Notes: Diamondlike carbon (DLC) films were directly deposited onto germanium (Ge) and zinc sulphide (ZnS) slices by a capacitively coupled 13.56 MHz rf glow discharge plasma with Ar-C2H2 gas mixtures. The IR transmittance was measured using a Fourier-transform infrared spectrometer. The maximum values of the IR transmission of Ge and ZnS with DLC films on both sides are 99% and 95.8%, respectively, which come up to the theoretical values. A nonuniform DLC film, of which the refractive index gradually changes along the thickness, has been successfully deposited onto a Ge slice for the first time and the IR transmission of a nonuniform DLC film coated onto both sides of a Ge substrate at the wider wave band of 2.5–15 μm is over 85%.

Notes: It is well known that two different photobiologic processes mainly take place when the human skin is exposed to ultraviolet (UV) light. The long waves of UVA and visible light (320–400 nm) irradiation causes skin tanning by melanocytic activation and the short waves of UVB (280–320 nm) can elicit variety of biologic action in cutaneous keratinocytes, melanocytes and other skin component cells. The sensitivity to the UV lights is generally depending on the three kinds of the skin type classified by the proposal of Pathak et al. [1]. The skin sensitivity of Japanese population, however, seems to be different from that of Caucasian's population because of the differences in genetic background and skin color, as indicated by Satoh and Kawada [2]. They tried to classify into three groups as J-I (always burn and rarely tan), J-II (moderately burn and moderately tan) and J-III (never burn and always tan) by the skin types to UV lights for the sun-tanning and sun-burning. Comparing these two criteria, a general concern indicates that J-I–III may correspond to the skin type II–IV of the Fitzpatrick's classification, respectively. Based on the Japanese skin types, the incidence of skin cancers and precancerous lesions related to the long-term exposure of sun-light was epidemiologically estimated by Araki et al. [3]. According to their results for several years (1992–1998), the overall number of skin cancers and precancerous states in Japanese was demonstrated to be small in comparison with the incidence of Caucasian's population, even though the people sets in areas of higher ambient solar radiation. However, working outdoors having J-I and/or a history of severe sunburn during childhood were found to be important risk factors, particularly among people of over 60 years of age. Regarding skin cancers and sun-exposed areas, we compared between 20 patients with skin cancers (males 13 and females seven) (average 65 years old) (〈link href="#t1-14"〉Table I) and 24 controls (males 10 and females 14), who were selected as similar ages to the patients at random, in their skin types and life environments by a questionnaire system. The skin types of the patients were J-I (15%), J-II (40%), and J-III (35%) and those of controls were J-I (4.2%), J-II (62.5%), and J-III (4.2%), respectively. The patient group tended not to protect from sun exposure and most of them were farmers. UV exposure is known to induce modulation of the skin immune system which Langerhans cells decrease in number in the epidermis, and on the other hand it is supposed that interleukin IL-10 producing macrophages (CD11b+) expand in the dermis. Not only IL-10, but also tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α from macrophages and mast cells in the dermis seem to increase and suppress Th1 immune responses of the epidermis and Th2 immune responses might be induced by UV irradiation [4]. Recently, it has been reported, however, that in patients with polymorphous light eruption (PLE), the expression of TNF-α, IL-4, and IL-10 is reduced by UVB irradiation and that PLE appearance is related to UVB-induced immunosuppression [5].〈tabular xml:id="t1-14"〉I〈title type="main"〉 Twenty patients with skin cancers (average ages: 65 years old) (Department of Dermatology, Fukushima Medical University Hospital, 2001–2002) 〈table frame="topbot"〉〈tgroup cols="2" align="left"〉〈colspec colnum="1" colname="col1"/〉〈colspec colnum="2" colname="col2"/〉〈thead valign="bottom"〉〈row rowsep="1"〉Skin cancersNumber of patients〈tbody valign="top"〉Malignant melanoma8Squamous carcinoma4Bowen's disease4Basal cell carcinomas3Eccrine porocarcinoma1Location of skin cancersSun-exposed areas9Non-exposed areas11Then, we attempted to study UVB effects on atopic disease and chronic inflamed skin diseases in the therapeutic advantage, although it is harmful for the patients to be cutaneous carcinogenesis. The epidermal keratinocytes are capable of producing CC chemokines in the local Th2 response, as seen in atopic dermatitis, mycosis fungoides, etc. [6]. Thymus and activated-related chemokine (TARC) is one of the chemokines produced by keratinocytes which selectively activate lymphocytes of Th2 subset expressing CCR4 (receptor for TARC) [7]. Accumulating evidence has suggested that these chemokines have primary pathogenic importance in Th2 skin diseases. In order to find the effects of UVB irradiation on the production of TARC, we used a human keratinocyte HaCaT cell line. As assessed by RT-PCR and ELISA, UVB irradiation significantly decreased the expression of TARC mRNA and protein in HaCaT cells stimulated with interferon-γ (IFN-γ) and TNF-α in a dose-dependent manner. The down-regulation of TARC expression may be mediated in part by activation of the particular transcription, signal transducer and activator of transcription 1 (STAT 1), since it has shown that STAT 1 DNA-binding was down-regulated by UVB irradiation. Our results suggest that STAT 1 and other transcription factors play an important biological role in immune system of human skin irradiated by UVB and may support the results of Kolgen et al. [5].In this point of view, UVB irradiation will be a therapeutic tool for skin diseases related to Th2 type reaction, such as atopic dermatitis, mycosis fungoides, etc., although we need to optimize adequately the use of UVB in patients with J-I skin type or those of whom have the episode of severe sun-burn after UVB irradiation.〈section xml:id="abs1-1"〉〈title type="main"〉References1. Pathak, M.A., Nghiem, P. and Fitzpatrick, T.B. Acute and chronic effects on the skin. In: Fitzpatrick's Dermatology in General Medicine, 5th edn (Freedberg, I.M., Eisen, A.Z., Wolf, K., Austen, K.F., Goldsmith, L.A., Katz, S.I. and Fitzpatrick, T.B. eds), pp. 1598–1607. McGraw-Hill, New York (1999).2. Satoh, Y. and Kawada, A. Action spectrum for melanin pigmentation to ultraviolet light, and Japanese skin typing. In: Brown Melanoderma: Biology and Diseases of Epidermal Pigmentation (Fitzpatrick, T.B., Wick, M.M. and Toda, K. eds), pp. 87–95. University of Tokyo Press, Tokyo (1986).3. Araki, K., Nagano, T., Ueda, M., Washio, F., Watanabe, S., Yamaguchi, N. and Ichihashi, M. Incidence of skin cancers and precancerous lesions in Japanese- Risk factors and prevention. J. Epidemiol. 9, S14–S21 (1999).4. Teunissen, M. B., Piskin, G., Nuzzo, S. et al. Ultraviolet B radiation induces a transient appearance of IL-4+ neutrophils, which support the development of Th2 responses. J Immunol. 168, 3732–3739 (2002).5. Kolgen, W., van Meurs, M., Jongsma, M. et al. Differential expression of cytokines in UVB-exposed skin of patients with polymorphous light eruption. Arch. Dermatol. 140, 295–302 (2004).6. Kakinuma, T., Sugaya, M., Nakamura, K., Kaneko, F., Wakugawa, M., Matsushima, K. and Tamaki, K. Thymus and activation-regulated chemokine (TARC/CCL17) in mycosis fungoides: serum TARC levels reflect the disease activity of mycosis fungoides. J. Am. Acad. Dermatol. 48, 23–30 (2003).7. Imai, T., Nagira, M., Tkagi, S. et al. Selective recruitment of CCR4-binding Th2 cells toward antigen-presenting cells by the CC chemokins thymus and activation-regulated chemokine and macrophage-derived chemokine. Int. Immunol. 11, 81–88 (1999).

Notes: For light-emitting porous Si there has been a severe problem with instability and degradation in the light emission. We performed in situ photoluminescence measurements to monitor the degradation process under ambient atmosphere of different gases and in ultrahigh-vacuum environment. We found that laser induced oxygen adsorption is the major cause for the light emission degradation, while the laser heating effect can be excluded. We also found the degraded intensity can be partially recovered by reducing the surface oxygen concentration.

Notes: The transport critical current density Jc in the ceramic superconductor YBa2Cu3Ox was improved by an intermediate vibration introduced during the preparation process. A dependence of Jc on the vibrational parameters, frequency and amplitude, was found. The improved Jc was shown to be accompanied by the enhancement in the orientation degree. Furthermore, a theoretical discussion was tried to explain the Jc dependence.

Notes: We investigate the uniformity of scanning tunneling microscope nanofabrication on as-prepared chemically etched silicon. Our results show that continuous fabrication produces isolated nanoscale dots along the motion of the tip rather than uniform lines. These results are discussed with the aid of a self-limiting strong-field effect.

Notes: Photoreflectance (PR) and reflectance have been applied to characterize undoped and modulation-doped heterostructures of AlGaAs/GaAs grown by metal-organic chemical vapor deposition. The PR spectra were taken on these samples after sequential etching steps in a phosphoric acid etch to study the effects of the surface electric field, the heterointerface, and the two-dimensional electron gas. PR spectra were also taken with an external electric field applied through a transparent gate electrode. The results show that the oscillations appearing near the bandgap energy of GaAs are Franz–Keldysh oscillations originating from the large surface electric field. The surface electric field of the heterostructures can be modified through the application of an external electric field or by etching. The oscillation period is observed to increase with increasing reverse bias or with etching of the GaAs cap layer and the PR features disappear at a forward bias of 0.45 V. The very sharp features associated with the GaAs bandgap energy after etching have also been verified to be Franz–Keldysh oscillations and the presence of a two-dimensional electron gas cannot be confirmed with PR.

Notes: In quite a few cases, the geometric distortion of a scanning tunneling microscope (STM) image is essentially caused by the nonorthogonal scanning. A physical and mathematical model is proposed to correct such distortion, giving a satisfactory result.

Notes: The conventional deflection-mode atomic force microscope operates by optically monitoring the slope near the end of a microcantilever in contact with the sample surface. This signal is usually interpreted as a measure of height change. Lateral forces from friction, surface geometry, or inclination of the cantilever to the surface also affect the slope due to cantilever buckling. We calculate the deflection of a hollow triangular model cantilever subject to both lateral and normal forces. The measured response of the servo circuit to an inclined, loaded cantilever is then determined. This shows (1) errors are always present in height measurements of structures on inhomogeneous surfaces; (2) the sensitivity to buckling can be reduced by repositioning the laser; (3) friction measurements can be accurately made by scanning in two directions and applying the proper calibration.

Notes: We report neutron reflectivity and dynamic secondary ion mass spectroscopy measurements of surface segregation from symmetric, isotopic polystyrene blends, spin coated onto oxide covered silicon wafers, as a function of film thickness. The results of this analysis show that the segments of the deuterated polymer always partition to both the air and the substrate interfaces. Furthermore, the surface segregation is affected significantly if the film thicknesses are reduced below ∼four times the correlation length in the systems, and the segregation to both surfaces decreases with decreasing thickness. These results are in good agreement with the predictions of a mean-field lattice model which incorporates composition and chain length independent values of the surface energy parameter χs at each surface.

Notes: A number of vibrational bands of the A˜ 2Σ+↔X˜ 2Π electronic spectrum of both ArOH and ArOD have been investigated by laser induced fluorescence with a high-resolution, pulsed laser system yielding linewidths (approximately-less-than)250 MHz in the UV. This spectrum not only displays completely resolved rotational structure, but also fine and hyperfine structure. The hyperfine constants and precise interatomic distances derived from the rotational constants provide a very interesting picture of the electronic and geometric structure of the complex. The bonding is incipiently chemical in the A˜ state with clear evidence for at least some electronic reorganization between Ar and the open-shell OH radical in the complex. Conversely, the X˜ state appears to be bound almost solely by physical van der Waals interactions characteristic of systems containing only closed-shell species.