Abstract: Provided are a novel compound that is mesogenic or liquid crystalline and has a high charge mobility, liquid crystal compositions comprising the compound, charge transport materials containing the same, and various elements using the charge transport materials. The novel compound is a 1,4-dithienylbenzene derivatives represented by the following general formula (I): wherein R1 and R2 each independently represent a hydrogen atom or a hydrocarbyl group having 1 to 20 carbon atoms, provided that R1 and R2 are not simultaneously a hydrogen atom; and A represents an optionally substituted benzene ring.

Abstract: A thin-film transistor includes a substrate (10), a gate electrode (20) provided on a portion of the substrate, an insulation layer (30) arranged to cover the gate electrode and the substrate, a source or drain (40) provided on the insulation layer in a region corresponding to a region of the gate electrode, a semiconductor layer (50) arranged to cover the source or drain (40) and the insulation layer, a drain or source (60) provided on the semiconductor in a portion of a region corresponding to a region of the source or drain (40) that overlaps with the gate electrode, and a channel (70) formed between the source or drain (40) and the drain or source (60) and having a length defined by a film thickness of the semiconductor layer (50).

Abstract: A recording method that records information in soliton units, a computing method that performs a computation, an information transmission method, an energy storage method, a magnetic flux measurement method and a quantum bit constitution method utilize the properties of phase solitons manifested between superconducting order parameters present in multiple bands in a superconductor having a multiple bands. The phase difference soliton is maintained, so information can be stored in the form of phase differences. Moreover, ??soliton phase slip will also be present when the same energy is carried in the reverse direction, so the soliton itself can have a + or ? sign. The soliton enables storage of energy not accompanied by magnetic flux. Also, with soliton units, magnetic flux can be measured with greater precision by discriminating external magnetic flux. Moreover, using solitons and anti-solitons makes it possible to constitute quantum bits required in quantum measurements.

Abstract: A usability evaluation processing system and method evaluate usability by simulation for estimating operating interaction between a user and a human interface. The usability evaluation processing system and method receive a simulation start command; input data into virtual-operation-object state data storing means, virtual-operator state data storing means, and operation procedure data storing means; perform a simulation to update virtual-operation-object state data and virtual-operator state data to states at the next time step by simulation processing means in response to a virtual-operator control signal; calculate a value of a usability evaluation function in accordance with at least one of the virtual-operation-object state data and the virtual-operator state data updated by the simulation processing means, or a history of the updated data; and output the resultant value and resultant data of the simulation.

Abstract: A method is provided for determining a concentration of a target nucleic acid by using a nucleic acid probe labeled with a fluorescent dye.