanoids, anthranones, anthraquinones, tannins, phenolic acids and others. Amongst them, 12 compounds (i.e. astragaloside IV, calycosin, calycosin 7-O-glucoside, salvianolic acid A, rosmarinic acid, rhein, liquiritin, formononetin, atractylenolide I, dioscin, tanshinone IIA, and acteoside) were further quantified simultaneously by HPLC-QQQ-MS/MS. Conclusion: The newly developed approach is suitable for the chemical profiling analysis and quality control of JPYSP, and could lead to additional pharmacodynamic studies involving the components of JPYSP.

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This Note reports a tristable cantilever that exploits stochastic resonance (SR) phenomenon for a study of signal amplification and filtering. The tristable device system combines the benefits of bistable system (wide interwell spacing) and monostable system (smooth motion in potential). The prototype tristable cantilever exhibits 42 times root-mean-square amplitude, 35.86 dB power gain, advance of 15 dB signal-to-noise ratio, and twice fidelity at around 7.6 Hz as compared to the input signal. In a wide operating bandwidth [5.5 Hz, 8.2 Hz], the tristable SR cantilever outperforms the traditional monostable cantilever and bistable SR cantilever in these characteristics.