Cellular communication is important to regulate the disease progression in the central nervous system (CNS). Microfluidics device, which is characterized by well-controlled culture environments, is a useful system to evaluate cellcell interactions under the pathological condition of the CNS. Here, we introduce the recent advances of the microfluidics devices which enable to evaluate the CNS pathology.

Interferon (IFN) α2 is a 165-residue protein, and there is a recombinant IFN α2b that differs from the wild strain (IFN α2a) only at the 23rd residue of the amino acid sequence (Lys23Arg). IFN α2a can bind to the interferon receptor (IFNAR2). The 23rd amino acid is not in direct contact with IFNAR2, but IFN α2b is known to be more active than IFN α2a. In this study, in order to investigate the cause of difference, we performed canonical molecular orbital calculations and examined the difference in electronic states associated with the mutation. The results of electrostatic potential and Milliken charges suggest that the difference of Lys23Arg may produce a gain in the Coulomb force.

PETase is an enzyme that can decompose polyethylene terephthalate (PET). The explanation behind PETase’s ability to decompose PET remains still unknown. In this study, canonical molecular orbital (CMO) calculation of the active site of PETase was carried out. The results indicated that the electronic structure of PETase’s catalytic triad was preserved, and the nucleophilic property of Serine’s hydroxyl oxygen was proved, implying that amino acid residues surrounding the catalytic triad may protect the catalytic triad’s electronic structure.

In order to ensure the comfort of the thermal environment of a house, we believe that it is useful to accumulate data on the behavior of “Building Elements”(“B.E.”) according to their semantic structure.

In this paper, we used a “Semantic Data Model” to describe the information on the “Semantic Structure”, “State”, and “Behavior” of the space and “B.E.” of one three-story wooden detached house.

Based on this information, we examined the possibility of ensuring comfort by fusing the heat of partial heating to multiple rooms by manipulating the “B.E.” around the stairwell, which has a large impact.

In IoT field, generation of huge various value by interconnection of individual IoT systems is expected. However consistency of communication protocol, countermeasures against service trouble, concerns as business scheme and so on must be solved to realize interconnection of IoT-systems. This paper reports challenges and solutions on the IoT-HUB, interconnection infrastructure for IoT, which is developed industry-academia collaboration at Institute of Industrial Science, The University of Tokyo.