Lightweight Boolean Network Tomography Based on Partition of Managed Networks

Boolean network tomography is a promising technique to achieve fault management in networks where the existing IP-based troubleshooting mechanism cannot be used. Aiming to apply Boolean network tomography to fault management, a variety of heuristic methods for configuring monitoring trails and paths have been proposed to localize link failures in managed networks. However, these existing heuristic methods must be executed in a centralized server that administers the entire managed network and the methods present scalability problems when applied to large-scale managed networks. Thus, this paper proposes a novel scheme for achieving lightweight Boolean network tomography in a decentralized manner. The proposed scheme partitions the managed network into multiple management areas and localizes link failures independently within each area. This paper also proposes a heuristic network partition method with the aim of efficiently implementing the proposed scheme. The effectiveness of the proposed scheme is verified using typical fault management scenarios where all single-link failures and all dual-link failures are localized by the least number of monitoring paths on predetermined routes. Simulation results show that the proposed scheme can greatly reduce the computational load on the fault management server when Boolean network tomography is deployed in large-scale managed networks. Furthermore, the degradation of optimality in the proposed scheme can be mitigated in comparison with a centralized scheme that utilizes heuristics to reduce the computational load on the centralized server.     

Exoskeletal meal assistance system (EMAS II) for patients with progressive muscular disease

Patients with muscle weakness such as muscular dystrophy usually need someone’s assistance in their daily activities. In order to reduce the caregiver burden and to improve quality of life (QOL) of the patients, various robotic technologies have been developed. This paper presents an exoskeletal assistance system EMAS II for the patients, which assists the upper extremity for the purpose of daily activities such as eating, writing, or other desk works. The EMAS II assists four DOF; shoulder flexion-extension, shoulder abduction-adduction, shoulder medial-lateral rotation, and elbow flexion-extension. The EMAS II has three kinds of user interfaces which are operated by residual functions of the patients, because it is important for patients’ health and initiative to use the residual functions. In order to control the four DOFs exoskeleton system using the interfaces with less DOF, the EMAS II simulates upper limb motion patterns of healthy people. The patterns are modeled by extracting correlations between the height of the wrist joint and that of the elbow joint. Therefore, users have only to control the position of their wrist joint to do tasks at a table. Through an experiment with a healthy subject, the feasibility of meal assistance by the EMAS II was confirmed. Furthermore, the system was applied to a spinal muscular atrophy patient in a clinical trial to check the usability. The experimental results indicated that the EMAS II could support the patient’s upper extremity to do tasks at a table.     

Monitoring biofilm development in a microfluidic device using modified confocal reflection microscopy

The feasibility of a method to monitor biofilm development non-destructively in a microfluidic device was addressed. Here, we report that biofilm growth could be non-destructively monitored by an image analysis technique based on modification of confocal reflection microscopy.     

A 7 ns 1 Mb BiCMOS ECL SRAM with shift redundancy

A 7-Mb BiCMOS ECL (emitter coupled logic) SRAM was fabricated in a 0.8 μm BiCMOS process. An improved buffer with a high-level output of nearly V_CC is adopted to eliminate the DC current in the level converter circuit, and the PMOS transistor has a wide operating margin in the level converter. The configurable bit organization is realized by using a sense-amplifier switch circuit with no access degradation. A wired-OR demultiplexer for the ×1 output, having the same critical path as the ×4 output circuit, allows for the same access time between the two modes. The ×1 or ×4 mode is electrically selected by the external signal. A simplified programming redundancy technology, shift redundancy, is utilized. Address programming is performed by cutting only one fuse in the shift redundancy. The RAM operates at the ECL-10K level with an access time of 7 ns. and the power dissipation at 50 MHz is 600 mW for the × mode     

Pose-Invariant Facial Expression Recognition Using Variable-Intensity Templates

In this paper, we propose a method for pose-invariant facial expression recognition from monocular video sequences. The advantage of our method is that, unlike existing methods, our method uses a simple model, called the variable-intensity template, for describing different facial expressions. This makes it possible to prepare a model for each person with very little time and effort. Variable-intensity templates describe how the intensities of multiple points, defined in the vicinity of facial parts, vary with different facial expressions. By using this model in the framework of a particle filter, our method is capable of estimating facial poses and expressions simultaneously. Experiments demonstrate the effectiveness of our method. A recognition rate of over 90% is achieved for all facial orientations, horizontal, vertical, and in-plane, in the range of ±40 degrees, ±20 degrees, and ±40 degrees from the frontal view, respectively. Electronic Supplementary Material  The online version of this article () contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.     

Synthesis and hydrophilic property of polypropylene-graft-poly(polyethylene glycol-methacrylate) (PP-g-P(PEGMA))

Polypropylene-graft-poly(polyethylene glycol-methacrylate) (PP-g-P(PEGMA)), which is a hydrophobic-hydrophilic graft copolymer, was synthesized by a combination of an atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) of PEGMA with brominated polypropylene (PP-Br), which was synthesized from PP-OH prepared by metallocene-catalyzed copolymerization. Its structure was confirmed by ¹H NMR and GPC analyses. Transmission electron microscope (TEM) micrographs of PP-g-P(PEGMA) revealed the nanometer level microphase-separation morphology between the PP segment and the P(PEGMA) segment. The obtained PP-g-P(PEGMA) showed water-absorbing property as well as thermostability.     

Diffusion-controlled Adsorption Kinetics of Surfactant at Air/Solution Interface

For the diffusion-controlled adsorption, the expression of dynamic surface adsorption Γ(t) was ob-tained by solving the diffusion equation. Two cases, i.e. the short and long time limits, were mainly d...     

Novel Structures for Porous Silicon Light-Emitting Diodes

In this paper, two novel structures of porous silicon (PS) light-emitting diodes (LEDs) are proposed aiming at the reduction of series resistance, R_s. The basic idea of the novel structures is to suppress the excessive growth of nanoporous silicon (nano-PS) layer that is electroluminescence- (EL-) active but highly resistive. The initial wafer of the first structure consists of a lightly-doped layer stacked on a highly-doped substrate. As a consequence of anodization, nano-PS layer is formed only in the lightly-doped layer, while meso-PS layer with moderate resistivity is formed in the highly-doped substrate. The second structure consists of alternately stacked nano- and meso-PS layers, since it is expected that multiple thin nano-PS layers connected in series are less resistive than a single thick nano-PS layer. Preliminary experimental results proved the effectiveness of these novel structures on the reduction of R_s.     

Administration of docosahexaenoic acid influences behavior and plasma catecholamine levels at times of psychological stress

The purpose of the present research was to clarify the effect of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) intake on behavior and plasma catecholamines (CA). In Study 1, 42 students took either DHA-rich oil capsules containing 1.5–1.8 g DHA/d or control oil capsules containing 97% soybean oil plus 3% of another fish oil for 3 mon in a double-blind fashion. They took a psychological test (PF Study) at the start and end of the study. This study started at the end of summer vacation and ended just before the final exams. In the control group, external aggression (aggression against others) in PF Study was significantly increased at the end of the study as compared with that measured at the start (+8.9%), whereas it was not significantly changed in the DHA group (?1.0%). In a similar double-blind study (Study 2), we measured external aggression under nonstressful conditions. External aggression slightly decreased in the control group, whereas there were no significant changes in the DHA group. In Study 3 with 14 students, plasma CA were measured at the start and end of capsule administration period of 2 mon. Subjects were under continuous stress of the final exams that lasted throughout the whole study period. The ratio of plasma epinephrine to norepinephrine concentrations was significantly increased in the DHA group (78%), whereas it stayed at the same level in the control group. In Study 4, mice were fed either DHA-deficient diet or -sufficient diet for 4 wk, and their rearing frequency (an anxiety index) was measured. In the DHA-sufficient group, the rearing frequency was significantly less than in the other group. These effects of DHA intake may be applied to people in an attempt to ameliorate stress-related diseases.     

Effect of elevated annealing temperature on the morphology, microstructure, conductivity and microwave absorption properties of phthalocyanine polymer

An aromatic, diether-linked phthalocyanine resin (Pc) was prepared from 4,4′-bis (3,4-dicyanophenoxy) biphenyl (BPh) and investigated for morphology, microstructure, dielectric, conductivity and microwave absorption properties at different annealing temperatures from 300 to 800 °C. The results showed that the annealing temperature could significantly change the morphology and microstructure of the Pc polymer, leading to the generation of carbon-Pc polymer composites, and enhance the microwave absorbing and electrical properties of the Pc polymer. The dramatic electrical and dielectric transition happened when the annealing condition was 550 °C 24 h. The conductivity of the samples exhibited a transition of electrical behavior from an insulator to semiconductor of approximately 10⁺² S/cm. Pc polymer exhibited excellent microwave absorption properties in the frequency range of 0.5–18.0 GHz after sintering process. The microwave absorption of the annealing Pc polymer can be mainly attributed to the dielectric loss rather than magnetic loss. The sample annealed at 500 °C 24 h had two strong microwave absorbing peaks and achieved a maximum absorbing value of ?44 dB around 10.7 and 17.5 GHz when the thickness was 3.0 mm. The novel carbon-Pc polymer composites were believed to have potential applications in the microwave absorbing area.