Ultratrace determination of phosphorus in ultrapurified water by a slope comparison method

The analytical method for the determination of phosphorus in ultrapurified water was developed. Ultrapurified water was evaporated to concentrate phosphorus and the final sample volume for analysis was 10 ml. In 0.55 mol 1(-1) HCl, orthophosphate forms molybdophosphate, and then the molybdophosphate forms ion associate with Malachite Green (MG), which can be collected on a tiny membrane filter (diameter: 5 mm, and effective filtering diameter: 2 mm). After the ion associate on the membrane filter is dissolved together with the membrane filter in I ml of methyl cellosolve (MC), the absorbance of MC solution is measured at 627 nm by a flow injection-spectrophotometric detection technique. When 10 ml of the sample solution was used for the procedures and absorbance measurement, the calibration graph is linear up to about 500 ng 1(-1) of phosphorus and the detection limit was 8 ng 1(-1) (S/N = 3). For the determination of phosphorus in an ultrapurified water, 10-40 ml of sample solutions were transferred into poly(tetrafluoroethylene) (PTFE) beaker and evaporated to 5 ml or to dryness. To them, 0.003 mol 1(-1) HCl was added to get 10 ml of final solution, which was used as sample. Phosphate is determined by comparing the slope of the varied sample volume after evaporation/concentration with a slope of the standard calibration graph (a slope comparison method: SCM). The SCM enables to evaluate the concentration of phosphate in ultrapurified waters more sensitively and accurately

Concurrent Determination of Magnesium and Calcium in Iron Ores by Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy

Examinations were made for the concurrent determination of magnesium and calcium in iron ores when present in about equal amounts, using the magnesium-calcium coupled type hollow-cathode lamp in atomic absorption spectroscopy, and a method of measurement was established. Concurrent determination was found to be easily possible by removal of the majority of iron by extraction with methyl isobutyl ketone and addition of strontium. Analytical precision was calculated and found to give satisfactory results (standard deviations : ±0.004% for Ca, ±0.006% for Mg)

The selectivity and specificity of autophagy in drosophila

Autophagy is a process of cellular self-degradation and is a major pathway for elimination of cytoplasmic material by the lysosomes. Autophagy is responsible for the degradation of damaged organelles and protein aggregates and therefore plays a significant role in cellular homeostasis. Despite the initial belief that autophagy is a nonselective bulk process, there is growing evidence during the last years that sequestration and degradation of cellular material by autophagy can be accomplished in a selective and specific manner. Given the role of autophagy and selective autophagy in several disease related processes such as tumorigenesis, neurodegeneration and infections, it is very important to dissect the molecular mechanisms of selective autophagy, in the context of the system and the organism. An excellent genetically tractable model organism to study autophagy is Drosophila, which appears to have a highly conserved autophagic machinery compared with mammals. However, the mechanisms of selective autophagy in Drosophila have been largely unexplored. The aim of this review is to summarize recent discoveries about the selectivity of autophagy in Drosophila

Spin-Wave Description of Nuclear Spin-Lattice Relaxation in Mn_{12}O_{12} Acetate

In response to recent nuclear-magnetic-resonance (NMR) measurements on the molecular cluster Mn_{12}O_{12} acetate, we study the nuclear spin-lattice relaxation rate 1/T_1 developing a modified spin-wave theory. Our microscopic new approach, which is distinct from previous macroscopic treatments of the cluster as a rigid spin of S=10, not only excellently interprets the observed temperature and applied-field dependences of 1/T_1 for ^{55}Mn nuclei but also strongly supports the ^{13}C NMR evidence for spin delocalization over the entire molecule.Comment: to be published in Phys. Rev. Lett., 4 pages, 4 figures embedde

SNP HiTLink: a high-throughput linkage analysis system employing dense SNP data

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>During this recent decade, microarray-based single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) data are becoming more widely used as markers for linkage analysis in the identification of loci for disease-associated genes. Although microarray-based SNP analyses have markedly reduced genotyping time and cost compared with microsatellite-based analyses, applying these enormous data to linkage analysis programs is a time-consuming step, thus, necessitating a high-throughput platform.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We have developed SNP HiTLink (SNP High Throughput Linkage analysis system). In this system, SNP chip data of the Affymetrix Mapping 100 k/500 k array set and Genome-Wide Human SNP array 5.0/6.0 can be directly imported and passed to parametric or model-free linkage analysis programs; MLINK, Superlink, Merlin and Allegro. Various marker-selecting functions are implemented to avoid the effect of typing-error data, markers in linkage equilibrium or to select informative data.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The results using the 100 k SNP dataset were comparable or even superior to those obtained from analyses using microsatellite markers in terms of LOD scores obtained. General personal computers are sufficient to execute the process, as runtime for whole-genome analysis was less than a few hours. This system can be widely applied to linkage analysis using microarray-based SNP data and with which one can expect high-throughput and reliable linkage analysis.</p

A Brief Survey of Public Knowledge and Stigma Towards Depression

The burden from depression is affected by the public\u27s beliefs, stigma, and resulting behavior. Lack of knowledge, misunderstanding, and stigma about depressed people and their surroundings are barriers to improving their mental health. This study aimed to examine public beliefs regarding depression, especially how to recognize depression, treatment, and stigma.A self-administered questionnaire was distributed to participants receiving an annual health checkup. We asked whether they agreed with four short sentences: "it is not necessary to worry about depression in a person behaving brightly" (misunderstanding about the behavior of depressed people), "rest is important for treating depression" (belief about the necessity of rest), "medicine is effective for treating depression" (belief about the effectiveness of pharmacotherapy) and "a weak personality causes depression" (stigma about the cause of depression). We also analyzed the association between these beliefs and factors such as health literacy, regularly visiting an outpatient clinic, history of depression, and demographic variables.Among 1,085 respondents (75.0% response rate), 54.5%, 75.6%, 58.9%, and 70.8% responded appropriately to the "misunderstanding about the behavior of depressed people", "necessity of rest", "effectiveness of pharmacotherapy", and "stigma about the cause of depression" items, respectively. Regarding stigma about the cause of depression, 30.7% of respondents agreed that a weak personality caused depression. Female sex and younger age group were associated with appropriate answers. Health literacy was only associated with appropriate beliefs about the effectiveness of pharmacotherapy.Thirty percent of participants had the stigmatizing belief that a weak personality causes depression and only 58.9% believed in the effectiveness of pharmacotherapy for depression. Over 70% understood the necessity of rest and knew that depression is possible in those who act brighter. General health literacy alone might not improve knowledge and beliefs about depression. An educational intervention or campaign to reduce stigma toward depression and improve knowledge about the treatment of depression is needed