Immunoglobulin (Ig) E is well-known to play a critical role in allergic diseases. We investigated the association between longitudinal change in total IgE level and the asthma control in patients with adult asthma. For this retrospective study, 154 patients with asthma aged 21–82 years were recruited from the allergy and pulmonary units of the Showa University Hospital. Data on longitudinal changes in IgE over the preceding 10 years were collected and logarithmically transformed. Associations between longitudinal change in IgE and clinical characteristics including asthma control test (ACT) score, asthma control, pulmonary function test, and antigen specific IgE, were assessed. Patients with increased IgE tended to have significantly higher mean age, more episodes of acute exacerbation within a year, lower ACT scores, and used oral corticosteroids more frequently than those with decreased or unchanged IgE. The prevalence of uncontrolled asthma was higher in patients with increased IgE than in those with decreased or unchanged IgE. Mean %FEV1 and FEV1% were lower in patients with increased IgE than in those with decreased or unchanged IgE. Moreover, the prevalence of Aspergillus-specific IgE was higher in patients with increased IgE than in those with decreased or unchanged IgE. These data suggest that a longitudinal increase in total IgE is associated with both poor asthma control and Aspergillus-specific IgE in patients with adult asthma.

Self-assembled $\mathrm{InAs}$ quantum dots (QDs) in $\mathrm{GaAs}$ layers were studied with a cathodoluminescense (CL) detection system combined with a transmission electron microscope. Three distinct peaks were observed to appear in the CL spectrum collected from a $1\mu {\mathrm{m}}^2$ region. The excitation power dependence of the CL spectra and monochromatic CL image observations identified those peaks that are the emissions associated with the ground state and excited state of the QDs in different size groups. Anomalous temperature dependence of those QD emission peaks was observed in the temperature range from 20 to around $100\mathrm{K}$, where the emission intensities increase with temperature. Steady-state rate equations for the recombination processes of holes and excitons are proposed with introduction of a potential barrier at the interface between the $\mathrm{GaAs}$ layer and the wetting layer (WL). This model can explain the temperature dependence of the emission intensities from the QDs and WL in a wide temperature range.

This paper presents the design and implementation of focusing optical systems using total reflection mirrors that are customized into three hard x-ray beamlines for four experimental groups at SPring-8. First, for the BL46XU Engineering Science Research III beamline, we designed a vertical focusing mirror and a manipulator to create a high-intensity 20- μm focusing beam, that improves the sensitivity for hard x-ray photoemission spectroscopy. Second, for the BL39XU Magnetic Materials beamline, we designed two pairs of Kirkpatrick-Baez (KB) mirrors and corresponding manipulators for sub-micron focusing and 15 × 15 μm² high-intensity focusing; these were designed in order to use X-ray magnetic circular dichroism (XMCD) spectroscopy for two-dimensional high-resolution mapping of magnetism and XMCD experiments under high pressures (~10 GPa). Third, for the BL32XU RIKEN Targeted Proteins beamline, we designed KB mirrors for focusing at 1 × 1 μm²; these were designed for carrying out the structural analysis of microcrystal proteins in cooperation with RIKEN SPring-8 Center. These elliptical mirrors and manipulators are currently in the process of being manufactured, and their installation on the beamlines is underway. In this paper, we describe the design considerations, optimized design of the optical system, and installation progress on the beamlines.