Trajectory control of incompletely restrained parallel-wire-suspended mechanism based on inverse dynamics

This paper discusses parallel wire mechanisms where an end-effector of the mechanism is suspended by multiple wires. The mechanisms enable not only three-dimensional (3-D) positioning but also 3-D orienting of the end-effector, unlike typical wire suspension-type mechanisms such as overhead crane. To discuss the parallel-wire-suspended mechanisms generally, two forms of basic dynamic equations are presented. Then the parallel wire mechanisms are classified into two types based on the basic equations. Dynamical properties of the two types of wire-suspended positioning mechanism are discussed. In this paper, one of the wire-suspended mechanism, incompletely restrained-type parallel wire mechanism, is mainly discussed on its inverse dynamics problem and its trajectory control problem. The inverse dynamics problem for the incompletely restrained-type mechanism plays an important role on its control problem, because the mechanism has low stiffness based on incomplete constraints on the suspended object which is governed by its dynamics. The paper proposes an antisway control method for the suspended object. In the method, the inverse dynamics calculation is used for nonlinear dynamics compensation to control the suspended object of the incompletely restrained parallel wire mechanism.     

Design for Consecutive Testability of System-on-a-Chip with Built-In Self Testable Cores

This paper introduces a new concept of testability called consecutive testability and proposes a design-for-testability method for making a given SoC consecutively testable based on integer linear programming problem. For a consecutively testable SoC, testing can be performed as follows. Test patterns of a core are propagated to the core inputs from test pattern sources (implemented either off-chip or on-chip) consecutively at the speed of system clock. Similarly the test responses are propagated to test response sinks (implemented either off-chip or on-chip) from the core outputs consecutively at the speed of system clock. The propagation of test patterns and responses is achieved by using interconnects and consecutive transparency properties of surrounding cores. All interconnects can be tested in a similar fashion. Therefore, it is possible to test not only logic faults but also timing faults that require consecutive application of test patterns at the speed of system clock since the consecutively testable SoC can achieve consecutive application of any test sequence at the speed of system clock.     

Colony promoting activity (CPA) is a novel factor distinct from IL-6

The supernatant (CM) of long-term bone marrow culture (LTBMC) contains colony promoting activity (CPA) which does not have granulocyte-macrophage (GM) colony-stimulating activity but which enhances GM-colony formation in the presence of CSF. CPA is different from IL-1, IL-3 and GM, G-, and M-CSF. Since CPA-containing LTBMC-CM always contains a substantial level of IL-6, CPA was thought to be similar to IL-6. In the present study, we found that LTBMC with a particular batch of horse serum produced IL-6 without a corresponding production of CPA. Addition of IL-6 to GM-colony assay system in the presence of GM-CSF did not enhance the colony formation. LTBMC-CM did not stimulate proliferation nor differentiation of mast cell progenitors. Anti-IL-6 antibodies suppressed IL-6 activity, but not CPA. These results indicate that CPA is a novel factor distinct from IL-1, IL-3, G-, M-, GM-CSF, IL-6 and SCF (c-kit ligand).     

New strategies for aspiration pneumonia

Aspiration pneumonia is associated with decreases in both swallowing and cough reflexes and is the most common cause of death in the elderly. Basal ganglia strokes might predispose these patients to develop pneumonia owing to reductions of both reflexes, resulting in frequent aspiration during sleep. An impairment of dopamine metabolism in the basal ganglia is observed in these patients and levodopa administration improves the impaired swallowing reflex. Both swallowing and cough reflexes are mediated by endogenous substance P (SP) released from vagal sensory nerves in the pharynx and upper airways. The addition of a low dose of capsaicin to liquid or food, which stimulates the release of SP, may help prevent aspiration pneumonia. Angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor decreases SP catabolism resulting in improvements in both reflexes. Oral care and the sitting position after meals may decrease aspiration pneumonia in the elderly.     

Synthesis of poly(α-thiophenediyl)benzylidene with high molecular weight and its thermal stability

Summary The synthesis of poly(-thiophenediyl)benzylidene (PTB) with high molecular weight is described. Number-average degrees of polymerization reached about 74. The characterizations of the polymer was investigated by ¹H-NMR, ¹³C-NMR, IR, and UV-VIS spectra. The polymer with well-defined structure and high molecular weight was obtained by polymerization at low temperature and in polar solvent. This polymer was thermally stable and a thermal decomposition took place at 391°C under nitrogen and at 370°C under air. The glass transformation temperature was 117°C and this PTB was nonfusible.     

MHz-driven snubberless zero-current soft-switching high step-up DC-DC converter with a multi-resonant tank

A novel high step-up DC-DC converter suitable for the power interface of fuel cells (FC) is presented in this paper. The proposed converter features a multi-resonant tank for achieving high-step up ratio under zero current soft switching (ZCS) without any snubber circuits. The simple and minimized-component topology is beneficial for megahertz driving of gallium nitride (GaN) power transistors with effective reductions of switching loss, electromagnetic emission interference (EMI) noise, and ripple-free DC input current. Mode-transitional power stages are described in detail, following that the high step-up principle is revealed by means of frequency-domain analysis. The essential performances of the proposed circuit topology are demonstrated by simulation and experiment of 1.8 MHz-120W prototype whereby effectiveness of the snubberless and multi-resonant topology are verified from the practical point of view.     

A Hilbert warping method for handwriting gesture recognition

We propose a novel sequence alignment algorithm for recognizing handwriting gestures by a camera. In the proposed method, an input image sequence is aligned to the reference sequences by phase-synchronization of analytic signals which are transformed from original feature values. A cumulative distance is calculated simultaneously with the alignment process, and then used for the classification. A major benefit of this method is that over-fitting to sequences of incorrect categories is restricted. The proposed method exhibited higher recognition accuracy in handwriting gesture recognition, compared with the conventional dynamic time warping method which explores optimal alignment results for all categories.     

Time‐averaged spatial profile of Xe excitation efficiency in PDPs

Abstract— The Xe excitation efficiency for various Xe content was analyzed by monitoring the panel luminance and IR emission intensity. It was found that dependences of the Xe excitation efficiency and luminous efficacy on the sustain voltage show almost the same tendency. A decrease for increasing sustaining voltage was found in a low‐Xe‐content panel and an increase was found in a high‐Xe‐content panel. A reduction in the effective electron temperature and a reduction in plasma saturation contribute to the efficacy improvement. The time‐averaged spatial profile of the Xe excitation efficiency in PDPs was investigated by measuring the distribution of IR and blue‐phosphor emissions. The results show that the Xe excitation efficiency is similar in the cathode and anode regions even though the spatial and time development of the discharge in these regions is very different. An extended theory that takes into account not only the radiative transition process but also the collisional de‐excitation process from Xe** to Xe* is proposed for investigating the pressure dependence of the Xe excitation efficiency. By using the proposed theory, it was found that Xe excitation efficiency increases, attains a maximum value at 30% Xe, then decreases as the Xe content is increased, when the rate coefficient of the collisional de‐excitation process is less than 1.0 × 10^?10 cm³/sec.     

Power savings and enhancement of gray‐scale capability of LCD TVs with an adaptive dimming technique

Abstract— The luminance of a backlight unit for an LCD TV is adaptively and locally dimmed along with the input video signal in order to reduce the power consumption and also to improve the picture quality. By adopting the zero‐dimensional (0D), 1D, and 2D adaptive dimming techniques, a sample movie having 8.0% post‐gamma average picture levels (APL) could be displayed using 83%, 71%, and 50% of the original backlight power, respectively. For an adoption of the 2D dimming, an LED backlight is preferable. The adaptive‐dimming technique also allows the differential aging characteristics between the LED components and temperature dependence of color and luminance to be overcome. From simulations of a reduction in power consumption, it was found that 40 × 40 pixels is a unit of the local dimming, 30 frames for the sampling period, 24 dimming steps, and an equal‐signal‐step method for determining the dimming factor have been found to be appropriate. The gray‐scale capability of low‐luminance images can also be improved by dimming the backlight luminance and expanding the input signal. By using an LCD TV having an 8‐bit capability, an 11‐bit‐equivalent gray‐scale expression was experimentally proven.