Background: Urinary iodine is a good biochemical marker for control of iodine deficiency disorders. Our aim was to develop and validate a simple, rapid, and quantitative method based on the Sandell–Kolthoff reaction, incorporating both the reaction and the digestion process into a microplate format. Methods: Using a specially designed sealing cassette to prevent loss of vapor and cross-contamination among wells, ammonium persulfate digestion was performed in a microplate in an oven at 110 °C for 60 min. After the digestion mixture was transferred to a transparent microplate and the Sandell–Kolthoff reaction was performed at 25 °C for 30 min, urinary iodine was measured by a microplate reader at 405 nm. Results: The mean recovery of iodine added to urine was 98% (range, 89–109%). The theoretical detection limit, defined as 2 SD from the zero calibrator, was 0.11 μmol/L (14 μg/L iodine). The mean intra- and interassay CVs for samples with iodine concentrations of 0.30–3.15 μmol/L were ≤10%. The new method agreed well with the conventional chloric acid digestion method (n = 70; r = 0.991; y = 0.944x + 0.04; Sy|x = 0.10) and with the inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry method (n = 61; r = 0.979; y = 0.962x + 0.03; Sy|x = 0.20). The agreement was confirmed by difference plots. The distributions of iodine concentrations for samples from endemic areas of iodine deficiency diseases showed similar patterns among the above three methods. Conclusions: Our new method, incorporating the whole process into a microplate format, is readily applicable and allows rapid monitoring of urinary iodine.

These results indicate that both RBL-2H3 cells and human basophils generate superoxide anion upon FcepsilonRI cross-linking either by antibody or by allergen challenge and that blockade of the generation prevents the release of allergic mediators. The findings strongly support the role of superoxide generation in the activation of mast cells and basophils under both physiological and pathological conditions. The findings suggest that drugs regulating the superoxide generation have potential therapeutic use for allergic disorders.

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Nonplanar chiral aromatic molecules are candidates for use as building blocks of multidimensional switching devices because the π electrons can generate ring currents with a variety of directions. We employed (P)-2,2'-biphenol because four patterns of π-electron rotations along the two phenol rings are possible and theoretically determine how quantum switching of the π-electron rotations can be realized. We found that each rotational pattern can be driven by a coherent excitation of two electronic states under two conditions: one is the symmetry of the electronic states and the other is their relative phase. On the basis of the results of quantum dynamics simulations, we propose a quantum control method for sequential switching among the four rotational patterns that can be performed by using ultrashort overlapped pump and dump pulses with properly selected relative phases and photon polarization directions. The results serve as a theoretical basis for the design of confined ultrafast switching of ring currents of nonplanar molecules and further current-induced magnetic fluxes of more sophisticated systems.