A case of severe Becker muscular dystrophy diagnosed in early childhood--correlation between clinical severity and dystrophin testing

Cutaneous lesions caused by M. ulcerans were shown to bear only a superficial resemblance to those produced by certain spider species. M. ulcerans was not found in either the venoms or the midguts of several Australian spiders, and deliberate contamination by inoculation of the fangs and digestive system of the wolf spider, Lycosa godeffroyi, did not result in permanent colonization. M. ulcerans was successfully introduced into the skin of mice through a small trauma site similar to that caused by a spider bite. However, because M. ulcerans was shown to survive on exposed surfaces for only a short period, a successful inoculation is likely only if the skin is contaminated with this organism after, or at the same time as, the skin suffers damage. The claim by other workers that M. ulcerans produces cutaneous ulcers by release of an exotoxin could not be confirmed. The authors conclude that M. ulcerans is not involved in most cases of necrotic arachnidism and hence there is no justification for prescribing anti-mycobacterial antibiotics to resolve alleged spider bite lesions unless the presence of M. ulcerans has been demonstrated by appropriate laboratory tests.     

Path tracking control of Lagrange systems with obstacle avoidance

This paper addresses a path tracking problem with obstacle avoidance for Lagrange systems. The proposed method is based on field potential methods in combination with navigation functions for obstacle avoidance. First, it is shown that a simple combination of the navigation function with the conventional path tracking controller does not work. Therefore, in order to cope with this problem, a new feedback law is proposed for a path parameter which characterizes the reference path. It is proved that the proposed controller achieves both path following and collision avoidance. Moreover, since the method adopts bounded navigation functions, the proposed controllers generate bounded input signals even when target systems approach obstacles. Finally, an experimental evaluation is performed with a two-link manipulator to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.     

Preparation of superacid of iron-supported zirconia for reaction of butane to isobutane

A highly active superacid of 2 wt% Fe-supported ZrO₂ for the skeletal isomerization of butane to isobutane was obtained by sfexposing Fe₂O₃/ZrO₂ to 1 N H₂SO₄ followed by calcining in air at 700°C for more than 24 h; the Fe₂O₃/ZrO₂ was prepared by impregnating zirconia gel with a solution of Fe(NO₃)₃ followed by drying at 300°C (2 wt% Fe). A much lower activity was observed with the opposite procedure, where the first impregnation was sulfation of the gel, followed by a second impregnation with the iron compound. It was proved from analysis of the sulfur content in the catalysts that residual sulfur species were not related with generation of the superacidic sites. XPS showed the catalyst to be Fe₂O₃ supported on ZrO₂.Superacids by metal oxides, VIII. For previous publications VI and VII in this series see refs. [10,11].     

Current control of a PWM power amplifier by an approximate 2-degree-of-freedom digital controller

There is a need for robust current control of a pulse width modulation (PWM) power amplifier whose transient response characteristics do not deteriorate with extensive load changes and/or direct-current power supply voltage changes. In this article, we propose a digital robust controller with bumpless mode switching to control the current of a PWM power amplifier to satisfy the demands and extend the range of an inductive load width. It is necessary to measure the value of the load in order to implement this bumpless mode switching automatically depending on the load range. Therefore, a method of estimating the inductive load is shown. The bumpless mode switching is automatically performed by estimating an inductive value without specifying the value of the inductive load beforehand. That is, the value of the inductive load is estimated during the DDC execution, and the control mode is automatically switched bumplessly according to this estimated value. A digital controller equipped with inductance estimation and bumpless mode switching is realized by a DSP. Some experiments show that the digital controller with the proposed bumpless mode switching can satisfy larger specifications.     

Correction to: Development of a behavioral trajectory measurement system (Bucket-ANTAM) for organisms moving in a two-dimensional plane

Artificial Life and Robotics -     

Negative emotion recognition using multimodal physiological signals for advanced driver assistance systems

Artificial Life and Robotics - Recent advanced driver assistance systems’ (ADASs) control cars to avoid accidents, but few of them consider driver’s comfort. To realize comfortable...     

3He Melting Pressure Measurements in High Magnetic Fields

Experimental methods and preliminary results of high-precision measurements of the ³ He melting curve in high magnetic fields have been described. The purpose of this work is twofold. One is to establish a reliable millikelvin temperature scale in high fields (T 10 mK, B 15 T), The other is to investigate a high field region of the magnetic phase diagram of solid ³ He by measuring the melting pressure down to temperatures below 1 mK. Besides the two superfluid transitions, the phase transition temperatures between the spin ordered solid and the paramagnetic solid, T _HFP , were determined at B = 12 and 10 T with good accuracy, which is an extension of previous measurements up to 8 T. The present T _HFP (B) line can not be scaled to that at a higher density with a single Grüneisen parameter, indicating a variation of density dependencies of the multiple-spin exchange interactions.     

Plasma etching of high-k and metal gate materials

Etching characteristics of high-k dielectric materials (HfO₂) and metal electrode materials (Pt, TaN) have been studied in high-density chlorine-containing plasmas at pressures around 10 mTorr. The etching of HfO₂ was performed in BCl₃ without rf biasing, giving an etch rate of about 5 nm/min with a high selectivity of >10 over Si and SiO₂. The etching of Pt and TaN was performed in Ar/O₂ with high rf biasing and in Ar/Cl₂ with low rf biasing, respectively, giving a Pt etch rate of about several tens nm/min and a TaN etch rate of about 200 nm/min with a high selectivity of >8 over HfO₂ and SiO₂. The etched profiles were outwardly tapered for Pt, owing to the redeposition of etch or sputter products on feature sidewalls, while the TaN profiles were almost anisotropic, probably owing to the ion-enhanced etching that occurred.     

Measurements of gamma-ray emission probabilities of 241, 243Am and 239Np

Gamma-ray emission probabilities of ^{241, 243}Am and ²³⁹Np have been precisely measured with gamma- and alpha-ray spectroscopic methods. The activities of the samples were determined by measuring alpha particles using a Si semiconductor detector. Gamma rays emitted from the samples were measured with a planar type High-Purity Germanium (HPGe) detector. An efficiency curve of the HPGe detector was derived with uncertainties from 0.7% to 2.5% by combining measured efficiencies and Monte Carlo simulation. The gamma-ray emission probabilities for the major gamma rays of these nuclides were determined with uncertainties less than 1.2%.