Nonequilibrium dynamics of a reacting network system

The nonlinear nonequilibrium properties of reacting network systems are studied by computer simulations. It is shown that the fluctuation in the population of each chemical species obeys a log-normal distribution, not the normal Gaussian distribution. The reaction rate shows power-law decay with activation cost (energy), not the Arrhenius-type exponential decay observed in a linear nonequilibrium regime. These two characteristic features will explain the diversity, plasticity, and adaptivity observed in complex biological reaction networks. This work was presented in part at the 13th International Symposium on Artifical Life and Robotics, Oita, Japan, January 31–February 2, 2008     

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.     

Sensory evaluation of beef patties and sausages containing lipids with various component fatty acids

Sensory scores of beef patties and emulsion-type sausages containing varying levels of lipids with various component fatty acids were investigated. Sensory scores of beef patties containing solid fat were relatively constant at every fat level examined. However, scores of beef patties containing liquid oil decreased with increasing level of added oil. In the case of sausages, on the other hand, sensory evaluation scores markedly decreased with increasing the level of solid fat, while no significant change was observed in panel scores when liquid oil was mixed into sausages. Even 10% level of added lipids satisfactorily gave preferable acceptability to beef patties and sausages.     

Optimization of facial skin temperature-based anomaly detection model considering diurnal variation

Artificial Life and Robotics - The amount of blood under the surface of skin is controlled by the autonomic nervous system and directly influences the facial skin temperature. Classification models...     

Modified Bagolini striated glass test: clinical applications of starlight test in binocular visual field screening

AIM: To introduce the "starlight" test which was devised to check binocular vision in normal conditions of seeing in a rapid, easy, and cost effective manner and to estimate the possibility of its clinical use in screening the binocular visual field of patients. METHOD: The Bagolini striated glass test consists of optically plano lenses with imperceptible parallel scratches that barely blur the environment but produce two perpendicular luminous stripes (right eye stripe of 45 degrees and left eye stripe of 135 degrees) when subjects with normal binocular vision view one light source. Unlike the original Bagolini test, the starlight test uses three light sources in horizontal or vertical lines according to the testing purposes and the subject is asked to fixate upon the centre light. Through Bagolini glasses, the subject observes the resulting grid-like pattern and the state of binocular visual field of the subject can be roughly estimated. RESULTS: Normal subjects and patients with strabismus, visual field loss from intracranial diseases, glaucoma, retinitis pigmentosa, and functional visual loss were examined using the starlight test and findings from each case were discussed. CONCLUSIONS: The starlight test, which was made by hand at a low cost, is a simple test that can be used clinically. It provides information about the state of binocular vision of patients in normal conditions of seeing. It is also useful because it enables the examiner to share similar experiences with the examinee. The results suggest it can be effective in visual field screening.     

Effects of azelastine on the level of serum interleukin-4 and soluble CD23 antigen in the treatment of nasal allergy

Research findings and various published studies point to interleukin 4 (IL-4) and CD23 antigen as instrumental in allergic reactions of allergy patients because these two substances are part of the main triggering mechanisms in cells producing IgE antibodies. In this study it was investigated whether the control of IL-4 and CD23 levels result in a decrease of the severity of allergic reactions. It is well known that azelastine hydrochloride (AZ, CAS 79307-93-0) suppresses symptoms of nasal allergy. The antiallergic activity of this drug includes the suppression of IgE antibody production, antigen-antibody reactions, liberation of mediators and mediator antagonism. One report states that the cytokines IL-2, IL-3, and IL-4 were suppressed by AZ in cultured cells. There have been no reports regarding cytokines in clinical treatment using AZ. Therefore, the effects of AZ treatment on IL-4, soluble CD23, and RAST (radioallergosorbent test) levels in the sera of allergic rhinitis patients were studied. The results show that the levels of IL-4 and soluble CD23 were significantly reduced by the administration of AZ over a 4-week period, especially in patients with "excellent" or "good" efficacy of therapy.     

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.     

Single-crystal growth and characterization of Cu2O and CuO

We have prepared a large number of crystals of cuprous oxide (Cu2O) by various procedures. Photoluminescence spectra of these crystals were studied to examine the concentration of defects, especially copper vacancy VCu to seek favourable conditions for growing Cu2O crystal. High-quality single crystals of Cu2O were prepared by the floating-zone melting method in air. Several synthetic crystals (specimens FA, FZ and GZ) and also a natural crystal were studied by X-ray analysis, inductively coupled plasma spectroscopy analysis, optical absorption, photoluminescence, photoconductivity and cyclotron resonance absorption, photoluminescence, photoconductivity and cyclotron resonance absorption to characterize their optical and electrical qualities. The best values of mobility and scattering time of photocarriers at T = 4.2 K are estimated to be h1.8 × 105 cm2 V–1 s–1 and h60 ps for positive holes, and 1.3 × 105 cm2 V–1 s–1 and 70 ps for electrons in Cu2O. Further, we report preliminary experimental results on transport property of crystals also of cupric oxide (CuO) purified by the floating-zone melting method.     

Dynamic defocus and occlusion compensation of projected imagery by model-based optimal projector selection in multi-projection environment

This paper presents a novel model-based approach of dynamic defocus and occlusion compensation method in a multi-projection environment. Conventional defocus compensation research applies appearance-based method, which needs a point spread function (PSF) calibration when either position or orientation of an object to be projected is changed, thus cannot be applied to interactive applications in which the object dynamically moves. On the other hand, we propose a model-based method in which PSF and geometric calibrations are required only once in advance, and projector’s PSF is computed online based on geometric relationship between the projector and the object without any additional calibrations. We propose to distinguish the oblique blur (loss of high-spatial-frequency components according to the incidence angle of the projection light) from the defocus blur and to introduce it to the PSF computation. For each part of the object surfaces, we select an optimal projector that preserves the largest amount of high-spatial-frequency components of the original image to realize defocus-free projection. The geometric relationship can also be used to eliminate the cast shadows of the projection images in multi-projection environment. Our method is particularly useful in the interactive systems because the movement of the object (consequently geometric relationship between each projector and the object) is usually measured by an attached tracking sensor. This paper describes details about the proposed approach and a prototype implementation. We performed two proof-of-concept experiments to show the feasibility of our approach.