Posts 2018

Prof Briels, Oct 2018

Last few months, I was not in a mood to write an article to this blog. I had many documents to finish up, and for some of them, I could not keep the schedule and missed the deadline. For some other materials, the co-authors did their job already and wait for my reactions. Nevertheless, I was in a situation, in which I am embarrassed to write this blog. Well, the things are not that different, but I have missed too many things worth recording.

One of such events is having Professor Wim Briels from Netherland. He is the well-known soft-matter physicist. In particular, among his achievements, several works for the modeling of polymer dynamics are quite crucial to me. One of the models called TWENTANGLEMENT is the simulation scheme to calculate the dynamics of strings that never cross with each other. The uncrossability is, of course, realized by the excluded volume interactions, just as made in the bead-spring simulations. TWENTANGLEMENT does not rely on the excluded volume but calculates the geometry of the infinitely thin strings mathematically. The other model is the so-called RaPiD, in which a soft-bead replaces one polymer molecule as a whole, and the entanglement between the polymers is implemented as virtual springs. I have been attempting for the modeling of polymer dynamics, and my models are located between TWENTANGLEMENT and RaPiD. Nevertheless, there are not many researchers worldwide for the development of polymer dynamics with the multi-chain descriptions, and I highly respect his achievements.

In the last October, he kindly stayed in our group for a week. Taking the opportunity, we organized a workshop and had his lecture. We took the photo above at the party after the event. (Top from left to right, Uneyama, Briels, Sathish, Masubuchi, low from left to right, Hagita, Taniguchi, and Noguchi) I wish to keep this relationship to see the whole construction of the multi-chain modeling of polymer dynamics. I have not traveled around Netherland, and I will seek an opportunity to visit him there.

Original publication: 2018-11-17 21:28:04
Source: https://rheology.jp/nagoya/2018/11/prof-briels-oct-2018/
Categories: {'domain': 'category', 'nicename': 'guest', 'label': 'Guest'}, {'domain': 'category', 'nicename': 'life', 'label': 'LifeLog'}

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ポスター賞もらいました！

こんにちは，M1の草田です！先日，博多で行われたレオロジー討論会でポスター賞をいただきました！
ポスター発表当日，会場に行ってみると自分の発表位置が部屋の奥のすみっこ．．．見に来てくれる人がいるか不安でしたが，増渕先生の宣伝効果もあり，とても多くの方に来ていただけました！そしてたくさんの意見をいただくことができ，大変有意義な発表となりました．この場を借りてお礼申し上げます．

　約1ヶ月前のことなので，もうほとんど忘れてしまいましたが，とにかくご飯が美味しかったのだけは鮮明に覚えています．学会の隙間にちょろっと観光などしましたが，福岡ほんとにいいところでした．福岡サイコー！来年にはコロイド学会が沖縄で開催されるそうなので，どうにか参加できないか．．．と考えています．

　最後に，このような賞をいただけたのも,自分だけでなく先生方や研究室のメンバーのおかげだと思っています．沖縄へ行くためにこれを励みに，より一層研究を頑張っていきたいと思います！今後ともご指導ご鞭撻のほどよろしくお願いいたします．

Links
http://rheology.jp/nagoya/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/hyousyoushiki_man.png

Original publication: 2018-11-14 11:34:27
Source: https://rheology.jp/nagoya/2018/11/%e3%83%9d%e3%82%b9%e3%82%bf%e3%83%bc%e8%b3%9e%e3%82%82%e3%82%89%e3%81%84%e3%81%be%e3%81%97%e3%81%9f%ef%bc%81/
Categories: {'domain': 'category', 'nicename': 'from-students', 'label': 'From Students'}, {'domain': 'category', 'nicename': 'life', 'label': 'LifeLog'}

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学会デビューでポスター賞！ 〜レオロジー学会〜

こんにちは。修士1年の井上です(^ ^)
今回は2018年10月17日〜19日に福岡で行われたレオロジー討論会に参加してきましたのでご報告。

私が増渕研に来たのがこの4月なので、それからたった7ヶ月で学会デビューとなった今回の学会…。最初にお話を頂いた時はまだ5月頃で正直ドキドキヒヤヒヤでした。(さらに来月は成形加工学会に出る予定です。)レオロジーの基礎の勉強から始まり、実験手法を考え、試料作りを考え、なにせ先行研究のほとんどない研究テーマでしたから7ヶ月間ガムシャラに動いていた気がします。

そんな私がなんと、今回ポスター賞を頂きました！

正直自分でも驚きました。これも的確なご指導とご協力、また共に議論をして頂いた先生方や共同研究者の角田様(レオ・ラボ(株))、研究室の皆様のおかげだと思っております。本当にありがとうございました。また一緒に行った草田君も同じくポスター賞を受賞しました。おめでとう！

賞を取ると懇親会に招待されるのですが、そこのお刺身と焼き鯖がもう美味しくて美味しくて…。福岡の秋の味覚にそそのかされすっかりポスター賞の味をしめてしまいました(笑)。来月の成形加工学会では今回より少し進んだ研究について発表する予定なので、そちらも一球入魂全力投球していきます！

(そういえば全然写真撮ってなくて残念です…。太宰府天満宮とかお刺身とかポスター発表の時とかお刺身とか。次回に乞うご期待！)

Links
http://rheology.jp/nagoya/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/レオロジー討論会2018_2-e1540198611380.jpg
http://rheology.jp/nagoya/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/20181023_033315343_iOS.jpg
http://rheology.jp/nagoya/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/IMG_1159.jpg

Original publication: 2018-10-23 15:34:12
Source: https://rheology.jp/nagoya/2018/10/%e5%ad%a6%e4%bc%9a%e3%83%87%e3%83%93%e3%83%a5%e3%83%bc%e3%81%a7%e3%83%9d%e3%82%b9%e3%82%bf%e3%83%bc%e8%b3%9e%ef%bc%81%e3%80%9c%e3%83%ac%e3%82%aa%e3%83%ad%e3%82%b8%e3%83%bc%e5%ad%a6%e4%bc%9a%e3%80%9c/
Categories: {'domain': 'category', 'nicename': 'conference-activity', 'label': 'Conference'}, {'domain': 'category', 'nicename': 'from-students', 'label': 'From Students'}, {'domain': 'category', 'nicename': 'life', 'label': 'LifeLog'}

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Mr Kusada and Ms Inoue won the best poster award in the Rheo Soc Jap meeting

We had the 66th discussion meeting of the Society of Rheology, Japan, in Hakata from Oct 17 to 19. I am deeply involved in this specific society in many aspects. For example, I was in charge of the organizer of one of the sessions. And, I had to organize the editorial board meeting as the editor-in-chief for the journal of the society.

Apart from these assigned tasks, there are many friends and past collaborators there. I have to maintain the network. For instance, a researcher working in the cosmetic industry came to me. He told about his research project for the stabilization of colloids. Their experiments are very much similar to the topic of Mr. Natsume. Because he did not come to this meeting (and he went to the other meeting), the researcher may visit our group later.

Besides, it is also great to find a new possibility of collaboration. Specifically, this time, I talked to Prof Saito from Kyoto University about the possible project for the measurement of local stress in polymeric liquids. He has the unique technology, and a combinatorial use with my simulations would give useful insights of polymer dynamics and rheology. He and his students will come to my laboratory for further discussion shortly.

Among the other talks, I was impressed by the lecture by Prof Mizuno, who attempts to measure the viscoelasticity of the liquids inside of living cells. According to his speech, for such fluids, the viscosity strongly depends on the biological activities in the cell. For the measurement, he utilizes the fluctuation-dissipation theorem, for which Prof Briels made the exciting seminar in my group.

The great news for this time is that Mr. Kusada and Ms. Inoue got the best poster award. The award jury selected the seven winners among 60 posters, including the two guys from our group. I appreciate the consideration from the people there, as well as the made by our two winners. I wish them further progress.

Links
https://shohei-saito.webnode.jp
http://bio2.phys.kyushu-u.ac.jp

Original publication: 2018-10-19 18:07:14
Source: https://rheology.jp/nagoya/2018/10/mr-kusada-and-ms-inoue-won-the-best-poster-award-in-the-rheo-soc-jap-meeting/
Categories: {'domain': 'category', 'nicename': 'micellaneous', 'label': 'Micellaneous'}

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線形代数1: 2018

物理工学科１年生向け，線形代数１の成績分布は以下のようになりました．

S: 5
A: 25
B: 16
C: 7
F: 6
欠： 1

昨年とほぼ同様の分布です．計算が煩雑なところがあったためか，Sが少なめです．C判定の人たちはかなりオマケしてCですので，十分復習して後の講義に響かないようにしてください．F判定の人たちは再試験です．２月か３月に実施されます．アナウンスに十分注意し，手続きを忘れないようにしてください．

まず大問１の基礎的な問題をいくつか落としている回答がありました．計算間違いではなく演算の定義を知らないとしか思えない間違いでした．模擬試験や過去問にあった内容ばかりであり，知らないと今後の科目で困るので十分復習してください．

大問２においてはLU分解を連立方程式にバラして計算した例がありました．それではなんのためのLU分解かわかりません．また，逆行列の公式をつかって逆行列を計算している人がいました．印象に残ったのかもしれませんが，計算量が（やってみるとわかるように）多大であるためおすすめできません．掃き出し法がよいでしょう．

大問３の方程式のrankに関する問題は正答率が極めて高く勉強してあったようでした．しかし最後の条件判別を間違えている答案がいくつかありました．

大問４−６は解ける人にとっては極めて容易な問題だったはずですが，例年通りあまり出来はよくありませんでした．今後，線形代数を使う局面であったり，あるいは大学院の試験などではこのように行列の要素が具体的には与えられない問題を考えないといけません．手がつけられなかった人は後からでも検討してください．

Links
http://rheology.jp/nagoya/2017/08/%e7%b7%9a%e5%bd%a2%e4%bb%a3%e6%95%b0%ef%bc%91%ef%bc%882017%e5%89%8d%e6%9c%9f%ef%bc%89/

Original publication: 2018-08-07 13:52:04
Source: https://rheology.jp/nagoya/2018/08/%e7%b7%9a%e5%bd%a2%e4%bb%a3%e6%95%b01-2018/
Categories: {'domain': 'category', 'nicename': 'lectures', 'label': 'Lectures'}, {'domain': 'category', 'nicename': 'to-students', 'label': 'To Students'}

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応用物性(2018前期)

２０１８年前期の応用物性（物理工学科４年生選択）の成績分布を示します．この講義は増渕が担当するようになってからソフトマター物理学の平衡論を扱っています．話題としてはスポーツドリンク，おかゆ，牛乳，泡，液滴，ゴム，などで．それらの物性を統計力学で議論するという内容です．

以下のような成績分布となりました．

全受講者数：６３名
S：5名
A:4名
B:2名
C:６名
D:０名
欠席：４６名

名大物工ではソフトマターを扱っている研究室は多くないため，とりあえず受講登録だけしてみたが，途中で聞くのをやめた（あるいは最初から来ない）人がかなり多く，もう一つの飯田先生の講義に流れたようです．しごく妥当と思います．

成績の分布は２極化しています．SやAの方はもちろんBの方もこちらの意図を理解してくださっていることがわかる答案でした．一方でCの方は熱力学や統計力学の基本の理解に問題があるか，あるいは，そもそも講義に興味がわかなかったのではないかと思われる答案でした．

なお増渕研配属の４年生については皆さんよくできていて，関心をもって聞いてくださったことがわかり，安堵しました．

ちなみに昨年はこうなっていました．

Links
http://rheology.jp/nagoya/2017/08/%e5%bf%9c%e7%94%a8%e7%89%a9%e6%80%a7%ef%bc%882017%e5%89%8d%e6%9c%9f%ef%bc%89/

Original publication: 2018-08-02 23:14:53
Source: https://rheology.jp/nagoya/2018/08/%e5%bf%9c%e7%94%a8%e7%89%a9%e6%80%a72018%e5%89%8d%e6%9c%9f/
Categories: {'domain': 'category', 'nicename': 'lectures', 'label': 'Lectures'}, {'domain': 'category', 'nicename': 'to-students', 'label': 'To Students'}

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Visiting Prof Quan Chen in Changchun

Prof. Quan Chen

In the last week, I went to Changchun, China, to visit Prof. Quan Chen, who is the young, talented rheologist. He got his Ph.D. in Kyoto under the guidance of Prof. Watanabe, and I shared his Ph.D. period in the Watanabe's group. At that time I was in the Associate Professor position, and I got the Professor position in Nagoya. Prof. Chen went to the US after his Ph.D. to work with Prof Colby as the post-doc, and after that, he directly got the Professor position in Changchun. His promotion is speedy, demonstrating his talent. Indeed, he is one of the rising stars in the field of polymer rheology. The photo below is Prof. Chen.

The purpose of my visit is the collaboration on the rheology of polymer/nano-composite systems. At present, in my group, the master-course student Mr. Kusada is performing some experiments on this specific topic, and he has obtained exciting results. He presented his results in Jeju last January, and at that time Prof. Chen told me that similar studies are ongoing in his group. After the discussion, we recognized the necessity for some additional experiments to evaluate the results. I sent Mr. Kusada to Prof Chen's group for such experiments for a couple of weeks, and I joined him there.

With Mr Kusada and Prof. Chen's students

I appreciate that Prof. Chen and his students took care of Mr. Kusada very nicely.
Mr. Kusada worked there very hard. For the results, Mr. Kusada will report elsewhere.

I deliver a lecture course on molecular theories of polymer dynamics, and a seminar on my research topic on the coarse-grained simulations. I was afraid that the topic might be somewhat out of their interest because for the most of the people there the expertise is chemistry. But 70% of students stayed in the room until the end. According to Prof. Chen, the number of survivors is good enough. I trust him on this issue. Nevertheless, the lecture and the seminar took place in the morning slots. After lunch, which was the excellent Chinese cuisines, they asked me for discussion with their students and faculty members until the evening. They also took me to their computational centre, which has been newly renovated.
In Changchun, the other group deeply related to my topic is the simulation group including Prof. Xiaolei Xu, Prof. Jizhong Chen, and Prof. Lijia An. I am writing a paper for the modelling of branch polymers and they kindly gave me their numerical data for their earlier publication.

The stay was enjoyable owing to the extreme hospitality by Prof. Chen. Besides, I found that the situation in China for the development of science is great. The Chinese government is making a tremendous amount of investment in these years, and the facilities and the human resources are now quite sufficient. For example, the facility there is much better than my group. The treatment to the students cannot bear comparison; they are paid even from the master course. The students have the strong motivation for Ph.D. because their salary will be double. Nowadays, the Japanese universities are attempting to attract international students. But to me, this strategy may not work well because China, Korea, and Singapore are beyond Japan in many aspects.

Links
http://rheology.jp/nagoya/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/IMG-0997.jpg
http://rheology.jp/nagoya/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/unnamed.jpg

Original publication: 2018-07-14 23:11:16
Source: https://rheology.jp/nagoya/2018/07/visiting-prof-quan-chen-in-changchun/
Categories: {'domain': 'category', 'nicename': 'life', 'label': 'LifeLog'}

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Impact factors for rheology related journals

For a business presentation in the annual meeting of the Society of Rheology, Japan, I have made the database scanning to obtain the recent impact factors for rheology related journals. The result is shown below. If there are any journals missed in the list, let me know from the comment window below.

| Journal name
| IF

| Advances in Colloid and Interface Science
| 7.223

| ACS Macro Letters
| 6.185

| Macromolecules
| 5.835

| Biomacromolecules
| 5.246

| Food Hydrocolloids
| 4.747

| Food Chemistry
| 4.529

| Journal of Collid and Interface Science
| 4.233

| Soft Matter
| 3.889

| Langmuir
| 3.833

| Polymer
| 3.686

| Journal of Rheology
| 3.136

| Journal of Chemical Physics
| 2.965

| Journal of Polymer Science Part B Polymer Physics
| 2.838

| Journal of Fluid Mechanics
| 2.821

| Journal of Non-Newtonian Fluid Mechanics
| 2.536

| Physical Review E
| 2.336

| Polymer Journal
| 2.145

| Biopolymers
| 1.908

| Journal of Applied Polymer Science
| 1.86

| Rheologica Acta
| 1.767

| Colloid and Polymer Science
| 1.723

| Journal of Physical Society Japan
| 1.45

| Journal of Polymer Science and Engineering
| 1.449

| Molecular Simulation
| 1.254

| Applied Rheology
| 1.222

| Soft Materials
| 1.101

| Rubber Chemistry and Technology
| 1.011

| Korea-Australia Rheology Journal
| 1

| International Polymer Processing
| 0.634

| Nihon Rheology Gakkaishi
(Journal of the Society of Rheology, Japan)
| 0.615

| Kobunshi Ronbunshu
(Journal of the Society of Polymer Science, Japan)
| 0.253

| Kagaku Kougaku Ronbunshu
(Journal of the Society of Chemical Engineering, Japan)
| 0.213

| Sen-I Gakkaishi
(Journal of the Society of Fiber Science and Technology, Japan)
| 0.16

Original publication: 2018-05-10 23:07:15
Source: https://rheology.jp/nagoya/2018/05/impact-factors-for-rheology-related-journals/
Categories: {'domain': 'category', 'nicename': 'micellaneous', 'label': 'Micellaneous'}, {'domain': 'category', 'nicename': 'rheology', 'label': 'Rheology'}

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Attending AERC2018 Sorrento

In the last week I went to Sorrento, Italy, to attend the annual European rheology conference this year. The photo above is Mt Vesuvio from Sorrento. Because the European meeting is usually held in April, basically it is very difficult for me to join. April is beginning of new fiscal year. In the laboratories as well as in the administrative sector, everything is reorganized and restarted. Due to such a situation, my previous opportunity was more than 10 years back, to the event held in Naples. Actually, the reason of attendance this time is that, just the same with the reason for the previous attendance, the event was organized by the professors in the University of Naples. I have been being in very close and nice collaboration with the Napolitan professors since I stayed there in 1999.

Nevertheless, I found that the conference is more than worth joining. Even though we have web databases, showcasing events are quite useful for perception of the international network. As we cannot get to know all the important publications by ourselves, attending the conference, in which the program is organized by world-leading people, helps us a lot. Indeed, there were many interesting talks which are related to the projects being made in our group. The other reason is showcasing ourselves. I told to several great friends, and in particular, this time I was one of the organizers of the polymer rheology session, my network was extended a bit. Because I prefer to present the collaboration with Italian professors, almost every time in Europe I have made a talk co-authored by them. But presentations for the other topics of our group are also necessary. (I have found that some people just misunderstand that I am not independent PI.) I better attempt to submit at least one talk to the conference, as last year I let Dr Ankita go to the European conference, as well as to the US event.

I appreciate the consideration from the headquarters of the conference for giving me the opportunity to work as the organizer of important polymer rheology session with Prof Read and Prof Moreno, who closely and effectively worked with me.

Original publication: 2018-04-22 16:44:04
Source: https://rheology.jp/nagoya/2018/04/attending-aerc2018-sorrento/
Categories: {'domain': 'category', 'nicename': 'activity', 'label': 'Activity'}, {'domain': 'category', 'nicename': 'conference-activity', 'label': 'Conference'}, {'domain': 'category', 'nicename': 'life', 'label': 'LifeLog'}

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Force-display device utilizing MR fluid

In the last week we have new undergrads. In our department the undergrads are distributed to the laboratories in their final year for the thesis project. The assignment is basically made according to their choice. The undergrads are asked to submit their order of preference for the laboratories. Owing to the collected lists, the professors make the assignment. In some cases, due to the matter of capacity and safety, unfortunately some students have to belong to laboratories out of their list. Nevertheless, I hope they settle in their new place and enjoy their research life.

I have found an interesting movie for the force-display device. See the video below. (The image at the headline is nothing related to the device.) We have 'display' in front of us for visual purpose. Speakers would be called as audio-display. in such a sense, force-display or sensory-display is a device to present a sense of touch. In this specific case, a magnetic fluid is used. Magnetic fluids are group of liquids that change the viscosity according to the intensity of applied magnetic field. One of interesting subjects in rheology.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=32&v=5x_y2qzX09M

Original publication: 2018-04-14 23:40:52
Source: https://rheology.jp/nagoya/2018/04/force-display-device-utilizing-mr-fluid/
Categories: {'domain': 'category', 'nicename': 'life', 'label': 'LifeLog'}, {'domain': 'category', 'nicename': 'rheology', 'label': 'Rheology'}

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The World Ranking of ...

According to the times higher education ranking, Nagoya University is at the 7th position, which would be reasonable, I think, although it was located at the 4th position last year.

Very different ranking I got last week.

I was asked for writing a review paper by Japanese Society of Polymer Processing on the topic of polymer rheology. Because the JSPP is in the 30th anniversary, they collect review papers for various topics to showcase the progress in the last decade. For such a reviewing, my strategy is starting from a database, from which we can see the situation. For instance, we have time development of the amount of related publications.

First, I got the number of publication year-by-year for the keywords of "viscoelast* and polymer*" in the ISI database. I found that the number of publications was around 900 in 2007, and it was more than 1300 in 2017. The growth rate is similar to that for the entire "polymer*" field, and the occupancy is around 1.5%.

Next, I got the world ranking of researchers for the number of publications for "viscoelast* and polymer*". The obtained ranking is shown below.

Table I. Top 10 researchers for the number of publications for the field of polymer viscoelasticity from 2007 to 2017 obtained from ISI database.

I am pleased to find myself at the 9th position with a happy surprise, as well as I reasonably found Prof. Watanabe and Prof. Inoue among the world leading professors such as prof. Vlassopoulos, prof. McKenna, and prof. McKinley.

Finally, I got the ranking for "viscoelast* and polymer* and simulation*". The result is shown below. I did not imagine that I am at the top of the world!! Further, my publications occupy 1.5% of the total papers. (The total publication of this field is 1940 and mine is 30).

Table II. Top 10 researchers for the number of publications for the field of polymer viscoelasticity simulations from 2007 to 2017 obtained from ISI database.

However, it is fair to mention that, any of my paper is not found in the top 100 highly cited papers...

Links
https://www.timeshighereducation.com/rankings/japan-university/2018#!/page/0/length/25/sort_by/rank/sort_order/asc/cols/scores
http://rheology.jp/nagoya/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/図1.png
http://rheology.jp/nagoya/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/図2.png

Original publication: 2018-03-30 23:50:04
Source: https://rheology.jp/nagoya/2018/03/the-world-ranking-of/
Categories: {'domain': 'category', 'nicename': 'activity', 'label': 'Activity'}, {'domain': 'category', 'nicename': 'life', 'label': 'LifeLog'}, {'domain': 'category', 'nicename': 'paper', 'label': 'Paper'}

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Some events with students

Last two weeks we have had a few events for students including some students in other universities.

Several days ago, Professor Arai in Kindai University suddenly visited us with his master course students. They brought us some great news for one of the students, Mr Kobayashi, who will proceed to the phD course, he will have JSPS scholarship, and finally, he will get married soon. Mr Kobayasi is an excellent student, who has published 3 first authored papers already and some additional co-authored papers. This amount is exceptionally great, and it fully deserves JSPS scholarship. He has a great potential as a researcher, and I am lucky to get to know him at his starting. Actually, the situation is something similar to the case with Professor Arai, with whom the relationship was established at his phD period.

The last Tuesday was the final deadline of the thesis, both for master and undergrad students. Though I have not seen their final version, I believe the thesis from our group should be fine. Prof Yamamoto and I have made line-to-line checking a few times for each. Nevertheless, we will put the thesis on our webpage soon to disclose them. After the thesis submission, we celebrated it with some SUSHI, for which I paid to express my gratitude.

Last Monday I attended the mid-term presentation for 3rd-year undergrads in Yamagata University. In this fiscal year, I am in the double appointment between Nagoya and Yamagata owing to the contract, in which my task is to help the starting up of Professor Milano's group. Professor Milano has come to Yamagata last year and he has 3 undergrads. Because Professor Milano's father suddenly passed away just before the event, I took care of the undergrads to finish up their presentations. They made great performance. Indeed, very differently from the other students, they had to make the presentation in English, because of their supervisor. That is very tough work. They were good enough.

Original publication: 2018-03-17 20:50:49
Source: https://rheology.jp/nagoya/2018/03/some-events-with-students/
Categories: {'domain': 'category', 'nicename': 'life', 'label': 'LifeLog'}

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Oral exam for undergrads

Last Wednesday we had the oral examination for the undergrads in our department. For the final clarification, our undergrads have to pass the three hurdles, consisting of i) approval from the supervisor, ii) oral defence against the other professors, and iii) thesis evaluation. The situation depends on university and even department. In some places, one or two hurdles among the three mentioned above are not required. For instance, I saw (in a different place) that undergrads can finish their course only with approval from their supervisors. Nevertheless, in our department the students have to get through all the gates. It is actually not easy and tough, but I think the experience is quite necessary for them. According to the newspaper, some people argue that the undergraduate project (so-called SOTSUKEN in Japanese) is not necessary for engineering schools, for which most of the students proceed to the master course. I strongly disagree with such an idea. To my observation, the students improves their basic skills for making research during thesis writing and preparation for presentations. I believe that repetitive practice is useful for research skills. In this fiscal year, there are 5 undergrads in our group, and all of them have passed the second stage. Their presentations were reasonably nice, in a sense that the questions they had from the other professors were technically and scientifically sound. To see the situation I believe that the contents of their research were correctly conveyed. Nevertheless, now they are in the final stage and are struggling to finish the thesis. I have checked their manuscripts already twice. Some of them seem safe, but the situation for the others might be somewhat thrilling… The deadline is next Wednesday… Let us see.

I have found an interesting study for adhesives. The study does not focus the material itself, but the macroscopic structure of the adhesive tape. Intuitively, the adhesive becomes strong if the contact area is increased. But this specific study shows that such an idea is not always true, and better adhesive could be made by Kirigami. Very interesting.

Links
https://www.nanowerk.com/spotlight/spotid=49445.php

Original publication: 2018-03-02 21:54:47
Source: https://rheology.jp/nagoya/2018/03/oral-exam-for-undergrads/
Categories: {'domain': 'category', 'nicename': 'life', 'label': 'LifeLog'}, {'domain': 'category', 'nicename': 'rheology', 'label': 'Rheology'}

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Microjet Generator for Highly Viscous Fluids

After the official labo-visiting days, a few students sent me an e-mail message to request an extra labo-visiting for them. Such a request from the students who did not come to our group in the official days is greatly welcome. This is because our group is rarely chosen as the prime laboratory for the students who naturally wish to join the other laboratories in the main stream of solid-state physics. In the current situation, I do not deliver any lecture for the undergrad and our group is not involved in the student experimental courses. Our group is rather hidden from the students. Further, the topic of our group, which is softmatter physics, is largely different from the main stream of our department, which is solid-state physics.
In spite of the situation above, we have had more than 20 students visiting, which is around 40% of the total students of our department. It is great.

The students put me a critical question. Can rheologists change the world? Can rheology contribute development of new functional materials? ... My answer is that, rheologists would not give a drastic change to the world. But rheologists will improve technologies. The recent paper from Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology shows one of such a direction. They have developed a method to create microjet, which is the technology used for inkjet printers to make a series of small droplets in a precise way, for viscous fluids. The micorjet technology itself is nothing new, but this study will expand its application, towards 3D printing of biological staff for example.

Links
https://journals.aps.org/prapplied/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevApplied.9.014035

Original publication: 2018-02-18 23:29:44
Source: https://rheology.jp/nagoya/2018/02/microjet-generator-for-highly-viscous-fluids/
Categories: {'domain': 'category', 'nicename': 'life', 'label': 'LifeLog'}, {'domain': 'category', 'nicename': 'rheology', 'label': 'Rheology'}

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Final exam for master couse

We had the oral examination for the master students. In our department, they have to submit their thesis by the end of January. Afterwards they have interviews with a few professors who are assigned as the reviewer and give the students some critical comments from their expertise. Around one week later than the thesis submission, the oral examination takes place. The students are requested to perform power-point presentation in front of all the professors in the department for 15min, followed by 10min Q&A time. The performance is evaluated by the professors. After the oral examination, among the professors the evaluation is made for each student with one by one manner. For each student, his/her supervisor gives a comment for the performance in the laboratory and the situation surrounding the student. Then the reviewers show their evaluation. After the oral examination, the students have to revise their thesis with respect to the comments from the reviewers and the other professors. They have to resubmit their thesis by the mid of coming March. The entire process is rather strict. The reason is of course to keep the quality of students from the department. The other important reason is that, the evaluation is partly used for the judgement of exemption of repayment for the JASSO scholarship.

Concerning our group, I saw that the students made good jobs. The other laboratories and professors in our department are great physicists, but their expertise is mostly solid state physics. In this respect, our students have difficulties to convey the meaning of their research. Indeed, in their Q&A time the direction of discussion was different from that usually seen in the conference we attend. But I would emphasize that all the given questions were physically  sound and reasonable. I appreciate the other professors for their efforts on our students.

This period of year is quite busy for Japanese professors for the examination mentioned above, as well as the entrance examinations for undergrad. (I am rather frustrated by the fact that there are several different entrance examinations in a very tight schedule.) And it is difficult to focus own research projects.

Nevertheless, I have found an interesting paper for a new technology of encapsulation, in which a liquid drop is encapsulated in a bubble. The structure seems an egg. The physics shown by the dimensionless parameters is also interesting.

Links
https://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.120.054503

Original publication: 2018-02-11 12:00:57
Source: https://rheology.jp/nagoya/2018/02/a-new-encapsulation-structure/
Categories: {'domain': 'category', 'nicename': 'life', 'label': 'LifeLog'}, {'domain': 'category', 'nicename': 'rheology', 'label': 'Rheology'}

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IWEAYR13 in Jeju

In the last week, I attended the international workshop IWEAYR-13 in Jeju, Korea, with all the students in my group including undergrads. As I wrote before, the workshop is an unique event in which professors do not present any results by themselves but they give the opportunity for students. In addition, the organization focuses mixing among students from different countries and laboratories. I have joined this event from the very beginning, and I have been involved in the organization, in particular the past events held in Japan.

I like this event much, because of its policy mentioned above. In addition, the event is precious opportunity for professors as well for networking purpose among Asian countries. In particular, Chinese and Korean laboratories are going very fast, and Japanese laboratories are behind them in many aspects. See international university rankings for example. Indeed, according to the quality of papers and the students attending the event, we Japanese learn a lot from the other countries.

Because our students made practice for their presentations several times in our lunch time meetings, they made it well at the site. They were also good in the poster session. I have some positive feedbacks from the other professors for their performance. I have discussed with some professors for possible collaborations on the students projects as well.

I greatly appreciate the hospitality of Korean people. Next event will be in Nagoya and we must repay them at that occasion.

Links
http://rmp.gnu.ac.kr/iweayr13/
http://rheology.jp/nagoya/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/IMG_0454.jpg
http://rheology.jp/nagoya/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/IMG_0347.jpg

Original publication: 2018-01-28 23:50:15
Source: https://rheology.jp/nagoya/2018/01/iweayr13-in-jeju/
Categories: {'domain': 'category', 'nicename': 'activity', 'label': 'Activity'}, {'domain': 'category', 'nicename': 'conference-activity', 'label': 'Conference'}, {'domain': 'category', 'nicename': 'life', 'label': 'LifeLog'}

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Labo-visiting days for undergrads

In the last week, we had the labo-visiting days for undergrads. This opportunity is arranged by the department for the students who will be assigned to the laboratories in coming April.

I bought (from my pocket, of course) some snacks and drinks for the visitors to please them ;->. Indeed, our group has several disadvantages to compete with the other strong and attractive laboratories in my department. The most serious issue is that I do not have any lecture course for them, and our group is not involved in the experimental course. Owing to such a situation, for the most of students our group is something unknown. But one of my labo-members told me that the sweets were a sort of relief for him when he visited my group at his occasion, in a sense that the sweets may hint a good group.

We had two days, and had around 20 students in total. On each day, first I made a brief introduction of the group and our research topic rheology, for 30-40 mins. Then I took them to the labo-tour to show the experimental room and student room. Afterwards I tossed the undergrads to the students in our group.

In my policy, it is very important for undergrads to listen from the students in each laboratory for their daily life, which is very different from that they had before getting into the research group. Further, the research life is very much group dependent.

To me, the reaction from the visitors was not bad. I wish to have the students who are interested in rheology and soft-matter things...

Original publication: 2018-01-26 23:40:15
Source: https://rheology.jp/nagoya/2018/01/labo-visiting-days-for-undergrads/
Categories: {'domain': 'category', 'nicename': 'life', 'label': 'LifeLog'}, {'domain': 'category', 'nicename': 'micellaneous', 'label': 'Micellaneous'}, {'domain': 'category', 'nicename': 'to-students', 'label': 'To Students'}

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The Mayonnaise Effect

In these days, I am struggling with my own code. The code is not new, and actually it was written several years ago, by myself. I am reading the code as I have a necessity to use it, but it is very difficult. There are several tricky parts for which I cannot remember the necessity. But they seem working, and if I remove those tricks, the results are funny, or the performance becomes poor... Apparently, I was clever. But I cannot understand what I embedded in. Well, I have to read the entire code (which is rather large) and understand all the staffs implemented in. There is no short-cut. Code development is always with such a winding manner, even though I put some short notes in the code... Indeed, the notes are puzzling... I am sure that I was somewhat mad when I coded it.

The rheological topic this time is the mayonnaise effect. Let us start from the Jones-Dole equation
which is an empirical equation describing the relation between viscosity of solutions and the solute concentration. (Of course we could start from the famous Einstein's relation for viscosity.) Nevertheless, the equation describes the experimental results well, given that the solute concentration is roughly less than 1 mol/L. But for higher concentration it does not work well; the viscosity rapidly increases with increasing solute concentration much more than the equation. The recent paper from UK proposes a convincing explanation, in which the dramatic increase of viscosity can be attributable to structural development of solutes. The researcher calls the effect 'The Mayonnaise Effect' owing to the fact that there is cell-like structures in mayo, as well-known for rheologists.

Very interesting.

Links
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jones_Dole_equation
https://www.nature.com/articles/145970a0

Original publication: 2018-01-21 23:48:18
Source: https://rheology.jp/nagoya/2018/01/the-mayonnaise-effect/
Categories: {'domain': 'category', 'nicename': 'life', 'label': 'LifeLog'}, {'domain': 'category', 'nicename': 'rheology', 'label': 'Rheology'}

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Capillary length of water

In the Christmas vacation I was busy for reviewing some funding proposals. To my observation, there seemed too many research plans which strongly heads to industrial applications. Although such a direction is along the social demand, as a researcher in a basic science, it is somewhat pity. Indeed, only a few proposals mentioned theoretical directions...

The students were also busy to prepare their data for the presentations in IWEAYR-13 in Jeju. This event is the international workshop, in which top universities in Asian countries contribute. Taking this opportunity they will test themselves with the students from the other universities Asian wide.

Well, in the new years holiday, I found the interesting movie below. In this movie, what is discussed is to eliminate undesirable drips running down from the tip of the bottle for wines. The solution shown here is to make a groove at the tip of the bottle. According to the finding, the optimum groove is 2mm width and 1mm depth. These length scales are very interestingly close to the capillary length of water, which is ca. 2mm.

https://youtu.be/ydR1CsX4Fek

Links
http://rmp.gnu.ac.kr/iweayr13/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capillary_length

Original publication: 2018-01-14 23:29:41
Source: https://rheology.jp/nagoya/2018/01/capillary-length-of-water/
Categories: {'domain': 'category', 'nicename': 'life', 'label': 'LifeLog'}, {'domain': 'category', 'nicename': 'micellaneous', 'label': 'Micellaneous'}, {'domain': 'category', 'nicename': 'rheology', 'label': 'Rheology'}

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Happy 2018 for all

The last year was great as usual, owing to the great help made by the labo members including students of course, the other professors and staffs in Nagoya University (specifically in Department of Materials Physics), the editorial board members and staffs of the Journal of Society of Rheology Japan, collaborating private sectors (in particular Sumitomo Rubber Inc, Taiyo Kagaku Inc, and HASL Inc), and scientific colleagues around the world.

I wish you all a great new year.
Felice Anno Nuovo
Feliz Ano Novo
Frohes Neues Jahr
Καλή χρονιά
สวัสดีปีใหม่ ครับ
新年快乐
새해 복 많이 받으세요

Original publication: 2018-01-01 00:01:35
Source: https://rheology.jp/nagoya/2018/01/happy-2018-for-all/
Categories: {'domain': 'category', 'nicename': 'micellaneous', 'label': 'Micellaneous'}