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1. A local map was built around the OMW by using range sensors. This local map allows knowing the distance from the OMW to the surrounding obstacles in a circle with a radius of 3 [m]. The information provided by the local map, as well as the information of velocity of the OMW were used for varying the stiffness of a haptic joystick that sents information to the hand of the occupant of the OMW. As the distance to the nearer obstacles decreases and the velocity of the OMW increases, the stiffness of the haptic joystick increases, and vice versa. By using the haptic joystick, the occupant of the OMW was able of achieving safety navigation by avoiding collision against obstacles. The sensing system to obtain the surrounding environmental information for any arbitrary direction in real time was built. The algorithm to choose only environmental information existing toward the moving direction of OMW for navigation support system was proposed. Using the constructed environmental recognition system, operation assistance system that informs the danger level of collision to the operator was given. Navigation guidance haptic feedback system that induces an evasive movement to navigate OMW toward the direction without obstacle was proposed. A power assist system was attached to the rear part of the OMW in order to provide support to the attendants of the OMW, specially in the case when the attendant of the OMW is a senior citizen. The operability of the OMW with power assistance was improved by using fuzzy reasoning, but it was found that the membership functions of the fuzzy reasoning system had to be tuned in order to respond to the individual characteristics of each attendant. A neuro-fuzzy system (ANFIS) was used for speeding the tuning of the fuzzy reasoning system of the OMW by using the input data of the attendants. A touch panel with display was attached to the rear part of the OMW for providing a human-friendly interface for the input of the teaching data of the neurofuzzy system. Moreover, this touch panel can be used by the attendant for knowing the difference between the desired motion and the real motion of the OMW, and then adjust his behavior according to his observation. The operability of the OMW was improved by using the combined system ANFIS-touch panel. The natural frequencies of the OMW and the natural frequencies of the head and torso

By experiment, this paper investigates the performance of kinematics stability of a master-slave manipulator system targeting for haptic-enabled remote control. Experiment of master-slave motion reflection was carried out, and the trajectories of both ends had been recorded by motion capture cameras. Experimental results illustrated inverse kinematics algorithm using Pieper's Solution can facilitate motion reflection with adequate stability and accuracy.

By experiment, this paper investigates effects of stabilization control to suppress instability phenomena and QoS (Quality of Service) control to improve QoE (Quality of Experience) for remote robot systems with force feedback. We carry out the stabilization control with filters as the former control and the adaptive $\Delta$ -causality control as the later control. In our experiment, we employ the two systems, and two robot arms carry a wooden stick together by gripping both ends of the stick. Experimental results illustrate that the stabilization control with filters can suppress instability phenomena, and the adaptive $\Delta$ -causality control can reduce force applied to the object.

We administered FOLFOX (oxaliplatin (L-OHP) plus infusional 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) and leucovorin) to an hemodialysis (HD) patient with advanced gastric cancer (AGC), and investigated pharmacokinetics (PKs) and dialyzability of L-OHP. The patient was a 54-year-old Japanese man with a diagnosis of inoperable AGC. FOLFOX was instituted 3 h prior to the start of a 4 h HD period with the L-OHP and 5-FU doses reduced by 50% for the first cycle, and 30% reduced dose was administered for the second cycle. We performed an analysis of the PKs of L-OHP during these two cycles. Volume of distribution and area under the curve of the 30% reduced L-OHP dose were 56.7 L and 30.0 μg·h/mL, respectively. A dose reduction of L-OHP by 30%−50% may be advisable for the initial administration, given the need for careful administration of chemotherapy in HD patients, with particular attention to the development of hematological toxicities and neuropathy.

Background: The skin fixative used in Mohs chemosurgery contains zinc chloride and is referred to as Mohs paste (MP). However, MP shows a remarkable change in rheological characteristics after its preparation. Objective: To prepare an MP with stable rheological characteristics, we prepared a modified MP (mMP) using zinc oxide 10% single ointment (Zn_ointment), which is an oil-based ointment. Methods: We evaluated mMP by determining its rheological characteristics, depth of tissue fixation, and observation of the tissue surface after treatment. Results: The viscosity of mMP increased after three months. However, the treatment-dependent viscosity of mMP could be obtained by mixing with glycerin. The viscosity and spreadability of mMP_3mth, which was three months after preparation, were 1992.0 ± 376.5 Pa·s and 2.1 ± 0.1 cm, respectively. In contrast, the viscosity and spreadability of MP mixed with glycerin were 436.9 ± 0.0 Pa·s and 2.8 ± 0.0 cm, respectively. The fixed invasion depth of MP was sign...

Background Daikenchuto (TJ-100), a traditional Japanese herbal medicine, is widely used in Japan. Its effects on gastrointestinal motility and microcirculation and its anti-inflammatory effect are known. The purpose of this prospective randomized controlled trial was to investigate the effect of TJ-100 after esophagectomy in esophageal cancer patients. Methods Forty patients for whom subtotal esophageal resection for esophageal cancer was planned at our institute from March 2011 to August 2013 were enrolled and divided into two groups at the point of determination of the operation schedule after informed consent was obtained: a TJ-100 (15 g/day)-treated group (n = 20) and a control group (n = 20). The primary efficacy end-points were maintenance of the nutrition condition and the recovery of gastrointestinal function. The secondary efficacy end-points were the serum C-reactive protein (CRP) level and adrenomedullin level during the postoperative course, the incidence of postoperative complications, and the length of hospital stay after surgery. Results We examined 39 patients because one patient in the TJ-100 group was judged as having unresectable cancer after surgery. The mean age of the TJ-100 group patients was significantly older than that of the control group patients.The rate of body weight decrease at postoperative day 21 was significantly suppressed in the TJ-100 group (3.6% vs. the control group: 7.0%, p = 0.014), but the serum albumin level was not significantly different between the groups. The recovery of gastrointestinal function regarding flatus, defecation, and oral intake showed no significant between-group differences, but postoperative bowel symptoms tended to be rare in the TJ-100 group. There was no significant between-group difference in the length of hospital stay after surgery. The serum CRP level at postoperative day 3 was 4.9 mg/dl in the TJ-100 group and 6.9 mg/dl in the control group, showing a tendency of a suppressed serum CRP level in the TJ-100 group (p = 0.126). The rate of increase in adrenomedullin tended to be high postoperatively, but there was no significant difference between the two groups. Conclusions TJ-100 treatment after esophageal cancer resection has the effects of prompting the recovery of gastrointestinal motility and minimizing body weight loss, and it might suppress the excess inflammatory reaction related to surgery.

The pharmacokinetics of linezolid clearance (CLLZD) during continuous hemodiafiltration (CHDF) has not been comprehensively analyzed. Here, we examined CLLZD by CHDF in a patient with septic shock and disseminated intravascular coagulation due to methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. The extraction ratio of LZD by CHDF was 22.6%, and the protein-binding rate was 17.9% ± 7.7%. In addition, it was determined that the calculated total body clearance of LZD was 30.2 mL/min, plasma elimination half-life was 8.66 h, and the CLLZD by the dialyzer used for CHDF was 23.0 mL/min. From the obtained pharmacokinetics, the CLLZD of patients continuing CHDF was estimated to be approximately half of the reported CLLZD for healthy subjects. In addition, the LZD concentration of the sepsis patient who underwent CHDF remained higher than the minimum inhibitory concentration and was similar to the LZD concentrations reported in normal renal function patients. Although further studies are warranted, when LZD is administered to patients treated with CHDF, the present findings suggest that dose regulation is not required.

This paper considers tele-rehabilitation system by using the electrical stimulation based on the bilateral teleoperation for a human lower limb. The tele-rehabilitation means that a physical therapist rehabilitates a patient who is away from the physical therapist. When the therapist cannot check the condition of the patient directly, the haptic interface is used to feel the condition by the haptic sense. And the therapist moves the patient's lower limb by using the electrical stimulation indirectly through the haptic interface. In this way, the system that both the therapist side and the patient side are controlled each other is called as the bilateral teleoperation. However, the time delays of the communication cause the instability for the bilateral teleoperation. First, the mathematical model of a human lower limb is considered by using the linearization, the phase-lead filter is designed. Next, the paddle system as a haptic interface is modeled, the feedback controller is proposed. The scattering transformations and wave filters are constructed. Finally, the proposed tele-rehabilitation system is verified with respect to the stabilization and the control performance in the simulation and the experiment. As a result, the stability is compensated, the position error between the paddle and human lower limb is small.

The indoor wireless positioning system for a mobile robot employing fingerprinting technique is made in two phase, offline, i.e., collecting reference data for database, and online, i.e., matching the unknown data to those in the database. It is commonly known that the positioning accuracy is increased with the larger number of the reference locations. This has made the offline phase a tedious works, where laborious efforts are needed to construct the database. Thus, automatic database construction is desired in order to minimize the human efforts. This paper described the Signal Propagated Modified Shepard’s Method (SP-MSM) to construct the database by means of interpolating the missing wireless data using for mobile robot application. By introducing the selection probability, reference locations are identified and database is constructed. We found that over all 64 test locations, the proposed SP-MSM method outperform other interpolation method at 52% locations. In addition, the usage of low pass filter has greatly suppressed the fluctuation problem caused by unpredicted behavior of the wireless signal.

This paper considers a written communication system based on a multilateral teleoperation by using time-domain passivity control. The main contribution of this paper is to apply the time-domain passivity control to our written communication system. In our written communication system, the stability is guaranteed by using the scattering matrix method. However, when the disturbances exist in the practical multilateral teleoperation, the operation error may be occurred. This paper resolves the disturbance attenuation for the multilateral teleoperation by using the time-domain passivity control. First, the written communication system with the multilateral teleoperation is indicated. Two operators and one teleoperator which are called as the clients and the server, respectively. Next, the time-domain passivity control is applied to the server side. The time-domain passivity control is composed of the passivity observer and passivity controller. In the simulation, while one client provides the force to the pen equipment, the stability and the control performance are verified. The disturbance attenuation is confirmed by using the time-domain passivity control. Therefore, two clients can recognize the character by using the written communication system.

We investigated whether supplementation with the barley line BARLEYmax (Tantangara; BM), which contains three fermentable fibers (fructan, β-glucan, and resistant starch), modifies the microbiota in cecal and distal colonic digesta in addition to short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) production more favorably than supplementation with a high-β-glucan barley line (BG012; BG). Male Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly divided into 3 groups that were fed an AIN-93G-based diet that contained 5% fiber provided by cellulose (control), BM or BG. Four weeks after starting the respective diets, the animals were sacrificed and digesta from the cecum, proximal colon and distal colon were collected and the SCFA concentrations were quantified. Microbiota in the cecal and distal colonic digesta were analyzed by 16S rRNA sequencing. The concentrations of acetate and n-butyrate in cecal digesta were significantly higher in the BM and BG groups than in the control group, whereas the concentration of total SCFAs in cecal digesta was significantly higher only in the BM group than in the control group. The concentrations of acetate and total SCFAs in the distal colonic digesta were significantly higher only in the BM group than in the control group. The abundance of Bacteroidetes in cecal digesta was significantly higher in the BM group than in the control group. In contrast, the abundance of Firmicutes in cecal digesta was significantly lower in the BM and BG groups than in the control group. These results indicated that BM increased the concentration of total SCFAs in the distal colonic digesta. These changes might have been caused by fructan and resistant starch in addition to β-glucan. In conclusion, fermentable fibers in BM reached the distal colon and modified the microbiota, leading to an increase in the concentration of total SCFAs in the distal colonic digesta, more effectively compared with the high-β-glucan barley line (BG).

Esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) is more frequent in male, and female ESCC patients have better prognosis and tend to diagnose at an earlier stage than male. Regarding these female advantages, gender differences of immunological reaction and sex hormone relations were investigated previously. However, the gender differences of clinicopathological features and prognostic factors of ESCC remain well unknown. A total of consecutive 170 Japanese patients, including 28 females with ESCC who newly diagnosed and underwent esophagectomy between January 2004 and March 2013 in our institute, were examined. Clinicopathological features and p53 expression, a potent biomarker reflecting chemoresistance and prognosis, were compared. Prognostic factors were analyzed using a multivariate analysis. The rates of current drinking, flusher, smoking habits, and Brinkman index in female were lower than those in male (p Grade2) was seen much more in female significantly (36.1:66.7 %, p = 0.048). Immunohistostaining revealed positive rates of p53 expression were significantly high in male (50.4:30.5 %, p = 0.007). Postoperative complication occurred more frequently in male than female (52.8:28.6 %, p = 0.024). Estimated 5-year disease-specific survivals by Kaplan–Meier method were worse in male than female at rates of 46.2 and 76.7 %, respectively (p = 0.045). Multivariate analysis by Cox’s proportional hazards model showed that female gender (HR: 0.508, p = 0.023) and tumor depth (HR: 0.572, p = 0.018) were independent prognostic factors of ESCC after resection. Female ESCC showed prefer prognosis to male ESCC. Low p53 imunohistochemical expression in the female ESCC patients might be related with higher sensitivity to neoadjuvant chemotherapy.

The synchronous existence of lung cancer and gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GIST) is considered to be extremely rare. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report about the treatment of lung cancer and GIST with two kinds of molecular targeting drugs. An 83-year-old woman with a rectal GIST, which carried a c-kit mutation, and pulmonary adenocarcinoma, which exhibited an epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutation, was treated alternately with imatinib and erlotinib. Good control over both diseases was achieved for two years. The present case is not only of interest due to the rare co-occurrence of GIST and lung cancer, but also because it involved two tumors carrying different gene mutations, and both tumors were brought under control using different molecular targeting drugs.

BARLEYmax® is a unique barley rich in dietary fiber and resistant starch, which are considered to decrease the risk of developing type II diabetes mellitus. In this study, we evaluated the postprandial glycemic response for boiled BARLEYmax and determined its glycemic index in a Japanese population. Eleven healthy subjects were administered a 50 g/150 mL glucose drink twice and boiled BARLEYmax containing 50 g available carbohydrate after a wash-out period. Postprandial blood glucose, its change from baseline over 90 min, and the incremental area under the curve for BARLEYmax were statistically lower than those for the glucose drink. The glycemic index of the BARLEYmax was 24.3 (standard error of the mean, 3.5). These results suggest that in Japanese individuals, boiled BARLEYmax contributes to improving the postprandial glycemic response, which is one of the possible risk factors for the development of type II diabetes mellitus.

In this paper, a nonlinear sub-optimal time control is proposed as a vibration controller for the payload's skew rotation process of crane systems. Physical constraints of the actuator including bounded velocity and bounded acceleration are explicitly taken into account in the design process. Clipping-off conjugate gradient method is adopted to solve the bounded optimal control problem, whereas penalty function is employed to relax the state constraint. Both simulation and experimental results are provided to clarify the effectiveness of the optimal control system. The proposed scheme can be directly applied to transfer the payload to desirable skew orientation without any residual oscillation, or it can be utilized as a reference trajectory planner of the skewing control module for a 2-DOFs controller in either overhead or rotary crane systems.

This paper considers a written communication system based on a multilateral teleoperation. The main contribution of this paper is to propose a modified scattering matrix method for the multilateral teleoperation. Instead of the scattering parameter used in the previous researches, the new gains are proposed. The proposed scattering matrix method is applied to the written communication system. First, the written communication system with the teleoperation is shown. The control sequence that the operators which is called as clients can communicate by the character is indicated. The character is recognized by the reaction force from the pen equipment through the clients' hand. In order to guarantee the stability, the block diagram of the scattering matrix with new gains is proposed. It is proved that the position information and force information can be sent among the server and clients in steady state. It is also derived that the gains are related to the poles of the transfer functions of the clients and server. The feedback controller of clients using the robust control and new gains of the scattering matrix are designed. In the experiment, writing a character is demonstrated between two clients. The position error of clients and stability condition are verified. As a result, the position errors are small. Moreover, the stability condition is guaranteed. Therefore, two clients can recognize the character by sharing the haptic information.

Protocatechuic acid (3,4-dihydroxybenzoic acid; PCA) serves as a building block for polymers and pharmaceuticals. In this study, the biosynthetic pathway for PCA from glucose was engineered in Corynebacterium glutamicum. The pathway to PCA-employed elements of the chorismate pathway by using chorismate-pyruvate lyase (CPL) and 4-hydroxybenzoate hydroxylase (4-HBA hydroxylase). As C. glutamicum has the potential to synthesize the aromatic amino acid intermediate chorismate and possesses 4-HBA hydroxylase, we focused on expressing Escherichia coli CPL in a phenylalanine-producing strain of C. glutamicum ATCC21420. To secrete PCA, the gene (ubiC) encoding CPL from E. coli was expressed in C. glutamicum ATCC 21420 (strain F(UbiC)). The formation of 28.8 mg/L of extracellular 4-HBA (36 h) and 213 ± 29 mg/L of extracellular PCA (80 h) was obtained by the C. glutamicum strain F(UbiC) from glucose. The strain ATCC21420 was also found to produce extracellular PCA. PCA fermentation was performed using C. glutamicum strain F(UbiC) in a bioreactor at the optimized pH of 7.5. C. glutamicum F(UbiC) produced 615 ± 2.1 mg/L of PCA from 50 g/L of glucose after 72 h. Further, fed-batch fermentation of PCA by C. glutamicum F(UbiC) was performed with feedings of glucose every 24 h. The maximum production of PCA (1140.0 ± 11.6 mg/L) was achieved when 117.0 g/L of glucose was added over 96 h of fed-batch fermentation.

We report the case of a 50-year-old female Jehovah's Witness with advanced esophageal cancer who underwent esophagectomy following induction chemotherapy. She visited our hospital complaining of dysphagia and was diagnosed of advanced esophageal cancer by upper endoscopy. She refused allogeneic transfusion. Induction chemotherapy was performed. Severe anemia occurred as an adverse event. A subtotal esophagectomy was performed after her anemia improved. During the surgery, a large volume of replacement fluid was injected, the blood was diluted, and intraoperative bleeding was relatively reduced. Intraoperative blood salvage was made using Cell Saver. The postoperative course were stable by using autologous blood and albumin infusion. The patient was discharged on postoperative day 27. Jehovah's Witnesses with gastrointestinal malignancies can be treated safely by performing surgical therapy based on blood replacement therapy and autologous blood transfusion.

In this paper, system design and motion control of a nursing lift robot which runs on the ground is presented. This supporting lift robot provides a power assist function for transfer aid system with hoisting and lowering, and also an omnidirectional motion function, using DDSS (Differential Drive Steering System). Further, logic control to suppress limit cycle of lift at grounding is proposed. The effectiveness of the proposed robot has been demonstrated through a lot of experiments in the present research.

A Deaf-Blind (DB) person has impairment of both vision and hearing. Visual and hearing impairments increase with age. The rate at which persons with vision or hearing impairment become DB is very high. Therefore, it is thought that the DB population will increase as society ages. Currently, DB people are expected to communicate via the Internet in order to participate in society. Research and development of new communication technologies for this population are ongoing. However, most require use of braille, which is difficult to learn after becoming DB. Here, we propose a method for simulating handwritten characters that conveys words to a correspondent by writing characters on the palm with a finger. In using handwritten characters that can be read, it is considered that communication would be possible without special training. The purpose of this study was to develop a handwritten communication system that DB people can use to communicate via the Internet. Haptic two-axis devices capable of force detection and position control currently exist. The telecommunication system proposed here was designed based on multilateral remote control in order to enable haptic communication by many people. Each DB person can operate the two-axis haptic device. Each device is moved to the common position in accordance with the total operating force measured by the force sensor. In experiments, the recognition rate of characters was confirmed for healthy subjects wearing earmuffs and an eye mask. Results confirmed that the recognition rate of characters was more than 80% for simple sentences. Consequently, it was possible to recognize characters with this system.

We reported four consecutive advanced esophageal cancer patients with esophago-bronchial fistula (EBF) who were managed well and achieved long-term survival with timely multimodality therapy including bypass operation. Eighty-four patients with esophageal cancer located in the upper or middle esophagus who were treated in our institute from 2005 to 2013 were diagnosed with cT4 at the time of admission. Eight (9.5 %) of those 84 cT4 patients developed the esophago-bronchial/tracheal fistula. Out of eight patients, four (50 %) who responded to prior chemotherapy or chemoradiotherapy received esophageal bypass operations to manage their QOL and continue the following therapy. Not only nutrition and quality of life but also fighting spirit were maintained by allowing oral intake and resulted in completion of postoperative chemoradiotherapy in all 4 patients. Multimodality treatment including a bypass operation provided high QOL and long-term survival even in advanced esophageal cancer patients with EBFs.

Japan has a dwindling birthrate and a rapidly aging population, which has led to an increasing number of elderly laborers. Although this has spurred development into power-assisted (PA) equipment that can reduce the physical demands, most of power assisted systems developed so far have used the force sensor, a direct drive motor, or a high power motor. The PA machine using force sensor is unable to detect and avoid obstacles that might collide with nonsensor components of the machine. The direct drive motor is too expensive for the practical use and its power tends to increase. According to Japanese law, a high power motor is not allowed to cooperate together with laborers in the factory. Thus, in this research, a sensor-less power-assisted (PA) system capable of estimating operator force based on a disturbance observer and friction correction is designed and built for a high friction production support device using a lowcapacity servo motor and a high-speed reduction ratio reducer. First, a dynamic model of a production support device is identified with specific friction parameters. Next, a sensor-less PA system is constructed that is equipped with an appropriate disturbance observer and dynamic friction correction. Moreover, the static friction issues are solved by the regular driving command. Finally, the accuracies of estimated force are examined, and the effectiveness of the constructed sensor-less PA system is verified.

The incidence of and the risk factors for nausea and vomiting in patients undergoing low emetic risk chemotherapy (LEC) are unclear. The aim of the study was to provide information on these topics by performing a multicenter, observational, prospective study. The study consisted of patients who were administered first-time LEC that was consistent or inconsistent with current guidelines. Using the visual analog scale, patients recorded their daily food intake and the occurrence and severity of nausea over a 5-day treatment period. The overall incidence of chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting did not differ significantly between patients undergoing guideline-consistent (n = 89) or guideline-inconsistent (n = 121) prophylaxis (30.3 vs. 22.3%, respectively; P = 0.19). Logistic regression analysis identified a history of nausea and LEC other than taxanes as independent risk factors associated with nausea and vomiting in patients undergoing LEC. The mean daily visual analog scale scores for nausea severity and a decrease in food intake were

Cisplatin (CDDP) combination chemotherapy is widely administered to patients with advanced lung cancer. The dose depends on multiple factors, including whether the tumor is non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) or small-cell lung cancer (SCLC). Although efficacy is limited by cisplatin-induced nephrotoxicity (CIN), little is known about the risk factors for this complication. The aim of this study was to identify the risk factors for CIN in patients with advanced lung cancer, both NSCLC and SCLC. We retrospectively reviewed clinical data for 148 patients who underwent initial chemotherapy including CDDP ≥50 mg/m2 per patient per day for the first course at Kyushu Medical Center between October 2010 and September 2013. All data were collected from the electronic medical record system. Nephrotoxicity was defined as an increase in serum creatinine concentration of at least grade 2 during the first course of CDDP chemotherapy, as described by the National Cancer Institute Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events version 4.0. CIN was observed in nine patients. Univariate analysis revealed that cardiac disease and lower baseline serum albumin (Alb) values conferred a higher risk of nephrotoxicity (p

In crane systems, rotary hook plays an important role in adjusting the skew angle of payload to match with skew angle of vessels or container trucks. At the present, rotary hook is mainly controlled manually by experienced and skilled workers. Therefore, this paper presents to develop an adaptive input shaping (AIS) algorithm for rotary hook system which can automatically drive the payload to desired angle while suppressing the residual oscillation caused by flexible ropes. An algebraic estimator will be the center of adaptive input shaping scheme. Moreover, the comparison between AIS and built-in robust Specified Insensitivity (SI) input shaper will be also conducted when both of them are shaped to be robust with the natural frequency uncertainty of rotary hook system. All of conclusions will be verified through simulation results.

The purpose of this paper is to present a method to establish an autonomous mobile crane system which includes on-line obstacle recognition, path planning by on-line and suppression of sway of the transferred object. It is especially necessary for the online path planning occurring during transferring to be carried out relatively quickly. This paper describes a method of path planning that can be carried out in a short time with an easy algorithm. This target system has three different parts: a visual system, a planning system, and a control system. In the visual system, ultrasonic sensors are used to renovate a partial environmental map during transferring with the quick scanning time. In the planning system, a proposed online path-planning method based on the expanded path-planning method of Srinivas allows for changes such as a change in the transportation environment to be made during the transferring. Online path planning has been achieved using information regarding obstacles around the object being manipulated, as obtained by ultrasonic sensor. Finally, we have confirmed the usefulness of the proposed method by transfer experiment based on simulation.

ウンシュウミカンの貯蔵病害に対して腐敗抑制効果を有するカワラヨモギ抽出物含有製剤SK-202が，果実の萎れ，着色などに及ぼす影響を明らかにするため収穫後の‘興津早生’に塗布処理を行い，エチレン生成，呼吸量，果実品質を調査した．SK-202を処理した果実では，処理直後には無処理に比べてエチレン生成に差は認められなかったが，処理後3～16日目までエチレン生成が約50％に抑制された．呼吸量については，SK-202処理後直ちに低下し，4日目までは有意に抑制され，その後も処理区で低く推移した．果皮のDa値およびC値がSK-202処理区で高くなり，フラベドのカロテノイド含量の増加が認められた．調査期間中の果実の減量は，SK-202処理区で少ない傾向にあり，果皮の萎れが抑制された．本実験においては，果汁の糖度およびクエン酸含量について処理間に明らかな差はみられなかった．