Terahertz（THz） spectroscopy is a powerful tool that uses the low-frequency vibrational modes to elucidatethe intermolecular interaction and the higher order structure of polymers. THz spectroscopy is suitedfor investigating polymer structures because it is very sensitive to the long range structure of large molecules,which is closely related to their physical properties. However, the band assignment of THz spectra of polymershas not been studied well. The present study aims to explore further information about inter- and intramolecularinteractions of polymer materials by THz spectroscopy with the aid of infrared（IR）, low-frequencyRaman spectroscopy, quantum chemical calculations（QCCs） and natural bond orbital（NBO） calculations. Inaddition, THz imaging makes it possible to explore the higher order structure of a sample without altering ordestroying it. In the present study, we have also investigated the characterization of polymer film by THz imaging.Consequently, THz imaging using the intensity ratio of the two spectral peaks at 47 and 67 cm-1 was ableto evaluate the distribution of crystallinity of PCL films. Therefore, THz spectroscopy was shown to be a goodmethod for easy monitoring of inter- and intramolecular hydrogen bondings in the polymer.

Proteins including antibody, enzyme and so on have a huge potential to develop a number of new functionalmaterials when they are immobilized on the artificial solid surfaces. Protein immobilization technologieshave been studied in the fields of biological chemistry and/or bioprocess engineering, while understandingadsorption phenomena and/or development of new immobilization strategies are still recognized to beimportant for improvement of density, orientation and biological activity of proteins after their immobilizationespecially in the fields of immunological diagnostics and regenerative medicine. On the other hand, whentarget proteins are immobilized on the surfaces of target solid materials, proteins often suffered from seriousconformational changes, followed by decreasing biological activities significantly. Even when we tried toimmobilize proteins via chemical coupling, similar tendency has been observed. Therefore, new strategies formaintaining density and orientation of functional proteins, and for remaining their activity at higher levelsare requisite. In this review, a new protein immobilization strategy using material-binding peptides which canrecognize the surfaces of solid materials directly is introduced. Furthermore, some examples of immunologicaldiagnostics using recombinant antibody fragments, such as single-chain Fv fused with material-bindingpeptides were demonstrated.

Water vapor transmission rates of nine kinds of adhesives were measured under conditions of temperature25 to 85 ℃ and 90 ％ relative humidity by the improved cup method we developed. A laminated film obtainedby coating an adhesive on a cellulose triacetate film was used as a test specimen and the water vaportransmission rate of the adhesive alone was estimated from the measured value of the laminated specimenmeasured by the cup method. For the high-temperature measurement conditions of 60 ℃ and 85 ℃, theimproved cup incorporating a pressure adjustment mechanism was used to avoid damage to the test specimendue to the variation of pressure in cup occurring during the measurement. The water vapor transmissionrate of the adhesive measured at 85 ℃ was quite different from that in the normal temperature range, whichwas 10 to 85 times as compared with 25 ℃ and 5 to 20 times as compared with 40 ℃. The silicone typeand polyurethane type adhesives had a water vapor transmission rate per unit thickness of 9 to 80 times ascompared with epoxy type adhesives in the entire measuring temperature range.

Identification method of parameter values of an elasto-plastic continuum damage mechanics material modelfor finite element analysis（ FEA） was investigated using experimental results of cylindrical butt joint tests.Toughened Adhesive Polymer（ TAPO） Model［ MAT_252］, which expresses material behavior of adhesivesincluding elasto-plastic deformation and material damage, was adopted. Assuming the plane strain state,parameters included in constitutive equation, yield function, and non-associated flow law were identified.Using the obtained values, cylindrical butt joint tests and double cantilever beam（ DCB） test were numericallyconducted. Several difficulties were found in fitting in the plastically deformed area with the combined loads,and in the damaged area excluding the pure torsion load. Thus, it was indicated that parameter tuning of theyield function parameters, the plastic potential parameter for hydrostatic stress term, some of the Johnson& Cook failure parameters, and exponent of the phenomenological damage model would be required formore preferable results. Comparison of the numerical results with the experimental results showed that theparameter identification method assuming plane strain state can be applied to the finite element analysis ofadhesive joints.