Tohoku Techno Arch Co., Ltd. List of Products and Services

Spectroscopic imaging has been applied to analyze and identify substances, but conventional spectroscopic imaging system has problems such as miniaturization of system and high resolution analysis.　 The invention relates to a spectroscopic imaging system combining a highly sensitive image sensor and a high-speed tunable bandpass filter, and has the following features. ・Non-destructive, non-contact, rapid spectroscopic imaging are possible. ・To provide a compact, portable, low-cost spectroscopic imaging system. ・It is possible to obtain a high-resolution spectroscopic video image. ・The transmission wavelength can be controlled by applying a voltage to the liquid crystal. The invention can be applied to component analysis of food production and processing, contamination inspection, growth and yield investigation in agriculture, component analysis in the medical field, etc.

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Intelligent Reflecting Surface (IRS) is known as a means to improve wireless communication networks. IRS is a device with integrated metamaterial elements. By controlling the metamaterial elements, electromagnetic waves incident on the device can be reflected in any direction. As a result, it is possible to provide an effective communication environment even in places where radio waves are difficult to reach, such as behind a shield, and to expand the area where ultra-high-speed communication can be used.　 　However, if each carrier deploys its own IRS, problems such as landscape destruction due to an increase in communication facilities and wiring, an increase in resource and energy consumption, and redundancy of systems are expected. Therefore, there has been a need to establish a method for sharing the IRS among carriers. 　The present invention relates to a method for sharing the IRS among multiple carriers using a machine learning algorithm.

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Metal-air batteries composed of a metal electrode (negative electrode), an electrolyte, and an air electrode(positive electrode) have the advantage of being lighter than other batteries and have been used practically as power sources for hearing aids. On the other hand, the degradation of the metal electrode caused by contact with the electrolyte and the low voltage compared with other batteries have been pointed out as problems.The present invention relates to a new form of metal-air battery which solves the above problems. The present battery is a "foldable metal-air battery" in which a plurality of metal electrodes, electrolytes, and air electrodes are arranged on a sheet, and a plurality of laminates of metal electrodes/electrolytes/air lectrodes are formed by folding the sheet. Since the sheet is folded to function as a battery, the electrolyte and metal electrodes do not come into contact with each other when not in use, and deterioration can be prevented. The figure on the right shows the measured voltage when the number of cells in the laminate is increased. By stacking multiple cells as in origami, the problem of low voltage of metal-air batteries can also be solved. Since this battery solves the conventional problem and has a new foldable type, it is expected to be put into practical use in the following applications.

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In order to improve the fuel efficiency of aircraft and automobiles, it is effective to reduce the air drag, especially the friction drag, on the surface of airframes and bodies. Riblet is known as a conventional technique for reducing friction drag, but when the direction of stream line deviates from the riblet direction by more than a predetermined angle, the friction drag increases. On the other hand, there are few research examples of sandy rough surfaces (i.e. distributed micro roughness (DMR)) for reducing friction drag.　 In addition, there are many simulations focusing on turbulent flow (with high friction drag) over a rough surface, but there are few simulations focusing on the transition from laminar flow to turbulent flow. The present invention focused on the transition from laminar flow to turbulent flow, and it was clarified that the DMR can delay the transition by suppressing turbulence energy growth and reduce friction drag. Therefore, it is expected that the DMR of the present invention can be applied to the surface of transportation, thereby reducing friction drag and improving fuel consumption. The device may propose a new standard for product surface finishes.

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Optical circuits (e.g., Mach-Zehnder interferometers) based on optical interferometers important as hardware for next-generation information processing technologies using optical technology, such as optical quantum computers, optical AI accelerators, and spatial multiplexing transmission communications. Large-scale optical circuits are required for large-scale information processing, and the circuit size is limited by the area of optical tables and wafers.　 　By using the optical interferometer of the present invention, the area limitation can be alleviated and the scale of optical circuits can be further expanded.

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　Pulmonary fistula is a frequent complication after pneumonectomy, and the classic water seal test is still the main method of identification and evaluation. However, in the conventional method, it is necessary to remove the fistula by filling it with saline many times for evaluation of the repair, and the saline decreases the adhesion during the repair using the sheet. In recent years, another method has been reported to identify the aerosol of indocyanine green by inhaling it and using a near-infrared camera. However, since the work is complicated and the safety is unknown, a simpler method is required.　　 　Dr. Yui Watanabe of the Department of Respiratory Surgery, Institute of Aging Medicine, Tohoku University, found that monitoring the local oxygen concentration in the thoracic cavity can easily and accurately evaluate a pulmonary fistula in a short time. The present invention relates to a pulmonary fistula evaluation system and a medical device equipped with the system. If the development and implementation of the air leak detection device according to the present invention is realized, the identification and evaluation of a pulmonary fistula can be performed more easily than the conventional method.

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　In recent years, for viral infectious diseases that cause significant damage to society, wastewater-based epidemiological methods that use epidemiological information contained in municipal wastewater to detect the occurrence of infectious disease patients and infectious epidemics at an early stage have attracted attention. Currently, wastewater-based epidemiological studies on infectious diseases are mainly performed by detecting viral genes using PCR. However, some problems remain, such as the time required to detect and quantify viral genes from collected wastewater samples, the necessity of sample concentration due to the low virus concentration, and the high cost and labor for analysis.　　 　In this study, we aimed to construct a sensor that can detect infectious disease-related biomarkers in wastewater quickly and simply. Biomarkers are emitted from patients with infectious diseases at higher concentrations than the virus itself. In this study, we used antiviral human immunoglobulin (Ig) A as a test substance. We attempted to construct a measurement system in which IgA in a sample is captured by antigen-antibody reaction with proteins immobilized on the electrode surface, and changes in the electrode surface state associated with the reaction are detected by electrochemical measurement.

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In today's clinical medicine, blood sampling is frequently used to diagnose and treat diseases, and the problem of shortage of medical workers has been pointed out. In addition, it is difficult for clinicians to find blood vessels with the naked eye in some patients, and there is a risk of failure in the procedure, as well as serious problems such as needlestick injuries and infections caused by blood contact. To solve these problems, automated robotic blood sampling may be effective.　 　Various types of blood sampling robots have been studied, but many automated puncturing robots use ultrasonic diagnostic imaging equipment. In order to prevent the spread of infectious diseases, it is ideal to estimate the position of blood vessels and achieve automated puncturing without contact with patients. 　The present invention relates to a method for identifying the position of three-dimensional blood vessels using two infrared cameras without complete contact. By considering the difference in refraction depending on the viewing direction of the cameras, it became possible to identify the position of blood vessels with high accuracy.

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　Helium is difficult to obtain and expensive, so cooling systems that use helium are expected to be difficult to continue using. 　 The invention enables rapid cooling without helium by continuously spraying a two-phase flow of cryogenic gaseous N2 and solid N2 (SN2 ). Specifically, it is characterized by continuously generating slush N2 by spraying at transonic speed using a Laval nozzle. 　In an example of cell freezing, a 23% improvement in cell survival rate during thawing was achieved compared to liquid nitrogen immersion. This invention has the potential for application in various cooling systems beyond this specific example. Additionally, its application for resist removal in semiconductor cleaning without harmful chemicals is also under consideration.

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Cellulose nanofibrils (CNFs) are highly crystalline nanofibers obtained from wood pulp. CNFs are environmentally compatible new materials with excellent mechanical properties such as light weight, high strength, and low thermal expansion. Because of these outstanding mechanical characteristics, CNFs are expected to be applied to automotive components, electronic devices, gas barrier materials, and medical materials. On the other hand, chemical fibers made of cellulose, known as rayon, are also used in clothing and tire materials as regenerated fibers made from wood pulp and cotton cellulose. Regenerated fibers using CNF as a raw material have been researched and developed, however the mechanical properties of the fabricated single cellulose filaments have not been sufficient. By developing an innovated CNF orientation control method using flow and electric fields, we have successfully fabricated high-strength cellulose single filament.

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In the COVID-19 pandemic, which has been raging since 2020, the health care crisis and economic stagnation have become major problems. We must solve these challenges and prepare for other pandemics by emerging or re-emerging infectious diseases in the future. 　 　Although neutralizing antibodies are protective against viral challenge, the adaptive T cell immune response is a major determinant of the clinical outcome after viral infection. 　In this study, the inventor aims the establishment of the technique that predicts disease severity by means of specific or cross-reactive mobilization of T cell immunity to four subtypes of human common cold coronavirus (HCoVs-229E, -OC43, -NL63, and -HKU1) and SARS-CoV-2 from convalescent COVID-19 patients and SARS-CoV-2–unexposed donors. Using ELISPOT technology, this study succeeded in developing a prediction equation for severe disease, thus establishing a prediction method (see figure). 　In addition, the data accumulated and the knowledge obtained in this study are very useful for the countermeasures against emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases of concern in the future. We believe this novel technique is able to release many people from excess behavioral restrictions or a deterioration in the economy.

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Conventional immune checkpoint (CP) inhibitors (e.g. PD-1 and CTLA-4 inhibitors) have revolutionized cancer immunotherapy, but are ineffective in approximately 40-80% of patients and have side effects such as autoimmune inflammation. The myeloid CP molecule LILRB4 (B4) has the unique property of being involved in immune evasion of cancer while also being involved in the exacerbation of autoimmune diseases, and is expected to be a new drug target, but its ligand was unknown. The present invention identifies fibronectin (FN) as the only physiological ligand for B4 and finds that immune control is possible by inhibiting the binding of B4 to FN, and relates to a novel CP inhibitor based on this finding. Following patterns can be considered for immunoregulation by blocking the binding between B4 and its ligand FN : (1) FN analog (competitively binds to B4-FN) (2) Anti-B4 antibody (acts on B4 and inhibits B4-FN binding) *Company X has Phase 1b data for its in-house anti-B4 antibody in cancer immunotherapy. Data disclosure may be possible through negotiation (terms to be determined). (3) Anti-FN antibody (acts on FN and inhibits B4-FN binding) Further, B4 as a biomarker for lung cancer patients’ prognosis prediction was verified by our original B4 monoclonal antibody that inhibits B4-FN binding (data not shown).​

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The deep ultraviolet light emitting device (DUV-LED) is fabricated from AlGaN-based nitride semiconductor. As the substrate material of the AlGaN-based DUV-LED, high lattice consistency with AlGaN, wider band gap than AlGaN, and high thermal conductivity are required, and aluminum nitride (AlN) which satisfies these conditions is noticed.　 　Since AlN shows high dissociation pressure at high temperature, it is difficult to grow AlN crystal by crystal growth technique from melt such as CZ method. Therefore, single crystal growth using sublimation method is mainly carried out. However, the sublimation method requires extremely high temperature to sublimate AlN, which makes it difficult to increase the size of crystal, reduce impurities such as carbon, and reduce the cost. 　The present invention has made it possible to grow high-quality AlN single crystal at a higher growth rate than the conventional liquid phase growth technique by the liquid phase growth method using Fe-based flux.

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　Stress urinary incontinence (SUI) is a disorder that affects young and old people and significantly reduces their quality of life. It has been thought to be caused by a decrease in estrogen, but estrogen replacement therapy has not been sufficiently effective, and there is currently no effective oral treatment that is the first choice, so the development of new therapeutic agents is expected. Because of the poor prognosis of SUI in patients with high serum luteinizing hormone (LH) levels before radical prostatectomy, the inventors considered LH to play an important role in urinary function.　 　To test this hypothesis, they found that the gonadotropin-releasing hormone GnRH antagonists degarellirex or cetrorellix suppressed LH and improved urethral pressure in model rats that reproduced the menopausal state by removing the bilateral ovaries and had elevated LH. The results showed that there is a relationship between SUI and elevated LH, and that GnRH antagonists that suppress LH may be novel therapeutic agents.　

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　Periodontitis, which causes resorption of alveolar bone, affects most adults and causes tooth loss as it progresses. In recent years, dental Cone Beam CT has become popular, enabling three-dimensional confirmation of the morphology of alveolar bone. However, in most cases, only visual qualitative morphological evaluation was performed, and there was no method to detect minute morphological changes over time or to quantitatively analyze the amount of changes. The present invention makes it possible to visualize and quantify changes in the surrounding bone morphology by performing precise alignment using morphological information of only the root portion of any tooth.　 　FIG. A shows alveolar bone CT images of the same patient taken at different times, but it is difficult to confirm at a glance the exact area where bone was absorbed (yellow arrow) and the amount of bone resorption over a period of two years. By performing a semi-automatic analysis of about 10 seconds using the program of this invention, it is possible to display the resorbed bone in red (FIG. B) and calculate the amount of bone resorption by volume. As shown in FIG. C, it is also possible to color the root surface of the tooth to discriminate the areas where bone is still covered (green) and where bone is lost due to resorption (red).

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　Helium is difficult to obtain and expensive, so cooling systems that use helium are expected to be difficult to continue using. 　 The invention enables rapid cooling without helium by continuously spraying a two-phase flow of cryogenic gaseous N2 and solid N2 (SN2 ). Specifically, it is characterized by continuously generating slush N2 by spraying at transonic speed using a Laval nozzle. 　In an example of cell freezing, a 23% improvement in cell survival rate during thawing was achieved compared to liquid nitrogen immersion. This invention has the potential for application in various cooling systems beyond this specific example. Additionally, its application for resist removal in semiconductor cleaning without harmful chemicals is also under consideration.

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Helium is difficult to obtain and expensive, so cooling systems that use helium are expected to be difficult to continue using. 　 The invention enables rapid cooling without helium by continuously spraying a two-phase flow of cryogenic gaseous N2 and solid N2 (SN2 ). Specifically, it is characterized by continuously generating slush N2 by spraying at transonic speed using a Laval nozzle. 　In an example of cell freezing, a 23% improvement in cell survival rate during thawing was achieved compared to liquid nitrogen immersion. This invention has the potential for application in various cooling systems beyond this specific example. Additionally, its application for resist removal in semiconductor cleaning without harmful chemicals is also under consideration.

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Oxide dispersion strengthened alloy is an alloy where the hard oxide particles are dispersed inside the crystal grains of the metal matrix. By having more oxide particles inside the crystal grains of the matrix phase with uniform dispersion, it is difficult for the oxide particles to agglomerate or coarse even when exposed to a high-temperature environment for a long period of time, which makes difficult for the material to deteriorate its strength property. 　In the casting method, metallic liquid and oxide solids having different density are difficult to mix homogeneously, and oxide particles are pushed by the solid-liquid interface of solidification and agglomerate in the final solidified part, which prevents them from being uniformly dispersed in the matrix. In addition, the laser and electron beam additive manufacturing methods involve the powder particles melting process which causes the agglomeration of fine oxide particles and makes it difficult to disperse them uniformly inside the matrix. 　This invention solves the above problem and provides a technology that can fabricate oxide dispersion strengthened alloys with fine oxide particles uniformly dispersed inside the crystal grains of the matrix phase when using the additive manufacturing method.

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Effect At room temperature, a superb computing ability is fulfilled by using MTJ, comparable with quantum annealing. Background Quantum annealing has been intensively investigated recent years. However, it requires a superconductivity condition (at extreme low temperature), and complicate system like quantum bit connection. Meanwhile, magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ), a solid-state component gives probability output in MRAM, has been noticed among those research. This invention applies MTJ’s property and successfully provides a probability information processing computer system, which is comparable with quantum annealing’s computing ability but much simpler to use.

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Biomaterials such as artificial joints are made of Ti (titanium), which can adhere directly to the bone. It is known that biomaterials can be coated with ACP film (amorphous calcium phosphate) to improve osteogenic potential. However, ACP film dissolves in vivo in a short period of time, so the improvement is required to retain for a long time. One idea is to add Ta (tantalum) to prevent dissolution but this method does not have antibacterial properties. It is possible to add Ag (silver) to the ACP film to give antibacterial properties, but the dissolution is not possible to control. 　This invention is about a biomaterial and its manufacturing method that can prevent the ACP film dissolution of the surface while having excellent antibacterial properties. The biomaterial is characterized by an ACP film with Ag and Ta dopped on the substrate surface. The coating film is formed by RF magnetron sputtering method. The addition of Ta suppresses the ACP film dissolution while having an excellent antibacterial properties due to the Ag addition. This invention has made possible to sustain an excellent antimicrobial properties over a long period of time.

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The gas permeability in the blast furnace deteriorates due to excessive coke degradation during the low coke rate operation in order to reduce CO2 emission. The coke strength after reaction (CSR) is a parameter to evaluate coke quality and is used as an indicator of permeability in blast furnace operation. 　However, CSR is an index that averages the high-temperature deformation behavior of each cokes, and can’t estimate the complex deformation behavior of individual coke particles. Existing method for flow phenomena visualization and clogging prediction using kinetic model is computationally demanding and limited in the ability to analyze stochastic deformation behavior in a scaling manner. 　This invention applied deep learning using Deep Neural Network (DNN), which is a typical AI method, to the coke 3D deformation process. Machine learning was performed to estimate of the deformation process using DNN. As shown in fig.1, the loss function (deviation from the “estimated value”) decreased with the number of learning sessions, and the recognition accuracy shows over 97%. This indicates that DNN can classify the deformation of every CSR accurately and reduce the computational load for coke deformation prediction remarkably. Therefore, machine learning can easily recognize the coke 3D shape deformation which is difficult to recognize intuitively.

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　Currently, further improvement of memory storage density is required with the information society development. The magnetoresistive random-access memory (MRAM), which can record information nonvolatilely for a long time, is expected to replace semiconductor memory as the next-generation memory. However, the performance is lower than semiconductor memory in term of power consumption, operating speed and signal delay, and has a low compatibility with optical information technology. 　This invention is able to provide an optical spin device that can store information non-volatilely and operate at high speed with low power consumption, and to provide an information storage device using this device. This invention has a magnetic material layer and a spin defect layer. It can store magnetic information non-volatilely and can operate at high speed with low power consumption. In addition, the information storage device equipped with this optical spin device is able to write and read information at high speed and high sensitivity, and is highly compatible with optical information technology, which is expected to develop rapidly in the future.

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TMR sensor is known to be a high sensitivity magnetic sensor which uses the tunnel magnetoresistance effect (TMR) in magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJs). The TMR sensor performance can be controlled by controlling the magnetic anisotropy (HK) of the free layer. Therefore, it is expected to be applied to the bio-magnetic measurement device that detects the weak magnetic field of a living body at room temperature, the battery level detector for electric vehicle, non-destructive inspection to detect the rupture or deterioration of reinforcing steel bar in concrete structure, etc.　　 　NiFe alloy, CoFeB alloy and CoFeSiB alloys have been conventionally developed as free layer of MTJ devices for TMR sensor, but higher sensitivity and lower cost are required. 　This invention focused on FeSiAl alloy (Sendust) to produce the Sendust thin film of nanometer order thickness which was not able to fabricate. Therefore, this alloy is applied to the free layer to fabricate the MTJ devices that achieve the same level of sensor sensitivity as NiFe alloy, etc. It has been also revealed that the soft magnetic property is excellent over a wider range of composition compared with conventional Sendust.

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　Optical fiber has been put into practical use by using the parallelism and multiplexing characteristics of the light as a wave. However, the corresponding photoelectric conversion equipment is required with the increase of the information to be transmitted, resulting in larger device and higher electric power consumption. On the other hand, unlike light, electron cannot incorporate parallelism and multiplexing characteristics, so in principle, electronic device such as semiconductor integrated circuit can not transmit multiple pieces of information simultaneously.　 　This invention can perform multiplex transmission of information with solid-state electronic device, which has been performed with optical fiber so far, by focusing on "electron spin wave" having wave characteristic, that is to say using its wavelength as information and superimposing electron spin wave on each other. This eliminates the need for sequential calculation when processing multiplex information, and it is expected to replace existing photoelectric conversion device by its miniaturization and electric power consumption reduction, potentially contributing to the vast increase in information processing in the future. Also, the device that collectively transmits, processes and records multi-state information using multiplex electron spin wave could be realized.

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There are various schemes to electrically control magnetic materials. Several functional elements such as random number generation, oscillator, wave detection and memory based on the previously discovered phenomena have been proposed so far. However, elements that use ferromagnetic material is sensitive to magnetic field noise caused by external magnetic field, needs magnetic field control by an external mechanism to control oscillator and wave detector frequency, and requires miniaturization.　 　This technology solves the above issues based on the new phenomenon, so called continuous rotation of chiral spin structure in non-collinear antiferromagnetic materials, and provides ultra compact, low power consumption and highly stable elements.

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Recycled smelting using steel scrap can significantly reduce carbon usage and CO2 emission compared to current method, and it is an effective mean to reduce the actual increasing amount of steel scrap.　 　However, the contamination of tramp elements, such as Cu/Ni/Sn, which are difficult to remove by oxidation and evaporation, causes the property and workability deterioration of steel material. In addition, since tramp elements are concentrated each time the steel scrap is recycled, they become the cause of the inability to increase recycling rate. The conventional method of copper removal using sulfide flux has been considered, but this is a batch process using a large amount of sulfide. 　This invention is about a technology to promote ion separation of Cu in molten iron into molten slag using electrochemical method, which enables in principle continuous processing. Moreover, not only purification of molten iron but also recycling of recovered electrodeposited copper can be considered.

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Conventionally, for porous metals (Nano-microporous metals) having micropores of nano or micrometer size, a dealloying (deconditioning) method has been used to obtain porous bodies by corrosion-removing only noble metals from alloys of noble and noble metals in aqueous solution. However, there is a problem that the target metals are limited in that it is possible to fabricate nano-microporous metals only in noble metals and their alloys with respect to the standard hydrogen electrode potential.　　 　The present invention can easily fabricate nano-microporous bodies in vulgar metals and their alloys that could not be fabricated in principle by conventional methods. As one specific example, the nano-porous bodies were successfully fabricated in pure metals such as titanium, niobium, and molybdenum, alloys such as beta titanium and stainless steel (austenitic and ferritic), and carbon.

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　The superconducting quantum bit is composed of a single or multiple superconducting tunnel junctions (Josephson junctions). Research and development of typical charge type and magnetic flux type qubits are active. The current mainstream of high integration is Transmon, a modified version of the charge type, which has advantage of long coherence time, but has disadvantage of small anharmonicity, which can cause error. On the other hand, the magnetic flux type has advantage of large anharmonicity, but has disadvantage of short coherence time. Adding a shunt capacitor to increase coherence time causes increased footprint (the area occupied by a single qubit).　 　This invention solves above problem, and it is about a technology that can achieve high integration with a small footprint while maintaining a practically tolerable coherence time and anharmonicity.

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Phenyl sulfate (PS) is known to be a renal disease marker. After its ingestion, phenol is produced from tyrosine due to the intestinal bacteria action and it is absorbed in the intestines, then metabolized to PS in the liver. For healthy individuals, PS is excreted from the body as urine, but when kidney function is impaired, PS is not excreted and accumulates in the body. 　So far, PS detection was done using LC-MS or TOFMS equipment so the conventional method was not done simply. The inventor succeeded to product an antibody against PS. Using this antibody, it may be possible to easily detect PS, such as by ELISA method.

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Rotavirus is a major cause of acute enteritis in infants and young livestock. It kills 500,000 people per year, mainly in developing countries, and also causes enormous economic losses to livestock production. Inventors focus on immunobiotics and found that new Ligilactobacillus and Lactiplantibacillus strains enhance anti-viral immune activity. ・Isolation of several anti-virus immune-enhancing Ligilactobacillus and Lactiplantibacillus strains from the small intestine of Wakame-fed pigs. ・These strains are deposited in NITE in Japan.

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　Microneedles with lots of painless needles are expected to spread rapidly in the beauty field and be used more for self-medication and simple vaccine administration, which are the cornerstones of remote medical treatment. However, conventional methods of applying (or encapsulating) a drug or vaccine to a microneedle and eluting them after skin prick have limited injection volume and speed. The inventors have developed a porous microneedle (PMN), which imparts an electrical "flow" (electroosmotic flow) that allows for high volume and high speed injection with an electric "microneedle pump" and rapid collection of subcutaneous tissue fluid.　

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Electrochemical strain microscopy (ESM) is known as a technique for probing ion mobility, ion conductivity, etc. in a solid material at a nanoscale. The ESM method is a method for detecting a signal of a local volume change (electrochemical distortion) of a solid generated with the movement of ions by applying a voltage, and for imaging and outputting the detected signal. 　The ESM method provides an image showing the distribution of ion motion states, but the sharpness of the image depends on the ionic conductivity of the solid material. Therefore, in a solid material having a relatively low ionic conductivity, sufficient S/N ratio cannot be obtained, and it is difficult to evaluate the motion state of ions with high accuracy. 　The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and by applying a high-frequency bias voltage, it is possible to dramatically enhance a response signal generated in accordance with a motion state of ions. According to the present invention, even in a material having a relatively low ionic conductivity, a distribution image can be obtained with sufficient sharpness.

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Since the invention of the electron microscope (EM), electrostatic and magnetic round lenses (with cylindrically symmetric lensing action) have been used in the field of charged particle optics. These lenses in principle incapable of producing negative spherical aberration, which had long limited the spatial resolution of EMs. Modern EMs are equipped with spherical aberration correctors consisting of multipole lenses and achieve angstrom-scale resolution. However, such devices are expensive (over a million dollars) and complicated systems. This invention solves above problems in order to have high precision, simple and low-cost electron beam focusing device. It claims the configuration of electron round lens, including concave lens with positive spherical aberration and convex lens with negative spherical aberration due to cylindrically symmetric polarized light beam.

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The inventors have previously developed G-CaMP and R-CaMP (CaMP) as proteinaceous fluorescent calcium sensors. By introducing CaMP into a cell, the location of the cell can be identified and changes in calcium ion concentration can be observed as changes in CaMP fluorescence intensity. ・G-CaMP7, G-CaMP7.09: Displays green fluorescence. ・R-CaMP1.07: Displays red fluorescence and can be used in combination with the photo-stimulation probe Channelrhodopsin-2, which is commonly used for cell function manipulation.

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In general, the near-infrared band (multispectral band) has worse spatial resolution than the panchromatic band, so its data volume is smaller. In the future, artificial satellites will be able to take images of almost the entire Earth once a day, accumulating a huge amount of data. Analyzing all of these images will require an enormous time and an improvement of computer performance. 　This invention is about a method which reduces the analysis time and computer processing power by identifying area 1 where objects are floating on sea using the near-infrared band with low data volume, then making object-based analysis by creating panchromatic band images of the neighborhood area 2. In addition, spatial information such as the floating object size, quantity, location, etc. can be extracted with high accuracy.

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It is known that if a person’s posture is maintained in a sitting position for an excessively long period of time, it can be harmful to his/her health. For example, it is known that there is a correlation between abovementioned period of time and the probability of suffering from diseases such as musculoskeletal disorder, heart failure, or lifestyle-related disease. 　In this invention, the chair seat is slightly inclined in order to guide the person to standing position naturally. Another key feature is the realization of a tilt method that does not interfere with the user's original task, such as desk work. 　In addition, various applications can be envisioned by linking with functions provided by smartdevices such as reminder function, etc.

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This invention is related to the eye gaze detection and eye gaze input device. 　In conventional eye gaze detection and eye gaze input device, the device needs to be installed in the environment or mounted on a wearable device. However, those devices have certain limitation, such as the position range where the function can be used for the former, while the latter requires the user to wear the device. 　This invention uses only a smartphone, and it is possible to run the function of eye gaze detection and eye gaze input with 6 degrees of freedom regardless of the user's standing position or the environment area if the user holds the smartphone naturally [1]. 　In detail, the system estimates where the user is looking in the environment by combining the user's gaze direction detection using the smartphone's front camera and self-position estimation using the back camera/depth sensor and 3D map of the environment (acquired in advance).

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　Pulmonary function imaging has been reported to provide valuable information for radiation therapy, and methods have been implemented to minimize dose deposition in high-functioning lung regions. Currently, most lung ventilation and perfusion imaging methods are based on the use of radioisotopes or contrast agents, such as single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) and positron-emission tomography (PET). Although these imaging techniques provide much useful information for local lung function, they have disadvantages such as radiation exposure, high cost, and requirement of special equipment. The inventors aimed to obtain lung function images from only 3DCT images taken at each treatment session. 　In recent years, it has become common to use deep learning (DL) for some tasks in radiotherapy, especially convolutional neural networks (CNN) for image processing. In the past, there have been attempts to convert 4DCT images into SPECT images, but they have not been sufficiently successful. In this study, the inventors developed a DL-based method to directly convert 3DCT images into krypton -81M gas (81mKr-gas) SPECT V images for the first time in the world. The present invention shows the possibility of predicting lung function from CT images alone with high accuracy and is expected to contribute to radiotherapy.

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To develop novel and effective diagnostic/therapeutic solutions against pathogenic viruses like SARS-Cov-2 in which the mutation frequencies are high, the technologies which enables to predict possible mutations before the spread of pathogenic variants with said mutations is required. In SARS-Cov-2, a trend in mutations was found by the analysis of various genomes from variants reported so far (reference 1), suggesting that this may be useful to identify possible mutation sites. 　This invention disclose the methods and programs to predict the site and the mutations therein in virus genome in the future by AI-based model developed by using above trend for leaning.

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Hemolysis is one of the major blood trauma in extracorporeal circulation. The occlusion is a parameter to eliminate deteriorative blood trauma as well as to improve assisted circulation efficacy during cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB). The strength of occlusion is adjusted manually in common method currently used, so the variation or deterioration of roller pumps or tubes causes hemolysis or multiple organ failure. The present invention relates to a new occlusion simulation model for evaluating the occlusion by the thickness of the flow in the tubing compressed with the CPB roller and raceway. The red-colored densitometry images were used to calculate the thickness of occluded flow channel.

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Cationic polymers are known to be used as nucleic drug delivery carrier because they are ease to be introduced into cells. However, it has been reported that the cationic polymers may inhibit cell proliferation by unspecific binding to intracellular proteins. This invention provides cationic polymer nanoparticles (nanogels) for intracellular delivery without inhibiting cell proliferation, by conducting radical polymerization reaction using a cationic polymerization initiator ADIP.　 Properties of NIPAM-based cationic nanogels synthesizing through ADIP: ・Can be delivered into many kinds of cells (e.g. HeLa) simply by mixing cells and the nanogels without special treatment ・In cells, nanogels do not effect the cell division or the differentiation of the brown adipocyte ・Intracellular temperature can be measured because of the heat-sensitive unit NIPAM

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Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a general term for disease in which inflammation occurs in the colon, such as ulcerative colitis. The number of patients with ulcerative colitis is said to be 170,000 in Japan. Ulcerative colitis is an intestinal canal chronic inflammation that occurs in a relatively young aged people and it is an intractable disease with repeated recurrence and remission. 　The ulcerative colitis diagnosis is made through inflammatory findings and endoscopy. The presence of autoantibody such as anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibody and anti-smooth muscle cell antibody has been reported in ulcerative colitis, but the positivity rate is low with less than 50%. 　This invention is about a new marker with a positive rate of nearly 70% in patient with ulcerative colitis: anti-endothelial cell protein C receptor antibody (anti-EPCR antibody). This invention could be a new diagnostic marker for ulcerative colitis.

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The smart contract is one of applications of the blockchain technology which realizes transaction of confidential data. The smart contract enables a seller directly to make a contract with a buyer. And when a contract to provide some confidential data is established between them, the seller him/herself needs to send it to the buyer. So the buyer cannot receive the data while the seller is offline. One approach for solving the problem is as follows: The seller stores the data on some cloud storage in advance, and then permits the buyer to download it only after the completion of the contract. In this case, the seller needs to tell the buyer which storage the data is stored in. However, one cannot include any information about the storage in the contract document because it opens to the public via the blockchain. 　The information processing system we have invented enables buyer safely and automatically to receive confidential data even when seller is offline. Let us consider a situation that a seller has some confidential data and that a buyer makes a contract with the seller to get the data. In the situation, the system works as follows: First node (the seller) stores the data in Storage node. Then Second node (the buyer) write, in the contract document, an address to receive the data. The document including the address opens to the public, but no information about the storage where the data is stored does. When the contract is completed, the data is sent to the address by Storage node, and Second node can finally get it.

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The number of dialysis patients continues to increase, and it is known that applox. 40% of the patients requiring dialysis in Japan were ordinally those with diabetic nephropathy (DN). The treatment for DN is often symptomatic by controling blood sugar and blood pressure, and to date, no effective therapeutic agent for curative treatment has been developed.　 　This invention discloses a 1, 3-dioxolane compounds D-532 and the derivertives thereof, which inhibits the function of the glucose-responsive transcription factor ChREBP (Carbohydrate responsive element binding protein), for DN treatment. 　D-532 was found by ordinally constructed high-throughput screening based on ChREBP reporter assay with applox. 7,000 of compound library in Tohoku University (Fig.1). Synthesized analogs and isomers thereof were also tested and showed inhibitory effect against ChREBP function, although D-532 showed the highest activity (Data not shown). 　The expression of ChREBP target genes were suppressed by D-532 administration for DN animal model (Fig.2). Urinary albumin excretion and blood creatinine were also improved in DN animals with D-532 (Fig.3). Further, the disappearance of foot process in glomerulus, which is often observed in DN kidney, was suppressed (Data not shown), suggesting that D-532 may act directly to renal tissue and show the effects above.

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Transition metal doping is one of the solution to colorize inorganic pigments. This method is adoptive to TiO2 pigments, however, transition metal-doped pigments are not sufficient for cosmetic products as transition metals have ecotoxicity. 　This invention realized wide variety of colored TiO2 pigments without transition metal doping, such as RGB as shown right half of this paper. 　This invention is expected to expand cosmetic product applications, or replace traditional organic and inorganic materials.

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