Preparation of bifunctional chelating fiber containing iminodi(methylphosphonate) and sulfonate and its performances in column-mode uptake of Cu(II) and Zn(II)

The bifunctional chelating fiber, FNPS, was prepared from vinylbenzyl chloride (CMS) grafted polyethylene-coated polypropylene fiber (PPPEf-g-CMS). In addition to the primary iminodi(methylphosphonate) chelating groups, FNPS has sulfonate groups as secondary functional group. FNPS was prepared by the following four steps. First, PPPEf-g-CMS was reacted with potassium phthalimide to substitute chlorine atoms in PPPEf-g-CMS with phthalimide groups. Second, sulfonate groups were introduced into the phenyl groups of benzyl moieties on the grafted polymer chains by the reaction with 95% sulfuric acid. Third, phthalimide moieties were hydrolyzed with ethanol solution of hydrazine hydrate to give the primary amino groups at the end of benzyl moieties on the grafted chains. Finally, these primary amino groups were converted into iminodi(methylphosphonate) groups by Mannich condensation reaction, in which the precursory fiber was reacted with large excess phosphorous acid and paraformaldehyde in 6 M hydrochloric acid media under the refluxed conditions for 6 h. The sulfonate and iminodi(methylphosphonate) groups in the resulting FNPS were identified by FT-IR spectroscopy. Contents of nitrogen, phosphorus, and sulfur in FNPS were found to be 1.53, 2.80, and 0.99 mmol/g, respectively. The phosphorus to nitrogen molar ratio was 1.83. This is very close to the ideal value of 2. The sulfur to nitrogen molar ratio was 0.65. The column-mode test on the Cu(II) uptake from a 0.1 mM Cu(II) aqueous solution revealed that FNPS can take up Cu(II) rapidly even in the extremely high feed flow rate range from 1000 to 7000 h^?1 in space velocity. The breakthrough capacity of FNPS for Cu(II) is as high as ca. 0.8 mmol/g at the flow rate of 7000 h^?1. In addition, it is expected that the FNPS packed column will make it possible to purify huge volumes of waters contaminated with 10^?4 M levels of Zn(II), as long as the concentrations of the co-existing Ca(II) and Mg(II) are nearly equal to those in river waters.     

New chitin-based polymer hybrids, 4: soil burial degradation behavior of poly(vinyl alcohol)/chitin derivative miscible blends

Soil burial degradation behavior of miscible blend systems of poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA)/partially deacetylated chitin (1), PVA/chitin-graft-poly(2-methyl-2-oxazoline) (2), and PVA/chitin-graft-poly(2-ethyl-2-oxazoline) (3) was investigated in comparison with the case of a pure PVA film. The degradation of the blend films was followed by the weight changes, scanning electron microscopic observation, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, ¹H-NMR, and size exclusion chromatography analyses. The rate of weight decrease in these PVA/chitin derivative hybrids was higher than that of control PVA in the soil burial test. Fourier transform infrared spectra of the recovered samples of the blends showed an apparent increase of the absorption intensity due to β-diketone structure in PVA, which reflects the progress of biodegradation of PVA by PVA-oxidizing enzymes. Scanning electron microscopic observation revealed that these blend films were degraded by bacteria and actinomycetes. The triad tacticity and number-average molecular weight of PVA in the hybrids after soil burial determined by ¹H-NMR and size exclusion chromatography, respectively, were almost the same as those before soil burial. These results suggested that enzymatic degradation of the hybrid films occurred mainly on the surface and that degradation of the PVA-based samples in the soil was accelerated by blending the chitin derivatives. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 73: 1171–1179, 1999     

High-throughput method for a kinetics analysis of the high-pressure inactivation of microorganisms using microplates

Using microplates as pressure and cultivation vessels, a high-throughput method was developed for analyzing the high-pressure inactivation kinetics of microorganisms. The loss of viability from a high-pressure treatment, measured based on the growth delay during microplate cultivation, showed reproducibility with the conventional agar plate method and was applicable for the kinetics analysis.     

Aircraft measurement of organic aerosols over China

Lower to middle (0.5-3.0 km altitude) tropospheric aerosols (PM2.5) collected by aircraft over inland and east coastal China were, for the first time, characterized for organic molecular compositions to understand anthropogenic, natural, and photochemical contribution to the air quality. n-Alkanes, fatty acids, sugars, polyacids are detected as major compound classes, whereas lignin and resin products, sterols, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and phthalic acids are minor species. Average concentrations of all the identified compounds excluding malic acid correspond to 40-50% of those reported on the ground sites. Relative abundances of secondary organic aerosol (SOA) components such as malic acid are much higher in the aircraft samples, suggesting an enhanced photochemical production over China. Organic carbon (OC) concentrations in summer (average, 24.3 microg m(-3)) were equivalent to those reported on the ground sites. Higher OC/EC (elemental carbon) ratios in the summer aircraft samples also support a significant production of SOA over China. High loadings of organic aerosols in the Chinese troposphere may be responsible to an intercontinental transport of the pollutants and potential impact on the regional and global climate changes.     

A simple method for assessing the mutational effect on the protein-DNA interaction: application to amino acid substitutions

We have developed a simple method to assess the effect of mutationson the binding affinity change in the protein-DNA interaction.In this method, we evaluate the contribution of the local geometriceffect in protein-DNA recognition by calculating the changein interaction energy caused by mutations, and assess the bindingactivity by introducing the binding affinity index. We appliedthis method to the interaction between repressor and DNA. Inspite of the simplicity of the present method, the calculatedresults qualitatively agree with experimental results for alimited number of mutants of repressor. The mutational effectsare mostly attributed to the complementary interactions in theprotein-DNA complex. Although the method is still preliminaryand should be the subject of further experimental verification,it may be used effectively at the planning stage of mutagenesisexperiments to narrow down the selection of mutation by excludingunreasonable mutations.     

Identification of angular and positional deviations inherent to 5-axis machining centers with a tilting-rotary table by simultaneous four-axis control movements

This paper describes a method for identifying the eight deviations inherent to five axis control machining centers by means of simultaneous four-axis control movements. Some methods to identify the deviations have been proposed. However, a simultaneous four-axis control technique using a ball bar instrument has not been applied to the measurement of relative displacements between the main spindle and the worktable. Furthermore, the method for assessing the deviations from the trajectories has not been proposed. Thus, in this paper, a calibration method based on the simultaneous four-axis control technique is proposed for five axis control machining centers with a tilting rotary table. To confirm the validity of the proposed method, simulations were conducted. The trajectories were obtained by means of a mathematical model into which the eight deviations were substituted. In the first step, four of the eight deviations were estimated by an observation equation for which two measurement trajectories and six reference ones were used. In the second step, the remaining four deviations were geometrically calculated using the values estimated by the observation equation. As a result, it was found that the proposed method was sufficient to identify the deviations accurately.