High energy electron observation by Polar Patrol Balloon flight in Antarctica

We accomplished a balloon observation of the high-energy cosmic-ray electrons in 10-1000GeV to reveal the origin and the acceleration mechanism. The observation was carried out for 13 days at an average altitude of 35km by the Polar Patrol Balloon (PPB) around Antarctica in January 2004. The detector is an imaging calorimeter composed of scintillating-fiber belts and plastic scintillation counters sandwiched between lead plates. The geometrical factor is about 600cm^2sr, and the total thickness of lead absorber is 9 radiation lengths. The performance of the detector has been confirmed by a test flight at the Sanriku Balloon Center and by an accelerator beam test using the CERN-SPS (Super Proton Synchrotron at CERN). The new telemetry system using the Iridium satellite, the power system supplied by solar panels and the automatic flight level control operated successfully during the flight. We collected 5.7×10^3 events over 100GeV, and selected the electron candidates by a preliminary data analysis of the shower images. We report here an outline of both detector and observation, and the first result of the electron energy spectrum over 100GeV obtained by an electronic counter

Particle Beam Tests of the Calorimetric Electron Telescope

The Calorimetric Electron Telescope (CALET) is a new mission addressing outstanding astrophysics questions including the nature of dark matter, the sources of high-energy particles and photons, and the details of particle acceleration and transport in the galaxy by measuring the high-energy spectra of electrons, nuclei, and gamma-rays. It will launch on HTV-5 (H-II Transfer Vehicle 5) in 2014 for installation on the Japanese Experiment Module–Exposed Facility (JEM-EF) of the International Space Station. The CALET collaboration is led by JAXA and includes researchers from Japan, the U.S. and Italy. The CALET Main Telescope uses a plastic scintillator charge detector followed by a 30 radiation-length (X0) deep particle calorimeter divided into a 3 X0 imaging calorimeter, with scintillating optical fibers interleaved with thin tungsten sheets, and a 27 X0 fully-active total-absorption calorimeter made of lead tungstate scintillators. CALET prototypes were tested at the CERN (European Laboratory for Particle Physics) Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS) in 2010 and 2011 using electrons to 290 GeV and protons to 350 GeV. In 2012 the CALET BEAM-TEST Model (BTM) was tested at the SPS with electrons to 300 GeV and protons to 400 GeV. The flight charge detectors were tested in 2013 at the SPS in heavy-ion beams from fragmented lead at 13 and 30 GeV/nucleon. Here, the CALET beam tests and the results of those tests will be presented and implications for the mission measurement goals will be discussed

Who has the right to speak? The role of social media in spreading dissent among anti-nuclear groups in post 3-11Japan

Although much previous research (for example regarding the “Arab Spring” of 2010) has stressed the galvanizing role played by social media in the development of social activism, in this paper we show how the use of social media in Japan has actually led to a fracturing of the anti-nuclear movement following the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear accidents in Japan in March 2011. We argue that awareness of a specifically Japanese concept prioritizing the voices of those directly affected by an accident or condition, the tōjisha, has been heightened by exchanges on social media such as Twitter. We suggest that arguments among the anti-nuclear protestors on who has the most right to speak in these debates has had a debilitating effect on the anti-nuclear movement as a whole. We call for further work in Japan on the way in which social media have promoted disunity and dissent among protest groups

CONSERVATIVE CHALLENGES TO FEMINISM ON THE JAPANESE INTERNET: AN HISTORICAL ANALYSIS

Many people are concerned that Japanese society and politics have been drifting to the right in recent years. Abe Shinzo, current prime minister, is an extraordinary right-wing nationalist. He repeatedly said that the "comfort women" were not coerced into becoming sexual slaves by the former Japanese Imperial Army during WWII. He also broke an unwritten agreement and visited Yasukuni shrine on December 26, 2013, where hundreds of war criminals are enshrined. This irritated not only China and Korea governments but also the U.S.Among the supporting groups for this tendency are rightist groups and Internet users with rightist or racist ideas who are also largely anti-feminist. In the early days of the Internet in Japan, networking among minority groups, such as minority activism, feminism, environmentalism, and peace movements, thrived through online communities that were utilized as electronic conference spaces (Hamada & Onoda 2003:41-43). However, in recent years we are facing a paradoxical situation in which the Internet is being used by backlash groups to attack feminists and minority groups in Japan. This paper argues that one of backgrounds of this phenomenon was the marginalization of feminism in Japan both on the Internet and in real politics. We describe how and why feminism became marginalized based on historical research. Through stressing the role that ICTs have played in this marginalization we show how there are strong connections between the techno and the social in Japan