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Hiroharu Kamioka,1 Kiichiro Tsutani,2 Yoshiteru Mutoh,3 Takuya Honda,4 Nobuyoshi Shiozawa,5 Shinpei Okada,6 Sang-Jun Park,6 Jun Kitayuguchi,7 Masamitsu Kamada,8 Hiroyasu Okuizumi,9 Shuichi Handa91Faculty of Regional Environment Science, Tokyo University of Agriculture, Tokyo, 2Department of Drug Policy and Management, Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, 3Todai Policy Alternatives Research Institute, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, 4Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science, Tokyo, 5Food Labeling Division, Consumer Affairs Agency, Cabinet Office, Government of Japan, Tokyo, 6Physical Education and Medicine Research Foundation, Nagano, 7Physical Education and Medicine Research Center Unnan, Shimane, 8Department of Environmental and Preventive Medicine, Shimane University School of Medicine, Shimane, 9Mimaki Onsen (Spa) Clinic, Tomi City, Nagano, JapanObjective: To summarize the evidence for curative and health enhancement effects through forest therapy and to assess the quality of studies based on a review of randomized controlled trials (RCTs).Study design: A systematic review based on RCTs.Methods: Studies were eligible if they were RCTs. Studies included one treatment group in which forest therapy was applied. The following databases – from 1990 to November 9, 2010 – were searched: MEDLINE via PubMed, CINAHL, Web of Science, and Ichushi-Web. All Cochrane databases and Campbell Systematic Reviews were also searched up to November 9, 2010.Results: Two trials met all inclusion criteria. No specific diseases were evaluated, and both studies reported significant effectiveness in one or more outcomes for health enhancement. However, the results of evaluations with the CONSORT (Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials) 2010 and CLEAR NPT (A Checklist to Evaluate a Report of a Nonpharmacological Trial) checklists generally showed a remarkable lack of description in the studies. Furthermore, there was a problem of heterogeneity, thus a meta-analysis was unable to be performed.Conclusion: Because there was insufficient evidence on forest therapy due to poor methodological and reporting quality and heterogeneity of RCTs, it was not possible to offer any conclusions about the effects of this intervention. However, it was possible to identify problems with current RCTs of forest therapy, and to propose a strategy for strengthening study quality and stressing the importance of study feasibility and original check items based on characteristics of forest therapy as a future research agenda.Keywords: forest therapy, randomized controlled trial, curative effect, health enhancement

Hiroharu Kamioka1, Kiichiro Tsutani2, Yoshiteru Mutoh3, Hiroyasu Okuizum4, Miho Ohta5, Shuichi Handa4, Shinpei Okada6, Jun Kitayuguchi7, Masamitsu Kamada7, Nobuyoshi Shiozawa8, Sang-Jun Park4, Takuya Honda4, Shoko Moriyama41Faculty of Regional Environment Science, Tokyo University of Agriculture, Tokyo, Japan; 2Department of Drug Policy and Management, Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, 3Department of Physical and Health Education, Graduate School of Education, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan; 4Mimaki Onsen (Spa) Clinic, Tomi City, Japan; 5Laboratory of Aqua, Health, and Sports Medicine, 6Physical Education and Medicine Research Foundation, Nagano, Japan; 7Physical Education and Medicine Research Center Unnan, Unnan City, Japan; 8Department of Longevity and Social Medicine, Okayama University Graduate School of Medicine, Dentistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Okayama, JapanBackground: The objectives of this review were to integrate the evidence of curative effects through aquatic exercise and assess the quality of studies based on a review of nonrandomized controlled trials (nRCTs).Methods: Study design was a systematic review of nonrandomized controlled trials. Trials were eligible if they were nonrandomized clinical trials. Studies included one treatment group in which aquatic exercise was applied. We searched the following databases from 2000 up to July 20, 2009: MEDLINE via PubMed, CINAHL, and Ichushi-Web.Results: Twenty-one trials met all inclusion criteria. Languages included were English (N = 9), Japanese (N = 11), and Korean (N = 1). Target diseases were knee and/or hip osteoarthritis, poliomyelitis, chronic kidney disease, discomforts of pregnancy, cardiovascular diseases, and rotator cuff tears. Many studies on nonspecific disease (healthy participants) were included. All studies reported significant effectiveness in at least one or more outcomes. However results of evaluations with the TREND and CLEAR-NPT checklists generally showed a remarkable lack of description in the studies. Furthermore, there was the problem of heterogeneity, and we were therefore not able to perform a meta-analysis.Conclusion: Because there was insufficient evidence on aquatic exercise due to poor methodological and reporting quality and heterogeneity of nRCTs, we were unable to offer any conclusions about the effects of this intervention. However, we were able to identify problems with current nRCTs of aquatic exercise, and propose a strategy of strengthening study quality, stressing the importance of study feasibility as a future research agenda objective.Keywords: aquatic exercise, systematic review, nonrandomized controlled trials

Low dimensional fermionic quantum systems are exceptionally interesting because they reveal distinctive physical phenomena, including among others, topologically protected excitations, edge states, frustration, and fractionalization. Our aim was to confine 3He on a suspended carbon nanotube to form 2-dimensional Fermi-system. Here we report our measurements of the mechanical resonance of the nanotube with adsorbed sub-monolayer down to 10 mK. At intermediate coverages we have observed the famous 1/3 commensurate solid. However, at larger monolayer densities we have observed a quantum phase transition from 1/3 solid to an unknown, soft, and mobile solid phase. We interpret this mobile solid phase as a bosonic commensurate crystal consisting of helium dimers with topologically-induced zero-point vacancies which are delocalized at low temperatures. We thus demonstrate that 3He on a nanotube merges both fermionic and bosonic phenomena, with a quantum phase transition between fermionic solid 1/3 phase and the observed bosonic dimer solid. Probing fundamental quantum systems and their phase change is interesting. Here the authors demonstrate the existence of mobile quantum solid phase composed of dimerized 3He atoms and topology-induced vacancies using 3He adsorbed on carbon nanotube. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We developed [Lu.sub.0.4][Gd.sub.1.6]Si[O.sub.5] (LGSO) crystal as a new scintillator for medical imaging applications. The size of the LGSO ingot obtained for this investigation was approximately 60 mm in diameter and 170 mm in length. The as-grown crystal was yellow in color. To eliminate the tint, the crystal was annealed in pure [N.sub.2] atmosphere after the growth. As a result, the LGSO became colorless with uniform and large light output which is about 2.0 times that of GSO. Index Terms--Annealing, LGSO, scintillation properties.

Cerium doped [Gd.sub.2] Si[O.sub.5] (GSO:Ce) single crystal is used as a scintillator for Positron Emission Tomography (PET). GSO:Ce has a good balance of every scintillation properties, but the only disadvantage is the decreasing light output by coloring caused by a small amount of [Ce.sup.4+] in the crystal especially at higher concentration of Ce. In order to improve the scintillation performance, we have tried to grow co-doped GSO:Ce single crystal using conventional starting materials with additional impurities, and evaluate the scintillation performance. Zr doping is found to be effective in preventing coloring and in improving light output. Around 200 ppm Zr doped GSO:Ce have shown maximum light output which is about 20% larger than that of conventional GSO:Ce. This improvement can be explained by the fact that the amount of [Ce.sup.4+] in the crystal might be changed to [Ce.sup.3+] due to charge compensation caused by dopant [Zr.sup.4+] in a [Gd.sup.3+] site thereby decreasing the light absorption in the crystal. Index Terms--Crystal growth, gadolinium compounds, positron emission tomography, scintillation detectors.

We have developed [Lu.sub.0.4][Gd.sub.1.6]Si[O.sub.5]:Ce (LGSO) crystals as a new scintillator for medical applications. Scintillation properties of LGSO crystal of various Ce concentrations and their dependence on annealing effect were studied. Its absorption coefficient at 511 KeV gamma rays is 0.70 [cm.sup.-1]. We observed that the light output and decay time are dependent on the Ce concentration in the crystal. Decay constant decreases with increasing Ce. Annealing of the colored crystal having 2.0 mol% Ce makes it colorless with better scintillation properties: large light output (40% of NaI:TI), good energy resolution (8.3% for 4 x 6 x 20 [mm.sup.3] crystal) and fast decay constant (65 ns of primary component and 180 ns of secondary component).

Cerium-doped [Gd.sub.2]Si[O.sub.5] (GSO) scintillator has good scintillation properties such as high density, intense light output, short decay time, excellent temperature stability, and extremely good energy resolution. In order to apply GSO single-crystal scintillators to a commercial PET, we have tried to increase the size of the GSO single-crystal for increasing production capacity and reducing production cost. To grow the large GSO single-crystal, we have optimized growth conditions and atmosphere in the furnace. We have developed growing technology of large GSO single crystals with a diameter of 100 ram. Thousands of specimens with a size of 4 x 6 x 20 [mm.sup.3] were sampled from each ingot. Uniformity of the light output, energy resolution and decay time in the crystal has been demonstrated for PET application. Index Terms--Crystal growth, gadolinium compounds, positron emission tomography (PET), scintillation detectors.

The surface photovoltage (SPV) effect and its temporal profiles in a GaAs-GaAsP superlattice (SL) are measured by core-level photoelectron spectroscopy with the combination of synchrotron radiation and laser. The findings show that the SL with high-doping surface layer is suitable for the spin-polarized electron source without the SPV effect.