Aftershocks and Fluctuating Diffusivity.

The Omori-Utsu law shows the temporal power-law-like decrease of the frequency of earthquake aftershocks and, interestingly, is found in a variety of complex systems/phenomena exhibiting catastrophes. Now, it may be interpreted as a characteristic response of such systems to large events. Here, hierarchical dynamics with the fast and slow degrees of freedom is studied on the basis of the Fokker-Planck theory for the load-state distribution to formulate the law as a relaxation process, in which diffusion coefficient in the space of the load state is treated as a fluctuating slow variable.

Confocal microscopic evaluation of mixing performance for three-dimensional microfluidic mixer.

We developed a confocal microscopic method for a quantitative evaluation of the mixing performance of a three-dimensional microfluidic mixer. We fabricated a microfluidic baker's transformation (MBT) mixer as a three-dimensional passive-type mixer for the efficient mixing of solutions. Although the MBT mixer is one type of ideal mixers, it is hard to evaluate its mixing performance, since the MBT mixer is based on several cycles of complicated three-dimensional microchannel structures.

Microfluidic baker's transformation device for three-dimensional rapid mixing.

We developed a new passive-type micromixer based on the baker's transformation and realized a fast mixing of a protein solution, which has lower diffusion constant. The baker's transformation is an ideal mixing method, but there is no report on the microfluidic baker's transformation (MBT), since it is required to fabricate the complicated three-dimensional (3D) structure to realize the MBT device. In this note, we successfully fabricate the MBT device by using precision diamond cutting of an oxygen-free copper substrate for the mould fabrication and PDMS replication.

Relationship between metabolic disorders and relative risk values of brain infarction estimated by protein-conjugated acrolein, IL-6 and CRP together with age.

Background: We have recently found that the median relative risk value (RRV) (0-1) of brain infarction estimated by protein-conjugated acrolein (PC-Acro), IL-6 and CRP together with age was in the order silent brain infarction (SBI) (0.80)>carotid atherosclerosis (CA) (0.76)>white matter hyperintensity (WMH) (0.

Correlation between images of silent brain infarction, carotid atherosclerosis and white matter hyperintensity, and plasma levels of acrolein, IL-6 and CRP.

Objective: We found previously that the measurement of plasma levels of protein-conjugated acrolein (PC-Acro) together with IL-6 and CRP can be used to identify silent brain infarction (SBI) with high sensitivity and specificity. The aim of this study was to clarify how three biochemical markers are correlated to SBI, carotid atherosclerosis (CA) and white matter hyperintensity (WMH).

Methods: The levels of PC-Acro, IL-6 and CRP in plasma were measured by ELISA.

Complex earthquake networks: hierarchical organization and assortative mixing.

To characterize the dynamical features of seismicity as a complex phenomenon, the seismic data are mapped to a growing random graph, which is a small-world scale-free network. Here, hierarchical and mixing properties of such a network are studied. The clustering coefficient is found to exhibit asymptotic power-law decay with respect to connectivity, showing hierarchical organization.

Itineration of the Internet over nonequilibrium stationary states in Tsallis statistics.

The cumulative probability distribution of sparseness time interval in the Internet is studied by the method of data analysis. Round-trip time between a local host and a destination host through ten odd routers is measured using the ping command, i.e.