A naturally occurring epizootic of dermatitis involved all the mice, provisionally designated as DS-Nh, housed under conventional conditions, regardless of age or sex. The disease primarily attacked the lateral aspect of the face, neck and shoulders. The histopathologic features of the dermatitis varied in severity, but all affected regions showed signs of chronic dermatitis, including infiltration of inflammatory cells, parakeratosis and amyloidosis, and contained Gram-positive cocci clusters. Bacteriologically, coagulase-positive Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) was recovered in pure culture from the skin lesions. The disease experimentally induced with the S. aureus isolates was indistinguishable from those observed in naturally occurring cases. The results suggested that S. aureus may be casually associated with the disease.

This paper experimentally demonstrates the strong enhancement of light extraction efficiency in two-dimensionally arranged microcolumns. They were designed like a honeycomb photonic crystal and fabricated into GaInAsP-InP wafers by using the inductively coupled plasma etching. For the laterally directed light passing through the microcolumns, peculiar transmission characteristics were observed, which could be explained by the Bragg reflection theory, namely, the photonic bandgap (PBG). The measurement of spontaneous lifetime showed that the internal efficiency in the microcolumns was reduced by the surface recombination at sidewalls. In contrast, the light extraction efficiency evaluated from the measured photoluminescence intensity, and the internal efficiency was more than ten times that for a planar wafer. This was thought to be due to the expanded escape cone of internal light by the low effective refractive index, and also due to the strong diffraction and scattering of laterally directed light, which corresponds to the second-order Bragg condition. Such effects are expected not only in photonic crystals but also in some disordered structures. We expect this structure to allow a high-efficiency light-emitting diode (LED), since electronic elements needed for current injection devices can be added independently of the effects.

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Gaze-stabilization exercise (GSE) is often conducted in vestibular rehabilitation, but its effect on vestibular function in postural control is not clear. We investigated whether GSE affects vestibular function during static upright standing and vestibulospinal reflex (VSR) in healthy young adults. First, the center of pressure of the total trajectory length (CoP-L) was measured before each GSE task or control (only standing) task (pre), immediately after (post), and 10 min after (post10) in the static standing position on foam rubber with the eyes open or closed (EC). Second, the H-reflex on the soleus muscle was measured after the onset of ipsilateral anodal galvanic vestibular stimulation before and after a GSE or a control task to estimate the amount of VSR induced by electrical vestibular input. CoP-L for the pre, post, and post10 control tasks and the GSE in EC did not differ significantly; the CoP-L for the post and post10 tasks in EC were significantly lower than that for the pretask. The H-reflex was inhibited by galvanic vestibular stimulation in the pre-GSE tasks. The inhibition increased after GSE, but not during control tasks. These findings suggest that GSE immediately improves the postural stability required for vestibular function and can be mediated by VSR improvements.

Previous studies demonstrated that fear of negative evaluation (FNE) moderates responses to exclusion in late-stage social outcomes (e.g., social judgements and behaviours). People with low levels of FNE show affiliative responses, feeling compelled to recover their sense of belonging, whereas people with high levels of FNE do not. This study examined whether FNE also moderates responses to exclusion in early-stage interpersonal perception, manifested in selective attention. The experiment using a dot-probe task revealed that exclusion led participants with low levels of FNE to increase attention to signs of social acceptance (i.e., smiling faces). It also revealed that exclusion led those with high levels of FNE to pay more attention to signs of social threat (i.e., angry faces) relative to those of social acceptance. Thus, exclusion makes the motivation to protect oneself from social threats dominant over the motivation to reestablish social bonds among those who fear negative evaluation.

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We have developed a chemical vaporization machining device that has computer numerically controlled plasma, by using a pipe electrode for optical fabrications. In this device, less than approximately 1 atm of pressure, plasma is generated around the tip of a pipe electrode. During the process, a workpiece is scanned against the electrode under computer control to achieve the desired shape to be removed. A workpiece of silica glass plate is shaped by use of this device, and the removal characteristics of the device are examined. The equations to characterize numerically the shape resulting from scanning of a workpiece have been derived. The new device allows the high precision of optics from the micrometer to the nanometer level with high-speed removal. The shaped surface is sufficiently smooth to be suitable for optical use.

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