Cation Permeability in Soybean Aleurone Layer

The permeation of water and ions into bean seeds is essential for processing and cooking of beans. The permeability of cations, K, Na, Ca, and Mg ions, into soybean seed tissue, especially aleurone layer, during water uptake was investigated to characterize the ion permeation into soybeans. Aleurone layers and seed coats contained relatively high concentration of endogenous K and Ca ions, and endogenous Ca ion, respectively. The amounts of Ca ion entered seed coats and aleurone layers were greater than those of other ions, respectively. Ion contents per dried aleurone layer and dried seed coat were almost same from each other. The release of Ca and Mg ions toward the inside tissue from the aleurone layer was observed during water uptake. The cell wall column of aleurone layers adsorbed more K and Na ions than Ca and Mg ions. These results suggest that the Ca ion entered soybean seeds is actively transported from the seed coat to the embryo through the aleurone layer. The active migration of Ca to soybean embryos would be greatly usefull for producing foods enriched with Ca in processing and cooking of soybeans

Factors Affecting Water Permeability of Aleurone Layer in Soybean Seeds

The effect of the immersion condition of soybean seeds on the water permeability in aleurone layer was investigated to clarify the water permeability at the initial stage of water sorption. The amounts of water absorbed in seeds coated with only aleurone layer (embryos uncovered with seed coat) and untreated seeds (embryos covered with seed coat and aleurone layer; intact seeds) were compared under several conditions of temperature, pH, ion species, and salt concentration. The relative weight in both types of seeds increased with the rise of soaking temperature, but it decreased after 180min at 50℃. Whereas both water uptakes were inclined to be little affected by soaking pH, the remarkable increase in the water uptake of seeds coated with only aleurone layer was observed only by soaking in sodium acetate buffer (pH 4.0). Although a lower concentration of KCl (0.01M) stimulated both water uptakes compared with water, a higher concentration of KCl (0.1M and 0.2M) depressed inversely them. The rates of water uptake in both types of seeds changed depending upon ionic strength rather than ion species. From these results, it was found that the state of water sorption in soybean seeds having the aleurone layer scarcely changed even if the seed coat was removed. It is suggested that the water permeability of soybean seeds is mainly due to the characteristics of aleurone layer

Democratic (S)fermions and Lepton Flavor Violation

The democratic approach to account for fermion masses and mixing is known to be successful not only in the quark sector but also in the lepton sector. Here we extend this ansatz to supersymmetric standard models, in which the K\"ahler potential obeys underlying S_3 flavor symmetries. The requirement of neutrino bi-large mixing angles constrains the form of the K\"ahler potential for left-handed lepton multiplets. We find that right-handed sleptons can have non-degenerate masses and flavor mixing, while left-handed sleptons are argued to have universal and hence flavor-blind masses. This mass pattern is testable in future collider experiments when superparticle masses will be measured precisely. Lepton flavor violation arises in this scenario. In particular, \mu \to e \gamma is expected to be observed in a planning future experiment if supersymmetry breaking scale is close to the weak scale.Comment: 22 pages, 2 figure

小麦粉の一部を乾燥オカラで置換した二種のケーキの製造と評価

Two kinds of okara-containing cakes, sponge cake and chiffon cake, were produced, and the microstructure, physical property, and characteristic of taste were investigated. Twenty percentage of wheat flours of the cakes were substituted with dry okara. The difference between the microstructures of cakes with and without okara was obviously observed in both types of cakes. While the height of both cakes was slightly decreased by the substitution of wheat flour, the hardness of cakes scarcely changed by the substitution. The significant difference in sensory evaluation between cakes with and without substitution was scarcely observed in two types of cakes

乾燥オカラの食品素材としての特性

Although a great deal of okara, soy milk residue, is produced, most of okara are dealt as an industrial waste. We propose the use of okara foods containing a large amount of dietary fiber and isoflavon for preventing disease derived from life custom. The properties of dry okara ground by different grinding methods, grindstone (GR), rotary mixer (RO), and hammer (HA) were examined, respectively. The microstructures of surface of okara particles were partially different from one another. The methods affecting the surface area of the particles were as following order: HA > GR > RO. The methods affecting the sedimentation volume in water and water-absorption amount were as following order: HA > GR > RO. It was found that the grinding method using GR is the intermediate one among three kinds of grinding methods

小麦粉の一部を乾燥オカラで置換した三種のパンの製造と評価

Three kinds of okara-containing breads, white bread, bagle, and nun, were produced, and the microstructure, physical property, and characteristic of taste were investigated. Twenty percentage of wheat flour of the breads was substituted with dry okara. The difference between microstructures of breads with and without okara was slightly observed in three kinds of breads, respectively. While the height or thickness of breads was decreased by the substitution of wheat flour, the hardness of breads was increased by the substitution. The significant difference in sensory evaluation of three kinds of breads was observed between breads substituted and not substituted with okara

Periostin is essential for cardiac healingafter acute myocardial infarction

Acute myocardial infarction (AMI) is a common and lethal heart disease, and the recruitment of fibroblastic cells to the infarct region is essential for the cardiac healing process. Although stiffness of the extracellular matrix in the infarct myocardium is associated with cardiac healing, the molecular mechanism of cardiac healing is not fully understood. We show that periostin, which is a matricellular protein, is important for the cardiac healing process after AMI. The expression of periostin protein was abundant in the infarct border of human and mouse hearts with AMI. We generated periostin−/− mice and found no morphologically abnormal cardiomyocyte phenotypes; however, after AMI, cardiac healing was impaired in these mice, resulting in cardiac rupture as a consequence of reduced myocardial stiffness caused by a reduced number of α smooth muscle actin–positive cells, impaired collagen fibril formation, and decreased phosphorylation of FAK. These phenotypes were rescued by gene transfer of a spliced form of periostin. Moreover, the inhibition of FAK or αv-integrin, which blocked the periostin-promoted cell migration, revealed that αv-integrin, FAK, and Akt are involved in periostin signaling. Our novel findings show the effects of periostin on recruitment of activated fibroblasts through FAK-integrin signaling and on their collagen fibril formation specific to healing after AMI

Laser-driven multi-MeV high-purity proton acceleration via anisotropic ambipolar expansion of micron-scale hydrogen clusters

強力なレーザーを使ってエネルギーがそろった純度100％の陽子ビーム発生に成功 --レーザー駆動陽子ビーム加速器の実現へ向けて大きく前進--. 京都大学プレスリリース. 2022-10-13.Multi-MeV high-purity proton acceleration by using a hydrogen cluster target irradiated with repetitive, relativistic intensity laser pulses has been demonstrated. Statistical analysis of hundreds of data sets highlights the existence of markedly high energy protons produced from the laser-irradiated clusters with micron-scale diameters. The spatial distribution of the accelerated protons is found to be anisotropic, where the higher energy protons are preferentially accelerated along the laser propagation direction due to the relativistic effect. These features are supported by three-dimensional (3D) particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations, which show that directional, higher energy protons are generated via the anisotropic ambipolar expansion of the micron-scale clusters. The number of protons accelerating along the laser propagation direction is found to be as high as 1.6 ±0.3 × 10⁹/MeV/sr/shot with an energy of 2.8 ±1.9 MeV, indicating that laser-driven proton acceleration using the micron-scale hydrogen clusters is promising as a compact, repetitive, multi-MeV high-purity proton source for various applications