Relationships between vegetation types and soil properties along a topographical gradient on the northern coast of the Brgger Peninsula, Svalbard

Vegetation patterns in the high Arctic vary not only with proglacial chronosequence but also with a topographical gradient on older deglaciated areas which are covered by mature vegetation. A preliminary survey of local scale vegetation patterns along a topographical gradient with special reference to soil properties was conducted on the northern coast of the Brgger Peninsula, Svalbard in the high Arctic. Three community types of vascular plants were distinguished by common dominants: Cardamine type, Salix type and Oxyria/Luzula type. Each community type was comprised of different habitat types. The Cardamine type was restricted to near the bottom of depressions, where there was high soil water content. The Oxyria/Luzula type was characterized by habitats belonging to upper slopes to ridges, having high gravel content soils. On the other hand, the habitat preference of the Salix type, which had higher vegetation cover and biomass of vascular plants compared to the other two types, was not clear. The core habitat of fertile/undisturbed area, as described by the centrifugal community organization model, might be dominated by Salix polaris in this area. The other species had a refugium from interspecific competition in their preferred peripheral habitats such as exposed ridge or wetland

キチセイ オヨビ ヒョウジョウ ガ カオ ノ ニンシキ カテイ ニ アタエル エイキョウ ニ ツイテ ハンノウ ジカン ト ジハツセイ シュンモク オ シヒョウ ト シテ

The purpose of the present study was to examine effects of familiarity and expressions of face upon face recognition processes by using reaction time and eyeblink activity as measures. Twenty subjects were presented a set of face stimuli which was manipulated in two dimensions; face familiarity (Familiar vs. Unfamiliar) and facial expression(Happy vs. Neutral). A half of the subjects were asked to perform a familiarity judging task in which they answered whether a stimulus was familiar or unfamiliar. The remaining half of them conducted a facial expression judging task in which they evaluated whether a stimulus expressed a happy emotion or did not. The results of the familiarity judging task showed that the reaction times were faster to unfamiliar faces than to familiar faces and the effect of facial expressions were not be found. In the facial expression judging task, it was found that the reaction times were faster to happy faces than to neutral faces and the effect of face familiarity was not found. These results suggested that face recognition was mediated by processes which were independent of representations of facial expressions. In the familiarity judging task, a post-stimulus peak of eyeblink rate was observed in 1500-l800ms period after stimulusonset only to Familiar-Nertral face stimuli. The post-stimulus peak was the highest to Unfamiliar-Neutral face stimuli and the lowest to Familiar-Happy face stimuli in the facial expression judging task. It was suggested that the eyeblink measure might reflect inner cognitive processes which cannot be evaluated by the reaction time measure

オンガク ト シュンモク

The purpose of the present study was to examine the effects of form of music and the emotions aroused by them upon eyeblink response. Materials were two classic musics. First, subjects were asked to listen the whole music and then they were asked to listen the musics every one minute and to rate the impressions of the musics on seven SD-trait scales. The results showed the range of note, rest, form of musics, and the emotions aroused by them had an strong effect upon eyebilnk. This result suggested that eyeblink will be a good measure to evaluate musics

IL-12 and IL-18 Induction and Subsequent NKT Activation Effects of the Japanese Botanical Medicine Juzentaihoto

In this study, we first measured some cytokine concentrations in the serum of patients treated with Juzentaihoto (JTT). Of the cytokines measured interleukin (IL) -18 was the most prominently up-regulated cytokine in the serum of patients under long term JTT administration. We next evaluated the effects of JTT in mice, focusing especially on natural killer T (NKT) cell induction. Mice fed JTT were compared to control group ones. After sacrifice, the liver was fixed, embedded and stained. Transmission electron microscope (TEM) observations were performed. Although the mice receiving the herbal medicine had same appearance, their livers were infiltrated with massive mononuclear cells, some of which were aggregated to form clusters. Immunohistochemical staining revealed that there was abundant cytokine expression of IL-12 and IL-18 in the liver of JTT treated mice. To clarify what the key molecules that induce immunological restoration with JTT might be, we next examined in vitro lymphocyte cultures. Mononuclear cells isolated and prepared from healthy volunteers were cultured with and without JTT. Within 24 hours, JTT induced the IL-12 and IL-18 production and later (72 hours) induction of interferon (IFN)-gamma. Oral administration of JTT may induce the expression of IL-12 in the early stage, and IL-18 in the chronic stage, followed by NKT induction. Their activation, following immunological restoration could contribute to anti-tumor effects