The behavior of mineral levels in the diet and serum of diabetic patients was investigated. The gustometry was also examined to identify the relationship between zinc deficiency and hypogeusia. The serum levels of zinc and iron in diabetic patients were lower than those in healthy people, and the sensitivity of taste, especially of sweetness, in diabetics was also lower than that in healthy people. These findings suggest that the lower sensitivity for sweetness in the diabetic patients induced them to eat more sweet foods. A survey of the zinc, iron and copper levels in the diets of the diabetic patients indicated lower values than the dietary recommendations. In particular, the dietary zinc and iron levels of the diabetic patients who were consuming a restricted-energy diet were significantly lower than the recommended values, suggesting the importance of good mineral balance in the diet for diabetics. These results suggest the importance of studying the relationship between the diabetic serum mineral level and the mineral level of the meal.

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The role of the dispersed oil phase in thermal conduction was examined for thick oil-in-water emulsions prepared with corn oil as the oil phase and egg yolk as the emulsifier. The rate of temperature increase of an emulsion heated at 105°C was detected one-dimensionally along an axis 0-10 mm from the heating plane at the bottom of the vessel. An optical microscopic examination of each tested emulsion suggested a negatively skewed distribution with the most frequent globules of 1.5-2.0 μm in diameter for the dispersed oil phase. Each emulsion could be characterized by a pseudo plastic body. The apparent viscosity and Casson's yield value increased with increasing volume fraction of the dispersed phase. The retardation time for the thermal conduction at each location also increased with increasing volume fraction of the dispersed oil globules, while the thermal diffusivity of each emulsion tended to decrease with increasing volume fraction of the oil phase.

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It is important to assess the safety of clothes that are used in contact with human skin. In this study the level of primary skin irritation against various surfactants applied to clothes was evaluated using a cultured skin model. The irritation of anionic surfactants depended on the number of carbons in the alkyl substituent. When the number of carbons was in the range from 9 to 12, the surfactants showed positive in the irritation at concentrations higher than 0.5 wt%. However, the anionic surfactants with carbon numbers lower than 9 or higher than 12 showed negative even at concentrations as large as 1 wt%. The cell viability of nonionic surfactants containing poly(ethylene oxide) chains was dependent on the number of chains. The surfactants containing few chains or many carbons showed negative in the irritation assay, while those containing a certain number of chains and the carbon numbers around 10 showed highly positive at concentrations higher than 0.1 wt%. The irritation of quaternary ammonium salts, which are cationic surfactants, showed positive even at low concentrations, regardless of the number of carbons in the alkyl group.

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A purification effect for polluted water by a difference of an immobilization supports was studied using a microbial membrane bioreactor system. This system consisted of two types of bioreactors to immobilize anaerobic and aerobic microorganism. The river water of high degree of pollution was examined by this system. In this study, a porous sintered material was used for an anaerobic reactor. For water purification, two types of urethane (AQ-3, AQ-4) and a porous sinstered material were examined for adequacy as an immobilization support for aerobic reactors. By exchanging one type of support by another type, a purification effect was examined in terms of BOD, COD, TP (total phosphorus) and TN (total nitrogen). The purification effect of the porous sintered material and that of AQ-3 or expensive urethane of high vesicularity were more or less on the same level while the purification effect of AQ-4 or urethane of low vesicularity was on a level lower than the other two supports. In terms of maintenance of the system, AQ-3 was considered the best as an immobilization support. The purification efficiency of AQ-3 in optimal operating conditions was BOD 92%, COD 64%, TP 38%, and TN 34%. In conclusion, when installed in the home drainpipe, this system would be quite effective for purifying domestic wasted water.

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