Multiresidue determination of quinolones in animal and fishery products by HPLC

A simple and rapid multiresidue method was developed for the determination of twelve quinolones (ciprofloxacin, danofloxacin, difloxacin, enrofloxacin, flumequine, marbofloxacin, nalidixic acid, norfloxacin, ofloxacin, orbifloxacin, oxolinic acid and sarafloxacin) in muscle, liver, chicken eggs, milk, prawn and rainbow trout.The quinolones were extracted from a sample with acetonitrile-water (95 : 5). A fifth part of the filtered extract was diluted with water to keep the acetonitrile ratio at ca. 60%, and passed through a C18 mini-column. The eluate was evaporated to dryness, and the residues were dissolved in methanol-water (30 : 70) for HPLC analysis.The quinolones were separated on a Inertsil ODS-3V column (4.6 mm i.d.x250 mm) with a gradient system of 0.1% phosphoric acid-acetonitrile as the mobile phase, with fluorescence detection.No interfering peak was found on the chromatograms of animal and fishery products, except for milk. The recoveries of the quinolones were over 60% from the animal and fishery products fortified at 0.1 microg/g, and the quantification limits of the quinolones were 0.005 microg/g. This proposed method was found to be effective and suitable for the screening of the quinolones in animal and fishery products.     

Noncompetitive inhibition by L-cysteine and activation by L-glutamate of the iron-oxidizing activity of a mixotrophic iron-oxidizing bacterium strain OKM-9

A mesophilic, mixotrophic iron-oxidizing bacterium strain OKM-9 uses ferrous iron as a sole source of energy and L-glutamate as a sole source of cellular carbon. Uptake of L-glutamate into OKM-9 cells is absolutely dependent on ferrous iron oxidation. Thus, the Fe(2+)-dependent L-glutamate uptake system of strain OKM-9 is crucial for the bacterium to grow mixotrophically in iron medium with L-glutamate. The relationship between iron oxidation and L-glutamate transport activities was studied. Iron oxidase containing cytochrome a was purified 9-fold from the plasma membrane of OKM-9. A purified iron oxidase showed one rust-colored band following disc gel electrophoresis after incubation with Fe(2+). The Fe(2+)-dependent L-glutamate transport system was also purified 14.5-fold from the plasma membrane using the same purification steps as for iron oxidase. Fe(2+)-dependent L-glutamate and L-cysteine uptake activities of OKM-9 were 0.36 and 0.24 nmol/mg/min, respectively, when a concentration of 18 mM of these amino acids was used as a substrate. Both uptake activities were completely inhibited by potassium cyanide (KCN), suggesting that cytochrome a in the iron oxidase is involved in the transport process. The iron-oxidizing activity of strain OKM-9 was activated 1.7-fold by 80 mM L-glutamate. In contrast, the activity was noncompetitively inhibited by L-cysteine. The Michaelis constant of iron oxidase for Fe(2+) was 12.6 mM and the inhibition constant for L-cysteine was 41.6 mM. A marked inhibition of iron oxidase by 50 mM L-cysteine was completely reversed by the addition of 60 mM L-glutamate. The results suggest the possibility that iron oxidase has a binding site for L-cysteine and the cysteine first bound to the iron oxidase was replaced by the added L-glutamate.     

Experimental Evaluation of Characteristics of SR Motor Made of Permendur

A switched reluctance (SR) motor has a doubly salient pole structure. The performance of the SR motor strongly depends on the magnetic properties of the core material, since it consists only of an iron core and copper windings. This study experimentally evaluates the performance of an SR motor made of permendur (Fe–49% Co alloy), which has very high saturation flux density and low core loss. Two types of SR motors that have the same dimensions but different core materials are used: one motor is made of the conventional nonoriented Si steel, and the other is made of permendur. Comparison of the characteristics of the two motors shows that the performance of the permendur SR motor surpasses that of the conventional one in terms of output power and efficiency. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 187(1): 51–57, 2014; Published online in Wiley Online Library ( wileyonlinelibrary.com ). DOI 10.1002/eej.22431     

A Study of Mutual Coupling between Vertical Grounding Electrodes

This paper investigates the mutual grounding impedance between vertical grounding electrodes based on field measurements and FDTD simulations. In the case of vertical electrodes, the mutual impedance between the electrodes is almost completely independent of the electrode length, and thus the induced voltage is nearly constant as the electrode length becomes longer. This characteristic is different from that of an overhead conductor, where the electromagnetic‐induced voltage is proportional to the conductor length. The greater the separation distance between the electrodes, the smaller the induced voltage, as in the case of an overhead conductor. The propagation speed increases as the separation increases. It is found that the speed is not necessarily proportional to the inverse of the relative permittivity of the earth.     

Microbial synthesis and properties of poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-4-hydroxybutyrate)

Microbial synthesis of copolymers of [R]-3-hydroxybutyrate (3HB) and 4-hydroxybutyrate (4HB), P(3HB-co-4HB), by Alcaligenes eutrophus, Alcaligenes latus, and Comamonas acidovorans from various carbon sources has been studied. The copolyester compositions varied from 0 to 100 mol% 4HB, depending on the microorganism and the combination of carbon substrates supplied. The thermal and physical properties of compositions with 0–100 mol% 4HB were investigated. The copolyesters represented a wide variety of polymeric materials, from hard crystalline plastic to very elastic rubbers, depending on composition. The copolyester films with high 4HB fractions (64–100 mol% 4HB) exhibited the characteristics of a thermoplastic elastomer, and the tensile strength increased from 17 to 104 MPa as the 4HB fraction increased. The enzymatic degradation of P(3HB-co-4HB) films was studied in an aqueous solution of extracellular polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) depolymerase from Alcaligenes faecalis or lipase from Rhizopus delemer. The erosion rate of P(3HB-co-4HB) films was strongly dependent on the copolymer composition. In addition, environmental degradation of P(3HB-co-4HB) films in sea water was investigated.     

Development of a new heterojunction structure (ACJ -HIT) and its application to polycrystalline silicon solar cells

A new solar cell structure named HIT (Heterojunction with Intrinsic Thin layer) has been developed based on new artificially constructed junction (ACJ) technology. In this structure a non-doped a-Si thin layer was inserted between the p(a-Si)/n(c-Si) heterojunction, improving the output characteristics and achieving a conversion efficiency of 18.1%. This structure was applied to cast polycrystalline silicon solar cells of a practical size. A high conversion efficeincy of 13.6% was obtained with a cell size of 10 cm × 10 cm using various technologies, including hydrogen plasma passivation.     

Maresin-1 and Inflammatory Disease

Inflammation is an essential action to protect the host human body from external, harmful antigens and microorganisms. However, an excessive inflammation reaction sometimes exceeds tissue damage and can disrupt organ functions. Therefore, anti-inflammatory action and resolution mechanisms need to be clarified. Dietary foods are an essential daily lifestyle that influences various human physiological processes and pathological conditions. Especially, omega-3 fatty acids in the diet ameliorate chronic inflammatory skin diseases. Recent studies have identified that omega-3 fatty acid derivatives, such as the resolvin series, showed strong anti-inflammatory actions in various inflammatory diseases. Maresin-1 is a derivative of one of the representative omega-3 fatty acids, i.e., docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), and has shown beneficial action in inflammatory disease models. In this review, we summarize the detailed actions of maresin-1 in immune cells and inflammatory diseases.     

Comparison of RRR-α- and all-rac-α-tocopherol uptake by permanent rat skeletal muscle myoblasts (L6 cells): Effects of exogenous lipoprotein lipase

The purpose of the present investigation was to test whether permanent skeletal muscle cells (rat L6 cells) could serve as an in vitro model for α-tocopherol (αTocH) biodiscrimination studies. L6 cells were incubated in the presence of high density lipoprotein (HDL), low density lipoprotein (LDL), and very low density lipoprotein (VLDL) labeled in the lipid moiety with either all-rac-or RRR-[¹⁴C]αTocH. These incubations were performed either in the absence or in the presence of exogenously added bovine lipoprotein lipase (LPL) since skeletal muscle is one of the major expression sites of LPL in vivo. Time-dependent uptake studies (up to 24 h) in the absence of LPL have shown that equipotent doses of all-rac- and RRR-[¹⁴C]αTocH (1.36∶1) led to almost identical accumulation of the tracer, independent of the lipoprotein class used as αTocH carrier. With regard to αTocH donor capacity, it appeared that HDL is the most potent αTocH donor, followed by LDL and VLDL. In the presence of LPL, all-rac- and RRR-[¹⁴C]αTocH uptake was significantly enhanced (between two- and tenfold). Biodiscrimination studies using chiral high-performance liquid chromatographic analysis with radiometric detection of the corresponding methyl ether derivatives on a Chiralcel OD column have demonstrated that the 2S-and 2R-isomers of αTocH were taken up in a 1∶1 ratio by L6 cells independent of the absence or presence of LPL. In addition, we have not observed biodiscrimination between the four 2R-isomers, i.e., there was no preferential accumulation of the RRR-isomer. These data suggest that L6 cells do not discriminate between different αTocH isomers and that the addition of endogenous LPL significantly enhances the uptake of RRR- and all-rac-αTocH.     

The Association of Cholesterol Uptake and Synthesis with Histology and Genotype in Cortisol-Producing Adenoma (CPA)

Cortisol-producing adenoma (CPA) is composed of clear and compact cells. Clear cells are lipid abundant, and compact ones lipid poor but associated with higher production of steroid hormones. PRKACA mutation (PRKACA mt) in CPA patients was reported to be associated with more pronounced clinical manifestation of Cushing’s syndrome. In this study, we examined the association of histological features and genotypes with cholesterol uptake receptors and synthetic enzymes in 40 CPA cases, and with the quantitative results obtained by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) analysis in 33 cases to explore their biological and clinical significance. Both cholesterol uptake receptors and synthetic enzymes were more abundant in compact cells. GC-MS analysis demonstrated that the percentage of compact cells was inversely correlated with the concentrations of cholesterol and cholesterol esters, and positively with the activity of cholesterol biosynthesis from cholesterol esters. In addition, hormone-sensitive lipase (HSL), which catalyzes cholesterol biosynthesis from cholesterol esters, tended to be more abundant in compact cells of PRKACA mt CPAs. These results demonstrated that both cholesterol uptake and biosynthesis were more pronounced in compact cells in CPA. In addition, more pronounced HSL expression in compact cells of PRKACA mt CPA could contribute to their more pronounced clinical manifestation.