Physicochemical characteristics of waxy rice starch influencing the in vitro digestibility of a starch gel

Starches were isolated from three waxy rice varieties: Koganemochi (Kog), Hakuchomochi (Hak), and Kantomochi 172 (K172). Forty percent starch gels were prepared and the extent of starch gel digestibility was determined by an in vitro method. The distribution of chain lengths of amylopectin was analyzed and differential scanning calorimetry was used to analyze gelatinization and retrogradation of waxy rice starch. The K172 gel had significantly higher resistance to hydrolysis than had the other gels. The K172 starch contained lower proportions of the short chains of amylopectin and showed higher gelatinization temperature and enthalpy. The retrogradation peak was measured using waxy rice starch gels stored for 1 and 7 days at 5 °C. The K172 gel was observed to retrograde more quickly and to have a greater extent of retrogradation than the other gels. The difference in amylopectin chain length distribution and recrystallinity contributed to the variation in the starch gel digestibility of waxy rice.     

Effect of amylose content and rice type on dynamic viscoelasticity of a composite rice starch gel

Amylose content is an important indicator to determine the utility of raw milled rice. Indica type rice with high amylose content is usually used for manufacturing rice noodles, while Japonica rice may be mixed partially to adjust the noodle texture. The effect of amylose and rice type on dynamic viscoelasticity of rice starch gel was investigated using a model starch composite in this study. The information will be helpful to control and obtain the required noodle texture by combination of different rice types. The results show that nonwaxy Indica and waxy Japonica rice starches in a composite mixture were incompatible and demonstrated their individual gelatinization behavior during heating. High amylose starch showed higher moduli and lower loss tangent values, as well as higher retrogradation rate. The starch gel made from Japonica rice starch showed a slow retrogradation rate even containing a similar amount of amylose to Indica starch. The storage modulus of the gel made from higher amylose rice was shown to be more independent of frequency. Not only amylose content but also chain length distribution in amylopectin affected the dynamic viscoelasticity of rice gel. Japonica rice starch, with fewer super-long chains in amylopectin, retrograded slower after gelatinization than Indica rice, thus the paste is too sticky for production of rice noodles.     

The Safety and Anti-Tumor Effects of Ozonated Water in Vivo

Ozonated water is easier to handle than ozone gas. However, there have been no previous reports on the biological effects of ozonated water. We conducted a study on the safety of ozonated water and its anti-tumor effects using a tumor-bearing mouse model and normal controls. Local administration of ozonated water (208 mM) was not associated with any detrimental effects in normal tissues. On the other hand, local administration of ozonated water (20.8, 41.6, 104, or 208 mM) directly into the tumor tissue induced necrosis and inhibited proliferation of tumor cells. There was no significant difference in the number of terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated deoxyuridine triphosphate-biotin nick-end labeling (TUNEL)-positive cells following administration of ozonated water. The size of the necrotic areas was dependent on the concentration of ozonated water. These results indicate that ozonated water does not affect normal tissue and damages only the tumor tissue by selectively inducing necrosis. There is a possibility that it exerts through the production of reaction oxygen species (ROS). In addition, the induction of necrosis rather than apoptosis is very useful in tumor immunity. Based on these results, we believe that administration of ozonated water is a safe and potentially simple adjunct or alternative to existing antineoplastic treatments.     

Gangliosides as Signaling Regulators in Cancer

At the plasma membrane, gangliosides, a group of glycosphingolipids, are expressed along with glycosphingolipids, phospholipids, and cholesterol in so-called lipid rafts that interact with signaling receptors and related molecules. Most cancers present abnormalities in the intracellular signal transduction system involved in tumor growth, invasion, and metastasis. To date, the roles of gangliosides as regulators of signal transduction have been reported in several cancer types. Gangliosides can be expressed by the exogenous ganglioside addition, with their endogenous expression regulated at the enzymatic level by targeting specific glycosyltransferases. Accordingly, the relationship between changes in the composition of cell surface gangliosides and signal transduction has been investigated by controlling ganglioside expression. In cancer cells, several types of signaling molecules are positively or negatively regulated by ganglioside expression levels, promoting malignant properties. Moreover, antibodies against gangliosides have been shown to possess cytotoxic effects on ganglioside-expressing cancer cells. In the present review, we highlight the involvement of gangliosides in the regulation of cancer cell signaling, and we explore possible therapies targeting ganglioside-expressing cancer.     

Nitrate percolation and discharge in cropped Andosols and Gray lowland soils of Japan

Contamination of groundwater with nitrate (NO₃) derived from agricultural activity is serious problem in many countries worldwide. We investigated the annual (growing and non-growing seasons) behavior of NO₃–N in the soil pore water of cropped Andosols and Gray lowland soils under eight crop groups (Type A: paddy rice, Type B: winter crops, Type C: vegetables 1, Type D: vegetables 2, Type E: vegetables and forages, Type F: legume crops, Type G: orchard, and Type H: grass). In the vegetable group (Type C) and the orchard group (Type G), which required large amounts of fertilizer and frequent top-dressing, NO₃–N concentrations in the soil pore water were extremely high. In these agricultural lands, it was clear that the inorganic nitrogen produced by nitrification in surface soil was dominantly discharged from a depth of 90 cm in July to September. The descending order of the amount of discharge of NO₃–N (N-discharge) was Type C > G > D > E > F > B > H > A for the Andosol, and Type G > C > F > D > E > B > H > A for the Gray lowland soil. If fertilization of the vegetables and orchard was performed based on the standard application amount, the annual average NO₃–N concentration at a depth of 90 cm exceeds 10 mg L^?1. To reduce the risk of groundwater contamination by NO₃–N, we calculated the annual cumulative water flux density and annual cumulative NO₃–N flux density. We examined the calculated fertilizer amount and proposed reduced fertilizer application amounts so that the annual average concentration of NO₃–N in soil pore water would not exceed 10 mg L^?1. The standard application amount of nitrogen fertilizer for vegetables should be reduced by 65.8 and 30.8 kg ha^?1 in the Andosol and the Gray lowland soil, respectively. We also proposed that the standard application amount of nitrogen fertilizer be reduced by 59.9 and 40.7 kg ha^?1 in Andosol orchards and Gray lowland soil orchards, respectively.     

Adaptive Control of Partially Known Systems and Application To Active Suspensions

In this paper, an adaptive control method is proposed for systems whose structures can be divided into a known part and an unknown part. A non‐adaptive control design, such as H∞ control design can be introduced into the known part of the system, and adaptive control can cope with the unknown part to realize the property designed by non‐adaptive control. This is achieved by means of backstepping. This method is applied to the control design of an active suspension system for a railway vehicle, which is divided into two parts: a main car body part and an actuator part. Some simulation results of the control system designed using H∞ control for the body part and adaptive control for the actuator part are provided.     

Invited Paper: Depth reproducibility of multiview depth‐fused 3‐D display

Abstract— A multi‐view depth‐fused 3‐D (DFD) display that provides smooth motion parallax for wide viewing angles is proposed. A conventional DFD display consists of a stack of two transparent emitting screens. It can produce motion parallax for small changes in observation angle, but its viewing zone is rather narrow due to the split images it provides in inclined views. On the other hand, even though multi‐view 3‐D displays have a wide viewing angle, motion parallax in them is discrete, depending on the number of views they show. By applying a stacked structure to multi‐view 3‐D displays, a wide‐viewing‐angle 3‐D display with smooth motion parallax was fabricated. Experimental results confirmed the viewing‐zone connection of DFD displays while the calculated results show the feasibility of stacked multi‐view displays.     

Defect structures in cosputtered thin films of transition-metal disilicides with C11<Subscript><Emphasis Type="Italic">b</Emphasis></Subscript>, C40 and C54 structures

Defect structures in crystallites of the stable phases in thin films of transition-metal (TM) disilicides (C11 _b MoSi₂, C40 TaSi₂, and C54 TiSi₂) produced by cosputtering and subsequent annealing have been investigated by transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Crystallites in thin films of MoSi₂, TaSi₂, and TiSi₂ all contain planar faults parallel to hexagonally arranged TMSi₂ planes, which are a characteristic feature commonly observed in all three crystal structures. These planar faults are twin boundaries in all cases. Twins in thin films of these disilicides, thus, have a common characteristic that the twin habit plane is parallel to hexagonally arranged TMSi₂ stoichiometric planes. For twins in thin films of C11 _b MoSi₂, and C54 TiSi₂, the twining elements can be deduced and the twin habit plane is found not to be parallel to the twinning (K ₁) plane, but to be perpendicular to it. Twins formed in C40 TaSi₂ thin films are different from those formed in C11 _b MoSi₂ and C54 TiSi₂ thin films, in that the crystal orientation of the twin is exactly the same as that of the matrix, since they are racemic twins that are only enantiomorphically (space groups of P6₂22 or P6₄22) related to each other. This article is based on a presentation in the symposium “Terence E. Mitchell Symposium on the Magic of Materials: Structures and Properties” from the TMS Annual Meeting in San Diego, CA in March 2003.     

Roxithromycin inhibits cytokine production by and neutrophil attachment to human bronchial epithelial cells in vitro

We evaluated the effect of roxithromycin on cytokine production and neutrophil attachment to human airway epithelial cells. Roxithromycin suppressed production of interleukin 8 (IL-8), IL-6, and granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor. It inhibited neutrophil adhesion to epithelial cells. Roxithromycin modulates local recruitment and activation of inflammatory cells, which may have relevance to its efficacy in airway diseases.     

CDR3 size spectratyping and sequencing of spectratype-derived TCR of spinal cord T cells in autoimmune encephalomyelitis

To characterize the nature of autoimmune disease-inducing T cells in the target organ, oligoclonal expansion of spinal cord T cells of Lewis rats with experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) was examined by complementarity-determining region 3 (CDR3) size spectratyping. It is known that TCR of in vitro-established myelin basic protein-specific T cell clones and lines have a short CDR3 and that the amino acid sequence in this region is highly preserved. On the basis of these findings, we analyzed 22 spectratypes of the TCR beta-chain (Vbeta1-20). Among them, only Vbeta8.2 and Vbeta17 showed oligoclonal expansion of TCR with a short CDR3 at the early stage of EAE. More interestingly, the spectratype profile of Vbeta8.2 seen at the early stage was preserved throughout the course of EAE, whereas that of Vbeta17 became more diverse at the peak stage of the disease. Analysis of nucleotide and predicted amino acid sequences of Vbeta8.2 CDR3 derived from the spectratypes revealed that the clones with CASSDSSYEQYFGPG, which is one of the representative sequences of encephalitogenic T cell clones, constituted the predominant population not only at the early stage but also at the peak and recovery stages (71, 71, and 60%, respectively). These findings imply that although the phenotype of T cells in the target organ diversifies as the autoimmune disease progresses, disease-associated TCR spectratype(s) are preserved throughout the course of the disease. Thus, CDR3 size spectratyping is a powerful tool for the screening of disease-inducing T cells in an autoimmune disease of unknown pathomechanism.