Development of an e-Learning environment across all departments and a model class

金沢大学総合メディア基盤センターIn 2006, Kanazawa University (KU) adopted a policy that made it mandatory for all freshmen to have a laptop PC, and started a new class called Introduction to Information Technology as a compulsory first-year subject. We designed this class as a model for developing an e-Learning environment across all departments. We realized that educational systems and support environments are important for the success of e-Learning, so we added portal functions with the cooperation of the company which developed the LMS for us. In addition, we set up a wireless LAN infrastructure, and upgraded some lecture rooms for the Introduction to Information Processing courses. We started up a support room to assist teachers in developing their teaching materials, and opened a PC support room for students in the university hall, near the hub of student activity. In this paper, we will show the outline of the educational system, and report the largely positive student evaluations of the Introduction to Information Technology course and the educational system during its first two years. The number of classes that use the educational system tripled in 2007

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[総合メディア基盤センター活動報告

Design and synthesis of thermoresponsive aliphatic polyethers with a tunable phase transition temperature

This paper describes a comprehensive study of the lower critical solution temperature (LCST)-type thermoresponsive properties of various poly(glycidyl ether) homopolymers with a varying side chain structure, molecular weight, and main chain tacticity, as well as their copolymers with a varying monomer composition and monomer sequence. For the initial screening, we prepared nine kinds of poly(glycidyl ether)s by the phosphazene base-catalyzed ring-opening polymerization of glycidyl methyl ether (MeGE), ethyl glycidyl ether (EtGE), glycidyl isopropyl ether (iPrGE), 2-methoxyethyl glycidyl ether (MeEOGE), 2-ethoxyethyl glycidyl ether (EtEOGE), 2-propoxyethyl glycidyl ether (PrEOGE), 2-(2- methoxyethoxy) ethyl glycidyl ether (MeEO(2)GE), 2-(2-ethoxyethyl) ethyl glycidyl ether (EtEO(2)GE), and 2-(2-(2-methoxyethoxy) ethoxy) ethyl glycidyl ether (MeEO(3)GE). Among them, poly(MeGE), poly(EtGE), poly(MeEOGE), poly(EtEOGE), and poly(MeEO(2)GE) (M-n = ca. 5000 g mol(-1)) were found to exhibit a LCST-type phase transition in water at 65.5 degrees C, 10.3 degrees C, 91.6 degrees C, 41.3 degrees C, and 58.2 degrees C, respectively. Although the molecular weight and main chain tacticity had little impact on the phase transition temperature, the side chain structure, i.e., the number of oxyethylene units and terminal alkyl groups, significantly affected the transition temperature. The statistical copolymers composed of MeEOGE and EtEOGE revealed that the transition temperature of the polymer can be desirably customized in between those of the homopolymers by varying the monomer composition. On the other hand, we found that the block copolymer composed of MeEOGE and EtEOGE exhibited a complex thermoresponsive behavior due to its ability to form a micellar aggregate

Synthesis and thermoresponsive property of end-functionalized poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) with pyrenyl group

N-Isopropylacrylamide (NIPAM) was polymerized using 1-pyrenyl 2-chloropropionate (PyCP) as the initiator and CuCl/tris[2-(dimethylamino)ethyl]amine (Me6TREN) as the catalyst system. The polymerizations were performed using the feed ratio of [NIPAM]0/[PyCP]0/[CuCl]0/[Me6TREN]0 = 50/1/1/1 in DMF/water of 13/2 at 20 ｰC to afford an end-functionalized poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) with the pyrenyl group (Py-PNIPAM). The characterization of the Py-PNIPAM using matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry provided the number-average molecular weight (Mn,MS). The lower critical solution temperature (LCST) for the liquid-solid phase transition was 21.7, 24.8, 26.5, and 29.3 ｰC for the Py-PNIPAMs with the Mn,MS's of 3000, 3400, 4200, and 5000, respectively; hence, the LCST was dramatically lowered with the decreasing Mn,MS. The aqueous Py-PNIPAM solution below the LCST was characterized using a static laser light scattering (SLS) measurement to determine its molar mass, Mw,SLS. The aqueous solutions of the Py-PNIPAMs with the Mn,MS's of 3000, 3400, 4200, and 5000 showed the Mw,SLS of 586,000, 386,000, 223,000, and 170,000, respectively. Thus, lowering the LCST for Py-PNIPAM should be attributable to the formation of the PNIPAM aggregates. The LCST of 21.7 ｰC for Py-PNIPAM with the Mn,MS of 3000 was effectively raised by adding β-cyclodextrin (β-CD) and reached the constant value of 26 ｰC above the molar ratio of [β-CD]/[Py-PNIPAM] = 2/1, suggesting that β-CD formed an inclusion complex with pyrene in the chain-end to disturb the formation of PNIPAM aggregates, thus raising the LCST

Structure and Excitation Relaxation Dynamics of Dimethylanthracene Dimer in a γ-Cyclodextrin Nanocavity in Aqueous Solution

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Precise Synthesis and Thermoresponsive Property of Poly(ethyl glycidyl ether) and Its Block and Statistic Copolymers with Poly(glycidol)

In this paper, we describe a comprehensive study of the thermoresponsive properties of statistic copolymers and multiblock copolymers synthesized by poly(glycidol)s (PG) and poly(ethyl glycidyl ether) (PEGE) with different copolymerization methods. These copolymers were first synthesized by ring-opening polymerization (ROP), which was initiated by tert-butylbenzyl alcohol (tBBA) and 1-tert-butyl-4,4,4-tris(dimethylamino)-2,2-bis[tris(dimethylamino)phosphoranylidenamino]-2 lambda(5),4 lambda(5)-catenadi(phosphazene) (t-Bu-P-4) as the catalyst, and then the inherent protective groups were removed to obtain the copolymers without any specific chain end groups. The thermoresponsive property of the statistic copolymer PG(x)-stat-PEGE(y) was compared with the diblock copolymer PG(x)-b-PEGE(y), and the triblock copolymers were compared with the pentablock copolymers. Among them, PG-stat-PEGE, PG-b-PEGE-b-PG-b-PEGE-b-PG, and PEGE-b-PG-b-PEGE-b-PG-b-PEGE, and even the specific ratio of PEGE-b-PG-b-PEGE, exhibited LCST-type phase transitions in water, which were characterized by cloud point (T-cp). Although the ratio of x to y affected the value of the T-cp of PG(x)-stat-PEGE(y), we found that the disorder of the copolymer has a decisive effect on the phase-transition behavior. The phase-transition behaviors of PG-b-PEGE, part of PEGE-b-PG-b-PEGE, and PG-b-PEGE-b-PG copolymers in water present a two-stage phase transition, that is, firstly LCST-type and then the upper critical solution temperature (UCST)-like phase transition. In addition, we have extended the research on the thermoresponsive properties of EGE homopolymers without specific alpha-chain ends