I am very grateful to receive the HORN fellowship. This is my second time in Kobe and it matters so much to me and for my family as we have previously spent two years of the wonderful time in Kobe, Japan. This time, my family also have a very wonderful time in Kobe University and in Japan. In particular, with the support of this fellowship, I have gained a valuable knowledge in non-thermal sweating and mental stress induced sweating. Despite of the time being spent in the experiment, I also had a chance to deliver my research findings to undergraduate students at Kobe University and thus gaining a valuable teaching experience in Japan. With that, I think HORN is a fantastic grant for the early career researcher like me to further expand my professional knowledge in specific research field.
It is also during this period of time me and my host Prof. Kondo had a lot of discussion about the future collaborative studies between my laboratory and his laboratory at Kobe University. For example, we discussed about collaborating with the effect of diurnal rhythm on behavioral thermoregulation as well as the effect of acupuncture on psychological induced sweating. These two projects are directly linked to the data collection during this visiting period. In addition, it is also during this period of time, I get to know many other young Japanese researchers (Dr. Naoto Fujii and Dr. Tatsuro Amano) and to be able to visit their labs and further establish the academic collaboration between my lab and their labs.
Despite of the great academic exchange, me and my family also utilized this unique opportunity to travel to Wakayama and visited many beautiful onsen hotel during the おぼん festival. In particular, the beautiful white sand beach in Shirahama and a wounderful scenery in Katsuura are breath taking and tasting the local Japanese cuisine with different kind of sake in front of the Pacific Ocean is a unique experience for me and for my family.
In closing, I once again express my appreciation to HORN to allow me to revisit Japan after my JSPS and I would like to continue my academic collaboration with HORN and Prof.Kondo in the near future.

This time during HORN, I have learned the mental stress induced sweating as well as the effect of eccentric muscle contraction on thermoregulatory functions. By involving with my proposed experiment and the student experiment in Prof. Kondo lab, I have expanded my laboratory skills on setting up non-thermal sweating related experiment. In particular, the skills that I have learned during this period of time included muscle metabolites reflex experimental set up and knowing how to set up the eccentric muscle contraction dynameter. Knowing the set up of the non-thermal experiment can allow me to set up the non-thermal factors related experiment in China.
The data collection during my visit was also extremely successful. With only one month period, me and my host professor managed to complete the data collection and currently are analyzing the data and prepare for manuscript submission. The academic output during this period of time was also very productive as me and Prof. Kondo managed to resubmit one of our collaborative studies to Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise. This study will soon be accepted by Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise as it is subjective to minor revision.