Tourist satisfaction plays a very important role in the development of local community tourism. For the development of tourist destinations in local communities, it is important to measure, maintain, and improve tourist destination royalties over the medium to long term. It has been proven that improving tourist satisfaction is a major factor in improving tourist destination royalties. Therefore, to improve tourist satisfaction in local communities, we identified multiple clusters of sightseeing spots and determined that the satisfaction of tourists can be increased based on these clusters of sightseeing spots. Our discovery flow can be summarized as follows. First, we extracted tourism keywords from guidebooks on sightseeing spots. We then constructed a complex network of tourists and sightseeing spots based on the data collected from experiments conducted in Kyoto. Next, we added the corresponding tourism keywords to each sightseeing spot. Finally, by analyzing network motifs, we successfully discovered multiple clusters of sightseeing spots that could be used to improve tourist satisfaction.

We propose a novel framework for integrating beginners' machine operational experiences with those of experts' to obtain a detailed task model. Beginners can provide valuable information for operation guidance and task design; for example, from the operations that are easy or difficult for them, the mistakes they make, and the strategy they tend to choose. However, beginners' experiences often vary widely and are difficult to integrate directly. Thus, we consider an operational experience as a sequence of hand-machine interactions at hotspots. Then, a few experts' experiences and a sufficient number of beginners' experiences are unified using two aggregation steps that align and integrate sequences of interactions. We applied our method to more than 40 experiences of a sewing task. The results demonstrate good potential for modeling and obtaining important properties of the task.

This paper presents an approach to analyze and model tasks of machines being operated. The executions of the tasks were captured through egocentric vision. Each task was decomposed into a sequence of physical hand-machine interactions, which are described with touch-based hotspots and interaction patterns. Modeling the tasks was achieved by integrating the experiences of multiple experts and using a hidden Markov model (HMM). Here, we present the results of more than 70 recorded egocentric experiences of the operation of a sewing machine. Our methods show good potential for the detection of hand-machine interactions and modeling of machine operation tasks.

Hotspots occur frequently in 3D multi-core processors (3D-MCPs), and they may adversely impact both the reliability and lifetime of a system. We present a new thermally constrained task scheduler based on a thermal-pattern-aware voltage assignment (TPAVA) to reduce hotspots in and optimize the performance of 3D-MCPs. By analyzing temperature profiles of different voltage assignments, TPAVA pre-emptively assigns different initial operating-voltage levels to cores for reducing temperature increase in 3D-MCPs. The proposed task scheduler consists of an on-line allocation strategy and a new voltage-scaling strategy. In particular, the proposed on-line allocation strategy uses the temperature-variation rates of the cores and takes into two important thermal behaviors of 3D-MCPs that can effectively minimize occurrences of hotspots in both thermally homogeneous and heterogeneous 3D-MCPs. Furthermore, a new vertical-grouping voltage scaling (VGVS) strategy that considers thermal correlation in 3D-MCPs is used to handle thermal emergencies. Experimental results indicate that, when compared to a previous online thermally constrained task scheduler, the proposed task scheduler can reduce hotspot occurrences by approximately 66% (71%) and improve throughput by approximately 8% (2%) in thermally homogeneous (heterogeneous) 3D-MCPs. These results indicate that the proposed task scheduler is an effective technique for suppressing hotspot occurrences and optimizing throughput for 3D-MCPs subject to thermal constraints.

Arc runners are fixed on silver electrical contacts. Break arcs are generated between the contacts in a 450VDC circuit. Break arcs are magnetically blown-out and air is blown to the break arcs. The air flow was not used to our previous reports with runners. Circuit current when contacts are closed is 10A. Flow rate of air Q is changed from 1 to 10L/min. Supply voltage E is changed from 200V to 450V. The following results are shown. Arc duration D tends to decrease with increasing flow rate Q. The number of reignitions N increases with increasing supply voltage E for each flow rate Q. The number of reignitions is the least when the flow rate Q is 2L/min.

With process technology scaling, a heat problem in ICs is becoming a serious issue. Since high temperature adversely impacts on reliability, design costs, and leakage power, it is necessary to incorporate thermal-aware synthesis into IC design flows. In particular, hot spots are serious concerns where a chip is locally too much heated and reducing the peak temperature inside a chip is very important. On the other hand, increasing the average interconnect delays is also becoming a serious issue. By using RDR architectures (Regular-Distributed-Register architectures), the interconnect delays can be easily estimated and their influence can be much reduced even in high-level synthesis. In this paper, we propose a thermal-aware high-level synthesis algorithm for RDR architectures. The RDR architecture divides the entire chip into islands and each island has uniform area. Our algorithm balances the energy consumption among islands through re-binding to functional units. By allocating some new additional functional units to vacant areas on islands, our algorithm further balances the energy consumption among islands and thus reduces the peak temperature. Experimental results demonstrate that our algorithm reduces the peak temperature by up to 9.1% compared with the conventional approach.

This paper focuses on the latest research of switching arc both in vacuum and SF6 substitutes in our group. The crucial characteristics of vacuum arc are illustrated, including the motion and distribution of single cathode spot and multiple cathode spots, the influence of axial magnetic field on arc plasma characteristics, the influence of composite magnetic field on cathode jets, and the study of anode activities. Meanwhile, the arc characteristics in SF6 and its substitutes (Ar, CO2 and N2) at different pressures and gap distances are investigated by experiments and simulation.

With the proliferation of IEEE 802.11 wireless local area networks, large numbers of wireless access points have been deployed, and it is often the case that a user can detect several access points simultaneously in dense metropolitan areas. Most owners, however, encrypt their networks to prevent the public from accessing them due to the increased traffic and security risk. In this work, we use pricing as an incentive mechanism to motivate the owners to share their networks with the public, while at the same time satisfying users' service demand. Specifically, we propose a “federated network” concept, in which radio resources of various wireless local area networks are managed together. Our algorithm identifies two candidate access points with the lowest price being offered (if available) to each user. We then model the price announcements of access points as a game, and characterize the Nash Equilibrium of the system. The efficiency of the Nash Equilibrium solution is evaluated via simulation studies as well.

The constriction resistance of an electric contact has frequently been obtained using a model of only one circular contact spot of radius a. However, cases of a single contact spot are extremely rare as the interface of the electrical contact actually consists of numerous micro-contact spots. A contact is therefore regarded as the aggregate of several micro-contact spots, which are referred to collectively as a cluster. The constriction resistance of the cluster can be calculated as the sum of the self-resistance and mutual resistance of individual micro-contact spots. In the present study, this model is expanded slightly for practical application by normalizing a previous theoretical formula. In order to obtain the constriction resistance for contacts between composite materials and mating metals, EPMA analysis is applied so as to determine real micro-contact spots. Theoretical calculations of the constriction resistance of multiple contact spots is shown to be reasonably consistent with experimental results. In addition, the contact of a composite material and a mating metal is shown to be made up of multispots. The current was recognized experimentally to flow more easily at micro-contact spots in the cluster periphery. These experimental findings coincide with simulation results obtained by theoretical calculations.

Simple expressions for constriction resistance of multitude conducting spots were analytically formulated by Greenwood. These expressions, however, include some approximations. Nakamura presented that the constriction resistance of one circular spot computed using the BEM is closed to Maxwell's exact value. This relative error is only e=0. 00162 [%]. In this study, the constriction resistances of two, five and ten conducting spots are computed using the boundary element method (BEM), and compared with those obtained using Greenwood's expressions. As the conducting spots move close to each other, the numerical deviations between constriction resistances computed using Greenwood's expressions and the BEM increase. As a result, mutual resistance computed by the BEM is larger than that obtained from Greenwood's expressions. The numerical deviations between the total resistances computed by Greenwood's expressions and that by the BEM are small. Hence, Greenwood's expressions are valid for the total constriction resistance calculation and can be applied to problems where only the total resistance of two contact surfaces, such as a relay and a switch, is required. However, the numerical deviations between the partial resistances computed by Greenwood's expression and that by the BEM are very large. The partial resistance calculations of multitude conducting spots are beyond the applicable range of Greenwood's expression, since Greenwood's expression for constriction resistance of two conducting spots is obtained by assuming that the conducting spots are equal size. In particular, the deviation between resistances of conducting spots, which are close to each other, is very large. In the case of partial resistances which are significant in semiconductor devices, Greenwood's expressions cannot be used with high precision.

ATM technology can integrate not only new multimedia services but also existing services such as plain old telephone services (POTS) and narrow-band ISDN (N-ISDN) services. We developed ATM subscriber line interface circuits (ATM-SLIC), which can accommodate POTS or N-ISDN subscribers, and a trial ATM access switching system using the ATM-SLICs. This paper proposes embedded trunk functions, a message-type signaling transfer method, an economical ATM interface structure, and a cell-based system control method. Moreover, it shows the main characteristics and efficiency of these proposals in terms of experimental data.

The electric or electronic circuits have many contact devices such as relay and switch. The contact between two nominally conducting flat surface has a lot of micro contact spots. The constriction resistance of the contact is known to determine the sum of the parallel resistance of the micro contacts and the interaction of them. The constriction resistance of two circular conducting spots was approximately formulated by Greenwood. This formulation shows that the interacted resistance of two circular spots is in inverse proportion to the distance between two conducting spots. It was known that this effect is introduced by the interaction between two conducting spots. However, the condition of interaction in the spots is not clear. Calculating the current density distribution in the spots is important to clarify the condition of interaction. The numerical analysis is very suitable to calculate the current density in the spots. In the fundamental case of the computation of the current density the boundary element method (BEM) is more efficient and accurate than that of the finite element method (FEM) because the boundary condition at the infinite is naturally satisfied and is not required a great number of the element in a wide space. In this paper the current density in the square spots is computed by the BEM. As the distance between two conducting spots becomes small, the current density in the two spots decreases. It becomes clear that the constriction resistance of conducting spots is increased by this effect. The decrease of current density by interaction is not uniformly, that at the near location to the opposite spot is larger than that at the far location in the same spot. In this paper the constriction resistance of two conducting spots is also considered. It was known that the constriction resistance of one conducting spot is not influenced by the form of spot very much. However, that of two conducting spots is not clear. The constriction resistance of two square spots is also computed by the BEM. The computed values of the constriction resistance of two square spots are compared with that of two circular spots by Greenwood's formulation and other results. As the result, it is clear that they have the considerable discrepancy. However, the trend of the variations is almost agree each other.