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Summary: Congenital oesophageal cysts of foregut origin are rare in animals and human beings. This report describes a case in a 4-year-old cynomolgus monkey with no clinical symptoms. The cyst, which was located within the oesophageal submucosal tissue near the mid-point of the oesophagus, was lined with pseudostratified ciliated epithelium and had a thin layer of submucosal tissue. The cyst was surrounded by a smooth muscle layer which was partly intermingled with the circular muscle layer of the oesophagus. The muscularis mucosae of the oesophagus was not shared with the cyst wall. Simple tubular glands were present, opening into the cyst lumen. No communication between the cyst lumen and the oesophagus was observed. Cartilaginous tissue, which is a diagnostic feature of bronchogenic cysts, was not identified in the cyst wall. On the basis of the histopathological features, a foregut cyst of the oesophagus was diagnosed. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Our study was designed to assess the contributions of the physical and constitutional factors to osteophyte formation, disc degeneration, and bone mineral density (BMD) in lumbar vertebrae of elderly postmenopausal women. A total of 126 Japanese women with back pain, aged over 60 years, were invited to participate in the study. Then 80 subjects with a full set of data for physical examinations, radiographs, MRI, and DXA were examined. TaqI polymorphism of vitamin D receptor (VDR) gene was examined in 60 subjects. Prevalence rates of osteophytes (on radiographs) and disc degeneration (on MRI) were 61 and 68%, respectively. Body weight and BMI correlated significantly with anteroposterior (AP) and lateral (LAT) BMD (r = 0.354 for weight, r = 0.347 for BMI) and mean osteophyte area (r = 0.557 for weight, r = 0.486 for BMI), and body weight also correlated with number of discs with osteophytes. However, these did not correlate with the disc area or the number of degenerated discs. Stepwise regression analysis revealed that body weight and LAT-BMD values independently related to the osteophyte area. Disc area (r = 0.386 for AP view) and osteophyte area (r = 0.384 for AP view) significantly correlated with BMD. However, disc area and osteophyte area did not correlate with each other (r = 0.056). The proportion of degenerated discs was higher in the lower lumbar discs, but not the proportion of discs with osteophytes. Frequencies of T and t alleles of VDR did not correlate with disc degeneration, osteophyte formation, or osteoporosis. Our data showed that increases in osteophyte formation and BMD in the lumbar vertebrae are influenced by body weight and BMI, but did not correlate with disc area, which correlated inversely with BMD. Disc degeneration and osteophyte formation seem to represent two different factors that affect lumbar spine in elderly women. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

• Bubble clustering patterns in horizontal wall turbulence are visualized. • Two dimensional bubble probability density and local relative motions are obtained. • Streamwise attraction, lateral repulsion, and tandem circulation are quantitatively extracted. • The clustering is somewhat enhanced due to size deviation of bubbles due to turbulent shear. We investigated bubble clustering in a horizontal turbulent channel flow experimentally. Accurate image processing was used to detect individual bubble centroids with a 100% success rate. The successful detections realize bubble tracking velocimetry for Lagrangian mapping of bubble-bubble interaction both visually and quantitatively. The bubble-bubble interaction becomes explicit as the channel Reynolds number (Re) increases in the range 5,000 < Re < 11,000, incorporating streamwise attraction, lateral repulsion, and tandem circulation within a space narrower than 3 bubble diameters. We attribute this to the turbulent boundary layer where wall-sliding bubbles display streamwise velocity differences due to size. The resulting clustering can be attributed to poly-dispersed bubbles. This idea is verified by experimental data classified by bubble size. The present findings offer an explanation for the initiation of void waves in a bubbly two-phase boundary layer at a scale larger than that of the original coherent structures involved in the turbulence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The angular distribution and energy spectra of energetic protons emitted from a 5-μm thick copper tape target irradiated by p-, circularly-, and s-polarized 55-fs laser pulses with intensity of are measured. The protons are found in the rear target normal direction while the hot electrons are found in the laser propagation direction. The maximum energy of protons is equal to 1.34 MeV for p-polarized irradiation. The energy spectrum of protons depends strongly on the total amount of electrons but it does not so strongly depend on the electron angular distribution under our experiment conditions. Two-dimensional particle in cell simulations also show the maximal proton acceleration for the p-polarized pulse, less efficient acceleration for the circular polarization, and lower acceleration efficiency in the case of the s-polarization, which is related to the electron acceleration efficiency at the front side of the target. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: We report the experimental results of proton acceleration as well as the simple one-dimensional model which explains our experimental data. The proton acceleration experiment is carried out with a TW short pulse laser irradiated on a tantalum thin-foil target (3 μm thickness) with an intensity of . Accelerated protons exhibit a typical energy spectrum with two quasi-Maxwellian components with a high energy cut-off. We can successfully explain the higher energy part as well as the cut off energy of the proton spectrum with the simple-one-dimensional model based on the strong charge separation regime, which is the extension of the model proposed originally by [M. Passoni et al., Phys. Rev. E 69 (2004) 026411]. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]