Developmental variations in plasma leptin,leptin soluble receptor and their molar ratio in healthy infants

Background  

Leptin and its soluble receptor (sOB-R) are important to regulation of body composition but there are no data on the developmental variations in these plasma variables and their relationship with body composition measurements,     

Chemiresistor sensor using elastomer-functionalized carbon nanotube nanocomposites for the detection of gasoline spills

Two types of multi-walled carbon nanotube (MWNT)-based elastomer nanocomposites are used as a sensor material for the detection of gasoline spills by applying the interdigitated electrode (IDE) device. MWNT-g-polyisoprene (PI) and Si-MWNT/natural rubber (NR) are prepared by applying “grafting-from” and “grafting-to” process, respectively. When compared based on the identical condition of gasoline sensing test, the maximum response value to the exposure of gasoline is 17.5 for MWNT-g-PI sensor and 12.9 for Si-MWNT/NR sensor, which reach the maximum in less than 3 min. The MWNT-g-PI sensor selectively detects gasoline, and its response is completely reversible. It shows that the longer chain length of PI brings about the larger response of MWNT-g-PI sensor to gasoline. The sensitivity of MWNT-g-PI sensor highly depends on both how much gasoline is exposed to the sensor and what bias voltage is applied to the IDE device. The IDE sensor using MWNT-g-PI nanocomposites effectively detects gasoline spills.     

Temperature and grain size dependence of superplasticity in a Zn−0.3wt.%Al alloy

The superplastic deformation behavior of quasi-single phase Zn-0.3 wt. %Al was investigated. A series of load relaxation and tensile tests was conducted at various temperatures ranging from RT (20 °C) to 200 °C. The recently proposed internal variable theory of structural superplasticity was applied. The flow curves obtained from load relaxation tests were shown to consist of contributions from interface sliding (IS) and accommodating plastic deformation. In the case of quasi-single phase Zn-0.3 wt.% Al alloy with an average agrain size of 1 μm, the IS behavior could be described as a viscous flow process characterized by a power index of M_g=0.5. A large elongation of about 1400% was obtained at room temperature and the strain rate sensitivity parameter was about 0.4. Although relatively large-grained (10 μm) single phase alloy showed a high value of strain rate sensitivity comparable to that of fine-grained alloy at very low strain rate range, IS was not expected from the analysis based on the internal variable theory of structural superplasticity at room temperature. As the temperature increased above 100 °C, however, the contribution from IS was observed at a very low strain rate range. A high elongation of ∼400% was obtained in a specimen of 10-μm-grain-size at 200 °C under a strain rate of 2×10⁻⁴/sec. Jointly appointed at Center for Advanced Aerospace Materials (CAAM)     

Suppressing harmonic vibrations of a miniature cryogenic cooler using an adaptive tunable vibration absorber based on magneto-rheological elastomers

This paper presents dynamic performances of an adaptive tunable vibration absorber (TVA) designed to suppress the main harmonic disturbance of a miniature linear cryogenic cooler, which is being used in space applications such as an observation satellite. The adaptive TVA employs a magneto-rheological elastomer (MRE) for a variable stiffness element. This study first investigates the shear modulus change of MRE samples with respect to the magnetic flux density, which varies through the alignment of particle chains. The MRE with the maximal shear modulus change is mounted for the TVA on a prototype cooler, which emulates the characteristics of a miniature cryogenic cooler. Using the test setup, a series of vibration tests are performed to evaluate the performance and efficacy of the MRE TVA and its re-tuning ability. The experimental results show that the MRE TVA is able to robustly suppress the vibration of the cooler even when the frequency of resonant vibration is changed up to 87% from its initial frequency.     

Green practices-IS alignment and environmental performance: The mediating effects of coordination

The problem of environmental sustainability has been growing in recent years with an interest from both researchers and practitioners. A major gap that exists is the absence of empirical studies that addressed business value of green IS (information systems). Thus, drawing on the resource-based view of the firm and IT (information technology) business value literature, this study aims to develop a comprehensive research model of green practice-IS alignment, the key cross-functional coordination of green practices with manufacturing and marketing functions, and firm performance. The study provides a better understanding of the relationship between green practice-manufacturing coordination and green practice-marketing coordination, and how both variables mediated the relationship between green practices-IS alignment and environmental performance. The data used in this study were collected from manufacturing firms. The results show that a firm’s green practices-IS alignment had a positive effect on both green practices-manufacturing coordination and green practices-marketing coordination. In turn, both green practices-manufacturing coordination and green practices-marketing coordination are the significant predictors of environmental performance. Meanwhile, green practices-IS alignment had an indirect effect on environmental performance via both green practices-manufacturing coordination and green practices-marketing coordination. Moreover, the findings of this study show that environmental performance is an important predictor of economic performance.     

Map building method for urban gas pipelines based on landmark detection

This paper presents a map building method for an in-pipe robot to navigate inside urban gas pipelines autonomously, whose configuration is unknown or partially known. In the first, we explain the reason why the navigation in the pipeline is difficult and then, present a method for obtaining a robot’s posture by using a pipeline’s unique geometrical features. The robot can obtain its heading direction by detecting the standardized geometries of pipe elements. Based on the method, we propose a robot controller consisting of discrete and continuous controllers. The discrete controller is activated by pre-defined events and generates appropriate paths for exploration. The continuous controller receives the desired path and physically moves the robot to the desired path. The method is implemented in an in-pipe robot, called MRINSPECT-V and its effectiveness is validated.     

Development of a quadruped walking robot AiDIN-III using biologically inspired kinematic analysis

This paper presents a bio-inspired mechanism design for a quadruped walking robot. The approach is derived from the observation on the behaviors of quadruped locomotion, skeletal structure, and the study on the stability of walking based on morphological analysis. In the first, we define the design parameters such as the dimensions of the body and limbs, the center of mass position, and locomotion mechanisms based on surveys on the literatures from biologists. Then, by using the parameters, we propose an useful framework for determining the design parameters of a quadruped walking robot. For implementations, we manufacture a dog-type self-contained quadruped walking robot, named AiDIN-III (Artificial Digitigrade for Natural Environment version III) and the effectiveness of the proposed idea is validated via experimental works.     

Intelligent digital redesign for nonlinear systems using a guaranteed cost control method

In this paper, a novel intelligent digital redesign (IDR) technique using the guaranteed cost control method is proposed for nonlinear systems which can be represented by a Takagi-Sugeno (T-S) fuzzy model. The IDR technique, which is one of the sampled-data fuzzy controller design methods, guarantees not only the stability condition of the sampled-data closed-loop system with the sampleddata fuzzy controller and the state-matching error is presented. By using the concept of the guaranteed cost control method, sufficient conditions are obtained for both minimization of the state-matching error and stabilization of the sampled-data closed-loop system and derived in terms of linear matrix inequalities (LMIs). Finally, a numerical example is provided to verify the effectiveness of the proposed technique.     

A distributed multi-agent meeting scheduler

Electronic calendars are important tools that are used by consumers on a daily basis. However, scheduling a meeting that involves persons with different commitments and preferences remains a difficult task. Meeting scheduling is difficult because current calendaring applications cannot handle the responsibility of automatically and autonomously managing time slots. This paper presents a distributed multi-agent system architecture in which each person is represented by an agent. These agents automatically and autonomously work together to assist different users to book meetings on their behalf. Each agent has the capability to manage, negotiate and schedule tasks, meetings, events, appointments for its assigned user. In this multi-agent system, the agents coordinate their activities and negotiate on behalf of their associated users to find a solution that satisfies the users' meeting requirements and preferences. A prototype of this system is implemented to demonstrate how the agents can automatically book meetings.