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Computing evolution has brought about multiple paradigm shifts in how we use technologies. In the living laboratory that is modern life, our ability to design and control the computers and computing power of the future will require an ability to program systems and applications in situ and in vivo.

Scheduler 1-2-3 is an interactive analysis tool that can perform schedulability analysis for the development of real-time computing systems. The schedulability analysis can verify whether all hard real-time tasks in a target system will be completed by their deadlines at the system design phase. Scheduler 1-2-3 is a window-based stand-alone tool that can also be used as a synthetic workload generator in an integrated tool set that consists of a timing tool, a schedulability analyzer, and a real-time monitor/debugger. >

Determination of reaction kinetics and selective precipitation of Cu, Zn, Ni and Sn with H(2)S in single-metal and multi-metal systems were studied to develop a process of metal recovery from plating wastewater. As samples, single-metal model wastewaters containing Cu, Sn, Zn or Ni, and multi-metal model wastewater containing Cu-Zn-Ni or Sn-Zn mixtures were used. In both single-metal and multi-metal systems, the pH value was precisely controlled at a value of 1.5 for CuS and SnS precipitation, 4.5 for ZnS precipitation and 6.5-7.0 for NiS precipitation. Subsequently, the sulfidation of Cu, Sn, Zn and Ni was evaluated. It was found that an amount of H(2)S equimolar to a given metal was sufficient to achieve almost complete precipitation of the particular metal. Further, the selectivity of metal precipitation was found to be higher than 95% in the Cu-Zn-Ni multi-metal system and higher than 91% in the Sn-Zn system. It was also found that the sulfidation reaction proceeded in accordance with Higbie's penetration theory and reaction rate constants and mass-transfer coefficients under various experimental conditions were determined. Finally, the reaction rate constants obtained in single-metal and multi-metal systems were found to be almost the same indicating that the precipitation of a particular metal was not significantly affected by the presence of other components.

When an Fe–30Ni–0.23C alloy is cooled below Ms temperature lower than RT, in situ neutron diffraction has revealed that newly transformed bct martensite shows a high axial ratio, c / a -value. When the sample is heated from 100 K to RT, the c / a apparently decreases. Such a change in c / a indicates that, even below RT, there is carbon diffusion to induce tempering effect. When a quenched martensite is tempered at 473 K, the c / a is drastically decreased.

We extensively studied a cross-talk phenomenon that seriously deteriorates the high time-resolution of a multi-anode 16-channel linear array photo-multiplier tube (PMT); the dynode structures were modified to eliminate the cross-talk effect and to recover a time resolution of σ = 70 – 80 ps for single photons. The use of 16 anode signals of the modified PMT enabled us to attain σ = 12 ps for a small TOF counter of Cherenkov radiation.

TRIP-aided multi-phase steels were made by thermo-mechanically controlled process, where the ferrite grain size and the amount of the retained austenite were changed by controlling process conditions. The tensile behavior of four steels was studied by in situ neutron diffraction. It is found that the retained austenite bearing about 1.0 wt% C is plastically harder than the ferrite matrix. The steel with a ferrite grain size of ≈2.0 μm showed tensile strength of 1.1 GPa and a uniform elongation of 18.4%, in which stress-induced martensitic transformation occurs during plastic deformation but a considerable amount of austenite remains even after the onset of necking. It is concluded that the enhancement of uniform elongation is caused mainly by the work-hardening due to the hard austenite and martensite, where the contribution of the transformation strain is negligible.

In our joint project in the search for anti-tumor promoters from natural plant sources, we carried out a primary screening of 12 phenylpropanoids isolated from Boronia pinnata Sm. (Rutaceae) by examining their possible inhibitory effects on Epstein-Barr virus early antigen (EBV-EA) activation induced by 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate in Raji cells. All tested compounds in this study showed inhibitory activity against the EBV activation even at 1 x 10 mol ratio without any cytotoxicity. Among 12 phenylpropanoids tested, boropinal-C (1), boropinol-A (5), boropinol-C (9) and 3-(3'-methoxy-4'-prenyloxy)phenyl-1-propene (10), all having a 4'-(3-methylbut-2-enyloxy) group, a so-called prenyloxy group, showed more potent activities. Furthermore, 3-(3'-methoxy-4'-prenyloxy)phenyl-1-propene (10) also exhibited remarkable inhibitory effects on mouse skin tumor promotion in an in vivo two-stage carcinogenesis test. This investigation indicated that certain phenylpropanoids might be valuable anti-tumor promoters.

An extract of the roots of Taraxacum japonicum (Compositae) exhibited strong anti-tumor-promoting activities on the two-stage carcinogenesis of mouse skin tumor induced by dimethylbenz[a] anthracene (DMBA) as an initiator and 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate (TPA) as a promoter, as well as on that induced by DMBA and fumonisin B1. Further, the extract exhibited anti-tumor-initiating activity on the two-stage carcinogenesis of mouse skin tumor induced by (+/-)-(E)-methyl-2-[(E)-hydroxyimino]-5-nitro-6-methoxy-3-hexen amide (NOR-1) as an initiator and TPA as a promoter. These results suggested that an extract of the roots of the Taraxacum plant could be a valuable chemopreventive agent against chemical carcinogenesis.

Designing novel and meaningful interactions in the domain of Augmented Reality (AR) requires an efficient and appropriate methodology. A user centered design process requires the construction and evaluation of several prototypes with increasing technical fidelity. Although the main content of the application can already be conveyed with prerendered video, one of the main interactions in AR - the user-selected viewpoint - is only available in a very late stage. We propose the use of panoramic 360° video for scenario based user evaluation, where the user can select his point of view during playback. Initial users report a high degree of immersion in the constructed scenario, even for handheld AR.

Epitaxial SrTiO/sub 3//YBa/sub 2/Cu/sub 3/O/sub 7-x/ (STO/YBCO) multilayers for a superconducting field-effect transistor (SuFET) were fabricated by an ozone assisted Molecular Beam Epitaxy (MBE) method. To eliminate interdiffusion at the interface, we deposited high quality STO films at around 500/spl deg/C on YBCO films with clean surfaces. At this temperature, interdiffusion was negligible through in-situ Auger Electron Spectroscopy (AES). The electric field effect in a Ag/STO/YBCO device configuration also indicated the suppression of the interfacial layer between the STO and YBCO film. >

The government of Japan assumes that a large portion of renewable energy in the near future will be provided by photovoltaic generation systems installed at end consumers. Thus, smart grids in Japan will be established mainly at the distribution and the end-consumer level of power systems. Considering this situation, the Smart Grid Working Group, created inside the Cooperative Study Group on Applications of Power Electronic Simulations of IEEJ (Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan), is currently discussing and developing standard simulation models for components of the distributionand the end-consumer-level power systems. These components include distribution substations, distribution lines, voltage regulation equipment, pole-mounted transformers, photovoltaic panels, power conditioning systems, Li-ion batteries, and small and micro wind power generation systems. The purpose of developing the standard models is to use in transient simulations related to smart grids. This paper describes the present state and the future plan of the development of the standard models.

A noncontact cryogenic microwave measurement system has been developed for the characterization of passive and active superconducting devices by means of an unloaded quality factor measurement technique. The measurement system was designed specifically for the characterization of planar thin film resonant structures as a function of temperature (4–300 K), frequency (100 MHz–26.5 GHz), and dc voltage bias (≤100 V). It has been used for basic device studies of novel active superconducting lumped components made of metal‐oxide superconductor/insulator heterostructures.

Strenuous exercise induces delayed-onset muscle damage including oxidative damage of cellular components. Oxidative stress to muscle cells impairs glucose uptake via disturbance of insulin signaling pathway. We investigated glucose uptake and insulin signaling in relation to oxidative protein modification in muscle after acute strenuous exercise. ICR mice were divided into sedentary and exercise groups. Mice in the exercise group performed downhill running exercise at 30 m/min for 30 min. At 24 hr after exercise, metabolic performance and insulin-signaling proteins in muscle tissues were examined. In whole body indirect calorimetry, carbohydrate utilization was decreased in the exercised mice along with reduction of the respiratory exchange ratio compared to the rested control mice. Insulin-stimulated uptake of 2-deoxy-[3H]glucose in damaged muscle was decreased after acute exercise. Tyrosine phosphorylation of insulin receptor substrate (IRS)-1 and phosphatidyl-3-kinase/Akt signaling were impaired by exercise, leading to inhibition of the membrane translocation of glucose transporter 4. We also found that acute exercise caused 4-hydroxy-nonenal modification of IRS-1 along with elevation of oxidative stress in muscle tissue. Impairment of insulin-induced glucose uptake into damaged muscle after strenuous exercise would be related to disturbance of insulin signal transduction by oxidative modification of IRS-1.

A GaN Schottky diode using Zr/Al/Mo/Au metal stack for Schttky contact has been newly developed. Turn-on (V on ) and breakdown voltages (V br ) are controllable with varying the annealing temperature. The fabricated diode shows the values V on , series resistance (R s ), capacitance (C 0 ), and V br to be 0.42 V, 4.2 Ω, 1.0 pF, and 24 V, respectively. These values indicate that 85% conversion efficiency is expected at 5.8 GHz in the rectenna circuit.

The hepatitis C virus (HCV) core antibody and NS-4 antibody were measured in 25 cases of type C chronic hepatitis after interferon (IFN) treatment. The antibody titres were quantitated and the changes in the antibody titres and the therapeutic effects were compared. The titres of the passive haemagglutination assay (HCV-PHA) before and after IFN administration were also measured and compared with the therapeutic effects. No significant correlation was seen between the core, NS-4 and HCV-PHA titres before IFN administration and the resultant therapeutic effects, but many cases showing excellent effects were seen among those with core antibody titres under 100 U/L and those with HCV-PHA titres less than 2.16 In a study of the changes in the core and NS-4 antibody titres, these titres tended to decrease during IFN administration. In cases showing excellent effects, these decreases continued for a long period after completion of IFN administration and then became negative in some cases. However, in the remaining cases, titres showed increases up to 3 months after completion of IFN administration. HCV-PHA showed reduced titres in many cases of excellent effects before and after IFN administration; and there were also cases showing decreases with two power differences.

Crystallites observed at the SiO2InP interface were identified as InP by a variety of experimental techniques (transmission electron microscopy, energy-dispersive spectroscopy, X-ray photoemission spectroscopy, Auger electron spectroscopy and Raman spectroscopy). Crystallite generation was suppressed by reducing native oxides on the InP substrate using a sulphurization technique. The crystallite generation mechanism involves deoxidization of the native oxides by silicon, producing indium and phosphorus on the substrate, and subsequent epitaxial growth of the InP crystallites in the solid phase.

Summary form only given. In this talk, we will discuss the issues and challenges in creating context-aware embedded ubiquitous services. We first introduce various types of smart furniture and ubiquitous appliances. Then, several types of context-aware ubiquitous services such as a real-time ranking system for consumers, a secure library check-out system, a mobile TV-phone system, and an environmental monitoring system for a city park are described. Finally, we summarize the issues and future challenges in providing context-awareness, real-time adaptability, time-space coordination for embedded ubiquitous services.

We describe an energy reservation system which manages energy consumption for each individual application. Our system targets sensor networking environments, which supports running of multiple applications. This work guarantees application service time, which allows the service provider to predict and control the lifetime of a system.

In the real shop, shops owners can analyze the products which already purchased by gathering information on check counters. However these methods could not gather correct customerspsila action during they have shopping. Lots of products are displayed on shopping racks. Customers are touch and watch items to compare them before buying items. Such actions represent customerspsila attention of each item in details. We propose a novel platform, named ldquoLive! Commerce Systemrdquo, to gather customerspsila attention level by attaching sensor nodes.

Interfaces were formed with various insulating materials with different thermal histories. Interface roughening of 5 to ∼30 A was observed. Crystallites (≲ 100 A) at the interfaces were found only when the insulating materials contained Si atoms. Based on these results, a model was proposed, in which crystalline phosphorus grows epitaxially in solid-phase through a reaction between Si atoms and native oxides.

A silicon carbide (SiC) module with a high operating temperature has been designed, fabricated and tested at a device temperature of 200degC. The module has a multi- layered structure consisting of a SiC chip, a direct bond copper (DBC) SiN ceramic substrate, a copper-based plate, and water-cooled heatsink. The module was designed to have a temperature distribution of 200degC at the chip joint, 150degC at the DBC substrate joint and 65degC at the heatsink. A lead-free high temperature solder made of Au-Sn alloy was chosen to connect the SiC chip/DBC substrate joint in order to withstand the device temperature of 200degC. The joint of the DBC substrate/copper based plate was completed with Sn-Ag-Cu lead-free solder. The module was assembled by using a two- step reflow process for the above joints. The reflow conditions were optimized to reduce the void-area ratio to less than 5% for both solder junctions. High temperature aging tests were carried out for 1000 h at 150degC and 200degC, and for 600 h at 250degC. No significant cracks were observed in the Au-Sn solder joint after the 250degC test. A crack appeared in the Sn-Ag-Cu solder joint after 600 h in the 200degC test. The module was operated by feeding a 100 A DC current into the SiC device to maintain the device temperature at 200degC. A high operating temperature test was performed on the module for 12 h to confirm its reliability, and no significant degradation was observed. The temperature distribution was also measured in this test and compared with simulation results. The two temperature distributions were in good agreement. The results confirmed the possibility of applying this mounting technology to a SiC module for use at a high operating temperature of 200degC.

In 90's, the evolution of the Internet gave us a new dimension of an information infrastructure in the cyberspace era. The pervasive nature of the ubiquitous computing technology may give us yet another impacts on our life style. The calm nature of the technology will empower a person's, group's, and community's capabilities dramatically over the next decade. New context-aware services which we can expect in ubiquitous network environment are very wide range including health care and nursing, security, ITS, home control, building automation, environmental monitoring, entertainment and so on. Since every day objects will be connected to various types of networks seamlessly, we will be able to get various services at anytime and from anywhere. A user's requests will be dynamically adjusted in a context-aware and a personalized fashion. Although many companies are trying to create new context-aware ubiquitous services using Internet-ready mobile phones, RFIDs, and/or wireless sensor networks, there are many challenges in implementing such services in a ubiquitous network society. There are also many social and privacy issues involved in providing context-aware services with user's profile. In this panel, we first show you an image of ubiquitous network society, then the panel will discuss many issues and challenges in creating such context-aware ubiquitous services in future ubiquitous network society.

This paper demonstrates Airy Notes system, which monitors environmental condition using tiny sensor modules and shows the characteristics of places intuitively on a map and on a cell phone. The system is designed to help the user's easy understanding of the effect of green by densely placed sensor nodes. We conducted the experiment of the system in Shinjuku Gyoen Garden with 160 sensors. The garden is known for its effect of keeping temperature of nearby area calm with its green. We monitored the distribution of temperature, and observed that the temperature of the inner place was lower than the edge of the garden.

We propose D-uMiddle, a middleware framework that enables devices and sensor nodes in different smart spaces to interact with one another across the Internet. The development of pervasive systems has created smart spaces, where embedded sensors detect user contexts, and computational engines assists user activities. Even though there exists middleware platforms aiming at interoperability among devices, those smart spaces form isolated islands of devices with no uniform protocol for interoperability across smart spaces. This void makes it difficult to develop distributed pervasive computing applications integrating devices and sensor nodes in multiple different smart spaces. D-uMiddle is a framework for achieving such interoperability, and serves as a powerful platform for creating distributed pervasive computing applications that can integrate devices across smart spaces.

Children have "animistic intuitions" that they use to attribute intelligence, biology, and intentions. Robotic animals take on similar form and motion as real animals, and can exhibit intelligent behaviors. Two studies explore whether children apply animistic intuitions to robotic animals, and whether these attributes vary by the child's age and the robots' behaviors and appearance. A total of ninety-three children 3- to 5-years old participated in one of two experiments. Results show that 3-year-olds attribute a range of animistic properties to robots, whereas older children reduce their animistic attributions towards robotic dogs in piecemeal fashion according to specific questions and perceptual attributes.

We propose a novel tool, called objSampler, with which users can record and recall "encounters" with objects in ubiquitous computing environments. We encounter various things, individuals, and places in the real world either consciously, meaning encounters that we are aware of, or unconsciously, meaning those we are unaware of but physically close to them. While some of those encounters are particularly important or treasurable to us, the physical memory in our brain is often too volatile to remember them. In objSampler, we address this issue by providing a state-of-art hardware called objPipette that embeds a sensor node, an RF-ID reader, and a battery cell. Users can record conscious encounters with it by scanning RF-ID tags pasted on real world objects. In addition, the objPipette detects and records the places where the user is. Users can recall the recorded encounters by using a software support in objSampler, called objScope. This paper describes the design and implementation of objSampler. User study, which is also provided in this paper, shows that objSampler provides a unique and intuitive means to achieve the above goal

An AlN/AlGaN high-electron-mobility transistor (HEMT) fabricated on a free-standing AlN substrate is demonstrated. A metal stack, composed of Zr/Al/Mo/Au, was found to show low contact resistivity for source and drain ohmic contacts. The fabricated AlN/AlGaN HEMT exhibited a maximum drain current of 38 mA/mm with a threshold voltage of -3.4 V. Negligible drain current degradation was observed at temperatures from 300 to 573 K, demonstrating that an AlN/AlGaN approach on an AlN substrate is promising for stable high-temperature operation.

An In/sub 0.52/Al/sub 0.48/As/In/sub 0.53/Ga/sub 0.47/As metamorphic low-noise high electron mobility transistor (HEMT) has been developed. A growth temperature by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) and a thickness of a linearly graded InAlAs buffer layer have been optimized in order to reduce the density of lattice-misfit dislocation. Relatively high sheet electron density and mobility of 2.6/spl times/10/sup 12/ cm/sup -2/ and 9500 cm/sup 2//V sec at room temperature, respectively, are obtained. A 0.1-/spl mu/m-gate low-noise HEMT is fabricated using the developed epitaxial wafer A minimum noise figure of 0.48 dB with an associated gain of 14.2 dB has been obtained at 18 GHz.

The dependence of magnetization dynamics and magneto-impedance effect in positively magnetostrictive Fe/sub 77.5/Si/sub 7.5/B/sub 15/ amorphous wires on annealing conditions was studied. The observed MI ratio of the annealed samples was as much as 36% and optimum annealing conditions were suggested. The locus of the magnetization vector of the annealed wire indicated that the circumferential magnetization proceeded easily in the annealed wire. It was also suggested that the effect of oxidation should be considered for samples annealed in air.

A key challenge in ubiquitous computing is how to manage ambient information about the real-world environment where a variety of devices appear and disappear. Traditional capability description systems are inadequate in capturing dynamic changes in the environment. We propose the Toibox DVMS system, a multi-embedded database system that provides an integrated database view of computing devices. The integrated views are materialized; updates over the view provoke relevant operations for the specified devices. The materialized views are decentralized and incrementally maintained by data dissemination. This work presents the design of the Toibox system, based on our initial prototype implementations.

Increase of future appliances in the home environment causes confusion with less computer-skilled users. Consequently, embedded-hardware could prevent us from recognizing all of them by ourselves. Furthermore, wireless connection among embedded devices also makes users not have a clear grasp of which kind of application is running among them. This kind of user unawareness should make the rate of embedded ubiquitous systems into the home slow. To overcome the abovementioned issues, we have developed uBlocks which enables visual hand-made composition of software component applications among heterogeneous devices by users themselves.

We propose a new service modeling and lookup method based on service shaping. In existing service frameworks, assembling ubiquitous services requires application programmers to translate their requirements to the type space defined by service programmers. This translation, however, disables some of user requirements due to abstraction gap and time gap between the user tasks and service types. This raises a problem which we call the hidden service problem, where an application cannot find a service which satisfies a user's request, even if the service exists. To cope with this problem, we propose a shape-based service framework, called Galaxy. In Galaxy service framework, service programmers are required to describe capability of service, called, shape, for each service in an XML document. Applications can query services by specifying partial shape without depending on programmer-defined types.

This paper verifies the developed cooperative control method for voltage control equipment on distribution network simulator considering interconnection of wind power generators. The authors have developed a cooperative control method for existing voltage control equipment and newly developed voltage compensating equipment applying power electronics technology. The developed control method can handle various steep voltage fluctuations such as large steep generating power fluctuations of wind power generators and electrical flickers such as little periodical fluctuation by a tower shadow effect of wind power generators. The developed method has been applied to typical distribution models on analog distribution network simulator (15 kVA/200 V). The results indicate that the proposed method can regulate the line voltage within the regulated voltage ranges and can reduce electrical flickers.

The active power filters with line current detection need fewer detectors than those with individual load current detection, though the former have harmonics resonance problems. To avoid these problems, we propose a novel control system consisting of a line characteristics identifier and a 2nd-order filter. The identifier provides the line frequency characteristics observed from the point of the active power filter. The parameters of the 2nd-order filter are determined according to the identified characteristics. We obtained good results of both simulations and experiments using a prototype model.

Describes the design and implementation of a middleware system named the Possession System. The system is designed based on the "possession model", which provides users with a consistent view of application components, networked sensors and distributed devices by introducing two separate abstractions: "body" and "soul". The Possession System realizes a simple framework to deal with the adaptation of distributed multi-user applications by changing the relations among "bodies" and "souls". Furthermore, it enables users to interact with system components with a simple operation named "possession". Distributed multi-user applications built on top of our middleware realize adaptive behavior, which is achieved by a mechanism combining system events with various behavioral changes of application components, including the migration of components. The middleware is applicable to adaptive systems in mobile and ubiquitous computing environments where unpredictable changes in the available computing resources, device configuration and geographic location frequently occur. We describe how multi-user applications using our middleware behave adaptively.

An overview of the software components of the Advanced Real-time Technology (ART) system is given. In particular, the integrated time-driven scheduling model which provides predictability, flexibility, and ease of modification for both hard and soft real-time activities, the ARTS kernel including real-time object and thread support, and its basic performance are described. Also included is a summary of the testbed's current status. >

Critical issues in real-time software systems are addressed. The issues reviewed include: computational models; an integrated system-wide schedule; real-time communication protocols; real-time transactions; real-time language support; and real-time monitoring/debugging. >

Proposes a number of assignment and scheduling policies, ranging from asymmetric handling of operating system (OS) processing on designated OS processors, to the symmetric scheduling of OS processing on any available processor. These policies are evaluated under a variety of load conditions. Small systems, with up to three processors, are studied experimentally using the Mach operating system on a VAX-11/784. A discrete event simulator is used to study larger and more varied system configurations. For asymmetric systems, the results show that the OS preempt policy, which gives OS processing preemptive priority over application processing, provides the best performance in almost all situations. >