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.     

Serotype-specific amplification of Rickettsia tsutsugamushi DNA by nested polymerase chain reaction

Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) with nested primer pairs was used to diagnose scrub typhus and identify the Rickettsia tsutsugamushi serotype. The primer pairs used for PCR were designed on the basis of the nucleotide sequence of the gene that encodes the 56-kDa antigen. Serotype-specific primers were used in the second PCR amplification. Five serovariants, the Gilliam, Karp, Kato, Kawasaki, and Kuroki strains of R. tsutsugamushi, were identified by nested PCR. In addition, the serotype identified by PCR with DNA from blood clots was the same as that of the strain isolated from five patients with scrub typhus. These findings indicate that this method is useful for diagnosis and identification of the rickettsial serotype in infected patients.     

Monitoring of human enteric viruses and coliform bacteria in waters after urban flood in Jakarta, Indonesia.

Floodwaters in Kampung Melayu village, Jakarta, Indonesia, as well as river water and consumable water (including groundwater and tap water) samples in flooded and non-flooded areas, were quantitatively analysed to assess occurrence of viruses and total coliforms and E. coli as bacterial indicators after flooding event. High numbers of enterovirus, hepatitis A virus, norovirus (G1, G2) and adenovirus were detected at high concentration in floodwaters and waters sampled from Ciliwung River which runs across metropolitan Jakarta and is used widely for agriculture and domestic purposes by poor residents. One out of three groundwater wells in the flooded area was contaminated with all viruses tested while no viruses were found in groundwater samples in non-flooded areas and tap water samples. The results revealed that human enteric viruses, especially hepatitis A virus and adenovirus, were prevalent in Jakarta, Indonesia. This study suggested that flooding posed a higher risk of viral infection to the people through contamination of drinking water sources or direct contact with floodwaters.     

Active sites of Cu-ZSM-5 for the decomposition of acrylonitrile

The catalytic decomposition of acrylonitrile (AN) over Cu-ZSM-5 prepared with various Cu loadings was investigated. AN conversion, during which the nitrogen atoms in AN were mainly converted to N₂, increased as Cu loading increased. N₂ selectivities as high as 90–95% were attained. X-ray diffraction measurements (XRD) and temperature-programmed reduction by H₂ (H₂-TPR) showed the existence of bulk CuO in Cu-ZSM-5 with a Cu loading of 6.4 wt% and the existence of highly dispersed CuO in Cu-ZSM-5 with a Cu loading of 3.3 wt%. Electron spin resonance measurements revealed that Cu-ZSM-5 contains three forms of isolated Cu²⁺ ions (square-planar, square-pyramidal, and distorted square-pyramidal). The H₂-TPR results suggested that in Cu-ZSM-5 with a Cu loading of 2.9 wt% and below, Cu⁺ existed even after oxidizing pretreatment. The activity of AN decomposition over Cu/SiO₂ suggested that CuO could form N₂, but, independent of the CuO dispersion, nitrogen oxides (NO_x) were formed above 350 °C. Cu⁺ and the square-pyramidal and distorted square-pyramidal forms of Cu²⁺ showed low activity for AN decomposition. Temperature-programmed desorption of NH₃ suggested that N₂ formation from NH₃ proceeded on Cu²⁺, resulting in the formation of Cu⁺. The Cu⁺ ions were oxidized to Cu²⁺ at around 300 °C. Thus, high N₂ selectivity over Cu-ZSM-5 with a wide range of temperature was probably attained by the reaction over the square-planar Cu²⁺, which can be reversibly reduced and oxidized.     

A stochastic realization algorithm via block LQ decomposition in Hilbert space

A stochastic realization problem of a stationary stochastic process is re-visited, and a new stochastically balanced realization algorithm is derived in a Hilbert space generated by second-order stationary processes. The present algorithm computes a stochastically balanced realization by means of the singular value decomposition of a weighted block Hankel matrix derived by a “block LQ decomposition”. Extension to a stochastic subspace identification method explains how the proposed abstract algorithm is implemented in system identification.     

Transmit permission control on spread ALOHA packets in LEOsatellite systems

A transmit permission control method for improving the throughput characteristics of a low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite communication system employing spread-slotted ALOHA multiple-access scheme is proposed. Both nonfading and fading satellite links are considered. The basic idea of the proposed scheme is to decrease the level of interference at each satellite and, hence, to increase the probability of packet success, by prohibiting the packet transmission from the users with relatively high propagation loss to their connecting satellites. It is shown that the method has the ability to improve the throughput performance in heavy traffic loads and the peak value of the throughput, significantly. It is also shown that the average delay performance of the system employing the proposed scheme is superior to that of the conventional system at heavy traffic loads     

A case of eosinophilic pustular folliculitis (Ofuji's disease) induced by patch and challenge tests with indeloxazine hydrochloride

A 73-year-old male developed disseminated erythema over his entire body after exposure to indeloxazine hydrochloride, a cerebral activator. Patch testing with indeloxazine hydrochloride showed a positive reaction, and plaques, vesicles and pustules developed on the face after the patch test. These had the pathologic feature of eosinophilic pustular folliculitis (EPF, Ofuji's disease). A challenge test also provoked eruptions on the face, trunk, arms and legs, which were compatible with EPF. Moreover, both the patch and challenge tests with indeloxazine hydrochloride induced eosinophilia. This is the first report of drug allergy-induced EPF, where drug sensitivity induced an abnormal eosinophilic response mimicking EPF.     

Fabrication of GaAs quantum wire structure using metal organic molecular beam epitaxy

GaAs quantum wires (100*20 nm/sup 2/) buried in AlAs layers have been successfully fabricated using metal organic molecular beam epitaxy (MOMBE) for the first time. The underlying growth mechanism is that, under appropriate As/sub 4/ pressure in MOMBE, GaAs preferentially grows only on the sidewalls of the patterned     

Intramolecular triplet energy migration in poly(2-vinylnaphthalene) and poly(naphthylalkyl methacrylate)s in solid solution: Effects of side chain length

Summary The effect of side chain length on intramolecular triplet energy migration of naphthalene containing polymers was investigated by a delayed fluorescence (DF) spectroscopy for the solid solution of the polymers. The degree of triplet energy migration depends strongly on whether the chromophores are directly attached to the main chain or not.