多孔質な岩石や堆積物の空隙構造の屈曲度を計算するための.Mathematica Version4用ランダムウォークプログラムRW2を開発した.多孔質媒体の空隙構造の2次元画像データ(テキストファイル)を読み込んで.画像の中央近辺から.ランダムウォーカーが固体部分を避けながら空隙に沿って拡散する.平均二乗変位を時間の函数としてテキストファイルに出力し.また.ランダムウォークの軌跡も画面上に表示する.空隙率100%の系でのランダムウォーク結果と比較することによって.その多孔質媒体の屈曲度を計算できる.本プログラムを使用すれば.時間のかかる拡散実験をしなくても.空隙構造の画像データを用いて屈曲度を短時間で計算できる.ただし.本プログラムは.多孔質媒体の空隙構造が等方的で.かつ固体表面と拡散物質との化学的相互作用(たとえば吸着)が無視でき.そして画像データに空隙のバックボーン・クラスターが含まれている場合にのみ正しく屈曲度を計算できる.なお.このプログラムリストは.インターネットで無料公開されている.

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The authors have been developing small fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for use in various scientific observations. For example, in Antarctica, atmospheric observations have been conducted using a combination of a balloon and UAV. In Ethiopia, wide-area magnetic field observations have been conducted using a UAV capable of long-range flights. These UAVs are equipped with an in-house flight control computer and are capable of automatic flights. However, although approximately 20 years have passed since the development of this computer, issues such as inadequate computing power and memory as well as insufficient number of output ports for pulse width modulation signals remain, posing challenges when constructing complicated systems. To solve these problems, we developed a flight-control computer using a 32-bit microcontroller designed to conduct atmospheric observation missions in Antarctica and withstand low temperature environments down to -40°C. Aerosol observations and sample-return missions were conducted in Antarctica, and aerosol samples were successfully collected at an altitude of 27 km using the developed computer. This paper provides detailed descriptions of the developed flight control computer named “AP-CUB-G2” and the results of the atmospheric observation flight in Antarctica.

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It is a well-known fact that the various muscular movement as one of the human body functions is essential for physical fitness and these movements have been observed in various experimental studies. The muscular movement research as a basic academic area for physical education through the fundamental kinetic method on human movements should play increasingly more important part. The purposes of the study were (1) to establish the method for measuring the control-ability which has never been designated clearly before, (2) to find out the suitable method for calculating the muscular components quantitatively, and (3) to prepare the apparatus of the motor control amplifier by which three mechanical loads will be manufactured continuously. The "control-ability" in the limb muscular movement has been thought to be the main part for regulation of physical activities, but its evaluative method to calculate the quantity of regulative elements, which constitute of three components; elasticity, viscosity and mass inertia, have not been developed yet. The dynamic properties of muscle contraction and its neural control were successfully carried on by numerous physiologists^<8)>, who mostly performed on animals applying the isometric contraction. In our method, the living upper-extremity was used in the examination, to which a special control device was attached with the greater power relative to that of the muscle. The neuromuscular control response was recorded as a variance of the directed control values which are also called "error variables". This type of stimulus has been found to be convenient in order to evaluate the characteristics; (a) of muscle properties, (b) of muscle control-ability, and (c) of the myotatic reflex. This sort of study on the limb control movement should be carefully followed up further in future. The device also was utilized in man to calculate his pursuit or tracking capability as the human operator, and to compare the normal human power with the given power on the apparatus. An essential part of this device was that the lengthening of the muscular group could be recorded when the amplitude in voltage between the external force applied and the force in kilogram exerted by the muscle differed. In this paper the limb muscle contractions are dealt with, for the existing methods and instruments seem to be lacking mechanical accuracy and qualitative measurements. Considering the defects involved in the existing methods for the neuromuscular control capacity of man, a new apparatus to measure more accurately and more quantitively has been developed by the authors, which proved to well-stand to elaborate measurements of muscular control.

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Polysaccharides isolated from Scutellaria barbata (PSB) have been reported to have anti-tumor effects. To investigate the underlying mechanism, a highly invasive, metastatic and phospho-c-Met overexpression lung carcinoma cell, 95-D cell line was used. The results showed that in vitro, PSB not only could inhibit the proliferation of 95-D cell line (IC₅₀ = 35.2 μg/mL), but also down-regulated the expression of phospho-c-Met and its downstream signaling molecules including phospho-Erk and phospho-Akt. In vivo, PSB inhibited tumor growth in the 95-D subcutaneous xenograft model in a dose-dependent manner; after once-daily intraperitoneal injection for 3 weeks, tumor growth inhibition T/C ratio for 100 and 200 mg/kg treatments was 42.72% and 13.6%, respectively. In the end of the in vivo study, tumor tissues were harvested for further evaluation of the phosphorylation level of c-Met, AKT, and ERK. Ex vivo results demonstrated that the phosphorylation of c-Met and its downstream signaling molecules were also significantly inhibited by PSB. Immunohistochemistry analysis showed dose-dependent inhibition of tumor cell proliferation (Ki67) and reduction of microvessel density (CD31). In summary, the results indicated that PSB exerted anti-tumor growth activity on human lung cancer 95-D in vitro and in vivo by directly regulating the c-Met signaling pathway and the anti-tumor effects were mainly based on its anti-proliferation and anti-angiogenesis action.

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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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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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Illegal substance use is a serious problem all over the world. In order to effectively combat substance abuse it is important that both the particular features of drug users and the culture-specific risk factors that go along with drug abuse be identified. The present study was carried out in Bursa, Turkey, in order to document annual changes in the frequency of felons arrested of narcotics offenses and to establish the socio-demographics of these narcotics felons. Among the 2,230 narcotics felons reviewed, 24.3% had been charged with drug dealing but not consumption (profit-driven felons [PDFs]), 19.0% were narcotics felons charged with both dealing and consumption ([hard core drug users HCDUs]), and 56.7% were narcotics felons charged only with consumption and possession (not so hard core drug users [NHCDUs]). The NHCDUs were younger (< 30 years) than both the HCDUs and PDFs, while most of the PDFs and HCDUs were married. Despite the fact that the male/female ratio of the Bursa population was nearly 1:1 for the past 30 years, 93.0%, 95.0% and 96.0% of the PDFs, HCDUs, and NHCDUs, respectively, were male. It was also found that the most commonly used illicit substance in Bursa over this period of time was cannabis. Over the course of the 30-year period examined, the annual incidence rate of narcotics felons arrested increased from 0.4257 per 10,000 to 1.2389 per 10,000. Determining the socio-demographic characteristics of HCDUs and NHCDUs would be useful in preventing substance use before substance users become addicted.

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Muscle fatigue brings bad influence in everyday life. To prevent it from progressing, it is important that we control action by degree of muscle fatigue. So, goal of our study is to develop muscle fatigue quantification system that we can use it anywhere, accurately and easily. We develop following three things against previous study of muscle fatigue quantification. 1. To analyze degree of muscle fatigue anywhere, we use surface electromyogram as analyzing device. 2. To decrease subject's burden, we develop method that estimate characteristic of muscle fatigue by a few muscle contraction. 3. To decrease influence of data error, we add variable of stimulus target value. We performed comparison of value of muscle fatigue between experiment and simulation. In the simulation, degree of muscle fatigue is calculated by motor level (Stimulus Target). We asked subject equal motor level with simulation. But, calculated motor level isn't very match with simulation. So, it is difficult to compare accurate precision between experiment and simulation. But, experiment result showed tendency of fatigue, and taking difference of motor level into consideration, precision of quantification of muscle fatigue is almost good. We will aim at more accurate quantification of muscle fatigue and validation method of muscle fatigue model in the future.

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A new control design framework for vibration control, the hybrid control of active and semi-active control, is proposed in the paper. In the hybrid control framework, structural systems having both of an actuator for active vibration control and a semi-active control device, e.g., MR damper etc., is defined as the control object. In the proposed control approach, the higher control performance is aimed with the hybrid manner between the actuator and the semi-active control device. A design method to determine the active control law and the signal of the semi-active control device based on the one-step prediction of the control output is proposed. A design example of the vibration control for a base-isolated building is presented to show the effectiveness of the proposed control framework.

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Nitric oxide (NO) may act as either a pro-oxidant or an antioxidant in biological systems. Previous work has found inhalation of NO improved survival in a high altitude rat model. NO donor isosorbide mononitrate derivants might have a protective effect against hypoxia. We synthesized a series of isosorbide mononitrate derivant compounds to test their anti-hypoxia activities. Normobaric hypoxia and hypobaric hypoxia models were used to study the protective role of NO donor in mice. The results showed isosorbide mononitrate derivants had protective effects in hypoxia mice. Among those compounds, acetyl ferulic isosorbide mononitrate (AFIM) was the most effective. It prolonged the survival time during the normobaric hypoxia test. It decreased malondialdehyde (MDA) and H₂O₂ in hypobaric hypoxia mice. The antioxidase activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD), glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) and catalase (CAT) remained in normal ranges in the AFIM group. As a sign of mitochondrial dysfunction, the activities of ATPase were down regulated in mice under hypobaric hypoxia conditions. AFIM also protected ATPase activities. The protective effects of AFIM might come from a sustained NO supply and the release of acetyl ferulic acid with anti-oxidant activity.

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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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The bacterial composition of oral samples has traditionally been determined by PCR amplicon sequencing of 16S rRNA genes. Recent amplicon sequence variant (ASV)-based analyses of 16S rRNA genes differ from that based on operational taxonomic unit (OTU) clustering in the way it deals with sequences having potential errors. However, little information is available on its application in oral microbiome studies. Here, we conducted ASV-based analysis of oral microbiome samples using QIIME 2. We investigated the optimal parameters for sequence denoising, using DADA2, and found the trimming of first 20 nucleotides from 5′-end of both paired reads avoided excessive sequence loss during chimera removal. Truncating reads at positions 240-245 allowed the removal of low-quality sequences while maintaining sufficient length to merge matching paired ends. Taxonomic assignment, using the naïve Bayes classifier trained with the V3-V4 region of reference 16S rRNA sequences in the extended human oral microbiome database (eHOMD), resulted in bacterial compositions similar to those of OTU-based analyses. Contrary to OTU-based clustering, ASV-based analysis showed taxonomic abundance at the genus or species level to not differ significantly in tongue microbiomes, regardless of brushing. QIIME 2 can, therefore, be a standard pipeline for ASV-based analysis of oral microbiomes. (J Osaka Dent Univ 2020; 54: 273-281)

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Acute mountain sickness is caused by sub-acute hypoxia in healthy individuals going rapidly to altitude. Both tissue hypoxia in vitro and whole-body hypoxia in vivo have been found to promote the release of reactive oxygen species. Nitronyl nitroxide can trap free radicals such as ·NO or ·OH, and may therefore be efficient protective agents. This study assessed the ability of nitronyl nitroxide to against acute mountain sickness as a free radical scavenger in acute high-altitude hypoxia mice model. Normobaric hypoxia and hypobaric hypoxia model were used to estimate the protect effects of nitronyl nitroxide against acute mountain sickness. Low pressure oxygen compartment system was used to stimulate high-altitude hypobaric hypoxia environment. Mice in nitronyl nitroxide groups survived longer than acetazolamide group in normobaric hypoxia test. Hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) and malondialdehyde (MDA) increased in both cerebrum and myocardium in vehicle group. The results indicated more radicals were generated during high-altitude hypobaric hypoxia environment. In therapeutic groups H₂O₂ and MDA were significantly reduced while the activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD), glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) and catalase (CAT) were similar to normal group. These results demonstrated that nitronyl nitroxide was an efficient tissue radical scavenger and a potential protective agent for acute mountain sickness.

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This paper describes a design of energy-efficient Standard Cell Memory (SCM) using Silicon-on-Thin-BOX (SOTB). We present automatic place and routing (P&R) methodology for optimal body-bias separation (BBS) for SCM, which enables to apply different body bias voltages to latches and to other peripheral circuits within SCM. Capability of SOTB to effectively reduce leakage by body biasing is fully exploited in BBS. Simulation results demonstrated that our approach allows us to design SCM with 40% smaller energy dissipation at the energy minimum voltage as compared to the conventional design flow. For the process and temperature variations, Adaptive Body Bias (ABB) for SCM with our BBS provided 70% smaller leakage energy than ABB for the conventional SCM, while achieving the same clock frequency.

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The cosmic radiation field in space is rather complex in terms of composition and with respect to energy of the constituent particles. The intensity and energy spectrum of the cosmic radiation may considerably change with time as well. A three dimensional silicon detector dosimetry telescope (TRITEL), with sensitivity in 4π, has been recently developed in the Centre for Energy Research, Hungarian Academy of Sciences. The instrument comprises three mutually orthogonal, fully depleted, passivated implanted planar silicon detector pairs and it is designed to measure the energy deposit of charged particles. From the time spectra and the deposited energy spectra measured, the flux of charged particles, the absorbed dose, the linear energy transfer (LET) spectra and the average quality factor of the cosmic radiation, as well as the dose equivalent can be determined. This way the stochastic biological effects of the cosmic radiation in orbit can be characterized. Measurements have been already performed in the stratosphere on research balloons and on board the International Space Station (ISS). The orbit of RISESAT (Rapid International Scientific Experiment Satellite) gives an excellent opportunity to measure the dosimetric quantities listed above at higher altitudes and higher latitudes than at which the ISS is orbiting around the Earth.

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ICUせん妄は，重症患者によくみられ，注意力の低下，無秩序な思考および意識レベルの変動的な経過を特徴とする急性の神経障害である．ICUせん妄は，人工呼吸管理期間の延長，長期的な認知機能障害，医療費の増加に関連し，入院中の死亡率上昇の独立した危険因子である．ICUせん妄に対する非薬物療法では，ABCDEFバンドルによる多角的なアプローチがせん妄の低減に寄与することが知られているが，近年は作業療法士による認知アプローチによるせん妄治療などの報告も増えている．

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Joso City, Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan was severely affected by flooding of the River Kinugawa in September 2015. Local psychiatric organizations immediately began providing disaster mental health services (DMHS). In post-disaster settings, DMHS involving organizational interventions by multiple regional institutions are required to support disaster victims. However, little is known about the process of coordinating multiple institutions or determining whether appropriate support has been provided. To elucidate the characteristics of communications that enable effective disaster medical team formation, we conducted network analyses of sender-recipient pairs of emails during the period of DMHS activity. The network analysis is a research method that represents various objects as a network of nodes and edges and explores their structural characteristics. We obtained 2,450 time-series emails from five core members of DMHS, including 32,865 pairs of senders and recipients. The network generated by the emails was scale-free, and its structure changed according to the phases of disaster recovery. In the ultra-acute phase, which lasted about 1 week, spreading information and recruiting people to provide disaster support was given the highest priority. In the acute phase, which lasted about 1 month, support and swift decision-making were essential for directing large numbers of staff. In the mid- to long-term phase, support for staff to share information and experience in small groups was observed. Network analyses have revealed that disaster medical teams must change their communication styles during the mission to adapt to different health needs corresponding to each post-disaster phase.

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