Influence of high molecular weight polypeptides on the mouthfeel of commercial beer

Low malt beers have high sales volumes in Japan, but improving their mouthfeel, including softness, smoothness and decreasing astringency, is challenging because the compounds responsible remain unclear. In this study, beer was fractionated by preparative size‐exclusion chromatography, with the polypeptide and maltodextrin fractions purified using solid‐phase extraction and ion‐exchange resin. Sensory data from a spike test showed that the mouthfeel (softness, smoothness, and reduced astringency) of low malt beer was improved both by the degree of polymerisation (DP) of maltodextrins (DP of 2‐10; at increased concentration of 40 to 60%; P < 0.01) and by 10 ‐ 20 kilodalton (kDa) high molecular weight (HMW) polypeptide and 2‐3 kDa low molecular weight polypeptide fractions (at a 50% increase in concentration; P < 0.01). Furthermore, highly purified 10 to 20 kDa HMW polypeptides improved the softness and smoothness and decreased the astringency (at a 25% increase in concentration). This report is the first to provide experimental sensory data indicating that HMW polypeptides improve the mouthfeel of beer. Based on these findings, a new low malt beer was developed that showed significantly higher levels of the 10‐20 kDa HMW polypeptides with an overall improved mouthfeel. Mass spectrometric analysis of the 10 to 20 kDa proteins identified several unique foam positive proteins, including barley dimeric alpha‐amylase inhibitor‐1 and non‐specific lipid‐transfer protein 1. These 10‐20 kDa HMW proteins are likely to be responsible for the improved mouthfeel of beer. © 2020 Kirin Holdings Kabushik Kaisha Co. Ltd. Journal of the Institute of Brewing published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of The Institute of Brewing & Distilling     

Novel nonspeech tones for conceptualizing spatial information

We propose a novel concept toward interfaces that can provide visually impaired persons with the opportunity to recover the freedom to conceptualize their environment without depending on conventional voice synthesizer systems. Fourteen subjects participated in ten experiments to provide results that evaluated their performances to conceptualize spatial information based on cues in “artificial-sounding” (AS) and “natural-sounding” (NS) tones. The source of AS tones was the digitized sound used by the vOICe Learning Edition, and the source of NS tones was fan noise with analogs in everyday listening. Experimental results revealed that the use of NS tones was essential for improving the conceptualization performance of subjects as the eventual users of novel human–environment interfaces. This work was presented in part at the 11th International Symposium on Artificial Life and Robotics, Oita, Japan, January 23–25, 2006     

Task-specific virtual reality training on hemiparetic upper extremity in patients with stroke

Virtual Reality - Task-specific training has been proven to be effective in promoting recovery of the hemiparetic upper extremities after a stroke. This study was to develop a task-specific VR...     

Copper(I)‐Catalyzed Allylic Substitution of Silyl Nucleophiles through Si?Si Bond Activation

We report the first copper(I)‐catalyzed reaction between a disilane and allylic carbonates to produce allylsilanes. The silyl nucleophilic substitution proceeded primarily in a S_N2 fashion whereas S_N2′ products were also obtained through σ‐π‐σ isomerization of the copper(III) intermediate depending on the substrate’s steric bulk.     

Inhibitory effect of anthraquinones isolated from the Noni (Morinda citrifolia) root on animal A-, B- and Y-families of DNA polymerases and human cancer cell proliferation

During the course of our studies to develop new uses for the Noni (Morinda citrifolia) root, 10 anthraquinones, rubiadin (1), rubiadin 1-methyl ether (2), lucidin (3), damnacanthol (4), 1,3-dihydroxy-2-methoxymethylanthraquinone (5), 3-hydroxy-1-methoxy-2-methoxymethylanthraquinone (6), nordamnacanthal (7), damnacanthal (8), sorandidiol (9) and morindone (10), were isolated. Compounds 5, 6, 7, 8 and 10 exhibited remarkable inhibition against the activities of animal pols, and compound 10 was the strongest inhibitor in the anthraquinones investigated. Among mammalian pols, compound 10 inhibited the pol activities of A- (pol γ), B- (pols α, δ and ε) and Y- (pols η, ι and κ) families, but did not influence the activities of X-family pols (pols β, λ and terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase). The tendency of pol inhibition showed a positive correlation with the suppression of human colon cancer cell HCT116 growth. These results suggested that the Noni root containing anthraquinones may be used as an anticancer functional food.     

Synthesis of the Optically Active Polymer Consisting of Chiral Phosphorus Atoms and <Emphasis Type="Italic">p</Emphasis>-Phenylene-ethynylene Units

Summary We successfully synthesized optically active polymer 4 by using chiral bisphosphine, (S,S)-1,2-bis(boranato(t-butyl)methylphosphino)ethane (S,S)-1, as a key building block. The structure of the polymer was characterized by ¹H, ¹³C, and ³¹P NMR spectra. According to the CD spectra, the p-phenylene-ethynylene unit in the polymer main chain exhibited Cotton signals around the area of π-π^* transition band.     

Rhodium‐Catalyzed Asymmetric Cycloisomerization of 1,6‐Ene‐ynamides

The rhodium‐catalyzed asymmetric cycloisomerization of heteroatom‐bridged 1,6‐ene‐ynamides proceeded to give high yields of functionalized 3‐aza‐ and oxabicyclo[4.1.0]heptene derivatives with high enantioselectivity, which was achieved by use of a rhodium/chiral diene catalyst. The 1,6‐ene‐ynamides substituted with 2‐oxazolidinone and 2‐azetidinone moieties at the alkyne terminus were found to display high reactivity towards the rhodium/chiral diene catalyst, where the chelate coordination of the alkyne moiety and the carbonyl oxygen of the ene‐ynamides might be responsible for the high catalytic activity.     

Viscoelastic properties and filler dispersion in carbon black‐filled and silica‐filled cross‐linked natural rubbers

The activation energies (ΔE_{J ′} and ΔE_J″) calculated from the temperature dependence of the storage compliance (J′) and the loss compliance (J″) of carbon black (CB)‐filled, hydrophobic silica‐ and hydrophilic silica‐filled cross‐linked natural rubbers (NRs) were found to be less than 15 kJ mol^?1, which corresponds to the physical range of van der Waals interaction. The results of three‐dimensional‐transmission electron microscopy measurements indicate that the closest distance (d_p) between the two neighboring nanofiller aggregates centers decreased sharply with increasing nanofiller loading and tended to become constant at a nanofiller loading of around 30 phr or higher. For all samples examined, there were two regions related to the elastic deformation energy, and the critical d_p value between the two regions was in the order of CB > hydrophobic silica = hydrophilic silica. Additionally, ΔE_J′ developed in the region of longer d_p than that of ΔE_J″. On the other hand, ΔE_J″ occurred after the formation of the filler network and was larger than ΔE_J′. ΔE_J″ is assumed to be related to slippage of the junction and the rearrangement of the nanofiller network. Therefore, the dependence of ΔE_J′ and ΔE_J″ on d_p suggests that the interaction layer between the nanofiller and NR has at least two energy levels. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 130: 2594–2602, 2013     

One‐component epoxy resin with imine as water‐initiated latent hardener: Improvement of the mechanical and adhesive properties by the addition of methacrylate copolymer

The effect of addition of methacrylate polymer into a one‐component epoxy resin, containing Epikote 828 and diimine as a water‐initiated hardener, was examined. Although the cured epoxy resin in the presence of methyl methacrylate–butyl acrylate (MMA–BA) copolymer was very brittle, the resin containing MMA–BA–[γ‐(methacryloxy)propyl]trimethoxysilane (TMSMA) copolymer showed good mechanical and adhesive properties. The adhesive strength of the cured epoxy resin containing MMA–BA–TMSMA copolymer was much higher than that without its polymer. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 96: 1943–1949, 2005