#Tsukuba Division

[uenodivision]

After much consideration (and a bunch of begging and pleading from some of my acquaintances), I've decided to take the leap and create one or two new divisions. Unfortunately, I jumped the gun and came up with too many ideas. I like all of the divisions I've created and I can't possibly pick one over the other, so...

...I'm leaving that decision up to you all. I'll let you decide which divisions should be the ones I create. Simply vote for the two (and only two) that you like the most. At the end of an extended time period, I'll reveal which teams won.

However, don't count on them being released before the year is over, though. I have ideas for them all, but they'll take a while to implement.

So, without further ado, please feel free to click the link up top to the poll and choose the divisions you like the most. And if you need some info on the divisions, simply click the button below:

1nc09n170: A team of secret hackers whose lives and identities are completely shrouded in both mystery and myth. Even the most talented computer specialists, both in and outside of Chuohku, have managed to find next to nothing about these individuals. Some say that they are more than one person. Others say that they are a team, but because of their impressive technology, they are able to change and switch up their appearances with little to no effort, which makes them extremely hard to identify. The only known thing about them is that they all share one goal: to drag Japan forward into the future, whether they are ready or not...

Aoto Gang: A group of thugs based out of Okayama who rules their city and division with an iron fist in a velvet glove. They are fair and just to those who have earned their favor and pardon. But to all those who disappoint them, or have less than amicable intentions for their town, they show no mercy. Their leader is a well-known Banchō, who is well-known throughout all of Japan despite just being an ordinary hoodlum. It's for this reason that Chuohku kidnapped his younger sister, forcing him and his cohorts to enter the D.R.B., which, in hindsight, may not have been their smartest play...

Drive Team 6: This high-speed trio is known throughout all of Japan for being the forerunners in Tokyo's underground racing scene. By day, they are average Japanese citizens just trying to make a living like every other poor fool. When the sun goes down, however, they discard their personas and put on their racing gear, prepared to zoom down the dangerous highways that they call their racetrack. And now that Chuohku has offered them the chance to join the D.R.B. in order to obtain information for each member, they are determined to prove to all of the other teams out there, that the only way to live and win is to be fast!

Fūrinkazan: These young high-school athletes are known throughout the entire city of Kōfu. And when you realize that this city used to be the stronghold of the great Japanese warlord, Takeda Shingen, then their team name makes sense. No matter what sport they participate in, they all strive to be four things: wind, trees, fire, and mountains. Separately, they are already dangerous. But together, they make an unstoppable force that no one can defeat, whether it's in sports or rapping. And upon hearing that their rivals, the Aoto Gang, have joined the D.R.B., that was all the reason they needed to sign up, themselves!

Maid in Bliss: These three young women are all daughters of one of the most feared generals who ever stepped on the battlefield during WW III. And although an injury sadly put an end to his career as a soldier, that didn't stop him from passing on his gifts to his offspring. Though they may be maids out in the open who are very good at their jobs, they also have a reputation for being quite merciless and bloodthirsty, especially when it comes to those who dare insult their family. It's because of this that one must wonder whether Chuohku knew what they were doing when they decided to abduct their father in hopes that it would force the three of them to join the D.R.B. to rescue him...

[stevebattle]

Kenaf rescue robot (2007), Future Robotics Technology Center (fuRo), Chiba Institute of Technology, in collaboration with Tohoku University, the University of Tsukuba, Okayama University, AIST and NICT, Japan. Kenaf was winner of the mobile performance division at the 2007 RoboCup Rescue world championships.

"The Kenaf rescue robot was developed for the purpose of conducting rescue operations at actual disaster sites. The distinctive features of Kenaf are the crawler enclosing its entire body and the four sub-crawler arms that are each controlled independently. These mechanisms and its low center of gravity enable Kenaf to exhibit outstanding travel performance over rubble." – Future Robotics Technology Center (fuRo).

[mainshigh]

Dreamplan home design software 1.42

Dreamplan home design software 1.42 software#

Spatial Analysis and Modeling in Geographical Transformation Process: GIS-Based Application. His expertise and fields of interest include GIS, spatial analysis, urban geography, and transportation geography. Yuji Murayama, professor, Division of Spatial Information Science, Faculty of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Tsukuba, Japan. The inclusion of the origin and brief history of each of the selected metropolitan regions, including the analysis of their urban primacy, spatiotemporal patterns of urban land-use changes, driving forces of urban development, and implications for future sustainable development, makes the book an important reference for various related studies. This book is written for researchers, academicians, practitioners, and graduate students. Furthermore, given the complexity of the urban growth process across the world, issues raised in this book will contribute to the improvement of future geospatial analysis of urban growth in the developing regions. land-change modeling for improving our understanding of the trends and patterns of urban growth in Asia and Africa. In addition to the empirical results, the methodological approaches employed and discussed in this book showcase the potential of geospatial analysis, e.g. State-of-the-art geospatial tools and techniques, including geographic information system/science and remote sensing, were used to facilitate the analysis.

Dreamplan home design software 1.42 software#

Similarly, from the 'Landscaping' section of DreamPlan Home Design Software, you can raise or lower the level of the ground on a preferred radius and with a user-defined magnitude.ĭreamPlan Home Design Software is an interesting program that can help you create and refine the plans of your home, in just a few moves, helping you visualize how its interior and surroundings will look like when you finally build it.This book examines the urban growth trends and patterns of various rapidly growing metropolitan regions in developing Asian and African nations from the perspective of geography. On the 'Exterior' of the house, you can add 'Plants' (trees or flowers), 'Lighting' elements, 'Paths', 'Furniture' and other 'Accessories'. In what concerns the 'Interior' of the home, you can add various 'Cabinets', 'Furniture' (such as chairs, tables, sofas, or beds), 'Appliances' (for instance refrigerators or stoves), 'Electronics' (television set or laptop), 'Lighting' objects, 'Plumbing' elements, and other decorative items, like fireplaces, stairs, blinds or mirrors. Last, but not least, you can paint the walls of your house in any color you want. Moreover, you can add a 'Roof', with plenty of style options to select from, and adjust its 'Slope' and 'Eave' levels. You can also add 'Interior' and 'Exterior' doors or 'Door Frames'.ĭreamPlan Home Design Software allows you to choose the 'Floor Style' from several available 'Textures', in a color of your prefer. The utility enables you to select from three types of windows: 'Classic', 'Sliding' and 'Panel'. The program is very easy to work with, featuring several tabs corresponding to the operations you can perform, namely: 'Building', 'Exterior', 'Interior' and 'Landscaping'.įrom the 'Building' section of DreamPlan Home Design Software, you can create your house from scratch, adding walls of any length you want, that will automatically be placed in straight angles. DreamPlan Home Design Software is a user-friendly application whose main function is to provide you with the proper means of creating a 3D plan of your future home, in just a few steps.

[diaries-shop]

. ＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿ ピンクフロイドのアルバム「対」（The Division Bell）のジャケットに描かれているイラストを刺繍したもの。コンセプトは、「コミュニケーションの欠如による対立」 . ブランド Matt Marshallが大学生の時に始めたブランド。2009年設立。レコードショップを経営する傍らで、Blues/Rock/Soul/Jazzなどの様々アーティストのライセンスを取り、ブートレグのようなマーチャンダイズを作っています。あり物のボディを使用し、ガレージでやっているようなチープなプリントが特徴。 . ＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿ . 詳細はプロフィールのリンクにある、オンラインストア、BLOGにてご覧いただけます。 @diaries_official 商品に関しての質問は、DMかメールにてお気軽にご質問ください。 . ＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿ . DIARIES 〒305-0031 茨城県つくば市吾妻3-8-17 TEL:029-875-7754 12:00-20:00 ※ただいま自粛中につき、短縮営業しています。18:30閉店です。（19時までは割といます。） （木曜定休・その他） https://diaries-shop.com #diaries #tsukuba #ibaraki #japan #ダイアリーズ #つくば #茨城 #日本 #セレクトショップ #ピンクフロイド #対 #ストームソーガソン #pinkfloyd #tsui #thedivisionbell #stormthorgerson (at Diaries / ダイアリーズ) https://www.instagram.com/p/CeGZT2gP866/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[fumpkins]

Seeing with radio waves

Credit: University of Tsukuba

Scientists from the Division of Physics at the University of Tsukuba used the quantum effect called ‘spin-locking’ to significantly enhance the resolution when performing radio-frequency imaging of nitrogen-vacancy defects in diamond. This work may lead to faster and more accurate material analysis, as well as a path towards practical quantum computers.

Nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers have long been studied for their potential use in quantum computers. A NV center is a type of defect in the lattice of a diamond, in which two adjacent carbon atoms have been replaced with a nitrogen atom and a void. This leaves an unpaired electron, which can be detected using radio-frequency waves, because its probability of emitting a photon depends on its spin state. However, the spatial resolution of radio wave detection using conventional radio-frequency techniques has remained less than optimal.

Now, researchers at the University of Tsukuba have pushed the resolution to its limit by employing a technique called ‘spin-locking’. Microwave pulses are used to put the electron’s spin in a quantum superposition of up and down simultaneously. Then, a driving electromagnetic field causes the direction of the spin to precess around, like a wobbling top. The end result is an electron spin that is shielded from random noise but strongly coupled to the detection equipment. “Spin-locking ensures high accuracy and sensitivity of the electromagnetic field imaging,” first author Professor Shintaro Nomura explains. Due to the high density of NV centers in the diamond samples used, the collective signal they produced could be easily picked up with this method. This permitted the sensing of collections of NV centers at the micrometer scale. “The spatial resolution we obtained with RF imaging was much better than with similar existing methods,” Professor Nomura continues, “and it was limited only by the resolution of the optical microscope we used.”

The approach demonstrated in this project may be applied in a broad variety of application areas—for example, the characterizations of polar molecules, polymers, and proteins, as well as the characterization of materials. It might also be used in medical applications—for example, as a new way to perform magnetocardiography.

Researchers teleport information within a diamond

More information: Shintaro Nomura et al, Near-field radio-frequency imaging by spin-locking with a nitrogen-vacancy spin sensor, Journal of Applied Physics (2021). DOI: 10.1063/5.0052161

Provided by University of Tsukuba

Citation: Seeing with radio waves (2021, July 9) retrieved 11 July 2021 from https://phys.org/news/2021-07-radio.html

This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only.

New post published on: https://livescience.tech/2021/07/11/seeing-with-radio-waves/

[sarabarratt]

Electrostatic Semiconductor Wafer Chucking System Market 2021 Major Growth Player to 2027

Crystal Market Research has declared a business insight concentrate on Global Electrostatic Semiconductor Wafer Chucking System Market 2021 by Manufacturers, Regions, Type and Application, Forecast to 2027 that uncovers different data permitting sharp market members to comprehend the proportions of the market. The report reveals insight into market improvements, critical patterns just as serious merchant exercises and execution investigation. The report is pointed toward offering perusers ongoing information indispensable to drive future-prepared venture choices. The examination centers around the prevailing patterns, persevering difficulties, and dangers, just as maturing openings impacting development situations in the worldwide Electrostatic Semiconductor Wafer Chucking System market. The market report is a complete examination that shows in general utilization structure, advancement patterns, notable suppliers, and market sections.

Download free request sample:@ https://www.crystalmarketresearch.com/report-sample/SE0611604

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Main considerations in Electrostatic Semiconductor Wafer Chucking System market like contenders, innovative work, most recent strategic turns of events, interest of every district on the lookout, rivalry between changed contenders, most recent item dispatch and friends acquisitions, key contributions given by various contenders and income of the contenders every one of these variables are referenced in the report will every one of the appropriate motivations to legitimize and comprehend them top to bottom.

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Key manufacturers in the Electrostatic Semiconductor Wafer Chucking System Market:

SHINKO

TOTO

Creative Technology Corporation

Kyocera

FM Industries

NTK CERATEC

Tsukuba Seiko

Applied Materials

II-VI M Cubed

Electrostatic Semiconductor Wafer Chucking System Market

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Electrostatic Semiconductor Wafer Chucking System Market, By Type, Estimates and Forecast 2016-2027

Coulomb Type Electrostatic Chucks

Johnsen-Rahbek (JR) Type Electrostatic Chucks

Electrostatic Semiconductor Wafer Chucking System Market, By Application, Estimates and Forecast 2016-2027

300 mm Wafers

200 mm Wafers

Others

Electrostatic Semiconductor Wafer Chucking System Market, By Key Players, Estimates and Forecast 2016-2027

SHINKO

TOTO

Creative Technology Corporation

Kyocera

FM Industries

NTK CERATEC

Tsukuba Seiko

Applied Materials

II-VI M Cubed

Electrostatic Semiconductor Wafer Chucking System Market

Regions & Countries Mentioned In The Global Electrostatic Semiconductor Wafer Chucking System Market Report::

North America Region

Europe Region

Asia-Pacific Region

South America Region

The Middle East & Africa Region

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[sciencebulletin]

Superconductors are super resilient to magnetic fields

A researcher at the University of Tsukuba has offered a new explanation for how superconductors exposed to a magnetic field can recover, without loss of energy, to their previous state after the field is removed. This work may lead to a new theory of superconductivity and a more eco-friendly electrical distribution system. Superconductors are a class of materials with the amazing property of being able to conduct electricity with zero resistance. In fact, an electrical current can circle around a loop of superconducting wire indefinitely. The catch is that these materials must be kept very cold, and even so, a strong magnetic field can cause a superconductor to revert back to normal. It was once assumed that the superconducting-to-normal transition caused by a magnetic field could not be reversed easily, since the energy would be dissipated by the usual process of Joule heating. This mechanism, by which the resistance in normal wires converts electrical energy into heat, is what allows us to use an electric stovetop or space heater. "Joule heating is usually considered negatively, because it wastes energy and can even cause overloaded wires to melt," explains Professor Hiroyasu Koizumi of the Division of Quantum Condensed Matter Physics, the Center for Computational Sciences at the University of Tsukuba. Read the full article

[plusorminuscongress]

Hiroshima, 75 Years Later: A Survivor’s Account, Now at the Library

Hiroshima, 75 Years Later: A Survivor’s Account, Now at the Library By Neely Tucker Published August 06, 2020 at 08:00AM

The mushroom cloud begins to rise from the bombing of Hiroshima, Aug. 6, 1945. Photo: U.S. Army, A.A.F.

This guest blog was written by Cameron Penwell, a Japanese reference librarian in the Asian Division; and Margaret McAleer, a historian in the Manuscript Division.

Several weeks ago, the Library was given a small collection that includes a survivor’s remarkable account of the atomic blast that leveled Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945. More remarkably, the account, written by a Japanese school-teacher and interpreter, was presented as a “gift of friendship” to an American paratrooper. More remarkably still, the Japanese author was a scholar of Walt Whitman, that most American of poets.

On the 75th anniversary of that bombing, we note that the Library’s collections are filled with stories such as this – documents born of a particular place and time that say lasting things about the ties of humanity, friendship and the power of a personal narrative to convey emotions over the chasms of generations.

This harrowing narrative was penned by Haruo Shimizu, a middle-school teacher who’d gone back to college to study Whitman’s poetry. He wrote it in 1946, as the first anniversary of the bombing approached. By then 43 years old and working as the interpreter for a hotel in Otaru, he presented it to a 19-year-old paratrooper named Willard “Bill” Claude Floyd of Bliss, Idaho. The hotel was used by the U.S. military as a formal or informal base of operations during the occupation of Japan and the pair apparently struck up a friendship. Floyd’s family recently gave the Willard C. Floyd Papers to the Library; they include the manuscript. (The collections has not yet been digitized.)

Shimizu titled his paper, “The Atomic Bomb – The Impression of the Doomed Day – Aug. 6th, at Hiroshima.” It covers 24 pages, written in flawless English on lined rice paper, as neatly done as a term paper.

It’s also horrifying.

The beginning of Shimizu’s manuscript.

Shimizu was a gifted writer. He was born in 1903 in Nemuro, a small town on Hokkaido, the northernmost of Japan’s four main islands. According to research done by Hajime Saito, a professor at University of Tsukuba, Shimizu moved to Otaru, a city on the western side of the island, and settled into a job as a middle-school English teacher. But in his early 40s, with World War II raging, he left his job to study American poetry at the Hiroshima Higher Normal School, a premier teacher-training university. His area of emphasis was Whitman’s poetry.

On Aug. 6, 1945, Shimizu and his much younger university classmates were to report for work at a munitions factory. Shortly after 8 a.m. – with the U.S. bomber Enola Gay already airborne — Shimizu boarded a trolley, intending to visit a friend before reporting to the factory. It was his great fortune that he was headed west, away from the city center.

At about 8:15 a.m., the Enola Gay dropped its bomb, nicknamed “Little Boy.” Falling by parachute, it detonated about 2,000 feet above the central city. Shimizu saw it: “…I saw a silver-white flash, like that of magnesium powder used in taking a photograph, high up in the sky and immediately after it I heard a tremendous sound similar to the explosion of some big fireworks.”

The trolley careened, people bolted for the exit. His right arm was covered in someone else’s blood. People fell into ditches, rocked by explosions from burning buildings. Torrential rain began to fall. Shimizu grew disoriented:  “A tremendous clap of thunder went on and huge columns of brown clouds with dust and flame were making sheer screens all around.”

The dying begged for water. Skin began to peel off people. Shimizu and others rose from the ditches and staggered west. He described the people in the procession:

“All of them were injured or burned more or less. They had just a shirt and pants or a chemise on, smeared with blood and dust.  Some of them were carrying their wounded wives on their shoulders and some their dead children in their arms. They were all desperately shouting for help and calling aloud the names of their families….above all the sound of rumbling of the thunder in the sky was absolutely threatening, as it was not quite certain whether the source of the sound was enemy planes or not.”

Some three hours after the bombing, he made it to his friend’s house, on a hill far from the city center. The windows were blown out and part of the roof was gone, but the building was otherwise intact and its inhabitants alive.

He soon ventured back out to see what had become his boarding house, and went back into the city the next day to try to reach the munitions factory. His journeys read as if they were lifted from Dante’s “Inferno.” A young husband and wife share his umbrella briefly, the wife so sick with radiation poisoning that she was vomiting repeatedly, “shuddering without a stop.” Hundreds of dead bodies were burned black “except for their grinning white teeth.” He got within 300 yards of his old lodging house, but no closer: “Everything in that quarter was in flame.”

“I don’t believe that anybody could have escaped out of the city with a whole skin.”

Three days later, the U.S. bombed Nagasaki. On Aug. 15, Emperor Hirohito announced Japan’s surrender.

The final passage of Shimizu’s account: “It was about five days later that I learned of the right name of that powerful and terrible bomb, which was supposed to have killed more than one hundred thousand people in an instant. The name was the “Atomic Bomb.” 

Suffering from radiation sickness, Shimizu made his way back to his hometown to convalesce. He soon returned to Otaru and found work as “official interpreter and assistant manager of the Etchuya Hotel.” By that time, the 11th Airborne Division was occupying the area, among them the young Bill Floyd.

Floyd had been called up for duty in December 1945, three months after Japan surrendered. Untested by combat, his family remembers him saying that he was assigned to guard a munitions depot near Otaru and then given broader duties in a nearby town.

At some point, Shimizu and Floyd became friends, perhaps because of Shimizu’s duties at the hotel. It is remarkable that Shimizu was able to grow past the natural feelings of bitterness toward the military force that had devastated his nation. Instead, he wrote out his memories of the bombing and inscribed the manuscript to his young American friend: “PFC Willard C. Floyd, with best wishes as a token of friendship.”

Like many war friendships, it was brief. Floyd was reassigned in November 1946 and lost contact with Shimizu, whom he presumed had soon died of radiation sickness. Floyd lived for a while in Alaska, then settled his family in Arizona, where he ran a barber shop. He died in 1985. Floyd’s family remembers that Shimizu was very much a presence in their household, both through Floyd’s stories of Japan and through Shimizu’s treasured manuscript.

Shimizu, though, did not die, but went on to become a professor of English language and literature, eventually teaching at Gifu Women’s University, from which he retired in 1986. He died in 1997.

During his post-war career, one of the key books he wrote was an academic treatise, “A Study of Whitman’s Imagery,” published in 1957. He summarized his key arguments in a short piece in the Walt Whitman Review.

He writes that if the poems in “Leaves of Grass” are arranged chronologically, they reveal the journey of the soul. Individually and collectively, the soul progresses from the youth, when “imagination soars on light wings,” to an adult soul rocked by hardship, eventually maturing into a soul that recovers its ability to dream and reattaches itself warmly to the world.

Shimizu perhaps saw himself in Whitman, whose poetry offered a path forward to healing and recovery. It is not difficult to see Shimizu’s manuscript and his friendship with a young American G.I. as part of his own journey to recovering the power to dream.

For further information about the Shimizu narrative, contact the Manuscript Reading Room. For inquiries pertaining to Japan or Japanese-language materials, contact the Asian Division.”

Subscribe to the blog— it’s free! — and the largest library in world history will send cool stories straight to your inbox.

Read more on https://loc.gov

[dreddymd]

Does A Slow Cellular Metabolism Speed Up Aging?

Aging is a universal human reality. Concern regarding aging—and a collective aversion to it—has even generated entire industry segments dedicated to anti-aging products, from expensive supplements through pricey lotions. People are afraid of the issues that can come up with advanced age: cancer, cognitive decline, wrinkles and age spots, mobility issues, sexual dysfunction, and any number of other impediments to daily life and ongoing vigor.

Scientists want to understand the way aging is reflected in cells, for two key reasons. These mechanisms can elucidate the contributing factors that lead to diseases like cancer, osteoporosis, and coronary artery disease. Understanding the specific processes that account for how aging occurs can also provide potential points for therapeutic intervention, to counter aging or even prolong lifespans.

One avenue of research involves studying cellular respiration and metabolism. A research team from the University of Tsukuba recently undertook this problem, zeroing in on the effect that aging has on the relationship between epigenetics and the function of mitochondria.

The team focused on serine hydroxymethyltransferase 2 (SHMT2), an enzyme that has been a popular target for anticancer and antimalarial drugs in recent years. SHMT works by converting serine to glycine in a similar mechanism that DNA methyltransferase converts cytosine to 5-methylcytosine.

“In a previous study, we proposed that the age-associated downregulation, or decrease in expression, of nuclear-encoded genes including SHMT2 impacts mitochondrial respiration” noted Haruna Tani, lead author of the study recently published in Scientific Reports. Mitochondrial respiration is a process carried out by these organelles, found in every cell, to release the energy needed to support an organism’s function; this is why mitochondria are informally nicknamed the “powerhouses of the cell”.

Tani continues, “The mechanisms underlying this process were not clear. To address this in the present study, we tested the effects of impaired SHMT2 expression on a variety of cellular functions.”

Researchers knocked out the SHMT2 gene in mouse embryos and looked at the resulting effects. Interestingly enough, mitochondrial respiration was negatively impacted, limiting growth, all specifically in the liver and not the brain.

This liver disruption in turn affected the production of taurine, which is necessary for successful cell division since it’s needed for mitochondrial respiration as well as for the production of nucleotides.

Senior author Jun-Ichi Hayashi had some insights to contextualize these observations. “Although some researchers have proposed that human aging and age-related defects in mitochondrial respiration are caused by the accumulation of mutations in mitochondrial DNA”—with one of the hallmarks of age-associated defects being that long-term accumulation of defects in DNA—”our data support an alternative explanation: age-related defects in mitochondrial respiration may be triggered by changes in the activity of metabolic pathways that are caused by epigenetic downregulation, but not by mutations, of specific genes associated with mitochondrial function.”

This same research group found mitochondrial defects in fibroblasts harvested from elderly human subjects. They proposed that these changes were the result of epigenetic changes that led to the downregulation of genes like SHMT2 as noted above. What adds a layer of complication to this finding is that, while the temptation might be to start investigating whether administering supplements that upregulate SHMT2 and similar genes could turn around the metabolic slowdowns, SHMT2 is also upregulated in tumor cells.

In these cells, it serves to promote their out-of-control growth. Inactivating SHMT2 and similar genes can therefore help stop tumor growth; doing the opposite could prove catastrophic. And so, researchers need to focus on further elucidating the delicate balances of controls at play—including epigenetic controls, which provide multiple layers of nuanced control to cellular growth and development, in parallel to the permanent traits facilitated by the genetic sequence—in order to identify potential windows for intervention. Perhaps there is an extent to which aging could be slowed down, through epigenetic intervention, without promoting tumor growth, but that will take further study.

Andrea P

Source: Tani H, et al. (2019) Disruption of the mouse Shmt2 gene confers embryonic anaemia via foetal liver-specific metabolomic disorders Nature Communications10 (193)

Reference: University of Tsukuba “Slowing Down – Is Aging Caused by Decreased Cellular Metabolism?” University of Tsukuba Research News. 20 Nov 2019. Web.

Related Posts

What Is Cellular Metabolism?

Cellular Stress and Adaptive Cellular Capacity

Slow metabolism linked to longevity

How Does Vitamin B-12 Support Energy and Metabolism?

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[nyxstarr69-blog]

Expo ‘85

Expo '85, officially called The International Exposition, Tsukuba, Japan, 1985 (国際科学技術博覧会 Kokusai Kagaku Gijutsu Hakurankai, "The International Science Technology Exposition"), was a world's fair held in Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan (Tsukuba Science City, a planned city focused on technology north of Tokyo) between Sunday, March 17 and Monday, September 16, 1985. The theme of the fair was "Dwellings and Surroundings - Science and Technology for Man at Home". Attendance was over 20 million and 48 countries participated,[1] along with several companies.

1985 - Marco and the Fuyo Robot Theater Expo'85 - Automax (Japanese) - cyberneticzoo.com

http://cyberneticzoo.com/robots/1985-marco-and-the-fuyo-robot-theater-expo85-automax-japanese/

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Takenobu Igarashi Expo '85 1982

Yellow false-illusion cube reflection seen on exterior of Sumitomo pavilion at Tsukuba Expo'85 world's fair in Chiba, Japan 1985. Escher would have a appreciated this effect.

https://www.worldsfairphotos.com/expo85/postcards-nbc.htm

N5-106 (Seiko's "Time Space" sundial)

Seiko Holdings Corporation (セイコーホールディングス株式会社 Seikō Hōrudingusu Kabushiki-gaisha), commonly known as Seiko (/ˈseɪkoʊ/ SAY-koh), is a Japanese holding company that has subsidiaries which manufactures and sells watches, clocks, electronic devices, semiconductors, jewelries, and optical products.

The company was founded in 1881,[4] when Kintarō Hattori opened a watch and jewelry shop called "K. Hattori" (服部時計店 Hattori Tokeiten) in the Ginza area of Tokyo, Japan. Eleven years later, in 1892, he began to produce clocks under the name Seikosha (精工舎 Seikōsha), meaning roughly "House of Exquisite Workmanship". According to Seiko's official company history, titled "A Journey In Time: The Remarkable Story of Seiko" (2003), Seiko is a Japanese word meaning "exquisite" or "success" ("exquisite" is usually written 精巧 from Chinese jīngqiǎo, while the meaning "success" is usually written 成功 from Chinese chénggōng).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seiko

Kintaro Hattori was born in Uneme-cho, Kyobashi, Tokyo, close to the present “Ginza 4-chome” intersection, on October 9, 1860. When Kintaro was 8, his father, an antique dealer by trade, sent him to a private elementary school called Seiundo.

Seiundo Co., Ltd. is based in Japan.

13 No. 27 No. Chome Marunouchi

Nagoya,  

Japan

https://www.bloomberg.com/research/stocks/private/snapshot.asp?privcapId=215094048

https://www.seiundo.co/

1 : the collective mental activity expressed in the complex, coordinated behavior of a colony of social insects (such as bees or ants) regarded as comparable to a single mind controlling the behavior of an individual organism The tiny bees in a hive are more or less unaware of their colony, but their collective hive ...

In the spring of his 11th year he apprenticed himself to Tsujiya, a haberdashery wholesaler in Kyobashi who imported directly from abroad. 

Eleven years later, in 1892, he began to produce clocks under the name Seikosha (精工舎 Seikōsha), meaning roughly "House of Exquisite Workmanship".

1881 — Kintarō Hattori opens the watch and jewelry shop "K. Hattori" (Hattori Tokeiten in Japanese; currently named Seiko Holdings Corporation) in the Ginzaarea of Tokyo, Japan.[1]

1892 — Seikosha is established in Tokyo as the clock manufacturing arm of K. Hattori.1917 — K. Hattori becomes a company (K. Hattori & Co., Ltd.).

1937 — The watch production division of Seikosha is split off as Daini Seikosha Co., Ltd. (第二精工舎 literally The Second Seikosha).

1942 — Daiwa Kogyo, Ltd. is founded in Suwa, Nagano by Hisao Yamazaki.1943 — Daini Seikosha establishes a factory in Suwa for manufacturing watches with Daiwa Kogyo.

1959 — Daiwa Kogyo and the Suwa Plant of Daini Seikosha merge to form Suwa Seikosha Co., Ltd. (諏訪精工舎)1961 — Shinshu Seiki Co., Ltd. is established as a subsidiary of Suwa Seikosha.

1970 — Seikosha is split off from K. Hattori & Co., Ltd., and Seikosha Co., Ltd. is incorporated.

1982 — K. Hattori & Co., Ltd. is renamed Hattori Seiko Co., Ltd.1982 — Shinshu Seiki is renamed Epson Corporation.

1983 — Daini Seikosha is renamed Seiko Instruments & Electronics Ltd.

1985 — Suwa Seikosha and Epson merge to form Seiko Epson Corporation.

1990 — Hattori Seiko Co., Ltd. is renamed Seiko Corporation.1996 — Seikosha Co., Ltd. is divided into Seiko Precision Inc. and Seiko Clock Inc.

1997 — Seiko Instruments & Electronics is renamed Seiko Instruments Inc.

2007 — Seiko Corporation is renamed Seiko Holdings Corporation.[2]1 October 

2009 — Seiko Instruments becomes a wholly owned subsidiary of Seiko Holdings.

Seikosha website

Seiko Holdings Corporation (in English)

Seiko Clock Inc. (in Japanese)

Seiko Precision Inc. (in English)

Seiko Instruments Inc. (in English)

Seiko Epson Corporation (in English)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seikosha

According to Seiko's official company history, titled "A Journey In Time: The Remarkable Story of Seiko" (2003), Seiko is a Japanese word meaning "exquisite" or "success" ("exquisite" is usually written 精巧 from Chinese jīngqiǎo, while the meaning "success" is usually written 成功 from Chinese chénggōng).

The first watches produced under the Seiko brand appeared in 1924. In 1969, Seiko introduced the Astron, the world's first production quartz watch; when it was introduced, it cost the same as a medium-sized car. Seiko later went on to introduce the first quartz chronograph.

The Astron wristwatch, formally known as the Seiko Quartz-Astron 35SQ, was the world's first "quartz clock"wristwatch. It is now registered on the List of IEEE Milestones as a key advance in electrical engineering.

Type Quartz Display Analogue Introduced December 25, 1969

Quartz Movement of the Seiko Astron, 1969 (Deutsches Uhrenmuseum, Inv. Inv. 2010-006)

In March 2010, at the BaselWorld watch fair and trade show in Switzerland, Seiko previewed a limited edition new version and related designs of the original Astron watch, commemorating the fortieth anniversary in December 2009 of the debut of the Astron watch.[3]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astron_(wristwatch)

Baselworld Watch and Jewellery Show is a trade show of the international watch and jewellery industry, organized each spring in the city of Basel, Switzerland, at Messe Basel.

The building of Messe Basel, designed by Herzog & de Meuron

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baselworld

Business tends to get slow on rainy days ...

but the clerks at the Clock Shop still have plenty of repair work to do. They make money from both sales and repairs. They stay busy every day, never forced to waste precious TIME. 

https://maritimecleantech.no/event/hydrogen2020/satellite/

It’s a gas gas gas...  Kintarō Hattori - kin/\tar/\o/ - hat/\to/\ri 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RI

Rí, an ancient Gaelic word meaning "king"

Ri, a proposed gender-neutral pronoun for gender reform in Esperanto

Esperanto does not have grammatical gender other than in the two personal pronouns li "he" and ŝi "she". Nevertheless, gender is often a fuzzy issue. In practical usage words formed with the suffix -ul "person" are ambiguous, sometimes used with a masculine meaning in the singular, but generally neutral in the plural. However, concepts of gender have changed over time, and many words that were once considered masculine are now neutral, especially words related to professions and animals. In older texts it is only context that disambiguates. For example, in the saying al feliĉulo eĉ koko donas ovojn "to a happy man, even a koko gives eggs" (Zamenhof), the word koko means "rooster", not "chicken".[1] However, this can be confusing to those who are not familiar with that saying, as the word koko has become more neutral over time.

Ri, a common Korean surname, a variant romanization of Lee

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RI

Either do you, you’re no better...

displaced people ... 

Refugees International is an independent humanitarian organization that advocates for better support for displaced people (including refugees and internally displaced people) and stateless people.

Some notable board members include Queen Noor, Bill Richardson, and Matt Dillon as well as past members as George Soros, Richard Holbrooke, and Sam Waterston.

The organization is based in Washington, D.C.

[scitechnetwork]

Chemically active 3D prints win the 2016 Altmetrics Award Source: Science and Technology of Advanced Materials, Center for Public Affairs and Communications

Intense interest in results demonstrating the chemical reactivity of nanocomposites in 3D printed structures on social media leads to STAM 2016 Altmetrics Award.

“People (secretly, sometimes) love having control. They love to be able to design and create and build. 3D printing facilitates this kind of creative control,” suggests Matthew Hartings, a researcher at the American University. “With the technologies that we are developing, we are adding a 4th dimension to 3D printing: chemistry.” 

Despite the interest 3D printing has attracted, in chemistry so far the technique has been confined to producing structures to help research other materials and structures – such as reactionware - rather than producing structures to be studied themselves. “As a chemist, printed things are kind of boring,” explains Hartings. “I wanted 3D printed objects to be able to do chemistry after they were printed.”

Together with researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the Food and Drug Administration, Hartings has demonstrated that titanium oxide nanoparticles blended into a 3D printed polymer not only enhance the mechanical properties of the structure but also the chemical properties. The Science and Technology of Advanced Materials paper reporting the results attracted so many references in mainstream and social media that it has been awarded the journal’s 2016 Altmetric Award. For Hartings winning the award was a gratifying indication that their research was breaking out of academia and attracting interest from non-specialists.

Chemistry with nanoparticles embedded in a 3D-printed polymer composite is possible because polymers are innately permeable. However Hartings points out that the polymer used in the reported results is not optimally suited to the kind of chemistry they are trying to support, leaving lots of room for future work.

“I’m really interested in the way that our 3D printed nanocomposites can store and filter gases,” says Hartings. “Developing new ways to trap gases like carbon dioxide and hydrogen and methane will have huge implications for our environment and society.”

Background

3D printing

3D printing describes a production process - also referred to generically as additive manufacturing. It was first invented in the 1980s as a process whereby 3D objects were produced by printing a sequence of cross-sectional layers. Subsequent contributions from different inventors around the world developing the technique, including software developments for stereolithography file formats as well as hardware enhancements. Today the term also refers to printed plastic extrusion processes as described by Hartings and colleagues.

3D printing has demonstrated potential in tissue engineering where structures have been seeded with living cells. However until the present work 3D printed structures were generally regarded by chemists as inert objects.

TiO2 nanoparticles

Titanium dioxide is a semiconductor that occurs with a crystalline structure in several different forms including brookite, rutile and anatase. It is photocatalytic under UV light, particularly in the anatase form. In the form of nanoparticles it has enhanced photocatalytic properties due to the increased surface area.  

The polymer host

Although embedded in a composite when 3D printed in the current work, the polymer host is permeable allowing access between the titanium dioxide nanoparticles and other chemicals in the environment.

The two polymers most prevalent in 3D printing are polylactic acid and acrylonitrile butadiene styrene. The researchers used acrylonitrile butadiene styrene because they noticed more decomposition in the polylactic acid during extrusion. However they note that other polymers may make better hosts for future chemical applications of 3D printed structures.

Reference

Matthew R. Skorski1, Jake M. Esenther1, Zeeshan Ahmed2, Abigail E. Miller1,3 & Matthew R. Hartings1, The chemical, mechanical, and physical properties of 3D printed materials composed of TiO2-ABS nanocomposites, Science and Technology of Advanced Materials17, 89-97 (2016).

1.      Department of Chemistry, American University, 4400 Massachusetts Ave., NW, Washington, DC, 20016, USA

2.      Thermodynamic Metrology Group, Sensor Science Division, Physical Measurement Laboratory, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD 20899, USA

3.      Food and Drug Administration, Washington, DC, USA

*Corresponding author: hartings@american.edu

3D printed polymer structures containing TiO2 nanoparticles at 0%, 1% and 5% by dry weight (left to right). The chemical activity of the TiO2 nanoparticles suppresses the fluorescence of the host polymer.

Further information about press release:

Science and Technology of Advanced Materials (STAM) Headquarter Office , National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS)

Address: 1-2-1 Sengen, Tsukuba 305-0047

EMAIL: stam-info@ml.nims.go.jp

About NIMS and STAM

NIMS and Empa have jointed efforts to develop a flagship journal that provides highly-quality information on recent developments in materials science within an open access platform. The collaboration will strengthen the position of STAM in Europe.

[stevebattle]

MELWALK III by M. Kaneko, M. Abe, K. Tanie, S. Tachi, S. Nishizawa (1985) at the Mechanical Engineering Laboratory (MEL), Cybernetics Division, Namiki, Tsukuba Science City, Ibaraki, Japan. Hexapod walking is a complex business, with most machines needing three degrees of freedom per leg. MELWALK III gets away with a total of just eight degrees of freedom, rather than eighteen. Four-bar links, like the Chebyshev mechanism, produce a good closed loop walking cycle. An insect-like gait is generated by connecting three legs on the same side of the robot to a common drive mechanism, using timing belts to phase-shift them by 180° relative to each other. So forward drive and differential steering can be achieved using one motor on each side, but these mechanical linkages have no ground adaptability. This is provided by ingenious telescopic legs that extend vertically during the stance phase of the gait, to make good ground contact and keep the body level.

[osobypostacieludzie]

Kantarō Suzuki ( 鈴木 貫太郎 ) - był admirałem w Cesarskiej Marynarce Japońskiej, członkiem i ostatecznym przywódcą Imperial Assistance Assistance Association oraz 42. premierem Japonii od 7 kwietnia do 17 sierpnia 1945 r. Suzuki urodził się w wiosce Kuze w prowincji Izumi (nowoczesna Sakai, Osaka) jako sędzia samurajski z domeny Sekiyado. Dorastał w mieście Noda w prowincji Kazusa (dzisiejsza prefektura Chiba). Suzuki wszedł do 14 klasy Imperialnej Akademii Marynarki Wojennej w 1884 roku, ukończeniu 1345 kadetów w 1888 roku. Suzuki służył na korweta Tsukuba, Tenryū i krążowniku Takachiho jako midshipman. Na zlecenie jako chorąży, służył w korwecie Amagi, korweta Takao, korweta Jingei, żelazny Kongō i kanonierka Maya. Po awansie na porucznika w dniu 21 grudnia 1892 r. pełnił funkcję głównego nawigatora na korwety Kaimon, Hiei i Kongō. Suzuki służył w pierwszej wojnie chińsko-japońskiej, dowodząc statkiem torpedowym i uczestniczył w nocnym ataku torpedowym w bitwie pod Weihaiwei w 1895 roku. Następnie został awansowany na stopień komandora porucznika 28 czerwca 1898 roku po ukończeniu Akademii Marynarki Wojennej i przydzielony do szeregu stanowisk pracy, w tym stanowiska attaché morskiego w Niemczech w latach 1901-1903. Po powrocie został awansowany na dowódcę w dniu 26 września 1903 roku. Stał się znany jako czołowy ekspert w dziedzinie torped w imperialnej japońskiej marynarce wojennej. W czasie wojny rosyjsko-japońskiej Suzuki dowodził oddziałem Destroyer Division 2 w 1904 r., w którym podczas bitwy pod Portem Artura zbierano ocalałych z eskadry blokad Port Arthur. Został mianowany dyrektorem naczelnym krążownika Kasuga w dniu 26 lutego 1904 r., na pokładzie którego brał udział w bitwie na Morzu Żółtym. Podczas kluczowej bitwy pod Cuszimą Suzuki był dowódcą Dywizji 4 niszczycieli pod II Flotą IJN, która pomagała zatopić rosyjski okręt wojenny Navarin. Po wojnie Suzuki awansował na kapitana 28 września 1907 roku i dowodził niszczycielem Akashi (1908), a następnie krążownikiem Soya (1909), pancernikiem Shikishima (1911) i krążownikiem Tsukuba (1912). Awansowany do tyłu admirał 23 maja 1913 r. i przydzielony do dowodzenia Okręgem Marynarki Maizuru. Suzuki został wiceministrem Marynarki Wojennej w latach 1914-1917 podczas I wojny światowej. Awansował na wiceadmirała 1 czerwca 1917 r. przywiózł krążowniki Asama i Iwate do San Francisco na początku 1918 r. z 1000 kadetami i został przyjęty przez kontradmirała z USA, Williama Fullama. Japońskie krążowniki następnie udały się do Ameryki Południowej. Po przejściu na stanowisko komendanta Cesarskiej Japońskiej Akademii Marynarki Wojennej, dowódcy 2. floty IJN, następnie trzeciej floty IJN, a następnie dystryktu marynarki wojennej Kure, został pełnym admirałem 3 sierpnia 1923 r. Suzuki został w 1924 r. Komendantem floty łączonej. Po służbie jako szef Sztabu Generalnego Japońskiej Marynarki Wojennej od 15 kwietnia 1925 r. do 22 stycznia 1929 r. Przeszedł na emeryturę i przyjął stanowisko Radcy Tajnego i Wielkiego Szambelana od 1929 do 1936 r. Suzuki z trudem uniknął zamachu w incydencie z 26 lutego 1936; pocisk zabójcy pozostał w Suzuki przez resztę życia i został ujawniony dopiero po jego kremacji. Suzuki był przeciwny wojnie Japonii ze Stanami Zjednoczonymi, przed i podczas II wojny światowej. 7 kwietnia 1945 roku, po bitwie o Okinawę, premier Kuniaki Koiso zrezygnował, a Suzuki został wybrany na jego miejsce w wieku siedemdziesięciu siedmiu lat. Jednocześnie zajmował się tekami ministra spraw zagranicznych i wielkiej Azji Wschodniej. Premier Suzuki przyczynił się do ostatecznych negocjacji pokojowych z państwami sprzymierzonymi podczas II wojny światowej. Brał udział w zwoływaniu dwóch bezprecedensowych konferencji imperialnych, które pomogły rozwiązać rozłam w japońskim imperialnym gabinecie nad deklaracją poczdamską. Przedstawił warunki cesarzowi Hirohito, który zgodził się przyjąć bezwarunkową kapitulację. Było to zdecydowanie sprzeczne z wojskową frakcją rządu, który chciał kontynuować wojnę w nadziei na wynegocjowanie korzystniejszego porozumienia pokojowego. Część tej frakcji próbowała zamordować Suzuki dwukrotnie podczas incydentu Kyūjō rankiem 15 sierpnia 1945 roku. Po tym, jak kapitulacja Japonii stała się publiczna, Suzuki zrezygnował, a książę Higashikuni został kolejnym premierem. Suzuki był przewodniczącym Tajnej Rady od 7 sierpnia 1944 r. do 7 czerwca 1945 r. i ponownie po kapitulacji Japonii od 15 grudnia 1945 r. do 13 czerwca 1946 r. Suzuki zmarł z przyczyn naturalnych. Jego grób znajduje się w rodzinnym mieście Noda, Chiba. Jeden z jego dwóch synów został dyrektorem japońskiej służby imigracyjnej, a drugi był odnoszącym sukcesy prawnikiem.

[savetopnow]

2018-03-31 20 CAR now

CAR

Auto Spies

#NYIAS: An Italian Stallion — Maserati Launches An All-new 590 HP Machine, The Levante Trofeo

#NYIAS: Agent 001 DETAILS The All-new Lamborghini Urus In These REAL-LIFE Pics, Is It Blowing YOUR Doors Off?

#NYIAS: Mercedes Drops In With The AMG C 63 - Is 500HP Enough To Lead The German Pack?

#NYIAS: Jeep Goes All Out With Factory Performance Parts - Are You Ready To Load It Up At The Dealer?

#NYIAS: Lexus Shows Off Structural Blue High Tech Shade - Is It Cool Enough For You?

Autoblog

Tesla says Model X involved in fatal crash was on Autopilot

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2018 Jeep Grand Cherokee vs. midsize crossovers and SUVs: How they compare on paper

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Audi RS3 Vs BMW M2 Vs Mercedes-AMG A45: What's The Best 'Junior' Posh Performance Car?

10 Awesome Cars Added To The Car Throttle Garage In March

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[technato]

Cyberdyne’s Medical Exoskeleton Strides to FDA Approval

Users in the United States can now take advantage of this friendly exoskeleton to help them with physical rehabilitation

Photo: Prof. Sankai/University of Tsukuba/Cyberdyne

Cyberdyne, the Japanese robotics company with the slightly suspicious name, has just gotten approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to begin offering its HAL (Hybrid Assistive Limb) lower-body exoskeleton to users in the United States through licensed medical facilities. HAL is essentially a walking robot that you strap to your own legs; sensors attached to your leg muscles detect bioelectric signals sent from your brain to your muscles telling them to move, and then the exoskeleton powers up and assists, enhancing your strength and stability.

The version of HAL that the FDA has approved is called HAL for Medical Use, and it’s designed to help people with lower limb disabilities get better at walking on their own. There are other exoskeletons that help rehabilitate people through physical walking motions, but HAL is unique in the way that it relies on a mixture of voluntary control and autonomous control, using the wearer’s own nervous system to signal the robot when and how to move. According to Cyberdyne, this makes the rehabilitation process more effective, because it’s not just the robot moving— it’s you.

HAL for Medical Use has been available in Japan for several years now; here’s a video from Japan Times showing how it works in practice:

HAL establishes interactive biofeedback according to intention-based motion information from the brain-nervous system and activating sensory systems like muscle spindle fibers to form a neural loop between the brain-nerve system and the musculoskeletal system. Even if the patient is unable to generate enough muscle strength to move due to motor dysfunction, the treatment is able to repeatedly realize actual movement that is in sync with the motion intent of the brain while avoiding excessive burden on the brain-nerve-muscle systems, thus making functional improvement/regeneration possible. The HAL will not move until it detects an electrical signal, ideally one of the users attempting to move the limb being assisted. This creates a stronger cause-and-effect dynamic between the user and powered exoskeleton.

Since many lower limb disabilities are caused by disconnects between what the brain wants to do, instructions that the nervous system transmits, and the resulting muscle movements, HAL is intended to actively help users re-form those connections. Even if your muscles aren’t responding properly when your brain signals them to “walk,” having HAL intercept those signals and move your muscles for you can accelerate the learning process by which your brain and muscles figure out how to work together again. Cyberdyne calls this process “an interactive biofeedback loop,” and says that “this repeated movement strengthens and adjusts the connections between the neurons in the brain and spinal cord and the connections between the neurons and muscles, promoting improvement and regeneration of physical functions.”

At CES 2011, I tried out an older, non-medical version of this device, called HAL for Living Support. The interface is the same as the new one, though, so I have some experience with how this thing works and what using it feels like. Here’s an excerpt from the 2011 article I wrote for the now defunct DVICE.com about testing out HAL:

Cyberdyne’s HAL (Hybrid Assistive Limb) exoskeleton is designed to augment the strength of the wearer by a factor of up to ten. The suit senses when you want to move your legs, and then it moves them for you, supporting both its weight and yours as it walks around with you in it.

I meet with Takatoshi Kuno, the Sales Division Manager of Cyberdyne Inc., who has agreed to show me how HAL works. It’s just him; putting the exoskeleton on and getting it set up requires the help of one single guy who knows what he’s doing, no more.

Step one is to attach the sensors that HAL will use to tell when I want to move my legs. I drop my pants and they wire me up, carefully placing two electrodes on each of my thighs, two on my quads, and one on either side of my waist. The hip motors require an additional three electrodes per side, but from what I could understand, attaching those would have involved some fairly intimate groping, and Kuno-san didn’t seem so inclined (not that I blame him).

There are controls on the hips to adjust the power going to the motors, and after fiddling with them for a minute, Kuno-san asks me to try to extend my leg. As I tense my leg muscles, I can hear and then feel HAL’s motors kick in with a high tech electric whine, and my leg slowly rises off the floor and extends itself as I watch it. It’s pretty freaking cool. All I’m doing is thinking about moving my leg to the point where my muscles start to kick in, and then the suit picks up on that and does all the work.

Kuno-san pushes some buttons on the suit’s hip controls, gives me a little smile, and tells me to try it again. I start to tense my muscles and then WHAM! My leg rockets straight out in front of me in what feels like about a millisecond. This is when it really hits me: I’m actually wearing a powered exoskeleton, and it’s entirely possible that at this moment, I have the strongest legs on the entire planet.

From a standing position, walking just involves thinking ‘walk’ up to the point where your leg muscles start to do their thing, and then the suit figures out what you want and moves your legs accordingly. At first, I don’t really get this, and I try to move my legs by myself. It’s not intentional, but my brain simply isn’t accustomed to having something else do my walking for me. As it turns out, the best way to walk in HAL seems to be to just be super lazy and rely completely on the suit to take over for as many of your muscles as it possibly can.

This is not to say that HAL is just some mindless leg moving machine. In fact, it’s the opposite. HAL pays close attention to your muscle movements and can actually sense how much muscle you’re planning to apply, and it calculates how much power to add and moves its motors before your muscles move on their own. This means that that you still have complete control over when you take a step, where you take a step, and the length and height of your stride. When you get the hang of it, which took me barely five minutes, it’s really just like walking, except using robot muscles instead of your own.

After a few trips up and down the stairs and some more walking around, I’m feeling totally comfortable in HAL. The suit supports its own weight, so it effectively weighs nothing when you have it on, and when you stop trying to walk with your legs and let the suit move them for you, the entire experience becomes virtually seamless. And then just when I’m starting to relax, it’s time to sit down and take the suit off. I’m incredibly sad as HAL powers down and returns to its limp, dead robot look… I was only in it for ten minutes, but it already feels a little bit like a part of me.

If this sounds like something you’d like to try, and you have a valid medical reason to try it, the place to go is Jacksonville, Florida. A cybernetic treatment center will open there in the next few months. 

As for that non-medical version of Cyberdyne’s exoskeleton that I tried out? They’re not available in the United States, sadly, but in Japan, Cyberdyne has almost a thousand of them helping people who have to lift heavy things for a living. My hope, and it’s been my hope ever since that 2011 demo, is that eventually these things will be available for rent at your local hardware store, so that next time you need to help a friend move a couch a cybernic suit can do some of the heavy lifting for you.

Cyberdyne’s Medical Exoskeleton Strides to FDA Approval syndicated from https://jiohowweb.blogspot.com

[phgq]

DOST commends rice institute for high number of scientists

#PHinfo: DOST commends rice institute for high number of scientists

LOS BAÑOS, Laguna, Dec 17 (PIA) --The Department of Science and Technology (DOST) lauds the Department of Agriculture-Philippine Rice Research Institute (DA-PhilRice) for having the highest number of active scientists in the Scientific Career System.   In the recent oath-taking ceremony of newly conferred and upgraded scientists, DOST Secretary Dr. Fortunato T. Dela Peña commends PhilRice after three of its experts landed in this year’s ranking.   “[With 12 scientists — nine Scientist I and three Scientist II], PhilRice has the highest number of active career scientists. I appreciate the newly conferred and upgraded scientists for their dedication and significant contributions to research in their respective areas of expertise,” he said.   Dr. Aurora M. Corales and Dr. Elmer G. Bautista were conferred the Scientist I rank, while Dr. Norvie L. Manigbas was upgraded to Scientist II rank by the Scientific Career Council.   Corales, chief science research specialist of PhilRice’s Technology Management and Services Division, is a community development worker, trainer, and a mentor to young professionals.   She is a published author in Studies of Changing Societies (SCS) and non-SCS journals, and a contributor to the book “Science and Art of Palayamanan Plus”, which received the 2020 Outstanding Monograph Award by the National Academy of Science and Technology.   She is a recipient of the 2006 Pagasa award by the Civil Service Commission and 2020 Civil Award for professional achievement by the Central Luzon State University.  DA-PhilRice also cited her as an Outstanding Official in 2018.   She leads the Rice Business Innovations System Community Program that aims to spur the agro-entrepreneurial potential of the community as a springboard for social and economic transformation.   Meanwhile, Dr. Bautista, supervising science research specialist of PhilRice’s Rice Engineering and Mechanization Division, is an agricultural engineer for 27 years.   He leads the Mechanization of Rice and Rice-based Farming and DA-Bureau of Agricultural Research projects including WateRice, Multi-purpose Seeder, and RiceStrawPH. In these studies, he promotes practices such as land reformation through laser leveling, mechanical transplanting, seedling preparation, and sustainable rice straw management practices.   Bautista has significant works related to Life Cycle Assessment of Philippine rice production published in several papers and SCS accredited journals, one of which was awarded with Gold Poster Award of 2014 during the 11th International eco-balance conference held in Tsukuba, Japan.   Manigbas, chief science research specialist of PhilRice’s Plant Breeding and Biotechnology Division, is a senior rice breeder who was conferred the Scientist I rank in 2013.   As project lead, he is involved in developing new rice varieties for a rainfed environment, and varieties that are adapted to drought, salinity, submergence, and high-temperature. His distinguished contribution was the development of the first direct wet-seeded rice variety NSIC Rc 298 in 2012 and the first heat-tolerant rice variety NSIC Rc 600 in 2020.   His projects generated substantial funding for rice production and mechanization that benefitted 15 farmers’ cooperatives in Luzon and Visayas.   Manigbas is a recipient of the Presidential Lingkod Bayan Award in 2018 and a consistent outstanding employee of DA-PhilRice.   The Scientific Career System deals with the recruitment, career progression, recognition, and reward of scientists in the public service as a means of developing a pool of highly-qualified and productive scientific personnel.   The system is co-implemented by the Civil Service Commission and DOST. (PIA-4A/PhilRice)

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References:

* Philippine Information Agency. "DOST commends rice institute for high number of scientists." Philippine Information Agency. https://pia.gov.ph/news/articles/1061937 (accessed December 17, 2020 at 10:45AM UTC+08).

* Philippine Infornation Agency. "DOST commends rice institute for high number of scientists." Archive Today. https://archive.ph/?run=1&url=https://pia.gov.ph/news/articles/1061937 (archived).