Aluminium content of foods originating from aluminium-containing food additives

Aluminium (Al) levels of 90 food samples were investigated. Nineteen samples contained Al levels exceeding the tolerable weekly intake (TWI) for young children [body weight (bw): 16 kg] when consuming two servings/week. These samples were purchased multiple times at specific intervals and were evaluated for Al levels. Al was detected in 27 of the 90 samples at levels ranging from 0.01 (limit of quantitation) to 1.06 mg/g. Of these, the Al intake levels in two samples (cookie and scone mix, 1.3 and 2 mg/kg bw/week, respectively) exceeded the TWI as established by European Food Safety Authority, although the level in the scone mix was equivalent to the provisional TWI (PTWI) as established by Joint Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations/World Health Organization Expert Committee on Food Additives. The Al levels markedly decreased in 14 of the 19 samples with initially high Al levels. These results indicated reductions in the Al levels to below the PTWI limits in all but two previously identified food samples.     

Generation of disk-like domains with nanometer scale thickness in merocyanine dye LB film induced by hydrothermal treatment

We have characterized the binary LB films of merocyanine dye (MS) and arachidic acid (C₂₀) before and after hydrothermal treatment (HTT), which is defined as a heat treatment under relative humidity of 100%, focusing on the morphology studied by bright field (BF) microscopy and fluorescence (FL) microscopy. BF microscopy observation has revealed that the as-deposited MS-C₂₀ binary LB film is found to emit intense red fluorescence over the whole film area by 540-nm excitation. Since the surface image is almost featureless, it is considered that the crystallite sizes of J-aggregate are less than 10 μm. Interestingly, after HTT, round-shaped domains are observed in the LB systems, and the sizes are reaching 100 μm in diameter. Crystallites of J-aggregate, which are bluish in color and emit intense red fluorescence, tend to be in the round domains. We have observed two different types of domains, i.e., blue-rimmed domains and white-rimmed domains, which are postulated to be confined in the inner layers and located at the outermost layer, respectively. The thickness of the domains is equal to or less than that of the double layer of the MS-C₂₀ mixed LB film, which is ca. 5.52 nm. The molecular order of MS in the J-aggregate is improved by the HTT process leading to the significant sharpening of the band shape together with the further red shift of the band (from 590 to 594 nm up to 597 to 599 nm). The reorganized J-band is considered to be ‘apparently’ isotropic owing to the random growth of the J-aggregate in the film plane. We consider that the lubrication effect by the presence of water molecules predominates in the HTT process.     

Serum Amyloid A3 Promoter-Driven Luciferase Activity Enables Visualization of Diabetic Kidney Disease

The early detection of diabetic nephropathy (DN) in mice is necessary for the development of drugs and functional foods. The purpose of this study was to identify genes that are significantly upregulated in the early stage of DN progression and develop a novel model to non-invasively monitor disease progression within living animals using in vivo imaging technology. Streptozotocin (STZ) treatment has been widely used as a DN model; however, it also exhibits direct cytotoxicity to the kidneys. As it is important to distinguish between DN-related and STZ-induced nephropathy, in this study, we compared renal responses induced by the diabetic milieu with two types of STZ models: multiple low-dose STZ injections with a high-fat diet and two moderate-dose STZ injections to induce DN. We found 221 genes whose expression was significantly altered during DN development in both models and identified serum amyloid A3 (Saa3) as a candidate gene. Next, we applied the Saa3 promoter-driven luciferase reporter (Saa3-promoter luc mice) to these two STZ models and performed in vivo bioluminescent imaging to monitor the progression of renal pathology. In this study, to further exclude the possibility that the in vivo bioluminescence signal is related to renal cytotoxicity by STZ treatment, we injected insulin into Saa3-promoter luc mice and showed that insulin treatment could downregulate renal inflammatory responses with a decreased signal intensity of in vivo bioluminescence imaging. These results strongly suggest that Saa3 promoter activity is a potent non-invasive indicator that can be used to monitor DN progression and explore therapeutic agents and functional foods.     

Levels of Vibrio parahaemolyticus and thermostable direct hemolysin gene-positive organisms in retail seafood determined by the most probable number-polymerase chain reaction (MPN-PCR) method

The incidence and levels of Vibrio parahaemolyticus and thermostable direct hemolysin gene (tdh)-positive organisms in retail seafood were determined. The most probable number-polymerase chain reaction (MPN-PCR) method using a PCR procedure targeting the species-specific thermolabile hemolysin gene (tlh) and tdh was used to determine the levels of V. parahaemolyticus and tdh-positive organisms, respectively. In seafood for raw consumption, V. parahaemolyticus was found in four (13.3%) of 30 fish samples, 11 (55.0%) of 20 crustacean samples, and 29 (96.7%) of 30 mollusc samples. Levels of V. parahaemolyticus were below 10(4) MPN/100 g in all fish and crustacean samples tested. However, they were above 10(4) MPN/100 g in 11 (36.7%) of the 30 mollusc samples. In all seafood for raw consumption, the level of tdh-positive organisms was below the limit of detection (< 30 MPN/100 g). In seafood for cooking, V. parahaemolyticus was found in 15 (75.0%) of 20 fish samples, nine (45.0%) of 20 crustacean sample, and 20 (100%) of 20 mollusc samples. Levels of V. parahaemolyticus were above 10(4) MPN/100 g in only three (15.0%) and one (5.0%) of the 20 fish and 20 crustacean samples, respectively. However, they were above 10(4) MPN/100 g in 18 (90.0%) of the 20 mollusc samples. In seven (35.0%) of the 20 mollusc samples, tdh-positive organisms were found and their levels ranged from 3.6x10 to 1.1 x 103 MPN/100 g. From four of seven tdhpositive samples, tdh-positive V. parahaemolyticus was isolated.     

Perpendicular oriented cylinders via directional coalescence of spheres embedded in block copolymer films induced by solvent annealing

Polystyrene-b-poly(methyl acrylate) (PS-b-PMA) block copolymer with PS volume fraction of 25.2 vol% was synthesized by atom transfer radical polymerization. Non-pretreated silicon wafers were used as the substrates to prepare perpendicular oriented PS cylinders in PMA matrix via solvent annealing which could induce the transformation of spheres to vertically oriented and hexagonally packed cylinders. The spherical microdomains were formed after the evaporation of solvents from the solutions of the block copolymer in selective solvents mixed from methanol, acetone and dichloromethane. The thickness of films could be as thick as 1000 nm, which were much thicker than usual cases and the cylinders came from the directional coalescence of the spheres, thus any pre-treatments of the substrates were not required for perpendicular orientation. The structures were characterized by small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS), transmission electron microscope (TEM), atom force microscopy (AFM) and grazing incidence small angle X-ray scattering (GISAXS).     

Rubber‐toughened polyamide‐6 with a low thermal expansion coefficient: effect of preferential distribution of rubber and inorganic filler

The effects of morphological changes on the thermal expansion, toughness and heat resistance of polyamide‐6 (PA)/styrene–ethylene–butylene–styrene (SEBS)/polyphenylene ether (PPE) blends were investigated. Compared with the typical ‘sea (PA matrix)–island (PPE domain)–lake (SEBS in PPE domain)’ morphology, an injection‐molded ternary blend with a preferential distribution of SEBS component at the interface between PA and PPE exhibited a low coefficient of linear thermal expansion (CLTE) in the flow direction. This low CLTE was ascribed to the deformation of SEBS and PA into a co‐continuous microlayer network structure during injection molding. Consequently, the expansion preferentially occurred towards the thickness direction. Further CLTE reduction either by a change in PA viscosity or by the selective location of an inorganic filler was examined, and its influences on impact strength and heat resistance are discussed based on transmission electron microscopy observations. © 2015 Society of Chemical Industry     

Estimation of Small Reservoir Storage Capacities with Remote Sensing in the Brazilian Savannah Region

Small reservoirs play an important role in supporting the local economy in the savannah areas of Brazil and are primarily used for the provision of water for irrigation and watering livestock. Hundreds of small reservoirs have been built in the last few decades in the Preto River Basin, but efficient water management and sound planning are hindered by inadequate knowledge of the number, storage capacity and spatial distribution of reservoirs in the basin. The main reason for the lack of this information is that current methodologies for quantifying the physical parameters of reservoirs are laborious, time consuming and costly. To address this lack of data, a simple method to estimate reservoir storage volumes based on remotely sensed reservoir surface area measured with LANDSAT was developed. The method was validated with a subset of reservoirs in the Preto River Basin for which surface areas, shapes and depths were determined with ground-based survey measurements. The agreement between measured and the remotely sensed reservoir volumes was satisfactory, indicating that remotely-sensed images can be used for improved management of water in the Brazilian Savannah region. With the newly developed methods we found that the Preto River Basin’s 147 small reservoirs can store 19 × 10⁶ m³ of water at full capacity.     

Hybrid Counterfactual Logics

The purpose of this paper is to argue that the hybrid formalism fits naturally in the context of David Lewis’s counterfactual logic and that its introduction into this framework is desirable. This hybridization enables us to regard the inference “The pig is Mary; Mary is pregnant; therefore the pig is pregnant” as a process of updating local information (which depends on the given situation) by using global information (independent of the situation). Our hybridization also has the following technical advantages: (i) it preserves the completeness and decidability of Lewis’s logic; (ii) it allows us to characterize the Limit Assumption as a proof-rule with some side-conditions; and (iii) it enables us to establish a general Kripke completeness result by using the proof-rule corresponding to the Limit Assumption.     

Fabrication of optics by use of plasma chemical vaporization machining with a pipe electrode

We figure optical surfaces by plasma chemical vaporization machining (CVM) with a pipe electrode, in which an rf plasma generated at the electrode tip under approximately atmospheric pressure moves over the surfaces. We propose a shaping method in which the movement of plasma on the surfaces can be determined. Flat and aspheric surfaces are successfully figured with the desired peak-to-valley shape accuracy of 0.1 microm. The root-mean-square roughness of the resultant surfaces is at the subnanometer level. These results confirm that the plasma CVM and the shaping method have the capability to fabricate optics with high accuracy.