To determine the alterations in optical characteristics and cerebral blood oxygenation (CBO) during activation and deactivation, we evaluated the changes in mean optical pathlength (MOP) and CBO induced by a verbal fluency task (VFT) and driving simulation in the right and left prefrontal cortex (PFC), employing a newly developed time-resolved near infrared spectroscopy, which allows quantitati...

We propose that the properties of a glass transition can be understood on the basis of elastic waves. Elastic waves originating from atomic jumps in a liquid propagate local expansion due to the anharmonicity of the interatomic potential. This creates dynamic compressive stress, which increases the activation barrier for other events in a liquid. The non-trivial point is that the range of propa...

Previous reports have conceptualized theory of mind (ToM) as comprising two components and questioned whether ToM deficits are associated with psychotic symptoms. We investigated 33 nonpsychotic depressed inpatients, 23 psychotic depressed inpatients, and 53 normal controls with the following measures: Eyes Task, Faux pas Task, Verbal Fluency Test (VFT), Digit Span Test (DST) and WAIS-IQ. The d...

The primary relaxation in glass forming supercooled liquids (SCLs) above the glass transformation temperature Tg is discussed in terms of the first-order (steepness) and the second-order (curvature) temperature derivatives of the observed primary relaxation timescale. We report new insights into the problem of the domain of the Vogel-Fulcher-Tamman (VFT) equation, raised by Stickel et al. (J. C...

There is a certain consensus that the very fast growth of the relaxation time tau occurring in glass-forming liquids on lowering the temperature must be due to the thermally activated rearrangement of correlated regions of growing size. Even though measuring the size of these regions has defied scientists for a while, there is indeed recent evidence of a growing correlation length xi in glass f...

Transient reflectivity measurements using ultrashort pulse pump-probe techniques can provide very useful information on fast carrier dynamics in semiconductors. Several non-trivial problems encountered in measuring reflectivity changes have been described. These changes can be very small (ΔR/R ~10 or less) and hence measuring these small changes is not straightforward. The possible solutions in...

Fast near-interface (NI) traps have recently been suggested to be the main cause for poor inversion channel mobility in nitrided SiC metal-oxide-semiconductor-field-effect-transistors. Combining capacitance, conductance, and thermal dielectric relaxation current (TDRC) analysis at low temperatures of MOS capacitors, we observe two categories fast slow SiO 2 /4H-SiC interface. TDRC reveals a sup...

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between subjective well-being and prefrontal function during a cognitive task in schizophrenia. Twenty-four patients with clinically stable schizophrenia participated in the study. We measured the change in hemoglobin concentration in the prefrontal region during a verbal fluency task (VFT) by using 52-channel near-infrared spectroscopy ...

We have analysed an archival XMM-Newton EPIC observation that serendipitously covered the sky position of a variable X-ray source AX J1714.1-3912, previously suggested to be Supergiant Fast Transient (SFXT). During is on timescale hundred seconds and shows two luminosity states, with flaring activity followed by unflared emission, variability amplitude factor about 50. discovered intense iron e...