In this report, the author focused on cone-shaped panniers, which have a stronger effect on the silhouette of the skirt, and investigated the effectiveness of half-scale panniers for a trial model reproducing the shape of full-scale panniers. Both full-scale and half-scale panniers were produced and photographed with a digital camera. These images were superposed one on the other on a PC for comparison. Formal satin was selected for the skirt, as it is most frequently used for dresses. The matching tests began with the same materials and elements of frills forming the pannier for both full-scale and half-scale models. These led to a large difference in the skirt silhouettes - the bottom of the half -scale model flared out to a size 1.4 times greater than that of the full-scale model. The use of the same materials as the full-scale model for a half-scale model was therefore judged ineffective. Different thread sizes of tulle for frills were then attempted to find an optimum combination. As a result, the shapes of both images agreed best when using #70, the hardest tulle available on the market with a large flexural stiffness, for the full-scale model and #15, the softest with a low flexural stiffness, for the half-scale model. This combination was also proven effective for different gathering amounts and numbers of the tiers of frills, as well as for different skirt materials having different weights and properties.

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Poly(lactic acid) (PLA) was blended with baked shell powder increasing the content up to 10wt%, and the influence of mixing the powder on the physical properties of the obtained PLA compounds were investigated. The measurements for storage modulus E' revealed that the settled powder will promote the crystallization of PLA. Moreover not only the thermal decomposition but also the biodegradation in compost system for PLA were enhanced by the mixing the powder.

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Poly(L-lactic acid) fibers were prepared by the melt electro-spinning process using CO₂ laser irradiation. A grounded metallic flat plate and a grounded metallic rotating blade were used to collect the electrospun fibers. The fiber structure was investigated by polarizing optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction. The average fiber diameters were decreased with laser output power applied, and the fiber diameters collected on the flat collector were smaller than those collected on the rotating collector. The polarized light micrograph observation under crossed-nicol clearly showed an optical anisotropy of the as-spun fibers. The X-ray diffraction patterns of the annealed fibers showed a crystal orientation. Although the uniaxial drawing of the fibers up to x 2 enhanced the crystalline orientation, the crystal modification was unchanged.

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Morphologies of the shrinkproof wool fibers were analyzed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) combined with enzymatic and alkaline etchings of the cross-sectional fiber specimens. The enzymatic etching revealed the microstructural changes of the fiber components produced by after the DCCA (dichloroisocyanuric acid)- and Kroy-processes. It was suggested that the inner-fiber reactions had extended to cell membrane complex (CMC), intermacrofibril material (int-MF), and nuclear remnants (NRs), as well as to the components in their vicinity of present in the orthocortex and paracortex of the both shrinkproof wool fibers. On the other hand, the alkaline etching gave different patterns between the DCCA- and Kroy-processed fibers; in the former fibers the paracortex and orthocortex gave weak and almost disintegrated patterns, respectively, while in the latter fibers both cortexes gave weak patterns. It was therefore supported that the inner-fiber reactions are more homogeneous in the Kroy-process than in the DCCA-process although the degrees of inner-fiber reaction are almost comparable in both processes. Based on these data, the difference in laundering effect on the Kroy- and DCCA-processed fibers was discussed.

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