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Automatically characterizing groups and crowds of people plays an important role in different domains such as psychology, architecture or entertainment. In the engineering field, people grouping is important in social signal processing but also videosurveilance. Our challenge is to introduce such solutions into the field of augmented reality, where people get added content on real groups of people.As a preliminary work, this paper presents a system which provides a live visual feedback in virtual reality augmenting real groups of people with added information such as their ID, group ID or group coherence. The scene was analyzed with mainly one classical RGB camera and enhanced with a smartphone that a holder points towards the other persons.This paper goes through the proposed system, which is capable of tracking people, performing people grouping, analyzing groups and augmenting those groups in a virtual world.The first qualitative results show the feasibility of an augmented crowd environment and provide a set of interesting practical insights on the different modules of this system in the context of real-life scenes.

In this work, we report first-principles investigation of structural stability of all experimentally observed ordered long-period superstructures (LPSs), viz., r-Al2Ti, h-Al2Ti, Al5Ti3 along with Al5Ti3′, Al11Ti7 and Al3Ti2 LPSs, which are observed only as short-range ordered clusters at nanoscale level in Al-rich TiAl-based alloys. We adopt a procedure based on space-filling tiling arrangement of ordered Ti2Al, Ti3Al, Ti4Al motifs and their combination along with a symmetry analysis programme to determine the unit cell and the crystallographic information of Al5Ti3′, Al11Ti7 and Al3Ti2 LPSs in terms of L10 fcc unit cell. First-principles calculations are performed to further refine these crystallographic parameters (Wyckoff positions and lattice parameters) obtained from the above procedure. Moreover, it is found that the family of five LPSs have subgroup–supergroup relationships with γ-TiAl (Sp. gr. P4/mmm) and among themselves. Further, we find the inherent stability of r-Al2Ti + γ-TiAl and 2Al5Ti3 + γ...

The fracture behavior and toughness of (Mo 0.85 Nb 0.15 )Si 2 silicide crystals were investigated by three-point bending tests. Crystals with two different microstructures, namely the C40 single-phase single-crystalline form and MoSi 2 (C11 b )/NbSi 2 (C40) duplex crystals with an oriented single set of lamellae, were prepared, and their fracture behaviors were compared. The duplex microstructure improved the toughness, exhibiting higher values than the C40 single-phase single crystals at almost all loading orientations. An increase of more than 20% in the fracture toughness was obtained in a duplex specimen, A-2, in which the lamella boundaries are parallel to the side surface and have a notch face parallel to ( 1 2 ¯ 1 0 ) C 40 . A complicated morphology appeared in the fracture surface of specimen A-2 as a result of significant deflection of crack propagation. Crack deflection occurred predominantly along the plane parallel to { 1 0 1 ¯ 0 } cleavage planes in the constituent C40 phase. The C11 b lamella effectively prevented the initial rapid propagation of cracks along the notched plane, because the ease of gliding of its dislocations and its deformability effectively accommodated stress concentration. This induced crack deflection, resulting in improved fracture toughness.

The composition and temperature dependence of the elastic properties and phase stability of quaternary Ti–Nb–Ta–Zr β-phase alloys with a body-centered cubic structure, developed for biomedical applications, were investigated using their single crystals, in order to clarify the origin of the low Young’s modulus in polycrystals. Transmission electron microscopy observations clarified that α ″ martensitic transformation occurred in a temperature range that depended on the β-phase stability below room temperature. Electromagnetic acoustic resonance measurements clarified that the shear moduli c ′ and c 44 of single crystals softened upon cooling from room temperature and became rather low near the martensitic transformation start temperature, i.e. the lower limit of β-phase stability. An analysis by the Hill approximation indicates that low c ′ and c 44 caused the low Young’s modulus, and thus it is probable that the softening in c ′ and c 44 is the origin of the low Young’s modulus.

We have investigated the plastic deformation behavior of Ni3(Ti0.7Nb0.3) crystals with the D019 structure in the temperature range of −196 to 1200 °C. The ( 0001 ) 2 1 ¯ 1 ¯ 0 > basal slip, { 1 1 ¯ 00 } 11 2 ¯ 0 > prism slip, and { 2 ¯ 111 } 2 ¯ 11 6 ¯ > pyramidal slip are operative depending on the temperature and loading orientation. A strong yield stress anomaly (YSA) is caused by slip on the basal plane similar to that observed in other hcp-derivative geometrically close-packed (GCP) compounds such as D0a-Ni3Nb and D024-Ni3Ti, due to the Kear–Wilsdorf (K–W) locking of screw dislocations. The features of YSA by basal slip, such as the profile of the temperature vs. critical resolved shear stress (CRSS) curve are quite similar in those Ni3(Ti0.7Nb0.3), Ni3Nb, and Ni3Ti crystals; nevertheless, the profiles of the temperature vs. CRSS curves observed in the case of prism slip are significantly different for each crystal. The results indicate that in the case of these hcp-derivative GCP compounds, although the K–W locking, which is the origin of YSA, accompanies the thermally activated cross-slip of the screw partial dislocations from the (0001) primary slip plane onto the { 01 1 ¯ 0 } prism plane, the mobility of dislocations on the prism plane does not directly influence the YSA behavior of basal slip.

The crystal structure, phase stability and plastic deformation behavior of Ni 3 (Ti 1− x Nb x ) [ x = 0, 0.01, 0.03, 0.05 or 0.10] and Ni 3 (Ti 1− y Al y ) [ y = 0.16 or 0.28] single crystals were investigated. The substitution of Ti by Nb in Ni 3 Ti induced the formation of various long-period stacking ordered (LPSO) structures with 18-fold, 10-fold or 9-fold stacking sequences of closely packed plane (CPP) depending on the Nb content. In compression tests, the yield stress anomaly (YSA) appeared in ternary LPSO crystals as well as in binary Ni 3 Ti by slip on the CPP. The change in stacking sequence of CPP in the LPSO phases strongly affects the YSA behavior due to the change in APB energy on the non-closely packed plane.

The plastic deformation behavior of Ni3(Ti0.90Nb0.10) single crystals with a nine-layered ordered rhombohedral structure, called h h c T-structure, was investigated in compression tests. Two slip systems of { 0 1 0 } 〈 1 ¯ 0 1 〉 and { 1 1 1 } 〈 1 1 ¯ 0 〉 were operative depending on the crystal orientation. The plastic behavior by slip on { 0 1 0 } 〈 1 ¯ 0 1 〉 was analogous to that by slip on { 1 1 ¯ 0 0 } 〈 1 ¯ 1 ¯ 2 0 〉 in Ni3Ti single crystals although the geometry of slip system is different each other. A yield stress anomaly (YSA) clearly appeared by slip on { 1 1 1 } 〈 1 1 ¯ 0 〉 in a wide temperature range between room temperature and 700 °C. It was clarified that the YSA is caused by the Kear–Wilsdorf (K–W) locking of 1 / 2 〈 1 1 ¯ 0 〉 screw dislocations from the {1 1 1} slip plane onto the {0 0 1} plane. The result implies that the YSA by the K–W mechanism occurs not only in the GCP compounds with simple fcc or hcp unit cell such as L12 and D019, but also in other complex compounds with long stacking sequence of a close-packed plane.

The effect of hexamethylane bisacetamide (HMBA), a hybrid polar compound, on gene expression and replication of human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) was studied. When HCMV-infected human thyroid papillary carcinoma (TPC-1) and human embryonic lung (HEL) fibroblast cells were maintained with medium containing 2.5 and 5 mM HMBA for 10 days, there was a greater than 2- to 3-log reduction in virus yield compared to that in untreated cells. Infection of TPC-1 cells with HCMV resulted in an establishment of persistent infection and the cells continuously produced virus with titer of over 10(5) PFU/ml, whereas HMBA prevented the infected cells from entering into the persistent infection. Moreover, treatment of the persistently infected cultures with HMBA reduced production of infectious HCMV more efficiently than did ganciclovir, and eventually ceased HCMV production. Western blotting analysis revealed that HMBA blocks accumulation of the immediate early 2 (IE2) protein in TPC-1 cells and delays synthesis of this protein in HEL cells, but has little effect on the level of the IE1 protein during the early times after infection. Synthesis of the viral early and late proteins in both cells was also substantially blocked by HMBA. The results indicate that the inhibition or the delay of the critical IE2 protein synthesis in the presence of HMBA would actually be a process that fails to proceed beyond the IE stages in HCMV replication cycle.

K. Asaoka, K. Hagihara, H. Kabaya, Y. Sakamoto, H. Katayama, K. Yano 1 Department of Cellular and Molecular Biology, Primate Research Institute, Kyoto University, Inuyama, Aichi 484-8506, Japan 2 Minegami Station, Boso Monkey Research Center, 327 Utobara, Futtsu, Chiba 299-1732, Japan 3 University Forest in Chichibu, Faculty of Agriculture, The University of Tokyo, Chichibu, Saitama 368-0034, Japan 4 Laboratory of Biomedical Research, Saitama Medical School, 38 Morohongo, Moroyama, Iruma-gun, Saitama 350-0495, Japan 5 Saitama Medical Collage, 38 Morohongo, Moroyama, Iruma-gun, Saitama 350-0495, Japan 6 Department of Chemistry, Saitama Medical School, 981 Kawakado, Moroyama, Iruma-gun, Saitama 350-0496, Japan

We report on an improvement of structural and morphological quality of AlN/GaN superlattices when the multiple superlattice (MSL) structure is used. Such a structure contains strained AlN/GaN simple superlattices with a small number of periods separated by thick GaN layer. Hot wall epitaxy technique (HWE) was used to grow these structures and atomic force microscopy (AFM) as well as X-ray diffraction measurements were used to obtain the information about their structural and morphological properties. According to AFM measurements, the threading dislocation density and the surface roughness were decreased compare to the simple superlattice. Xray rocking curve (XRC) measurements exhibit narrower peaks, so the full width at half maximum (FWHM) of the 0th superlattice peak was decreased by 37%. (© 2008 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)

The global environmental problem is a new field lying between natural science and political science. In this respect, it is required to build a platform between policy makers and researchers to find a reasonable path to sustainable development. The environment framework model is being developed as such a platform. The paper first outlines this model, and then discusses modeling possibility using the computer network.

The liquid phase methanol synthesis from CO2 over Cu ZnO Al 2 O 3 catalyst was studied in a hydrophobic solvent. The products were collected continuously by liquid-liquid separation. The main operating conditions, the solvent recycling rate, and the separation temperature had appreciable effect on the catalytic performances. The separation factor was estimated from calculating the liquid-liquid equilibrium by the UNIFAC activity coefficient model. Water produced appreciably influence the catalytic activity, and the separation temperature changed water concentration in the recycling solvent.

Bulk Yba2Cu3O7-x (YBCO) was prepared by a polymer chelate precursor method using poly[(N,N-dicarboxymethyl)allylamine] (PDAA) as a chelating polymer. An aqueous solution containing PDAA and 1/2 or 1/4 equivalent molar amount of metal nitrates (Y : Ba : Cu=1 : 2 : 3) to the repeating unit of PDAA at pH 8 was poured into ethanol to precipitate the polymer-metal chelate precursor. The precursor containing 1/2 equivalent molar amount of metal ions was calcined at 880°C for 10 h, sintered at 920°C for 2 h, and annealed at 600°C for 5 h. The product exhibited a pure superconducting orthorhombic phase. However, the precursor containing 1/4 equivalent molar amount of metal ions gave a mixture of orthorhombic and tetragonal phases under the same conditions. The influence of a purification process for PDAA on the preparation of YBCO was also examined. The electrical resistance and susceptibility of the YBCO sample prepared by optimum conditions were measured. The sintered sample showed superconductivity with Tc (onset) at 93 K and Tc (end) at 91 K. The narrow superconducting transition demonstrated here is attributed to the high purity and homogeneity of the sample prepared from optimized polymer chelate precursor technique.

This work focuses on the investigation of the stability of catalyst activity in the liquid phase methanol synthesis process. The effects of various kinds of metfhods to inhibit the deactivation of catalyst have been experimentally examined. The activity of catalyst was stabilized without lowering of activity by a suitable hydrothermal treatment, although the activity of the untreated catalyst decreased gradually with time. The additive and coating of hydrophobic material were effective for slowing down the crystallite size growth and inhibition of deactivation of catalyst. It was considered that hydrophobic material inhibited the adsorption of produced water onto the hydrophilic catalyst. Hydrophobic treatment of catalyst was found to be effective for liquid phase methanol synthesis from CO2 and H2 using hydrophobic solvent.

Bulk YBa2Cu3Ox was prepared by a polymer chelate precursor method using poly[(N,Ndicarboxymethyl)allylamine] as a chelating polymer of which molecular weights were 3 × 104 (PDAA-L) and 3 × 105 (PDAA-H), respectively. X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis of the precursor from PDAA-H shows that YBa2Cu3Ox(Y123) phase appeared after being calcined at 750 °C for 5 h and the mixture was completely converted to tetragonal Y123 phase after being calcined at 800 °C for 5 h. The phase evolution of the precursor from PDAA-H during isothermal experiment at 800 °C showed that pure tetragonal Y123 was produced even after the polymer chelate precursor was heated for 2 h in air, although a very small amount of BaCO3 was recognized. This BaCO3 phase was hardly recognized after 4 h calcination. The precursor prepared from PDAA-L was fully converted to pure tetragonal Y123 after 3 h calcining at 800 °C. On the other hand, the sample prepared from metal nitrate solution without PDAA was not fully transferred to Y123 phase after heating at 800 °C for 10 h. Large amounts of Y2O3, BaCO3 and CuO were observed. These results indicated that the greater homogeneity in the polymer chelate precursor leads to reduced firing times and temperature compared with the metal nitrate precursor.

New liquid phase methanol synthesis process is proposed in that methanol is ejected with hydrocarbon solvent exclusively as a liquid phase, while gaseous components are not practically discharged from the reactor. Methanol is obtained in 95% yield with trace amount of feed gas by liquid-liquid separation from hydrophobic solvent. The advantage of the present process is that the gas recycle can be virtually eliminated.

1. To explore the functional development of local horizontal interactions in the primary visual cortex, we carried out cross-correlation analysis of spike trains recorded simultaneously from a pair of neurons separated horizontally by < 1 mm, in kittens ranging in age postnatally from the second to ninth week. 2. Significantly correlated firings were found in 87 pairs of cells among 423 pairs analyzed, and 77 pairs of them were classified into three types on the basis of their functional implications: 1) excitatory interactions, 2) inhibitory interactions, and 3) common inputs to both neurons of the pair from other sources. 3. Common inputs and excitatory linkage were observed even in animals at the second postnatal week, whereas inhibitory linkage was not seen before the fourth week of age. The probability of observing common inputs and inhibitory linkage increased during development, whereas that of excitatory linkage tended to decrease after the sixth week of age. 4. Significant correlation was rarely seen in pairs with horizontal separation > 600 microns in the seventh to ninth week. In the fourth to sixth week of age, however, approximately 30% of the pairs with horizontal separation between 600 and 800 microns were significantly correlated. 5. Cells that were not sensitive for orientation or that lacked a visual response were observed mainly before the sixth week of age. These cells tended to receive excitatory effects from and share common inputs with other orientation-sensitive cells that were located within the horizontal distance of 400 microns. 6. All three types of correlations were observed mostly in cell pairs with preferred orientations that differed < 45 degrees at all ages studied. In the fourth to sixth week, however, the similarity of orientation preference was not strict, and correlated firings were observed even in a pair with orthogonal orientation preferences; whereas in the seventh to ninth week the tuning became sharper. 7. These results suggest that functional interactions between cortical neurons exist but are much less specific with respect to horizontal separation and orientation preference before the sixth week of age, and these interactions become more specific so as to operate between neurons with similar orientation preferences in more restricted region after the seventh to ninth week of age and thus in adulthood.

Physiome and systems biology have been recognized as emerging and important research areas that can integrate quantitatively growing knowledge about biological structure and physiological functions at multiple scales of time and space. For the integration, it is important to build physiologically plausible and sharable mathematical models that can be used for dynamic simulations of functions at multi-scale and multi-level. Here we describe new features of our open platform insilicoML (ISML) and insilicoIDE (ISIDE) that have been presented previously. The platform can support reuse existing mathematical models of physiological functions in the model databases, to construct brand new models, and to simulate models. The major new features of the platform include improvement of the capabilities to incorporate experimentally obtained data such as time-series and morphological data with dynamic simulation of models that may be driven by the data, and extension of variety of model types that can be described by ISML and simulated on ISIDE, such as multi agent systems and models described by partial differential equations that are solved by the finite element method.

In an introductory course, students took a quiz on each set of 2 chapters, then prepared short, skill-building assignments that focused on application of the material to daily life. To test the effects of the assignments, for 1 of the 2-week segments students participated in 1 of 3 experimental conditions: quiz only, skill-building assignment only, or a combination of the 2. Eight weeks later the students' ability to apply the concepts to daily life was tested. Those who carried out the skill-building exercises performed much better at applying concepts.

The benefits of water quality improvement in municipal water use are measured empirically both from the supply side and from the demand side. On the supply side the benefits of water quality improvement are measured by means of a so-called cost-saving approach. On the demand side the costs of the averting behavior of consumers are considered to be one indicator of the benefits of water quality improvement. Whereas from the results of empirical application water quality improvement in Lake Biwa will bring cost saving of 40.8 billion yen year−1, the benefits on the demand side are estimated to be at least 200 billion yen year−1.

Background and methods Prasugrel is a novel orally active thienopyridine prodrug with potent and long-lasting antiplatelet effects. Platelet inhibition reflects inhibition of P2Y(12) receptors by its active metabolite (AM). Previous studies have shown that the antiplatelet potency of prasugrel is at least 10 times higher than that of clopidogrel in rats and humans, but the mechanism of its higher potency has not yet been fully elucidated. Results Oral administration of prasugrel to rats resulted in dose-related and time-related inhibition of ex vivo platelet aggregation, and its effect was about 10 times more potent than that of clopidogrel. The plasma concentration of prasugrel AM was higher than that of clopidogrel AM despite tenfold higher doses of clopidogrel, indicating more efficient in vivo production of prasugrel AM than of clopidogrel AM. In rat platelets, prasugrel AM inhibited in vitro platelet aggregation induced by adenosine 5'-diphosphate (ADP) (10 microm) with an IC(50) value of 1.8 microm. Clopidogrel AM similarly inhibited platelet aggregation with an IC(50) value of 2.4 microm. Similar results were also observed for ADP-induced (10 microm) decreases in prostaglandin E(1)-stimulated rat platelet cAMP levels. These results indicate that both AMs have similar in vitro antiplatelet activities. Conclusions The greater in vivo antiplatelet potency of prasugrel as compared to clopidogrel reflects more efficient in vivo generation of its AM, which demonstrates similar in vitro activity to clopidogrel AM.

The most common objective function of task scheduling problems is makespan. However, on a computational grid, the 2nd optimal makespan may be much longer than the optimal makespan because the speed of each processor of a grid varies over time. So, if the performance measure is makespan, there is no approximation algorithm in general for scheduling onto a grid. In contrast, recently the authors proposed the computing power consumed by a schedule as a criterion of the schedule. For the criterion, this paper gives a (1 + Lcp(n)ċm(loge(m-1)+1)/n)-approximation algorithm for scheduling precedence constrained coarse-grained tasks with the same length onto a grid where n is the number of tasks, m is the number of processors, and Lcp(n) is the length of the critical path of the task graph. The proposed algorithm does not use any prediction information on the performance of underlying resources. Lcp(n) is usually a sublinear function of n. So, the above performance guarantee converges to one as n grows. This result implies a non-trivial result that the computing power consumed by an application on a grid can be limited within (1 + Lcp(n)ċm(loge(m-1)+1)/n) times that required by an optimal schedule in such a case.

Water contamination risk has become more complicated and more uncertain. The difficulty of specifying the causality between water contamination and its sources makes it hard for the water service authorities to manage the risk; where the safety level of water quality should be set and how much should be spent for the risk reduction. Our paper focuses on the public decision-making on the risk management investment for municipal water quality by combining the economic evaluation method for risk and the research on the risk perception about municipal water. The authors present a model of economic evaluation of risk and lay out its extensive expression to evaluate a project. They consider the relation between risk perception and the estimate. Using questionnaires, they survey the risk perception of drinking water to evaluate the high water purification system investment.

Diagnosis of fungal infections in compromised hosts has been difficult because of insufficient sensitivity and specificity of conventional methods such as culturing and serum testing. Therefore, antifungal agents are usually started in febrile patients who are resistant to antibiotics even if these monitoring tests were negative. In this study, therefore, in order to increase the reliability of these monitoring, polymerase chain reaction (PCR) methods for detection of blood fungus were also performed in compromised hosts including 14 patients with hematological malignancies and one with solid tumor who were undergoing chemotherapies. From these patients, total of 56 peripheral blood samples was collected periodically, irrespective of the presence of infectious signs. At each time point of venopuncture, status of the patient was allocated to one of the followings: A, receiving an intravenous antifungal therapy because of sustaining fever which had not responded to prior antibiotic therapies and also positive for culturing and/or serum beta-D-glucan tests; B, receiving an additional intravenous antifungal therapy but negative for culturing and serum-tests; C, febrile but not yet receiving any intravenous fungal therapy; D, afebrile status. During the study, 10 blood samples from 3 patients were allocated in group A, and one sample of them was positive while remaining 9 were all negative for PCR. Six samples from 4 patients were in group B, and one was PCR positive while remaining 5 were negative. Fifteen samples from 7 patients were in group C, and 3 were positive and 12 were negative for PCR. Twenty-five samples were in group D, and 5 were positive and 20 were negative for PCR. Thus, the results from fungal PCR in these patients were in some case showed discrepancies from those expected from the clinical course and/or conventional monitoring tests. Further evaluation of fungal PCR may gain insight into the more precise diagnosis of fungal infection in these patients.

Plastic deformation behavior and substructures in Ni3Nb single crystals were examined focusing on the operative deformation twin systems. Three twinning systems were operative depending on crystal orientation. The twinning behavior was discussed comparing with that in pure hcp metals. Microcracks initiated at the twin intersection. A large number of twin intersections were analyzed and classified into several types.

Temperature dependence of yield stress and operative slip system in Ni3Nb single crystals with the DOastructure was investigated in comparison with that in an analogous L12structure. Compression tests were performed at temperatures between 20 °C and 1200 °C for specimens with loading axes perpendicular to (110), (331) and (270).(010)[100] slip was operative for three orientations, while (010)[001] slip for (331) and {211} <107 13> twin for (270) orientations were observed, depending on deformation temperature. The critical resolved shear stress (CRSS) for the (010)[100] slip anomaly increased with increasing temperature showing a maximum peak between 400 °C and 800 °C depending on crystal orientation. The CRSS showed orientation dependence and no significant strain rate dependence in the temperature range for anomalous strengthening. The [100] dislocations with a screw character were aligned on the straight when the anomalous strengthening occurred. The anomalous strengthening mechanism for (010)[100] slip in Ni3Nb single crystals is discussed on the basis of a cross slip model which has been widely accepted for some L12-type compounds.

To allow study of the control of the promoter of the mouse progesterone receptor gene and its specific elements, we have isolated nine individual clones and selectively sequenced the 5′ region, which includes 5′ promoter sequence and the non-coding region. Sequence comparison was performed versus the progesterone receptor genes of other species. Moreover, potential estrogen response elements, progesterone response elements, and other transcription factor recognition sites were determined by sequence analysis. In addition, since it has been confined that chromatin structures are important for regulation of gene expression, we also examined them in different estrogen target organs using the DNase hypersensitivity assay. A different pattern of the DNase hypersensitivity sites was detected between uterus and mediobasal hypothalamus and these sites were close to specific recognition elements.

Localization of female type cytochrome P-450 (F1) in the preoptic area and hypothalamus of the rat was examined immunocytochemically using antiserum against purified hepatic P-450 (F1). This antiserum recognizes both P-450 (F1) and P-450 (M3)34. Western immunoblotting using the antiserum demonstrated that female rat brain contains P-450 (F1) but not P-450 (M3, since microsomes from the brain and liver displayed only one immunoreactive band at 50 kD, coinciding with that of P-450 (F1) purified from female rat liver. On the other hand, the male brain has P-450 (M3) but not P-450 (F1), as liver- and brain-derived microsomes produced single band at 49 kD, which represents a mol. wt. identical to that of P-450 (M3) extracted from male rat liver. These results indicate that P-450 (F1)-like immunoreactivity (LI) occurs in the female rat brain, while P-450 (M3)-LI takes place in the male rat brain. Immunocytochemical analysis further demonstrated the detailed cellular localization of these two P-450-LIs in the preoptic area and hypothalamus of female and male rats. Localization of P-450 (F1)-LI in the female rat hypothalamus resembled that of P-450 (M3)-LI in the male rat hypothalamus. Magnocellular neurosecretory neurons in the paraventricular nucleus and supraoptic nucleus were labeled and were found to contain oxytocin but lack vasopressin when serial sections of these areas were analyzed. In addition, groups of immunoreactive cells were seen in the median preoptic nucleus, medial and lateral preoptic area, caudal portion of the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis, lateral hypothalamus at the level of the paraventricular nucleus, periventricular zone from the preoptic area to the paraventricular nucleus, and parvocellular portion of the paraventricular nucleus.

When grants are allocated from higher to lower levels in multilevel systems of government, multiple objectives associated with individual and collective welfare must be taken into account. A simple model, corresponding both to multilevels and to multiobjectives, for environmental problems is formulated in order to consider the role of intergovernmental grants explicitly. It is shown, through a case study of the model, that grant allocation plays a very important role in the case of environmental problems.

An attempt is made in this study to integrate considerations regarding the quality of the environment and the optimal use of resources. Particular attention is paid to water resources and it is considered how a water environment may be realized where clean water flows abundantly through a public water basin. Several water environmental systems are constructed with characteristics pertaining both to the quantity of water resources and to water quality. Water pricing relevant to these water environmental systems is examined. An area model is first constructed. Instead of an effluent fee (or charge), consumers of water resources should pay a consumption tax which reflects the shadow prices of both the quantity and the quality of water resources. The model is extended to the regional model which can be applied to a region including several cities located along a river. Since there are interarea spillovers, the price of water reflects the shadow prices both of water resources and of the spillovers.

This paper gives a modelling process of dynamic water resources allocation problem in the multi-objective aspect as optimal control process. The method of Maximum Principle including iterative goal programming is proposed as solution algorithm. The system equations presented in this paper is inherently general for water environmental system analysis, so they are available not only for water resources allocation, but, for example, for sewerage planning and so on. The trade-offs between regional developments and environmental impacts can partly be transformed into a decision-making problem of people in the basin, i.e., decision on satisfied and permitted level of objectives. Case study of Yamato-River Basin in Nara and Osaka prefectures of Japan clears that coverage ratio of sewerage system takes a main role of solving such a trade-off problem. And it implies that the balance between the goal of high urban activities and that of conserving water quality in river can be made through water resources allocation.

1. Unilateral lesions of the nucleus basalis magnocellularis (nBM), a source of cholinergic projection to the cerebral cortex, were produced by injection of kainic acid in the cat. The lesions caused a significant reduction in density of choline acetyltransferase-immunoreactive terminals in the visual cortex ipsilateral to the lesions. 2. In the primary visual cortex ipsilateral to the lesions [acetylcholine (ACh)-depleted cortex], about half of the cells had weak or undetectable visual responses, whereas in the contralateral visual cortex almost all the cells had normal responsivity. The response selectivity, such as orientation and direction selectivities, of cortical cells was not affected by the depletion of ACh. 3. The microionophoretic application of ACh to cells under observation facilitated visual responses in 83% of the cells recorded from the ACh-depleted cortex, whereas it suppressed the responses in only 9%. The application of a muscarinic antagonist, atropine, to cells in the ACh-depleted cortex was ineffective, suggesting no residual ACh activity. 4. The mean current required to induce facilitation in the cortex ipsilateral to the lesion was significantly smaller than that required in the contralateral cortex and the visual cortex of the normal cat, suggesting a supersensitivity of receptors mediating the effect or a reduction in catabolism of exogenous ACh in the ACh-depleted cortex. 5. More than half of the cells that had been unresponsive to visual stimuli became clearly responsive during the ACh application. The response magnitude of cortical cells, as a whole, increased to the same degree as that observed during the ACh application in the normal cat. 6. In addition to the decrease in the average response magnitude, there was a remarkable variability in responses of cells to motion of the slit from sweep to sweep in the ACh-depleted cortex. The application of ACh to cortical cells decreased the variability of responses and consequently made the responses much more consistent. 7. These results suggest that without ACh supplied from the nBM, most of the cortical neurons could not respond briskly and consistently to excitatory inputs and that exogenously applied ACh could reverse such an impairment of cortical neurons through intact or even supersensitive postsynaptic receptors.

A 20-year-old female of right aortic arch associated with subclavian steal syndrome is reported. She was admitted to our hospital for numbness of the left arm, headache and dysphagia. Division of the ligamentum arteriosum and left common carotid-left subclavian artery anastomosis were successfully performed.

To test the possibility that glutamate and aspartate are transmitters at geniculo-cortical synapses and to elucidate which type of receptors for the excitatory amino acids (EAA) operate at these synapses, we studied effects of microionophoretic administration of EAA antagonists on the responses of visual cortical neurons to afferent electrical and visual stimulation in the cat. The antagonists used were kynurenate, a non-selective antagonist for all classes of EAA receptors and 2-amino-5-phos-phonovalerate (APV), a selective antagonist for N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA)-preferring receptors. The administration of kynurenate suppressed responses elicited by electrical stimulation of the dorsal lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN) and optic chiasm (OX) of 65% of the cells tested. This suppression was more marked for the short-latency responses which were evoked monosynaptically from the LGN, than for the longer-latency responses. In contrast with the effectiveness of kynurenate, APV failed to suppress electrically and visually elicited responses in 66% of the cortical cells. Such differences between kynurenate and APV were particularly prominent in layers IV and VI, which receive direct inputs from the LGN, but were less marked or were not recognizable in layers II + III and V. These results support previous suggestions that EAAs may be excitatory transmitters in the cerebral cortex, at least at geniculo-cortical synapses, and indicate further that EAA receptors of the “non-NMDA type” may be involved in afferent synaptic transmission in the cat's visual cortex.