Flexibility Based Metrics at Diagnosis of New Technology Adoption

Internet of things (IoT) as a new technology. On the other hand, IT engineers became a captive of me to desire by cases of other companies that introduced new technologies. However, due to the shortage of insufficient building and using information technology (IT) skills and undeveloped information system architecture, many companies cannot appreciate the utility that the information system should bring. When deciding to adopt new technology, many corporations need a framework for considering the availability of new technology. Therefore, this paper presents a diagnostic decision-making framework for answering whether to adopt a new technology just now. The scheme is consisted with balanced scorecard, IT infrastructure library and COBIT, and uses three indexes, defined by the penalty of change as a function of cost and time, such as MIS flexibility, meaning ease of change defined as a critical success factor, MIS reward as a key performance indicator, and MIS value as an important goal indicator. And, this framework presents a thinking process and criteria for deciding whether to develop information systems in-house, to purchase as a product, or to customize a ready-made software to the needs of the company. In order to make the discussion concrete, this paper uses IoT as an example of new technology

Challenges and Possibilities for the Household Medicine Lease System Viewed in light of CRM

Household medicine lease (HML) industry originated way back in the Edo period (17C-19C), when it was promoted by the local fiefdom government to revitalize the economy. Accumulations of wealth, acquired thereafter from everywhere outside the region, have culminated in the formation of the present-day industrial cluster in Toyama, the largest in the whole area facing the Sea of Japan. Today an adaptation of the quasi-CRM (Customer Relationship Management) business model of the HML system has proved to be a success in Mongolia. This fact seems to offer us some clues for dealing with those problems that healthcare and medical services in Japan and elsewhere are riddled with. In this paper, focusing on the common critical success factors (CSFs) behind the success of our prototype HML system and its recent successful application in Mongolia, we will analyze these factors from the perspective of CRM. We will then clarify the following: 1) the usefulness of the business model for ensuring primary healthcare for people in developing countries, 2) the usefulness in our ubiquitous network society of applying ICT to the HML system, 3) what contributions the use of the system can make toward improving the quality of our everyday healthcare and medical services in our prominently aging society, and we will also suggest 4) the importance of elevating „individual self-medication‟ to „community-based self-medication.

Challenges and Possibilities for the Household Medicine Lease System: Continua-Certified Devices assisted Community-Based SelfMedication

This paper reports the follow-up research of “Challenges and Possibilities for the Household Medicine Lease (HML) System Viewed in light of CRM,” presented in Conf-IRM 2009. With the ongoing insufficiency of medical services, the traditional Japanese business model of household medicine lease (HML) system has now been successfully implemented in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. However, because of the rapidly aging population, Japan has currently been suffering from difficulties in coping with the rapidly increasing demand for medical services. Our study aims to design a system of everyday healthcare in combination with the HML system and medical monitoring system based on international standard and provides an interoperable platform that meets various conformity requirements. This study presents features of the self-medication system based on data from monitoring devices certified by Continua Health Alliance, and then presents the concept and challenges of community-based self-medication designed to suppress increase in nationwide healthcare costs

Degradation of trichloroethylene using highly adsorptive allophane-TiO(2) nanocomposite

A highly adsorptive allophane-TiO(2) nanocomposite photocatalyst was prepared by dispersing nanopartides of the natural clay mineral allophane into a titanium alkoxide solution by the sol-gel method. During the photocatalytic degradation of trichloroethylene using the allophane-TiO(2) nanocomposite, emission of the intermediate product, phosgene, was drastically inhibited. Trichloroethylene was transformed into the intermediate products, phosgene and dichloroacetyl chloride, on the TiO(2) during the UV irradiation. These compounds are rapidly adsorbed on the allophane. The compounds then gradually degraded after diffusing to the TiO(2).ArticleAPPLIED CATALYSIS B-ENVIRONMENTAL. 102(3-4):470-474 (2011)journal articl

Analytical Model for Phase Synchronization of a Pair of Vertical-Axis Wind Turbines

The phase-synchronized rotation of a pair of closely spaced vertical-axis wind turbines has been found in wind tunnel experiments and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations. During phase synchronization, the two wind turbine rotors rotate inversely at the same mean angular velocity. The blades of the two rotors pass through the gap between the turbines almost simultaneously, while the angular velocities oscillate with a small amplitude. A pressure drop in the gap region, explained by Bernoulli’s law, has been proposed to generate the interaction torque required for phase synchronization. In this study, an analytical model of the interaction torques was developed. In our simulations using the model, (i) phase synchronization occurred, (ii) the angular velocities of the rotors oscillated during the phase synchronization, and (iii) the oscillation period became shorter and the amplitude became larger as the interaction became stronger. These observations agree qualitatively with the experiments and CFD simulations. Phase synchronization was found to occur even for a pair of rotors with slightly different torque characteristics. Our simulation also shows that the induced flow velocities influence the dependence of the angular velocities during phase synchronization on the rotation directions of the rotors and the distance between the rotors

Numerical Analysis of the Dynamic Interaction between Two Closely Spaced Vertical-Axis Wind Turbines

To investigate the optimum layouts of small vertical-axis wind turbines, a two-dimensional analysis of dynamic fluid body interaction is performed via computational fluid dynamics for a rotor pair in various configurations. The rotational speed of each turbine rotor (diameter: D = 50 mm) varies based on the equation of motion. First, the dependence of rotor performance on the gap distance (gap) between two rotors is investigated. For parallel layouts, counter-down (CD) layouts with blades moving downwind in the gap region yield a higher mean power than counter-up (CU) layouts with blades moving upwind in the gap region. CD layouts with gap/D = 0.5–1.0 yield a maximum average power that is 23% higher than that of an isolated single rotor. Assuming isotropic bidirectional wind speed, co-rotating (CO) layouts with the same rotational direction are superior to the combination of CD and CU layouts regardless of the gap distance. For tandem layouts, the inverse-rotation (IR) configuration shows an earlier wake recovery than the CO configuration. For 16-wind-direction layouts, both the IR and CO configurations indicate similar power distribution at gap/D = 2.0. For the first time, this study demonstrates the phase synchronization of two rotors via numerical simulatio

Visualizing the Periods of Stock Prices Using Non-Harmonic Analysis of the NASDAQ Composite Index Since 1985

Abstract: The prediction of stock prices is studied extensively, because of the demand from private investors and financial institutions. However, long-term prediction is difficult due to the large number of factors that affect the real market. Previous research has focused on the fluctuation patterns and fluctuation periodicity of stock prices. We have likewise focused on the periodicity of stock prices. We have used a new high-resolution frequency analysis (non-harmonic analysis) method can solve the previous problem of the frequency resolution being low. As a consequence, we have succeeded in visualizing the various periodicities of stock prices. The periodicity fluctuates gently in many periods, but we have confirmed that it fluctuated violently in periods when a sudden event occurred. We expect that this experimental result in combination with previous research will help increase predictive accuracy and will aid long-term prediction

Periostin-expressing cell-specific transforming growth factor-β inhibition in pulmonary artery prevents pulmonary arterial hypertension

Transforming growth factor beta (TGF-β) has been shown to play a critical role in pathogenesis of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) although the precise role of TGF-β signaling remains uncertain. A recent report has shown that periostin (Pn) is one of the most upregulated proteins in human PAH lung compared with healthy lungs. We established type I TGF-β receptor knockout mice specifically with Pn expressing cell (Pn-Cre/Tgfb1fl/fl mice). Increases in PA pressure and pulmonary artery muscularization were induced by hypoxia of 10% oxygen for 4 weeks. Lung Pn expression was markedly induced by 4 week-hypoxia. Pn-Cre/Tgfb1fl/fl mice showed lower right ventricular pressure elevation, inhibition of PA medial thickening. Fluorescent co-immunostaining showed that Smad3 activation in Pn expressing cell is attenuated. These results suggest that TGF-β signaling in Pn expressing cell may have an important role in the pathogenesis of PAH by controlling medial thickening

Novel Soft Meals Developed by 3D Printing

Recently, 3D printing is being applied to various fields. 3D printing of foods has been developed; however, there are many challenges. To overcome the challenges, we have started a new research group named “Yonezawa Itadakimasu Research Group,” to focus on the development of 3D printing applications for manufacturing food. We have developed Novel jelly foods that are shaped by 3D printed molds. Fused deposition modeling (FDM) 3D printer for food manufacturing makes the 3D printed molds. First step of making 3D printing mold is to print a cast. Then, food grade silicone is poured into the cast to make a mold. This type of 3D printed mold can be used widely, such as making sweets, restaurant menus, and care foods by changing the design depending on the use of application. Secondly, we started to develop 3D food printers. This type of challenge to develop future foods by 3D printing technology may have a major impact on the care food because the looks of foods are important and will be improved by 3D printing