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Depression is one of the most common disabilities in developed countries. Despite its often devastating impact on families, scant research has focused on how to facilitate the well-being of family caregivers. The aim of this paper is to uncover the challenges faced by family caregivers and support their well-being with the use of technologies. To understand the emotional and social burden of caregivers and how they handle their stress, we conducted in-depth interviews with 15 individuals who have cared for a depressed family member. Our findings reveal the multifaceted dilemma of caring for a depressed family member as well as the various strategies engaged in by caregivers to improve their own situations. Based on our findings, we suggest design implications for healthcare technologies to improve the wellness of caregivers who are looking after depressed family members.

Lead zirconate titanate (PZT) thin films have been prepared with a multi-target sputtering system onto Pt-coated Si substrates. Structure, composition and dielectric properties have been investigated on films ranging in thickness from 60 nm to 1400 nm. The dominant phase of PZT thin films varied from pyrochlore to perovskite with increasing film thickness. An interface PZT layer with about 100 nm thickness, which was confirmed to mainly consist of pyrochlore phase grains, was observed at the PZT/Pt interface in a cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy (TEM) image of an 850 nm thick film. That is, the pyrochlore grains preferentially grow at the early stage of deposition and do not change their structure during subsequent deposition. Dielectric constant and remnant polarization were degraded with decreasing thickness. This can be explained in view of the existence of the interface layer with a low dielectric constant.

Research into music generation and into emulating human musical competence has attracted much attention in the field of computer science. In general, the results of academic research should be verified by assessing `objective effectiveness', which is often represented by a `recognition ratio'. Although `objective effectiveness' is also a requirement for research in music generation, it is meaningless unless subjective requisites are also satisfied. However, it is not easy for researchers to execute subjective evaluations within their individual endeavours. To address this difficulty within the research area of computer systems for generating expressive music performances, the Performance Rendering Contest (Rencon) was created. This is an international competition in which entrants present computer systems and the performances generated are graded, and has been held in conjunction with related international conferences. This paper presents an overview of Rencon history, highlighting the evaluative motivation of each contest. In addition, we discuss the possibilities of a new scientific research field in which future Rencons may play a role

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