Sleep patterns of Japanese preschool children and their parents: implications for co-sleeping

Abstract Aim The aim of this study was to investigate the direct relationship of sleep schedule and sleep quality variables between healthy preschool children and their parents, focusing on the influence of the difference in bedtime between each other. Methods Forty-seven Japanese 5-year-old children and their primary parent were studied. The parents completed questionnaires including the Epworth Sleepiness Scale and Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index. The children wore an actigraph for one week. Results Although sleep patterns of children were generally independent of their parents, late sleep end time and bedtime of children were associated with parents' late sleep end time on weekends. For 87% of children and parents who shared a bedroom, sleep quality was negatively affected by a shorter difference in bedtimes between child and parent, but not by co-sleeping. Conclusion Sleep behaviours of parents can influence those of their children. For parents and children who share a bedroom, the timing of bedtime rather than co-sleeping may be a key factor in modulating sleep patterns. Trying to get children asleep and subsequently falling asleep at a similar time may disturb parents' sleep quality, which may subsequently affect that of their children

Ingredients of nuclear matrix element for two-neutrino double-beta decay of 48Ca

Large-scale shell model calculations including two major shells are carried out, and the ingredients of nuclear matrix element for two-neutrino double beta decay are investigated. Based on the comparison between the shell model calculations accounting only for one major shell ($pf$-shell) and those for two major shells ($sdpf$-shell), the effect due to the excitation across the two major shells is quantitatively evaluated.Comment: To appear in J. Phys. Soc. Conf. Proc. (ARIS2014); for ver.2, Fig.1 is revise

The Japanese Payloads for the N-Launch Vehicles

National Space Development Agency of Japan (NASDA), which was established in 1969 as the nucleus of the national space development effort, is promoting a variety of space projects in accordance with the Space Development Programs which are decided and revised annually by the Space Activities Commission in line with the basic space development plan authorized by the Prime Minister. Since 1975, NASDA has launched the following satellites from Tanegashima Space Center: ETS-I (KIKU), ETS-II (KIKU-2), ISS-a (UME), ISS-b (UME-2), ECS-a (AYAME), ECS-b (AYAME-2), ETS-IV (KIKU-3) and GMS-2 (HIMAWARI-2). The launch vehicles for these satellites are the N-I and the N-II launch vehicles, of which outline has been presented last year at this congress

High-precision spectroscopy of ultracold molecules in an optical lattice

The study of ultracold molecules tightly trapped in an optical lattice can expand the frontier of precision measurement and spectroscopy, and provide a deeper insight into molecular and fundamental physics. Here we create, probe, and image microkelvin $^{88}$Sr$_2$ molecules in a lattice, and demonstrate precise measurements of molecular parameters as well as coherent control of molecular quantum states using optical fields. We discuss the sensitivity of the system to dimensional effects, a new bound-to-continuum spectroscopy technique for highly accurate binding energy measurements, and prospects for new physics with this rich experimental system.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figure

Assembling strategies in extrinsic evolvable hardware with bi-directional incremental evolution

Bidirectional incremental evolution (BIE) has been proposed as a technique to overcome the ”stalling” effect in evolvable hardware applications. However preliminary results show perceptible dependence of performance of BIE and quality of evaluated circuit on assembling strategy applied during reverse stage of incremental evolution. The purpose of this paper is to develop assembling strategy that will assist BIE to produce relatively optimal solution with minimal computational effort (e.g. the minimal number of generations)