Comparative Study of Dehydration

The paraffin method has frequently been criticised because of its hardening and shrinking effect on tissue. The author believes this distortion is due to the dehydration and not to the immersion in melted paraffin. An experimentally controlled series of various tissues was dehydrated in different dehydrating reagents, dioxan, isobutyl alcohol, and ethyl alcohol with chloroform. Except for the dehydration, the tissues were treated identically. In every case, dioxan proved to be a better dehydrating reagent with less shrinkage and brittleness than any of the others. Ethyl alcohol with chloroform produced the greatest degree of distortion.     

不同脱水条件下蝴蝶兰类原球茎的失水程度与耐脱水性

为了解蝴蝶兰类原球茎(PLB)耐脱水性规律,本研究通过取一定数目、鲜重的PLB样品分别经不同相对湿度或时间脱水后进行相关测定,结果表明经相对湿度52%下脱水2d的PLB含水率13.31g/gdw(脱水重/鲜重比值40.62%)是质膜损伤和胁迫致死的临界含水率。虽然不同脱水条件使材料达到接近的含水率,但较高湿度脱水对PLB组织细胞伤害较小。相较于含水率指标,PLB脱水重/鲜重比值与相对电导率、成活率有良好的线性关系。进一步的研究表明PLB脱水处理前用水浸泡不能明显提高脱水后的PLB脱水重/鲜重比值,但能明显提高成活率。从实验结果我们可以得出,慢速脱水蝴蝶兰PLB可减轻脱水损伤,降低脱水损伤对PLB起始含水率的敏感性;采用PLB脱水重/鲜重比值替代含水率表示材料失水程度是可取的。     

Radiation Chemistry of Foods

Reaction rates of the extracts from foods and biological tissues with hydrated electrons were measured by using competition with N₂O. Water and 3% Na₂S0₄ aqueous extracts of pork and water extract of onion gave results which conformed to the simple relationship of competition. An addition test of the onion with acetone and nitrate suggested that their reactivities were simply additive, but the additive effect of cysteine was complicated.     

Dehydration in dormant insects

Many of the mechanisms used by active insects to maintain water balance are not available to dormant individuals. Physiological and biochemical mechanisms of dehydration tolerance and resistance in dormant insects and some other invertebrates are reviewed, as well as linkages of dehydration with energy use and metabolism, with cold hardiness, and with diapause. Many dormant insects combine several striking adaptations to maintain water balance that-in addition to habitat choice-may include especially reduction of body water content, decreased cuticular permeability, absorption of water vapour, and tolerance of low body water levels. Many such features require energy and hence that metabolism, albeit much reduced, continues during dormancy. Four types of progressively dehydrated states are recognized: water is managed internally by solute or ion transport; relatively high concentrations of solutes modify the behaviour of water in solutions; still higher concentrations of certain carbohydrates lead to plasticized rubbers or glasses with very slow molecular kinetics; and anhydrobiosis eliminates metabolism.     

Radiation Chemistry of Foods

When 10^?3m cysteine solution was irradiated in the presence of glucose at the concentration of ten-fold of cysteine, the G-values of products produced from cysteine were similar to those from 10^?3m cysteine solution. On the other hand, the yield of carbonyl compound from glucose was suppressed completely by interaction between cysteine and radicals which are secondarily produced from glucose.

Methionine could not suppress the yield of carbonyl compound from glucose, and, G-values of products from methionine varied in comparison with those from solution containing methionine only.

From the results using scavenger, it was concluded that oxidation to methionine sulfoxide and cleavage to α-aminobutyric acid was caused by OH and attack, respectively.     

Radionuclides in Foods

Levels of strontium-90 and cesium-137 in Canadian milk during the period 1960-64 were consistently higher than those in the United States or the United Kingdom, but levels in humans, while also higher, did not reflect the differences observed in milk. Annual dose rates of 27 millirads to bone and 4 millirads to the whole body correspond to the highest average concentrations of strontium-90 and cesium-137 so far observed. Levels of cesium-137 in the urine of residents of the Canadian North were found to increase with the increasing consumption of caribou or reindeer. Whole body counting of a few northern residents showed cesium-137 levels as high as 1000 nanocuries. It is concluded that protective actions are not needed but that studies in the North should be emphasized to provide a better basis for evaluating that particular situation.     

Radiation Chemistry of Foods

An intermediate radical, ?H₂OH, was produced in aqueous methanol solution containing nitrous oxide by γ-irradiation. Yields of ethylene glycol and formaldehyde, the major and the minor product from ?H₂OH, respectively, changed on the addition of some solutes. Cysteine lowered the both product yields to zero even at a low concentration of 5 × 10^?5m. Oxygen of low concentrations (2.5~7.5 × 10^?5 m) changed effectively the major product from ethylene glycol to formaldehyde. k _(CySH+?H2OH)/k_(O2+?H2OH) was calculated as 0.5.

Ascorbic acid (5 × 10^?5 m) lowered ethylene glycol yield to 48%, cystine (10^?3m) to 15%, methionine (10^?3m) to 31%, histidine (10^?3m) to 42%, tryptophan (10^?3m) 46%, tyrosine (10^?3m) to 77%, phenylalanine (10^?3m) to 73%, hypoxanthine (10^?3m) to 37%, adenine (10^?3m) to 52%, uracil (10^?3m) to 20%, thymine (10^?3m) to 10%, cytosine (10^?3 m) to 49%, rutin (10^?3m) to 23%, pyrogallol (10^?3m) to 41%, and gallic acid (10^?3m) to 78% of the control. These results suggest that the reactions of the secondary radicals such as ?H₂OH perform an important role in material change of foods irradiated with γ rays.     

Radiation Chemistry of Foods

In food irradiation, water-soluble food constituents undergo the attack of ${\text{e}}_{\text{aq}}^{?}$ and OH at the neutral region.

Reaction rate constants of some food constituents with ${\text{e}}_{\text{aq}}^{?}$ and OH were measured by competition methods using nitrous oxide and ³H-formate as competitors, respectively. High selectivity was observed among the reactions with ${\text{e}}_{\text{aq}}^{?}$ and the ${\text{e}}_{\text{aq}}^{?}$-reaction rate constants are 10¹⁰ M^?1 sec^?1 (cysteine), 10⁹ M^?1 sec^?1 (methionine, ascorbic acid, and histidine), and much smaller (sugars, and the other types of amino acids). The OH-reaction rate constants range from 10⁹ M^?1 sec^?1 (cysteine, histidine, methionine, aromatic amino acids, and ascorbic acid) to 10⁸ M^?1 sec^?1 (sugars and the other amino acids), indicating that the reactions with OH are less selective. Selective destructions of cysteine and ascorbic acid in food irradiation may be partly ascribed to their selective reactivities with some less reactive species which are produced by reactions of ${\text{e}}_{\text{aq}}^{?}$ or OH with oxygen or the other constituents as well as their higher reactivity with ${\text{e}}_{\text{aq}}^{?}$.     

Evolutionary Consequences of Fallback Foods

Primatologists use the term fallback foods to denote resources of relatively low preference that are used seasonally when preferred foods are unavailable. We examine the assumption that fallback foods play an important role in shaping morphological adaptations, behavior, and socioecology in primates. We discuss operational definitions of preferred and fallback foods and suggest that the evolutionary importance of fallback foods applies more to adaptations for processing than for harvesting foods. Equally, we propose that preferred resources tend to drive adaptations for harvesting foods. We distinguish 2 classes of fallback foods according to their roles in the diet and their evolutionary effects. Staple fallback foods are available year-round, tend to be eaten throughout the year, and seasonally can constitute up to 100% of the diet. Filler fallback foods never constitute 100% of the diet, and may be completely avoided for weeks at a time. We suggest that the availability of the 2 classes of fallback foods have different effects on the socioecology of primate species.