Diacylglycerol oil for the metabolic syndrome

Excess adiposity has been shown to play a crucial role in the development of the metabolic syndrome. The elevated fasting and postprandial triglyceride-rich lipoprotein levels is the central lipid abnormality observed in the metabolic syndrome. Recent studies have indicated that diacylglycerol (DAG) is effective for fasting and postprandial hyperlipidemia and preventing excess adiposity by increasing postprandial energy expenditure. We will here discuss the mechanisms of DAG-mediated improvements in hyperlipidemia and in postprandial energy expenditure, and effects of DAG oil on lipid/glucose metabolism and on body fat. Further, the therapeutic application of DAG for the metabolic syndrome will be considered.     

Two-stage drawing of poly(ethylene 2,6-naphthalate)

Initially amorphous and semicrystalline films of poly(ethylene 2,6-naphthalate) with different molecular weights were drawn by two-stage drawing, that is, coextrusion at low temperatures (25–160°C) followed by tensile drawing at high temperatures (200–245°C). Both films could be drawn up to a draw ratio of 8–10 by this method under controlled conditions. The tensile modulus and strength of drawn samples were greatly affected by the draw temperature for the first stage, predrawn morphology, and molecular weight. The remarkable effects of these variables on the tensile properties are closely related to the difference in the resultant amorphous chain orientation of the samples, reflecting the disentanglements and chain slippage during drawing, and the dissipation of chain orientation after processing.     

Molten-Salt Synthesis of Ba1–xPbxTiO3 in the System BaTiO3–PbCl2

Ba_{1– x} Pb _x TiO₃ powder with a fixed composition was prepared by the reaction of BaTiO₃ powders with molten PbCl₂at various PbCl₂/BaTiO₃ molar ratios at 600° and 800°C in a nitrogen atmosphere. When 0.1 μm powder was used, the reaction was finished when x = 0.9. Two phases of BaTiO₃and a solid solution of Ba_{1– x} Pb _x TiO₃ coexisted, but the final phase gave a solid solution of Ba_{1– x} Pb _x TiO₃ at 800°C. When 0.5 μm powder was used, the two phases coexisted in the products at 600°C at PbCl₂/BaTiO₃= 1.0. A sintered compact of Ba_{1– x} Pb _x TiO₃ powders solid solution was prepared by hot isostatic pressing, and its dielectric constant was measured in the temperature range 20°–550°C.     

Strong iISS is preserved under cascade interconnection

In a recent paper, we have introduced the notion of Strong iISS as a compromise between the strength of input-to-state stability (ISS) and the generality of integral ISS (iISS). In this note, we continue the investigations around this property by studying its behavior in an interconnection context. In particular, we show that the cascade of Strongly iISS systems is itself Strongly iISS and we recall some useful tools to study Strongly iISS systems in feedback interconnection.     

Image-based magnification calibration for electron microscope

Magnification calibration is a crucial task for the electron microscope to achieve accurate measurement of the target object. In general, magnification calibration is performed to obtain the correspondence between the scale of the electron microscope image and the actual size of the target object using the standard calibration samples. However, the current magnification calibration method mentioned above may include a maximum of 5 % scale error, since an alternative method has not yet been proposed. Addressing this problem, this paper proposes an image-based magnification calibration method for the electron microscope. The proposed method employs a multi-stage scale estimation approach using phase-based correspondence matching. Consider a sequence of microscope images of the same target object, where the image magnification is gradually increased so that the final image has a very large scale factor $S$ (e.g., $S=1\!,\!\!000$ ) with respect to the initial image. The problem considered in this paper is to estimate the overall scale factor $S$ of the given image sequence. The proposed scale estimation method provides a new methodology for high-accuracy magnification calibration of the electron microscope. This paper also proposes a quantitative performance evaluation method of scale estimation algorithms using Mandelbrot images which are precisely scale-controlled images. Experimental evaluation using Mandelbrot images shows that the proposed scale estimation algorithm can estimate the overall scale factor $S=1\!,\!\!000$ with approximately 0.1 % scale error. Also, a set of experiments using image sequences taken by an actual scanning transmission electron microscope (STEM) demonstrates that the proposed method is more effective for magnification calibration of a STEM compared with a conventional method.     

Surface wettability improvement of silicone elastomers synthesized with water‐soluble polyacrylic acid molds

The aim of this work was to evaluate the use of water‐soluble hydrophilic plastic molds for preparing siloxane based random copolymers and for enhancing the surface wettability of resultant polymers, with a view for contact lens manufacture. The random copolymer consisted of silicone monomers and a small amount of N‐vinyl‐2‐pyrrolidone (NVP) along with vinyl acetate and diethyleneglycoldiallylether as a crosslinker. The surface of this copolymer, which faced against a polyacrylic acid (PAA) mold, showed a higher degree of wettability compared to that obtained against a hydrophobic polypropylene (PP) mold. After heating at 80°C for 4 h, the surface of this copolymer became hydrophobic. When it was immersed in water, however, the high degree of surface wettability regained within 30 s, whereas no significant change in wettability was observed for the PP‐facing surface. The results obtained from X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy indicated that the polar fraction, which is attributed to NVP fractions of the copolymer, concentrated at the vicinity of the PAA facing surface and, in consequence, improved the surface wettability. This surface also showed a dynamic rearrangement of the wettability in response to changes of the surrounding environment. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 89: 3786–3789, 2003     

Conformation of single PMMA chain in uniaxially stretched film studied by scanning near-field optical microscopy

The conformation of the single polymer chain in uniaxially stretched poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) films was studied by scanning near-field optical microscopy (SNOM), which enabled us to observe the elongated conformation of each polymer chain embedded in the film. The conformation of the individual PMMA chains was quantitatively evaluated from the fluorescence intensity distribution. Observation of films with different strains showed that the microscopic strain of the single chain was smaller than the macroscopic strain (?) of the film. Especially at the later stage of the deformation (? > 1.5), the PMMA chain was not stretched with the increase in the macroscopic elongation of the film, suggesting the presence of slipping of polymer chain on the course of stretching.     

Point mutation of alanine (31) to valine prohibits the folding of reduced lysozyme by sulfhydryl--disulfide interchange

In the preceding paper in this issue, we described the overproduction of one mutant chicken lysozyme in Escherichia coil.Since this lysozyme contained two amino acid substitutions (Ala³¹ValandAsn¹⁰⁶Ser)in addition to an extra methionine residue at theNH₂-terminus the substituted amino acid residues were convertedback to the original ones by means of oligonucleotide-directedsite-specific mutagenesis and in vitro recombination. Thus fourkinds of chicken lysozyme [Met^–1 Val³¹Ser¹⁰⁶-, Met^–1Ser¹⁰⁶-,Met^–1 Val³¹-and Met^–1 (wild type)] wereexpressed in E. coli. From the results of folding experimentsof the reduced lysozymes by sulfhydryl-disulfide interchangeat pH 8.0 and 38°C, follow ed by the specific activity measurementsof the folded en zymes, the following conclusions can be drawn:(i) an extra methionine residue at the NH₂-terminus reducesthe folding rate but does not affect the lysozyme activity ofthe folded enzyme; (ii) the substitution of Asn¹⁰⁶ by Ser decreasesthe activity to 58% of that of intact native lysozyme withoutchanging the folding rate; and (iii) the substitution of Ala³¹Val prohibits the correct folding of lysozyme. Since the wildtype enzyme (Met^–1-lysozyme) was activated in vitro withoutloss of specific activity, the systems described in this study(mutagenesis, overproduction, purification and folding of inactivemutant lysozymes) may be useful in the study of folding pathways,expression of biological activity and stability of lysozyme.     

新型非离子性增黏剂的开发及其在化妆品中的应用

聚氧丙烯(1)椰油酸单异丙醇酰胺(商品名Amizett IPC)是一种新型的非离子型增黏剂。不仅具有与椰油酸二乙醇酰胺(6501)同等的增黏效果，还具有增泡性、泡沫稳定性、在配方中的低温稳定性以及广泛的pH范围内的产品稳定性。该产品融点低于椰油酸-乙醇酰胺，制剂操作方便。尤其值得重视的是该产品的安全性能。对皮肤和眼睛剌激性低微。变异原性也呈阴性。最后，还介绍了香波、浴剂和洗面奶等化妆品的应用实例。