Abstract: Provided is a medical composition capable of imparting biocompatibility to the surface of a medical instrument etc. and application of the medical composition. In an embodiment of the present invention, the medical composition contains a urethane resin, and the urethane resin has urethane bonds in the main chain and a polyoxyethylene structure in the main chain and/or side chains. In another embodiment of the present invention, the urethane resin has a structural unit derived from a polycarbonate polyol and a structural unit derived from an aliphatic isocyanate and also has at least one urea bond.

Abstract: Provided is a separation and recovery apparatus for continuously separating and recovering, from a resin mixture containing a resin containing a hydrolyzable polymer and a resin containing a nonhydrolyzable polymer, a hydrolytic component a of the hydrolyzable polymer A and the nonhydrolyzable polymer B, the apparatus including: a crushing unit that crushes the resin mixture a melting/discharging unit that melts a crushed product obtained by the crushing unit to form a fluid and discharges the fluid at a high pressure; and a hydrothermal reaction treatment unit that continuously subjects the fluid discharged from the melting/discharging unit to a hydrothermal reaction treatment, wherein, in the melting/discharging unit, the hydrolyzable polymer A is hydrolyzed, and the hydrolytic component a thereof is dissolved and transferred into water permeating a sintered alloy diaphragm, thereby separating the nonhydrolyzable polymer B.

Abstract: An autonomous driving system includes an electronic control unit. The electronic control unit is configured to suggest to a driver that a host vehicle overtake a preceding vehicle during autonomous driving, recognize whether the driver accepts a suggestion for the overtaking, when the electronic control unit recognizes that the driver accepts the suggestion, cause the host vehicle to overtake the preceding vehicle, and, when the electronic control unit recognizes that the driver rejects the suggestion, not cause the host vehicle to overtake the preceding vehicle, set a first prohibition duration, and, when the electronic control unit suggests to the driver that the host vehicle overtake the preceding vehicle and recognizes that the driver rejects the suggestion, extend the first prohibition duration as compared to when the electronic control unit suggests to the driver that the host vehicle overtake the preceding vehicle and recognizes that the driver accepts the suggestion.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a casein hydrolysate containing free amino acids and in vivo indigestible peptides having minimally suppressed in vivo enzymatic digestibility, and expected to express functions, such as hypotensive effect, in living organism, and to a method for preparing such a hydrolysate, and use thereof. The casein hydrolysate of the present invention contains free amino acids and peptides, such as in vivo indigestible peptides including Xaa-Pro and Xaa-Pro-Pro, obtained by hydrolyzing animal milk casein to have an average chain length of not longer than 2.1 in terms of the number of amino acid residues, and has ACE inhibitory activity or hypotensive effect.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a casein hydrolysate containing free amino acids and in vivo indigestible peptides having minimally suppressed in vivo enzymatic digestibility, and expected to express functions, such as hypotensive effect, in living organism, and to a method for preparing such a hydrolysate, and use thereof. The casein hydrolysate of the present invention contains free amino acids and peptides, such as in vivo indigestible peptides including Xaa-Pro and Xaa-Pro-Pro, obtained by hydrolyzing animal milk casein to have an average chain length of not longer than 2.1 in terms of the number of amino acid residues, and has ACE inhibitory activity or hypotensive effect.

Abstract: The present invention provides novel in vivo indigestible peptides that are highly absorbable and hardly digestible in living organism when administered orally or through other route, and expected to effectively exhibit functions, such as hypotensive effect, in living organism, and ACE inhibitors prepared with the peptides, and medicine or functional food expected to effectively exhibit hypotensive effect in living organism. The in vivo indigestible peptides are dipeptides or tripeptides having Pro at the carboxyl terminals, selected from the group consisting of Ile-Pro, Glu-Pro, Arg-Pro, Gln-Pro, Met-Pro, and Ser-Pro-Pro.

Abstract: A speaker recognition system for recognizing a speaker from an input voice using a neural network, in which a feature quantity extracted from the input voice is timewise averaged to create an input pattern to the neural network. The averaging technique is such that the input voice is equally divided timewise into a plurality of blocks in a simple manner and that such feature quantity is averaged every block. The feature quantity includes a frequency characteristic, pitch frequency, linear prediction coefficient, and partial self-correlation (PARCOR) coefficient of the voice.

Abstract: A piercing die including a punch and a die cooperating with each other to effect a piercing operation on a metallic workpiece sheet, the punch having an outer peripheral edge having a closed profile at a working end thereof. The outer peripheral edge of the punch has a first and a second chamfered portion which are formed such that the amount of chamfer of the first chamfered portion is larger than that of the second chamfered portion. The first and second chamfered portions are formed along large-curvature and small-curvature portions of the closed profile of the punch, respectively, and/or along acute and obtuse outer peripheral portions of the punch whose working end face is inclined with respect to the direction perpendicular to the piercing direction. A piercing method using the punch and die is also included.