Effect of Processed Onions on the Plasma Concentration of Quercetin in Rats and Humans

Onion is a major dietary source of the bioactive flavonoid, quercetin. Quercetin aglycone (QA) is exclusively distributed in the onion peel, although quercetin‐4′‐β‐O‐glucoside (Q4′G) is present in both the peel and the bulb, and quercetin‐3,4′‐β‐O‐diglucoside (Q3,4′diG) is present only the bulb. The bioavailability of flavonoids from fruits and vegetables is frequently affected by the manufacturing process and related conditions. The present study aimed to estimate the effect of food processing on the bioavailability of onion QA and its glucosides, Q4′G and Q3,4′diG, provided through the consumption of onion products. Rats were fed onion peel and onion bulb products‐mixed meal or pure QA/Q4′G+Q3,4′diG‐mixed meal at 5 mg QA equivalent/kg body weight. A comparison of the blood plasma concentrations strongly suggested that quercetin glucosides (Q4′G and Q3,4′diG) are superior or at least equal to QA in their bioavailability, when each purified compound is mixed with the meal. The intake of a peel powder‐containing meal provided a significantly higher increase of plasma quercetin concentration than the peel extract, bulb powder, bulb extract, and bulb sauté containing meals at each period tested. A human ingestion study confirmed the superiority of onion peel powder to onion peel extract. The difference of log P for QA between peel powder and peel extract indicated that a food matrix improves the bioavailability of QA in onion peel products. These results demonstrated that the bioavailability of quercetin provided by not the onion bulb but the onion peel is significantly affected by food processing.     

Athermal Mach-Zehnder interferometer-synchronised arrayed waveguide grating multi/demultiplexer with low loss and wide passband

Described is a silica-based athermal 100 GHz-spacing 40-channel arrayed waveguide grating (AWG) with a Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI)-synchronised configuration that employs resin-filled grooves in the AWG and MZI. By suppressing the groove excess loss and using 1.5%-Delta waveguides, a low insertion loss of 3.2 dB and a wide 0.5 dB bandwidth of 45.9 GHz with athermal operation in the -5 to 65degC range and a compact chip size were achieved.     

Reversible large-body formation from nuclear bodies upon amino acid(s) starvation in T24 cells

AP435 dot, a nuclear dot-like structure that is recognized by a monoclonal antibody AP435 MAb and that seems to correlate with perinuclear intermediate filaments, was identified as a nuclear body by double immunofluorescent staining with AP435 MAb and the nuclear-body-specific antibody alphaSp100 or mAb 5E10. In T24 cells, nuclear bodies usually appear as small entities with an apparent diameter ranging from 0.2 to 0.7 microm, and several to 20 or more of them are present per nucleus. After long culture without a change in the medium, however, nuclear bodies disappeared while one or more large doughnut-shaped bodies appeared, which had apparent outer diameters of 0.7-1.8 microm. When the medium was changed or medium components were added, large bodies disappeared and many nuclear bodies of normal size reappeared within several hours. Large-body formation was not related to the arrest of DNA synthesis, as revealed by double labeling with AP435 MAb and anti-cyclin antibody. Among the medium components, only an amino acid mixture induced the change from large bodies to nuclear bodies. Large-body formation was also observed in long-cultured HeLa cells. These results suggest that nuclear bodies reversibly aggregate or reorganized to form large bodies upon amino acid(s) starvation.     

Conical beam control of quadrifilar helical antennas

The conical beam control of quadrifilar helical antennas with a fixed helical arm length is investigated. By adjusting a portion of the antenna height to vary the pitch angle, the elevation angle of the beam direction can be controlled with an almost constant gain. It is found that the elevation angle of the beam direction varies in proportion to the pitch angle     

A novel polymerization process using rotating disk atomizer

Macroporous highly crosslinked styrene(St)-divinylbenzene(DVB) copolymers were prepared by solution and suspension polymerization techniques. The obtained materials allowed the grafting of poly(N-vinyl-tert-butylcarbamate) (PVCa) either by addition of VCa macroradicals to the solid bound double bonds or by termination involving the reaction of VCa macroradicals with radicals present on the carrier. Poly(vinylamine) (PVAm) grafted on St-DVB carriers was obtained after the hydrolysis of grafted PVCa with HCl and the subsequent removal of the aminebonded HCl by means of NaOH. Heterogeneous bifunctional catalysts were obtained by attachment of cobalt(II) 4,4′,4″,4?-tetracarboxyphthalocyanine (CoPc(COOH)₄) to the grafted PVAm. The prepared catalysts were applied to the autoxidation of thiols to disulfides, both in predominantly apolar media and in aqueous media. It was demonstrated, that important prerequisites for the applicability of macroporous St-DVB copolymers as carriers for the PVAm-CoPc(COOH)₄ catalyst include a high surface area, a sufficiently large average pore diameter and accessibility of the pendent double bonds.     

A concept of combined micro and macro fracture mechanics to brittle fracture

Real materials inevitably contain both stress concentrators as cracks or notches and as dislocations, that is both macroscopic and microscopic one. From this viewpoint, a concept of combined micro and macro fracture mechanics is proposed for low-stress brittle fracture of steels.     

Microangioarchitecture of rat parietal cortex with special reference to vascular "sphincters". Scanning electron microscopic and dark field microscopic study

Microangioarchitecture of the rat parietal cortex was studied by means of scanning electron microscopy and dark field microscopy. The richest supply of blood vessels in the parietal cortex was found in layer III + IV and layer V, where 2 isolated plexuses of microvessels were prominent. The appearance of the plexuses was quite different between motor and sensory areas. In the motor area the capillary plexuses were narrow and compact, while in sensory area the plexuses were wide and diffuse. Characteristic ring formations, called ring-shaped-compressions in the present study, were frequently observed at branching sites of arterioles. The ring-shaped-compression probably corresponds to the precapillary sphincter. A similar structure was also seen in capillaries and venules and, therefore, it is likely that not only arterioles, but also capillaries and even venules, can actively change diameter to control cerebral blood flow.