Psychological effects of physical embodiment in artificial pet therapy

The increase in stress-related problems and the corresponding rapid growth in demand for pet therapy have created a demand for stress-relief methods through interactions with pet robots and virtual pets instead of real animals; however, it is unclear which characteristics of pet robots and virtual pets have therapeutic effects. In this study, we use the temporary mood scale to compare the therapeutic effects produced by a pet robot and a virtual pet, focusing on the effects of the physical interactions enabled by physical embodiment. The pet robot shows significantly lower tension scores and higher vigor scores when compared with the virtual pet. These results suggest that pet robots have a greater therapeutic effect than virtual pets, particularly with regard to their ability to ease tension and increase vigor.     

Effective input order of dynamics learning tree

In this paper, we discuss about the learning performance of dynamics learning tree (DLT) while mainly focusing on the implementation on robot arms. We propose an input-order-designing method for DLT. DLT has been applied to the modeling of boat, vehicle, and humanoid robot. However, the relationship between the input order and the performance of DLT has not been investigated. In the proposed method, a developer is able to design an effective input order intuitively. The proposed method was validated in the model learning tasks on a simulated robot manipulator, a real robot manipulator, and a simulated vehicle. The first/second manipulator was equipped with flexible arm/finger joints that made uncertainty around the trajectories of manipulated objects. In all of the cases, the proposed method improved the performance of DLT.     

Helical Pore Alignment on Cylindrical Carbon

Interest in chiral substances has mainly focused on the substances themselves, but not on the accompanying space, especially regarding the pore alignment. As a method to form both the chiral substance and the accompanying space, cylindrical self‐assembly of uniform polystyrene nanoparticles with fructose is carried out in the presence of both carbon and sodium alginate, which is followed by heat treatment in an inert atmosphere. The carbonization generates fructose‐derived honeycomb‐like carbon walls with helically aligned nanopores left after the polystyrene decomposition. The diffuse reflectance circular dichroism measurements give peaks with opposite signs for the d ‐ and l ‐fructose‐derived cylindrical carbons. Circularly polarized light sensitivity in transient photoconductivity is confirmed apparently in the carbon‐based helical structures. This sensitivity as well as straightforward formation of composites with another component to give helicity shows potential applications of the helically aligned pores.     

Removing fences from sweep motion videos using global 3D reconstruction and fence-aware light field rendering

Computational Visual Media - Diminishing the appearance of a fence in an image is a challenging research area due to the characteristics of fences (thinness, lack of texture, etc.) and the need for...     

Electroless‐Plated Gold Contacts for High‐Performance,Low Contact Resistance Organic Thin Film Transistors

Deposition of metallic electrodes on a semiconductor medium is an indispensable factor in governing carrier injection, and a metal/semiconductor contact that can be formed via solution process is highly desired in printed electronics. However, fine‐patterning the solution processes of metallic electrodes without damaging the excellent electronic properties of organic semiconductors (OSCs) is still a challenge. In this work, electroless plating, a metal coating technique that involves auto‐catalytic reaction in an aqueous solution, is used to fabricate top‐contact organic thin‐film transistors (OTFTs). An electroless‐plated gold pattern with a spatial resolution of 10 micrometers is transferred and laminated on a monolayer of OSCs to serve as a hole‐injection electrode. The fabricated OTFTs exhibit reasonably high field‐effect mobility of up to 13 cm² V^?1 s^?1 and decent contact resistance as low as 120 Ω · cm, which implies that an ideal metal/semiconductor contact can be realized. This electroless plating technique can provide possibilities for practical mass production of organic integrated circuits because it is in principle cost‐effective, capable of covering large areas, high‐vacuum free, and environmentally friendly.     

Carbonization of polycyclic aromatics. 1. Carbonization of anthracene in carbon tetrachloride

Carbonization of anthracene in carbon tetrachloride has been investigated in the temperature range from 200 to 500 °C using a batch autoclave. Anthracene reacted with carbon tetrachloride above 200 °C and the main products were carbonaceous substances, methane, and hydrogen chloride. The benzene-insoluble carbonaceous substances contained chlorine atoms transferred from the carbon tetrachloride molecule. The reaction was considered to be induced by radicals derived from dissociation of the carbon tetrachloride molecule. The development of an anisotropic structure was observed even in the products prepared at 240 °C for 8 h. Around 400 °C a small amount, and around 250 °C a large amount, of carbon tetrachloride promoted the development of anisotropic structure. The graphitizability of the carbonaceous product paralleled the development of anisotropy. The yields of the cokes, their elemental composition and their anisotropic structure were examined in relation to reaction conditions such as temperature, time and the ratio of carbon tetrachloride to anthracene.     

Properties of a capillary discharge-produced argon plasma waveguide for shorter wavelength source application

We report the operation of a discharge-produced argon (Ar) plasma waveguide in an alumina (Al(2)O(3)) capillary to guide a 10(16)-W/cm(2) ultrashort laser pulse for shorter wavelength light sources at high repetition rate operation. The electron density in the plasma channel was measured to be 1 × 10(18) cm(-3). Modeling with a one-dimensional magnetrohydrodynamic code was used to evaluate the degree of ionization of Ar in the preformed plasma channel. The observed spectrum of the laser pulse after propagation in the argon plasma waveguide was not modified and was well reproduced by a particle in cell simulation.     

A Rapid Method for Optimizing Running Temperature of Electrophoresis through Repetitive On-Chip CE Operations

In this paper, a rapid and simple method to determine the optimal temperature conditions for denaturant electrophoresis using a temperature-controlled on-chip capillary electrophoresis (CE) device is presented. Since on-chip CE operations including sample loading, injection and separation are carried out just by switching the electric field, we can repeat consecutive run-to-run CE operations on a single on-chip CE device by programming the voltage sequences. By utilizing the high-speed separation and the repeatability of the on-chip CE, a series of electrophoretic operations with different running temperatures can be implemented. Using separations of reaction products of single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) with a peptide nucleic acid (PNA) oligomer, the effectiveness of the presented method to determine the optimal temperature conditions required to discriminate a single-base substitution (SBS) between two different ssDNAs is demonstrated. It is shown that a single run for one temperature condition can be executed within 4 min, and the optimal temperature to discriminate the SBS could be successfully found using the present method.     

Hypomethylation of CLDN4 Gene Promoter Is Associated with Malignant Phenotype in Urinary Bladder Cancer

The tight junction (TJ) protein claudin-4 (CLDN4) is overexpressed in bladder urothelial carcinoma (BUC) and correlates with cancer progression. However, the mechanism of CLDN4 upregulation and promotion of malignant phenotype is not clear. Here, we analyzed 157 cases of BUC and investigated the hypomethylation of CpG island in the CLDN4 promoter DNA and its correlation with cancer progression. In hypomethylated cases, CLDN4 expression, cell proliferation, stemness, and epithelial-mesenchymal transition were increased. Treatment of three human BUC cell lines with the demethylating agent aza-2′-deoxycytidine (AZA) led to excessive CLDN4 expression, and, specifically, to an increase in CLDN4 monomer that is not integrated into the TJ. The TJ-unintegrated CLDN4 was found to bind integrin β1 and increase stemness, drug resistance, and metastatic ability of the cells as well as show an anti-apoptosis effect likely via FAK phosphorylation, which reduces upon knockdown of CLDN4. Thus, CLDN4 is overexpressed in BUC by an epigenetic mechanism and the high expression enhances the malignant phenotype of BUC via increased levels of TJ-unintegrated CLDN4. CLDN4 promoter DNA methylation is expected to be a novel indicator of BUC malignant phenotype and a new therapeutic target.