In June 2020, a large-scale food poisoning outbreak involving about 3000 elementary and junior high school students occurred in Yashio, Saitama, Japan. A school lunch was the only food stuff ingested by all of the patients. Escherichia coli serotype O7:H4 carrying the astA gene for enteroaggregative E. coli (EAggEC) heat-stable enterotoxin 1 (EAST1) was detected in faecal specimens from the patients, and sample inspection revealed its presence in a seaweed salad and red seaweed (Gigartina tenella) as one of the raw materials. Analysis of the antibiotic sensitivity of the isolates revealed resistance to ampicillin and cefotaxime. All isolates were confirmed to be of the same origin by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis after digestion with the restriction enzyme XbaI, and single nucleotide polymorphism analysis using whole genome sequencing. To our knowledge, this is the first report of a large-scale food poisoning caused by E. coli O7:H4, which lacks well-characterized virulence genes other than astA.

To characterise the dissemination patterns of uropathogenic Escherichia coli (UPEC) in a community, we conducted a study utilising molecular and fundamental descriptive epidemiology. The subjects, consisted of women having community-acquired acute urinary tract infection (UTI), were enrolled in the study from 2011 to 2012. UPEC isolates were subjected to antibacterial-susceptibility testing, O serogrouping, phylotyping, multilocus-sequence typing with phylogenetic-tree analysis and pulsed-field-gel electrophoresis (PFGE). From the 209 unique positive urinary samples 166 UPEC were isolated, of which 129 were fully susceptible to the tested antibiotics. Of the 53 sequence types (STs), the four most prevalent STs (ST95, ST131, ST73 and ST357) accounted for 60% of all UPEC strains. Antimicrobial resistance was less frequently observed for ST95 and ST73 than for the others. A majority of rare STs and a few common STs constituted the diversity pattern within the population structure, which was composed of the two phylogenetically distinct clades. Eleven genetically closely related groups were determined by PFGE, which accounted for 42 of the 166 UPEC isolates, without overt geo-temporal clustering. Our results indicate that a few major lineages of UPEC, selected by unidentified factors, are disseminated in this community and contribute to a large fraction of acute UTIs.

In order to evaluate the long-term behaviour of the engineered barriers in geological disposal sites for transuranic element-bearing (TRU) waste, an evaluation by numerical analysis is required. Although chemical and hydraulic/mechanical analyses have been conducted independently until now, essentially both type of phenomena occur simultaneously and produce synergistic effects. Therefore, we focused attention on the buffer (bentonite) engineered barrier and conducted a study of which involved incorporating hydraulic/mechanical phenomena into the chemical analysis of bentonite alteration. The simulations employed weakly-coupled chemical and hydraulic/mechanical effects to study the behaviour in one dimension.

The results showed that the dissolution of the montmorillonite is suppressed in the buffer section nearest the cement material. Moreover, in order to achieve a fully coupled analysis in future, the present study also identifies issues that need to be resolved.

Mango (Mangifera indica L.) is an important fruit crop with a long cultivation history in Myanmar. This study evaluated the genetic variation within two economically important traditional varieties, ‘Yin Kwe’ and ‘Sein Ta Lone’, and the relationship between genetic variation and propagation practices. Genetic variation was estimated by genotyping 94 individuals with 12 single sequence repeat markers. ‘Yin Kwe’ (n = 53) showed higher levels of observed heterozygosity (Ho = 0.59) and average genetic distance among individuals (Da = 0.29) than did ‘Sein Ta Lone’ (n = 41; Ho = 0.45; Da = 0.09). The differences between the two varieties at the DNA level were significant (Fst = 0.44). The broader genetic background in ‘Yin Kwe’ compared with ‘Sein Ta Lone’ was also demonstrated by neighbour-joining and principal coordinates analyses. Differences in variety uses and propagation practices were determined by interviewing local specialists in Lower Myanmar (southern Myanmar). ‘Yin Kwe’ was often used as a rootstock for ‘Sein Ta Lone’. Clonal propagation by grafting was observed frequently for ‘Sein Ta Lone’ but never for ‘Yin Kwe’. The differences in genetic variation between these two varieties might have been caused by the propagation practices for each variety, which result from their respective uses.

This paper describes supersonic flows of a gas-particle mixture around a sphere. The Euler equations for a gas-phase interacting with a particle one are solved by using a TVD (Total Variation Diminishing) scheme developed by Chakravarthy & Osher, and the particle phase is solved by applying a discrete particle-cloud model. First, steady two-phase flows with a finite loading ratio are simulated. By comparing in detail the dusty results with the dust-free ones, the effects of the presence of particles on the flow field in the shock layer are clarified. Also an attempt to correlate the particle behaviours is made with universal parameters such as the Stokes number and the particle loading ratio. Next, non-steady two-phase flows are treated. Impingement of a large particle-cloud on a shock layer of a dust-free gas in front of a sphere is numerically simulated. The effect of particles rebounded from the sphere is taken into account. It is shown that a temporal reverse flow region of the gas is induced near the body axis in the shock layer, which is responsible for the appearance of the gas flow region where the pressure gradient becomes negative along the body surface. These phenomena are consistent with the previous experimental observations. It will be shown that the present results support a flow model for the particle-induced flow field postulated in connection with ‘heating augmentation’ found in the heat transfer measurement in hypersonic particle erosion environments. The particle behaviour in such flows is so complicated that it is almost impossible to treat the particle phase as an ordinary continuum medium.

This paper is concerned with a numerical analysis of axisymmetric gas-particle two-phase flows. Underexpanded supersonic free-jet flows and supersonic flows around a truncated cylinder of gas-particle mixtures are solved numerically on the super computer Fujitsu VP-400. The gas phase is treated as a continuum medium, and the particle phase is treated partly as a discrete one. The particle cloud is divided into a large number of small clouds. In each cloud, the particles are approximated to have the same velocity and temperature. The particle flow field is obtained by following these individual clouds separately in the whole computational domain. In estimating the momentum and heat transfer rates from the particle phase to the gas phase, the contributions from these clouds are averaged over some volume whose characteristic length is small compared with the characteristic length of the flow field but large compared with that of the clouds. The results so obtained reveal that the flow characteristics of the gas-particle mixtures are widely different from those of the dust-free gas at many points.

An analytical solution of a system of linearized equations for a gas–particle mixture is obtained for steady periodic motions. A finite volume fraction of particles and a continuous distribution of particle sizes are taken into consideration. It is shown that the effect of a continuous distribution of particle radii on the acoustic motions of a dusty gas is incorporated through only four integral quantities containing the relaxation times of the particle velocity and temperature, integrated over all particle sizes. This solution is applied to the problem of acoustic reflection, absorption, and transmission by a screen of dusty gas.

Extended abstract of a paper presented at Microscopy and Microanalysis 2005 in Honolulu, Hawaii, USA, July 31--August 4, 2005

Unsteady circular jets are treated experimentally and numerically. The time evolution of circular pulse jets is investigated systematically for a wide range of jet strength, with the focus on the jet evolution, in particular the formation processes of Mach disks in the middle stage and of shock-cell structures in the later stage. It is shown that unsteady second shocks are realized for all sonic underexpanded jets and they either breed conical shocks for lower pressure ratios or truncated cones (Mach disk and reflected shock) for higher pressure ratios. The vortex ring produced near the nozzle lip plays an important role in the formation of the shock-cell structure. In particular, interactions between the vortex ring and the Mach disk connected with a strong second shock affect remarkably the formation process of the first shock cell. Different formation processes of the first cell structure are found. It is also made clear that the Kelvin–Helmholtz instability along slip surfaces originating from the triple point at the outer edge of the Mach disk is responsible for the generation of large second vortices which entrain the first vortex. This results in strong mixing between the primary jet and surrounding gas for higher pressure ratios. Numerical simulations with a TVD-scheme for the Euler equations are also performed and the numerical results are compared with the experimental ones to understand and predict the flow characteristics of the pulse jets.

One of the most important subjects for semiconductor packages is preventing cracks which occur when the entire package is exposed to a soldering temperature of 215 to 260°C in the surface mounting technology. Cracking, as seen during temperature cycling tests is also a problem to be addressed. This paper reports the design of epoxy encapsulating compounds for highly reliable semiconductor devices which require the following properties: (1) toughness of matrix resin, (2) low moisture absorption, (3) high adhesion to insertions, and (4) reduction of thermal stress. The moisture absorption was lowered and the toughness was improved by using hydrophobic epoxy resins and high filler loading. The latter reduced the thermal stress, and it was effective for lowering the moisture absorption and increasing the fracture toughness of molding compounds. The reliability tests results were also considered in terms of physical properties of molding compounds.

The Low-Level Radioactive Disposal facility [1] is planned to cover the vaults with impermeable bentonite-sand mixture in order to minimize groundwater flux through the facility. In case that metal wastes are to be disposed of in the burial facility in the future, it is essential to confirm that bentonite mixture should have gas permeability enough for the gas volume which would be expected to be generated due to an aerobic corrosion of metals[2]. This report performed a preliminary test with a bentonite-sand mixture whose aggregate was Japanese Standard sand. Results are the followings;(l)Gas breakthrough pressure of the mixture was less than the overburden pressure. The gas permeability was estimated to be of order of 10-2 md. (2)The mixture did not deteriorate in hydraulic conductivity after gas breakthrough.