Toward Achieving Broad Public Engagement with Science, Technology, and Innovation Policies: Trials in JAPAN Vision 2020

Science communication is becoming a larger field, including not only the approach known as public understanding of science (PUS), but also public engagement with science and technology (PEST). In this paper, we discuss what “broadly” and “incorporating public opinions in policy making” means and argue that it is important to investigate participants’ segments using the third generation of segmentation method to ensure the broadness of the project. When incorporating public opinions into the STI policy-making process, dealing with the process substantively, not instrumentally and including a channel to a policy-making process is crucial. Next, we propose that the vision phase of policy making, i.e., the future vision, could be an arena where diverse potential, but unclear, stakeholders could interactively communicate toward a common goal, or produce policy options linked to the future vision and an new PEST tool called Interactive Public Comment. Finally we showed some examples of interactive public comment trials in Japan

Toward Achieving Broad Public Engagement with Science, Technology, and Innovation Policies: Trials in JAPAN Vision 2020

Science communication is becoming a larger field, including not only the approach known as public understanding of science (PUS), but also public engagement with science and technology (PEST). In this paper, we discuss what “broadly” and “incorporating public opinions in policy making” means and argue that it is important to investigate participants’ segments using the third generation of segmentation method to ensure the broadness of the project. When incorporating public opinions into the STI policy-making process, dealing with the process substantively, not instrumentally and including a channel to a policy-making process is crucial. Next, we propose that the vision phase of policy making, i.e., the future vision, could be an arena where diverse potential, but unclear, stakeholders could interactively communicate toward a common goal, or produce policy options linked to the future vision and an new PEST tool called Interactive Public Comment. Finally we showed some examples of interactive public comment trials in Japan

Studies on the Raw Milk utilized in Okayama Prefecture. : The Milk-solids Calculating Formula.

Statistical investigations of various milk-solids calculating formulas had been performed with 228 samples of Holstein's milk during June in 1956 to Dec. in 1958. The specific gravities and fat contents of them lowered slightly in summar, but their SNF contents decreased remarkedly in the season. Then, significant difference was also observed in summar between the calculated and determined milk-solids contents. This fact was resulted from the lowering of SNF content, so the use of correcting factor was neccessary to obtained better results. Similar results were observed in October's samples. There were no significant differences in the chemical components of milks colected from the older, pre-war, experienced farmers and unaccustomed new ones

Identification of intracellular squalene in living algae, Aurantiochytrium mangrovei with hyper-spectral coherent anti-Stokes Raman microscopy using a sub-nanosecond supercontinuum laser source

We applied hyper-spectral coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering imaging to intracellular lipid identification in living microalgae, Aurantiochytrium mangrovei 18W-13a. Two different lipids, squalene and triacylglycerol, were found inside living cells with clear vibrational contrast. Based on the endogenous lipid band as a result of the cis C[DOUBLE BOND]C stretch vibrational mode, squalene and triacylglycerol were clearly distinguished in different intracellular areas. In particular, squalene was detected solely in vacuoles as lipid particles, which was also supported by electron microscopy

Public communication by research institutes compared across countries and sciences: building capacity for engagement or competing for visibility?

Leading academic institutions, governments, and funders of research across the world have spent the last few decades fretting publicly about the need for scientists and research organisations to engage more widely with the public and be open about their research. While a global literature asserts that public communication has changed from a virtue to a duty for scientists in many countries and disciplines, our knowledge about what research institutions are doing and what factors drive their 'going public' is very limited. Here we present the first cross-national study of N = 2,030 research institutes within universities and large scientific organisations in Brazil, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Portugal, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America. We find that institutes embrace communication with non-peers and do so through a variety of public events and traditional news media-less so through new media channels-and we find variation across countries and sciences, yet these are less evident than we expected. Country and disciplinary cultures contribute to the level of this communication, as do the resources that institutes make available for the effort; institutes with professionalised staff show higher activity online. Future research should examine whether a real change in the organisational culture is happening or whether this activity and resource allocation is merely a means to increase institutional visibility

Development of a Highly Sensitive Method for the Detection of Cryptosporidium parvum Virus Type 1 (CSpV1)

Poster Session

SHG-specificity of cellular Rootletin filaments enables naïve imaging with universal conservation

Despite growing demand for truly naïve imaging, label-free observation of cilium-related structure remains challenging, and validation of the pertinent molecules is correspondingly difficult. In this study, in retinas and cultured cells, we distinctively visualized Rootletin filaments in rootlets in the second harmonic generation (SHG) channel, integrated in custom coherent nonlinear optical microscopy (CNOM) with a simple, compact, and ultra-broadband supercontinuum light source. This SHG signal was primarily detected on rootlets of connecting cilia in the retinal photoreceptor and was validated by colocalization with anti-Rootletin staining. Transfection of cells with Rootletin fragments revealed that the SHG signal can be ascribed to filaments assembled from the R234 domain, but not to cross-striations assembled from the R123 domain. Consistent with this, Rootletin-depleted cells lacked SHG signal expected as centrosome linker. As a proof of concept, we confirmed that similar fibrous SHG was observed even in unicellular ciliates. These findings have potential for broad applications in clinical diagnosis and biophysical experiments with various organisms

AUTS2 Governs Cerebellar Development, Purkinje Cell Maturation, Motor Function and Social Communication

Autism susceptibility candidate 2 (AUTS2), a risk gene for autism spectrum disorders (ASDs), is implicated in telencephalon development. Because AUTS2 is also expressed in the cerebellum where defects have been linked to ASDs, we investigated AUTS2 functions in the cerebellum. AUTS2 is specifically localized in Purkinje cells (PCs) and Golgi cells during postnatal development. Auts2 conditional knockout (cKO) mice exhibited smaller and deformed cerebella containing immature-shaped PCs with reduced expression of Cacna1a. Auts2 cKO and knock-down experiments implicated AUTS2 participation in elimination and translocation of climbing fiber synapses and restriction of parallel fiber synapse numbers. Auts2 cKO mice exhibited behavioral impairments in motor learning and vocal communications. Because Cacna1a is known to regulate synapse development in PCs, it suggests that AUTS2 is required for PC maturation to elicit normal development of PC synapses and thus the impairment of AUTS2 may cause cerebellar dysfunction related to psychiatric illnesses such as ASDs