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Photovoltaics (PV), which is one of variable renewable energies, have been installed largely. In the environment of largely installed PV, the output fluctuates of PV influences on the operation of power gird network adversely. Therefore, PV energy generation forecasting is valid for power grid operation and management and needs the reduction of large forecast error as well as average error. Due to a day‐ahead forecast of the total PV energy generation in the power grid area, we developed the forecasting method by using meteorological forecast data of many points in the target area. In order to forecast the regional PV energy generation, the proposed method uses auto‐encoder and convolutional neural network (CNN) for extracting requirements and valid data, and forecast with neural network (NN) by means of extracted information. In this paper, we improved the forecasting error by using multiple meteorological elements as input data. As a result, we indicated that using both of global horizontal irradiance and low cloud cover is required for the reginal PV energy generation forecasting, and large forecasting error can be reduced by adding either dew point depression, or cumulative precipitation as input data. © 2024 Institute of Electrical Engineer of Japan and Wiley Periodicals LLC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports an ultra‐soft neural probe with a temporary high‐strength U‐section coating of polyethylene glycol (PEG) for the first time. Its fabrication is compatible with MEMS processes, and an ultrathin U‐section coating over the probe's back and sidewall is precisely formed by spinning and cold laser cutting. With this novel coating, the probe has both minimized cross‐sectional area and sufficient mechanical strength for low‐invasive penetration into the brain. Besides, the remained ultra‐soft deformable probe after PEG dissolution is expected to be the next generation of neural implants for chronic recording. © 2024 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by Wiley Periodicals LLC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports an equivalent circuit model of self‐assembled electret (SAE) micro‐electro‐mechanical systems (MEMS) vibrational energy harvesters (VEHs). For the first time, a detailed equivalent circuit model of the SAE‐MEMS VEH has been implemented on a circuit simulator, considering the device energy diagram. The implemented equivalent circuit model allows analysis of the relationship between output current and SAE properties, device structures, and electrode materials. The validity of the model is confirmed by comparing the measurement and simulation results. Thus, the proposed model would be useful for the design of SAE‐MEMS VEHs. © 2023 Institute of Electrical Engineer of Japan and Wiley Periodicals LLC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports the development and integration of (Poly‐Si/Air)n Distributed BRAGG Reflectors (DBR) in a MOEMS Fabry‐Pérot‐Interferometer (FPI) concept. The realized reflectors constitute a promising and resource‐efficient alternative to complex Ion‐Assisted Deposition based DBRs while maintaining their advantages. Compared to state of the art MOEMS FPIs the (Poly‐Si/Air)n DBRs can be integrated into two moveable reflector carriers based on two individually fabricated wafers which are bonded. The (Poly‐Si/Air)n DBRs are investigated as (HL) and (HL)2 reflector stacks showing a reflectance above 91% within the wavelength range of 2.8–5.7 μm. © 2023 The Authors. IEEJ Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Engineering published by Institute of Electrical Engineer of Japan and Wiley Periodicals LLC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports a MEMS accelerometer based on bulk SiC. The fabrication and packaging scheme were designed, an efficient signal processing circuit was built, and the output performance of the sensor was tested. The test results show that the resistivity of the piezoresistive material is 194.40 Ω μm, the sensor's output sensitivity is 0.21 mV/g, the linearity is 99.8%, and the resonance frequency is 1636 Hz. Finally, the accelerometer was applied to the two ground vibration tests of aero‐engine, and the vibration signal of the turbine components and the test bed was successfully extracted. © 2023 Institute of Electrical Engineer of Japan and Wiley Periodicals LLC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Political apologies have been argued to contribute to reconciliation among groups and nations but their efficacy has also been questioned. This paper examines the acceptance of political apologies, their content and the protagonists in the victim nation, the perpetrator nation and their subgroups. Guided by studies on the structure of apologies, it distinguishes 10 features of apologies, seven of which concern their content and three of their protagonists. Following the analysis of apology statements by Japan to South Korea, the paper further breaks these features (factors) down into 32 elements (levels). The acceptance of around 70,000 possible apology combinations is examined in a randomized conjoint experiment, which was embedded in online quota‐based surveys in Japan (n = 2700) and South Korea (n = 3000). The analysis reveals that the content of apologies matters, protagonists matter more than content and some subgroups matter more than protagonists. The subgroup analysis showed that some within‐country differences are larger than cross‐country differences, which challenges the SIT. Apology statements that would be acceptable in both nations are summarised. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aiming at the current control steady‐state error caused by sampling delay, parameters mismatch of direct‐drive permanent magnet synchronous motor (PMSM). This paper proposed a method of dual model predictive control (MPC) of direct‐drive PMSM based on sliding mode disturbance observer (SMDO). Deadbeat predictive current control (DPCC) is used for current loop, a SMDO is proposed to observe the system disturbance, the estimation is compensated to DPCC by feedback to decrease the current control steady‐state error. For speed loop, MPC with an internal model control observer (IMCO) can observe and compensate the load disturbance feedforward. The experimental results show that, the dynamic response speed of the proposed strategy is fast, the speed recovery time after sudden load torque is short, and the anti‐load disturbance performance and current tracking performance are effectively improved. © 2024 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by Wiley Periodicals LLC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to detect the underground medium with large depth, the transmitter of electromagnetic sounding instrument has higher and higher power and voltage. A novel voltage equalizing strategy for cascaded constant current power supply using in electromagnetic transmitter was proposed in this paper. The cascaded topology of the transmitter has two isolated full‐bridge AC/DC converters, which had same input source and were connected in series on the output side. The mathematical model based on state space average method was analyzed. After simplifying the circuit, the state space equation was used to describe the circuit model. The stability and frequency characteristics of the system were analyzed. Aiming at the constant current output and the output voltage balance of the two converters, the system coupling model was established. The constant current controller and voltage equalizing controller were designed with decoupling method. A 300 W prototype was built and the experimental results verified the performance of the proposed method. © 2024 Institute of Electrical Engineer of Japan and Wiley Periodicals LLC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Compared to the model predictive control (MPC) technique, the modulated MPC (M2PC) method applies multiple voltage vectors in order within one switching cycle, enabling a fixed switching frequency and better motor control performance. However, the M2PC technique suffers from a significant computational burden and imprecise allocation method of the vector action time, affecting the control performance. To address these two issues, this paper proposes an improved M2PC method that utilizes the information of projection of the reference vector on the selected voltage vectors for efficiently selecting the optimal active vectors and also accurately calculating their action time. Compared to the conventional M2PC, the proposed technique demonstrates both excellent dynamic performance with reduced execution time by 15.3% and superior steady‐state performance in terms of lower torque/speed ripple as well as fewer current harmonics. Those benefits have been proven by the results of a 2.5k rpm permanent magnet synchronous motor drive. © 2024 Institute of Electrical Engineer of Japan and Wiley Periodicals LLC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Emotional design of multimedia lessons involves adding features that are intended to increase learner enjoyment and promote learning—such as adding narrative, anthropomorphizing non‐human elements, and using warm colours. Objective: The present study extends this work to examine the potential of Japanese animation (anime) for improving science learning. Method: Specifically, 134 English‐speaking students learned about cells in the human body by viewing the popular anime, Cells at Work, either in Japanese with English subtitles or dubbed in English with no subtitles (anime groups), or by viewing a slideshow containing the same information (slideshow group). The anime conditions were vibrant story‐driven lessons that depicted human‐looking cells working to fight off invaders in a human body that looked like a city. The slideshow used very similar wording as the anime groups, and displayed the cells without anthropomorphism or a storyline. Results and Conclusion: The anime groups did not differ significantly from each other on any dependent measures and were therefore combined. The anime groups scored significantly higher than the slideshow group on retention (d = 0.35) and transfer (d = 0.48) tests. The anime groups also had significantly higher ratings of motivation (d = 0.60) and enjoyment (d = 1.13), whereas, the slideshow group had significantly higher ratings of distraction (d = 0.59). These results support the cognitive‐affective theory of learning with media (CATLM) and demonstrate that anime may be an effective learning medium. Takeaways: Anime should be considered as a medium for science learning, especially when students might not otherwise be motivated to learn. Lay Description: What is currently known about this topic: Anime is a form of Japanese animation similar to an animated comic book.Cells at Work is a series of anime lessons on cells in the human bloodstream.Cells are represented with anthropomorphism, colours, and rounded shapes.Emotional design involves using anthropomorphism, colours, and rounded shapes. What does this paper add: Students viewed an anime or an equivalent slideshow on the human bloodstream.The anime group performed better on a post‐test and reported less distraction.Anime can be considered a form of emotional design for science lessons. What are the implications for practitioners: Anime can be used to teach about cells in the human bloodstream.Instructional designers should consider using anime as a medium for science instruction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to provide an overview of the service system view (SSV), and the current status of its adoption for the development and implementation of assistive technology (AT). The role of ATs in the global aging scenario is anticipated; however, their diffusion is cumbersome. The SSV captures stakeholders, technologies, and their interactions as integrated systems. Based on this perspective, several approaches for designing long‐term care services have been proposed that would be helpful for the successful implementation of ATs. However, the existing geriatrics and gerontology literature seldom addresses these topics. Based on a literature review, this study first illustrates the challenges of using ATs in the real world. The existing literature highlights the sociotechnical challenges of utilizing ATs, such as the changes required in care work and resistance to them. To overcome the challenges, three approaches associated with the SSV have been introduced: service design, service engineering and living labs. This paper also introduces recent national projects in Japan that have adopted these approaches. As the importance of the SSV is growing for the successful implementation of ATs, the ability to adopt the SSV and its approaches is anticipated. In relation to geriatrics and gerontology studies, the impact on older adults' quality of life, as well as the economic effect, needs to be analyzed in future research. Geriatr Gerontol Int 2024; 24: 74–80. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the career development process of women in postwar Japan who belonged to the Shufuren (the Association of Consumer Organization), the homemakers' federation, and who became experts in everyday life through studying and researching to improve their lives. It analyzes the organizational chart, hours and fundings for activities, details of activities, formation of the cooperative relationships, and career development of the leaders. The women who gathered at the Shufuren studied and researched the issues that arose in daily lives. By accumulating survey and research data and presenting scientific evidence, they made requests and proposals for improvements to the Diet, governments, and industries. Through these activities, they contributed to establish laws and systems protecting consumer rights. The women also developed partnerships with other civic groups in sharing current social issues. They expanded the circle of the movement and asserted their demands to the Diet, government agencies, industries, and the public. The members grew as experts in everyday life by steadily building their careers with passion for daily activities. Their activities were not limited to the Shufuren; some women went beyond the Shufuren to become leaders of organizations. Conventionally, homemakers are viewed as not having career development aspirations. When discussing women's career development in Japan, attention has focused on career development through work and balancing work and family life. However, the activities and steps taken by the female members of the Shufuren to improve their lives should also be considered a form of career development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the shift in career strategies among Japanese women due to the globalization of Japan's economy since the 1980s. It highlights how economic changes led to a gender‐based division of labor, propelling women to seek opportunities abroad. The research draws on interviews with 81 women who moved to financial centers in East Asia, mainly in Hong Kong and Shanghai, examining their experiences in the workforce, the impact of human resource agencies in their migration, and the challenges and opportunities they encountered. The study reveals a complex landscape where Japanese women navigate gendered expectations and discrimination both in Japan and abroad in pursuit of career advancement. The conclusion emphasizes three points. First, women found opportunities abroad to do what they wanted, even if it was not what they initially expected before leaving Japan. Second, although supportive and subordinate to male managers, their work was indispensable to the management of Japanese companies abroad. Their contribution has long been underestimated but needs to be considered. Third, the experience abroad gave them direct interaction with various clients and colleagues and a view of rapid societal change in Hong Kong and China, contributing to choosing their diverse career trajectories and life plans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The insulating gas and contacts in the arc extinguishing chamber of high‐voltage circuit breakers are the focus of research. In practical applications, the gas may react with the surface of the contacts. In this paper, C5F10O environmental friendly insulating gas, which has one of the potential alternatives, is selected as the research object. The compatibility of C5F10O and its decomposition products with CuW contacts was studied. This article uses the Dmol3 program based on density functional theory. The adsorption energy, transfer charge, and density of electronic states of C5F10O and selected typical decomposition products on the Cu (111) surface and Cu‐W surface were calculated, respectively. It was found that the original CuW metal properties were not changed before and after adsorption. The carbonyl O atom in C5F10O is easily adsorbed on the top of the Cu (111) surface, forming a stable CuO bond, which belongs to chemical adsorption. The interaction of the other three adsorption sites is weaker than that of the top site adsorption, which belongs to physical adsorption. C5F10O exhibits more active charge transfer and forms active W‐O chemical bonds when adsorbed on CuW surfaces than SF6. C5F10O has poorer compatibility with CuW alloy than SF6. C2F4 and C3F6 in the decomposition gas are chemically adsorbed on the Cu‐W surface. CO2, CF4, C2F6, and C3F8 do not form chemical bonds on the CuW surface. The adsorption stability of COF2 is weaker than that of CF4, C2F6, and C3F8. Compared with SF6 adsorption, the compatibility of C5F10O and CO2 on the surface of CuW contact is inferior to that of Cu contact. CF4, C2F6, C3F8, and COF2 in the decomposition gas can be compatible with the surface of the CuW contact. C2F4 and C3F6 cannot be well compatible with the surface of CuW contacts. © 2023 Institute of Electrical Engineer of Japan and Wiley Periodicals LLC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a control method for step voltage regulators (SVRs) to avoid voltage violations in distribution systems with unbalanced voltages due to photovoltaic (PV) generation and electric vehicle (EV) charging. Distribution system operators must effectively address voltage problems resulting from the widespread installation of distributed energy resources under the optimizing the utilization of existing voltage regulators to establish an efficient and rational infrastructure. Therefore, this study focused on advancements in voltage control using SVR based on line‐drop compensator (LDC) control, which is widely used in actual operations. We propose a method that utilizes voltage data from information technology switches to detect and address voltage unbalances in the control section, allowing for the sequential adjustment of the monitoring target in LDC control to maintain appropriate voltage limits under unbalanced conditions. We conducted power flow calculations using a distribution system model that represents an actual distribution system in the Hokuriku area. The effectiveness of the proposed method was evaluated in terms of its impact on PV and EV hosting capacity, as well as the frequency of tap operations. © 2023 The Authors. IEEJ Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Engineering published by Institute of Electrical Engineer of Japan and Wiley Periodicals LLC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The eccentric harmonic magnetic gear (EHMG) has the characteristics of high torque density, high transmission ratio and high efficiency. The EHMG with Halbach array has better performance than the EHMG with traditional radial magnetization. Accurate calculation of its air‐gap magnetic field is of great significance for design and optimization. Based on the boundary perturbation method, a 2D analytical model of the air‐gap magnetic field of EHMG with Halbach array is established in this paper. The eccentric air‐gap magnetic field is calculated due to the permanent magnets of the eccentric rotor and the stator acting alone, and then the air‐gap magnetic field of the EHMG is obtained according to the superposition principle. The results of the air‐gap magnetic field are compared and evaluated by the regression evaluation indexes. The analytical results are consistent with the finite element results, which verifies the validity and accuracy of the analytical model. Comparing the EHMG with Halbach array and radial magnetization, the maximum static and dynamic electromagnetic torques of EHMG with Halbach array are increased by 59.1% and 55.6% compared with the EHMG with radial magnetization, which verifies the superior performance of EHMG with Halbach array. © 2023 Institute of Electrical Engineer of Japan and Wiley Periodicals LLC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Frequency‐domain electromagnetic (FDEM) instruments are effective tools for detecting underground electrical abnormal targets. However, due to the influence of various noises in the detection process, would lead to l poor signal‐to‐noise ratio of the system and would ultimately affect the detection accuracy. And FDEM detection systems have a defined measuring range. Excessive noise will lead to saturation of the system acquisition and distortion of the measurement. Because of the above problems, an acquisition technique for the FDEM receiving system is proposed to achieve noise suppression in the detection process. The scheme proposes a multi‐frequency LC filtering circuit to optimize the analog signal acquisition module of the receiver system. The circuit converts the measured voltage signal into a current signal, improving the system's immunity to interference. At the same time, the noise of non‐target frequencies in the measured signal is suppressed, avoiding saturation of the receiving system acquisition, and realizing high signal‐to‐noise acquisition of multiple target frequencies. First, the principle of circuit design is analyzed, and the design flow of circuit parameters is proposed. Further, the validity of the design is verified via simulation results. Finally, the optimization scheme is validated with an actual circuit. The results show that for the measurement environment set in this paper, this optimization scheme can suppress the noise of non‐target frequency in the measured signal, so that the noise amplitude can be reduced by more than 90%, and the signal‐to‐noise ratio of the filtered signal can be improved by 23.35 dB. This study helps to facilitate FDEM instruments to achieve high signal‐to‐noise ratio detection. © 2023 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by Wiley Periodicals LLC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is important for university students studying elementary music education to master basic conducting gestures. We have developed a VR training system for self‐study of Saito's music conducting method. The system uses a depth camera and magnetic motion capture system to measure hand movements, and an HMD to superimpose the teacher's hand on the trainee's own hand. With the system, trainee can self‐study while visually and three‐dimensionally checking the motion and timing of the teacher's and the trainee's own hand gestures. In this paper, we describe an evaluation experiment with our system. The results showed that the VR environment is effective for learning three‐dimensional movements, and that the addition of a visual line display function for trajectories, a function to display trajectories from different viewpoints, and a replay function improves the learning effect. Specifically, the results of a short training session of 5 min revealed that the developed system was effective in bringing 75% of the trainees closer to the teacher's gesture. © 2023 Institute of Electrical Engineer of Japan and Wiley Periodicals LLC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes an energy management strategy (EMS) based on double‐deep Q‐Networks (DDQN) with demand torque prediction (DTP) to optimize the fuel consumption of hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) by online utilizing vehicle‐to‐vehicle (V2V) information. The main framework of the EMS is designed as DDQN, combining Q‐learning with the deep neural network to realize real‐time training and online optimization of the torque distribution between the internal combustion engine and the electric motor, and given that the model training easily falls into local minima and overestimation, two different Q‐networks are designed to decouple action selection and target evaluation. Meanwhile, BP‐network predicts future demand torque using the ego vehicle speed, front vehicle speed, and distance between the two vehicles to reduce the burden of model training due to the introduction of traffic information. The predicted demand torque is introduced into the DDQN‐based EMS as states, together with the distance traveled in the driving cycle and the current information on HEV. The effectiveness and adaptability to actual driving cycles of the proposed strategy are verified by comparison with DDQN‐based EMS without DTP and rule‐based EMS. The results show that the fuel consumption using DDQN‐based EMS without DTP is reduced by 4.1% compared with rule‐based EMS. The introduction of demand torque prediction resulted in a further 3.9% reduction in fuel consumption. © 2023 Institute of Electrical Engineer of Japan and Wiley Periodicals LLC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, the amount of the photovoltaic (PV) system has been rapidly increasing from the viewpoint of carbon neutral. There are concerns about voltage rises and grid congestion in the electrical distribution network because of large‐scale PV increases. In order to address these issues, we focused on the control of water supply pumps in the water distribution system, which is infrastructure equipment for consumers. By controlling the start/stop of the water pump, it is expected to contribute to the power distribution system by increasing Demand Response (DR) and reduce CO2 emission from the electricity used by the pump. In this paper, with the aim of constructing an optimal operation planning method for water pumps that can evaluate DR and CO2 reduction effects, the optimal operation plan is formulated as a mixed integer linear programming problem. We numerical evaluated impact of water pump operation for CO2 emission and electrical distribution network. © 2023 The Authors. IEEJ Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Engineering published by Institute of Electrical Engineer of Japan and Wiley Periodicals LLC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Object tracking tasks often face problems such as illumination and appearance changes due to various scenarios. To effectively solve such problems, single object tracking algorithms in recent years have improved the stability of the tracker by introducing online learning, reducing tracking drift, and tracking objects stably even with large deformations. However, on the one hand, employing online learning increases computation costs, causing the tracker to run slower. On the other hand, because it learns from the tracking results, the tracking template will only be correctly updated if the object is accurately tracked. Any incorrect update will result in tracking failure. In this paper, we propose a filtering algorithm for online learning sample processing in object tracking to remedy these issues. Our method can select valid training samples and discard unnecessary training samples in object tracking. Numerous experiments demonstrate that our algorithm improves the tracking accuracy, reduces the computation complexity, and improves the running speed and run‐time. © 2023 Institute of Electrical Engineer of Japan and Wiley Periodicals LLC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cogging torque can affect the performance of permanent magnet (PM) homopolar inductor machines (HIMs). In order to find the reduction methods of the PM HIM cogging torque, it is necessary to investigate its production mechanism and analytical model. In this paper, the production mechanism of the PM HIM cogging torque is revealed from the perspective of air‐gap field modulation principle. It is found that the air‐gap permeance of PM HIMs can modulate their air‐gap magneto‐motive force (MMF) and then a large number of modulated air‐gap magnetic fields are generated. These magnetic fields with identical production condition but different rotation speeds or rotation directions can interact with each other, hence the production of the PM HIM cogging torque. By the combination of energy method and air‐gap field modulation principle, the cogging torque analytical model of PM HIMs is derived. Based on the obtained analytical model, the methods for reducing the PM HIM cogging torque are further analyzed. Finally, a 48‐slot/4‐pole (48S4P) PM HIM is designed and exampled. The air‐gap flux density of the 48S4P PM HIM is simulated by three‐dimensional (3‐D) finite element analysis (FEA). Based on the harmonic analysis for the simulated results, the correctness of the proposed cogging torque production mechanism is validated. In addition, a prototype of the 48S4P PM HIM is manufactured. The cogging torque in the prototype is obtained by the analytical model, 3‐D FEA and experiments, respectively. The simulation and measurement results verify the correctness of the cogging torque analytical model. © 2023 Institute of Electrical Engineer of Japan and Wiley Periodicals LLC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper concerns the bipartite consensus problems of directed cooperative and antagonistic networks (CANs) with time‐varying communication delays. A distributed control protocol is proposed based on the nearest neighbor rule. In order to derive the convergence analysis of the proposed protocol, a model transformation is introduced, based on which the consensus can be equivalently transformed into the asymptotic stability of a reduced‐order system. Besides, the sufficient conditions are provided to ensure the bipartite consensus (respectively, state stability) of CANs whose topologies are structurally balanced (respectively, unbalanced). In addition, numerical examples are given to illustrate the effectiveness of our developed results. © 2023 Institute of Electrical Engineer of Japan and Wiley Periodicals LLC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to decrease the reradiation interference (RRI) of power transmission lines, aiming at the defects that the existing RRI suppression methods cannot be applied to the constructed power transmission lines, and cannot suppress all the RRI extreme values in the frequency band, this paper innovatively proposes a RRI suppression method based on characteristic mode (CM) theory. Firstly, we briefly introduce the CM theory and decompose the total scattering field into the superposition of the characteristic electric fields; secondly, the influence of inductance and capacitance characteristics of the reactive loads on radiation behavior of the CMs is analyzed, and the ideal position for reactive loading is also discussed to reduce the contribution of CM to the total RRI; finally, a simulation experiment is carried out in AM broadcasting band, and the modal weighting coefficients of main CMs affecting the RRI is greatly reduced in the frequency band by reactive loading. Simulation results show that compared with the existing method, the proposed method can reduce the peak value of RRI by 43.9% and the overall RRI by 29.7%. © 2023 Institute of Electrical Engineer of Japan and Wiley Periodicals LLC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rear‐lamp tracking at night is a research topic in night vision that is essential for Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS). Most current computer vision‐based methods address this problem using color features because rear lamps are lit during night driving. However, such methods are sufficiently robust in complex environments owing to the lack of feature diversity. On the other hand, as there is no off‐the‐shelf dataset, the application of deep learning to nighttime rear‐lamp tracking has been sparsely explored. To tackle the above issues, in this paper, we propose hierarchical rear‐lamp tracking at nighttime (H‐RTN) and create a novel dataset for rear‐lamp tracking. Specifically, the H‐RTN consists of a rough detection hierarchy (R‐hierarchy), an accurate detection hierarchy (A‐hierarchy), and an optimization hierarchy (O‐hierarchy). The R‐hierarchy determines the region of interest (ROI) containing the target rear lamps, the A‐hierarchy samples the rear‐lamp candidates in the ROI, and the O‐hierarchy selects the best pair of candidates as the final location of the target rear lamps. The experimental results show that H‐RTN outperforms the alternative existing methods. © 2023 Institute of Electrical Engineer of Japan and Wiley Periodicals LLC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many recent sequential recommendation methods have aimed to enhance the modeling of users' diverse interests to provide more accurate and varied recommendations. Despite great success, existing models possess a limitation in their capacity to solely perceive items within a user behavior sequence. Such an approach may potentially constrain their ability to effectively discover users' multiple interests. In this paper, we present a novel approach that addresses this gap by harnessing global item transitions to uncover users' potential interests, subsequently modeling them as local subsequences. To achieve this objective, we represent global item transitions as a directed graph, constructed by amalgamating behavior sequences from the training set. This graph‐based representation allows the design of a specialized module capable of aggregating global item transitional information and uncovering local subsequences specific to individual users. Consequently, downstream sequence models can focus on pertinent item transitions, disregarding unrelated ones. We evaluate the effectiveness of our method on four public data sets, outperforming existing alternatives or delivering competitive results. © 2023 Institute of Electrical Engineer of Japan and Wiley Periodicals LLC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Active disturbance rejection control (ADRC) has been widely used in the permanent magnet linear synchronous motor (PMLSM) drive system for its strong anti‐disturbance ability and fast response speed. However, a large number of adjustment parameters add difficulties to its application. To solve this problem, a novel sliding mode‐based active disturbance rejection control (SM‐ADRC) with autotuned parameters is proposed in this paper. In this control strategy, the SM is incorporated with extended state observer (ESO) and nonlinear state error feedback (NLSEF) to reduce the number of adjustment parameters. The simulated annealing particle swarm optimization (SAPSO) algorithm is carried out to achieve the optimal configuration and realize parameter self‐tuning. The experimental results of the PMLSM speed servo system demonstrate the proposed control method has better suppression of chattering effect, disturbance rejection ability and fast dynamic response. © 2023 Institute of Electrical Engineer of Japan and Wiley Periodicals LLC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Replicating specific scents by mixing 'base odors' is the main idea behind the concept of odor reproduction. Just as primary colors can be combined to generate a wide range of colors in visual perception, the hope is to find a similar principle in olfaction. However, defining such 'primary odors' is difficult due to the complexity of our sense of smell, which is much different from vision. In spite of these challenges, numerous scientists have endeavored to identify a combination of basic smell components that can mimic various scents. Currently, the suggested combinations of smell components are typically only successful at recreating specific, intended scents. The range of reproducible scents differs based on the selection of base odors, yet these studies have provided valuable knowledge about the nature of these primary odors. This review paper will focus on the latest studies related to odor reproduction. Understanding odor space, odor reproduction, and the challenges encountered when expanding the range of odors will be explained. © 2023 Institute of Electrical Engineer of Japan and Wiley Periodicals LLC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accurate traffic volume prediction plays a crucial role in urban traffic control by relieving congestion through improved regulation of traffic volume. Network‐level traffic volume prediction and detector failure have rarely been considered in the literature. This paper proposes a framework based on long short‐term memory and the multilayer perceptron that can predict network‐level traffic volumes even with detector failure. A profile model learns the profile of the detector's signature (traffic pattern). Detectors with similar profiles are considered to have similar traffic patterns and are grouped into a cluster. Failed detectors can obtain reference information from similar detectors in the same cluster without additional information. A predictive model is developed for each cluster. The proposed method is validated using Japan Road Traffic Information Center data for three cities. The computational results indicate that the proposed method performs well both on typical days and atypical days (the COVID‐19 lockdown period and the 2021 Tokyo Olympics). Further, it considers detector reliability: the increase in mean absolute error is less than 1 veh/5 min when the probability of detector failure increases to 20%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a common sleep disorder, and polysomnography (PSG) is the gold standard for diagnosing OSA. However, patients often have to wait long before receiving the costly PSG test in a hospital. Hence, low‐cost and easy‐to‐use portable screening tools were developed for predicting OSA. Based on our recent study, this paper presents a feature extraction method with multiple receptive fields applied to the input electrocardiography (ECG) signals of a model to improve its performance in OSA severity classification. This work also employs unsegmented ECG signals as input to keep all the advantages from our original approach. The proposed model achieves an overall accuracy of 59.49% for four‐level OSA severity classification, giving an improvement of approximately 2% compared to our original work. The effectiveness of the proposed method is demonstrated. © 2023 Institute of Electrical Engineer of Japan and Wiley Periodicals LLC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]