Odor intensity of binary mixtures of odorous compounds

This paper presents the MBO model for the perceived intensity of odour mixtures. This model is based on an equation previously reported by our team, intended to model the whole stimulus-response intensity curve of pure odorous compounds. The MBO model was applied to a set of published data, and compared to other published models. The results show a high modelling efficiency of the MBO model compared to other proposed equations, especially for binary mixtures exhibiting significant asymmetry of intensity for different ratios of the two components. Furthermore, the MBO model includes parameters specific to the respective effects of each component in the mixture, which may help to clarify the masking and synergy effects that are often sought in odour mixtures.     

Relationships between Binding Quality of Meat and Myofibrillar Proteins

The viscosity change of myosin A concentrated solution with or without other components was measured as the incubation time elapsed at 30°C.

The viscosity of myosin A solution increased, but that of F-actin solution did not. The shear stress at 0.04 sec^?1 was not increased to 1.0 dyne/cm² in the former, but in the latter was below 0.5 dyne/cm².

The viscosity of myosin B solution increased slightly, but that of native tropomyosin-free myosin B solution decreased remarkably. In both the shear stress at 0.04 sec^?1 was greater than or equal to 15 dynes/cm².

The speed of the viscosity increase in the presence of 3 mm pyrophosphate and 3 mm MgCl₂ was higher in concentrated solution of myosin B than in that of native tropomysin-free myosin B. The shear stress at 0.04 sec^?1 after 6 hr at 30°C was 11.5 and 8.2 dynes/cm², respectively.

The effect of native tropomyosin and actin on the viscosity change was discussed.     

越冬代亚洲玉米螟成虫发生动态及其与温度关系初探——以通辽市开鲁县为例

为明确亚洲玉米螟越冬代成虫发生动态及其与温度的关系,于2007-2016年利用频振式杀虫灯结合当地气象数据进行系统调查与分析。结果表明,自然条件下内蒙古通辽地区越冬代玉米螟成虫始见期在6月初(6月5日左右),高峰期在6月下旬(6月26日左右),终见期为7月中旬(7月14日左右),整个成虫期有效温度累积范围在150.0℃~750.0℃之间,高峰期集中在350.0℃~450.0℃的范围内。总的来看,越冬代成虫始见期与高峰期与吉林省中部地区大体相同,终见期稍晚于吉林中部地区但早于黑龙江哈尔滨地区。通辽与吉林中部地区越冬代成虫期(均40 d左右)约比黑龙江哈尔滨地区短10 d。可见,各地越冬代玉米螟成虫发生期的早晚和持续时间长短因地而异,同一地区受年份间的气温变化其也会出现差异。     

Case studies on the use of biotechnologies and on biosafety provisions in four African countries

This review is based on a study commissioned by the European Commission on the evaluation of scientific, technical and institutional challenges, priorities and bottlenecks for biotechnologies and regional harmonisation of biosafety in Africa. Biotechnology was considered within four domains: agricultural biotechnologies (‘Green’), industrial biotechnologies and biotechnologies for environmental remediation (‘White’), biotechnologies in aquaculture (‘Blue’) and biotechnologies for healthcare (‘Red’). An important consideration was the decline in partnerships between the EU and developing countries because of the original public antipathy to some green biotechnologies, particularly genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and food from GM crops in Europe. The study focus reported here was West Africa (Ghana, Senegal, Mali and Burkina Faso).The overall conclusion was that whereas high-quality research was proceeding in the countries visited, funding is not sustained and there is little evidence of practical application of biotechnology and benefit to farmers and the wider community. Research and development that was being carried out on genetically modified crop varieties was concentrating on improving food security and therefore unlikely to have significant impact on EU markets and consumers. However, there is much non-controversial green biotechnology such as molecular diagnostics for plant and animal disease and marker-assisted selection for breeding that has great potential application. Regarding white biotechnology, it is currently occupying only a very small industrial niche in West Africa, basically in the sole sector of the production of liquid biofuels (i.e., bio-ethanol) from indigenous and locally planted biomass (very often non-food crops). The presence of diffused small-scale fish production is the basis to develop and apply new (Blue) aquaculture technologies and, where the research conditions and the production sector can permit, to increase this type of production and the economy of this depressed areas. However, the problems bound to environmental protection must not be forgotten; priority should be given to monitor the risks of introduction of foreign species. Red biotechnologies potentially bring a vast domain of powerful tools and processes to achieve better human health, most notably improved diagnostics by molecular techniques, better targeting of pathogens and a better knowledge of their sensitivities to drugs to permit better treatment.Biosafety regulatory frameworks had been initiated in several countries, starting with primary biosafety law. However, disparate attitudes to the purpose of biosafety regulation (e.g., fostering informed decision-making versus ‘giving the green-light for a flood of GMOs’) currently prevent a needed consensus for sub-regional harmonisation. To date, most R&D funding has come from North America with some commercial interests from Asia, but African biotechnology workers expressed strong desire for (re-)engagement with interested parties from the European Union. Although in some of the visited countries there are very well qualified personnel in molecular biology and biosafety/regulation, the main message received is that human resources and capacity building in-house are still needed. This could be achieved through home-based courses and capacity-building including funds for post-degree research to motivate and retain trained staff.     

金龙胆草提取液体外抑菌活性分析

金龙胆草是传统道地中药材,但目前受到材料来源不足的限制,其应用和研究均受到很大限制,为更好地开发和应用该道地中药材,本研究以实验室野生金龙胆草和组培金龙胆草出发,分别采用热水浴和索式提取法对金龙胆草有效成份进行了提取和体外抑菌活性研究。结果表明,热水浴浸提法的抑菌效果优于索式提取法,均表现出对金黄色葡萄球菌和枯草芽孢杆菌这类革兰氏阳性菌有很好的抑制效果,最小抑菌浓度分别达到12.5 mg/mL和50 mg/mL。野生型提取液和组培型的提取液体外抑菌比较实验显示,野生型金龙胆草的抑菌效果要显著优于组培型金龙胆草提取液。这将为金龙胆草作为中药抗菌药的合理利用提供一定的指导作用,同时为减少抗生素的滥用造成的环境污染作出一定的贡献。     

Two rhamnetin digalactosides and an oleanolic acid digalactoside from the flowers of Cassia laevigata

From the flowers of Cassia laevigata, two new rhamnetin glycosides, the 3-galactosyl(1→4)- galactopyranoside and the related 3-galactosyl(1→6)galactopyranoside, and oleanolic acid 3-galactosyl(1→4)- galactopyranoside have been isolated. These three glycosides have not been isolated earlier from any plant source. The known compounds quercetin, docosyl alcohol, carnaubyl alcohol, ceryl alcohol and octacosanol have also been obtained.     

Structure of indole-3-acetic acid myoinositol esters and pentamethyl-myoinositols

GC-MS properties of three isomeric esters of indole-3-acetic acid and myoinositol, three esters of indole-3-acectic acid and myoinositol arabinoside and three esters of indole-3-acetic acid and myoinositol galactoside are presented. MS fragmentation patterns for the four possible pentamethyl myoinositols are also shown. These data indicated that the arabinose, and galactose of the glycosides were in the pyranose form and that C-1 of the sugar was linked to the 5 hydroxyl of myoinositol. Homologies in fragmentation patterns for the esters and the glycoside esters, together with knowledge of the properties of 2-O-indole-3-acetyl-myoinositol, permitted identification of one of the arabinosides as 5-O-l-arabinopyranosyl-2-O-indole-3-acetyl-myoinositol and one of the galactosides as 5-O-d- galactopyranosyl-2-O-indole-3-acetyl-myoinositol. The remaining two GLC peaks observed for the arabinoside were then, most likely, the two mixtures of diastereoisomers 1 d- and 1 l-5-O-l-arabinopryranosyl-1-O-indole-3-acetyl myoinositol and 1 d- and 1 l-5-O-l-arabinopyranosyl-4-O-indole-3-acetyl-myoinositol. The remaining two GLC peaks observed for the galactoside would then be the 1 d and 1 l-5-O-d-galactopyranosyl-1-O-indole-3-acetyl-myoinositol and 1 d- and 1 l-5-O-d- galactopyranosyl-4-O-indoleacetyl-myoinositol.     

Overproduction of the membrane-bound components of the histidine permease from Salmonella typhimurium: identification of the M protein

The periplasmic histidine permease of Salmonella typhimurium is composed of a soluble histidine-binding protein and three membrane-bound components. These latter are produced in very small amounts and only two, the Q and the P protein, have been previously identified. This paper describes the construction of a plasmid carrying the hisQ, hisM, and hisP genes under the control of the lambda PL promoter, thus allowing great overproduction of those gene products. The M protein has been identified in such overproducing strains and its nature confirmed by constructing in vitro hisM deletions within the plasmid. With these results the identification of all components of the histidine permease has been completed.