Dance Teaching by a Robot: Combining Cognitive and Physical Human-Robot Interaction for Supporting the Skill Learning Process

This letter presents a physical human-robot interaction scenario in which a robot guides and performs the role of a teacher within a defined dance training framework. A combined cognitive and physical feedback of performance is proposed for assisting the skill learning process. Direct contact cooperation has been designed through an adaptive impedance-based controller that adjusts according to the partner's performance in the task. In measuring performance, a scoring system has been designed using the concept of progressive teaching (PT). The system adjusts the difficulty based on the user's number of practices and performance history. Using the proposed method and a baseline constant controller, comparative experiments have shown that the PT presents better performance in the initial stage of skill learning. An analysis of the subjects' perception of comfort, peace of mind, and robot performance have shown a significant difference at the p < .01 level, favoring the PT algorithm.Comment: Presented at IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation ICRA-201

Feedback-free optical cavity with self-resonating mechanism

We demonstrated the operation of a high finesse optical cavity without utilizing an active feedback system to stabilize the resonance. The effective finesse, which is a finesse including the overall system performance, of the cavity was measured to be $394,000 \pm 10,000$, and the laser power stored in the cavity was $2.52 \pm 0.13$ kW, which is approximately 187,000 times greater than the incident power to the cavity. The stored power was stabilized with a fluctuation of $1.7 \%$, and we confirmed continuous cavity operation for more than two hours. This result has the potential to trigger an innovative evolution for applications that use optical resonant cavities such as compact photon sources with laser-Compton scattering or cavity enhanced absorption spectroscopy.Comment: 5 pages, 7 figure

Phase Relations in the Li2O-V2O3-V2O5 System at 700 C: Correlations with Magnetic Defect Concentration in Heavy Fermion LiV2O4

The phase relations in the Li2O-V2O3-V2O5 ternary system at 700 C for compositions in equilibrium with LiV2O4 are reported. This study clarified the synthesis conditions under which low and high magnetic defect concentrations can be obtained within the spinel structure of LiV2O4. We confirmed that the LiV2O4 phase can be obtained containing low (0.006 mol%) to high (0.83 mol%) magnetic defect concentrations n{defect} and with consistently high magnetic defect spin S values between 3 and 6.5. The high n{defect} values were obtained in the LiV2O4 phase in equilibrium with V2O3, Li3VO4, or LiVO2 and the low values in the LiV2O4 phase in equilibrium with V3O5. A model is suggested to explain this correlation.Comment: 6 pages, 7 figures; Phys. Rev. B (accepted

Superconductivity and Density Wave in the Quasi-One-Dimensional Systems: Renormalization Group Study

The anisotropic superconductivity and the density wave have been investigated by applying the Kadanoff-Wilson renormalization group technique to the quasi-one-dimensional system with finite-range interactions. It is found that a temperature (T) dependence of response functions is proportional to exp(1/T) in a wide region of temperature even within the one-loop approximation. Transition temperatures are calculated to obtain the phase diagram of the quasi-one-dimensional system, which is compared with that of the pure-one-dimensional system. Next-nearest neighbor interactions (V_2) induce large charge fluctuations, which suppress the d_{x^2 -y^2}-wave singlet superconducting (dSS) state and enhance the f-wave triplet superconducting (fTS) state. From this effect, the transition temperature of fTS becomes comparable to that of dSS for large V_2, so that field-induced f-wave triplet pairing could be possible. These features are discussed to comprehend the experiments on the (TMTSF)_2PF_6 salt.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, submitted to J. Phys. Soc. Jp

Automatic Fine Alignment and Pointing of Movable Telescopes using Point and Template Matching

Proceedings of the 2005 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Biomimetic

A comparative study of selected sorbents for sampling of aromatic VOCs from indoor air

Indoor air canbecome pollutedwith VOCs, and understanding the factors which affect adsorption of VOCs from indoor air is important for: (i) the accurate measurement of VOCs, and (ii) to apply mitigation strategies when high analyte concentrations are measured. In this study four VOCs (toluene, ethylbenzene, cumene and dichlorobenzene) were generated as a constant and controlled polluted air stream of VOCs from a dynamic atmospheric chamber. The effects of relative humidity, and sampling flow rate, on adsorption onto Tenax TA and the relatively new silica adsorbents SBA-15 or MCM-41 were studied

The role of adjuvant chemotherapy for patients with resected pancreatic cancer: Systematic review of randomized controlled trials and meta-analysis

Background: In patients undergoing surgery for resectable pancreatic cancer prognosis still remains poor. The role of adjuvant treatment strategies (including chemotherapy and chemoradiotherapy) following resection of pancreatic cancer remains controversial. Methods: A Medline-based literature search was undertaken to identify randomized controlled trials that evaluated adjuvant chemotherapy after complete macroscopic resection for cancer of the exocrine pancreas. Five trials of adjuvant chemotherapy were eligible and critically reviewed for this article. A meta-analysis (based on published data) was performed with survival (median survival time and 5-year survival rate) being the primary endpoint. Results: For the meta-analysis, 482 patients were allocated to the chemotherapy group and 469 patients to the control group. The meta-analysis estimate for prolongation of median survival time for patients in the chemotherapy group was 3 months (95% CI 0.3-5.7 months, p = 0.03). The difference in 5-year survival rate was estimated with 3.1% between the chemotherapy and the control group (95% CI -4.6 to 10.8%, p > 10.05). Conclusion: Currently available data from randomized trials indicate that adjuvant chemotherapy after resection of pancreatic cancer may substantially prolong disease-free survival and cause a moderate increase in overall survival. In the current meta-analysis, a significant survival benefit was only seen with regard to median survival, but not for the 5-year survival rate. The optimal chemotherapy regimen in the adjuvant setting as well as individualized treatment strategies (also including modern chemoradiotherapy regimens) still remain to be defined. Copyright (C) 2008 S. Karger AG, Basel

Phase Diagram of the Electron-Doped Cuprate Superconductors

We investigate the phase diagram of the electron-doped systems in high-Tc cuprates. We calculate the superconducting transition temperature Tc, the antiferromagnetic transition temperature TN, the NMR relaxation rate 1/T1 with the antiferromagnetic fluctuations in the fluctuation-exchange (FLEX) approximation and with the superconducting fluctuations in the self-consistent t-matrix approximation. Obtained phase diagram has common features as those in the hole-doped systems, including the antiferromagnetic state, the superconducting state and the spin gap phenomenon. Doping-dependences of TN, Tc and Tsg (spin gap temperature) are, however, different with those in the hole-doped systems. These differences are due to the intrinsic nature of the ingap states which are intimately related with the Zhang-Rice singlets in the hole-doped systems and are correlated d-electrons in the electron-doped systems, respectively, which has been shown in the d-p model.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

PRELP secreted from mural cells protects the function of blood brain barrier through regulation of endothelial cell-cell integrity

INTRODUCTION: Proline/arginine-rich end leucine-rich repeat protein (PRELP), is a small secreted proteoglycan expressed by pericytes and vascular smooth muscle cells surrounding the brain vasculature of adult mouse. METHODS: We utilised a Prelp knockout (Prelp−/−) mouse model to interrogate vasculature integrity in the brain alongside performing in vitro assays to characterise PRELP application to endothelial cells lines. Our findings were supplemented with RNA expression profiling to elucidate the mechanism of how PRELP maintains neurovasculature function. RESULTS: Prelp−/− mice presented with neuroinflammation and reducedneurovasculature integrity, resulting in IgG and dextran leakage in the cerebellum and cortex. Histological analysis of Prelp−/− mice revealed reducedcell-cell integrity of the blood brain barrier, capillary attachment of pericytes andastrocyte end-feet. RNA-sequencing analysis found that cell-cell adhesion andinflammation are affected in Prelp−/− mice and gene ontology analysis as well as gene set enrichment analysis demonstrated that inflammation related processes and adhesion related processes such as epithelial-mesenchymal transition and apical junctions were significantly affected, suggesting PRELP is a regulator of cell-cell adhesion. Immunofluorescence analysis showed that adhesion junction protein expression levels of cadherin, claudin-5, and ZO-1, was suppressed in Prelp−/− mice neurovasculature. Additionally, in vitro studies revealed that PRELP application to endothelial cells enhances cell-cell integrity, induces mesenchymal-endothelial transition and inhibits TGF-β mediated damage to cell-cell adhesion. DISCUSSION: Our study indicates that PRELP is a novel endogenous secreted regulator of neurovasculature integrity and that PRELP application may be a potential treatment for diseases associated with neurovascular damage