Evaluation of eating quality in early breeding generations of rice is critical to developing varieties with better palatability. This paper reports DNA markers associated with eating quality of temperate japonica rice and an evaluation method aided by multiple regression analysis. A total of 30 markers comprising STSs, SNPs, and SSRs were tested for their association with palatability using 22 temperate japonica varieties with different palatability values. Eating quality-related traits of the 22 varieties were also measured. Of the 30 markers, 18 were found to be significantly associated with palatability and, consequently, a model regression equation with an R2 value of 0.99 was formulated to estimate the palatability by the marker data set. Validation of the model equation using selected breeding lines indicated that the marker set and the equation are highly applicable to evaluation of the palatability of cooked rice in temperate japonica varieties.

In this paper, a new dynamic model of a three-dimensional overhead crane is derived based on a newly defined two-degree-of-freedom swing angle. The dynamic model describes the simultaneous traveling, traversing, and hoisting motions of the crane and the resulting load swing. For anti-swing control, this paper proposes a decoupled control scheme based on the dynamic model linearized around the stable equilibrium. The decoupled scheme guarantees not only rapid damping of load swing but also accurate control of crane position and load hoisting for the practical case of simultaneous traveling, traversing, and slow hoisting motions, which is also proven by experiments.

In this paper we propose a sliding-mode antiswing control for overhead cranes. The objective of this study is to realize an antiswing trajectory control with high-speed load hoisting. A sliding-mode antiswing trajectory control scheme is designed based on the Lyapunov stability theorem, where a sliding surface, coupling the trolley motion with load swing, is adopted for a direct damping control of load swing. The proposed control guarantees asymptotic stability while keeping all internal signals bounded. In association with a new antiswing motion planning scheme, the proposed control realizes a typical antiswing trajectory control in practice, allowing high-speed load-hoisting motion and sufficient damping of load swing. The proposed control is simple for a real-time implementation with high-frequency sampling. The effectiveness of the proposed control has been confirmed by experiments.