Suckling behaviors are useful to better understand mother-offspring relationships. However, in many species, knowledge about nighttime suckling behavior is sparse. In the present study, we investigated suckling behavior in four calves of the reticulated giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis reticulata) and their mother in the Kyoto City Zoo, Japan, by analyzing video clips of 9614 h. The relation between a calf's age and the mean duration and frequency of suckling were consistent with the results of previous daytime studies: the longest duration (80 ± 4 s) and highest frequency (0.41/h) of suckling occurred when the calves were young, and decreased thereafter. Suckling frequency was lower at night than during the day, probably because the mother spent much of the time resting at night. The mother initiated suckling behavior in offspring until six months of age. Most often, the mother terminated suckling except during the first few weeks after birth. Additionally, we reported that the average weaning period was 448 days (n = 5) and that the last born (sixth) continued to suckle for more than 750 days, which is a rare phenomenon. We believe the present report helps to fill the lack of knowledge about nighttime suckling behavior in giraffe.
A mathematical model of regenerative refrigerators has been developed, and an active buffer pulse tube refrigerator was numerically analyzed. The model is based on one space dimensional approximations of time dependent conservation laws in gasdynamics; different from the previous models it does not require to assume the temperature of cold head heat exchanger apriori, but can analyze the dynamic properties of refrigerators, such as cooling rates, time dependent temperature distributions, and gas displacements. Analytical results on the dynamic properties of the active buffer pulse tube refrigerator as well as the energy fluxes in the refrigerator are reported.
We report the case of a 3-year-old boy who underwent definitive conversion to the Fontan circulation after total cavopulmonary shunt using a total extracardiac right heart bypass. This simple, safe and reproducible procedure is an alternative to Fontan or total cavopulmonary connection procedure.
In this study, functional sustainability of water supply system and electric supply system in an emergency of the government office buildings in Tohoku area have been surveyed by questionnaire. There were many buildings adopting the systems which have been broken down in Hanshin-Awaji earthquake disaster. Though the manager of the buildings were recognizing the problem about the functional sustainability, few buildings were taking measures to cope with the situation.
The axle counter as a train detector is one of the important railway signaling devices for accurate and safe train control systems. This paper deals with a design optimization of the axle counter by large-scale magnetic field computations. To efficiently reduce the computational burden in the optimization, we accurately estimate the signaling level by applying infinite edge elements to an extensive air domain, which results in a practical design approach within an acceptable CPU-time.
To elucidate the air pollution, its features, its sources, and the influence of yellow sand (kosa) in Tsu City, the ion components and trace metals in precipitation at Mie University were measured along with their temporal changes. From the obtained correlation coefficients and the results of the principal component analysis, the ions and the trace metals in the precipitation were classified into three groups: the SSI group (the ions of Cl-, Na+, K+, Mg2+, ss-SO42- and ss-Ca2+, of which the main sources were sea salt); the ASI group (the ions of F-, NO3-, NH4+, nss-SO42- and nss-Ca2+, of which the main sources were anthropogenic pollution and soil); and the ASM group (trace metals of Al, Fe, Mn, Pb, and Zn, of which the main sources were anthropogenic pollution and soil). The concentrations of the SSI group tended to be higher with increased wind velocity. Results suggest that seawater was raised into the atmosphere in proportion to the wind velocity, and that the sea salt ions were transported and increased in the precipitation. The effects of long-range transport and local pollution on the pollutants and the soil elements in the precipitation were discussed from measurements of the concentration ratios of Pb and Zn (Pb/Zn) and backward trajectory analysis. The concentrations of ion components and trace metals during the rain events in Tsu City, Mie generally decreased over time. The condensed pollutants in the air are regarded as removed in the initial period of the rain events. We can confirm that the concentration ratios (Pb/Zn ratios) are almost identical to reported values for rain clouds through Japan. Only one day showed high rates of pollutants, but it is presumed to be not the effect of kosa but of the industrial zone to the north east of Tsu City.
