This study evaluated the economic effect of material costs on an existing reinforced concrete (RC)construction and a wooden construction designed with the same scale and function. The final demand for the RC construction was 116.0 million yen, while the wooden construction was 110.7 million yen. Hence, the wooden construction was superior with respect to construction cost. The ratio of induced gross value added to the RC construction was 0.783, while to the wooden construction it was 0.722. Hence, the RC construction was superior in terms of the efficiency of economic growth. Conversely, when the domestic timber rate of the wooden building was set to 100%, the ratio of induced gross value added was 0.792. Thus, the effectiveness of using the domestic timber was confirmed. Furthermore, we examined the economic effect of domestic processing of imported timber. It showed that the effect of using the domestic processed timber was similar to the domestic timber in the plywood and laminated lumber sector. Thus, it is assumed that for the parts where laminated woods are used, such as beams, imported woods are difficult to replace with domestic woods. Consequently, from the viewpoint of economic growth, it is suggested that domestic processing should be promoted.

This study verified the economic and environmental benefits of wood utilization for non-residential constructions. The assessments were performed using the 2015 Input-Output Tables for Japan with three models; reinforced concrete construction model (RC model), wooden construction by imported wood use model (W_i model), and wooden construction by domestic wood use model (W_d model). The results showed that in the RC model, the gross added value was 133.2 million yen and greenhouse gas emissions were 1039.2t-CO_2eq; in the W_i model, the gross added value was 97.2 million yen and greenhouse gas emissions were 487.7t-CO_2eq; and in the W_d model, the gross added value was 122.0 million yen and greenhouse gas emissions were 540.5t-CO_2eq. The eco-efficiency indicators and ratios of economic effect to environmental impact were 0.128 in the RC model, 0.199 in the W_i model, and 0.226 in the W_d model, respectively. These results showed the advantages of wooden constructions compared to the reinforced concrete constructions. Finally, this study suggested that promoting the domestic wood utilization could improve eco-efficiency.

This study measured greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in material production, transport, construction, and demolition of an existing reinforced concrete (RC) construction that was used as a special elderly nursing home with 1977.75m² gross floor area and of a wooden construction that was designed with the same scale and functions as the RC construction by life cycle assessment. Gross GHG emissions measured 592.3 t-CO_2eq by the wooden construction and 1155.6 t-CO_2eq by the RC construction. From the viewpoint of GHG emission, we showed that the wooden constructions had an advantage over the RC constructions. In the case of modifying the structure of the wooden construction from semi-fireproof to fireproof, the gross GHG emission increased 6.5%. Also, in the case of modifying mat foundation to pile foundation, the gross GHG emission increased 8.4%. However, the advantages of the wooden construction remained in both cases when compared with the RC construction. After examining the relationship between the weight cover ratio and the GHG emission, we clarified a larger impact by a component of the constructions with higher environmental load units even if the weight was light.

Wood identification was performed on 63 elements from tea rooms such as Konnichi-an, Totsutotsusai, and so on, located in the residence of the head of the Urasenke School in Kyoto, Japan, prior to the restoration. The aim of this study was to identify the wood species in these tea rooms designated as important cultural property for restoration and to understand wood selection for tea rooms in Urasenke, which is one of the various schools of tea ceremony in Japan. This research is part of a larger project in which the wood species of tea rooms in Japan underwent microscopic wood identification. Aside from conventional optical microscopy, synchrotron x-ray micro-tomography for very small samples was performed for wood identification. Our identification revealed that 16 wood species namely, Abies sp., Actinidia sp., Betula sp., Carpinus sp., Castanea crenata, Castanopsis sp., Chamaecyparis obtusa, Chamaecyparis pisifera, Cryptomeria japonica, Magnolia sp., Morus bombycis, Pinus subgen. Diploxylon sp., Podocarpus macrophyllus, Stewartia sp., Thuja standishii and Thujopsis dolabrata were used. It was revealed that Actinidia sp., a rare species for construction members, was used for the Toko bashira and Toko gamachi of the Totsutotsusai tea room. It would enable us to say that our approach could expand conventional knowledge of Urasenke wood selection, as well as Kimura Seibei's conception of wood selection for tea ceremony rooms.

The properties of combustion ashes (12 samples) generated when clean chips and firewood without chemicals were burned in a small to medium-sized (200-1200 kW) boiler were investigated. The ash samples, a fine powder with elements ranging from coarse sand to silt, showed strong alkali. The following trend was observed for the content ratio of major inorganic components of the ashes; CaO was the highest, K₂O was the second, followed by MgO and SiO₂, and finally Al₂O₃, P₂O₅, MnO and Fe₂O₃. The correlation analysis has suggested that the bark ratio and the degree of soil contamination in the fuel greatly affect the composition and properties of combustion ash. The leached amount and content of inorganic trace elements in the ashes were compared with the indicators for soil environmental protection and resource recycling. Based on the above results, the use of combustion ash that is dispersively generated on a small scale was discussed.

In our previous study, the wood from the dakekanba tree (Betula ermanii), which is native to Japan, was found to be a material suitable for baseball bats. We hypothesized that the ‘tapping sound’ of a dakekanba bat is related to the grain angle (SoG, slope of grain) of the wood. In this study, we examined the vibration properties of dakekanba bats and investigated the effects of SoG on the vibration properties. Additionally, we measured the ball-bat coefficient of restitution (BBCOR) of the dakekanba bat and other bat types. The primary natural longitudinal vibration frequency was found to be related to the SoG and correlated with the function of grain angles derived based on the orthotropic elastic theory. The tapping sound may be a useful factor for evaluating the performance of a baseball bat. When a ball impacted the bat at 120 km/h, the BBCOR of the dakekanba bats was higher than that of both the maple and ash bats. Moreover, the loss tangent of longitudinal vibration exhibited a negative correlation with the BBCOR of the dakekanba bats in comparison with the other bat types. Loss tangent reflects energy loss in vibration. Thus, it can be concluded that the energy loss that occurs during ball impact may affect the restitution performance.

Quantification of the pattern-matching process of edge-glued wood panels, which currently depends on the experience and instinct of crafts-persons, is desired by furniture manufacturers. Two fundamental issues should be addressed: the change in appearance caused by surface processing and the estimation of visual heterogeneity of final panels. This study aims to evaluate the visual heterogeneity of edge-glued wood panels in accordance with each element's image features measured in each surface-processing phase. Two experiments were conducted: image analyses for 15 wood elements in 6 surface processing phases and pattern creation trials for 60 participants by combining 5 elements selected from the 15 elements. The main results were as follows. 1) Brightness and contrast of elements measured after the final coating were effectively estimated by these image characteristics measured after the initial planing. 2) Multi-resolution contrast analysis (MRCA) was applied to 60 patterns created by the participants. Two statistical analyses, principal component analysis (PCA) for the results of MRCA and cluster analysis for the results of PCA revealed that the contrast between elements was the most important cue to compose well-matched patterns. 3) This inter-element contrast was estimated using the difference between the mean brightness of adjacent elements measured after the final coating. Therefore, brightness measurements of each element before the final finishing probably permit a good estimation of the visual heterogeneity of edge-glued wood panels.

In this paper, NaOH-thiourea aqueous solution was used to treat refiner mechanical pulp (RMP) prepared from corn (Zea mays subsp. mays (L.) Iltis) stover at temperatures in the range of 100 to 140 °C for the modification of the enzyme saccharification, and the effect was evaluated by single factor tests. As a result the NaOH concentration of 7% (ratio of NaOH to thiourea: 6 to 5), the treating temperature of 120 °C, and the keeping time of 60 min (the pulp consistency of 20%) were chosen as the optimal conditions for the enzymatic saccharification. The contents of ethanol-benzene extractives, ash, lignin and holocellulose of the treated RMP were 2.2%, 3.5%, 14.2% and 79.2%, respectively. The total yield of glucose, xylose and arabinose after the enzymatic saccharification was 41.9%, which was increased by approximately 21% compared with that of the RMP treated in NaOH aqueous solution without thiourea.