The T-GEx Exhibition of Research Achievements 2023 took place successfully and, we would like to take this opportunity to thank all those who participated in this event.

The overall purpose of the Exhibition of Research Achievements is not only to disseminate research outcomes produced by T-GEx fellows and Associates but also to foster an understanding of their research beyond academia by receiving feedback and advice for future developments. This year’s theme is to transgress the disciplinary boundaries. Today’s societal situations are becoming so diversified and complicated that a clue for global problems cannot be achieved without tackling multi-layered aporias.

Considering this, the second Exhibition of Research Achievements is designed to be a forum where ECRs can develop joint interdisciplinary research projects. For the keynote session, two invited scholars (one specializing in science, the other in the arts, humanities, and social sciences) will engage in the interdisciplinary discussion. There are also poster presentations by T-GEx fellows, associates and ECRs of consortium partner firms in which participants strive to communicate their research to a layperson.

Opening Remarks

SUGIYAMA Naoshi (President of Nagoya University)

Special Lecture & Panel Discussion

Special Lecture

Cross-Disciplinary and Innovation Driven by Curiosity and Exploration

Invited Speaker

UEMURA Sotaro (The University of Tokyo)

The research landscape is evolving towards increasing specialization. In the field categorization of Kakenhi grants, it has even subdivided into as many as 300 subfields. Furthermore, the growing number of authors on research papers each year suggests an active trend of interdisciplinary collaboration. On the other hand, interdisciplinary work is not always a necessity; it can often result from the exploratory spirit and curiosity driving research endeavors. I would like to present specific cases of interdisciplinary collaboration during this symposium and engage in discussions with all of you on the topic of cross-disciplinary endeavors.

Special Lecture

Be Socrates in your own ivory tower

Invited Speaker

OYAMA Yasuhiro (The Open University of Japan)

There has long been a debate regarding the necessity of integrating, collaborating, and crossing the borders of different fields. However, within universities, the liberal arts, which were intended to provide a broad understanding of arts and sciences, have often been neglected. Can we truly transcend disciplinary boundaries? Even intellectual giants like Descartes did not attempt to transcend his specialty; instead, he delved deeply into his own field. Now is the time for us to remain in our ivory towers and continue asking, “What can I say I know in this field?” This Socratic Paradox will open our eyes to the broader world beyond our field as well as deepen our inquiries within it.

Panel Discussion

Short Presentation & Poster Session

Short Presentation

Poster Session

In addition to paper posters, videos and other exhibits will be available for attendees to enjoy in-depth discussions only possible on-site.

Click here for Title of the Poster Presentation and Abstract

Greetings

WANG Zhigang (Vice President of Gifu University)

Recognition Ceremony for Retreat Camp

Greetings

YASUURA Hiroto (Program Director of JST Comprehensive Support Project for the Strategic Professional Development Program for Young Researchers)

Closing Greetings

KADOMATSU Kenji (Vice President of Nagoya University)

Venue

Noyori Conference Hall, Research Center for Materials Science,
Higashiyama Campus, Nagoya University
Address: Furo-cho, Chikusa-ku, Nagoya　TEL:+81-(0)52-789-6121

Campus MapNoyori Conference Hall is indicated as「E3①」

Click here to download the Campus Map (PDF)

Interior View of the Venue

  • 1st Floor, Meeting Room (Poster Session)

  • 2nd Floor, Conference Hall (Special Lectures)

Contact Information

T-GEx Office (Nagoya University)

t-gex[at]t.mail.nagoya-u.ac.jp

Please replace [at] with @ when sending an email.

Title of the Poster Presentation and Abstract

Name (Affiliation) Title and Abstract

OGANE Yuta

Nanzan University

Potential of the combination of finance and information technology in corporate financing

One reason for the failure of corporate financing is the mismatch between firms and fund providers (e.g., banks and venture capitalists). As a means to solve this problem, new financial services using information technology have received considerable attention in recent years. In this presentation, I will review the current status and issues of corporate financing and report on the potential of the combination of finance and information technology in the financing.

MACHIDA Naoto
TANAKA Hidenori

Nagoya University / Chubu University

A Study on the Effects of Gender Dysphoria and Developmental Disorder Traits on Mental Health and Self-Understanding

Transgender refers to a condition in which one's gender identity, one's sense of self-regarding one's gender, does not conform to their sex assigned at birth. In recent years, it has begun to be pointed out that a high percentage of transgender people have developmental disabilities (particularly autism spectrum disorder and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder), and that the percentage is ten times higher than that of cisgender people ("non-transgender" people). Developmental disorder is a condition in which a person has difficulties in daily life due to developmental unbalance. Given this background, we conducted a questionnaire survey to examine the effects of gender dysphoria and developmental disorder traits on mental tendencies and self-understanding. In this presentation, we will report preliminary results.

HOSHINO Aiko

Nagoya University

Developing a comprehensive prevention model to protect workers' mental health.

The number of employees taking leaves of absence due to mental health issues is on an increasing trend. Meanwhile, the identification of stress predictors in the workplace and domestic environments, as well as the establishment of prevention models based on these findings, have not yet been accomplished. This presentation will introduce a cross-industry longitudinal study that has been conducted, along with future plans.

HATTORI Yuki

Nagoya University

The correlation between microglial colonization pattern and their diverse characteritics

Microglia play multiple roles in the embryonic brain, such as regulating the maturation of neural lineage cells and vascular formation. These functions are exerted in the right place at the right timing through the complicated mechanisms that facilitate microglial migration and colonization in the developing brain. On the other hand, recent advances in single-cell transcriptomic analysis have revealed the diversity of microglia in a gene expression level. However, it still remains unclear when, where and how microglia acquire heterogenous characteristics. We aim to identify the possible triggers and mechanisms underlying microglial cellular diversity in the process of brain development, focusing on their colonization routes and timing, and their surrounding environment in the brain.

YOKOI Akira

Nagoya University

Overcoming transitional women’s total health care problems by EV analyses

Extracellular vesicles (EVs) in human body fluids are known to alter their profiles depending on pathological status, and are expected to have various clinical applications. Recently, women's total health care problems are changing dramatically, and her we aim to contribute to solving these issues by centrally investigating EVs. We are analyzing various body fluids such as blood, urine, follicular fluid, amniotic fluid, and cancerous ascites fluid according to the issues, aiming to accumulate evidences that can contribute to realize novel and practical medical care.

TSUJIKAWA Koyo

Nagoya University

Shared mechanism between childhood-onset and senile-onset neuromuscular disorders

Genomic analysis of patients who develop neuromuscular diseases in old age rarely reveals severe genomic abnormalities, such as nonsense mutations or copy number variations, on the causative genes of serious childhood-onset diseases. These cases are thought to have molecular mechanisms that lead mild or late onset of the disease in each case, and these mechanisms are also promising therapeutic targets for the disease. I will present the results of our studies in tauopathies and congenital myopathies.

CHIKAZAWA Miho

Meijo University

Disease prevention through regulating the intestinal immune system

The intestinal immune system is important in preventing infectious diseases and is known to be involved in various biological responses. By clarifying the effects of food on disease via the intestinal immune system, it is expected to contribute to disease prevention and treatment. In this study, focusing on the involvement of lifestyle-related diseases and intestinal immunity, we analyzed changes in antibody specificity and immune cells in mice fed diets that induce lifestyle-related diseases.

ICHIKAWA Shunsuke

Mie University

The Screening of Novel Functional Microorganisms to Generating Innovations

Microorganisms are ubiquitous in various environments such as soil, water, and animal intestines, and have been widely utilized for food fermentation and environmental remediation via organic matter decomposition. However, a vast majority of microorganisms on the planet remain unexplored. To address this issue, recent advancements in technologies such as the cultivation of uncultured microorganisms, metagenomic and single-cell genomic analysis of microbiomes, and screening of microorganisms and their chemicals employing model animals have provided a novel approach to elucidating their functions.

BELLEGARDE Fanny

Nagoya University

Understand mechanisms of plant adaptation to nutritional stress to stabilize crop performance while reducing fertilization.

In Japanese agriculture, there is an old saying, 「苗半作」“Nae han saku”, meaning that half of the crop is determined by seedlings quality. Indeed, seedling production is an important process in crop cultivation. Plants can remember some environmental stresses. Nitrogen nutrition is a major environmental factor that regulates the growth and productivity of crops, but it is unclear whether plants remember a nutritional stress. My results strongly suggest that plants can remember nitrogen deficiency stress and react. Imprinting such memory, during seedling production process, would permit to create seedlings with both high yield and stress tolerance.

SHINTANI A. Seine

Chubu University

A challenge to real-time electron microscopy measurement of biomolecular dynamics within cardiac sarcomeres

The presenter discovered that when the myocardium is warmed, the sarcomeres enter a state of thermal oscillation (HSOs). Furthermore, under fluctuations in calcium concentration, the HSOs flexibly change their 'amplitude' and 'speed' of oscillation while keeping the 'period' constant (Contraction Rhythm Homeostasis). The presenter is working on further improvements to the 'electron microscopy live imaging method for liquid samples (DET membrane method)', which I developed myself, in order to capture the natural behavior of sarcomeres and the myosin within them.

AZUMA Naoki

Nagoya University

Analyzing large DNA molecule based on the manipulation technique on single molecule level

In this study, I develop the method to manipulate large DNA molecules in a small channel with micrometer or nanometer depth and width, and to observe the single molecule directly using a microscope. Because this method can be used for rapid analysis of large DNA molecules, it can be used to rapidly identify the source and route of infection of drug-resistant bacteria, which are pathogens that are ineffective against antimicrobial drugs.

HIGASHI Sayuri

Gifu university

Development of chemical stimuli responsive hydrogel

It is well known that biomolecules, such as nucleic acids, (poly)peptides, and carbohydrates, can exhibit self-assembling properties determined by their unique sequences and chemical structures. In the research exhibition, I would like to introduce a glucosamine derivative capable of spontaneous self-assembly into nanofibers when dissolved in an aqueous solution. These nanofibers, when dispersed in water, undergo a transformation into a gel-like material referred to as a supramolecular hydrogel, which exhibits reduced fluidity. Furthermore, this hydrogel can be selectively dissolved through specific chemical reactions.

TAMURA Hideki

Toyohashi University of Technology

Material perception by the human visual system and its pupillary response

The human eye can quickly figure out what an object looks like - whether it’s shiny or appealing, for example. Understanding the “material and texture” of an object is important for doing things like touching or holding it. In this presentation, we focus on how our eyes react when we look at things that seem glossy and attractive, and what it tells us about how we perceive different textures and qualities in objects.

ICHIHARA Daisuke

Nagoya University

Challenges for environmental and medical issues by shock wave engineering

A shock wave, which is one kind of compression wave has the capability of generating high pressure and temperature fields in all kinds of media. Owning these wave characteristics, shock wave compression can be a technical challenge in re-entry vehicles as well as the key technology for low-invasive medical applications. Against this background, the author proposes “Interdisciplinary fluid dynamics” that combines shock wave engineering and plasma physics to develop solutions for global medical & environmental issues. In this presentation, we will present a brief review of our previous works on shock wave/plasma physics and the current progress in the medical/environmental fields.

NISHIKAWARA Masahito

Toyohashi University of Technology

Flow control by electric force

When a high voltage is applied to a dielectric liquid or gas, an electric force acts on the ion or gas-liquid interface and flow motion is generated. This electrohydrodynamic phenomenon enables thermo-fluid control, which is not possible with conventional mechanical pumps with rotating impellers. We develops technologies that contribute to carbon neutral, such as vibration- and noise-free pumps, micro-scale flow control, energy-saving and sensitive flow control, and phase-change heat transport devices. Those are introduced.

KIMURA Yasuhiro

Nagoya University

Fabrication of tiny metal whisker by using electric current

This study reports the fabrication technique for tiny metallic fibers with a diameter less than one-thousandth of a hair using the current-assisted extrusion.

MIYATAKE Hironao

Nagoya University

Testing concordance cosmological model by Subaru Hyper Suprime-Cam

In 2000s, advancements in astronomical observations established the concordance cosmological model that describes the evolution of the Universe, which revealed that the matter we already know occupies only 5% of the Universe, and among the 95%, dark matter, unknown matter which does not emit light, occupies 27%, and dark energy, unknown energy that causes accelerated expansion of the Universe, occupies 68%. In 2010s, multiple astronomical observations to measure large scale structure of the Universe suggested a hint of the breakdown of the concordance cosmological model. In this presentation, I will show the latest result from the large scale structure measurement by Subaru Hyper Suprime-Cam and discuss the possibility of the breakdown of the concordance cosmological model.

NOZAKI Yusuke

Meijo University

Model protection against physical side-channel analysis for edge AI devices

While the use of AI technology is attracting attention, safety and security risks of using AI have been pointed out. For AI security risks, model information is valuable intellectual property because AI model generation requires the use of rich computational resources. Therefore, it is important to protect AI models against various illegal attacks. In this study, we developed countermeasure techniques for edge AI devices against physical side-channel analysis to estimate model information.

LEE Hanju

Denso Corporation

Continual Learning in Deep neural networks: NeuroAI approach

DNNs must relearn past data at update time to mitigate catastrophic forgetting, unlike humans. However, if the brain can also be thought of as a network storage device, then theoretically a similar phenomenon should occur in the brain, which hints of a supplemental mechanism unique to the brain. With the goal of clarifying this mechanism and creating a mathematical model, we started our NeuroAI efforts in 2023. We will introduce our research strategy and explain the results of our experiments in progress.

HAMADA Katsuhiko

Denso Corporation

Driver state estimation by using lifelog data

In recent years, smart devices such as smartphones and wearable devices that measure human behaviors and health conditions have become widespread and the integration and utilization of those data will become more popular in the future. Here, we report on a study of driver's state estimation by using lifelog data collected from smartphone apps and smart watches. Deterioration of the driver's state, such as drowsiness and fatigue, is affected not only by the driving situation but also by the driver's daily life conditions, such as the previous day's sleep status and daytime behavior. The utilization of lifelog data can help to discover risks in daily life that lead to deterioration of the driver's state and contributes to safety while driving.

IGASHIRA Takuya

Denso Corporation

Creation of ceramic electret and development into electrostatic harvester

We are researching and developing ceramic electrets that can be applied to electrostatic vibration harvesters. Electret is a charged material that stably holds static electricity, and requires a high surface potential to be used as a harvester. In this study, we discovered that perovskite type lanthanum aluminate can serve as an electret that can exhibit a high surface potential of ~kV. In the presentation, we will report on the electret performance of lanthanum aluminate and its application to harvesters.

IBUKA Naoto

Aichi Electric Co., Ltd.

Low voltage Thyristor type step Voltage Regulator (LTVR)

As there is a large voltage drop in low-voltage distribution lines, high-voltage distribution lines are used to supply power to locations where distribution lines are long. However, when the load is small, such as in mountainous areas, supplying power through high-voltage distribution lines raises the problem of increased line maintenance costs. Therefore, we have developed a Low voltage Thyristor type step Voltage Regulator (LTVR). LTVR is an automatic voltage regulator for low-voltage distribution lines that uses semiconductors for tap changers, and is a device that compensates for voltage drops in low-voltage distribution lines. By installing this device, it is possible to configure and operate a distribution system more efficiently and effectively in locations such as mountainous areas where distribution lines are long and connected to small loads at the end.

TOUI Amane

RaQualia Pharma Inc.
（Nagoya University Industry-Academia Collaborative Researcher）

TRPV4 channels promote vascular permeability in retinal vascular disease

This study aimed to determine the role of transient receptor potential vanilloid 4 (TRPV4), a calcium (Ca2+)- permeable cation channel, in the pathophysiology of retinal vascular disease. The retinal vein occlusion (RVO) murine model was created by irradiating retinal veins using lasers. TRPV4 expression and localization were evaluated in RVO mice retinas. In addition, we examined the effects of TRPV4 antagonists on retinal edema, blood flow, and ischemic areas in RVO mice. Furthermore, changes in the retinal expression of tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α and aquaporin4 (AQP4) by RQ 00317310 were analyzed using Western blot. We also assessed the barrier integrity of epithelial cell monolayers using trans-endothelial electrical resistance (TEER) in Human Retinal Microvascular Endothelial Cells (HRMECs). The expression of TRPV4 was significantly increased and co-localized with glutamine synthetase (GS), a Müller glial marker, in the ganglion cell layer (GCL) of the RVO mice. Moreover, RQ-00317310 administration ameliorated the development of retinal edema and ischemia in RVO mice. In addition, the up regulation of TNF-α and down-regulation of AQP4 were lessened by the treatment with RQ-00317310. Treatment with GSK1016790A, a TRPV4 agonist, increased vascular permeability, while RQ-00317310 treatment decreased vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF)- or TRPV4-induced retinal vascular hyperpermeability in HRMECs. These findings suggest that TRPV4 plays a role in the development of retinal edema and ischemia. Thus, TRPV4 could be a new therapeutic target against the pathological symptoms of retinal vascular diseases.