Comparison of clinical pictures of mitochondrial encephalomyopathy with tRNA(Leu(UUR)) mutation in 3243 with that in 3254]

We compared clinical pictures of a case of mitochondrial encephalomyopathy with tRNA(Leu(UUR)) point mutation at nucleotide position 3254 of mitochondrial DNA with those at position 3243. The mutation 3254 was a 19-year-old male patient with cardiomyopathy accompanied with muscle atrophy. The first mutant 3243 was a 31-year-old female patient showing clinical features of MELAS and endocrinological abnormalities. The second 3243 mutant was a 27-year-old male patient who had an external ophthalmoplegia and slight mental decline. In all cases, muscle biopsy specimen showed ragged red fibers and strongly SDH-reactive blood vessels, but their limb weakness were unremarkable. These results suggest that tRNA(Leu(UUR)) point mutation 3254 exhibits similar clinical phenotypes as those observed in 3243 mutant.     

Effectiveness of Some Natural Antimicrobial Compounds in Controlling Pathogen or Spoilage Bacteria in Lightly Fermented Chinese Cabbage

ABSTRACT: This study was designed to evaluate the bactericidal or bacteriostatic effect of chitosan, an allyl isothiocyanate (AIT) product, and nisin for the artificially inoculated pathogenic bacteria ( Escherichia coli , Salmonella Enteritidis, Staphylococcus aureus , and Listeria monocytogenes ) or natural microflora of fermented Chinese cabbage. Addition of 0.1% chitosan decreased the population of pathogens from 0.7 to 1.7 log colony-forming units (CFU)/g after 4 d of storage at 10 °C. The bactericidal activity of chitosan was found to be stronger than that of nisin (0.05 mg/g). Addition of 0.2% of the AIT product (containing AIT and hop extract) exhibited a bacteriostatic effect. However, a combination of AIT product and chitosan enhanced bactericidal efficacy against L. monocytogenes . The addition of chitosan or AIT product was observed to suppress the populations of mesophilic and coliform bacteria during storage at 10 °C for 4 d. Moreover, the use of chitosan or the AIT product did not change the sensory quality of the lightly fermented vegetable. Therefore, these results suggest that chitosan or the AIT product could be useful to improve the microbial safety and quality of lightly fermented vegetable.     

A power flow tracing method focused on reactive power and SC

“Tracing the power flow of electricity” is a concept that has become the focus of attention recently, as the deregulation or the liberalization of the electric power market proceeds. Although a number of methods, such as “tracing method by power flow contribution,” have already been published, reactive power contribution has been little studied to date. However, applying “tracing the power flow of electricity” to ancillary service, for example compensation of reactive power, is very important. In this paper, we focus on line flows and static capacitors in particular, and study how to deal with the problem. We perform a computer simulation using a simple system and show the tracing results. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 156(1): 33–43, 2006; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/ eej.20118     

Removal of lignin in a liquid system by an isolated fungus

The screening of a strain which could perform lignin removal was carried out. Based on taxonomic study the isolated strain (LM‐2) was identified as Penicillium sp. LM‐2 could decolorize 0.6 g dm^?3 lignin within 4 days in a shaking culture at 25 °C. The efficiency of decolorization of the lignin was over 80% in the pH range of 4.0–6.0, but was low above pH 6.2. The rise of temperature had a slight adverse effect on the lignin decolorization in the range of 25–35 °C. Lignolytic enzymes such as lignin peroxidase, manganese peroxidase and laccase were not detected in the culture broth or within the fungal cells. The lignin was removed from the high molecular weight fraction mainly by adsorption and accumulation inside the cells. © 2001 Society of Chemical Industry     

Small-angle X-ray scattering of long-period structures forming bundles

Small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) patterns have been calculated based on a structure model, which consisted of the bundles of long-period structures. The proposed model has produced various scattering patterns of polymers, such as the equatorial, layer line, four-spot, droplet-shaped and triangular scattering. The 0.5th order scattering has arisen when the disorder in or between the long-period structures was large even though the structure did not have the periodicity directly related to the scattering maximum. A slight decrease in the disorder due to slip between the long-period structures has accounted for the sudden change of the SAXS pattern of a poly(ethylene terephthalate) fiber from the four-spot to the layer line scattering which was caused by a slight tensile deformation.     

Preparation of polymer-supported amino acid

Summary Insoluble polymer-supported amino acids have been synthesized by simple one-pot synthesis. Amino acids were solubilized in organic solvent by trimethylsilylation. Solubilized amino acids (L-Tyr, L-Ser, D-HPG, L-Cys) having functional groups such as OH or SH were easily attached to crosslinked polystyrene beads through benzyl ether or thioether linkage. Other amino acids without extra functional groups could be attached to the polymer through benzyl amine linkage.     

Semiautomatic leakage analyzing system for time series fluorescein ocular fundus angiography

An algorithm for measuring an index of leakage in fluorescein fundus angiography is presented. The number of pixels whose gray level exceeds an automatically determined slice level is calculated. An automatic blood vessel elimination technique is introduced. Further, a method of measuring the short term change of leakage from a time series of the fluorescein fundus angiographs is described. Our system can also deal with the time series images obtained on different occasions (long term change).The features of this paper are: (1) this paper deals with double time sequence images (short and long term); (2) an automatic blood vessel recognition algorithm is employed.