Despite all of the information-gathering media, it remains unclear whether or not any website structures allow easy access to information for the visually impaired. In this study, visually impaired people who use screen readers were targeted, and the amount of informational content displayed on webpages and the hierarchical structures of the sites was examined. The results of a mental workload evaluation considering the search time and information access operations showed that the search time and the mental workload were considerably lower in the case of site structures that had less link text on the top page and a lot of second-layer content (information provided on the website). Furthermore, although the visually impaired subjects required a longer time to complete searches, their mental workload trend was similar to sighted users with respect to the differences in the hierarchical structure. This indicates that a high-usability website that is efficient and requires little mental workload when searching for information can be created for both sighted and visually impaired persons.

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Cryogel is super-macroporous material prepared by freezing of polymer or monomer solution at low temperature. The hybrid material of cryogels and iron hydroxide oxide(FeOOH) nano-particles, which have affinity to arsenic, are expected as a safe removal adsorbent of arsenic ions from aqueous solutions. In this study, polyacrylamide(PAA) cryogels containing FeOOH particles were prepared by freezing the monomer solution of acrylamide cross-linker N,N-methylene bis(acrylamide) dispersing the particles, which were prepared by mixing of iron(III) chloride solution (FeCl3) and sodium hydroxide aqueous solution, and polymerizing initiated by N,N,N',N'-tetramethyl ethylene diamine and ammonium peroxodisulfate at sub-zero temperatures. The particles added were observed on a whole of the cryogel wall. The polyacrylamide cryogel containing FeOOH particles successfully adsorbed a large amount of As(V) at both low and high concentrations. The adsorption property showed a Brunauer-Emmett-Teller(BET)-like isotherm. The adsorption amount of As(V) per weight of the FeOOH particles in the cryogel increased with a decrease in the amount of FeOOH in the cryogel. At the low concentration of As(V) in the aqueous solution, the adsorption amount of As(V) with the cryogel was not affect by pH values. On the other hand, at high concentration of the As(V), the adsorbed amount of As(V) with the cryogel decreased with an increase in the pH value higher than 6. The FeOOH particles entrapped in the cryogel wall prepared by the particle addition method was an amorphous in which that had higher adsorption capacity of As(V) than that having higher crystallinity.

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It has been performing to use effective plant functions in order to reduce polluting substances and increase yields of foods. The plant functions have been making a significant contribution to the human society until now. In this paper, the plant bioelectric potential was examined to introduce the effective functions in real time. Namely, the potential characteristics as a function of irradiation light frequency were examined under an existence of air pollutant. Pothos was adopted as a subjective plant. The purification capabilities of the plant for gaseous ethyl alcohol and formaldehyde were investigated and the potential characteristics were measured. Several kinds of irradiation-light frequencies were used. As the result, it became obvious that the purification capability became larger as the frequency became lager and when the mixed light was irradiated to the subject. Especially, it takes the highest value under white daylight which includes various light frequencies. The capability becomes smaller and the fluctuating range of the potential in the air polluting chemicals also becomes smaller under darkness and green light. The range becomes larger under white daylight. It becomes obvious that the bioelectric potential becomes smaller under darkness compared with the one in the light irradiating condition. This result is confirmed regardless of the presence or absence of air polluting chemical. It is thought that a plant could have a sensing function according to investigate the plant bioelectric potential in detail.

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Many of the prototypes of carbon fiber-reinforced composite materials are made by technicians with their hands, using the autoclave molding. Autoclave molding is a molding method where 1) carbon fiber that is impregnated with a resin, called prepreg is laminated in a forming die, 2) bagging is performed with bagging films (vacuum and deaeration packaging materials), 3) air and volatiles contained in the bagging film are removed under vacuum, using a kiln (autoclave), simultaneously 4) the prepreg is heated, pressurized, and set. Because the molding method is all manual work, instruction manual is necessary not to cause individual differences to occur. However, there is no curriculum for workers to acquire necessary skills to overcome the difficulty of quality management, and there is no system to clearly evaluate the level of the skill. Furthermore, there is no literature that clarifies the instructions for the manual work process and molding tools. Therefore, in the manufacturing sites, defectives products have been produced by technicians with less experience. The objective of this study was to clarify the characteristics of skilled technicians in the prepreg lamination process of autoclave molding. We recorded video of the prepreg laminating process, and conducted work analysis. Furthermore, we interviewed skilled technicians in order to clarify the purpose of each work process. As a result, in the corner laminating, skilled technicians improved the adhesion of the prepreg sheet to the forming die and accurately cut the prepreg sheet using scissors, by folding the prepreg sheet, just like they fold origami, in order to crease the prepreg sheet. Furthermore, by minimizing the use of dryer, they improved formability and prevented unnecessary prepreg sheet from sticking, while controlling the heat softening and stickiness.

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The Mental condition of humans affects sports and intellectual works. In particular, better results can be obtained when high concentration condition is achieved. One of the approaches of concentration improvement is Bio Feedback (BF). BF is a method which enables voluntary control of mind and body by feeding back biological information to the sense organs of humans. At this time, the effect might be different by presentation methods. In this study, the improving effect of the concentration was compared in BF of visual and auditory. Specifically, the effects of BF were evaluated by following two things : (1) Improvement of concentration before and after BF, and (2) Transition of mean concentration by the continuous BF. In experiment (1), 12 subjects were divided into groups of six persons according to the presentation methods. Then, mean concentrations of each subject at BF time and rest time were compared. As a result, the concentration of 5 out of 6 subjects in the visual presentation method was improved. In the auditory presentation method, the concentration of all the 6 subjects was improved. In experiment (2), 3 subjects undertook the same experiment as experiment (1) but continued for 10 days. Consequently, various problems became clear in both presentation methods. From the above results, it is evident that the effect of BF does not depend on the characteristics of the sensory organs. Therefore, presentation method is important in the design of BF equipment.

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Lithium iron phosphate/carbon (LFP/C) nano-perticles were successfully synthesized at 500 °C through the pulse jet spray pyrolysis with use of a citric acid aqueous solution. SEM observation and particle size analyzer showed that as-prepared LFP/C nano-particles had spherical and irregular shapes with an average size of 50 nm. XRD and ICP analysis revealed that as-prepared LFP/C nano-particles had an olivine phase with high crystallinity and a homogeneous chemical composition. The carbon content was 10 wt% in the LFP/C nano-perticles. A 2032 type coin cell was used to examine electrochemical properties of the LFP/C cathode. The discharge capacity of LFP/C cathode exhibited 170 at 1 C and 95 mAh/g at 30 C, respectively. The discharge capacity of the LFP/C cathode maintained 86 % of the initial discharge capacity after 500th cycle at 30 C and room temperature. The discharge capacity of the LFP/C cathode exhibited 100 mAh/g at 30 C and 50 °C and maintained 89 % of the initial discharge capacity after 100th cycle.

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With the growth of the portable device with camera, we can take a variety of photos. In addition, with the higher resolution of the camera, it becomes possible to recognize a character in the scene taken by the camera. There is much text information around us. It also provides us a useful information. Therefore, if the system recognizes a text information in the scene, it is possible to cooperate with various systems. To recognize it in the scene, it is necessary to identify the position of the character in first, however, it is difficult. In this paper, we use a connected component method and CSER to detect a character candidate by separating a background. In addition, to reduce a character candidate, we propose the system that uses OCR score and compares a histogram of character that is taken out and a histogram of the other character. Moreover, by using OCR score, it is considered to be possible to extract a single character that has not been extracted in previous studies. Experimental result shows that the proposed method has the extraction accuracy of 74.6 %.

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In this paper, cascade bioethanol productions from glucose and mannitol in the saccharified kombu (Laminariaceae) by two kinds of yeast were examined respectively. Mannitol exists as monosaccharide and glucose is polymerized to polysaccharides膨ellulose, hemicellulose, and laminaran in brown algae. There have been only a few reports about ethanol production from mannitol by yeasts. Therefore, screening of mannitol-fermenting yeasts was carried out from both coastal waters and culture collections of the research institute in Japan. All sixteen NBRC strains of Saccharomyces paradoxus were found to produce 22-35 g/L of bioethanol aerobically from 100 g/L of mannitol at 30 ｰC for 5-7 days. Thus, the cascade bioethanol production system was constructed from the saccharified solution of kombu with anaerobic fermentation with marine-derived Saccharomyces cerevisiae C-19 (Takagi et al., 2015; Obara et al., 2015; Takagi et al., 2012a) followed with aerobic fermentation with S. paradoxus NBRC10553. In this system, 1.1 g/L of bioethanol was produced with the strain C-19 in the first step and 7.9 g/L of bioethanol was produced with the strain NBRC10553 in the second step from the saccharified kombu.

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The debate over TSCA (Toxic Substances Control Act) reform in the United States seems to be mature and is reaching a conclusion. By the end of the first session of the 114th Congress in 2015, the Hose of Representatives passed the TSCA Modernization Act of 2015, while the Senate passed the Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act. And the reconciliation process is underway. This Note analyzes these two TSCA reform bills and compares them briefly, through which the convergence and divergence of the debate would emerge. Such comparison would make it possible to rough out some parts of the TSCA amendment which Congress will pass in the near future. This Note would focus on two significant dimensions of chemical substance management legislation: (1) development and collection of risk data on existing chemicals, which serve as primary basis of the risk management decision; and (2) risk management measures, notably diversity of them.

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[in Japanese]

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[in Japanese]

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[in Japanese]

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[in Japanese]

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[in Japanese]

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