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A silica-based thin film was synthesized on polycarbonate substrates topped with acrylic primer. The synthesis was performed by chemical vapor deposition under a remote-type atmospheric pressure plasma. The source gas used was TrMS/O2, and the carrier gas used was either He or Ar. The abrasion resistance and adhesion strength were improved by changing the carrier gas from He to Ar. After a standard Taber abrasion test, the minimum change in haze value was approximately 1.3% for a sample synthesized under Ar (below the 2.0% requirement for vehicle window glass). The adhesion strength between the thin film and the substrate probably improved because of the etching effect of the primer by the Ar plasma during the deposition. The results confirmed that atmospheric remote technology can synthesize silica-based films and demonstrated that the technology is applicable to manufacturing vehicle window glass replacements.

High-latitude warming has had a discernible effect on the productivity of boreal forests. Here, we report a change in the growth responses of a major biome of boreal North America, black spruce, to...

The relationships between the amplitude and phase of the short-time Fourier transform (STFT) are investigated. By choosing the Gaussian window for the STFT, we reveal that the group delay and instantaneous frequency of each signal segment, both of which are derived from the phase by definition, can also be explicitly linked with the amplitude. As a result, the amplitude and phase can also be linked through the group delay or instantaneous frequency without making any assumptions for the phase property of the target signals, e.g., minimum, maximum, or linear phase. The theoretical basis is also confirmed in numerical simulations.

Fire extinguishment approaches with inert gases such as carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) and nitrogen (N 2 ) have several advantages compared with ones with water. On the other hand, they have low extinguishment performance and put lives at risk. To enhance the extinguishment performance and to reduce risk to life, the authors have proposed a robotic fire extinguishment approach and a prototype of an aerial extinguisher with an inert gas. The prototype can transport only a small volume of an inert gas, and it can extinguish a very small flame. In this paper, we develop a quadcopter type of aerial extinguisher with a rubber balloon filled with helium. The extinguisher is easily adapted to the volume of helium by changing the length of rods between the motors and the center. It is shown that the extinguisher can be controlled by using a depth sensor. It is also demonstrated that the extinguisher with 5 L of helium achieves flame extinguishment for a diffusion flame of methane with a 10 L/min. flow rate.

Many capacitive touch panels detect the position and contact area of the user finger, and can estimate the vertical force from the change in the contact area. However, they cannot detect and measure the tangential force. This research aims to enable the measurement of tangential force using a gel layer, which deforms when a tangential force is applied. By measuring the finger motion of the user, we can estimate tangential force from the gel spring ratio. Using this input method, any part of the touch panel surface becomes a joystick, or virtual objects can be modeled by deforming them with the fingers.

This research aims to enable tangential force input for touch panels by measuring the tangential force. The system is composed of a plastic sheet on a touch panel, urethane pillars on the panel that are aligned at the four corners of the bezel, and a case on top of the pillars. When the sheet moves with a finger, the pillars deform so that a tangential force can be obtained by measuring the movement of the finger. We evaluated the method and found that the system showed realistic force sensing accuracy in any direction. This input method will enable development of new applications for touch panels such as using any part of the touch panel surface as joysticks, or modeling virtual objects by deforming them with the fingers.

A gaze input interface offers hands-free operation by using the view-point position as the cursor coordinates on the display. However, the selection operation of a button is indistinguishable from viewing; this is known as the Midas touch problem. We propose a new input method that measures divergence eye movement, thereby enabling users to "press" a button by moving their viewpoint forward. Comparison of our method and the conventional blinking input method confirms that input speed and accuracy are similar.

While heart disease is one of the three major diseases, only well-qualified doctors can evaluate phonocardiographic signals. However, phonocardiographic signals are not always used in healthcare because only a few professionals are experts in evaluating phonocardiographic signals. We need to develop an easily available system that can automatically diagnose phonocardiographic signals. In previous study, phonocardiographic signals are typically analyzed using wavelet transform to match and extract the characteristics of known normal and abnormal phonocardiographic signals. However, everyday noises such as lung and breath sounds, environmental noises, and blood flow noises may contaminate these signals and hinder analysis. We have previously proposed noise suppression using wavelet transform for phonocardiographic signals. In this study, we compare the proposed method and spectral subtraction to identify the kind of phonocardiographic signals. The experiment results show that the proposed method provides be...

Toward an accurate estimation of recombination coefficient of nitric oxide, we have performed the adsorption processes of oxygen and nitrogen atoms onβ-quartz surface using ReaxFF MD method. By injecting O atoms to the surface, the adsorption probabilities were obtained as 0.0937 and 0.0175 for two different surfaces which are terminated by Si and O atoms, respectively, at 1000 K. For N atom injection, the adsorption probabilities were also evaluated as 0.128 and 0.240 for the two surface. Although considerable trials of the recombination process were performed for the surface on which N atom is already adsorbed, no recombination event was found by injecting O atoms. On the other hand, incident N atoms can be recombined with O adatom on the surface.

Antitumor activity of BCG for transitional cell carcinoma of the urinary bladder was evaluated in 103 patients from October, 1983 to October, 1989 at Hirosaki University Hospital. At the same time, the role of various inflammatory cells infiltrating in the bladder wall after intravesical BCG instillation as mechanism of action of BCG was studied. Of 72 patients with superficial bladder cancer, 19 showed a complete response and 28 showed a partial response. The effective rate was 65.3 percent. Significant efficacy was obtained in patients received more than 5 times instillation of BCG. Before intravesical BCG instillation, a small number of lymphocytes or plasma cells infiltrated in the stroma of the tumor. But histiocytes, neutrophils or eosinophils were hardly found. After BCG instillation, the degree of infiltration of each of them tended to increase. The mean degree of infiltration of those inflammatory cells almost all significantly increased in the stroma of the tumor, while only lymphocyte and histiocyte counts significantly increased in both the basal areas of the advancing margin of tumor cells and the tumor free submucosa after BCG instillation. Epithelioid granulomas were recognized almost in the basal areas of the advancing margin of tumor cells and the tumor free submucosa after BCG therapy. Langhans' giant cells were occasionally found within these lesions. In 2 patients marked central necrosis (caseation) was noticed in epithelioid granulomas. In BCG effective cases with superficial bladder cancer lymphocytes and histiocytes increased significantly in all of the stroma of the tumor, the basal areas of the advancing margin of tumor cells and the tumor free submucosa. On the other hand, in BCG noneffective cases they increased significantly only in the stoma of the tumor. Subsets of lymphocytes which increases after intravesical BCG instillation were mainly T pan cells with the predominance of T helper/inducer cells (Th/Ts ratio always > 1).

Side effects and serious complications of intravesical bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) therapy were reviewed in 120 patients with transitional cell carcinoma of the urinary bladder from October, 1983 to June, 1989 at Hirosaki University Hospital. As local side effects, 102 patients (85.0%) had bladder irritability with frequency and/or micturition pain, and 46 patients (38.3%) had hematopyuria. As systemic side effects, fever in 43 patients (35.8%), elevation of serum GOT, GPT in 9 patients (7.5%), and malaise in 3 patients (2.5%) were seen. Serious complications were observed in 7 patients. 4 patients had a severely contracted bladder with decreased compliance less than 50 ml, 2 patients had persistent arthritis and one patient had interstitial pneumonia. In all 4 patients with a contracted bladder partial cystectomy was performed before or after intravesical BCG therapy, and three of them received more than ten times instillation of BCG. It was suggested that contracted bladder most likely occurred after frequent BCG instillations in addition to decreased bladder compliance. Contracted bladder was irreversible in 2 patients. Histopathologically, there was marked fibrosis in the muscular layer of the bladder without tuberculous inflammatory changes. It might depend on the severity of fibrosis in the muscular layer whether contracted bladder was reversible or not. Persistent arthritis was nonspecific inflammation with negative culture results for mycobacteria in the joint fluid in 2 patients. In one patient with interstitial pneumonia, fiberoptic bronchoscopy with transbronchial lung biopsy demonstrated marked fibrosis of alveolar septums and increased lymphocyte count without tuberculous inflammatory changes. The pathogenesis of this complications is considered to be a hypersensitivity reaction to BCG.

We have used the continent ileal bladder as a bladder replacement after radical cystectomy. The ileal bladder is an ileal pouch which is anastomosed to the urethral stumps. The ureters are implanted by a free end ureteroileostomy. The long term results with 26 patients who underwent this procedure are reported. In the early postoperative period, urodynamic and radiographic studies revealed small capacity and high intravesical pressure of the ileal bladder. However, it became a low pressure reservoir with increased capacity gradually. The average bladder capacity was about 250 ml and average residual urine was 30 ml. Most of the patients were continent in the daytime if the voiding intervals were less than 3 hours at night, some patients were incontinent. Urinary leakage was the most frequent complication. VUR and hydronephrosis were still the problems to be solved. The ileal pouch bladder is a valuable procedure in properly selected cases.