Changes of Aldehyde Levels in Defatted Soybean Extract

Aldehyde levels in defatted soybean extracts were measured by using aldehyde dehydrogenase. The level increased during incubation of flour-water suspension and its centrifuged extract at pH 6.5, while it decreased markedly at alkaline pHs. This aldehyde-eliminating activity was observed in 1:5 flour:water ratio, but was not in 1:20 flour:water ratio. ¹⁴C-labelled acetaldehyde added to 1:5 flour:water extract was converted into acetic acid. Fractionation of the extract indicated that a heat-labile protein and a heat-stable compound with low molecular weight were required for the aldehyde-eliminating activity.     

Reaction Kinetics in the Hydrothermal Oxidation of Hf

The hydrothermal oxidation of Hf was studied using metal powders and chips to change the surface-area effect. Fine monoclinic HfO₂ powders (32 to 34 nm) were formed through two parallel reaction paths, one the oxidation of Hf with H₂O and the other the consecutive reaction via formation of Hf hydride. Based on the experimental results at 500°C under 100 MPa, three reaction rate constants were determined for two kinds of starting materials. The relative widths of two paths were proved to be independent of the size of starting materials, and the pulverization and oxidation of both metal powders and chips could be explained by the same mechanism, where the formation of hydride was a driving force in pulverization.     

Formation of Myofibrillar Fragments and Reversible Contraction of Sarcomeres in Chicken Pectoral Muscle

SUMMARY— As morphological changes occurred in the pectoral muscles of chicken carcasses during 48 hr storage at 5°C, two notable phenomena were observed: (1) fragmentation of myofibrils and (2) reversible or irreversible contraction of sarcomeres. When blendorized, myofibrils tend to break into small fragments composed of 1-4 sarcomeres with time post-mortem. It was also found that besides an irreversible post-mortem contraction of sarcomeres generally accepted, a reversible contraction can take place under particular conditions.     

Heat-induced Gels of Rice Globulin: Comparison of Gel Properties with Soybean and Sesame Globulins

The hardness and water-holding ability of rice globulin gels were intermediate between those of gels of soybean and sesame globulins. Scanning electron micrographs showed that rice globulin gel had a rough network structure composed of small globular particles of protein aggregates. Effects of various reagents on solubilization of proteins from the three gel types were compared. Disulfide bonds and hydrophobic interactions contributed mainly to the stability of rice globulin gels. The contributions of disulfide bonds to both the formation and stability of rice globulin gels were greater than for sesame globulin gels.     

ε-(γ-Glutamyl)lysine Crosslink Distribution in Foods as Determined by Improved Method

Quantitative analysis of ε-(γ-glutamyl)lysine crosslink in 127 foods was achieved with a, preliminary separation by reverse phase-HPLC before o-phthalaldehyde derivatization to remove interfering peaks. ε-(γ-Glutamyl)lysine was detected in 96 foods and its contents ranged from 0.2 to 135 μmol/lOOg protein. High levels were found in fish paste products, processed fish, shellfish, meats and soybeans, and raw poultry organs. For fish and meats, the level of ε-(γ-glutamyl)lysine in processed foods and fish paste was relatively higher than that in raw materials. The improved procedure could be applied for screening materials with transglutaminase activities.     

‘Jishu Kanri’ activities in the Japanese steel industry Small group activities being promoted by the industry as a whole

The group activities called ‘ Jishu Kanri ’ by foremen and workers in the forefront of production has been actively promoted in the Japanese Steel Industry by establishing a committee for ’ Jishu Kanri’ activities in the Japan Iron and Steel Federation, with the positive cooperation of its member companies. Nearly 8 years have elapsed since the establishment of this committee, and during this period the ability and skill of the group leaders and members in managing group activities and their awareness of problems and solutions have been greatly improved, thereby contributing much to the improvement of quality, attainment of production targets, reduction in the production costs, and improvement of safety

This report describes the ’ Jishu Kanri ’ activities being carried out by the industry as a whole.     

DISCRIMINANT ANALYSIS OF MULTI-DIMENSIONAL INTERVAL DATA AND ITS APPLICATION TO CHEMICAL SENSING

A conventional discriminant problem is to determine a discriminant function, which maps a point in a multi-dimensional feature space to a point in a one-dimensional decision space, using a set of labeled (known classification) samples. In many cases, attribute values of each sample are not constant but fluctuating with time. In this paper, we represent the fluctuating attribute values of each sample by an interval vector in the feature space, and propose a discriminant method for a set of interval vectors. The proposed method is based on a linear interval model which maps an interval vector in the feature space to an interval in the decision space. A mathematical programming problem is formulated to determine the coefficients of this model. We also propose a set of discriminant rules to discriminate unknown samples. The proposed method is applied to a smell sensing problem.