Effect of sub- and supercritical water treatments on the physicochemical properties of crab shell chitin and its enzymatic degradation.

This study examined the effects of sub- and supercritical water pretreatments on the physicochemical properties of crab shell α-chitin and its enzymatic degradation to obtain N,N'-diacetylchitobiose (GlcNAc)2. Following sub- and supercritical water pretreatments, the protein in the crab shell was removed and the residue of crab shell contained α-chitin and CaCO3. Prolonged pretreatment led to α-chitin decomposition.

Effects of supercritical water and mechanochemical grinding treatments on physicochemical properties of chitin.

This study examined the effects of a combined pretreatment with supercritical water and mechanochemical grinding with a ball mill on the physicochemical properties of chitin and its enzymatic degradation. Following pretreatment with a combination of supercritical water and grinding, chitin had a lower mean molecular weight, a lower crystallinity index, a lower crystallite size, greater d-spacing, weaker hydrogen bonds, and the amide group was more exposed compared with untreated chitin. These properties increased the hydrophilicity of the chitin and enhanced its enzymatic degradation.

Discriminant Analysis of Undaria pinnatifida Production Areas Using Trace Elemental Analysis.

Increasingly, attention is being paid to declaring the origin of agricultural and marine products after the advent of the bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE; commonly known as mad-cow disease). The display of the production centers on U. pinnatifida has been required in Japan since 2006.

Prediction of carcinogenicity for diverse chemicals based on substructure grouping and SVM modeling.

The Carcinogenicity Reliability Database (CRDB) was constructed by collecting experimental carcinogenicity data on about 1,500 chemicals from six sources, including IARC, and NTP databases, and then by ranking their reliabilities into six unified categories. A wide variety of 911 organic chemicals were selected from the database for QSAR modeling, and 1,504 kinds of different molecular descriptors were calculated, based on their 3D molecular structures as modeled by the Dragon software. Positive (carcinogenic) and negative (non-carcinogenic) chemicals containing various substructures were counted using atom and functional group count descriptors, and the statistical significance of ratios of positives to negatives was tested for those substructures.

Systematization method for distinguishing plastic groups by using NIR spectroscopy.

A systematic classification method for polymers is not yet available in case of using near infrared spectra (NIR). That is why we have been searching for a systematic method. Because raw NIR spectra usually have few obvious peaks, NIR spectra have been pretreated by 2nd derivation for taking well modulated spectra.