In recent years, the term “digitalization” has been highlighted, and there have been many examples of artificial intelligence (AI) being applied to business. As a result of this momentum, there is growing concern about whether humans will be able to maintain their superiority over AI in the future. In this paper, as an example of the capabilities that humans can create, individual characteristics of music are clarified by imaging the sounds of various instrumental music through analysis of dynamic spectra, etc., and the contents related to the relationship between humans and artificial intelligence are examined. Also, the characteristics of music in the East and West are discussed from the perspective of natural science, which seeks to clarify complex phenomena as simple laws, and the meaning of traditional Japanese music, which is different from Western music in its aims, is discussed. A proposal for a direction in which koto-shamisen music, which has been in a slump, can be popularized in the future is also proposed. In conclusion of these discussions, we were able to reaffirm that artificial intelligence could not go beyond some aspects of human ability.

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Is it possible to contribute carbon neutral by yeasts inhabiting in aquatic environments of our neighborhood? In COP26, held from October to November in 2021, various concrete attempts by participating countries were proposed for realization of carbon neutral. However, many people seem to be skeptical about their completions. Especially in Japan, coal demand has increased since a nuclear accident in 2011. It is an urgent need to break away from this dependence because coal has a high emission of air pollutants. Thus, we propose marine biomass-utilization of both processing seaweed waists and wild unused seaweeds for energy resources because the land area of Japan is ranked the 61st, and its exclusive economic zone is the 6th in the world. As many Japanese people ordinally eat seaweeds, a lot of their processing wastes are dumped in the sea. Additionally, abnormal growths of seaweeds and drifting to shores of dead ones are causing marine pollutions and global warning. There is an urgent need to improve this situation. We propose that bioethanol production from marine biomass can contribute to the carbon neutral. It is difficult to incinerate seaweeds with high water content, and treatments by normal microorganisms significantly decrease their activities because seaweeds also contain a high concentration of salt. Therefore, fermentation of marine biomass by wild yeasts is thought to be useful to overcome various problems. We have found that expectations are inhabiting in aquatic environments of our neighborhood, the yeasts are easily isolated, and are effectively available. In this report, we discuss about explanation of the yeast and ethanol fermentation, isolation of aquatic yeasts in our neighborhood, and bioethanol production from seaweeds.

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As we live in the digital society, we can benefit from the Internet and Artificial Intelligence. Then, we have to stare what digital means. Pictures have been digitized, and made into letters. Then, they have been written on paper, and printed as newspapers with printing machines. Furthermore, they have been printed on semiconductors with science and technology. Now, we can share audio, images, and even video as invisible characters on the Internet. This has happened, however feelings are still entrusted in the letters, and they become memories in people’s minds. So, the author hopes that the letters will always be the best gift to make people smile.

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Due to a decline in the productive-age population in Japan, the shortage of human resources in the field of nursing-care have been severe. As a measure for this problem, it is necessary to maintain the quality of nursing-care services by utilizing welfare equipments. Analysing this background, the authors developed a pointing device that controlled by voluntary head movement. However, this device malfunctions in low temperature environments. The factor is the increase in electrical noise due to the decrease in environmental temperature. Therefore, in order to improve the noise resistance of electromyography sampling, bipolar induction was adopted as the method of detecting electromyography. Furthermore, in order to accurately judge the occlusion even with electromyography containing noise, the function to detect multiple clicks was equipped with the pointing device. In this study, first, the operation was tested in low temperature environments (1-5 ℃), middle temperature environments (9-13 ℃) and warm temperature environments (23-24 ℃). Next, the operation reliability influenced by environmental temperature was evaluated based on task success rate and required times. As a result, the task success rate was 95% or more regardless of the environmental temperature, and the required times was about 0.5 sec. In addition, the superimposition of electrical noise or malfunction was not confirmed. On the other hand, some participants commented that their jaws were tired and that they were not suitable for long-term operation, regardless of the environmental temperature. The reason is that the operation of the FPD required more force than the occlusion used in daily life. For this reason, it is indispensable to verify the relationship between the occlusal force and the fatigue of jaw and improve the usability of this device.

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Food poisoning caused by histamine occurs in 7 to 20 cases every year, and the main cause is the intake of improperly managed red-fleshed fish such as tuna. Histamine is produced from free histidine in fish meat. The changes of the amount of histamine and the amount of free histidine when stored at 5 ℃, 10 ℃ and 25 ℃ was examined for commercially available seafood. A maximum of 724 mg/100 g of histamine was detected in red-fleshed fish, and a maximum of 11.2 mg/100 g was detected in other seafood. A decrease in the amount of free histidine was confirmed in seafood in which histamine was detected. The amount of histamine produced from free histidine was about the same.

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A flow microreactor with microchannels has been widely used for biocatalytic synthesis. For high throughput production, multiple microreactors are assembled into a single module to increase the number of microchannels available for biocatalytic synthesis. However, the assembled microreactors inevitably waste much their own space for the precise assembly (e.g. space for screw holes), indicating difficulty of drastic increase in density of microchannels. Increase in the microchannel density means increase in the performance per unit volume of the microreactors. In this study, we propose a novel microreactor that has a great potential to increase in the microchannel density. Blood capillary network-like microchannels in polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) matrix were created using sacrificial cotton candy microfibers. The mean residence time of the microreactor prepared using 150 ± 20 mg cotton candy (MR150) was about twice as long as that prepared using 20 ± 5 mg cotton candy (MR20). Moreover, productivity of biodiesel of MR150 was about three times higher than that of MR20. These results show that the density of microchannels and performance per unit volume of our microreactor can be improved only by increasing the amount of cotton candy enclosed in PDMS.

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The study elucidates the incentive structure for university researchers cooperating with the industry and local communities in the fields of fisheries and oceanography. Researchers having a doctorate degree and those having a master’s degree showed different consciousness towards these collaborative efforts. In the faculties studying marine science at Kochi University, the explanatory ability of the mode was low, whereas the variables of satisfaction and importance were high, which suggests that the researchers who thought logically answered frankly. A clear relationship was identified between the factors that promote study and satisfaction with added incentives. However, because importance and satisfaction are not in direct proportion to each other (plot of the main effect), it was strongly suggested that “great support to dissatisfied researcher” would help in developing the skills of the faculty at Ryukyu University. Most of the faculties studying marine science might show the latter tendency. Different characteristics were exhibited by different faculties. The faculty of business science was actively cooperating, and all the measures, including personnel evaluation, provided an incentive. The faculties of practical science and professional science tended to be artisanal and logical. The faculties of engineering and education considered personal feelings to be an incentive. Detailed results were obtained for researchers having different educational degrees and under different faculties through an in-depth analysis under various conditions.

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The study elucidates the incentive structure for university researchers cooperating with industry and local communities in the fields of fisheries and oceanography. The consciousness was different between the researchers having a doctorate degree and the researchers having a master’s degree. The viewpoint on the cooperation with industry was different among special researchers, teachers specialized in education, etc. Binary logistic regression and CART analysis were used to examine specific incentives. The results reveal that the factor X, “reflection to salary” and “support for research funds,” classifies the response Y, “reflection to research funds.” Especially eager researchers, for whom Y = 1 at “reflection to research funds”, correspond to respondents who select importance as five: very important or four: rather important as the factor X. An estimate to predict the accuracy of the model shows that the conformance probability was more than 0.87. Researchers who regard factor X, “reflection to salary” and “support to research funds,” as either “five: very important” or “four: rather important,” are defined as “eager researchers.” This suggested that these incentives were effective. From the policy viewpoint, although we should not increase research funds without consideration, it is undeniable that getting funds promotes the researchers’ cooperation with society (industry), which in turn helps secure greater funds. “Reflection to research funds (importance)” should be regarded as a motive or trigger, although we should prevent excessive concentration.

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To utilize supporting staff, data were analyzed using four quadrants of Stokes and multiple regression. The research revealed the problem of shortage of resources such as lack of sufficient time to concentrate on studies, weakened laboratory organization, shortage of supporting staff, etc. This is reflected in the phrase “researchers have been exhausted” in any university or field of research. From the policy viewpoint, we should regard the research environment in Japan as “a world in which researchers cannot survive without overwork,” and should make efforts to improve the situation. Development of the cooperation with the industry and local communities relates to this policy which would solve the problem by increasing the resources for undertaking research at universities. We have arrived at the following conclusions. First, researchers should be able to enjoy a decent lifestyle. If researchers wish to devote themselves to study during a special period because of their interest in studying or career advancement, then managers in universities should appreciate it. They should not force young researchers, who may be pregnant, to over-work or leave work or studies to care for children. Balance between professional and personal life should be regarded as important. Second, to solve the problem, we should reform the system that supports researchers by providing them sufficient time to research and improving support staff arrangements in an organization. Hence, more effective use of URA is required.

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Autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR) has been reported as a sensory phenomenon, in which people experience a tingling, static-like sensation across the scalp, back of the neck and at times further areas in response to specific triggering audio and visual stimuli. The aim of this study was to examine how ASMR videos affect brain activity and mood state. First, we determined the degree of tingling sensation after viewing six candidate videos in sixty healthy students. We then chosen the two videos, which caused higher degree of ASMR sensation. Next, we examined the effects of the two ASMR videos on brain activity and mood state, which were assessed with electroencephalography (EEG) and the Profile of Mood States (POMS), respectively, in six healthy students. Vigor levels of POMS were decreased after viewing the ASMR video. Relaxation and sleepiness levels calculated based on EEG measurements were decreased after viewing the ASMR video. In addition, tension levels were increased after viewing the ASMR video. These findings may suggest that ASMR sensation triggered by viewing videos has some effects on brain activity and mood state.

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Seven types of oxide ion conductive ceramics (ZrO2)0.92(Y2O3)0.08, (CeO2)0.8(Gd2O3)0.2, La2Zr2O7, (Bi2O3)0.75(Y2O3)0.25, (ZrO2)0.90(Sc2O3)0.10, La9.7Si6O26.55, and La0.8Sr0.2Ga0.8Mg0.115Co0.085O3 were composited with Tl2O3, which has excellent carbon combustion characteristics, and their effects on carbon combustion characteristics were investigated. Although no improvement in the carbon combustion characteristics with Tl2O3 only was observed due to the composite with oxide ion conductive ceramics, the carbon combustion characteristics with Tl2O3 only were maintained at x wt% – Tl2O3 + (Bi2O3)0.75(Y2O3)0.25 (x = 5, 10, 20). A mechanism other than ionic conduction was suggested for the carbon combustion characteristics of the Tl2O3 + oxide ion conductive ceramics composite.

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After preparing 8-mol% Y2O3-stabilized ZrO2 electrolytes with SiO2 contents to < 40, 550, 1200, and 2800 ppm and attaching Pt electrodes, a direct-current (DC) load test wherein 1 V was applied at 800 °C in air atmosphere for 1000 h was conducted to investigate the effect of SiO2 on the electrical properties. The DC resistance at 800 °C for all samples increased immediately after the test was started, but tended to stabilize over time, and remained almost constant after approximately 600 h. The bulk and the grain-boundary resistances measured by the AC complex impedance analysis at 300 °C after the DC voltage load test were increased in all samples compared to that before the test, but no clear correlation was found between the amount of SiO2 and the resistance. Moreover, the electrode interface resistance measured by complex impedance analysis at 800 °C also increased after the DC voltage load test.

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In this study, we investigated the thermal stability of polymer networks, which plays an important role in the function of polymer network-liquid crystal composite films. A glass transition temperature of the polymer network was found to be 87 °C. The thermal expansion coefficient of the polymer network was 1.05×10–4/K from room temperature to 120 °C, which resembled that of polyethylene terephthalate. The polymer network had 0.5-1.4 µm pore diameter where the liquid crystal continuous phase exists, and 52 % of the pores had the diameters of 0.9-1.0 µm. The heat treatment of the polymer network was performed at 40, 60, 80, and 100 °C for 1 h. The pore size of the polymer network was almost unchanged by heat treatment, indicating excellent thermal stability.

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Today, CAD/CAM is increasingly gaining its importance in the field of mechanical design. However, these systems are not operated easily by those without proper computer programming skills. This paper aims to allow these non-programming professionals to automatically perform flexible production process simply by expressing in a certain manner what they intend to manufacture. In this paper, flexible production is defined as a process in which a certain knowledge can be easily extended to a similar problem. The paper investigated two systems to solve “sequencing problems” and “navigation during traffic congestion”. The former is a system with problem solving programs developed by a manufacturer in advance, allowing users to operate the system without programming. In the latter system, both a manufacturer and a user do not need to develop a program and the user can solve the problem simply by inputting a knowledge base, which is a set of problems and status altering operations. Their comparison showed the latter system reduces workload for the staff, allowing wider job opportunity for those without programming skills, specifically elders and challenged. The expansion of this system has the potential for realizing a more inclusive and diverse society.

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This paper deals with one of the most difficult sequencing problems, m-machines n-jobs flow shop scheduling problems. Conventional methods adopted in previous studies include the Monte Carlo method by sampling or the simulation method in which the target or evaluation standard is determined and some machining priority rules are used. In this paper, we employed the Monte Carlo method. Sampled “job execution sequence” is arranged in ascending order of the total elapsed time, and the features obtained from the top “job execution sequence” are reported. In addition, we investigated the relationship between the operating time of each machine on each job and optimum solutions. Specifically, a simple setting with same operating time for each machine was used as a baseline, and then cases where the operating times were changed stepwise were considered to show these changes lead to a proportional rise in difficulty in finding an optimum solution. These results can significantly contribute to a more efficient determination of optimum or quasi-optimum solutions.

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