An Experience-Connected e-Learning System with a Personalization Mechanism for Learners’ Situations and Preferences

This paper presents an “experience-connected” e- Learning system that facilitates users to learn practical skills of foreign language by associating knowledge and daily-life experiences. “Experience-Connected” means that the users of this system receive personalized and situation-dependent learning materials automatically. Knowledge associated to users’ daily-life has the following advantages: 1) provides opportunities to learn frequently, and 2) provides clear and practical context information about foreign language usage. The unique feature of this system is a dynamic relevance computation mechanism that retrieves learning materials according to both preference relevance and spatiotemporal relevance. Users of this system obtain appropriate learning materials, without manual and time-consuming search processes. This paper proves the feasibility of the system by showing the actual system implementation that automatically broadcasts the media-data of foreign language learning materials to smart-phones

Numerical Analysis on the He II Heat Transport in Channels with a Porous Spacer

Heat transport characteristics in a pressurized He II channel have been studied, using two-dimensional numerical code that is based on the two fluid model. In general, He II heat transport performance gets worse in a either long or narrow channel [1]. If a porous medium is used as a part of the channel to transfer heat to a next channel, it will be expected to improve the heat transport in the channel. In this study, numerical model was based on the channel formed by two FRP plates in parallel and a spacer was inserted in the middle of the channel to divide into two regions. A heater was placed in one of FRP plate to input heat to the channel. Two kinds of spacers were used in the analysis to compare heat transport characteristics; (l) porous spacer, (2) FRP spacer. The temperature distribution and flow velocity vectors of He II in the channel were calculated with a steady state heat input. According to the calculated results, the temperature increase of He II in the heated channel was suppressed in the case of a porous spacer. In addition, the mass flow induced by the thermo-mechanical effect of He II enhanced heat transport capability. The paper also discusses the He II flows within the channel

Global warming trend without the contributions from decadal variability of the Arctic Oscillation

AbstractClimate change associated with recent global warming is most prominent in the Arctic and subarctic. The Arctic Oscillation (AO) is a dominant atmospheric phenomenon in the Northern Hemisphere. Decadal variability of surface air temperature (SAT) associated with the AO index shows high correlation with recent global warming trend. In this study, the SAT variability in the Northern Hemisphere is separated in contributions from decadal variability by the AO and remaining components.The results indicate that the decadal variability of the AO index shows high correlation with the SAT variation until 1990. The AO index and SAT variabilities show a negative trend during 1949–1969, while the trend is positive during 1969–1989. In addition, the spatial distribution pattern of the SAT linear trend during each period shows the same pattern as AO. However, while the AO index indicates a negative trend, the SAT trend is continuously positive also after 1990. This warming pattern appearing after 1990 is caused by the Arctic amplification.Although the AO has a large amplitude on local scale, the AO is almost dynamically orthogonal to the hemispheric warming component. However, the AO can be related to the decadal variability of the Arctic and subarctic temperature change through the feedbacks by climate sub-systems

Rough Surface Effect on Meissner Diamagnetism in Normal-layer of N-S Proximity-Contact System

Rough surface effect on the Meissner diamagnetic current in the normal layer of proximity contact N-S bi-layer is investigated in the clean limit. The diamagnetic current and the screening length are calculated by use of quasi-classical Green's function. We show that the surface roughness has a sizable effect, even when a normal layer width is large compared with the coherence length $\xi =v_{\rm F}/\pi T_{\rm c}$. The effect is as large as that of the impurity scattering and also as that of the finite reflection at the N-S interface.Comment: 12 pages, 3 figures. To be published in J. Phys. Soc. Jpn. Vol.71-

Strong Anisotropy in Spin Suceptibility of Superfluid 3He-B Film Caused by Surface Bound States

Spin susceptibility of superfluid 3He-B film with specular surfaces is calculated. It is shown that, when the magnetic field is applied in a direction perpendiculr to the film, the suseptibility is significantly enhanced by the contribution from the surface bound states. No such enhancement is found for the magnetic field parallel to the film. A simplified model with spatially constant order parameter is used to elucidate the magnetic properties of the surface bound states. The Majorana nature of the zero energy bound state is also mentioned.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Extremely periodic pulsating aurora observed near L=6: A new type pulsating aurora

Extremely periodic pulsating aurora, a new type pulsating aurora, was detected by three photometers (directing towards the zenith and 45° N and S in the meridian plane, for 427.8 nm emission) at Husafell in Iceland on 18-19 December 1985. We examined the characteristics of the pulsating auroras and their relationship to magnetic pulsations using the data obtained in Iceland and Syowa Station, the geomagnetically conjugate pair station in Antarctica. The characteristics of this event are as follows; 1) extremely regular periodic pulsating auroras with the frequency of -50 mHz were observed simultaneously on the 3 photometers, 2) the periodicity of the pulsation was extremely high, and the Q-value showed more than 20, 3) the intensity variation among the 3 photometers occurred with excellent coherency and simultaneously without time lag, suggesting that these pulsating auroras were not of a propagating type but a standing type, 4) there are no correlation between the optical pulsating auroras and magnetic pulsations on the ground. These characteristics suggest that the extremely periodic pulsating aurora on this event is not a common (popular) pulsating aurora but an exceptional type pulsating aurora which would occur under a certain condition in the magnetosphere

Electrodynamic trapping of spinless neutral atoms with an atom chip

Three dimensional electrodynamic trapping of neutral atoms has been demonstrated. By applying time-varying inhomogeneous electric fields with micron-sized electrodes, nearly $10^2$ strontium atoms in the $^1S_0$ state have been trapped with a lifetime of 80 ms. In order to design the electrodes, we numerically analyzed the electric field and simulated atomic trajectories in the trap, which showed reasonable agreement with the experiment.Comment: 4pages, 4figures, to appear in Phys. Rev. Let

ABERRANT PANICLE ORGANIZATION 1 temporally regulates meristem identity in rice

AbstractWe report a recessive mutation of rice, aberrant panicle organization 1 (apo1), which severely affects inflorescence architecture, floral organ identity, and leaf production rate. In the wild-type inflorescence, the main-axis meristem aborts after forming 10–12 primary branch primordia. However, in apo1, the main-axis meristem was converted to a spikelet meristem after producing a small number of branch primordia. In addition, the branch meristems in apo1 became spikelet meristems earlier than in wild type. Therefore, in the inflorescence, the apo1 mutation caused the precocious conversion of the meristem identity. In the apo1 flower, lodicules were increased at the expense of stamens, and carpels were formed indeterminately by the loss of meristem determinacy. Vegetative development is also affected in the apo1. Leaves were formed rapidly throughout the vegetative phase, indicating that APO1 is also involved in temporal regulation of leaf production. These phenotypes suggest that the APO1 plays an important role in the temporal regulation of both vegetative and reproductive development