An animatronic system including lifelike robotic fish

This paper provides an outline of a new animatronic system, based on the technology of the flexible oscillating fin. The oscillating fin propulsion system was designed and constructed to be combined with a ship model. The system's feasibility has been confirmed by tank tests using the ship model. As a result, several advantages of the oscillating fin system have been found. A neural network was successfully applied for an identification of the ship model dynamics with the oscillating fin and its effectiveness was confirmed. The animatronic system is a computer-controlled biomechanically engineered model, rapidly gaining popularity throughout the world. We have developed aquatic robots with oscillating fins for the animatronics system to build a virtual aquarium. We have proposed an exhibition system for enhancing event spaces that includes an animatronic system for modern-day fish, coelacanths, and Cambrian-world creatures, able to swim under their own electric power.     

Diagnostic technique for degradation of engineering materials by measurement of thermophysical properties

The thermal conductivity of the surface layer of engineering materials changes in the early stages of material degradation due to the appearance of micro‐cracks. A new method for evaluating and assessing the degree of degradation of a material using this change is proposed herein. The influence of the micro‐cracked layer on the temperature response as measured by a thermophysical handy tester was theoretically examined. By defining a thermal degradation parameter, the amount of degradation of various materials was evaluated. In order to verify this theory, fatigue tests using metallic materials were conducted. Comparisons before and after the fatigue tests were then made to establish the correlation between the density of micro‐cracks and the decrease in thermal conductivity. As a result, it was ascertained that a thermal degradation parameter can easily be estimated from a temperature response curve obtained using the tester. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Heat Trans Asian Res, 36(8): 501–512, 2007; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/htj.20178     

日本新建筑标准的结构抗火设计

本的目的是为了说明1998—2000期间日本建筑规程(日本建筑标准)以及相关技术标准的修订。考虑了功能要求后，规程修订趋向于以性能为主。在抗大这一章节中，功能要求指的是在发生火灾时防止结构倒塌以及火势向其他隔问的蔓延，同时还包括防止火势由失火建筑物内部向周围建筑的扩散。为了满足功能上的要求，我们提供了三种方法(A、B、C)。方法A是传统的设计方法，即建筑框架及隔墙采用防火构件。相对于方法A，新近引进了以考虑性能为主的方法B。在方法B中，由一系列设计公式计算出指定部分发生火灾可能产生的后果、结构和边界部分的热反应、构件破坏的临界时间。设计公式应足够简单，以便于建筑工程师和有关官员的使用。由方法B计算出的结果通常是保守的。方法C是一个框架，用最先进的设计方法。规程没有指定采用的设计方法，但是工程上火灾和结构分析的结果只有在全面地考证后才能被行业接受。     

Frontopolar ictal epileptiform discharges on scalp electroencephalogram in temporal lobe epilepsy

OBJECTIVE: To determine the prevalence of the smoking habit among Mexican physicians as well as some of their attitudes and information on specific issues concerning smoking. MATERIAL AND METHODS: In 1993, a survey was carried out among 3,568 physicians of the three major official health care institutions in Mexico City. A questionnaire designed for The Mexican National Survey of Addictions (ENA 1993) was used. Prevalence of cigarette smoking, age of onset, number of cigarettes per day; also information and attitudes concerning smoking were assessed. RESULTS: The mean age was 37, 66% were males. Of the 3,488 (98%) surveyed, 26.9% were smokers (62% daily), 20.6% were ex-smokers and 52.5% non-smokers. There were differences related to age and sex (p < 0.05). Of daily smokers, 36% smoked between 1 and 5 cigarettes. There was a significant trend among ex-smokers that linked the time they had ceased smoking with the fear to start smoking again. Physicians were well informed of the relationship between cigarette smoking and lung cancer. Over 80% considered tobacco an addictive drug but only 65% were in favor of banning smoking from their workplaces and over 10% were not aware that it is forbidden to smoke inside health care facilities. CONCLUSIONS: These results differ from other studies that find the prevalence of smoking among physicians lower than in the general population. Our study revealed a greater prevalence of the smoking habit among female physicians and the number of cigarettes smoked per day was greater than in the general population regardless of sex.     

A new erasing and row decoding scheme for low supply voltageoperation 16-Mb/64-Mb flash memories

To improve the performance of high-density flash memories, several circuit technologies have been developed. A word-line boost and clamp scheme realizes low supply voltage read operations. A flash programming scheme utilizing Fowler-Nordheim (F-N) tunneling for programming before erasure and a negative gate biased erasing scheme accomplish low-power, high-speed, and 5-V-only erase operations. The chip size penalty is estimated to be only 3% for the 16-Mb flash memories     

High power and high sensitivity planar lightwave circuit moduleincorporating a novel passive alignment method

A high-power, high-sensitivity planar lightwave circuit (PLC) module, comprising a laser diode (LD) and a photodiode (PD) surface mounted on a PLC platform, has been realized by a novel passive alignment technique. We used a spot-size transformed LD and a corner-illuminated PD to form a highly efficient optical coupling between the devices and a PLC waveguide. We used the unique marker alignment method to ensure accurate positioning of them. The positioning precision achieved in the lateral direction was within 1 μm for the LD's and within 10 μm for the PD's. The rotational precision was within 0.4° for both chips. We realized high power operation (>8 mW) with a high receiver sensitivity (0.3 A/W). In this paper, we describe a high power, high sensitivity PLC incorporating a novel passive optical alignment technique for LD's and PD's     

Influence of bypass grafting to the infarct artery on late potentials in coronary operations

BACKGROUND: Late potentials (LPs) after myocardial infarction identify the risk of arrhythmic events and sudden death, and the absence of anterograde flow in the infarct-causing occluded coronary artery frequently is associated with LPs on signal-averaged electrocardiography. The present study was designed to clarify the influence of revascularization of the infarct artery on the LPs in the late course after myocardial infarction. METHODS: We studied 21 patients after myocardial infarction with positive LPs who had at least one occluded infarct coronary artery. We investigated the LPs on signal-averaged electrocardiograms on the day of elective coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) and 1 week after CABG. RESULTS: There were 25 infarct arteries in the study patients, 13 of which were grafted. The positive LPs disappeared soon after CABG in 13 patients, 10 of whom had grafts to all of the infarct arteries. The LPs persisted in 8, who received no graft to the infarct artery. One week after CABG, the LPs were still present in 4, all of whom had no graft to the infarct right coronary artery. CONCLUSIONS: In patients with positive LPs late after myocardial infarction, grafting to the infarct artery eliminated the LPs soon after CABG.     

Chemical sensing by an electrical oscillator: Detection and quantification of cationic surfactants

A new chemical sensing system using an electrical oscillator has been developed. This sensing system measures the electrical ‘non-linearity’ at the surface of an electrode immersed in a test solution: a sinusoidal voltage is applied to the electrode and the higher harmonics of the output current are obtained by Fourier transformation. This sensing system has been used to detect and quantify surfactant molecules in solutions. The relative intensity P₂/P₁ of the peaks of the second (P₂) and first (P₁) harmonics in the output current was found to be linearly correlated with the logarithms of the concentrations of cationic surfactants such as cetylpyridium bromide (CPB) and cetyl-N,N,N-trimethylammonium bromide (CTAB), but not with those of the anionic surfactant sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) or the neutral surfactant Triton X-100. The reproducibility of this sensing system was shown to be excellent.     

Electron microscopic study of erythroblastic islands obtained by 'tissue-stamp culture' method

A new 'tissue-stamp culture' method was developed for stamping proliferating erythroblasts of mouse spleens on collagen-coated coverslips after inducing haemolytic anaemia by administration of 1-acetyl-2-phenylhydrazine, and then adherent splenic cells were cultured for a few days. We could obtain many erythroblastic islands, where cultured erythroblasts were located over macrophages and were proliferated synchronously for 10-30 h, and then the erythroblasts were differentiated and enucleated after 30-50 h in the presence of erythropoietin. To observe three-dimensional structures of the erythroblastic islands, a scanning electron microscope was used for the cultured cells treated with critical point-drying method. Immature wrinkled erythroblasts with many micropinocytic pits were attached to the central area of the flattened macrophages with many cytoplasmic projections, though matured erythroblasts were localized on their peripheral areas. Moreover, cytoplasmic projections of underlying macrophages, which were attached to the matured erythroblasts, were decreased in number. At a late stage, deep cytoplasmic invaginations of erythroblasts observed at a middle stage became shallow after their enucleation and flattened to form their concave shapes. This 'tissue-stamp culture' system would be useful for studying specific interaction between stromal macrophages and haematopoietic cells.     

Fabrication of nanograined silicon by high-pressure torsion

This paper describes fabrication of Si nanograins through allotropic phase transformation by concurrent application of high pressure and intense straining using high-pressure torsion (HPT). Single-crystalline Si(100) wafers were processed by HPT under a pressure of 24 GPa at room temperature. X-ray diffraction and Raman analysis revealed that the HPT-processed samples were composed of metastable Si-III and Si-XII phases and amorphous phases in addition to the original diamond-cubic Si-I phase. It was found that nanograins formed because the Si-I diamond phase had transformed to high-pressure phases (Si-II, Si-XI, and Si-V) having metallic nature, and it then became easier to generate a high density of dislocations to form grain boundaries. The high-pressure phases were further transformed to the Si-XII and Si-III phases via the Si-II phase upon unloading and they existed as metastable phases at ambient pressure. Subsequent annealing at 873 K gave rise to reverse transformation to Si-I but with nanograin sizes. Although no appreciable photoluminescence (PL) peak was observed from the HPT-processed sample, a broad PL peak centered around 600 nm was detected from the annealed sample due to quantum confinement in the Si-I nanograins.