Toward integrated product and process life cycle planning—An environmental perspective

Life cycle engineering (LCE) is a key concept for promoting environmentally sustainable practices among manufacturing firms. A major hurdle in the implementation of LCE is the lack of a systematic and strategic method to design or plan an entire product life cycle. To address this issue, this keynote provides a framework for life cycle development and proposes the concept of life cycle planning. This paper aims to provide explicit and systematic methodologies for life cycle planning by reviewing this research area. Practical cases that employ life cycle planning are also illustrated. Finally, some research directions are suggested.     

Structural study of nanometer-sized iron crystallites in single crystalline iron–mgo composite films

Single crystalline composite films of iron and MgO are prepared by a simultaneous vacuum deposition technique. The structures of the composite films, especially of the iron crystallites embedded, are studied by high-resolution electron microscopy and nanometer-area electron diffraction. The α-iron (b.c.c.) crystallites of 1 nm in size are epitaxially embedded in single crystalline MgO films, the orientation being (011 )[100]_Fe/(001)[100]_Mgo and (001)[11 0]_Fe//(001)[100]_Mgo. A heat treatment of the as-grown films at 500–1,000°C brings about a phase transformation of the crystallites from α-iron to γ-iron (f.c.c.), followed by a grain growth of α-iron and finally the growth of the spinel, MgFe₂O₄. The γ-iron crystallites transformed are circular plates and have strains at the periphery to accommodate the surrounding MgO-matrix. The magnetic property of the composite films is also reported.     

Multi‐gene phylogenetic analysis reveals that shochu‐fermenting Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains form a distinct sub‐clade of the Japanese sake cluster

Shochu is a traditional Japanese distilled spirit. The formation of the distinguishing flavour of shochu produced in individual distilleries is attributed to putative indigenous yeast strains. In this study, we performed the first (to our knowledge) phylogenetic classification of shochu strains based on nucleotide gene sequences. We performed phylogenetic classification of 21 putative indigenous shochu yeast strains isolated from 11 distilleries. All of these strains were shown or confirmed to be Saccharomyces cerevisiae, sharing species identification with 34 known S. cerevisiae strains (including commonly used shochu, sake, ale, whisky, bakery, bioethanol and laboratory yeast strains and clinical isolate) that were tested in parallel. Our analysis used five genes that reflect genome‐level phylogeny for the strain‐level classification. In a first step, we demonstrated that partial regions of the ZAP1, THI7, PXL1, YRR1 and GLG1 genes were sufficient to reproduce previous sub‐species classifications. In a second step, these five analysed regions from each of 25 strains (four commonly used shochu strains and the 21 putative indigenous shochu strains) were concatenated and used to generate a phylogenetic tree. Further analysis revealed that the putative indigenous shochu yeast strains form a monophyletic group that includes both the shochu yeasts and a subset of the sake group strains; this cluster is a sister group to other sake yeast strains, together comprising a sake‐shochu group. Differences among shochu strains were small, suggesting that it may be possible to correlate subtle phenotypic differences among shochu flavours with specific differences in genome sequences. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Development of a heat-processing method for koji to enhance its antioxidant activity

We developed a heat-processing method to enhance the antioxidant activity of koji. The superoxide anion scavenging activity (SOSA) and oxygen radical absorbance capacity (ORAC) of heat-processed koji (HP-koji) at 55 °C for 7 days were 4.9 times and 4.2 times, respectively, those of unheated koji. These results showed that heat processing effectively enhances the antioxidant activity of koji. Analysis of the antioxidant activities of koji subjected to a range of temperatures (45-75 °C) revealed that the SOSA is enhanced by heating at higher temperatures, which might be catalyzed by Maillard reaction, whereas the ORAC was enhanced by heating at lower temperatures, which might be catalyzed by an enzymatic reaction. Assuming these enhancements in antioxidant activities are contributed by both Maillard and enzyme reactions, we hypothesized that the antioxidant activity of HP-koji could be more effectively amplified by heating at a higher temperature after the progression of the enzymatic reaction at a moderate temperature. Therefore, we evaluated the effect of heating of koji in a stepwise manner, first at 55 °C for 2 days and then at 75 °C for 5days. The antioxidant activities of stepwise-heated HP-koji were higher than those of koji heated at either 55 °C or 75 °C. The SOSA and ORAC of stepwise-heated HP-koji were 94 times and 6 times, respectively, those of unheated koji. This result suggests that enzymatic reaction followed by Maillard reaction can effectively enhance the antioxidant activity of HP-koji. Thus, we developed a novel heat-processing method to enhance the antioxidant activity of koji.     

Modeling of mass transfer and initiation of hygroscopically induced cracks in rice grains in a thermally controlled soaking condition: With dependency of diffusion coefficient to moisture content and temperature – A 3D finite element approach

Rice grains develop cracks and eventually break during soaking. Since published simulation studies on hygroscopic swelling induced cracking were scarce, the present study attempts to model the mass transfer of moisture and hygroscopic swelling of rice grains using principles of finite element analysis performed in three dimensions (3D). Ultimately, to understand the crack formation in response to the existence of tensile and compressive stresses caused by moisture gradient in the grain during soaking. An empirical equation was developed to establish dependency of the diffusion coefficient of rice to both moisture content and temperature. Using a 3D replica of short grain japonica rice, the modeling was carried out using existing laws of diffusion and was validated using experimental data. Results showed that the rate of moisture diffusion and hygroscopic swelling were found to increase with increase in soaking temperature. The internal stress, however, was found to decrease with increase in soaking temperature. The simulated moisture content and increase in volume of rice grain were favorably in agreement with experimental results. Highly stressed sites that are prone to breakage have been clearly identified.     

Expression and purification of recombinant human annexin A2 in Pichia pastoris and utility of expression product for detecting annexin A2 antibody

Annexin A2, a Ca2+-dependent phospholipid binding protein, is abundantly expressed in various human organs, which exists as either a membrane-associated, cytosolic or soluble form in serum. We constructed expression systems for recombinant human annexin A2 (rhA2) using Pichia pastoris. The systems are designed to secrete rhA2 as either the N- or C-terminally His6-tagged form to facilitate purification. Both types of rhA2 were overexpressed, but in the N-terminal-truncated form as revealed from the results of N-terminal amino acid sequencing and Western blotting. Therefore, further purification of N-terminally His6-tagged rhA2 was not feasible because of the removal of the N-terminal His6-tag sequence. C-terminally His6-tagged rhA2 was expressed as either a glycosylated or a nonglycosylated form, and the nonglycosylated form was purified using the combination of nickel-immobilized affinity, concanavalin A and cation exchanged column chromatographies. The solid-phase binding of rhA2 was examined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), which revealed the specific reactivity of rhA2 against an anti-annexin A2 monoclonal antibody. These results suggest that the expression system using P. pastoris is useful for the preparation of rhA2 that is applicable to the ELISA detection of the anti-annexin A2 antibody.     

Curing behavior and properties of epoxy resins cured with the diamine having the quinoxaline or triazine structure

2,3-Bis(4-aminophenyl)quinoxaline (1a), 2,3-bis(4-aminophenyl)-6-methylquinoxaline (1b), and 5,6-bis(4-aminophenyl)-3-(2-pyridyl)-1,2,4-triazine (2) were studied as curing agents of epoxy resins. The exotherms on differential scanning calorimetry thermograms of the mixtures of diglycidyl ether of bisphenol A (DGEBA) with 1a, 1b, and 2 were observed at higher temperatures than that of the mixture of DGEBA with a commercially used diamine, for example, 4,4′-diaminodiphenylsulfone (DDS). However, the epoxy resin cured with 1a (EP-1a) showed higher tensile strength to stainless steel at 20°C than that cured with DDS, and the high tensile strength of EP-1a was maintained even at 180°C. The epoxy resin cured with 1b or 2 also possessed higher tensile strength at 20°C than that cured with DDS, but the high tensile strength lowered somewhat at 120°C. Using diamines 1a, 1b, and 2 as a curing agent improved heat distortion temperatures of the cured epoxy resins. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 69: 1737–1741, 1998     

Rotation‐invariant image matching by geometrical parameter of equidistant edge pixel group

Template matching is a method of searching for a target image area that is similar to a template image. However, the target image area generally must have the right position relative to the template image. Therefore, the computational cost is high when the location and the inclination of the target image area are unknown. This paper proposes a method of searching for a target image area with arbitrary location and an arbitrary inclination by means of geometrical parameters obtained by an equidistant edge group. In this method, the difference of directions is calculated from the edge direction of a referenced edge pixel and from the directions from the referenced edge pixel to other selected edge pixels. After that, matching is performed, using the difference in directions and the matching rates are accumulated. Then the location and inclination of the target image area are sought by scanning the accumulation space. Experimental results show that the proposed method has higher reliability and lower computational cost for image matching. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 161(1): 34–42, 2007; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/eej.20520     

Study on intelligent humidity control materials: Water vapor adsorption properties of mesostructured silica derived from amorphous fumed silica

The intelligent humidity control materials were synthesized using fumed silica and quaternary alkylammonium surfactant (decyl-, dodecyl-, tetradecyl- and hexadecyl-trimethylammonium chlorides) as a liquid-crystal template under hydrothermal conditions. X-ray diffraction and transmission electron micrographs indicate that a homogeneous hexagonal structure of SiO2 was formed for those products. The mesostructured products had high B.E.T. surface areas between 960 and 1300 m2/g, with uniform mesopore diameters of 2–4nm. These physical quantities were controlled by varying the size of the organic template. Water vapor adsorption isotherms for these materials possess a sharp increase in adsorption when the relative water vapor pressure is at 40–60%. Over this range of pressures, the maximum amount of adsorbed water content is between 40 and 90%. These silicates have the potential to be effectively used as humidity control elements in construction materials.     

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编者按：原文最初以日、英双语形式刊登在日本《JA》1994-4 P248-279,现经作者本人同意、《JA》杂志授权,译为中文在本刊发表。译文校对戎筱（剑桥大学,在读博士生）、巨青（清华大学,研究生）、马明菲（剑桥大学建筑系丘吉尔学院,学生）