A good solution for energy harvesting is to generate electricity using waste heat from our bodies or living environment. Therefore, the development of flexible and lightweight thermoelectric generators (TEGs) is urgently necessary, and studies on organic thermoelectric materials have become increasingly intensive. This article will present ongoing studies about a mysterious phenomenon in organic semiconductors, the giant Seebeck effect (GSE). The GSE was first discovered with pure C60 thin films and eventually confirmed to occur in various organic semiconductors. In the thin films or single crystals of organic small-molecule semiconductors with high purity, i.e., small carrier density, huge Seebeck coefficients, >0.1 V K-1, were reproducibly observed in the temperature range near 300-400 K. The facts revealed by the experiments to date will be presented, and unresolved mysteries will be discussed.

The purpose of this study is to clarify the influence of visual information on perception of environmental sounds. Audiovisual stimuli (360-degree video and ambisonic recordings) sampled at 6 locations in a region were presented to subjects through VR system with headphone and were rated by subjects in various evaluation items on a 7-step categorical scale. Stimuli presentation has three modes: only auditory stimulation (auditory single-mode), only visual stimulation (visual single-mode), and simultaneous presentation of audiovisual stimulation (multi-mode). Evaluation results were subjected to analysis of variance, significance tests and factor analysis to clarify differences in evaluation tendencies between modes. The dispersion of the evaluation values for auditory aspect under multi-mode tends to be smaller than that under auditory single-mode. It was found that visual information generally has the influence of relieving the impression of prominent environmental sounds. In addition, multi-mode evaluation tends to be related with evaluation obtained in visual single-mode, especially in evaluation items common to audio and visual. And it will be tried to explain the evaluation results in relation to the expected sound state for visual stimuli.

PADC is well known as a highly sensitive solid-state nuclear track detector. A proposal is for a radiation education method that utilizes these characteristics. A significant issue in the proposed educational method using PADC is the time-consuming etching process. This study attempted to reduce etching time by using a homemade PADC. The experimental results have revealed that the homemade PADC achieves faster etch pit enlargement compared to BARYOTRAK (commercial PADC). An attempt was made to enlarge etch pit diameters rapidly by irradiating UV at a wavelength of 253.7 nm and etching with NaOHaq/ethanol solution. The results revealed that UV irradiation at a wavelength of 253.7 nm, after etching, resulted in etch pit diameters several times larger than those obtained in conventional methods within the same etching time. Therefore, UV irradiation and short-time etching with NaOHaq/ethanol solution proved to be effective. This study also investigated the effects of fading on the PADC during its storage period after UV irradiation. The experimental results confirmed that the etch pit diameters shrank by approximately 30% after 2 months of storage. However, considering the enlargement effect of the etch pit diameters due to UV irradiation, it can be concluded that UV irradiation is practical for radiation education experiments.

The effects of temperature on interaction strengths are important for understanding and forecasting how global climate change impacts marine ecosystems; however, tracking and quantifying interactions of marine fish species are practically difficult especially under field conditions, and thus, how temperature influences their interaction strengths under field conditions remains poorly understood. We herein performed quantitative fish environmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding on 550 seawater samples that were collected twice a month from 11 coastal sites for 2 years in the Boso Peninsula, Japan, and analyzed eDNA monitoring data using nonlinear time series analytical tools. We detected fish–fish interactions as information flow between eDNA time series, reconstructed interaction networks for the top 50 frequently detected species, and quantified pairwise, fluctuating interaction strengths. Although there was a large variation, water temperature influenced fish–fish interaction strengths. The impact of water temperature on interspecific interaction strengths varied among fish species, suggesting that fish species identity influences the temperature effects on interactions. For example, interaction strengths that Halichoeres tenuispinis and Microcanthus strigatus received strongly increased with water temperature, while those of Engraulis japonicus and Girella punctata decreased with water temperature. An increase in water temperature induced by global climate change may change fish interactions in a complex way, which consequently influences marine community dynamics and stability. Our research demonstrates a practical research framework to study the effects of environmental variables on interaction strengths of marine communities in nature, which would contribute to understanding and predicting natural marine ecosystem dynamics.

The effects of temperature on interaction strengths are important for understanding and forecasting how global climate change impacts marine ecosystems; however, tracking and quantifying interactions of marine fish species are practically difficult especially under field conditions, and thus, how temperature influences their interaction strengths under field conditions remains poorly understood. We herein performed quantitative fish environmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding on 550 seawater samples that were collected twice a month from 11 coastal sites for 2 years in the Boso Peninsula, Japan, and analyzed eDNA monitoring data using nonlinear time series analytical tools. We detected fish-fish interactions as information flow between eDNA time series, reconstructed interaction networks for the top 50 frequently detected species, and quantified pairwise, fluctuating interaction strengths. Although there was a large variation, water temperature influenced fish-fish interaction strengths. The impact of water temperature on interspecific interaction strengths varied among fish species, suggesting that fish species identity influences the temperature effects on interactions. For example, interaction strengths that Halichoeres tenuispinis and Microcanthus strigatus received strongly increased with water temperature, while those of Engraulis japonicus and Girella punctata decreased with water temperature. An increase in water temperature induced by global climate change may change fish interactions in a complex way, which consequently influences marine community dynamics and stability. Our research demonstrates a practical research framework to study the effects of environmental variables on interaction strengths of marine communities in nature, which would contribute to understanding and predicting natural marine ecosystem dynamics.

The early stage growth of dinaphtho[2,3‐b:2',3'‐f]thieno[3,2‐b]thiophenes (DNTTs) thin films are investigated using grazing incidence X‐ray diffraction (GIXD) and surface morphology analysis using atomic force microscopy (AFM). The thin‐film growth conditions are controlled using a slow deposition method. The vertical orientation of DNTT is confirmed from the growth of the first layer using GIXD. The morphologies of the first‐layer grains are universal in the growth rate range of 0.155–0.017 ML min−1. In addition, the dependence of the nuclei density on the deposition flow rate indicates that two molecules (dimers) are required for nucleation. This result suggests that fewer molecules are sufficient for nucleation in the case of DNTT compared to pentacene thin film growth on SiO2.