In this era of spatially resolved observations of planet-forming disks with Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) and large ground-based telescopes such as the Very Large Telescope (VLT), Keck, and Subaru, we still lack statistically relevant information on the quantity and composition of the material that is building the planets, such as the total disk gas mass, the ice content of dust, and the state of water in planetesimals. SPace Infrared telescope for Cosmology and Astrophysics (SPICA) is an infrared space mission concept developed jointly by Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and European Space Agency (ESA) to address these questions. The key unique capabilities of SPICA that enable this research are (1) the wide spectral coverage $10{-}220\,\mu\mathrm{m}$ , (2) the high line detection sensitivity of $(1{-}2) \times 10^{-19}\,\mathrm{W\,m}^{-2}$ with $R \sim 2\,000{-}5\,000$ in the far-IR (SAFARI), and $10^{-20}\,\mathrm{W\,m}^{-2}$ with $R \sim 29\,000$ in the mid-IR (SPICA Mid-infrared Instrument (SMI), spectrally resolving line profiles), (3) the high far-IR continuum sensitivity of 0.45 mJy (SAFARI), and (4) the observing efficiency for point source surveys. This paper details how mid- to far-IR infrared spectra will be unique in measuring the gas masses and water/ice content of disks and how these quantities evolve during the planet-forming period. These observations will clarify the crucial transition when disks exhaust their primordial gas and further planet formation requires secondary gas produced from planetesimals. The high spectral resolution mid-IR is also unique for determining the location of the snowline dividing the rocky and icy mass reservoirs within the disk and how the divide evolves during the build-up of planetary systems. Infrared spectroscopy (mid- to far-IR) of key solid-state bands is crucial for assessing whether extensive radial mixing, which is part of our Solar System history, is a general process occurring in most planetary systems and whether extrasolar planetesimals are similar to our Solar System comets/asteroids. We demonstrate that the SPICA mission concept would allow us to achieve the above ambitious science goals through large surveys of several hundred disks within $\sim\!2.5$ months of observing time.

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.

Measurements in the infrared wavelength domain allow direct assessment of the physical state and energy balance of cool matter in space, enabling the detailed study of the processes that govern the formation and evolution of stars and planetary systems in galaxies over cosmic time. Previous infrared missions revealed a great deal about the obscured Universe, but were hampered by limited sensitivity.

SPICA takes the next step in infrared observational capability by combining a large 2.5-meter diameter telescope, cooled to below 8 K, with instruments employing ultra-sensitive detectors. A combination of passive cooling and mechanical coolers will be used to cool both the telescope and the instruments. With mechanical coolers the mission lifetime is not limited by the supply of cryogen. With the combination of low telescope background and instruments with state-of-the-art detectors SPICA provides a huge advance on the capabilities of previous missions.

SPICA instruments offer spectral resolving power ranging from R ~50 through 11 000 in the 17–230 μm domain and R ~28.000 spectroscopy between 12 and 18 μm. SPICA will provide efficient 30–37 μm broad band mapping, and small field spectroscopic and polarimetric imaging at 100, 200 and 350 μm. SPICA will provide infrared spectroscopy with an unprecedented sensitivity of ~5 × 10−20 W m−2 (5σ/1 h)—over two orders of magnitude improvement over what earlier missions. This exceptional performance leap, will open entirely new domains in infrared astronomy; galaxy evolution and metal production over cosmic time, dust formation and evolution from very early epochs onwards, the formation history of planetary systems.

Metal organic precursor has a sufficiently high vapor pressure at low temperature, contributing high-speed low-temperature MOCVD-MoS2 film formation. We fabricated monolayer MoS2 by 1 step cold-wall MOCVD using di-isopropyl-diazadiene-molybdenum tricarbonyl [i-Pr2DADMo(CO)3] and di-tertiary-butyl disulfide [(t-C4H9)2S2]. These precursors are able to be vaporized using bubbling system and deposited at low temperature. From the XPS investigations, Mo-S bonding peaks were observed and S:Mo ratio was calculated as 2:1, suggesting formation of MoS2. Moreover, molybdenum carbides and nitrogen impurities were not observed which was confirmed by XPS and EDX. From the results of Raman spectroscopy, AFM height distribution, and spectroscopic ellipsometry, it was determined that the film thickness is 0.64 nm which is corresponding to monolayer MoS2, the lateral grain size is approximately 100 nm, and the bandgap energy is 1.8 eV.

We report the investigation on the properties of a novel Te precursor (i-C3H7)2Te and its effectiveness in fabricating MoTe2. The vapor pressure of the precursor was obtained by measuring the pressure as a function of its temperature in a sealed chamber. As a result it showed a high vapor pressure of 552.1 Pa at room temperature. The decomposition of the precursor was also investigated using DFT calculation. It was shown that the most likely reaction during the course of the decomposition of (i-C3H7)2Te is (i-C3H7)2Te → H2Te + 2 C3H7. The effectiveness of the precursor on the fabrication of MoTe2 was also investigated. Sputter-deposited MoO3 was tellurized in a quartz-tube furnace at the temperature up to 440°C. The resulting film showed that the 80% of the original MoO3 was tellurized to form MoTe2. It was also shown that further optimization of tellurization is required in order to prevent formation of metal Mo and elemental Te.

The mid-infrared range contains many spectral features associated with large molecules and dust grains such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and silicates. These are usually very strong compared to fine-structure gas lines, and thus valuable in studying the spectral properties of faint distant galaxies. In this paper, we evaluate the capability of low-resolution mid-infrared spectroscopic surveys of galaxies that could be performed by SPICA. The surveys are designed to address the question how star formation and black hole accretion activities evolved over cosmic time through spectral diagnostics of the physical conditions of the interstellar/circumnuclear media in galaxies. On the basis of results obtained with Herschel far-infrared photometric surveys of distant galaxies and Spitzer and AKARI near- to mid-infrared spectroscopic observations of nearby galaxies, we estimate the numbers of the galaxies at redshift z > 0.5, which are expected to be detected in the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon features or dust continuum by a wide (10 deg2) or deep (1 deg2) blind survey, both for a given observation time of 600 h. As by-products of the wide blind survey, we also expect to detect debris disks, through the mid-infrared excess above the photospheric emission of nearby main-sequence stars, and we estimate their number. We demonstrate that the SPICA mid-infrared surveys will efficiently provide us with unprecedentedly large spectral samples, which can be studied further in the far-infrared with SPICA.

IR spectroscopy in the range 12–230 μm with the SPace IR telescope for Cosmology and Astrophysics (SPICA) will reveal the physical processes governing the formation and evolution of galaxies and black holes through cosmic time, bridging the gap between the James Webb Space Telescope and the upcoming Extremely Large Telescopes at shorter wavelengths and the Atacama Large Millimeter Array at longer wavelengths. The SPICA, with its 2.5-m telescope actively cooled to below 8 K, will obtain the first spectroscopic determination, in the mid-IR rest-frame, of both the star-formation rate and black hole accretion rate histories of galaxies, reaching lookback times of 12 Gyr, for large statistically significant samples. Densities, temperatures, radiation fields, and gas-phase metallicities will be measured in dust-obscured galaxies and active galactic nuclei, sampling a large range in mass and luminosity, from faint local dwarf galaxies to luminous quasars in the distant Universe. Active galactic nuclei and starburst feedback and feeding mechanisms in distant galaxies will be uncovered through detailed measurements of molecular and atomic line profiles. The SPICA’s large-area deep spectrophotometric surveys will provide mid-IR spectra and continuum fluxes for unbiased samples of tens of thousands of galaxies, out to redshifts of z ~ 6.

The physical processes driving the chemical evolution of galaxies in the last ~ 11Gyr cannot be understood without directly probing the dust-obscured phase of star-forming galaxies and active galactic nuclei. This phase, hidden to optical tracers, represents the bulk of the star formation and black hole accretion activity in galaxies at 1 < z < 3. Spectroscopic observations with a cryogenic infrared observatory like SPICA, will be sensitive enough to peer through the dust-obscured regions of galaxies and access the rest-frame mid- to far-infrared range in galaxies at high-z. This wavelength range contains a unique suite of spectral lines and dust features that serve as proxies for the abundances of heavy elements and the dust composition, providing tracers with a feeble response to both extinction and temperature. In this work, we investigate how SPICA observations could be exploited to understand key aspects in the chemical evolution of galaxies: the assembly of nearby galaxies based on the spatial distribution of heavy element abundances, the global content of metals in galaxies reaching the knee of the luminosity function up to z ~ 3, and the dust composition of galaxies at high-z. Possible synergies with facilities available in the late 2020s are also discussed.

We report the synthesis of MoS2(1-x)Te2x by co-sputtering deposition and effect of mixture on its bandgap. The deposition was carried out at room temperature, and the sputtering power on individual MoS2 and MoTe2 targets were varied to obtain films with different compositions. Investigation with X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy confirmed the formation of Mo-Te and Mo-S bonds after post-deposition annealing (PDA), and one of the samples exhibited composition ratio of Mo:S:Te = 1:1.2:0.8 and 1:1.9:0.1 achieving 1:2 ratio of metal to chalcogen. Bandgap of MoS1.2Te0.8 and MoS1.9Te0.1 was evaluated with Tauc plot analysis from the extinction coefficient obtained by spectroscopic ellipsometry measurements. The obtained bandgaps were 1.0 eV and 1.3 eV. The resulting bandgap was lower than that of bulk MoS2 and higher than that of bulk MoTe2 suggesting mixture of both materials was achieved by co-sputtering.

Molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) thin films were fabricated by two-step chemical vapor deposition (CVD) using (t-C4H9)2S2 and the effects of temperature, gas flow rate, and atmosphere on the formation were investigated in order to achieve high-speed low-temperature MoS2 film formation. From the results of X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) investigations, it was confirmed that c-axis orientation of the pre-deposited Mo film has a significant involvement in the crystal orientation after the reaction low temperature sulfurization annealing and we successfully obtained 3 nm c-axis oriented MoS2 thin film. From the S/Mo ratios in the films, it was revealed that the sulfurization reaction proceeds faster with increase in the sulfurization temperature and the gas flow rate. Moreover, the sulfurization under the H2 atmosphere promotes decomposition reaction of (t-C4H9)2S2, which were confirmed by XPS and density functional theory (DFT) simulation.

Molybdenum disulfide (MoS2), one of the transition-metal dichalcogenides, is a 2-dimensional semiconducting material that has a layered structure. Owing to excellent optical and electronic properties, the ultra-thin MoS2 film is expected to be used for various devices, such as transistors and flexible displays. In this study, we investigated the physical and chemical properties of sputtered-MoS2 film in the sub-10-nm region by Raman spectroscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). As the results of Raman spectroscopy investigations, we observed two Raman modes, E12g and A1g, in the 2-dimensional MoS2 films. As the thickness of the MoS2 film decreased, the peak frequency difference between E12g and A1g modes increased. From the XPS investigations, we confirmed sulfur reductions from the 2-dimensional MoS2 films. Therefore, we considered that the sulfur vacancies in the MoS2 film affected the Raman peak positions. Moreover, we performed the additional sulfurization of sputtered-MoS2 films. From the XPS and Raman investigations, the quality of the sputtered-MoS2 films was improved by the additional sulfurization.

This paper solves the known problem of elimination of unnecessary internal element construction as well as variable elimination in XML processing with (a subset of) XQuery without ignoring the issues of document order. The semantics of XQuery is context sensitive and requires preservation of document order. In this paper, we propose, as far as we are aware, the first XQuery fusion that can deal with both the document order and the context of XQuery expressions. More specifically, we carefully design a context representation of XQuery expressions based on the Dewey order encoding, develop a context-preserving XQuery fusion for ordered trees by static emulation of the XML store, and prove that our fusion is correct. Our XQuery fusion has been implemented, and all the examples in this paper have passed through the system.

The impact of the use of particular materials on the environment and society can beassessed in a number of ways, including through the impact on natural resources,contribution to environmental burden and effects on the quality of human life. In thiscontext, indicators such as embodied energy, exergy, TMR (total material requirement),ecological footprint, social indicators (such as effects on human health) and LCA based onthese indicators, are available. We apply the concept of energy networks 1 (quoted in Appendix O), to explore the differences inenergy network impact due to processes for the production of various materials, each timewith an equivalent end-use in mind. The inventory analysis part of LCA has been carriedout on materials, as well as some work on impact assessment (LCIA) for resource use,pollution severity and health impact. The indicators proposed here aid the assessment ofthe energy system impact, particularly with regards to opportunity costs to society,impact on equity in society and the administrative burden on society due to the currentenergy networks. The indicators are: embodied energy, the maximum process temperature, theannual use energy, and network reliance. Three case studies are employed to explore theusefulness of the indicators, including a beverage container, a house window frame and abeverage bottle transport crate. These case studies show that for a particular end use,different materials can have wide differences in the proportion of energy sourced fromenergy networks (a factor of 95 observed in one case). The indicators also offer a quickerindication than life cycle assessment and allow deduction of impacts on a wider socialsystem. The indicators have the potential to change material development and processdesign trends towards processes which are less burdensome on energy networks.

Japanese weather data for areas that produced Campylobacter spp.-positive chicken products were compared with those for areas producing negative samples. Regarding samples produced during the period of rising temperature (spring and summer), the mean weekly air temperatures for Campylobacter-positive samples were higher than those for negative samples for the period of the week in which the samples were purchased (18·7°C vs. 13·1°C, P=0·006) to a 12-week lag (12 weeks before purchasing samples; 7·9°C vs. 3·4°C, P=0·009). Significant differences in weekly mean minimum humidity and sunshine duration per day were also observed for 1- and 2-week lag periods. We postulated that the high air temperature, high humidity and short duration of sunshine for the chicken-rearing period increased Campylobacter colonization in chickens during the period of rising temperature. Consequently, the number of Campylobacter-contaminated chicken products on the market in Japan may fluctuate because of the climatic conditions to which reared chickens are exposed.

We present the first determination of the 18 μm luminosity function (LF) of galaxies at 0.006 < z < 0.7 (the average redshift is ~ 0.04) using the AKARI mid-infrared All-Sky Survey catalogue. We have selected a 18 μm flux-limited sample of 243 galaxies from the catalogue in the SDSS spectroscopic region. We then classified the sample into four types; Seyfert 1 galaxies (including QSOs), Seyfert 2 galaxies, LINERs and Star-Forming galaxies using mainly [OIII]/Hβ vs. [NII]/Hα line ratios obtained from the SDSS.

As a result of constructing Seyfert 1 and Seyfert 2 LFs, we found the following results; (i) the number density ratio of Seyfert 2s to Seyfert 1s is 3.98 ± 0.41 obtained from Sy1 and Sy2 LFs; this value is larger than the results obtained from optical LFs. (ii) the fraction of Sy2s in the entire AGNs may be anti-correlated with 18 μm luminosity. These results suggest that the torus structure probably depends on the mid-infrared luminosity of AGNs and most of the AGNs in the local Universe are obscured by dust.

Extended abstract of a paper presented at Microscopy and Microanalysis 2011 in Nashville, Tennessee, USA, August 7–August 11, 2011.

Disaster preparedness is one of the national priorities. In Japan, disaster medicine is defined as a part of the national medical plan initiated by Ministry of Health, Welfare and Labor. The Japan Medical Association is the largest professional physicians' group in Japan, and has contributed to all kinds of disaster relief work regionally and nation-wide for years. Based on past successes, the Japan Medical Association proposes a new disaster action plan named Japan Medical Association Team (JMAT). The primary mission of JMAT is to deploy to the disaster scene requested and work for disaster relief. JMAT covers the acute to sub-acute phase of disaster response, and also collaborate with other agencies. In the preparation and mitigation phases, the Japan Medical Association work for establishing mutual disaster aid partnerships, disaster plans, networks with other agencies, team building, disaster medicine training and education, etc. In Japan, the Disaster Medical Assistant Team (DMAT) has been established based on the experience of the 1995 Kobe Earthquake, when lots of preventable trauma deaths occurred because of delayed medical response. The mission of DMAT is to deploy to the scene immediately and triage/transfer the most serious disaster victims outside the scene for advanced medical care. DMAT covers the first 48 hours of disaster response phase, and then JMAT takes charge of the work. JMAT will also respond to chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear disasters, and international humanitarian work. The present issues of establishing JMAT are 1.training and education for Japan Medical Association members, 2.establising cooperation with other agencies, and 3.having presence at the Central Disaster Committee, Cabinet Office, Government of Japan.

We review observational results of PAH emission in harsh interstellar environments, whichare mostly based on recent works by Spitzer and AKARI. The harsh environments includeshock regions in our Galaxy, the ionized superwinds and haloes of external galaxies, andthe hot plasmas of elliptical galaxies. Owing to the unprecedented high sensitivity forPAH emission with Spitzer and AKARI, it is found that an appreciable amount of PAHs arepresent in some cases with such hostile conditions. Some of them exhibit unusual PAHinterband strength ratios, reflecting either evolution of PAHs or physical conditions ofthe ISM. The distribution of the PAH emission, as compared to that of dust emission, isshown to discuss their ways of evolution and survival.

We have observed 57 nearby galaxies in the far-infrared with the Far-Infrared Surveyor on AKARI to study the properties of dust in various environments.