Microbially mediated insoluble technetium (Tc) formation was studied using surface water covering paddy fields. Surface water samples were collected from three kinds of flooded paddy soils: andosol, gley soil, and gray lowland soil. Insoluble Tc (> 0.2 μm in size) was formed in all surface water samples and the amounts ranged from 48.7 ± 2.2% of total Tc (gley soil) to 88.5 ± 3.1% (gray lowland...

Environmental effects of excess P from manure and the soaring price of phosphates are major issues in pig production. To optimize P utilization, it is crucial to improve our capacity to predict the amount of P absorbed, while taking into account the main factors of variation. Mathematical modeling can represent the complexity of the processes and interactions in determining the digestive utiliz...

Chestnut shell pigment (CSP) is melanin from an agricultural waste. It has potential as an adsorbent for wastewater treatment but cannot be used in its original state because of its solubility in water. We developed a new method to convert CSP to insolubilized chestnut shell pigment (ICSP) by heating, and the Cu(II) adsorption performance of ICSP was evaluated. The conversion was characterized,...

α-Crystallin is a member of the small heat-shock protein (sHSP) family and consists of two subunits, αA and αB. Both αA- and αB-crystallin act as chaperones and anti-apoptotic proteins. Previous studies have identified the peptide (70)KFVIFLDVKHFSPEDLTVK(88) in αA-crystallin and the peptide (73)DRFSVNLDVKHFSPEELKVK(92) in αB-crystallin as mini-chaperones. In the human lens, lysine 70 (Lys(70)) ...

PURPOSE To determine if the susceptibility of rat lenses to cataract formation in culture changes with increasing age and to investigate the regional differences in crystallin degradation and insolubilization during the formation of cataracts in cultured lenses. METHODS Lenses from 4-week-old (young group) and 12-week-old (adult group) rats were divided into four subgroups: noncultured contro...

Methods. Soluble and insoluble lens proteins from 4-day-old to 4-month-old rat lens cortexes and nuclei were separated by two-dimensional electrophoresis. The insoluble proteins from 4-month-old nuclei were electroblotted and the NH2 termini of proteins sequenced. Cleavage sites appearing at 4 months of age were compared to cleavage sites produced by purified calpain II and to cleavage sites ap...