Two outbreaks of human infection with Yersinia enterocolitica in Shizuoka, Japan are described. This is the first report of community outbreaks of infection with this organism in Japan, and possibly in the world. All the strains isolated in each outbreak belonged to 0 antigen group 3, biotype 4, of the species. Despite much effort, the source and mode of spread of the infection were not established.

High-energy protons are generated by focusing an ultrashort pulsed high intensity laser at the Advanced Photon Research Center, JAERI-Kansai onto thin (thickness <10 μm) Tantalum targets. The laser intensities are about 4 × 1018 W/cm2. The prepulse level of the laser pulse is measured with combination of a PIN photo diode and a cross correlator and is less than 10−6. A quarter-wave plate is installed into the laser beam line to create circularly polarized pulses. Collimated high energy protons are observed with CH coated Tantalum targets irradiated with the circularly polarized laser pulses. The beam divergence of the generated proton beam is measured with a CR-39 track detector and is about 6 mrad.