Counseling (ro)bot as a use case for 5G/6G.

This paper presents a counseling (ro)bot called Visual Counseling Agent (VICA) which focuses on remote mental healthcare. It is an agent system leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) to aid mentally distressed persons through speech conversation. The system terminals are connected to servers by the Internet exploiting Cloud-nativeness, so that anyone who has any type of terminal can use it from anywhere. Despite a promising voice communication interface, VICA shows limitations in conversation continuity on conventional 4G networks. Concretely, the use of the current 4G networks produces word dropping, delayed response, and the occasional connection failure. The objective of this paper is to mitigate these issues by leveraging a 5G/6G slice inclusive of mobile/multiple edge computing (MEC). First, we propose and partly implement the enhanced and advanced version of VICA. Servers of enhanced versions collaborate to increase speech recognition reliability. Although it significantly increases generated data volume, the advanced version enables a recognition of the facial expressions to greatly enhance counseling quality. Then, we propose a quality assurance mechanism using multiple levels of catalog, as well as 5G/6G slice inclusive of MEC, and conduct experiments to uncover issues related to the 4G. Results indicate that the number of speech recognition errors in Internet Cloud is more than twofold compared to edge computing, implying that quality assurance using 5G/6G in conjunction with VICA Counseling (ro)bot has higher efficiency.

Phototaxis of Propsilocerus akamusi (Diptera: Chironomidae) From a Shallow Eutrophic Lake in Response to Led Lamps.

A study on the attraction of adult Propsilocerus akamusi midges to different-colored light traps was carried out from October 21 to November 15, 2013. The 6 colored lights used in light-emitting diode (LED) lamps were white, green, red, blue, amber, and ultraviolet (UV). The UV lamp attracted the most P. akamusi, followed by green, white, blue, amber, and red. A white pulsed LED light attracted only half the number of midges as did a continuous-emission white LED light. The result indicated that manipulation of light color, considering that the red LED light and/or pulsed LED light are not as attractive as the other colors, may be appropriate for the development of an overall integrated strategy to control nuisance P. akamusi in the Lake Suwa area.

Red and blue pulse timing control for pulse width modulation light dimming of light emitting diodes for plant cultivation.

A pulse width modulation (PWM) light dimming system containing red and blue light emitting diodes was designed and constructed. Cultivation of the plant Arabidopsis thaliana under various light dimming wave patterns was compared. Control of the pulse timing (phase of wave pattern) between red and blue light in PWM light dimming was examined. Different plant growth was obtained by changing the phase of red and blue pulses. Pulse timing control of PWM light dimming for plant cultivation has the potential to act as a method for probing photosynthesis.

Influence of carrier-injection efficiency on modulation rate of organic light source.

We have investigated the relationship between the energy levels of an emissive layer and the modulation rate of organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) based on a distyrylbenzene derivative, 1,4-bis[2-[4-[N,N-di(p-tolyl)amino]phenyl]vinyl]benzene (DSB). By utilizing DSB as an emitting material, a high modulation rate can be realized because of the short fluorescence lifetime of 0.2 ns of DSB. Furthermore, we also found that an energy gap between an emissive layer and an adjacent organic layer is an important parameter to improve modulation rate. DSB-doped 4,4-bis(2,2-ditolylvinyl)biphenyl is the best combination of all the organic materials used in this study, and the fastest cutoff frequency of 10 MHz has been achieved for the OLED in spite of the large emitting area of 1 mm(2).

Transient response of blue organic electroluminescence devices with short fluorescence lifetime of substituted phenyl/vinyl compound as an emissive layer.

We have demonstrated a short fluorescence lifetime of the substituted phenyl/vinyl compound, 1,4-bis[2-[4-[N,N-di(p-tolyl)amino]phenyl]vinyl]benzene (DSB). The fluorescence lifetime of the 0.5 mol.% DSB-doped 4,4'-bis(9-carbazolyl)biphenyl film is 1.2 ns, which is desirable for organic light-emitting diode (OLED) light sources for optical interconnect applications. We have also examined frequency dependences on the electroluminescence (EL) intensity of the OLED and the photoluminescence (PL) intensity of the DSB film. The -3 dB cutoff frequency of the EL intensity is about 3 MHz for the optimized device, and the -3dB cutoff frequency of the PL intensity is about 160 MHz for the optically pumping DSB film.

A photoluminescent six-coordinated zinc(II) complex with hydroxides as axial ligands, [Zn(Hhpa)2(OH)2] (Hhpa = 3-hydroxypicolinamide).

A highly luminescent zinc(II) complex has been prepared using 3-hydroxypicolinamide; it has a six-coordinated octahedral structure with hydroxides as axial ligands in solution.

Picometer-scale dynamical observations of individual membrane proteins: the case of bacteriorhodopsin.

In vivo measurements of dynamical conformational changes in single biomolecules under functional conditions have had a tremendous impact on molecular and cell biology. However, even single-molecule fluorescent resonance energy transfer cannot easily monitor the intramolecular dynamics in cell systems due to shortcomings in monitoring precision. Here, we report dynamical observations of irreversible intramolecular conformational changes in a single-membrane protein [bacteriorhodopsin (BR)] using diffracted x-ray tracking. The light-driven proton pump BR is the best-characterized membrane protein. The position of BR's 35th amino acid, which is located farthest from retinal, exhibits a momentary positional jump of 0.73+/-0.48 A due to the expression of its function. Following that, we observed Brownian motion without the diffracted spots returning to their initial positions. The average width of this jump is about 14 times larger than that of thermal Brownian motion and agrees with estimated movements from known x-ray crystallography data. This result is an important step toward realizing in vivo observations of single-molecular conformational changes in membrane proteins.

Cutaneous distribution of sympathetic postganglionic fibers from stellate ganglion: A retrograde axonal tracing study using wheat germ agglutinin conjugated with horseradish peroxidase.

Sympathetic postganglionic cells of the stellate ganglion (SG) projecting to the skin in young dogs were labeled retrogradely with wheat germ agglutinin conjugated with horseradish peroxidase (WGA-HRP). After application of WGA-HRP into the dermis and/or subcutaneous tissue of the upper extremity, numerous labeled cells were observed in the SG. The sympathetic postganglionic fibers from the SG were distributed in the skin area between the third cervical vertebra and the level of the thirteenth rib. These fibers decreased in number toward the rostral and caudal skin area with a peak on the upper extremity. Sympathetic postganglionic cells in the SG projecting to these skin areas were found ipsilaterally to the injection side. No labeled cells were observed in the SG after injecting WGA-HRP into the epidermis and/or subcutaneous tissue of the face, the level of the second cervical vertebra, and the lower extremity.Sympathetic postganglionic neurons of the SG which project in the cervical and thoracic sympathetic trunks were labeled retrogradely with unconjugated horseradish peroxidase (HRP) applied to the cut end of the sympathetic trunks proximal to the SG. The application was made in the cervical sympathetic trunk (CST) caudal to the superior cervical ganglion (SCG). In the thoracic sympathetic trunk (TST), the application was made between the fourth and fifth thoracic sympathetic ganglia (T4 and T5), and between T10 and T11. Labeled cell bodies were observed in SG bilaterally.