Manufacturing of Mechanical Toy Robot by Paper Craft － Toy Robot‘Harukoma’to be easily changed the parts of mechanism －

　生活の中でのおもちゃの存在は，心を豊かにするものがある。江戸期のころのからくり人形に代表されるように，メカニズムを創造することが，おもちゃ製作には求められることになる。本研究では，身近な材料である紙を用いて，からくり人形の製作を考え，メカニズムを取り替えることによって，人形の動きの変化を学習することができる教材を提案する。具体的には，からくり人形としては，構造の簡単な春駒人形のメカニズムを基本形にして，ペーパークラフトによる動力伝達部品の取り替えで，春駒人形の動きが変わることを体験できる学習教材を開発する

A statistical model of quantum dot arrays with Coulomb coupling

We present a study of a statistical model of arrays of quantum dots, in which electrons are confined by semiconductor heterojunctions in all three dimensions, with Coulomb coupling. Our model describes repulsively interacting localized electrons whose number can vary with changes in chemical potential. By means of a Monte Carlo simulation, it is shown that, at low temperatures, some stable electron densities hardly changing in certain ranges of chemical potential appear, which are associated with suppressed fluctuation and characteristic spatial electron distributions. Spin fluctuation, which gives magnetic susceptibility, exhibits essentially different behavior depending on temperature and Coulomb energies

Organic transistors in optical displays and microelectronic applications

\u3cp\u3eOrganic thin-film transistors (OTFTs) offer unprecedented opportunities for implementation in a broad range of technological applications spanning from large-volume microelectronics and optical displays to chemical and biological sensors. In this Progress Report, we review the application of organic transistors in the fields of flexible optical displays and microelectronics. The advantages associated with the use of OTFT technology are discussed with primary emphasis on the latest developments in the area of active-matrix electrophoretic and organic light-emitting diode displays based on OTFT backplanes and on the application of organic transistors in microelectronics including digital and analog circuits.\u3c/p\u3

Establishment of an Analytical System for the Human Fecal Microbiota, Based on Reverse Transcription-Quantitative PCR Targeting of Multicopy rRNA Molecules▿ †

An analytical system based on rRNA-targeted reverse transcription-quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR) was established for the precise evaluation of human intestinal microbiota. Group- and species-specific primer sets for Clostridium perfringens, Lactobacillus spp. (six subgroups and three species), Enterococcus spp., and Staphylococcus spp. targeting 16S rRNA gene sequences were newly developed for the quantitative analysis of such subdominant populations in human intestines. They were used together with previously reported group-specific primer sets for Enterobacteriaceae, Pseudomonas spp., and six predominant bacterial groups (the Clostridium coccoides group, the Clostridium leptum subgroup, the Bacteroides fragilis group, Bifidobacterium spp., the Atopobium cluster, and Prevotella spp.) for the examination of fecal samples from 40 healthy adults by RT-qPCR with lower detection limits of 102 to 104 cells per g of feces. The RT-qPCR method gave data equivalent to those yielded by qPCR for predominant populations of more than 108 cells per g of feces and could quantify bacterial populations that were not detectable (Staphylococcus and Pseudomonas) or those only detected at lower incidences (Prevotella, C. perfringens, Lactobacillus, and Enterococcus) by qPCR or the culture method. The RT-qPCR analysis of Lactobacillus spp. at the subgroup level revealed that a subject has a mean of 4.6 subgroups, with an average count of log10(6.3 ± 1.5) cells per g of feces. These results suggest that RT-qPCR is effective for the accurate enumeration of human intestinal microbiota, especially the entire analysis of both predominant and subdominant populations

Coordination of Cellular Dynamics Contributes to Tooth Epithelium Deformations.

The morphologies of ectodermal organs are shaped by appropriate combinations of several deformation modes, such as invagination and anisotropic tissue elongation. However, how multicellular dynamics are coordinated during deformation processes remains to be elucidated. Here, we developed a four-dimensional (4D) analysis system for tracking cell movement and division at a single-cell resolution in developing tooth epithelium. The expression patterns of a Fucci probe clarified the region- and stage-specific cell cycle patterns within the tooth germ, which were in good agreement with the pattern of the volume growth rate estimated from tissue-level deformation analysis. Cellular motility was higher in the regions with higher growth rates, while the mitotic orientation was significantly biased along the direction of tissue elongation in the epithelium. Further, these spatio-temporal patterns of cellular dynamics and tissue-level deformation were highly correlated with that of the activity of cofilin, which is an actin depolymerization factor, suggesting that the coordination of cellular dynamics via actin remodeling plays an important role in tooth epithelial morphogenesis. Our system enhances the understanding of how cellular behaviors are coordinated during ectodermal organogenesis, which cannot be observed from histological analyses