Prolonged Aftereffect of Visuomotor Adaptation to Gradually Distorted Reality Displayed on a See-Through Head-Mounted Device

Growing evidence suggests that the gradual transformation of visuomotor association drives a distinct learning process from abrupt transformation in humans. In the current study, we developed a novel omnidirectional visuomotor transformation paradigm to study details of such difference in more realistic environment than conventional experimental systems. Participants were asked to perform a repetitive three-dimensional (3D) arm-reaching task to a target on a front touch panel, wearing a video see-through head-mounted device that displayed a rotating view of surrounding images. In the abrupt condition, the images were rotated by 20°; in the gradual condition, the rotation was increased in a stepwise-manner from 0° to 20°. In both conditions, pointing errors were decreased after adaptation. Further, although the aftereffect of adaptation was not different between conditions, the speed of decay of the aftereffect, which was quantified by an exponential fit, was slower in the gradual condition, suggesting longer-lasting aftereffects for the gradual shift.     

Visualization of TiO2 Reduction Behavior in Molten Salt Electrolysis

Metallurgical and Materials Transactions B - An in situ observation technique of the TiO2 interfacial behavior in molten LiCl-KCl electrolysis was developed. The variation of the thin TiO2...     

A DYNAMIC POPULATION MODEL INCORPORATING A VARIETY OF URBAN FUNCTIONS

"This paper aims to investigate the theoretical background of Allen and Sanglier's model, slightly modifying it. We construct a dynamic two-city population model in which there are different types of urban functions in the cities. Population dynamics of both cities are expressed in terms of a system of differential equations of the logistic type, taking account of spatial interaction between them. For this model, both the existence condition and the globally asymptotic stability of the equilibrium state are theoretically explored. Then configurations of equilibrium population distribution that correspond to different combinations of the numbers of types of urban functions in two cities are also examined. Finally, some numerical simulations are done in order to supplement the theoretical considerations."     

Plasma concentrations of adrenomedullin correlate with the extent of pulmonary hypertension in patients with mitral stenosis

Cedax is the antibiotic drug of the third generation cephalosporin type. In the Department of Otolaryngology of the University Medical School in Poznań tests were carried out on the effectiveness of this drug in the prevention of perioperative infections (tonsillectomy, adenotomy, septoplastics, nasal polypectomy, mucotomy). The experiment comprised 50 patients who were administered Cedax once a day of the period of five consecutive days, beginning on the day of the surgery. Control group compare 50 patients who did not receive the antibiotic cover. For the comparison of both groups the following symptoms were taken into account: general condition of the patient, body temperature in the first few days after the surgery, the healing of the operative wound (the condition of mucosa, healing "per primam" or "per secundam"), the presence and type of nasal discharge. A high degree of efficiency of ceftibuten has observed.     

Organic Long-Persistent Luminescence from a Thermally Activated Delayed Fluorescence Compound

Organic long-persistent luminescence (OLPL) is one of the most promising methods for long-lived-emission applications. However, present room-temperature OLPL emitters are mainly based on a bimolecular exciplex system which usually needs an expensive small molecule such as 2,8-bis(diphenyl-phosphoryl)dibenzo[b,d]thiophene (PPT) as the acceptor. In this study, a new thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) compound, 3-(4-(9H-carbazol-9-yl)phenyl)acenaphtho[1,2-b]pyrazine-8,9-dicarbonitrile (CzPhAP), is designed, which also shows OLPL in many well-known hosts such as PPT, 2,2′,2″-(1,3,5-benzinetriyl)-tris(1-phenyl-1-H-benzimidazole) (TPBi), and poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA), without any exciplex formation, and its OLPL duration reaches more than 1 h at room temperature. Combining the low cost of PMMA manufacture and flexible designs of TADF molecules, pure organic, large-scale, color tunable, and low-cost room-temperature OLPL applications become possible. Moreover, it is found that the onset of the 77 K afterglow spectra from a TADF-emitter-doped film is not necessarily reliable for determining the lowest triplet state energy level. This is because in some TADF-emitter-doped films, optical excitation can generate charges (electron and holes) that can later recombine to form singlet excitons during the phosphorescence spectrum measurement. The spectrum taken in the phosphorescence time window at low temperature may consequently consist of both singlet and triplet emission.     

Chemically Tuned p‐ and n‐Type WSe2 Monolayers with High Carrier Mobility for Advanced Electronics

Monolayers of transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs) have attracted a great interest for post‐silicon electronics and photonics due to their high carrier mobility, tunable bandgap, and atom‐thick 2D structure. With the analogy to conventional silicon electronics, establishing a method to convert TMDC to p‐ and n‐type semiconductors is essential for various device applications, such as complementary metal‐oxide‐semiconductor (CMOS) circuits and photovoltaics. Here, a successful control of the electrical polarity of monolayer WSe₂ is demonstrated by chemical doping. Two different molecules, 4‐nitrobenzenediazonium tetrafluoroborate and diethylenetriamine, are utilized to convert ambipolar WSe₂ field‐effect transistors (FETs) to p‐ and n‐type, respectively. Moreover, the chemically doped WSe₂ show increased effective carrier mobilities of 82 and 25 cm² V^?1s^?1 for holes and electrons, respectively, which are much higher than those of the pristine WSe₂. The doping effects are studied by photoluminescence, Raman, X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and density functional theory. Chemically tuned WSe₂ FETs are integrated into CMOS inverters, exhibiting extremely low power consumption ( ≈ 0.17 nW). Furthermore, a p‐n junction within single WSe₂ grain is realized via spatially controlled chemical doping. The chemical doping method for controlling the transport properties of WSe₂ will contribute to the development of TMDC‐based advanced electronics.     

Analytical formula for the pseudoinverse and its application for singular path tracking with a class of redundant robotic limbs

This work introduces a novel formula for calculating the right pseudoinverse, proposed for a class of kinematically redundant robotic limbs with one degree of redundancy. The formula is derived from the Singularity-Consistent method and is expressed as a sum of scalable vector fields parameterized by the desired end link twist. Pseudoinverse properties are ensured by assigning proper vector field intensities. The formula is applied to the IK problem, whereby the end link tracks a degenerate singular path, i.e. a nontangential path that penetrates the workspace boundary, and thus resulting in an unavoidable kinematic singularity. Through this method, the instability of the conventional pseudoinverse solution and the stationary point problem obtained when the solution is stripped from the ill-conditioned denominator is avoided. In addition, the appearance of the ‘inner obstacle’ algorithmic singularity problem known from a previous work can be circumvented. The performance of the method is verified via numerical simulations with an S-R-S-type structure and the Barrett WAM.     

Thermoelectric characterization of NaxMx/2Ti1−x/2O2 (M=Co, Ni and Fe) polycrystalline materials

Layered -titanate materials, Na_xM_x/2Ti_1−x/2O₂ (M=Co, Ni and Fe, x=0.2–0.4), were synthesized by flux reactions, and electrical properties of polycrystalline products were measured at 300–800 °C. After sintering at 1250 °C in Ar, all products show n-type thermoelectric behavior. The values of both d.c. conductivity and Seebeck coefficient of polycrystalline Na_0.4Ni_0.2Ti_0.8O₂ were ca. 7×10³ S/m and ca. −193 μV/K around 700 °C, respectively. The measured thermal conductivity of layered -titanate materials has lower value than conductive oxide materials. It was ca. 1.5 Wm⁻¹ K⁻¹ at 800 °C. The estimated thermoelectric figure-of-merit, Z, of Na_0.4Ni_0.2Ti_0.8O₂ and Na_0.4Co_0.2Ti_0.8O₂ was about 1.9×10⁻⁴ and 1.2×10⁻⁴ K⁻¹ around 700 °C, respectively.