Robust estimation of body temperature based on clustering

This paper proposes a method for estimating the body temperature using a temperature sensor installed on the inside surface of a blood‐pressure cuff. It is known that the skin surface temperature changes with the outside temperature so that the human body temperature is kept constant. In this paper, based on this property, the body temperature is estimated from the skin surface temperature and the outside temperature measured concurrently while the blood pressure is measured. Considering the actual situation, the estimation could be difficult when the temperature of the blood‐pressure meter cuff is greatly different from that of upper arm skin, for example. To solve the problem, we classify in advance various learning samples into multiple classes with different sets of parameters to estimate the body temperature. © 2013 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

A competitive particle swarm optimizer and its application to wireless sensor networks

In this paper, a simple competitive particle swarm optimizer for finding plural acceptable solutions is proposed. In the proposed algorithm, particles are divided into plural groups corresponding to the required number of solutions. The groups simultaneously search for solutions in their own priority search regions. These regions prevent the different groups from searching for the same solutions. The proposed algorithm can effectively find desired plural acceptable solutions without introducing complex judgments for convergences to each solution and without increasing the number of search iterations. Also, the proposed algorithm can easily control distances between these solutions by adjusting a single additional parameter. Through numerical experiments, the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm is verified. In addition, the proposed algorithm is applied to a problem in wireless sensor networks. It is shown that obtained results can contribute to prolonging lifetime of such networks. © 2012 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Polyphasic characterization of a PCP-to-phenol dechlorinating microbial community enriched from paddy soil

Dechlorination of PCP has been observed previously under anaerobic condition in paddy soil. However, there is poor information about the dechlorination pathway of PCP and the microbial community associated with the PCP dechlorination in paddy soil. In this study, an anaerobic microbial community dechlorinating PCP was enriched by serial transfers from a paddy soil using a medium containing PCP, lactate and the steam-sterilized paddy soil. The enriched microbial community dechlorinated PCP completely to phenol under the anaerobic condition by a dechlorinating pathway as follows; PCP-->2,3,4,5-tetrachlorophenol-->3,4,5-trichlorophenol-->3,5-dichlorophenol-->3-chlorophenol-->phenol. Intermediate products such as 3-chlorophenol were not accumulated, which were immediately dechlorinated to phenol. The enriched microbial community was characterized physiologically by testing the effects of electron donors and electron acceptors on the dechlorinating activity. The dechlorinating activity was promoted with lactate, pyruvate, and hydrogen as electron donors but not with acetate. Electron acceptors, nitrate and sulphate, inhibited the dechlorinating activity competitively but not iron (III). The microbial group associated with the anaerobic dechlorination was characterized by the effect of specific inhibitors on the PCP dechlorination. Effects of specific metabolic inhibitors and antibiotics indicated the involvement of Gram-positive spore-forming bacteria with the PCP dechlorinating activity, which was represented as bacteria of phylum Firmicutes. The structure of the microbial community was characterized by fluorescence in situ hybridization, quinone profiling, and PCR-DGGE (denaturing gel gradient electrophoresis). The combined results indicated the predominance of Clostridium species of phylum Firmicutes in the microbial community. Desulfitobacterium spp. known as anaerobic Gram-positive spore-forming bacteria dechlorinating PCP were not detected by PCR using a specific primer set. These indicated a probable presence of novel anaerobic Gram-positive spore-forming bacteria dechlorinating PCP in the microbial community.     

Serotonin receptor 1A knockout: an animal model of anxiety-related disorder

To investigate the contribution of individual serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine; 5-HT) receptors to mood control, we have used homologous recombination to generate mice lacking specific serotonergic receptor subtypes. In the present report, we demonstrate that mice without 5-HT1A receptors display decreased exploratory activity and increased fear of aversive environments (open or elevated spaces). 5-HT1A knockout mice also exhibited a decreased immobility in the forced swim test, an effect commonly associated with antidepressant treatment. Although 5-HT1A receptors are involved in controlling the activity of serotonergic neurons, 5-HT1A knockout mice had normal levels of 5-HT and 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid, possibly because of an up-regulation of 5-HT1B autoreceptors. Heterozygote 5-HT1A mutants expressed approximately one-half of wild-type receptor density and displayed intermediate phenotypes in most behavioral tests. These results demonstrate that 5-HT1A receptors are involved in the modulation of exploratory and fear-related behaviors and suggest that reductions in 5-HT1A receptor density due to genetic defects or environmental stressors might result in heightened anxiety.     

Mechanical reliability and durability of SOFC stacks. Part I : Modelling of the effect of operating conditions and design alternatives on the reliability

Electrochemical and mechanical aspects in solid oxide fuel cell stack must be understood to meet the reliability targets for market implementation. This study presents a stack modelling framework that combines thermo-electrochemical models, including degradation and a contact finite-element thermo-mechanical model. It considers rate-independent plasticity and creep of the component materials and proposes periodic boundary conditions to model the stacking of repeating units. This Part I focuses on the effects of the operating conditions and design alternatives.