The lung fluke, Paragonimus westermani (Kerbert, 1878), is widely distributed in Asia, and exhibits much variation in its biological properties. Previous phylogenetic studies using DNA sequences have demonstrated that samples from north-east Asia form a tight group distinct from samples from south Asia (Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia). Among countries from the latter region, considerable molecular diversity was observed. This was investigated further using additional DNA sequences (partial mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 (COI) and the second internal transcribed spacer of the nuclear ribosomal gene repeat (ITS2)) from additional samples of P. westermani. Phylogenies inferred from these again found three or four groups within P. westermani, depending on the method of analysis. Populations of P. westermani from north-east Asia use snail hosts of the family Pleuroceridae and differ in other biological properties from populations in south Asia (that use snail hosts of the family Thiaridae). It is considered that the populations we sampled can be divided into two species, one in north-east Asia and the other in south Asia.

Icing on aircraft can drastically reduce aerodynamic performance and lead to serious accidents. Therefore, prediction of the accreted ice shape and area and its effects on aerodynamic performance is crucial during the design phase of an aircraft. However, numerical simulations based on conventional grid-based methods such as the finite volume method cannot accurately reproduce the complex ice shapes, which involve horn growth, feather growth, air voids, and severe surface roughness. In the present study, instead of the grid-based method, a hybrid grid- and particle-based method was newly proposed and applied to the icing problem on a NACA0012 airfoil. The explicit moving particle semi-implicit method was employed as the particle-based method due to its short computing time. The numerical simulations effectively reproduced feather-shaped ice, air voids, and surface roughness. Finally, by computing the flow around the iced airfoil, it was confirmed that flow separation around the leading edge occurred due to the ice layer, which resulted in a thicker boundary layer and wake and an increase in the drag coefficient of approximately 70% after a residence time of only 60 seconds.

A new SSMR process to produce ultra-fine-grained hot strip is introduced,featuring: closely spaced rolling stands, continuous highspeed rolling with moderately large reductions rolling, rapid interpasscooling and rapid finish rolling cooling. An ultra-fine-grained CMnsteel strip (1μm) is obtained with a 700 MPa yield stress. Aproper choice of the work roll diameter and a careful control of thefriction coefficient should make it possible to keep the rolling forceat a level compatible with the design capacity of a conventional rollingmill.

Summary

Background and objective: Computerized dynamic posturography using an intentional postural-sway task can be used to assess body-leaning ability and postural-control ability to prevent falls. Falls are the leading cause of morbidity and mortality for the elderly. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the recovery of intentional dynamic balance function after intravenous sedation with midazolam in elderly subjects in comparison with that in young subjects. Methods: Midazolam was administered in small, divided doses over 4–5 min until the Wilson sedation score reached three in 20 young and 18 elderly male volunteers. The dynamic limits of the stability test, in which subjects leaned their body intentionally as indicated by a cursor moving on a computer screen, was determined before (baseline) and 50, 70, 90, 110, and 130 min after administration of midazolam. Results: The changes from baseline values of path sway and movement time 50 min after the administration of midazolam in elderly subjects (106.8 ± 101.0%, 4.6 ± 3.0 s; mean ± SD) were significantly greater than those (32.9 ± 87.2%, 1.9 ± 2.8 s) in young subjects (P = 0.024, P = 0.008), respectively. Conclusions: The elderly show slower recovery of the intentional dynamic balance function than do young adults after intravenous sedation with midazolam.

The Commission has established its own website (http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/iau-comm4/) containing the following main topics:

The Commission presently has 88 full members and 3 consultants.

We investigated the effects of controlled hypotension with haemodilution under isoflurane anaesthesia on splanchnic perfusion in elderly patients. We determined the intramucosal pH using gastric tonometry in 28 patients scheduled for hip surgery. Patients without cardiac disease were assigned to two groups according to age. Group A (adult patients, n=14) included patients aged less than 60 years (range 29–58 years, 47±11 years, mean±SD) and group B(elderly patients, n=14) more than 65 years (68–78 years, 72±5 years). Anaesthesia was maintained with N2O-O2-isoflurane. After induction of anaesthesia, haemodilution was produced by drawing 800–1000 mL of blood and replacing it with the same amount of hydroxyethyl starch. Final haematocrit values were 23–24% in all groups. Controlled hypotension was induced with prostaglandin E1 (PGE1) and mean blood pressure was maintained at approximately 60 mmHg for approximately 80 min. Measurements, including gastric intramucosal pH (pHi), arterial blood pH (pHa) and serum lactate were measured before haemodilution (T0), after haemodilution (T1), 80 min after starting hypotension (T2), 60 min after recovery from hypotension (T3) and on the 1st post-operative day (T4). The values of pHa and lactate showed no change in the groups throughout the time course. The gastric pHi values showed significant decreases from 7.418±0.035 to 7.334±0.024 (P < 0.05) in group A and from 7.428±0.029 to 7.320±0.039 (P < 0.05) in group B after haemodilution, while no further decreases were found at 80 min after starting the hypotension (7.329±0.038 in group A and 7.322±0.031 in group B) and 60 min after recovery from hypotension (7.331±0.029 in group A and 7.328±0.034 in group B). It can be concluded that moderate haemodilution under isoflurane anaesthesia might impair splanchnic perfusion in adult and elderly patients. The addition of controlled hypotension with PGE1 or an increase in age did not further impair splanchnic perfusion nor the splanchnic oxygen supply.

Uniformity of lattice misfit strain was quantitatively evaluated in heteroepitaxial (Ba, Sr)TiO3 films which were deposited by radio-frequency magnetron sputtering on SrRuO3/SrTiO3 substrates. Due to lattice misfit strain, the (Ba, Sr)TiO3 films had a 3% longer c-axis than the inherent bulk of (Ba0.75Sr0.25)TiO3. As analyzed by Hall's theory, the uniformity of the strain was 0.3% of the c-axis (0.413 nm) and 9% of the elongation of the c-axis (0.015 nm). It was suggested by the comparative study of two specimens that there is a strong correlation between the quality of the ferroelectric hysteresis loop and the uniformity of the misfit strain in heteroepitaxial (Ba,Sr)TiO3 films.

Leakage degradation under DC stresses in epitaxially-grown Ba1−xSrxTiO3/SrRuO3 capacitors with various top electrodes was examined. Epitaxial capacitors employed in this study exhibit higher dielectric constant arising from optimized lattice deformation caused by lattice mismatch between Ba1−xSrxTiO3 and SrRuO3; dielectric constant for SrRuO3/30nm thick Bal-xSrxTiO3/SrRuO3 all oxide capacitor was 550, which corresponds SiO2 equivalent thickness of 0.21 nm. In addition, this type of capacitors have interfaces of higher cleanliness between dielectrics and electrodes, which are expected to provide opportunities of more simplified discussions on reliability issues for thin film capacitors. Dielectric breakdown properties and DC stress-induced leakage degradation properties were examined in room temperature and elevated temperatures. Various kinds of leakage degradation were observed and categorized in anode degradation and cathode degradation. The degradation in capacitors with oxide electrodes was markedly suppressed compared to that in capacitors with metal electrodes such as Pt or Ru. This higher degradation resistance yielded longer lifetime in capacitors of this type and the estimated life time at 458K for SrRuOS/ Bal-xSrxTiO3/SrRuO3 capacitor was 3E8 seconds, which exceeds required specification for DRAM application. These differences were discussed on the basis of a supposed degradation mechanism in which oxygen vacancy generation at anode interface is taken into account as well as vacancy accumulation at cathode interface.

The projects LIGHT and MIRA are the space-borne and ground-based optical/Infrared-interferometer projects of the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan. The contents of each project are gradually developing, and the descriptions given below are the preliminary ones studied at the present time.

LIGHT (Light Interferometer satellite for the studies of Galactic Halo Tracers) is a scanning astrometric satellite for stellar and galactic astronomy planned to be launched between 2007 and 2010 by a M-V launcher of ISAS, Japan. Two sets of Fizeau-type 40cm-pupil interferometers with 1 m baseline are the basic structure of the satellite optics. The multi-color (U, B, V, R, I, and K) CCD arrays are planned to be used in the focal plane of the interferometer, optimized for detecting the precise locations of fringe patterns. LIGHT is expected to observe the parallaxes and proper motions of nearly a hundred million stars up to 18th visual (15thK-band) magnitude with the precision better than 0.1 milli-arcsecond (about 50 microarcsecond in V-band and 90 micro-arcsecond in K-band) in parallaxes and better than 0.1 milli-arcsecond per year in proper motions, as well as the precise photometric characteristics of the observed stars. Almost all of the giant and supergiant stars belonging to the disk and halo components of our Galaxy within 10 to 15 kpc from the sun will be observed by LIGHT to study the most fundamental structure and evolution of the Galaxy. LIGHT will become a precursor of a more sophisticated future astrometric interferometer satellite like GAIA (Lindegren and Perryman, 1996).

Time of flight (TOF) spectroscopic measurements are used to diagnose the laser-generated plume of ceramic NdBa2Cu3Ox targets. We have been able to directly correlate the laser-deposited films' properties such as superconductivity, crystallinity, and orientation with plasma properties. Study of the TOF spectra shows that at laser fluences greater than 3 J/cm2 the plume become Nd-rich, and this leads to a low Tc in the deposited film. We have also shown the effect of target density on the energy of the plume species, and through energy considerations we have explained the observed change in the crystalline orientation of films from c- to a-orientation with increasing the target density. Finally, we have examined the oxidation mechanism of NdBa2Cu3Ox thin films, and have shown that highly energetic atomic oxygens have a prevailing role in oxidizing our laser-deposited thin films.

We showed that it is feasible to measure the mass of a single star by observing the variation of gravitational deflection caused by the orbital motion of the Earth. When the distance of a star is less than 60 pc and some appropriate sources are within 1 arcsec. in its background, not only the distance but also the mass of the star may be determined by measuring the deflection with an accuracy of 10 μ arcsec. In the case of photometric microlensing by a MACHO, the observation of astrometric gravitational deflection is also useful. By measuring the separation between the primary image and the secondary image, the ratio of mass to distance of the MACHO will be obtained. Further, the orbital motion of the Earth modifying the light curve of the source is discussed.

Reactive ionized cluster beam (RICB) deposition has been used to form crystalline titanium dioxide films on various substrates. Epitaxial ruble films could be formed on Al (111) and sapphire (0001) and (1120) substrates at 450 ºC and 500 ºC , respectively. We also could grow highly oriented rutile films on Si and Ge wafers and Pt (111) and (100) pdycrystal films at 400 °C . The formation of rutile films at lower substrate temperature than 500 °C has not yet been reported to be realized by other techniques.

The surface microhardness has been measured in epitaxial and polycrystal TiO2 rutile films unimplanted or implanted with 150keV He ions. The microhardness of the epitaxial films is much higher and it increases with rising dose stronger than in the case of polycrystalline films. At high doses, however, the microhardness decreases rapidly in epitaxial films. The mechanical properties of the epitaxial films are superior to those of polycrystalline films.

The effects of biperiden and piroheptine on the serum level of zotepine were studied in 15 schizophrenic and 6 mentally retarded in-patients. Neither of these anticholinergic drugs affected the serum level of zotepine nor caused significant side-effects. In the schizophrenics the total scores on the BPRS did not change significantly with either combination of drugs.

The relation between the units and the readings of time and space coordinates of the terrestrial and the barycentric frames is discussed from the viewpoint of general relativity. Attention is paid to the unit of space coordinates since the International Astronomical Union (IAU) regulates only the unit of time coordinate in the above two frames. Two definitions on unit of length are examined and their effects on the numerical expression of coordinate transformation, equations of planetary motions, and those for light propagation time are discussed. A clear conflict is found between the IAU(1976) recommendation on the definition of the time-scales in different frames and the statement that all constants in the IAU(1976) new system of astronomical constants are defined in terms of the international system of units (SI units). In order to dissolve this conflict, one of the two examined definitions on unit of length is proposed to be adopted, which requests the least alteration on the current procedures to analyze the astrometric observations such as radar/laser rangings, range and range-rate measurements, and very long baseline interferometric observations. An interpretation of numerical values in the IAU(1976) system of astronomical constants is also presented. It is stressed that the definition proposed in this paper requires that a slightly different formula from the current one be used in the numerical transformation of coordinates between the terrestrial and the barycentric frames.