Proteases in kiwifruit play an important role in the softening of carnivores. In this study, collagenase in kiwifruit was investigated as a novel softening agent. Collagenase activity in the tissue around the seed was higher than that in the core, the activity in a crude extract being optimum at pH 5.0 and 60°C. The enzyme was purified by ammonium sulfate precipitation and Q ion-exchange and gel-filtration chromatography. The molecular mass of the purified enzyme was about 52 kDa by gel filtration and 60 kDa by SDS-PAGE, with a single band. HgCl₂ inhibited the collagenase activity, indicating that the SH group at the active site and/or the conformationally important site of the enzyme was critical. A bivalent metal ion may not be required because no effect of EDTA was apparent. No protease activity was detected in the purified enzyme. Collagenase activity was higher in pineapple, and lower in fig, papaya, ginger and mango than that in kiwifruit. These results suggest that collagenase in kiwifruit contributes to the softening of carnivores together with proteases

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Liquid oil and solid fat used for preparing cookies were emulsified in O/W (1/1) -type dispersions by using decaglycerin-monostearate to investigate the effect of an O/W-type emulsion on the physical properties of dough and cookies.
The use of an O/W-type emulsion was useful for increasing air entrapped inside the cookie dough to aid expansion during baking. An O/W-type emulsion improved the water absorption of wheat flour protein during the preparation procedure, and it is suggested that the formation of a continuous structure in the cookie-S may play a partial role in the process of expansion. Starch gelatinization was decreased by emulsified decaglycerin-monostearate in the dough, resulting in increased shortness of cookies and oil spots on the dough and cookies were markedly decreased.

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For the purpose of clarifying the styles of entertainments of the common people in the period from modern ages to recent times, the trends of food and dish on sara on which vegetable and seaweed salads, etc. were served in the menus of Buddhist ceremonies were analyzed.
As the research material the old records of 12 families distributed in the whole area of the Kagawa Prefecture were used, and 593 menus of 268 Buddhist ceremonies performed during 156 years from 1786 to 1941 were examined.
As a result, following findings were obtained.
1) Food groups and foods varied more remarkably in the period from the Meiji era to the Taisho-Showa era than the period from the Edo era to the Meiji era.
2) Frequency of the use of food groups gradually polarized to both sides of increase and decrease, and the kinds of used foodgroups had been reduced.
3) Only a few kinds of food such as agar and cucumbers showed a remarkable tendency to increase, while other kinds of food tended to decrease and food on sara was patternized.
4) As the variations of dishes from the trend of food viewpoint, the increase of dishes of vegetable and seaweed and, salads with vinegar and the decrease of dishes dressed with sauce were recognized.

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For the purpose of clarifying the styles of entertainments of the common people in the period from modern ages to recent times, the trends of food and dish on hirazara on which boiled foods with soy sauce and sugar were served were analyzed, succeeding to the analysis of food on sara on which vegetable and seaweed salads, etc. were served in the previous report. The used materials for analysis are the same as in the previous report.
As a result, following findings were obtained.
1) Food groups and foods varied more remarkably in the period from the Edo era to the Meiji era, and a few variations were observed in the period from the Meiji era to the Taisho-Showa era except some kinds of food.
2) Frequency of the use of food groups gradually polarized to both sides of increase and decrease, and the kinds of used foodgroups had been reduced.
3) Only a few kinds of food (beans such as hirozu, etc.) showed a tendency to increase, while many kinds of food tended to decrease and food on hirazara had been patternized.
4) As the variation of dishes from the trend of food, diversity of food of boiled food with soy sauce and sugar was simplified to be mainly hirozu, and as for Kumimono in which some kinds of foods were combined on a plate, increasing of prepared food was seen.

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For the re-utilization of waste or used wool fibers, an attempt was made to apply the water-soluble keratin extracted from wool oxidized with performic acid to the additive finish of textile goods. With the amount of the keratin adsorbed on these fabrics, the moisture regains of polyester (PET), acrylic (ACR) and cellulose acetate (ACE) fabrics generally increased and the contact angles of water on the fabric surfaces decreased. As a result of the treatment, the surface resistivities of PET fabrics under 65 and 85% RH both decreased, while neither the resistivity of ACR under 65% RH nor that of ACE under 85 % RH decreased. Further, the resistivities were almost unchanged, even after rubbing of the fabric surfaces with a pilling tester.

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The purposes of this paper are 1) to present research into what kind of shoes toddlers, the subjects described in the previous paper, wear on the basis of their mothers' opinions, and 2) to consider the characteristics of their shoes in terms of size, ease of wear, and fastening, together with the actual growth and variation in the shape of their feet.
The results are as follows : Size and ease of fit according to the method of fastening are important in selecting shoes. Most toddlers wear shoes which stand high in public estimation in terms of ease of fit, though the degree of ease of fit is significantly different according to the kind of clasps.
Half of the toddlers' mothers admit that there are parts of the shoes that do not fit well when they choose shoes based on foot length only. The part that often does not fit is found to be the instep height. The correlation between instep height and size of shoes is low.

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The purposes of this study are to investigate how the hemline widths of jeans affect the body movements of healthy persons when putting on and taking off jeans, and how they are related to wearing comfortability.
In the experiment, four types of jeans with different hemline widths were used. The types were classified as middle-slim (S1), middle-straight (S2), roomy-straight (S3), and soft-middle-straight (S4). Subjects were 30 healthy female university students. They were classified into three groups by body size : large, medium and small.
After videotaping the subjects putting on and taking off each type of jeans, each subject was required to answer a sensory evaluation sheet consisting of 21 items using the SD method. They were also asked which leg they mainly used in their daily activities.
The results were as follows :
1) With regard to required time for putting on and taking off each type of jeans, significant differences were found among the types of hemline width. For putting on jeans, the longer the time required, the narrower the hemline width was. This was shown as follows : 51, S2>S3, S4. Particularly, the large body size group, showed remarkable differences. For taking off jeans, S1 showed significantly longer time, while the large body size group showed significantly longer time than other groups.
2) Concerning the sense of comfort in wearing, S2 and S3 types showed significant differences.Particularly, the small body size group gave the highest points to S2; the items, such as, “suberigayoi, ” “hadazawarinoyoi, ” and so on.
3) Regarding which leg is used to step into and out of jeans, it was confirmed that the different types of hemline widths did not affect which leg was used for the movement.

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Individual characteristics of dorsal median curve and silhouette curve of 120 young Japanese women were investigated for the purpose of obtaining basic information for improving the fit of ready-to-wear clothes. Each of the curves was constructed with 10 mm pitched three-dimensional data measured by grating system for profiling (GRASP). It was confirmed that the shape of two curves could be effectively approximated by a set of three arcs and three straight lines for 114 of the 120 women and expressed by 27 parameters for numerical analysis. The median curve and silhouette curve correlated at the parameters for the shape of the upper back area, the concavity of lumbar area and the protrusion of the gluteal area, and the inclination of the upper torso. A principal component analysis done using 12 out of 27 parameters extracted five components for the silhouette curve. The first three principal components were interpreted as the concavity of the lumbar part with the protrusion of the gluteal area, the inclination of the upper torso and the shape of the upper back area, respectively. The dorsal characteristics described by these components will be contrasted with the characteristics of surface developments and apparel pattern in the authors' succeeding study.

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The aim of this study is to clarify residential and psychological factors related to the Japanese students who tend to confine themselves in their own rooms. The questionnaire was answered by 268 students, 134 males and 134 females. The findings are as follows. Their tendency to withdraw to their rooms was not particularly strong, but some residential and psychological factors were ascertained to explain their withdrawal tendency. Two residential factors (density, number of equipment in a room) and two psychological ones (degree of self-identity, exclusive attitude) were identified to be related to the withdrawal by both sexes. Some differences, however, were found between male and female students. Furthermore, the female seemed more sensitive to the factors studied here. The mechanism of withdrawal must be further studied, but, in the meantime, the findings strongly suggest the necessity of empirical study on what their rooms mean to adolescents.

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[in Japanese]

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