‘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.     

Thermoirreversible Characteristics of Curdlan Gels in a Model Reduced Fat Pork Sausage

Dynamic viscoelasticity and thermal characteristics of a model reduced fat pork sausage containing curdlan were investigated. Curdlan formed thermoirreversible gels during preparation of sausage at end point temperatures that were within the range in which such gels usually transform from thermoreversible to thermoirreversible. Dynamic viscoelasticity of curdlan gels and thermal characteristics of curdlan aqueous suspensions were analyzed to help explain the physicochemical behavior of curdlan gels in sausage. Once formed curdlan gels exhibited stronger thermoirreversibility with increasing concentrations. The thermoirreversibility could be attributed to the curdlan concentration being higher than the maximum theoretical curdlan to water ratio.     

Proposal and Feasibility Study of the Integrated Diode Synchronous Motor

This paper presents a new type of magnet‐free motor that has concentrated stator windings and rotor coils with a pair of diodes. The most important feature of this motor is that currents in the rotor coils can be generated by utilizing the changes in the spatial second harmonic of the magnetic fields due to the concentrated stator windings, which normally increase motor losses. A prototype of the motor was designed and fabricated, and its basic performance was evaluated. First, using simplified analytic models, we explain the mechanism of inducing currents in the rotor coils by the changes in the spatial second harmonic of the magnetic fields. Second, we compare the torque performance of the proposed motor and that of other types of motors including a magnet motor through finite‐element analyses. The analyzed data show that the proposed motor can possess greater torque/volume ratio than that of the other motors. Finally, using the measured data, we validate the mechanism of inducing currents in the rotor coils, and examine the torque and power characteristics of the motor.     

High-Temperature Creep of Polycrystalline Magnesia: I,Effect of Simultaneous Grain Growth *

The creep of pure magnesia (99.9 +% MgO) was tested in transverse bending at temperatures from 1200° to 1500°C, strain rates near 10⁻²%/hr, and grain sizes of 4 to 50μ. In most cases, grain growth during the test affected the apparent creep behavior more than all the other variables combined. An analytical graphical method was used to separate the grain growth effect from other effects and to obtain more meaningful creep data. Creep occurred primarily by a viscous mechanism (Nabarro-Herring type, cation-lattice-diffusion controlling) with a minor amount of plastic creep (dislocation climb). The agreement with previous creep data was good.     

The stumptailed macaque as a model for baldness: effects of minoxidil

Topical application of minoxidil in bald scalps of stumptailed macaques successfully induced regrowth of terminal hairs. The rate and degree of hair growth by minoxidil are much greater in the early stage of baldness in adolescent and young adults. Minoxidil also prevented the development of baldness when applied on non-bald scalps of peri-adolescent animals. Morphometric analysis of hair follicles (folliculograms) has brought a new aspect in observing cyclic dynamics and growth (transformation) of hair follicles. Using this analytic method and autoradiographic observation of DNA synthesis of hair follicles, the action of minoxidil appears to be a potent mitotic stimulator of the follicular as well as peri-follicular germinal (or reserve) cells, thus inducing an enlargement of vellus follicles through the process of cyclic growth and maintaining anagen follicles in the growing phases. Most importantly, minoxidil has no influence in epidermal keratinocytes, sebaceous glands and other dermal components. During almost 3 years of consecutive treatment, the animals showed no detectable local or systemic side effects when examined by laboratory tests of blood cells, chemistry, steroid hormones, measurement of blood pressure and EKG test.
Le macaque a queue courte: exemple de calvitie     

System-theoretical approach to model reduction and system-order determination

This paper is concerned with (1) the problem of the construction of lower-order models and (2) the Telated problem of the order determination of a real system based upon an estimated model with an overestimated order. Methods of the construction of stable lower-order models and the system-order determination are proposed. The approach adopted is to obtain a minimal realization of the original system by taking the principal components of the predictors of the outputs as the state and then to construct reduced models based upon a measure of reducibility defined in connection with the minimal realization algorithm. The measure of reducibility is useful to get a priori information about how small the order of the reduced model can be without much deterioration. Simulation studies are also carried out to demonstrate the effectiveness of the measure of reducibility and the proposed methods.     

Formation of Transparent Gels of Sesame 13S Globulin: Effects of Fatty Acid Salts

The physicochemical properties of sesame 13S globulin gels containing fatty acid salts (FAS) were investigated. The softness, water-holding ability and transparency of the gels markedly increased in the presence of sodium oleate (NaCl_18:1) or sodium linoleate (NaC_18:2) at a 75 molar ratio to a molecule of the 13S globulin. The effect was not observed by the addition of sodium caprylate (NaC_8:0). Scanning electron microscopy showed that a very fine network structure was formed in the gel with 75 molar ratio of NaC_18:2. The addition of a suitable amount of FAS having a moderate length and an unsaturated carbon chain could improve the water-holding ability and transparency of the 13S globulin gel.