RESEARCH REPORT 1. Name: Mohamed AbuAli （ID No.: SP08001） 2. Current affiliation: University of Cincinnati, OH 3. Research fields and specialties: Humanities Social Sciences Mathematical and Physical Sciences Chemistry X Engineering Sciences Biological Sciences Agricultural Sciences Medical, Dental and Pharmaceutical Sciences Interdisciplinary and Frontier Sciences 4. Host institution: OMRON Keihanna Innovation Center 5. Host researcher: Dr. Hiroshi Nakajima 6. Description of your current research Increasing energy costs, significant compliance and regulatory pressures, and the need to effectively correlate maintenance activities with energy consumption; are three major needs for Omron facilities today. An effective Precision Energy Management System (PEMS) can adopt advanced technologies to remedy such issues and fulfill the goal of enhancing energy performance for Omron’s products, processes, and plants. Over the long-term, such a system is expected be an integral part of energy and maintenance cost reduction, increased product and process quality, and an enhanced market share adoption for the Omron Corporation. The vision for this project is related to three major players (3 Ps): • PRODUCT: the PEMS must be able to define, measure, analyze, and predict energy consumption per product manufactured, in such a way that each product process line can have an “Energy Label” that resembles the amount of energy consumed in manufacturing this product. • PROCESS: the PEMS must be able to use the developed energy metrics and parameters for detailed operational analytics. In other words, the PEMS will assess both equipment level and process-level degradation and integrity. Such a correlation between maintenance activities on the shop floor and energy consumed through the machines and processes is an essential part of the PEMS initiative and is a large gap in today’s industry operations. • PLANT: the PEMS will enable a strategic IT-centric evolution for Omron by considering energy framework for effective KAIZEN development and implementation. 7. Research implementation and results under the program Title of your research plan: Application of Prognostic Algorithms in Energy Management Systems Description of the research activities: Energy Management Systems (EMS) are systems used by operators in industry to monitor, evaluate, and control the performance of different energy-consuming elements such as motors, pumps, compressors, and HVAC. The relationship between maintenance and energy management cannot be overlooked and thus maintenance is an integral part of an energy management program in all facilities. The goal of this project is to research the applicability of prognostic (predictive) tools and algorithms in the field of energy management in order to formulate technical strategies for energy savings and conservation. To fulfill this goal, the following objectives will be met within an allotted time frame: • Defining an industrial energy system, its key components, and capabilities. • Collecting representative data for energy-related variables within the energy system using appropriate sensing hardware and software tools. • Analyzing energy data using prognostic (predictive) algorithms to investigate energy efficiency and performance levels of the energy management system (EMS), as well as correlate energy performance to machine health and behavior. • Researching and proposing an effective monitoring and analysis methodology for improved energy efficiency and reduced energy use within the energy management system. 8. Please add your comments (if any): 9. Advisor’s remarks (if any): RESEARCH REPORT 1. Name: Jenica M. Allen （ID No.: SP08002 ） 2. Current affiliation: University of Connecticut (Storrs, CT, USA) 3. Research fields and specialties: Humanities Social Sciences Mathematical and Physical Sciences Chemistry Engineering Sciences X Biological Sciences Agricultural Sciences Medical, Dental and Pharmaceutical Sciences Interdisciplinary and Frontier Sciences 4. Host institution: Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute (Formal), Utsunomiya University 5. Host researcher: Dr. Nobuyuki Tanaka (FFPRI), Dr. Takayoshi Nishio (Utsunomiya University), Dr. Tatsuhiro Ohkubo (Utsunomiya University) 6. Description of your current research Biological invasions have become increasingly common over the last century and pose a serious threat to the biodiversity and functioning of native ecosystems. Since many species invasions are the direct result of human movement around the globe, it is imperitive that we determine how to best predict the spatial distribution of newly introduced, potentially invasive species and identify mechanisms that allow for introduced species to become problematic. My research focuses on understanding the drivers of invasive plant distrubutions, building predictive statistical models of potentially invasvie species, and identifying mechanisms that allow introduced plants to become problematic in their new range. My current project is a multi-scale deterministic and mechanistic study of invasive plant distributions and herbivory in their native and invasive ranges. A common problem in predicting potential distributions of newly introduced species is the lack of species distribution data in the new region. In this case, we must rely on the ecological data from the native range to predict distributions in the new range, but there are potential shifts in the ecological requirements of each species due to the many filters a new, potentially invasive species must endure (e.g., transport, abiotic conditions in the recipient area, and limitations in genetic diversity). The magnitude and prevalence of such ecological niche shifts has not been well quantified in the literature and my study attempts to assess these shifts for a suite of invasive species for which distributional and ecological data are available in both ranges. Based on the findngs of this study, the predictive power and appropriateness of current modeling techniques for newly indroduced species can be assessed. The second component of my study is assessing the impact of herbivory on invasive plant success at multiple spatial scales. In the literature, lower herbivore loads have been documented on invasive plant species in their invasive range as compared to the native range. However, when comparisons are made within the invasive range between invasive plants and plant species native to that region, no clear reductions in herbivore load on the invasive relative to the native plants are observed. To date, studies on the same plant species comparing herbivore loads at both scales (across ranges and within the invasive range) are quite rare, but are important for resolving apparent spatial contradiction in herbivory. My study is designed to compare herbivore loads at both the biogeographic and community scales for a suite of invasive plant species, thereby contributing to our mechanistic understanding of invasive plant success. Such synthetic approaches require study of abiotic and biotic interactions at the local, community, and regional scales in both ranges in order to accurately identify invasion drivers. For example, processes that appear important at the community scale, such as competition, may not be as important at the regional level and beyond and biogeographic patterns, such as reduced herbivore loads in the invasive range, may not scale-down to community level changes in plant abundances. Trans-continental comparisons are also vital because it is not clear that the relative influence of different biotic interactions (e.g., competition, herbivory) and abiotic conditions will be similar in the native and invasive range at the same spatial scale. My research addresses all of these components to provide holistic knowledge that can be used for both preventing future and managing current plant invasions. 7. Research implementation and results under the program Title of your research plan: New England Invasive Plant Species in Their Native Range: Distributions and Natural Enemies Description of the research activities: The goal of my research during the JSPS Summer Fellowship Program was two-fold. First, I wanted to assess, in wild plant populations, the prevalence of insect herbivory and herbivore functional groups on a suite of plants invasive in the northeast United States and native in Japan. Second, I planned to develop native range statistical species distribution models for the same suite of species using a vegetation database covering all of Japan administered by the Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute (FFPRI). I spent approximately one month working on each respective aspect of my project, with field work based out of the Weed Science Center and the Department of Forest Science at Utsunomiya University and modeling work based at the FFPRI in Tsukuba. The first aspect of my project required insect and leaf collections from wild plant populations and required close collaboration with my host researchers, Dr. Takayoshi Nishio and Dr. Tatsuhiro Ohkubo, and their lab members to locate populations of my target plant species: Berberis thunbergii (Japanese barberry), Celastrus orbiculatus (Oriental bittersweet), and Euonymus alatus (burning bush). At each sampling site, I conducted exhaustive insect collections on up to 10 individuals of each target plant species and collected a minimum of 10 randomly sampled leaves per target plant. Complete branches were collected and stored individually in the lab in an attempt to rear larvae of insects