[RECOMMENDATION FOR ITCH ASSESSMENT FROM THE ATOPIC ITCH CONSENSUS MEETING (AICOM)].

Background: Itch is the most troublesome symptom of atopic dermatitis, and it is important to assess it appropriately for optimal treatment. We discussed issues regarding itch and the most appropriate methods of assessment at the Atopic Itch Consensus Meeting (AICOM), attended by physicians and researchers with expertise in itch treatment and research.

Methods: The AICOM participants prepared a draft consensus statement that addressed the most appropriate itch assessment methods for age groups <2 years, 2-6 years, 7-14 years, and ≥15 years.

Egg Reintroduction Following Oral Food Challenge in Japanese Children.

Oral food challenge (OFC) is the most reliable method for diagnosing food allergies. However, the scarcity of long-term data on eating habits of people after a negative OFC poses a challenge for provisional medical care. This study was performed to investigate the percentage of people who could reintroduce eggs into their diet several years after an OFC.

Prepulse-free, multi-terawatt, sub-30-fs laser system.

We have built a prepulse-free, multi-terawatt, ultrashort pulse laser system, which combines both conventional laser amplification and optical parametric chirped pulse amplification (OPCPA) techniques. By employing an OPCPA system after the regenerative amplifier in a Ti:sapphire chirped pulse amplification laser chain, we have dramatically enhanced the prepulse contrast by 6 orders of magnitude. A prepulse contrast of better than 4.

Naloxone-precipitated morphine withdrawal elicits increases in c-fos mRNA expression in restricted regions of the infant rat brain.

This paper is the first report of a genetic index for morphine withdrawal in infant rats. We examined the effects of naloxone (2 mg/kg) on c-fos mRNA levels in brains of infant and adult rats following repeated treatment with morphine (20 mg/kg, once daily for 5 days). One hour after a single administration of naloxone (naloxone challenge), an increase in c-fos mRNA was observed in the olfactory bulb, hypothalamus and medulla oblongata of infant rats, and in the olfactory bulb and hypothalamus, but not in the medulla oblongata of adult rats.

High energy second-harmonic generation of Nd:glass laser radiation with large aperture CsLiB6O10 crystals.

We have demonstrated the generation of a high-energy green laser pulse using large aperture CsLiB6O10 (CLBO) crystals for the first time to our knowledge. A pulsed energy of 25 J at 532-nm was generated using the 1064-nm incident Nd:glass laser radiation with an energy of 34 J. High conversion efficiency of 74 % at intensities of only 370 MW/cm2 was obtained using a two-stage crystal architecture.