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INTRODUCTION Occupational therapy often involves handwriting acquisition practices that include the non-dominant hand when improvements in the dominant hand function are not possible because of trauma or stroke. This study explored whether character tracing and using a pegboard can effectively improve the handwriting of the non-dominant hand. METHODS A randomised controlled trial involving 60 healthy university students aged ≥18 years was conducted. Participants were randomly assigned to the writing group, peg group or control group. The character recognition rate was evaluated by computer software. Furthermore, character quality and writing speed were evaluated by humans using global legibility scales. Evaluations were performed before the intervention (baseline) and on days 5 and 10 of the intervention. Using the non-dominant hand, the writing group traced characters on paper with a ballpoint pen, and the peg group used a pegboard for 15 min/day for 10 days. RESULTS Compared with the peg and control groups, the writing group showed significant improvements in the character recognition rate and global legibility scale score. However, the global legibility scale score did not improve to the same level as that achieved with the dominant hand. None of the evaluation scores of the peg group showed significant improvements compared with those of the control group. There were no significant differences in improvements in the writing speed of the writing and peg groups compared with the control group. CONCLUSION Tracing characters can improve the handwriting ability of the non-dominant hand, but using a pegboard may be less effective. Future research is needed to examine how much practice is necessary to improve the handwriting ability of the non-dominant hand sufficiently.

Service research has emphasized triad relationships between a firm, employees and customers. To coordinate these stakeholders effectively, it is highly important to understand what service activities are beneficial to all or some of these stakeholders. Yet, the recent increase in C2C interaction may make the problem more complex. This study proposes a methodology combining statistical techniques and agent-based modeling, which makes it possible to assess the joint impact of each service value and C2C interaction on the payoffs.

福島県畑川破砕帯の溶融起源シュードタキライトの基質において透過型電子顕微鏡（TEM）観察を行った結果，明視野像で均質なコントラストを示す不定形なアモルファス物質が確認された．一方，長野県飯田松川断層の粉砕起源シュードタキライトの基質にはナノメートルサイズのアモルファス物質が認められ，そのTEM組織は畑川破砕帯のものとは異なっている．さらに，それぞれのシュードタキライトの母岩を用いた溶融実験と低速剪断実験による粉砕によって生成したアモルファス物質でも同様にTEM組織の違いが認められた．以上のことはシュードタキライトに存在するアモルファス物質の起源がTEM組織によって識別可能であることを示している．

Pseudotachylytes from the Iida-Matsukawa Fault, Central Japan (Iida pseudotachylytes), are described down to the nanometer scale using high-resolution electron microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, analyses of chemical compositions, and mercury intrusion porosimetry. The pseudotachylyte matrix chiefly consists of nanoscale particles and elongated submicron fragments with biotite composition; amorphous material of several tens of nanometers in size is also observed, despite the absence of melt textures. Lattice fringe images reveal that the amorphous phase coexists with lattice distortion in deformed biotite fragments that are several hundreds of nanometers in size. The presence of these submicrostructures indicates that the amorphous material formed by mechanical stress during the comminution process; that is, via the “mechanochemical effect”. We conclude that amorphous material does not always provide evidence of the rapid cooling of melt in pseudotachylyte. The amorphous materials present in the Iida pseudotachylyte resulted from the mechanochemical effect due to both shear stress and normal stress during the comminution process that accompanied fault motion.

Congenital pulmonary vein stenosis (CPVS) is a rare fetal congenital heart disease with a prevalence of 1.7 per 100,000 children younger than two years of age. Because of the difficulty of maintaining the pulmonary blood flow, CPVS is associated with a 50% survival rate within five years of diagnosis. We describe a successful management of pulmonary blood flow for a 4-month-old-girl with CPVS, combined with atrial septal defect and ventricular septal defect, undergoing pulmonary vein obstruction release (PVOR). In this case, CPVS was the only cause for pulmonary hypertension because there was no significant pressure gradient between each pulmonary capillary wedge pressure and the paired pulmonary vein pressure, indicating the normal pulmonary vascular structure prior to pulmonary vein stenosis. As pulmonary blood flow was estimated to be high after PVOR, pulmonary artery banding was also performed. Management of pulmonary blood flow is the most important issue for anesthesia of this surgery, especially in postcardiopulmonary bypass period, when the pulmonary vasoconstriction is induced by endothelial dysfuncion.