To classify the clinical characteristics of ocular toxocariasis in Japan, the prevalence of antibodies to Toxocara antigens was examined in patients with uveitis of unknown aetiology. From 1982 to 1993, serum specimens of 383 cases and intraocular fluid samples of 22 cases were serologically screened for Toxocara infection with five immunodiagnostic tests. Fifty-five sera and 11 intravitreous fluid samples were estimated to have significantly high antibody levels against larval excretory–secretory (ES) antigens of T. canis. Eight cases were positive in both serum and vitreous fluid, and three were positive only in the vitreous fluid. Among the 58 antibody positive samples, 20 cases were omitted due to a lack of detailed description of ocular findings. The remaining 38 cases are described in this study. Of these 38 cases, 34 (89%) were older than 20 years of age. Ocular lesions were located in the posterior fundus in 11 cases, in the peripheral fundus in 18 cases, and in both areas in seven cases. Of the eight cases in which papillary oedema or redness was observed, chorioretinal lesions were also present in seven of them. Tractional retinal detachment was present in five cases. These observations suggest that ocular toxocariasis in Japan has a different clinical profile compared with those in the other countries, and indicate a need for revised classification of ocular toxocariasis.

We present observations of the Mopra carbon monoxide (CO) survey of the Southern Galactic Plane, covering Galactic longitudes spanning $l = 250^{\circ}$ ($-110^{\circ}$) to $l = 355^{\circ}$ ($-5^{\circ}$), with a latitudinal coverage of at least $|b|<1^\circ$, totalling an area of $>$210 deg$^{2}$. These data have been taken at 0.6 arcmin spatial resolution and 0.1 km s$^{-1}$ spectral resolution, providing an unprecedented view of the molecular gas clouds of the Southern Galactic Plane in the 109–115 GHz $J = 1-0$ transitions of $^{12}$CO, $^{13}$CO, C$^{18}$O, and C$^{17}$O.

We investigate the two-dimensional (2-D) oscillation of quasi-2-D convection rolls in a liquid metal layer confined by a vessel of aspect ratio five with an imposed horizontal magnetic field. Laboratory experiments were performed in the range of Rayleigh $Ra$ and Chandrasekhar $Q$ numbers of $7.9 \times 10^4 \le Ra \le 1.8 \times 10^5$ and $2.5 \times 10^4 \le Q \le 1.9 \times 10^5$ by decreasing $Q$ at set $Ra$-number intervals to elucidate the features and mechanisms of oscillatory convection. Ultrasonic velocity profile measurements and supplemental numerical simulations show that the 2-D oscillations are caused by oscillations of recirculation vortex pairs between the main rolls, which are intensified by periodic vorticity entrainment from the vortex pair by the main rolls. The investigations also suggest that the oscillations occur at sufficiently large Reynolds $Re$ numbers to induce instabilities on the vortex pair. The $Re$ number is smaller for larger $Q/Ra$ in the 2-D oscillation regime and the variations can be approximated by the effective $Ra$ number; namely, the value reduced by the critical value for the onset of convection depending on $Q$. The variations steepen with further large $Q/Ra$ and approach a scaling law of the velocity reduction as $(Ra/Q)^{1/2}$, which is established assuming that viscous dissipation is dominated by Hartmann braking at the walls perpendicular to the magnetic field. The results suggest that these phenomena are organized by the relationship between buoyancy and magnetic damping due to Hartmann braking.

In the collapsing phase of a molecular cloud, the molecular gas temperature is a key to understand the evolutionary process from a dense molecular cloud to stars. In order to know this, mapping observations in NH3 lines are required. Therefore, we made them based on the FUGIN (FOREST Unbiased Galactic plane Imaging survey with Nobeyama 45m telescope). The 6 maps were observed in NH3 (J,K) = (1,1), (2,2), (3,3) and H2O maser lines and obtained temperature maps; some show temperature gradient in a cloud. Additionally 72 cores were observed. These candidates were called as KAGONMA or KAG objects as abbreviation of KAgoshima Galactic Object survey with Nobeyama 45-M telescope in Ammonia lines. We show the results of two regions in W33 and discuss their astrophysical properties.

The objective of this study was to investigate the relationship between the thickness of N radical irradiated InN template with crystallographic quality and electrical properties of InN film grown with the previously proposed method, in situ surface modification by radical beam irradiation. In this study, three InN samples were grown with this method on different thickness of irradiated templates. The crystallographic quality of InN films was analyzed by X-ray diffraction and the electrical properties were studied by Hall effect measurement. InN grown on 100 nm thick irradiated template shows lower full-width at half-maximum of X-ray rocking curves and lower carrier concentration compared to InN grown on 200 nm and 450 nm thick irradiated templates. Transmission electron microscopy revealed that threading dislocation density in the InN film decreased by an order of magnitude to ∼4.6×109cm-2. These results suggest that this method is possible for reduction of threading dislocation density in InN and the thickness of irradiated template should be minimized for higher crystallographic quality and electrical properties of the entire InN film.

A deep ice core drilled to 2503 m depth at Dome Fuji, Antarctica, contains 25 visible tephra layers during the past 340 ka. The thickness of tephra layers is in the range 1-24 mm. The thickness and duration at deposition, determined by a simple ice-flow model, suggests that a violent volcanic eruption caused ash to fall onto the Antarctic ice sheet for ~5 years and to form a ~100 mm thick tephra layer at 117 ka BE Two tephra layers at depths of 573 and 2202 m probably originated from volcanoes in the South Sandwich Islands, Southern Ocean, given the size of tephra shards, >20μm in diameter, and their major chemical composition. Only eight of the 25 tephra layers can also be recognized in the Vostok (Antarctica) ice core, but all correspond to the Vostok tephras if we consider cloudy bands to be volcanic.

An X-ray transmission method has been developed to obtain a continuous profile of bulk densities of ice cores. Intensities of X-rays transmitted through an ice-core sample were continuously measured by an X-ray detector during translation of the sample across the X-ray beam. A thick section of an ice core with a constant thickness was prepared by band-sawing followed by microtome planing. The X-ray intensity profile obtained was converted to a density profile using a calibration curve for X-ray absorption vs ice thickness. Using this method, spatial resolution of the density profile was down to 1 mm. X-ray radiographs were also taken on a two-dimensional detector imaging plate, in order to observe layer structures of the ice cores.

The method was applied to Dome Fuji (Antarctica) ice cores from the surface to 110 m depth. From the density profile obtained we calculated the power spectrum of the density variation by the discrete Fourier transform, and obtained several peaks at different frequencies. The center period in the spectrum was close to the annual accumulation thickness at the drill site.

The Japanese Antarctic Research Expedition (JARE) has set up automatic weather stations at six sites on a 1000 km long traverse route between Syowa station (21 ma.s.l..) and Dome Fuji station (3810 ma.s.l.) since 1993. Large temperature rises in winter were observed several times in this area. There were two patterns of time delay of the temperature rises. One was that the temperature rise at Mizuho station preceded that at other stations, and the other was that the temperature rise at Dome Fuji station preceded the others. The former occurred when a disturbance came from the coast between east Enderby Land and the Amery Ice Shelf and strong winds destroyed the stable inversion layer. The latter occurred when the low-pressure center was near the coast of west Wilkes Land. in this case, temperature rise was caused by adveclion of warm air. The atmospheric pressure at Dome Fuji station and Relay Point oscillated with a period of 0.5 year and amplitude of about 15hPa. The pressure was higher in July and December, and was accompanied by a temperature rise. Fluctuations of hourly air temperature at Dome Fuji station were approximately twice as large as fluctuations at the other sites. The lapse rale of the annual mean temperature increased with elevation, while the monthly lapse rate was largest in April.

The current trends in stimulated Brillouin scattering and optical phase conjugation are overviewed. This report is formed by the selected papers presented in the “Fifth International Workshop on stimulated Brillouin scattering and phase conjugation 2010” in Japan. The nonlinear properties of phase conjugation based on stimulated Brillouin scattering and photo-refraction can compensate phase distortions in the high power laser systems, and they will also open up potentially novel laser technologies, e.g., phase stabilization, beam combination, pulse compression, ultrafast pulse shaping, and arbitrary waveform generation.

Epitaxial Fe-Te-Se thin films were deposited by pulsed laser deposition at 250 ~ 600 °C on SrTiO3 (100, STO), MgO (100), LaAlO3 (100, LAO) and CaF2 (100) single crystal substrates. Best superconducting film was grown on CaF2: T c onset = 20.0 K and T c 0 = 16.18 K with T dep = 300 °C, 45000 pulses, 3 Hz. The critical current density J c at 4.2 K was 0.41×106A/cm2 at 0 T and 0.23×106 A/cm2 at 9 T. Angular dependence of J c showed broad c-axis correlated peak when B ≥ 3 T.

Changes in critical current properties depending on growth temperature (T s) were clarified for Ba-Nb-O-doped YBa2Cu3Oy (Y123) films deposited by YAG- and excimer-PLD. Due to the introduction of Ba-Nb-O-nanorods, a vortex-Bose-glass-like behavior emerged as irreversibility lines and in-field critical current densities (J cs) were improved. Crossover magnetic fields (B cr) and in-field J cs increased with the increase in T s for the Y123 films with nanorods. These T s-dependent critical current properties were attributable to the changes in morphology of the nanorods with T s and were independent of laser source in PLD apparatuses. For the fabrication of RE123 coated conductors containing nanorods, optimization of T s with taking both materials of RE123 matrix and nanorod into account is necessary to achieve higher in-field J c.

Following an outbreak of vanA-positive Enterococcus faecium in 2005 in Kyoto prefecture, regional surveillance of vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) was initiated. This revealed vanA- or vanB-positive Enterococcus gallinarum in multiple facilities. Eighty-eight vanA-positive E. gallinarum faecal carriers from 12 facilities and ten vanB-positive E. gallinarum faecal carriers from eight facilities were found. Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis profiles of the first isolate from each facility showed that 11 of the 12 vanA isolates and three of the eight vanB-positive E. gallinarum isolates belonged to a single clone. This study confirms the clonal spread of vanA- or vanB-positive E. gallinarum in a region and underlines the importance of surveillance of VRE for the presence of vancomycin resistance determinants.

Protective immunity of homologous challenge infection was examined in jirds after drug-abbreviated infection with Brugia pahangi. Mebendazole (MBZ) treatment at the early prepatent (5–7 weeks of post infection) or the late prepatent (7–9 weeks of post infection) period was highly effective in causing almost complete eradication of the primary infection. After challenge infection, the worm burden was significantly reduced 19% (31·1 in average) and 77% (9·5) to that of the controls (38·8 and 41·7), respectively. The magnitude of eosinophil response paralleled the degree of protection. No or only a few microfilariae were seen after challenge infection in jirds treated during the prepatent periods. They were also resistant to intravenous challenge with the microfilariae of B. pahangi. MBZ treatment at the patent period was, on the contrary, incomplete against primarily infected adult worms, and was not able to induce either significant protection (30·1 vs 33·1 in control) or eosinophil response to the challenge infection.

An eosinophil chemotactic factor (ECF) was partially purified from plerocercoids of Spirometra erinacei by a combination of anion-exchange chromatography on DE52 and gel filtration on Sephacryl S–200. The molecular weight of ECF was estimated to be 25 000–45 000 by high-pressure liquid chromatography. The ECF was bound with concanavalin A-Sepharose. The ECF was sensitive to periodate oxidation and to heating (56°C, 30 min). On isoelectric focusing, eosinophil chemotactic activity was clearly revealed at pI 4·1. These results suggest that ECF of S. erinacei plerocercoid is an acidic glycoprotein. An intradermal injection of ECF induced eosinophil attractions in the normal guinea pig skin.