Direct Measurement of Thermal Fluctuation of High-Q Pendulum

We achieved for the first time a direct measurement of the thermal fluctuation of a pendulum in an off-resonant region using a laser interferometric gravitational wave detector. These measurements have been well identified for over one decade by an agreement with a theoretical prediction, which was derived by a fluctuation-dissipation theorem. Thermal fluctuation is dominated by the contribution of resistances in coil-magnet actuator circuits. When we tuned these resistances, the noise spectrum also changed according to a theoretical prediction. The measured thermal noise level corresponds to a high quality factor on the order of 10^5 of the pendulum.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figure

The Nature of the Stable Soft X-ray Emissions in Several Types of Active Galactic Nuclei Observed by Suzaku

To constrain the origin of the soft X-ray excess phenomenon seen in many active galactic nuclei, the intensity-correlated spectral analysis, developed by Noda et al. (2011b) for Markarian 509, was applied to wide-band (0.5-45 keV) Suzaku data of five representative objects with relatively weak reflection signature. They are the typical bare-nucleus type 1 Seyfert Fairall 9, the bright and typical type 1.5 Seyfert MCG-2-58-22, 3C382 which is one of the X-ray brightest broad line radio galaxies, the typical Seyfert-like radio loud quasar 4C+74.26, and the X-ray brightest radio quiet quasar MR2251-178. In all of them, soft X-ray intensities in energies below 3 keV were tightly correlated with that in 3-10 keV, but with significant positive offsets. These offsets, when calculated in finer energy bands, define a stable soft component in 0.5-3 keV. In each object, this component successfully explained the soft excess above a power-law fit. These components were interpreted in several alternative ways, including a thermal Comptonization component which is independent of the dominant power-law emission. This interpretation, considered physically most reasonable, is discussed from a viewpoint of Multi-Zone Comptonization, which was proposed for the black hole binary Cygnus X-1 (Makishima et al. 2008).Comment: 18 pages, 12 figures, 7 table

Adaptive occlusion sensitivity analysis for visually explaining video recognition networks

This paper proposes a method for visually explaining the decision-making process of video recognition networks with a temporal extension of occlusion sensitivity analysis, called Adaptive Occlusion Sensitivity Analysis (AOSA). The key idea here is to occlude a specific volume of data by a 3D mask in an input 3D temporal-spatial data space and then measure the change degree in the output score. The occluded volume data that produces a larger change degree is regarded as a more critical element for classification. However, while the occlusion sensitivity analysis is commonly used to analyze single image classification, applying this idea to video classification is not so straightforward as a simple fixed cuboid cannot deal with complicated motions. To solve this issue, we adaptively set the shape of a 3D occlusion mask while referring to motions. Our flexible mask adaptation is performed by considering the temporal continuity and spatial co-occurrence of the optical flows extracted from the input video data. We further propose a novel method to reduce the computational cost of the proposed method with the first-order approximation of the output score with respect to an input video. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our method through various and extensive comparisons with the conventional methods in terms of the deletion/insertion metric and the pointing metric on the UCF101 dataset and the Kinetics-400 and 700 datasets.Comment: 11 page

Mini Screening of Kinase Inhibitors Affecting Period-length of Mammalian Cellular Circadian Clock

In mammalian circadian rhythms, the transcriptional-translational feedback loop (TTFL) consisting of a set of clock genes is believed to elicit the circadian clock oscillation. The TTFL model explains that the accumulation and degradation of mPER and mCRY proteins control the period-length (tau) of the circadian clock. Although recent studies revealed that the Casein Kinase Iεδ (CKIεδ) regurates the phosphorylation of mPER proteins and the circadian period-length, other kinases are also likely to contribute the phosphorylation of mPER. Here, we performed small scale screening using 84 chemical compounds known as kinase inhibitors to identify candidates possibly affecting the circadian period-length in mammalian cells. Screening by this high-throughput real-time bioluminescence monitoring system revealed that the several chemical compounds apparently lengthened the cellular circadian clock oscillation. These compounds are known as inhibitors against kinases such as Casein Kinase II (CKII), PI3-kinase (PI3K) and c-Jun N-terminal Kinase (JNK) in addition to CKIεδ. Although these kinase inhibitors may have some non-specific effects on other factors, our mini screening identified new candidates contributing to period-length control in mammalian cells

Suzaku Observations of PSR B1259-63: A New Manifestation of Relativistic Pulsar Wind

We observed PSR B1259-63, a young non-accreting pulsar orbiting around a Be star SS 2883, eight times with the Suzaku satellite in 2007, to characterize the X-ray emission arising from the interaction between a pulsar relativistic wind and Be star outflows. The X-ray spectra showed a featureless continuum in 0.6-10 keV, modeled by a power law with a wide range of photon index 1.3-1.8. When combined with the Suzaku PIN detector which allowed spectral analysis in the hard 15-50 keV band, X-ray spectra show a break at 5 keV in a certain epoch. Regarding the system as a compactified pulsar wind nebula, in which e+e- pairs are assumed to be accelerated at the inner shock front of the pulsar wind, we attribute the X-ray spectral break to the low-energy cutoff of the synchrotron radiation associated with the Lorentz factor of the relativistic pulsar wind gamma_1 = 4x10^5. Our result indicates that Comptonization of stellar photons by the unshocked pulsar wind will be accessible (or tightly constrained) by observations with the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope during the next periastron passage. The PSR B1259-63 system allows us to probe the fundamental properties of the pulsar wind by a direct means, being complementary to the study of large-scale pulsar wind nebulae.Comment: 11 pages, 9 figures, accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journa

Thermal-noise-limited underground interferometer CLIO

We report on the current status of CLIO (Cryogenic Laser Interferometer Observatory), which is a prototype interferometer for LCGT (Large Scale Cryogenic Gravitational-Wave Telescope). LCGT is a Japanese next-generation interferometric gravitational wave detector featuring the use of cryogenic mirrors and a quiet underground site. The main purpose of CLIO is to demonstrate a reduction of the mirror thermal noise by cooling the sapphire mirrors. CLIO is located in an underground site of the Kamioka mine, 1000 m deep from the mountain top, to verify its advantages. After a few years of commissioning work, we have achieved a thermal-noise-limited sensitivity at room temperature. One of the main results of noise hunting was the elimination of thermal noise caused by a conductive coil-holder coupled with a pendulum through magnets.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures, Proceedings of the 8th Edoardo Amaldi Conference on Gravitational Wave

Appendiceal Mucocele Detected under Treatment of Ulcerative Colitis

A 33-year-old female patient with ulcerative colitis was referred to our outpatient clinic in January 2008 with right lower abdominal pain without bloody diarrhea. Colonoscopy found mild proctosigmoiditis and a submucoal tumor with a maximal diameter of 5 cm in the cecum. Computed tomography revealed a large, hypodense, cystic cylindrical structure extending to the pelvic space. For severe pain, she underwent partial resection of the cecum including the tumor in March 2008. Intraoperatively, the vermiform appendix was swollen like a sausage and compressing the cecum, which accounted for what appeared to be a submucosal tumor like a volcano by endoscopy. Lymphadenectomy was not performed because malignancy was not suspected. In the surgical specimen, the vermiform appendix was spindle-shaped and contained a large quantity of viscous liquid. Postoperative pathological diagnosis was mucinous cystadenoma, and no cancer cells were present in the viscous liquid within the vermiform appendix. The patient left the hospital 7 days postoperatively, and her colitis remains in remission without any complications

Penetration of the Optic Nerve or Chiasm by Anterior Communicating Artery Aneurysms: Three Case Reports

Although large and giant aneurysms can induce visual disturbance by compression of the anterior visual pathway, splitting and penetration of the optic apparatus are extremely rare. The authors describe three patients who underwent clipping surgery for anterior communicating artery aneurysm infiltrating into the optic nerve or chiasm. These findings were suspected on preoperative magnetic resonance imaging and confirmed at surgery. Two aneurysms were ruptured and one unruptured. The authors review the literature and discuss the mechanism of cranial nerve penetration by an aneurysm.ArticleNEURO-OPHTHALMOLOGY. 35(3):128-132 (2011)journal articl