Search

In the shipping industry, changes in freight rates are extremely drastic. Therefore, shipping companies needs to develop a forecasting method for freight rates to achieve sustainable growth. Recently, the details of the movement data of each ship have been obtained through the development of an automatic identification system (AIS). Therefore, we developed a practical forecasting model that combines AIS and statistical data. In our previous study, we proposed a method to develop a forecasting model for freight rates by combining AIS and statistical data using deep learning. However, there are some issues with the previous model. In this study, we analyzed the causes of deterioration in forecast accuracy from the perspective of the internal factors of the forecasting model. In addition, we developed a prediction system for demonstration tests and verified its applicability by comparing expert predictions.

Fluctuations in global industrial cargo require continuous ship advancement. Meanwhile, digitized shipping generates big data, which enables diverse analyses. Thus, we developed a basic ship planning support system that utilizes big data in maritime logistics. Prior studies enhanced the allocation algorithm to include shipping cost (COST) and greenhouse gas (GHG) features, although it was only applied to Capesize dry bulk carriers operating in the time-charter contract. This study presents an expansion of the applicability to include Panamax dry bulk carriers. A cargo movement model was developed to accommodate monthly cargo movement. Moreover, the allocation algorithm was broadened to consider voyage-charter contracts. This development enables operation-level optimization, assuming that ships operate in time- and voyage-charter contracts. Finally, the ships in demand can be analyzed through the defined scenarios, namely ship replacement while preserving existing ship allocation, optimization of ship allocation using only existing ships, and the presence of new ships.

Various materials are developed and applied for drug delivery systems (DDS). Of these, photocatalytic materials are considered one of the attractive materials for DDS. Because titanium dioxide used as a photocatalyst is safe for living organisms and can be prepared the various modifications. Therefore, it is possible to apply some drugs or antibodies for the surface of photocatalytic materials. These materials can be delivered and be concentrated to targeting organs and cells by the combination with magnetic nano particles. Further, it is possible not only to control the drug releasing by photocatalytic reaction but also to kill target cells directly by photocatalytic reaction. In addition to the possibility of photocatalysts as DDS materials, photocatalyst is also the attractive materials as antibacterial/antiviral materials. The infection of SARS-CoV-2 is the serious problem in the world. Then, we introduce the antibacterial/antiviral test method using photocatalytic materials and its application including in water purification, because we expect to apply for antibacterial/antiviral. Thus, this paper introduces the potential of photocatalytic materials as follows;the potential of photocatalytic materials as DDS and cancer treatments, test methods for antibacterial/antiviral effects by photocatalytic reactions, the potential of photocatalytic materials as medical applications, the inactivation of SARS-CoV-2 by photocatalytic reaction, and water purification.

Introduction La gentamicine est un antibiotique largement utilise en nephrologie. Cependant, son usage therapeutique en pediatrie est complique compte tenue, d’une part, d’une particularite physiologique modifiant sa pharmacocinetique, et d’autre part, de ses effets indesirables (nephrotoxicte) imposant un suivi therapeutique pharmacologique (STP) regulier. Description L’objectif de ce travail etait de demontrer l’interet du STP dans l’optimisation therapeutique de la gentamicine en pediatrie. Methodes Il s’agit d’une etude retrospective effectuee au niveau du service de Pharmacologie d’un etablissement hospitalier et universitaire, qui a porte sur 88 patients âges de moins de 15 ans, traites par gentamicine et qui ont beneficie du STP. Resultats La peritonite constituait l’infection la plus frequente de la gentamicine (53 %). Parmi les patients, 83,33 % presentaient un dysfonctionnement renal (insuffisance renale, hemodialyse ou dialyse peritoneale). Le recours a la dose de charge etait effectif dans 69 % des cas. Les modalites d’administration etaient conformes, en revanche, la demande de la concentration maximale etait peu frequente (11 %). Trente-sept pour cent des concentrations minimales Cmin etaient supratherapeutiques exposant au risque de nephrotoxicite et 20 % des Cmax etaient infratherapeutiques qui pourraient conduire a un echec therapeutique. Grâce au STP, la proportion des patients equilibres est passee de 63 % a 77 %. Conclusion Le STP de la gentamicine est crucial dans l’optimisation et la securisation du traitement par gentamicine en nephrologie pediatrique.

This arc model was motivated by the need to model arcs during the failure of a large superconducting magnet following an unmitigated quench. During a quench, resistive heating raises the conductor and insulator temperature. Electrical and mechanical properties change and inline and bypass arcs can form. The arcs are sustained by the massive (gigaJoule) stored magnetic energy. As windings are bypassed by shorts, the inline arc current and hence, arc diameter, increases. Cable-in-conduit conductors limit the maximum arc column diameter and when limited, the arc properties change rapidly as the arc changes from a free arc to a confined arc. For arc current 10–100 kA we calculate the arc column electrical properties and temperature, by solving a set of equations describing the arc physics. The equations describe the arc column heating, gas ionisation, heat loss and electrical properties. By constraining the maximum arc column diameter in the solution, the transition between free and confined arc can be calculated.

A large amount of energy is stored in ITER superconducting magnet system. Faults which initiate a discharge are typically mitigated to quickly transfer away the stored magnetic energy for dissipation through a bank of resistors. In an extreme unlikely occurrence, an unmitigated fault event represents a potentially severe discharge of energy into the coils and the surrounding structure. A new simulation tool has been developed for the detailed study of these unmitigated fault events. The tool integrates: the propagation of multiple quench fronts initiated by an initial fault or by subsequent coil heating; the 3D convection and conduction of heat through the magnet structure; the 3D conduction of current and Ohmic heating both along the conductor and via alternate pathways generated by arcing or material melt. Arcs linking broken sections of conductor or separate turns are simulated with a new unconstrained arc model to balance electrical current paths and heat generation within the arc column in the multi-physics model. The influence under the high Lorenz forces present is taken into account. Simulation results for an unmitigated fault in a poloidal field coil are presented.

Objectives:To assess the clinical implications of ultrasonography (US) in monitoring disease activity and diagnosis of relapsing polychondritis (RP).Methods:Firstly, auricular (n=5) and nasal (n=1) chondritis of six patients with RP were assessed by US before and after treatments. The relationship between US findings and serum markers were evaluated. Moreover, the comparisons of US findings between the auricle of patients with RP (n=5), repeated trauma (n=5), cellulitis (n=2) and healthy subjects (n=5) were also assessed.Results:US finding before treatment showed low-echoic swollen auricular and nasal cartilage with increased power Doppler signals (PDS) in all cases of RP. US findings corresponded to biopsy findings. After treatment, the swollen ear and nose completely resolved. Then, US findings also showed dramatic reductions in swollen cartilage with the decrease in PDS. Although serum markers completely improved, US finding remained in 1 of 6 cases, and this case showed flare due to PSL tapering. Finally, RP could be differentiated from the damage of repeated trauma and cellulitis by the presence or absence of PDS and subperichondrial serous effusion.Conclusion:US of auricular and nasal cartilage in RP possibly facilitates evaluation of auricular lesions and monitoring of disease activity, especially when we consider the treatment response and the timing of drug tapering.Disclosure of Interests:None declared

A specific periodic bar-and-joint framework with limited degrees of freedom is shown to have a transition mechanism when subjected to an external force. The static nonlinear elasticity of this framework under a uniaxial load is modelled with the two angular variables specifying the rotation and distortion of the linked square components. Numerically exploring the equilibrium paths then reveals a transition state of the structure at a critical value of the internal stiffness. A simplified formulation of the model with weak nonlinear terms yields an exact solution of its transition state. Load–displacement behaviour and stability for the two systems with or without approximation are analysed and compared.

Stratospheric balloons have been used worldwide for more than half a century for various scientific missions. However such balloon operations are facing safety issues due to the reduction in appropriate sites for landing. Instead of landing on the ground, landing and recovering on the sea can be a radical solution to this problem. Marine search-and-recovery operations for balloons are not conducted commonly; however, such the operation has been uniquely developed in Japan for more than 40 years. This study describes the methodology for such search-and-recovery of balloons and gondolas through examination of multiple case studies.

The Japan Atomic Energy Agency is responsible for the procurement of the central solenoid (CS) conductor for ITER. The CS conductor uses a circular-in-square type sheath tube (jacket, outer dimension: 49 mm × 49 mm square, inner diameter: 32.6 mm) made of high manganese stainless steel JK2LB. The CS jacket suffers high electromagnetic force with 60,000 cycles during its lifetime. Prior to mass-production of CS jacket sections for the ITER machine, production of 170 units of jacket sections has been carried out. During production, it was confirmed that dimensional and mechanical performances satisfy the ITER requirements. The nondestructive examination procedure for the CS jacket sections has been developed. As a result, mass-production processes of CS jacket have been established.

Cardiac surgery with cardiopulmonary bypass is associated with the development of a systemic inflammatory response that can often lead to dysfunction of major organs. We hypothesised that the highly selective α2-adrenergic agonist, dexmedetomidine, attenuates the systemic inflammatory response. Forty-two patients were randomly assigned to receive dexmedetomidine or saline after aortic cross-clamping). The mean (SD) levels of the nuclear protein plasma high-mobility group box 1 increased significantly from 5.1 (2.2) ng ml(-1) during (16.6 (7.3) ng ml(-1) ) and after (14.3 (8.2) ng ml(-1) ) cardiopulmonary bypass in the saline group. In the dexmedetomidine group, the levels increased significantly only during cardiopulmonary bypass (4.0 (1.9) ng ml(-1) baseline vs. 10.8 (2.7) ng ml(-1) ) but not after (7.4 (3.8) ng ml(-1) ). Dexmedetomidine infusion also suppressed the rise in mean (SD) interleukin-6 levels after cardiopulmonary bypass (a rise of 124.5 (72.0) pg ml(-1) vs. 65.3 (30.9) pg ml(-1)). These suppressive effects of dexmedetomidine might be due to the inhibition of nuclear factor kappa B activation and suggest that intra-operative dexmedetomidine may beneficially inhibit inflammatory responses associated with ischaemia-reperfusion injury during cardiopulmonary bypass.

This paper describes the development of an automated nuclear emulsion analyzing system, which is constructed of the following three parts, the nuclear emulsion “OPERA film”, the latest automated scanning system “S-UTS” and the three-dimensional track reconstruction software “NETSCAN”. The system is able to operate at a speed of 72 cm 2 /h and overcame the bottleneck of long time-consuming to recognize tracks in the nuclear emulsion by human eyes. The system is essential for the OPERA experiment, muon radiography, gamma-ray telescope and many other fields with nuclear emulsion.

Technology plays an important role in the development of students who can search for the concepts which they learn in the books on the Internet and find out more information on them. This will increase the depth of their knowledge. According to some researches, students tend to be more active and more participative when technology is being integrated in their lesson resulting to better comprehension and good performance. Using technology in the learning process can facilities automatic detection of the learner’s learning styles which can help the learner to develop his coping strategies to compensate for his/her weaknesses, capitalize on his/her strengths, improve the quality of the learning process and make it more effective. This research presents an automatic tool for detecting learning styles in a learning environment by analyzing the content of the learner’s favorite WebPages using social bookmarking services(www.tagme1.com) and shows that how actual behavior of the learners during the learning process can be used as an effective source for detecting their learning styles based on Felder-Silverman learning style model (FSLSM) .

The Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) has the responsibility to procure 25% of the ITER Toroidal Field Coil conductors as the Japanese Domestic Agency (JADA) in the ITER project. The TF conductor is a circular shaped, cable-in-conduit conductor, composed of a cable and a stainless steel conduit (jacket). The outer diameter and maximum length of the TF conductor are 43.7 mm and 760 m, respectively. JAEA started to produce strand, cables and jacket sections and to construct a conductor manufacturing (jacketing) facility in 2008. Following preparation in December 2009 of the jacketing facility, the dummy cable, the jacket sections and fabrication procedures, such as welding, cable insertion, compaction and spooling, JAEA manufactured a 760 m long Cu dummy conductor for process qualification. Into the 760 m long Cu dummy conductor jacketing, JAEA successfully inserted the cable with a maximum force of 32 kN. The outer diameter of the cross section of the spooled conductor was 43.7 ± 0.15 mm, which complies with the ITER target requirement of 43.7 ± 0.3 mm. Following qualification of all manufacturing processes, JAEA has started to fabricate superconducting conductors for the TF coils.

Personalized adaptive systems rely heavily on the learning style and the learner's behavior. Due to traditional teaching methods and high learner/teacher ratios, a teacher faces great obstacles in the classroom. In these methods, teachers deliver the content and learners just receive it. Moreover, teachers can’t cope with the individual differences among learners. This weakness may be attributed to various reasons such as the high number of learners accommodated in each classroom and the low teaching skills of the teacher himself/herself, Therefore, identifying learning styles is a critical step in understanding how to improve the learning process. This paper presented an automatic tool for identifying learning styles based on the Felder-Silverman learning style model in a learning environment using a social book marking website such as www.tagme1.com . The proposed tool used the learners’ behaviour while they are browsing / exploring their favorite web pages in order to gather hints about their learning styles. Then the learning styles were calculated based on the gathered indications from the learners' database. The results showed that the proposed tool recognition accuracy was 72% when we applied it on 25 learners with low number of links per learner. Recognition accuracy increased to 86.66% when we applied it on 15 learners with high number of links per learner.

The Coulomb–Born approximation is used to calculate electron-impact excitation collision strengths and effective collision strengths for optically allowed transitions among degenerate fine-structure levels of hydrogenic ions with 2 ⩽ Z ⩽ 30 and n ⩽ 5 . Collision strengths are calculated over a wide range of energies up to E j / Z 2 = 10 Ryd . Effective collision strengths are obtained over a wide temperature range up to 10 8 K by integrating the collision strengths over a Maxwellian distribution of electron velocities.

Nuclear emulsion has a potential use as a gamma-ray telescope with high angular resolution. For this application it is necessary to know the time when each track was recorded in the emulsion. In previous experiments using nuclear emulsion, various efforts were used to associate time to nuclear emulsion tracks and to improve the time resolution. Using a high speed readout system for nuclear emulsion together with a clock-based multi-stage emulsion shifter, we invented a technique to give a time-stamp to emulsion tracks and greatly improve the time resolution. A test experiment with a 2-stage shifter was used to demonstrate the principle of multi-stage shifting, and we achieved a time resolution 1.5 s for 12.1 h (about 1 part in 29 000) with the time stamp reliability 97% and the time stamp efficiency 98%. This multi-stage shifter can achieve the time resolution required for a gamma-ray telescope and can also be applied to another cosmic ray observations and accelerator experiments using nuclear emulsion.