Search

β-lactoglobulin (BLG) and ε-polylysine (PL) were bound by using microbial transglutaminase. Dextran (Dex) was further conjugated to the BLG-PL conjugate by the Maillard reaction. Confirmation of conjugation was carried out by SDS-PAGE. From the results of isoelectric focusing, it was revealed that the isoelectric point of the BLG-PL conjugate was shifted to the basic side as compared with native BLG. Immunogenicity of BLG in BALB/c mice was lowered by conjugation with PL and further lowered by conjugation with Dex. By conjugation with PL and PL-Dex, antibacterial activity against S. aureus was endowed to BLG. Because the conjugation method in this study is a safe method, it is valuable in that it can be applicable to food processing.

The present study investigated the applicability of constructed wetlands (CWs) filled with oyster shells (OSs) for removing heavy metals from acid mine drainage (AMD). Lab-scale CWs consisted of columns (ID 12.5 cm, H 50 cm) packed with OSs or limestone, which were left unplanted or planted with cattails. Synthetic and real AMD containing 7.3 mg/L of Zn, 38.0 mg/L of Fe, and other minerals (pH = 4.0) were fed to the CWs (1 L/column) under a hydraulic retention time of 7 days in a sequencing batch mode. The effluent pH values of the CWs reached 6.9–8.3. Results show that OSs with high CaCO3 contents had higher neutralizing capability for AMD than limestone had. During 7 months of operation, all CWs were highly effective for removing Zn (88.6–99.2%); Fe (98.7–99.7%); and Cd, Cu, Pb, As, and Mn (48.2–98.9%) from both real and synthetic AMD. The mass balance in the CWs indicated accumulation in OSs or limestone as a main pathway for removing heavy metals, representing 44.8–99.3% of all metals, followed by biomass (8.8–29.9%) in the planted CWs. Other processes examined for this study only played a minor role in removing heavy metals. The higher metal treatment performance of OS CWs demonstrated the value of this aquaculture byproduct as a CW substrate.

Kinetic coefficient on a solid/liquid interface in liquid-phase epitaxial growth of GaP/GaP(1 1 1)B was measured by an in situ observation technique using a near-infrared microscopic interferometer under a static magnetic field of 4 T. The morphological stability of the interface during the growth was quantitatively evaluated based on a linear perturbational approach taking account of the kinetic coefficient. The calculated value of the macrostep wavelength agreed well with the measured one.

The acceleration of gravity is often an important factor influencing a processing procedure, in addition to thermodynamic parameters such as temperature and pressure, especially when a fluid phase is involved. Accordingly, the control of acceleration is important to obtain high quality materials, and to understand the heat and mass transport phenomena during the process. In recent years, materials processing experiments have been performed not only in microgravity but also in hypergravity environments. Utilization of a centrifuge is used to generate hypergravity acceleration on earth. Most centrifugal crystal growth experiments were employed to study the relationship between acceleration and 1) composition and defect distributions in the resulting crystal,e. g,1,22) sedimentation during growth,3 3) morphological instability of the solid/liquid (S/L) interface,4,5 4) growth striations,6,7 5) temperature oscillations in the liquid phase, 8,9 and 6) heat transmission.10