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The Japanese Imperial Mint, which began its operation producing gold and silver coins in Osaka in 1871, has come to represent the self-modernisation of Japanese architecture and society more generally, both in its industrial purpose and western classical style. This article focuses on the planning, construction and socio-spatial design of the mint to resituate the project in the context of British imperial expansion. New archival research in both Japan and Britain, enabling close analysis of overlooked drawings and documents, establishes the Japanese Imperial Mint’s dependence on the transfer of men, machinery and plans from the former Hong Kong Mint, mediated and managed by the two firms Glover & Co and Jardine Matheson & Co. This article thus not only sheds new light on these two individually important buildings in colonial and imperial history, and the engineers involved, but illuminates the relationship between British colonial architecture and the activities of British merchants at the edge of empire in East Asia in the nineteenth century.

The paper explores patent slipways in which an inclined railway is used to haul ships from the water for repairs, and in particular those built in Japan during the Bakumatsu and Meiji periods (1860s-1910s), from the viewpoint of technology transfer from Victorian Britain. After describing the origin of patent slipways and their development in Britain, the particulars of seven patent slipways in Japan are investigated, referring to original drawings, contemporary records and published sources. Their size and power are examined and compared statistically according to an 1890 list of the world's ship-repairing facilities of the time. It is found that the patent slipways of Bakumatsu and Meiji Japan are regarded as relatively larger and more powerful than those in England and other countries. In addition, looking into their geographical locations and considering the characteristics of civil engineering works, it is found that the construction of these marine structures in nineteenth-century Japan, especially with regard to the selection and preparation of the grounds they are situated on, can be regarded as a mixture of traditional native techniques and imported western technologies.

Epitaxial α-Fe2O3 films were obtained by using iron 2-ethylhexanoate as a starting material. A coating solution was spun on α-Al2O3 single-crystal substrates, and prefiring and final heat-treatment at various temperatures in air or low oxygen partial pressure were carried out. The degree of in-plane orientation was estimated in terms of full width at half maximum of X-ray diffraction (XRD) φ-scans. The results of TG-DTA, IR, and XRD suggested that the optimum prefiring condition for obtaining highly epitaxial films is in the range 200–300°C which corresponds to removal of most of the organic component from the precursor, prior to crystallite formation of metal oxide. When the films were prefired at higher temperatures, different atmospheres in prefiring and final heat-treatment lowered the in-plane orientation of the films.

Epitaxially grown SrBi2Ta2O9 (SBT) thin films with (001) and (106) orientations were prepared on La-doped SrTiO3 (001) and (110) substrates, respectively, by coating-pyrolysis process. When the films were annealed in air, their epitaxy was poor and no significant difference was observed in the P-E characteristics for the films that have different orientations. By contrast, the crystallinity and epitaxy of the films increased with decreasing oxygen partial pressure, p(O2), of annealing atmosphere. Using these high quality epitaxial films, we observed a distinct difference in P-E hysteresis curves, which reflects the orientation of the films. After postannealing of these films in O2 to compensate for possible oxygen deficiency, which might have been introduced into the SBT films owing to low p(O2) annealing, the anisotropy of the ferroelectric response was maintained and almost the same P-E loops were obtained.

Glutaraldehyde, a germicide for reprocessing endoscopes that is important for hygiene in the clinic, might be hazardous to humans. Electrolyzed acid water (EAW) has a broad anti-microbial spectrum and safety profile and might be a glutaraldehyde alternative. We sought to assess EAW disinfection of flexible endoscopes in clinical otorhinolaryngological settings and its in vitro inactivation of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and bacteria commonly isolated in otorhinolaryngology. Ninety endoscopes were tested for bacterial contamination before and after endoscope disinfection with EAW. The species and strains of bacteria were studied. The in vitro inactivation of bacteria and SARS-CoV-2 by EAW was investigated to determine the efficacy of endoscope disinfection. More than 20 colony-forming units of bacteria at one or more sampling sites were detected in 75/90 microbiological cultures of samples from clinically used endoscopes (83.3%). The most common genus detected was Staphylococcus followed by Cutibacterium and Corynebacterium at all sites including the ears, noses, and throats. In the in vitro study, more than 10 7 CFU/mL of all bacterial species examined were reduced to below the detection limit (<10 CFU/mL) within 30 s after contact with EAW. When SARS-CoV-2 was treated with a 99-fold volume of EAW, the initial viral titer (> 10 5 PFU) was decreased to less than 5 PFU. Effective inactivation of SARS-CoV-2 was also observed with a 19:1 ratio of EAW to the virus. EAW effectively reprocessed flexible endoscopes contributing to infection control in medical institutions in the era of the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic.

Sugarcane molasses, by-product of sugar production, contains potassium at relatively high ratio and it has a high potential for the source of potassium fertilizer. The present study proposed a simple two-step precipitation method for the recovery of potassium-containing solid, syngenite, from sugarcane molasses. The first precipitation with water recovered more than 30% of potassium in the original molasses. The second precipitation with the mixture of calcium acetate and sulfuric acid resulted in about 40% of the original molasses. Totally, more than 70% potassium was successfully recovered. The applicability of this method was examined with eight kinds of molasses obtained from eight factories in Japan. For all the molasses, syngenite was successfully recovered without any difficulties in processing, and the recovery ratio was more than 70%. Thus, the method will satisfy the growing demand of potassium fertilizer and also to enhance the sustainability of sugarcane sugar production.

A simple rate-based method is proposed for recovering sucrose from sugarcane molasses, focusing on its feasibility for continuous recovery. When ethanol is gently poured onto diluted molasses, sucrose is transferred to ethanol layer along with water, resulting in the formation of a distinct third layer comprising sucrose positioned between the ethanol and diluted molasses. Although this third liquid layer is metastable and dissipates when vigorously stirred, its sucrose concentration reaches a level suitable for sucrose crystal formation. Consequently, a semicontinuous operation for sucrose recovery from diluted molasses is achieved by continuously extracting the third layer while supplying ethanol to the diluted molasses. The concentration changes of sucrose within the third liquid layer over time are predicted using simple mass-transfer models based on diffusion and axial dispersion. While the prediction yields limited success, it underscores the importance of mass transfer from the liquid jet in the third layer and the role of mild mixing within the third layer in facilitating its growth and interior mass transfer. To the best of our knowledge, this study presents the first effective utilization of the third liquid layer in solvent extraction offering a method to control its formation and mass transfer for sugar recovery from molasses.

Plant growth regulators (PGRs) play a pivotal role in vascular plants, regulating growth, development, and stress responses; however, the role of PGRs in algae remains largely unexplored. Here, the role of ethylene, a simple plant growth regulator, was demonstrated in sexual reproduction of the marine red alga Pyropia yezoensis . Application of the ethylene precursor 1-aminocylopropane-1-carboxylic acid (ACC) promoted the formation of spermatia and zygotospores in the gametophytes as well as ethylene production, whereas the growth rate was repressed in comparison to gametophytes not treated with ACC. In addition, gametophytes treated with ACC and mature gametophytes showed enhanced tolerance to oxidative stress. Gene expression profiles revealed upregulation of genes involved in cell division and stress response in gametophytes treated with ACC and in mature gametophytes. These results indicate that ethylene plays an important role in the regulation of gamete formation and protection against stress-induced damage during the sexual reproductive stage. Considered together, these findings demonstrate that ethylene is involved in regulating the switching from a vegetative to a sexual reproductive phase in P. yezoensis .