This report describes a method to obtain multicellular shaped compartments made by lipids growing from a sponge-like porous structure. Each compartment is several tens of micrometers in diameter and separated by membranes comprised of phospholipid and amphipathic molecules. The multi-compartment structure spontaneously grew to a millimeter scale, driven by an ionic concentration difference between the interior and exterior environments of the sponge. These compartments can also easily incorporate hydrophilic species as a well as smaller materials such as liposomes. Additionally, we showed that mechanical squeezing of the sponge was also effective in producing multicellular bodies. These simple methods to obtain large-scale multicellular compartment of lipid membrane will help future designs and trials of chemical communications on artificial cells.

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Recently, various neighborhood indicators have been used to examine geographical variations in the perceptions and behaviors of urban residents in relation to the physical forms of their neighborhoods.However, the characteristics of a streetscape as a comprehensive neighborhood environment, which can only be determined by combining such indicators, have not been examined. Therefore, in this study, neighborhoods in the Sendai metropolitan area, Japan, were classified based on several urban morphological indicators to obtain a typology of Japanese residential areas in terms of the neighborhood physical environment. It was then confirmed that the various subjective evaluations of residential areas obtained from the social survey data differed significantly between the area typologies, which was also observed when controlling for individual attributes. The results revealed that the physical form of the neighborhood is associated with neighborhood liveability ; in particular, a type found around city centers distinguished from other areas by its high density, connectivity, and accessibility is strongly associated with positive evaluations of the area in most aspects.