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.     

A 3-V, 2%-mW multibit current-mode ΣΔ DAC with 100 dBdynamic range

The area ratio of analog to digital for mixed-mode chip has been inversely proportional to the process design rule for a given dynamic range objective, in contradiction to the LSI trend. This paper presents a design approach to realize a high degree of size reduction with process design rules for analog circuitry and a signal processing architecture for digital circuitry. A five-level current-mode ΣΔ digital-to-analog converter (DAC) system reveals full scale total harmonic: distortion plus noise (THD+N) of -90 dB and dynamic-range of 100 dB at 3 V (low power of 22 mW). Analog-area down-scaling can be accomplished by this architecture to be 1.09 mm², using 0.6-μm double-poly double-metal (DPDM) CMOS. For the digital filter, a pipeline instruction sequence with multiplierless architecture also gives small area of 1.98 mm²     

Calbindin-D 28 kD and parvalbumin in the horizontal cells of rat retina during development

Restless legs syndrome (RLS) and periodic limb movements in sleep (PLMS) are disorders that are common and disturbing to uremic patients. The treatment of these is problematic. Eight patients on chronic hemodialysis and continuous peritoneal dialysis completed a double-blind placebo-controlled crossover study using incremental doses of pergolide up to 0.25 mg at bedtime for treatment of RLS and sleep disruption. Five patients (62.5%) noted subjective improvement in restless legs symptoms and sleep quality. Objective results were improved only slightly by treatment. The percentage of the first hour in bed during which leg movements occurred decreased from 20.5 +/- 6.0 to 11.5 +/- 3.3, p < 0.05. However, findings during sleep were less positive. The following measures were not significant between placebo and treatment: leg movements per hour of sleep [53.7 +/- 22.3 vs 35.8 +/- 11.8 (p = 0.2)]; and percentage of sleep time spent with leg movements [5.5% +/- 3.2 vs 4.4% +/- 1.4 (p = 0.37)]. Patients continued to have very disrupted sleep, and we could not document an objective improvement in sleep architecture. Thus, although pergolide at the dose of 0.25 mg at bedtime provided subjective improvement in symptoms of restless legs and quality of sleep, and objectively decreased leg movements during the first hour in bed, objectively sleep continued to be disrupted. In this small patient group, the response to pergolide was not uniform, and further investigation is required to test effectiveness at higher doses.     

Prediction of minimum fluidization velocity for vibrated fluidized bed

The prediction of minimum fluidization velocity for vibrated fluidized bed was performed. The Geldart group A and C particles were used as the fluidizing particles. The method based on Ergun equation was used to predict the minimum fluidization velocity. The calculated results were compared with the experimental data.The calculated results of minimum fluidization velocity are in good agreement with experimental data for Geldart group A particles. For group C particles, the difference between the calculated results and experimental data is large because of the formation of agglomerates. In this case, the determination of agglomerate diameter is considered to be necessary to predict the minimum fluidization velocity.     

Evaluation of the wettability of spherical cement particle surfaces using penetration rate method

The wettability of cement particles is related to the fluidity of cement paste. This paper describes the mechanism of the higher fluidity imparted by the spherical cement particles in light of their wettability. In addition, the effects of gypsum on the wettability were also studied. This study has shown the following: (1) The weight of water and water-reducing agent solution penetrating the spherical cement powder bed is 24-150% higher than that for the ordinary Portland cement powder bed. This results in the improvement of the wettability of the particle surfaces of spherical cement. The high wettability of spherical cement contributes to its high fluidity. (2) The presence of many fine gypsum particles on the spherical cement particle surface reduces the wettability. (3) To prepare spherical cement, the optimum amount of gypsum added is determined by the acceleration of the formation of spherical particles and the wettability of particle surfaces.     

Drying characteristics of porous material immersed in a bed of hygroscopic porous particles fluidized under reduced pressure

A relatively large wet material was immersed in a fluidized bed of hygroscopic porous particle (silica gel beads) under reduced pressure. And then the drying characteristics were compared with those in the case of inert particle (glass beads). The comparison of drying characteristics is performed experimentally and theoretically. In calculation, the water transfer from the sample to the fluidized bed was considered. The calculation results are in good agreement with the experimental data. The effects of the operational conditions (the pressure in the drying chamber and the temperature of the drying gas) on the drying characteristics were also examined in both fluidizing particles.The drying finishes earlier in the case of hygroscopic porous particle than in the case of inert particle regardless of pressure in the drying chamber, since the water transfer from the sample facilitates the drying in the case of hygroscopic porous particles. The temperature decrement in drying appears in the case of inert particle. This phenomenon is also observed in the case of hygroscopic porous particle, but the decrement degree of the temperature is much smaller than that in the case of inert particle. The difference of the minimum temperature in the sample in drying between the cases of hygroscopic porous particle and inert particle is very slight for different pressures in the drying chamber.     

Application and limitation of neoadjuvant hormonal therapy for prostate cancer

Of 156 patients, 111 (clinical stage T1a-b; 21, T1c; 17, T2a-b; 36, T2c; 27, T3; 10) immediately underwent radical prostatectomy (surgery group), and 45 (clinical stage T1a-b; 8, T1c; 4, T2a-b; 10, T2c; 9, T3; 14) received neoadjuvant hormonal therapy (NHT group). NHT offered probability of increasing organ-confined cancer(OCC; pathological stage pT2 or lower N0M0) in the following group, which contains (a) patients who had moderately differentiated adenocarcinoma in the biopsy specimen and T2b or lower diseases, and (b) those who had well differentiated adenocarcinoma, T2c diseases and PSA levels of 10 ng/ml or higher, referred to as "OCC suitable criteria". Of 156 patients, 51 (33%) met OCC suitable criteria. In those cases, the proportion of OCC in NHT group was significantly higher than that in surgery group (11/12 (92%) vs. 16/39 (41%), p = 0.002). NHT is useful for increasing OCC in patients who meet OCC suitable criteria.     

A novel method for measuring direct compressive properties of carbon fibres using a micro-mechanical compression tester

A novel method has been developed for measuring direct compressive properties such as strength and elasticity of a series of mesophase-pitch-based and PAN-based carbon fibres about 10 m in diameter by uniaxial and transverse compression tests using a micromechanical tester. The fibres were shaped into cylindrical specimens, with their size ratio of length to diameter kept at about 2 to 3, by separating them from a thin film made by polishing the cut faces of a strand of carbon fibres with epoxy resin as a matrix. Individual cylindrical specimens were stood up or laid down on a glass plate without any fixer for the measurements of axial and transverse compression properties of fibres, respectively. The fibres exhibited non-linear elasticity, with the compressive modulus decreasing with compressive deformation. The direct axial compressive strengths of pitch-based carbon fibres were found to be marginally lower than the indirect ones, whereas there was no significant difference between the two strength values for PAN-based fibres. The pitch-based fibres exhibited smaller average values of axial compressive strength than the PAN-based fibres. The transverse compressive strength, which decreases with an increase in elasticity of carbon fibres, exhibited a considerably lower average value than that of the axial compressive strength. Further, the axial compressive strength was found to be smaller than the direct tensile strength for the fibres.     

Two-stage nuclear demagnetization refrigerator

Two-stage nuclear demagnetization has been performed using PrCu₆ and Cu as coolants. The Cu nuclear stage reached temperatures as low as 10 K with a rate of temperature rise of less than a few K/h. The corresponding conduction electron temperature is estimated to be less than 50 K. A nuclear orientation thermometer of Al ⁵⁴Mn has been successfully used to measure temperatures down to 10 K.Supported by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science.