Highly pathogenic avian influenza viruses (HPAIVs) A(H5N6) were concurrently introduced into several distant regions of Japan in November 2016. These viruses were classified into the genetic clade 2.3.4.4c and were genetically closely related to H5N6 HPAIVs recently isolated in South Korea and China. In addition, these HPAIVs showed further antigenic drift.
A miniature x-ray tube is described. The tube is made of Kovar, inside which a grounded target is located close to a field-electron emitter consisting of aligned carbon nanofibers, which continues to work for around 100 h in the 10 Ϫ6 Pa region unless arcing is induced between the electrodes. The resolution of the contact x-ray images provided by the tube would be impossible using the existing techniques of conventional x-ray radiography, whether the sample is biological or nonbiological.
On 15 November 2016, a black swan that had died in a zoo in Akita prefecture, northern Japan, was strongly suspected to have highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI); an HPAI virus (HPAIV) belonging to the H5N6 subtype was isolated from specimens taken from the bird. After the initial report, 230 cases of HPAI caused by H5N6 viruses from wild birds, captive birds, and domestic poultry farms were reported throughout the country during the winter season. In the present study, 66 H5N6 HPAIVs isolated from northern Japan were further characterized. Phylogenetic analysis of the hemagglutinin gene showed that the H5N6 viruses isolated in northern Japan clustered into Group C of Clade 2.3.4.4 together with other isolates collected in Japan, Korea and Taiwan during the winter season of 2016-2017. The antigenicity of the Japanese H5N6 isolate differed slightly from that of HPAIVs isolated previously in Japan and China. The virus exhibited high pathogenicity and a high replication capacity in chickens, whereas virus growth was slightly lower in ducks compared with that of an H5N8 HPAIV isolate collected in Japan in 2014. Comprehensive analyses of Japanese isolates, including those from central, western, and southern Japan, as well as rapid publication of this information are essential for facilitating greater control of HPAIVs.
The nuclear polarization ͑NP͒ correction is calculated for the ground states of the hydrogenlike 82 208 Pb and 92 238 U ions. We take into account the transverse interaction, ignored in the previous studies, as well as the Coulomb interaction. The NP correction is formulated in the bound-state QED formalism with the ladder and cross diagrams of two-photon exchange between an electron and a nucleus. We take into account nuclear excitations of low-lying states and giant resonances with multipolarities of ϭ0 ϩ , 1 Ϫ , 2 ϩ , and 3 Ϫ , and describe them in a collective model. The NP corrections are obtained to be Ϫ0.2 and Ϫ180.7 meV, respectively, for 82 208 Pb and 92 238 U. The effect of the transverse interaction is found to be essential to the NP correction for electric dipole giant resonances, strongly canceling a contribution of the Coulomb interaction. Dependence of the NP correction on different nuclear excitations is investigated.
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