Imagery rescripting (ImRs) is a psychological intervention designed to change the meaning of images and associated memories and reduce emotional distress. Recent studies have shown that ImRs can be successfully applied to many psychological problems and disorders; however, little has been reported on the application of ImRs for panic disorder (PD). Consequently, we explored the therapeutic effects of ImRs on patients with PD. Fifteen patients with PD received 16 individual cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) sessions weekly, including one ImRs session. Early traumatic memories associated with recurrent images in panic situations were identified and rescripted to alleviate maladaptive encapsulated beliefs. ImRs ratings (vividness and distress of the images and memories and conviction degree of encapsulated beliefs) were measured prior to and after ImRs. Self-negative contents not directly related to symptoms of panic attack were observed as common themes in the worst meaning of the image, the memory, and in the encapsulated belief. Whilst five (33%) patients had anticipatory anxiety, 10 (67%) patients had other self-negative beliefs. ImRs significantly reduced distress from images, memories and encapsulated beliefs; however, it did not change the vividness of images and memories. There was no significant correlation between the reduction in PD severity over the CBT program and the change in each ImRs rating. The results of this study are promising for certain aspects of panic disorder. However, further research is needed to overcome the limitations of this study.

Periodic array of metallic nanocylinder combined with the highly luminous dielectric layer is a good platform to control the intensity, spectral shape and directionality of photoluminescence (PL). In spite of its importance, the effect of cylinder height on the PL properties has not been verified experimentally. Here we investigate the effect of cylinder height on the PL properties both experimentally and numerically. The system consisted of a highly luminous layer made of Eu(III) complex and a series of periodic array of aluminum nanocylinders with different heights. The strongest directional PL was achieved when the height is similar to the diameter, i.e., the aspect ratio close to unity. Our finding is useful for designing the compact and efficient luminescence source with directional output.

We propose a low-contrast pre-coronagraph that can provide additional dark-hole contrast to a main coronagraph.

Characteristics of dissolved humic and fulvic acids in river waters were studied during 2003–2005 at 4 sites located in the headwaters and in the upper and lower Tokachi River, including a lowland tributary site. Fulvic acids from the headwaters to downstream areas have similar elemental composition and 13C-NMR spectra. Humic acids have similar characteristics in the Tokachi River system. In contrast, δ13C and Δ14C values exhibit a decreasing trend from the upper to the lower and tributary sites, although the headwater site has heavier δ13C and lower Δ14C values than the upper site. Fulvic acids had similar δ13C values from the upper to lower sites, but 123′ higher in Δ14C than those of humic acids on average. The δ13C and Δ14C values exhibited differences in downward variation for humic and fulvic acids. In the Tokachi River system, these results suggest that differences in transport pathways and residence times of humic and fulvic acids reflect differences in the δ13C and Δ14C values in a single river basin.

The ALADDIN (Arrayed Large-Area Dust Detectors in INterplanetary space) made of 0.54 m2 PVDF sensors was deployed on the anti-Sun face of the thin polyimide sail membrane of the deep space solar sail spacecraft gIKAROS (Interplanetary Kitecraft Accelerated by the Radiation Of the Sun)h. It has measured micrometeoroid flux between the Earthfs orbit and Venusf orbit (i.e., 1.0 ~ 0.7 AU of heliocentric distance) for 1.5 revolutions from June 2010 until October 2011. The ALADDIN dust detector is arrayed by 8 channels of 9-20 micron-thick PVDF sensors, which are capable of detecting hypervelocity impacts of micrometeoroids at > ~ 10−12g, according to ground calibration impact experiments. The sensors filter electronic, thermal and vibration noises and can record time, peak hold value above its threshold, and relaxation duration of each impact signal. In total, its cruising measurements counted more than 3000 dust impacts after screening noise signals. The ALADDIN flux in the 2010-2011 epoch was compared with fluxes at similar mass range of micrometeoroids and in similar heliocentric distances measured by Helios in 1970fs and Galileo in 1990fs, both of which were composed of much less number of impact data. Then, it suggested enhancement of dust flux in the trailing edge of circumsolar orbits of the Earth and Venus, which are consistent with previous reports of larger dust grain enhancements observed by infrared telescopes. This also implies that the temporal flux enhancement of large micrometeoroids in the blob may have caused a cascading effect to produce smaller dust by collisions with sporadic meteoroids. Also it is apparent that the micrometeoroid flux increases by approximately one order of magnitude from 1 AU to 0.7 AU during the 2010-2011 epoch. The temporal variance of the Helios flux data in 1976-80 in the same region of 1 AU may be associated with difference of averaged solar activities during both epochs. Since the solar activity in the years 2010-2011 was around the minimum of the solar cycle, smaller micrometeoroids, which are more affected by solar radiation pressure than larger ones, may have survived longer than those in the Helios epoch, which covered from the minimum to the maximum of the solar cycle in late 1970fs.

We report the kinetic analysis of radicals on fungal spores of Penicillium digitatum interacted with charged-neutral oxygen species (O*) generated plasma discharge using real time in situ electron spin resonance (ESR) measurements. The ESR signal from the spores was observed at a g-value of around 2.004 with a line width of approximately 5G. We have successfully obtained information regarding the reaction mechanism with free radicals and realtime in situ ESR has proven to be a useful method to elucidate plasma-induced surface reactions on biological specimens

Shape-controlled CaF2 and sapphire crystals were grown by a micro-pulling-down (μ-PD) method and the crystallinities were investigated. By the μ-PD method with crucibles which have special configurations, circular tube-shaped CaF2 crystal, square tube-shaped CaF2 crystal and square tube-shaped sapphire crystal with high transparency were obtained. The grown crystals indicated a single phase of CaF2 and Al2O3 in the XRD measurements. X-ray rocking curve of square tube-shaped sapphire indicated the crystal has no mosaic structure in the crystal and it has high crystallinity comparable to crystals grown by Cz method.

A two-phase intermetallic alloy composed of Ni3Al (L12) and Ni3V (D022) was plasma-nitrided or -carburized in dependence of temperature and time. It was found that the hardness of the surface layer of the present intermetallic alloy was enhanced by both plasma-nitriding (PN) and -carburizing (PC), and primarily depended on treating temperature; the maximum surface hardness of the alloy was shown by nitriding at around 850 K and by carburizing at 1025 K. In addition, the hardened layers due to PN and PC effectively kept their hardness up to a high temperature. The XRD analysis revealed that vanadium nitride (VN) and vanadium carbide (VC) were formed in the surface of the nitrided and carburized alloy, respectively, suggesting that the enhanced surface hardness was attributed to the dispersion hardening due to the nitrides and carbides.

A mixed microstructure of antiphase domains (APD) and fine lamellar structure were introduced in a Ti-39at%Al single crystal and it was examined whether the APD hardening works even in nano-scaled lamellar structures. The hardness increases with decreasing APD size even where the L is smaller than 100 nm below which the hardening by lamellar refining saturates. The mechanism of the additivity of strengthening by APD and lamellar structure is discussed in the context of the geometries of slip direction, lamellar boundaries and APD boundaries (APDBs). For {1100}<1120> prism slip (the easiest slip system of α2-Ti3Al), the lamellar boundaries are parallel to the slip direction, and therefore they interrupt the motion of screw dislocations effectively. On the other hand, APDBs inclined from lamellar boundaries can effectively obstruct the dislocation motion regardless of the dislocation character because the shear of such APDBs results in the formation of step-like APDBs on the slip-plane and requires additional stress for dislocation motion whereas APDBs parallel to the slip direction can be sheared without forming such a step-like APDB. Accordingly, APDs and lamellar structure can contribute to the strengthening complementarily.

We have studied the effects of straining prior to annealing for lamellar structure formation in a Ti-39at%Al single crystal intending to accelerate the lamellar structure formation and decrease the resultant lamellar spacing via preferential nucleation of γ-TiAl phase at dislocations in α2-Ti3Al phase. In a crystal cold-rolled to 10% reduction before annealing, a fine lamellar structure with 88 nm average spacing was formed by annealing at 1073 K for 1×104 s whereas no lamella were observed in the crystal subjected to the same annealing without cold-rolling. In addition, it was also demonstrated that when the crystal is locally strained by indentation and annealed at 1073 K for 1×104 s, a lamellar structure with 43 nm average lamellar spacing is formed in areas near the indentation and there were no lamella beyond these areas. This means that distributions of lamellae can be controlled by controlling the distribution of strain before annealing.

We studied antiphase domain (APD) growth and lamellar structure formation during isothermal annealing of Ti-39at%Al single crystals at α2+γ dual phase temperature after quenching from α single phase state, intending to obtain a APD/lamellae mixed microstructure and to examine whether such a microstructure provides a strength higher than that obtained only by refining lamellar structure. The effect of plastic deformation prior to the annealing was also examined expecting a acceleration of γ lamellae formation through a preferential nucleation of γ-plates at dislocations. The lower was the annealing temperature, the smaller both the APD size and the lamellar spacing at the moment of a homogeneous lamellar structure formation tended to be, although naturally both the APD growth and the γ lamellae formation were slower. However, the APD size in the homogeneous lamellar structure was no smaller than 400 nm. A structure with finer APDs and finer lamellar structure was obtained by deforming the crystal before annealing since the lamellar structure formation was accelerated and the time for APD growth before the lamellar structure formation was shortened. For instance, a structure with an average lamellar spacing of 88 nm and an average APD size of 214 nm was obtained by deforming the crystals to 10 % plastic strain and subsequently annealing at 1073 K for 1×104 s, while no γ plate was obtained only by such an annealing without deformation.

A novel process to fabricate a thick silica gel film on an aluminum substrate, named the “gap filling method”, has been developed. The process is based on a sol-gel method accompanied by phase separation in a submillimeter thick space defined by two facing substrates. Dielectric thick film integrated on a metal ground plate is successfully formed by using a SiO2 coated aluminum substrate and a cap plate covered with an amorphous carbon thin film, which control the hydrophilicity and the hydrophobicity of the plates, respectively. A thin continuous layer of less than 0.5 μm thick is formed at the interface between the porous film and the cap plate, which gives the film a smooth surface preferable for patterning metal circuits of an antenna. The observed dielectric constants (εr) at 60 GHz measured by the Fabry-Perot resonator method are in the range between 1.4 and 1.6. Methyl groups homogeneously distributed in the siloxane network give a hydrophobic siloxane gel film, thus the obtained films have enough environmental stability. These results show that the gap filling method is applicable to the preparation of the porous thick film that is needed for antenna applications.

Extended abstract of a paper presented at Microscopy and Microanalysis 2004 in Savannah, Georgia, USA, August 1–5, 2004.

High-energy (400 keV) implantation of carbon (C) ions was made into LEC-GaAs substrates with C concentration ([C]) of 1019− 1022Cm−3. 2 K photoluminescence (PL) and Hall effect measurements indicated that activation rate of C in LEC GaAs is both optically and electrically extremely low even after furnace-annealing at 850 °C for 20 min. For [C] = 1×1022 cm−3, two novel strong emissions were obtained and PL measurements as a function of excitation power and sample temperature suggested that the two emissions one at 1.485 eV and the other at 1.305 eV should reflect the formation of a new alloy between GaAs and C. Dual implantation of C+ and Ga+ ions was carried out to improve the activation or substitution rate. We found that nearly 90% activation rate can be achieved for C dose of 2.2 × 1013 cm−2.

We investigate the crystal growth of YBa2Cu4O8 and Y2Ba4Cu7C7O15−σ in Al2O3 crucibles at P(O2) = 20 MPa employing commercial O2-HIP equipment. Large crystals of YBa2Cu4O8 up to 1 × 0.5 × 0.05 mm3 are obtained from starting compositions of about 65–67 mol % CuO. When we use a composition of Y: Ba: Cu = 2:6:15, single crystals of YBa2Cu4O8, free from contamination, are obtained at a growth temperature of 1000°C, and those of the Y2Ba4Cu7O15 phase with Al, having the maximum size of 3 × 1.5 × 0.05 mm3, are obtained at a temperature of 1050°C. YBa2Cu4O8 crystals exhibit a superconducting transition temperature Tc of 75 K. Y2Ba4Cu7O15−σ crystals have a Tc of 20 K because of the contamination of aluminum from the crucible.