Determination of benzimidazole anthelmintics in livestock foods by HPLC

A simple and rapid liquid chromatographic method was developed for the simultaneous determination of twelve benzimidazole anthelmintics in livestock foods using reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography with photodiode array detection (PDA). A sample was homogenized with acetonitrile and n-hexane, and centrifuged. The acetonitrile phase was isolated and evaporated. The residue was dissolved in 0.1 mol/L carbonate buffer solution (pH = 9.1), sonicated, and then subjected to clean-up on a Bond Elut LRC-C18 cartridge. The benzimidazole compounds were separated isocratically on a Capcell Pak C18 UG 120 (5 microns, 150 x 4.6 mm i.d.) column and detected by PDA at 295 and 313 nm. Mixtures of acetonitrile and 0.05 mol/L ammonium acetate in mixing ratios of (20:80) and (40:60) were used as the mobile phase, and the flow-rate was 1.0 mL/min at 40 degrees C. The mean recoveries (n = 3) from 0.1-0.5 microgram/g added samples were 72.6-97.2% with coefficients of variation of 0.3-8.5%. The detection limits were 0.01-0.05 microgram/g.     

Exploiting Temporal Relations in Mining Hepatitis Data

Various data mining methods have been developed last few years for hepatitis study using a large temporal and relational database given to the research community. In this work we introduce a novel temporal abstraction method to this study by detecting and exploiting temporal patterns and relations between events in viral hepatitis such as “event A slightly happened before event B and B simultaneously ended with event C”. We developed algorithms to first detect significant temporal patterns in temporal sequences and then to identify temporal relations between these temporal patterns. Many findings by data mining methods applied to transactions/graphs of temporal relations shown to be significant by physician evaluation and matching with published in Medline.     

Preparation method for supported metal catalysts using w/o microemulsion: Study on immobilization conditions of metal particles by hydrolysis of alkoxide

It was previously found that the silica-supported rhodium catalyst prepared using water-in-oil microemulsion had rhodium particles partly, or wholly, embedded in silica. In this work, consequently, we investigated the effect of hydrolysis conditions of tetraethylorthosilicate, employed as the source of silica, on the atomic ratio of surface rhodium in contact with the gas phase, to total surface rhodium of nanoparticles. This ratio is denoted as R in this paper. R became higher when the catalyst was prepared under the following hydrolysis conditions: a shorter hydrolysis time and a smaller amount of tetraethylorthosilicate. On the other hand, R showed the minimum value when the water content in the preparation solution was 33 vol%. From these results, it is demonstrated that it was important to form silica as early as possible in hydrolysis of TEOS in order to increase R values. In addition, the effect of R on the catalytic behavior in CO hydrogenation was investigated. At R values below 30%, the turnover frequencies increased with a decrease in R.     

Molecular dynamics simulation of pressure effect on phase transition behaviour and dynamics in the isotropic and discotic nematic phases

Molecular dynamics simulation was performed at constant temperature and pressure to investigate the effect of pressure on molecular dynamics for disc-shaped molecules. The generic Gay-Berne model, GB(0.345, 5.0, 1, 3), was used to study the phase transition behaviour, and translational and rotational dynamics, under two different reduced pressures P^?, 10.0 and 20.0. Obvious shifts were detected in the transition temperatures. Both systems have the same phase sequence with different pressures: isotropic, discotic nematic and columnar phases. Translational motion is characterised by the parallel and perpendicular components of diffusion coefficients, with respect to the director in the orientational ordered phase. With regard to rotational dynamics, the correlation time of the first-rank orientational time autocorrelation function, which corresponds to end-over-end rotational motion of a molecule, has been investigated. A clear jump in the temperature dependence of the correlation time has been found at the isotropic-nematic phase transition point. The retardation factor g_|| as a function of the reduced temperature T^?/T_NI^? shows an apparent pressure effect on the rotational dynamics.     

TEM,XPS and SIMS Analyzes on Grain Boundary of Lanthanum Chromites

The morphological characteristics, chromium valence state, and cation transport in the vicinity of grain boundary in La_1-xCa_xCrO₃ were investigated by using TEM/EDS, XPS and SIMS techniques. The width of grain boundary was around 1 nm where anomalous enrichment of calcium was observed. Higher valence state of chromium such as Cr⁶⁺(d⁰) was detected in the grain boundaries whereas Cr³⁺(d³) and Cr⁴⁺(d²) were dominant in the bulk. Very fast interdiffusion of alkaline earths was observed in the Sr²⁺-La_0.75Ca_0.25CrO₃ system. All observed phenomena were correlated by assuming the A-site vacancy which may be induced by the formation of Cr⁶⁺ at grain boundaries.     

Stress intensity factor error index for finite element analysis with singular elements

An error index for the stress intensity factor (SIF) obtained from the finite element analysis results using singular elements is proposed. The index was developed by considering the facts that the analytical function shape of the crack tip displacement is known and that the SIF can be evaluated from the displacements only. The advantage of the error index is that it has the dimension of the SIF and converges to zero when the actual error of the SIF by displacement correlation technique converges to zero. Numerical examples for some typical crack problems, including a mixed mode crack, whose analytical solutions are known, indicated the validity of the index. The degree of actual SIF error seems to be approximated by the value of the proposed index.     

Role of protein kinase Cbeta in rhythmic contractions of human pregnant myometrium

To assess the role of protein kinase Cbeta (PKCbeta) in human myometrial contractions during pregnancy, we evaluated the effect of a PKCbeta inhibitor (LY333531) on the pregnant and nonpregnant myometrial contractions and compared the level of PKCbeta in the pregnant myometrium with that in the nonpregnant myometrium. The effects of LY333531 on the myometrial contractions were examined by measuring contractile activity (frequency and amplitude). PKCbeta in human myometrium was assessed at mRNA level using real-time PCR method. The characteristics of contractile activity were different between the pregnant and the nonpregnant myometrium. The amplitude of rhythmic contractions in the preterm and term myometrium was increased 2- to 2.5-fold when compared with that in the nonpregnant myometrium, but the frequency of rhythmic contractions was decreased by about half. LY333531 (10(-6) M) reduced the increased amplitude in the preterm and term myometrium by about 50%, and the inhibitory effects of LY333531 in the pregnant myometrium were significantly greater than that in the nonpregnant myometrium (about 50 vs 25%). However, the frequency in the pregnant and nonpregnant myometrium was not influenced by LY333531. Real-time PCR revealed a significant, five- to sevenfold increase in the expression of PKCbeta mRNA in the preterm and term myometrium when compared with the nonpregnant myometrium. These findings suggest that the increased amplitude of human myometrial contractions during pregnancy is related to the increased level of PKCbeta. A PKCbeta inhibitor may reduce preterm uterine contractions and prevent preterm delivery.     

Effect of different features to drill-wear prediction with back propagation neural network

In this paper, a back propagation neural network (BPNN) has been applied to predict the corner wear of a high speed steel (HSS) drill bit for drilling on different workpiece materials. Specially defined static and dynamic features extracted by a wavelet packet transform (WPT) from the resultant force converted from thrust and torque together with the cutting conditions (workpiece material, spindle speed, drill diameter, feed rate) are used as inputs to train the network to obtain a better output, drill corner wear. Drilling experiments have been carried out over a wide range and, features newly defined and conventional ones, features extracted from different frequency bands are compared.     

Isolation and characterization of poly(butylene succinate-co-butylene adipate)-degrading microorganism

Poly(butylene succinate-co-butylene adipate) (PBSA)-degrading bacterium, strain 1-A, was isolated from soil. Strain 1-A was identified as Bacillus pumilus on the basis of its physiological properties and partial 16S rRNA gene sequence. Strain 1-A also degraded poly(butylene succinate) (PBS) and poly(epsilon-caprolactone). On the other hand, poly(butylene adipate terephthalate) and poly(lactic acid) were minimally degraded by strain 1-A. The NMR spectra of degradation products from PBSA indicated that the adipate units were more rapidly degraded than 1,4-butanediol and succinate units. This seems to be one of the reasons why strain 1-A degraded PBSA faster than PBS.