Development of service-oriented products based on the inverse manufacturing concept

To achieve sustainability, resource consumption and waste generation must be drastically decreased. For societal acceptance, preservation of both quality of life and corporate profits are essential. One promising approach is to shift the source of value from the amount of product sold to the quality of services the product provides. This paper describes the need for redesigning recycling systems from a manufacturing perspective and then discusses the possibility of this "servicification" of products, describing our experience with prototype development. We discuss development of product prototypes and their business, using consumer facsimile machines as an example of "service-oriented products". Traditional thought presumes that only products comprising new materials and components are valuable. Consideration of a service-oriented product can serve as a stimulus to revise this mode of thought and to control delivery and quality of disposed products. This paper also provides a life cycle simulation of the developed service-oriented business. Simulation results indicate that service-oriented business can potentially reduce environmental impact while extending business opportunities from the viewpoint of whole product life cycles.     

Simultaneous determination of ochratoxin A, B and citrinin in foods by HPLC-FL and LC/MS/MS

Methods using high-performance liquid chromatography with fluorescence detection (HPLC-FL) and using liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry (LC/MS/MS) were developed for simultaneous determination of ochratoxin A (OTA), ochratoxin B (OTB) and citrinin (CIT) in cereal, fruit, and coffee products. The samples were extracted with ethyl acetate under an acidic condition, and then cleaned up with liquid-liquid separation. The test solutions were analyzed by reverse-phase HPLC-FL and LC/MS/MS. Mass spectral acquisition was performed in positive ion mode by applying multiple reaction monitoring. The performances of both detectors were almost equivalent. The recoveries of OTA and OTB were 87-111%, and that of CIT were 70-88%. The limits of quantification (S/N> or =10) of OTA, OTB and CIT was 0.1 mug/kg or less. These methods were considered to be useful for the determination of the three mycotoxins at low levels (0.1 microg/kg).     

Multiresidue analysis of pesticides in agricultural products by GC/MS coupled with database software

We evaluated a multiresidue method for determination of pesticides in agricultural products by SCAN mode GC/MS coupled with three kinds of database for 253 pesticides: relative retention time, mass spectra and calibration curve (SCAN method). Twenty-six pesticides, a total of 131 pesticides were detected in samples by the SCAN method. The detection results agreed closely with those of the SIM mode GC/MS method using calibration standards (SIM method). The ratios of the SCAN method to the SIM method ranged from 0.3 to 3.1 with SD values of 0.63. It was judged that the SCAN method could be applied to the screening analysis of pesticide residues in agricultural products, provided that the sample preparation method makes it possible to effectively remove sample matrixes with minimal loss of analytes.     

A novel transfection method for mammalian cells using calcium alginate microbeads

The direct transfer of genetic materials into mammalian cells is an indispensable technique. We have developed calcium alginate (CA) microbeads which can deliver plasmid DNAs and yeast artificial chromosomes into plant and yeast cells. In this paper, we demonstrate the effective transfection of mammalian cells by CA microbeads immobilizing plasmid DNAs. The transfection was performed using the pEGFP-C1 plasmid containing the cytomegalovirus (CMV) promoter and enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP) gene. The transient expression of EGFP was observed 24 h after transfection. The expression efficiency was maximum when the concentration of sodium alginate was 1% and the amount of plasmid DNA was increased to 100 microg. The expression efficiency of our method using CA microbeads is 2-10 times higher than that of the polyethylene glycol (PEG) method. Our results suggest that the CA microbead mediated transfection of mammalian cells effectively delivers genetic materials into mammalian suspension cells.     

Cell cycle analysis of Chinese hamster ovary cells stimulated by phosphatidic acid in serum-free culture

When recombinant Chinese hamster ovary cells were treated with pertussis toxin or genistein, not only lysophosphatidic acid (LPA) but also phosphatidic acid (PA) failed to stimulate progression through the cell cycle in serum-free culture, suggesting that PA and LPA induce cell growth through the same signal transduction pathway. Cell cycle analysis also indicates that cell growth promoted by PA results in enhanced protein production.     

Characteristics of chlorophyll formation of the aerial microalga Coelastrella striolata var. multistriata and its application for environmental biomonitoring

The growth and ammonium uptake of the aerial microalga Coelastrella striolata var. multistriata, which was isolated from the surface of rocks, were characterized in this study. The specific growth rate of the alga was mu=0.3 d(-1), as calculated in the growth logarithmic phase. The algal cells were able to remove almost 100% of the ammonium ions from medium in 5 d, with the removal rate of ammonium-N being 0.4 mg/l/h. It was shown that the alga has a unique ability to be a reddish orange to green color depending on the nitrogen source concentration in the medium. Astaxanthin, adonixanthin, canthaxanthin, and beta-carotene were found in the reddish orange cells of the alga. The assessment of water pollution was attempted using this aerial microalga. When the reddish orange alga was incubated in the experimental medium with added ammonium-, nitrate-, or urea-N as a nitrogen source, an approximately linear relationship existed between the nitrogen concentration and chlorophyll formation. Using the chlorophyll formation of the alga, for example, it was possible to estimate spectrophotometrically the total nitrogen content in water collected from aquatic systems. Biofunctional materials for environmental biomonitoring using photosynthetic microorganisms are called green devices in this study.     

Collision response for deformable models based on hertz's contact theory

This paper presents an animation technique of collision response for deformable models defined as a spring-mass-damper system. Our approach is to calculate impulsive forces to prevent penetration of colliding objects by means of Hertz's contact theory. With this theory, contact duration and deformation in collision are obtained according to physical properties such as mass and elasticity. Animators, therefore, can represent the differences between materials such as rubber and steel in the sequence of collision animations with a few intuitive physical parameters. We also describe a deformation mapping technique which reduces the computational time of dynamic analysis and realizes the effect of global deformation.     

Graphitization of carbon fibre/ glassy carbon composites

Carbon fibre/glassy carbon composites were prepared by aligning unidirectionally in furfuryl alcohol condensate the PAN-based carbon fibres treated at different temperatures and with different degrees of stretching. The graphitization of the composites was found to start at the boundary between the fibres and glassy carbon matrix, and to proceed into the matrix. This is considered to be due to the stress accumulation at the boundary caused by a large shrinkage of the matrix. The carbon fibres remain nongraphitized even after a heat-treatment at 2800°C. The composites heat-treated at high temperature (2800°C) are found to show a high overall degree of graphitization, unexpected on basis of the known graphitization behavior of carbon fibres and of glassy carbon, and a high degree of uniaxial preferred orientation of crystallites.     

Deposition of Lead Phosphate by Lead-Tolerant Bacteria Isolated from Fresh Water near an Abandoned Mine

Specialist bacteria can synthesize nanoparticles from various metal ions in solution. Metal recovery with high efficiency can be achieved by metal-tolerant microorganisms that proliferate in a concentrated metal solution. In this study, we isolated bacteria (Pseudomonas sp. strain KKY-29) from a bacterial library collected from water near an abandoned mine in Komatsu City, Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan. KKY-29 was maintained in nutrient medium with lead acetate and synthesized hydrocerussite and pyromorphite nanoparticles inside the cell; KKY-29 also survived nanoparticle synthesis. Quantitative PCR analysis of genes related to phosphate metabolism showed that KKY-29 decomposed organic phosphorus to synthesize lead phosphate. KKY-29 also deposited various metal ions and synthesized metal nanoparticles when incubated in various metal salt solutions other than lead. The present study considers the development of biotechnology to recover lead as an economically valuable material.