Effects of annual fluctuation of environmental factors on starch properties in potato tuber development

To test the effects of the annual fluctuation of the environmental factors on the starch properties in potato tuber development, starches were isolated from potato cultivars grown for ten consecutive years (2001–2010) on the experimental farm in Memuro, Hokkaido, the northernmost island of Japan. The median granule size, phosphorus content, and rapid visco‐analyzer pasting properties, peak viscosity, breakdown, and pasting temperature of these starches were analyzed. Daily temperature and precipitation records in Memuro were obtained from the Japan Meteorological Agency. Moreover, the correlation coefficients of yearly accumulated temperature and precipitation from flowering to harvesting with all the starch quality parameters were calculated. No relationships of accumulated temperature with median granule size, peak viscosity, and breakdown were found. The low phosphorus content was slightly associated with the high accumulated temperature. The pasting temperature was significantly and positively correlated with the accumulated temperature, suggesting that the pasting temperature strongly responds to the environmental temperature during potato tuber development. In contrast, all the starch quality parameters were almost irrespective of the precipitation during potato tuber development.     

Trigger Detection Using Geographical Relation Graph for Social Context Awareness

The concept of context awareness is believed to be a key enabler for the new ubiquitous network service paradigm brought by cloud computing platforms and smartphone OSs. In particular, autonomous context-based service customization is becoming an essential tool in this context because users cannot be expected to pick step by step the appropriate network services by manually and explicitly matching preferences for their current context. In this work, we hence focus on the core problem of how to detect changes of context for network services. In turn, detection of such changes can trigger timely system reconfigurations. We introduce a trigger detection mechanism based on a mixed graph-based representation model able to encode geographical and social relationships among people and social objects like stores, restaurants, and event spots. Our mechanism generates a trigger when a significant change in the graph takes place, and it is able to render significant changes in a geographical relationship that holds among objects socially connected with each other. The main benefits of our method are that (1) it does not require building reference models in advance, and (2) it can deal with different kinds of social objects uniformly once the graph is defined. A computer simulation scenario provides evidence on the expected performance of our method.     

Influence of Profile of Blast Furnace on Motion and Stress of Burden by 3D-DEM

 The objective of the present investigation is to analyze the influence of profile of blast furnace on the burden motion and stress field through 3D-DEM (three-dimensional discrete element method). It is clarified that the decrease of shaft angle speeds up the velocity of burden descending and decreases normal stress between particles or particle and wall. This change is good for the smooth operation of blast furnace. However, ore and coke would be mixed for the too small shaft angle (75°), which would influence the permeability in blast furnace. Thus, the appropriate shaft angle is around 80°. Decrease of bosh angle prevents the burden descending motion and increases normal stress between particles and bosh wall. Meanwhile, maximum normal stress acting on the wall moves from belly wall to bosh wall in the case of 68° bosh angle, which accelerates abrasion of refractory in bosh by friction force between particles and wall. Although burden descends smoothly in the case of 88° bosh angle, room is not enough for the ascending heated gas flow. Thus, the appropriate bosh angle is about 78°.     

SEMICONTINUOUS ETHANOL FERMENTATION WITH SHOCHU DISTILLERY WASTE*

An effective utilization system using distillery waste discharged from Japanese traditional shochu factory was developed. Mugi (barley) shochu distillery waste discharged from a novel vacuum distillation procedure (35–40°C) contained a large number of viable yeast (7 × 10⁶ cells/ml), glucoamylase activity (19.7 units/ml), acid protease activity (940 units/ml), and neutral protease activity (420 units/ml). Ethanol fermentation was achieved with a mash composed of glucose as the sola carbon source and mugi shochu distillery waste. After ethanol fermentation was completed the fermented broth was again distilled at 35–40°C in vacuo and the non volatile residue used in the next ethanol fermentation. In this way, semicontinuous ethanol fermentation system of more than 10 cycles was developed. Even in the distillate of the mash of the 8th fermentation cycle, 7.9% of ethanol, 33.0 ppm of ethyl acetate, 28.5 ppm of isobutyl alcohol, and other aromatic compounds were present. A semicontinuous ethanol fermentation system has been developed for shochu distillery waste which conventionally is treated as wastewater.     

Amperometric cholesterol biosensors based on hybrid organic–inorganic Langmuir–Blodgett films

Preparation and characterization of a thin-film cholesterol biosensor employing an organic–inorganic hybrid system of cholesterol oxidase (ChOx) and Prussian blue (PB) is described. ChOx was immobilized in Langmuir–Blodgett (LB) films consisting of positively charged octadecyltrimethylammonium (ODTA) and nano-sized PB clusters. Immobilization was performed by simple immersion of ODTA/PB LB films into an aqueous solution of ChOx. Subsequent ChOx absorption into LB films was confirmed by infrared reflection–absorption spectroscopy. Obtained ODTA/PB/ChOx LB films clearly exhibited a response current to cholesterol under an applied potential of 0.0 V (vs. Ag/AgCl). The linearity of current density versus cholesterol concentration was confirmed for the range 0.2–1.2 mmol/L. The present study indicates that simple immersion of ODTA/PB LB films into an enzyme solution is a promising method to produce many types of thin-film biosensors comprising a hybrid system of an oxidative enzyme and PB nano-clusters that work at a very low potential range.     

Direct Cardiac Epigenetic Reprogramming through Codelivery of 5′Azacytidine and miR-133a Nanoformulation

Direct reprogramming of cardiac fibroblasts to induced cardiomyocytes (iCMs) is a promising approach to cardiac regeneration. However, the low yield of reprogrammed cells and the underlying epigenetic barriers limit its potential. Epigenetic control of gene regulation is a primary factor in maintaining cellular identities. For instance, DNA methylation controls cell differentiation in adults, establishing that epigenetic factors are crucial for sustaining altered gene expression patterns with subsequent rounds of cell division. This study attempts to demonstrate that 5′AZA and miR-133a encapsulated in PLGA-PEI nanocarriers induce direct epigenetic reprogramming of cardiac fibroblasts to cardiomyocyte-like cells. The results present a cardiomyocyte-like phenotype following seven days of the co-delivery of 5′AZA and miR-133a nanoformulation into human cardiac fibroblasts. Further evaluation of the global DNA methylation showed a decreased global 5-methylcytosine (5-medCyd) levels in the 5′AZA and 5′AZA/miR-133a treatment group compared to the untreated group and cells with void nanocarriers. These results suggest that the co-delivery of 5′AZA and miR-133a nanoformulation can induce the direct reprogramming of cardiac fibroblasts to cardiomyocyte-like cells in-vitro, in addition to demonstrating the influence of miR-133a and 5′AZA as epigenetic regulators in dictating cell fate.     

Radial and longitudinal behaviour of hadronic cascade showers induced by 300 GeV protons in lead and iron absorbers

The profile of three-dimensional hadronic cascade showers initiated by 300 GeV protons in lead and iron is investigated using photo-sensitive films. The lateral and longitudinal distribution of shower particles are determined with a minimum of distortion that is inevitably introduced by an insertion of detectors between the metal plates.     

An 85 mW, 10 b, 40 Msample/s CMOS parallel-pipelined ADC

The design of a low-power 10 b, 40 Msample/s ADC integrated in a 0.8 μm multithreshold CMOS process is presented. The fully differential design employs parallel-pipelined ADC each using a combination of single- and multibit-per-stage pipelined architectures. The ADC, targeted for high-resolution video terminals and ultrasound scanning applications, achieves a nonlinearity-plus-quantization-error of ±1 LSB at 10 b, dissipates 85 mW from a single 2.7 V supply, and occupies an area of 1.9 mm by 2.1 mm     

Complex formation of the nonstructural protein 3 of hepatitis C virus with the p53 tumor suppressor

BACKGROUND: Length of survival of females with cystic fibrosis is worse than it is in males. Results of current research have shown an important correlation among dietary intake, nutritional status, lung function, and survival. The purpose of this study was to explore gender differences in dietary intake and pancreatic enzyme replacement therapy in males and females with cystic fibrosis. METHODS: The study was a cross-sectional measurement of clinical characteristics, energy, and fat intakes in males and females attending the cystic fibrosis outpatients clinics of the John Hunter Hospital, Newcastle, Australia. Twenty-nine subjects, (17 females and 12 males), completed 4-day weighed food records to measure total energy intake and the contribution of macronutrients and to document use of pancreatic enzyme replacement therapy. Energy intake was assessed as the percentage of the recommended energy intake for age and sex. RESULTS: Females with cystic fibrosis had significantly lower energy and fat intakes than males, whereas the females used significantly more pancreatic enzyme replacement therapy. There were no significant differences in clinical characteristics between groups. CONCLUSION: The results support the possibility that gender differences in the energy and fat intakes of older patients may contribute to differential median survival time of males and females with cystic fibrosis.