Combination of vegetable soup and glucan demonstrates synergistic effects on macrophage-mediated immune responses

Vegetable soup (VS), a plant-based functional food, has been used as a traditional folk medicine and is attracting attention for its ability to enhance the immune response. β-Glucan, a well-established and effective immunomodulator, has synergistic effects when used in combination with some bioactive compounds. In the present study, we aimed to evaluate the synergistic immunomodulatory effects of the combination of VS and β-glucan on macrophage-mediated immune responses. β-Glucan was demonstrated to synergistically enhance the VS-stimulated immune response, including the production of interleukin-6, tumor necrosis factor-α, and nitric oxide, mainly through the mitogen-activated protein kinase pathway in macrophages. In addition, this combination has the potential for further development in functional foods with immune-enhancing activity.Supplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10068-021-00888-x.     

Study of alinite cement hydration by impedance spectroscopy

Two types of alinite cements, Mg-alinite and Zn-alinite, were synthesized using the reagent grade chemicals. Their hydration behavior was compared with ordinary Portland cement (OPC) using impedance spectroscopy (IS) and ²⁹Si nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. The bulk resistance in the IS spectra and the intensity ratio of the hydrous (Q₁ and Q₂) to anhydrous (Q₀) phases in the NMR spectra were estimated as the extent of hydration. The results obtained from both techniques were consistent each other. Mg-alinite had a comparable hydration rate to OPC and Zn-alinite exhibited faster hydration kinetics than Mg-alinite.     

Synthesis, structure and magnetic properties of β-MnO 2 nanorods

We present synthesis, structure and magnetic properties of structurally well-ordered single-crystalline β-MnO₂ nanorods of 50–100 nm diameter and several μm length. Thorough structural characterization shows that the basic β-MnO₂ material is covered by a thin surface layer (∼2.5 nm) of α-Mn₂O₃ phase with a reduced Mn valence that adds its own magnetic signal to the total magnetization of the β-MnO₂ nanorods. The relatively complicated temperature-dependent magnetism of the nanorods can be explained in terms of a superposition of bulk magnetic properties of spatially segregated β-MnO₂ and α-Mn₂O₃ constituent phases and the soft ferromagnetism of the thin interface layer between these two phases.     

EvoOligo: Oligonucleotide Probe Design With Multiobjective Evolutionary Algorithms

Probe design is one of the most important tasks in successful deoxyribonucleic acid microarray experiments. We propose a multiobjective evolutionary optimization method for oligonucleotide probe design based on the multiobjective nature of the probe design problem. The proposed multiobjective evolutionary approach has several distinguished features, compared with previous methods. First, the evolutionary approach can find better probe sets than existing simple filtering methods with fixed threshold values. Second, the multiobjective approach can easily incorporate the user's custom criteria or change the existing criteria. Third, our approach tries to optimize the combination of probes for the given set of genes, in contrast to other tools that independently search each gene for qualifying probes. Lastly, the multiobjective optimization method provides various sets of probe combinations, among which the user can choose, depending on the target application. The proposed method is implemented as a platform called EvoOligo and is available for service on the Web. We test the performance of EvoOligo by designing probe sets for 19 types of Human Papillomavirus and 52 genes in the Arabidopsis Calmodulin multigene family. The design results from EvoOligo are proven to be superior to those from well-known existing probe design tools, such as OligoArray and OligoWiz.     

Functional characterization of purified pear protease and its proteolytic activities with casein and myofibrillar proteins

This study was performed to characterize pear protease proteolytic activity and investigate the use of pear protease as a meat tenderizer. Pear protease was purified and stabilized by 5% dextrin during lyophilization (dry) or concentration (liquid). Pear protease was further characterized with respect to pH, thermodynamics, and enzyme kinetics. Pear protease was stable at a pH range of 5-8 with an optimum pH of 6.5. From Arrhenius plots, liquid protease showed higher temperature dependency (23.49 kJ/mol) than dry protease (18.62 kJ/mol) due to its higher activation energy. The kcat/Km, catalytic efficiency of enzyme, was similar with 2.9 and 2.7 µM/min with dry and liquid proteases. Pear protease was evaluated for its proteolytic activities with casein and beef myofibrillar proteins by individually and combination with fig and kiwifruit proteases. These result indicated that pear and kiwifruit proteases could be complementary to be a desirable product for meat tenderization.     

Effect of calcinations of starting powder on mechanical properties of hydroxyapatite–alumina bioceramic composite

The effect of calcinations of starting powder on the mechanical properties of hydroxyapatite (HA)-based bioceramic composite was investigated. The calcinations of HA powder in air at 900 °C increased the crystallinity as well as the size of the powder. Ball milling after the calcinations was effective in eliminating large agglomerates in the powder. When the powder was mixed with reinforcing Al₂O₃ powder, the mixture became fine and homogeneous. The flexural strength of HA–Al₂O₃ composite was increased by the calcinations processes at all the Al₂O₃ concentration. However, the fracture toughness was not much influenced by the calcinations. These results lead to the conclusion that the calcinations process effectively reduced the critical flaw size in the body by removing the agglomerates in the HA powder.     

Modified embedded-atom method interatomic potentials for pure Mn and the Fe–Mn system

Modified embedded-atom method (MEAM) interatomic potentials for pure Mn and the Fe–Mn binary system have been developed using a previously developed MEAM potential for Fe. The potentials can describe various fundamental physical properties of pure Mn (cohesive energy, structural energy differences, lattice parameters, elastic constants, vacancy formation energy, surface energy, etc.) and alloy behaviors (enthalpy of mixing in face-centered cubic and liquid phases, composition dependency of lattice parameters in various solid solutions) in reasonable agreement with experimental information or other empirical approaches. The applicability of the potential to atomistic investigations on a wide range of mechanical or deformation properties of the Fe–Mn alloys is demonstrated.     

Blue light-emitting diodes from 2-(10-naphthylanthracene)-spiro[fluorene-7,9′-benzofluorene] host material

A novel, spiro-type host material 2-(10-naphthylanthracene)-spiro[fluorene-7,9′-benzofluorene] was prepared by reacting 2-bromo-spiro[fluorene-7,9′-benzofluorene] with 9-(2-naphthylanthracene)-10-boronic acid via the Suzuki reaction. 2-4′-(Phenyl-4-vinylbenzeneamine)phenyl-spiro[fluorene-7,9′-benzofluorene], 4-[2-naphthyl-4′(phenyl-4-vinylbenzeneamine)]phenyl and diphenyl-[4-(2-[1,1;4,1]terphenyl-4-yl-vinyl)-phenyl]-amine were used as dopant materials. Devices with the configuration of ITO/N,N′-bis[4-(di-m-tolylamino)phenyl]-N,N′-diphenylbiphenyl-4,4′-diamine)/bis[N-(1-naphthyl)-N-phenyl]benzidine/2-(10-naphthylanthracene)-spiro[fluorene-7,9-benzofluorene]:5% dopant/aluminum tris(8-hydroxyquinoline)/Al-LiF showed a maximum power efficiency of 3.7 cd/A at 17.93 mA/cm² and a maximum luminance of 5018 cd/m² at 10 V with a turn-on voltage of 4.5 V.     

Manufacturing and Macroscopic Properties of Cold Sprayed Cu-In Coating Material for Sputtering Target

This study attempted to manufacture a Cu-In coating layer via the cold spray process and to investigate the applicability of the layer as a sputtering target material. In addition, changes made to the microstructure and properties of the layer due to annealing heat treatment were evaluated, compared, and analyzed. To examine the microstructural and property changes made to the Cu-In coating layer and Cu coating layer (comparison material), ICP, XRD, SEM, and other tests were conducted; purity, density, hardness, porosity, and bond-strength were measured. The results showed that coating layers with thickness of 20 mm (Cu) and 810 μm (Cu-In) could be manufactured via cold spraying under optimal process conditions. With the Cu-In coating layer, the pure Cu and intermetallic compounds of Cu₇In₃ and CuIn₄ were found to exist inside the layer regardless of annealing heat treatment. The preannealing inconsistent microstructure of the layer, whose phases were difficult to distinguish was found to have transformed into one with clearer phase distinction and fine, consistent grains following thermal treatment via a progress of recovery, recrystallization, and grain growth. The porosity and hardness values of the coating layers were 1.4% and 133.9 HV, respectively, for Cu and 3.54% and 476.6 HV, respectively, for Cu-In. The values of the Cu-In layer were higher than those of the Cu layer in terms of porosity and hardness, which declined drastically after annealing. With the porosity of the Cu-In coating layer in particular, the higher value found during the preannealing stage dropped to 0.36% after heat treatment of 773 K/1 h as the level on a par with pure Cu (0.44%), thus indicating the improved quality of the Cu-In layer. Moreover, the results of the bond-strength measurement performed on the Cu-In coating layer and annealing treated materials revealed the strength to be relatively high for heat treated coating layers. Based on the findings of this study and on the comparison and discussion of the properties that are typically required of the target material, the Cu-In coating layer manufactured via cold spray process and annealing heat treatment can be said to be applicable as sputtering target in the future.