• Publications of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.237-242
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• 2012

We have performed a systematic study of interstellar dust grains in various environments of galaxies. AKARI has revealed the detailed properties of dust grains not only in star-forming regions but also in regions not relevant to star formation, some of which are found not to follow our old empirical knowledge. Because of its unique capabilities, AKARI has provided new knowledge on the processing of large grains and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). For example, we detect PAHs from elliptical galaxies, which show unusual spectral features and spatial distributions, demonstrating importance of material processing in the interstellar space. We find that copious amounts of large grains and PAHs are flowing out of starburst galaxies by galactic superwinds, which are being shattered and destroyed in galactic haloes. We discover evidence for graphitization of carbonaceous grains near the center of our Galaxy, providing a clue to understanding the activity of the Galactic center. We review the results obtained from our AKARI program, focusing on the processing of carbonaceous grains in various environments of galaxies.

• Publications of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.265-270
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• 2012

Many observations have found evidence of the presence of a large number of heavily obscured Active Galactic Nuclei (AGNs). However, the nature of this population is only poorly understood because heavy obscuration by dust prevents one from finding them at optical wavelengths. Mid-infrared AGN searches can overcome this obstacle by penetrating through dust and by detecting direct emission from the dust torus. Thus, we can identify most of the AGN population, including type-2 and buried AGNs. Using the AKARI mid-infrared all-sky survey, we performed an AGN search in the nearby universe. Utilizing the 2MASS photometry, we selected mid-infrared-excess sources and carried out near-infrared spectroscopic observations in the AKARI Phase 3. During these follow-up observations, we have found three galaxies that show strong near-infrared red continuum from hot dust with a temperature of about 500 K, but do not show any AGN features in other wavelengths. The most suitable explanation of near-infrared continuum is the presence of central AGNs. Therefore, we conclude that they are AGNs obscured by dust. We performed X-ray observations of the two galaxies with SUZAKU. No detections in the 0.4-10 keV suggest that the column density may be much higher than $N_H=10^{23.5}cm^{-2}$. Comparing the masses of the host galaxies with those of the SDSS AGNs, we find that the host galaxies of the dusty AGNs discovered with AKARI are less massive populations than those of optically selected AGNs.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.34.1-34.1
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• 2013

Interstellar ices (e.g., $H_2O$, $CO_2$, and CO ices) are formed on the surface of dust grains in dense molecular clouds. In a near-infrared spectrum, we can observe deep absorption features particularly due to $H_2O$ ice at $3.05{\mu}m$ and $CO_2$ ice at $4.27{\mu}m$. These interstellar ices have many pieces of information on the interstellar environment. Among various ices, $CO_2$ ice is one of the most important ones as a probe of the interstellar environment. That is because $CO_2$ ice is a secondary product unlike $H_2O$ and CO ices which are primarily formed on dust grains. Past studies for $CO_2$ ice in nearby galaxies were performed only for the galactic center in a few galaxies. In order to utilize the information from $CO_2$ ice effectively, it is valuable to perform mapping observations of ices on a galactic scale. With AKARI, we obtain the spatially-resolved near-infrared ($2.5-5.0{\mu}m$) spectra for the central ~1 kpc region of the nearby starburst galaxy M 82. These spectra clearly show the absorption features due to interstellar $H_2O$ and $CO_2$ ices, and we created their column density maps. As a result, we find that the spatial distribution of $H_2O$ ice is significantly different from that of $CO_2$ ice; $H_2O$ ice is widely distributed, while $CO_2$ ice is concentrated near the galactic center. Our result for the first time reveals spatial variations in $CO_2/H_2O$ ice abundance ratio on a galactic scale, suggesting that the ice-forming interstellar environment changes within a galaxy. In this presentation, we discuss the cause of the variations in the ice abundance ratio.

• Publications of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.135-139
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• 2017

We have performed systematic studies of the properties of dust in various environments of nearby galaxies with AKARI. The unique capabilities of AKARI, such as near-infrared (near-IR) spectroscopy combined with all-sky coverage in the mid- and far-IR, enable us to study processing of dust, particularly carbonaceous grains includings polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), for unbiased samples of nearby galaxies. In this paper, we first review our recent results on individual galaxies, highlighting the uniqueness of AKARI data for studies of nearby galaxies. Then we present results of our systematic studies on nearby starburst and early-type galaxies. From the former study based on the near-IR spectroscopy and mid-IR all-sky survey data, we find that the properties of PAHs change systematically from IR galaxies to ultraluminous IR galaxies, depending on the IR luminosity of a galaxy or galaxy population. From the latter study based on the mid- and far-IR all-sky survey data, we find that there is a global correlation between the amounts of dust and old stars in early-type galaxies, giving an observational constraint on the origin of the dust.

• Publications of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.317-319
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• 2017

We propose a cosmological survey to probe star formation and nuclear activity in galaxies at redshifts of z=2-4 by polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) features using the SPICA mid-infrared instrument (SMI) with a spectral resolution of R=20. We will cover a wavelength range of $20-36{\mu}$ that corresponds to z=2-4 for the PAH features (11.3, 7.7, and $6.2{\mu}$). The sensitivity will be $1{\times}10^{-19}W/m^2(5{\sigma})$ in case of a reference survey that covers 4 arcmin2 field in a one-hour observation. It corresponds to $L_{IR}=2{\times}10^{11}L_{\odot}$ at z=3 and will give us more than 10000 galaxies in a 450 hour survey.

• Publications of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.141-145
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• 2017

We study $CO_2/H_2O$ ice abundance ratios in nearby galaxies using AKARI near-infrared slit spectroscopy. Past studies of the ices intensively examined $CO_2/H_2O$ ratios mainly in our Galaxy, and found that there were considerable variations in the $CO_2/H_2O$ ratios from object to object. The cause of the variations is, however, still under debate. As a result of the analysis of our sample that includes 1031 regions in 158 galaxies, the $CO_2/H_2O$ ratios are in a range of 0.05-0.30. In the dataset, we find that the $CO_2/H_2O$ ratios positively correlate with the $Br{\alpha}/PAH$ $3.3{\mu}m$ ratios which reflect the massive star formation activity. Furthermore, we find that the $CO_2/H_2O$ ratios positively correlate with the specific star formation rates of the galaxies where the ices are detected, that reflect the evolutionary stage of a galaxy. These results suggest that the $CO_2/H_2O$ ratios are enhanced in active star-forming regions and young galaxies.

• Superconductivity and Cryogenics
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.15-22
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• 2018

The present article briefly overviews the plan for a new project on joint technology for HTS wires/cables and describes the development plan for the world's highest field NMR magnet, which is a major development item in the project. For full-fledged social implementation of superconducting devices, high temperature superconducting (HTS) wire is a key technology since they can be cooled by liquid nitrogen and they can generate a super-high magnetic field of >>24 T at liquid helium temperatures. However, one of the major drawbacks of the HTS wires is their availability only in short lengths of a single piece of wire. This necessitates a number of joints being installed in superconducting devices, resulting in a difficult manufacturing process and a large joint resistance. In Japan, a large-scale project has commenced, including two technical demonstration items: (i) Development of superconducting joints between HTS wires, which are used in the world's highest field 1.3 GHz (30.5 T) NMR magnet in persistent current mode; the joints performance is evaluated based on NMR spectra for proteins. (ii) Development of ultra-low resistive joints between DC superconducting feeder cables for railway systems. The project starts a new initiative of next generation super-high field NMR development as well as that of realization of better superconducting power cables.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.18 no.7
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• pp.949-956
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• 2005

The weekly ultrasound scanner (US) observations of reproductive organs in a commercial dairy herd with the popular stanchion style management were conducted for over 26 months. Based on reproductive records, the following were evaluated: 1) the effect of postpartum period commencement of US monitoring on herd reproductive efficacy, and 2) the effectiveness of a US monitoring-based diagnosis and subsequent treatments of reproductive disorders on postpartum reproductive efficiency. The reproductive parameters of cows, which were subjected to US monitoring between Days 30-40 (Day 0 = day of parturition), Days 41-50, Days 51-60, and above Day 61, were compared. The reproductive parameters of cows diagnosed as having reproductive disorders (RD) with US monitoring before or after the first artificial insemination (AI) were also compared. It was found that the day of commencement of US monitoring in cows diagnosed with and without RD significantly affected the period towards the first AI and the open period. In particular, cystic follicles and anoestrus detected either before or after the first AI significantly affected herd reproductive efficiency. The implementation of US monitoring improved reproductive efficiency by reducing the open period and increasing the number of milking cows in the herd. The results of this field trial indicate that the postpartum reproductive management of dairy cows with the use of the US monitoring system is one strategy to improve reproductive efficiency, especially in a high-yielding dairy herd reared stanchion management style.

• Industrial Engineering and Management Systems
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.224-230
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• 2016

The use of new words, numerous spoken languages, and abbreviations on the Internet is extensive. As such, automatically acquiring words for the purpose of analyzing Internet content is very difficult. In a previous study, we proposed a method for Japanese word segmentation using character N-grams. The previously proposed method is based on a simple state-transition model that is established under the assumption that the input document is described based on four states (denoted as A, B, C, and D) specified beforehand: state A represents words (nouns, verbs, etc.); state B represents statement separators (punctuation marks, conjunctions, etc.); state C represents postpositions (namely, words that follow nouns); and state D represents prepositions (namely, words that precede nouns). According to this state-transition model, based on the states applied to each pseudo-word, we search the document from beginning to end for an accessible pattern. In other words, the process of this transition detects some words during the search. In the present paper, we perform experiments based on the proposed word acquisition algorithm using Japanese and Chinese newspaper articles. These articles were obtained from Japan's Kyoto University and the Chinese People's Daily. The proposed method does not depend on the language structure. If text documents are expressed in Unicode the proposed method can, using the same algorithm, obtain words in Japanese and Chinese, which do not contain spaces between words. Hence, we demonstrate that the proposed method is language independent.