Properties of recombinant 4-α-glucanotransferase from Bifidobacterium longum subsp. longum JCM 1217 and its application

Food Science and Biotechnology - To determine the physiochemical properties of the 4-α-glucanotransferase from Bifidobacterium sp., the bllj_0114 gene encoding 4-α-glucanotransferase was...     

A Self-Healing Nanofiber-Based Self-Responsive Time-Temperature Indicator for Securing a Cold-Supply Chain

Perishable foods at undesired temperatures can generate foodborne illnesses that present significant societal costs. To certify refrigeration succession in a food-supply chain, a flexible, easy-to-interpret, damage-tolerant, and sensitive time-temperature indicator (TTI) that uses a self-healing nanofiber mat is devised. This mat is opaque when refrigerated due to nanofiber-induced light scattering, but becomes irreversibly transparent at room temperature through self-healing-induced interfibrillar fusion leading to the appearance of a warning sign. The mat monitors both freezer (−20 °C) and chiller (2 °C) successions and its timer is tunable over the 0.5–22.5 h range through control of the polymer composition and film thickness. The thin mat itself serves as both a temperature sensor and display; it does not require modularization, accurately measures localized or gradient heat, and functions even after crushing, cutting, and when weight-loaded in a manner that existing TTIs cannot. It also contains no drainable chemicals and is attachable to various shapes because it operates through an intrinsic physical response.     

Development of integrated system for progressive collapse analysis of building structures considering dynamic effects

In this study the integrated system for progressive collapse analysis, which can evaluate the damage level of every member and automatically construct the modified structural model for the next analysis step, has been developed. The existing nonlinear analysis program code OpenSees was used as a finite element solver in the integrated system for progressive collapse analysis. The developed integrated system includes a pre-processor with intuitive graphic user interfaces and a post-processor that can simulate the progressive collapse by 3D graphic animation. Using the developed integrated system, example structures subjected to a column failure were analyzed, and the behavior of the structures was investigated in the context of how to model the failed members and whether the dynamic effects are considered or not. The analysis results show that the dynamic amplification can be larger than two which is recommended by the GSA and DoD guidelines and the collapse mechanism depends greatly on the modeling technique for failed members.