We examined the effect of oral intake of pure glucosylceramide derived from konjac extract on skin barrier function evaluated by transepidermal water loss (TEWL) in hairless mice with sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS)-induced skin roughness. The difference of TEWL between SDS-treated site and untreated sites in the pure glucosylceramide-fed group was significantly lower than that in control group on day 14 of ingestion. We investigated interleukin-1α (IL-1α) production in the hairless mouse skin, and it was significantly lower in the glucosylceramide-fed group than that of control animals. This reduced IL-1α production should contribute to improvement of skin barrier function. To investigate the effect of oral intake of glucosylceramide in human, we conducted a randomized double-blind placebo-controlled study including 100 healthy subjects whose TEWL in cheek was relatively high. As a result, cheek TEWL was significantly lower in the test product group as compared with the control group in weeks 8 and 12 of ingestion (p = 0.023 and p = 0.002 respectively).

We have structurally evaluated β-Ga2O3 crystals grown by edge-defined film-fed growth process using etch pitting, focused ion beam scanning ion microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and related techniques. We found three types of defects: arrays of edge dislocations corresponding to etch pit arrays on -oriented wafers, platelike nanopipes corresponding to etch pits revealed on the (010)-oriented wafers, and twins including twin lamellae.

At low temperatures, indirect excitons formed at the in-plane electron-hole interface in a coupled-quantum-well structure undergo a spontaneous transition into a spatially modulated state. We report on the control of the instability wavelength, measurement of the dynamics of the exciton emission pattern, and observation of the fluctuation and commensurability effect of the exciton density wave. We found that fluctuations are suppressed when the instability wavelength is commensurate with defect separation along the exciton density wave. The commensurability effect is also found in numerical simulations within the model describing the exciton density wave in terms of an instability due to stimulated processes.

On the surface of as-grown β-Ga2O3 single crystals that are cut and polished, we found nanometer-sized grooves elongated in the [001] direction. We confirmed that these grooves terminate within the crystals in the [010] direction. This proves that the grooves are different from micropipes penetrating crystals. Their typical length and width are 50–1200 nm in the [001] direction and ∼40 nm in the [100] direction, respectively. The grooves tend to form an array in the [001] direction. The type of nanometer-sized grooves should be essentially different from etch pits.

We fabricated Schottky barrier diodes (SBDs) on the entire surface of a ð010Þ β-Ga 2 O 3 single crystal, and investigated the leakage current in both forward and reverse directions. Subsequently, we investigated the distribution of dislocation and void etch pits on the entire surface. The dislocation etch pit density on the surface ranged from <1 ' 10 3 to 6 ' 10 4 , and its average was 1.1 ' 10 4 cm %2 . The void etch pit density on the surface ranged from <5 ' 10 2 to 7 ' 10 3 , and its average was 6 ' 10 3 cm %2 . From a comparison between the SBD leakage current and the dislocation and void etch pit densities, we found that dislocations are closely related to the SBD reverse leakage current, and that not all voids produce the leakage current.