Search

If pipes with narrow diameters are not well inspected, preventing accidents become difficult. Therefore, we developed a pneumatically powered earthworm-type robot for Half-inch pipes (each having an inner diameter of approximately 16 mm); these pipes are extremely difficult to inspect. When the robot travels for a long distance, its speed significantly decreases. When the movement distance of one cycle is small and the inter-operation period is short, the influence of the response delay of the pneumatic actuator increases and the speed decreases. Therefore, we developed a robot whose response delay is less likely to influence the driving speed and that has a large amount of movement per cycle. To create the proposed robot, we developed an extension unit and a grip unit as pneumatic actuators and experimented on pneumatic response characteristics. Also, the driving speed was measured using running tests. This confirmed that the robot's speed increased, and the speed decay owing to the long air tube decreased. The proposed robot will help reduce accidents arising from the corrosion of pipelines.

In recent years, ventilation equipment has been installed in various structures to draw in outdoor air and circulate indoor air. These ventilation installations have pipes (ducts) through which air flows. If dust accumulates in a duct, it will be carried indoors by the airflow. Dust adversely affects human health, and so these ducts must be cleaned regularly. However, the existing cleaning methods are inadequate for the Ducts having small diameter and many curved points, that are used in houses. Thus, to clean such ducts, we have developed a robot that moves imitating peristaltic crawling. This motion is suitable for moving in ducts because it is stable in curved and narrow pipes. In addition, the robot can move and clean the duct at the same time because it moves forward by holding the pipe walls. In this paper, we outline the development of such a robot. From the results of using the robot to clean the inside of duct, we find a cleaning performance of it.

While the use of oral beta (2)-agonists by athletes is prohibited because of their anabolic effects, some inhaled beta (2)-agonists can be used in accordance with the World Anti-Doping Agency regulations. We examined the dose disparity between the bronchodilating effect and anabolic effect of inhaled procaterol, a selective beta (2)-agonist, to determine if the drug might be effective for athletes with asthma. Intact rats were given nebulized procaterol at 0.001, 0.01, 0.1 and 1 mg/mL by inhalation, and its inhibitory effect on carbachol-induced bronchoconstriction was evaluated. Castrated rats were given nebulized procaterol at 0.03, 0.1, 0.3 and 1 mg/mL by inhalation 3 times a day for 14 days, and anabolic markers (body weight gain, weight of the levator ani muscle and gastrocnemius muscle) were measured. At 0.01 mg/mL and higher, procaterol dose-dependently inhibited carbachol-induced bronchoconstriction with a significant effect. At doses of up to 0.3 mg/mL, there were no signs indicating an anabolic effect of procaterol. At 1 mg/mL, however, a slight but statistically significant increase in the weight of the levator ani muscle was observed with no significant changes in other anabolic markers. It was suggested that inhaled procaterol might be useful for athletes with asthma because of the big dose disparity between its bronchodilating effect and anabolic effect in rats.

We have developed a pulsed Yb:YAG thin disk green laser for pumping a 100 kHz and 10 W femtosecond laser. We optimized numerically and experimentally the open duration of the acousto-optic (AO) Q-switcher and the internal SHG method, generating stable output energy at a 100 kHz repetition rate. We demonstrated a 515 nm output power of over 80 W with a pulse-to-pulse stability of less than 1% RMS with an LD power to green power conversion efficiency of 24%. With the developed green laser, we obtained 16 W of a Ti:sapphire laser in a cavity dumped mode.

To identify predictive factors for the development of pericardial effusion (PCE) in patients with oesophageal cancer treated with chemotherapy and radiotherapy (RT).From March 2006 to November 2012, patients with oesophageal cancer treated with chemoradiotherapy (CRT) using the following criteria were evaluated: radiation dose50 Gy; heart included in the radiation field; dose-volume histogram (DVH) data available for analysis; no previous thoracic surgery; and no PCE before treatment. The diagnosis of PCE was independently determined by two radiologists. Clinical factors, the percentage of heart volume receiving5-60 Gy in increments of 5 Gy (V5-60, respectively), maximum heart dose and mean heart dose were analysed.A total of 143 patients with oesophageal cancer were reviewed retrospectively. The median follow-up by CT was 15 months (range, 2.1-72.6 months) after RT. PCE developed in 55 patients (38.5%) after RT, and the median time to develop PCE was 3.5 months (range, 0.2-9.9 months). On univariate analysis, DVH parameters except for V60 were significantly associated with the development of PCE (p 0.001). No clinical factor was significantly related to the development of PCE. Recursive partitioning analysis including all DVH parameters as variables showed a V10 cut-off value of 72.8% to be the most influential factor.The present results showed that DVH parameters are strong independent predictive factors for the development of PCE in patients with oesophageal cancer treated with CRT.A heart dosage was associated with the development of PCE with radiation and without prophylactic nodal irradiation.

During attempted oesophageal stent placement in a patient with cervical oesophageal cancer in whom swallowing of even saliva was impossible, transoral access to the cervical oesophagus was unsuccessful. Under ultrasound and fluoroscopy guidance, percutaneous gastric puncture was performed, and using an angiographic catheter and guidewire, access to the oesophagus by a retrograde transgastric route was successfully achieved. The obstructed segment of the oesophagus was traversed. It was then possible to pull the guidewire through the mouth and place an oesophageal stent via an antegrade approach.

The Hypotensive Activity Of Pernettya Insana (Ericaceae) Fractions Was Investigated In Male, Spontaneous Hypertensive Rats (Shr) Through Single Intravenous and Successive Oral Administration Of Pernettya Hexane and Ethanol Extracts Of The Whole Plant. The Extracts Were Administered Orally At Two Doses, 3 Mg/Kg Or 30 Mg/Kg, For 20 Days, In Shr. Ethanol Extract Showed Less Effect On Hypertension Than Hexane Extract. Neither An Increase In Heart Rate Nor A Decrease In Growth Were Observed, Suggesting That The Extracts Are Not Likely To Cause Toxicity. Heart Rate Showed Fluctuation According To The Increase Of The Dose Extract. Body Weight In Rats 4-8 Weeks Of Age Treated With Pernettya Extract Did Not Show Significant Changes. It Was Concluded That The Hypotensive Properties Might Be Due To The High Content Of Tannin In The Crude Extract Of Pernettya.

Geyser-1, a prototype MIPS R3000 CPU with fine grain runtime PG for major computational components in the execution stage is available. Function units such as CLU, shifter, multiplier and divider are power-gated and controlled at runtime such that only the function unit to be used is powered-on to minimize the leakage power. The evaluation results on the real chip reveals that the fine grain runtime PG mechanism works without electric problems. It reduces the leakage power 7% at 25 °C and 24% at 80°C. The evaluation results using benchmark programs show that the power consumption can be reduced from 3% at 25 °C and 30% at 80°C.

The design of the boundary curb between pavement and roadway constructed in the crosswalk is requested to secure safety and smooth traffic for all passing people. It is preferable to set the step of curb to be about 2 cm for the visually handicapped persons to ascertain the boundary. However, this step is a barrier for the wheelchair user. This research aims the quantitative evaluation of the typical existing curbs from wheelchair userpsilas viewpoint, and the final proposal of the universal design of an easy-to-use curb for all. The wheelchair userpsilas body vibration and body load were examined by using the three directional accelerometers and the torque meter equipped wheelchair. It was shown to be able to evaluate the curb objectively by assuming the body vibration and the wheelchair driving torque as a measure.

Distance learning systems have gained attention with the development of the Internet. The Web browser Web-com provides a multi-layer drawable canvas on which users can draw annotations over Web pages. However, the use of Web-com is limited to personal computers at home or office. If learners could study learning content using their mobile phones anytime and anywhere, that would be wonderful. For this reason, we implemented a learning system for mobile phones, mobile Web-com. This paper describes the results of implementation and execution of mobile Web-com on a simulator and a mobile phone system

A novel process technology has been developed to fabricate an EEPROM embedded CMOS VLSI. The new technique utilizing a single poly-Si EEPROM cell reduces process steps by 25% as compared with the conventional double poly-Si EEPROM cell. The EEPROM-embedded CMOS LOGIC LSI can be shrunk over future technology generations by introducing three kinds of gate oxide thickness. A widely operating voltage ranging from 1.5 V to 6.0 V and a standby current below 100 nA have been achieved.

When a picture is compressed in MPEG video, the image quality of important regions is maintained without changing the total amount of information; this is done by assigning a high information priority to the important regions. Therefore, the present paper proposes a method to modify a quantizer scale according to importance estimated by a depth of focus quantity. Image quality of an important region does not deteriorate much even if the total amount of information is decreased. Moreover, in television broadcasting, subtitles are usually in focus, so the proposed method can extract subtitle regions and give more priority to them.

This CMOS microprocessor has performance of about 45MIPS at 50 MHz with about 300 mW power dissipation at 3.3 V power supply. It implements about 440 k transistors in a 25 mm/sup 2/ die fabricated by 0.41 /spl mu/m double metal CMOS. It is designed as a core processor for PDA applications, that require high speed graphical operation and digital signal processing functions as well as low power consumption from portability requirements.

In this paper, visual information recognition ability is examined with a game which simulates machine operation. First, the difference of visual information recognition of every operator is discussed, and the difference is clarified with the value Visual Information Dependence. Next, the viewpoint of the operator is examined with the eye mark camera in order to validate the value. Furthermore, the effective improvement in the skill of a low skilled person is tried with the method derived from the value.

A simple tapered directional coupler with a five-layered structure is employed for mode conversion between a single-order and higher-order modes. As a result, we confirmed that the first several modes in the tapered waveguide shift to single-order mode with high conversion efficiency by use of computer simulation, and observed the streak patterns of mode propagation experimentally.

A case of malignant transformation to a squamous cell carcinoma in a long-standing lumbar dermoid cyst is described. Progress was slow during 6 years. This type of transformation in a dermoid cyst is extremely uncommon and has never been recorded at this site.

Intraoperative spinal cord monitorings using evoked spinal cord potentials (ESCP) have been performed in 19 patients with spinal cord tumors, including five intramedullary tumors and two arteriovenous malformations (AVM) since 1984. There were 10 men and 9 women between the ages of 22 and 73 years, with an average of 49 years. ESCP resulting from median or tibial and peroneal nerve and/or spinal cord stimulation were used for monitoring according to the spinal level of tumors.

Various reports have been published on corntrol systems for slab reheating furnaces centering on the theme of energy savings. But, due to the fact that the process description is largely non-linear and hounded with many restrictive conditions no system was formularized in the past that would simultaneously satisfy two targets, minimum deviation in the extracted slab temprature and maximum reheating efficiency. The present control system, however, is a system that satisfies both targets simultaneously. Although it makes us p of experimental laws in part, it provides all the internal characteristics and control laws of the process in formularizerd forms. The system is composed of an observer and predictor to ensure sub-optimization. As for the control method, it is based on feed forward control and is characterized by the fact that control of the fuel distribution to each zone is always directed toward securing Maximum efficiency .

Model tests were carried out to study the deformation characteristics of abutments during liquefaction. In the tests, fine sand was used to model the saturated ground and the embankment. The model constructed inside the box was subjected to sinusoidal vibration with the help of a shaking table. The variation of pore water pressure, the earth pressure and the acceleration were measured with different kinds of transducers and the deformed pattern of the model was observed through a video camera. In addition to the comparison and estimation of the earthquake resistance of various abutments, the effect of the sheet pile method with respect to the stability of abutments constructed on embankments was also investigated.

A description is given of several analog circuit techniques and design aspects used in a high-performance CMOS analog cell library. Using self-calibrating techniques, it is possible to obtain fully monolithic voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) and one-shot multivibrator with characteristics stable against the variation in the process parameters, power supply, and temperature. Using mixed analog and digital standard cell with an FDC (floppy disk controller) core cell, a highly integrated, high-performance perpendicular floppy disk controller (PFDC) including a sophisticated variable frequency oscillator (VFO) has been developed. All of the circuits were implemented on a standard 1.5-mm CMOS p-well process with double metal