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.     

Characterization of pigmented granules in minocycline-induced cutaneous pigmentation: observations using fluorescence microscopy and high-performance liquid chromatography

Ambiguous abdominal situs, asplenia/polysplenia and severe cardiac malformations characterize heterotaxy in humans. These anomalies result from the inability of the developing embryo to establish normal left-right asymmetry. We have studied an interesting family in which the heterotaxy phenotype segregates as an X-linked recessive trait. In order to map the heterotaxy locus (HTX), we have analysed 39 family members using highly-polymorphic microsatellite markers from the X chromosome. One of these markers, DXS994, shows no recombination with the disease locus in 20 informative meioses. Linkage analysis results in a maximum lod score of 6.37. Current genetic and physical mapping data assign the order of loci in Xq24-q27.1 as cen-DXS1001-(DXS994, HTX)-DXS984-tel. These results establish the first mapping assignment of situs abnormalities in humans.     

Anomalies of the tracheobronchial tree in patients with esophageal atresia

Bone marrow examination revealed a lipid-laden histiocytosis in seven patients undergoing long-term total parenteral nutrition necessitated by extensive short-bowel surgical resection. Clinical abnormalities occurred during this treatment which required bone marrow examination. These included hepatosplenomegaly and peripheral blood cytopenia; the median time to the detection of these abnormalities was 64 months. The most striking change within the bone marrow was the presence of many pigment-laden histiocytes which had the typical morphology of sea-blue histiocytes seen in the so-called idiopathic sea-blue histiocyte syndrome. The occurrence of sea-blue histiocytosis in the bone marrow in association with long-term parenteral nutrition for short-bowel syndrome has not, to our knowledge, been reported previously and should now be considered in the differential diagnosis of bone marrow sea-blue histiocytosis.     

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.     

An on-chip active decoupling circuit to suppress crosstalk in deep-submicron CMOS mixed-signal SoCs

A decoupling circuit using an operational amplifier is proposed to suppress substrate crosstalk in mixed-signal system-on-chip (SoC) devices. It overcomes the parasitic inductance problem of on-chip capacitor decoupling. The effect of the proposed decoupling circuit is not limited by parasitic fine impedance. A 0.13-/spl mu/m CMOS test chip showed that substrate noise at frequencies from 40 MHz to 1 GHz was incrementally suppressed by sequentially activating three of the proposed circuits in parallel. The power dissipation of each circuit was 3.3 mW at a 1.0-V power supply. The test chip measurement showed that the proposed decoupling reduced crosstalk by 31% at 200 MHz, whereas it was reduced by 4.4% with capacitor decoupling. This 7:1 ratio, or 17 dB, corresponds to the gain of the opamp. Design of the opamp and its feedback loop for active decoupling is simple, making the opamp useful for SoC applications.     

Response of inertinites from some Australian coals to non-catalytic hydrogenation in tetralin

Inertinite concentrates from three Australian bituminous coals were hydrogenated at various temperatures ranging from 350 to 475 °C in the presence of tetralin without any added catalyst. Both conversion yields and microscopic observations of the benzene-extracted hydrogenation residues have revealed that the hydrogenation of the inertinite macerals becomes significant only > 400 °C, whereas the dissolution-hydrogenation of the accompanying vitrinite macerals occurs mainly between 350 and 400 °C. The major reaction pathway for the inertinite particles in the hydrogenation process appears to be one of initial mild carbonization followed by hydrogenation. A simplified reaction scheme is proposed which describes the reaction pathway involved in the hydrogenation of inertinite.     

Magnetic resonance imaging study on the results of surgery for cervical compression myelopathy

The morphologic changes and signal intensity of the spinal cord on preoperative magnetic resonance images were correlated with postoperative outcomes in 74 patients undergoing decompressive cervical surgery for compressive myelopathy. The transverse area of the spinal cord on T1-weighted images at the level of maximum compression was closely correlated with the severity of myelopathy, duration of disease, and recovery rate as determined by the Japanese Orthopaedic Association score. In patients with ossification of the posterior longitudinal ligament or cervical spondylotic myelopathy, the increased intramedullary T2-weighted magnetic resonance imaging signal at the site of maximal cord compression and duration of disease significantly influenced the rate of recovery. A multiple regression equation was then developed with these three variables to predict surgical outcomes.     

Distinct promoter sequences of two precursor genes for salmon gonadotropin-releasing hormone in masu salmon

Three phase partitioning (TPP) uses t-butanol and ammonium sulfate to precipitate enzymes and proteins from aqueous solutions. The method is useful both upstream with crude samples and downstream where a scaleable simple step is needed. About 25 enzymes and proteins have been isolated by various laboratories using TPP-t-butanol. The relation of t-butanol used in TPP, with n-butanol used as an extraction agent from Morton's work, is reviewed. Some t-butanol appears bound to TPP-precipitated proteins which are actually protein-t-butanol coprecipitates. They float above denser aqueous salts because bound t-butanol increases their buoyancy, similar to the behavior of many lipoproteins. On redissolving TPP-precipitated enzymes, total and specific activities usually are regained and sometimes increased. Sulfate ion-in large concentrations-likely exerts itself through its kosmotropic action as in conventional salting out. t-Butanol likewise appears to be a kosmotrope and crowding agent at room temperature or above, whereas C1 and C2 cosolvents (e.g., ethanol) do not so behave except at near or below zero temperatures. However, kosmotropy is not the entire origin of TPP, nor probably of conventional salting out. Electrostatic forces, capacity to force protein conformation tightening and protein hydration shifts, also contribute. Electrostatic forces, and the tendency for salt ions to bind and tighten protein molecule conformation, are indicated by the sharp pH dependency of both conventional salting out and TPP, around pH regions where proteins undergo conformation changes. Sulfate anion is densely-perhaps extraordinarily-hydrated, adding much to its effective size, and therefore it has a tendency to crowd or exclude proteins, when sulfate concentrations are in the 0.5 to 3 M range.     

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).