Functional Improvement of Alginic Acid by Conjugating with β-Lactoglobulin

Two bovine β-lactoglobulin-alginic acid (β-LG-ALG) conjugates were prepared to improve the function of ALG by using water-soluble carbodiimide and the Maillard reaction. Fluorescence studies suggested that the conformation around Trp had been changed in each conjugate and that the surface of each conjugate was covered with polysaccharide chain. Structural analyses with monoclonal antibodies indicated that the conformation around 15Val-29IIe (β -sheet) in each conjugate had changed, while the native structure was maintained around 125Thr-135Lys (α-helix). After conjugating with β -LG, ALG showed retinol-binding and high emulsifying ability. The aggregating property of ALG in acid and in the presence of Ca²⁺ was improved in each conjugate.     

Single-machine scheduling for minimizing total cost with identical,asymmetrical earliness and tardiness penalties

Costs of flowtime, earliness and tardiness should be incorporated in real production scheduling. This paper constructs a single-machine scheduling model with a common due date to minimize the total cost including an identical, asymmetric earliness-tardiness cost. Several dominance conditions necessary for an optimal schedule are derived. A branch and bound algorithm exploiting the conditions is proposed to find an optimal schedule for an unconstrained version of the scheduling problem. Numerical experiments are demonstrated to show the effectiveness of the proposed method.     

Note on ‘ Solution of the aggregate production planning problem in a multi-stage-multi-product manufacturing system using functional space analysis and quadratic programming approaches ’

The recent paper of Teny and Kochhar (1983) concluded that the solution calculated by using the functional space analysis technique presented by Hitomi and Nakamura (1976) is inferior to that rendered by the quadratic programming approach (Bcale 1968). This paper shows the contradiction included in their discussion and denies the above conclusion. Functional space analysis is also developed to obtain a mixed-integer solution.     

Decision analysis for determining the optimum planning horizon in aggregate production planning: Part 2: Difference between planning horizons in weekly and in monthly schedulings

The effects of changing a unit time length of a planning horizon from a month to a week on the optimum planning horizon were examined by calculating the optimum planning horizon through the methods proposed by Nagasawa, Nishiyama, and Hitomi (1982). It was found that the optimum planning horizon decreased by 20-30% in calendar time when the unit time length was changed from a month (monthly scheduling) to a week (weekly scheduling). However, the degree of this decrease was much smaller than the (65% shown by Bernardo (1978 BERNARDO , J. J. , 1978 ], The effect of inventory and production costs on the optimal planning horizon , International Journal of Production Research , 16 , 103 .[Taylor &; Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]), and it followed that the optimum planning horizon largely increased in the number of periods with this change of the unit time length. It was also clarified that the large amount of the decrease shown by Bernardo was derived on the basis of the erroneous analysis of the relation between cost coefficients and the unit time length. Consequently, weekly scheduling was not always preferred to monthly scheduling     

Preparation and adsorption behavior for metal ions and humic acid of chitosan derivatives crosslinked by irradiation

This article deals with the determination of the adsorption properties of metal ions and humic acid in water on crosslinked chitosan derivatives （carboxymethylchitosan） which were formed using the irradiation technique without any additives. The solubility test of these crosslinked materials were investigated in acidic, alkaline media, distilled water, and certain organic solvents. Scanning electron microscopic （SEM） images showed that the crosslinked chitosan derivatives possessed a porous morphological structure. Charged characteristic analyses demon- strated typically pH-dependent properties of the crosslinked materials. The adsorption studies were carried out by the batch method at room temperature. Adsorption of heavy metal ions （such as Cu^2＋, Cd^2＋） and humic acid onto crosslinked samples was found to be strongly pH-dependent. Adsorption kinetic studies indicated the rapid removal of metal ions, and humic acid from the aqueous solutions. Moreover, isothermal adsorption data revealed that Cu^2＋, Cd^2＋, and humic acid were removed by these crosslinked materials with high efficiency. Adsorption isothermal data were interpreted well by the Langmuir equation. These crosslinked carboxymethylated chitosan derivatives indicate favorable adsorption of metal ions and humic acid.     

Structure-activity relationship of CAP-1, a cuticle peptide of the crayfish Procambarus clarkii, in terms of calcification inhibitory activity

CAP-1 is a cuticle peptide isolated from the acid-insoluble fraction of the exoskeleton of the crayfish Procambarus clarkii. CAP-1 is an acidic peptide and comprises 78 amino acid residues. The C-terminal part is especially highly acidic by a phosphoserine and an Asp-repeat, which is thought to be responsible for the calcification inhibitory activity in vitro. To examine the significance of the Asp-repeat and to get information on structure-activity relationship, various small related peptides with different sequences were synthesized and tested for the inhibitory activity. The results showed that 1) the activity depends not on the Asp-containing sequence but on the total number of Asp residues, 2) peptide conformation does not affect the activity, and 3) Asp is more effective in inhibitory activity than Glu. These characteristics seem to be consistent with the fact that acidic matrix proteins identified so far from various biominerals have almost no sequence similarity, leading to the idea that the molecular evolution of matrix proteins and peptides in biominerals might be intrinsically different from that of enzymes, hormones and other important functional proteins possibly due to the difference in the mode of interaction between proteins and inorganic compounds, or between proteins and organic compounds.     

Analysis of pigmentation in human skin: quantification of ultraviolet ray images by digital image processing

A new method for quantifying pigmentation with transformation of ultraviolet ray images into digital images has been developed. Utilizing this method, the distribution of pigments deposited in healthy Japanese subjects has been investigated. The following characteristics of pigmentations have now been obtained as follows:
— the amount of total pigmentation areas and the frequency of appearance of large pigmented areas increase with ageing;
— in young and middle age groups, women have more pigmentation than men, whereas in old age, this trend is reversed;
— the amount of pigmentation is greatest on the front of the cheeks and the least on the forehead;
— pigmentation areas darken in summer, and the amount of pigmentation and number of pigmented areas increase in summer.
Interestingly enough, a correlation between 'ultraviolet rays in daily life' and 'the pigmentation in human skin' is strongly suggested.