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A kinematic model is used to analyze basketball shooting arm motions in the vertical plane that produce desired ball release speed, angle and backspin. The release conditions are related to arm motions using general kinematic equations. The paper compares three types of shooting arm motions: pure hand shots, hand-forearm shots, and general shots controlled by hand, forearm and upper arm motions. In pure hand shots, release speed, angle and backspin are severely limited. All hand-forearm shot configurations are able to produce desired release speed, angle and backspin. General shots redundantly provide shooters with any desired ball release speed, angle and backspin, and they are required to suitably control each joint angular velocity and acceleration.

A basketball shooting arm model is used to estimate arm joint motions for a set of desired release speed, angle and backspin. The model has three rigid planar links with rotational joints imitating an upper arm, forearm and hand with shoulder, elbow and wrist joints. The kinematics of the shooting arm is solved to calculate the joint angles, and the velocity and angular velocity of links at release. There are many angular displacement and velocity combinations of shoulder, elbow and wrist joints to produce the optimal release speed, angle and backspin of the ball at release. Shoulder rotation contributes to the vertical component of release velocity of the ball and elbow and wrist actions mostly produce the horizontal component of release velocity and backspin of the ball when the forearm and hand are nearly vertical at release.

A general three-dimensional dynamic computational model is used to estimate likely basketball rebounding regions for short-, medium-, and long-range direct and bank shots. The deterministic part of the quasi-rigid body model includes radial basketball stiffness and damping, and contains six distinct sub-models that completely encompass all reasonably possible qualitative basketball behaviors: gravitational flight with air drag, and ball-contact sub-models for ball–rim, ball–bridge, ball–board, ball–bridge–board, and ball–rim–board contact. Each contact sub-model allows slipping and non-slipping, and spinning and non-spinning motions at the ball-contact point(s). The deterministic model is driven with random initial conditions. Using independent Gaussian probability distributions for release velocity, release angle, and lateral deviation angle, simulations calculate ball trajectories of shots on a grid of three distances and seven different floor angles around the hoop on the right side of the court. The main results are the induced probability distributions over the court surface of rebounding ball locations at the height of the rim. Angled direct and bank shots have different most-likely rebounding positions, and usually have two high-probability positions, one on the same side as, and the other on the side opposite from, the shooter. The general high-probability rebound position on the shooter side is close to the hoop, even in long-range shots. On the opposite side, the most likely rebound distance from the hoop is roughly proportional to shot distance. Assumed standard deviations of release conditions affect rebound positions. A larger deviation of release velocity increases the likely rebound distance from the hoop on the shooter side. A larger deviation of lateral deviation angle moves the most likely rebound position out of the optimal shot path plane on the shooter side. Shots with larger deviation in release angle have a tendency to rebound to the shooter side.

A three dimensional dynamic model is used to estimate the best rebounding position for players in basketball. The model has six distinct sub-models: flight, and ball-contact sub-models of ball-rim, ball-bridge, ball-board, ball-bridge-board, and ball-rim- board contact. It allows both slipping and non-slipping interactions at the ball-contact point. Using probabilistic selection of release velocity, angle, and lateral deviation angle, simulations analyse ball trajectories and good rebounding positions for players. Our estimation includes player wingspan. We analyse the relationship between the most likely player rebound positions and ball rebound positions with high probability. The best player rebound position is usually different from the most likely ball rebound position. Player rebound regions for players with large wingspans are very close to the hoop and include some likely ball rebound positions. For short-range shots, one player is able to collect almost all of rebounding balls but two or three rebounders are required for long-range shots.

Basketball rebound regions are estimated using a dynamic model for short-, medium-, and long-range direct and bank shots and with previously measured standard deviations of release velocity and angle. The model includes basketball stiffness and damping, and contains flight and ball-contact sub-models. The deterministic simulations, together with random Gaussian probability density functions for release velocity, angle and lateral deviation angle, analyze ball trajectories from different shot positions. The results instruct likely rebounding positions. Angled direct and bank shots from the same release position usually have two high-probability rebound positions, one on the same side as and one on the opposite side from the shooter. The highest probability rebound position is typically in or near the optimal shot path plane for capture. Rebound positions from skilled player's shots are usually more predictable.

A three dimensional dynamic model is used to calculate basketball motions for field shots with release conditions: release position, release velocity, backspin angular velocity, release angle, and lateral deviation angle. The model includes basketball stiffness and damping and calculates the slipping and non-slipping, and spinning and non spinning motions at the ball-contact point. The simulations, together with probabilistic selection of release conditions, analyze ball trajectories of field shots and possible rebounding positions for players. The results instruct the best rebounding position for placement of rebounders. We also investigate the effectiveness of denying the optimal shot paths for attempted blocked shots.

A dynamic model is used to analyze the rebounding ball trajectories of free throws. The dynamic model previously described calculates slipping and non-slipping, and spinning and non-spinning motions at the contact point. First ball-contact boundaries for rebounds are estimated in the release velocity and angle space. We show the geometry of ball trajectories for rebounds of free throws with lateral deviation at the release point. The distances and positions for free-throw rebounds are analyzed.

We report a case of a granular cell ameloblastoma appeared 41 years after extirpation of a follicular type ameloblastoma. A 42-year-old woman underwent segmental resection of the right side of her mandible without mandibular reconstruction in 1964. The postoperative course has been uneventful until an otorhinolaryngologist found her right cheek swollen and referred her to us on February in 2005. A fine needle aspiration biopsy revealed the presence of granular cells in the sample. As the radiographic feature implied the recurrence of the previous ameloblastoma, we removed the lesion. The enucleated tumor (4.5 cm × 3.2 cm × 3.3 cm) was a cystic lesion that was encapsulated by a brown fibrous tissue and contained serous fluid. Microscopically, the lesion contained tumor nests consisted of numerous granular cells and some stellate cells, and each nest was surrounded by tall columnar cells. Immunohistochemistry for Ki-67, CD68, α1-antichymotrypsin, cytokeratin, S-100 protein, and p53 was performed on the specimens from both the primary and the recurrent lesions: the incidence of Ki-67-positive nuclei in the recurrent lesion was 5.1%, while that in the primary lesion was 0.5%. Besides, positive signals of both CD68 and α1-antichymotrypsin, indicative of phagocytosis, were broadly localized within tumor cells in the recurrent lesion. Taken these observations together, we assume that the extremely low proliferative potential of the primary tumor cells together with change to granular cells related to apoptosis might cause the tardy growth of the recurrent tumor after the initial tumorectomy.

We estimate values of the coefficients of air drag, friction, stiffness and damping for a dynamic model of basketball shots by analyzing ball position and orientation using video data for basketball-rim and basketball-backboard bounce tests. The dynamic model can calculate any configuration change of a basketball during shots. The simulation model is compared to actual bounce tests and the parameters are determined from these experiments. The dynamic model with the identified parameters calculates a ball trajectory similar to the actual measured results. Stiffness and damping coefficients are determined from basketball-backboard bounce tests.

A case of schwannoma extending from the parotid gland to the parapharyngeal space is presented. The patient was a 53-year-old woman. She was referred to us because of a swelling under the left auricle. CT scanning and MRI revealed a tumor extending from the deep lobe of the parotid gland into the parapharyngeal space, compressing the stylomandibular tunnel. This tumor was referred to as a “dumbbell tumor” because of its special shape. Such tumors are rare. The tumor was removed by an extraoral and mandibular swing approach. The histopathological diagnosis was schwannoma with a mixture of Antoni type A and B components. After sugery, no evidence of recurrence has been observed to date.

A newly designed step climbing wheeled robot is discussed with detailed analysis. The proposed mechanism has a compliant element between the front and rear wheels to help the wheels climbing the step which is higher than the wheel radius. The analysis gives the optimal compliance of the compliant element to keep the contact between the wheel and the step wall as long as possible. Some simulation and experimental results are also given to show the effectiveness of the proposed mechanism.

A dynamic model for motion of a basketball on the rim is derived. The model is used to investigate shot success sensitivity to initial conditions and to search for initial conditions that lead to long rim contact times. Nonlinear ordinary differential equations describe three components of ball angular velocity and contact point position on the toroidal rim. The model includes radial ball compliance and dissipation and contains three sub-models describing slipping contact, nonslipping contact and purely gravitational flight. Switching between the three sub-models depends on contact point velocity and friction forces. Equivalent radial stiffness and damping constants are estimated using experimental ball force-deflection hysteresis data. General initial conditions almost always involve slip of the ball on the rim. Bouncing on the rim can also occur. After contact it is possible for the ball to enter the rim with its centre passing significantly below the rim plane before rising and ultimately escaping. Exotic quasi-equilibrium periodic circular trajectories exist inside but below the rim plane, relying for their existence on a combination of centripetal force, friction and gyroscopic precession of radial spin about the contact point. Trajectories, and consequent ball capture or escape, are extremely sensitive to initial conditions, especially rim contact position and backspin angular velocity. Backspin aids capture on longrolling trajectories.

For the passive vibration isolation system, a friction damper is often used becasue it is sipmle, inexpensive and robust. However, the conventional damper of constant friction force has performance limitations ; the isolation characteristic declines when the friction force is large, while the resonant peak becomes large when the friction force is small. Furthermore, the displacement remains apart from the equilibrium position after the vibration diminishs. In order to overcome above drawbacks of the conventional friction damper, a new type of friction damper is proposed in this paper. In the new friction damper, the friction lever mechanism is devised to make the magnitude of the friction force proportional to the relative displacement. This is achieved by connecting the end of the lever to the restoring spring. The transient response and the displacement transmissibility are examined by numerical simulation and experiments, confirming the effectiveness of the linear friction damper.

Osteoma in the maxillary sinus, especially isolated osteoma, is very rare in Japan. We present a case of isolated osteoma in the maxillary sinus that was detected by chance on cephalograms obtained before surgical orthodontic treatment to correct facial asymmetry. There were no signs or symptoms caused by the osteoma. After orthodontic treatment for 3 years, the tumor was removed simultaneously with Le Fort I osteotomy under general anesthesia. The tumor was encapsulated by fibrous tissue and was isolated from the maxillary sinus wall. It measured 28×14×12 mm. Histopathologically, the lesion was diagnosed as an osteoma. There has been no sign of recurrence for 3 years after surgery. Reports of Japanese cases of osteomas of the maxillary sinus are clinicopathologically reviewed.

Recently, tracked vehicles are being equipped with a rubber crawler and they are used for leisure vehicles, snow machines, etc. With these applications, the resonance problems are common knowledge. The vibration characteristics of crawlers are experimentally examined. They have some resonance points caused by the differences in thickness of the crawler. These vibrations will make some noise and possibly cause system destruction. In order to analyze these vibrations, an approximate analytical model, which is based on the linear wave equation, including an effect of crawler velocity is introduced. Vibration characteristics are compared with exact solution and the experimental result. In order to suppress the resonance vibration, a bang-bang control method, which is part of the variable structure system control, is adopted. We experimentally and theoretically examined vibration and control of the crawler. As a result, that control method provides us the possibility of vibration suppression for the actual tracked vehicles.

The wide application of active magnetic bearing (AMB) requires an aseismic evaluation with respect to AMB rotor vibrations caused by actual earthquakes. A flexible rotor supported by AMB is selected for this purpose. A shaking simulation obtained using the quasi-modal model and the actual Kobe earthquake was completed. A corresponding test rotor was excited by seismic waves and the resulting vibration was measured for the vibration evaluation. In order to reduce the response severity against earthquakes, we propose an additional feed forward control method which is proportional to the signal detected by the accelerometers attached to the bearing housings. Since this additional control can cancel rotor vibration generated by the earthquakes, AMB rotor vibrations are successfully suppressed at a low level.

Four types of intelligence, self-knowing, action-planning, target-setting and scope-limiting are essential for the production progress of distributed autonomous production. The fundamental controlling features that differentiate distributed autonomous production control (DIST) and centralized production control (CENT) are the local/global view and concurrent/sequential processing, respectively, in controlling operations. The ability of production control is characterized by response time, planning scope and progressive accuracy. The characteristics of DIST are short response time, narrow planning scope and high progressive accuracy. The experiment of job shop simulation shows that DIST can meet the due time without any capacity planning in advance, and that the real-time response that DIST can realize is essential to achieve short lead-time production. However, in heavy workload production circumstances, the lead-time of CENT is smaller than DIST, because CENT, which has a wide planning scope as a charact...

Anaerobic ammonium oxidation (anammox) and denitrification are two distinct microbial reactions relevant to the global nitrogen cycle. The proposed initial step of the anammox reactions, reduction of nitrite to nitric oxide, has been postulated to be identical to that in denitrification catalyzed by the dissimilatory nitrite reductase of the cytochrome cd1-type. Here, we characterized the copper-containing nitrite reductase homolog encoded by nirK detected in the genome of an anammox bacterium strain KSU-1. We hypothesize that this NirK-type nitrite reductase, rather than a nitrite reductase of the cytochrome cd1-type (NirS), is likely to catalyze nitrite reduction in anammox organism KSU-1.

The purpose of this research was to make a machine or a robot jump over a big obstacle or a ditch. They sometimes need to jump to move over these obstacles. We plan to do fundamental researches on a jumping machine to (1) make the jumping machine jump as high as possible, (2) control the direction of the jumping, (3) control the attitude of the machine in the air, and (4) make it land softly. In this paper the method of making the jumping machine land softly in two dimensional space is described. The optimum soft landing of the jumping machine in two dimensional space is defined. This definition prevents the jumping machine from falling and receiving the big force from the ground. We apply this test to the jumping machine when it jumps and lands in two dimensional space and test the validity of the soft landing by experiment.

The purpose of this research was to make a jumping machine jump over a big obstacle or a ditch. We plan to do fundamental research to (1) make the jumping machine jump as high as possible, (2) control the direction of the jumping, (3) control the attitude of the machine in the air, and (4) make it land softly. In this paper the method of making the jumping machine land softly is described. The optimum soft landing of the jumping machine is defined as follows: • First, the impulse which the jumping machine receives from the ground should be minimized. • Second, the maximum force which it receives from the ground should be minimized. We apply this test to the jumping machine when it lands and test the validity of the soft landing by experiment.

The purpose of this research is to make a jumping machine jump over a big obstacle and a ditch. Therefore, the authors plan to do fundamental researches to (1) make jumping machine jump as highly as possible, (2) control the direction of the jumping, (3) control the attitude of it in the air and (4) make it land softly.In this paper the way to make the jumping machine land softly is described. The optimum softlanding of the jumping machine is defined as follows:•First, the impulse which a jumping machine receives from outside is minimized.•Secondly, the maximum of the force which the jumping machine receives from outside is minizized.When the jumping machine lands, we apply this definition to the body and the leg of the jumping machine. Then the validity of the softlanding is proved by the experiments usining the jumping machine.

Most elderly people staying in nursing homes have considerable dementia, and various kinds of recreation program have hence been executed in order to improve or prevent this problem. However the effect of recreation has not been proved quantitatively. In this paper, we show the relationship between actions of elderly people with considerable dementia during recreation and abilities of memorization, emotion control, accommodation to society, etc., and decompose their actions into basic action factors. We propose a design method for recreation programs composed of effective factor actions for improving dementia. We analyze the effect of recreation in an experiment of robot therapy recreation based on the proposed method.

A dynamic model is used to analyze the release conditions of direct and bank basketball shots: horizontal and vertical distance from the hoop center, release velocity, release angle, lateral deviation angle, and backspin angular velocity. The dynamic model includes radial ball compliance and damping and contains six sub-models: ball-rim, ball-bridge, ball-board, ball-bridge-board, ball-rim-board, and pure gravitational flight. Each ball-contact sub-model has slipping and non-slipping interactions. Margins in release angle and velocity are defined and used to characterize robustness of capture to perturbations in these variables. Based on these margins we suggest strategies for bank and direct shots depending on the court position.