In general, cathode triple junctions (CTJ) are regarded as electrical weakness points because of the occurrence of electron emission. It's believed that vacuum surface flashover starts from the initiation of electron emission at CTJ. Therefore, it is important to investigate electron emission phenomenon around the CTJ region. However, such a study which is direct measurement of the electron emission

This paper describes the methods for improving the performance of an active common-noise canceler (ACC) that suppresses the common-mode (CM) voltage generated by inverters. Whereas the already proposed ACC (ACC0) compatible with space vector pulse width modulation requires two emitter follower circuits, this paper proposes an improved ACC (ACC1) that requires a single emitter follower. In addition

Eyelid dysfunction results in symptoms of ptosis and eyelid retraction. Indicators of eyelid function include the corneal reflection distance at the eyelid margin and eyelid fissure (PF). There is currently no system in Japan that automatically measures the PF, which is a comprehensive measure of eyelid function. We devised a method to measure PF automatically from frontal images using ArUco markers

Daily management of arteriovenous fistula for dialysis patients is crucially important because it sometimes leads to stenosis and obstruction. Numerous shortcomings are associated with management techniques used today. Aside from being invasive, they also require the use of inspection, auscultation, and palpation. Moreover, they rely on the extensive experience of technicians. Actually, definite diagnosis

We have suggested the current-induced magnetic modulation spectroscopy (CIMMS) to detect human cardiopulmonary activity in sediment for lifesaving. Initially, a Finite Element (FE) model of human in sediment was developed to simulate impedance change by human cardiopulmonary activity and an optimal electrode arrangement was estimated to detect the activity at burial distance of 47 , 97 , and 147 mm

In recent years, various sensors for biomagnetic measurement have been researched and developed. These are mainly for low frequency small signals such as magnetocardiography. Optical pumped atomic magnetometer (OPAM) would rather be applicable to this high frequency signal since there is a valid signal at higher frequencies. However, the highly sensitive OPAM uses a magnetic shield and an anti‐vibration

Cell separation technique is essential for the detection of circulating tumor cells in blood and for enrichment of stem cell in regenerative medicine. However, conventional methods require cell labeling such as antibodies, which may damage the cells during the operation. Therefore, dielectrophoresis (DEP), a “label‐free” separation technique that eliminates the effects on cells, has been attracting

Dairy farming in Japan has low milk supply and reproductive rate per cattle, which is considered to be due to lack of proper breeding management. In order to solve this problem, there is a demand for a breeding management system that does not require human intervention, utilizing the ICT and robot technology. Studies on cow health and breeding management using various sensors have been reported; in

In this study, we developed a dry‐nano‐polishing technique using reactive ion etching for ultra thin titanium wafer. The surface of titanium coated with photoresist is polished by reactive ion etching using SF6 /C4F8 gas. Etching speed of titanium and photoresist were adjusted to close to each other by changing temperature and ratio of SF6 /C4F8 gas. By etching titanium under these conditions, the

We introduce FeCo‐BaF and FeCo‐SiN nanogranular films exhibiting giant Faraday effect. These films have a nanocomposite structure, in which nanometer‐sized FeCo ferromagnetic granules are dispersed in BaF2 or Si3N4 matrix. FeCo‐BaF film has a good figure of merit of Faraday effect from the crystalized BaF2 matrix. FeCo‐SiN film has a large refraction index from the nature of Si3N4 matrix. These properties

In this paper, we report a method of fabricating an implantable image sensor equipped a bandpass hybrid filter for highly sensitive fluorescence observation. A hybrid filter that combines an interference filter and an absorption filter enables a high excitation light removal performance in an implantable image sensor that does not use a lens. In this study, a thin hybrid filter was successfully mounted

We have proposed a small antenna designed to radiate directly from AMC (AMC antenna). In this paper, the calculated results of two‐dimensional distribution of the mutual coupling and the correlation coefficient are discussed by the AMC antenna and a planar inverted‐F antenna (PIFA). Especially, the mutual coupling and the correlation coefficient of AMC antenna are measured.

Among the various permanent magnets reported to date, FeNdB exhibits the highest magnetic performance, but reducing the use of the rare‐earth elements is necessary to avoid exhaustion of rare‐earth elements. The key to improve the performance of permanent magnets is to increase magnetization and coercivity. FeCo has a very large magnetization, but has a very small coercivity caused by the extremely

Vanadium dioxide (VO2) thin films were fabricated by metal‐organic decomposition (MOD). To utilize a carbon thermal reduction for obtaining a VO2 composition, the precursor films were fabricated at the temperature Tp from 300°C to 380°C in a N2 atmosphere. From the measurement results of XRD, diffraction peaks indicating VO2 phase were observed with a wide range of firing temperatures from Tf = 560°C

Theoretical solution is derived for annular laminar flows with MHD interaction driven by a rotating co‐axial cylinder. The effects on the flow field and rotational torque are clarified by changing the radius ratio and the strength of MHD interaction. As the radius ratio increases, azimuthal flow velocity increases and approaches the plane Couette flow profile for weak MHD interaction. The azimuthal

This paper proposes a design methodology of LC‐simulation type filters using operational transconductance amplifiers in order to minimize filter output noise. Comparison between the proposed method and a conventional one is shown. Simulation results demonstrate validity of the proposed method.

Predicting the human visual attention in an image is called saliency prediction and is an active research area in the field of neuroscience and computer vision. Early works on saliency prediction was performed by using low‐level features. In recent years, convolutional neural networks have been adapted for saliency prediction and achieved the state‐of‐the‐art performance. However, the eye‐gaze depends

An electroporation that formed the pores on cell membrane after application of high electric field pulses has been used the transformation and the sterilization of cell. In this paper, we reported the extraction method of nucleic acid in Escherichia coli and Saccharomyces cerevisiae using high electric field pulse application. The sample was 1.0 × 10–3 mol/L NaCl aqueous solution contained E. coli

In this paper, an optical pressure‐sensitive membrane based on plasmon resonance absorption has been designed, fabricated, and demonstrated. The membrane utilizes plasmon resonance on a gold island film embedded in a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) layers, and the shift of the resonant wavelength was used as an indicator of pressure‐induced strain of the membrane. The membrane with total thickness of 100

Information processing in the brain is performed by the interactions of numerous number of neurons. However, much remains unknown about complex behaviors of a network composed of numerous number of neurons. Especially, in what case cross frequency coupling emerges and how it alters timings of individual firing are open questions. Therefore, in order to quantitatively evaluate the dynamics of the nervous

In the alcoholic beverage industry, expressing “flavor” of sake in an easy‐to‐understand manner is one of the important issues. So far, we have been conducting equipment analyses using taste sensors and sensory evaluation when people actually drink sake in order to easily understand the “taste” of sake felt by the tongue. By combining them statistically, we have developed the “Sake Flavor Chart.” However

In this study, to detect amine gases such as ammonia, a kind of biological gas, with high sensitivity, we fabricated a device that combines an inverse opal photonic crystal (IOPC) and 2‐(4‐oxo‐3,4‐dihydroquinazolin‐2‐yl)phenyl acetate (HPQ‐Ac), a precursor of the aggregation‐induced emission luminogen. IOPC silica structures (200IOPC, 350IOPC, 500IOPC) with SiO2 were respectively obtained after calcination

Molecular orientation, molecular packing structure, and electrical properties of thermally stable phthalocyanine, tert‐butylated phthalocyanine (t‐BuPcH2) in the thin film fabricated by bar‐coating method were investigated. The XRD patterns indicated that the columns composed of t‐BuPcH2 molecules formed hexagonal structure, the axis of which was parallel to the bar‐sweep direction, and t‐BuPcH2 molecules

Measurements performed using the self‐coupling effect of a semiconductor laser utilize an external resonator by exploiting the reflected light from the surface of an object. The improvement of the measurement accuracy due to the use of self‐coupled signals acquired from terminal voltages has not been thoroughly investigated. The current that flows through a semiconductor laser is adjusted so that its

In muscle rehabilitation and training, it is important to evaluate a patient's muscle state. In general, training is based on physical therapy, but there has not been quantitative assessment of the actual effects on muscles. The authors previously tried to quantify muscle fatigue and defined “Muscle‐fatigue time (MFT)” as the quantitative evaluation index of muscle fatigue based on electromyography

A virtual‐sound catch ball game system was developed to improve the quality of life of the visually impaired. Computer‐generated virtual sound balls were represented by stereo sounds, comprising localization parameters such as the interaural time and level differences, echo, and head‐related transfer function. Ball‐catching success was determined by images of the hand captured by a USB camera. Two

A linear inertial electrostatic confinement fusion neutron source equipped with a cooling system for high power operation was developed and its discharge characteristics and neutron production performance were tested under a wide range of discharge conditions. Four different types of discharge anodes were prepared and the dependencies of the device performance on the anode shape were precisely investigated

Trans‐epithelial electrical resistance (TEER) is a widely used non‐invasive and label‐free measurement to evaluate the barrier function of mono‐layered cells in real‐time. However, TEER values depend on distribution of electric current densities generated by a combination of shapes and arrangements of plane electrodes for performing TEER, but until now, there is no systematical analysis of their effects

Ultrasonography is a popular method used for medical diagnosis since it is non‐invasive and does not require extensive equipment. However, it requires appropriate control of the probe position and orientation, which is difficult even for experts. As an approach to realize automatic ultrasonography, we analyze echocardiography video using dynamic mode decomposition (DMD) to obtain its feature value

In recent years, brain‐machine interface (BMI) is attracting attention. BMI is a technology that enables machine operation using biological signals such as EEG. For further advancement of BMI technology, there is a need for advanced BMI devices. Therefore, the purpose of this study is development of BMI hardware specialized for handling EEG as an interface for human adaptive mechatronics (HAM) that

Home Energy Report (HER) is gathering attention as a method to promote energy conservation behavior in residential sector. Most of the existing efforts about HER assume the use of total monthly usage data. These usually compare customers’ monthly usages with that of similar neighbors. In our study, we developed a HER that uses smart meter data to give graphical information on customers’ monthly, weekly

In this paper, we propose an efficient method of technical structure analysis of Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) development using network analysis. Recently, with the reform of the industrial structure called “Industry 4.0″ and the explosive expansion of the application area of Artificial Intelligence (AI), the demand for computing power in edge devices is increasing. For these backgrounds, the

Data stream mining of IoT data can support operator to immediately isolate causes of equipment alarms. The challenge, however, is to keep their classifiers high purity (the data ratio with same proper class in a cluster) with concept drifting ascribed to differences between alarm models and entities. We propose to continuously update data class according to their distribution changes. Through evaluation

Silicon migration seal (SMS) wafer‐level packaging is proposed for high vacuum encapsulation of MEMS. The sealing of vent holes is possible based on silicon surface migration effect at 1100°C in 100% hydrogen ambient without deposition, if the size of the vent holes is properly designed. The feasibility of SMS packaging was experimentally demonstrated using 4‐inch wafers. Hermetic sealing was confirmed

We have developed an intense terahertz wave source aiming at in situ measurement of periodic surface structures induced by terahertz waves on solid materials with high‐spatiotemporal resolution. An intense terahertz wave of 119 µJ was generated from a Lithium Niobate crystal induced with an intense laser with fluence of 25 mJ/cm2 by tilted pulse front method. By applying a negative chirp to the laser

We developed a vibration measurement system by fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs) with a pulse light. The pulse light is produced by modulating a broadband light with an optical fiber switch at a modulation frequency of 40 kHz. This system enables to separate and detect reflection signals from multiple FBGs like a pulse train. This system achieves multipoint and real‐time vibration measurement by FBGs with

The carbon thin film as a target for laser‐driven heavy ion acceleration has been developed using the carbonization of polyimide induced by the irradiation of a XeCl excimer laser. The relationship between the depth of the crater produced by the laser irradiation and the laser fluence were measured in order to clear the carbonization mechanisms of polyimide. The melting threshold of polyimide was estimated

Various devices such as computer and peripheral device contribute to our lives. Because there is a wide variety of devices, the types of device connector standard are increasing. A converter for converting the electrical signal of the pin in a connector is required for communication with different connector standard. However, there is a problem that the number of converters for interconnection continues

In this paper, received power levels in 420 M/920 M/2.4G/5.3 GHz bands for sensor networks and WLANs are obtained by ray‐trace analysis in an office environment and the detail properties of propagation paths are analyzed. As a result, 25% average power of the total power arrives through ceiling spaces in the rooms where electromagnetic waves are hard to arrive through the walls. This means that the

In order to prove the validity of prediction of penetration depth using Hablanian plot, we have compared experimentally obtained penetration depths with those predicted by Hablanian plot and linear multiple regression analysis. The experimental results with ∼1200 data points were obtained from bead‐on‐plate welding tests by the laser job shop. Stainless steel plates and four types of industrial CW

In the mechanically induced long‐period fiber grating (MLPFG) fabricated by applying the periodical pressure on an optical fiber, the small bending occurs due to the periodical pressure, which influences the losses of the core and cladding modes. We propose the theoretical model of the MLPFG for estimating its transmittance based on the transfer matrix method and investigate the effect of the losses

AI techniques are required for realizing society 5.0. For the issues of societal implementation for AI, an AI hardware, which is enhanced security performances including authentication, and so on, is needed in order to reduce security risks. This study proposes a new physical unclonable function (PUF) based on neural network (NN) called NN PUF. The proposed NN PUF uses a difference of calculation time

Brain‐computer interface (BCI) enables people who cannot move their own body freely to manipulate machines and helps their communication and life. Recent brain‐computer interface (BCI) uses multimodal stimuli to increase bit rate of the system, so it is important to reveal when and which part of the brain part is activated to discriminate target stimuli. Although magnetoencephalography (MEG) measures

The aim of this study was to assess Virtual Reality (VR) based visual auditory stimulation can relieve pain. To achieve this, the impact that body surface electrical stimulation has on the body surface potentials and activity in the central nervous system in VR environments were extracted. Twenty‐two adults participated in this study. The body surface potentials and Electroencephalogram frequencies

This work describes the way of sensing bacteria, Legionella by photogate‐type fluorescence sensor. Photoirradiation time dependences of L. dumoffii with the UV‐photointensity as a parameter was obtained by the optical sensor. The photocurrents obtained by the sensor decreased depending on the irradiation time, showing the decay process of fluorescent material in Legionella cells. Initial decay rates

A sweat lactic acid (LA) monitoring system embedded on an armband for evaluation of exercise intensity was fabricated and real‐time LA monitoring of a free‐moving subject was conducted for the first time. The LA monitoring system utilizes an electrochemical biosensor, which uses redox reaction of lactate oxidase immobilized on a screen‐printed carbon graphite electrode. The volunteer wearing the system

Pulsed electroacoustic (PEA) space charge measurement of low‐density polyethylene using a spin‐coated poly(vinylidene fluoride‐trifluoroethylene) thin film is demonstrated. The space charge profile of a low‐density polyethylene film with a thickness of 150 μm is measured by PEA method. Compared with conventional 9 and 30‐μm piezoelectric films, the space charge profile obtained by the 3‐μm spin‐coated

Nano/microfabrication experiments on the surface of silicon solar cell are performed by ultraviolet femtosecond laser in the fluence range from 0.10 to 0.70 J/cm2. The surface morphology change of sample was observed by a laser scanning microscopy and a scanning electron microscope. The crystallinity of surface irradiated by laser pulses was evaluated by Raman spectroscopy. The ablation threshold for

Recently, we have developed a first‐principles based multiscale modeling approach for studying carrier transport properties in polymeric dielectric, and have successfully modeled hole transfer in polyethylene (PE). In this study, in order to see if we can model carrier transport in more complex polymers, we have utilized the multiscale modeling method to simulate electron and hole transfer in polyethylene

There is a need for methods to recognize night pedestrian to reduce pedestrian traffic accidents at night. In this paper, we proposed the method that converts images using continuous nighttime images from in‐vehicle camera. The proposed method performs feature extraction that does not depend on one's own vehicle speed because inputting continuous nighttime images, and the function of convolution layer

In the world today, we can always shoot digital videos with smartphones and share them with family or friends after editing them. It is necessary to check whether these videos have been tampered with to use them as forensic evidence in criminal investigations. This paper proposes a method for detecting tampered regions in a video where a specific subject is removed from a scene. In the proposed method

The plasmonic chip, which has wavelength‐size grating pattern coated with a thin silver or gold film, is applied to a sensitive biosensor because it can provide the enhanced fluorescence excited by the surface plasmon field. We have already reported on the sensitive immunodetection with the plasmonic sensor chip under the illumination system from top panel of a plasmonic chip. In this study, the structure

This paper addresses the assay of collagenase activity using Light Addressable Amperometric Sensor (LAAS). The redox current of LAAS was reduced by deposited collagen layers and recovered by collagenase solution. The collagen layers on the LAAS is considered to be broken down by collagenase. We expect an application of LAAS to activity evaluation.

In recent years, application of multiple robot system for a large scale system, such as a smart factory, is expected. A system consisting of heterogeneous robots can select the function by switching a combination of the robots according to a purpose. Therefore, the system is more versatile than a single robot on which multiple functions are installed. When the system is controlled by distributed management

Recently, micro‐TAS (Micro Total Analysis Systems) that performs genetic testing on devices containing microfluidics has been actively studied. In micro‐TAS, a micromixer and a microreactor provided on a microfluidic device are driven by feeding reagents with micropumps. Various micropumps were developed and studied: for example, displacement pumps, electro‐osmotic pumps, chemically actuated micropumps

We demonstrated the on‐chip synthesis of Au nanoparticles achieved by a microwave‐induced reaction in a microfluidic channel. The chip structure consists of a waveguide and a microchannel through the inside of the waveguide. A postwall waveguide, in which metallic posts are continuously arranged on the side wall, is utilized to confine microwave fields. This configuration allows a solution to be inserted

In this paper, we report on the development of a microfluidic device, which extracts plasma from low‐volume whole blood (10 μL), and is aimed at integration with microfluidic system for micro analytical systems. The device autonomously separates blood cells and transfers the separated plasma by steady rotation. Based on the original autonomous fluidic control theory, we developed the principle of automatic

The use of microwells sealed with lipid bilayers is promising for biodevices that utilize protein functions. We have fabricated microwell structures on a Si substrate sealed with lipid bilayers. We have investigated Ca2+ ion transport through α‐hemolysin channels with fluorescent microscopy. However, problems remain as regards achieving the detection of smaller signal such as receptor channels. Ion

We report an improvement of the Plasma‐on‐Chip device that enables plasma irradiation to single cells. Dielectric barrier discharge structure was introduced and power consumption was reduced to 200 µW. The modification extended the operation time of the Plasma‐on‐Chip device. As long as 10 min plasma irradiation to yeast cells, Saccharomyces cerevisiae was conducted.

We assessed human exposure to radiofrequency (RF) electromagnetic fields used for a wireless communication system installed on a smart meter for communication in the 920 MHz band. In an exposure guideline, the specific absorption rate (SAR) is used as a measure of the thermal effects of human exposure to electromagnetic fields. Although the low‐power wireless communication device used for the smart