Biomass Control via UV Lamp Application and Nutrient Supply Restriction in the Biofiltration of Gaseous VOCs

Biofiltration may have clogging problems owing to excess biomass growth during the treatment of gaseous pollutants.In this study,we employed an UV(Ultraviolet)lamp and controlled the nutrient supply to conduct a biofiltration process for treating 2-butanone(MEK:Methyl Ethyl Ketone)and toluene in a gas stream.Two methods of UV lamp usage(direct and indirect irradiation)and several nutrient supply methods were tested.However,no clear effect was observed with either UV usage.Under the optimal conditions,97%of the MEK and 69%of the toluene gases were removed after 29 s of EBRT(Empty Bed Retention Time).The inlet loads were 18 and 19 mg/(m^(3)·h)for MEK and toluene,respectively.Under these conditions,23 g-N/(m^(3)·day)of nitrate-nitrogen was consumed.Excess biomass growth occurred during simultaneous excess nutrient supply and a persistent irrigation schedule.In this study,we demonstrated the effective use of a dense nitrate solution to deliver an appropriate amount of nutrients and moisture,and the optimal irrigation frequency was four times per week.

Relationship between Moisture Behavior and Gaseous Volatile Organic Compounds Removal in a Biofiltration System

Studies on the relationship between moisture behavior and gaseous VOCs （Volatile Organic Compounds） removal efficiency of packed tower biofilters are limited. In this research, the nutrient holding capacity, moisture evaporation rate and gaseous toluene and MEK （Methyl Ethyl Ketone） removal efficiencies of bioreactors with porous synthetic resin as the packing material were simultaneously observed. The nutrient holding capacity in one of the reactors was higher than those of the other two because its packing layer was frequently supplied with a nutrient solution by soaking. This reactor exhibited the highest toluene removal efficiency. However, excessive biomass growth was observed in this reactor. The reactor with a less frequent supply of nutrient solution by soaking showed a slightly lower toluene removal efficiency, possibly due to lack of nutrients in the packing layer. The reactor that was fed with the nutrient solution by spraying it onto the packing layer （a common method for supplying moisture） had the lowest toluene removal efficiency, mainly because of the uneven distribution of nutrients. Moreover, the moisture evaporation rate in the packing layer during moisture supply and heat balance were determined.

Quantification of Dance Movement by Simultaneous Measurement of Body Motion and Biophysical Information

The purpose of this research is a quantitative analysis of movement patterns of dance, which cannot be analyzed with a motion capture system alone, using simultaneous measurement of body motion and biophysical information. In this research, two kinds of same leg movement are captured by simultaneous measurement; one is a leg movement with given strength, the other is a leg movement without strength on condition of basic experiment using optical motion capture and electromyography （EMG） equipment in order to quantitatively analyze characteristics of leg movement. Also, we measured the motion of the traditional Japanese dance using the constructed system. We can visualize leg movement of Japanese dance by displaying a 3D CG character animation with motion data and EMG data. In addition, we expect that our research will help dancers and researchers on dance through giving new information on dance movement which cannot be analyzed with only motion capture.

Effect of Landslide on Energy Efficiency Chain Based Routing Protocol for Wireless Sensor Network

Wireless sensor network has been used as a landslide monitoring tool for more than one decade. The robustness of the network is important as the systems need to survive in harsh conditions. In this paper, we consider the living time of the sensor network under the influences of the small-scale landslide. We investigate the performance of famous energy-efficient routing protocol PEGASIS in both landslide case and non-landslide case. Genetic Algorithm is also applied to enhance the effectiveness of PEGASIS. The simulation results in this paper showed that the Genetic Algorithm helps to delay the first node death if it is used at the beginning of data transmission while being used every round helps to prolong last node death slightly. The impact of the Genetic Algorithm on energy usage and route length is also examined. Under the effect of landslide, with only 70% of energy are spent, the simulated protocols reduced around 30% equivalent route length while managed to keep the living time up the network up to 90.76%, comparing to cases with no landslide.

The Impact of the Natural Lighting and Ventilation in Therapeutic Buildings： An Environmental Field Study in Makkah, Saudi Arabia

＂Paradise Garden＂ concept has given rise to the application of several spiritual and aesthetic meaning that helped raise the efficiency of the therapeutic environment. The hypothesis revolves around the idea that the technological development increased the interest in the functional side rather than the aesthetic side in the current therapeutic buildings. This had a negative effect on the efficiency of the functional environment and thus exceeded the negative impact on the satisfaction and comfort of the building users. This hypothesis has been tested through two types of studies： first, analytical study of four hospitals by analyzing the horizontal projections to measure the effects of the natural lighting and ventilation; second, questionnaires were distributed to both the patients and the staff in the therapeutic buildings to measure the therapeutic environment efficiency and the extent of satisfaction of users of the building. It was concluded that the natural lighting and ventilation drive up healing rate in the therapeutic environment. The correctness of this idea is revealed by the conclusion that the technological advances in the medical field helped to raise the level of functional performance and thus it replaced a large part of the role of the natural lighting and ventilation.

The early Japanese books reorganization by combining image processing and deep learning

Many early Japanese books record a large amount of information,including historical politics,economics,culture,and so on,which are all valuable legacies.These books are waiting to be reorganized at the moment.However,a large amount of the books are described by Kuzushiji,a type of handwriting cursive script that is no longer in use today and only readable by a few experts.Therefore,researchers are trying to detect and recognise the characters from these books through modern techniques.Unfortunately,the characteristics of the Kuzushiji,such as Connect-Separate-characters and Manyvariation,hinder the modern technique assisted re-organisation.Connect-Separatecharacters refer to the case of some characters connecting each other or one character being separated into unconnected parts,which makes character detection hard.Manyvariation is one of the typical characteristics of Kuzushiji,defined as the case that the same character has several variations even if they are written by the same person in the same book at the same time,which increases the difficulty of character recognition.In this sense,this paper aims to construct an early Japanese book reorganisation system by combining image processing and deep learning techniques.The experimentation has been done by testing two early Japanese books.In terms of character detection,the final Recall,Precision and F-value reaches 79.8%,80.3%,and 80.0%,respectively.The deep learning based character recognition accuracy of Top3 reaches 69.52%,and the highest recognition rate reaches 82.57%,which verifies the effectiveness of our proposal.

A Power Grid Optimization Algorithm by Direct Observation of Manufacturing Cost Reduction

With the recent advances of the VLSI technologies, stabilizing the physical behavior of VLSI chips is becoming a very complicated problem. Power grid optimization is required to minimize the risks of timing error by IR drop, defects by electro migration (EM), and manufacturing cost by the chip size. This problem includes complicated tradeoff relationships. We propose a new approach by observing the direct objectives of manufacturing cost, and timing error risk caused by IR drop and EM. The manufacturing cost is based on yield for LSI chip. The optimization is executed in early phase of the physical design, and the purpose is to find the rough budget of decoupling capacitors that may cause block size increase. Rough budgeting of the power wire width is also determined simultaneously. The experimental result shows that our approach enables selection of a cost sensitive result or a performance sensitive result in early physical design phase.

Simultaneous detection of the shuttling motion of liquid metal droplets in channels under alternating pressure and capacitive sensor signals

Implementing a signal-switching mechanism for the selective use of integrated sensors and actuators plays a crucial role in streamlining the functionality of miniaturized devices.Here,a liquid metal droplet(LMD)-based signal-switching mechanism is introduced to achieve such functionality.Pressure modulation with a 100-μm spatial resolution enabled precise control of the position of the LMDs within a channel.After integrating the channel with asymmetrically structured electrodes,the effect of the shuttle-like movement of LMD on the temporal changes in the overall capacitance was investigated.Consequently,analysis of the capacitive peaks revealed the directional movement of the LMDs,enabling estimation of the position of the LMDs without direct observation.In addition,we achieved successful signal extraction from the capacitive sensor that was linked to the activated electrodes,thereby enabling selective data retrieval.The proposed signal-switching mechanism method achieved a detection accuracy of~0.1 pF.The sensor’s ability to simultaneously detect the LMD position and generate a signal underscores its significant potential for multiplexing in multisensing systems,particularly in concealed environments,such as in vivo settings.

Implementation of soft microfingers for a hMSC aggregate manipulation system

This paper describes a pneumatic balloon actuator(PBA)composed of polydimethylsiloxane(PDMS)for cellular aggregate manipulation.We evaluated the ability of the microdevice to manipulate a tiny and sensitive cellular aggregate without causing serious damage.We used human mesenchymal stem cells(hMSCs)for the cellular aggregate.We describe the design,fabrication,characterization and operation of the soft microfingers to pinch and release a spherical hMSC aggregate(φ200μm),and we employed a PBA to serve as an artificial muscle to drive the microfingers.A design of the microfingers in terms of dimensions,generated force and contact conditions was accomplished.The designed dimensions of a single finger were 560μm×900μm.In summary,we demonstrate the utility of the surface modification of a fingertip for pinching and releasing a cellular aggregate and describe a manipulation system that was constructed to drive and control the microfingers.The implemented manipulation system,which is composed of microfingers and a positioning mechanism,was tested and verified in a series of operations.

An openable artificial intestinal tract system for the in vitro evaluation of medicines

In vitro drug screening systems for pharmacological targets have been studied as substitutes for whole-animal experiments.Cultured cells or tissues provide promising substitution models when coupled with technological innovations in micro total analysis systems.In this study,we focus on an intestinal drug absorption assay,as the oral route is most frequently used for drug administration.Pharmacological studies have reported the development of artificial vessels that include tubular structures.However,it is difficult to observe the insides of these tubes in situ.To address this problem,we developed a micro-device that uses a pneumatic balloon actuator(PBA)to open and close an artificial intestinal tract.A human colon carcinoma cell line(Caco-2)was cultivated on the flat surface of the micro-device for 7 days to form the inner cellular layer of an artificial intestinal tract with which to evaluate drug transport.The artificial intestinal tract was completely actuated from a flat plate to a circular tube via a PBA with a pressure of 65 kPa,and drugs were perfused at a flow rate of 0.05 mL min^(−1) into the tubular artificial intestinal tract for 1 h.Using the openable artificial intestinal tract,the in vitro absorption of calcein and Texas Red were successfully estimated as models of hydrophilic and hydrophobic drugs,respectively.The artificial intestinal tract enables the effective evaluation of the in vitro intestinal absorption of drug candidates and contributes to the reduction of costs incurred during the initial stage of drug development.

Design improvement of the conversion mechanism from balloon inflation to bending motion for inflatable film actuators

Various soft actuators have been investigated to overcome the drawbacks of conventional solid machines and explore the applications of soft robotics.In particular,and because they are expected to be applicable in minimally invasive medicine because of their safety,soft inflatable microactuators using an actuation conversion mechanism from balloon inflation to bending motion have been proposed for high-output bending motion.These microactuators could be applied to create an operation space by safely moving organs and tissues;however,the conversion efficiency could be further improved.This study aimed to improve conversion efficiency by investigating the design of the conversion mechanism.The contact conditions between the inflated balloon and conversion film were examined to improve the contact area for force transmission,with the contact area dependent on the length of the contact arc between the balloon and force conversion mechanism and on the amount of balloon deformation.In addition,surface contact friction between the balloon and film,which affects actuator performance,was also investigated.The generated force of the improved device is 1.21 N at 80 kPa when it bends 10 mm,which is 2.2 times the generated force of the previous design.This improved soft inflatable microactuator is expected to assist in performing operations in a limited space,such as in endoscopic or laparoscopic operations.

Embodying rather than encoding:Towards developing a source-filter theory for undulation gait generation

Biological undulation enables legless creatures to move naturally,and robustly in various environments.Consequently,many kinds of undulating robots have been developed.However,the fundamental mechanism of biological undulation gait generation has not yet been well explained,which hinders deepening the investigation and optimization of these robots.Towards developing a theory for explaining this biological behavior,which will further guide the design of artificial undulation systems,we propose a hypothesis based on both biological findings and previous robotics studies.To verify the hypothesis,we investigate embodied intelligence of undulation locomotion via a mechanical system.Through experimental study,we observe the phenomenon that undulation gait is a production of the source,which is the torque inputs,and the filter,which is the natural dynamics of the system.We further derive a general mathematical model and conduct morphological computation accordingly.From a simple model to a complicated system,our work explores the principles of undulation gait generation.Our findings significantly simplify the control system design of artificial undulating systems.

Providing universal access to Japanese humanities digital libraries:an approach to federated searching system using automatic metadata mapping

We present our approach for constructing a federated searching system for Japanese humanities digital libraries using automatic metadata mapping.We discuss some achievements in the ongoing research to construct a federated searching system. The goals of this system are(1) to perform metadata mapping automatically for Japanese heterogeneous humanities digital libraries and(2) to let users access multiple humanities digital libraries by using only one query input.The proposed automatic metadata mapping method produced the average mapping precision of 94.9%.We also address the metadata-related challenges facing Japanese humanities databases.

PARTICLE-BASED TRANSPARENT FUSED VISUALIZATION APPLIED TO MEDICAL VOLUME DATA

This paper proposes a method to create 3D fusion images,such as volume–volume,volume–surface,and surface–surface fusion.Our method is based on the particle-based rendering,which uses tiny particles as rendering primitives.The method can create natural and comprehensible 3D fusion images simply by merging particles prepared for each element to be fused.Moreover,the method does not require particle sorting along the line of sight to realize right depth feel.We apply our method to realize comprehensible visualization of medical volume data.