Cholesterol granuloma is an intractable ear disease. Many studies of this condition have been published since the initial report by Manasse. However, the pathogenesis of this condition is unclear. This study reviewed the treatment of middle-ear cholesterol granuloma in 16 patients undergoing surgical treatment at Kurume University Hospital.

The relationship between patients' pre-operative tympanic membrane findings and post-operative course was analysed. Patients with swollen tympanic membranes had significantly poorer outcomes. Patients with retracted tympanic membranes and those undergoing ossicular chain reconstruction had significantly better outcomes. The patients' overall hearing success rate at approximately two weeks post-operatively was 75 per cent. However, by six months post-operatively, the overall hearing success rate had declined to 62.5 per cent. Patients with poor hearing two weeks post-operatively did not acquire better hearing.

Previously, the treatment of carcinoma of the external auditory canal has mainly involved surgical resection. In order to enable organ preservation and to obtain cancer-free surgical margins, we introduced the use of superselective, intra-arterial, rapid infusion chemotherapy combined with radiotherapy to treat this condition.

We reviewed our patients' tumour stages, feeding arteries and clinical outcomes. Tumours were staged according to the Pittsburgh staging system. Chemotherapy was administered intra-arterially in the angiography suite via transfemoral catheterisation of the feeding arteries. Four patients underwent superselective, intra-arterial, rapid infusion chemo-radiotherapy. A complete response was obtained in all four patients. The overall toxic side effects were modest.

Superselective, intra-arterial, rapid infusion chemotherapy can be an effective, organ-preserving treatment for external auditory canal carcinoma, with a high cure rate.

Tympanic membrane perforation causes a sound conduction disturbance, and the size of this conduction disturbance is proportional to the perforation area. However, precise evaluation of perforation size is difficult, and there are few detailed reports addressing this issue. Furthermore, such evaluation becomes more difficult for irregularly shaped perforations. This study conducted a quantitative evaluation of tympanic membrane perforations, using image analysis equipment.

A significant correlation was found between the degree of sound conduction disturbance and the perforation area; this correlation was greater at low frequencies following a traumatic perforation. The conductive disturbance associated with chronic otitis media was significantly greater at low frequencies. Circular perforations caused only minor conduction disturbance. Perforations in the anteroinferior quadrant were associated with greater conduction disturbance. Traumatic spindle-shaped perforations and malleolar perforations were associated with greater conduction disturbance.

An anterior glottic web in adults comprises a bridge of scar tissue commonly formed as a result of iatrogenic laryngeal injury. Traditionally, procedures such as transcervical midline thyrotomy and keel placement have been used to repair this condition. However, we recently repaired an anterior glottic web using a new surgical procedure involving a silicone tube instead of a keel. We herein report this case, in which we placed a silicone tube at the anterior commissure after resection of an anterior glottic web, under endolaryngeal microsurgery, without performing a tracheostomy.

Labyrinthine fistula is one of the most common complications of chronic otitis media associated with cholesteatoma. The optimal management of labyrinthine fistula, however, remains controversial. Between 1995 and 2005, labyrinthine fistulae were detected in 31 (6 per cent) patients in our institution. The canal wall down technique was used in 27 (87 per cent) patients. The cholesteatoma matrix was completely removed in the first stage in all patients. Bone dust and/or temporalis fascia was inserted to seal the fistula in 29 (94 per cent) patients. A post-operative hearing test was undertaken in 27 patients; seven (26 per cent) patients showed improved hearing, 17 (63 per cent) showed no change and three (11 per cent) showed a deterioration. The study findings indicate that there are various treatment strategies available for cholesteatoma, and that the treatment choice should be based on such criteria as auditory and vestibular function, the surgeon's ability and experience, and the location and size of the fistula.

We have developed a Wide Field Cryogenic Telescope II (WFCT-II), which containsa whole telescope-optics in a cryostat to suppress thermal emission from the whole telescope.The cryostat is of a cylindrical shape of 800 mm length and 300 mm diameter.The telescope inside is a Ritchey-Chretien system with the primary mirror of 231 mm in diameterand a focal length of 1500 mm.
The InSb 1k × 1k infrared array detector (Aladdin II) has a FoV of 1 square degreeand a resolution of 3'' × 3''/pixel.
We can install 5 filters whose wavelengths range from 1 μm to 5 μm.

Tokamak plasma with negative central current density is known to be unstable for m=1/n=0 resistive kink magnetohydrodynamic instability and the explanation for the absence of negative central current, the so-called current hole phenomena, is made by the destabilization of the mode. However, a strong reversed magnetic shear configuration has two resonant surfaces for low mode numbers and should be unstable for the double tearing mode (DTM). Here, we examine the effects of DTM on the formation of current hole and show that the occurrence of DTM does not change the situation completely. The growth of DTM flattens the current profile near the minimum-q region; here q is the safety factor, and the current gradient to drive n=0 mode usually remains after a reconnection event due to DTM and the stability of m=1/n=0 mode is not affected much by the DTM activity.

We are currently conducting three kinds of IR surveys of star forming regions (SFRs) in order to seek for very low-mass young stellar populations. First is a deep JHKs-bands (simultaneous) survey with the SIRIUS camera on the IRSF 1.4m or the UH 2.2m telescopes. Second is a very deep JHKs survey with the CISCO IR camera on the Subaru 8.2m telescope. Third is a high resolution companion search around nearby YSOs with the CIAO adaptive optics coronagraph IR camera on the Subaru. In this contribution, we describe our SIRIUS camera and present preliminary results of the ongoing surveys with this new instrument.

Corrosion of silicon nitride was studied in boiling nitric acid to examine its feasibility as a drying pan material in the reprocessing of nuclear fuel. Unlike stainless steel (a conventional drying pan material), the weight loss and strength degradation were negligible in the concentration of nitric acid. The corrosion increased with decreasing concentration of nitric acid. At the concentration of 1-6N, the maximum losses of weight and strength were 0.8% and over 40%, respectively, in 200 h. Ionic species dissolved in nitric acid were determined by ICP analysis and were found to be accurately correlated to the weight loss and thickness of the corrosion layer determined by micrography. In the corrosion layer, grain boundary glassy phase was selectively dissolved. Strength loss was correlated to the weight loss and was ascribed to the reduced load bearing area due to corrosion.