The current issue on career development and adolescent mental health in Japan

This review addressed issues on relationship between career development and adolescent mental health. Recently, in Japan, lots of college students are having a trouble getting a job and job shortage is major social issues. Although career development and mental health have potential reciprocal effect, little has been empirically investigated this effect. This article pointed out the two possible perspectives to the research on the relationship. First, the researchers and practitioners should understand not only identity formation and developmental issues but also psychological adaptation and various emotional problems concerning career development. Second, in college education, university faculty with mental health professionals should intensively and comprehensively support college students with special need (e.g. developmental and psychiatric disorders). Finally, future directions on this research were discussed

Femtosecond laser–assisted thermal annealing of Ni electrode on SiC substrate

Alloying at the metal–semiconductor interface induced by femtosecond laser irradiation associated with thermal annealing was examined to ascertain whether an ohmic contact was formed on silicon carbide (SiC). In general, the electric field of the femtosecond laser beam destroys the crystal structure, but with lower thermal damage around the irradiated areas. In addition to the laser irradiation, we employed thermal annealing to enhance the diffusion of the metal atoms inside the SiC. After these processes, an ohmic contact was successfully formed on the SiC with thermal annealing at a temperature of 900 °C, which is 100 °C lower than with the conventional thermal annealing method

A Much Faster Algorithm for Finding a Maximum Clique

We present improvements to a branch-and-bound maximumclique-finding algorithm MCS (WALCOM 2010, LNCS 5942, pp. 191–203) that was shown to be fast. First, we employ an efficient approximation algorithm for finding a maximum clique. Second, we make use of appropriate sorting of vertices only near the root of the search tree. Third, we employ a lightened approximate coloring mainly near the leaves of the search tree. A new algorithm obtained from MCS with the above improvements is named MCT. It is shown that MCT is much faster than MCS by extensive computational experiments. In particular, MCT is shown to be faster than MCS for gen400 p0.9 75 and gen400 p0.9 65 by over 328,000 and 77,000 times, respectively

Raman Studies of Structural Changes in Diamond-like Carbon Films on Si Induced by Ultrafast Laser Ablation

In this study, the diamond-like carbon (DLC), a tetrahedral amorphous carbon sample deposited on Si, was irradiated using a picosecond laser. We evaluated the picosecond-laser-induced structural and morphological changes in DLC using micro-Raman spectroscopy via line measurements. We obtained the spatial distribution of the structure and morphology of DLC on Si by regression analysis of the Raman spectra. The photo-induced crater could be categorized into four regions: peripheral, morphological-change, structural-changes, and ablated regions. The structure and morphology of the peripheral region were similar to those of the as-received DLC. In the morphological-change region, which is inside the periphery region, the thickness of the DLC decreased without any structural changes. At the center of the crater, which is shown in black in the optical image, two regions were identified by Raman spectroscopy. On the outer side, there is a structural-change region where the graphitization of DLC materialized with a reduction in the film thickness. Inside the structural-change region, there is an ablated region where the DLC was degraded by laser ablation

TRPC6 counteracts TRPC3-Nox2 protein complex leading to attenuation of hyperglycemia-induced heart failure in mice

Excess production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) caused by hyperglycemia is a major risk factor for heart failure. We previously reported that transient receptor potential canonical 3 (TRPC3) channel mediates pressure overload-induced maladaptive cardiac fibrosis by forming stably functional complex with NADPH oxidase 2 (Nox2). Although TRPC3 has been long suggested to form hetero-multimer channels with TRPC6 and function as diacylglycerol-activated cation channels coordinately, the role of TRPC6 in heart is still obscure. We here demonstrated that deletion of TRPC6 had no impact on pressure overload-induced heart failure despite inhibiting interstitial fibrosis in mice. TRPC6-deficient mouse hearts 1 week after transverse aortic constriction showed comparable increases in fibrotic gene expressions and ROS production but promoted inductions of inflammatory cytokines, compared to wild type hearts. Treatment of TRPC6-deficient mice with streptozotocin caused severe reduction of cardiac contractility with enhancing urinary and cardiac lipid peroxide levels, compared to wild type and TRPC3-deficient mice. Knockdown of TRPC6, but not TRPC3, enhanced basal expression levels of cytokines in rat cardiomyocytes. TRPC6 could interact with Nox2, but the abundance of TRPC6 was inversely correlated with that of Nox2. These results strongly suggest that Nox2 destabilization through disrupting TRPC3-Nox2 complex underlies attenuation of hyperglycemia-induced heart failure by TRPC6.Fil: Oda, Sayaka. Okazaki Institute for Integrative Bioscience; Japón. SOKENDAI; JapónFil: Numaga Tomita, Takuro. Okazaki Institute for Integrative Bioscience; Japón. SOKENDAI; JapónFil: Kitajima, Naoyuki. Okazaki Institute for Integrative Bioscience; Japón. Kyushu University; JapónFil: Tomizaki, Takashi. Okazaki Institute for Integrative Bioscience; Japón. Kyushu University; Japón. University of Tsukuba; JapónFil: Harada, Eri. Ajinomoto Co.; Japón. EA Pharma Co.; JapónFil: Shimauchi, Tsukasa. Okazaki Institute for Integrative Bioscience; Japón. Kyushu University; JapónFil: Nishimura, Akiyuki. Okazaki Institute for Integrative Bioscience; Japón. SOKENDAI; Japón. Ajinomoto Co.; JapónFil: Ishikawa, Tatsuya. Kyushu University; Japón. Ajinomoto Co.; Japón. EA Pharma Co.; JapónFil: Kumagai, Yoshito. University of Tsukuba; JapónFil: Birnbaumer, Lutz. Pontificia Universidad Católica Argentina "Santa María de los Buenos Aires". Instituto de Investigaciones Biomédicas. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Investigaciones Biomédicas; ArgentinaFil: Nishida, Motohiro. Okazaki Institute for Integrative Bioscience; Japón. SOKENDAI; Japón. Kyushu University; Japón. PRESTO; Japó

ヒカリヘンカン ポリタイプ オ モチイタ ワイド バンド ギャップ

Femtosecond laser-induced structural transformations in wide band-gap semiconductors were studied for the development of the fabrication technique for three-dimensional electronic circuits. In particular, we will report the results on the femtosecond laser-induced periodic structures produced on wide band-gap materials. We also investigated the material properties of laser-irradiated spot by using confocal micro Raman spectroscopy and transmission electron microscopy. We will discuss the effect of femtosecond laser-irradiation on wide band-gap semiconductors

Pulse Duration Dependence of Novel Metal Alloying on Fe/Cr/Ni Thin Films by Ultra-Short Pulsed Laser Irradiation

We examined the possibility of suppressing elemental segregation of high-entropy alloys (HEAs) using femtosecond laser irradiation. Thin films of iron (Fe), chromium (Cr), and nickel (Ni) were deposited on the surfaces of n-type SiC and p-type GaN substrates. The thicknesses of the Fe, Cr, and Ni films were 12, 7, and 11 nm, respectively. Laser irradiation was performed from the substrate side by focusing on the interface between the Fe film and substrate. Scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) bright-field images superimposed on the elemental maps of Fe, Cr, and Ni showed a more homogenous mixing of Fe, Cr, and Ni in the femtosecond-laser-modified region than in the picosecond-laser-modified region. In particular, the Ni distribution showed a significant improvement in homogeneity. In other words, the Ni mixture was more homogeneous in the femtosecond laser-modified region than in the picosecond laser-modified region. Although the duration of the picosecond laser pulse was sufficiently long for atomic diffusion, segregation still occurred during the cooling process following laser irradiation

TRPC6 regulates phenotypic switching of vascular smooth muscle cells through plasma membrane potential-dependent coupling with PTEN

Vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) play critical roles in the stability and tonic regulation of vascular homeostasis. VSMCs can switch back and forth between highly proliferative synthetic and fully differentiated contractile phenotypes in response to changes in the vessel environment. Although abnormal phenotypic switching of VSMCs is a hallmark of vascular disorders such as atherosclerosis and restenosis after angioplasty, how control of VSMC phenotypic switching is dysregulated in pathologic conditions remains obscure. We found that inhibition of canonical transient receptor potential 6 (TRPC6) channels facilitated contractile differentiation of VSMCs through plasma membrane hyperpolarization. TRPC6-deficient VSMCs exhibited more polarized resting membrane potentials and higher protein kinase B (Akt) activity than wild-type VSMCs in response to TGF-β1 stimulation. Ischemic stress elicited by oxygen-glucose deprivation suppressed TGF-β1-induced hyperpolarization and VSMC differentiation, but this effect was abolished by TRPC6 deletion. TRPC6-mediated Ca2+ influx and depolarization coordinately promoted the interaction of TRPC6 with lipid phosphatase and tensin homolog deleted from chromosome 10 (PTEN), a negative regulator of Akt activation. Given the marked up-regulation of TRPC6 observed in vascular disorders, our findings suggest that attenuation of TRPC6 channel activity in pathologic VSMCs could be a rational strategy to maintain vascular quality control by fine-tuning of VSMC phenotypic switching.Fil: Numaga-Tomita, Takuro. No especifíca;Fil: Shimauchi, Tsukasa. Kyushu University; JapónFil: Oda, Sayaka. No especifíca;Fil: Tanaka, Tomohiro. No especifíca;Fil: Nishiyama, Kazuhiro. Kyushu University; JapónFil: Nishimura, Akiyuki. Kyushu University; JapónFil: Birnbaumer, Lutz. Pontificia Universidad Católica Argentina "Santa María de los Buenos Aires". Instituto de Investigaciones Biomédicas. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Investigaciones Biomédicas; ArgentinaFil: Mori, Yasuo. No especifíca;Fil: Nishida, Motohiro. Kyushu University; Japó

Formation of x-ray Newton’s rings from nano-scale spallation shells of metals in laser ablation

The initial stages of the femtosecond (fs) laser ablation process of gold, platinum, and tungsten were observed by single-shot soft x-ray imaging technique. The formation and evolution of soft x-ray Newton’s rings (NRs) were found for the first time. The soft x-ray NRs are caused by the interference between the bulk ablated surface and nanometer-scale thin spallation layer; they originate from the metal surface at pump energy fluence of around 1 J/cm2 and work as a flying soft x-ray beam splitter

Femtosecond laser-induced modification at aluminum/diamond interface

We investigated femtosecond-laser-induced modification at an Al/diamond interface. The interface was irradiated from the backside through the diamond substrate, which is transparent to the laser beam. Extremely high pulse energies, i.e., 200 and 100 µJ/pulse, were used to irradiate the interface. The cross-section of the laser-irradiated line was observed with conventional and high-voltage transmission electron microscopy. The modification of the laser-irradiated interface was characterized by the formation of an amorphous phase sandwiched between the deformed Al film and the diamond substrate. The major chemical component of the amorphous phase was identified as carbon, blown from the diamond substrate. The newly formed interface between the amorphous phase and the diamond substrate was concave. In addition, a fine ripple structure with an average spacing one-quarter the wavelength of the laser light was formed only in the sample irradiated by the higher-energy pulses