Interaction of inorganic arsenic with biogenic manganese oxide produced by a Mn-oxidizing fungus, strain KR21-2

In batch culture experiments we examined oxidation of As(III) and adsorption of As(III/V) by biogenic manganese oxide formed by a manganese oxide-depositing fungus, strain KR21-2. We expected to gain insight into the applicability of Mn-depositing microorganisms for biological treatment of As-contaminated waters. In cultures containing Mn2+ and As(V), the solid Mn phase was rich in bound Mn2+ (molar ratio, approximately 30%) and showed a transiently high accumulation of As(V) during the early stage of manganese oxide formation. As manganese oxide formation progressed, a large proportion of adsorbed As(V) was subsequently released. The high proportion of bound Mn2+ may suppress a charge repulsion between As(V) and the manganese oxide surface, which has structural negative charges, promoting complex formation. In cultures containing Mn2+ and As(III), As(III) started to be oxidized to As(V) after manganese oxide formation was mostly completed. In suspensions of the biogenic manganese oxides with dissolved Mn2+, As(III) oxidation rates decreased with increasing dissolved Mn2+. These results indicate that biogenic manganese oxide with a high proportion of bound Mn2+ oxidizes As(III) less effectively than with a low proportion of bound Mn2+. Coexisting Zn2+, Ni2+, and Co2+ also showed similar effects to different extents. The present study demonstrates characteristic features of oxidation and adsorption of As by biogenic manganese oxides and suggests possibilities of developing a microbial treatment system for water contaminated with As that is suited to the actual situation of contamination.     

Material design concept for Fe-substituted Li2MnO3-based positive electrodes

Fe-substituted Li₂MnO₃ (Li_1+x(Fe_yMn_1−y)_1−xO₂, 0 ≤ x ≤ 1/3, 0.3 ≤ y ≤ 0.7) was synthesized using a combination of coprecipitation, hydrothermal, and heat-treatment methods. It exhibits high initial specific capacity greater than 200 mAh g⁻¹ and small capacity, which fades up to the 50th cycle (>150 mAh g⁻¹ at the 50th cycle) under electrochemical cycle testing at 60 °C. The attractive electrode properties appeared by controlling the chemical composition (x > 0.05, 0.3 ≤ y ≤ 0.5) and high specific surface area (>20 m² g⁻¹). The Fe-substituted Li₂MnO₃ is an attractive candidate as a novel 3 V-class positive electrode material.     

A 104-week feeding study of genetically modified soybeans in F344 rats

A chronic feeding study to evaluate the safety of genetically modified glyphosate-tolerant soybeans (GM soybeans) was conducted using F344 DuCrj rats. The rats were fed diet containing GM soybeans or Non-GM soybeans at the concentration of 30% in basal diet. Non-GM soybeans were a closely related strain to the GM soybeans. These two diets were adjusted to an identical nutrient level. In this study, the influence of GM soybeans in rats was compared with that of the Non-GM soybeans, and furthermore, to assess the effect of soybeans themselves, the groups of rats fed GM and Non-GM soybeans were compared with a group fed commercial diet (CE-2). General conditions were observed daily and body weight and food consumption were recorded. At the termination (104 weeks), animals were subjected to hematology, serum biochemistry, and pathological examinations. There were several differences in animal growth, food intake, organ weights and histological findings between the rats fed the GM and/or Non-GM soybeans and the rats fed CE-2. However, body weight and food intake were similar for the rats fed the GM and Non-GM soybeans. Gross necropsy findings, hematological and serum biochemical parameters, and organ weights showed no meaningful difference between rats fed the GM and Non-GM soybeans. In pathological observation, there was neither an increase in incidence nor any specific type of nonneoplastic or neoplastic lesions in the GM soybeans group in each sex. These results indicate that long-term intake of GM soybeans at the level of 30% in diet has no apparent adverse effect in rats.     

Discriminative detection of volatile sulfur compound mixtures with a plasma-polymerized film-based sensor array installed in a humidity-control system

We demonstrated the discrimination of volatile sulfur compound mixtures with different mixing ratios by using an array of the plasma-polymerized film (PPF)-coated quartz crystal resonators. The PPF sensor array, which contains PPFs prepared from amino acids and synthetic polymers, exhibited different response patterns to mono or mixed volatile sulfur compounds (VSCs) (hydrogen sulfide and methanethiol) under a dry environment. The sensor array was installed in a desktop-size relative humidity controller. The relative humidity and temperature conditions of the sample flow to the sensor cell were equalized to those of the inner atmosphere of the sensor cell based on the concept of the two-separate-temperatures method. In this way, the baseline drift of PPF sensor response caused by the introduction of a highly humid sample was successfully suppressed. We compared the sensor array responses under the controlled humidity conditions. Presorption of water molecules by PPFs caused a decrease of sensor sensitivity, but the films still had the ability to discriminate sub-ppmv VSC mixtures having 6:1, 1:1, and 1:6 mixture ratios of hydrogen sulfide and methanethiol.     

A Petri Net-Based Controller for Flexible and Maintainable Sequence Control and its Applications in Factory Automation

A new type of software system for an industrial sequence controller is proposed. In this system, a control program is described with the Petri net-like language named Control-net (C-net). This language improves control software maintainability and flexibility. An efficient C-net interpretation schema for real-time control is presented and an overhead time evaluation model of the proposed schema is developed. Through the model analysis and measurement of the response time of an interpreter on a microcomputer, it is proved that the interpretation schema satisfies the required response time. Finally, a microcomputer based controller named Station Controller (SCR) in which the presented C-net interpreter was installed is described and several applications of this controller to real systems are illustrated.     

DNA compaction by divalent cations: structural specificity revealed by the potentiality of designed quaternary diammonium salts

DNA interaction with quaternary diammonium dications, R(CH(3))(2)N(+)(CH(2))(n)N(+)(CH(3))(2)R, having various intercharge distances, lengths, and branching, and the chemical nature of the hydrophobic substituents were investigated by fluorescent microscopy and circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopy to reveal their structural specificity for binding to DNA. The conformational behavior of DNA was found to be highly sensitive to the structure of the dications with separated charges. The distance between two ammonium groups greatly influences the compaction activity of the dications. To explain this situation, we proposed a model that demonstrates that the charge density of the dication and the geometric fit between DNA phosphates and the ammonium groups in the dications play an important role in providing efficient DNA collapse. Elongation of the alkyl substituents (R) in the diammonium salts from ethyl to hexyl did not generate any significant alterations in the compaction activities, whereas the branching of substituents caused a drastic decrease in their compaction ability. Based on the results of CD spectroscopy, it was found that the ability of the dications to provoke a DNA transition from the B-form to A-form was also specific: it depended on their intercharge distances and was independent of the length of alkyl substituents.