Chain‐length Distribution Profiles of Amylopectin Isolated from Endosperm Starch of Waxy and Low‐amylose Bread Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) Lines with Common Genetic Background

Large A‐type endosperm starch granules were isolated from near‐isogenic waxy and non‐waxy lines and low‐amylose mutant lines of bread wheat with a common genetic background. The amylose contents of A‐type starch ranged from 2.6% to 23.6%. Amylopectin was isolated by concanavalin A (Con A) precipitation from the isolated starch. The λ_max (range: 532‐538 nm) and blue values at 680 nm (range: 0.026‐0.037) of the iodine‐amylopectin complex were not significantly different among the isolated amylopectins, indicating that amylopectins from non‐waxy and low‐amylose lines did not contain such long chains as amylose or extra‐long chains of amylopectin affecting iodine complex properties. Chain‐length distribution profiles measured by both high‐performance size‐exclusion chromatography (HPSEC) and high‐performance anion‐exchange chromatography (HPAEC) showed that the amylopectin structures of these lines were indistinguishable from each other. Extra‐long chains were not detected in the amylopectins by HPSEC measurement. The side‐chains measured by HPAEC were classified into four groups according to their degree of polymerization (DP), and the proportion of each group were in the following ranges: DP 6‐12, 26.5‐27.5%; DP 13‐24, 43.6‐44.1%; DP 25‐36, 13.6‐14.2%, and DP 37‐60, 11.0‐11.7%. The alleles on the Wx‐D1 locus, i.e., Wx‐D1a, Wx‐D1d, Wx‐D1f, and Wx‐D1g, responsible for granule‐bound starch synthase (GBSS I) biosynthesis had no influence on the properties of iodine‐amylopectin complex and the chain‐length distribution profiles of amylopectin.     

Surface Analysis of Cr2O3‐, CoO‐, and Al2O3‐Doped Iron–Phosphate Glasses at High Temperature

Surface structures of iron–phosphate glasses were examined using X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Cr₂O₃, CoO, and Al₂O₃ were introduced to the glass by the replacement of a part of Fe₂O₃, and the simulated fission products are also added. The obtained glasses showed high chemical durabilities by MCC‐1 test. In situ high‐temperature and room‐temperature XPS measurements were conducted on the polished sample surfaces and also those after 1‐week chemical durability test. Unique trends were observed in XPS spectra on heating and after the chemical durability test, respectively. Nature of the glass surface of iron–phosphate glasses was explained from the point of view of surface energy, and the origin of high chemical durability and the effect of chromium ions were discussed based on the changes on surface composition and valence states of transition‐metal ions.     

Effects of Water and Gelatinized Starch on the Viscoelasticity of Pizza Dough and the Texture of Pizza Crust

The soft texture of the pizza crust rim is generated by baking at a high temperature for a short period in a stone oven. In the case of baking in an electric oven, the pizza dough is baked at a much lower temperature and for a longer period, resulting in a harder texture. To improve the texture of electric oven-baked pizza crust, the effects of water and gelatinized starch on the viscoelasticity of pizza dough and the texture of pizza crust were investigated. Rheological properties (storage modulus, loss modulus, and yield stress) of pizza dough decreased with an increase in water content. When wheat flour in the dough was partially replaced with pre-gelatinized wheat starch, the rheological properties of the dough were maintained even at a high-water content. These results indicate that water-enriched dough can be prepared with gelatinized starch and baked using an electric oven. There was no significant difference in apparent density between the conventional and modified pizza crusts. Water content of the crumb part of the modified crust was significantly higher than that of the conventional crust. Texture analysis revealed that the modified pizza crust showed significantly lower stress at high strain than the conventional crust. In addition, sensory evaluation showed that the modified pizza crust exhibited greater firmness and stickiness than the conventional crust, which was attributed to the increased water content with gelatinized starch of the dough.     

Development of a new heterojunction structure (ACJ -HIT) and its application to polycrystalline silicon solar cells

A new solar cell structure named HIT (Heterojunction with Intrinsic Thin layer) has been developed based on new artificially constructed junction (ACJ) technology. In this structure a non-doped a-Si thin layer was inserted between the p(a-Si)/n(c-Si) heterojunction, improving the output characteristics and achieving a conversion efficiency of 18.1%. This structure was applied to cast polycrystalline silicon solar cells of a practical size. A high conversion efficeincy of 13.6% was obtained with a cell size of 10 cm × 10 cm using various technologies, including hydrogen plasma passivation.     

Comparative immunohistological study on using capsaicin,piperine, and okadaic acid for the transepithelial passage of the inactivated viral and bacterial vaccines in fish

The practical difficulty of parenteral application of fish vaccines against devastating fish diseases diverted the interest toward oral vaccination. Search for effective methods to enhance the oral uptake of viral and bacterial vaccines is continuing. The current research focus on a new role of mucosal fish vaccine adjuvants inducing the antigen uptake by enhancing vascularity or increasing intestinal permeability. Some inflammatory substances cause reversible pathology to the intestinal epithelium, which could be employed for the transepithelial passage of vaccine particles. The natural inflammatory substances used were capsaicin, piperine, and okadaic acid as 1 mg, 2 mg, and 1 μg/fish, respectively. Two inactivated vaccines were used as antigens to test the effect of these inflammatory substances in two different fish hosts. Tested vaccines were inactivated redspotted grouper nervous necrosis virus vaccine in sevenband grouper (Epinephelus septemfasciatus) and inactivated Edwardsiella tarda vaccine in red sea bream (Pagrus major) fish models. The inflammatory substances and each vaccine were anally intubated to fish. Capsaicin proved to be effectively aiding the transepithelial passage of vaccine particles more than piperine, while okadaic acid had no detectable effect.     

Fatigue crack initiation and growth under mixed mode loading in aluminum alloys 2017-T3 and 7075-T6

Fatigue crack initiation and growth characteristics under mixed mode loading have been investigated on aluminum alloys 2017-T3 and 7075-T6, using a newly developed apparatus for mixed mode loading tests. In 2017-T3, the fatigue crack initiation and growth characteristics from a precrack under mixed mode loading are divided into three regions—shear mode growth, tensile mode growth and no growth—on the ΔK_I-ΔK_II plane. The shear mode growth is observed in the region expressed approximately by ΔK_II > 3MPa√m and ΔK_II/ΔK_I > 1.6. In 7075-T6, the condition of shear mode crack initiation is expressed by ΔK_II > 8 MPa√m and ΔK_II/ΔK_I > 1.6, and continuous crack growth in shear mode is observed only in the case of ΔK_I/ΔK_II, 0. The threshold condition of fatigue crack growth in tensile mode is described by the maximum tensile stress criterion, which is given by Δσ_θmax √2πr 1.6MPa√m, in both aluminum alloys. The direction of shear mode crack growth approaches the plane in which K_I decreases and K_II increases towards the maximum with crack growth. da/dN-ΔK_II relations of the curved cracks growing in shear mode under mixed mode loading agree well with the da/dN-ΔK_II relation of a straight crack under pure mode II loading.     

A method to modify coordinates of detectors in positron emission tomography systems

A new method to modify coordinates of detectors in any positron emission tomography (PET) system using a radioactive point source is developed. This method is based on selecting a centered detector in each detector block of PET and measuring coincidence counts between the two centered detectors in opposite detector blocks to find the coordinates of their LOR (Line of Response). Due to slight misalignment of detector positions, measured LORs may not intersect at a single point. Based on the proposed method, the coordinates of detectors can be measured with very high accuracy and the coordinate of the center of the gantry (which is normally the same as the center of field of view) can be defined correctly. The results of the application of our method to a small animal PET system (FinePET), which was recently developed at Tohoku University, Japan, are shown here. The method is expected to contribute to the design and development of PET systems which can realize a very high spatial resolution of less than 1 mm FWHM.     

Proportional hazards models with random effects to examine centre effects in multicentre cancer clinical trials

In randomized clinical trials comparing treatment effects on diseases such as cancer, a multicentre trial is usually conducted to accrue the required number of patients within a reasonable period of time. The fundamental point of conducting a multicentre trial is that all participating investigators must agree to follow the common study protocol. However, even with every attempt having been made to standardize the methods for diagnosing severity of disease and evaluating response to treatment, for example, they might be applied differently at different centres, and these may vary from comprehensive cancer centres to university hospitals to community hospitals. Therefore, in multicentre trials there is likely to be some degree of variation (heterogeneity) among centres in both the baseline risks and the treatment effects. While we estimate the overall treatment effect using a summary measure such as hazard ratio and usually interpret it as an average treatment effect over the centre, it is necessary to examine the homogeneity of the observed treatment effects across centres, that is, treatment-by-centre interaction. If the data are reasonably consistent with homogeneity of the observed treatment effects across centres, a single summary measure is adequate to describe the trial results and those results will contribute to the scientific generalization, the process of synthesizing knowledge from observations. On the other hand, if heterogeneity of treatment effects is found, we should carefully interpret the trial results and investigate the reason why the variation is seen. In the analyses of multicentre trials, a random effects approach is often used to model the centre effects. In this article, we focus on the proportional hazards models with random effects to examine centre variation in the treatment effects as well as the baseline risks, and review the parameter estimation procedures, frequentist approach-penalized maximum likelihood method--and Bayesian approach--Gibbs sampling method. We also briefly review the models for bivariate responses. We present a few real data examples from the biometrical literature to highlight the issues.     

Soluble VCAM-1 induces chemotaxis of Jurkat and synovial fluid T cells bearing high affinity very late antigen-4

It has been shown that cells with high affinity very late Ag (VLA)-integrins have up-regulated expression of a beta1-subunit epitope, which is detected by 15/7 mAb. In this study, we demonstrate that soluble VCAM-1 (sVCAM-1) exhibits chemotactic activity of T cells with high affinity VLA-4 against VCAM-1, such as Jurkat T cells and IL-2-dependent T cells. Moreover, we found that T cells in the synovial fluid show high basal migration in the absence of sVCAM-1, compared with peripheral blood T cells in patients with rheumatoid arthritis. Among T cells in the synovial fluid, CD45RO+ memory T cells, in response to sVCAM-1, showed a much higher than basal migratory response when compared with CD45RA+ naive cells, while no significant difference was observed between CD4+ and CD8+ T cells. The chemotactic activity of sVCAM-1 is inhibited in the presence of anti-VCAM-1 and anti-VLA-4, which interfered with the binding between VCAM-1 and VLA-4. Inhibition studies using various kinase inhibitors (C3 exoenzyme, KN62, and H7) show that Rho, Ca2+/calmodulin-dependent kinase II, and protein kinase C are involved in signal transduction in sVCAM-1-induced chemotaxis, respectively, whereas tyrosine kinase seems to play a lesser role, since genistein showed only partial inhibition of T cell chemotaxis. Western blot analysis using an anti-phospho-serine mAb (MO82) reveals that Ser82 in the vimentin is phosphorylated specifically by Ca2+/calmodulin-dependent kinase II through sVCAM-1 activation in the IL-2 dependent T cells. Collectively, by inducing migration and recruitment of T cells through several kinase activations, sVCAM-1 contributes to the development of the inflammation of synovial lesion.