Effect of Water Hardness on the Taste of Alkaline Electrolyzed Water

ABSTRACT: The effect of water hardness on the taste of alkaline electrolyzed water (AEW) was examined by sensory evaluation. Sensory test 1 of commercial bottled mineral water to which calcium and/or magnesium salts had been added was performed by panelists who evaluated the effect of hardness on the taste of water using a scoring method (hedonic scaling test) and a 1-pair comparison method. The water, in which the calcium concentration and the magnesium concentration was 20 mg/L and 2 mg/L, respectively, was found to taste better than any water containing other concentrations of calcium and magnesium. Sensory test 2 of bottled mineral waters having hardnesses of 30 mg/L to 290 mg/L, of activated carbon filtration water having a hardness of 50 mg/L, and of AEWs was performed by panelists using a scoring method (hedonic scaling test) and a pair test, and their preferences for the taste of AEWs was surveyed. The taste of AEW made by electrolyzing activated carbon filtration water did not differ from that of the water before it was electrolyzed. The same was true of AEW made by electrolyzing bottled mineral water having a hardness of 80 mg/L. However, 3 kinds of AEWs made by electrolyzing bottled mineral waters having hardnesses of 30 mg/L, 170 mg/L, and 290 mg/L were found to taste less pleasant than each bottled mineral water before being electrolyzed. The results of sensory tests 1 and 2 show that good-tasting AEW could be produced by an alkaline water electrolyzed from most tap water of Japan because its hardness varies from approximately 50 mg/L to 80 mg/L.     

Complement activation accelerates glomerular injury in diabetic rats

A case of hemispheric infarction involving the territory of the right middle cerebral artery and the thalamus showed conspicuous asymmetric degeneration in the substantia nigra, red nuclei, inferior olivary nuclei and dentate nuclei with concomitant changes of progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP). The right substantia nigra and red nucleus showed loss of neurons and proliferation of astrocytes. The right olivary nucleus was hypertrophic, while the neuronal loss and astrocytosis in the dentate nucleus were predominant on the contralateral side. Modified Gallyas-Braak staining revealed the extensive distribution of neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs), threads and intraglial argyrophilic structures in the globus pallidus, subthalamic nuclei, cerebral cortex and dentate nuclei, as well as in the affected brain stem nuclei, with a distinct predominance on the affected side. In this case, the one-sided predominance of the extended degeneration in these brain stem and cerebellar areas is considered, in addition to the PSP changes, to be due to secondary retrograde degeneration via the nigrostriatal and dentato-rubro-thalamic pathways following the hemispheric infarction, and to also be the result of disruption of the dentato-olivary fiber connections. In addition, because of the predominant distribution of NFTs on the more degenerated side, it is surmised that the formation of NFTs may be accelerated by secondary degeneration.     

Visualization techniques for 3D vector fields: an application to electrostatic fields of molecules

In chemistry, computer graphics is now well established as a tool to interpret simulation results, since molecules are complicated in their structures and mutual interactions. As a probe to study such molecular interactions, electrostatic fields are considered to be useful. However, since they are given as 3D vector fields having cusps in the fields, conventional drawing techniques are not applicable. In this article, two new approaches are presented to visualize the electrostatic fields of molecules. One is an extension of topological skeletons, by which interactions between atoms having opposite charges are expressed, which is not shown with the conventional methods. The other is to define new functions called selective functions to select regions of interest only from the geometrical features of the fields. Furthermore, from the definition of the new functions, mathematical relations between the topological skeletons and selective functions are discussed. An example is presented in applications to chemical reactions to show how the scheme is used. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A comparison between Advanced Scatterometer and Weather Research and Forecasting wind speeds for the Japanese offshore wind resource map

This paper investigates the validity of the method used in the Japanese offshore wind map (NeoWins) to seamlessly connecting satellite‐derived wind speed for open oceans to mesoscale model‐simulated wind speed for coastal waters. In the NeoWins, the former was obtained from the satellite‐borne Advanced Scatterometer (ASCAT), and the latter was obtained from numerical simulations using the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model. In this study, the consistency of the ASCAT and WRF 10‐m height wind speeds is examined in their overwrapping areas. The comparison between ASCAT and WRF model reveals that their differences in annual mean wind speed are mostly within ±5% and that the ASCAT annual mean wind speed is, as a whole, slightly higher than the WRF annual mean wind speed. The results indicate that there are no large wind speed gaps between WRF and ASCAT in most parts of the Japanese offshore areas. It is moreover found that the discrepancies between the two wind speeds are due to two factors: one is the existence of winter sea ice in the ASCAT observation in the Sea of Okhotsk in ASCAT observation and the other is that the accuracy of the WRF wind speed depends on atmospheric stability.     

Hot Spot Mutagenesis Improves the Functional Expression of Unique Mammalian Odorant Receptors

Vertebrate animals detect odors through olfactory receptors (ORs), members of the G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) family. Due to the difficulty in the heterologous expression of ORs, studies of their odor molecule recognition mechanisms have progressed poorly. Functional expression of most ORs in heterologous cells requires the co-expression of their chaperone proteins, receptor transporting proteins (RTPs). Yet, some ORs were found to be functionally expressed without the support of RTP (RTP-independent ORs). In this study, we investigated whether amino acid residues highly conserved among RTP-independent ORs improve the functional expression of ORs in heterologous cells. We found that a single amino acid substitution at one of two sites (N_BW3.39 and 3.43) in their conserved residues (E and L, respectively) significantly improved the functional expression of ORs in heterologous cells. E^3.39 and L^3.43 also enhanced the membrane expression of RTP-dependent ORs in the absence of RTP. These changes did not alter the odorant responsiveness of the tested ORs. Our results showed that specific sites within transmembrane domains regulate the membrane expression of some ORs.     

Strong and Specific Recognition of CAG/CTG Repeat DNA (5’-dWGCWGCW-3’) by a Cyclic Pyrrole-Imidazole Polyamide

Abnormally expanded CAG/CTG repeat DNA sequences lead to a variety of neurological diseases, such as Huntington's disease. Here, we synthesized a cyclic pyrrole-imidazole polyamide (cPIP), which can bind to the minor groove of the CAG/CTG DNA sequence. The double-stranded DNA melting temperature (T_m) and surface plasmon resonance assays revealed the high binding affinity of the cPIP. In addition, next-generation sequencing showed that the cPIP had high specificity for its target DNA sequence.     

Fine dispersion of carbon black in fluorene‐based resin

The dispersion ability of fluorene‐based epoxy resin (FBE), bisphenol A based epoxy resin (PBE), fluorene‐based polyester (FBP), and polycarbonate (PC) in carbon black (CB) was evaluated. CB/FBE composite had a lower L value (reflectance, blackness) than that of CB/PBE composite, for the same CB content. Aggregations of CB in CB/FBE composites were much smaller than those in CB/PBE composites. The strong interaction between fluorene with cardo structure and CB resulted in a fine dispersion of CB in FBE. FBP had much higher dispersion ability of CB than PC. CB (50 wt%) was dispersed into FBP compared with the 10 wt% of CB dispersed in PC by melt blending. The effect of CB on the mechanical properties of FBP was much higher than that on PC due to fine dispersion of CB in FBP. The effect of CB addition on the T_g of FBP was also higher than that of CB on the T_g of PC. Computational simulation indicates that most stable energy between fluorene with a cardo structure and graphite structure was smaller than the energy between bisphenol A and graphite. It was also shown that the minimum energy appeared when the fluorene structure was almost parallel to the graphite plane. POLYM. COMPOS., 2008. © 2008 Society of Plastics Engineers