English

Microorganisms exist everywhere in human society and the natural environment. They have beneficial functions, such as antibiotic production, and harmful functions such as pandemic diseases. This course aims to understand the characteristics of microorganisms and examine the functions they perform on Earth from the perspectives of diversity, ecology, molecular genetics, and biotechnology.  The course also exposes students to microbiological research methods needed in biomedical science.

This course provides a diverse cinematic palette, focusing on films, filmmaking formulations and new aspects of non-Anglophone cinemas from regions outside Europe and America. Course sessions cover multifaceted aspects of cinema creation, burgeoning film movements and industry dynamics whilst also studying established and emerging filmmakers. The broad geographic stretch is combined with a specific focus on the current cinematic terrain of countries including Chile, Argentina, Senegal and South Africa. The course also investigates recent and ongoing transformations, such as the magnified visibility of female filmmakers from the Middle East and the rise of new Indian Indie cinema as a competitor to Bollywood.

This course examines the fundamental concepts, methods and techniques of usability engineering. 

This course focuses on early (i.e. pre 12th-century) Irish saga literature in which a variety of texts, mainly from the Ulster, Mythological and King cycles, are read in translation and discussed in class. 

This course consists of two parts. One class segment will be devoted to international/global environmental politics, with the core concern of achieving collective action that will lead to the betterment of the environment. After learning about a fundamental conceptual framework to approach environmental politics, the course looks at various global issues, such as an ever-widening gap between rich and poor nations; world population growth; food issues, and energy. The course then focuses on the politics of various international/global environmental problems. The course will present class discussions on real international/global environmental probleams to deepen one’s understanding of the nature of the problems.  

The second segment of the course is distance learning or e-learning. The theme for this year is, “Climate Science and Solutions”(but this is subject to change). The program will be coordinated by the Asia Pacific Initiative (API) of Hawaii University and Osaka University, and involves other universities: Ryukyu University, Tsukuba University, and National University of Samoa. 

The course consists of the following lecture courses under the theme of characterization of molecules, matter, and reactions: molecular symmetry and electronic structure; nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy; structure and bonding. Available to visiting students only. 

This course introduces clinical scientific practice. An overview of common methodologies and analysis used in healthcare research provided, and students learn how to undertake a literature search. Concepts such as bias and logical reasoning are discussed, and students read, interpret, and critically evaluate scientific papers. Students also learn how science and technology are used in healthcare, and discuss how clinical tests can help diagnose health conditions and evaluate treatment outcomes.

This team-taught course on gender and culture offers a series of different forms of analysis through which one can "read" gender. It is particularly suited to students who wish to develop their critical and analytical skills by learning more about specific gender-related issues and developing gender-specific approaches to engaging with a variety of cultural works across disciplines, genres and literary periods. All texts will be in English or in English translation.

This course introduces students to the main political economy issues that have driven the process of European integration from the aftermath of WWII to an uncertain present. Students investigate the European economic integration by revealing the interactions between economic efficiency and socio-political interests. To do so, the course first provides a historical and institutional background on the early formation and later evolution of the European Union. It then covers in more details specific EU policies and areas of interest related to both macroeconomics (monetary and fiscal policy, with a focus on crisis times) and microeconomics (trade and competition in the single market, distributive issues, labor market, and welfare policies). Students apply theoretical knowledge from alternative schools of thought (neoclassical economics versus critical political economy) to explore different angles and appreciate the complexity of EU economic policy-making.

Linear algebra is the branch of mathematics that is primarily concerned with problems involving linearity of one kind or another. This is reflected by the three main themes around which this introductory course is centered. The first theme concerns how to solve a system of linear equations. For this problem, a complete solution procedure is developed which provides a way to deal with such problems systematically, regardless of the number of equations or the number of unknowns. The second theme addresses linear functions and mappings, which can be studied naturally from a geometric point of view. This involves geometric ‘primitives’ such as points, lines, and planes, and geometric ‘actions’ such as rotation, reflection, projection, and translation. One of the main tools of linear algebra is offered by matrices and vectors, for which a basic theory of matrix-vector computation is developed. This allows one to bring these two themes together in a common, exceptionally fruitful, framework. By introducing the notions of vector spaces, inner products, and orthogonality, a deeper understanding of the scope of these techniques is developed, opening up a large array of rather diverse application areas. The third theme shifts from the geometric point of view to the dynamic perspective, where the focus is on the effects of iteration (i.e., the repeated application of a linear mapping). This involves a basic theory of eigenvalues and eigenvectors. Examples and exercises are provided to clarify the issues and to develop practical computational skills. They also serve to demonstrate practical applications where the results of this course can be successfully employed. Prerequisites include Basic Mathematical Tools or substantial high school experience in Mathematics.