Phosphorus Dynamics and Bioavailability in Andosols : Estimation of Potential Bioavailable P Transport in Agricultural Runoff of Andosols

In this study, we estimated the potential bioavailable P transport in agricultural runoff of Andosols from the relations between P sorption saturation and anion exchange resin and Mehlich-3 extractable P, with special references to the difference in active Al composition. the P sorption saturation of 10%, that is optimum P level needed for good crop yields, is critical point of inorganic P for the potential bioavailable P loss in surface runoff from agricultural Andosols with different active Al composition. However, silandic A and B soils showed lower values of Mehlich-3 P than aluandic soils when they had the same P sorption saturation. Mehlich-3 P underestimated the bioavailability of soil P in the silandic soils compared to the aluandic soils. We recommend the use of different critical values of Mehlich-3 P for assessing the upper critical limits for P in aluandic and silandic Andosols

Production and antioxidative activity of alcoholic beverages made from Thai ou yeast and black rice (Oryza sativa var. Indica cv. Shiun)

Fermentation yeast was isolated from a Thai traditional alcoholic beverage called Thai ou, which is drunk through bamboo tubes. The isolated yeast was identified as a strain of the genus Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The alcoholic beverage made with the isolated yeast designated as S. cerevisiae NP01 from black rice grains had an ethanol concentration of 12.4 to 13.1% (v/v) and a large amount of phenolic compounds. The resulting alcoholic beverages made from black rice grains were red in color, especially those made from uncooked black rice, which had a brilliant red hue similar to that of red or rosé wine. The amount of anthocyanin in the beverages made from uncooked black rice with NP01 and industrial wine yeast W-4 was 118 and 131 μg/ml, respectively. The anthocyanin content of beverages made from uncooked black rice was higher than that of the beverages made from the cooked black rice. The antioxidative activity of alcoholic beverages made from uncooked black rice was also higher than that of beverages made from cooked black rice. In the course of this study, the use of NP01 yeast produced black rice wine that was red in color and exhibited antioxidative activity.Key words: Antioxidative activity, ou, black rice, anthocyanin, alcoholic beverage

Carbon exchange of grass in Hungary

Continuous measurement of net biosphere-atmosphere carbon exchange was performed in western Hungary over a managed semi-natural grassland field using the eddy covariance technique to estimate Net Ecosystem Exchange (NEE). The paper presents the measuring site and instrumentation, as well as the data processing methods applied. The measurements covered the period March 1999 to December 2000 during which, on an annual time scale, the region acted as a net CO2 sink, where NEE was -54 g C m(-2) in 1999 (data for January and February were estimated) and -232 g C m(-2) in 2000 (negative NEE represents CO2 uptake by the vegetation). The remarkable inter-annual difference may be the result of the significant climate difference between 1999 and 2000

Development of a simultaneous analytical method for five conjugated cholesterol metabolites in urine and investigation of their performance as diagnostic markers for Niemann-Pick disease type C

Niemann-Pick disease type C (NPC) is an autosomal recessive disorder characterized by progressive nervous degeneration. Because of the diversity of clinical symptoms and onset age, the diagnosis of this disease is difficult. Therefore, biomarker tests have attracted significant attention for earlier diagnostics. In this study, we developed a simultaneous analysis method for five urinary conjugated cholesterol metabolites, which are potential diagnostic biomarkers for a rapid, convenient, and noninvasive chemical diagnosis, using liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry (LC/MS/MS). By the method, their urinary concentrations were quantified and the NPC diagnostic performances were evaluated. The developed LC/MS/MS method showed high accuracy and and satisfied all analytical method validation criteria. Analyzing the urine of healthy controls and patients with NPC, three of five urinary conjugated cholesterol metabolites concentrations corrected by urinary creatinine were significantly higher in the patients with NPC. As a result of receiver operating characteristics analysis, the urinary metabolites might have excellent diagnostic marker performance. 3β-sulfooxy-7β-hydroxy-5-cholenoic acid showed particularly excellent diagnostic performance with both 100% clinical sensitivity and specificity, suggesting that it is a useful NPC diagnostic marker. The urinary conjugated cholesterol metabolites exhibited high NPC diagnostic marker performance and could be used for NPC diagnosis

Structural Determination of Lysosphingomyelin-509 and Discovery of Novel Class Lipids from Patients with Niemann–Pick Disease Type C

Niemann–Pick disease type C (NPC) is an autosomal recessive disorder caused by the mutation of cholesterol-transporting proteins. In addition, early treatment is important for good prognosis of this disease because of the progressive neurodegeneration. However, the diagnosis of this disease is difficult due to a variety of clinical spectrum. Lysosphingomyelin-509, which is one of the most useful biomarkers for NPC, was applied for the rapid and easy detection of NPC. The fact that its chemical structure was unknown until recently implicates the unrevealed pathophysiology and molecular mechanisms of NPC. In this study, we aimed to elucidate the structure of lysosphingomyelin-509 by various mass spectrometric techniques. As our identification strategy, we adopted analytical and organic chemistry approaches to the serum of patients with NPC. Chemical derivatization and hydrogen abstraction dissociation–tandem mass spectrometry were used for the determination of function groups and partial structure, respectively. As a result, we revealed the exact structure of lysosphingomyelin-509 as N-acylated and O-phosphocholine adducted serine. Additionally, we found that a group of metabolites with N-acyl groups were increased considerably in the serum/plasma of patients with NPC as compared to that of other groups using targeted lipidomics analysis. Our techniques were useful for the identification of lysosphingomyelin-509

Excited States of Proton-bound DNA/RNA Base Homo-dimers: Pyrimidines

We are presenting the electronic photo fragment spectra of the protonated pyrimidine DNA bases homo-dimers. Only the thymine dimer exhibits a well structured vibrational progression, while protonated monomer shows broad vibrational bands. This shows that proton bonding can block some non radiative processes present in the monomer.Comment: We acknowledge the use of the computing facility cluster GMPCS of the LUMAT federation (FR LUMAT 2764

A 4D-Var inversion system based on the icosahedral grid model (NICAM-TM 4D-Var v1.0) – Part 2: Optimization scheme and identical twin experiment of atmospheric CO₂ inversion

A four-dimensional variational method (4D-Var) is a popular technique for source/sink inversions of atmospheric constituents, but it is not without problems. Using an icosahedral grid transport model and the 4D-Var method, a new atmospheric greenhouse gas (GHG) inversion system has been developed. The system combines offline forward and adjoint models with a quasi-Newton optimization scheme. The new approach is then used to conduct identical twin experiments to investigate optimal system settings for an atmospheric CO2 inversion problem, and to demonstrate the validity of the new inversion system. In this paper, the inversion problem is simplified by assuming the prior flux errors to be reasonably well known and by designing the prior error correlations with a simple function as a first step. It is found that a system of forward and adjoint models with smaller model errors but with nonlinearity has comparable optimization performance to that of another system that conserves linearity with an exact adjoint relationship. Furthermore, the effectiveness of the prior error correlations is demonstrated, as the global error is reduced by about 15 % by adding prior error correlations that are simply designed when 65 weekly flask sampling observations at ground-based stations are used. With the optimal setting, the new inversion system successfully reproduces the spatiotemporal variations of the surface fluxes, from regional (such as biomass burning) to global scales. The optimization algorithm introduced in the new system does not require decomposition of a matrix that establishes the correlation among the prior flux errors. This enables us to design the prior error covariance matrix more freely

Upregulation of the cell-cycle regulator RGC-32 in Epstein-Barr virus-immortalized cells

Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) is implicated in the pathogenesis of multiple human tumours of lymphoid and epithelial origin. The virus infects and immortalizes B cells establishing a persistent latent infection characterized by varying patterns of EBV latent gene expression (latency 0, I, II and III). The CDK1 activator, Response Gene to Complement-32 (RGC-32, C13ORF15), is overexpressed in colon, breast and ovarian cancer tissues and we have detected selective high-level RGC-32 protein expression in EBV-immortalized latency III cells. Significantly, we show that overexpression of RGC-32 in B cells is sufficient to disrupt G2 cell-cycle arrest consistent with activation of CDK1, implicating RGC-32 in the EBV transformation process. Surprisingly, RGC-32 mRNA is expressed at high levels in latency I Burkitt's lymphoma (BL) cells and in some EBV-negative BL cell-lines, although RGC-32 protein expression is not detectable. We show that RGC-32 mRNA expression is elevated in latency I cells due to transcriptional activation by high levels of the differentially expressed RUNX1c transcription factor. We found that proteosomal degradation or blocked cytoplasmic export of the RGC-32 message were not responsible for the lack of RGC-32 protein expression in latency I cells. Significantly, analysis of the ribosomal association of the RGC-32 mRNA in latency I and latency III cells revealed that RGC-32 transcripts were associated with multiple ribosomes in both cell-types implicating post-initiation translational repression mechanisms in the block to RGC-32 protein production in latency I cells. In summary, our results are the first to demonstrate RGC-32 protein upregulation in cells transformed by a human tumour virus and to identify post-initiation translational mechanisms as an expression control point for this key cell-cycle regulator