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Research Themes - 221 Result(s)

 Q

Quantum and Molecular Dynamic Simulations of Transport Phenomena in Fuel Cell

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特徴・独自性
  • It is necessary to grasp nanoscale transport phenomena of materials in polymer electrolyte fuel cell to improve its performance. In our laboratory, nanoscale transport phenomena are analyzed by large scale molecular dynamics simulations using a supercomputer system. As the present theme, the dependence of the materials or structures of polymer electrolyte membrane on the ability of proton transfer(Fig. 1), the ability of proton transfer or oxygen permeability of ionomer in catalyst layer(Fig. 2), and the mechanism of transport phenomena of a water droplet in a nano pore in gas diffusion layer or micro porous layer(Fig. 3), are analyzed in detail.
実用化イメージ

These research can be applied to the analysis of flow field in devices which have nanoscale structure, for instance, fabrication process of semiconductor, friction phenomena of such nanoscale devices or next generation batteries, as well as the field of fuel cell.

Researchers

Institute of Fluid Science

Takashi Tokumasu

Quantum devices utilizing nanostructures

特徴・独自性
  • 1) We investigate quantum effects in nanostructures and develop quantum devices like quantum bits and sensors utilizing solid-state nanostructures.
  • 2) We have techniques and skills on electric measurement and control of quantum states and data informatics. We are open to new collaborations.
実用化イメージ

Researchers

Advanced Institute for Materials Research

Tomohiro Otsuka

 R

Radiological Medical Infomatics

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特徴・独自性
  • PET and SPECT have very high sensitivity to detect molecule by means of radiation detection, and are considered to be excellent tools for molecular imaging. We are studying and developing data analysis techniques for PET and SPECT data. Using our approaches, we can analyze data in quantitative manner, and obtain physiological functions in living organism.
実用化イメージ

Pharmaceutical companies who are interested in using PET to evaluate efficacy of new drug. Companies which are related to medical informatics, medical equipments.

Researchers

Research Center for Accelerator and Radioisotope Science

Hiroshi Watabe

Religion, language, society, and life in ancient India

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特徴・独自性
実用化イメージ

Researchers

Graduate School of Arts and Letters

Naoko Nishimura

Resarch and development for maintaining and improving brain and mental health

特徴・独自性
  • The Smart Aging International Research Center (SAIRC) was founded on 1 October 2009. This Center proposes the creation of a new field to produce well-rounded personnel who have gained “totally comprehensive intelligence” from their experience, in order to cope with various problems associated with the diverse and complex super-aging society. To this end, the Center will promote interdisciplinary cooperative research, international collaborative research projects, and research collaborations with industry, as well as disseminate and exchange information by holding international conferences and symposia.  The SAIRC is designed to develop an approach for maintaining and improving brain and mental health in a diverse and complex society from the standpoints of brain science, with the aim of maintaining and improving brain functions; cognitive neuroscience and psychology, with the aim of maintaining a healthy and tranquil state of mind at each aging stage; and philosophy, phenomenology and ethics that provide a radical reconsideration of the concept of the “mind.” We welcome collaborative researches with companies, and academic consultations.
実用化イメージ

Researchers

Institute of Development, Aging and Cancer

Ryuta Kawashima

Research and Development of Space Exploration Robots

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特徴・独自性
  • We study and develop mobile robotics technology for lunar and planetary exploration. Our technology is featured by rich experience in locomotion mechanisms for highly rough terrain and advanced slippage control in loose soil environment. Also by 3D map building technology using a laser scanner for autonomous collision avoidance and for operator assistance in remote control/tele-operation. We also contributed to the design and development of Hayabusa and Hayabusa-2, which are sample-return probes developed and operated by Japanese space agency JAXA.
実用化イメージ

These technologies are also applied to terrestrial robots for such as surveillance or disaster response.

Researchers

Graduate School of Engineering

Kazuya Yoshida

Robot Technology for Achieving Secure Society

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特徴・独自性
  • Tadokoro Laboratory developed ‘Active Scope Camera,' a world-unique rescue robot that can search deep in rubble piles of collapsed structures through a gap of a few cm wide. It also developed ‘Quince,' a world-unique unmanned ground vehicle that could survey the second to fifth floors of Nuclear Reactor Buildings of Fukushima-Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. Its technologies was applied industries, including unmanned transfer vehicle for outdoors under ice and snow environment being actually used in a factory of Toyota Motor East Japan, and ‘Robo-Scope' for debris inspection in collaboration with Shimizu Corporation.
実用化イメージ

We have a policy of education through and research for solution to actual problems. Current nearly ten collaborative researches focuses on outdoor investigation, infrastructure/plant inspection, and remote/autonomous task execution by robots.

Researchers

Graduate School of Information Sciences

Satoshi Tadokoro

Role of Volatiles on Petit-Spot Volcanoes

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特徴・独自性
  • The new kind of volcanoes, petit-spot, are located off NE Japan and Chile. They erupt at a submarine portion to be far from tectonic plate boundaries (e.g., mid-oceanic ridges and volcanic arcs) of the usual sites of volcanoes, earthquakes, and related geologic activity. The magmas have extremely high carbon dioxide and possibly originate from the base of tectonic plate.
実用化イメージ

The magma is squeezed upward and erupts in deep submarine environment wherever the tectonic plate flexes and fractures in the world. Collaborating work with business community would be required in order to search the submarine volcanoes and their related mines.

Researchers

Center for Northeast Asian Studies

Naoto Hirano

Room temperature bonding using thin metal films (Atomic Diffusion Bonding)

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特徴・独自性
  • Atomic diffusion bonding of two flat wafers with thin metal films is a promising process to achieve wafer bonding at room temperature. High surface energies of metal films and a large atomic diffusion coefficient at the grain boundaries and film surfaces enable bonding at room temperature without unusually high loading pressure. This technique, which enables bonding of any mirror-polished wafer, is gaining wider use for fabricating optical and electrical devices. Moreover, bonding of mirror polished metals and polymer sheets can be achieved, which further extends the application of this bonding technique.
実用化イメージ

Optical, power and electrical devices, MEMS, bonding of polymer sheets, metals, and ceramics for precision mechanical equipments.

Researchers

Frontier Research Institute for Interdisciplinary Sciences

Takehito Shimatsu

 S

Selective recovery of tocotrienol from vegetable oils using ion-exchange resins

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特徴・独自性
  • Tocotrienol, one of vitamin E, has recovered by the conventional method with molecular distillation from deodrizer distillate discharged from the oil refining processes. However, tocotrienol easily loses its activity due to its low thermal stability, so that its recovery ratio and purity were extremely low. We proposed a novel method to selectively recover tocotrienol by adsorption/desorption using anion-exchange resin at 50 degree C. Tocotrienol is retained on the resin by ion-exchange reaction, and then released and recoverd from the resin by other ion-exchange reaction. Prior to the adsorption/desorption, free fatty acid, a major component of the feed, should be removed by esterification using cation-exchange resin at 50 degree C.
実用化イメージ

This innovative technology succeeds in solving the serious problems in the current tocotrienol production, the large weight loss due to the thermal decomposition and large amount of remaining impurities. This technology applies to the production of not only tocotrienol but also tocopherol as bioactive compounds s in food chemicals.

Researchers

Graduate School of Engineering

Naomi Kitakawa

Smart Ageing Initiative

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特徴・独自性
  • In Japan, the percentage of elderly people aged 65 years or over was 23.1% in 2010. It is no doubt that Japan is the world's first super-aging society. In such a super-aging environment, it is necessary to form a society in which each individual can play an active role even as one becomes older in order to maintain and improve the quality of life of all people and to maintain a healthy society. In advanced brain science, research from the fields of brain function imaging, cognitive science, and psychology has been utilized with the aim of realizing a healthy aging society. Up to date information on various new technologies and related discoveries has been disseminated so that individuals can live a healthy life with peace of mind at every stage of aging, while maintaining and improving the health of their brain and mind in a diverse and complex society.
実用化イメージ

We believe to overcome super-aging environments is not only an object of public concern but also big business chances to create new industries.

Researchers

Institute of Development, Aging and Cancer

Ryuta Kawashima

Specializes in clinical neurology, particularly neurodegenerative diseases and skeletal muscle diseases, and clinical genetics, and engaged in drug discovery and translational research for patients with intractable neuromuscular diseases.

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概要

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a representative intractable neurodegenerative disease, and the development of effective therapies is desired. A novel phase I trial of intrathecal administration of recombinant HGF protein was conducted at Tohoku University Hospital. Based on the results, a phase II trial (investigator-initiated clinical trial) to confirm efficacy and safety for ALS was conducted and completed at the Tohoku and Osaka University Hospital from 2016 to 2022. Although there was no statistically significant difference in the primary endpoint, additional analyses are currently ongoing. Clinical development of the same formulation for acute spinal cord injury is also underway.

従来技術との比較

Simultaneous development of a novel intrathecal formulation of recombinant HGF protein, and a medical device (a subcutaneous port with an intrathecal catheter) that enable repeated intrathecal administration for efficient and selective delivery to the central nervous system.

特徴・独自性
  • We developed a novel rat model of ALS model (Nagai M, et al. 2001)
  • Intrathecal continuous administration of HGF protein was confirmed to have a slowing effect on progression in this model
  • Phase I and II clinical trials have been completed, and the efficacy is currently being verified through additional analysis
実用化イメージ

We have been working with Kringle Pharma, Inc., Keio University (Prof. Hideyuki Okano and Prof. Masaya Nakamura), and Asahikawa Medical University (Prof. Hiroshi Funakoshi) to develop this drug. Phase I and II clinical trials for ALS have been completed. In addition, a phase III clinical trial for acute spinal cord injury is near completion. Additional collaboration with pharmaceutical companies is planned.

Researchers

Graduate School of Medicine

Masashi Aoki

Spintronics device

特徴・独自性
  • To realize ultralow-power and high-performance integrated circuit and information processing, spintronics physics, material, devices are studied.
実用化イメージ

Researchers

Research Institute of Electrical Communication

Shunsuke Fukami

Spintronics Devices and Materials

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特徴・独自性
  • Spintronics is a technology utilizing electron spin which provided magnetic sensor, nonvolatile magnetic memory, and so on. Our studies are as below.
  • Noble & Rare-earth free magnetic films with large perpendicular magnetic anisotropy. We achieved to develop various Mn-bases alloy films exhibiting high perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (Fig.1 ).
  • THz range observation of magnetization motion. We achieved to detect a motion of magnetization using pulse laser in time domain (Fig. 2).
  • Novel organic spin devices. We achieved to fabricate hybrid junction consisting of an organic layer sandwiched by two inorganic magnetic layers and to observe magnetoresistance effect.
  • Tunnel Magnetoresistive devices: We are developing TMR devices with Mn-Ga alloys films (Fig.3 ).
実用化イメージ

Magnetic memory and storage. Microwave and Terahertz wave. Magnetic sensors.
We hope to conduct collaborative research with a willing company for a practical application of these devices and materials in industry.

Researchers

Advanced Institute for Materials Research

Shigemi Mizukami

Study on Phase Change Materials for PCRAM Application

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特徴・独自性
  • Phase change random access memory (PCRAM) has attracted attention as next-generation non-volatile memories. A conventional PCM is Ge-Sb-Te which shows a fast crystallization speed and an excellent reversibility of phase transition. However, Ge-Sb-Te has a low crystallization temperature of about 150 ºC and a high melting temperature of over 600 ºC , which limits data retention and causes high power consumption, respectively.
  • We have developed a new phase change materials with high crystallization temperature and low melting point such as Ge-Cu-Te etc, which have high potential as PCRAM materials with high thermal stability and low power consumption (Fig.1,2).
実用化イメージ

Our materials are developed for PCRAM, DVD recording materials etc. We hope the collaboration research with companies which are interested in our developed phase change materials.

Researchers

Graduate School of Engineering

Yuji Suto

Study on Tactile/Touch Feeling Sensor

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特徴・独自性
  • Tactile sense and the sense of touch are multiple combinations of fundamental sensations, such as smooth and rough, soft and hard, dry and wet, and hot and cold sensations. These sensations are described with the information on force, distortion, temperature, stickiness and oscillation.
  • A tactile sensor corresponding to several types of human skin sensory receptors and an active tactile sensor system that is an integrated sensor structure imitating human haptic motions have been developed. These sensor systems allowed measurement of "Kansei" words that are extremely vague tactile feelings, and roughness, softness and temperature sensations. However, tactile sense or the sense of touch also includes other sensations and combinations of them. Therefore, to develop a sensor, it is important to define how the sensations and physical information relating to the sensations are obtained and what relationships exist between them.
  • In this research, the relationships between sensations, including fundamental sensations that have already been obtained and other sensations, and the relevant physical information are being investigated. Additionally, on the basis of the knowledge through the investigation, an advanced sensor system that allows obtaining haptic information is being developed.
実用化イメージ

The research is beneficial not only to life science but also to manufacturing fields.

Researchers

Graduate School of Biomedical Engineering

Mami Tanaka

Supercomputing for enabling large-scale advanced simulations

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特徴・独自性
  • As modern supercomputers are getting larger and more complicated, it is not so easy to exploit their potential performance. It is necessary to develop a simulation code with considering various factors for both hardware and software reasons, and hence expert knowledge and experiences about supercomputing are often needed to achieve high actual performance. Our research interests focus on shaping future supercomputing systems and their applications, especially system software technologies for effectively using the future supercomputers. Also we are always exploring how to make good use of the state-of-the-art hardware and software technologies in order to enable unprecedented-scale and more advanced simulations.
  • From beginning (apply for use of our supercomputer) to end (get a solution), we can consistently support developing large-scale practical simulation, which is feasible only by using the supercomputer. As a supercomputing center, we have a long history of parallelizing and accelerating a lot of practical simulation programs. In addition, we are looking for research collaborators who are interested in streamlining and/or facilitating large-scale scientific software development.
実用化イメージ

Researchers

Cyberscience Center

Hiroyuki Takizawa

Supercritical Fluid Technology Based on its Unique Properties

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特徴・独自性
  • We have investigated various physical properties of supercritical fluids and their mixture. The properties studied are density, viscosity, phase equilibria, solubility, etc. under high temperatures and pressures. Using these suprecritical fluid features, we have proposed their application technologies; such as extraction of natural resources, cleaning, drying, catalyst preparation, polymer processing, polymer recycling, biomass conversion and controlled delivery. The methodologies used are experiments, simulation and theretical ones.
実用化イメージ

Cleaning Technology: precision machinery component, optical component, etc.
Extraction of Natural Resources: food, supplements, aroma.
Polymer Processing: functional resin, electronic component, etc.

Researchers

New Industry Creation Hatchery Center

Hiroshi Inomata

Supercritical Hydrothermal Synthesis of Organic-Inorganic Hybrid Nanoparticles

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特徴・独自性
  • We invented supercritical hydrothermal synthesis method for the synthesis of organic modified nanoparticles (NPs). Under the supercritical state, the organic molecules and metal salt aqueous solutions are miscible and water molecule works as an acid/base catalyst for the reactions. Organic-inorganic conjugate NPs can be synthesized under this condition. This hybrid NPs show high affinity with the organic solvent or the polymer matrix, which leads to fabricate the organic inorganic hybrid nanomaterials with the trade-off function (super hybird nanomaterials). These hybrid materials of polymer and ceramics fabricated with NPs achieve both high thermal conductivity and easy thin film flexible fabrication, namely trade-off function.
実用化イメージ

For example, by the surface modification of BN particles by supercritical method, affinity of BN and polymers could be improved, so that high BN content of hybrid materials, thus high thermal conductivity materials, could be synthesized. Also by dispersing high refractive index NPs like TiO2 or ZrO2 into polymers transparently, we can tune the refractive index of the polymers. CeO2 nanoparticles are expected to be used for high performance catalysts. To transfer those supercritical fluid nano technologies, a consortium was launched with more than 70 companies.

Researchers

Advanced Institute for Materials Research

Tadafumi Ajiri