Estimation of concentrations of antifungal agents allowed as food additives in foods and their daily intake based on official inspection results in Japan in fiscal year 1998

The mean concentrations and daily intake of four antifungal agents were estimated based on the results of an analysis of 7,005 samples of food obtained in official inspections by Japanese local governments in fiscal year 1998. The mean concentration of diphenyl was 0.0004% of the allowable limit, and those of imazalil, o-phenylphenol, and thiabendazole were 14.0%, 3.5%, and 5.7%, respectively. The daily intakes of these antifungal agents per person, estimated from their concentrations and the daily consumption of the foods, were 0.000326, 1.89, 11.5, and 23.3 micrograms, respectively, and assuming a body weight of 50 kg, the amounts of these antifungal agents consumed were 0.000013%, 0.15%, 0.12%, and 0.47% of the acceptable daily intake, respectively. These values are similar to the values obtained on the basis of the results of the official inspection in fiscal years 1994 and 1996, except that the amount of diphenyl is much lower (1/100).     

Automated single nucleotide polymorphism typing using bead array in capillary tube

A low-cost and simple on-site technique for genotyping single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) was developed. The technique is based on allele-specific primer PCR and the recently developed bead arrays in a single tip technique. The performance of the method was verified by genotyping four SNPs that correlate with cardiovascular diseases.     

Fusion of fuzzy/neuro/evolutionary computing for knowledgeacquisition

Soft computing is a consortium of methodologies, which deal with various kinds of inaccuracies and uncertainties contained in real-world problems. In this paper soft computing is discussed from the viewpoint of a combination of characteristic features unique to fuzzy, neural, and evolutionary computing. This paper is intended to describe particularly the knowledge acquisition from inaccurate and uncertain data and to point out the areas where soft computing can become a breakthrough technology     

Effect of culture conditions of acetic acid bacteria on cellulose biosynthesis

An attempt was made to clarify the effect of culture conditions of an acetic acid bacteria (Acetobacter xylinum) on cellulose biosynthesis using glucose as carbon source in complex medium. Synchronous culture conditions were first realised on cellulose biosynthesis by cooling the system to 4°C for 24 h. Under the synchronous conditions stepwise division of the cell and the stepwise production of cellulose were found. Furthermore, cellulose was proved to be produced when the cell number in the medium was constant.     

Risk of cancer and non-cancer diseases in the atomic bomb survivors

Late health effects of exposure to atomic bomb radiation have been evaluated in survivors. A cohort of 120 321 people has been followed since 1950 for mortality, including the cause of death using the Japanese population registry system (Life Span Study), and for cancer incidence using population-based cancer registries. Findings have included a markedly increased risk of leukaemia several years after the exposure, increased risk of various malignant tumours several decades after the exposure and, more recently, findings of increased rates of non-cancer diseases such as cardiovascular diseases.     

Changes of wood properties treated with aqueous amine solution,bending tests and X-ray analysis of wood after amine treatment

Bending tests were conducted on oven-dried wood samples (Picea jezoensis Carr.) following treatment with various concentrations of aqueous ethylenediamine (EDA) to investigate the influence of amine treatment on the mechanical properties of wood. Under oven-drying conditions following EDA treatment and a methanol rinse, the densities of wood samples increased at concentrations above 50%, and the Young’s modulus decreased at concentrations above 60%. The specific Young’s modulus of wood samples decreased at concentrations above 60%, and stress- and strain-at-yield changed slightly at EDA concentrations in the range of 60–70%. X-ray analysis showed that the structures of cellulose changed at concentrations above 60% EDA and confirmed the transformation into cellulose III_I at 70% EDA. These results indicate the possibility that changes in the structure of the cell wall, accompanied by changes in the structures of cellulose microfibrils, contributed to changes in the specific Young’s modulus of the treated wood samples. In the same concentration range, changes in the Young’s modulus of wood samples increased with increasing relative humidity (RH). This also suggests that changes in the cell wall structure during the treatment contributed to changes in the Young’s modulus of wood at different RHs.     

Meta-analysis of coefficient alpha.

The meta-analysis of coefficient alpha across many studies is becoming more common in psychology by a methodology labeled reliability generalization. Existing reliability generalization studies have not used the sampling distribution of coefficient alpha for precision weighting and other common meta-analytic procedures. A framework is provided for a statistically grounded meta-analysis of coefficient alpha using its sampling distribution. Two empirical examples are offered to illustrate these methods, and limitations of reliability generalization are described. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Size reduction of PtRu catalyst particle deposited on carbon support by addition of non-metallic elements

Addition of non-metallic elements such as N, P and S was examined to reduce the catalyst particle size of PtRu deposited on a carbon support and to improve the catalytic performance. It was found that the addition of N, P and S reduced the size of PtRu catalyst particle and that P was the most effective additive on the size reduction. A well dispersed PtRu catalyst particle 2 nm in size was obtained by the addition of P. The maximum power density was observed to be 64 mW/cm² in a passive state of direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) at room temperature by using the PtRuP anode catalyst. The PtRuP catalyst retained the size independently with surface area of the carbon support. This made it possible to use a carbon support with low surface area (lower porosity), resulting in better accessibility by molecules on the noble metal particles which were deposited prior to the external surface in compared to the micropore walls. The maximum power density was improved from 44 to 64 mW/cm² by using a less porous carbon support (140 m²/g).