日本人の人間関係の研究に仏教の縁に基づくシステム・パラダイムを開発する

For decades Japanese scholars have been willing to import and apply Euro-America-centered research paradigrms not only in the natural sciences but also in the social sciences and the humanities. They have been doing so without trying to devejop their own-Western frames of research. Today Japanese reseachers are expected to develop new research paradigms and perspectives based on their own Japanese cultural background and to contribute these to the international academic arena. This paper provides scholars of Japanese culture with a distincly Asian paradigm for future research, theory construstion, and methodological development.To achieve these goals, first, Western views of interpersonal relationships are discussed. Then the Buddhist en-based world view and its influence on Japanese human relationships are described. Next, general systems theory is introduced, suggesting its possible application to Japanese human relationships psychology. Finally, a hypothetical cosmic systems framework based on the Buddhist en-belief is proposed to conceptualize Japanese human relationships and help promote research in the area

Plasmonic waveguides cladded by hyperbolic metamaterials

Strongly anisotropic media with hyperbolic dispersion can be used for claddings of plasmonic waveguides. In order to analyze the fundamental properties of such waveguides, we analytically study 1D waveguides arranged of a hyperbolic metamaterial (HMM) in a HMM-Insulator-HMM (HIH) structure. We show that hyperbolic metamaterial claddings give flexibility in designing the properties of HIH waveguides. Our comparative study on 1D plasmonic waveguides reveals that HIH-type waveguides can have a higher performance than MIM or IMI waveguides

Sub-Arcsecond Near-Infrared Images of Massive Star Formation Region NGC 6334 V

We present high spatial resolution (0\farcs3) polarimetric images in the $H$ and $K$ bands and direct images in the $L'$ and $M'$ bands of the NGC 6334 V infrared nebulae. The images show complex structures including the multi-shells and various knots in the nebulae. The appearances and colors of the eastern and western nebulae differ considerably. Our polarization images also show differences between the illuminating sources of the nebulae: the eastern nebula is illuminated by a deeply embedded mid-infrared source, KDJ 4, and the western nebula by our newly detected near-infrared source, WN-A1. The degree of polarization of the nebulae is very large, up to 70% at $K$ and 60% at $H$, which is consistent with a single scattering of near-infrared radiation from each source at the walls of the mass outflows

まれびと・異人・外人に対する日本人の歓迎・非歓迎アンビヴァレンス症候群 : 異文化間コミュニケーション研究への提言

The recent rapid expansion of worldwide communication and transportration networks has made it both possible and inevitable for the Japanese to encounter strangers from different racial, ethnis, and sociocultural backgrounds not only overseas but also in Japan.Simply encountering them without approptiate preparation, however, does not guatantee expected intercultural understanding; it oftes causes mutual fear, misuunderstanding, and suspicion within people placed in such intercultural communication situations. The study of intercultural communication, which describes and explains such dailt occurrences and possibly solves problems related to them, has been, through most of its academic history, a prepominantly U.S.-senterd rnterprise in Japan.These daysm therfore, Japanese scholars in the field are growingly expected to contribute non-Western thoughts and frames of reference from their Japanese sociocultural background.In this scholarly context, the present study attempts to analyze the conventional sociofolkloric marebito/ijin/gaijin ambivalent predispositions and attitudes toward strangers from different racial, ethnic, and sociocultural backgroudx.It will contribute from non-Euro-American prespestives to the revision or improvement of Western intercultural communication theories and research methods by analyzing the long-standing Japanese welcome-nonwelcome and inclusion-exclusion amnbivalence frequently manifested in their encounters with strange people whose racial, ethnic, and sociocultural backgrounds are different from the average Japanese

Interactions among arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi and their impact on soybean growth

Arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi have important functions, and these functions are different among AM fungal species; therefore, study of AM fungal diversity and their impact on their host plants are important. Complementary/redundant functions in nutrient acquisition among AM fungal hyphae and plant roots were proposed by Koide (2000), but this concept has not been well tested. In this research, interactions among AM fungi and their impact on plant growth were examined using the conceptual model with three AM fungi (Glomus caledonium RIS42 [GC], G. mosseae BEG83 [GM], and Scutellospora calospora WUM12 [SC]) and two soybean varieties (BSR201 and Mandarin). These fungal species have different hyphal lengths and P uptake efficiencies. In order to identify AM fungal species in roots, polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based techniques were used. Rapid, reliable, and inexpensive DNA extraction techniques were developed from trypan blue-stained mycorrhizal roots. Using PCR of the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region of ribosomal RNA gene, AM fungal activities (colonization rates) were examined along with plant growth (shoot dry weight) in the treatments with all possible combinations among three AM fungi and two soybean varieties. Although shoot dry weights were not significantly different, colonization rates were different between the two soybean varieties. Our research also showed that mixed planting affected the mycorrhizal colonization, suggesting that the plant community influences AM fungal colonization in roots. AM fungal effects on growth of BSR201 were different among fungal inoculants, but differences were not observed in Mandarin. Scutellospora calospora WUM12 had extremely low colonization with somewhat negative effects in both BSR201 and Mandarin. Our initial conceptual model with three AM fungi did not function as expected because of the low colonization activity of SC and contamination in the GC inoculum. In the GC inoculum, competition between AM fungi might have existed because GC seemed to be excluded from the roots by the contaminant identified as GM by sequence analysis. More research is necessary on the interaction between SC and the host plants to verify the concept of functional complementarity/redundancy between roots and hyphae and preferable host-fungus combinations proposed by Koide (2000)

Effects of dissolved oxygen and pH on nitrous oxide production rates in autotrophic partial nitrification granules

The effects of dissolved oxygen (DO) and pH on nitrous oxide (N2O) production rates and pathways in autotrophic partial nitrification (PN) granules were investigated at the granular level. N2O was primarily produced by betaproteobacterial ammonia-oxidizing bacteria, mainly Nitrosomonas europaea, in the oxic surface layer (<200 μm) of the autotrophic PN granules. N2O production increased with increasing bulk DO concentration owing to activation of the ammonia (i.e., hydroxylamine) oxidation in this layer. The highest N2O emissions were observed at pH 7.5, although the ammonia oxidation rate was unchanged between pH 6.5 and 8.5. Overall, the results of this study suggest that in situ analyses of PN granules are essential to gaining insight into N2O emission mechanisms in a granule