Analysis method of the angiotensin-I converting enzyme inhibitory activity based on micellar electrokinetic chromatography.

A micellar electrokinetic chromatography (MEKC) method was developed for estimating the angiotensin-I converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitory activity by separating the hippuric acid liberated in the ACE reaction mixture in the presence of an inhibitor, captopril. The hippuric acid was successfully separated and detected by MEKC with a 25 mM sodium dodecyl sulfate solution in a 25 mM phosphate-50 mM borate buffer at pH 7.0; the total analysis took about 5 min. A good linear relationship was observed between the inhibitor and the peak area of hippuric acid release. No significant difference in the ACE inhibitory activity (IC50) of captopril (an antihypertensive medicine) or autolyzed-mushrooms (functional foods) was observed between the conventional method and the MEKC method. The MEKC method was found to be a useful technique for a rapid assay of the ACE inhibitory activity.     

Status of heavy element research using a gas-filled recoil separator at RIKEN

A gas-filled type of recoil separator for heavy element research was installed at an experimental hall of RIKEN Linear Accelerator facility to realize getting higher intensity of primary beam and long beam time. Performance of the separator was studied using target recoils and various nuclear reactions. The results show the high performance of the separator for heave element research. As an application of the GARIS, production and identification of an isotope of the 110th element ²⁷¹[110] have been performed using the ²⁰⁸Pb(⁶⁴Ni,1n)²⁷¹[110] reaction. Three decay chains coincide well both in decay times and energies with the ones reported by the group of SHIP experiment at GSI, Germany. Our results provide a confirmation of the synthesis of an isotope ²⁷¹[110] of element 110.     

Preparation of benzoylchitosans and their chiroptical properties in dilute solutions

Two benzoyl substituted chitosan derivatives, 3,6‐O‐dibenzoylchitosan (DBC) and 2‐N‐3,6‐O‐tribenzoylchitosan (TBC), were prepared, and their optical activities in organic solvent were investigated by circular dichroism (CD). For TBC, two splitting bands (a negative one at 288 nm and a positive one at 274 nm) corresponding to the ¹L_b transition of the benzoyl group were observed in chloroform and dichloromethane, while only a negative CD band was recorded in N, N‐dimethylformamide (DMF). These results indicated that the transition moments of benzoyl groups were orderly arranged along the helical polymer chain when TBC was dissolved in a solvent with low polarity, but the same ordered structure did not appear in a polar solvent of DMF. For DBC, only negative CD signals corresponding to the ¹L_b transition of the benzoyl group were observed, regardless of the solvent property, which indicated that the chromophores were not arranged in an ordered fashion with appropriate geometry to interact with one another to induce bi‐signate CD signals. Adding methanol or DMF to the solution of TBC/chloroform resulted in a progressive decrease of the intensity of the positive split band at 274 nm. The intensity of the positive band was weakened upon heating a solution of TBC/chloroform from 20 to 60 °C. The results suggested that the ordered arrangement of the chromophores in the TBC system was dependent on solvent and sensitive to temperature. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 42: 4107–4115, 2004     

Improved detectability with a polymer-based trapping device in rapid HPLC analysis for ultra-low levels of bisphenol A (BPA) in environmental samples.

A new high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method has been developed to detect ultra-low concentrations of bisphenol-A (BPA) (below 1 ng/L (ppt)) using column switching electrochemical detection (ECD). The results were superior to those obtained from manual pretreatment procedure with membrane stationary phase. BPA is inherently ubiquitous in the environment, including tools and solvents used for its analysis; to obtain meaningful results, therefore, the concentration of the overall BPA contamination must be below the detection limit for BPA using the analytical system. Therefore, purified water for preparing the standard BPA solution must be filtered with a hydrophobic membrane to suppress BPA background levels of contamination. In addition, we investigated methods for effectively preserving environmental water containing BPA. The addition of a small amount of ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) provided good recovery even after overnight storage. By employing these precautionary measures and procedures to reduce BPA contamination from the analytical procedure, we could accurately determine l(-10) ppt of BPA in environmental water samples using a column switching HPLC system.     

Buchsbaum homogeneous algebras with minimal multiplicity

In this paper we first give a lower bound on multiplicities for Buchsbaum homogeneous k-algebras A in terms of the dimension d, the codimension c, the initial degree q, and the length of the local cohomology modules of A. Next, we introduce the notion of Buchsbaum k-algebras with minimal multiplicity of degree q, and give several characterizations for those rings. In particular, we will show that those algebras have linear free resolutions. Further, we will give many examples of those algebras.     

Influence of nuclear reactor accident at Chernobyl' on the environmental radioactivity in Toyama

The environmental radioactivity caused by the reactor accident at Chernobyl' was investigated from May 7 to May 31 of 1986 in Toyama. Measurement of radioactivities in airborne particles, rain water, drinking water, milk, and mugwort are carried out by gamma-ray spectrometry (pure Ge detector; ORTEC GMX-23195). Ten different nuclides (103Ru, 106Ru, 131I, 132Te-I, 134Cs, 136Cs, 137Cs, 140Ba-La) are identified from samples of airborne particles. In the air samples, a maximum radioactivity concentration of each nuclide is observed on 13th May 1986. The time of the reactor shut-down and the flux of thermal neutron at the reactor were calculated from 131I/132I and 137Cs/134Cs ratio. The exposure dose in Toyama by this accident is given as follows: internal exposure; [thyroid] adult-59 microSv, child-140 microSv, baby-130 microSv, [total body] adult-0.2 microSv, child, baby-0.4 microSv, external exposure; 7 microSv, effective dose equivalent; adult-9 microSv, child-12 Sv, baby-11 microSv.     

Electrical conductance of solutions of lithium nitrate in 1,3-diaminopropane

Electrical conductances and densities of the LiNO₃-1,3-diaminopropane system have been measured as a function of composition and temperature. The results suggest that the solvent molecules may act as bridges between Li⁺ ions at higher concentration of LiNO₃.     

Self-assembled DNA-conjugated polymer for novel DNA chip.

We developed DNA-conjugated polymer for DNA chip fabrication. A 30 mer probe DNA and disulfide bridges were covalently attached to the polymer side chain. The DNA-conjugated polymer can be specifically adsorbed on a gold substrate surface by a self-assembly technique. The interaction between fully matched DNA and DNA-conjugated polymer was investigated by surface plasmon resonance (SPR) technique. The DNA-conjugated polymer-modified gold surface highly recognized fully matched DNA, rather than unmatched DNA. Therefore, DNA-conjugated polymer can be used for novel DNA chip fabrication.     

Application of Automatic Chromatic Dispersion Compensation for Realization of All-Optical Network

We have studied the algorithm for the automatic chromatic dispersion compensation using bit error rate (BER) and Q-factor optimization for realization of dynamically reconfigurable all-optical network. We have made sure good performance using the compensation system by laboratory experiments.