In this era of spatially resolved observations of planet-forming disks with Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) and large ground-based telescopes such as the Very Large Telescope (VLT), Keck, and Subaru, we still lack statistically relevant information on the quantity and composition of the material that is building the planets, such as the total disk gas mass, the ice content of dust, and the state of water in planetesimals. SPace Infrared telescope for Cosmology and Astrophysics (SPICA) is an infrared space mission concept developed jointly by Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and European Space Agency (ESA) to address these questions. The key unique capabilities of SPICA that enable this research are (1) the wide spectral coverage $10{-}220\,\mu\mathrm{m}$ , (2) the high line detection sensitivity of $(1{-}2) \times 10^{-19}\,\mathrm{W\,m}^{-2}$ with $R \sim 2\,000{-}5\,000$ in the far-IR (SAFARI), and $10^{-20}\,\mathrm{W\,m}^{-2}$ with $R \sim 29\,000$ in the mid-IR (SPICA Mid-infrared Instrument (SMI), spectrally resolving line profiles), (3) the high far-IR continuum sensitivity of 0.45 mJy (SAFARI), and (4) the observing efficiency for point source surveys. This paper details how mid- to far-IR infrared spectra will be unique in measuring the gas masses and water/ice content of disks and how these quantities evolve during the planet-forming period. These observations will clarify the crucial transition when disks exhaust their primordial gas and further planet formation requires secondary gas produced from planetesimals. The high spectral resolution mid-IR is also unique for determining the location of the snowline dividing the rocky and icy mass reservoirs within the disk and how the divide evolves during the build-up of planetary systems. Infrared spectroscopy (mid- to far-IR) of key solid-state bands is crucial for assessing whether extensive radial mixing, which is part of our Solar System history, is a general process occurring in most planetary systems and whether extrasolar planetesimals are similar to our Solar System comets/asteroids. We demonstrate that the SPICA mission concept would allow us to achieve the above ambitious science goals through large surveys of several hundred disks within $\sim\!2.5$ months of observing time.

We have reported a blood flow increase in the prefrontal cortex during the performance of the computer version TMT. Although TMT-A was first performed and followed by TMT-B in the previous study, the order was reversed in the present study,i.e., TMT-B was first performed and then followed by TMT-A, and differences in the change of blood flow were compared between the two modes of TMT.

Nine healthy student volunteers (20.7 ± 1.6 yr) performed two different sets of TMT-B. After a resting period of 30 sec, they performed four different sets of TMT-A. Changes of oxyHb and deoxyHb were monitored by 22-channel NIRS from 30 sec before the start of TMT-B through 30 sec after the end of TMT-A. The mean changes of blood flow over a period of 10 sec just before the start of TMT-B and TMT-A, and over a period of 100 sec after the start of TMT-B and TMT-A were determined.

The increase of oxyHb was prominent in the right lateral prefrontal cortex.

The results suggest that the blood flow increases in the prefrontal cortex during the start of either TMT-A or TMT-B. The location of blood flow increase did not change whether TMT-B was performed first or after TMT-A. Therefore, the blood flow increase observed only in the right prefrontal cortex in the previous study could not be due to familiarization of the test. In contrast, TMT-A apparently exhibits a familiarization effect, since blood flow increase was not observed when TMT-A was performed after TMT-B.

We measured concentration changes of oxyHb and deoxyHb in the prefrontal cortex during the performance of the computer version Trail Making Test(TMT) by multichannel NIRS using near infrared light pairs which are more sensitive for detecting changes of oxyHb and deoxyHb.

Sixteen healthy student volunteers performed four different TMT-A sets, and following 30 a sec resting period, two different TMT-B sets. Changes of oxyHb and deoxyHb were monitored by 22 channel NIRS from 30 sec before the start of TMT-A through 30 sec after the end of TMT-B. The mean changes in subjects over a period of 10 sec just before the start of TMT-A and TMT-B, and a period of 50 to 60 sec after the start of TMT-A and TMT-B were determined. OxyHb increased while deoxyHb decreased in the bilateral prefrontal cortices during the performance of TMT. The increase of oxyHb was prominent in the right lateral prefrontal cortex, especially during TMT-A.

On the other hand, deoxyHb significantly decreased in the bilateral prefrontal cortices especially during TMT-A.

The results suggest that blood flow increases in the prefrontal cortex during the performance of the computer version TMT.

The COllaborative project of Development of Anthropometrical measures in Twins (CODATwins) project is a large international collaborative effort to analyze individual-level phenotype data from twins in multiple cohorts from different environments. The main objective is to study factors that modify genetic and environmental variation of height, body mass index (BMI, kg/m2) and size at birth, and additionally to address other research questions such as long-term consequences of birth size. The project started in 2013 and is open to all twin projects in the world having height and weight measures on twins with information on zygosity. Thus far, 54 twin projects from 24 countries have provided individual-level data. The CODATwins database includes 489,981 twin individuals (228,635 complete twin pairs). Since many twin cohorts have collected longitudinal data, there is a total of 1,049,785 height and weight observations. For many cohorts, we also have information on birth weight and length, own smoking behavior and own or parental education. We found that the heritability estimates of height and BMI systematically changed from infancy to old age. Remarkably, only minor differences in the heritability estimates were found across cultural–geographic regions, measurement time and birth cohort for height and BMI. In addition to genetic epidemiological studies, we looked at associations of height and BMI with education, birth weight and smoking status. Within-family analyses examined differences within same-sex and opposite-sex dizygotic twins in birth size and later development. The CODATwins project demonstrates the feasibility and value of international collaboration to address gene-by-exposure interactions that require large sample sizes and address the effects of different exposures across time, geographical regions and socioeconomic status.

We report the results of abundance analysis for high-resolution spectra of eight extremely metal-poor turn-off stars selected from SDSS/SEGUE. Based on differential analysis adopting stellar parameters from Balmer line profiles, we obtain the following results: i) Statistically significant scatter is found in [X/Fe] (X=Na, Mg, Cr, Ti, Sr and Ba), among which [Na/Fe] shows an apparent bimodal distribution, ii) Li abundances are ~0.3 dex lower in [Fe/H]<−3.5 than the Spite plateau value without significant scatter.

Maintenance plays a critical role in reducing operating cost and maximizing reliability of a complex engineering system. This paper proposes a novel maintenance-focused, system-level design framework that attempts to capture the interactions between maintenance strategies and system-level design parameters overlooked in current modeling approaches. The goal of this maintenance-focused approach is to help designers better understand the interconnectedness of system architecture, choice of maintenance strategy, and uncertainties in a design. Application of the proposed design framework is demonstrated through a case example of a power plant condenser system. Results show that using an integrated approach can reveal the many nonobvious interactions between subsystems, and produce system designs that have lower life-cycle cost compared to traditional sequential design approaches.

A trend toward greater body size in dizygotic (DZ) than in monozygotic (MZ) twins has been suggested by some but not all studies, and this difference may also vary by age. We analyzed zygosity differences in mean values and variances of height and body mass index (BMI) among male and female twins from infancy to old age. Data were derived from an international database of 54 twin cohorts participating in the COllaborative project of Development of Anthropometrical measures in Twins (CODATwins), and included 842,951 height and BMI measurements from twins aged 1 to 102 years. The results showed that DZ twins were consistently taller than MZ twins, with differences of up to 2.0 cm in childhood and adolescence and up to 0.9 cm in adulthood. Similarly, a greater mean BMI of up to 0.3 kg/m2 in childhood and adolescence and up to 0.2 kg/m2 in adulthood was observed in DZ twins, although the pattern was less consistent. DZ twins presented up to 1.7% greater height and 1.9% greater BMI than MZ twins; these percentage differences were largest in middle and late childhood and decreased with age in both sexes. The variance of height was similar in MZ and DZ twins at most ages. In contrast, the variance of BMI was significantly higher in DZ than in MZ twins, particularly in childhood. In conclusion, DZ twins were generally taller and had greater BMI than MZ twins, but the differences decreased with age in both sexes.

Large surveys and follow-up spectroscopic studies in the past few decades have been providing chemical abundance data for a growing number of very metal-poor ([Fe/H] <−2) stars. Most of them are red giants or main-sequence turn-off stars having masses near 0.8 solar masses. Lower mass stars with extremely low metallicity ([Fe/H] <−3) are yet to be explored. Our high-resolution spectroscopic study for very metal-poor stars found with SDSS has identified four cool main-sequence stars with [Fe/H] <−2.5 among 137 objects (Aoki et al. 2013). The effective temperatures of these stars are 4500–5000 K, corresponding to a mass of around 0.5 solar masses. Our standard analysis of the high-resolution spectra based on 1D-LTE model atmospheres has obtained self-consistent chemical abundances for these objects, assuming small values of micro-turbulent velocities compared with giants and turn-off stars. The low temperature of the atmospheres of these objects enables us to measure their detailed chemical abundances. Interestingly, two of the four stars have extreme chemical-abundance patterns: one has the largest excesses of heavy neutron-capture elements associated with the r-process abundance pattern known to date (Aoki et al. 2010), and the other exhibits low abundances of the α-elements and odd-Z elements, suggested to be signatures of the yields of very massive stars (> 100 solar masses; Aoki et al. 2014). Although the sample size is still small, these results indicate the potential of very low-mass stars as probes to study the early stages of the Milky Way's halo formation.

For over 100 years, the genetics of human anthropometric traits has attracted scientific interest. In particular, height and body mass index (BMI, calculated as kg/m2) have been under intensive genetic research. However, it is still largely unknown whether and how heritability estimates vary between human populations. Opportunities to address this question have increased recently because of the establishment of many new twin cohorts and the increasing accumulation of data in established twin cohorts. We started a new research project to analyze systematically (1) the variation of heritability estimates of height, BMI and their trajectories over the life course between birth cohorts, ethnicities and countries, and (2) to study the effects of birth-related factors, education and smoking on these anthropometric traits and whether these effects vary between twin cohorts. We identified 67 twin projects, including both monozygotic (MZ) and dizygotic (DZ) twins, using various sources. We asked for individual level data on height and weight including repeated measurements, birth related traits, background variables, education and smoking. By the end of 2014, 48 projects participated. Together, we have 893,458 height and weight measures (52% females) from 434,723 twin individuals, including 201,192 complete twin pairs (40% monozygotic, 40% same-sex dizygotic and 20% opposite-sex dizygotic) representing 22 countries. This project demonstrates that large-scale international twin studies are feasible and can promote the use of existing data for novel research purposes.

We carried out an extensive photometric and spectroscopic investigation of the SPB binary, HD 25558 (see Fig. 1 for the time and geographic distribution of the observations). The ~2000 spectra obtained at 13 observatories during 5 observing seasons, the ground-based multi-colour light curves and the photometric data from the MOST satellite revealed that this object is a double-lined spectroscopic binary with a very long orbital period of about 9 years. We determined the physical parameters of the components, and have found that both lie within the SPB instability strip. Accordingly, both components show line-profile variations consistent with stellar pulsations. Altogether, 11 independent frequencies and one harmonic frequency were identified in the data. The observational data do not allow the inference of a reliable orbital solution, thus, disentangling cannot be performed on the spectra. Since the lines of the two components are never completely separated, the analysis is very complicated. Nevertheless, pixel-by-pixel variability analysis of the cross-correlated line profiles was successful, and we were able to attribute all the frequencies to the primary or secondary component. Spectroscopic and photometric mode-identification was also performed for several of these frequencies of both binary components. The spectroscopic mode-identification results suggest that the inclination and rotation of the two components are rather different. While the primary is a slow rotator with ~6 d rotation period, seen at ~60° inclination, the secondary rotates fast with ~1.2 d rotation period, and is seen at ~20° inclination. Our spectropolarimetric measurements revealed that the secondary component has a magnetic field with at least a few hundred Gauss strength, while no magnetic field was detected in the primary.

The detailed analysis and results of this study will be published elsewhere.

We reviewed the effect of 3 interventions to reduce the incidence of intraventricular catheter–related ventriculitis, conducted at a tertiary care center in St Louis, Missouri, during an 8-year period. The incidence density of intraventricular catheter-related ventriculitis decreased substantially after the implementation of standardized management of intraventricular catheters.

User-centered approaches to design can guide teams toward an understanding of users and aid teams in better posing design problems. This paper investigates the role of user-centered design approaches in design process and outcome within the context of design team projects. The value of interaction with users is examined at several stages throughout the design process. The influence of user-centered design on the performance of design teams is also explored. Results suggest that the quantity of interactions with users and time spent interacting with users alone is not linked with better design outcome, but that iterative evaluation of concepts by users may be of particular value to design prototypes. Suggestions are made based on the reflections from the authors after conducting this study.

We performed a 1D LTE chemical abundance analysis of an extremely metal-poor star BD+44°493 ([Fe/H]= −3.7), and set a very low upper limit for its Be abundance: A(Be) < −2.0. It may indicate that the decreasing trend of Be abundances with lower [Fe/H] still holds at [Fe/H] < −3.5, and demonstrate that high C and O abundances do not necessarily imply high Be abundances. However, since the star is a subgiant with Teff ~ 5500K, Be may be depleted.

We performed a chemical abundance analysis of the very bright (V = 9.1) carbon-enhanced metal-poor (CEMP) star BD+44°493, which is the first star found with metallicity [Fe/H] < −3.5 and an apparent magnitude V < 12. The star is classified as a CEMP-no” subgiant, and its abundance pattern implies that a first-generation faint supernova is the most likely origin of its carbon excess. We set an very low upper limit on this star's beryllium abundance, which demonstrates that high C and O abundances do not necessarily imply high Be abundances.

Common arthropod vectors for trypanosomes are flies, fleas and bugs. This study reports on an unknown trypanosome species isolated from naturally infected Haemaphysalis hystricis ticks, hereby, referred to as Trypanosoma KG1 isolate. The parasite has been successfully cultured in vitro with L929 or HEK 293T cell line as feeder cells. This trypanosome cannot survive in vitro without feeder cells. Following experimental infections of ticks, the trypomastigote-like and the epimastigote-like forms of this trypanosome could be detected by Giemsa-stained smears of the midgut and salivary glands of Ornithodoros moubata ticks which were made to feed on a culturing medium containing Trypanosoma KG1 isolate through an artificial membrane. Trypanosoma KG1 isolate could also be detected from Giemsa-stained smears of the haemolymph up to 30 days post-inoculation into the O. moubata haemocoel. Trypanosoma KG1 isolate cannot be propagated in laboratory animals including mice, rats, rabbits and sheep. A phylogenetic tree constructed with the 18S rRNA gene indicates that Trypanosoma KG1 is a member of the stercorarian trypanosomes.

This paper is motivated by an observation: in the nascent state of vortex breakdown before it develops into a full-grown radial expansion, an initially straight vortex core first swells, and does so even in a straight pipe for no apparent reason. Although this initial swelling may be explained in many ways according to the perspectives chosen, we offer our own interpretation framed solely within vorticity dynamics: the radial swelling as well as the subsequent growth are induced by the azimuthal vorticity gradient decreasing downstream. The negative azimuthal vorticity gradient first appears at start-up and moves eventually into the region where the circulation reaches its steady-state value. The vorticity gradient can become negative without necessarily being accompanied by a sign-switch of the azimuthal vorticity itself.

The key point – that the negative azimuthal vorticity gradient induces initial radial swelling and its growth – is demonstrated in two analyses. First, a kinematic analysis results in an equation for the radial velocity where the azimuthal vorticity gradient appears as a source term. Its solution shows, in general and explicitly, that the negative azimuthal vorticity gradient does induce radially outward velocity. Two heuristic examples serve to illustrate this point further. In the second analysis, using the equation of motion in the streamline coordinates, the negative azimuthal vorticity gradient is shown to diverge the meridional streamlines radially. A numerical simulation using a modified vortex filament method not only corroborates this role of the azimuthal vorticity gradient in initiating and promoting the radial expansion, but also adds details to track the formation process. Both analyses and simulation support our interpretation that the initial radial swelling and its subsequent growth are induced by the negative azimuthal vorticity gradient.

We present detailed abundance measurements of neutron-capture elements for the two very metal-poor stars HD 6268 and HD 122563, based on very high-quality, near-UV spectra (S/N >140 @3100A) using Subaru/HDS. Abundances have been obtained for a total of 26 and 19 neutron-capture elements in these two stars, respectively, including Nb, Mo, Ru, Pd, Ag, Pr, and Sm. We have confirmed that the abundance pattern of neutron-capture elements in HD 6268 agrees very well with that of previously known r-process-enhanced stars. In contrast, the elemental abundances of HD 122563 are found to steeply decrease with increasing atomic number than those of HD 6268, and are much lower than than the r-process pattern in solar-system material. This result provides a new, strong constraint on models of the nucleosynthetic process that has provided light neutron-capture elements in the very early Galaxy.

We describe the discovery of HE 1327–2326, a dwarf or subgiant with $\mbox{[Fe/H]}=-5.4$. The star was found in a sample of bright metal-poor stars selected from the Hamburg/ESO survey. Its abundance pattern is characterized by very high C and N abundances. The detection of Sr which is overabundant by a factor of 10 as compared to iron and the Sun, suggests that neutron-capture elements had already been produced in the very early Galaxy. A puzzling Li depletion is observed in this unevolved star which contradicts the value of the primordial Li derived from WMAP and other Li studies. Possible scenarios for the origin of the abundance pattern (Pop. II or Pop. III) are presented as well as an outlook on future observations.