This paper focuses on back-forward drivability and defines the ideal drivability. This paper proposes a new back-forward drivable control method that achieves vibration suppression while maintaining back-forward drivability for a two-inertia system. The proposed control system combines torsion torque control (TTC) and a motor-side normalization compensator (MNC) to facilitate human-robot interactions. The effectiveness of the proposed control system is verified based on numerical simulation and experimental results, and the vibration of the back-forward drivable response is drastically suppressed.

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神経細胞はほかの神経細胞群からの電流入力を受けると，スパイクとよばれる急峻な膜電位変化を発生させ，次の神経細胞へ情報を伝達する．本研究では，単一神経細胞が高周波入力を受けた際に，低周波スパイク列に入力情報を符号化する仕組みについて議論した．はじめに，三角関数を低周波インパルス列によって標本化し，離散フーリエ変換によってパワースペクトルを推定した．このときインパルス間隔を乱数によって変動させることによって，入力周波数を同定することができた．つぎに，神経細胞膜の電気的特性を模擬した非線形四次方程式を用いて入出力特性を解析したところ，出力スパイク列が不等間隔である場合に入力信号の周波数を同定することができた．これらのことから，高周波入力を低周波スパイク列に符号化するためには，スパイク発射の揺らぎが不可欠であると考えられた．

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Aim: Immunologic dysfunction was recently found to be one of the most important mechanisms underlying the initiation and development of atherosclerosis. Thymus involution can contribute to immune disturbance and disequilibrium of T-cell subsets. This study aimed to explore whether recent thymic emigration (RTE) is impaired in patients with coronary artery disease (CAD).
Methods: Content of signal-joint T cell receptor excision circles (sj-TREC) in T lymphocytes, a molecular marker of RTE, was assessed among CAD patients and age-matched controls. Monochrome multiplex quantitative PCR method was used to assess the samples' telomere length in order to exclude the potential influence of T cell proliferation on the dilution of sj-TREC. Patients were grouped according to Gensini score (GS) (low, GS ＜18; intermediate, GS 18–41; high, GS ＞41). Ordinary logistic regression models were used to determine potential risk factors for CAD and GS tertiles.
Results: Average copy numbers of sj-TREC per 10⁶ T lymphocytes among patients with unstable angina, stable angina, and controls were 726±429, 1213±465, and 1795±838, respectively (P＜0.001). However, there was no significant difference in telomere length among groups. Moreover, the content of sj-TREC in the high GS group was most significantly reduced than the low GS group (P＜0.001). Multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed that lower sj-TREC was independently associated with the progression of CAD (OR=0.44, P＜0.001) and higher GS (OR=0.4, P＜0.001).
Conclusion: Impaired RTE could be partly responsible for CAD development. Mechanisms may be involved in the disturbance of T lymphocyte compartment and interruption of maintained immune tolerance resulting from thymus involution.

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Aim: Peripheral arterial disease (PAD), particularly critical limb ischemia (CLI), is a severe cause of amputation and mortality. More than 50% of diabetic patients with CLI die within four to five years. The development of novel stem cell therapies may bring new hope to these patients. We aimed to assess the efficacy of autologous bone marrow cell therapy for treating CLI using a meta-analysis.
Methods: We searched the literature in PubMed, the Cochrane Central Registry of Controlled Trials, the Elsevier database and EBSCO for trials of autologous cell therapy in patients with severe PAD published before October 30, 2013. We chose objective clinical endpoints to assess the efficacy of therapy in the meta-analysis, including changes in the ankle-brachial index (ABI), transcutaneous oxygen tension (TcO₂), pain scale (0-10 scale) and amputation-free survival (AFS).
Results: Thirty-one articles reporting clinical trials involving a total of 1,214 patients treated with bone marrow stem cell-based therapy were collected for the meta-analysis, in which the randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and other trials (non-RCTs) were classified into two groups. Regarding the efficacy of stem cell therapy, the ABI showed significant increases (P＜0.05) at 12 , 24 and 48 weeks after therapy in the non-RCT and RCT groups, but not after four to eight weeks in the non-RCT group. The TcO₂ values also increased in the RCT group at four to eight weeks after therapy and 24 weeks after therapy (P＜0.001) and in the non-RCT group at four to eight weeks after therapy (P= 0.01), although no significant increases were observed in the RCT group at 12 weeks after therapy or the non-RCT group at 24 weeks after therapy. Meanwhile, pain was significantly reduced (P＜0.05) at four to eight weeks and 24 weeks after therapy in both the non-RCT and RCT groups, but not at four to eight weeks or 12 weeks after therapy in the RCT group. In addition, the long-term clinical trials demonstrated that the AFS rate improved after therapy with bone marrow stem cells (one-year AFS, P＜0.00001; three-year AFS, P=0.0003).
Conclusions: The present results suggest that autologous bone marrow stem cells have an advantageous therapy effect in PAD patients who are not eligible for revascularization.

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Spacecraft drag-free control is an effective way to make satellite orbit only shaped by gravity and to achieve accurate and quiet alignment of the spacecraft axes to their reference. Essential measurements come from fine accelerometers. Exploiting the experience of the GOCE satellite drag-free and attitude control, the paper provides an integrated modelling and control design procedure which encompasses accelerometer and spacecraft control. Essential to this framework is the stochastic modelling and prediction of the unknown disturbance class to be counteracted. Stochastic modelling of disturbance is the key asset of the Embedded Model Control methodology. Among other advantages it allows robust decoupling of state prediction and control for complex dynamic systems.

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With respect to PWM algorithm for a three-phase voltage-source ac/dc power converter various studies have been executed and their results have been published since the analog modulation scheme based on triangular carrier wave was proposed in 1960's. PWM algorithm can be considered the heart of the electronic power conversion.
Along with progress and evolution of digital technology gate signals are increasingly requested to be generated directly by digital IC, e.g. MPU, DSP or FPGA/CPLD. The paper analyzes quantitatively the precision of the current controllability of digital PWM taking into account of both the sampling period and the delay time the latter of which is inevitably accompanied by digital procedure. The delay time is pointed out to affect the current error double. In addition the paper derives theoretically the condition for digital PWM to accomplish PPCR (Pulse Polarity Consistency Rule, i.e. the next gate moves only to the adjacent ones). In so far as the authors know no paper offers the mathematical requirements to execute PPCR taking account of the effect by the delay time with digital PWM.
The derived theoretical results are summarized as the digital PWM design criteria for a three-phase PWM converter in order to facilitate practical implementation of the theory, which guarantee the PPCR behavior as well as the quantitative preciseness of the current regulation.

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It is important to consider the environment for realizing stable contact motion, such as direct teaching for polishing motion including contact with environment. To realize stable contact motion without bouncing, the velocity and acceleration should be brought to zero after contact with the environment. This study focuses on the torque-velocity duality and a two-spring system is constructed using motor-side velocity control for a two-inertia system with environmental considerations. An equivalent resonance ratio control (ERRC) is proposed to suppress the vibrations in a two-spring system. This method achieves the same scheme as the resonance ratio control applied in position control. A force impulse control is applied based on the ERRC for stable contact motion without bouncing. Stable contact motion is realized in all numerical simulations and experiments.

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In this study group, we are developing a micro air vehicle (MAV), which is equipped with an automatic flight control system and a camera, for the purpose of performing rescue/relief tasks in natural disasters, security surveillance and observation tasks. MAV, however, has a limited performance due to its low payload or short duration of flight. On the other hand, unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) research and development is being pursued actively in Japan and overseas. Unlike MAV, UGV has a long continuous run time and a relatively bigger payload. It can carry many kind of equipment and play an important role in rescue. Therefore, we proposed a UGV that can assist the MAV, to make effective usage of our MAV in scenes. The UGV needs WayPoint and Mapping system. This paper shows Mapping using SLAM and WayPoint of UGV.

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Glioblastoma (GBM) is a highly aggressive primary brain tumor that shows intratumoral heterogeneity at the cellular and molecular level. Activation of programmed death receptor 1 (PD-1) interaction with its ligand PD-L1 is a well-known mechanism requisite for immune evasion deployed by malignant tumors including GBM. Herein, we set out to dissect the mechanism explaining the regulation of PD-L1 gene expression in GBM. The clinical samples consisted of 37 GBM tissues and 18 normal brain tissues. GBM cell model was treated by microRNA (miRNA) inhibitor, DNA constructs, and siRNAs. Assays of CCK-8 and Transwell insert were employed to assess the survival, migratory and invasive ability of GBM cell model. The immunosuppressive factor production, T cell apoptosis, and T cell cytotoxicity to GBM cells were evaluated in the co-culture system. GBM exhibited more miR-10b-5p abundance than normal at both tissue and cellular level. Suppression of miR-10b-5p weakened the ability of GBM cell model to survive, migrate, and invade, decreased the release of immunosuppressive factors, reduced T cell apoptosis, and strengthened the T cell cytotoxicity to GBM cell model. MiR-10b-5p conferred a negative control of Ten-eleven translocation 2 (TET2) that was downregulated in GBM. The functions of miR-10b-5p on GBM cell aggressiveness and immune evasion were mediated by TET2. TET2 recruited histone deacetylases HDAC1 and HDAC2 into the PD-L1 promoter region thus inhibiting its transcription. The study demonstrated the importance of miR-10b-5p-mediated repression of TET2 in PD-L1-driven immune evasion and their potential for immunotherapeutic targeting in GBM.

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Aim: This study identified issues associated with disaster prevention measures in three Educational Nursing Institutions (ENIs) affected by the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011.

Methods: Participants were eight ENI nursing faculty members in the Tohoku region. A qualitative descriptive methodology was utilized using semi-structured interviews. The focus was on the successful aspects of the participants’ actions following the disaster. Disaster prevention issues that were identified were divided into two categories: rehabilitation period and emergency conditions. Categories were classified using the narratives of the eight participants.

Results: Five issues identified in the rehabilitation period were: (1) clarification of the role of schools in the area; (2) communication methods at the time of disaster were not established; (3) emergency equipments were insufficient; (4) the need to review content of disaster prevention training; and (5) failure to utilize the disaster prevention manual adequately. Six issues mentioned in the emergency conditions are as follows: (1) the roles of faculty and staff were not clarified; (2)

and control systems were underdeveloped; (3) evacuation methods were not defined; (4) the safety confirmation system was incomplete; (5) the role of students was unclear due to a lack of infrastructure to adequately support them; and (6) it was difficult to care for the students.

Conclusions: Educational Nursing Institutes should be aware that their institutions could be utilized as evacuation centers following disasters, despite not being designated as such in the regional disaster prevention plan. As a result, ENIs should be prepared to fulfill their role in assisting survivors. In addition, disaster prevention plan should equally balance the business continuity plans for disasters, thus ensuring “student safety and health management”. Also, “measures to resume and continue education” are necessary.

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We propose a parallel precomputation method for real-time model predictive control. The key idea is to use predicted input values produced by model predictive control to solve an optimal control problem in advance. It is well known that control systems are not suitable for multi- or many-core processors because feedback-loop control systems are inherently based on sequential operations. However, since the proposed method does not rely on conventional thread-/data-level parallelism, it can be easily applied to such control systems without changing the algorithm in applications. A practical evaluation using three real-world model predictive control system simulation programs demonstrates drastic performance improvement without degrading control quality offered by the proposed method.

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In this paper a parallel neural controller for the automatic berthing will be discussed. This controller has separated hidden layer that outputs the engine and rudder respectively. A general neural network that used in berthing just has one set of hidden layer, but authors proposed parallel hidden layer. The effect of this parallel control produced good results in comparison with conventional neural controller. Furthermore many simulations conducted in this paper have different initial situations with the teaching data. In other words, starting parameters such as heading angle, ship's positions, are not same with the teaching data. But they produced successful results. Finally some simulations are conducted under slight disturbance conditions such as wind conditions and current conditions.

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Once a great natural disaster occurred, traffic systems and life-lines in land would be cut everywhere. So it would be difficult to run and reach by land to the place where the disaster had occurred. Our country, Japan, is surrounded by the sea. It seems, therefore, to be reasonable to run and reach by sea for rescue activity. We carried out feasibility planning of the "Disaster Rescue Supporting Fleet". Our fleet is constituted of a ship with reconnaissance boats and helicopters, a car-landing ship and heavy car carriers, a heli-port ship, and so on. Bases of the fleets should be set at the places from where the fleets would be able to reach to any one of the representative cities in Japan, within 6/12 hours by the speed of 20 knots. Our fleet must be operated by the specialists, both in the fields of operations and of rescue activities. To maintain such the specialists in groups for emergency, we propose "registering system for the specialists" both in the public and in the official. We do hope that this concept should be discussed among all of the Japanesea and would be studied further by those who have some interests.

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We address analysis and design problems of aggregate demand response systems composed of various consumers based on controllability to facilitate to design automated demand response machines that are installed into consumers to automatically respond to electricity price changes. To this end, we introduce a controllability index that expresses the worst-case error between the expected total electricity consumption and the electricity supply when the best electricity price is chosen. The analysis problem using the index considers how to maximize the controllability of the whole consumer group when the consumption characteristic of each consumer is not fixed. In contrast, the design problem considers the whole consumer group when the consumption characteristics of a part of the group are fixed. By solving the analysis problem, we first clarify how the controllability, average consumption characteristics of all consumers, and the number of selectable electricity prices are related. In particular, the minimum value of the controllability index is determined by the number of selectable electricity prices. Next, we prove that the design problem can be solved by a simple linear optimization. Numerical experiments demonstrate that our results are able to increase the controllability of the overall consumer group.

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Direct pulp capping is the placement of a dental material directly over exposed pulp to prevent dental pulp from dying and avoid the need for root canal treatments. Calcium hydroxide and calcium silicates/mineral trioxide aggregates (MTA) have been commonly used for direct pulp capping with great success clinically. In recent years, resin-modified calcium hydroxide and calcium silicates have been developed with the advantages of precise placement,

set, and superior physical strength. As pulp capping materials would be in direct contact with the pulp, the cytotoxicity and biocompatibility is of particular importance in order to avoid pulp irritation and maintain pulp vitality. Therefore, this review article will summarize the cytotoxicity and biocompatibility of direct pulp capping materials, particularly resin-modified materials.

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This paper proposes torsion torque control (TTC) for a two-inertia system with environmental stiffness. The proposed TTC is robust to environmental stiffness as it compensates the measured load-side torque with the current reference through a single inertialization compensator (SIC). The SIC is independent of the TTC design, and a simple load-side plant model is constructed using the TTC and SIC. A load-side torque control based on a model error compensator (MEC) is adopted for one of the applications of the proposed TTC. In addition, plant nominal models are simplified using the proposed TTC. The proposed TTC system is effective even in the presence of environmental stiffness in simulations and experiments with geared motors for torsion torque and acceleration sensors.

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