In 1984, the author, using Tsumori's “Developmental Questionnaire for Infants, ” reported. that day-care infants showed good development except in the area of “investigation and manipulation.” In this study, the development of infants in a day-care center was evaluated by using the Kyoto Scale of Psychological Development. Forty-seven infants who were enrolled before 6 months of age were examined at three day-care centers in Osaka Prefecture, the evaluations being carried out four times during 1983-1985.
The results obtained indicate that the day-care infants had good postural-motor development. Infants from 6 to 12 months old tended to score low with the “investigation” items, while infants older than 18 months generally got good results, demonstrating their ability especially in the “cognitive-adaptive” area. The infant groups who initially scored low in development began improving after the age of 15 months.
These results suggest that nursery teachers should make a special effort to understand and respond to the perceived developmental needs of infants less than 12 months old.

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The relationship between the pectic change and softening of scallion bulbs during storage (acidbrining, non-brined pickling, and pre-brined pickling) for 2 years was investigated. The amount of galacturonic acids in the HCl-soluble pectin (PA), acetate buffer-soluble pectin (PB) and sodium hexametaphosphate-soluble pectin (PC) of 100 g of raw scallions was 40.9, 492.1 and 137.0 mg, respectively. The degree of esterification (DE) of PA, PB and PC in raw scallions was 48.1, 24.4 and 32.4%, respectively. During the first 6 months of storage, acid-brined scallions and non-brined pickles retained their firmness, but they softened rapidly after 1 year. The firmness of scallions and the amount of uronic acid remaining in them was in the order acid-brined scallions >non-brined pickles >pre-brined pickles. There was a correlation between the firmness of the pickles and the solubilization of pectic substances taken from the cell walls. During storage, the amount of PB increased, while that of PA decreased. The DE of PA, PB and PC also decreased. The DEAE-cellulose column chromatograms and gel filtration profiles of PA and PC also changed during storage, especially in the pre-brined pickles. The main neutral sugar composition of the pectin was galactose, which did not change greatly during storage.

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L-Aspartyl-L-phenylalanine methyl ester (Aspartame, APM) dissolved in aqueous solutions of various fruit juices was analyzed by ion-exchange chromatography, using an amino acid analyzer, in order to examine the probable decomposition of APM by proteolytic enzymes in the fruits. The dipeptide ester was shown to be hydrolyzed in solutions of kiwi fruit, pineapple, papaya and melon juices. Especially, APM was completely degraded in 15 hr at 25°C in the solution of melon juice under the conditions of 0.1% APM and 25% melon juice. Papaya juice also possessed high. APM degrading activity. On the other hand, APM was stable in the solutions of orange, mandarin orange, grapefruit, lemon, apple, grape, strawberry and mango juices.
The degradation product of APM in the pineapple and kiwi fruit juice solutions was L-aspartyl-L-phenylalanine, while in the solutions containing papaya and melon juice, APM was hydrolyzed to its individual amino acids, L-aspartic acid and L-phenylalanine.

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The proton relaxation times, T₁ and T₂, were determined at 10 and 30°C for six kinds of gelforming substances, i.e., agar, κ-carrageenan, waxy corn starch, gelatin, egg albumin and curdlan, at several water content levels (70-99%), and the amount of bound water and the correlation time of the bound water were determined. The amount of bound water in agar gel was the highest (0.6-1.0 g of H₂O/g of dry matter (DM)) followed by curdlan, egg albumin, κ-carrageen.an (0.07-0.17 g of H₂O/g of DM) and was the lowest in waxy corn starch and gelatin (0.03-0.1 g of H₂O/g of DM). The values at 10°C were higher than at 30°C for the hydrophilic gels, and lower for the hydrophobic ones. Therefore, the process for forming bound water in curdlan, which is known to retain hydrophobic bonds, is suggested to be much different from that in hydrophilic gels.

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We isolated eleven strains of soil bacteria capable of growing on a synthetic medium containing curdlan resistant to the action of Zymolyase, a (1→3) -β-D-glucanase, or 32% sulfuric acid at 32°C as the sole carbon source. A good strain (YK9) capable of hydrolyzing the resistant curdlan was then selected. Next, we examined the production of an exocellular enzyme capable of hydrolyzing the resistant curdlan in strain YK9, with strains YK5 and YK11 as controls. The crude enzyme of YK9 hydrolyzed completely the resistant curdlan, although its hydrolysis rate was much slower than that of regenerated curdlan. The enzyme was inducibly produced by curdlan, carboxylmethyl-curdlan (CM-curdlan) and schizophyllan. The enzyme of YK9 from a culture grown on the regenerated and resistant curdlan hydrolyzed well to a similar ratio, the CM-curdlan and schizophyllan.

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Simplified model cookie doughs containing two kinds of starches with different gelatinization characteristics, waxy corn starch (WCS) and high-amylose corn starch (HACS), were baked and evaluated by physical test methods and a sensory panel to study the effect of starch characteristics on the cookie quality.
WCS cookies showed a larger expansion in the vertical direction and smaller spread than HACS cookies. Both the physical and sensory evaluation revealed the hard texture of WCS cookies and significant shortness of HACS cookies. A continuous structure was observed in the defatted WCS cookies by SEM, which is considered to have been responsible for the expansion and the hard texture. Although the degree of gelatinization in both cookies was very low, that of the WCS cookies was slightly higher than that of the HACS cookies. DSC thermograms and scanning electron micrographs suggest the possible gelatinization of WCS granules in the cookie.
It is assumed that a continuous structure due to starch gelatinization led to expansion of the cookie during baking and a hard texture for the finished product, so that interruption of starch gelatinization might be essential to produce cookies with a short texture.

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[in Japanese]

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