Modeling of atmospheric freeze-drying for sliced fruit

[EN] A mathematical model that simulates atmospheric freeze-drying for apple slices was developed based on the classical mass and heat balance equations. When operated above the glass transition temperature, product shrinkage and micro-collapse due to the glass-rubber transition occurred. So, instead of assuming formation of dried and frozen zones, a glassy matrix with particular vapor pressure was assumed. Apparent vapor pressure of apple slices in the glassy state was experimentally measured and summarized in a diagram, and the values in this diagram were employed for the simulation. This approach well predicted drying kinetics with reasonable accuracy with simplified equations.Horie, A.; Kobayashi, T.; Nakagawa, K. (2018). Modeling of atmospheric freeze-drying for sliced fruit. En IDS 2018. 21st International Drying Symposium Proceedings. Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València. 179-186. https://doi.org/10.4995/IDS2018.2018.7643OCS17918

Politics of Populism: How Do Japanese Politicians Criticize “Populism” in the Diet ?

departmental bulletin pape

Sample Entropy in Electrocardiogram During Atrial Fibrillation

【Background】 Atrial fibrillation (AF) is an arrhythmia commonly encountered in clinical practice. There is a high risk of thromboembolism in patients with AF. Nonlinear analyses such as electroencephalogram (EEG), electrocardiogram (ECG), and respiratory movement have been used to quantify biological signals, and sample entropy (SampEn) has been employed as a statistical measure to evaluate complex systems. In this study, we examined the values of SampEn in ECG signals for patients with and without AF to measure the regularity and complexity. 【Methods】 ECG signals of lead II were recorded from 34 subjects without arrhythmia and 15 patients with chronic AF in a supine position. The ECG signals were converted into time-series data and SampEn was calculated. 【Results】 The SampEn values for the group without arrhythmia were 0.252 ± 0.114 [time lag (τ) = 1] and 0.533 ± 0.163 (τ = 5), and those for the chronic AF group were 0.392 ± 0.158 (τ = 1) and 0.759 ± 0.246 (τ = 5). The values of SampEn were significantly higher in the group with chronic AF than in the group without arrhythmia (P < 0.01 for τ = 1, P < 0.004 for τ = 5). The constructed three-dimensional vectors were plotted in time-delayed three-dimensional space. We used time lags of τ = 5 and τ = 1. The shape of the loops of the three-dimensional space was better for τ = 5. 【Conclusion】 The values of SampEn from ECG for chronic AF patients were higher than for subjects without arrhythmia, suggesting greater complexity for the time-series from chronic AF patients. SampEn is considered a new index for evaluating complex systems in ECG

Broccoli consumption and chronic atrophic gastritis among Japanese males: an epidemiological investigation.

Previous in vitro and animal experiments have shown that sulforaphane, which is abundant in broccoli, inhibits Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection and blocks gastric tumor formation. This suggests that broccoli consumption prevents chronic atrophic gastritis (CAG) introduced by H. pylori infection and, therefore, gastric cancer. For an epidemiological investigation of the relationship between the broccoli consumption and CAG, a cross-sectional study of 438 male employees, aged 39 to 60 years, of a Japanese steel company was conducted. CAG was serologically determined with serum cut-off values set at pepsinogen I &#60; or = 70 ng/ml and a ratio of serum pepsinogen I/pepsinogen II &#60; or = 3.0. Broccoli consumption (weekly frequency) and diet were monitored by using a 31-item food frequency questionnaire. The prevalence of CAG among men who ate broccoli once or more weekly was twice as high as that among men who consumed a negligible amount (P &#60; 0.05). Multiple logistic regression analysis indicated that broccoli consumption once or more weekly significantly increased the risk for CAG (odds ratio, 3.06; 95% confidence interval, 1.12-8.38; P &#60; 0.05), after controlling for age, education, cigarette smoking, and alcohol consumption. The present study failed to show an expected association between frequent broccoli consumption and a low prevalence of CAG.</p

The Quaternary Kurobegawa Granite: an example of a deeply dissected resurgent pluton

H.I thank M. Yukawa for her help with sample preparation and LA-ICP-MS data collection, and Y. Hirata for sampling. U-Pb ages were calculated using an Excel spreadsheet provided by S. Sakata. English was improved by M. Coble. Comments by O. Bachmann, J. Wotzlaw and an anonymous reviewer were helpful to improve the manuscript. The Kansai Electric Power Co., Inc., and the Japan Ministry of the Environment gave us permission for the sampling. This work was partly supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Number JP16K05617. AC acknowledges the research grant "Beca Puente" and the financial support of a "Plan Propio" grant from the University of Granada Vicerrectorate of Research and Transfer. This is the IBERSIMS publication n. 88.The Quaternary Kurobegawa Granite, central Japan, is not only the youngest known granitic pluton exposed on the Earth’s surface, it is one of few localities where both Quaternary volcanics and related plutons are well exposed. Here, we present new zircon U–Pb ages together with whole rock and mineral geochemical data, revealing that the Kurobegawa Granite is a resurgent pluton that was emplaced following the caldera-forming eruption of the Jiigatake Volcanics at 1.55 ± 0.09 Ma. Following the eruption, the remnant magma chamber progressively cooled forming the voluminous Kurobegawa pluton in the upper crust (~ 6 km depth) until ~ 0.7 Ma when resurgence caused rapid uplift and erosion in the region. This is the first study to document the detailed spatiotemporal evolution of resurgent pluton for a Quaternary caldera system. Our new findings may contribute significantly to understanding the fate of active caldera systems that can produce supereruptions.Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Japan (MEXT) Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research (KAKENHI) JP16K05617University of Granada Vicerrectorate of Research and Transfe

Microscopic description of nuclei in the middle of the pf-shell by a shell model calculation with G-matrix interaction

Energy levels and electromagnetic properties of with $N=28\sim 30$ nuclides are studied in terms of a large-scale shell model calculation, which contains no newly adjusted parameters. The Kuo-Brown $G$-matrix interaction is shown to reproduce energy levels of 205 low-lying states of these nuclei. We evaluate effective charges by incorporating the core-polarization effects caused by the coupling to GQR's. We then compute E2 moments and transition probabilities. The M1 moments and transition rates are calculated by quoting the effective $g$-factors of Towner, which are obtained by taking into account the meson-exchange and the core-polarization mechanisms. By this microscopic calculation most of the E2 properties and the magnetic moments are reproduced. Although there are agreements and disagreements in the M1 transition rates, the general tendency is reproduced. The $(e,e')$ and $(p,p')$ excitation from the ground state to some low-lying $2^+$ states is also discussed.Comment: 63 pages (LaTeX, to be published in Nucl. Phys. A

miR-378a-3p modulates tamoxifen sensitivity in breast cancer MCF-7 cells through targeting GOLT1A

Breast cancer is a hormone-dependent cancer and usually treated with endocrine therapy using aromatase inhibitors or anti-estrogens such as tamoxifen. A majority of breast cancer, however, will often fail to respond to endocrine therapy. In the present study, we explored miRNAs associated with endocrine therapy resistance in breast cancer. High-throughput miRNA sequencing was performed using RNAs prepared from breast cancer MCF-7 cells and their derivative clones as endocrine therapy resistant cell models, including tamoxifen-resistant (TamR) and long-term estrogen-deprived (LTED) MCF-7 cells. Notably, miR-21 was the most abundantly expressed miRNA in MCF-7 cells and overexpressed in TamR and LTED cells. We found that miR-378a-3p expression was downregulated in TamR and LTED cells as well as in clinical breast cancer tissues. Additionally, lower expression levels of miR-378a-3p were associated with poor prognosis for tamoxifen-treated patients with breast cancer. GOLT1A was selected as one of the miR-378a-3p candidate target genes by in silico analysis. GOLT1A was overexpressed in breast cancer specimens and GOLT1A-specific siRNAs inhibited the growth of TamR cells. Low GOLT1A levels were correlated with better survival in patients with breast cancer. These results suggest that miR-378a-3p-dependent GOLT1A expression contributes to the mechanisms underlying breast cancer endocrine resistance