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Robot motions are designed according to mechanical structures such as frame structure, number of joints and so on. Therefore, structure changes such as joint failures or frame distortion make the designed motions unaccomplished. In service robots working for general users, it is desired to recover the motions autonomously. In trajectory controls, it is desired to realize motions with some trajectories even on the changed robot structures. Conventionally, motion adaptation methods with inverse kinematics and identification of changed structures have been used to solve the problems. But, for multi-degree-of-freedom robots such as service robots, the methods are difficult to apply. New motion adaptation methods are proposed in this paper. In the methods, all motions are expressed as time series of joint angles, and corresponding joint angles are generated efficiently on changed structure based on exploration methods. Representing postures are sorted by the Vector Quantization from the series of designed joint angles. Corresponding joint angles are found by the Simulated Annealing only on the representing postures because of reduction of exploration costs. Adapted motions to realize the intended trajectories on the changed structures are estimated by the Kriging methods. In simulation, the adapted motions which achieve the intended trajectories are generated autonomously without identification. Its exploration costs are reduced about 1/7 comparing with full search method.

人間のコミュニケーションにおいて非言語情報は極めて重要な役割を担う．人間は無意識で表現の中に含まれる非言語情報を読み取ることから，ロボットによる非言語情報の表出はユーザに情報を発信する際に有用と考える．これまでのロボットが動作により感情を表現する場合，設計者により事前にデザインされた感情を伴う動作を実行することで表現していた．しかしながらこれら動作のデザインは設計者に負担を掛けるため，膨大な量の動作を用意することは困難であった．一方でバリエーションを十分に確保できないことから感情表現が記号化し，アピール用のジェスチャとしてしか利用できなかった．そこで我々は「手を振る」や「歩く」などの動作を修正変化させることで感情表出動作を合成する手法を提案する．一般に感情動作パターンは時系列関節角度指令値として設計者がデザインする．本研究では感情を重畳させる基本動作の時系列関節角度指令値に対し，形容表現とよぶ動作修飾フィルタで修飾を行う．このフィルタは動作を「大きく」するなどの可読性の高い修飾要素で構成される．これらを程度量を変えて適用することで新しい動作パターンを獲得する．新しい動作パターンに対し官能検査実験を行うことで，生成された動作と人間が受ける印象を対応付ける．この実験を行うことで形容表現と表出感情との対応付けを行い，感情表現ルールとして抽出する．２段階の実験を経て感情動作生成に有効な感情表現ルールを獲得した．また，それらをルール獲得した基本動作とは別の動作に適用する事でルールの有効性を示した．

ロボット技術の発達により，人間共存型のロボットの研究開発が盛んに行われている．これらのロボットがユーザと活動を共にする際，ロボットはユーザと円滑に意思疎通することが望まれる．ユーザの状態推定手法の一つとして，音声からユーザ感情を推定する手法が関心を集めている．既存の感情判別手法では，単語発話から抽出した韻律特徴や声質特徴に対応する感情の判別を行う．これらの特徴には話者の個人性も反映され，同一の感情での発話であっても話者によって特徴量の分布域が異なる．不特定話者の感情を判別する際には，特徴に含まれる個人差が判別器に強く影響を及ぼし，感情判別率の低下を引き起こす．一方で同一の話者においても異なる感情音声の特徴量が類似する場合がある．この場合，特徴空間において異なる感情音声の特微量分布が重複した領域ができ，この領域に入力された未知感情音声に対しては感情を判別できない．それらの結果，特徴量の個人差や感情分布の重複に耐性のある感情判別手法が求められている．本論文では，感情遷移時の韻律特徴の変化に基づいて感情遷移を判別する手法を提案する．話者の感情に応じて韻律特徴のモードも変化すると考え，感情遷移時に表出する韻律特徴のモード変化の検出により感情遷移を判別する．重複領域に入力された未知感情音声であっても，モード変化の有無により感情遷移の有無を判別することができる．本論文では，“関心”の感情を起点とした，“共感”，“歓喜”，“疑問”，“嫌悪”への４つの感情遷移を取り扱った．それぞれの感情遷移において韻律特徴のモード変化を抽出し，それによる感情遷移判別を試みた．正規化手法との判別率の比較により，提案手法の有用性を示した．

Less invasive stent graft (SG) repair was compared with open surgery for patients with descending thoracic aortic diseases.Thirty six patients undergoing SG repair (SG group) were matched for age, sex, location and pathology of aortic disease with a 36-patient surgical cohort (OS group), and retrospective matched case-control study was performed with respect to outcomes and risk factors for adverse outcomes.Mortality rate was 5.6% in OS group and none in SG group (p=0.4930), and there was no significant difference in stroke and paraplegia rates between two groups. A higher prevalence of secondary procedures due to endoleak was seen in the patients of SG group (p=0.0113). Perioperative hypotension was an independent risk factor for in-hospital mortality (p=0.0071, odds ratio=34) and preoperative renal dysfunction was independent risk factor for paraplegia (p=0.0076, odds ratio=17.6).Although the importance of patient selection is emphasized to prevent endoleak, mortality rate was low in patients who underwent SG repair. SG repair is a promising alternative technique to open surgery for thoracic aortic diseases.

Recently, laser radar has been widely studied as a sensor to measure the distance from a car ahead. Laser radar has the characteristic that the received signal becomes buried in noise with increasing distance. It is difficult to measure long distances at low laser power. Thus, a new type of chaos laser radars has been studied. This laser radar is relatively resistant to noise and can perform processing simply because it uses only addition operations. However, the distance resolution of chaos laser radars is limited by the clock cycle of the FPGA which is used for signal processing of the laser radar. Therefore, a new method of improving distance resolution by means of a phase delay circuit has been developed. As a result, the distance resolution of chaos laser radars has been improved to 1/10 using phase delay circuitry. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electron Comm Jpn, 94(6): 59–65, 2011; Published online in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com). DOI 10.1002/ecj.10177

Template matching using the silhouette shapes of pedestrians as features is widely used as a method for detecting pedestrians in images taken from an in-vehicle camera. Because of the need to detect a variety of pedestrian shapes, the template matching involves scanning the entire image for a very large number of templates. A large number of computations are needed to utilize multiple templates, and so it is difficult to implement the processing at the video frame rate. Furthermore, because images of outdoor street scenes that are captured by an in-vehicle camera consist of problematic backgrounds, false detections occur easily in the background area. A method is therefore proposed to perform highly efficient, high-speed matching by removing the background region, as this region has a negative impact on the detection capabilities in template matching. The background removal is achieved by using difference calculations that use information about the motion of the observation measured by sensors. Furthermore, an active search is carried out on the images after removing the background to give an efficient search, and a broad reduction in the number of computations is achieved. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electron Comm Jpn Pt 2, 90(10): 115–126, 2007; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/ecjb.20393

In recent years, as a result of a large amount of greenhouse gas emission, atmosphere temperature at ground level gradually rises. Therefore the Kyoto Protocol was adopted to solve the matter in 1997. By the energy-saving law amended in 1999, it is advisable that an escalator is controlled to pause during no user. Now a photo-electric sensor is used to control escalator, but a pole to install the sensor is needed. Then, a new type of approach detection sensor using laser diode, CCD camera and CPLD, which can be built-in escalator, has been studied. This sensor can derive the irradiated area of laser beam by simple processing in which the laser beam is irradiated in only the odd field of the interlace video signal. By second order derivative of laser irradiated area, this sensor can detect only the approaching target but can not detect the target which crosses and stands in the sensing area.

Background Type A intramural hematoma (IMH) has two different etiologies, which are rupture of vasa vasorum and penetrating atherosclerotic ulcer (PAU); however, it is difficult to know which is the initiating event. Methods Between January 1993 and August 2004, 28 patients of acute type A IMH were treated in our department and were divided into two groups, 20 patients with IMH probably caused by rupture of vasa vasorum (non-PAU group) and 8 patients with IMH probably caused by PAU (PAU group), according to pathologic specimen and atherosclerotic findings on computed tomography. Background factors, radiographic findings, and prognosis were analyzed retrospectively. Results Surgery was performed in 15 patients (75%) in non–PAU group and 4 patients (50%) in PAU group during the first admission. Late progression was noted in 3 patients, and operation was required. Finally, operation was performed in 22 patients (78.6%). The history of myocardial infarction ( p = 0.026) and chronic renal failure ( p = 0.026) were more associated with PAU group than with non-PAU group. Ascending aortic diameter at the onset was significantly larger in non-PAU group (50.3 ± 6.6 mm) than in PAU group (43.9 ± 9.0 mm; p = 0.046), and there were significantly more ulcer lesions in PAU group (1.9 ± 0.4) than in non-PAU group (1.1 ± 0.4; p = 0.0004). There was no significant difference in long-term survival rates between them. Conclusions The PAU group patients have more coexisting atherosclerotic diseases and multiple aortic ulcer lesions with significantly mild ascending aortic dilatation compared with non-PAU group patients.

Emotion expression through behavior is meaningful for communication processes between robots and humans. Automatic emotion expression generation is needed for those robots in order to stimulate communication with humans. Proposed technique generate emotional motions by modifying base motion patterns using the combination of the adjectival expressions. In order to generate emotional motions, emotional motion modifications should be based on rules which represents the relationship between emotion expressions and the combination of the adjectival expressions. Emotion modification rules are obtained by organoleptic tests. This paper, in particular, shows the relationship between the degree of adjectival modification and emotion expressions. Thus proposed technique generates the suitable emotional motion patterns from base motion pattern.

B型解離性大動脈瘤に対して外科的またはステントグラフト留置によるエントリー閉鎖術を施行した症例について治療成績および術後の瘤径と偽腔の状態を検討した.対象は1996年より2003年までにエントリー閉鎖術を施行した8例(外科的閉鎖5例,ステントグラフト留置3例).全例慢性期症例で,DeBakey分類ではIII a型1例,III b型7例,男女比4:4,平均年齢63.8±10.9歳.エントリーは全例下行大動脈に存在した.術後観察期間40±29ヵ月で,在院死亡,脊髄および腹部臓器障害は認めなかった.初回手術後3例にリークを認め,手術群1例で下行大動脈置換術,ステント群1例でステントグラフト追加留置を施行した.遠隔期に瘤破裂症例や瘤径拡大に伴う追加手術症例は認めず,遠隔死亡は癌死を1例認めるのみであった.下行大動脈置換術を施行した症例を除く7例中6例で下行大動脈偽腔の血栓化が得られたが,血栓化後も縮小化しないものが存在し,縮小傾向はあるものの最大瘤径は術前後で有意差を認めなかった(術前68±8mm,術後59±17mm,p=0.22).エントリー閉鎖術では3例にリークを認めたが,ステントグラフト追加留置症例を含めると下行大動脈偽腔は高率に血栓化され,中期遠隔期の瘤破裂や瘤径拡大に伴う追加手術例は認めなかった.しかし,瘤径の縮小化が進まない症例も存在し,今後も慎重な経過観察を要する.

従来,人工弁機能の指標として圧較差(PG)と有効弁口面積(EOA)などが使用されてきたが,これらはエネルギー損失や仕事量の増加を正確には示していない.今回,SJM弁による大動脈弁置換術施行40例(19HP6例,21mm16例,23mm14例,25mm4例)を対象に,これらの指標とGarciaらが提唱したエネルギー損失指数(ELI)のを超音波検査にて測定し,弁機能を検討した.手術から今回の検討までの期間は平均6.2±4.6年であった.術前後の比較では左室心筋重量,SV1+RV5,左室後壁厚が有意に減少したが,これらの減少率は人工弁のサイズによる差を認めず,左室に対する負荷の減少程度は同じであった.左室流出路径(19HP:18±2mm,21mm:21±2mm,23mm:23±4mm,25mm:27±3mm,p

In traumatic dislocation of the hip with or without a fracture of the acetabular rim, complete anatomical reduction might be prevented by a bone fragment or infrequently by a soft tissue block, such as a torn acetabular labrum, ruptured capsule, or round ligament. We report a rare case of a tear in the acetabular labrum that prevented complete reduction of the dislocated hip. A 26-year-old man suffered posterior dislocation of the right hip, which was reduced under general anesthesia. The postreduction radiograph showed that the reduction was not complete, and a thin bony fragment was observed in the joint space in the weight-bearing area. Open reduction was performed 11 days later. We found a free bone fragment in the joint space, which was removed. The postoperative radiograph still did not show complete reduction of the hip. A large defect in the contrast medium was shown in the widened joint space by arthrography, which revealed the existence of the soft tissue interposition. We then performed a second operation and learned that the acetabular labrum was widely detached from the anterior to the posterior acetabular rim and was lying deep within the acetabulum. This detached portion of the labrum was excised, and the hip was reduced. The radiograph obtained during surgery then showed complete, concentric reduction. We missed the diagnosis clinically and radiologically at the first operation, proving how important it is to obtain an accurate radiological diagnosis in the operating room.

The aim of this study was to investigate the change of hepatic metabolic activity presented by the ketone body ratio (AKBR) during and after cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) and to evaluate the prognostic value. AKBR were measured in 20 cases of coronary aortic bypass grafting using moderate hypothermic CPB (group M), ten cases of aortic arch surgery using deep hypothermia with selective cerebral perfusion (DHSCP) with an open technique (group D) and 15 cases of descending thoracic aortic replacement using partial CPB (group N). AKBR decreased significantly in all groups 5 min after CPB compared with the value before CPB. There was a significant difference in AKBR 1 h after CPB among the three groups and AKBR returned to the prebypass value in group N (group M, 0.32 +/- 0.16; group D, 0.14 +/- 0.04; group N, 0.48 +/- 0.14; P < 0.0001). AKBR rose significantly after the discontinuation of CPB compared with the value during CPB and returned to the prebypass value in groups M and D. The patients who underwent DHSCP with an open technique had a value of AKBR below 0.2, but liver function still recovered normally. The value of AKBR correlated with temperature significantly and a very low level of AKBR below 0.2 was observed during core cooling to 20 degrees C without negative prognostic implications. AKBR decreased 5 min after CPB in group N which suggested decreased hepatic perfusion at an early stage of partial CPB. The prognostic implication of AKBR during CPB is whether low level AKBR recovers or not.

Background Although it has been well established that the microchimerism occurs in the peripheral blood of the recipients after various settings in both clinical and experimental organ transplantation, nevertheless, their roles in inducing and maintaining acquired transplantation tolerance are controversial. Furthermore, regarding the cell lineages, kinetics, and functions of the cells that constitute the microchimerism after organ transplantation, solid information is not available. Methods. Using rat heterotopic heart isografts from bone marrow chimeras between cross-sex and applying polymerase chain reaction with specific primers to rat sex determining region of Y chromosome, a relationship between a state of microchimerism and induction as well as maintenance of acquired tolerance to H-Y antigen were examined. Results. Microchimeric cells of the peripheral blood (MCPB) after cardiac grafting contain bone marrow-derived and radiation-sensitive cells. Furthermore, removal of the primary cardiac grafts revealed that microchimeric cells in the peripheral blood are long-lived cells, i.e., more than 6 months. When the female rats that had contained long-lasting MCPB, were innoculated with syngeneic male dendritic cells, failure to sensitize female toward male specific antigen H-Y was found to occur. Conclusions. Thus it was suggested that radiation-sensitive, bone marrow derived, long-lived MCPB play a significant role in maintaining acquired transplantation tolerance to minor histocompatibility antigen H-Y.

自己血回収装置 (以下CS) の使用による溶血と腎機能について, CS使用症例39例 (CS使用群) とCS導入前の19症例 (CS非使用群) とを比較検討した. 年齢, 性別, 術中出血量に両群間に有意差を認めなかった. CS使用群の完全無輸血例は23例 (59%), 平均輸血量は濃厚赤血球13±1.8単位であった. CS非使用群は3例16% (p

Polycrystalline titanium oxide (TiO2) films were deposited on silicon at 600 °C by ion beam assisted deposition. Oxygen gas was ionized with a fraction of 0.0015–0.02 and they were applied to the Si wafers at the energy of 500 eV. Titanium oxide films under larger Ti metal evaporation rates were anatase phase and those under larger O ion beam currents were rutile phase.

A 68-year-old woman was found to have atypical coarctation of the aorta, accompanied by systolic hypertension of the upper extremities despite administration of five types of antihypertensive drugs. Since the systolic hypertension was resistant to the conventional antihypertensive therapy, axilloiliac artery bypass grafting with a subcutaneous tunnel was performed to alleviate the pressure gradient. Systolic blood pressure was successfully reduced and hypertension was controlled after surgery.

Abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) is histologically characterized by medial degeneration and various degrees of chronic adventitial inflammation, although the mechanisms for progression of aneurysm are poorly understood. In the present study, we carried out histological study of AAA tissues of patients, and interventional animal and cell culture experiments to investigate a role of mast cells in the pathogenesis of AAA. The number of mast cells was found to increase in the outer media or adventitia of human AAA, showing a positive correlation between the cell number and the AAA diameter. Aneurysmal dilatation of the aorta was seen in the control (+/+) rats following periaortic application of calcium chloride (CaCl2) treatment but not in the mast cell–deficient mutant Ws/Ws rats. The AAA formation was accompanied by accumulation of mast cells, T lymphocytes and by activated matrix metalloproteinase 9, reduced elastin levels and augmented angiogenesis in the aortic tissue, but these changes were much less in the Ws/Ws rats than in the controls. Similarly, mast cells were accumulated and activated at the adventitia of aneurysmal aorta in the apolipoprotein E–deficient mice. The pharmacological intervention with the tranilast, an inhibitor of mast cell degranulation, attenuated AAA development in these rodent models. In the cell culture experiment, a mast cell directly augmented matrix metalloproteinase 9 activity produced by the monocyte/macrophage. Collectively, these data suggest that adventitial mast cells play a critical role in the progression of AAA.

A 68-year-old male was found an abnormal shadow on chest X-ray and was diagnosed as thymoma by computed tomography (CT)-guided needle biopsy. As the tumor invaded the aortic arch, left main pulmonary artery and the lung, thymectomy combined resection of the surrounding tissues was performed for the complete resection. The aortic arch was replaced with cardiovascular graft under cardiopulmonary bypass, with the aid of selective cerebral perfusion. The left pneumonectomy was performed because the tumor invaded to the left main pulmonary artery and to the lung parenchyma. Masaoka stage III and histologic type B2 were diagnosed according to the World Health Organization classification. The patient has been well without recurrence or metastasis after the surgery for 2 years. A complete resection of the thymoma invaded to great vessels should be performed to expect for the good curability and prognosis.

Emotion expression through motion is meaningful communication process between humans and robots. Automatic emotion expression generation is desired to robots which communicate with humans. Proposed technique generate the emotional motion by modifying the base motion pattern with the combination of adjectival expressions. In order to generate emotional motion, emotion modification rule must be prepared, which represents intensity and corresponding the relationship between emotion expression and the adjectival expressions. In this paper, emotion modification rule is obtained by organoleptic tests and generates the suitable emotional motion pattern from base motion pattern.

This study was undertaken to determine the factors that influence postoperative neurological dysfunction after selective cerebral perfusion (SCP).From 1995 to August 2004, 60 patients were evaluated for the presence of cerebro-vascular disease (CVD), and then underwent thoracic aortic operations using SCP. Perioperative factors were evaluated by multivariate analyses.Hospital mortality rate was zero. Sixteen patients (26.7%) proved to have CVD. Permanent neurological dysfunction (PND) appeared in three patients (5.0%) and transient neurological dysfunction (TND) in two (3.3%). Univariate analysis revealed superficial temporal artery (STA) pressure during SCP (p = 0.0410) to be a significant risk factor for PND. Variables that achieved values of p0.2 (aortic cross-clamp time, presence of CVD, old cerebral infarction, presence of clots or atheroma) were examined with multivariate analysis and the presence of CVD (p = 0.038) and STA pressure during SCP (p = 0.032) were independent risk factors for PND. Multivariate analysis for TND did not show any risk factor.The presence of CVD was indicated as an independent risk factor for PND after thoracic aortic operations using SCP.

This research focuses on a technique to recognize vehicles using the knowledge acquisition system. The knowledge acquisition system consists of object recognition modules which represent a car image viewed form the rear, such as a window, tail lights, and so on. This knowledge system recognizes a car by detecting each object. The proposed system has an ability to modify itself in order to adapt to the shot condition of the input image. Sharpness is used as the parameter of the shot condition. The recognition modules are trained by merged data of the object image. As the sharpness is introduced, the knowledge system recognizes the vehicle in various condition images.

This paper presents a method for active background subtraction in sequential images taken from a moving camera on the vehicle. The active subtraction is carried out by estimating camera motion using a gyrosensor. Applying the proposed method to contour matching, we present a fast and robust system for detecting moving pedestrians.

An asymptomatic cardiac neurilemoma was found in a 33-year-old woman. The tumor was on the anterior surface of the right atrium extending to the right upper pulmonary vein across the interatrial groove. The tumor was resected completely and right atrium, interatrial septum, left atrium and right superior pulmonary vein were reconstructed with cardiopulmonary bypass. The patient recovered uneventfully and had no recurrence 1 year after the operation. We reviewed ten reported cases of cardiac neurilemoma, including our patient.

Real-time tracking of moving objects in natural scenes has taken a great role in computer vision. In order to track the targets, it is necessary to determine the object models, but it is hard to determine them in advance. Moreover, to realize real-time operations, each frame operation should be done in a short time. We propose an automatic filter construction system for tracking objects by filter processing. The filters are designed by the system itself in each environment, and are able to extract their color features which are not contained in other areas. The proposed system generates color filters which can derive feature segments using the clustering process. After that, it reconstructs the filter to obtain better performance by the genetic algorithm. We show how the filters are effective for object detection and tracking a target.