A dynamically deformable microfilter for selective separation of specific substances in microfluidics

To study an environmental or biological solution, it is essential to separate its constituents. In this study, a 3D-deformable dynamic microfilter was developed to selectively separate the target substance from a solution. This microfilter is a fine metallic nickel structure fabricated using photolithography and electroplating techniques. It is gold-coated across its entire surface with multiple slits of 10–20 μm in width. Its two-dimensional shape is deformed into a three-dimensional shape when used for fluid separation due to hydrodynamic forces. By adjusting the pressure applied to the microfilter, the size of the gap created by deformation can be changed. To effectively isolate the target substance, the relationship between the solution flow rate and the extent of microfilter deformation was investigated. The filtration experiments demonstrated the microfilter’s ability to isolate the target substance with elastic deformation without undergoing plastic deformation. Additionally, modification of the microfilter surface with nucleic acid aptamers resulted in the selective isolation of the target cell, which further demonstrates the potential application of microfilters in the isolation of specific components of heterogeneous solutions.     

Japanese student activism in the 1970s

Student movements in Japan have, during the 1970s, tended to move from cooperation between various radical sects to bloody conflict among them, from participation by students generally to involvement by only a limited core of committed activists and from a struggle against the universityand society to one against society alone. The end of the war in Vietnam, the economic crisis, and other societal factors have contributed to these changes. The future of the student movement in Japan cannot be accurately predicted but it is unlikely that a powerful and politically effective movement, such as that of the 1960s, will re-emerge in the near future.     

Crafting the Apology: Japanese Apologies to South Korea in 1990

This rhetorical study of Japanese government apologies made in 1990 to the President of South Korea considers national apology as part of a process, rather than as standalone and rhetor-driven text. These apologies demonstrate the interactional and intersubjective nature of national discourse, revealing perhaps surprisingly the role of the recipient and audience in the construction— indeed “co-construction”—of the apology. The role of the media is particularly important in this process.     

How narratives move your mind: A corpus of shared-character stories for connecting emotional flow and interestingness

Creativity is considered a human characteristic; creative endeavors, including automatic story generation, have been a major challenge for artificial intelligences. To understand how humans create and evaluate stories, we (1) construct a story dataset and (2) analyze the relationship between emotions and story interestingness. Given that understanding how to move readers emotionally is a crucial creative technique, we focus on the role of emotions in evaluating reader satisfaction. Although conventional research has highlighted emotions read from a text, we hypothesize that readers’ emotions do not necessarily coincide with those of the characters. The story dataset created for this study describes situations surrounding two characters. Crowdsourced volunteers label stories with the emotions of the two characters and those of readers; we then empirically analyze the relationship between emotions and interestingness. The results show that a story’s score has a stronger relationship to the readers’ emotions than the characters’ emotions.     

The effects of signal intensity upon conditioned suppression: Effects upon responding during signals and intersignal intervals

Two rat experiments were run to study the effects of a wide range of signal (CS) intensities on the suppression of licking. In Experiment 1, a light CS was varied over five levels, including zero intensity. Conditioned suppression was found to vary directly with CS intensity, but basal lick rates were not different among groups. In Experiment 2, an attempt was made to disturb the basal rate of licking, while a tone CS was varied over four levels, including zero intensity. Here the suppression of the CS rates was found to be directly related and basal rates inversely related to CS intensity. The results as a whole were consistent with the Perkins-Logan hypothesis regarding the effects of CS intensity upon conditioning, but not with the Rescorla-Wagner model of classical conditioning.     

日本学前教育的新构想

长期以来,日本的学前教育主要是由具备不同职能的保育所和幼稚园来承担.两者最大的区别在于保育所是由厚生劳动省管辖的儿童福利机构,主要负责为有工作的监护入托管照顾幼儿;幼稚园则是由文部科学省管辖的学前教育机构,主要对幼儿进行学前教育.针对这样一种不合理的管理方式,日本社会一直以来都存有争议,要求行政一体化、设施一体化的改革呼声也此起彼伏.1980年代后半期至1990年代前半期出现了向行政一体化和设施一体化的转化契机.这一契机出现的原因一是出生率的下降,二是适龄待入保育所的儿童数量的增加.日本政府为此出台了相应的政策和措施,但是由于多方面的原因,特别是在当今日本政局不稳定的背景之下,其实施起来还具有一定的难度.本文对保育所和幼稚园的历史发展脉络进行了梳理,对日本学前教育制度改革的两个转化契机进行了阐释,并以此为基础,描述了幼保一体化的动向以及综合设施(暂称)创办的历程、具体构想及其希望达到的目标,并对综合设施(暂称)的组织结构与具体制度进行了阐述.