Quest for the Crypto-phosphoproteome

Protein phosphorylation is one of the most studied post-translational modifications (PTMs). Despite the remarkable advances in phosphoproteomics, a chemically less-stable subset of the phosphosites, which we call the crypto-phosphoproteome, has remained underexplored due to technological challenges. In this Viewpoint, we briefly summarize the current understanding of these elusive protein phosphorylations and identify the missing pieces for future studies.     

Development and control of a new AUV platform

This paper presents an architecture of a newly developed autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) platform, named KAUV-1, which is designed as a torpedo with very light weight and small size, suitable for use in marine exploration and monitoring. The KAUV-1 has a unique ducted propeller located at the aft end with yawing actuation acting as a rudder. For depth motion, the KAUV-1 is designed to have a mass shifter mechanism inside to change the vehicle center of gravity and to control its pitch angle and depth motion. The paper also presents an analysis on the equations of motion of the KAUV-1 with mass shifter mechanism and a new depth control strategy for the KAUV-1. The feasibility of the proposed control strategy is validated through simulation and experiment of performance of the vehicle.     

Fault-tolerant locomotion of the hexapod robot

In this paper, we propose a scheme for fault detection and tolerance of the hexapod robot locomotion on even terrain. The fault stability margin is defined to represent potential stability which a gait can have in case a sudden fault event occurs to one leg. Based on this, the fault-tolerant quadruped periodic gaits of the hexapod walking over perfectly even terrain are derived. It is demonstrated that the derived quadruped gait is the optimal one the hexapod can have maintaining fault stability margin nonnegative and a geometric condition should be satisfied for the optimal locomotion. By this scheme, when one leg is in failure, the hexapod robot has the modified tripod gait to continue the optimal locomotion.     

Optimal Checkpoint Placement on Real-Time Tasks with Harmonic Periods

This paper presents an optimal checkpoint strategy for fault-tolerance in real-time systems where transient faults occur in Poisson distribution. In our environment, multiple real-time tasks with different deadlines and harmonic periods are scheduled in the system by rate-monotonic algorithm, and checkpoints are inserted at a constant interval in each task. When a fault is detected, the system carries out rollback to the latest checkpoint and re-executes tasks. The maximum number of re-executable checkpoints and an equation to check schedulability are derived, and the optimal number of checkpoints is selected to maximize the probability of completing all the tasks within their deadlines.     

Deposition of Al-doped ZnO films on polyethylene naphthalate substrate with radio frequency magnetron sputtering

100 nm Al-doped ZnO (AZO) thin films were deposited on polyethylene naphthalate (PEN) substrates with radio frequency magnetron sputtering using 2 wt.% Al-doped ZnO target at various deposition conditions including sputtering power, target to substrate distance, working pressure and substrate temperature. When the sputtering power, target to substrate distance and working pressure were decreased, the resistivity was decreased due to the improvement of crystallinity with larger grain size. As the substrate temperature was increased from 25 to 120 °C, AZO films showed lower electrical resistivity and better optical transmittance due to the significant improvement of the crystallinity. 2 wt.% Al-doped ZnO films deposited on glass and PEN substrates at sputtering power of 25 W, target to substrate distance of 6.8 cm, working pressure of 0.4 Pa and substrate temperature of 120 °C showed the lowest resistivity (5.12 × 10^− 3 Ω cm on PEN substrate, 3.85 × 10^− 3 Ω cm on glass substrate) and high average transmittance (> 90% in both substrates). AZO films deposited on PEN substrate showed similar electrical and optical properties like AZO films deposited on glass substrates.     

Efficient Electron Transfer Processes and Enhanced Electrocatalytic Activity of Cobalt(II) Porphyrin Anchored on Graphene Oxide

We investigated the electronic perturbation between graphene oxide and cobalt porphyrin to reveal the origin of the enhanced electrocatalytic activity of a hybrid complex using time-resolved spectroscopic measurements and theoretical calculations. The impulsively generated charge-separated state, GO⁻-(Co^IIAPFP)⁺, undergoes fast charge recombination (<10 ps) between GO⁻ and (Co^IIAPFP)⁺ moieties. This fast charge recombination is directly related to the quick neutralization of (Co^IIAPFP)⁺, which shortens the dead time of inactive Co^IIIAPFP after the electrocatalytic reduction reaction. The fast transformation of inactive Co^IIIAPFP to active Co^IIAPFP is an important factor in the enhanced electrocatalytic activity of the hybrid complex.     

Manufacturing process of bezel frame for strength-reinforced TFT LCD module by progressive hemming of SUS304 stainless steel sheet

In this study, the design procedure for a progressive multi-hemming forming process has been proposed for manufacturing bezel frames for strength-reinforced TFT LCD (Thin-film-transistor liquid-crystal display) modules. First, a strength analysis was performed using Finite element (FE) simulations to determine the minimum number of required folding edges. Subsequently, anoother FE analysis was carried out in order to investigate the effects of the process parameters on the dimensional accuracy of the bezel frame and to design the progressive hemming process. The analytical results were validated by hemming experiments performed using SUS304 stainless steel with a thickness of 0.3 mm. Finally, the quality of the bezel frame was estimated through measurements of its dimensional accuracy and bending stiffness. From the experimental results, it was confirmed that a bezel frame with a height distribution of 1.5±0.05 mm and a respectable bending stiffness of 70 N/mm could be manufactured using the proposed process.     

Compact stripline-fed meander slot antenna

A meander-type slot antenna fed by a stripline is proposed for use in miniaturised personal communication systems. By varying the slot configuration of the antenna, a 56% smaller antenna to substitute the conventional slot antenna is achieved. Simulated and measured results are presented     

Fault-tolerant gaits of quadruped robots for locked joint failures

This paper lays a theoretical foundation for fault detection and tolerance in static walking of legged robots. Legged robots considered in this paper have symmetric structures and legs which have the form of an articulated arm with three revolute joints. A kind of fault event (locked joint failure) is defined, and its properties are closely investigated in the frame of gait study and robot kinematics. For the purpose of tolerating a locked joint failure, an algorithm of fault-tolerant gaits for a quadruped robot is proposed in which the robot can continue its walking after a locked failure occurs to a joint of a leg. In particular, a periodic gait is proposed as a special form of the proposed algorithm and its existence and efficiency are analytically proven. A case study on applying the proposed scheme to wave gaits verifies its applicability and capability.     

Role of transition metals in layered Li[Ni,Co,Mn]O2 under electrochemical operation

With variations in compositions in layered Li[Ni,Co,Mn]O₂, we could change the several factors that might be considered to influence the electrochemical properties. The crystallographic characteristics of the samples were studied by neutron diffraction Rietveld analysis. After electrochemical operation, we measured the macroscopic crystal structure changes, the valence state of transition metals and the variations of interatomic distance for M-O (M: transition metal) through XRD and XAS. The variation in macroscopic lattice parameters was well coincident with the variation in microscopic structure changes viz. the variation of interatomic distance. We discussed the characteristics of transition metals in the structure and their effects on the electrochemical properties of the samples under electrochemical operation. We found that Li[Li_1/10Ni_2/10Co_3/10Mn_4/10]O₂ with the lowest Ni/(Mn + Co) ratio among the samples showed the best capacity retention up to the 30th cycle.