Japanese Children’s Knowledge of the Facial Components of Basic Emotions

While numerous studies have investigated children’s recognition of facial emotional expressions, little evidence has been gathered concerning their explicit knowledge of the components included in such expressions. Thus, we investigated children’s knowledge of the facial components involved in the expressions of happiness, sadness, anger, and surprise. Four- and 5-year-old Japanese children were presented with the blank face of a young character, and asked to select facial components in order to depict the emotions he felt. Children’s overall performance in the task increased as a function of age, and was above chance level for each emotion in both age groups. Children were likely to select the Cheek raiser and Lip corner puller to depict happiness, the Inner brow raiser, Brow lowerer, and Lid droop to depict sadness, the Brow lowerer and Upper lid raiser to depict anger, and the Upper lid raiser and Jaw drop to depict surprise. Furthermore, older children demonstrated a better knowledge of the involvement of the Upper lid raiser in surprise expressions.     

UNDERSTANDING THE COSTS OF CONSUMER DURABLE ADJUSTMENTS

This article examines whether adjustment frictions help account for the patterns of household consumption expenditures observed in the Consumer Expenditure Survey, namely, that the variance of log durable expenditure is four times larger than that of log nondurable expenditure for annual data and this gap substantially widens for quarterly data. Estimating a structural model of household consumption with nondurable and durable goods with the simulated method of moments, I find that the fixed costs associated with durable adjustments are important in matching the cross‐sectional moments. Using the estimated model, I also examine the response of nondurable and durable expenditures to income shocks. (JEL D12, D91, E21)     

战后日本中国史研究的动态与特点

第二次世界大战后,围绕着中国史研究重新体系化这一目标,日本中国史学界京都学派和历史学研究会之间,以及其他相关学派之间曾经展开了热烈的讨论.20世纪60年代后,随着日本社会的巨大变化,宏观上把握中国古代社会状况的史学研究归于沉寂,日本汉学界更加注重对个别事物进行观察.虽然日本汉学界有克服微观个体研究局限性的尝试,但就学术界总体而言,还远远不够.     

A NOTE ON THE APPLICATION OF THE KALMAN FILTER TO REGRESSION MODELS WITH SOME PARAMETERS VARYING OVER TIME AND OTHERS UNVARYING

The Kalman filter has been applied to estimation of the time-varying vector of regression parameters. I investigate the case where a portion of elements of the vector is invariant over time while others are varying as generated by the nonstationary, random walk model. Combined with the regression model it yields a state-space model in which observability holds but controllability does not. Under Grenan-der's condition on the exogenous variables I shall show that the estimate of the time-invariant portion is consistent, despite the seemingly unfavorable circumstances mentioned above, with the order equal to the reciprocal of sample size.     

Salvage therapy trial for erectile dysfunction using phosphodiesterase type 5 inhibitors and vitamin E: Preliminary report

We report our initial experience with salvage therapy for low responders to PDE-5 inhibitors by adding vitamin E. Of 89 patients with ED who visited our clinic between January 2004 to August 2006, 9 were unable to obtain a full response to a PDE-5 inhibitor and included in the present study. After providing informed consent, each was given 300 mg per day of α-tocophenol at least 1 month and completed IIEF-5 questionnaires to assess its efficacy while also taking a PDE-5 inhibitor. With α-tocophenol administration, the average IIEF-5 score increased from 13.8 ± 3.2 to 17.1 ± 3.6. Four of seven patients who completed the questionnaire each time showed improved IIEF-5 scores, with a maximum elevation of 9 points. Further, eight of the nine patients experienced favourable subjective changes, the majority being increased penile rigidity. The present clinical trial results are, to our knowledge, the first known to show the effects of vitamin E for enhancing the efficacy of a PDE-5 inhibitor.     

Contagious egg-distribution on host pods and avoidance of pods received eggs in a wild bruchidKytorhinus sharpianus

Summary The present study investigated the way a wild bruchid,Kytorhinus sharpianus, distributes its eggs on host pods. First, we counted the number of eggs per pod on the host plant (Sophola flavescens) in the field. The egg-distributions by the overwintered-generation adults in July and by the second-generation adults in mid October did not deviate from Poisson distribution because of small numbers of eggs laid. However, the egg-distribution in late August when many first-generation adults emerged was significantly contagious. The deposition of eggs was determined for three types of pods: (A) clean pods, (B) pods with eggs, and (C) those which eggs had been laid on but were removed from later. The numbers of eggs laid newly on three types of pods were significantly different; A>C>B, suggesting that an oviposition marker pheromone (O.M.P.) caused females to avoid pods on which eggs were deposited. Egg-shells reinforced that response. Monte Carlo simulations for the egg-distribution on pods predicted that even if females avoid pods with heavy egg-load through O.M.P., the egg-distribution becomes contagious when there is a large heterogeneity in quality of the pods.     

A mathematical model of the food-consumer system I. A case without food replenishment

Summary A simple mathematical model was proposed to describe the dynamics of a food-consumer system. The model was based on the Logistic Theory and consisted of Eqs. (4), (5) and (6). The model was divided into the following three cases for further analyss; i) without food supply except at the initial time, ii) with continuous food supply at a constant rate, and iii) with food supply at varying rates. Only the first model was dealth with in this paper. The assumptions of the model 1 are that a definite amount of food is given only once at the initial time and only the feeding by animals is responsible for the decrease of food, and that the rate of decrease is proportional to the amount of animals. It is also assumed that the growth of animal population is represented by the logistic curve, and that the upper limit of the population is proportional to the amount of food at that time. For simplicity the parameters of basic differential equations are assumed to be constant throughout the time course. Analytical solutions of this non-linear model were given by Eqs. (8), (9), (10) and (11). The properties of time course of the food amount and consumer population were discussed from the mathematical and biological points of view. The method of the estimation of the three constants λ,b, andc from the experimental data was also suggested. Since we had no available data for animal populations, we applied the model, regarding reserve substance asx and new plant body asy, to the data of the initial growth of Azuki bean plant in the dark. This model is very simple, but it may be useful for analyzing the behavior of food-consumer system. And it may give some clue to the analysis of the more complex systems.