Estimation of preservative concentrations in foods and their daily intake based on official inspection results in Japan in fiscal year 1998

The mean concentration and daily intake of five preservatives were estimated based on the results of an analysis of 89,927 samples of food obtained in official inspections by Japanese local governments in fiscal year 1998. The mean concentration of benzoic acid was 9.5% of the allowable limit, and those of dehydroacetic acid, p-hydroxybenzoic acid, propionic acid, and sorbic acid were 1.5%, 5.7%, 1.7%, and 23.9%, respectively. Daily intake levels of these preservatives per person estimated from the concentration and daily consumption of foods were 6.23 mg, 0.0303 mg, 1.02 mg, 8.10 mg, and 25.0 mg, respectively, and assuming a body weight of 50 kg, the amounts of benzoic acid, p-hydroxybenzoic acid, and sorbic acid consumed were 2.5%, 0.2%, and 2.0% of their acceptable daily intakes, respectively. These values were similar to those obtained based on the results of the official inspections in fiscal years 1994 and 1996.     

A New Speed-Control System for DC Motors and its Application to Elevators

A circuit with a unidirectional armature current and bidirectional field current was used in order to realize a high-reliability speed-control system for dc motors by simplifying the armature circuit construction in comparison with conventional Thyristor-Leonard speed-control systems. In making the new circuit feasible, we developed a system in which either armature current or field current is fixed and the other varies depending on the magnitude of the torque command; a high-reliability magnetically controlled three-phase thyristor amplifier; and minor feedback loops provided with a field current control circuit and armature current control circuit. By using these techniques, we developed a dc motor control system that features higher reliability and smaller power consumption than conventional control systems. The new system was applied to elevator control with good results.     

Optimal control of active transport across a biological membrane

We propose an optimal control principle for active transport across a biological membrane. The modeling of the membrane is based on Hill and Kedem's thermodynamic model. The performance function used to evaluate the optimality of the transport involved the rate of time-dependent changes in the concentration of particles in all the membrane layers as the state variables, and the number of receptor sites on the membrane as the control input. We decided that the optimal transport state is achieved when this cost function has been minimized under the constraints of the system equations characterizing the membrane modeling. The changes in the number of particles in the membrane layer evoked by changes in the kinetic parameters can be explained by the compensatory action of the optimal control strategy in order to prevent excessive decrease or increase of the molecular particles in all the membrane layers. The changes in the number of receptors in the paths of some physiological states can be explained by the optimal control modeling of the membrane transport. This model will be made available to create and evaluate an artificial membrane. This work was presented, in part, at the International Symposium on Artificial Life and Robotics, Oita, Japan, February 18–20, 1996     

Salt effects on the conformation of a ‘statistical’ copolymer of l-leucine and l-lysine

For studying the influence of water structure breaking and making anions on the conformation of poly(α-amino acids) containing hydrophobic and ionic side chains, c.d. measurements on ‘statistical copolymers of l-leucine and l-lysine were carried out in LiClO₄, NaClO₄, Li₂SO₄, Na₂SO₄, KF, NaF, and NaCl solutions and also in salt-free water. Copolymers with 50 mol% l-leucine do not form α-helices in pure water at pH 7 (20°C); however LiClO₄ and NaClO₄ at concentrations as low as 0.003 moll^?1 induce α-helix formation almost independent of cation. Surprisingly, not only ClO^?₄ but also SO^2?₄ has an α-helix inducing effect in this case, in contrast with basic homopoly (α-amino acids), where such an effect of SO^2?₄ was not observed. Therefore the presence of l-leucyl residues seems to be responsible for this α-helix inducing effect of sulphate anions. This agrees with the fact that sulphate stabilizes the ordered periodic conformation of native proteins as the increase of denaturing temperature shows. It can be assumed that the results of these measurements support the assumptions on the influence of water structure in making SO₄ anions on hydrophobic interactions, as well as of water structure breaking ClO₄ anions.     

Electrochemical modification of active carbon fiber electrode and its application to double-layer capacitor

Electrochemical oxidation of an active carbon fiber (ACF) electrode showed an enhancement effect of the electrode capacitance. The modification of ACF, however, increased the electrode inner resistance with an increase in the capacitance. Au deposition, the deaeration and the electrochemical reduction (discharge) after the modification showed a decrease in the inner resistance. Thus, the capacitor using the modified ACF electrodes with deaeration. Au deposition and/or discharge treatment showed an enhancement of capacitance with decreasing inner resistance.     

A 104-week feeding study of genetically modified soybeans in F344 rats

A chronic feeding study to evaluate the safety of genetically modified glyphosate-tolerant soybeans (GM soybeans) was conducted using F344 DuCrj rats. The rats were fed diet containing GM soybeans or Non-GM soybeans at the concentration of 30% in basal diet. Non-GM soybeans were a closely related strain to the GM soybeans. These two diets were adjusted to an identical nutrient level. In this study, the influence of GM soybeans in rats was compared with that of the Non-GM soybeans, and furthermore, to assess the effect of soybeans themselves, the groups of rats fed GM and Non-GM soybeans were compared with a group fed commercial diet (CE-2). General conditions were observed daily and body weight and food consumption were recorded. At the termination (104 weeks), animals were subjected to hematology, serum biochemistry, and pathological examinations. There were several differences in animal growth, food intake, organ weights and histological findings between the rats fed the GM and/or Non-GM soybeans and the rats fed CE-2. However, body weight and food intake were similar for the rats fed the GM and Non-GM soybeans. Gross necropsy findings, hematological and serum biochemical parameters, and organ weights showed no meaningful difference between rats fed the GM and Non-GM soybeans. In pathological observation, there was neither an increase in incidence nor any specific type of nonneoplastic or neoplastic lesions in the GM soybeans group in each sex. These results indicate that long-term intake of GM soybeans at the level of 30% in diet has no apparent adverse effect in rats.     

Pharmacotherapy of Itch—Antihistamines and Histamine Receptors as G Protein-Coupled Receptors

Itching can decrease quality of life and exacerbate skin symptoms due to scratching. Itching not only contributes to disease progression but also triggers complications such as skin infections and eye symptoms. Therefore, controlling itching is very important in therapeutic management. In addition to the well-known histamine, IL-31, IL-4 and IL-13 have recently been reported as factors that induce itching. Itching may also be caused by factors other than these histamines. However, we do not know the extent to which these factors are involved in each disease. In addition, the degree of involvement is likely to vary among individuals. To date, antihistamines have been widely used to treat itching and are often effective, suggesting that histamine is more or less involved in itchy diseases. This review discusses the ligand-receptor perspective and describes the dynamics of G protein-coupled receptors, their role as biased agonists, their role as inverse agonists, proactive antihistamine therapy, and drug selection with consideration of impaired performance and anti-PAF effects.     

Removal of formaldehyde by hydroxyapatite layer biomimetically deposited on polyamide film

Some harmful volatile organic compounds (VOCs), such as formaldehyde, are regulated atmospheric pollutants. Therefore, development of a material to remove these VOCs is required. We focused on hydroxyapatite, which had been biomimetically coated on a polyamide film, as an adsorbent and found that formaldehyde was successfully removed by this adsorbent. The amount of formaldehyde adsorbed increased with the area of the polyamide film occupied by hydroxyapatite. The amount of adsorbed formaldehyde and its rate of adsorption were larger for hydroxyapatite deposited on polyamide film than for the commercially available calcined hydroxyapatite powder. This high adsorption ability is achieved by the use of nanosized particles of hydroxyapatite with low crystallinity and containing a large number of active surface sites. Therefore, hydroxyapatite biomimetically coated on organic substrates can become a candidate material for removing harmful VOCs such as formaldehyde.     

Diverse reports recommendation system based on latent Dirichlet allocation

Behaviormetrika - This paper presents a proposal for system supporting learners in improving their report-writing skills by recommending reports from previous learners. The proposed system...     

Comparison of fatigue strengths of biocompatible Ti-15Zr-4Nb-4Ta alloy and other titanium materials

The fatigue strength of an annealed Ti-15Zr-4Nb-4Ta alloy at 1 × 10⁸ cycles was approximately 730 MPa. The fatigue strength of its alloy was much improved following an ageing treatment after a solution treatment. The tension-to-tension fatigue strengths of annealed Ti-6Al-4V, V-free Ti-6Al-7Nb, Ti-6Al-2Nb-1Ta, and Ti-15Mo-5Zr-3Al alloys at 1 × 10⁸ cycles were approximately 685, 600, 700, and 350 MPa, respectively. The ratios of fatigue strength at 1 × 10⁸ cycles to ultimate tensile strength for the α- and (α + β)-type Ti materials were higher than 65%.