Nisshin Steel (Japan)

Environmental sustainability has become an important global concern due to the increasing environmental problems caused by excessive consumption, industrialization, and pollution. In response to these challenges, the concept of green products has gained significant attention. Green products are environmentally friendly goods that are designed to minimize negative environmental impacts during production, usage, and disposal. Although awareness about environmental protection is increasing, the actual usage of green products among consumers remains relatively limited due to several barriers. The main objective of this study is to identify the major problems faced by consumers in the usage of green products and to analyse the relationship between consumer awareness, price perception, product availability, and green product adoption. The study also aims to understand the factors that influence consumer behaviour toward eco-friendly products. The research follows a descriptive research design and uses both primary and secondary data. Primary data were collected through a structured questionnaire distributed to 120 respondents using a convenience sampling method. Secondary data were obtained from research journals, books, and online academic sources related to green marketing and consumer behaviour. The collected data were analysed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). Statistical tools such as descriptive statistics, correlation analysis, and multiple regression analysis were used to examine the relationship between variables. The findings of the study reveal that consumer awareness has a significant positive influence on the usage of green products. Consumers who are more knowledgeable about environmental issues are more likely to adopt eco-friendly products. However, high prices and limited availability of green products remain major barriers that discourage consumers from purchasing them. The results of the correlation and regression analysis indicate that awareness and product availability positively affect green product usage, whereas price perception negatively influences consumer behaviour. The study concludes that although consumers show positive attitudes toward environmental protection, several economic and informational barriers limit the widespread adoption of green products. Increasing consumer awareness, improving product accessibility, and providing affordable eco-friendly alternatives are essential strategies to encourage sustainable consumption. The findings of this study provide valuable insights for policymakers, marketers, and businesses in developing effective strategies to promote the usage of green products and support environmental sustainability.. .

Recently, the opportunity to use FPGA in the field of embedded computer system has increased. However, the development cost using FPGA is quite high. We can reduce the cost by limiting the development of the dedicated circuit to the essenially required part of the system and by using soft-core processor together. If the performance of the soft-core processor improves, the development cost can be suppressed, since the amount of the dedicated circuit can be reduced. Furthermore, even in the field of embedded system, the opportunity for data parallel processing such as image processing is increasing. We consider that it is important merit of soft-core processor with SIMD extension that the computation performance can be optimized to the system by changing the number of parallel computing units according to the application. However, it is an obstacle that the software for soft-core processor needs to be changed every time we change the number of computing units. Thus, vector processing facility should provide the scalability that means the number of computing units can be changed without changing the program code. In this paper, we develop a RISC-V based soft-core processor with the scalable vector extension.

Past research has developed a powdery silica-based admixture of inorganic waste containing a large amount of silica component such as a waste glass and a fly ash. It is effective as a solidifying material by mixing with a blast furnace slag. In addition, it can be expected to have superior characteristics as well as high strength as compared with cement-based solidifying material, and it is effective to adapt to soil improvement. In this study, in order to elucidate the solidification mechanism, energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDS analysis), scanning electron microscope observation (SEM observation) and X-ray diffraction analysis (XRD analysis) have been conducted. In addition, in order to control the solidification time, blast furnace cement or normal Portland cement or calcium hydroxide (Ca(OH)2) is partially or completely substituted for the blast furnace slag which is the raw material of the mixed solidifying material. On the contrary, the uniaxial compression test, and the flow test are carried out to investigate the usefulness and solidification mechanism in view of practical application.

Traditional low-alloy martensitic steel is widely used as wear-resistant steel parts.But the contradiction between hardness and processing as well as welding performance is prominent,which limits the development of wear resistance. Titanium carbide is often used in industrial production as a metal-based wear-resistant phase, which is an inexpensive reinforcement that contributes to excellent overall performance. In this paper, a series of low-alloy martensitic steel sheets with same hardness grade and different Ti content of 0 wt%, 0.2 wt%, 0.3 wt%, 0.4 wt%, 0.5 wt% and 0.7 wt% are designed, respectively. The morphology and distribution of TiC precipitates in steel were characterized by OM, SEM, TEM and EPMA. The wear resistance was studied by wet sand semi-free abrasive wear test, and three modes of interaction between TiC particles and abrasives during wear process were summarized. The thermodynamic calculation was used to help explain the solidification precipitation process of titanium carbide particles.

Currently, in the cosmetics industry, substitution of plastic micro beads (PMB) in pressed foundation (PF) has begun to prevent marine pollution by PMB. Therefore, in order to develop new substitutes, it is important to find the relevance between characteristics of spherical particles for cosmetics and PF feeling in use.