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Artificial placenta therapy (APT) is an experimental care strategy for extremely preterm infants born at 21-24 weeks' gestation. In our previous studies, blood taken from the maternal ewe was used as the basis of priming solutions for the artificial placenta circuit. However, the use of maternal blood as a priming solution is accompanied by several challenges. We explored the use of synthetic red cells (hemoglobin vesicles; HbV) as the basis of a priming solution for APT used to manage extremely early preterm ovine fetuses.Six ewes with singleton pregnancies at 95 d gestation (term = 150 d) were adapted to APT and maintained with constant monitoring of key vital parameters. The target maintenance period was 72 h in duration. A synthetic red cell solution consisting of HbV, sheep albumin and electrolytes was used as priming solutions for the APT circuit. Fetuses were evaluated on gross appearance, physiological parameters and bleeding after euthanasia.Two out of six APT fetuses were successfully maintained for the targeted 72 h experimental period with controllable anemia (10 g/dl) and methemoglobinemia (10%) using an infusion of blood transfusion and nitroglycerin delivered1 h after APT commencement, a sufficient period of time to cross-match blood products and screen for viral agents of concern.Extremely preterm sheep fetuses were maintained for a period of up to 72 h using APT in combination with circuit priming using a synthetic red cell (HbV) preparation. Although significant further refinements are required, these findings demonstrated the potential clinical utility of synthetic blood products in the eventual clinical translation of artificial placenta technology to support extremely preterm infants.

Blasting method is a conventional method for hard rock mass excavation. Recently, the use of blasting method is getting difficult due to environmental problems, such as noise pollution and ground vibration. Mechanical excavation method is an alternative for the blasting method; however, the present excavation method has two problems: the low efficiency due to the wear of cutting bits and the high cost to exchange cutting bits. Thus, through this research, we are trying to innovate the edge excavation method in order to solve the two problems. The purpose of this study was to develop a rock excavator attached to backhoe by using multistage edge excavation method. We carried out the experiments by using model excavator to find out its efficiency and force acting on the rock excavator. In this study, we conducted a basic experiment by using a displacement controlling method to determine the load required to control a model excavator. The specimen used was high-strength mortar specimen. In the experiment, a model excavator was attached to the experimental device, and the speed was set to be constant by displacement control. Excavation was performed by rotating the specimen. The vertical force Fz, torque T, excavation depth z, and soil volume m, the excavation time t were measured. As a result, the load required for the model excavator was verified and the capability of the experiment to be performed through load controlling was confirmed.

Functions that are not intended by the chip designer are added in the IC manufacturing supply chain, which may cause the destruction of the IC or degrade security under certain circumstances. Those function added to ICs against the designer’s intention is called hardware Trojans (HTs); it is a new threat that degrades device security. To make the company and its designers aware of these threats and consider countermeasures, this paper introduces recent research trends on such threats and their detection methods. It also shows the specific threats of HT related to the electromagnetic information security field, which has been discussed in the EMC society in recent years and promotes EMC engineers’ and researchers’ understanding of HT.

The residue number system (RNS) is a method for representing an integer as an n-tuple of its residues with respect to a given base. Since RNS has inherent parallelism, it is actively researched to implement a faster processing system for public-key cryptography. This paper proposes new RNS Montgomery reduction algorithms, Q-RNSs, the main part of which is twice a matrix multiplication. Letting n be the size of a base set, the number of unit modular multiplications in the proposed algorithms is evaluated as $$(2n^2+n)$$ . This is achieved by posing a new restriction on the RNS base, namely, that its elements should have a certain quadratic residuosity. This makes it possible to remove some multiplication steps from conventional algorithms, and thus the new algorithms are simpler and have higher regularity compared with conventional ones. From our experiments, it is confirmed that there are sufficient candidates for RNS bases meeting the quadratic residuosity requirements.

Ex vivo uterine environment therapy is an experimental intensive care strategy for extremely preterm infants born between 21 and 24 weeks of gestation. Gas exchange is performed by membranous oxygenators connected by catheters to the umbilical vessels. The fetus is submerged in a bath of synthetic amniotic fluid. The lungs remain fluid filled, and pulmonary respiration does not occur. Intrauterine inflammation is strongly associated with extremely preterm birth and fetal injury. At present, there are no data that we are aware of to show that artificial placenta-based systems can be used to support extremely preterm fetuses compromised by exposure to intrauterine inflammation.To evaluate the ability of our ex vivo uterine environment therapy platform to support extremely preterm ovine fetuses (95-day gestational age; approximately equivalent to 24 weeks of human gestation) exposed to intrauterine inflammation for a period of 120 hours, the following primary endpoints were chosen: (1) maintenance of key physiological variables within normal ranges, (2) absence of infection and inflammation, (3) absence of brain injury, and (4) gross fetal growth and cardiovascular function matching that of age-matched in utero controls.Ten ewes with singleton pregnancies were each given a single intraamniotic injection of 10-mg Escherichia coli lipopolysaccharides under ultrasound guidance 48 hours before undergoing surgical delivery for adaptation to ex vivo uterine environment therapy at 95-day gestation (term=150 days). Fetuses were adapted to ex vivo uterine environment therapy and maintained for 120 hours with constant monitoring of key vital parameters (ex vivo uterine environment group) before being killed at 100-day equivalent gestational age. Umbilical artery blood samples were regularly collected to assess blood gas data, differential counts, biochemical parameters, inflammatory markers, and microbial load to exclude infection. Ultrasound was conducted at 48 hours after intraamniotic lipopolysaccharides (before surgery) to confirm fetal viability and at the conclusion of the experiments (before euthanasia) to evaluate cardiac function. Brain injury was evaluated by gross anatomic and histopathologic investigations. Eight singleton pregnant control animals were similarly exposed to intraamniotic lipopolysaccharides at 93-day gestation and were killed at 100-day gestation to allow comparative postmortem analyses (control group). Biobanked samples from age-matched saline-treated animals served as an additional comparison group. Successful instillation of lipopolysaccharides into the amniotic fluid exposure was confirmed by amniotic fluid analysis at the time of administration and by analyzing cytokine levels in fetal plasma and amniotic fluid. Data were tested for mean differences using analysis of variance.Six of 8 lipopolysaccharide control group (75%) and 8 of 10 ex vivo uterine environment group fetuses (80%) successfully completed their protocols. Six of 8 ex vivo uterine environment group fetuses required dexamethasone phosphate treatment to manage profound refractory hypotension. Weight and crown-rump length were reduced in ex vivo uterine environment group fetuses at euthanasia than those in lipopolysaccharide control group fetuses (P.05). There were no biologically significant differences in cardiac ultrasound measurement, differential leukocyte counts (P.05), plasma tumor necrosis factor α, monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 concentrations (P.05), or liver function tests between groups. Daily blood cultures were negative for aerobic and anaerobic growth in all ex vivo uterine environment group animals. No cases of intraventricular hemorrhage were observed. White matter injury was identified in 3 of 6 lipopolysaccharide control group fetuses and 3 of 8 vivo uterine environment group fetuses.We report the use of an artificial placenta-based system to support extremely preterm lambs compromised by exposure to intrauterine inflammation. Our data highlight key challenges (refractory hypotension, growth restriction, and white matter injury) to be overcome in the development and use of artificial placenta technology for extremely preterm infants. As such challenges seem largely absent from studies based on healthy pregnancies, additional experiments of this nature using clinically relevant model systems are essential for further development of this technology and its eventual clinical application.

The containment vessel failure mode, “molten fuel-coolant interaction outside the reactor pressure vessel” (“ex-vessel FCI”) is a phenomenon of rapid increase in the pressure inside the containment vessel or steam explosion caused by the contact between the molten reactor core and cooling water outside the reactor pressure vessel after the reactor core is damaged. To evaluate the viability of keeping confinement function of the containment vessels of Units 6 and 7 (ABWRs) of Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Station against “ex-vessel FCI,” we conducted a code-based event progression analysis. For evaluation of the rapid increase, we employed the severe accident analysis code, MAAP, after organizing the critical phenomena of the event. In addition, assuming a case of steam explosion occurrence, we conducted an analysis with employing the steam explosion analysis code, JASMINE, and the structural response analysis code, AUTODYN-2D. As a result of the evaluation, the maximum pressure and temperature inside the containment vessels were lower than their limits. Moreover, the maximum stress applied to the lower part of the containment vessels was lower than the yield stress on support structure of the lower part of the containment vessels. Therefore, we could confirm that the containment vessels can keep their integrity.

Quantum key distribution’s (QKD’s) central and unique claim is information theoretic security. However there is an increasing understanding that the security of a QKD system relies not only on theoretical security proofs, but also on how closely the physical system matches the theoretical models and prevents attacks due to discrepancies. These side channel or hacking attacks exploit physical devices which do not necessarily behave precisely as the theory expects. As such there is a need for QKD systems to be demonstrated to provide security both in the theoretical and physical implementation. We report here a QKD system designed with this goal in mind, providing a more resilient target against possible hacking attacks including Trojan horse, detector blinding, phase randomisation and photon number splitting attacks. The QKD system was installed into a 45 km link of a metropolitan telecom network for a 2.5 month period, during which time the system operated continuously and distributed 1.33 Tbits of secure key data with a stable secure key rate over 200 kbit/s. In addition security is demonstrated against coherent attacks that are more general than the collective class of attacks usually considered.

Background Ex vivo uterine environment therapy is an experimental life support platform designed to reduce the risk of morbidity and mortality for extremely preterm infants born at the border of viability (21–24 weeks’ gestation). To spare the functionally immature lung, this platform performs gas exchange via a membranous oxygenator connected to the umbilical vessels, and the fetus is submerged in a protective bath of artificial amniotic fluid. We and others have demonstrated the feasibility of extended survival with ex vivo uterine environment therapy therapy in late preterm fetuses; however, there is presently no evidence to show that the use of such a platform can support extremely preterm fetuses, the eventual translational target for therapy of this nature. Objective The objective of the study was to use our ex vivo uterine environment therapy platform to support the healthy maintenance of 600–700 g/95 days gestational age (equivalent to 24 weeks of human gestation) sheep fetuses. Primary outcome measures were as follows: (1) maintenance of key physiological variables; (2) absence of infection; (3) absence of brain injury; and (4) growth and cardiovascular function patterns matching that of noninstrumented, age-matched in utero controls. Study Design Singleton fetuses from 8 ewes underwent surgical delivery at 95 days’ gestation (term, 150 days). Fetuses were adapted to ex vivo uterine environment therapy and maintained for 120 hours with real-time monitoring of key physiological variables. Umbilical artery blood samples were regularly collected to assess blood gas data, differential counts, inflammation, and microbial load to exclude infection. Brain injury was evaluated by gross anatomical and histopathological approaches after euthanasia. Nine pregnant control animals were euthanized at 100 days’ gestation to allow comparative postmortem analyses. Data were tested for mean differences with an analysis of variance. Results Seven of 8 ex vivo uterine environment group fetuses (87.5%) completed 120 hours of therapy with key parameters maintained in a normal physiological range. There were no significant intergroup differences (P > .05) in final weight, crown-rump length, and body weight-normalized lung and brain weights at euthanasia compared with controls. There were no biologically significant differences in hematological parameters (total or differential leucocyte counts and plasma concentration of tumor necrosis factor-α and monocyte chemoattractant protein 1) (P > .05). Daily blood cultures were negative for aerobic and anaerobic growth in all ex vivo uterine environment animals. There was no difference in airspace consolidation between control and ex vivo uterine environment animals, and there was no increase in the number of lung cells staining positive for the T-cell marker CD3. There were no increases in interleukin-1, interleukin-6, interleukin-8, tumor necrosis factor-α, and monocyte chemoattractant protein 1 mRNA expression in lung tissues compared with the control group. No cases of intraventricular hemorrhage were observed, and white matter injury was identified in only 1 ex vivo uterine environment fetus. Conclusion For several decades, there has been little improvement in outcomes of extremely preterm infants born at the border of viability. In the present study, we report the use of artificial placenta technology to support, for the first time, extremely preterm ovine fetuses (equivalent to 24 weeks of human gestation) in a stable, growth-normal state for 120 hours. With additional refinement, the data generated by this study may inform a treatment option to improve outcomes for extremely preterm infants.

Blaster and hand breaker methods are used for teardown, although these methods are limited to use under ambient conditions in terms of noise and vibration in urban areas. A new environmentally sound method has therefore been proposed to consider both workability and economic efficiency. This paper presents the efficiency test of a new trench excavator by using multistage type edge excavation. A model excavator has point attack bits for foregoing excavation and multi-stage disk cutter bits for edge excavation. Foregoing and edge excavation are simultaneously carried out by the model excavator. Penetration speed control experiments were carried out first to estimate the force required to excavate. Then experiments were carried out under constant loads. It was recognized that the torque acting on the model excavator showed no significant differences between mortar and concrete excavation and that the penetration speed and torque could be controlled by the force. 新しい深礎掘削機として多段型掘削機モデルを製作し，性能実験を行った．本研究で製作したモデル掘削機には2自由面を掘削する端面掘削方式を段階的に行えるように，先端に2自由面をつくるためのポイントアタックビット，その後端面掘削を行うためのローラカッタビットを段階的に配置されており，1回の工程ですべての掘削が完了できる．まず，モデル掘削機の掘削に必要な荷重を把握するために変位速度一定で実験を行い，その後，一定の荷重で掘削の実験を行った．その結果，生じるトルクにコンクリートとモルタルで差があまり見られず，荷重により，掘削速度とトルクを制御することができることがわかった．

This paper describes strategies to ensure safety measures for ABWRs in Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Station reflecting the lessons learned from the Fukushima Daiichi accident. The accident and response actions were analysed to extract lessons. Based on the lessons policies to enhance safety and containment integrity were derived. Firstly with considerations of multiple failures of the Fukushima Daiichi accident, defense in depth (DID) was enhanced by applying more diverse safety measures. For this purpose, in addition to refurbishing safety measures for beyond design base events, safety measures for each DID layer was enhanced not only by strengthen robustness to single failure but also by strengthen diversity and by physical separation. Especially capacities for ensuring containment integrity have been drastically improved by installing diverse safety measures for the third layer and the fourth layer of DID including the alternative coolant circulation system. Secondly phased approach was introduced in choosing mitigation measures considering timing of the response actions and required reliabilities. The basic concept of phased approach is that we have to select safety measures based on the assumption that possible and available measures and their required reliability are different depending on time to spare. Lastly performance requirements was clarified for containment vessel and its auxiliary systems after core damage. The basic policy was to define clearly twice design pressure of PCV as its upper limit pressure and to define 200 degree C as PCV upper limit temperature, and then to define function requirements for other auxiliary systems in order to contain fission products in the PCV and to make them decay as long as possible not only by enhancing PCV capacity but by utilizing auxiliary systems to ensure PCV integrity after core damage. Various safety measures were implemented based on these policies and applied at ABWRs in Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Station.

All of the nuclear power stations of TEPCO had experienced huge external events. One of which is the Niigata-ken Chuetsu-Oki earthquake in 2007 at Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Station (NPS), and the other is the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011 at Fukushima Daiichi NPS and Fukushima Daini NPS. Especially, the Fukushima Daiichi Units 1–3 experienced severe accident, since prolonged station blackout (SBO) and loss of ultimate heat sink (LUHS) were induced by the huge tsunami which was generated by the Great East Japan Earthquake. The most important lesson learned was that the defense-in-depth for external event was insufficient. Therefore, we are implementing many safety enhancement measures for tsunami in our Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Station. Thus, in order to confirm the effectiveness of these safety enhancement measures, TEPCO performed tsunami PRA studies. The studies were conducted in accordance with “The Standard of Tsunami Probabilistic Risk Assessment (PRA) for nuclear power plants” [1] established by the Atomic Energy Society of Japan. TEPCO conducted two state (the state before the implementation of accident management (AM) measures and the state at the present) evaluations to confirm the effectiveness of the safety enhancement measures. In this evaluation, TEPCO were able to confirm the effectiveness of safety enhancement measures carried out towards plant vulnerabilities that were found before these measures were implemented.

This paper shows two power analysis attacks against a software implementation of a first-order DPA resistant S-box algorithm that is based on the discrete Fourier Transform (DFT). The DPA resistant S-box algorithm based on DFT was proposed by Prouff et al. in 2006 and improved by Coron et al. in 2008, respectively. In our attacks against the improved one, we pre-process the power traces by separating them into two subgroups, so that each has a biased mask. For the separated power traces, two post analysis methods are proposed to identify the key. One is based on DPA attack against one subgroup, and the other utilizes the difference of means for two subgroups and a pattern matching. Finally, we compare these two attack methods and propose an algorithm-level countermeasure to enhance the security of S-box calculation based on the DFT.

Correlation power analysis (CPA) is a well-known attack against cryptographic modules with which an attacker evaluates the correlation between the power consumption and the sensitive data candidates calculated from a guessed sub-key and known data such as plaintexts and ciphertexts. This paper enhances CPA to propose a new general power analysis, built-in determined sub-key CPA (BS-CPA), which finds a new sub-key by using the previously determined sub-keys recursively to compute the sensitive data candidates and to increase the signal-to-noise ratio in its analysis. BS-CPA also reuses the power traces in the repetitions of finding sub-keys to decrease the total number of the required traces for determining the all sub-keys. BS-CPA is powerful and effective when the multiple sensitive data blocks such as sbox outputs are processed simultaneously as in the hardware implementation. We apply BS-CPA to the power traces provided at the DPA contest and succeed in finding a DES key using fewer traces than the original CPA does.

We first model the formal security model of multisignature scheme following that of group signature scheme. Second, we prove that the following three probabilistic multisignature schemes based on a trapdoor permutation have tight security; PFDH (probabilistic full domain hash) based multisignature scheme (PFDH-MSS), PSS (probabilistic signature scheme) based multisignature scheme (PSS-MSS), and short signature PSS based multisignature scheme (S-PSS-MSS). Third, we give an optimal proof (general result) for multisignature schemes, which derives the lower bound for the length of random salt. We also estimate the upper bound for the length in each scheme and derive the optimal length of a random salt. Two of the schemes are promising in terms of security tightness and optimal signature length. In appendix, we describe a multisignature scheme using the claw-free permutation and discuss its security.

Ring signature scheme enables a signer to sign a message anonymously. In the ring signature scheme, the signer who wants to sign a document anonymously first chooses some public keys of entities (signers) and then generates a signature which ensures that one of the signer or entities signs the document. In some situations, however, the ring signature scheme allows the signer to shift the blame to victims because of the anonymity. The group signature scheme may be a solution for the problem; however, it needs an electronic big brother, called a group manager, who can violate the signer anonymity by himself, and a complicated key setting. This paper introduces a new notion of a signature scheme with signer anonymity, a deniable ring signature scheme ( ), in which no group manager exists, and the signer should be involved in opening the signer anonymity. We also propose a concrete scheme proven to be secure under the assumption of the DDH (decision Diffie Hellman) problem in the random oracle model.

A novel foldamer with pyrene units incorporated into a peptide main chain was synthesized and its conformation in solution was investigated by spectroscopic measurements and computational calculations. The foldamer designed here contains 1-aminopyrene-8-carboxylic acid in the sequence, which residue is expected to change the peptide chain direction by 120°. A decapeptide, Boc–Ala–Pyr–Aib–Ala–Aib–Ala–Pyr–Aib–Ala–Aib–OMe, where Boc, Ala, Aib, Pyr, and OMe stand for t-butyloxycarbonyl group, L-alanine, α-aminoisobutyric acid, 1-aminopyrene-8-carboxylic acid, and methyl ester, respectively, was synthesized. Absorption spectroscopy in acetonitrile showed that the two pyrene units in the decapeptide do not interact with each other in the ground state. On the other hand, the fluorescence spectroscopy suggested that the two pyrene units are fixed at a certain distance that allows interaction in the excited state. The circular dichroism spectra showed distinct exciton coupling peaks around the pyrene absorption, further supporting that the two pyrene units have a specific spatial relationship. According to 1H NMR measurements, it was found that the decapeptide has two intramolecular hydrogen bondings and the amide protons of the two 1-aminopyrene-8-carboxylic acid residues are close to each other. The dihedral angles of C–N–Cα–C in the alanine residues were also determined. Taking all these findings into account, molecular mechanics and semiempirical computational calculations were carried out to give two conformations, left-handed and right-handed helices, in which the two pyrene units partially overlap with each other. Theoretical circular dichroism spectra were calculated from these two conformations and compared to the experimental spectrum. It was shown that the left-handed helix conformation is the plausible conformation. The pyrene units incorporated into the main chain are considered to stack with each other by an aromatic interaction, resulting in the formation of a helical structure as a whole.

A novel series of substituted 2-acylimino-1,3-thiazolines was synthesized and their herbicidal activity against upland weeds and selectivity against crops was assessed. The structure–activity relationships were probed by substitution of the thiazoline nucleus and/or an imino group. Highest activity was seen with compounds which contain two substituents: a methyl group at the 5-position of the thiazoline nucleus and a trifluoroacetyl or a difluoroacetyl group on an imino moiety. Among the compounds examined, 2-(N-difluoroacetylimino)-5-methyl-3-(3-trifluoromethylphenyl)-1,3-thiazoline applied at rates between 62.5 and 125 g a.i./ha, showed excellent broad-spectrum pre-emergence herbicidal activity against grass and broadleaf weeds without injury to cotton.

At CHES 2000, Schindler introduced a timing attack that enables the factorization of an RSA-modulus if RSA implementations use the Chinese Remainder Theorem and Montgomery multiplication. In this paper we introduce another approach for deriving the secret prime factor by focusing on the conditional branch Schindler used in his attack. One of the countermeasures against Schindler's attack is the blinding method. If input data are blinded with a fixed value or short-period random numbers, Schindler's attack does not work but our method can still factorize the RSA-modulus.

Various heterocyclic compounds have significantly contributed to current commercial agrochemicals. We focused our attention on these heterocycles as screening targets to create novel bioactive compounds. Although recent progress in agrochemical research has enabled us to discover drugs directly, we selected a chemical approach to N- and N,S-heterocyclic compounds in an expectation of new chemical classes with biological activity. In consequence, this method led to the generation of four heterocycles which had either herbicidal or fungicidal activity. These heterocycles were extended to optimized compounds, resulting in the discovery of three herbicides (2,4-diphenylpyrimidine, 2-acylimino-l,3-thiazoline and 5-trifluoromethylpyridazinone) and one fungicide (2-pyridylpyrimidine).

In order to increase the throughput during thin film transistor-liquid crystal display manufacture, we investigated a 2-step deposition process for hydrogenated amorphous silicon. The first hydrogenated amorphous silicon layer of an inverted staggered type thin film transistor was deposited at a lower deposition rate to improve the interface with the gate insulator layer and the second hydrogenated amorphous silicon layer was deposited at a higher rate to improve the throughput. It was found that the mobility values of thin film transistors increased with increasing first layer thickness and reached a saturation value after a certain first layer thickness. When the first hydrogenated amorphous silicon layer quality was improved by decreasing its deposition rate, a thicker first layer hydrogenated amorphous silicon was needed to reach a mobility saturation.