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Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 446 (1), ISSN:0035-8711, ISSN:1365-2966, ISSN:1365-8711

It has been claimed that the nova-like cataclysmic variable (CV) AE Aquarii (AE Aqr) is a very-high-energy (VHE, $E>$100 GeV) source both on observational and theoretical grounds. We aim to search for VHE gamma-ray emission from AE Aqr during different states of the source at several wavelengths to confirm or rule out previous claims of detection of gamma-ray emission from this object. We report on observations of AE Aqr performed by MAGIC. The source was observed during 12 hours as part of a multiwavelength campaign carried out between May and June 2012 covering the optical, X-ray, and gamma-ray ranges. Besides MAGIC, the other facilities involved were the KVA, Skinakas, and Vidojevica telescopes in the optical and Swift in X-rays. We calculated integral upper limits coincident with different states of the source in the optical. We computed upper limits to the pulsed emission limiting the signal region to 30% of the phaseogram and we also searched for pulsed emission at different frequencies applying the Rayleigh test. AE Aqr was not detected at VHE energies during the multiwavelength campaign. We establish integral upper limits at the 95\% confidence level for the steady emission assuming the differential flux proportional to a power-law function d\phi/dE \propto E^{-Gamma}, with a Crab-like photon spectral index of Gamma=2.6. The upper limit above 200 GeV is 6.4\times10^{-12} cm^{-2}s^{-1} and above 1 TeV is 7.4\times10^{-13} cm^{-2}s^{-1}. We obtained an upper limit for the pulsed emission of 2.6\times10^{-12} cm^{-2}s^{-1} for energies above 200 GeV. Applying the Rayleigh test for pulsed emission at different frequencies we did not find any significant signal. Our results indicate that AE Aqr is not a VHE gamma-ray emitter at the level of emission previously claimed. We have established the most constraining upper limits for the VHE gamma-ray emission of AE Aqr., Comment: 9 pages, 5 figures. Accepted for publication in A&A

It is essential to consider large-angle scattered particles in dose calculation models for therapeutic carbon-ion beams. However, it is difficult to measure the small dose contribution from large-angle scattered particles. In this paper, the authors present a novel method to derive the parameters describing large-angle scattered particles from the measured results.The authors developed a new parallel-plate ionization chamber consisting of concentric electrodes. Since the sensitive volume of each channel is increased linearly with this type, it is possible to efficiently and easily detect small contributions from the large-angle scattered particles. The parameters describing the large-angle scattered particles were derived from pencil beam dose distribution in water measured with the new ionization chamber. To evaluate the validity of this method, the correction for the field-size dependence of the doses, "predicted-dose scaling factor," was calculated with the new parameters.The predicted-dose scaling factor calculated with the new parameters was compared with the existing one. The difference between the new correction factor and the existing one was 1.3%. For target volumes of different sizes, the calculated dose distribution with the new parameters was in good agreement with the measured one.Parameters describing the large-angle scattered particles can be efficiently and rapidly determined using the new ionization chamber. The authors confirmed that the field-size dependence of the doses could be compensated for by the new parameters. This method makes it possible to easily derive the parameters describing the large-angle scattered particles, while maintaining the dose calculation accuracy.

The Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) project aims to implement the world’s largest next generation of Very High Energy gamma-ray Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes devoted to the observation from a few tens of GeV to more than 100 TeV. To view the whole sky, two CTA sites are foreseen, one for each hemisphere. The sensitivity at the lowest energy range will be dominated by four Large Size Telescopes, LSTs, located at the center of each array and designed to achieve observations of high red-shift objects with the threshold energy of 20 GeV. The LST is optimized also for transient low energy sources, such as Gamma Ray Bursts (GRB), which require fast repositioning of the telescope. The overall design and the development status of the first LST telescope will be discussed.

We present a study of the very high energy (VHE; E > 100 GeV) gamma-ray emission of the blazar PKS 1424+240 observed with the MAGIC telescopes. The primary aim of this paper is the multiwavelength spectral characterization and modeling of this blazar, which is made particularly interesting by the recent discovery of a lower limit of its redshift of z > 0.6 and makes it a promising candidate to be the most distant VHE source. The source has been observed with the MAGIC telescopes in VHE gamma rays for a total observation time of ~33.6 h from 2009 to 2011. The source was marginally detected in VHE gamma rays during 2009 and 2010, and later, the detection was confirmed during an optical outburst in 2011. The combined significance of the stacked sample is ~7.2 sigma. The differential spectra measured during the different campaigns can be described by steep power laws with the indices ranging from 3.5 +/- 1.2 to 5.0 +/- 1.7. The MAGIC spectra corrected for the absorption due to the extragalactic background light connect smoothly, within systematic errors, with the mean spectrum in 2009-2011 observed at lower energies by the Fermi-LAT. The absorption-corrected MAGIC spectrum is flat with no apparent turn down up to 400 GeV. The multiwavelength light curve shows increasing flux in radio and optical bands that could point to a common origin from the same region of the jet. The large separation between the two peaks of the constructed non-simultaneous spectral energy distribution also requires an extremely high Doppler factor if an one zone synchrotron self-Compton model is applied. We find that a two-component synchrotron self-Compton model describes the spectral energy distribution of the source well, if the source is located at z~0.6., 15 pages, 8 figures. A&A accepted for publication

The Crab pulsar is the only astronomical pulsed source detected at very high energy (VHE, E>100GeV) gamma-rays. The emission mechanism of VHE pulsation is not yet fully understood, although several theoretical models have been proposed. In order to test the new models, we measured the light curve and the spectra of the Crab pulsar with high precision by means of deep observations. We analyzed 135 hours of selected MAGIC data taken between 2009 and 2013 in stereoscopic mode. In order to discuss the spectral shape in connection with lower energies, 4.6 years of {\it Fermi}-LAT data were also analyzed. The known two pulses per period were detected with a significance of $8.0 \sigma$ and $12.6 \sigma$. In addition, significant emission was found between the two pulses with $6.2 \sigma$. We discovered the bridge emission above 50 GeV between the two main pulses. This emission can not be explained with the existing theories. These data can be used for testing new theoretical models., Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures

The periodontal ligament (PDL) is one of the connective tissues located between the tooth and bone. It is characterized by rapid turnover. Periodontal ligament fibroblasts (PDLFs) play major roles in the rapid turnover of the PDL. Microarray analysis of human PDLFs (HPDLFs) and human dermal fibroblasts (HDFs) demonstrated markedly high expression of chemokine (CXC motif) ligand 12 (CXCL12) in the HPDLFs. CXCL12 plays an important role in the migration of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs). The function of CXCL12 in the periodontal ligament was investigated in HPDLFs. Expression of CXCL12 in HPDLFs and HDFs was examined by RT-PCR, qRT-PCR and ELISA. Chemotactic ability of CXCL12 was evaluated in both PDLFs and HDFs by migration assay of MSCs. CXCL12 was also immunohistochemically examined in the PDL in vivo. Expression of CXCL12 in the HPDLFs was much higher than that in HDFs in vitro. Migration assay demonstrated that the number of migrated MSCs by HPDLFs was significantly higher than that by HDFs. In addition, the migrated MSCs also expressed CXCL12 and several genes that are familiar to fibroblasts. CXCL12 was immunohistochemically localized in the fibroblasts in the PDL of rat molars. The results suggest that PDLFs synthesize and secrete CXCL12 protein and that CXCL12 induces migration of MSCs in the PDL in order to maintain rapid turnover of the PDL.

The Large Size Telescopes, LSTs, located at the center of the Cherenkov Telescope Array, CTA, will be sensitive for low energy gamma-rays. The camera on the LST focal plane is optimized to detect low energy events based on a high photon detection efficiency and high speed electronics. Also the trigger system is designed to detect low energy showers as much as possible. In addition, the camera is required to work stably without maintenance in a few tens of years. In this contribution we present the design of the camera for the first LST and the status of its development and production.

Electroluminescent (EL) properties of novel metal–chelate complexes have been investigated in the organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) comprised of the hole transport layer (HTL) and emitting layer (EML). The metal–chelate complexes have either polycyclic aromatic or fused ring ligands, which coordinate to zinc or aluminum. Various EL emission colors over the range of blue to yellow were obtained. The OLEDs using the complexes with polycyclic aromatic ligands showed desirable blue emission with a quantum efficiency of 1.5–1.7% at a luminance of 300 cd/m 2 and CIE color coordinates of around (0.17, 0.16). By perylene-doping into the blue-emitting complex, the improvement of EL efficiency was observed. On the other hand, the complex with fused ring ligands gave a quantum efficiency of 0.8% at yellow emission.

We have studied the influence of hole transporting material on the electroluminescence characteristics in two-layer devices based on tris(8-quinolinolato) aluminum. Five hole transporting materials including two novel materials were used. No difference in turn-on voltages for light emission has been seen in the devices fabricated on indium-tin-oxide treated by argon/oxygen plasma, and a high luminance of 10000 cd/m2 was achieved at an operating voltage around 10 V. However, the photometric efficiency depended on the hole transporting material. High photometric efficiency of 6.1 cd/A and high luminous efficiency of 3.6 lm/W at a luminance of 300 cd/m2 were obtained in one of the devices.

A superconducting electron cooler with an adiabatic expansion factor of 100 was designed for high-precision experiments and high-speed cooling. The gun solenoid is a liquid-helium-free superconducting magnet with a 20-cm room-temperature bore, which can produce a magnetic field of up to 3.5 T. An electron beam is expanded from a diameter of 5 to 50 mm in a gradually decreasing solenoid field from 3.5 T to 35 mT. With this cooler, a transverse electron temperature on the order of 1 meV was attained. The longitudinal cooling force was measured with an induction accelerator as functions of the ion and electron currents, and the expansion factor. The longitudinal cooling force does not depend much on the expansion factor.

We observed the histology and tetracycline (TC) labeling in a single frontal section of alveolar bone of upper first molars of adolescent rats. A single injection of TC was administered intraperitonealy in adolescent rats. After three weeks, the upper jaws were immersed rapidly in liquid nitrogen and sectioned. Five micrometer unfixed, undecalcified frozen sections were cut and observed by light and fluorescence microscopy. Frontal sections of the upper first molar area revealed that the structural relationships among the roots, the periodontal ligament and the alveolar bone, and also between the cervical enamel and the attachment epithelium were well preserved. The TC labeling lines in the sections were very clear and distinguished new bone from old bone. The brightness of the lines differed among regions. An analysis of the brightness in the same section suggested a difference in the bone forming activity at the time of injection.

Novel hole and electron transporting materials have been synthesized to improve the thermal stability of organic electroluminescent (EL) devices. Molecular structures of such hole and electron transporting materials were designed based on triphenylamine (TPA) and oxadiazole (OXD) moieties, respectively. It has been found that the resulting materials have high glass transition temperatures (Tg) over 100°C and the vacuum-deposited thin films are significantly thermally stable. For the two-layer EL devices using the novel hole transporting materials and the typical emitting material, tris(8-quinolinolato) aluminum, the thermal stability has been clearly seen to depend on the Tg of the hole transporting material; excellent thermal stability was achieved. For the three-layer EL device using the novel electron transporting material, good emission efficiency and good stability were achieved. The electron transporting materials have been also applied to the polymeric system with polyvinylcarbazole matrix.

In this study we constructed a walking guidance system for the visually handicapped with FM wav information given by low power transmitters assembled solar battery and a commercial portable radio. We tested 14 visually handicapped on Toyota city roads. The efficacy of guiding information from the walking-guidance system was evaluated in walking experiments for the visually handicapped who can go out done by himself. As the results it became evident that the visually handicapped could understand the guiding information, suppose a psychological map and arrive at his destination precisely, and that the analysis of quantification method of third type (HAYASHI III) using the evaluation of guiding information enabled us to classify the subject into three groups and to show abilities to go out or to walk.

We have found that TaSnO films prepared on indium tin oxide (ITO) electrodes by magnetron co-sputtering of Ta 2 O 5 and SnO 2 have much higher breakdown field strength than the Ta 2 O 5 films on the ITO electrodes. The highly insulating TaSnO films were obtained in the Sn concentration range of 3 to 40 at%. The figure of merit, which was defined by the multiplication of the breakdown field strength by the relative dielectric constant, of the TaSnO films was found to become a maximum in Sn concentration of about 3 at%. The experimental results of temperature dependence of the leakage currents indicated that the conduction mechanisms at room temperature changed from Poole-Frenkel type to Fowler-Nordheim tunneling type by adding SnO 2 into Ta 2 O 5 films.

A total of 1,319 strains of Vibrio parahaemolyticus isolated from traveller's diarrhea were analysed for Kanagawa phenomenon (KP) with the Wagatsuma blood agar test and the results were also compared with those of analyses of tdh and trh genes which encode thermostable direct hemolysin (tdh) and TDH-related hemolysin (trh). The majority of the strains (1,152 strains) counting 87.3% had positive KP, among which 1,049 and 103 strains were only tdh and both tdh and trh-positive ones, respectively. However, 167 strains counting 12.7%, which is quite high compared to the previous report, were found to have negative KP, among which 94 and 24 strains were only trh and both tdh and trh-positive ones, respectively.

In this paper, we investigated the temperature dependences of the electroluminescent (EL) characteristics of two-layer devices fabricated using four hole-transporting materials based on triphenylamine, and a typical emitting material, tris (8-quinolinolato) aluminum. The thermal stability of the organic EL devices is clearly seen to depend on the glass transition temperature (T/sub g/) of the hole-transporting material. The EL device with a pentamer of triphenylamine exhibits uniform light emission in a continuous operation up to 155/spl deg/C without breakdown. A lowering of the "turn-on voltage" for light emission and an increase of luminous efficiency with increasing temperature are found in the devices. Excellent durability of continuous operation is also achieved at high temperatures. Our results indicate that the linear linkage of triphenylamine provides the high T/sub g/ material and the high device performance at high temperatures.

To evaluate whether calcitonin influences the lysosomal forming system in osteoclasts, acid phosphatase (ACPase) and glucose-6-phosphatase (G6Pase) were examined in cells with and without hormonal treatment. Many osteoclasts treated with calcitonin (CT) separated from or attached only partly to the bone surface, and the ruffled border (RB) disappeared. In ACPase activity, the reactive products of the enzyme were present in small and large lysosomes, Golgi apparatus, and on the membrane of the RB in CT-free (control) osteoclasts. The reactive products were also present in the same organelles of CT-treated osteoclasts, except RB, but the enzymal activity in the Golgi apparatus was lower than that in control osteoclasts. Additionally, the number of small lysosomes increased strikingly. In G6Pase activity, the reactive products of the enzyme were present in endoplasmic reticulum (ER), nuclear envelope, and vacuoles in CT-treated osteoclasts as well as in control osteoclasts. The vacuoles with the enzyme-positive were distinguished from the lysosomes in size, and the number increased remarkably in CT-treated osteoclasts. From these results, there is a possibility that calcitonin influences the function of Golgi apparatus in the lysosomal forming system of osteoclasts, resulting in the appearance of vacuoles with G6Pase activity.

To evaluate a patient-specific QA program and system for constancy checking of a scanning delivery system developed at the National Institute of Radiological Sciences.For the patient-specific QA, all the planned beams are recalculated on a water phantom with treatment planning software (TPS). The recalculated dose distributions are compared with the measured distributions using a 2D ionization chamber array at several depths, and evaluated using gamma index analysis with criteria of 3% and 3 mm and a pass rate of 90%. For the constancy check, the authors developed the multiwire proportional chamber (MWPC), which can record the delivered 2D fluence images in a slice-by-slice manner. During irradiation for dosimetric QA with the 2D ionization chamber array and an accordion-type water phantom, the 2D fluence images are recorded using the MWPC in the delivery system. These recorded images are then compared to those taken in the treatment session to check the constancy check. This analysis also employs gamma index analysis using the same criteria as in the patient-specific QA. These patient-specific QA and constancy check evaluations were performed using the data of 122 patients.In the patient-specific QA, the measured dose distributions agreed well with those calculated by the TPS, and the QA criteria were satisfied in all measurements. The additional check of the fluence comparison ensured the constancy of the delivered field during each treatment irradiation.The authors established a patient-specific QA program and additional check of delivery constancy in every treatment session. Fluence comparison is a strong tool for constancy checking of the delivery system.

This chapter describes design considerations of a carbon-ion radiotherapy (C-ion RT) facility, based on medical requirements. In addition, as examples of C-ion RT facilities, a pilot facility of a downsized version of the Heavy-Ion Medical Accelerator in Chiba (HIMAC) and the new treatment research facility with the HIMAC accelerator are introduced. The former facility employs the beam-wobbling method, which has been successfully operated in Gunma University Heavy Ion Medical Center (GHMC) since March 2010. The latter facility has three treatment rooms: Two of them are equipped with the horizontal and vertical beam-delivery systems and one room is prepared for a superconducting rotating gantry, which employs the pencil-beam 3D scanning for treatments of both the static and respiratory-moving tumors. The treatments in the new treatment research facility have been successfully carried out since May 2011, while a rotating gantry with superconducting magnet has been developed.

Large Hadron Collider forward (LHCf) has successfully completed the operation during the LHC 2009–2010 period and the detectors were removed in July 2010. The event trigger, data analysis and background have been intensively studied in order to derive inclusive single photon and π0 spectra. In this paper, the details of these intensive studies are described.

To evaluate the impact of variation in respiratory cycle between treatment planning and irradiation for pencil beam scanning and phase-controlled rescanning (PCR) on the resulting dose distribution, we conducted a simulation study based on four-dimensional CT (4DCT) data for lung cancer patients.4DCT data were acquired for seven patients with lung tumours. Treatment planning was designed to ensure the delivery of 95% of the prescribed dose to the clinical target volume in respective phases of the 4DCT by taking account of intrafractional beam range variations. Carbon ion pencil beam scanning dose distributions were calculated for various respiratory cycles that differed from the reference respiration (=4.4 s) but which stayed regular during irradiation. The number of rescannings was changed to 1, 4 or 8 times. PCR was correlated with the gating window in treatment planning to calculate the beam weighting map.8×PCR improved dose conformation to the target for all irradiation respiratory cycles. Minimum dose (Dmin) and lowest dose encompassing 95% of the target (D95) values with 4×PCR were decreased from 94.1% and 98.1% to 88.4% and 93.5% with an altered irradiation respiratory cycle of 2.4 s. However, these values were improved with 8×PCR to over 94.9% for Dmin and 98.6% for D95 for respective irradiation respiratory cycles.Pencil beam scanning treatment with eight or more PCRs consistently improved dose conformation for moving lung targets even when different respiratory cycles were used for treatment planning and irradiation.Scanning treatment with eight or more rescannings consistently improved dose homogeneity to a moving target even though respiratory cycles varied during treatment.

Irradiation of a moving target with a scanning beam requires a comprehensive understanding of organ motion as well as a robust dose error mitigation technique. The authors studied the effects of intrafractional respiratory motion for carbon-ion pencil beam scanning with phase-controlled rescanning on dose distributions for lung tumors. To address density variations, they used 4DCT data.Dose distributions for various rescanning methods, such as simple layer rescanning (LR), volumetric rescanning, and phase-controlled rescanning (PCR), were calculated for a lung phantom and a lung patient studies. To ensure realism, they set the scanning parameters such as scanning velocity and energy variation time to be similar to those used at our institution. Evaluation metrics were determined with regard to clinical relevance, and consisted of (i) phase-controlled rescanning, (ii) sweep direction, (iii) target motion (direction and amplitude), (iv) respiratory cycle, and (v) prescribed dose. Spot weight maps were calculated by using a beam field-specific target volume, which takes account of range variations for respective respiratory phases. To emphasize the impact of intrafractional motion on the dose distribution, respiratory gating was not used. The accumulated dose was calculated by applying a B-spline-based deformable image registration, and the results for phase-controlled layered rescanning (PCRL) and phase-controlled volumetric rescanning (PCRV) were compared.For the phantom study, simple LR was unable to improve the dose distributions for an increased number of rescannings. The phase-controlled technique without rescanning (1×PCRL and 1×PCRV) degraded dose conformity significantly due to a reduced scan velocity. In contrast, 4×PCRL or more significantly and consistently improved dose distribution. PCRV showed interference effects, but in general also improved dose homogeneity with higher numbers of rescannings. Dose distributions with single PCRL∕PCRV with a sweep direction perpendicular to motion direction showed large hot∕cold spots; however, this effect vanished with higher numbers of rescannings for both methods. Similar observations were obtained for the other dose metrics, such as target motion (SI∕AP), amplitude (6-22 mm peak-to-peak) and respiratory period (3.0-5.0 s). For four or more rescannings, both methods showed significantly better results, albeit that volumetric PCR was more affected by interference effects, which lead to severe degradation of a few dose distributions. The clinical example showed the same tendencies as the phantom study. Dose assessment metrics (D95, Dmax∕Dmin, homogeneity index) were improved with an increasing number of PCRL∕PCRV, but with PCRL being more robust.PCRL requires a longer treatment time than PCRV for high numbers of rescannings in the NIRS scanning system but is more robust. Although four or more rescans provided good dose homogeneity and conformity, the authors prefer to use more rescannings for clinical cases to further minimize dose degradation effects due to organ motion.

The photodissociation of the monoanions of chlorophylls $a$ and $b$ in the gas phase were studied using an electrostatic storage ring. The number of neutral particles produced by the photoabsorption of the ions was measured as a function of time after irradiating the ions with a laser pulse with wavelengths in the region 410\ensuremath{-}660 nm. Fast and slow decay components were observed in the photodissociation spectra of the chlorophylls, and the lifetimes of these components increased with an increase in the wavelength of the irradiating laser pulse. It is shown that the slow decay component was due to one-photon excitation whereas the fast decay component was due to two-photon excitation. A statistical model was used to simulate the decay processes, and the simulated decay spectra were in good accordance with the experimentally determined ones. The activation energies of the decay processes of the two chlorophylls were derived using the model, and were found to be approximately 0.6 eV for both. The measured wavelength spectra were markedly different from the photoabsorption spectra of the chlorophylls in the solution phase for the $B$-band-to-$Q$-band ratio.

Purpose Pencil beam scanning offers excellent conformity, but is sensitive to organ motion. We conducted a simulation study to validate our rescanning approach in combination with gating in the irradiation of liver tumors. Materials and methods 4DCT imaging was performed under free-breathing conditions in 30 patients with hepatocellular carcinoma. Dose distributions for a two-field approach were calculated for layered phase controlled rescannings (PCR) under organ motion conditions. A total dose of 45Gy(RBE) was delivered to respective field-specific target volumes (FTVs) in two fractions, each composed of two orthogonal uniform fields of 11.25Gy(RBE) at beam angles of either 0° and 90° or 0° and 270°. The number of rescannings was changed from 1 to 10. Results Good dose conformity was achieved with 4× PCR or more, and over 95% of the prescribed dose was delivered to the CTV independent of the use of gating. D95, Dmax/min and dose homogeneity were similar with or without gating, whereas V10 dose to the liver as well as maximal doses to healthy tissue (esophagus and cord) were about 40% lower with gating. However, total time increased by about 50% with gating. Conclusions Gated rescanning provides good target coverage and homogeneity with maximal sparing of healthy tissue. Our results suggest that carbon-ion pencil beam scanning may soon be available for the safe treatment of liver tumors.

We demonstrate that by using thin films of metal oxides, such as vanadium oxide (VOx), molybdenum oxide (MoOx) and ruthenium oxide (RuOx), as a hole-injecting layer for an organic electroluminescent (EL) device consisting of N,N'-diphenyl-N,N-bis(3-methylphenyl1)1,1'-biphenyl-4,4' diamine (TPD) and tris-(8-quinolinolato) aluminium (Alq), the EL device performance can be significantly improved. The `operating voltage' of the device is reduced with respect to a device with a well known indium - tin-oxide (ITO) electrode for hole injection. We consider that the improvement of the operating voltage is attributable to the lower energy barrier for hole injection at the metal oxide/TPD interface.

Electron-impact detachment of ${\mathrm{H}}^{\mathrm{\ensuremath{-}}}$ was studied with the TARN II storage ring (at the Institute for Nuclear Study, University of Tokyo) and the associated high-resolution electron beam. The relative cross sections were measured for the relative energies between electron and ion from 0 to 60 eV in search of the ${\mathrm{H}}^{2\mathrm{\ensuremath{-}}}$ resonances that were reported earlier. No evidence was found for the existence of these resonance states. \textcopyright{} 1996 The American Physical Society.

本研究は, 微弱電波発信装置と市販の携帯ラジオとを用いて, 視覚障害者のためのFM電波情報による歩行案内システムを構築した. また一人で外出できる視覚障害者を被験者とした歩行実験から, 歩行案内システムの案内情報提供の有効性を評価した. その結果, 視覚障害者が案内情報を理解し, 心理地図を描きながら的確に目的地まで到達できること, また案内情報の評価を用いた数量化III類の分析から, 被験者を3つのグループに分類でき, 各グループの外出能力や歩行能力が明らかとなった.

During the last 2 years and 8 months before the closure of Osaka Airport Quarantine Station (from Jan. 1992 to Sep. 3, 1994), a total of 7,421,909 overseas travellers were quarantined. 15,919 reported themselves of suffering from diarrhoea. Bacteriological examination of a total of 6,031 individuals' stools were performed. 1) Various enteropathogenic bacteria were isolated from 31.2% of the stools examined. Isolated species were as follows: Plesiomonas shigelloides, 1,127 cases (59.9%); Vibrio parahaemolyticus, 293 cases (15.6%); Salmonella spp., 262 cases (13.9%); Shigella spp., 235 cases (12.5%); Aeromonas sobria, 93 cases (4.9%); V. cholerae non-O1, 69 cases (3.7%). 2) The enteropathogenic bacteria were isolated through out the year without any seasonal variation. 3) The major regions where the travellers were infected with the pathogens are as follows: V. cholerae non-O1 (NAG Vibrio) and enteropathogenic Escherichia coli, South-East and South-West Asia; Vibrio other than NAG, South-East and East Asia; Shigella, widely distributed but especially in India; P. shigelloides and Salmonella, widely distributed. 4) 2 strains of toxigenic (cholera toxin-producing) V. cholerae O139 were isolated from patients who had visited Indonesia and Thailand, respectively. 5) In 320 cases (17%), plural enteropathogenic bacteria were isolated from single patients, suggesting a high frequency of the mixed infections. 6) Among Shigella strains, S. sonnei were isolated the most, followed by S. flexneri (24.7%), S. boydii (8.8%) and S. dysenteriae (2.9%). 7) Among Salmonella serovers, Salmonella Enteritidis was isolated the most frequently (39 cases, 14.1%). 8) 218 (91.6%) of 238 Shigella strains and 103 (37.6%) of 276 Salmonella strains were resistant to one or more drugs tested (SM.CP.TC.KM.ABPC.NA.OFLX). 9) All of the 22 V. cholerae O1 strains were Ogawa, E1 Tor. Among them, 19 were toxigenic strains and 3 were non-toxigenic. 10) O4:K8 was the most frequently isolated serover of V. paraemolyticus. 87.4% of all V. parahaemolyticus strains were positive with thermostable direct hemolysin (TDH) gene, and 12.6% of them were positive with TDH-related hemolysin (TRH) gene by DNA-probe methods.

Crack-free and highly transparent KTiOPO4 (KTP) thin films were synthesized by the sol-gel method using a homogeneous precursor solution prepared from (“BuO)2-P(O)(OH), Ti(OEt)4, and KOEt in EtOH. Precipitated powders from the solution crystallized directly to KTP above 550°C. Polycrystalline KTP thin films were obtained at 600°C on various substrates. On NdAlO3(100) substrates, KTP films with (101) and (240) preferred orientations were formed at 600°C. KTP films on glass substrates showed a refractive index of 1.75 and an absorption edge of 350 nm. KTP films exhibited the second harmonic generation of the 532 nm light on irradiaton with 1064 nm light.

Dissociative recombination of ${\mathrm{HD}}^{+}$ was studied with an adiabatically expanded low-temperature electron beam in a cooler ring TARN II. Measurements were performed over a wide energy range from 0 to 40 eV in the center of mass system. The spectrum at low electron energies less than 1 eV clearly shows structures even in the energy region of the order of 1 meV. The results agree well with the theoretical calculations based on a multichannel quantum defect theory including rotational motions and off-the-energy-shell effects.

Astronomy and astrophysics 591, A138(2016). doi:10.1051/0004-6361/201527722, The Geminga pulsar, one of the brighest gamma-ray sources, is a promising candidate for emission of very-high-energy (VHE > 100 GeV) pulsed gamma rays. Also, detection of a large nebula has been claimed by water Cherenkov instruments. We performed deep observations of Geminga with the MAGIC telescopes, yielding 63 h of good-quality data, and searched for emission from the pulsar and pulsar wind nebula. We did not find any significant detection, and derived 95% confidence level upper limits. The resulting upper limits of 5.3 × 10$^{-13}$ TeV cm$^{-2}$ s$^{-1}$ for the Geminga pulsar and 3.5 × 10$^{-12}$ TeV cm$^{-2} s$^{-1}$ for the surrounding nebula at 50 GeV are the mostconstraining ones obtained so far at VHE. To complement the VHE observations, we also analyzed 5 yr of Fermi-LAT data from Geminga, finding that the sub-exponential cut-off is preferred over the exponential cut-off that has been typically used in the literature. We also find that, above 10 GeV, the gamma-ray spectra from Geminga can be described with a power law with index softer than 5. The extrapolation of the power-law Fermi-LAT pulsed spectra to VHE goes well below the MAGIC upper limits, indicating that the detection of pulsed emission from Geminga with the current generation of Cherenkov telescopes is very difficult., Published by EDP Sciences, Les Ulis

本研究では, 試験車を一般道路で走行させることにより得られた速度データから道路・交通条件および個人特性とアクセレレーションノイズの関係を明らかにし, 道路・交通条件および個人特性を説明変数とするアクセレレーションノイズ予測モデルを構築した. 次いでアクセレレーションノイズ予測モデルを一般道路に適用して, 得られたアクセレレーションノイズ値と交通事故との相関を求めることにより交通事故多発区間の予測が可能であることを立証し, アクセレレーションノイズ予測モデル式は道路・交通条件を改良する交通事故防止対策立案にきわめて有用であることを示した.

A new singly charged ion source using electron impact ionization has been developed to realize an isotope separation on-line system for simultaneous positron emission tomography imaging and heavy-ion cancer therapy using radioactive (11)C ion beams. Low-energy electron beams are used in the electron impact ion source to produce singly charged ions. Ionization efficiency was calculated in order to decide the geometric parameters of the ion source and to determine the required electron emission current for obtaining high ionization efficiency. Based on these considerations, the singly charged ion source was designed and fabricated. In testing, the fabricated ion source was found to have favorable performance as a singly charged ion source.

The inclusive production rate of neutral pions in the rapidity range greater than $y=8.9$ has been measured by the Large Hadron Collider forward (LHCf) experiment during $\sqrt{s}=7\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{TeV}$ proton-proton collision operation in early 2010. This paper presents the transverse momentum spectra of the neutral pions. The spectra from two independent LHCf detectors are consistent with each other and serve as a cross-check of the data. The transverse momentum spectra are also compared with the predictions of several hadronic interaction models that are often used for high-energy particle physics and for modeling ultrahigh-energy cosmic ray showers.

The photodissociation of fluorescein monoanions was studied by varying the storage times of the ions in an ion trap and an electrostatic storage ring, before laser irradiation. The photodissociation neutral spectra as a function of time vary, in a manner dependent on the storage time as well as the laser wavelength; spectra consist of components with short and long lifetimes. By comparing the wavelength spectra of fluorescein obtained herein with absorption spectra reported recently for the solution and gas phases, it was deduced that the spectra originated from various tautomers of fluorescein monoanions. Moreover, interconversion of these tautomers occurs during long-term storage in the storage ring in vacuo. The wavelength spectra of the converted ions depend strongly on the storage time in the ring. In addition, we have also performed detailed semiempirical quantum-chemical computations, to try revealing what kind of monoanion tautomers we are dealing with.

In radiotherapy with a scanned carbon-ion beam, its Bragg peak is shifted along the depth direction either by inserting the range shifter plates or by changing the beam-extraction energy of a synchrotron. In the former technique (range shifter scanning: RS), the range shifter plates broaden the beam size and produce secondary fragments through nuclear reactions. In the latter technique (active-energy scanning: ES), it may take several seconds to change the beam energy depending on the synchrotron operation cycle, leading to a long treatment time. The authors propose a hybrid depth scan technique (hybrid scanning: HS), where several beam energies are used in conjunction with the range shifter plates for finer range shift. In this study, HS is evaluated from the viewpoints of dose distribution and treatment time.Assuming realistic accelerator and beam-delivery systems, the authors performed computer simulations using GEANT4 Monte Carlo code for beam modeling and a treatment planning system to evaluate HS. Three target volumes with the same dimensions of 60 × 60 × 60 mm(3) were generated at depths of 45, 85, and 125 mm in water phantom, and uniform clinical dose was planned for these targets. The sizes of lateral dose falloff and the peak to plateau ratio defined as the ratio of the clinical dose averaged over the target to the clinical dose at the entrance as well as the treatment time were compared among the three depth scan techniques.The sizes of lateral dose falloffs at the center of SOBP are 11.4, 8.5, and 5.9 mm for the three targets in RS, while they are 5.7, 4.8, and 4.6 mm in ES and 6.6, 5.7, and 5.0 mm in HS, respectively. The peak to plateau ratios are 1.39, 1.96, and 2.15 in RS, while they are 1.48, 2.04, and 2.19 in ES and 1.47, 2.03, and 2.18 in HS, respectively. The treatment times are 128.7, 128.6, and 128.6 s in ES, while they are 61.2, 54.6, and 47.8 s in RS and 43.2, 44.1, and 44.7 s in HS, respectively. The multiple scattering and the nuclear reaction by range shifter degraded the beam qualities such as lateral dose falloff and peak to plateau ratio, which was especially pronounced for the shallow target in RS. The depth scan timing was limited by accelerator cycle in ES. That increased the treatment time by a few times.This study revealed that HS can provide dose distributions with steeper lateral dose falloffs and higher peak to plateau ratio comparing to RS and comparable to ES. In addition, the treatment time can be considerably reduced in HS compared to ES.

Among the various kinds of fibroblasts existing in the human body, the periodontal ligament (PDL) fibroblasts have been suggested as multipotent cells. Periodontal ligament fibroblasts are characterized by rapid turnover, a high remodeling capacity and remarkable capacity for renewal and repair. They also differentiate into osteoblasts and cementoblasts. We established iPS cells from human PDL fibroblasts by introducing the ES cell markers Oct3/4, Sox2, Nanog, Klf4 and Lin28 by retrovirus transduction, even without the oncogene c-Myc. The iPS cells established in this study expressed the ES cell markers and formed teratomas in SCID mice. The c-Myc expression level in the PDL fibroblasts was higher than that in the iPS cells by quantitative RT-PCR. Therefore, we have concluded that PDL fibroblasts could be an optimal cell source for iPS cells.

The LHCf experiment is one of the LHC forward experiments. The aim is to measure the energy and the transverse momentum spectra of photons, neutrons and π 0 's at the very forward region (the pseudo-rapidity range of η > 8.4 ), which should be critical data to calibrate hadron interaction models used in the air shower simulations. LHCf successfully operated at s = 900 GeV and s = 7 TeV proton–proton collisions in 2009 and 2010. We present the first physics result, single photon energy spectra at s = 7 TeV proton–proton collisions and the pseudo-rapidity ranges of η > 10.94 and 8.81 η 8.9 . The obtained spectra were compared with the predictions by several hadron interaction models and the models do not reproduce the experimental results perfectly.

The Large Hadron Collider forward (LHCf) experiment has performed measurements of the neutral particles emitted to the very forward region of proton-proton collisions at LHC. This experiment is designed to explore very forward interaction at very high energy, which is relevant to interpretation of the data from cosmic-ray experiments. LHCf detector is well optimized to measure photons in the multi-TeV energy range, and to reconstruct neutral pions with two photons. It can also measure neutrons. The data acquisitions at 0.9 TeV and 7 TeV were completed in 2010. In this paper, single photon energy spectra obtained at 0.9 TeV and transverse energy spectra of neutral pions obtained at 7 TeV will be presented. The results are compared with expectations by hadronic interaction models used for air-shower simulations. We found none of these models agree with the obtained data in the photon energy spectra, while EPOS shows a good agreement in the transverse energy spectra of neural pions. Impacts on cosmic-ray and QCD physics are also discussed.

本研究は走行特性値と運転技術評価との関係を走行調査を基にして得られる走行速度の平均値や分散, 加速度の平均やアクセレレーションノイズなどと同乗者の運転者に対する運転評価とを重回帰分析により明らかにしたものである. まず自動車学校の練習コースでの走行調査から交通条件の変化がない場合の基本的な運転技術評価モデル式を, 次いで, モデル式の一般性を明らかにするために国道155号線についても走行調査を行いモデル式の有用性を確認した.