Innovation and technical development in the Japanese steel industry

The historical background of the steel industry in Japan and particularly its development since the Second World War is discussed with an emphasis on technology. Although this background includes the factors related to political, economic, labor, management and technical staff capabilities, the continuous effort to improve technology and the modernization of facilities have been the fundamental forces behind the development of the Japanese steel industry. The production technology and product features of steel sheet, especially for automotive applications, are presented here by way of practical example. An extensive application of computer engineering in both of business- and process-control systems is introduced as a typical background of recent modernization of total manufacturing technologies. The research and development activities which support the improvement of technology and future tasks are also discussed

江原昭三と共著者によって創設されたダニ類のタクサ（分類群）およびこれらのタイプ・シリーズの保管施設（クモ形綱・ダニ目）

The mite taxa (205 species, 4 genera, 1 subgenus, and 1 tribe) created by the late Dr. S. Ehara and his coauthors　are listed here. The original names of the taxa are used but listed under each taxa is the new name (if it has changed), the　type localities, habitats and depositories of each type series (along with Museum and accession number(s) of holotype and　a part of paratypes). The full list of Ehara’s publications is also presented as well as his obituary.　江原昭三とその共著者によって創設されたダニ類タクサ（1 族，4属，1 亜属，205 種）は多くの論文に分かれて発表されているので，これらのタクサをリストアップし，合わせてタイプ・シリーズの保管施設（博物館など）を記した。すなわち，原記載のままの学名，現在の和名（丸かっこ内），学名記載頁，図番号，タイプ産地とタイプ生息地，タイプ・シリ－ズの保管施設名（ホロタイプのすべてと一部のパラタイプについては標本番号）を記録した。ここで取り上げたタクサの一部は，こんにち変更されている場合があり，この場合には現行の学名が付記されている。巻末には，江原昭三著作目録を掲げる

中山間地域の稲刈り・はぜ掛け作業の身体負担軽減

Autumn in Japan is the season of harvesting rice, the Japanese staple food. Large scale farmers can use the large harvesting machines. However, small scale farmer’s fields are often too small to use the machine. Thus they have to work with their hands. One of the hardest operations is procedure of drying rice on the rack, because they have to repeat manual labor so many times that they become exhausted . The purpose of this study is development of low burden method of drying rice procedure. Through the observations and interview, two kinds of measures are found out. One is reduction of physical movement by using some tools such as standing-chair and wheelbarrow to remove vertical motion of up and down. Another is the system to gather volunteers from the young ages to the elderly ages

シニア世代による農業ボランティアへの参加意識

One of the farmer\u27s problems in depopulated area is lack of human power to keep agriculture business. Agricultural volunteer is considered as one of the solutions of the problems in farm areas. The purpose of this study is investigation of introduction of farm volunteer by senior generation in town area. The result has shown that the senior generation in town areas is going to join the agriculture for some purposes. One is to exercise for their health. Others are getting fresh and safe foods, studying of agriculture, contribution for other people, stopping the increase of wasteland, and so on. In addition, the result has also shown that the volunteer\u27s requirements are time, close places and transports. Some of the volunteers require some consideration to their labor. Thus the matching system of farmers and volunteers is needed to build the relation among them

The Iron Discrepancy in Elliptical Galaxies after ASCA

We present estimates for the iron content of the stellar and diffused components of elliptical galaxies, as derived respectively from integrated optical spectra and from ASCA X-ray observations. A macroscopic discrepancy emerges between the expected iron abundances in the hot interstellar medium (ISM) and what is indicated by the X-ray observations, especially when allowance is made for the current iron enrichment by Type Ia supernovae. This strong discrepancy, that in some extreme instances may be as large as a factor of $\sim 20$, calls into question our current understanding of supernova enrichment and chemical evolution of galaxies. We discuss several astrophysical implications of the inferred low iron abundances in the ISM, including the chemical evolution of galaxies and cluster of galaxies, the evolution of gas flows in ellipticals, and the heating of the intracluster medium. Some of the consequences appear hard to accept, and in the attempt to avoid some of these difficulties we explore ways of hiding or diluting iron in the ISM of ellipticals. None of these possibilities appears astrophysically plausible, and we alternatively rise the question of the reliability of iron-L line diagonostic tools. Various thin plasma emission models are shown to give iron abundances that may differ significantly, especially at low temperatures (kT \lsim 1 keV). From a collection of ASCA and other X-ray observatory data, it is shown that current thin plasma codes tend to give very low iron abundances when the temperature of the objects is below $\sim 1$ keV. We conclude that -- besides rethinking the chemical evolution of galaxies -- one should also consider the possibility that existing thin plasma models may incorporate inaccurate atomic physics for the ions responsible for the iron-L complex.Comment: 39 pages, TeX file, 5 figures, Accepted for publication in the Ap

TbUNC119 and Its Binding Protein Complex Are Essential for Propagation, Motility, and Morphogenesis of Trypanosoma brucei Procyclic Form Cells

Flagellum-mediated motility of Trypanosoma brucei is considered to be essential for the parasite to complete stage development in the tsetse fly vector, while the mechanism by which flagellum-mediated motility is controlled are not fully understood. We thus compared T. brucei whole gene products (amino acid sequence) with Caenorhabditis elegans UNC (uncoordinated) proteins, in order to find uncharacterized motility-related T. brucei genes. Through in silico analysis, we found 88 gene products which were highly similar to C. elegans UNC proteins and categorized them as TbCEUN (T. brucei gene products which have high similarity to C. elegans UNC proteins). Approximately two thirds of the 88 TbCEUN gene products were kinesin-related molecules. A gene product highly similar to C. elegans UNC119 protein was designated as TbUNC119. RNAi-mediated depletion of TbUNC119 showed no apparent phenotype. However, knock-down analysis of both TbUNC119 and its binding protein (TbUNC119BP) which was found by yeast two-hybrid analysis showed characteristic phenotypes, including reduced motility, morphological change (extended cell shape), and cellular apoptosis. Based on the observed phenotypes, possible function of the TbUNC119 and TbUNC119BP is discussed