A first-principles study on the Rashba effect in surface systems.

The Rashba effect in several surface systems, Au(111), Au(110), Ag(111), Sb(111) and Si(111)-Bi, is studied by means of first-principles relativistic density-functional calculations. The importance of the asymmetric behavior around the surface atom is emphasized as a crucial factor to determine the magnitude of Rashba spin splitting in addition to the size of the spin-orbit coupling. The Rashba effect at the Brillouin-zone boundary is generally described with time-reversal symmetry.

Scale properties of the Japanese version of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ): a study of infant and school children in community samples.

The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) is a short screening instrument which addresses the positive and negative behavioral attributes of infants, children and adolescents. The SDQ is widely used to evaluate child developmental disabilities, psychological and psychiatric conditions or disorders in Japan. However, we did not have normative data for the Japanese version until now.

Prefrontal cerebral blood volume patterns while playing video games--a near-infrared spectroscopy study.

Video game playing is an attractive form of entertainment among school-age children. Although this activity reportedly has many adverse effects on child development, these effects remain controversial. To investigate the effect of video game playing on regional cerebral blood volume, we measured cerebral hemoglobin concentrations using near-infrared spectroscopy in 12 normal volunteers consisting of six children and six adults.