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This paper presents the integration of ubiquitous computing systems into classroom settings, in order to provide basic support for classrooms and field activities. We have developed web application components using Java technology and configured a classroom with wireless network access and a web camera for our purposes. In this classroom, the students interact among each other and with the professor through an Internet-enabled personal digital assistant (PDA), using the different modules described in this paper. We include our evaluations about the performance and usability of the system in a computer science related course of the University of Tokushima, other practical uses including outdoor learning activities, and future research and development work. (Contains 2 tables and 10 figures.)

This special issue comprises selected papers which were presented at the workshop on dependently typed programming (DTP 10) in Edinburgh in July 2010 – affiliated with Federated Logic conferences (FLOC 10). Earlier workshops on dependently typed programming took place in Nottingham in 2008 (DTP 2008) and there also has been a Dagstuhl seminar (04381) on this subject in 2004. After DTP 2010, in 2011 a workshop on dependently typed programming (DTP 11) took place in Nijmegen affiliated with Interactive Theorem Proving 2011 (ITP 11). In September 2011 there also was a DTP workshop in Shonan, Japan. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The science of soft robots, or soft robotics, is currently one of the most active fields in robotics. While traditional robots consist of rigid bodies, powerful servomotors, and carefully coded programs to realize power, precision, and reliability, soft robots consist of soft and flexible bodies, actuators, and intelligence for adaptability. They are not rigid, but instead flexible toward their surroundings. These differences have the potential to make soft robotics a great new field in robotics. A JSPS KAKENHI project "Science of Soft Robots" has been in progress in Japan since 2018. Part of this special issue is made in collaboration with this project. This special issue consists of 46 works in total: 2 review papers, 29 letters, and 15 papers. One review paper, 29 letters, and 3 research papers report research activities from the JSPS KAKENHI project, and the other review paper and 12 research papers have been contributed from outside the project. As this issue will make clear, the science of soft robots is a very interdisciplinary academic field, a collaboration of many researchers from various fields, such as mechanical/electrical engineering, computer science, material sciences, biology, zoology, medicine, and nursing, among others. We believe interdisciplinary work to be a key point for the exploration of soft robotics. The editors thank all of the authors and reviewers of the contributions, and are confident that this special issue will greatly contribute to further progress in robotics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Embedded systems have been applied widely, not only to consumer products and industrial machines, but also to new applications such as ubiquitous or sensor networking. The increasing role of software (SW) in embedded system development has caused a great demand for embedded SW engineers, and university education for embedded SW engineering has become important. The embedded software engineers should learn system architecture design and hardware (HW) technologies as well as SW technologies. However, only a few universities offer education courses for embedded software engineering that include system architecture design and HW technologies. This paper proposes a student experiment method that is designed to nurture embedded SW engineers by teaching these technologies. The proposed method includes an experiment for embedded SW development, an experiment for embedded HW development and a HW/SW co-design experiment, which help students learn system architecture design skills such as system modeling, HW/SW tradeoff design, and SW and HW module design. A model of each experiment was developed and evaluated. (Contains 5 tables and 11 figures.)

In this paper, we describe two related scripting methods of cartographic data processing and visualization that provide 2D and 3D mapping of Japan with different algorithm complexity. The first algorithm utilizes Generic Mapping Toolset (GMT), which is known as an advanced console-based program for spatial data processing. The modules of GMT combine the functionality of scripting with the aspects of geoinformatics, which is especially effective for the rapid analysis of large geospatial datasets, multi-format data processing, and mapping in 2D and 3D modes. The second algorithm presents the use of the R programming language for cartographic visualization and spatial analysis. This R method utilizes the packages 'tmap', 'raster', 'maps', and 'mapdata' to model the morphometric elements of the Japanese archipelago, such as slope, aspect, hillshade and elevation. The general purpose graphical package 'ggplot2' of R was used for mapping the prefectures of Japan. The two scripting approaches demonstrated an established correspondence between the programming languages and cartography determined with the use of scripts for data processing. They outperform several well-known and state-of-the-art GIS methods for mapping due to their high automation of data processing. Cartography has largely reflected recent advances in data science, the rapid development of scripting languages, and transfer in the approaches of data processing. This extends to the shift from the traditional GIS to programming languages. As a response to these new challenges, we demonstrated in this paper the advantages of using scripts in mapping, which consist of repeatability and the flexible applicability of scripts in similar works. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using the InCites tool of Thomson Reuters, this study compares normalized citation impact values calculated for China, Japan, France, Germany, United States, and the UK throughout the time period from 1981 to 2010. InCites offers a unique opportunity to study the normalized citation impacts of countries using (i) a long publication window (1981 to 2010), (ii) a differentiation in (broad or more narrow) subject areas, and (iii) allowing for the use of statistical procedures in order to obtain an insightful investigation of national citation trends across the years. Using four broad categories, our results show significantly increasing trends in citation impact values for France, the UK, and especially Germany across the last thirty years in all areas. The citation impact of papers from China is still at a relatively low level (mostly below the world average), but the country follows an increasing trend line. The USA exhibits a stable pattern of high citation impact values across the years. With small impact differences between the publication years, the US trend is increasing in engineering and technology but decreasing in medical and health sciences as well as in agricultural sciences. Similar to the USA, Japan follows increasing as well as decreasing trends in different subject areas, but the variability across the years is small. In most of the years, papers from Japan perform below or approximately at the world average in each subject area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Harmony Search (HS) is a music-inspired optimization algorithm for solving complex optimization problems that imitate the musical improvisational process. This paper reviews the potential of applying the HS algorithm in three countries, China, South Korea, and Japan. The applications represent several disciplines in fields of study such as computer science, mathematics, electrical/electronic, mechanical, chemical, civil, and industrial engineering. We anticipate an increasing number of HS applications from these countries in near future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Describes the methodology and results of a study that examined information flow at the technological research front by analyzing a Japanese national project in computer technology. Various formats of information dissemination are identified, and a classification of researchers and engineers by information transfer activities is presented. (4 references) (Author/CLB)

This special issue focuses on Discovery Science (DS), which is a scientific discipline on any discovery process that is mainly approached by computer science. DS first started as a national project in Japan involving more than 100 researchers in 1998 and the project gave birth to a series of international conferences on DS, which have been held successfully every year since 1998. The objective of this special issue is to provide a leading forum for timely, in-depth presentation of recent advances in algorithms, theories and applications in the field of DS. Seven papers, ranging in a spectrum from basic theoretical research to solid application research, are included in this special issue. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The Japanese Committee for the IOI (JCIOI) had held the second-round contests of the Japanese Olympiad in Informatics (JOI) in which nearly 60 contestants participated. The JCIOI did not employ networks in the second-round contests to avoid high cost. However, contestants sometimes make simple mistakes (e.g., format errors), so the JCIOI adopted wireless networks to respond to submitted source codes in the last second-round contest. This paper describes how we built the contest environment using wireless networks. In addition, we also discuss the judging system used in the second-round and final-round contests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is concerned with redefining the notion of information from a perspective of systems theory. In recent years, the notion of information, which was closely related to the framework of old cybernetics, has been refined in parallel with the emergence of new cybernetics, especially second-order cybernetics and autopoiesis. The systemic view of new cybernetics provides us with the notion of "informationally closed system." This notion is congruent with the epistemological implications of radical constructivism. In order to help understand this argument, we aim at highlighting the development of autopoietic systems theory in Japan. Autopoiesis has often been considered as a thoroughly closed system in Japan, where the relationships between autopoiesis and radical constructivism have frequently been overlooked. This is mainly because the importance which autopoietic systems theory originally attaches to the notion of observer and observation has been inadequately discussed, and autopoietic systems theory is regarded as distinct from second-order cybernetics and radical constructivism. However, they must be dealt with together, and Humberto Maturana should be given credit for his ontology of observing. Since the publication of his paper "Biology of Cognition," Maturana has been attempting to explain the notion of observation as a biological phenomenon in his own way. Likewise, by taking into consideration the notion of observation, we can build a unified theory of information. Fundamental Informatics, which is being developed by Toru Nishigaki, outlines a unified approach to information by putting human observers at the center of his theory. Social and mechanical information is generated only when human observers conduct observations on the basis of biological information, and this mechanism of generation of information is discussed through the notion of "hierarchical autonomous system." For an autopoietic organization to be realized, of course, no hierarchy of systems is required, but observers are likely to construct some hierarchy between two systems. The construction of certain hierarchies of systems by observers is of great use for the explanation of fictitious phenomena of information transmission. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article profiles Iwao Sasase, candidate for member-at-large of the Institute of Electrical & Electronics Engineers Inc. (IEEE) Communications Society. Sasase obtained his diploma and doctorate degree in electrical engineering from Keio University in Yokohama, Japan in 1979, 1981, and 1984 respectively. He is the chair and a professor at the Department of Information & Computer Science at Keio University and his research includes topics on broadband mobile, photonic networks, and wireless communications. His position statement notes that he aims to develop cooperation with Sister Societies and boost local chapters around the world.

It is clear that technology and informatics are becoming increasingly important in disasters and humanitarian response. Technology is a critical tool to recording, analyzing, and predicting trends in data that could not be achieved prior to its implementation. Informatics is the translation of this data into information, knowledge, and wisdom. Combining technology and informatics applications with response efforts has resulted in various enhanced biosurveillance efforts, advanced communications, and information management during disasters. Although these efforts have been well described in the literature, research on the impact of technology and informatics during these efforts has been limited. As a result, this chapter will provide an overview of these technology and informatics solutions and present suggestions for further research in an era when disaster and humanitarian response efforts continue to increase as well. A literature search was performed using PubMed search tools with the National Library of Medicine Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) terms of "disasters," "disaster planning," "disaster medicine," "technology," "informatics," and "research." Search limitations were set for 5 years and in English. Because of the limited number of research articles in this field, the MeSH term research was deleted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]