Catastrophic chaos theory: predicting recovery of health or death

Recently, we revealed a standard pattern of a macroscopic molecular network for controlling morphogenetic processes such as the development of organs, including blast, mesoderm, heart, and hands during about sevenfold cell divisions and a standard bio-chemical clock like the circadian one (Naitoh in Artif Life Robot 13, 2008; Japan J Ind Appl Math 28(1), 2011; J Phys Conf Ser 344, 2012; Artif Life Robot 17, 2012) A network model derived logically based on experimental observations is described by a nonlinear differential equation for predicting time evolutions of six macroscopic molecular groups: three gene groups and three enzyme groups, which include promoting and suppressing factors. Here, the macroscopic model extended for also describing aging processes shows various types of cycles and reveals the physical condition for determining whether or not living beings such as humans can survive after getting ill. It is stressed that, after becoming ill, living systems with overly fast generation of information molecules such as various genes end in death, whereas relatively fast production of enzymes leads to recovery. This may also explain an essential feature underlying carcinogenic processes.     

An architecture framework for an adaptive extensible processor

To improve the performance of embedded processors, an effective technique is collapsing critical computation subgraphs as application-specific instruction set extensions and executing them on custom functional units. The problem with this approach is the immense cost and the long times required to design a new processor for each application. As a solution to this issue, we propose an adaptive extensible processor in which custom instructions (CIs) are generated and added after chip-fabrication. To support this feature, custom functional units are replaced by a reconfigurable matrix of functional units (FUs). A systematic quantitative approach is used for determining the appropriate structure of the reconfigurable functional unit (RFU). We also introduce an integrated framework for generating mappable CIs on the RFU. Using this architecture, performance is improved by up to 1.33, with an average improvement of 1.16, compared to a 4-issue in-order RISC processor. By partitioning the configuration memory, detecting similar/subset CIs and merging small CIs, the size of the configuration memory is reduced by 40%.     

Transflective IPS‐LCD with improved reflective contrast ratio

Abstract— In order to improve the reflective contrast ratio of transflective IPS‐LCDs, a novel pixel design for a normally white reflective IPS has been proposed. In this design, the large‐inter‐electrode‐spacing layout using a novel driving method and a double‐layered electrode have effectively reduced the light leakage. By applying these two technologies, a transflective IPS‐LCD has been successfully demonstrated with a high contrast ratio (15:1) in the reflective mode and a wide‐viewing‐angle characteristic in the transmissive mode.     

Development of a flexible autonomous robot without sensors or controllers

Recently, various robots with many degrees of freedom, such as rescue robots and domestic robots, have been developed and used in practical applications. It is difficult to control such robots autonomously in real environments, because in order to control the many degrees of freedom, we have to observe many states, calculate huge amounts of information, and operate many actuators. In this study, we consider a flexible robot without sensors or controllers that can determine the inclination of a slope and climb up the slope. In order to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed framework, we have developed a prototype robot and conducted experiments. The result indicates that the robot could determine the inclination and climb up a gentle slope autonomously. Thus, we have realized an autonomous robot that has no explicit sensors or controllers.     

Quantitative imaging of Young's modulus of solids: a contact-mechanics study

We developed equipment and methods for measuring quantitatively the local Young's modulus of solids. It consists of an electrodeless langasite oscillator and line antennas, and oscillator vibrations are generated and detected contactlessly. A constant biasing force results from oscillator mass and is independent of surface roughness. The effect of material anisotropy on the measured stiffness is theoretically discussed for studying the limitation of the quantitative measurement. The microscopy has been applied to polycrystalline copper, and the measured modulus is compared to calculations based on electron-backscatter-diffraction measurements. Also, we applied it to a duplex stainless steel and an embedded silicon-carbide fiber. The results reveal textured regions, defects with high sensitivity, and even stiffness distribution in a single grain.     

A low wall-loading DEMO reactor design with high priority for early and reliable realization of a tokamak fusion reactor over the cost performance

Based on scientific databases adopted for designing ITER plasmas and on the advancement of fusion nuclear technology from the recent R&D program, a low wall-loading DEMO fusion reactor has been designed, where high priority has been given to the early and reliable realization of a tokamak fusion plasma over the cost performance. Since the major radius of this DEMO reactor is chosen to be 10 m, plasma ignition is achievable with a low fusion power of 0.8 GW and an operation period of 4–5 hours is available only with inductive current drive. The low ignition power makes it possible to adopt a first wall with an austenitic stainless steel, for which significant databases and operating experience exists, due to its use in the presence of neutron irradiation in fission reactors. In step with development of advanced materials, a step-wise increase of the fusion power seems to be feasible and realistic, because this DEMO reactor has the potential to produce a fusion power of 5 GW.     

Self-identification algorithm for zeolite-based thermal capacity gas sensor

Microsystem Technologies - We demonstrate a new operation mode of thermal gas sensor based on thermal capacity extraction with identification algorithm. The system is a silicon microstructure...     

Mechanical property enhancement of aligned multi-walled carbon nanotube sheets and composites through press-drawing process

A solid-state drawing and winding process was done to create thin aligned carbon nanotube (CNT) sheets from CNT arrays. However, waviness and poor packing of CNTs in the sheets are two main weaknesses restricting their reinforcing efficiency in composites. This report proposes a simple press-drawing technique to reduce wavy CNTs and to enhance dense packing of CNTs in the sheets. Non-pressed and pressed CNT/epoxy composites were developed using prepreg processing with a vacuum-assisted system. Effects of pressing on the mechanical properties of the aligned CNT sheets and CNT/epoxy composites were examined. Pressing with distributed loads of 147, 221, and 294 N/m showed a substantial increase in the tensile strength and the elastic modulus of the aligned CNT sheets and their composites. The CNT sheets under a press load of 221 N/m exhibited the best mechanical properties found in this study. With a press load of 221 N/m, the pressed CNT sheet and its composite, respectively, enhanced the tensile strength by 139.1 and 141.9%, and the elastic modulus by 489 and 77.6% when compared with non-pressed ones. The pressed CNT/epoxy composites achieved high tensile strength (526.2 MPa) and elastic modulus (100.2 GPa). Results show that press-drawing is an important step to produce superior CNT sheets for development of high-performance CNT composites.     

Production of IL-6 by T cells from the femoral head of patients with rapidly destructive coxopathy (RDC)

We developed a method to improve the quantitative precision of FDG-PET scans in cancer patients. The total-lesion evaluation method generates a correlation coefficient (r) constrained Patlak parametric image of the lesion together with three calculated glucose metabolic indices: (a) the total-lesion metabolic index ("KT-tle", ml/min/lesion); (b) the total-lesion voxel index ("VT-tle", voxels/lesion); and (c) the global average metabolic index ("KV-tle", ml/min/voxel). METHODS: The glucose metabolic indices obtained from conventional region of interest (ROI) and multiplane evaluation were used as standards to evaluate the accuracy of the total-lesion evaluation method. Computer simulations and four patients with metastatic melanoma before and after chemotherapy were studied. RESULTS: Computer simulations showed that the total-lesion evaluation method has improved precision (% s.d. < 0.6%) and accuracy (approximately 10% error) compared with the conventional ROI method (% s.d. approximately 5%; approximately 25% error). The KT-tle and VT-tle indices from human FDG-PET studies using the total-lesion evaluation method showed excellent correlations with the corresponding values obtained from the conventional ROI methods and multiplane evaluation (r approximately 1.0) and CT lesion volume measurements. CONCLUSION: This method is a simple but reliable way to quantitatively monitor tumor FDG uptake. The method has several advantages over the conventional ROI method: (a) less sensitive to the ROI definition, (b) no need for image registration of serial scan data and (c) includes tumor volume changes in the global tumor metabolism.     

Measurement of aluminum or silicon activity in Fe-Ni (< 30 %) alloys using mullite and ZrO2-based solid electrolyte galvanic cell

Using mullite (3Al₂O₃·2SiO₂)-tube type and ZrO₂ (MgO mole fractions of 9 %)-plug type solid electrolyte, the activities of Al in the Fe-15, 29% Ni-0.002 to 0.84% Al (mass contents in%) alloys were measured at 1873 K in an Al₂O₃ crucible, and those of Si in the Fe-13, 28% Ni-0.13 to 2.3% Si alloys were measured at 1823 K in a mullite crucible with an excess of SiO₂. The interaction coefficients of and were determined as ?0.0173 ± 0.0052 and 0.00021 ± 0.00007, respectively, and those of and were determined as 0.0094 ± 0.0049 and ?0.00008 ± 0.00004, respectively. The oxygen activities obtained by the EMF measurements were compared with those obtained from the contents of analyzed oxygen. The oxygen activities in the Fe-Ni-Al alloys were found to be supersaturated. The interaction coefficients of and were determined as 0.0027 ± 0.0012 and 0.00012 ± 0.00004, respectively, from the contents of analyzed oxygen in Fe-Ni-Si alloys.