Linked-Stick: Conveying a Physical Experience using a Shape-Shifting Stick

We use sticks as tools for a variety of activities, everything from conducting music to playing sports or even engage in combat. However, these experiences are inherently physical and are poorly conveyed through traditional digital mediums such as video. Linked-Stick is a shape-changing stick that can mirror the movements of another person's stick-shape tool. We explore how this can be used to experience and learn music, sports and fiction in a more authentic manner. Our work attempts to expand the ways in which we interact with and learn to use tools

Sevoflurane confers additive cardioprotection to ethanol preconditioning associated with enhanced phosphorylation of glycogen synthase kinase-3β and inhibition of mitochondrial permeability transition pore opening.

OBJECTIVE: The purposes of this study were to investigate whether sevoflurane (SEVO) enhances moderate-dose ethanol (EtOH) preconditioning and whether this additional cardioprotection is associated with glycogen synthase kinase-3β (GSK-3β), protein kinase B (Akt), mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR), 70-kDa ribosomal s6 kinase-1 (p70s6K), and/or mitochondrial permeability transition pore (MPTP) opening. DESIGN: In vitro study using an isolated heart Langendorff preparation. SETTING: University research laboratory. PARTICIPANTS: Male guinea pigs (n = 170). INTERVENTIONS: Isolated perfused guinea pig hearts underwent 30-minute ischemia and 120-minute reperfusion (control). The EtOH group received 5% EtOH in the drinking water for 8 weeks. Anesthetic preconditioning was elicited by a 10-minute exposure to 2% SEVO in EtOH (EtOH + SEVO group) or non-EtOH (SEVO group) hearts. The inhibition of GSK-3β phosphorylation and mTOR was achieved with LY294002 and rapamycin, respectively. GSK-3β, Akt, mTOR, and p70s6K expressions were determined by western blot. Calcium-induced MPTP opening was assessed in isolated calcein-loaded mitochondria. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: After ischemia-reperfusion, the EtOH, SEVO, and EtOH + SEVO groups had higher left ventricular developed pressure recovery and lower end-diastolic pressure versus the control group. Infarct size was smaller in the EtOH and SEVO groups versus control and even smaller in the EtOH + SEVO group. Phosphorylation of GSK-3β and Akt, but not mTOR and p70s6K, was increased in the EtOH and SEVO groups. Phosphorylation of GSK-3β, but not mTOR and p70s6K, was further increased in the EtOH + SEVO group. The EtOH and SEVO groups exhibited a smaller calcium-induced MPTP opening, and the EtOH + SEVO presented an even smaller MPTP opening. CONCLUSIONS: SEVO and chronic EtOH preconditioning offer additive cardioprotection. This effect is associated with an increased GSK-3β phosphorylation and an inhibition of MPTP opening

古代アンデス文明と日本人─放送大学特別講義と展示会

　1898年に秋田で生まれた天野芳太郎は、30歳のときに中南米にわたって実業家として成功し、後にペルーのリマ市に考古学博物館を創設した人物である。　天野は少年時代から考古学に関心をもっていたが、その関心を決定づけたのは、1935年のマチュピチュ訪問であった。天野はマチュピチュで、そこに住んでいた野内与吉という日本人に出会い、彼の案内で一週間ほどマチュピチュを踏査した。　しかし、第二次世界大戦が始まると、天野は総てを失い、北米の収容所に入れられたあと、日本に送還された。戦後の1951年に再び南米に向かい、ペルーで事業を再開し成功するが、後半生は古代アンデス文明の研究と土器、織物などの考古遺物のコレクションに身を投じ、1964年リマに博物館を設立したのである。　それに先立つ1956年、当時東京大学助教授であった泉靖一がリマで天野芳太郎と出会った。泉はすぐにアンデス研究を始め、調査団を組織し発掘を始めた。最初のコトシュ遺跡の発掘で、アメリカ大陸最古の神殿を発掘した。東京大学はそれ以来アンデスの研究で大きな実績を重ねてきた。　岡山出身の実業家森下精一は、1969年リマで天野芳太郎の博物館を訪問し、古代アンデスの土器や織物のすばらしさに衝撃を受け、中南米の考古遺物を蒐集し、1975年自らも岡山県に博物館を開設した。　筆者らは、放送大学のTV特別講義「古代アンデス文明と日本人」を制作し、2015年秋田でそのテーマの展示会を企画し実現した。本稿では、それらの内容を中心に、日本人による古代アンデス文明研究、その背景としての先人たちの「運命的」な出会い、そして秋田で開催した展示会について論じる

An Efficient Message Transfer Mechanism Bypassing Transit Processors

This paper describes an efficient mechanism of inter-processor message transfer on loosely-coupled/message-base parallel processing systems. This mechanism eliminates transit processors, which merely relay messages transferred between other processors, using one-way communication with three additional physical messages. 1 Introduction For large scale parallel processing, it is desirable that programming languages have capability to represent parallelism in problems naturally. In various programming languages proposed for parallel processing, parallel logic programming languages, such as GHC [Ueda 85], and parallel object-oriented programming languages, such as ABCL[Yonezawa 86], will be hopeful candidates because concurrent processes communicating messages each other are easily and naturally described in them. It is also natural to map these processes onto loosely-coupled/ message-base parallel processing systems [Nakajima 89, Takada 89]. From the viewpoint of efficiency, however, t..