High-quality software development system-AYUMI

AYUMI, a mechanism that improves software quality and productivity and by which the development process is refined, is described. A series of methods which span activities from data evaluation to the feedback of findings has been developed. This methodology has approximately 100 evaluation items, including both quantitative and qualitative types. These items are categorized into about 40 groups and scored on a scale from one to five. The evaluation results are compiled into tables and reported to the project team. Work in the field is monitored, and feedback improves the development process. The operation of AYUMI is described, and some possible applications are discussed     

The Methods of Measuring Tackiness of Pressure Sensitive Adhesive Tapes

Tackiness of adhesive tapes has been measured by many investigators using many different methods. Therefore, the tackiness of the same sample may vary widely, depending on the test method used. In general, the tackiness is measured by the finger test. Since the finger test involves many complicated factors such as psychological factors and individual differences, etc., it is difficult to quantitize the results of the finger test. The authors measured the tackiness of commercial plastic film adhesive tapes and cloth adhesive tapes by the use of several tack test methods. The results were compared with those obtained from the finger test. It was found that the rolling ball tack tester with a sine curved surface of y = 86.7 cos (π/300 x x) + 86.7 and an average slope of 30° gave results closest to those obtained by the finger test.     

Family 3 beta-glucosidase from cellulose-degrading culture of the white-rot fungus Phanerochaete chrysosporium is a glucan 1,3-beta-glucosidase

The substrate specificity of an extracellular beta-glucosidase (BGL) from cellulose-degrading culture of the white-rot fungus Phanerochaete chrysosporium was investigated, using a variety of compounds with beta-glucosidic linkages. Amino acid sequencing data for the purified BGL showed that the enzyme is identical to the glycoside hydrolase (GH) family 3 BGL of the same fungus previously reported [Li, B. and Renganathan, V, Appl. Environ. Microbiol., 64, 2748-2754 (1998)]. The BGL can hydrolyze both cellobiose and cellobionolactone, but cellobionolactone was hydrolyzed very much more slowly than cellobiose. Moreover, cellobionolactone inhibited cellobiose hydrolysis by the BGL, suggesting that this enzyme cannot cooperate with cellobiose dehydrogenase (CDH) in cellulose degradation by P. chrysosporium. In addition to cellobiose, BGL utilized various glucosyl-beta-glucosides, such as sophorose, laminaribiose and gentiobiose, as substrates. Among the four substrates, laminaribiose (beta-1,3-glucosidic linkage) was hydrolyzed most effectively. Moreover, the hydrolytic rate of laminarioligosaccharides increased proportionally to the degree of polymerization (DP), and the activity of BGL even towards laminarin with an average DP of 25 was similar to that towards laminaripentaose (DP 5). Therefore, we conclude that the extracellular BGL from P. chrysosporium is primarily a glucan 1,3-beta-glucosidase (EC 3.2.1.58), which might play a role on fungal cell wall metabolism, rather than a beta-glucosidase (EC 3.2.1.21), which might be involved in the hydrolysis of beta-1,4-glucosidic compounds during cellulose degradation.     

Chronic myelogenous leukemia received unrelated bone marrow transplantation following surgical resection of cerebral arteriovenous malformation--first case report

We report a 15-year-old boy with chronic myelogenous leukemia who received unrelated bone marrow transplantation (uBMT) after surgical resection of cerebral arteriovenous malformation (AVM). The incidence of cerebral hemorrhage caused by rupture of cerebral ABM in cases of BMT is uncertain. However, since the risk of rupture of AVM was supposed to increase due to both severe thrombocytopenia after intensive chemotherapy and increased intracranical pressure because of total body irradiation (TBI) as preconditioning therapy for BMT, we have first carried out surgical resection of the cerebral AVM, and subsequently performed uBMT. This resulted in a favorable clinical course without serious complications.     

An Automatic DC-Level Compensation Circuit for Electrophysiology

A circuit is described that compensates for dc shifts at the input of a high-input impedance preamplifier used for microelectrode recording. The compensation is made by a negative feedback potential in series with the input. Although the whole recording system operates on an ac basis during automatic compensation, dc recording is possible by suspending further changes in the compensation.     

Studies on tack of pressure-sensitive adhesive tapes: On the surface contamination by adhesive mass after peeling

The presence of adhesive residue on the surface of various adherends after peeling has been confirmed using a tracer technique. Adhesive bonding is found to break by a cohesive mechanism, although the unbonding process seems apparently to be due to intersurface failure. This result supports the concept for adhesive bond breaking proposed in the preceding paper: The unbonding proceeds from the viscoelastic deformation of the adhesive mass around the wetted spots on the surface. As the number of spots in a unit area is controlled by surface energy, the tack value is dependent on the critical surface tension of the adherends.     

On the internal structure of pressure-sensitive adhesives

The internal structure of pressure-sensitive adhesives was studied using electron microscopy and measurements of mechanical loss, tensile modulus, viscosity, stress relaxation, and critical surface tension. The adhesives were blends of natural rubber and the pentaerythritol ester of hydrogenated rosin. Compositions containing up to 40 wt-% resin are homogeneous mixtures. The temperature dispersion of mechanical loss shows a single peak, and the peak value remains almost constant. When the resin concentration exceeds 40 wt-%, phase separation occurs. The disperse phase is resin containing a small amount of rubber. Two peaks, or a peak and a shoulder, appear in the temperature–loss peak curves. It is postulated that one of the peaks corresponds to the phase in which resin is uniformly dispersed in the rubber and the other peak corresponds to the resin phase which contains a small amount of rubber. Evidence for homogeneity in compositions containing 40 wt-% or less resin and of heterogeneity at higher concentrations of resin was also obtained from the electron microscope observations. The relationships between the internal structure of pressure-sensitive adhesives and viscosity, Young's modulus, the relaxation spectrum, tack, and critical surface tension are discussed.     

Measurement and estimation of low temperature vapor-liquid equilibrium for the system oxygen-argon at high oxygen concentrations

Vapor-liquid equilibrium for the oxygen-argon system at high oxygen concentration (99.98% of oxygen) was measured up to 90.17 K at atmospheric pressure