The flavor of baby food is very important because it influences the acceptance of foods in infants. In Japan, many varieties of commercial baby foods have come to be widely used. Hence, we performed gas chromatography-olfactometry (GC-O) and gas chromatography-retronasal olfactometry (GC-RO) analysis and investigated the odor-active compounds present in 3 types of pumpkin pastes (homemade, commercial bottled and commercial freeze-dried), used as baby food in the early weaning period. We also performed GC-RO analysis using artificial saliva to examine the effect of saliva on the volatility of odor-active compounds in the oral cavity. The results indicated that the odor-active compounds were newly produced when manufacturing commercial pumpkin pastes, especially the bottled paste. The sensory evaluation showed that these odor-active compounds made the bottled pumpkin paste unacceptable for use. The flavor of commercial baby food is expected to improve.

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The major tempeh manufacturing microbe, Rhizopus oligosporus IFO 32002, could grow well on a wheat-bran medium and produced carboxymethylcellulase( CMCase), β-glucosidase, xylanase, amylase and protease. CMCase showed the highest activity among these enzymes, except for amylase, in the early phase of the culture. The source of CMCase activity was divided into three fractions from a CM-Sephadex column. The main component was purified as a single protein by electrophoresis. The molecular weight of this enzyme was about 40,000, the optimum pH value for the activity being 5.5 and the optimum temperature being 50 ℃ . This enzyme also showed slight activity to α-cellulose, filter paper, and cellophane, in addition to carboxymethylcellulose. The enzyme activity was inhibited by various positive ions.

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When the revised and enlarged 5th edition of the food composition table is compared with the fourth one, a decrease in the nutrition of vegetables due to seasonality and other factors can be observed. In order to measure the ways in which the fall in nutritive value might have influenced household food expenditure, I estimated the minimum value of food expenditure according to both the 4th and the 5th edition of the food composition tables by using linear programming. It was used to calculate the minimum cost of diet based on conditions which required the adequate intake of nutrition, sodium and PFC energy balance. The menu with the minimum cost consisted of wheat flour, eggs, cabbages and bean sprouts etc., and the main ingredients were starchy foods and eggs. While the minimum cost of diet in 2008 was 325.7 yen per day using the 4th edition of the food composition table, it was 372.7 yen per day with the 5th edition, an increase of 47.0 yen or 14.4 percent. Thus it was clear that the fall in various foods' nutritive value caused the household food expenditure increase. It means that people have to pay more if they wish to maintain the same nutritious level of diet as before.

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　The purposes of this study are to investigate the movement characteristics of buttoning and unbuttoning using one hand, as well as to examine the relationship between the required time for the movement and the overlap, habits when putting on and taking off clothes, and handedness. In addition, movement characteristics were compared with the movement of the hand when performing daily activities using a questionnaire. 　In the experiment, front-opening clothes of two types having different overlaps were used. Subjects were thirty-one healthy male university students（ twenty were right-handed, eleven were left-handed）. Each subject was asked to button and unbutton each shirt with both hands and one hand. They were then required to answer a sensory evaluation sheet regarding the difficulty of performing the operations with one hand. The subjects also answered a questionnaire concerning 14 daily activities done with the hands, including 5 activities involving the putting on and taking off of clothes. 　The results were as follows: 　1）Regarding the time required to perform operations with one hand, the only significant difference was found when buttoning with a right overlap （left>right）. Buttoning with a left overlap and unbuttoning showed no significant difference; 2）The subjects felt that it was difficult to use their right hand when there was a right overlap; 3）Regarding daily activities with one hand, performing the operations of tool was used by left or right hand.The other, the subjects had no preference when it came to putting on and taking off clothes. This was particularly true for the buttoning and unbuttoning of shirts.

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