The aims of this study were to show the existence of individual differences in the distribution of sperm acrosome-associated 1 (SPACA1) among male patients of infertile couples and to examine their possible impact on the outcomes of conventional in vitro fertilization (IVF). The spermatozoa were collected from male patients of infertile couples, washed by centrifugation, collected by the swim-up method, and then used for clinical treatments of conventional IVF. The surplus sperm samples were fixed and stained with an anti-SPACA1 polyclonal antibody for the immunocytochemistry. In the clinical IVF treatments, fertilization rates and blastocyst development rates were evaluated. The immunocytochemical observations revealed that SPACA1 were localized definitely in the acrosomal equatorial segment and variedly in the acrosomal principal segment. Specifically, the detection patterns of SPACA1 in the acrosomal principal segment could be classified into three categories: (A) strong, (B) intermediate or faint, and (C) almost no immunofluorescence. The SPACA1 indexes were largely different among male patients with the wide range from 13 to 199 points. The SPACA1 indexes were significantly correlated with developmental rates of embryos to blastocysts (r = 0.829, P = 0.00162), although they were barely associated with fertilization rates at 19 h after insemination (r = 0.289, P = 0.389). These results suggest that the distribution of SPACA1 in sperm affects the outcomes of conventional IVF. In conclusion, this study provides initial data to promote large-scale clinical investigation to demonstrate that the SPACA1 indexes are valid as molecular biomarkers that can predict the effectiveness of conventional IVF of infertile couples.

It is now firmly established that a small anisotropy of the galactic cosmic rays exists, observable from Earth as a variation of intensity in sidereal time. The problem now is to determine more clearly the characteristics of the anisotropy and, in particular, its detailed spatial structure and how it depends upon the energy and composition of the cosmic rays. This is a very difficult task and, in the final analysis, may not be fully achievable from Earth-based observations. The purpose of the present paper is to describe briefly an installation now operating in Tasmania to provide further information on the spatial structure of the anisotropy.

In the previous work, it is reported that the Spin-Seebeck effect (SSE), which refer to the generation of a spin current from a temperature gradient, can be enhanced by Fe interface treatment. Here, we investigated the Fe thickness (dFe) dependency of spin-Seebeck voltage (VSSE) and mixing conductance (gr) in Pt/Fe/Bi:YIG/SGGG system. As a result, magnitude of VSSE had a peak at dFe ≓ 1 ML (monolayer , ≓ 0.3 mm), and also increase of gr was saturated at this point. It suggests that VSSE increase with increasing gr when dFe is smaller than 1.0 ML. For the case in which dFe is larger than 1.0ML, however, VSSE decreases due to a spin current decay in Fe layer with a constant gr. These experimental results are consistent with previous theoretical works.

Recently, the issue of sustainable resource management has been increasingly recognized.Economic growth of human activity is associated with a rapid rise in the use of resourcesin our economy, and society has a potential environmental impact. The UNEP InternationalResource Panel (IRP) pointed out the importance of decoupling resource use and negativeenvironmental impacts from economic activity (UNEP IRP 2011). In order tooptimize the material cycles and increase resource efficiency, material flow analysis(MFA) is a powerful tool to understand the resource consumption and material cycle in thenational economy. In this study, we present the results of global material flow analysisof nickel, which is one of the important resources for reducing energy use andCO2 emission inour society, and discuss the importance and possibility of controlling its resourcelogistics. This study also introduces the challenge of identifying the land-use changes innickel mining sites by a remote-sensing technique, and knowledge to increase the resourceefficiency in metal recycling based on the metallurgical thermodynamic approach. Theresults indicated the importance of recovery of nickel in recycling policies forend-of-life (EoL) vehicles and constructions. Improvement in EoL sorting technologies andimplementation of designs for recycling/disassembly at the manufacturing phase are needed.Possible solutions include development of sorting processes for steel scrap andintroduction of easier methods for identifying the composition of secondary resources.Recovery of steel scrap with a high alloy content will reduce primary inputs of alloyingelements and contribute to more efficient resource use.

We present the discovery of out-flow like plasma emissions with the Suzaku and ASCA data. Those plasmas have a size of ∼150 pc. Remarkably, the southern plasma is in a recombination dominant phase, which is not predicted by standard shock heating. A plausible scenario is either photoionization due to strong jet-like X-rays from Sgr A* or rapid cooling due to adiabatic expansion of a blowout plasma from the Galactic center about 105 years ago.

We describe the current, 9-spacecraft Interplanetary Network (IPN). The IPN detects about325 gamma-ray bursts per year, of which about 100 are not localized by any other missions.We give some examples of how the data, which are public, can be utilized.

This study determined the prevalence and antimicrobial susceptibility of Salmonella isolated from broiler flocks in Japan. Caecal dropping samples were collected from 288 broiler flocks between November 2007 and February 2010. Salmonella was prevalent in 248 (86·1%) broiler flocks. The top three serovars were S. Infantis, S. Manhattan and S. Schwarzengrund. S. Infantis was found in all regions tested in this study. However, S. Manhattan and S. Schwarzengrund were frequently found only in the western part of Japan. High antimicrobial resistance rates were observed against oxytetracycline (90·2%), dihydrostreptomycin (86·7%) and ampicillin (36·5%), and 258 (90·5%) of 285 isolates were resistant to two or more antimicrobial agents. Interestingly, 26·3% of isolates were resistant to ceftiofur, especially 38·1% of S. Infantis isolates, although its use in broilers has not been approved in Japan. This study showed that Salmonella is highly prevalent (86·1%) in Japanese broiler flocks, that 90·5% of Salmonella isolates were multidrug-resistant, and that S. Infantis frequently exhibited resistance to cephalosporin antimicrobial agents.

In this study, aluminized, boronized, chromized and siliconized gray cast iron plate specimens were prepared, and their microstructures and tribological properties were investigated. The surfaces of the aluminized, boronized, chromized and siliconized specimens mainly consisted of FeAl, Fe2B, (Cr, Fe)23C6 and FeSi phases, respectively. Also, the surface of the boronized specimen exhibited the highest microvickers hardness of all the specimens. The aluminized, boronized and chromized specimens exhibited friction coefficients as low as the non-coated specimens when sliding against AISI 52100 steel ball specimens in poly-alpha-olefin. In addition, the boronized and chromized specimens exhibited much higher wear resistance than the non-coated specimens.

Human salmonellosis cases, particularly those caused by Salmonella Enteritidis, have been closely linked to egg consumption. This epidemiological survey was conducted to determine the baseline Salmonella prevalence and identify the risk factors for Salmonella prevalence in laying-hen farms in Japan. Caecal excrement samples and dust samples were obtained from 400 flocks in 338 laying-hen farms. Salmonella was identified in 20·7% of the farms and 19·5% of the flocks. The prevalence of Salmonella was significantly higher in flocks reared in windowless houses than in those reared in open houses. In addition, the risk of Salmonella presence was significantly higher when the windowless house farms implemented induced moulting or in-line egg processing. Efforts to reduce human salmonellosis in Japan should continue to focus on the establishment of control measures in laying-hen farms, especially those with windowless houses implementing induced moulting and equipped with in-line egg processing.

The orbital ordering in perovskite-type vanadium oxides, RVO3 (R: rare earth), has been investigated by resonant X-ray scattering (RXS) near the V K-edge energy. The G-type orbital order, C-type orbital order and orbital disorder phases are elucidated on the basis of the azimuthal-angle and polarization dependence of the RXS signal reflecting the orbital ordering.

The effect of non-uniformities on the flow of electric current in weakly ionized plasmas is investigated by taking into account the ion slip as well as the Hall current. An Ohm's law for a non-uniform plasma is derived, from which the formula previously obtained by Numano, i.e. an extension of Rosa's equation, is obtainable as a special case. Making use of this new Ohm's law, the effective electrical conductivity and the effective Hall parameter are determined for isotropically turbulent plasmas. It is found that when the ion-slip effect is absent they are in good agreement with the results obtained previously.

We report the results of mid- to far-infrared spectroscopic observations of Galactic star-forming regions with ISO, Spitzer, and AKARI. Owing to the high sensitivity of the IRS onboard Spitzer, we detected [Si II] 35 μm, [Fe II] 26 μm, and [Fe III] 23 μm lines widely in low-density star-forming regions, and derived gas-phase Si and Fe abundances as 3–100% and <22%, respectively. With the FTS onboard AKARI, we obtained the spatial distribution ofthe [O III]  88 μm emission in two star-forming regions.

Extended abstract of a paper presented at Microscopy and Microanalysis 2007 in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, USA, August 5 – August 9, 2007

Antarctica offers probably the best ground-based conditions for observing in the 1–3 μm region, and may thus be considered as an alternative to Space for this domain. We examine the potential of integral-field spectro-photometry over wide areas of the sky in this wavelength range for the study of carbon stars, that seems promising. On the other hand,the conditions of transparency, background, and their short-time stability from Antarctic sites still need to be evaluated.

The AKARI (formerly known as ASTRO-F) mission is the first Japanese satellite dedicated for large area surveys in the infrared (Murakami et al. 2004). AKARI was launched successfully on February 22nd 2006 (JST) from JAXA's Uchinoura Space Centre, Japan. AKARI is now orbiting around the Earth in a Sun-synchronous polar orbit at the altitude of 700 km. The 68.5 cm aperture telescope and scientific instruments are cooled to 6K by liquid Helium and mechanical coolers. The expected liquid Helium holding time is now found to be at least one year after the successful aperture lid-opening on 2006 April 13th (JST). AKARI will perform the most advanced all-sky survey in 6 mid- to far-infrared wavebands since the preceding IRAS mission over 2 decades ago. Deep imaging and spectroscopic surveys near the ecliptic poles with pointed observations are also on-going in 13 wavelength bands at 2-160 μm (see Table 1, details are given in Matsuhara et al. 2006). AKARI is a perfect complement to Spitzer in respect of its wide sky area and wavelength coverage. Two unique aspects of the pointing deep surveys with AKARI are: many imaging bands including the wavelength gap of Spitzer (8-24 μm), and the slitless spectroscopic capability (Ohyama et al. in this proceeding). Not only the All-Sky Survey but also the deep pointing surveys near the ecliptic poles over ~15 deg2 in total will be particularly well suited to construct the luminosity functions of the infrared galaxies, to evaluate their clustering nature, and also to discover rare, exotic objects at various redshifts out to z ~ 3. AKARI is also capable of detecting and measuring the spectrum and the fluctuations of the cosmic infrared background. The in-orbit sensitivity and spatial resolution of the surveys are found to be sufficient to achive the scientific goals listed above.