Tohoku University

This course teaches yoga asanas (poses) and how their sequences affect one's mind and body. Course participants will also practice sitting quietly without the use  of smartphones or other electronic devices, reflecting on its effects. Additionally, class participants will share traditional therapeutic diets and treatments from their home countries. A report is expected to be submitted during the final week of the class. 

Students acquire listening skills necessary to university life through viewing lectures and videos on a variety of topics. Students will learn to take notes/memos and ask the instructor questions. 

Eligibility: B2 level in the CEFR/JF Standard for Japanese-Language Education (approx. N1 in the JLPT). 

Learning Objectives 

• Understand lectures and conversations that are fairly complex in terms of both content and language. 
• Synthesize audio and written/visual information, and take notes recording important information.
• Explain heard information in their own words using materials and notes as reference. 

The field of Economics has a complex history marked by contradictions. On one hand, it is a history of disagreement and changes, but on the other, it is a persistent effort to address crucial questions facing society. This interplay of discontinuity and continuity has shaped Economics into the theory we study today. By tracing the evolution of the science, one can gain a deeper understanding of its essence and how it has developed into its current form.

By the end of this course, students are expected to have:
- Developed an in-depth understanding of the context of contemporary economic theory.
- Acquired knowledge of the various schools of economic thought.
- Developed an understanding for why economics has changed over time.

This course focuses on the principle of chemical thermodynamic of refining process of metals and specific knowledge of the process for each metal. The course first analyzes the principle of equilibria of chemical reaction of metal processing, and then the refining process of steels, copper, aluminum and other metals to understand their basic procedure and characteristics. The course aims to understand the thermodynamic equilibrium of metal refining process and understand the basic knowledge of various refining process of metals.

This course presents basic concepts and information of plate tectonics and the tectonic history of the Asiatic continent and the Japanese islands, active faults and earthquakes, and volcanoes. The lectures include how past and recent environment influence human livelihood.

The course covers the following topics:
- Introduction of the course
- Basics of Plate tectonics
- Plate margin and Japan island arc
- Rock structure beneath surface
- Geology and natural resources
- History of earth and geological timescale
- Earthquake and active faults
- The Great East Japan earthquake
- Rheology of rocks and subduction zone earthquake cycles
- Volcanoes
- Advancement in geodynamics with space geodesy
- Advancement in geodynamics with InSAR and machine learning

The material world is surrounded by a large number of chemical products manufactured with various types of materials including organic, inorganic and their composite materials. Even in the human body, biological materials are constantly being produced with the help of specialized enzymes and biochemical reactions. This coures provides chemistry-oriented topics concerned with the development of functional materials in various areas of engineering.

This course covers basic aspects of chemical production, with special emphasis on environmentally friendly methodologies for the synthesis of fine chemicals and advanced materials.

 

In addition to the 160 basic kanji characters taught in K150, students will learn to read, write and type 160 new characters. They will become familiar with various methods of kanji learning and expand their vocabulary of words that contain kanji.
Eligibility: Students who have learned about 160 kanji characters and are at least A1 level in the CEFR/JF Standard for Japanese-Language Education (N5 in the JLPT).
Learning Objectives:
・Understand the meanings and readings of 320 kanji and words using those kanji.
・Write 320 kanji vocabulary words with the help of example models.
・Type short sentences containing the 320 kanji on a smartphone or PC.

This course studies basic concepts of biochemistry and chemistry of food as well as the basic principles of food science and natural products chemistry.  The course covers the following topics: food allergens; novel functions of dietary vitamins and its contribution to our health; food and bioactive natural products for human health; beneficial health effects of dietary lipids; chemistry and biochemistry of marine toxins; application of high pressure to food processing; protein chemistry; bioactive molecules and their application for drug discovery; medicinal chemistry of antibacterial and antiviral agents; synthetic and medicinal chemistry of marine natural products, and nutrient-inspired biomaterials and its applications for the health purposes. 

This course introduces eigenvalues and eigenvectors of matrices, leading to diagonalization of matrices. Furthermore, vector spaces with inner product are treated and applications of linear algebra to various specialized topics are discussed.

Upon completion of the class, students are expected to:

• Compute eigenvalues and eigenvectors of matrices, and diagonalize real symmetric matrices; 
• Understand inner products, orthogonality, and to be able to find orthogonal bases; and,
• Learn applications of linear algebra and perform computations to solve explicit problems.

The course offers a solid basis of the Italian language, beginning from its phonetics and fundamental grammar. The course begins with students becoming familiar with names; their number and gender; articles; verb grammar (present and past), and pronouns. The study then progresses through conversation, games and the production of simple texts.

The course teaches correct application of the basics of Italian language; focuses on apprehending expressions used in everyday context, and instructs on beginner level reading comprehension.