Measurement and comparison of individual external doses of high-school students living in Japan, France, Poland and Belarus-the 'D-shuttle' project

Twelve high schools in Japan (of which six are in Fukushima Prefecture), four in France, eight in Poland and two in Belarus cooperated in the measurement and comparison of individual external doses in 2014. In total 216 high-school students and teachers participated in the study. Each participant wore an electronic personal dosimeter 'D-shuttle' for two weeks, and kept a journal of his/her whereabouts and activities. The distributions of annual external doses estimated for each region overlap with each other, demonstrating that the personal external individual doses in locations where residence is currently allowed in Fukushima Prefecture and in Belarus are well within the range of estimated annual doses due to the terrestrial background radiation level of other regions/countries.

Stereospecific alkyl and alkynyl substitution reactions of epoxy sulfides with organoaluminums with double inversion of the configuration

A regioselective and stereospecific substitution reaction of 1-(phenylthio)-2,3-epoxyalkanes was achieved by using organoaluminum reagents as a nucleophile. Under the influence of trimethyl- or triethylaluminum, a 1-(phenylthio)-2,3-epoxyalkane underwent substitution at the C2 position to give a product with retention of the configuration. The reaction proceeds through an episulfonium ion intermediate, which gives rise to the C2-substitution products with double inversion of the configuration. Introduction of an alkynyl group was also accomplished by the reaction with dimethyl[2-(trimethylsilyl)ethynyl]aluminum in dichloromethane.

Regioselective alkyl and alkynyl substitution reactions of epoxy alcohols by the use of organoaluminum ate complexes: regiochemical reversal of nucleophilic substitution reactions

Unprecedented nucleophilic substitution reactions of 2,3-epoxy-1-alkanols with alkyl- and alkynylaluminum ate complexes have been studied and demonstrated to occur at the C2 position with extremely high stereoselectivity, i.e., with exactly reversed regioselectivity to that obtained in the substitution reactions by normal organoaluminum reagents, resulting in the formation of the C2-alkyl and C2-alkynyl substitution products in excellent yields.

Adsorption characteristics of tryptic fragments of bovine β-lactoglobulin on a stainless steel surface

As a strategy for the analysis of the mode of protein adsorption onto stainless steel surfaces, peptides obtained by tryptic digestion of bovine beta-lactoglobulin were subjected to adsorption experiments after identification of their primary structures. In the presence of 1 mM KOH, the peptides were scarcely adsorbed onto the surfaces of stainless steel particles from the peptide mixture. The adsorption experiments on isolated peptides showed that the affinities of the peptides for stainless steel surfaces in the presence of 1 mM HNO3 were significantly different from each other. Peptides without any acidic amino acid residues were scarcely adsorbed onto the surface, whereas some peptides with acidic amino acid residues were found to be irreversibly adsorbed onto the surfaces in the acidic pH region. As for the latter peptides, the amount adsorbed on the surface increased with increasing ionic strength. These results indicated that the carboxyl groups on the side chains of the peptides play an important role in the adsorption. Furthermore, the adsorption behavior of beta-lactoglobulin itself was found to be very similar to that of one of the latter peptides.

Water Content during Abscisic Acid Induced Freezing Tolerance in Bromegrass Cells

Changes in water content and dry weight were determined in control cells and those induced to cold harden in response to abscisic acid (ABA) treatment (7.5 x 10(-5) molar). Bromegrass (Bromus inermis Leyss cv Manchar) cells grown in suspension culture at room temperature (23 degrees C) for 7 days acclimated to -28 degrees C (LT(50)) when treated with ABA, or to -5 degrees C when untreated. ABA significantly reduced cell growth rates at 5 and 7 days after treatment. Growth reduction was due to a decrease in cell number rather than cell size. When the cell water content was expressed as percent water (percent H(2)O) or as grams water per gram dry weight (gram H(2)O/gram dry weight [g DW]), the water content of hardy, ABA-treated cells decreased from 85% to 77% or from 6.4 to 3.3 g H(2)O/g DW in 7 days. Control cell water content remained static at approximately 87% and 7.5 g H(2)O/g DW. However, cell water content, expressed as milligrams water per million cells (milligram H(2)O/10(6) cells), did not differ in ABA-treated or control cells. The dry matter content of ABA-treated cells, expressed as milligram DW/10(6) cells increased to 3.3 milligram/10(6) cells in 7 days, whereas the dry weight of the control cells remained between 1.4 to 2.1 milligrams/10(6) cells. The osmotic potential of ABA-treated cells decreased by the fifth day while that of control cells increased significantly and then decreased by day 7. Elevated osmotic potentials were not associated with increased ion uptake. In contrast to much published literature, these results suggest that cell water content does not decrease in ABA-treated cells during the induction of freezing tolerance, rather the dry matter mass per cell increased. Cell water content may be more accurately expressed as a function of cell number when accompanying changes to dry cell matter occur.