Identifying Emerging Research Related to Solar Cells Field using a Machine Learning Approach

The number of research papers related to solar cells field is increasing rapidly. It is hard to grasp research trends and to identify emerging research issues because of exponential growth of publications, and the field’s subdivided knowledge structure. Machine learning techniques can be applied to the enormous amounts of data and subdivided research fields to identify emerging researches. This paper proposed a prediction model using a machine learning approach to identify emerging solar cells related academic research, i.e. papers that might be cited very frequently within three years. The proposed model performed well and stable. The model highlighted some articles published in 2015 that will be emerging in the future. Research related to vegetable-based dye-sensitized solar cells was identified as the one of the promising researches by the model. The proposed prediction model is useful to gain foresight into research trends in science and technology, facilitating decision-making processes

Role of the limbus in femoral-head deformation in developmental dislocation of the hip: findings of two-directional hip arthrography.

Two-directional arthrographic findings made during conservative treatment of developmental dislocation of the hip were compared with the femoral-head configurations and radiological results obtained from long-term follow-up examinations in this retrospective study. Sixty hips were followed until at least age 14. Arthrography was carried out according to Terazawa's method. The shape of the superior, anterior, and posterior limbus was evaluated based on a modified Fujii's classification. The femoral-head configuration was classified into 4 groups, and the radiological results were evaluated using Severin's classification at the final observation. There was a statistically significant relationship between the shape of the anterior limbus, the number of portions of deformed limbus (superior, anterior, posterior), and the femoral-head configuration. Also, a statistically significant relationship between the shape of the limbus and Severin's classification was observed. These results suggest that the deformed limbus seems to play an important role in triggering femoral-head deformities, possibly via mechanical compression, and negatively affects development of the hip joint.</p

GAINING STRATEGIC BALANCE BETWEEN INIMITABILITY AND LEGITIMACY IN GENERATING INNOVATIVE BUSINESS MODEL

This work analyses a case of Japanese construction equipment company as a successful introduction of new business model as servitization process in traditional manufacturing industry. Servitization is defined as a phenomenon in which services are occupying a larger part of the added value in customer offerings (Vandermerwe & Rada, 1988). Servitization in the manufacturing company often requires radical business model transition. Business model must be contrived which can be characterized by several design themes and design elements (Zott & Amit, 2009). The design themes capture the common threads that orchestrate and connect the focal firm’s transactions with external parties. These contribute for customer’s profit to deliver efficiency, lock-in, reciprocity, and novelty. The design elements involve transactional content, structure (activity links), and governance with other stakeholders. Novel business models refer to new ways of conducting economic exchanges among various stakeholders that could lead to inimitability. Less strategic similarity through servitization design could increase differentiation and inimitability. However, novel business model innovation also requires more strategic similarity as legitimacy for its diffusion and social acceptance. Low legitimacy diminishes the ability of a firm to acquire resources from potential exchange partners in the business model. Legitimacy challenges occur because the firm’s servitization strategies reject the conventional wisdom that is incorporated in the industry consensus. As a result, adopting novel design themes and elements needs to balance between inimitability and legitimacy and generate moderately novel configurations of design elements (Deephouse, 1999, Snihur & Zott, 2013). Prior research findings on servitization emphasized on mainly efficiency as a design theme and product-service system’s contents as a design element, based on static empirical studies. As the methodology, we adopt more holistic and dynamic view of servitization phenomenon in this paper. Our research focuses on the issue of strategic balance in a Japanese company in terms of design themes and elements of servitization business model

Aquaporin 4 Expression in the mdx Mouse Diaphragm

Expression of aquaporin (AQP) 4 in the surface membranes of skeletal myofibers is well established; however, its functional significance is still unknown. The alterations of AQP4 expressions in dystrophic muscles at RNA and protein levels have been reported in various dystrophic muscles such as dystrophinopathy, dysferlinopathy, and sarcoglycanopathy. We are interested in the relationship between the severity of dystrophic muscle degeneration and the expression of AQP4. Here we compared the AQP4 expression of the limb muscles with that of diaphragms in both mdx and control mice. The dystrophic muscle degeneration, such as rounding profile of cross sectional myofiber shape, dense eosin staining, central nuclei, and endomysial fibrosis in mdx mice, were more marked in diaphragms than in limb muscles. The decrease of AQP4 expression at protein level was more marked in diaphragms than in the limb muscles of mdx mice. However, the expression of AQP4 mRNA in the diaphragms of mdx mice was not reduced in comparison with limb muscles of mdx mice. The present study revealed that AQP4 expression at protein level was correlated with the severity of dystrophic changes in muscle tissues of mdx mice

Making and consuming characters

This paper shall introduce a new phenomenon about consumption. This is related to consumption of characters like Mickey Mouse and Hello, Kitty. The phenomenon appears prominently in Japan. In order to examine consumption of characters and the strategies for creating characters, we conducted a case study on a set of marketing strategies of a toy manufacturer in Japan. Traditionally, consumption research is asserted using the uni-methodological paradigm. The uni-methodological paradigm here means that researchers have a methodological exclusiveness stance to any other research approaches. Hirschman and Holbrook (1992) distinguish five non-interchangeable research approaches on consumer research. For instance, from an economic point of view, consumption could be assumed as a problem solving method to increase utility. Baudrillard (1968, 1970) criticized this type of functional consumption. Researchers have often denied the other approaches competitive to their own approaches rather than incorporating them. Character consumption cannot be revealed by such an insulated research stance because consumers would like to consume characters for multidimensional reasons. They consume characters to enhance their utilities. In addition, characters stimulate consumers’ sentiments. The possession desire is satisfied by consuming characters. Possessing character goods can create small interest groups and stimulate communication among the group members. Consuming characters is assumed to involve multidimensional aspects: functional, conspicuous, and semiotic consumption. As a result, once we try to understand character consumption, we have to employ the multidisciplinary approach in contrast to the unimethodological paradigm. Through our case study, we revealed the distinctive marketing strategies in the business of characters. It is necessary for marketers of character goods to regard character consumption as having functional, conspicuous, and semiotic aspects. We can find distinctive characteristics in the market research, product development, advertising, and communication strategies in the process of creating characters

Biodegradable polymer with collagen microsponge serves as a new bioengineered cardiovascular prosthesis

AbstractObjectiveBiodegradable materials with autologous cell seeding have attracted much interest as potential cardiovascular grafts. However, pretreatment of these materials requires a complicated and invasive procedure that carries the risk of infection. To avoid these problems, we sought to develop a biodegradable graft material containing collagen microsponge that would permit the regeneration of autologous vessel tissue. The ability of this material to accelerate in situ cellularization with autologous endothelial and smooth muscle cells was tested with and without precellularization.MethodsPoly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) as a biodegradable scaffold was compounded with collagen microsponge to form a vascular patch material. These poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid)–collagen patches with (n = 10) or without (n = 10) autologous vessel cellularization were used to patch the canine pulmonary artery trunk. Histologic and biochemical assessments were performed 2 and 6 months after the implantation.ResultsThere was no thrombus formation in either group, and the poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) scaffold was almost completely absorbed in both groups. Histologic results showed the formation of an endothelial cell monolayer, a parallel alignment of smooth muscle cells, and reconstructed vessel wall with elastin and collagen fibers. The cellular and extracellular components in the patch had increased to levels similar to those in native tissue at 6 months.ConclusionsThe poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid)–collagen microsponge patch with and without precellularization showed good histologic findings and durability. This patch shows promise as a bioengineered material for promoting in situ cellularization and the regeneration of autologous tissue in cardiovascular surgery

Association of masticatory muscle activity with sleep arousal and other concomitant movements during sleep

OBJECTIVE: This study aims to verify the associations among sleep bruxism (SB), sleep arousal (SA) and concurrent body movements. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Subjects underwent a standard overnight polysomnography test and audio-video recordings. Sleep quality was evaluated according to the Rechtschaffen and Kales criteria, while SA was determined as per the American Sleep Disorders Association criteria. Analyses were performed by an external institution after masking of the subjects' information. SB was assessed based on the presence/absence of rhythmic masticatory muscle activity (RMMA) episodes, which were identified by using electromyography of the masseter muscle. The observed simultaneous movements included lower leg movement (LLM), swallowing, face scratching, head movement, body movement, eye blinking, coughing, licking, sighing, body scratching, lip sucking, somniloquy and yawning. The LLM was determined visually, as well as through an increase in the tibialis electromyogram signal. Other movements were visually assessed using audio-video recordings. The incidences of all the simultaneous movements were compared between RMMA with intercurrent SA (SAwRMMA; RMMA episode derived from a masseter electromyogram showing more than 10% of maximum voluntary contraction) and SA without RMMA (SAw/oRMMA). RESULTS: Fourteen subjects were included in this study (females/males: 4/10, mean age: 31.5 ± 5.7 years). Among these, LLM, swallowing, body movement, licking, body scratching and lip sucking were frequently observed in SAwRMMA episodes than in SAw/oRMMA episodes, significantly. However, the non-specific simultaneous movements were higher observed in SAw/oRMMA episodes than that in SAwRMMA. CONCLUSION: Our results suggest that SB is concurrently activated with LLM in relation to arousal