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A new paper sheet feeding mechanism using a friction force owing to electrostatic adhesion is proposed to realize long-term reliability and reduction in maintenance work. In this mechanism, friction force owing to electrostatic adhesion of an electrostatic pad acts as a resistance force to make paper sheets separate successively instead of a friction force of rubber parts used in the conventional feeding mechanism. The electrostatic pad with comb-type electrodes and whose upper surface is coated with an insulator with high wear resistance generates the resistance force. First, the width of the electrode and the spacing between electrodes of the electrostatic pad that generate a large electrostatic adhesion at the lowest possible voltage are determined from an experiment using the evaluation electrostatic pad. Then, the feed force acting on the first and the second paper sheets, and the resistance force owing to the electrostatic pad are measured by pulling the paper sheets in the separation mechanism. Furthermore, the performance of the paper sheet feeding mechanism is measured while changing the value of the voltage applied to the electrostatic pad. Consequently, it was found that the paper sheets could be accurately fed successively by adjusting the applied voltage to an appropriate value.

Industrial waste generated in the domestic paper industry in Japan was 5.1 million tons in 2015, and after reduction and recycling, 152 thousand tons of the waste was consequently disposed. Organic sludge (paper sludge), which occupies two-thirds of the industrial waste generated in the paper industry, is incinerated for the purpose of volume reduction and thermal recycling, and then it becomes paper sludge ash (PS ash). PS ash is recycled as aggregate, roadbed material in the civil engineering field and cement raw material, but it is necessary to further expand the application and reduce the final disposal amount. From the above background, in this research, the strength characteristics, the durability performance and the environmental impact of low carbon concrete produced by reducing cement usage to 45% by using PS ash as admixture in addition to fly ash and blast furnace slag fine powder, were investigated. Experimental results show that the low carbon concrete produced in this research has long term strength development, and that PS ash does not contribute to long term strength. Moreover, the clay mineral contained in the PS ash has an effect of reducing drying shrinkage by water retention and expansion. With respect to durability performance, neutralization is promoted by decreasing the total cement amount, while salt tolerance resistance is improved. Frost damage resistance tends to decrease. The elution amount of toxic substances is less than the soil environmental standard value.

A versatile method is proposed to predict the shape of a paper model of a three piece brassiere cup. A brassiere cup consists of several cloth and wire parts and the shapes of cloth parts called patterns are determined by repeating creation of a paper cup model, check of its 3D shape, and modification of 2D shapes of patterns. For efficient design of a brassiere cup, prediction of its 3D shape with a simulation is required. The deformed shape of a paper pattern is represented as a single or multiple developable surfaces. So, a model that can represent a pattern both as a single surface and as multiple surfaces is proposed. Which case is selected depends on the magnitude of the potential energy of the pattern in each case. The potential energy of the pattern and geometric constraints imposed on the pattern are formulated based on the model. Minimizing the potential energy under geometric constraints derives the stable shape of the pattern in either case. The validity of the proposed method was verified by comparing predicted and measured 3D shapes of paper models of two types of three piece cups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces a group of five articles dealing with interrelations of text and film in the field of Japanese studies. The articles are based on presentations given in February 2016 at a Japanese studies conference hosted by the Seminar of East Asian Studies (Japanology) of Freie Universität Berlin.

In this global age, it is essential for researchers and physicians to carry out research, obtain data, and write papers in English. However, every researcher, physician, and supervisor has experienced the reality that data is available but has not been translated into English. I have authored, supervised, and published about 430 papers in English. However, many other potential papers remain unpublished. In this lecture, I would like to propose and explain 10 points for writing papers in English, and encourage young researchers to use the data they have to write papers in English: 1. Why should you write papers in English? 2. Is it better to translate a Japanese paper into English or write it in English from the start? 3. Have your English checked by a native speaker? 4. Conference presentations are a great opportunity to write papers in English: structured abstracts are mini papers 5. What are the basic skills and knowledge required for writing papers? 6. Make the title of your paper attractive: it should be informative 7. Start with the Materials and Methods and Results: including References, this will make up more than 50% of the paper 8. Gather and organize related papers on a regular basis 9. Revise articles promptly and faithfully in accordance with the reviewers' comments 10. Practicing English presentation by yourself: site translation, shadowing, Siri [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Science Policy & Research Management is the property of Japan Society for Research Policy & Innovation Management and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Journal of the Japan Research Association for Textile End-Uses / Sen'i Seihin Shohi Kagaku is the property of Japan Research Association for Textile End-Uses / Sen'i Seihin Shohi Kagaku and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Journal of Information Science & Technology Association/Joho no Kagaku to Gijutsu is the property of Information Science & Technology Association and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Mechanical properties and water resistance of Pulp/PLA high performance paper for heat molding were investigated in this paper. Especially, the properties of high performance papers before and after heating processes were examined. It is cleared here that the tensile strength can be obtained in the case of 20% content of PLA at heating time 30 min. and temperature 200 °C. And the water absorptiveness of presented paper decreases largely after heating process. The strength of paper under the wet condition decreases gradually with the increase of water. However it was shown that the strength was improved by mixing of PLA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A method to predict the shape of a paper model of a two piece brassiere cup is proposed. A brassiere cup consists of several cloth parts referred to as patterns, and wires. The shapes of patterns are designed by repeatedly making a cup model composed of paper patterns and then checking its 3D shape. To reduce such trial and error process, it is required to predict the 3D shape of such model with simulation. As a model is made of paper, each part is inextensible and its deformed surface is developable. Then, the potential energy of a pattern can be represented as a function of its principal curvature and principal direction. Minimizing the potential energy under geometric constraints derives the stable shape of the cup model. The computed shape of a cup almost coincided with the measured shape of an actual paper model. Especially, the shape of the joint line between two patterns was predicted with the average position error of 1.53 mm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A task force on the management of PTMC in adults organized by the Japan Th yroid Association has published a position paper on how to handle papillary thyroid microcarcinomas （PTMC）, including active surveillance of low-risk PTMC in adults, to solve the problem of overdiagnosis in thyroid carcinoma. Th e task force conducted a systematic review on issues of clinical importance in the areas of epidemiology, surgical outcomes, diagnosis, and active surveillance. The position paper indicates evidence for the increased incidence of PTMC, favorable surgical outcomes for low-risk PTMC, recommended criteria for diagnosis using fi ne needle aspiration cytology, and evaluation of lymph node metastasis （LNM）, extrathyroidal extension （ETE） and distant metastasis. Active surveillance has also been reported with a low incidence of disease progression and no subsequent recurrence or adverse events on survival if conversion surgery was performed at a slightly advanced stage. Active surveillance is a safe and valid strategy for PTMC, because it might preserve physical quality of life and reduce 10-year medical costs. Th e position paper also included some points which should be noted when performing active surveillance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Paper is composed of plant fibers obtained from both wood and non-wood pulp, and the chemical component is mainly cellulose. It is well-known that cellulosic materials are very hard to carbonize at high temperatures because they decompose thermally before forming carbon materials. We have tried chemical carbonization of wood-pulp paper without thermal decomposition using a catalyst to prepare two-dimensional carbon materials. Three kinds of paper (called LBKP-papers here after) made from bleached kraft hardwood pulp having 0.7-0.76 mm in length weighted mean fiber length and about 260 μm in thickness was used for the chemical carbonization in this work. In the three kinds of LBKP-papers, one includes a wet paper strengthening agent and another one has a little different distribution of the fiber length. One of organic sulfonic acids, methane sulfonic acid (MSA) was used as a catalyst for the carbonization. The LBKP-papers were treated in 1 mol MSA aqueous solution for 5 min and were dried at room temperature. The MSA-treated LBKP-papers were carbonized at 800° under an Ar gas atmosphere. Structural and physical properties of carbonized LBKP-papers were investigated. All of the LBKP-papers carbonized at 800° were amorphous and then were crystallized with heat-treatment at higher temperatures, being independent of the wet paper strengthening and the different fiber length distribution. A graphitic structure was developed in carbonized LBKP papers heat-treated at temperatures higher than 2000°. Mechanical and electrical conductive properties of the carbonized LBKP papers were improved with the heat-treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined the difference between authors and the consistency in each author's writing styles, both were the basis of authorship verification. We analyzed 88 academic papers on psychology written by 22 authors and focused on the rates of "non-content words", "bigram of parts-of-speech", "bigram of postpositional particles", "positioning of commas", "words before period", and "Kanji, Hiragana, and Katakana" in the papers. Next, symmetric Kullback-Leibler divergence distances between the papers were calculated. To examine the author differences in writing styles, using hierarchical Bayesian modeling, we compared the distances between papers written by the same author with those by different authors. Furthermore, to examine author consistency in writing styles, we compared the distances of short durations (under five years) between papers written by the same author with the longer durations (over five years). These results supported the hypothesis that there exist author differences and consistency in writing styles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Information Science & Technology Association/Joho no Kagaku to Gijutsu is the property of Information Science & Technology Association and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

A new type of paper, which composition is mixed of PLA and cellulose, was developed through heat molding process in this study. After folding of paper, this high performance paper contained thermoplastic PLA can be molded by heating and produced to the crafts. The properties of paper before and after the heating were examined and the results demonstrated their characteristics with high performance. In particular, the folding test showed that the developed paper was folded easily by hand. From the results of heat shrinkage test, it was also shown that the heat shrinkage ratio of the paper was suppressed by mixing cellulose. When PLA fiber content is lower than 60 wt%, heat shrinkage of the paper does not occur after heating. The results of tensile tests showed that heating increases the tensile strength of the paper and the tensile strength reaches the maximum value at 20 wt% PLA content. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to publish good research papers from Japan, it is necessary to conduct good (i.e., meaningful) research, obtain good (i.e., meaningful) results, and write good manuscripts that convey the significance of research. In particular, when aiming for publication in an English medical journal, the manuscript should be written in correct and accurate English, which is a major challenge for authors who are non-native speakers of English, such as those from Japan. At the same time, to ensure that the manuscript is a "good paper," attention should also be paid to elements other than language. To write a paper that will be accepted by reliable medical journals, including top-ranked ones, the content should be appropriately written according to the requirements based on international standards, such as the reporting guidelines endorsed by the EQUATOR Network and the recommendations of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors; this is a common challenge not only for Japanese authors but for authors around the world. Medical writers are professionals who improve the quality of manuscripts and facilitate the publication of research. Based on my own expertise and experience as a medical writer for 20 years in supporting clinical research, I would like to describe the steps I think should be followed to produce good manuscripts. I would also like to focus on the importance of education and of collaboration with professionals in writing and publishing research papers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Nihon Chikusan Gakkaiho is the property of Japanese Society of Animal Science and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Ultrafine bubbles (bulk nanobubbles), small bubbles less than 1 µm in diameter, have attracted academic and industrial attention because they have numerous advantages, including chemical-free nature and extraordinarily long lifetime. Since Brownian motion velocity is much higher than buoyancy, ultrafine bubble lifetime is more than several months. But stable mechanism is still unclear, even though their inside is highly pressured. They have several characteristics, such as pH-dependent surface charge and reduction in friction. Ultrafine bubbles are generated and removed by selecting the ultrasonic frequency. This review discusses the fundamental characteristics of ultrafine bubbles and their applications. Ultrafine bubbles effectively remove proteins, dyes, and inorganic salts from solid surfaces. Ultrafine bubbles promote adsorption, desorption and extraction. Gold nanoparticles, nanocomposites of CaCO3 and pulp fiber, and follow nanoparticles are synthesized using ultrafine bubbles. Thus, ultrafine bubbles have been shown to be powerful, environmentally friendly, safe, clean, simple, and inexpensive methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Studies in the Japanese Language / Nihongo no Kenkyu (Fmly: Kokugogaku) is the property of Society for Japanese Linguistics and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The Rock-Paper-Scissors game is used as a way of making specific decisions based on incidental outcomes. The present study aimed to investigate how children acquire the underlying cognitive functions to play the game relating to understanding of "three-way deadlock structure" through developmental processes. There were 569 children (age range ＝ 12-83 months) who were evaluated. In this study, the task consisted of three subtasks:(1)" understanding rock-paperscissors symbols";(2)" judgment of winning"; and(3)" judgment of losing". We evaluated the children's developmental levels using the Kyoto Scale of Psychological Development-2001(KSPD2001). Children aged 2.6 years had a 50% success rate in passing the first task, for the second task the age at which the 50% success rate was achieved was 4.8 years, and for the third task it was 5.4 years. Significant correlations were confirmed between the developmental age assessed in the KSPD2001 and the five stages of understanding the game. The results suggest that this task is useful to evaluate specific children's stages in understanding the game, and to assess developmental levels of young children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of the Japan Research Association for Textile End-Uses / Sen'i Seihin Shohi Kagaku is the property of Japan Research Association for Textile End-Uses / Sen'i Seihin Shohi Kagaku and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper examines an approach to create systematic maps of the Information and Systems in Education. As a project for the 50th anniversary of the Japanese Society for Information and Systems in Education ( JSiSE), the author investigated the discussion of scholarly scopes in JSiSE and previous research about the visualization of science and technology knowledge. Furthermore, this paper analyzed the relationships between studies in the recent special issue of JSiSE to propose an idea for creating the maps. Although the investigation and analysis in this paper have several limitations, this study confirms the coherency of the scholarly scopes in JSiSE since this academic society was established and the potential of network analysis about studies in the JSiSE journal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]