A young previously healthy male student suddenly experienced a fear of incapability of breathing while waiting for release from an isolation chamber at the end of a circadian rhythm experiment. He has since manifested recurrent episodes of panic disorder and has also shown slight depressive symptoms as an associated feature during the course of illness. Although it is not clear whether the disorder was induced by the 3 weeks of isolation, by the condition of living on his innate circadian rhythm or some other factor, this case appears to offer an explanation of the mechanism of panic disorder.

The Keio Twin Research Center (KoTReC) was established in 2009 at Keio University to combine two longitudinal cohort projects — the Keio Twin Study (KTS) for adolescence and adulthood and the Tokyo Twin Cohort Project (ToTCoP) for infancy and childhood. KoTReC also conducted a two-time panel study of self-control and psychopathology in twin adolescence in 2012 and 2013 and three independent anonymous cross-sectional twin surveys (ToTcross) before 2012 — the ToTCross, the Junior and Senior High School Survey and the High School Survey. This article introduces the recent research designs of KoTReC and its publications.

The wings of butterflies are relatively heavier than those of other insects, and the inertial force and torque due to the wing mass are likely to have a significant effect on agility and manoeuvrability in the flapping flight of butterflies. In the present study, the effect of wing mass on the free flight of butterflies is investigated by numerical simulations based on an immersed boundary–lattice Boltzmann method. We use a butterfly-like model consisting of two square wings with mass connected by a rod-shaped body. We simulate the free flights of the model by changing the ratio of the wing mass to the total mass of the model and also changing the mass distributions of the wings. As a result, we find that the aerodynamic vertical and horizontal forces decrease as the wing-mass ratio increases, since for a large wing-mass ratio the body has large vertical and horizontal oscillations in each stroke and consequently the speeds of the wing tip and the leading edge relatively decrease. In addition, we find that the wing-mass ratio has a dominant effect on the rotational motion of the model, and a large wing-mass ratio reduces aerodynamic force and intensifies the time variation of the pitching angle. From the results of our free flight simulations, we clarify the critical wing-mass ratio between upward flight and downward flight and find that the critical wing-mass ratio is a function of the non-dimensional total mass and almost independent of the wing length. Then, we evaluate the effect of the wing-mass distribution on the critical wing-mass ratio. Finally, we discuss the limitations of the model.

Methods for the control of molecular deposition and orientation are critical for the development of organic electronic devices. Here, we show the fabrication of ribbons of the optical material polydiacetylene (PDA) using a controlled evaporative self-assembly method. The ability to form these ribbons is highly dependent on both the side groups on the PDA as well as the solvent used in the preparation. Arrays of ribbons of one type of PDA, poly[1,6-di(N-carbazolyl)-2,4-hexadiyne], with widths on the order of 1–2 µm and lengths of 100s of micrometers, could be successfully obtained with good orientation.

The layered double hydroxide (LDH) Al2Li(OH)6[NiCl4]1/2 was synthesized by anion exchange of Al2Li(OH)6(NO3) and the coordination structure of [NiCl4]2− in the interlayers was investigated. The LDH had a hexagonal cell with a = 5.06 and c = 23.06 Å. Since the basal spacing of one layer was 7.7 Å, the interlayer distance was calculated to be 2.9 Å and was too narrow for the usual tetrahedral NiCl4 structure. From extended X-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) measurements, the first neighbour Ni-Cl distances in the LDH were 2.10 Å which was compatible with four-fold coordination. Since the electron spin resonance (ESR) spectrum of the LDH showed no absorption, the [NiCl4]2− structure was considered to be square planar, rather than the usual tetrahedral structure in the interlayers of LDH.

Low birth weight was associated with cardiometabolic diseases in adult age. Insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) has a crucial role in fetal growth and also associates with cardiometabolic risks in adults. Therefore, we elucidated the association between IGF-1 level and serum lipids in cord blood of preterm infants. The subjects were 41 consecutive, healthy preterm neonates (27 male, 14 female) born at <37-week gestational age, including 10 small for gestational age (SGA) infants (<10th percentile). IGF-1 levels and serum lipids were measured in cord blood, and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDLC), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDLC) and very low-density lipoprotein triglyceride (VLDLTG) levels were determined by HPLC method. SGA infants had lower IGF-1 (13.1 ± 5.3 ng/ml), total cholesterol (TC) (55.0 ± 14.8), LDLC (21.6 ± 8.3) and HDLC (26.3 ± 11.3) levels, and higher VLDLTG levels (19.0 ± 12.7 mg/dl) than in appropriate for gestational age (AGA) infants (53.6 ± 25.6, 83.4 ± 18.9, 36.6 ± 11.1, 38.5 ± 11.6, 8.1 ± 7.0, respectively). In simple regression analyses, log IGF-1 correlated positively with birth weight (r = 0.721, P < 0.001), TC (r = 0.636, P < 0.001), LDLC (r = 0.453, P = 0.006), and HDLC levels (r = 0.648, P < 0.001), and negatively with log TG (r = −0.484, P = 0.002) and log VLDL-TG (r = −0.393, P = 0.018). Multiple regression analyses demonstrated that IGF-1 was an independent predictor of TC, HDLC and TG levels after the gestational age and birth weight were taken into account. In preterm SGA infants, cord blood lipids profile altered with the concomitant decrease in IGF-1 level.

Extended abstract of a paper presented at Microscopy and Microanalysis 2013 in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA, August 4 – August 8, 2013.

To increase X-ray photon number generated by laser-cluster interaction, it is important to understand the dependence of X-ray generation on cluster size. We carried out Xe K-shell X-ray generation using a conical nozzle with Xe clusters, the radius of which was controllable by adjusting the backing pressure. The experiment clarifies the result that the Xe K-shell X-ray photon number increases with increasing cluster radius from 8 to 12 nm, and saturates at the radius between 12 and 17 nm. We also investigated the Xe K-shell X-ray photon number dependence on laser intensity, and found that the threshold laser intensity of the Xe K-shell X-ray generation exists between 2 × 1017 and 5 × 1018 W/cm2.

The Keio Twin Research Center has conducted two longitudinal twin cohort projects and has collected three independent and anonymous twin data sets for studies of phenotypes related to psychological, socio-economic, and mental health factors. The Keio Twin Study has examined adolescent and adult cohorts, with a total of over 2,400 pairs of twins and their parents. DNA samples are available for approximately 600 of these twin pairs. The Tokyo Twin Cohort Project has followed a total of 1,600 twin pairs from infancy to early childhood. The large-scale cross-sectional twin study (CROSS) has collected data from over 4,000 twin pairs, from 3 to 26 years of age, and from two high school twin cohorts containing a total of 1,000 pairs of twins. These data sets of anonymous twin studies have mainly targeted academic performance, attitude, and social environment. The present article introduces the research designs and major findings of our center, such as genetic structures of cognitive abilities, personality traits, and academic performances, developmental effects of genes and environment on attitude, socio-cognitive ability and parenting, genes x environment interaction on attitude and conduct problem, and statistical methodological challenges and so on. We discuss the challenges in conducting twin research in Japan.

As the binary collision process requires much more computation time, a statistical electron-electron collision model based on modified Langevin equation is developed to reduce it. This collision model and a simple electron-ion scattering model are installed into one-dimensional PIC code, and collisional effects on fast electron generation and transport in fast ignition are investigated. In the collisional case, initially thermal electrons are heated up to a few hundred keV due to direct energy transfer by electron-electron collision, and they are also heated up to MeV by Joule heating induced by electron-ion scattering. Thus the number of low energy component of fast electrons increase than that in the collisionless case.

Lasing characteristics of a single Zinc oxide (ZnO) nanosheet and a single ZnO nanowire were investigated by an ultraviolet light excitation. ZnO nanocrystals were synthesized by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method, and those ZnO nanocrystals were excited by a third-harmonic Q-switched Nd:YAG laser beam (355 nm, 5 ns). The emission spectra from a single ZnO nanocrystal was collected by an objective lens with a magnification factor of 100 or 50, coupled with a spectrometer with a light fiber. The area observed by the spectrometer is about 10 μm in diameter, and therefore the emission spectra from a single ZnO nanocrystal can be observed. The emission spectra showed the obvious lasing characteristics having mode structure and a threshold for lasing. The lasing threshold power density of a ZnO nanosheet and a ZnO nanowire were measured to be about 60 kW/cm2 and 150 kW/cm2, respectively. ZnO nanosheet can be a superior laser medium due to the lower threshold for lasing compared to the threshold of the ZnO nanowire. However, since the lasing spectra had mode structure, a single-longitudinal mode lasing would be required for a practical application. The single longitudinal mode lasing can be realized by a nanomachining of a grating on the ZnO nanocrystal surface due to distributed bragg reflector (DBR) laser. The minimum DBR pitch was estimated to be about 81 nm, which can be machined by focused-ion beam (FIB) focused up to 7 nm at minimum, and therefore, we demonstrated the nanomachining on a single ZnO nanowire. However, the single-longitudinal mode lasing was not observed so far, and thus optimization of experimental conditions such as the DBR pitch, ion dose amount and increasing the number of repetition of DBR would be required.

Within the Herschel key project “The Warm And Dense ISM” (WADI) we systematically observe a number of prominent photon-dominated regions (PDRs) to measure the impact of varying UV fields on the energy balance, the chemical and dynamical structure of heated molecular clouds.

Mg1-zCaz (0.03 < z < 0.17) alloy thin films covered with thin Pd are hydrogenated using 4% H2 in Ar under atmospheric pressure at room temperature. The optical indices, which are refractive indices and extinction coefficients, in the wavelength between 250 and 1700 nm of these hydrides were evaluated with spectroscopic ellipsometry. The evaluated refractive indices were about 2.0 for all hydrides, while the extinction coefficients showed the values less than 0.06 in the visible range for hydride with Ca composition of z ≤ 0.08 and the coefficients increased sharply to more than 0.3 with Ca composition z > 0.08.

Gate-voltage dependent Hall coefficient RH is measured in high-mobility field-effect transistors of solution-crystallized and vapor-deposited 2,7-dioctylbenzothieno[3,2-b]benzothiophene. The value of RH evolves with density of accumulated charge Q, precisely satisfying the free-electron formula RH = 1/Q near room temperature. The result indicates that the intrinsic charge transport inside the grains is band-like in the high-mobility organic-semiconductor thin films that are of significant interest in industry. At lower temperature, even Hall-effect mobility averaged over the whole polycrystalline film decreases due to the presence of carrier-trapping levels at the grain boundaries, while the free-electron-like transport is preserved in the grains. With the separated description of the inter- and intra-grain charge transport, it is demonstrated that the reduction of mobility with decreasing temperature often shown in organic thin-film transistors does not necessarily mean mere hopping transport.

The facts of Polychæte embryology inform us that the change of the trochonphore into the perfect worm consists, first of all, in a growing out of the posterior section of its body and a gradual reduction of the anterior part, segmentation appearing at the same time. Thïs phenomenon depends upon a marked change of the mesodermal bands, situated on each side of the intestine. Each of them is separated into two cell-layers, which spread out toward the mid-ventral and mid-dorsal lines. Then a segmentation makes its appearance in them, proceeding from in front backwards, and almost simultaneously the two layers of the bands separate from each other, by the formation of a cavity in each section or segment. That new segments are gradually formed one after the other, and from before backwards, in the hinder part of the growing body, holds true universally, but, at the extreme end a segment has been individualised from the first, or at a very early phase of the segmentation, and this segment does not divide again even to the end of development. In this way the pygidium is formed, and it represents the posterior individual portion of the trochophore. The growth of Polychæte-larvæ is therefore anteanal and entirely in the penultimate segment.