PURIFICATION OF AMINOPEPTIDASE FROM THE JAPANESE CLASSIFIED BARLEY FLOUR

In a search for biologically active materials from the classified barley flour produced in Japan an aminopeptidase activity was identified. In this paper, the purification of aminopeptidase is described. The activity of the enzyme was monitored using L-leucine-p-nitroanilide as the substrate. After extraction using 20 mM sodium acetate buffer, pH 5.5, from the 95–75% classification flour, ammonium sulfate fractionation was performed between 30 and 50% saturation. The aminopeptidase was then purified about 160-fold to homogeneity as assessed by HPLC using the following sequential chromatography steps: hydrophobic interaction chromatography, Sephacryl S-200HR gel chromatography, DEAM-ion exchange chromatography, hydroxylapatite chromatography, Sephacryl S-100HR gel chromatography. The molecular weight of this enzyme was estimated as 62 kDα by size exclusion HPLC. The enzyme had a K_m value of 0.22 mM and α pH optimum of 7.0.     

Low Temperature Drying of Agar Gel Sphere in Desiccated Cold Air Flow

Agar gel spheres (diameter = 4.0, 7.2 and 12.5 cm) were dried in desiccated air flow at low temperatures near freezing point (from ? 9.3 to 10.7°C) at atmospheric pressure. Air velocities ranged from 0.05 to 0.32 m/sec. The drying rates during the constant drying rate period were directly proportional to the moisture vapor pressure at the sample surface. A linear relationship between the drying rate and the square root of the air velocity was obtained at each air temperature. Further, the film coefficients of heat transfer were evaluated and arranged as a semi-empirical dimensionless equation.     

Robust control for a constantly rising temperature system (Hm control approach)

Thermoluminescence dating has attracted the attention of geology and archaeology researchers as a new method. This method requires a heating device to raise the temperature of the specimens at an exact rate. This paper describes the design method of a control system that can achieve this goal. This control system lends to be unstable because of the existence of the parameter perturbation and dead time. In this paper, the perturbation and dead time are treated as perturbations of a nominal plant regarded as a first-order lag time system. Improvement of tracking characteristics in the low-frequency domain and robust stability in the high-frequency domain of the control system are achieved by using the solution of the mixed-sensitivity problem that is a kind of H^∞ control theory. Experiments verify the effectiveness of this method.     

AVERAGE SPECIFIC CAKE RESISTANCE DETERMINED IN the PRESENCE of SEDIMENTATION to FILTRATION of STARCH SLURRY UNDER CONSTANT PRESSURE

An equation for predicting filtration flow rates in the presence of sedimentation at constant pressure drop was developed. It was applied to determine the average specific cake resistance infiltration of starch slurries at 18.8 to 115 kPa pressure drop range. At these conditions, corn, potato and sweet potato starch filter cakes were incompressible but wheat starch cake was compressible.     

Effects of pH and ATP Concentrations on the Heat Contracture of Glycerinated Single Fibers of Rabbit Psoas Muscle

The occurrence of heat contracture of glycerinated single fiber of rabbit psoas muscle was investigated in relaxing solutions with varying pH values and ATP concentrations. The threshold temperature for inducing heat contracture of single muscle fibers in relaxing solutions decreases with increasing pH values and decreasing ATP concentrations. There seems to be a relationship between heat contracture of muscle fibers and the tremor of skeletal muscle of porcine stress syndrome. Also, there seems to be a relationship between the heat contracture and alkaline rigor development.     

Increase in Emulsification Activity of Soy Lecithin-Soy Protein Complex by Ethanol and Heat Treatments

Soy proteins were associated with soy lecithin. Soy protein isolate (SPI), 7S and 11S proteins complexed with lecithin were similarly affected by ethanol treatment to increase emulsification activity. By this procedure, the conformation of these proteins was changed resulting in aggregation. Though emulsification activity of the lecithin SPI complex was apparently increased by boiling for 1 min, this treatment only caused the 11S protein component to aggregate resulting in better emulsification activity, regardless of whether it was complexed with lecithin or not. The increase in emulsification activity caused by ethanol treatment was not affected by NaCl, whereas the increase by heat treatment was reduced by NaCl. It seems likely that ethanol and heat treatments change the comformation of soy proteins in different ways.     

Elastic Behavior of Open-Cell Alumina

The elastic constants of open-cell aluminas were measured as a function of their relative density and cell size. The density exponent was found to be in excellent agreement with previous theoretical work that considered cell strut bending as a major deformation mode. The measured constants in the elastic behavior relationships were found to be less than previously suggested, and it was found that this factor is sensitive to the microstructure of the cell struts, especially porosity within these struts. The materials studied were found to contain soem closed cells, but these were not found to have a major effect on the elastic behavior. The values of Young's modulus and the shear modulus depended on the relative density in the same way, and this is consistent with previous theoretical work which showed that Poisson's ratio should be independent of density.     

Analysis of Measured Data in Unbalanced Distribution System and Method of Making of Distribution System Model for Analyzing

In recent years, rapid introduction of photovoltaic power systems (PVs) causes voltage rise in distribution systems. In addition, residential PVs cause voltage unbalance in distribution systems. For these reasons, it has become difficult to control voltage in distribution systems to within the allowable range. Therefore, it is necessary to consider the voltage unbalance suppression method corresponding to the measured data in unbalanced distribution systems. Thus, we measured voltage on the distribution lines that are expected to large voltage imbalance and analyzed the reality of voltage unbalance. Also, static VAR compensator is suitable for voltage unbalance suppression, although it is expensive. Therefore, we make the distribution system model using the measured voltage in distribution systems to verify the voltage unbalance suppression effect.     

Method of Shortening Settling Time Using Final State Control for High‐Precision Stage with Decouplable Structure of Fine and Coarse Parts

High‐precision stages require high‐speed and high‐precision control to improve their production throughput and quality. However, their motion speed and accuracy are expected to reach a limit in the near future if the conventional high‐precision stage structure is used. Therefore, the authors designed and fabricated a “catapult stage,” which has a structure that can be decoupled into a fine stage and coarse stage. The catapult stage is different from conventional dual stages in which the fine stage is disturbed by the coarse stage because they contact each other. This paper proposes a novel control system design for the catapult stage and a control method that shortens the settling time by using final state control (FSC). So far, FSC has mainly been used for applications such as hard disk drives, for which the initial states are zero. However, it is important to consider the initial states for the catapult stage because the initial position, velocity, and acceleration of the catapult stage are not equal to zero. Simulations and experiments were performed to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed methods.