Multimodal sensing and active continuous closed‐loop feedback for achieving reliable manipulation in the outdoor physical world

The use of field robots can greatly decrease the amount of time, effort, and associated risk compared to if human workers were to carryout certain tasks such as disaster response. However, transportability and reliability remain two main issues for most current robot systems. To address the issue of transportability, we have developed a lightweight modularizable platform named AeroArm. To address the issue of reliability, we utilize a multimodal sensing approach, combining the use of multiple sensors and sensor types, and the use of different detection algorithms, as well as active continuous closed‐loop feedback to accurately estimate the state of the robot with respect to the environment. We used Challenge 2 of the 2017 Mohammed Bin Zayed International Robotics Competition as an example outdoor manipulation task, demonstrating the capabilities of our robot system and approach in achieving reliable performance in the fields, and ranked fifth place internationally in the competition.     

The World robot summit disaster robotics category – achievements of the 2018 preliminary competition

The World Robot Summit is a robot Olympics and aims to be held in a different country every four years from 2020. The concept of the Plant Disaster Prevention challenge is daily inspections, checks, and emergency response in industrial plants, and in this competition, robots must carry out these types of missions in a mock-up plant. The concept of the Tunnel Disaster Response and Recovery challenge is emergency response to tunnel disasters, and is a simulation competition whereby teams compete to show their ability to deal with disasters, by collecting information and removing debris. The Standard Disaster Robotics challenge assesses, in the form of a contest, the standard performance levels of a robot that are necessary for disaster prevention and emergency response. The World Robot Summit Preliminary Competition was held at Tokyo Big Sight in October 2018, and 36 teams participated in the Disaster Robotics Category. UGVs and UAVs contended the merits of new technology for solving complex problems, using core technologies such as mobility, sensing, recognition, performing operations, human interface, autonomous intelligence etc., as well as system integration and implementation of strategies for completing missions, gaining high-level results.     

Approximate cutting pattern optimization of frame-supported and pneumatic membrane structures

International Journal of Mechanics and Materials in Design - A simple iterative method is presented for cutting pattern optimization of frame-supported and pneumatic membrane structures for...     

Iodine-123-BMIPP myocardial washout and cardiac work during exercise in normal and ischemic hearts

Due to the changes in the frequency of penicillin-resistant strains of S. pneumoniae, it is necessary to perform surveillance studies of bacterial resistance. Isolates from the upper respiratory tract of asymptomatic children have been useful. There is no information about the difference between isolates from children with and without upper respiratory tract infection (URTI). The objective of the authors in this paper is to establish the prevalence of carrier-state, serotype and antimicrobial resistance of S. pneumoniae isolates from children with and without acute upper respiratory tract infection (URTI) in a rural area in Mexico. A cross-sectional comparative study was performed in Tlaxcala, Mexico. Children from one month 5 years of age were included. Nasopharyngeal swabs were obtained. Identification was done by international microbiology standards. Serotyping was done by the capsular Quellung test. The susceptibility testing was performed by the agar dilution method. Four-hundred and fifty patients were included. S. pneumoniae was isolated in 134 children (29.7%). Frequency of carriers was greater in patients with URTI (107/323) than without URTI (27/127) (33.1% vs. 21.1% p = 0.012, OR 1.84, IC 95% 1.1-3.08). The six most frequent serotypes were: 6B (16.4%); 19F (11.9%); 19A (6.7%); 14, 23F, and 35 (5.2% each), with no difference among the groups. Only 3% of the strains had high level resistance to penicillin, and 12.6% had intermediate resistance, and for ampicillin 4%, amoxicillin 4%, amoxicillin-clavulanate 4%, ceftriaxone 3%, cefotaxime 1.5%, erythromycin 6%, miocamycin 3%, chloramphenicol 4%, and vancomycin 0%. Trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole resistance was very high (42%). In conclusion, colonization is higher in children with URTI. Five of the most frequent serotypes identified in this study were the same as those identified in patients with S. pneumoniae invasive diseases in Mexico City. In Tlaxcala, Mexico, beta-lactams could be the drug of choice for the treatment of S. pneumoniae lower respiratory tract infections. It is necessary to perform clinical assays to evaluate the efficacy of trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole due to the high resistance in vitro.     

Quantal release at a neuronal nicotinic synapse from rat adrenal gland

The neuronal nicotinic synapse in tissue slices of the adrenal medulla was studied with whole-cell patch-clamp. Excitatory postsynaptic currents (EPSCs) were evoked by local field stimulation or occurred spontaneously especially when external [K+] was increased. EPSCs were carried by channels sharing biophysical and pharmacological properties of neuronal-type nicotinic receptors (nAChRs). A single-channel conductance (gamma) of 43-45 pS was found from nonstationary variance analysis of EPSCs. Spontaneous EPSCs were tetrodotoxin-insensitive and Ca(2+)-dependent and occurred in burst-like clusters. Quantal analysis of spontaneous EPSCs gave a quantal size of 20 pA and amplitude histograms were well described by binomial models with low values of quantal content, consistent with a small number of spontaneously active release sites. However, rare large amplitude EPSCs suggest that the total number of sites is higher and that extrajunctional receptors are involved. Our estimates of quantal content and size at the chromaffin cell neuronal nicotinic synapse may be useful in characterizing central neuronal-type nicotinic receptor-mediated cholinergic synaptic transmission.     

Breakdown characteristics of oil and paper insulation for a very fast transient voltage

This paper describes the dielectric breakdown characteristics of oil and oil‐impregnated paper for very fast transient (VFT) voltages. Blumlein circuits generate VFT voltages of 60 and 300 ns in a pulse width that simulates disconnecting switching surges in gas‐insulated switch gears. We measured the breakdown voltages of needle‐to‐plane, plane‐to‐plane oil gaps and several pieces of paper between plane electrodes for VFT and lightning impulse voltages. The measured data were formulated in V‐t characteristics and Weibull probability distributions. The inclination n of V‐t characteristics of insulating paper is 150, which is less than n = 13.7 of the plane‐to‐plane oil gap in the VFT time range. The shape parameters of Weibull distribution obtained in this study show that the scattering of breakdown voltages of paper is much less than that of oil. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 141(4): 16–24, 2002; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/eej.10043     

Preparation of gold nanoparticles (GNP) aqueous suspensions by a new method involving Tiron

A new method is proposed to produce gold nanoparticles (GNP) by in situ reduction of a gold salt dissolved in water. The reducing agent used is Tiron instead of the citrate anion most often mentioned in literature. The influence of various parameters has been investigated, such as the content of Tiron with respect to that of the precursor of gold HAuCl₄, or the initial pH of the solution after mixing of reactants. It is shown that Tiron also exerts a positive influence as a dispersant, which impedes agglomeration of gold nanoparticles. The typical average size of GNP synthesized in the present work is close to 7 nm.     

The predominant contribution of oligopeptide transporter PepT1 to intestinal absorption of beta-lactam antibiotics in the rat small intestine

Although recent evidence suggests that certain beta-lactam antibiotics are absorbed via a specific transport mechanism, its nature is unclear. To confirm whether peptide transport in the rat can be largely ascribed to the intestinal oligopeptide transporter PepT1, the transporter has been functionally characterized and its significance in the intestinal absorption of beta-lactam antibiotics was evaluated. For evaluation of transport activity complementary RNA (cRNA) of rat PepT1 was synthesized in-vitro and expressed in Xenopus laevis oocytes. cRNA induced uptake of several beta-lactam antibiotics and the dipeptide [14C]glycylsarcosine; this was specifically inhibited by various dipeptides and tripeptides but not by their constituent amino acids or by tetra- or pentapeptides. The transport activity of PepT1 for beta-lactam antibiotics correlated well with their in-vivo intestinal transport and absorption. Furthermore, mutual inhibitory effects on uptake were observed between glyclsarcosine and beta-lactam antibiotics. Hybrid depletion of the functional expression of rat PepT1 in oocytes injected with rat intestinal epithelial total mRNA was studied using an antisense oligonucleotide corresponding to the 5'-coding region of PepT1. In oocytes injected with rat mRNA pre-hybridized with the antisense oligonucleotide against rat PepT1, the uptake of [14C]glycylsarcosine was almost completely abolished, whereas its uptake was not influenced by a sense oligonucleotide for the same region of PepT1. Similarly, the uptake of beta-lactam antibiotics was also reduced by the antisense oligonucleotide against rat PepT1. These results demonstrate that the intestinal proton-coupled oligopeptide transporter PepT1 plays a predominant role in the carrier-mediated intestinal absorption of beta-lactam antibiotics and native oligopeptides in the rat.     

Tunable laser for sensing atmospheric transmission in the infrared region of 11 ∼ 16 µm

We succeeded in observing the continuously tunable, pulsed InSb SFR (Spin-Flip Raman) laser emission in the infrared region of 11～16µm (11.4～16.3µm) from only one InSb device, merely by adjusting the pumping wavelength (11 lines from the infrared NH₃ laser) and the applied magnetic field (0～80 kGauss).