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

Based on a multisector general equilibrium framework, we show that the sectoral elasticity of substitution plays the key role in the evolution of asymmetric tails of macroeconomic fluctuations and the establishment of robustness against productivity shocks. A non-unitary elasticity of substitution renders a nonlinear Domar aggregation, where normal sectoral productivity shocks translate into non-normal aggregated shocks with variable expected output growth. We empirically estimate 100 sectoral elasticities of substitution, using the time-series linked input-output tables for Japan and find that the production economy is elastic overall, relative to a Cobb-Douglas economy with unitary elasticity. In addition to the previous assessment of an inelastic production economy for the USA, the contrasting tail asymmetry of the distribution of aggregated shocks between the USA and Japan is explained. Moreover, the robustness of an economy is assessed by expected output growth, the level of which is led by the sectoral elasticities of substitution under zero-mean productivity shocks.

We predict the production yield of a medical radioisotope ${}^{67}$ Cu using ${}^{67}$ Zn(n, p) ${}^{67}$ Cu and ${}^{68}$ Zn(n, pn) ${}^{67}$ Cu reactions with fast neutrons provided from laser-driven neutron sources. The neutrons were generated by the p+ ${}^9\mathrm{Be}$ and d+ ${}^9$ Be reactions with high-energy ions accelerated by laser–plasma interaction. We evaluated the yield to be (3.3 $\pm$ 0.5) $\times$ 10 ${}^5$ atoms for ${}^{67}$ Cu, corresponding to a radioactivity of 1.0 $\pm$ 0.2 Bq, for a Zn foil sample with a single laser shot. Using a simulation with this result, we estimated ${}^{67}$ Cu production with a high-frequency laser. The result suggests that it is possible to generate ${}^{67}$ Cu with a radioactivity of 270 MBq using a future laser system with a frequency of 10 Hz and 10,000-s radiation in a hospital.

We conducted a three-dimensional numerical simulation of bioconvection generated by oxygen-reactive chemotactic bacteria. This study investigated the bioconvection patterns, interference between plumes, and the wavelength of bioconvection patterns. In addition, we clarified the transport characteristics of cells and oxygen in the bioconvection. Multiple plumes occur in the suspension, and three-dimensional bioconvection is formed around the plumes by the cells with vortex rings arising around the plumes. Even if bioconvection at a high Rayleigh number is disturbed, the bioconvection is strongly stable with respect to disturbances, and the pattern does not change due to disturbances. Bioconvection changes depending on the physical properties of bacteria and oxygen, and in particular, the rate of oxygen consumption by bacteria significantly affects the strength of bioconvection. Bioconvection patterns with different plume arrangements and shapes are formed for different Rayleigh numbers or initial disturbances of the cell concentration. As a result, the wavelengths of the patterns also vary. As the Rayleigh number increases, interference between plumes is strengthened by the shortening of the pattern wavelength, so the velocities of both upward and downward flows increase. Many cells are located under the plumes, and a strong shear flow occurs in these regions. As the pattern wavelength decreases, the cells are affected by high shear stress. Then the convective transport of the entire suspension strengthens and the transport characteristics of cells and oxygen improve. When the chamber boundary is changed to side walls, bacteria adhere to the wall surface, and plumes are arranged regularly along the side walls.

In this study, we experimentally evaluate the ion transportation through a cone guide target, which accelerates ions up to MeV energies via target normal sheath acceleration, and transports them onto the position of imploding fuel in the fast ignition scenario of nuclear fusion. We measured the electric and magnetic fields (EM-fields) induced by return current streaming along the cone wall by proton radiography, and we report that the EM-fields are predominantly induced within a temporal window up to 30 ps after the laser injection. The magnitude of the electric field is maximized around 13 ps, reaching $4.0\times 10^{10} \mathrm {V}\ \mathrm {m}^{-1}$, when the magnetic field is below 200 T. The present scheme provides insights on the EM-fields evaluation in the time region that is difficult to treat with simulations due to the computing resources.

The Art and Design School Libraries (ADSL) Division of ARLIS/NA was tasked with preparing a report on the state of ADSLs across North America. The report team offered preliminary results at the ADSL Division Annual Meeting in May 2021. At the ARLIS/UK & Ireland conference in July 2021, they described Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) activities in ADSLs and some of the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the sector. Feedback from both events was incorporated into the report, which is now complete and available on the “Publications” page of the ARLIS/NA website. This article, in addition to summarizing some of the findings, discusses the collaborative process of writing and editing the report and the importance of this process as a model for advancing other essential work in this field.

The brain is rich in long-chain PUFA, which play an essential role in its development and functions. Here, we examined the impact of maternal n-3 PUFA intake deficiency during gestation and lactation on the development of glial cells in the pup’s developing cerebral cortex. In addition, using myelination as indicator and the anti-myelin basic protein as measurement to establish the relationship between the number of glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP)-positive cells and the development of oligodendrocytes, we determined the myelination state of the somatosensory cortex at postnatal day 14. Rat dams were fed either a control (Cont) or an n-3 PUFA-deficient (Def) diet for 60 d (acclimatisation: 14 d; gestation: 21 d; and lactation: 21 d). Pups lactated from dams throughout the experiment. The distribution pattern of astrocytes in pups on postnatal day 7 was immunohistochemically analysed using GFAP and brain lipid binding protein (BLBP) as markers for mature astrocytes and astrocyte-specific radial glial cells, respectively. It was observed that, when compared with Cont pups, GFAP-positive cells decreased, BLBP-positive cells increased and myelinated structures were sparser in the somatosensory cortices of Def pups. In the open field test on postnatal day 21, behavioural parameters did not differ between groups. Our results indicated that inhibited maturation of astrocytes caused by maternal n-3 PUFA deficiency hindered the development of brain glial cells of neonatal rats; hence, maternal n-3 PUFA intake during the gestation and lactation periods may have been crucial for the brain cell composition of pups.

Adequate protein intake is essential for the maintenance of whole-body protein mass. Different methodological approaches are used to substantiate the evidence for the current protein recommendations, and it is continuously debated whether older adults require more protein to counteract the age-dependent loss of muscle mass, sarcopenia. Thus, the purpose of this critical narrative review is to outline and discuss differences in the approaches and methodologies assessing the protein requirements and, hence, resulting in controversies in current protein recommendations for healthy older adults. Through a literature search, this narrative review first summarises the historical development of the Food and Agriculture Organization/World Health Organization/United Nations University setting of protein requirements and recommendations for healthy older adults. Hereafter, we describe the various types of studies (epidemiological studies and protein turnover kinetic measurements) and applied methodological approaches founding the basis and the different recommendations with focus on healthy older adults. Finally, we discuss important factors to be considered in future studies to obtain evidence for international agreement on protein requirements and recommendations for healthy older adults. We conclude by proposing future directions to determine ‘true’ protein requirements and recommendations for healthy older adults.

Tuberculosis (TB) in immigrants is becoming a challenge in eliminating TB in Japan. We investigated the epidemiology of TB in foreign students in Japan in 2015–2019. A total of 2007 foreign students with TB whose median age was 22.5 years (1243 (61.9%) were males) were registered. The notification rates peaked in 2016 at 164.0 per 100 000 population and decreased towards 2019. Of the 2007, 535 were from Vietnam, 444 from China and 395 from Nepal. The notification rates were 596.6 per 100 000 person-years (PYs) for Myanmar, 595.4 for the Philippines and 438.6 for Cambodia. The rates were much higher than those of the general populations in their countries of origin for Myanmar, the Philippines, Cambodia, Indonesia, Nepal, Mongolia, Vietnam and China. In comparison with the years 2010–2014, the notification rates for foreign students decreased for the students from Nepal, Vietnam and China. The TB notification rate of the foreign students in Japan can be a good surrogate indicator for the risk of TB among the immigrant subpopulation in Japan and should continuously be monitored. Those who are at higher risk of TB may be annually screened for TB to prevent TB outbreaks.

Since 2017, the Japanese government has been phasing out the use of non-native bumblebees as greenhouse tomato pollinators due to their ecological risks. We used an online questionnaire to investigate whether pollination methods affect consumers’ willingness to pay (WTP) for tomatoes. We found that consumers valued the use of non-native bumblebees more than hormonal treatment and native more than non-native bees. Moreover, we found that informing consumers of the ecological risks increased WTP for native bumblebees and hormonal treatment. These results suggest that pollination method labeling may help protect ecosystems from the threat of non-native species.

The importance of dietary protein for the maintenance of muscle mass and strength is heavily discussed. However, adequate energy intake is an underlying assumption but often not considered. In this study, we investigated the impact of daily intake and meal distribution of both protein and energy on muscle mass and strength. In a cross-sectional study, a total of 184 older individuals (gender: 86F/98M, age: 70.2 ± 3.9 yrs, BMI: 25.4 ± 3.7 kg/m2; means ± SD) were recruited. Participants underwent a 3-day weighed dietary record, Dual-energy X-ray Absorptiometry (DXA) scan, hand-grip strength, and Maximal Voluntary Isometric knee-extension Contraction (MVIC). Participants were divided into two categories: lower (LOW; < 0.83 g/adjusted(a)BW/day) or higher (HIGH; ≥ 1.1 g/aBW/day) protein intake levels analysed by gender to characterize a daily protein and energy intake pattern. Main meal protein and energy intake distributions were calculated, and correlations were made. Further, energy intake at breakfast and lunch divided by total energy intake (energy ratio) was correlated with appendicular skeletal muscle index (ASMI), hand-grip strength, and MVIC were determined using the LOW/HIGH-protein-intake categorization. Further, gender-specific ASMI, hand-grip strength and knee extension were compared based on the following four distinct daily protein intake ranges: < 0.66; ≥ 0.66- < 0.83; ≥ 0.83- < 1.1; ≥ 1.1 g/aBW/day. A positive correlation appeared between protein and energy intake in all main meals (r ≥ 0.57, p < 0.0001). In the LOW category, positive correlations were found between energy ratio and ASMI (r = 0.16, p = 0.048), hand-grip strength (r = 0.40, p = 0.0009), and MVIC (r = 0.36, p = 0.0019), whereas no associations were found in the HIGH category. ASMI, hand grip, and MVIC were similar regardless of the protein intake ranges, though with women being lower than men (p < 0.05) in all outcomes. These results show that total daily protein intake did not affect muscle mass and strength in our cohort. However, our data demonstrate that greater energy intake in breakfast and lunch relative to total energy intake is associated with higher muscle mass and strength, particularly when protein intake is lower than 0.83 g/aBW/day, indicating the potential importance of meal energy content at lower intakes of protein.

The basal ganglia represents a key component of the pathophysiological model for obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). This brain region is part of several neural circuits, including the orbitofronto-striatal circuit and dorsolateral prefronto-striatal circuit. There are, however, no published studies investigating those circuits at a network level in non-medicated patients with OCD. Resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging scans were obtained from 20 non-medicated patients with OCD and 23 matched healthy volunteers. Voxelwise statistical parametric maps testing strength of functional connectivity of three striatal seed regions of interest (ROIs) with remaining brain regions were calculated and compared between groups. We performed additional correlation analyses between strength of connectivity and the severity scores for obsessive-compulsive symptoms, depression, and anxiety in the OCD group. Positive functional connectivity with the ventral striatum was significantly increased (Pcorrected <.05) in the orbitofrontal cortex, ventral medial prefrontal cortex and dorsal lateral prefrontal cortex of subjects with OCD. There was no significant correlation between measures of symptom severity and the strength of connectivity (Puncorrected <.001). This is the first study to investigate the corticostriatal connectivity in non-medicated patients with OCD. These findings provide the first direct evidence supporting a pathophysiological model involving basal ganglia circuitry in OCD.

Many end-to-end, large vocabulary, continuous speech recognition systems are now able to achieve better speech recognition performance than conventional systems. Most of these approaches are based on bidirectional networks and sequence-to-sequence modeling however, so automatic speech recognition (ASR) systems using such techniques need to wait for an entire segment of voice input to be entered before they can begin processing the data, resulting in a lengthy time-lag, which can be a serious drawback in some applications. An obvious solution to this problem is to develop a speech recognition algorithm capable of processing streaming data. Therefore, in this paper we explore the possibility of a streaming, online, ASR system for Japanese using a model based on unidirectional LSTMs trained using connectionist temporal classification (CTC) criteria, with local attention. Such an approach has not been well investigated for use with Japanese, as most Japanese-language ASR systems employ bidirectional networks. The best result for our proposed system during experimental evaluation was a character error rate of 9.87%.

To investigate whether oral intake of highly branched α-glucan isomaltodextrin (IMD) could stimulate ileal glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) secretion, we examined (1) the digestibility of IMD, (2) the digestion and absorption rates of IMD, in rat small intestine and (3) portal GLP-1 concentration in rats given IMD. In Expt 1, ileorectostomised rats were given a 3 % IMD diet for 10 d. Separately, a 16-h in vitro digestion of IMD, using porcine pancreatic α-amylase and brush-border membrane vesicles from rat small intestine, was conducted. In Expt 2, upon 24-h fasting, rats were given any of glucose, IMD and high-amylose maize starch (HAMS) (1 g/kg of body weight). In Expt 3, caecectomised rats were given 0·2 % neomycin sulphate and a 5 % IMD diet for 10 d. The in vivo and in vitro digestibility of IMD was 70–80 %. The fraction of IMD digested in vitro for the first 120 min was 67 % of that in maize starch. The AUC for 0–120 min of plasma glucose concentration was significantly lower in HAMS group and tended to be lower in IMD group than in the glucose group. Finally, we also observed that, when compared with control rats, glucose of IMD significantly stimulated and improved the concentration of portal active GLP-1 in antibiotic-administered, caecectomised rats. We concluded that IMD was slowly digested and the resulting glucose stimulated GLP-1 secretion in rat small intestine. Oral delivery of slowly released IMD glucose to the small intestine probably exerts important, yet unknown, physiological effects on the recipient.

We investigated whether non-digestible saccharide fermentation-derived hydrogen molecules (H2) in rat colon could improve the in vivo reduction–oxidation (redox) balance via regeneration of α-tocopherol, by assessing their effect on hydroxyl radicals, the α-tocopherol concentration and the redox balance. In Expt 1, a Fenton reaction with phenylalanine (0 or 1·37 mmol/l of H2) was conducted. In Expt 2, rats received intraperitoneally maize oil containing phorone (400 mg/kg) 7 d after drinking ad libitum water containing 0 or 4 % fructo-oligosaccharides (FOS) (groups CP and FP, respectively). In Expt 3, rats unable to synthesise ascorbic acid drank ad libitum for 14 d water with 240 mg ascorbic acid/l (group AC), 20 mg of ascorbic acid/l (group DC) or 20 mg of ascorbic acid/l and 4 % FOS (group DCF). In the Fenton reaction, H2 reduced tyrosine produced from phenylalanine to 72 % when platinum was added and to 92 % when platinum was excluded. In Expt 2, liver glutathione was depleted by administration of phorone to rats. However, compared with CP, no change in the m-tyrosine concentration in the liver of FP was detected. In Expt 3, net H2 excretion was higher in DCF than in the other rats after 3 d of the experiment. Furthermore, the concentrations of H2 and α-tocopherol and the redox glutathione ratio in perirenal adipose tissue of rats were significantly higher in DCF than in DC. To summarise, in rat colon, fermentation-derived H2 further shifted the redox balance towards a more reducing status in perirenal adipose tissue through increased regeneration of α-tocopherol.