Effects of onion extract containing concentrated cysteine sulfoxides on sleep quality: a randomized,double-blind,placebo-controlled,crossover study

Food Science and Biotechnology - The objective of this randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover study was to examine the effects of onion extract containing concentrated cysteine...     

Robustness of Spin Polarization in Graphene‐Based Spin Valves

The decrease of spin polarization in spintronics devices under the application of a bias voltage is one of a number of currently important problems that should be solved. Here, an unprecedented robustness of the spin polarization in multilayer‐graphene spin valves at room temperature is revealed. Surprisingly, the spin polarization of injected spins is constant up to a bias voltage of +2.7 V and ?0.6 V in positive‐ and negative‐bias voltage applications at room temperature, respectively, which is superior to all spintronics devices. This finding is induced by suppression of spin scattering due to an ideal‐interface formation. Furthermore, an important accordance between theory and experiment in molecular spintronics is found by observing the fact that the signal intensity in a local scheme is double that in a nonlocal scheme, as theory predicts, which provides construction of a steadfast physical basis in this field.     

Selecting fuzzy if-then rules for classification problems usinggenetic algorithms

This paper proposes a genetic-algorithm-based method for selecting a small number of significant fuzzy if-then rules to construct a compact fuzzy classification system with high classification power. The rule selection problem is formulated as a combinatorial optimization problem with two objectives: to maximize the number of correctly classified patterns and to minimize the number of fuzzy if-then rules. Genetic algorithms are applied to this problem. A set of fuzzy if-then rules is coded into a string and treated as an individual in genetic algorithms. The fitness of each individual is specified by the two objectives in the combinatorial optimization problem. The performance of the proposed method for training data and test data is examined by computer simulations on the iris data of Fisher     

Adsorption of aluminium from wastewater by chitin and chitosan produced from silkworm chrysalides

Chitin, extracted from silkworm chrysalides, was employed for the production of a high‐purity and porous chitosan, as observed by scanning electron microscopy. Chitin and the chitosan produced from it were also analysed using ¹³C NMR spectroscopy to show the efficiency of deacetylation. The extracted chitin was investigated as an adsorbent material for aluminium removal from textile wastewater, by the column chromatographic method. After the treatment, the residual aluminium was lower than the limitation criterion of 0.2 mg L^?1. The isotherms of adsorption on chitin and chitosan surfaces were investigated and the best fits were observed using the Freundlich isotherm. At pH 5.0, the maximum adsorption capacity was 21.3 mg of aluminium per gram of chitosan over 70 h of experiments. Copyright © 2006 Society of Chemical Industry     

Decrease of hepatic triglyceride lipase levels and increase of cholesteryl ester transfer protein levels in patients with primary biliary cirrhosis: relationship to abnormalities in high-density lipoprotein

Purified human serum butyrylcholinesterase, which exhibits cholinesterase, aryl acylamidase, and peptidase activities, was cross-reacted with two different monoclonal antibodies raised against human serum butyrylcholinesterase. All three activities were immunoprecipitable at different dilutions of the two monoclonal antibodies. At the highest concentration of the antibodies used, nearly 100% of all three activities were precipitated, and could be recovered to 90-95% in the immunoprecipitate. The peptidase activity exhibited by the purified butyrylcholinesterase was further characterized using both Phe-Leu and Leu-enkephalin as substrates. The pH optimum of the peptidase was in the range of 7.5-9.5 and the divalent cations Co2+, Mn2+, and Zn2+ stimulated its activity. EDTA and other metal complexing agents inhibited its activity. Thiol agents and -SH group modifiers had no effect. The serine protease inhibitors, diisopropylfluorophosphate and phenyl methyl sulfonyl fluoride, did not inhibit. When histidine residues in the enzyme were modified by diethylpyrocarbonate, the peptidase activity was not affected, but the stimulatory effect of Co2+, Mn2+, and Zn2+ disappeared, suggesting the involvement of histidine residues in metal ion binding. These general characteristics of the peptidase activity were also exhibited by a 50 kD fragment obtained by limited alpha-chymotrypsin digestion of purified butyrylcholinesterase. Under all assay conditions, the peptidase released the two amino acids, leucine and phenylalanine, from the carboxy terminus of Leu-enkephalin as verified by paper chromatography and HPLC analysis. The results suggested that the peptidase behaved like a serine, cysteine, thiol-independent metallopeptidase.     

Impact response of a strip composite with a finite crack

The dynamic response of a central crack in a strip composite under normal impact is analyzed. The crack is oriented normally to the interfaces. Laplace and Fourier transform techniques are used to reduce the elastodynamic problem to a pair of dual integral equations. The integral equations are solved by using an integral transform technique and the result is expressed in terms of a Fredholm integral equation of the second kind. A numerical Laplace inversion routine is used to recover the time dependence of the solution. The dynamic stress intensity factor is determined and its dependence on time, the material properties and the geometrical parameters is discussed.     

Enantioselective hydroformylation of olefins catalyzed by rhodium(I) complexes of chiral phosphine–phosphite ligands

Using Rh(I) complexes of chiral phosphine–phosphites, hydroformylation of such a variety of olefins as aryl–substituted, alkyl–substituted, and heteroatom–substituted ones proceeded in high enantioselectivity. A trigonal bipyramidal RhH(CO)₂(phosphine–phosphite) complex is suggested as the active species, in which the hydride and the phosphite moiety are located at the apical positions. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Partial oxidation of methane using a microscale non-equilibrium plasma reactor

A flow-type, microscale, non-equilibrium plasma reactor was developed for partial oxidation of methane without a catalyst. A wide range of oxygen and methane mixtures was directly processed without dilution or explosion at ambient temperature because the microscale plasma reactor removes excess heat generated by partial oxidation, thereby maintaining a reaction field at temperatures near room temperature. Consequently, the least reactive methane was excited by high-energy electrons, whereas successive destruction of reactive oxygenates was minimized simultaneously within the extremely confined environment. A highly reactive and quenching environment is thereby obtained within a single reactor: these are paradoxical conditions in conventional thermochemical processes. A major product among liquid oxygenates was methanol, whose selectivity reached 34% at 30% of methane conversion. Selectivity of oxygenates such as methanol and formaldehyde depends strongly on the fragmentation pattern of methane dissociation by electron impact. Maximum selectivity of oxygenates, which is estimated from numerical simulation of a filamentary microdischarge, reaches 60% when the applied electric field corresponds to the breakdown field of methane (80 Td, 1 Td = 10⁻¹⁷ V cm²). The discharge current increases markedly with an applied electric field, but the selectivity of oxygenates decreases as the field strength increases.     

Selective Formation of Size-Controlled Silicon Nanocrystals by Photosynthesis in SiO Nanoparticle Thin Film

The SiO_x thin film with a thickness of about 1 mum was formed on a GaAs substrate by bar-coating with the organic solution of the SiO_x nanoparticles (~40 nm). The as-formed SiO_x thin film consists of the SiO_x nanoparticles; thus the thin film is macroscopically discontinuous and is referred to as a nanoparticle thin film. Although there were no silicon (Si) nanocrystals in the as-formed SiO_x nanoparticle thin film, Si nanocrystals were observed by Raman scattering measurement after the thin film was exposed to the laser beam. The growth of Si nanocrystals by laser irradiation is referred to as photosynthesis. The photosynthesis of Si nanocrystals is found to be a self-limiting process. After the average size reaches a certain value, further increase of irradiation time or laser power does not increase the average size. The photosynthesis is similar to the thermal synthesis of Si nanocrystals from SiO_x but much faster and low-temperature growth of Si nanocrystals from SiO _x. Furthermore, the laser irradiation makes nanoparticles larger by merging. This suggests a possibility of low-temperature formation of a Si-nanocrystal array embedded in a SiO₂ thin film. Such a structure has many potential device applications     

Early-stage inspection of concrete quality in structures by combined nondestructive method

A direct and early-stage nondestructive quality inspection method for concrete in structures is proposed. The advantage of the proposed method is that it can apply ultrasonic pulse velocity and rebound hardness measurements at ages of their highest sensitivities, 24 hours and 3 days after mixing, and can predict the 28-day compressive strength in a satisfactory accuracy. The proposed method involves the combined method of pulse velocity and rebound hardness that can provide versatile information other than strength and possibly predict durability related properties such as tensile strength, dynamic modulus of elasticity, density and water absorption.