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Objective Acoustic therapies including hearing aids and tinnitus control instruments are widely used in Japan but without high levels of evidence. The outpatient hearing aid clinic at our institution fits patients with hearing aids and instructs patients on how to use them to control tinnitus if present. In this study, we examined the effects of this approach on tinnitus. Methods One hundred and eleven of 138 patients who visited our hearing aid clinic from April 2016 to September 2018 purchased hearing aids after fitting. Sixty-six of these patients (31 men, 35 women; mean age 78.0 ± 8.0 years) had both hearing loss and tinnitus and were enrolled. The tinnitus was bilateral in 41 patients and unilateral in 25 (poor hearing ear, n = 16, good hearing ear, n = 9). Hearing aids were worn bilaterally by 23 patients and unilaterally by 43 (89 devices). Seventeen of the 23 patients wearing bilateral hearing aids had bilateral tinnitus and 6 had unilateral tinnitus, i.e., in 40 ears, the tinnitus side matched the hearing aid side (40 devices) and in 6 ears did not (6 devices). Twenty-four of 43 patients wearing unilateral hearing aids had bilateral tinnitus, meaning that in 24 ears the tinnitus side matched the hearing aid side (24 devices). In six of the remaining 19 cases with unilateral tinnitus, the hearing aid and tinnitus were on the same side (6 devices) and in 13 were on opposite sides (13 devices). Changes in the Tinnitus Handicap Inventory (THI), visual analog scale (VAS, for tinnitus discomfort, severity, and persistence), and Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale scores were measured immediately before using a hearing aid and 12 months later. Results Significant effects of hearing aids on tinnitus were observed in all subjects (THI, p = 0.0000030), VAS (severity, p = 0.000000066; discomfort, p = 0.0000013). Significant effects were observed with bilateral hearing aids (THI, p = 0.0012; VAS for severity, p = 0.00069; VAS for discomfort, p = 0.00052) and with unilateral hearing aids (THI, p = 0.00055; VAS for severity, p = 0.000034; VAS for discomfort, p = 0.00007). Spearman's rank correlation coefficient showed a significant positive correlation between the THI and VAS scores (p = 0.0033). In cases of bilateral tinnitus, significant differences were observed with bilateral hearing aids (THI, p = 0.011; VAS for severity, p = 0.0019; VAS for discomfort; p = 0.020) and with unilateral hearing aids (THI, p = 0.00069; VAS for severity, p = 0.00071; VAS for discomfort, p = 0.000093). Conclusion Acoustic therapy using hearing aids was effective for tinnitus. Even when bilateral, a unilateral hearing aid is able to improve tinnitus. When unilateral, the ipsilateral hearing aid is able to improve tinnitus.

We have demonstrated that sub-10 nm-thick heteroepitaxial Ge films on Si (001) having smooth surfaces can be obtained by DC magnetron sputtering. Ge films grown at 350 °C preserve the smooth surfaces with a roughness root mean square (RMS) of 0.39 nm, whereas, the Ge films grown at 500 °C show significant roughness with an island-like morphology. In samples grown at 350 °C, it is confirmed that the Ge films are grown epitaxially by cross-section transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) rocking curve measurements. Rapid thermal annealing (RTA) at 720 °C is effective in improving the crystalline quality and the degradation in the roughness is negligible. Raman spectra and an XRD reciprocal space map reveal that the epitaxial Ge grown at 350 °C show an in-plane compressive strain and that the strain continues to remain after a 720 °C RTA.

The influence of extension doping on parasitic resistance and its variability has been investigated for FinFETs. Electrical characterization of FinFETs and crystallinity evaluation of the doped fin structure are carried out for different fin thicknesses and different donor species for ion implantation, i.e., As and P. Reducing the fin thickness and the use of donor species with a larger mass cause serious degradation in the variability and median value of the parasitic resistance. Crystallinity evaluation by transmission electron microscope reveals that significant crystal defects remain after dopant activation annealing for the cases of smaller fin thickness and the implanted dopant with a larger mass. The unrecovered defects cause serious degradation in the parasitic resistance and its variability.

A mouse model of epilepsy was generated by inducing status epilepticus (SE) for either 1.5 or 4.5h with pilocarpine to study anxiety-related behaviors, changes in the electroencephalogram of the cerebral cortex and hippocampus, and expression of hippocampal proteins. The viability and rate of success of SE induction were high in C57BL/6N mice but not in C57BL/6J mice. C57BL/6N mice were immotile during the first 2days after SE; however, by the third day, most mice were recovered and exhibited strong anxiety-related behaviors in response to the light/dark preference test and open field test. There was a striking difference in the temporal appearance of anxiety-related behavior between the two SE durations: 1.5h SE mice exhibited strong anxiety-related behavior 3days after SE that gradually attenuated over the next few weeks, whereas 4.5h SE mice exhibited strong anxiety-related behavior 3days after SE that persisted even at nearly 1year after SE. Mice receiving both SE durations exhibited generalized seizures (GS) after SE; however, there was a marked difference in the timing and duration of GS appearance. Mice in the 4.5h SE group exhibited spontaneous GS from 4days to at least 96days after SE. In contrast, mice in the 1.5h SE group exhibited GS only within the first several days after SE; however, epileptic spike clusters continuously appeared in the cerebral cortex and hippocampus for up to twelve days after SE. Among the hippocampal proteins tested, only brain derived-neurotrophic factor (BDNF) exhibited altered expression in parallel with anxiety-related behavior. These results showed the possibility that BDNF expression in the hippocampus might cause anxiety-related behavior in adulthood.

We have studied variation of switching voltage of resistive random access memory (ReRAM). Basically, the switching voltage at every switching has a different value because there are many conduction paths, which are randomly chosen at every switching with different conductivity in an oxide insulator between top and bottom electrodes. Limitation of the number of conductive paths is expected to lead the suppression of the variation of switching voltage. In this study, Ni nanorods buried into the nanoholes of an anodic aluminum oxide (AAO) film have been fabricated to restrict the formation of many filaments and the switching behaviors of the In/NiO/Ni nanorods has been investigated.