Hijiki seaweed consumption elevates levels of inorganic arsenic intake in Japanese children and pregnant women

Although exposure to inorganic arsenic is a health concern, especially in developing foetuses and children, dietary exposure levels among pregnant women and children have not been extensively studied in Japan. To address this shortcoming, we completed a 3-day duplicate diet study for 104 children and 101 pregnant women in two cities, Shimotsuke, Tochigi and Asahikawa, Hokkaido. The levels of intake of total and inorganic arsenic were estimated using the concentrations of total and inorganic arsenic in food and drinking water measured by inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry. Estimated intakes of total and inorganic arsenic were 8.46 ± 3.02 [µg/kg BW/week] and 1.74 ± 1.07 [µg/kg BW/week] in pregnant women and 20.07 ± 3.53 [µg/kg BW/week] and 8.46 ± 3.02 [µg/kg BW/week] in children, respectively. Weekly arsenic exposure per kg body weight was significantly higher in children than in pregnant women. Concentrations of total arsenic were generally very low in collected drinking water samples with a small number of exceptions, and drinking water was not considered as a major source of inorganic arsenic exposure in Japan. We found that total and inorganic arsenic intake were higher among frequent consumers of hijiki seaweed, in both pregnant women and children. Although rice and rice products that are staple foods of the Japanese have been reported to be major sources of inorganic arsenic exposure in Japan, our results indicate that hijiki consumption elevates levels of inorganic arsenic in Japanese children and pregnant women. More efforts are necessary to reduce the risk of exposure to inorganic arsenic in populations highly sensitive to environmental pollutants.     

Effects of Granule Sizes on Physicochemical Properties of Cross‐linked and Acetylated Wheat Starches

Large and small wheat starch granules were used for cross‐linking and acetylation to determine effects of granule sizes on physicochemical properties of the modified starches. The native and cross‐linked starches from the small granules showed higher phosphorus contents than did those from the large granules. However, the level of phosphate substituents in the modified starches was not significantly different between the large and small granules under the same conditions. In contrast, the large granules had a higher reactivity with acetic anhydride than did the small granules. The phosphate group cross‐linked starch (CS), acetylated starch (AS) and acetylated cross‐linked starch (ACS) from the large granules had lower gelatinization temperatures and higher enthalpies than those from the small granules. The paste viscosities of the CSs from the large granules decreased rapidly, whereas those of the AS or ACS increased significantly as compared with those from the small granules. The pastes of cross‐linked starches from the small granules were more stable than those from the large granules, whereas the pastes of AS and ACS from the large and small granules had similar resistance to freeze‐thaw treatment. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) also showed that the small granules were less damaged after modification than the large ones. Thus, the different granule sizes resulted in different physicochemical properties of starch after modification.     

Photo-induced characteristics of a Ti-Nb-Sn biometallic alloy with low Young's modulus

Anodic oxidation was conducted to Ti-Nb-Sn biometallic alloy for the purpose of giving photo-induced properties without losing the low Young's modulus of the alloy. The anodic oxide consists of primary TiO₂ with small amounts of Nb₂O₅ and SnO. Rutile-structured TiO₂ prepared in an electrolyte solution containing 1.2 M sulfuric acid exhibits photocatalytic activity and superhydrophilicity under ultraviolet (UV) light illumination, and superhydrophilicity in the absence of UV light illumination. The Young's modulus of Ti-Nb-Sn alloy with anodic oxide demonstrates a low value of approximately 50 GPa, which expands its application of the alloy as biomedical materials by adding photocatalytic sterilization function.     

Study on ketalization reaction of polyvinylalcohol by ketones. I. Reaction between polyvinylalcohol and acetone

Ketalization reaction of polyvinylalcohol (PVA) by acetone, dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO) as solvent, under the presence of acidic catalyst, in homogeneous system was carried out and the synthesis of polyvinylketal with any ketalization degree was successfully performed. This reaction proceeds in bimolecular reaction, the equilibrium constant is ca. 0.07 at 40°C and roughly 10^?5 less compared with the acetalization reaction between PVA and aldehydes. Synthesis in aqueous media is difficult. However, the heat of reaction for both cases is 7.5 kcal/mol and both reactions are considered to proceed in an identical reaction mechanism. Ketalization reaction starts from isotactic OH portion and proceeds finally to syndiotactic OH portion, however, 100% ketalization is extremely difficult. The effects of water on reaction was confirmed both from theoretical and experimental viewpoints, and even though the presence of water lowers the degree of ketalization, it was observed that the presence of water below 0.1 mol against 1 mol of PVA will not significantly affect final ketalization degree. Polyvinylketals thus obtained are soluble in DMSO, dimethylformamide (DMF), and alcohols.     

Estimation of adverse drug reactions by the evaluation scores of subjective symptoms (complaints) and background of patients. I. Drug-induced liver disorders

The purpose of this study was to develop, implement, and assess an estimation procedure for preventing drug-induced liver disorders. We have built a database for CARPIS (case reports of adverse drug reaction and poisoning information services) since 1987, and the case reports of adverse drug reaction accumulated in the CARPIS database to be total about 11,000. We studied the estimation procedure by evaluating the subjective symptoms, backgrounds and laboratory data of patients in 199 cases cumulated in the CARPIS database. The evaluation scores were created on the basis of the subjective symptoms and backgrounds of the patients. Then, we re-estimated 199 cases with the evaluation scores, among which were 165 cases (82.9%) in 199 cases drug-induced liver disorders. For the rest of 34 cases (17.1%) drug-induced liver disorders could not be estimated from our evaluation scores. These 34 cases were either those which the subjective symptoms were not described in their reports, because the patients were hospitalized for other diseases and drug-induced liver disorders were discovered by a clinical examination, or cases of infants for whom it was difficult to confirm the subjective symptoms. The validity of this evaluation scores were sensitivity = 82.9%, specificity = 91.0% and predictive value of positive test = 94.8%. To apply this evaluation scores onto the clinical practice, we prepared an evaluation form for the subjective symptoms and backgrounds of the patients with drug suspecting-induced liver disorders.     

Fabrication of a fiber probe with a nanometric protrusion fornear-field optical microscopy by a novel technique of three-dimensionalnanophotolithography

A new technique based on photolithography has been developed to fabricate a fiber probe with a nanometric protruding tip for near field optical microscopy. As a first step, an optical fiber is sharpened by chemical etching and coated with metallic film. Next, it is coated with photoresist and its apex region is selectively exposed to an evanescent wave. Finally, the metallic film at the apex region is etched away. The foot diameter of the protrusion fabricated by this method is about 30 nm     

Linewidth reduction of a semiconductor laser by electrical feedback

An electrical feedback technique was proposed to stably reduce the linewidth of a semiconductor laser without changing its cavity structure. Calculations and experiments were carried out to reduce the linewidth of a 1.5 μm InGaAsP laser (DFB type) according to the following procedure. A compact Fabry-Perot interferometer was used as a freqeuncy discriminator. The minimum attainable linewidth, limited by the detector noise, was estimated as being narrower than 1 kHz when the reflectance of the interferometer used was higher than 0.9. The minimum linewidth obtained in the experiment was 330 kHz, which was 15 times as narrow as in the case of a free-running laser. The improvements of this experimental result can be expected by simultaneously reducing the AM noise of the laser.     

Production of single-chain variable fragment antibody (scFv) in fed-batch and continuous culture of Pichia pastoris by two different methanol feeding methods

This study examined the effects of two methods of methanol feeding, DO-stat and methanol concentration control, in fed-batch and continuous cultures of Pichia pastoris on cell growth and single-chain variable fragment antibody (scFv) expression. By maintaining the methanol concentration at 3.9 g l(-1) in fed-batch culture, a scFv concentration of 198 mg l(-1) was obtained. In continuous culture using both methanol feeding methods, the scFv concentration in the fermentation broth increased with a decreasing dilution rate. A maximum scFv concentration of 810 mg l(-1) at a dilution rate of 0.0094 h(-1) was obtained by maintaining the methanol concentration at 3.9 g l(-1). Although the specific methanol consumption rate was the same for both methods, the specific productivity of scFv was higher in methanol concentration control from 0.0094 to 0.049 h(-1) than it was in DO-stat control. Therefore, continuous culture with methanol feeding by the concentration control method shows promise for the industrial scale production of recombinant proteins by Pichia pastoris.