Formation of acrylamide in a processed food model system, and examination of inhibitory conditions

Acrylamide (AAm) is formed from asparagine (Asn) and reducing sugar during cooking of foods at high temperature. We examined the formation of AAm in a model system using a glass fiber filter paper, and looked for suitable conditions for inhibiting AAm formation. In frying, the formation rate was about 10 times that in a moistureless oven. Increase of frying temperature and frying time increased AAm formation when the residual moisture was 5% or less. AAm increased with increasing amount of glucose (Glc) addition up to 1:1 with respect to Asn, but then decreased. On the other hand, in the case of fructose, as the amount added was increased, AAm increased accordingly. The AAm formation rate with respect to Asn increased when valine (Val) was co-present in a Glc and Asn reaction system. Cysteine and lysine inhibited the AAm formation rate. Pathways for the formation of AAm are proposed.     

Laterally vibrating MEMS resonant vacuum sensor based on cavity-SOI process for evaluation of wide range of sealed cavity pressure

Microsystem Technologies - This paper reports a laterally vibrating MEMS resonant vacuum sensor which senses ambient pressure based on the squeeze-film damping effect. The single-anchored...     

Optimization of Digital Growth of Thick N-Polar InGaN by MOCVD

Smooth 200 nm thick N-polar InGaN films were grown by metal–organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) on sapphire using a digital approach consisting of a constant In, Ga, and N precursor flow with pulsed injection of H2 into the N2 carrier gas. Using this growth scheme, the H2 injection time was altered and the effect on the morphology and indium incorporation in the films observed. The effect of periodic insertion of additional GaN inter-layers on the surface morphology of the InGaN layers was also studied.     

Properties of syndiotactic-rich poly(vinyl alcohol) thin film in water. V. Effect of initial temperature of heating on elongation

The effect of the initial temperature of heating on the elongation of syndiotactic-rich poly(vinyl alcohol) thin films was investigated in water under a load. The elongation ratios E_i after 4 h at fixed temperatures increased roughly with an increase in the initial temperature T_i and a decrease in the annealing temperature. E_i after 4 h was the smallest at T_i = 45°C for the films annealed at temperatures below 100°C. E_i was 6.8 at T_i = 60°C for the unannealed film and 1.12 at T_i = 70°C for the film annealed at 200°C. The elongation at break decreased and the temperature at break increased with an increase in annealing temperature, but those at the annealing temperature of 100°C were the smallest. The films annealed at 200°C did not break even at 98°C (boiling temperature) in water and the elongation ratio was 1.42–1.97 in the initial temperature range of 10–70°C. From these results, the relation between the elongation in water and the state of polymer chains in film was discussed.     

Proposal for selective isotope transmutation of long-lived fission products using quasi-monochromatic γ-ray beams

We have proposed a new selective isotope transmutation method using photonuclear reactions with quasi-monochromatic γ-ray beams. This method is based on the fact that the particle threshold of a long-lived fission product (LLFP) such as ⁹³Zr, ¹⁰⁷Pd, or ⁷⁹Se is lower than those of stable isotopes of the same chemical element. Therefore, this method has the excellent advantage that LLFPs cannot, in principle, be produced newly even if the target materials include stable isotopes in addition to LLFPs. Furthermore, this method is effective for ¹²⁶Sn, ^{135, 137}Cs, ⁹⁰Sr, and ³H. The nuclear data involved and suitable γ-ray sources are discussed. Laser Compton scattering γ-ray sources and neutron capture γ-rays in nuclear reactors are candidates for this method.     

High speed and reproducible analysis of nitrosamines by capillary electrophoresis with a sulfonated capillary

Recently environmental control is regarded as important for good human health conditions, and toxic substances, including carcinogens and endocrine disruptors should be eliminated from our living environment. Hence easy quantitative methods are expected for a high level of environmental control. Our previous paper describes an easy quantitative analysis of nitrosamines (NAs) by capillary electrophoresis with an untreated fused silica capillary installed in an ordinary apparatus. In this paper, utilizing a novel type capillary column having sulfonated inner wall was investigated for improvements of separation performance and reproducibility. A sulfonated capillary causes fast and stabile electroosmotic flow because its inner wall is strongly negative charged. On a performance comparison of a sulfonated capillary with an untreated fused silica, analysis time reduction of c.a. forty percent was achieved, and relative standard deviations of migration times and peak responses were less than one third. In addition sample concentrations giving detection and quantitation limits were also reduced to a half.     

A wide view auto‐stereoscopic 3D display with an eye‐tracking system for enhanced horizontal viewing position and viewing distance

This paper describes the development of auto‐stereoscopic three‐dimensional (3D) display with an eye‐tracking system for not only the X‐axis (right–left) and Y‐axis (up–down) plane directions but also the Z‐axis (forward–backward) direction. In the past, the eye‐tracking 3D system for the XY‐axes plane directions that we had developed had a narrow 3D viewing space in the Z‐axis direction because of occurrence of 3D crosstalk variation on screen. The 3D crosstalk variation on screen was occurred when the viewer's eye position moved back and forth along the Z‐axis direction. The reason was that the liquid crystal (LC) barrier pitch was fixed and the LC barrier was able to control the only barrier aperture position. To solve this problem, we developed the LC barrier that is able to control the barrier pitch as well as the barrier aperture position in real time, corresponding to the viewer's eye position. As a result, the 3D viewing space has achieved to expand up to 320–1016 mm from the display surface in the Z‐axis direction and within a range of ±267 mm in the X‐axis direction. In terms of the Y‐axis direction, the viewing space is not necessary to be considered, because of a stripe‐shaped parallax barrier.     

Model calculation of the pore-size and porosity dependences of bulk moduli in nanoporous materials

The bulk moduli of nanoporous materials are studied theoretically on the basis of an interatomic potential. We consider model nanoporous materials in which nanometer-sized cubic-shaped pores are periodically arranged in the fcc lattice. The pore-size and porosity dependences of bulk modulus are calculated exactly for the model nanoporous materials. It is shown that the bulk moduli of model nanoporous materials decrease moderately with increasing porosity. If nanoporous materials of the same porosity are compared, the bulk modulus increases and becomes constant with increasing pore-size. It is suggested from the calculation results that nanoporous materials without defects have higher bulk moduli than materials having micrometer-sized pores.