Young women posting their edited face photographs on social networking sites have become a popular phenomenon, but an excessively retouched face image sometimes gives a strange impression to its viewers. This study investigates what personal characteristics facilitate a bias toward an excessively edited face image. Thirty young Asian women evaluated the attractiveness and naturalness of their face images, which were edited in eight different levels-from mild to excessive-by expanding their eyes and thinning their chin. The mildly retouched face was evaluated as more attractive than the original face, but the excessively retouched face was evaluated as unattractive and unnatural in comparison with the original face. The preferred face edit level was higher for one's own face than for others. Moreover, participants with higher autism-spectrum quotient (AQ) scores were found to regard excessively edited face images as more attractive. The attention to detail subscale of the AQ showed a significant positive correlation with the preferred face edit level. The imagination subscale, on the contrary, showed a significant negative correlation with the preferred face edit level. The pupil response for self-face images was significantly larger than those for others' face images, but this difference decreased with higher AQ scores. This study suggests that an increased attractiveness in their mildly retouched face promotes this behavior of retouching one's own face, but autistic traits, which are insensitive to the creepiness of the excessively retouched face, might pose a potential risk to inducing retouch dependence.

alpha-L-Fucosidase acting on naturally occurring substrates was highly purified from the growth culture of Streptococcus sanguis ATCC 10557. The molecular weight of the enzyme was approximately 120,000 and the optimal pH was at 5.5. The purified enzyme showed specificity toward the linkage of alpha-(1 leads to 2) fucosides in oligosaccharides and glycoproteins. The enzyme released L-fucose from glycoprotein in human parotid saliva.

Thermoelectric properties are studied in Ce-doped In2O3 (ICO) films with Ce content x up to 9 at.% prepared by dc sputtering. Films of ICO are transparent in the visible light region (transmission more than 80%), having the highest room-temperature conductivity σ300=120 S/cm for x = 3 at.%. Thermoelectric power at room temperature S300 is well correlated to the electron density n, showing a linear relation of S300 vs. ln(σ300) in the Jonker fashion. The temperature dependence of the thermoelectric power S(T) is well described in terms of a simple percolation model characterized by a formula Sp(T) = AT + (B/T) + C with fitting parameters A, B and C. We define a percolation index as Γ300 = |B/(AT 2)| at T = 300 K, the doping dependence of which is found to be related to that of the power factor P300 = S 2 300 • σ300 in the ICO films. Similar correlations are also shown in bulk-systems composed of rare-earth metal oxides.

alpha-L-Fucosidase isolated from the growth culture of Streptococcus sanguis ATCC 10557 acted on H- and Leb-blood group substances in porcine gastric lining, human gastric lining, human ovarian cyst fluid and human whole saliva, with consequent loss of H- and Leb -activities and a concomitant increase of Lea activity.