The stability control of fissured rock is difficult,especially under static and dynamic loads in deep coal mines.In this paper,the dynamic mechanical properties,strain rate evolution and energy dissipation of fissured...The stability control of fissured rock is difficult,especially under static and dynamic loads in deep coal mines.In this paper,the dynamic mechanical properties,strain rate evolution and energy dissipation of fissured and anchored rocks were respectively obtained by SHPB tests.It was found that bolt can provide supporting efficiency-improving effect for fissured rock against dynamic disturbance,and this effect increased quadratically with decrease in anchoring angles.Then,the energy dissipation mechanism of anchored rock was obtained by slipping model.Furthermore,bolt energy-absorbing mechanism by instantaneous tensile-shear deformation was expressed based on material mechanics,which was the larger the anchoring angle,the smaller the energy absorption,and the less the contribution to supporting efficiency improvement.On this basis,the functional relationship between energy dissipation of anchored rock and energy absorption of bolt was established.Taking the coal-gangue separation system of Longgu coal mine as an example,the optimal anchoring angle can be determined as 57.5°–67.5°.Field monitoring showed fissured rock with the optimal anchoring angle,can not only effectively control the deformation,but also fully exert the energy-absorbing and efficiency-improving effect of bolt itself.This study provides guidance to the stability control and supporting design for deep engineering under the same or similar conditions.展开更多
Multi-seam mining often leads to the retention of a significant number of coal pillars for purposes such as protection,safety,or water isolation.However,stress concentration beneath these residual coal pillars can sig...Multi-seam mining often leads to the retention of a significant number of coal pillars for purposes such as protection,safety,or water isolation.However,stress concentration beneath these residual coal pillars can significantly impact their strength and stability when mining below them,potentially leading to hydraulic support failure,surface subsidence,and rock bursting.To address this issue,the linkage between the failure and instability of residual coal pillars and rock strata during multi-seam mining is examined in this study.Key controls include residual pillar spalling,safety factor(f.),local mine stiffness(LMS),and the post-peak stiffness(k)of the residual coal pillar.Limits separating the two forms of failure,progressive versus dynamic,are defined.Progressive failure results at lower stresses when the coal pillar transitions from indefinitely stable(f,>1.5)to failing(f,<1.5)when the coal pillar can no longer remain stable for an extended duration,whereas sud-den(unstable)failure results when the strength of the pillar is further degraded and fails.The transition in mode of failure is defined by the LMS/k ratio.Failure transitions from quiescent to dynamic as LMS/k.<1,which can cause chain pillar instability propagating throughout the mine.This study provides theoretical guidance to define this limit to instability of residual coal pillars for multi-seam mining in similar mines.展开更多
Rheological mechanical properties of the soft rock are afected signifcantly by its main physical characteristics-clay mineral.In this study,taking the mudstone on the roof and foor in four typical mining regions as th...Rheological mechanical properties of the soft rock are afected signifcantly by its main physical characteristics-clay mineral.In this study,taking the mudstone on the roof and foor in four typical mining regions as the research object,frstly,the clay mineral characteristic was analyzed by the X-ray difraction test.Subsequently,rheological mechanical properties of mudstone samples under diferent confning pressures are studied through triaxial compression and creep tests.The results show that the clay mineral content of mudstone in diferent regions is diferent,which leads to signifcant diferences in its rheological properties,and these diferences have a good correlation with the content of montmorillonite and illite-montmorillonite mixed layer.Taking the montmorillonite content as an example,compared with the sample with 3.56%under the lower stress level,the initial creep deformation of the sample with 11.19%increased by 3.25 times,the viscosity coefcient and longterm strength decreased by 80.59%and 53.94%,respectively.Furthermore,based on the test results,the damage variation is constructed considering the montmorillonite content and stress level,and the M–S creep damage constitutive model of soft rock is established.Finally,the test results can be ftted with determination coefcients ranging from 0.9020 to 0.9741,which proves that the constitutive relation can refect the infuence of the clay mineral content in the samples preferably.This study has an important reference for revealing the long-term stability control mechanism of soft rock roadway rich in clay minerals.展开更多
Large and super-large section chamber groups in coal mines are frequently affected by dynamic loads resulting from production activities such as roadway driving and blasting.The stability of the surrounding rock is po...Large and super-large section chamber groups in coal mines are frequently affected by dynamic loads resulting from production activities such as roadway driving and blasting.The stability of the surrounding rock is poor,and it is difficult to control.In this paper,a similar simulation test was used to study the deformation and evolution laws of the surrounding rock of a triangle-shaped chamber group under different dynamic loads.The results showed that under dynamic loading,the vertical stress of the surrounding rock of the chamber group increased in an oscillatory form.The maximum stress concentration coefficient reached 4.09.The damage degree of the roof was greater than that of the two sides.The deformation of the roof was approximately 1.2 times that of the two sides.For the chamber closer to the power source,the stress oscillation amplitude of the surrounding rock was larger,and the failure was more serious.The force of the anchorage structure showed a phased increasing characteristic;additionally,the force of the anchorage structure on the adjacent side of the chambers was greater than that on the other side.This study reveals the deformation and failure evolution laws of the surrounding rock of large section chamber groups under dynamic loading.展开更多
The stress concentration and failure at chamber intersections in coal mine are intense,especially in deepburied,super-large section conditions.In this paper,the plastic radius of super-large section chamber under uneq...The stress concentration and failure at chamber intersections in coal mine are intense,especially in deepburied,super-large section conditions.In this paper,the plastic radius of super-large section chamber under unequal pressure was corrected on the basis of the size effect.Then,stress and failure evolution of intersections under different crossing angles and equivalent angular bisectors were revealed.Furthermore,2 trajectory curves of failure and stress were analytically expressed,which divided the intersection into 5 influencing zones in the light of stress superposition degree.After determining instability trigger point and instability path,instability energy criterion of intersection can be obtained as K>1,which means that the external energy is greater than the sum of energy consumed by surrounding rock instability and supporting structure failure.Taking coal-gangue separation system of Longgu Coal Mine as example,it was found that there was instability risk under original parameters.For long-term stability,an optimization design method was proposed by considering safety factor,and optimal support scheme was obtained.Field monitoring showed intersections deformations were relatively small with the maximum of 125 mm,which verified the rationality of theoretical analysis.This study provides guidance for the stability control of the intersections under the same or similar conditions.展开更多
The band structure, density of states, optical properties, carrier mobility, and loss function of graphene, black phosphorus(BP), and molybdenum disulfide(MoS_2) were investigated by the first-principles method wi...The band structure, density of states, optical properties, carrier mobility, and loss function of graphene, black phosphorus(BP), and molybdenum disulfide(MoS_2) were investigated by the first-principles method with the generalized-gradient approximation. The graphene was a zero-band-gap semiconductor. The band gaps of BP and MoS_2 were strongly dependent on the number of layers. The relationships between layers and band gap were built to predict the band gap of few-layer BP and MoS_2. The absorption showed an explicit anisotropy for light polarized in(1 0 0) and(0 0 1) directions of graphene, BP,and MoS_2. This behavior may be readily detected in spectroscopic measurements and exploited for optoelectronic applications. Moreover, graphene(5.27 × 10~4 cm^2·V^(-1)·s^(-1)), BP(1.5 × 10~4 cm^2·V^(-1)·s^(-1)), and MoS_2(2.57×102 cm2·V-1·s-1)have high carrier mobility. These results show that graphene, BP, and MoS_2 are promising candidates for future electronic applications.展开更多
The fuel-air cloud resulting from an accidental discharge event is normally irregular in shape and varying in concentration. Performance of dispersion simulations using the computational fluid dynamics (CFD)-based t...The fuel-air cloud resulting from an accidental discharge event is normally irregular in shape and varying in concentration. Performance of dispersion simulations using the computational fluid dynamics (CFD)-based tool FLACS can get an uneven and irregular cloud. For the performance of gas explosion study with FLACS, the equivalent stoichiometric fuel-air cloud concept is widely applied to get a representative distribution of explosion loads. The Q9 cloud model that is employed in FLACS is an equivalent fuel-air cloud representation, in which the laminar burning velocity with first order SL and volume expansion ratio are taken into consideration. However, during an explosion in congested areas, the main part of the combustion involves turbulent flame propagation. Hence, to give a more reasonable equivalent fuel-air size, the turbulent burning velocity must be taken into consideration. The paper presents a new equivalent cloud method using the turbulent burning velocity, which is described as a function of SL, deduced from the TNO multi- energy method.展开更多
To the Editor:Delirium is a common postoperative complication associated with multiple adverse clinical outcomes in older patients.[1]According to the time of onset,delirium in the postoperative stage can be divided i...To the Editor:Delirium is a common postoperative complication associated with multiple adverse clinical outcomes in older patients.[1]According to the time of onset,delirium in the postoperative stage can be divided into emergence delirium(ED)and postoperative delirium(POD).ED occurs during or immediately after awakening from general anesthesia,whereas POD is usually found during postoperative days 1-7.Assessing patients for ED provides the first clue of a possible postoperative neurocognitive disorder.[2]Dexmedetomidine(DEX)is a highly selectiveα-2 receptor agonist that is increasingly used in the perioperative period to induce sedation,analgesia.展开更多
In this work,we proposed a novel strategy for the photocatalytic degradation of the target pollutants tetracycline(TC)and methylene blue(MB)using core–shell dual metal-organic frameworks(MOFs)composites.A series of m...In this work,we proposed a novel strategy for the photocatalytic degradation of the target pollutants tetracycline(TC)and methylene blue(MB)using core–shell dual metal-organic frameworks(MOFs)composites.A series of mesoporous composites MIL-53@UiO-66 were synthesized by solvent-thermal synthesis via coating UiO-66 on the surface of MIL-53.The results show that under the same degradation conditions,only 30 and 15 min are needed to degrade 93%of TC and 96%of MB in the photo-Fenton reaction system,respectively.The amorphous shell layer brings stronger adsorption to the catalyst.MIL-53@UiO-66 composites with equalizing Fermi level are formed to promote photon absorption and electron transfer.Meanwhile,the MIL-53@UiO-66 composites with excellent stability will be a promising catalyst for environmental remediation.展开更多
Comprehensive research methods such as literature research,theoretical analysis,numerical simulations and field monitoring have been used to analyze the disasters and characteristics caused by the linkage failure and ...Comprehensive research methods such as literature research,theoretical analysis,numerical simulations and field monitoring have been used to analyze the disasters and characteristics caused by the linkage failure and instability of the residual coal pillars-rock strata in multi-seam mining.The effective monitoring area and monitoring design method of linkage instability of residual coal pillar-rock strata in multi-seam mining have been identified.The evaluation index and the risk assessment method of disaster risk have been established and the project cases have been applied and validated.The results show that:①The coal pillar will not only cause disaster in singleseam mining,but also more easily cause disaster in multi-seam mining.The instability of coal pillars can cause not only dynamical disasters such as rock falls and mine earthquakes,but also cause surface subsidence and other disasters.②When monitoring the linkage instability of residual coal pillar-rock strata,it is not only necessary to consider the monitoring of the apply load body(key block),the transition body(residual coal pillar)and the carrier body(interlayer rock and working face),but also to strengthen the monitoring of the fracture development height(linkage body).③According to the principles of objectivity,easy access and quantification,combined with investigation,analysis,and production and geological characteristics of this mining area,the main evaluation indexes of the degree of disaster caused by linkage instability of residual coal pillar-rock strata are determined as:microseismic energy,residual coal pillar damage degree,fracture development height.And the evaluation index classification table was also given.④According to the measured value of the evaluation index,the fuzzy comprehensive evaluation method was used to calculate the disaster risk degree in the studied mine belongs to class III,that is,medium risk level.The corresponding pressure relief technology was adopted on site,which achieved a good control effect,and also verified the accuracy and effectiveness of the risk evaluation results.展开更多
Summary What is already known on this topic?Hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome(HFRS)is endemic in Liaoning Province.Both Seoul and Hantaan virus are circulating in rodents,and epidemic outbreaks and sporadic cases ...Summary What is already known on this topic?Hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome(HFRS)is endemic in Liaoning Province.Both Seoul and Hantaan virus are circulating in rodents,and epidemic outbreaks and sporadic cases have been recorded every year since the disease was recognized.展开更多
基金the financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Nos.52374094,52174122 and 52374218)Excellent Youth Fund of Shandong Natural Science Foundation(No.ZR2022YQ49)Taishan Scholar Project in Shandong Province(Nos.tspd20210313 and tsqn202211150)。
文摘The stability control of fissured rock is difficult,especially under static and dynamic loads in deep coal mines.In this paper,the dynamic mechanical properties,strain rate evolution and energy dissipation of fissured and anchored rocks were respectively obtained by SHPB tests.It was found that bolt can provide supporting efficiency-improving effect for fissured rock against dynamic disturbance,and this effect increased quadratically with decrease in anchoring angles.Then,the energy dissipation mechanism of anchored rock was obtained by slipping model.Furthermore,bolt energy-absorbing mechanism by instantaneous tensile-shear deformation was expressed based on material mechanics,which was the larger the anchoring angle,the smaller the energy absorption,and the less the contribution to supporting efficiency improvement.On this basis,the functional relationship between energy dissipation of anchored rock and energy absorption of bolt was established.Taking the coal-gangue separation system of Longgu coal mine as an example,the optimal anchoring angle can be determined as 57.5°–67.5°.Field monitoring showed fissured rock with the optimal anchoring angle,can not only effectively control the deformation,but also fully exert the energy-absorbing and efficiency-improving effect of bolt itself.This study provides guidance to the stability control and supporting design for deep engineering under the same or similar conditions.
基金supported by the Climbling Project of Taishan Scholar in Shandong Province (No.tspd20210313)National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No.51874190,52079068,41941019,52090081 and 52074168)+3 种基金Taishan Scholar in Shandong Province (No.tsqn202211150)Outstanding Youth Fund Project in Shandong Province (No.ZQ2022YQ49)the State Key Laboratory of Hydroscience and Engineering,China (No.2021-KY-04)support from the G.Albert Shoemaker endowment.
文摘Multi-seam mining often leads to the retention of a significant number of coal pillars for purposes such as protection,safety,or water isolation.However,stress concentration beneath these residual coal pillars can significantly impact their strength and stability when mining below them,potentially leading to hydraulic support failure,surface subsidence,and rock bursting.To address this issue,the linkage between the failure and instability of residual coal pillars and rock strata during multi-seam mining is examined in this study.Key controls include residual pillar spalling,safety factor(f.),local mine stiffness(LMS),and the post-peak stiffness(k)of the residual coal pillar.Limits separating the two forms of failure,progressive versus dynamic,are defined.Progressive failure results at lower stresses when the coal pillar transitions from indefinitely stable(f,>1.5)to failing(f,<1.5)when the coal pillar can no longer remain stable for an extended duration,whereas sud-den(unstable)failure results when the strength of the pillar is further degraded and fails.The transition in mode of failure is defined by the LMS/k ratio.Failure transitions from quiescent to dynamic as LMS/k.<1,which can cause chain pillar instability propagating throughout the mine.This study provides theoretical guidance to define this limit to instability of residual coal pillars for multi-seam mining in similar mines.
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(52174122,52074168)Excellent Youth Fund of Shandong Natural Science Foundation(ZR2022YQ49)+1 种基金Climbing Project of Taishan Scholar in Shandong Province(tspd20210313)Young Expert of Taishan Scholar Project in Shandong Province(tsqn202211150).
文摘Rheological mechanical properties of the soft rock are afected signifcantly by its main physical characteristics-clay mineral.In this study,taking the mudstone on the roof and foor in four typical mining regions as the research object,frstly,the clay mineral characteristic was analyzed by the X-ray difraction test.Subsequently,rheological mechanical properties of mudstone samples under diferent confning pressures are studied through triaxial compression and creep tests.The results show that the clay mineral content of mudstone in diferent regions is diferent,which leads to signifcant diferences in its rheological properties,and these diferences have a good correlation with the content of montmorillonite and illite-montmorillonite mixed layer.Taking the montmorillonite content as an example,compared with the sample with 3.56%under the lower stress level,the initial creep deformation of the sample with 11.19%increased by 3.25 times,the viscosity coefcient and longterm strength decreased by 80.59%and 53.94%,respectively.Furthermore,based on the test results,the damage variation is constructed considering the montmorillonite content and stress level,and the M–S creep damage constitutive model of soft rock is established.Finally,the test results can be ftted with determination coefcients ranging from 0.9020 to 0.9741,which proves that the constitutive relation can refect the infuence of the clay mineral content in the samples preferably.This study has an important reference for revealing the long-term stability control mechanism of soft rock roadway rich in clay minerals.
基金financial support from the National Key R&D Program of China(No.2018YFC0604703)National Natural Science Foundation of China(Nos.51804181,51874190,and 52074168)Key R&D Program of Shandong Province(No.2019GSF111020)。
文摘Large and super-large section chamber groups in coal mines are frequently affected by dynamic loads resulting from production activities such as roadway driving and blasting.The stability of the surrounding rock is poor,and it is difficult to control.In this paper,a similar simulation test was used to study the deformation and evolution laws of the surrounding rock of a triangle-shaped chamber group under different dynamic loads.The results showed that under dynamic loading,the vertical stress of the surrounding rock of the chamber group increased in an oscillatory form.The maximum stress concentration coefficient reached 4.09.The damage degree of the roof was greater than that of the two sides.The deformation of the roof was approximately 1.2 times that of the two sides.For the chamber closer to the power source,the stress oscillation amplitude of the surrounding rock was larger,and the failure was more serious.The force of the anchorage structure showed a phased increasing characteristic;additionally,the force of the anchorage structure on the adjacent side of the chambers was greater than that on the other side.This study reveals the deformation and failure evolution laws of the surrounding rock of large section chamber groups under dynamic loading.
基金The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Nos.52174122,52074168 and 51874190)Climbing Project of Taishan Scholar in Shandong Province(No.tspd20210313).
文摘The stress concentration and failure at chamber intersections in coal mine are intense,especially in deepburied,super-large section conditions.In this paper,the plastic radius of super-large section chamber under unequal pressure was corrected on the basis of the size effect.Then,stress and failure evolution of intersections under different crossing angles and equivalent angular bisectors were revealed.Furthermore,2 trajectory curves of failure and stress were analytically expressed,which divided the intersection into 5 influencing zones in the light of stress superposition degree.After determining instability trigger point and instability path,instability energy criterion of intersection can be obtained as K>1,which means that the external energy is greater than the sum of energy consumed by surrounding rock instability and supporting structure failure.Taking coal-gangue separation system of Longgu Coal Mine as example,it was found that there was instability risk under original parameters.For long-term stability,an optimization design method was proposed by considering safety factor,and optimal support scheme was obtained.Field monitoring showed intersections deformations were relatively small with the maximum of 125 mm,which verified the rationality of theoretical analysis.This study provides guidance for the stability control of the intersections under the same or similar conditions.
基金Project supported by the National Key R&D Program of China(Grant No.2017YFB0305800)
文摘The band structure, density of states, optical properties, carrier mobility, and loss function of graphene, black phosphorus(BP), and molybdenum disulfide(MoS_2) were investigated by the first-principles method with the generalized-gradient approximation. The graphene was a zero-band-gap semiconductor. The band gaps of BP and MoS_2 were strongly dependent on the number of layers. The relationships between layers and band gap were built to predict the band gap of few-layer BP and MoS_2. The absorption showed an explicit anisotropy for light polarized in(1 0 0) and(0 0 1) directions of graphene, BP,and MoS_2. This behavior may be readily detected in spectroscopic measurements and exploited for optoelectronic applications. Moreover, graphene(5.27 × 10~4 cm^2·V^(-1)·s^(-1)), BP(1.5 × 10~4 cm^2·V^(-1)·s^(-1)), and MoS_2(2.57×102 cm2·V-1·s-1)have high carrier mobility. These results show that graphene, BP, and MoS_2 are promising candidates for future electronic applications.
文摘The fuel-air cloud resulting from an accidental discharge event is normally irregular in shape and varying in concentration. Performance of dispersion simulations using the computational fluid dynamics (CFD)-based tool FLACS can get an uneven and irregular cloud. For the performance of gas explosion study with FLACS, the equivalent stoichiometric fuel-air cloud concept is widely applied to get a representative distribution of explosion loads. The Q9 cloud model that is employed in FLACS is an equivalent fuel-air cloud representation, in which the laminar burning velocity with first order SL and volume expansion ratio are taken into consideration. However, during an explosion in congested areas, the main part of the combustion involves turbulent flame propagation. Hence, to give a more reasonable equivalent fuel-air size, the turbulent burning velocity must be taken into consideration. The paper presents a new equivalent cloud method using the turbulent burning velocity, which is described as a function of SL, deduced from the TNO multi- energy method.
基金supported by grants from National Natural Science Foundation of China(Nos.81870841 and 82171192).
文摘To the Editor:Delirium is a common postoperative complication associated with multiple adverse clinical outcomes in older patients.[1]According to the time of onset,delirium in the postoperative stage can be divided into emergence delirium(ED)and postoperative delirium(POD).ED occurs during or immediately after awakening from general anesthesia,whereas POD is usually found during postoperative days 1-7.Assessing patients for ED provides the first clue of a possible postoperative neurocognitive disorder.[2]Dexmedetomidine(DEX)is a highly selectiveα-2 receptor agonist that is increasingly used in the perioperative period to induce sedation,analgesia.
基金the funds awarded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Nos.21878017 and 51773012).
文摘In this work,we proposed a novel strategy for the photocatalytic degradation of the target pollutants tetracycline(TC)and methylene blue(MB)using core–shell dual metal-organic frameworks(MOFs)composites.A series of mesoporous composites MIL-53@UiO-66 were synthesized by solvent-thermal synthesis via coating UiO-66 on the surface of MIL-53.The results show that under the same degradation conditions,only 30 and 15 min are needed to degrade 93%of TC and 96%of MB in the photo-Fenton reaction system,respectively.The amorphous shell layer brings stronger adsorption to the catalyst.MIL-53@UiO-66 composites with equalizing Fermi level are formed to promote photon absorption and electron transfer.Meanwhile,the MIL-53@UiO-66 composites with excellent stability will be a promising catalyst for environmental remediation.
基金the financial support by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Nos.52304093,52074168,52079068,41941019)Shandong Province Key Research and Development Program(No.2019SDZY02)+4 种基金Shandong Taishan Scholars Climbing Program(No.tspd20210313)State Key Laboratory of Hydroscience and Engineering foundation(No.2021-KY-04)Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province Outstanding Youth Fund project(No.ZQ2022YQ49)the Taishan Scholars Project Special Fund(No.tsqn202211150)the Anhui Engineering Research Center of Exploitation and Utilization of Closed/Abandoned Mine Resources(No.EUCMR202205).
文摘Comprehensive research methods such as literature research,theoretical analysis,numerical simulations and field monitoring have been used to analyze the disasters and characteristics caused by the linkage failure and instability of the residual coal pillars-rock strata in multi-seam mining.The effective monitoring area and monitoring design method of linkage instability of residual coal pillar-rock strata in multi-seam mining have been identified.The evaluation index and the risk assessment method of disaster risk have been established and the project cases have been applied and validated.The results show that:①The coal pillar will not only cause disaster in singleseam mining,but also more easily cause disaster in multi-seam mining.The instability of coal pillars can cause not only dynamical disasters such as rock falls and mine earthquakes,but also cause surface subsidence and other disasters.②When monitoring the linkage instability of residual coal pillar-rock strata,it is not only necessary to consider the monitoring of the apply load body(key block),the transition body(residual coal pillar)and the carrier body(interlayer rock and working face),but also to strengthen the monitoring of the fracture development height(linkage body).③According to the principles of objectivity,easy access and quantification,combined with investigation,analysis,and production and geological characteristics of this mining area,the main evaluation indexes of the degree of disaster caused by linkage instability of residual coal pillar-rock strata are determined as:microseismic energy,residual coal pillar damage degree,fracture development height.And the evaluation index classification table was also given.④According to the measured value of the evaluation index,the fuzzy comprehensive evaluation method was used to calculate the disaster risk degree in the studied mine belongs to class III,that is,medium risk level.The corresponding pressure relief technology was adopted on site,which achieved a good control effect,and also verified the accuracy and effectiveness of the risk evaluation results.
基金This work was supported by National Mega-Projects for Infectious Disease(2016ZX 10004222-002,2018ZX10711001)National Key Research and Development Program of China(2016YFD0500303).
文摘Summary What is already known on this topic?Hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome(HFRS)is endemic in Liaoning Province.Both Seoul and Hantaan virus are circulating in rodents,and epidemic outbreaks and sporadic cases have been recorded every year since the disease was recognized.