The Effects of Touch Button Size on Touchscreen Operability

The present study investigated the effects of touch button size on touchscreen operability and compared these effects between young adult and elderly participants. A total of 21 young adults （aged 22.3 ± 1.5 years） and 20 elderly adults （aged 68.1 ±4.9 years） were recruited and asked to press square number buttons （from 0 to 9） on an experimental touchscreen with their right index finger. The buttons＇ size changed during the experiment with six conditions （6, 8, 10, 12, 14 and 16 mm）. It was found that a decrease of the button size to l0 mm or below tended to increase the operation time and error rate, whereas it decreased the subjective overall operability of the touchscreen. Such effects were greater in the elderly adults than in the young adults. In addition, the reaction positions on the buttons were found to be close to the right side of them, which led the fingertip to approach the right outline of the buttons. These findings suggest that the use of small touch buttons should be minimised on touchscreens, especially for elderly users.     

Chromium-nitride in situ composites with a compositional gradient formed by reactive DC plasma spraying

Nitrides of transition metals have good wear- and corrosion-resistant properties because of their high hardness and chemical stability. Chromium-nitride coatings can be deposited by ion plating; however, the thin thickness due to the slow deposition rate must be improved for severe wear-resistant applications. The main objective in this paper is to realize good structural control in the processing of chromiumnitride in situ composite coatings formed at a high deposition rate. They were synthesized by reactive low-pressure plasma spraying using elemental chromium powder as a spray material. The transferred arc between the gun electrode and the substrate was used to accelerate the nitriding reaction. The sprayed coatings consist of chromium, Cr₂N, and CrN, which have a composition gradient from the substrate interface to the surface. The volume fraction of Cr₂N increases with transferred arc current, and nonreacted chromium concurrently decreases, except close to the substrate. The CrN phase, however, only exists as a surface layer of 20 to 30 μm because it is decomposed to Cr₂N above 1420 K. The hardness of the composite coatings depends on the volume fraction of Cr₂N, and it increases to 1300 HV at a Cr₂N volume fraction of 0.98. The seizure stress with lubricant depends on the coating hardness. The maximum seizure stress of 24.9 MPa is obtained at a hardness of 1300 HV. The composite coatings also show a superior wear resistance. Hence, the Cr₂N in situ composite coatings synthesized by reactive plasma spraying with transferred arc are expected to be good candidates for wear-resistant applications.     

Fracture limits of sheet metals under stretch bending

Fracture limits in sheet stretch bending were theoretically obtained on the assumption that the fracture occurs when the stretching force reaches its maximum value. From the calculated results, a fracture criterion has been presented where limit wall stretch, L_max/L₀ (L_max: limit wall length of a sheet, L₀: initial wall length), is explicitly given as a function of the non-dimensional bending curvature, t₀/R (t₀: sheet thickness, R: bending radius) and the material's work hardening exponent (n-value). To verify this criterion, three-point stretch bending tests with various punch-radii were performed on three types of aluminum sheets (A5182-O, JIS6061-T4 and JIS6N01-T5). The predicted limit wall stretch, as well as limit forming height, were in good agreement with the experimental results.     

Antimicrobial activities of ciprofloxacin against recently obtained clinical isolates

In order to evaluate antimicrobial activity of ciprofloxacin (CPFX), minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) of CPFX and other drugs were determined against clinical isolates that were obtained in our laboratory from January to December of 1991, and of 1993. The results are summarized as follows: 1. CPFX-resistant strains were on the increase in various strains, compared to those in the early 1980s. However, many of CPFX-resistant strains were multi-drug resistant including beta-lactams. In addition, they showed cross resistance to other fluoroquinolone agents. 2. MIC distribution of other drugs suggested that there were increased frequencies of benzylpenicillin (PCG)-insensitive Streptococcus pneumoniae (PISP) and CEPs-resistant Escherichia coli. However, MIC distribution of CPFX to these resistant strains were in a relatively low range. 3. When isolates of 1991 were compared to those of 1993, we confirmed that CPFX-resistant strains decreased among certain bacteria such as Staphylococcus aureus. Also we confirmed that fewer CPFX-resistant strains were found among bacteria that may be highly related to infections encountered in daily medical care.     

Primary Sj?gren's syndrome followed by chronic myelogenous leukemia: a case report with a ten year history

We describe a female patient with primary Sj?gren's syndrome who subsequently developed chronic myelogenous leukemia. The patient received a bone marrow transplant (BMT) from a genotypically HLA-identical brother after pre-transplant preparation with busulfan and cyclophosphamide. Eighteen weeks later, cutaneous and mucosal chronic graft-versus-host disease developed, followed by death 11 months after transplantation. Anti-Ro/SS-A antibodies disappeared within 6 months post-BMT, but antinuclear antibodies remained positive through the post-transplant course.     

Peptide mimics of the CTLA4-binding domain stimulate T-cell proliferation

BACKGROUND: Treatment options for malignant gastric outlet obstruction are limited. Surgical gastrojejunostomy, commonly performed, has significant morbidity and mortality. METHODS: Over 2 years, we prospectively studied the safety, feasibility, and outcomes for use of a newly designed expandable metal stent (Wallstent Enteral; Schneider, Minneapolis, Minn.) to treat malignant gastric outlet obstruction. Stents 16 to 22 mm in diameter and 60 to 90 mm in length were deployed directly through the endoscope. RESULTS: Twelve patients (ten women, two men; mean age 59.7 years) underwent stenting. Thereafter, six patients were able to eat a regular diet; three could eat pureed food. In three patients, the procedure was unsuccessful because of multiple obstructions not recognized before stenting (one) and stents deployed too proximally (one) or too distally (one). CONCLUSIONS: Placement of a newly designed stent through the endoscope is safe and effective palliation for various types of malignant gastric outlet obstruction and significantly improves many aspects of patient quality of life.     

Micronucleus test and erythropoiesis: effect of cobalt on the induction of micronuclei by mutagens

The Children Act focuses attention on meeting the assessed needs of children with disabilities. General practitioners (GPs) and Community Child Health (CCH) doctors in one health district were asked by postal questionnaire who it was who currently assessed such needs and who would do so in the future. The involvement of GPs (15) varied from none (1) to regular reassessment (3). Nearly all (14) treated acute illnesses but educational assessments were assigned to CCH doctors. Community doctors (9) had a clearer idea of their role including regular reassessment (9), education assessment (9) and interagency liaison (3). Both groups complained of poor communication with each other and with hospital services. To fulfil the requirements of the Children Act, community child health services, family health services authorities and district health authorities will have to specify how and by whom children with disabilities are identified and assessed. Arrangements will vary according to local service development. These arrangements, and the resulting liaison with other agencies, should be specified in National Health Service contracts, thus improving communication and cooperation.     

Characteristics of modified CT injector for JFT-2M

The HIT-CTI mark II compact toroid (CT) injector employed for the JFT-2M tokamak facility at the Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute (JAERI) has been upgraded to improve injection performance. The nozzle of the mark III injector now has a linear tube in place of the original focus cone to avoid rapid focus and deceleration, and the tapered outer electrode has been replaced with more gentle taper in the compression section in order to facilitate gradual compression. The dependence of CT velocity and electron density on poloidal bias flux and trigger time of CT acceleration have been investigated in the operable range of 70–230 km/s average CT velocity and electron density of 0.1–1.0 × 10²² m⁻³ at an accelerator bank voltage of 25 kV. The operation window is broader than that of the mark II injector. Emission of a CT plasmoid from the injector, and transport to the flux conserver as a high-density spheromak magnetic structure have also been confirmed.     

Using model uncertainty for robust optimization in approximate inference control

Recently, the optimization-by-inference approach has been proposed as a new means for solving high-dimensional optimization problems quickly. Approximate Inference COntrol (AICO) is one of the most successful and promising methods that implement the optimization-by-inference approach. AICO is able to solve stochastic optimal control problems and has already been successfully used in many applications. However, it is known that the iterative inference of AICO sometimes fails to converge to the optimal solution. To make the optimization more robust, in this paper, we propose to take model uncertainty into account. In AICO, the cost function to be minimized is accurate around a particular state of a given stochastic system, but the accuracy is uncertain in regions far from that state. Because using such an uncertain function is harmful to the convergence, we modify AICO, so that it does not use the function in uncertain regions. Our method is easy to implement and does not add much computational time to the original AICO. Experiments using two different scenarios show that our method substantially improves AICO in terms of the rate at which the algorithm produces convergent results.     

Electrocatalytic activities of metal electrodes in anodic oxidation of hydrazine in alkaline solution

The electrocatalytic activities of various metals and alloys in the anodic oxidation of hydrazine in alkaline solution have been studied by means of palladium membrane method in which the contact side of the membrane was electrodeposited with a thin layer of the electrocatalytic metals. The electrode materials studied can be divided into two groups. In the first group, platinum, rhodium, cobalt, cobalt—phosphor and cobalt—boron, anodic current of hydrogen oxidation on the diffusion side decreased remarkably with an increase of the electro-oxidation of hydrazine on the contact side. The anodic oxidation of hydrazine occurs through the preliminary stepwise dehydrogenation on this group metals.On the other hand, the amount of sorbed hydrogen in the palladium, gold, nickel and nickel—phosphor electrodes increased with an increase of the electro-oxidation of hydrazine on the contact side. Thus, the anodic oxidation of hydrazine on the latter group metals may proceed through the anodic formation of the intermediate radicals which readily decompose into hydrogen and the related compounds.