Tokyo Metropolitan University Research Articles

Introduction of Medical Physics Course in Tokyo Metropolitan University

Introduction of Medical Physics Course in Tokyo Metropolitan University

Development of an online concept for the use of the serious game EDIPS2

Strategic thinking games development is an important topic in the modern world, and the digitalization wave also influences this movement. In this research paper, the possibilities of creating an online version of an educational game, called EDIPS2 (Edutainment for Designing Integrated Product-Service System), that requires communication, was researched and discussed. It is a German version of a serious game EDIPS, which was created by Shimomura Laboratory at the Department of System Design at Tokyo Metropolitan University. Its purpose is to promote strategic thinking and collaboration between experts in design and in business of product service systems (PSS) through playful online-entertainment.

Metal‐Organic Frameworks: Synthesis, Structures, and Applications

Metal‐Organic Frameworks: Synthesis, Structures, and Applications

Design for the visually impaired when traveling outdoors using omnidirectional imagery and image recognition

Assistive technologies, such as devices to help perform tasks, cognitive aids, mobility aids, physical modifications in the built environment and closed captioning, help to improve or maintain a person's ability to complete day-to-day tasks. For example, assistive technologies can be helpful for people with disabilities or the elderly, enabling them to work around challenges they may encounter. The development of assistive technologies depends on datasets, which are used for training, testing or validation. Furthermore, making such datasets widely available can help advance the field of assistive technologies. One area in which assistive technologies can be useful is in helping people who are visually impaired. For example, electronic mobility aids use ultrasonic waves that reflect off objects in front of people, letting them know what is ahead. At the Division of Industrial Art, Faculty of System Design, Tokyo Metropolitan University, in Japan, Associate Professor Tetsuaki Baba is using a deep learning approach to develop assistive technology for visually impaired people. As a foundation for this work, he and his team have developed a dataset for developers to create deep learning vision-based applications for visually impaired people.

Development of a Novel Web Camera-Based Contact-Free Major Depressive Disorder Screening System Using Autonomic Nervous Responses Induced by a Mental Task and Its Clinical Application.

BackgroundTo increase the consultation rate of potential major depressive disorder (MDD) patients, we developed a contact-type fingertip photoplethysmography-based MDD screening system. With the outbreak of SARS-CoV-2, we developed an alternative to contact-type fingertip photoplethysmography: a novel web camera-based contact-free MDD screening system (WCF-MSS) for non-contact measurement of autonomic transient responses induced by a mental task.MethodsThe WCF-MSS measures time-series interbeat intervals (IBI) by monitoring color tone changes in the facial region of interest induced by arterial pulsation using a web camera (1920 × 1080 pixels, 30 frames/s). Artifacts caused by body movements and head shakes are reduced. The WCF-MSS evaluates autonomic nervous activation from time-series IBI by calculating LF (0.04–0.15 Hz) components of heart rate variability (HRV) corresponding to sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous activity and HF (0.15–0.4 Hz) components equivalent to parasympathetic activities. The clinical test procedure comprises a pre-rest period (Pre-R; 140 s), mental task period (MT; 100 s), and post-rest period (Post-R; 120 s). The WCF-MSS uses logistic regression analysis to discriminate MDD patients from healthy volunteers via an optimal combination of four explanatory variables determined by a minimum redundancy maximum relevance algorithm: HF during MT (HFMT), the percentage change of LF from pre-rest to MT (%ΔLF(Pre–R⇒MT)), the percentage change of HF from pre-rest to MT (%ΔHF(Pre–R⇒MT)), and the percentage change of HF from MT to post-rest (%ΔHF(MT⇒Post–R)). To clinically test the WCF-MSS, 26 MDD patients (16 males and 10 females, 20–58 years) were recruited from BESLI Clinic in Tokyo, and 27 healthy volunteers (15 males and 12 females, 18–60 years) were recruited from Tokyo Metropolitan University and RICOH Company, Ltd. Electrocardiography was used to calculate HRV variables as references.ResultThe WCF-MSS achieved 73% sensitivity and 85% specificity on 5-fold cross-validation. IBI correlated significantly with IBI from reference electrocardiography (r = 0.97, p < 0.0001). Logit scores and subjective self-rating depression scale scores correlated significantly (r = 0.43, p < 0.05).ConclusionThe WCF-MSS seems a promising contact-free MDD screening apparatus. This method enables web camera built-in smartphones to be used as MDD screening systems.

Preface

International Journal of Humanoid RoboticsVol. 18, No. 02, 2102001 (2021) No AccessPrefacehttps://doi.org/10.1142/S0219843621020011Cited by:0 Next This article is part of the issue: Special Issue on Tactile Sensing and Interaction for Humanoid RobotsGuest Editors: Dalin Zhou (University of Portsmouth, UK), Naoyuki Kubota (Tokyo Metropolitan University), Honghai Liu (University of Portsmouth, UK) and Benny Lo (Imperial College London, UK) AboutSectionsPDF/EPUB ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack CitationsRecommend to Library ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditEmail Remember to check out the Most Cited Articles! Check out these Notable Titles in Robotics FiguresReferencesRelatedDetails Recommended Vol. 18, No. 02 Metrics History Published: 2 June 2021 PDF download

Design for the visually impaired when traveling outdoors using omnidirectional imagery and image recognition

Assistive technologies, such as devices to help perform tasks, cognitive aids, mobility aids, physical modifications in the built environment and closed captioning, help to improve or maintain a person's ability to complete day-to-day tasks. For example, assistive technologies can be helpful for people with disabilities or the elderly, enabling them to work around challenges they may encounter. The development of assistive technologies depends on datasets, which are used for training, testing or validation. Furthermore, making such datasets widely available can help advance the field of assistive technologies. One area in which assistive technologies can be useful is in helping people who are visually impaired. For example, electronic mobility aids use ultrasonic waves that reflect off objects in front of people, letting them know what is ahead. At the Division of Industrial Art, Faculty of System Design, Tokyo Metropolitan University, in Japan, Associate Professor Tetsuaki Baba is using a deep learning approach to develop assistive technology for visually impaired people. As a foundation for this work, he and his team have developed a dataset for developers to create deep learning vision-based applications for visually impaired people.

JACIII Distinguished Editor &amp; Outstanding Reviewer Awards 2020

The JACIII Distinguished Editor and Outstanding Reviewer Awards were established for the purpose to honor and editors who have made a significant contribution to the growth of the JACIII in 2018 and to acknowledge reviewers who have made a significant contribution to reviewing in 2019. We express our deepest gratitude for their professional work, which we believe conductive to development of not only the JACIII but also scientific research. JACIII DISTINGUISHED EDITOR AWARD 2020 Fei Yan (Changchun University of Science and Technology, China) Guohun Zhu (Guilin University of Electronic Technology, China) Junzo Watada (Waseda University, Japan) Yoshiyuki Yabuuchi (Shimonoseki City University, Japan) JACIII OUTSTANDING REVIEWER AWARD 2020 Fei Yan (Changchun University of Science and Technology, China) Yasufumi Takama (Tokyo Metropolitan University, Japan) Luefeng Chen (China University of Geosciences, China) Xin Chen (China University of Geosciences, China) Tomomi Hashimoto (Saitama Institute of Technology, Japan) Hiroyuki Masuta (Toyama Prefectural University, Japan) Yasutake Takahashi (Fukui University, Japan)

Tokyo Metropolitan University: Community-centric System Research Center

The Community-centric System (CcS) research center was established in 2015 to address social problems such as elderly care, social rehabilitation, and information support in the event of a disaster. This research center combines various perspectives including sensing technology, robotics, information and communication, health and welfare, urban environments, and so on. This paper provides a brief preface on the history and activities of the research center.

Developing an international research of health-care ICT applied for rehabilitation and daily living support between Japan and the Netherlands

ABSTRACT While many health-care issues and technological solutions are viewed locally, developing new technological solutions might benefit from lessons learned globally. The aim of this study was to develop a shared international research agenda of health-care ICT, applied to rehabilitation and daily living support. This study was focused on sensor technology and social robots used for supporting older persons in the Netherlands (Amsterdam) and Japan (Tokyo). Three researchers from Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences visited Japan and four researchers from Tokyo Metropolitan University visited the Netherlands and conducted field-visits and mutual presentations. Using a nominal group technique (NGT) facilitated the expert panel deliberations. Research priorities were identified qualitatively through in-action critical reflection on emerging ideas, and quantitatively by ranking of identified knowledge gaps (using the Mentimeter© app). The resulting joint research agenda identified topics around the utility of sensor monitoring and processes of acceptance of health-care ICT among older persons and occupational therapists. The agenda was complemented by formulating underlying assumptions prescribing such research to be embedded in real-life situations with the participation of stakeholders.

First person – Setsuya Minami

ABSTRACTFirst Person is a series of interviews with the first authors of a selection of papers published in Biology Open, helping early-career researchers promote themselves alongside their papers. Setsuya Minami is first author on ‘BAG6 contributes to glucose uptake by supporting the cell surface translocation of the glucose transporter GLUT4’, published in BIO. Setsuya is a PhD student in the lab of Hiroyuki Kawahara at Tokyo Metropolitan University, Japan, investigating how proteins cause diseases.

Tactical Decision-Making Support Information for Aircraft Lightning Avoidance: Feasibility Study in Area of Winter Lightning

AbstractDid you know that aircraft can cause lightning? Researchers began investigating aircraft-triggered lightning after several cases were observed of aircraft receiving lightning strikes from lightning-inactive clouds. The phenomenon of aircraft-triggered lightning was subsequently confirmed by a UHF radar, and today, it is known that most aircraft lightning strikes are aircraft triggered. However, aviation weather support for aircraft lightning avoidance has not been well developed. This is probably because aircraft lightning strikes have been somewhat avoided by using other information such as thunderstorm nowcasting, and have hardly ever caused serious accidents. In fact, today’s aircraft are designed, manufactured, and certified so as not to be seriously affected by lightning. In actual aircraft operations, however, lightning strikes can still cause minor damage to an aircraft’s body and instruments and result in time and expense being incurred by airlines to check for and repair any damage. Moreover, such checks and repairs can sometimes lead to the delay or cancellation of following services. Aircraft lightning strike is therefore recognized as an important issue in aviation weather. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and Tokyo Metropolitan University carried out a feasibility study on providing tactical support information for aircraft lightning avoidance. In this study, weather and flight data were collected from actual cases of aircraft lightning strikes, and their analysis yielded information on trends regarding the relationship between aircraft lightning strikes and weather conditions. A prototype tactical support system was then developed based on the analyzed trends, and its evaluation showed that it could be used to avoid potentially 60%–80% of current aircraft lightning strikes.

Education on orthopedic manipulative physical therapy in Graduate School of Tokyo Metropolitan University

Education on orthopedic manipulative physical therapy in Graduate School of Tokyo Metropolitan University

Effect of adjusting the challenge–skill balance for occupational therapy: study protocol for a randomised controlled trial

IntroductionOccupational therapy (OT) is defined as the promotion of client health and well-being through a client-centred practice. However, there is a tendency to rely on the therapist’s experiences and values,...

Factors influencing motor imagery in children

Developmental disorder is widely recognized as communication and learning disabilities. However, motor development should also be meticulously evaluated. Some reports have indicated that children with motor developmental disabilities show lack of skill and stiffness. In particular, there are numerous reports on awkwardness of motor imagery. However, the maturity process of motor imagery has not been fully clarified. The present study was designed to comprehend factors influencing motor imagery in children. Approval for this study was granted by the Ethics Committee of Tokyo Metropolitan University. The subjects were 96 healthy elementary school students (male:58, female:38, mean age:8.7, SD = 1.9) without any specific diagnosis,. They were asked for their age, and the average time spent on a sport every day. The motor imagery of these children was estimated by the following methods. The motor imagery was evaluated by expected walking time. First, the children indicated their expected time to walk 8 m. Next, their actual walking time is measured. The difference between these times was assigned as a dependent variable. The age and the average time spent on a sport were assigned independent variables. The relations between the dependent variable and independent variables were analyzed using the Pearson's methods. The significance level was set at 10%. The children's expected time was as follows. Expected time: mean 6.9 sec, SD= 2.3. Actual walking time: mean 7.3 s, SD= 1.8. The difference between these times (prediction error): mean 1.6 s, SD= 1.3. The correlative analysis showed that the correlation coefficient between age and prediction error was −0.3 ( P < 0.1); the correlation coefficient between the average time spent on a sport and prediction error was −0.2 ( P < 0.1). The results of the present study suggested that motor image maturity correlates with the children's age. In addition, daily experience in sport influences motor image maturity.

The effect of anticipation of an ongoing connection with others on brain activity of neutral face recognition

In humans, information about the face is very important for first impression formation and establishing interpersonal relationships. We investigated the effect of anticipation of an ongoing connection with others on brain activity and neutral face recognition using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Sixteen young, right-handed females participated in this study (mean age ± standard deviation: 21.7 ± 3.2 years, range 20–34 years). They were healthy undergraduate or graduate students with no history of significant medical, psychiatric, or neurological disorders. All gave written informed consent to participate, and Tokyo Metropolitan University Research Ethics Committee (No. 17048) approved the study. During fMRI scanning, subjects were shown photographs of people with neutral facial expressions (72 neutral photographs from the face database that made by the university of FEI). Subjects were asked to consider each photograph under the following conditions: Condition 1, “I will meet the person in this photo only once.”; Condition 2, “I will meet the person in this photo multiple times.” Each photo was presented for 8 s. The total fMRI duration was 408 s. All functional imaging data were preprocessed and analyzed using SPM8 implemented in MATLAB (significance set at an uncorrected P < 0.001). We estimated brain activity differences between the 2 conditions. The left caudate nucleus was significantly activated in Condition 2 compared with Condition 1. The right substantia nigra had a significantly different blood-oxygen-level dependent response in Condition 1 compared with Condition 2. The anticipation of an ongoing connection could affect the first impression formation process in the human brain.

Relevance of metacognition and brain activity to decision-making tasks related to self-reflection

Daily life requires many decisions. People with high metacognition may effectively and quickly make decisions. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to examine the neural basis of the relationship between metacognition and self-related decision-making. Tokyo Metropolitan University Research Ethics Committee (No. 14072) approved this study. Participants included 13 young, healthy, right-handed people (mean age ± standard deviation: 21.38 ± 1.12 years, range 20–24 years). Before fMRI scanning, explicit self-esteem and metacognition were assessed using the Rosenberg Self-esteem Scale (RSES) and Metacognitive Awareness Inventory (MAI), respectively. Using a computer mouse, subjects answered decision-making task questions, which were randomly presented during scanning. Condition 1 (self-related decision-making) asked, “If given these 2 types of work, which would you do first?” Condition 2 (word decision-making) asked, “Which of the 2 words is longer?” The 2 presented words were randomized and the same for each condition. We analyzed differences between these conditions using SPM12 implemented in MATLAB R2017a. We also analyzed the correlation between the MAI scores (Factor 1: monitoring; Factor 2: control; Factor 3: metacognitive knowledge) and RSES scores and the averaged parameter estimates in the spherical region of interest. The left orbitofrontal cortex, left superior frontal gyrus, left inferior frontal gyrus, left angular gyrus, left temporal pole, bilateral middle temporal gyrus (MTG), and left hippocampus were activated in self-related compared with word decision-making. MAI Factor 1 and 3 scores were negatively correlated with the MTG ( r = −0.84 and r = −0.71, respectively; P < 0.05). MAI Factor 2 was not significantly correlated with any activity. The negative correlation between MAI Factor 1 and 3 scores and MTG activity disagrees with previous reports that MTG is involved in higher subjective confidence ratings. Moreover, metacognitive control may be regulated by other brain areas.

Effect of the sensory integration therapy for children with developmental disorders - Using the assessment of communication and interaction skills (ACIS)

In recent years, the sensory integration therapy (SIT) is used to treat children with developmental disorders in Japan. The play that is the occupational form with the meaning for children is offered in SIT and its aim is the solution to the problem of children. Often children with developmental disorders have problem on communication with other people. Therefore, we measured changes in the state of communication and interaction skills in children with developmental disorders before and after SIT using the assessment of communication and interaction skills (ACIS). The participants were 19 boys with developmental disorders from 4 to 6 years old. The intervention frequency was from once a week to once a month and intervention period was six or three months. 10-minutes treatment scene was observed and ACIS was marked by more than three occupational therapists. Statistical analysis was performed Wilcoxon signed-ranks test by using SPSS Statistics Ver.20. This study was carried out with approval of the Tokyo Metropolitan University Arakawa Campus Institutional Review Board (#13075). As for the ACIS % value before SIT was 80.4% ± 10.1SD, and the after SIT was 86.1% ± 8.5SD. There was meaningful improvement ( P = 0.028). Also, in each area of ACIS, “exchange of information” % value before SIT was 80.4% ± 10.1SD, and the after SIT was 86.1% ± 8.5SD. It was meaningful improvement ( P = 0.041). It was shown that the meaningful improvement in “ACIS total % value” and “exchange of information % value” at before and after SIT intervention. It was suggest that SIT has potential improved the state of the communication and interaction skills in children with developmental disorders. This study was partially supported by JSPS Grant in Aid for Scientific Research (#26350629).

Performance of an Aeolian Materials Sampler for the Determination of Amount of Coarse Organic Matter Transported during Wind Erosion Events in the Sahel, West Africa( International Symposium: Challenges to Soil Degradation Towards Sustaining Life and Environment, Tokyo Metropolitan University Symposium Series No.2, 2009)

Performance of an Aeolian Materials Sampler for the Determination of Amount of Coarse Organic Matter Transported during Wind Erosion Events in the Sahel, West Africa( International Symposium: Challenges to Soil Degradation Towards Sustaining Life and Environment, Tokyo Metropolitan University Symposium Series No.2, 2009)

Productivity Enhancement of Saline Paddy Fields in Angiththamkulam Yaya, Sri Lanka a Case Study( International Symposium: Challenges to Soil Degradation Towards Sustaining Life and Environment, Tokyo Metropolitan University Symposium Series No.2, 2009)

Productivity Enhancement of Saline Paddy Fields in Angiththamkulam Yaya, Sri Lanka a Case Study( International Symposium: Challenges to Soil Degradation Towards Sustaining Life and Environment, Tokyo Metropolitan University Symposium Series No.2, 2009)