Income from license agreement is an important way for academic researchers to obtain external funding without restriction of use. However, education for practical use of patent was little discussed in academic institute even in house practice of patent filing was well.This seminar defines invention types for patenting to monetize thus provides how to contact industries for licensing and negotiation technics.

The purpose of this study is the development of a new tourniquet. The tourniquet is a device that stops blood flow by pneumatic pressure during orthopedic surgery. But, as doctor typically sets the pressure empirically, there is a problem that the patient has sequela. Although there is a possibility that it can be solved by adjusting the hemostatic pressure to this problem, since the systembecomes complicated, it was difficult to realize with the conventional air pressure. Therefore, we focused on EHD pump which can adjust pressure only by voltage which is impossible with conventional air pressure. In this study, we developed a tourniquet that can regulate the hemostatic pressure using this EHD pump.

Recently, development of Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) which are enables non-contact operation of external devices by using electroencephalograms are progressing. This system is expected as an alternative communication tool for patients who are limited body function. However, BCI has expanded the area of research, it has problems such as high cost and instability due to requiring complicated control operation. On the other hand, evaluate the responsiveness and voluntariness of the system are also expected. Therefore, in this study participants conducted motor control tasks and clarified the voluntariness of the BCI based on the task success ratio. Also, "attention" acquired from the electroencephalogram sensor was used as the driving threshold of the motor, and 40, 50, 60, and 70 were set. As a result of comparing the task success ratio at each threshold value, when threshold is 60, the average is 50.8% and the result that the malfunction is small is obtained.

Biophoton, which is ultraweak photon emission from all living organisms, is known to originate in the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS), generated in the process of energy metabolism and exogenously-induced oxidative stress of living body. On the other hand, living materials show ultraweak light emission after light illumination, known as delayed luminescence (DL), which is long lifetime photon emission continuing several tens of minutes in the dark. It is also partially associated with the production of ROS through photosensitization process. We have developed the system for imaging and spectroscopic analysis of these ultraweak photon emission phenomena, based on a highly sensitive cooled CCD (charge-coupled device) camera and a high throughput lens system. We have measured and compared the properties of biophoton and DL induced by blue LED (light-emitting diode) light using human fingers. The study for elucidation of the mechanism of both photon emission processes and exploration of the feasibility for determination of oxidative stress of living body will be discussed.

In this paper, we propose sparse feature extraction methods using virtual planning data in mandibular reconstruction. Although research to automatically generate surgical plans has been done, the mechanism of estimation was empirically designed based on insights of researchers. If relationships between clinically designed surgical procedures and quantitatively extracted features are clarified, the findings will contribute to the surgery. The proposed method estimates the number of segments and extracts the features by sparse modeling using a past planned data. We conducted experiments to extract dominant features for binary classification on the number of fibular segments. The results showed that three of the front lower jaw angle, the distance between the right angle and the right cutting plane, and the distance between the left mental tubercle and the right cutting plane are particularly important for classification.

Stroke often leaves with spasticity which increases muscle tone. For an accurate assessment of ankle spasticity, automatic devices that measure a resistance torque during passive dorsiflexion have been developed. However, conventional methods have not been successfully distinguishing spastic, elastic, viscous, and inertial torques around the ankle joint. The distinguish among these torques is essential to determine treatment. In this paper, therefore,we developed a novel devicewhich dorsiflexes the ankle joint and measures the resistance torque and ankle angle.As the first step, we formulated the relationship between the elastic torque and the angle. The proposed model includes an elastic model of three muscles; tibialis anterior (TA), agastrocnemius (GC), andsoleus (SL).

The mainstream method for cuffless blood pressure is that based on pulse transit time. However, there are many inconveniences in this method such as requiring simultaneous measurement of electrocardiogram and photoplethysmogram and frequent calibration using a cuff sphygmomanometer. So, we developed a far simpler method to estimate blood pressure only using a heart rate and modified normalized pulse volume that can be measured using a smartphone alone. In this study, we examined its accuracy against conventional brachial cuff sphygmomanometer. Mental arithmetic task was used to alter blood pressure in 13 healthy subjects. Analysis revealed that the correlation coefficients between these two were .73, .73, and .72 for mean blood pressure, systolic blood pressure, and diastolic blood pressure, respectively. Results suggest that this simple method can yield moderately reliable measures of blood pressure.

The purpose of this study to expand the construction of blood vessel network in multiple ultrasound volumes from different directions using a vascular network structure, and to reconstruct a wider range of vascular network information. The structure of blood vessel networks was extracted from an ultrasound volume to graph with three-dimensional thinning processing. Next, we performed spatial registration using the common branch point between adjacent volumes, and calculate the homogeneous transformation matrix between the volumes. Then, blood vessel networks were expanded by placing them in the same coordinate system.We examined with the ultrasound volumes of a porcine liver, which was obtained from different directions. By comparing the calculated network with that in the CT volume, we confirmed that there were 23 common bifurcation points between them to indicate the possibility of extension using this method. We also applied this method to human livers.

We made an extracorporeal blood irradiation system on adult male Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats. We used three wave lengths of each irradiation instruments which main wave lengths are 365nm, 465nm, 515nm. Extracorporeal circulation (ECC) was derived to ECC with irradiation. This systemis consisted of a tubing line, a roller pump and light emitting diode (LED) irradiation device. Animals were divided into not-irradiated group and other groups according to their irradiated wavelengths. We took the blood tests at pre-circulation with irradiation and post-circulationwith irradiation. We compared Experimental data betweenpre-circulationwith irradiationand post-circulation with irradiation.

We are currently developing a research to control a thin catheter by forming acoustic radiation force in human body, where it is necessary to constantly monitor the position of the catheter in blood vessel to perform effective control. In this study, we propose a method to detect the tip position of the catheter by analyzing time variation of brightness, which reflects the distribution of microbubbles scattered from the tip in ultrasonic volumes. We used the four-dimensional mode of the echography. The acquired volumes were transformed into two dimensions of the xy, yz, zx planes to estimate the position of the tip. As the result, the maximum error perpendicular to the axial direction was 1.5 mm, whereas that in the axial direction was 5.5 mm, because of the diffusion of microbubbles.Considering that the beam width of the acoustic radiation distribution is about 5 mm, the position detection result is useful

This paper introduces a preliminary study on constructing a multi-organ statistical deformation model that can reconstruct respiratory displacements including shapedifferences between patients. For statistical modeling, we use multi-organ surface data that have been manually extracted from 4D-CT data measured during radiation therapy. Patient-specific organ models with the same number of vertices and topological structure are automatically generated using Affine transform and discrete Laplacian shape editing. We confirmed that shape registration could be achieved within 1mm Hausdorff distance error and mean respiratory motion of five organs could be represented.

The urine test strip method is widely used as a screening test since its results are a quick indicator of renal function. This method can be also used at home but results may vary due to personal error. The ultimate goal of our study was development of a simple and rapid semi-quantitative test system for urine component using a smartphone. It can be useful for early detection of symptoms of kidney diseases. In this study, we used a smartphone to take pictures of the urine test strip for albumin, with a color chart. GIMP was used to acquire the RGB value. The standard concentration of bovine serum albumin was diluted with distilled water to prepare 4 concentration samples. In this experiment, we showed the possibility of being able to assess the albumin level by comparing parameters of each color component extracted from the urine test strip and the color chart.

In recent years, because of the increase of elder population and the advancement of the woman in society, countermeasures are becoming essential for burdensome works. The tendency is similar in the medical and welfare fields, and there is a high interest in the development of support tools. Work that is physically burdensome has work that keeps the same posture as work using power. For the former, power assist equipments and the like are being developed. But for the latter the development of the corresponding equipment is late compared with the former. Therefore, we decided to develop an EAM brake which the braking force can be controlled by the applied voltage, and to develop an upper limbs support orthosis using it.

In this study, we develop an automatic evaluation system of motor function of fingers for a home rehabilitation device for fingers. A patient developing hemiparesis cannot perform dexterous finger movements by paralysis at a hand. Therefore, hand recovery is an important target for rehabilitation. However, self-rehabilitation of paralysis by a patient is extremely difficult especially for fingers. From this, a device that automates finger rehabilitation is required. To this, it is necessary to show the change of motor function for finger movement by using the device. In our previous study, we proposed a quantification by a simple integration of finger pressure time series comparison. In this paper, we describe a better integration method which is relevant in terms of physiological validity.

To find out more effective parameter of electrical stimulation, we examined the effect of an asymmetric pulse in retinal prostheses electrophysiologically. An anodic-first biphasic current pulse, with both symmetric and asymmetric pulses, was applied to the rat's eye using a stimulating electrode. The symmetric pulse had a duration of 0.5 ms and a stimulation current amplitude of 0.1 mA. The pulse duration of the anodal phase was modified to create an asymmetric pulse, and the charge balance was adjusted by changing the amplitude of the electrical current. Evoked potentials were recorded from the superior colliculus. All rats, the pulse duration of the anodal phase was shorter, and as the current amplitude increased, the amplitude of evoked potential increased significantly. The results suggest that the asymmetric pulse with a shorter pulse duration of the anodal phase and a higher current amplitude induces a greater response than the symmetric pulse.

Effects of music therapy and playing musical instrument on prevention of dementia were reviewed , with utilizing effective size written in the published literature; the results of dementia were obtained from random controlled trials and clinically controlled trials. Effects on people of MCI and normal elderly peoples were also examined.

In Japan, Society 5.0 policy to balance the solution to social problem with economic development was devised in the problem of the economic drop with low birthrate and aging and the local depopulation.

It becomes a new social system following a hunting social (Society 1.0) agrarian society (Society 2.0), industrial social (Society 3.0) information-intensive society (Society 4.0) with Society 5.0Society.

IoT (Internet of All people and things are connected in IoT (Internet of Things), and various knowledge and information are shared and bring about unprecedented new value and are the action that the problems such as low birthrate and aging, the local depopulation, the difference of the poverty and wealth overcome in the techniques such as a robot or the automatic running car, and the society coming out in Society 5.0 is intended that I wrestle for the preventive measures against injuries by the training load false adjustment of the elderly person based on this Society 5.0 .

Recently, attention has been drawn to working women. It is expected that women will be active in society such as promoting women to managerial positions and increasing number of female lecturers at various meetings. In such societal movements, various systems such as nursing cares for children and seniors have been improved, so that life events of the female can be compatible with work. However, the working women still cannot get enough understanding or encounter painful situations. Ladies' Association of The Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers (LAJ) is actively aiming to spread the Meka Jo network that can provide opportunities to talk, dissipate stress, and sometimes find solutions. In this talk, I will introduce various activities of LAJ and Support office for Female Researchers in Hokkaido University. I will also introduce my research of Origami engineering for medical devices and regeneration medicines.

Several investigators reported that pseudotumor or adverse local tissue reaction (ALTR) occurred after total hip arthroplasty. Our study indicated that 6 degree polished titanium taper with smaller size or cobalt chromium (CoCr) femoral head had no ALTR compared to 12/14 taper rough surface finished taper junction with large diameter femoral head. These phenomena should be analyzed with cobalt chromium alloy trunnion taper fretting or crevice corrosion with titanium alloy femoral stem and CoCr head.

Recently, there are many arthritic disease cases in orthopedic surgery fields. In this field, high resolution imaging system is necessary for early detection and success treatment of disease. It focused on optical coherence tomography (OCT) with optimal probe which is very effective in accurate assessments of arthritis diagnosis. In this study, we have developed rigid-endoscope OCT system with KTN optical probe for a diagnosis in the orthopedic surgery fields. The present system demonstrates that biological image was measured by using KTN optical scanner for having degree of freedom in sample arm as optical coherence tomography. The system was shown to have a resolution 14.2μm for biological tissue in few mm depth. The sensitivity to be measured is 92.3dB.

This study aims to analyze deaeration deformation to develop intraoperative guidance of minute lung nodules. We measured lung CT data from ex-vivo animal lungs with different internal pressures, and analyzed surface displacement using Laplacian-based surface registration. We evaluated the registration results by comparing with reference points determined manually, and confirmed that the registration error was around 1mm. We found that the magnitude of surface displacement is orderly distributed based on the distance from the pulmonary hilum.

We have been studying the transcutaneous communication system(TCS) using the intra-body communication, and we developed the implantable miniature TCS in which a Lithium battery was integrated on a circuit board. We examined the implantable TCS in the animal experiment, and the implanted TCS inside the goat' thoracic cavity was not able to communication with the external unit at all. From the in vitro experiment for verification of the animal experiment showed that the amplitude of the receiving signal on the receiver is proposal to the distance between the battery and the circuit board on the transmitter, and integration of the battery on the transmitter circuit board is difficult to achieve data communication. From the results, we develop a new implantable miniature TCS unit in which the battery is separated from a circuit board. In addition, the receiver circuit is redesigned in order to improve receiving sensitivity.

Three-dimensional finite element models of the lumbar spine, both intact and following pedicle-lengthening osteotomy (PLO), were developed to investigate the kinematics and biomechanical effects of the lumbar spine finite element model after pedicle-lengthening osteotomy, which is a novel surgical procedure indicated for lumbar spinal stenosis. After applying a moment of 10 Nm in flexion, extension, lateral bending and axial rotation, biomechanical effect parameters, such as the range of motion (ROM), stress in the discs and pedicle-lengthening screws, contact force of facet joints at adjacent segments and spinal load-sharing were evaluated. Results turn out that pedicle-lengthening osteotomy did not alter the kinematics of the lumbar spine, but affected its biomechanical properties, particularly at adjacent segments.

Intra-aortic balloon pumping of the auxiliary circulation is evolving. The pressure generated during the auxiliary circulation was experimentally investigated. A balloon (A. 30cc, B. 35cc, C. 40cc) was inserted into the test circuit with a pulsatile flow of 60 bpm. Pressure measurements of 50 waveforms, at the distal (P1) and proximal (P2) ends of the balloon, were recorded.The pressure generated by the balloon during the auxiliary circulation was checked.

The purpose of this study is to compare the signal-to-noise ratio of photo-plethysmogram (PPG) with or without electromagnetic shielding (damping performance 40 dB). We measured PPGs at the wavelength of 1185 nm, which wavelength was reported as to sensitive to alcohol. Preliminary experiments were conducted on 12 healthy young adults. The PPG sensor was attached to the tip of the right finger in the inside or outside of electromagnetic shields room, and the measurement was performed for 60 seconds in each conditions. We also measured electrocardiogram as a reference. As a result, it was confirmed that there was no significant differences in signal-to-noise ratio between inside and outside electromagnetic shield room. Results showed that the electromagnetic field do not affect the accuracy of PPG measurement.

With the advancement of science and technology, humans can reach the peak within a short period of time by means of transport. However, the rapid rise to an extremely high altitude in a short time will lead to Acute Mountain Sickness. The main causes of Acute Mountain Sickness are low pressure, hypoxia and personal adaptability Related to this, came up with Acute Mountain Sickness wearable device climbers..

This study investigated the effect of cold carbonated water and jelly foods on swallowing movements. Phonocardiographic sensors were attached to the subject's neck, and swallowing sounds obtained when subjects swallowed samples were measured with a bio sound analyzer (BSA). Parameter P was used to evaluate swallowing movements. P tended to decrease when swallowing cold carbonated water. Furthermore, P decreased when swallowing jelly foods compared to swallowing regular water, suggesting that aspiration can be prevented using cold carbonated water and jelly foods.

We have previously proposed a method for monitoring normalized cross-correlation coefficient R and normalized duration time (NDT) as a non-invasive, quantitative method for assessing vascular access (VA) function. The present study tested the efficacy of this method by creating a straight artificial angiostenosis model and a branched angiostenosis model to simulate VA in which collateral circulation forms. When using the branched angiostenosis model, an increase in stenosis rate did not cause a great change in R, but did result in a gradual decrease in NDT. In other words, this suggests VA function may be correctly assessed even when collateral circulation has formed by simultaneously monitoring R and NDT. Moreover, visualization of the flow downstream of the stenosis using particle image velocimetry showed that changes in shunt murmur associated with changes in stenosis rate correspond to changes in blood flow in the blood vessel.

The purpose of this study is to develop a hardness measurement system for specific muscle by using the ultrasound imaging device which can record the force applied to the tissue. The probe of the device was made small to have a constant contact area of the skin surface of an object. Small sized indenter with rectangle contact surface was constructed and was attached to the probe. As the first step, gel mimicking human soft tissue was indented with the prop osed device. The deformation of the gel and reaction force was measured. These were also measured with a pressuremter. Regression lines between deformation and reaction force measured using both method were calculated and their slopes were examined. The difference between the slopes were 8% or less. In conclusion, the deformation and reaction force can be measured with the proposed device in the same manner as pressuremeter.

The purpose of this study is to establish a method of estimating erector spinae muscle stiffness using mechanomyogram (MMG). The participants were five healthy adult males. They kept contraction levels of 10, 20, …, 70% MVC. The electrical stimulation was percutaneously applied to the erector spinae muscle. The evoked MMG systems were identified using a singular value decomposition method, and the natural frequency of the transfer function was calculated. The relationship between the contraction level and the natural frequency was examined. The evoked MMGs were approximated by a transfer function of the third order. The natural frequencies were from 2 to 6 Hz. The natural frequency increased as the contraction level increased. However, the inter-individual difference was larger than the increase in the natural frequency. This might be caused by changes in muscle thickness and length dependent on the contraction level.

The purpose of this study is to estimate the stiffness of the medial gastrocnemius muscle in toe walking. Five young males participated in this experiment and walked at 3 km/h on a treadmill. Electrical stimulation was percutaneously applied to the medial gastrocnemius muscle at every second toe strike or terminal stance, and the mechanomyogram was measured. The evoked mechanomyogram was extracted by subtracting the walking vibration from the measured mechanomyogram. The evoked mechanomyogram system was identified using a singular value decomposition method, and the stiffness was calculated from the transfer function. The evoked mechanomyograms at both toe strike and terminal stance were approximated well with the third-order models. The stiffness in toe walking was larger than that in normal walking at both toe strike and terminal stance. The increase of the stiffness in toe walking might be caused by the muscle shape and muscle activity.

The purpose of this paper was to classify the difference between skilled experts working at a freight transport company and unskilled novices without any experience during symmetric lifting by using center-of-pressure (CoP) velocities. All the human subjects performed symmetric lifting experiments with closed eyes; the experiments involved lifting loads to the upside. Time series data of the CoP position were measured, using a Wii Balance Board, and then, the CoP velocities were calculated. The linear discriminant analysis (LDA) was designed by seven indices which were derived from CoP velocities that reflected the center-of-mass acceleration. The result indicated that the designed LDA discriminated the difference in posture between the two groups with the low error rate for classification under 18kg.

Rehabilitation aimed to restore damaged physical function after a stroke or severe injury by strength training is being carried out. However, current mainstream training equipments generally use weights and springs. With theses equipments, it is difficult to adjust a fine load, and, in addition, they constantly apply a load on the user when using it. For these reasons, this kind of training device often injures the user if he relaxes while using it. Therefore, we decided to develop a safe training device that gives a load by applying a braking force to the motion of the user. As a method for generating this braking force, we used an EAM brake device, which the applied voltage controls the braking force. In this study, we developed a safe planar type training system that apply a load to the user through the application of a braking force to user's motion.

We propose a novel walking rehabilitation system that simulates the home environment for hospitalized stroke patients using virtual reality (VR) technology. In this preliminary study, we investigated whether the VR environment could simulate similar effect in walking behavior on the varied width of the passageway as in a real space. Healthy young adults performed Timed up and go (TUG) test with 1, 2, and 3 m width of the passageway in real and VR space. Although walking in VR space took more time and number of steps to perform TUG than the real space, the width of the walking trajectory showed comparable tendency related to the width of the passageway both in VR and real spaces. These results suggest that VR could sufficiently simulate the visual and psychological effects of the real environment.

In PDT, a patient by cancer must be confined in the dark room for one month, to avoid the severe burns. So, to release a patient from such a harsh condition which is accompanied by the decline in the quality of life and at the same time so as to correspond to the late stage cancer, in this study, the combine therapy of cavitation by ultrasonic waves and the resonant phenomenon on the cancer cells by the outer vibration. Here, cavitation is the generation of the bubble, its swelling, and its rupture, in accordance with the change of the pressure from outside. Utilizing the energy convergence, (1) high heat (2) Compression of cancer cells (3) drawing effect. And outerly given vibration whose frequency is close to the eigenfrequency of cell itself, (4) tears cells swung away from the neovascularity. In this paper its integrated effect is shown.

Finger manipulation plays an important role in daily life, and the importance of its analysis is increasing in a variety of research fields. To understand finger manipulations quantitatively, this study focuses on hold and pick manipulations and explores dynamic features of thumb and index fingers. To measure natural operation, we used a haptic wearable sensor that can measure finger pressure and 3-axis direction acceleration without inhibiting the operator's sense of touch. We conducted user experiments from 7 subjects manipulating an urethane cylindrical object. The recognition rate between pick and hold was investigated by binary classification using a support vector machine. The results show that the recognition rate was 78% in average, and the feature quantities can differ among subjects.

Poly (lactic acid) (PLA) is used in medicine especiary tissue engineering. The biodegradable polymer structure is often constracted by 3D printing methods in recent years. However, strength characteristics associated with hydrolysis may be different between scan patterns of the nozzle. The purpose of this research is to elucidate the mechanism for the decline of strengths associated with hydrolysis by comparing quantities of water absorption and strengths. The strength characteristics were evaluated by the tensile strength test method. Test pieces made by a 3D printer were prepared by four different scan patterns of the nozzle, (i) Parallel, (ii) Vertical, (iii) Parallel and Vertical, and (iv) Cross to longitudinal direction. In the degradation test, test pieces were soaked in saline and placed incubator set at 310K. This paper shows results of quantities of water absorption and maximum stresses on the bases of different scanning pattern and different fabrication methods.