Search results

The purpose of this paper is to develop a new simple technique to synthesize graphene film on a flexible polyethylene terephthalate (PET) substrate and applied as a strain sensor.

Graphene film was synthesized using laser treatment of graphene oxide (GO) film deposited on PET substrate. A universal laser system was used to simultaneously reduce and pattern the GO film into laser reduced graphene oxide (LRGO) film.

The laser treatment synthesizes a multilayer graphene film with overlapped flakes, which shows structure integrity, mechanical flexibility and electrical conductivity of 1,330 S/m. The developed LRGO/PET film was used to fabricate a high sensitivity strain sensor. The sensitivity and temperature dependency of its gauge factor (GF) was examined at applied strains up to 0.25 per cent and operating temperatures up to 80°C. The fabricated sensor shows stable GF of approximately 78 up to 60°C with standard error of the mean not exceeding approximately ± 0.2.

The proposed method offers a new simple and productive technique of fabricating large-scale graphene-based flexible devices at a low cost.

The paper seeks to provide new stochastic measures for evaluating software reliability and performance characteristics comprehensively.

The time‐dependent behavior of the software system itself alternating between operable and inoperable states is described by a Markov process. Then several software performance measures when the arrival process of tasks follows a homogeneous Poisson process can be derived with the infinite‐server queuing theory.

Provides a new evaluation method for understanding software reliability‐related performance quantitatively. Presents a way to decide the testing time duration to satisfy the software performance requirement based on the model.

Production of the reasonable method for deciding the model parameters characterizing the processing time and the arrival process of the task remains as future study.

Most of the past models have paid attention only to the software failure‐occurrence phenomenon. On the other hand, this model includes the software restoration and the task‐processing characteristics as well and can evaluate customer‐oriented quality. In software project management, this model can provide more useful and comprehensive information than before for software development managers.

This paper introduces the concept of performability into the stochastic software reliability modeling and provides new quantitative evaluation measures considering reliability and performance simultaneously.

The purpose of this paper is to describe the development of a device to support rehabilitation of a patient's upper limb motion.

The device has five degrees of freedom by virtue of its link mechanism. It consists of Joints 1‐5. Apparatus for use in so‐called welfare applications, such as this device, must be safe, flexible, and lightweight. A pneumatic cylinder, arranged and integrated with the device, was used to operate it. The device has two rehabilitation modes corresponding to different rehabilitation contents. The first mode is the muscular recovery and movable region expansion mode (Mode A). The second mode is a practical function recovery mode (Mode B). A compliance control and a position control system are applied for those modes.

By arranging the pneumatic cylinder optimally, results show that the device has compact and wide operating range and compliance‐control performance for Mode A. Position‐control performance for Mode B was verified experimentally. Moreover, the paper evaluates the effectiveness of the device and its control system through electromyography, which confirms that the developed device can support a patient's rehabilitation training.

The device has a simple link mechanism and an attached pneumatic cylinder, thereby constituting a lightweight and compact mechanism. The device has two rehabilitation modes corresponding to different rehabilitation contents. Using the device, a patient can conduct muscular power recovery training, movable region expansion training, and upper limb practical function recovery training.

In order to design a Japanese approach to bioethics, it would be necessary to reflect on the history of bioethics in Japan. There are three major historic periods of bioethics in Japan. In the first period, medical law research in Japan started as early as bioethics research in the United States. In the second period (1980–1990) bioethics in Japan developed both its institutional structure and research production. Bioethical research by ethicists and philosophers was also launched in full swing. The third period (1990 to the present) can be characterized as highlighting genetics research and bioethical policies.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a control algorithm to improve the backdrivability performance of minimally invasive surgical robotic arms, so that precise manual manipulations of robotic arms can be performed in the preoperative operation.

First, the flexible-joint dynamic model of the 3-degree of freedom remote center motion (RCM) mechanisms of minimally invasive surgery (MIS) robot is derived and its dynamic parameters and friction parameters are identified. Next, the angular velocities and angular accelerations of joints are estimated in real time by the designed Kalman filter. Finally, a control algorithm based on Kalman filter is proposed to enhance the backdrivability of RCM mechanisms by compensating for the internally generated gravitational, frictional and inertial resistances experienced during the positioning and orientating.

The parameter identification for RCM mechanisms can be experimentally evaluated from comparison between the measured torques and the reconstructed torques. The accuracy and convergence of the real-time estimation of angular velocity and acceleration of the joint by the designed Kalman filter can be verified from corresponding simulation experiments. Manual adjustment experiments and animal experiments validate the effectiveness of the proposed backdrivability control algorithm.

The backdrivability control algorithm presented in this paper is a universal method to enhance the manual operation performance of robots, which can be used not only in the medical robot preoperative manual manipulation but also in robot haptic interaction, industrial robot direct teaching and active rehabilitation training of rehabilitation robot and so on.

Compared with other backdrivability design methods, the proposed algorithm achieves good backdrivability for RCM mechanisms without using force sensors and accelerometers. In addition, this paper presents a new static friction compensation approach for a joint moving with very low velocity.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate if collection developers in American academic libraries have added predominantly “yellowface” movies to their collections, or have actively sought out movies created and acted by Asian and Asian Americans, to balance out their libraries' collections.

In total, ten acknowledged “yellowface” movies and ten critically acclaimed Asian and Asian American movies were chosen. The collections of 157 academic libraries throughout the entire USA were then surveyed, including geographical areas that have had very few Asians or Asian Americans in their populations throughout their histories.

The results show that neither “yellowface” movies nor Asian and Asian American movies are overtly dominant in the collections of American academic librarians, and one can conclude that the collection developers actively sought to find a balance between movies in both categories, no matter the geographical locations of their libraries.

No matter how unsavory is our racist past, representations of past bigotry and discrimination should be available for scholars of history, cultural studies, and sociology. However, interpretations of Asians defined with this jaundiced eye must be balanced with movies of Asians and Asian Americans defining themselves.

The area of Asian and Asian American movies is rather small and arcane, yet the results of this survey show that there are no academic areas too small or narrow that do not demand the attention of a knowledgeable collection developer.