Ozone Contribution in Food Industry in Japan

Ozone has the strongest oxidization effect after fluorine, and this property has been used in sterilization for food and processing plants in Japan. Moreover, there is no fear of toxic residues as with chlorine-based sterilizers and no hazardous trihalomethanes are formed. Based on these advantages, ozone has been used in water and air treatment for food products food materials and food processing plants. Use in the food processing is now increasing in Japan. This paper describes ozone sterilization, introducing sterilization systems and equipment applied to food in Japan.     

Purification and characterization of a novel glutamyl aminopeptidase from chicken meat

A novel glutamyl aminopeptidase (aminopeptidase A, EC 3.4.11.7) was purified from chicken meat by ammonium sulfate fractionation, ethanol fractionation, heat treatment, and successive column chromatographies of DEAE-Sepharose CL-6B and Sephadex G-200. The purified enzyme migrated as a single band on SDS-PAGE. The molecular weight of this enzyme was found to be 55,000 and 550,000 by SDS-PAGE and Sephadex G-200 column chromatographies, respectively. This enzyme hydrolyzed Glu- and Asp-, but not Leu-, Arg-, and Ala-2-naphthylamide (-2NA) at all. The optimum pH and temperature for hydrolysis of Glu-2NA was 7.5. and 70°C, respectively. Reducing agents such as cysteine and dithiothreitol inhibited the activity of this enzyme at concentrations of 1 mM. However, the activation by Ca(2+) and the inhibition by amastatin were not observed.     

Elevated plasma bile acids in hypergalactosaemic neonates: a diagnostic clue to portosystemic shunts

To determine whether plasma levels of total bile acids may provide a useful index for hypergalactosaemia due to porto-systemic shunts, these levels were determined in hypergalactosaemic neonates. Increased levels were found in all cases with portohepatic venous or portocaval shunts. The levels of both total bile acids and galactose were normalized when the shunts disappeared on the echograms. Both bile acids and galactose are almost completely absorbed by the liver via the first portal blood passage. Portosystemic shunts contribute to elevated levels of bile acids and galactose. CONCLUSION: Increased plasma levels of total bile acids serve as a diagnostic clue to the presence of portosystemic shunts in neonates with hypergalactosaemia.     

Analysis of a 36.2 kb DNA sequence including the right telomere of chromosome VI from Saccharomyces cerevisiae

The nucleotide sequence of a 36.2-kb distal region containing the right telomere of chromosome VI was determined. Both strands of DNA cloned into cosmid clone 9965 and plasmid clone pEL174P2 were sequenced with an average redundancy of 7.9 per base pair, by both dye primer and dye terminator cycle sequencing methods. The G+C content of the sequence was found to be 37.9%. Eighteen open reading frames (ORFs) longer than 100 amino acids were detected. Four of these ORFs (9965orfR017, 9965orfF016, 9965orfR009 and 9965orfF003) were found to encode previously identified genes (YMR31, PRE4, NIN1 and HXK1, respectively). Six ORFs (9965orfR013, 9965orfF018, 9965orfF006, 9965orfR014, 9965orfF013 and 9965orfR020) were found to be homologous to hypothetical 121.4-kDa protein in the BCK 5' region, Bacillus subtilis DnaJ protein, hypothetical Trp-Asp repeats containing protein in DBP3-MRPL27, putative mitochondrial carrier YBR291C protein, Salmonella typhimurium nicotinate-nucleotide pyrophosphorylase, and Escherichia coli cystathionine beta-lyase, respectively. The putative proteins encoded by 9965orfF018, 9965orfR014 and 9965orfR020 were found to be, respectively, a new member of the family of DnaJ-like proteins, the mitochondrial carrier protein and cystathionine lyase.     

Piezoelectric ceramics of (Bi1/2Na1/2)TiO3-PbTiO3-BaTiO3 system

Piezoelectric and ferroelectric properties of bismuth sodium titanate, (Bi_1/2Na_1/2)TiO₃(BNT)-based solid solution, that is, (Bi_1/2Na_1/2)(_1-x)(Pb_a Ba_b)_xTiO₃(a + b = 1) [BNPB(100x-100a/100b)], are studied from the viewpoint of a new group of lead-free or low-lead content piezo-electric ceramics with a rhombohedral(F_a-tetragonal (F_β) morphotropic phase boundary (MPB). It is evident that the MPB seems to be remarkably efficacious in promoting piezoelectric and pyroelectric activities by electrical poling. X-ray diffraction data, dielectric properties and D-E hysteresis loops show that the MPB exist near (Bi_1/2Na_1/2)TiO₃[BNT] at x = 0.13–0.14, 0.08–0.09 and 0.06–0.07 in the case of b = 0, b = 0.5 and b = 1, respectively. BNPB ceramics are superior for piezoelectric ceramics in high-frequency ultrasonic uses, or special piezoelectric actuator materials with a lower free permittivity ε₃₃Tε₀, and a high electromechanical coupling factor k₃₃, along with a high mechanical strength.     

Functional analyses of neutrophil-like differentiated cell lines under a hyperglycemic condition

Diabetic patients are prone to severe bacterial infections. The functional alterations of neutrophils by hyperglycemia are thought to be partially responsible for such infections. In this study, we investigated the functional changes of neutrophil-like differentiated cell lines (dHL-60, dTHP-1, and dNB-4) by treatment with 5.5 mM, 11 mM, or 35 mM of glucose. In dHL-60 cells, the incubation with high glucose (35 mM) resulted in the enhancement of cell aggregation, the suppression of cellular fragility, the induction of reactive-oxygen species (ROS) production by phorbol myristate acetate (PMA) stimulation, and the impairment of phagocytosis. In dTHP-1 cells, the treatment with higher glucose generated the suppression of cellular fragility and extremely impaired phagocytosis (by 35 mM), and induced ROS production due to PMA stimulation (by 11 mM). Furthermore, the higher glucose exposure to dNB-4 cells enlarged intracellular vacuoles (by 35 mM) and induced ROS production due to PMA stimulation (by 11 mM). Since the ROS generation of those cells was enhanced only after PMA stimulation under the higher glucose conditions, glucose may have a priming effect rather than a triggering effect. These extraordinary sensitivities caused by the higher glucose treatments may reflect the dysfunction or overactivation of neutrophils.     

Digital optical CATV system using hubbed distribution architecture

A hubbed distribution architecture based on a bus-star configuration, three-level single single-mode fiber transmission using M-TPC line code, and high-speed IC technology is proposed. The architecture is cost-effective and compact. It is well suited to metropolitan area CATV systems and would allow a gradual transition to a broadband ISDN (integrated-services digital network) subscriber loop in the future. The proposed architecture is applied to a digital optical CATV system prototype. The equipment making up this system consists of a transmitter, hubs including video selectors, and subscriber unit. Two video channels are selected for each subscriber from eight video channels at hub stations. The transmission speed is 900 Mb/s, three-level for the trunk line and 200 Mb/s, three-level for each subscriber loop. Very compact and low-cost equipment is realized by using recently developed high-speed ICs. Experimental results show that the system satisfies requirements and that its commercial application is feasible     

Analysis of a 36·2 kb DNA sequence including the right telomere of chromosome VI from Saccharomyces cerevisiae

The nucleotide sequence of a 36·2-kb distal region containing the right telomere of chromosome VI was determined. Both strands of DNA cloned into cosmid clone 9965 and plasmid clone pEL174P2 were sequenced with an average redundancy of 7·9 per base pair, by both dye primer and dye terminator cycle sequencing methods. The G + C content of the sequence was found to be 37·9%. Eighteen open reading frames (ORFs) longer than 100 amino acids were detected. Four of these ORFs (9965orfR017, 9965orfF016, 9965orfR009 and 9965orfF003) were found to encode previously identified genes (YMR31, PRE4, NIN1 and HXK1, respectively). Six ORFs (9965orfR013, 9965orfF018, 9965orfF006, 9965orfR014, 9965orfF013 and 9965orfR020) were found to be homologous to hypothetical 121·4-kDa protein in the BCK 5′ region, Bacillus subtilis DnaJ protein, hypothetical Trp-Asp repeats containing protein in DBP3-MRPL27, putative mitochondrial carrier YBR291C protein, Salmonella typhimurium nicotinate-nucleotide pyrophosphorylase, and Escherichia coli cystathionine β-lyase, respectively. The putative proteins encoded by 9965orfF018, 9965orfR014 and 9965orfR020 were found to be, respectively, a new member of the family of DnaJ-like proteins, the mitochondrial carrier protein and cystathionine lyase. The nucleotide sequence reported here has been deposited in the DDBJ/GenBank/EMBL data library under Accession Number D44597.     

Sequencing of a 23 kb fragment from Saccharomyces cerevisiae chromosome VI

Plasmid clone gapB and lambda phage clone 4682, which contain fragments of Saccharomyces cerevisiae chromosome VI, were analysed. A 23 kb sequence was determined and ten open reading frames (ORFs) were revealed. Among them, five ORFs were identical to five yeast genes (SEC4, MSH4, SPB4, DEG1 and NIC96), two were identical to transposable elements (TYA and TYB), one (gapBorfF003) was highly homologous to a yeast expressed sequence tag, and another (4682orfF002) was predicted to be a nuclear protein. Sequence data have been submitted to DDBJ/EMBL/GenBank data library under Accession Number D44604 (clone gapB) and D44600 (clone 4682), respectively.