The friction drag of the axial flow along the outer surface of a cylinder varies with the cylinder radius and flow conditions. This study included direct numerical simulations of the axial turbulent flow along a circular cylinder under different conditions for obtaining the turbulence statistics and wall friction coefficient. Then the characteristics of velocity streaks were observed from a geometrical perspective of turbulence structures around the circular cylinder, and compared with the characteristics of the turbulence structures in a boundary layer on a flat plate. The results showed that the velocity streak spacing and the distance between the velocity streak and the cylinder surface in the viscous length scale do not vary substantively with the radius of the cylinder, and are the same as those of the turbulent flow along a flat plate. Therefore, they can be considered geometrical characteristics of the turbulence structure independent of the cylinder radius. Moreover, the friction coefficient per pair of high- and low-speed velocity streaks is the same as that of flat-plate turbulent flow, independent of the cylinder radius, and can be regarded as a dynamical characteristic for a pair of velocity streaks. Two equations were derived based on the characteristics of wall turbulence. The characteristics of the turbulence predicted by the two formulae were consistent with the simulation results. Consequently, we showed that the wall friction coefficient and number of the velocity streak pairs, which are statistical and structural characteristics of wall turbulence, can be predicted appropriately by specifying the radius Reynolds number.

Hybrid films consisting of Sumecton SA smectite (SSA) and a diacetylenic two-photon absorptive dye; 1,4-bis(2,5-dimethoxy-4-{2-[4-(N-methyl)pyridinium]ethenyl}phenyl) butadiyne triflate (MPPBT) were fabricated. The MPPBT-clay composites were prepared by the cation exchange method in a dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO)-water mixed solvent. A low-light-scattering film, suitable for use in optical devices, was obtained by filtration of the dispersion of the MPPBT-clay composites. Estimation of the two-photon absorption cross-section (σ(2)) by means of the open-aperture Z-scan technique was performed using the present film. The σ(2) value of MPPBT in the film fabricated at the MPPBT loading levels vs. 20% cation exchange capacity was 1030 GM (1 GM= 1 × 1050 cm4 s photon−1 molecule−1) at an excitation wavelength of 800 nm. The value was 1.3 times greater than the maximum value of the σ(2) of MPPBT diss lved in DMSO with ut clay.

It is difficult to easily estimate skeletal muscle (SM) volume in children. We aimed to develop regression-based prediction equations to estimate the total body and regional SM volume using calliper measurements of skinfold thickness and limb circumference and to investigate the validity of these equations. In total, 142 healthy, prepubertal, Japanese children, aged 6–12 years, were divided into two groups: the model development group (sixty boys, thirty-eight girls) and the validation group (twenty-six boys, eighteen girls). Contiguous magnetic resonance images were obtained from the first cervical vertebra to the ankle joints as reference data. SM volume was calculated from the summation of the digitised cross-sectional areas. Limb and waist circumferences were measured at mid-upper arm, mid-thigh, maximal calf and at the level of umbilicus. Each girth was corrected for subcutaneous adipose tissue thickness, as estimated by skinfold thickness measurements. Skinfold thickness was measured at the posterior upper arm, anterior thigh, medial calf and lateral to the umbilicus, using callipers. Significant correlations were observed between the site-matched SM volume, measured by MRI, and each corrected girth × standing height value in the model development group. When these SM volume prediction equations were applied to the validation group, the measured total body and regional SM volume were similar to the predicted values. These results suggest that the anthropometric prediction equations developed in this study provide reliable information about the total and regional SM volume in prepubertal Japanese children, with varying degrees of estimation accuracy for each region.

Ilkhanid rule (1256–1353) heralded a period when the arts of the book flourished, with the production of both religious and secular texts. This article examines the binding of the Hamadan Qur'an (Dar al-Kutub, Cairo, Rasid 72), which was commissioned for the Ilkhanid Sultan Öljaytü (1303–1316) and completed in 1313. The Qur'an, composed of 30 parts, has remained intact in the Dar al-Kutub in Cairo since its arrival in Egypt sometime in the 1320s. The decoration of the binding is representative of the geometrical designs that formed part of the Persian binders’ repertoire before being entirely discarded by the middle of the fourteenth century in favour of lobed and ogival medallions with pendants derived from cloud-collar profiles.1

‘Master Ahmad Musa, who was his father's pupil, lifted the veil from the face of depiction, and the [style of] depiction that is now current was invented by him.’1 This oft-quoted phrase from Dust Muhammad's (fl. 1510–64) preface to the Bahram Mirza Album2 serves as the inspiration behind our title for this Festschrift in honour of Dr Barbara Brend, whose work has enhanced our understanding and appreciation of Persianate painting.

The local field ion emission properties of helium and neon around a step edge atom of W(112) were examined at liquid nitrogen temperature using a micro-probe hole field ion microscope combined with a pulse-counting analysis. We have analyzed the mapped field ion densities obtained for both imaging gas atoms at their respective best local image voltages based on the formula for tunneling barrier strength and have evaluated the dipole moment of polarized adatom as well as the local field enhancement factor at the adatom site. We found that the dipole moments of helium and neon adatoms showed the same value, although the best local image field acting on the helium adatom is much higher than that on the neon adatom. We also found the same magnitude of local field enhancement factors for both noble gas field adsorptions. These results imply that the key to the best local image condition is the tunneling barrier field variations above the adatom. The vital role of the imaging gas atoms is to form an optimum dipole moment to create an ideal electric field distribution for the best local image appearance at each atom site depending on the different chemical nature of adatom species.

Little is known about the dynamics of marine food chains spanning primary to higher trophic levels on centennial and longer timescales, especially where the supply of dissolved iron limits primary productivity. To elucidate the long-term dynamics of biological productivity in the Coastal Oyashio (CO), which is a major pathway for transporting dissolved iron into the western North Pacific from winter to spring, we reconstructed the lower trophic level productivity over the last 3000 years in the CO. Our results demonstrate that the concentrations and mass accumulation rates of both Chl-a (chlorophyll a and its derivatives) and biogenic opal used as proxies of primary productivity, and steryl chlorin esters (SCEs) used as that of zooplankton productivity, show a millennial-scale increasing trend and centennial-scale variability beginning ca. AD 400. SCEs were positively correlated with Chl-a, indicating that changes in zooplankton productivity were induced by bottom-up control of primary productivity. The Chl-a and SCEs showed synchronous centennial-scale patterns with a relative abundance of sea-ice-associated diatom species transported by CO, and with a ventilation index in the Okhotsk Sea Intermediate Water. This synchronous pattern indicates that lower trophic-level productivity during the spring bloom responded to the intensity of iron-replete CO.

The smooth muscle contraction of the vas deferens has the important function of transporting sperm. Interstitial cells (ICs) play a critical role in the pacing and modulation of various smooth muscle organs by interactions with nerves and smooth muscle. Elucidating the three-dimensional (3D) architecture of ICs is important for understanding their spatial relationship on the mesoscale between ICs, smooth muscle cells (SMCs), and nerves. In this study, the 3D ultrastructure of ICs in the smooth muscle layer of murine vas deferens and the spatial relationships between ICs, nerves, and smooth muscles were observed using confocal laser scanning microscopy and focused ion beam/scanning electron microscopy. ICs have sheet-like structures as demonstrated by 3D observation using modern analytical techniques. Sheet-like ICs have two types of 3D structures, one flattened and the other curled. Multiple extracellular vesicle (EV)-like structures were frequently observed in ICs. Various spatial relations were observed in areas between ICs, nerves, and SMCs, which formed a complex 3D network with each other. These results suggest that ICs in the smooth muscle layer of murine vas deferens may have two subtypes with different sheet-like structures and may be involved in neuromuscular signal transmission via physical interaction and EVs.

Measurements of highly radioactive actinides such as Np, Pu, Am, or Cm in as-fabricated or irradiated nuclear fuels are crucial to improve the safety and performance of the nuclear fuel cycle, but also necessary to find solutions to the environmental impact of long-lived actinides in nuclear waste. Currently, the most common technique of measuring the quantity and distribution of actinides in nuclear fuel is electron probe microanalysis (EPMA). However, the accurate analysis of actinides by EPMA is accompanied by numerous obstacles such as interferences in the M-line X-ray region, absorption edges, and the lack of reference materials. Therefore, the measurement protocol of radioactive and irradiated samples requires further investigation and most importantly facilitation. Here, we establish a guideline for precise quantification of actinide elements (Th, U, Np, Pu, Am, and Cm) in fabricated or spent nuclear fuels. For this purpose, we have characterized actinide-bearing reference samples to visualize spectral interferences, list peak, and background positions and employ the standardless calibration curve method for the measurements of Am and Cm. This newly derived analytical protocol was successfully tested on an irradiated fuel sample and can be now implemented as an improved guideline for the quantification of actinides.

We previously reported that high concentrations (≥3.42 mM) of calcium during in vitro fertilization (IVF) disturbed the extrusion of the second polar body (PBII) in C3H/He inbred mice. In this study, the substrain specificity of this phenomenon was examined under 1.71–6.84 mM calcium concentration in ova from six C3H/He mouse commercially available substrains in Japan. PBII extrusion in ova from J substrains was not affected by calcium concentrations (<10% at any calcium level), but was grossly disturbed at high calcium levels in the ova of other substrains. This result has practical applications for the efficient production of normal zygotes by IVF, therefore contributing to the reduction in the numbers of donor animals for further zygote or embryo manipulation. Care must be taken in choosing IVF medium for particular strains and substrains.

The ALMA twenty-six arcmin2 survey of GOODS-S at one millimeter (ASAGAO) is a deep (1σ ∼ 61μJy/beam) and wide area (26 arcmin2) survey on a contiguous field at 1.2 mm. By combining with archival data, we obtained a deeper map in the same region (1σ ∼ 30μJy/beam−1, synthesized beam size 0.59″ × 0.53″), providing the largest sample of sources (25 sources at 5σ, 45 sources at 4.5σ) among ALMA blank-field surveys. The median redshift of the 4.5σ sources is 2.4. The number counts shows that 52% of the extragalactic background light at 1.2 mm is resolved into discrete sources. We create IR luminosity functions (LFs) at z = 1–3, and constrain the faintest luminosity of the LF at 2 < z < 3. The LFs are consistent with previous results based on other ALMA and SCUBA-2 observations, which suggests a positive luminosity evolution and negative density evolution.

Radiocarbon (14C) analysis was performed on Japanese cedar (Cryptomeria japonica) tree rings from Koriyama, Fukushima prefecture. Our primary aim was to detect any 14C release from the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant accident on 11 March 2011. We also completed and assessed the 14C level in Japanese tree rings for the period of 1990–2014 because of the lack of environmental 14C results in the Japanese island that time. For this reason, we used a trajectory model to investigate the air mass forward and backward trajectories at the area of the power plant and sampling site. The modeling data show that the air masses mainly moved to the Pacific Ocean, both during March 2011 and during the growing season (March–September). During the period 1990–2014 there was no significant 14C excess in any of the samples, but there was a detectable Suess effect in almost every tree ring sample. The average fossil contribution was 0.83 ± 0.01% and the calculated anthropogenic component ratio, the 14C excess varied between +0.5 and –1.6%. The Δ14C value decreased from 150.0‰ to 9.5‰ from 1990–2014, which follows the decline of the 14C bomb peak, in addition to any detectable Suess effect.

It has been shown that lipid raft, a microdomain of plasma membrane, is a hot spot of signal transduction in somatic cells, because it contains several transducer proteins as well as various receptor molecules. The lipid raft is characterised by its low-density detergent-insoluble nature and by enrichment of glycosphingolipids (GSLs). We hypothesised that lipid raft was also on the gamete surface, and might function as a sperm–egg adhesion site as well as in signal transduction during fertilisation. To test this hypothesis, we have initiated studies using sea urchin gametes. Recently we have demonstrated the presence of the lipid raft in sperm of three sea urchin species as the first example in gametic cells (Ohta et al., 1999). Here we show several lines of evidence for the functional importance of the lipid raft in sperm–egg interaction as well as in subsequent signal transduction.

In sea urchin sperm, lipid rafts were able to be prepared as a low-density detergent-insoluble membrane (LD-DIM) fraction and were rich in GSLs including gangliosides and sulphatide, containing more than 50% of the total amount of GSL present in sperm. On the other hand, cholesterol and sphingomyelin were not so enriched, which contrasted with the LD-DIM from MDCK cells, where these lipids were reported to be abundant (Brown & Rose, 1992).