Determination of Foaming Properties of Proteins by Conductivity Measurements

A new method was established to estimate the foaming properties of proteins from the conductivity of foams using a simple apparatus that consisted of a glass column with the conductivity cell. A close correlation was observed between the initial conductivity of foams and the foam volumes of heat-denatured ovalbumins or 11 native proteins, suggesting that the initial conductivity of foams can be used as a measure of foaming power. In addition, a close correlation was obtained between the foam stability determined from changes in the conductivity and foam volume with time of heat-denatured ovalbumins or 11 native proteins, suggesting that foam stability also can be estimated from changes in the conductivity of foams. The advantages of the conductivity measurements are to determine the foaming properties more simply and accurately than the currently used methods.     

Ferroelectric-Paraelectric Phase Transition in Lead Titanate Containing Lattice Defects

A series of lead titanates containing lattice defects was prepared and characterized in terms of inhomogeneously distributed vacancies, □_Pb and □_O•. The tetragonal lattice strain and the Curie temperature varied as functions of the Pb or O deficiency in the crystals. The tetragonal strain for these crystals decreased slowly with increasing temperature as the Curie temperature was approached. The phase transition, which extends over a temperature interval, is interpreted according to a model in which microregions in the crystal differ in composition and therefore have different Curie temperatures.     

Formation mechanism of InxGa1−xAs ohmic contacts to n-type GaAs prepared by radio frequency sputtering

The formation mechanisms of InAs/Ni/W ohmic contacts to n-type GaAs prepared by radio-frequency (rf) sputtering were studied by measuring contact resistances (R_c) using a transmission line method and by analyzing the interfacial structure mainly by x-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy. Current-voltage characteristics of the InAs/Ni/W contacts after annealing at temperatures above 600°C showed “ohmic-like behavior.” In order to obtain the “ohmic” behavior in the contacts, pre-heating at 300°C prior to high temperature annealing was found to be essential. The contacts showed ohmic behavior after annealing at temperatures in the range of 500∼850°C and contact resistance values of as low as ∼0.3Ω-mm were obtained. By analyzing the interfacial structures of these contacts, In_xGa_1−xAs layers with low density of misfit dislocations at the In_xGa_1−xAs and GaAs interface were observed to grow epitaxially on the GaAs substrate upon heating at high temperatures. This intermediate In_xGa_1−xAs layer is believed to divide the high energy barrier at the contact metal and GaAs interface into two low barriers, resulting in reduction of the contact resistance. In addition, Ni was found to play a key role to relax a strain in the In_xGa_1−xAs layer (introduced due to lattice mismatch between the In_xGa_1−xAs and GaAs) by forming an intermediate Ni_xGaAs layer on the GaAs surface prior to formation of the In_xGa_1−xxAs layer.     

Growth characteristics of Bacillus subtilis (natto) in milk

In this paper, Bacillus subtilis (natto) was incubated to develop a possible functional ingredient in ice cream. A lab‐scale culture revealed that incubation in the sterilised milk without dilution and concentration at 37°C for 28 h could obtain ideal growth characteristics of Bacillus subtilis (natto), especially with continuous aeration. Following freezing operation of the cultured milk, survival content of Bacillus subtilis (natto) was at 49–92%, while nattokinase activity was conserved at 62–98% comparing with the initial contents, which indicating a potential for application of natto functional ingredient in frozen milk products.     

Polysulfide reduction using sulfate-reducing bacteria in a photocatalytic hydrogen generation system

A hydrogen generation process using photocatalytic reactions has been proposed. In this process, hydrogen sulfide is a source of hydrogen and is turned into polysulfide. In order to establish the cyclic operation of a photocatalytic hydrogen generation system, it is necessary to convert polysulfide back into hydrogen sulfide with a small energy input. This paper proposes the use of sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB) for the regeneration of hydrogen sulfide. Batch cultivation of natural source SRB samples were carried out using a culture medium containing polysulfide as the only sulfur compound source. SRB produced hydrogen sulfide from several kinds of polysulfide sources, including a photocatalytic hydrogen generation-produces solution. Production lag phase and production rate of hydrogen sulfide were affected by initial polysulfide concentration. SRB activity was inhibited at high initial polysulfide concentrations. SRB enrichment culture T2, exhibited the highest hydrogen sulfide production rate, and was able to utilize several kinds of organic matter as the electron donor. The results suggest the possibility of using large biomass sources, such as sewage sludge and the raw garbage in a hydrogen generation system. We developed speculative estimates that an SRB based hydrogen generation system is feasible.     

Anionic Conduction in Lead Halosilicate Glasses

Electrical conductivity due to halide ions has been measured for the glasses in the system 30SiO₂· (70 − x )PbO · x PbX₂ (0 < x < 17.2 mol%; X = F, Cl). The conductivity increases with x by several orders of magnitude for both series of glasses. The contribution of principal factors to the conductivity has been examined. The analysis of the activation energy on the basis of the Anderson-Stuart model shows that the strain energy is a predominant term in the Cl glasses, while both the strain energy and the electrostatic energy have a comparable contribution in the F glasses. The decrease in the activation energy with increasing PbX₂ content is related to the decrease in the shear modulus for the Cl glasses and to the increase in the permittivity for the F glasses.     

Fabrication of hierarchically porous spherical particles by assembling mesoporous silica nanoparticles via spray drying

A new type of hierarchically porous materials is fabricated by assembling mesoporous nanoparticles via spray drying. Well-dispersed mesostructured silica nanoparticles (MSN), whose particle size distribution was narrow in the range of 20 nm and 50 nm, were prepared by a thermal deposition method. By spray drying a MSN suspension, MSN were assembled into spherical secondary particles. After calcination, the spherical particles have two types of mesopores, mesopores of 3 nm in size inside of calcined MSN and larger inter-nanoparticle mesopores of about 15-20 nm. This hierarchical pore system should provide nanospaces for efficient mass transport of guest species with different sizes.     

Effect of shot peening on fatigue limit of surface flawed samples

The effects of shot peening on the fatigue limit of specimens having a semicircular notch of varied surface length, 2a , are investigated. In the case of un-peened specimens, the fatigue limit of specimens having a notch of a = 0.05 mm was equal to that of the un-notched specimens. However, the fatigue limit of a = 0.3 mm was 46% smaller than that of the un-notched specimens. On the contrary, in the case of peened specimens, the fatigue limit of a = 0.2 mm was equal to that of the un-notched specimens and furthermore, that of a = 0.3 mm was only 5% smaller than that of the un-notched specimens. Multiple non-propagating cracks were observed in peened specimens after fatigue testing. The stress intensity factor of the maximum non-propagating crack size corresponded to that of a = 0.2 mm notch. These results indicate that shot peening increases fatigue limit and decreases the likelihood that a surface flaw will result in failure.