Double seismic zones and stresses of intermediate depth earthquakes

Data from Japanese local seismograph networks suggest that the stresses in double seismic zones are in-plate compression for the upper zone and in-plate tension for the lower zone; the stresses do not necessarily appear to be down-dip. It may therefore be possible to identify other double seismic zones on the basis of data which indicate that events with differing orientations of in-plate stresses occur in a given segment of slab. A global survey of published focal mechanisms for intermediate depth earthquakes suggests that the stress in the slab is controlled, at least in part, by the age of the slab and the rate of convergence. Old and slow slabs are under in-plate tensile stresses and the amount of in-plate compression in the slab increases with increasing convergence rate or decreasing slab age. Young and fast slabs are an exception to this trend; all such slabs are down-dip tensile. Since these slabs all subduct under continents, they may be bent by continental loading. Double seismic zones are not a feature common to all subduction zones and are only observed in slabs which are not dominated by tensile or compressive stresses. Unbending of the lithosphere and upper mantle phase changes are unlikely to be the causes of the major features of double zones, although they may contribute to producing some of their characteristics. Sagging or thermal effects, possibly aided by asthenospheric relative motion, may produce the local deviatoric stresses that cause double zones

An all ambient, room-temperature processed solar cell from a bare silicon wafer

大気中かつ室温での太陽電池の作製を実現 --低コストで簡便に太陽電池の製造が可能に--. 京都大学プレスリリース. 2023-03-15.Solar cells charging forward: Realizing the potential of creating silicon-based photovoltaics at room temperature. 京都大学プレスリリース. 2023-04-11.Solar cells are a promising optoelectronic device for the simultaneous solution of energy-resource and environmental problems. However, their high cost and slow, laborious production process so far severely hinder a sufficient widespread of clean, renewable photovoltaic energy as a major alternative electricity generator. This undesirable situation is mainly attributed to the fact that photovoltaic devices have been manufactured through a series of vacuum and high-temperature processes. Here we realize a PEDOT:PSS/Si heterojunction solar cell fabricated only in ambient and room-temperature conditions from a plain Si wafer, with an over-10% energy conversion efficiency. Our production scheme is based on our finding that PEDOT:PSS photovoltaic layers actively operate even on highly doped Si substrates, which substantially mitigates the condition requirements for electrode implementation. Our approach may pave the way for facile, low-cost, high-throughput solar cell fabrication, useful in various fields even including developing countries and educational sites

Predicting the Number of Suicides in Japan Using Internet Search Queries: Vector Autoregression Time Series Model

Background: The number of suicides in Japan increased during the COVID-19 pandemic. Predicting the number of suicides is important to take timely preventive measures. Objective: This study aims to clarify whether the number of suicides can be predicted by suicide-related search queries used before searching for the keyword “suicide.” Methods: This study uses the infoveillance approach for suicide in Japan by search trends in search engines. The monthly number of suicides by gender, collected and published by the National Police Agency, was used as an outcome variable. The number of searches by gender with queries associated with “suicide” on “Yahoo! JAPAN Search” from January 2016 to December 2020 was used as a predictive variable. The following five phrases highly relevant to suicide were used as search terms before searching for the keyword “suicide” and extracted and used for analyses: “abuse”; “work, don’t want to go”; “company, want to quit”; “divorce”; and “no money.” The augmented Dickey-Fuller and Johansen tests were performed for the original series and to verify the existence of unit roots and cointegration for each variable, respectively. The vector autoregression model was applied to predict the number of suicides. The Breusch-Godfrey Lagrangian multiplier (BG-LM) test, autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity Lagrangian multiplier (ARCH-LM) test, and Jarque-Bera (JB) test were used to confirm model convergence. In addition, a Granger causality test was performed for each predictive variable. Results: In the original series, unit roots were found in the trend model, whereas in the first-order difference series, both men (minimum tau 3: −9.24; max tau 3: −5.38) and women (minimum tau 3: −9.24; max tau 3: −5.38) had no unit roots for all variables. In the Johansen test, a cointegration relationship was observed among several variables. The queries used in the converged models were “divorce” for men (BG-LM test: P=.55; ARCH-LM test: P=.63; JB test: P=.66) and “no money” for women (BG-LM test: P=.17; ARCH-LM test: P=.15; JB test: P=.10). In the Granger causality test for each variable, “divorce” was significant for both men (F104=3.29; P=.04) and women (F104=3.23; P=.04). Conclusions: The number of suicides can be predicted by search queries related to the keyword “suicide.” Previous studies have reported that financial poverty and divorce are associated with suicide. The results of this study, in which search queries on “no money” and “divorce” predicted suicide, support the findings of previous studies. Further research on the economic poverty of women and those with complex problems is necessary

Short-Term Results of Canaloplasty Surgery for Primary Open-Angle Glaucoma in Japanese Patients

Purpose: To report surgical results of canaloplasty surgery for primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG) in Japanese patients. Methods: Eleven eyes of 9 POAG patients underwent canaloplasty surgery at Toyama University Hospital. Three eyes of 3 patients underwent canaloplasty alone and 8 eyes of 6 patients underwent canaloplasty combined with cataract surgery. Canaloplasty was performed with a 10-0 polypropylene tensioning suture and an iTrack™ 250A microcatheter. All patients were followed up for 12 months. Changes in intraocular pressure (IOP) and postoperative complications were examined. Results: Mean preoperative IOP was 23.4 ± 5.5 mm Hg. Mean number of antiglaucoma drops was 2.8 ± 0.6 before canaloplasty and decreased to 1.2 ± 0.8 at 12 months after canaloplasty (p Conclusions: Canaloplasty may be an alternative surgery for POAG patients to reduce IOP to a value of approximately 15 mm Hg

Intraoperative Changes in Idiopathic Macular Holes by Spectral-Domain Optical Coherence Tomography

Purpose: To examine anatomical changes in idiopathic macular holes during surgery using handheld spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT). Methods: Five eyes of 5 patients who underwent surgery for the repair of idiopathic macular holes were examined. The surgery included standard 25-gauge, 3-port pars plana vitrectomy, removal of the internal limiting membrane (ILM), fluid-air exchange, and 20% sulfur hexafluoride tamponade. Intraoperative SD-OCT images of the macular holes were obtained after ILM removal and under fluid-air exchange using a handheld SD-OCT. From SD-OCT images, the macular hole base diameter (MHBD) was measured and compared. Results: All macular holes were successfully closed after the primary surgery. The mean MHBD under fluid-air exchange was significantly smaller than the mean MHBD after ILM removal and the preoperative mean MHBD. In 1 eye with a stage 3 macular hole, SD-OCT images revealed that the inner edges of the macular hole touched each other under fluid-air exchange. Conclusion: Fluid-air exchange significantly reduced MHBD during surgery to repair macular holes. Fluid-air exchange may be an important step for macular hole closure as it reduces the base diameter of the macular hole

Development of an Operating Strategy for On-Demand Earth Observation Missions of the Diwata-2 Microsatellite

Diwata-2 is the Philippines’ 2nd microsatellite developed by Tohoku University, Hokkaido University, University of the Philippines, and the Philippine Department of Science and Technology. Its primary purpose is gathering remote sensing data through imaging areas of interest for the Philippines. This paper presents the study of Diwata-2’s initial Earth observation pointing performance, investigation of its Attitude Determination and Control System, the tuning of its Star Tracker sensor parameters, the in-flight target pointing calibration, and the sequential scheduling of its components forming an operation strategy for an effective on-demand earth observation mission. This operation strategy has managed to improve the satellite’s pointing performance from the initial 2.88°±2.06° RMS pointing error to having an accuracy of 0.204°±0.12° RMS for its High Precision Telescope payload. This strategy has been implemented to the university-built microsatellite for over 400 successful Earth observation missions and has covered about 82.8% of the Philippine’s land area with its Spaceborne Multispectral Imager payload

Densification of layered firn of the ice sheet at Dome Fuji, Antarctica

第6回極域科学シンポジウム[OM] 極域気水圏11月16日（月）　国立極地研究所１階交流アトリウ

Suzaku observations of the Hydra A cluster out to the virial radius

We report Suzaku observations of the northern half of the Hydra A cluster out to ~1.4 Mpc, reaching the virial radius. This is the first Suzaku observations of a medium-size (kT ~3 keV) cluster out to the virial radius. Two observations were conducted, north-west and north-east offsets, which continue in a filament direction and a void direction of the large-scale structure of the Universe, respectively. The X-ray emission and distribution of galaxies elongate in the filament direction. The temperature profiles in the two directions are mostly consistent with each other within the error bars and drop to 1.5 keV at 1.5 r_500. As observed by Suzaku in hot clusters, the entropy profile becomes flatter beyond r_500, in disagreement with the r^1.1 relationship that is expected from accretion shock heating models. When scaled with the average intracluster medium (ICM) temperature, the entropy profiles of clusters observed with Suzaku are universal and do not depend on system mass. The hydrostatic mass values in the void and filament directions are in good agreement, and the Navarro, Frenk, and White universal mass profile represents the hydrostatic mass distribution up to ~ 2 r_500. Beyond r_500, the ratio of gas mass to hydrostatic mass exceeds the result of the Wilkinson microwave anisotropy probe, and at r_100, these ratios in the filament and void directions reach 0.4 and 0.3, respectively. We discuss possible deviations from hydrostatic equilibrium at cluster outskirts. We derived radial profiles of the gasmass- to-light ratio and iron-mass-to-light ratio out to the virial radius. Within r_500, the iron-mass-to-light ratio of the Hydra A cluster was compared with those in other clusters observed with Suzaku.Comment: 16 pages, 15 figures; Accepted for publication in PAS

Molecular contribution to cleft palate production in cleft lip mice

Cleft palate following cleft lip may include a developmental disorder during palatogenesis. CL/Fr mice fetuses, which develop cleft lip and palate spontaneously, have less capability for in vivo cell proliferation in palatal mesenchyme compared with CL/Fr normal fetuses. In order to know the changes of signaling molecules contributing to cleft palate morphogenesis following cleft lip, the mRNA expression profiles were compared in palatal shelves oriented vertically (before elevation) in CL/Fr fetuses with or without cleft lip. The changes in mRNA profile of cleft palate morphogenesis were presented in a microarray analysis, and genes were restricted to lists contributing to cleft palate development in CL/Fr fetuses with cleft lip. Four candidate genes (Ywhab, Nek2, Tacc1 and Frk) were linked in a gene network that associates with cell proliferation (cell cycle, MAPK, Wnt and Tgf beta pathways). Quantitative real-time RT-PCR highlighted the candidate genes that significantly changed in CL/Fr fetuses with cleft lip (Ywhab, Nek2 and Tacc1). The results of these molecular contributions will provide useful information for a better understanding of palatogenesis in cleft palate following cleft lip. Our data indicated the genetic contribution to cleft palate morphogenesis following cleft lip