Anomalous radon emanation linked to preseismic electromagnetic phenomena

International audienceAnomalous emanation of radon (222Rn) was observed preceding large earthquakes and is considered to be linked to preseismic electromagnetic phenomena (e.g. great changes of atmospheric electric field and ionospheric disturbances). Here we analyze atmospheric radon concentration and estimate changes of electrical conditions in atmosphere due to preseismic radon anomaly. The increase of radon emanation obeys crustal damage evolution, following a power-law of time-to-earthquake. Moreover, the radon emanation decreases the atmospheric electric field by 40%, besides influencing the maximum strength of atmospheric electric field by 104?105 V/m enough to trigger ionospheric disturbances. These changes are within the ranges observed or explaining electromagnetic phenomena associated with large earthquakes

Ground-based millimeter-wave observation of stratospheric ClO over Atacama, Chile in the mid-latitude Southern Hemisphere

We have performed ground-based measurements of stratospheric chlorine monoxide (ClO) during the summer in 2009 over the Atacama highland, Chile, a new observing site in the mid-latitude region in the Southern Hemisphere, by using a millimeter-wave spectroscopic radiometer. The radiometer, equipped with a superconducting receiver and a digital Fourier spectrometer, was developed by Nagoya University, and the new observing system provides us high sensitivity and stable performance to measure the very weak ClO lines. The receiver noise temperature of the superconducting receiver is 170 K in DSB. To reveal the diurnal variation of ClO, we retrieved the vertical mixing ratio profiles by the weighted-damped least-squares algorithm applied for the spectral data at 203 GHz obtained between 5 and 16 December 2009. The total error on the retrieval is estimated to be 20% to 30% in an altitude range from 40 km to 50 km. The amplitude of the diurnal variation is estimated as 33% of the daytime average at 40 km. The observed time variation shows a pattern similar to that of the previous works observed in the northern mid-latitude region

A CROSS-SECTIONAL STUDY OF GENDER DIFFERENCES IN PULLING STRENGTH OF TOW FOR JAPANESE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL CHILDREN

The aim of this study was to obtain the data of gender differences of pulling strength during experimentally executed TOW for Japanese elementary school children. In mean back strength, gender difference was small from 1st grade to 4th grade, but on 5th and 6th grade, gender difference became large. In mean pulling strength, gender difference was large in 5th and 6th grade. But no tendency was found from 1st grade to 4th grade. In male children, sum of pulling strength increases substantially when the grade changes from 4th to 5th. But pulling strength tended to grow constantly. On the other hand, in female children, sum of pulling strength increases substantially when the grade changes from 2nd to 3rd. And from 4th to 6th, sum of back strength and rope tension were very close to each other. Results suggested that though male children get grow for muscles, female children get motor function more than male children

Sixfold improved single particle measurement of the magnetic moment of the antiproton

Our current understanding of the Universe comes, among others, from particle physics and cosmology. In particle physics an almost perfect symmetry between matter and antimatter exists. On cosmological scales, however, a striking matter/antimatter imbalance is observed. This contradiction inspires comparisons of the fundamental properties of particles and antiparticles with high precision. Here we report on a measurement of the g-factor of the antiproton with a fractional precision of 0.8 parts per million at 95% confidence level. Our value /2=2.7928465(23) outperforms the previous best measurement by a factor of 6. The result is consistent with our proton g-factor measurement gp/2=2.792847350(9), and therefore agrees with the fundamental charge, parity, time (CPT) invariance of the Standard Model of particle physics. Additionally, our result improves coefficients of the standard model extension which discusses the sensitivity of experiments with respect to CPT violation by up to a factor of 20.EU/ERC/290870-MEFUCOMax-Planck SocietyHelmholtz-GemeinschaftRIKEN Initiative Research Unit ProgramRIKEN President FundingRIKEN Pioneering Project FundingRIKEN FPR FundingRIKEN JRA ProgramMEXT/24000008Max-Planck SocietyEU/ERC Advanced Grant/290870-MEFUCOHelmholtz-GemeinschaftCERN-fellowship program

Identification of novel clostridium perfringens type E strains that carry an iota toxin plasmid with a functional enterotoxin gene

Clostridium perfringens enterotoxin (CPE) is a major virulence factor for human gastrointestinal diseases, such as food poisoning and antibiotic associated diarrhea. The CPE-encoding gene (cpe) can be chromosomal or plasmid-borne. Recent development of conventional PCR cpe-genotyping assays makes it possible to identify cpe location (chromosomal or plasmid) in type A isolates. Initial studies for developing cpe genotyping assays indicated that all cpe-positive strains isolated from sickened patients were typable by cpe-genotypes, but surveys of C. perfringens environmental strains or strains from feces of healthy people suggested that this assay might not be useful for some cpe-carrying type A isolates. In the current study, a pulsed-field gel electrophoresis Southern blot assay showed that four cpe-genotype untypable isolates carried their cpe gene on a plasmid of ~65 kb. Complete sequence analysis of the ~65 kb variant cpe-carrying plasmid revealed no intact IS elements and a disrupted cytosine methyltransferase (dcm) gene. More importantly, this plasmid contains a conjugative transfer region, a variant cpe gene and variant iota toxin genes. The toxin genes encoded by this plasmid are expressed based upon the results of RT-PCR assays. The ~65 kb plasmid is closely related to the pCPF4969 cpe plasmid of type A isolates. MLST analyses indicated these isolates belong to a unique cluster of C. perfringens. Overall, these isolates carrying a variant functional cpe gene and iota toxin genes represent unique type E strains. © 2011 Miyamoto et al

A Uniform CO Survey of the Molecular Clouds in Orion and Monoceros

We report the results of a new large scale survey of the Orion-Monoceros complex of molecular clouds made in the J = 1->0 line of CO with the Harvard-Smithsonian 1.2m millimetre-wave telescope. The survey consists of 52,288 uniformly spaced spectra that cover an area of 432 square degrees on the sky and is the most sensitive large-scale survey of the region to date. Distances to the constituent molecular clouds of the complex, estimated from an analysis of foreground and background stars, have provided information on the three dimensional structure of the entire complex.Comment: Accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysics. 19 pages with 17 colour figures - 39 if you count the sub-figures separately. The figures here have been bit-mapped with some loss of quality and beauty. The paper version in A&A will be in greyscale with the on-line version in colour. In the meantime the colour version can be obtained by following links at http://www.star.bris.ac.uk/mrwm . The 9MB PostScript is recommended if you have appropriate bandwidth or otherwise the 2.3MB PDF is usabl

Improved limit on the directly measured antiproton lifetime

Continuous monitoring of a cloud of antiprotons stored in a Penning trap for 405 days enables us to set an improved limit on the directly measured antiproton lifetime. From our measurements we extract a storage time of 3.15x108 equivalent antiproton-seconds, resulting in a lower lifetime limit of Tp > 10.2,a with a confidence level of 68%. This result improves the limit on charge-parity-time violation in antiproton decays based on direct observation by a factor of 7