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Optogenetics, which integrates photonics and genetic engineering to control protein activity and cellular processes, has transformed biomedical research. Its precise spatiotemporal control, minimal invasiveness, and tunable reversibility have spurred its widespread adoption in both basic and clinical research. Optogenetic techniques have been applied to partially restore vision in blind patients and are being actively explored as innovative treatments for neurological, psychiatric, cardiac, and immunological disorders. Microbial channelrhodopsins (ChRs) allow precise manipulation of neuronal and cardiac activities, while vertebrate rhodopsins offer unique opportunities for ion channel modulation through G-protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) pathways. Plant-derived photoswitchable domains can also be engineered into ion channels to confer photosensitivity. This review summarizes the latest progress in engineering genetically encoded light-sensitive ion channel actuators and modulators (GELICAMs) with diverse ion selectivity and spectral sensitivity. We further discuss the potential applications and challenges of these tools in advancing biomedical research and therapeutic interventions., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2025 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

The actin cytoskeleton and its nanoscale organization are central to all eukaryotic cells-powering diverse cellular functions including morphology, motility, and cell division-and is dysregulated in multiple diseases. Historically studied largely with purified proteins or in isolated cells, tools to study cell type-specific roles of actin in multicellular contexts are greatly needed. DeActs are recently created, first-in-class genetic tools for perturbing actin nanostructures and dynamics in specific cell types across diverse eukaryotic model organisms. Here, ChiActs are introduced, the next generation of actin-perturbing genetic tools that can be rapidly activated in cells and optogenetically targeted to distinct subcellular locations using light. ChiActs are composed of split halves of DeAct-SpvB, whose potent actin disassembly-promoting activity is restored by chemical-induced dimerization or allosteric switching. It is shown that ChiActs function to rapidly induce actin disassembly in several model cell types and are able to perturb actin-dependent nano-assembly and cellular functions, including inhibiting lamellipodial protrusions and membrane ruffling, remodeling mitochondrial morphology, and reorganizing chromatin by locally constraining actin disassembly to specific subcellular compartments. ChiActs thus expand the toolbox of genetically-encoded tools for perturbing actin in living cells, unlocking studies of the many roles of actin nano-assembly and dynamics in complex multicellular systems., (© 2025 Wiley‐VCH GmbH.)

Optical regulation of transcription using chemical compounds is an effective strategy to manipulate gene expression spatiotemporally. Conventional caging approaches with photoremovable protecting groups may require intense UV-light exposure and release potentially toxic byproducts. To address these problems, here we developed a light-mediated transcriptional regulation system by combining a caging-group-free photoactivatable dye PaX 560 and a multidrug-binding transcriptional regulator QacR. The cationic dye generated from PaX 560 through traceless photoconversion bound QacR and reduced its repressor function, resulting in transcriptional activation. Importantly, this system allowed transcriptional activation with a large dynamic range under mild visible light exposure and simultaneous detection of the state of the photoactivated effector. This module was integrated into the T7 RNA polymerase expression system to demonstrate light-activated transcription in vitro and in living cells., (© 2024 The Author(s). Angewandte Chemie International Edition published by Wiley-VCH GmbH.)

In this paper, we propose a photodegradation correction method for the dual-luminophore pressure-sensitive paint (PSP) measurement using lifetime-based imaging, which was proposed for correction of the temperature-induced error but has suffered from photodegradation in the previous studies. We introduced a parameter that characterizes the photodegradation of a dual-luminophore PSP as the intensity ratio between the two luminophores. The changes in the calibration coefficients for the pressure and the temperature due to photodegradation were corrected based on this parameter. In this study, a coupon-based calibration test was performed, and the luminescence characteristics of the dual-luminophore PSP including photodegradation were investigated. Then, the proposed method was applied to a coupon-based validation test and a jet impingement test, and the effectiveness of the method was evaluated by comparing results with and without correction. The pressure measurement accuracy was significantly improved by photodegradation correction., (© 2024 Author(s). Published under an exclusive license by AIP Publishing.)

For many years, we have been developing flexible sensors made of braided piezoelectric poly-l-lactic acid (PLLA) fibers that can be tied and untied for practical applications in society. To ensure good quality of sleep, the occurrence of bruxism has been attracting attention in recent years. Currently, there is a need for a system that can easily and accurately measure the frequency of bruxism at home. Therefore, taking advantage of the braided piezoelectric PLLA cord sensor's unique characteristic of being sewable, we aimed to provide a system that can measure the frequency of bruxism using the braided piezoelectric PLLA cord sensor simply sewn onto a bed sheet on which the subject lies down. After many tests using trial and error, the sheet sensor was completed with zigzag stitching. Twenty subjects slept overnight in a hospital room on sheets integrated with a braided piezoelectric PLLA cord. Polysomnography (PSG) was simultaneously performed on these subjects. The results showed that their bruxism could be detected with an accuracy of more than 95% compared with PSG measurements, which can only be performed in a hospital by a physician and are more burdensome for the subjects, with the subjects simply lying on the bed sheet with a braided piezoelectric PLLA cord sensor sewn into it.

Optimization approaches that determine sensitive sensor nodes in a large-scale, linear time-invariant, and discrete-time dynamical system are examined under the assumption of independent and identically distributed measurement noise. This study offers two novel selection algorithms, namely an approximate convex relaxation method with the Newton method and a gradient greedy method, and confirms the performance of the selection methods, including a convex relaxation method with semidefinite programming (SDP) and a pure greedy optimization method proposed in the previous studies. The matrix determinant of the observability Gramian was employed for the evaluations of the sensor subsets, while its gradient and Hessian were derived for the proposed methods. In the demonstration using numerical and real-world examples, the proposed approximate greedy method showed superiority in the run time when the sensor numbers were roughly the same as the dimensions of the latent system. The relaxation method with SDP is confirmed to be the most reasonable approach for a system with randomly generated matrices of higher dimensions. However, the degradation of the optimization results was also confirmed in the case of real-world datasets, while the pure greedy selection obtained the most stable optimization results.

Flapping flight of animals has captured the interest of researchers due to their impressive flight capabilities across diverse environments including mountains, oceans, forests, and urban areas. Despite the significant progress made in understanding flapping flight, high-altitude flight as showcased by many migrating animals remains underexplored. At high-altitudes, air density is low, and it is challenging to produce lift. Here we demonstrate a first lift-off of a flapping wing robot in a low-density environment through wing size and motion scaling. Force measurements showed that the lift remained high at 0.14 N despite a 66% reduction of air density from the sea-level condition. The flapping amplitude increased from 148 to 233 degrees, while the pitch amplitude remained nearly constant at 38.2 degrees. The combined effect is that the flapping-wing robot benefited from the angle of attack that is characteristic of flying animals. Our results suggest that it is not a simple increase in the flapping frequency, but a coordinated increase in the wing size and reduction in flapping frequency enables the flight in lower density condition. The key mechanism is to preserve the passive rotations due to wing deformation, confirmed by a bioinspired scaling relationship. Our results highlight the feasibility of flight under a low-density, high-altitude environment due to leveraging unsteady aerodynamic mechanisms unique to flapping wings. We anticipate our experimental demonstration to be a starting point for more sophisticated flapping wing models and robots for autonomous multi-altitude sensing. Furthermore, it is a preliminary step towards flapping wing flight in the ultra-low density Martian atmosphere., (© 2023. The Author(s).)

A new model-position-sensing method for the levitation of models with a low fineness ratio (ratio of the longitudinal length to the diameter) in a magnetic suspension and balance system (MSBS) is proposed. MSBS is an ideal model-support device for wind-tunnel testing, which enables the study of flow fields around blunt bodies without flow disturbances introduced by mechanical support devices, with the aerodynamic forces determined from the magnetic forces using a pre-calibrated relationship. The new method allows wind tunnel experiments without mechanical supports with a low fineness ratio model. This method adopts two line sensors placed parallel to the central axis of the model image and measures the position with a resolution finer than 0.06 mm or deg even for thin model geometries. In addition, measurement errors were reduced by correcting a second-order term in the depth direction of the camera. A low fineness ratio circular cylinder model was levitated following sensor calibration. The model was supported in conditions with and without freestream flow. This position measurement method was also applied to a reentry capsule model. The model was levitated while keeping its position and attitude stabilized near the origin.

Powdery mildew fungi produce progeny conidia on conidiophores, and promote the spread of powdery mildew diseases by dispersal of the conidia from conidiophores in the natural environment. To gain insights and devise strategies for preventing the spread of powdery mildew infection, it is important to clarify the ecological mechanism of conidial dispersal from conidiophores. In this study, all of the progeny conidia released from single colonies of strawberry powdery mildew fungus ( Podosphaera aphanis (Wallroth) U. Braun and S. Takamatsu var. aphanis KSP-7N) on true leaves of living strawberry plants ( Fragaria × ananassa Duchesne ex Rozier cv. Sagahonoka) were consecutively collected over the lifetime of the colony with an electrostatic rotational spore collector (insulator drum) under greenhouse conditions, and counted under a high-fidelity digital microscope. The insulator drum consisted of a round plastic container, copper film, thin and transparent collector film, electrostatic voltage generator, and timer mechanism. When negative charge was supplied from the voltage generator to the copper film, the collector film created an attractive force to trap conidia. The electrostatically activated collector film successfully attracted progeny conidia released from the colony. Experiment was carried out at just one colony on one leaf for each month (in February, May, July, October, November, and December in 2021), respectively. Each collector film was exchanged for a new collector film at 24 h intervals until KSP-7N ceased to release progeny conidia from single colonies. Collection experiments were carried out to estimate the total number of conidia released from a single KSP-7N colony over a 35-45-day period after inoculation. During the fungal lifetime, KSP-7N released an average of 6.7 × 10 4 conidia from each of the single colonies at approximately 816 h. In addition, conidial release from KSP-7N colonies was largely affected by the light intensity and day length throughout a year; the number of conidia released from single KSP-7N colonies in night-time was clearly smaller than that in daytime, and the time of conidial release from single KSP-7N colonies was shorter by approximately 2 to 4 h in autumn and winter than in spring and summer. The ecological characteristics related to conidial releases from KSP-7N colonies will be helpful information for us to successfully suppress the spread of strawberry powdery mildews onto host plants under greenhouse conditions.

Antioxidants were applied to a dual-luminophore pressure-sensitive paint (PSP), and the effects on photodegradation caused by exposure to excitation light were studied. Three types of antioxidants that are commonly used for the photostability enhancement of polymers were added to a dual-luminophore PSP, and degradation rates and pressure/temperature sensitivities were investigated by coupon-based tests. One-hour-long aging tests were performed in a pressure chamber with a continuous excitation light source under dry air and argon atmospheres at 100 kPa and 20 °C. As a result of the aging tests, a singlet oxygen quencher type antioxidant was found to reduce the degradation rate by 91% when compared with the dual-luminophore PSP without antioxidants. This implies that singlet oxygen has a dominant role in the photodegradation mechanism of the dual-luminophore PSP.

We developed and evaluated an anodized-aluminum pressure-sensitive paint (AA-PSP) with new formulations of free-base porphyrin, H2TCPP, as an optical unsteady pressure sensor. The luminophore H2TCPP has quite a short fluorescent lifetime (2.4 ns on the condition of the AA-PSP). The fluorescence spectroscopy result shows that the excitation wavelength of H2TCPP corresponds to violet-colored (425 nm) and green-colored (longer than 520 nm) lights. The pressure sensitivity is sufficiently high for the pressure sensor (0.33-0.51%/kPa) and the temperature sensitivity is very low (0.07-1.46%/K). The photodegradation of the AA-PSPs is not severe in both excitation light sources of the green LED and the Nd:YAG laser. The resonance tube experiment result shows the cut-off frequency of the AA-PSPs is over 9.0 kHz, and the results of the shock tube experiment show the 10 µs order time constant of the normal shock wave.

In the present study, we analyzed negative electricity released from insects captured by an electric field (EF)-producing apparatus. Adult houseflies ( Musca domestica ) were used as the model insect. The EF producer consisted of a negatively charged polyvinyl chloride membrane-insulated iron plate (N-PIP) and a non-insulated grounded iron plate (GIP) paralleled with the N-PIP. An EF was formed in the space between the plates. A housefly placed on the GIP was physically attracted to the N-PIP, and electricity released from the fly was detected as a specific transient electric current at the time of attraction and during subsequent confinement of the fly to the N-PIP. The magnitude of the insect-derived electric current became larger as the voltage applied to the N-PIP increased. We determined the total amount of electric current and confinement time within the apparatus necessary to kill all captured flies. These results demonstrate the insecticidal function and insect-capturing ability of the EF-producing apparatus.

We propose a markerless image alignment method for pressure-sensitive paint measurement data replacing the time-consuming conventional alignment method in which the black markers are placed on the model and are detected manually. In the proposed method, feature points are detected by a boundary detection method, in which the PSP boundary is detected using the Moore-Neighbor tracing algorithm. The performance of the proposed method is compared with the conventional method based on black markers, the difference of Gaussian (DoG) detector, and the Hessian corner detector. The results by the proposed method and the DoG detector are equivalent to each other. On the other hand, the performances of the image alignment using the black marker and the Hessian corner detector are slightly worse compared with the DoG and the proposed method. The computational cost of the proposed method is half of that of the DoG method. The proposed method is a promising for the image alignment in the PSP application in the viewpoint of the alignment precision and computational cost.

Our aim was to develop an electrostatic apparatus to lure and capture silverleaf whiteflies ( Bemisia tabaci ), vegetable leafminers ( Liriomyza sativae ), and western flower thrips ( Frankliniella occidentalis ) that invade tomato greenhouses. A double-charged dipolar electric field producer (DD-EFP) was constructed by filling water in two identical transparent soft polyvinyl chloride tubes arrayed in parallel with fixed separation, and then, inserting the probes of grounded negative and positive voltage generators into the water of the two tubes to generate negatively and positively charged waters, respectively. These charged waters electrified the outer surfaces of the opposite tubes via dielectric polarization. An electric field formed between the oppositely charged tubes. To lure these phototactic insects, the water was colored yellow using watercolor paste, then introduced into the transparent insulator tubes to construct the yellow-colored DD-EFP. This apparatus lured insects in a manner similar to commercially available yellow sticky traps. The yellow-colored DD-EFP was easily placed as a movable upright screen along the plants, such that invading pests were preferentially attracted to the trap before reaching the plants. Furthermore, pests settling on the plants were attracted to the apparatus, which used a plant-tapping method to drive them off the plants. Our study provided an experimental basis for developing an electrostatic device to attract and capture insects that enter greenhouses.

We proposed a new prototype sensor system to understand the workload of employees during telework. The goal of sensing using such a system is to index the degree of stress experienced by employees during work and recognize how to improve their work environment. Currently, to realize this, image processing technology with a Web camera is generally used for vital sign sensing. However, it creates a sense of discomfort at work because of a strong sense of surveillance. To truly evaluate a working environment, it is necessary that an employee be unaware of the sensor system and for the system to be as unobtrusive as possible. To overcome these practical barriers, we have developed a new removable piezoelectric sensor incorporated in a piezoelectric poly-L-lactic acid (PLLA) braided cord. This cord is soft and flexible, and it does not cause any discomfort when attached to the cushion cover sheet. Thus, it was possible to measure the workload of an employee working from home without the employee being aware of the presence of a sensor. Additionally, we developed a system for storing data in a cloud system. We succeeded in acquiring continuous long-term data on the vital signs of employees during telework using this system. The analysis of the data revealed a strong correlation between behavior and stress.

This technical note discloses our implementation of a six degree-of-freedom (DOF) high-precision robotic phantom on a commercially available industrial robot manipulator. These manipulators are designed to optimize their set point tracking accuracy as it is the most important performance metric for industrial manipulators. Their in-house controllers are tuned to suppress its error less than a few tens of micrometers. However, the use of industrial robot manipulators in six DOF robotic phantom can be a difficult problem since their in-house controller are not optimized for continuous path tracking in general. Although instantaneous tracking error in a continuous path tracking task will not exceed five millimeters during motion with the in-house controller, it seriously matters for a robotic phantom, as the tracking error should remain within one millimeter in three dimensional space for all time during motion. The difficulty of the task is further increased since the reference trajectory of a robotic phantom, which is a six DOF tumor motion of a patient, cannot be as smooth as the ones used in factories. The present study presents a feedforward controller for a feedback-controlled industrial six DOF robotic manipulator to be used as a six DOF robotic phantom to drive the water equivalent phantom (WEP). We first trained a set of six recurrent neural networks (RNNs) to capture the six DOF input/output behavior of the robotic manipulator controlled by its in-house controller, and we proceed to formulate an iterative learning control (ILC) using the trained model to generate an augmented reference trajectory for a specific patient that enables very high tracking accuracy to that trajectory. Experimental evaluation results demonstrate clear improvements in the accuracy of the proposed robotic phantom compared to our previous robotic phantom, which uses the same manipulator but is driven by a different corrected reference trajectory., (© 2021 IOP Publishing Ltd.)

This study analysed the mechanism of avoidance behaviour by adult Turkestan cockroaches ( Shelfordella lateralis Walker) in response to a static electric field (S-EF) formed in the space between a negatively charged polyvinyl chloride-insulated iron plate (N-PIP) and a grounded metal net (G-MN). The negative surface charge supplied to the iron plate by a voltage generator caused the G-MN to polarise positively via electrostatic induction. In the S-EF, the negative charge of the N-PIP created a repulsive force that pushed free electrons in the field toward the ground via the G-MN. When insects released in the space surrounded by the S-EF inserted their antennae into the S-EF, they pulled them back reflexively and moved backward. The analysis indicated that an electric current flowed transiently toward the ground when an insect inserted its antennae into the S-EF. The insect became positively charged via this discharge and was attracted to the opposite pole (N-PIP). In response to this attractive force, the insect pulled its antennae back quickly. The positive electrification caused by the removal of free electrons from the antenna tip triggered the avoidance behaviour.

Aeroacoustic fields of a supersonic free jet at the Mach and Reynolds numbers of 2.1 and 70 000, respectively, of the transitional conditions are computationally investigated by large-eddy simulations. The supersonic transitional jets of different shear layer thicknesses without disturbances and those of the fixed shear layer thickness with disturbances are computationally investigated, and the effects of the shear layer thickness and the disturbance are discussed. The position of the transition and the turbulence intensity in the vicinity of the transition are clearly affected by those parameters. The turbulent fluctuation along the shear layer and the resulting intensity of the generated Mach waves are substantially attenuated by decreasing the shear layer thickness or adding the disturbance. A 5 dB increase in the sound pressure level is observed. This relatively lower increment in the sound pressure level compared with the 10-20 dB increase in the subsonic jet case is discussed as being due to the transition process promoted by the spiral mode in the supersonic jet case, unlike the axisymmetric case in the subsonic jet case. This point is confirmed by the linear stability analysis, the proper orthogonal decomposition analysis, and the visualization of vortex structures in the transition region.

A total of 26 Ampelomyces strains were isolated from mycelia of six different powdery mildew species that naturally infected their host plants in Japan. These were characterized based on morphological characteristics and sequences of ribosomal DNA internal transcribed spacer (rDNA-ITS) regions and actin gene (ACT) fragments. Collected strains represented six different genotypes and were accommodated in three different clades of the genus Ampelomyces. Morphology of the strains agreed with that of other Ampelomyces strains, but none of the examined characters were associated with any groups identified in the genetic analysis. Five powdery mildew species were inoculated with eight selected Ampelomyces strains to study their mycoparasitic activity. In the inoculation experiments, all Ampelomyces strains successfully infected all tested powdery mildew species, and showed no significant differences in their mycoparasitic activity as determined by the number of Ampelomyces pycnidia developed in powdery mildew colonies. The mycoparasitic interaction between the eight selected Ampelomyces strains and the tomato powdery mildew fungus (Pseudoidium neolycopersici strain KTP-03) was studied experimentally in the laboratory using digital microscopic technologies. It was documented that the spores of the mycoparasites germinated on tomato leaves and their hyphae penetrated the hyphae of Ps. neolycopersici. Ampelomyces hyphae continued their growth internally, which initiated the atrophy of the powdery mildew conidiophores 5 days post inoculation (dpi); caused atrophy 6 dpi; and complete collapse of the parasitized conidiphores 7 dpi. Ampelomyces strains produced new intracellular pycnidia in Ps. neolycopersici conidiophores ca. 8-10 dpi, when Ps. neolycopersici hyphae were successfully destroyed by the mycoparasitic strain. Mature pycnidia released spores ca. 10-14 dpi, which became the sources of subsequent infections of the intact powdery mildew hyphae. Mature pycnidia contained each ca. 200 to 1,500 spores depending on the mycohost species and Ampelomyces strain. This is the first detailed analysis of Ampelomyces strains isolated in Japan, and the first timing and quantification of mycoparasitism of Ps. neolycopersici on tomato by phylogenetically diverse Ampelomyces strains using digital microscopic technologies. The developed model system is useful for future biocontrol and ecological studies on Ampelomyces mycoparasites., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

The purpose of this study was to develop a simple electrostatic apparatus to precipitate virus particles spread via droplet transmission, which is especially significant in the context of the recent coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. The bacteriophage φ6 of Pseudomonas syringae was used as a model of the COVID-19 virus because of its similar structure and safety in experiments. The apparatus consisted of a spiked, perforated stainless plate (S-PSP) linked to a direct-current voltage generator to supply negative charge to the spike tips and a vessel with water (G-water) linked to a ground line. The S-PSP and G-water surface were paralleled at a definite interval. Negative charge supplied to the spike tips positively polarised the G-water by electrostatic induction to form an electric field between them in which ionic wind and negative ions were generated. Bacteriophage-containing water was atomised with a nebuliser and introduced into the electric field. The mist particles were ionised by the negative ions and attracted to the opposite pole (G-water). This apparatus demonstrated a prominent ability to capture phage-containing mist particles of the same sizes as respiratory droplets and aerosols regardless of the phage concentration of the mist particles. The trapped phages were successfully sterilised using ozone bubbling. Thus, the present study provides an effective system for eliminating droplet transmission of viral pathogens from public spaces.

The characteristics of fast-response pressure-sensitive paints (PSPs) in low-pressure conditions were evaluated. Three representative porous binders were investigated: polymer-ceramic PSP (PC-PSP), anodized-aluminum PSP (AA-PSP), and thin-layer chromatography PSP (TLC-PSP). For each PSP, two types of luminophores, Pt(II) meso-tetra (pentafluorophenyl) porphine (PtTFPP) and tris(bathophenanthroline) ruthenium dichloride (Ru(dpp)3), were used as sensor molecules. Pressure sensitivities, temperature sensitivities, and photodegradation rates were measured and evaluated using a pressure chamber. The effect of ambient pressure on the frequency response was investigated using an acoustic resonance tube. The diffusivity coefficients of PSPs were estimated from the measured frequency response and luminescent lifetime, and the governing factor of the frequency response under low-pressure conditions was identified. The results of static calibration show that PC-PSP/PtTFPP, AA-PSP/Ru(dpp)3, and TLC-PSP/PtTFPP have high pressure sensitivities that exceed 4%/kPa under low-pressure conditions and that temperature sensitivity and photodegradation rates become lower as the ambient pressure decreases. Dynamic calibration results show that the dynamic characteristics of PSPs with PtTFPP are dependent on the ambient pressure, whereas those of PSPs with Ru(dpp)3 are not influenced by the ambient pressure. This observation indicates that the governing factor in the frequency response under low-pressure conditions is the lifetime for PC-PSP and TLC-PSP, whereas the governing factor for AA-PSP is diffusion.

The effects of the oxygen mole fraction on the static properties of pressure-sensitive paint (PSP) were investigated. Sample coupon tests using a calibration chamber were conducted for poly(hexafluoroisopropyl methacrylate)-based PSP (PHFIPM-PSP), polymer/ceramic PSP (PC-PSP), and anodized aluminum PSP (AA-PSP). The oxygen mole fraction was set to 0.1-100%, and the ambient pressure (Pref) was set to 0.5-140 kPa. Localized Stern-Volmer coefficient Blocal increased and then decreased with increasing oxygen mole fraction. Although Blocal depends on both ambient pressure and the oxygen mole fraction, its effect can be characterized as a function of the partial pressure of oxygen. For AA-PSP and PHFIPM-PSP, which are low-pressure- and relatively low-pressure-type PSPs, respectively, Blocal peaks at PO2ref<12 kPa. In contrast, for PC-PSP, which is an atmospheric-pressure-type PSP in the investigated range, Blocal does not have a peak. Blocal has a peak at a relatively high partial pressure of oxygen due to the oxygen permeability of the polymer used in the binder. The peak of SPR, which is the emission intensity change with respect to normalized pressure fluctuation, appears at a lower partial pressure of oxygen than that of Blocal. This is because the intensity of PSP becomes quite low at a high partial pressure of oxygen even if Blocal is high. Hence, the optimal oxygen mole fraction depends on the type of PSP and the ambient pressure range of the experiment. This optimal value can be found on the basis of the partial pressure of oxygen.

In the present study, an electrostatic apparatus for trapping adult tomato leaf miner flies ( Liriomyza sativae ) emerging from underground pupae at the surface of a seedbed in an organic greenhouse was developed. The apparatus consisted of insulated iron rods arranged in parallel at set intervals and linked to a voltage generator, which supplied a negative charge to the rods, as well as non-insulated grounded iron rods with the same configuration. The two layers of insulated and non-insulated iron rods were arrayed in parallel to form a static electric field between the layers. The electric field created a strong attractive force capable of capturing flies that entered the field. In a greenhouse assay, the apparatus was placed horizontally above a seedbed in a greenhouse and surveyed for its ability to capture adult flies emerging from pupae that were introduced onto the seedbed beneath the apparatus. The results revealed that the apparatus effectively trapped all adult flies that emerged from the pupae and that it functioned stably while continuously operated during the entire period of the experiment. Thus, our novel apparatus is a promising tool for the physical control of adult tomato leaf miners in the insecticide-independent cultivation of greenhouse tomatoes.

Purpose: This study aimed to develop a six degrees-of-freedom (6DoF) robotic moving phantom for evaluating the dosimetric impact of intrafraction rotation during respiratory-gated radiotherapy with real-time tumor monitoring in the lung., Materials and Methods: Fifteen patients who had undergone respiratory-gated stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) with the SyncTraX system for lung tumors were enrolled in this study. A water-equivalent phantom (WEP) was set at the tip of the robotic arm. A log file that recorded the three-dimensional positions of three fiducial markers implanted near the lung tumor was used as the input to the 6DoF robotic moving phantom. Respiratory-gated radiotherapy was performed for the WEP, which was driven using translational and rotational motions of the lung tumor. The accuracy of the 6DoF robotic moving phantom was calculated as the difference between the actual and the measured positions. To evaluate the dosimetric impact of intrafraction rotation, the absolute dose distributions under conditions involving gating and movement were compared with those under static conditions., Results: For the sinusoidal patterns, the mean ± standard deviation (SD) of the root mean square errors (RMSEs) of the translation and rotation positional errors was <0.40 mm and 0.30°, respectively, for all directions. For the respiratory motion patterns of 15 patients, the mean ± SD of the RMSEs of the translation and rotation positional errors was <0.55 mm and 0.85°, respectively, for all directions. The γ 3%/2mm values under translation with/without gating were 97.6 ± 2.2%/80.9 ± 18.1% and 96.8 ± 2.3%/80.0 ± 17.0% in the coronal and sagittal planes, respectively. Further, the γ 3%/2mm values under rotation with/without gating were 91.5 ± 6.5%/72.8 ± 18.6% and 90.3 ± 6.1%/72.9 ± 15.7% in the coronal and sagittal planes, respectively., Conclusions: The developed 6DoF robotic phantom system could determine the translational and rotational motions of lung tumors with high accuracy. Further, respiratory-gating radiotherapy with real-time tumor monitoring using an internal surrogate marker was effective in compensating for the translational motion of lung tumors but not for correcting their rotational motion., (© 2020 American Association of Physicists in Medicine.)