Self-similar fractal tree models are numerically investigated to elucidate the drag coefficient, non-equilibrium dissipation behaviour and various turbulence statistics of fractal trees. For the simulation, a technique based on the lattice Boltzmann method with a cumulant collision term is used. Self-similar fractal tree models for aerodynamic computations are constructed using parametric L-system rules. Computations across a range of tree-height-based Reynolds numbers $Re_H$, from 2500 to 120 000, are performed using multiple tree models. As per the findings, the drag coefficients ($C_D$) of these models match closely with those of the previous literature at high Reynolds numbers ($Re_H \geqslant 60\,000$). A normalization process that collapses the turbulence intensity across various tree models is formulated. For a single tree model, a consistent centreline turbulence intensity trend is maintained in the wake region beyond a Reynolds number of 60 000. The global and local isotropy analysis of the turbulence generated by fractal trees indicates that, at high Reynolds numbers ($Re_H \geqslant 60\,000$), the distant wake can be considered nearly locally isotropic. The numerical results confirm the non-equilibrium dissipation behaviour demonstrated in previous studies involving space-filling fractal square grids. The non-dimensional dissipation rate $C_\epsilon$ does not remain constant; instead, it becomes approximately inversely proportional to the local Taylor-microscale-based Reynolds number, $C_\epsilon \propto 1/Re_\lambda$. We find significant one-point inhomogeneity, production and transverse transport of turbulent kinetic energy within the non-equilibrium dissipation near wake region.

Twelve extracts of 11 Guatemalan medicinal plants were initially screened in vitro for potential macrofilaricidal activity against Brugia pahangi, a lymphatic dwelling filarial worm, using concentrations from 125 to 1000 μg ml−1 of each extract that could be dissolved in the culture medium. Of 12 extracts used, the ethanol extract of leaves of Neurolaena lobata showed the strongest activity against the motility of adult worms. Subsequently, the extract of N. lobata was extensively examined in vitro for macro- and micro-filaricidal effects using a series of concentrations of 500, 250, 100, 50 and 10 μg ml−1. The effects were assessed by worm motility, microfilarial release by female worms and a MTT assay. The effect on the motility of adult worms was observed in a concentration- and time-dependent manner. The time required to stop motility of both sexes of adult worms was 6 h at 500 μg ml−1, 24 h at 250 μg ml−1, and 3 days for females and 4 days for males at 100 μg ml−1. The movement of females ceased at 4 days at a concentration of 50 μg ml−1 whereas the motility of males was only reduced. The loss of worm's viability was confirmed by the MTT assay and was similar to the motility results. These concentrations, including 10 μg ml−1, prevented microfilarial release by females in a concentration- and time-dependent manner. Concentrations higher than 100 μg ml−1 even induced mortality of the microfilariae. The present study suggested that the ethanol extract of Neurolaena lobata has potential macro- and micro-filaricidal activities.

To characterise the dissemination patterns of uropathogenic Escherichia coli (UPEC) in a community, we conducted a study utilising molecular and fundamental descriptive epidemiology. The subjects, consisted of women having community-acquired acute urinary tract infection (UTI), were enrolled in the study from 2011 to 2012. UPEC isolates were subjected to antibacterial-susceptibility testing, O serogrouping, phylotyping, multilocus-sequence typing with phylogenetic-tree analysis and pulsed-field-gel electrophoresis (PFGE). From the 209 unique positive urinary samples 166 UPEC were isolated, of which 129 were fully susceptible to the tested antibiotics. Of the 53 sequence types (STs), the four most prevalent STs (ST95, ST131, ST73 and ST357) accounted for 60% of all UPEC strains. Antimicrobial resistance was less frequently observed for ST95 and ST73 than for the others. A majority of rare STs and a few common STs constituted the diversity pattern within the population structure, which was composed of the two phylogenetically distinct clades. Eleven genetically closely related groups were determined by PFGE, which accounted for 42 of the 166 UPEC isolates, without overt geo-temporal clustering. Our results indicate that a few major lineages of UPEC, selected by unidentified factors, are disseminated in this community and contribute to a large fraction of acute UTIs.

We report the results of abundance analysis for high-resolution spectra of eight extremely metal-poor turn-off stars selected from SDSS/SEGUE. Based on differential analysis adopting stellar parameters from Balmer line profiles, we obtain the following results: i) Statistically significant scatter is found in [X/Fe] (X=Na, Mg, Cr, Ti, Sr and Ba), among which [Na/Fe] shows an apparent bimodal distribution, ii) Li abundances are ~0.3 dex lower in [Fe/H]<−3.5 than the Spite plateau value without significant scatter.

We previously reported an association between human parechovirus type 3 (HPeV3) and epidemic myalgia with myositis in adults during summers in which an HPeV3 outbreak occurred in children. However, this disease association has not yet been reported elsewhere. We have since continued our surveillance to accumulate data on this disease association and to confirm whether myalgia occurs in children as well as adults. Between June and August 2014, we collected 380 specimens from children with infectious diseases. We also collected clinical specimens from two adult and three paediatric patients suspected of myalgia. We then performed virus isolation and reverse-transcription–PCR using the collected specimens. We detected HPeV3 in 26 children with infectious diseases, which we regarded as indicating an outbreak. We also confirmed HPeV3 infection in all patients suspected of myalgia. In particular the symptoms in two boys, complaining of myalgia and fever, closely matched the criteria for adult myalgia. Based on our findings from 2008, 2011 and 2014, we again urge that clinical consideration be given to the relationship between myalgia and HPeV3 infections during HPeV3 outbreaks in children. Furthermore, our observations from 2014 suggest that epidemic myalgia and myositis occur not only in adults but also in children.

A dominant astrophysical site for r-process, which is responsible for producing heavy neutron-capture elements, is unknown. Dwarf spheroidal galaxies around the Milky Way halo provide ideal laboratories to investigate the origin and evolution of r-process elements. We carried out high-resolution spectroscopic observations of three giant stars in the Draco dwarf spheroidal galaxy to estimate their europium abundances. We found that the upper-limits of [Eu/H] are very low in the range [Fe/H] < −2, while this ratio is nearly constant at higher metallicities. This trend is not well reproduced with models which assume that Eu is produced together with Fe by SNe, and may suggest the contribution from other objects such as neutron-star mergers.

The transmission of human metapneumovirus (hMPV) among family members is not well understood. We identified 15 families in which multiple members were diagnosed with hMPV infection by real-time PCR in 2008 and 2010. Index patients ranged in age from 2 years to 11 years (median 5 years), and all 15 index cases were children who attended primary school, kindergarten, or nursery school. Contact patients ranged in age from 2 months to 46 years (median 6 years). Excluding five adult cases, contact patients were significantly younger than index patients (P = 0·0389). Of the 12 contact children, seven (58%) were infants who were taken care of at home. The serial interval between the onset of symptoms in an index patient and the onset of symptoms in a contact patient was estimated to be 5 days. These results suggest that the control of school-based outbreaks is important for preventing hMPV infection in infants.

The validity of the Japanese version of the 30-item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) was examined against the semi-structured interview-based Research Diagnostic Criteria (RDC) as external criteria. The GHQ total score discriminated ‘cases’ and ‘non-cases’ satisfactorily but its recommended cut-off point was higher (7/8) than that of the original English version (4/5). Discriminant function analysis revealed that only 13 items contributed to the discriminatory power and that their discriminant function score was better than a simple summation of the 30 GHQ item scores in terms of validity.

Probiotics such as lactic acid bacteria directly influence the host’s health and have beneficial effects such as decreasing the number of enteric pathogens, regulating intestinal immune responses and preventing diseases. Among domestic animals, probiotics have been expected to be an alternative to antibiotics added in the diet; and fermented liquid diet (FLD) containing probiotics has great potential as a diet for reducing the use of antibiotics. In this study, we evaluated the immunomodulatory effects of FLD, prepared using Lactobacillus plantarum LQ80 (LQ80), on the immune response of weaning pigs. Ten weaning piglets were divided into two groups and were fed the FLD (n = 5) or a non-fermented liquid diet (NFLD) (n = 5) for 28 days. At the end of the experiment, the total immunoglobulin M (IgM) and immunoglobulin G (IgG) levels in the sera of the FLD-fed piglets were significantly higher than those of the NFLD-fed piglets (P < 0.05). In contrast, the total immunoglobulin A (IgA) levels in the feces and saliva were not significantly affected by FLD feeding. However, the mean fecal IgA levels of FLD-fed piglets at day 28 were higher than those at 14 and 21 days (P < 0.05). Blood cells from the FLD-fed piglets showed a low level of interferon-γ secretion and mitogen-induced proliferation compared to that of the NFLD-fed piglets. Furthermore, the levels of interluekin-8 and tumor necrosis factor-α, which are proinflammatory cytokines, in the blood cells of the FLD-fed piglets were lower than those of the NFLD-fed piglets (P < 0.05). In conclusion, the FLD used in this study could alter the immune responses of weaning piglets by stimulation of the systemic or mucosal antibody response, without unnecessary inflammatory reactions. This indicates, that the FLD feed prepared with the use of LQ80 may be a candidate feed, with regard to enhancing immune responses and preventing diseases in weaning piglets.

The typical target structure of the inertial confinement fusion by using the ion beams as the energy driver, and its optimized parameters are shown in this paper. The phenomenon occurring at the fuel implosion in the target, from which the thermonuclear fusion output energy of 2·5 GJ is released, is analyzed, and the requirements for the driver beam are summarized.

A microcylinder target is proposed for a recombination X-ray laser generation and is investigated by a numerical simulation. The size of the target is of the order of 1 cm in the axial direction and 100 μm in the inner radius. The target has an axial slit of 20 μm wide through which a line-focused laser illuminates the inner wall. The hot plasma produced inside is confined, and a part of this is blown out through the slit. This plasma cools due to the free expansion, so that a gain of a recombination X-ray laser appears outside the microcylinder. When a large enough amount of hot plasma is produced inside, it plays the role of a reserver. Numerical results show that the quasi-cw (continuous wave) gain of Hα line is obtained outside the aluminum microcylinder when the plasma, which has not recombined yet, is supplied continuously.

The annular dark field (ADF) image contrast of a 0.92% tensile strained GaN0.045As0.955 layer on GaAs substrate was studied with a scanning transmission electron microscope (STEM) as a function of ADF detector inner semi-angles ranging from 28 mrad to 90 mrad. The GaN0.045As0.955 layers were brighter than the surrounding GaAs for the values of ADF detector semiangle up to 65 mrad, and the measured contrast decreased with increasing ADF detector inner semi-angle. For a 37 nm thick specimen, the GaN0.045As0.955 intensity is about 13% higher than that of GaAs in the 28 mrad ADF detector inner semi-angle. Multislice simulations show that the displacement around substitutional N atoms plays an important role in the observed ADF-STEM contrast, while the contribution to the contrast due to misfit strain between GaN0.045As0.955 and GaAs is small.

We present detailed abundance measurements of neutron-capture elements for the two very metal-poor stars HD 6268 and HD 122563, based on very high-quality, near-UV spectra (S/N >140 @3100A) using Subaru/HDS. Abundances have been obtained for a total of 26 and 19 neutron-capture elements in these two stars, respectively, including Nb, Mo, Ru, Pd, Ag, Pr, and Sm. We have confirmed that the abundance pattern of neutron-capture elements in HD 6268 agrees very well with that of previously known r-process-enhanced stars. In contrast, the elemental abundances of HD 122563 are found to steeply decrease with increasing atomic number than those of HD 6268, and are much lower than than the r-process pattern in solar-system material. This result provides a new, strong constraint on models of the nucleosynthetic process that has provided light neutron-capture elements in the very early Galaxy.

We describe the discovery of HE 1327–2326, a dwarf or subgiant with $\mbox{[Fe/H]}=-5.4$. The star was found in a sample of bright metal-poor stars selected from the Hamburg/ESO survey. Its abundance pattern is characterized by very high C and N abundances. The detection of Sr which is overabundant by a factor of 10 as compared to iron and the Sun, suggests that neutron-capture elements had already been produced in the very early Galaxy. A puzzling Li depletion is observed in this unevolved star which contradicts the value of the primordial Li derived from WMAP and other Li studies. Possible scenarios for the origin of the abundance pattern (Pop. II or Pop. III) are presented as well as an outlook on future observations.