Development and Effectiveness Evaluation of a Virtualized Reality Telerehabilitation System for Accessibility Analysis of Built Environment

The specific aims of this work are as follow: 1) to develop the Virtual Reality Telerehabilitation System (VRTS) which can enable clinicians to assess the wheelchair accessibility of users' homes from a remote location. 2) to investigate the effectiveness of this new accessibility assessment system using Virtual Reality technology and the Telerehabilitation concept as compared to a conventional assessment method. The development of VRTS begins with reliability analysis via data accuracy analysis, camera usability analysis, and a field feasibility test study, and it evolves into the development of algorithms to acquire information and images, make 3D models, and analyze accessibility in virtual environments. A guideline for taking good pictures and a survey form have been developed to collect images and descriptive information for the target environment.A field evaluation is proposed to test whether this new system is comparable to the traditional method of accessibility assessment. In cooperation with a regional architectural firm, three clients requesting an evaluation of accessibility of their houses will be recruited. A target house will be assessed via the Conventional In Person (CIP) method by an architect of the firm and via the VRTS by another architect. A descriptive analysis will be performed to compare the VRTS assessment with the CIP onsite evaluation

Coupling of Josephson current qubits using a connecting loop

We propose a coupling scheme for the three-Josephson junction qubits which uses a connecting loop, but not mutual inductance. Present scheme offers the advantages of a large and tunable level splitting in implementing the controlled-NOT (CNOT) operation. We calculate the switching probabilities of the coupled qubits in the CNOT operations and demonstrate that present CNOT gate can meet the criteria for the fault-tolerant quantum computing. We obtain the coupling strength as a function of the coupling energy of the Josephson junction and the length of the connecting loop which varies with selecting two qubits from the scalable design.Comment: 5 pages with updates, version to appear in Phys. Rev.

The effect of fermented porcine placental extract on fatigue-related parameters in healthy adults: A double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial

© 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. Background: Fatigue is one of the major health conditions induced by excessive stress or abnormal immune function or defective antioxidant systems. Placental extract has been reported to have various effects such as immune modulation and cellular regeneration. Fermented porcine placenta (FPP) is a safe nontoxic material, which is highly valuable as a functional food. The aim of this study was to investigate the anti-fatigue effects of FPP supplementation compared with a placebo product. Methods: In this double-blind, parallel, randomized, and placebo-controlled trial 84 healthy males and females, aged between 30 and 60 years were randomized to 320 mg of FPP once daily or placebo. The main outcome measures included efficacy of fatigue-inducing treadmill exercise on physical fatigue and fatigue-related parameters based on the questionnaire administered. Results: The IL-1β mRNA expression and fatigue severity scale were changed significantly after 8 weeks of treatment with fermented porcine placenta compared with placebo (p \u3c 0.05). Cortisol levels were significantly improved in participants younger than 45 years following treatment with FPP compared with placebo. Furthermore, the lactate and myoglobin levels were improved significantly in participants with BMI ≥ 23 kg/m2 (p = 0.045 and p = 0.011, respectively) following treatment with FPP versus placebo. Conclusions: Our study showed that FPP supplementation significantly ameliorated fatigue-related parameters and subjective symptoms in healthy adults. Therefore, our results indicate that FPP supplementation induced anti-fatigue effect by regulating the inflammatory response

Current-phase relation of the SNS junction in a superconducting loop

We study the current-phase relation of the superconductor/normal/superconductor (SNS) junction imbedded in a superconducting loop. Considering the current conservation and free energy minimum conditions, we obtain the persistent currents of the normal/superconductor (NS) loop. At finite temperature we can explain the experimentally observed highly non-sinusoidal currents which have maxima near the zero external flux.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures, version to appear in Europhys. Let

The major chemical constituents of PM2.5 and airborne bacterial community phyla in Beijing, Seoul, and Nagasaki

Ambient particle (PM2.5) samples were collected in three East Asian cities (Beijing, China; Seoul, South Korea; Nagasaki, Japan) from December 2014 to November 2015 to quantitatively investigate airborne bacteria at the phylum level. Proteobacteria, Firmicutes, Actinobacteria, Bacteroidetes, and Cyanobacteria represented the top five airborne bacterial phyla in all three cities. The most dominant airborne phylum, Proteobacteria, was more prevalent during the winter (at rates of 67.2%, 79.9%, and 87.0% for Beijing, Seoul, and Nagasaki, respectively). Correlations among airborne bacteria and environmental factors including PM2.5, its major chemical constituents, and meteorological factors were calculated. Temperature correlated negatively with Proteobacteria but positively with Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes. The abundance of Cyanobacteria correlated positively with particulate NO3(-) and SO4(2-) levels in Beijing (R = 0.46 and R = 0.35 for NO3- and SO42-, respectively) but negatively in Seoul (R = -0.14 and R = -0.19 for NO3- and SO42-, respectively) and Nagasaki (R = -0.05 and R = -0.03 for NO3- and SO42-, respectively). Backward trajectory analysis was applied for 72 h and three clusters were classified in each city. Five dominant bacteria and other bacterial groups showed significant differences (p < 0.05) in local clustering, as compared to the long-range transport clusters from Beijing. The proportions of the five bacterial phyla in Seoul were significantly different in each cluster. A local cluster in Nagasaki had higher ratios of all major airborne bacterial phyla, except Proteobacteria. (C) 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.N

Kondo lattice model with a direct exchange interaction between localized moments

We study the Kondo lattice model with a direct antiferromagnetic exchange interaction between localized moments. Ferromagnetically long-range ordered state coexisting with the Kondo screening shows a continuous quantum phase transition to the Kondo singlet state. We obtain the value of the critical point where the magnetizations of the localized moments and the conduction electrons vanish. The magnetization curves yield a universal critical exponent independent of the filling factors and the strength of the interaction between localized moments. It is shown that the direct exchange interaction between localized moments introduces another phase transition from an antiferromagnetic ordering to a ferromagnetic ordering for small Kondo exchange interaction. We also explain the local minimum of the Kondo temperature in recent experiments.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures, final versio

Painlev\'{e} analysis of the coupled nonlinear Schr\"{o}dinger equation for polarized optical waves in an isotropic medium

Using the Painlev\'{e} analysis, we investigate the integrability properties of a system of two coupled nonlinear Schr\"{o}dinger equations that describe the propagation of orthogonally polarized optical waves in an isotropic medium. Besides the well-known integrable vector nonlinear Schr\"{o}dinger equation, we show that there exist a new set of equations passing the Painlev\'{e} test where the self and cross phase modulational terms are of different magnitude. We introduce the Hirota bilinearization and the B\"{a}cklund transformation to obtain soliton solutions and prove integrability by making a change of variables. The conditions on the third-order susceptibility tensor $\chi^{(3)}$ imposed by these new integrable equations are explained