Influencia de la entonación española en la percepción del acento por parte de estudiantes japoneses

Japanese learners of Spanish sometimes fail to perceive the stresses when listening to Spanish utterances. Results of a perceptual experiment with 270 stimuli and 94 informants (43 Spanish and 51 Japanese) reveal that, while Spanish speakers perceive the stresses with great certainty in all the studied contexts, Japanese speakers tend to fail to do so when the word is pronounced with rising intonation. The cause of this is the difference in phonetic realizations of Spanish stresses and those of Japanese accents. Japanese learners should be taught that the Spanish stressed syllables are not always pronounced with a high pitch.Los estudiantes japoneses de español no siempre son capaces de percibir los acentos al escuchar enunciados en dicho idioma. Los resultados de un experimento de percepción con 270 estímulos y 94 sujetos (43 españoles y 51 japoneses) revelan que, mientras los hablantes nativos de español pueden hacerlo con mucha certeza en todas las situaciones estudiadas, los hablantes de japonés tienden a no poder hacerlo cuando la palabra es pronunciada con una entonación ascendente. Esto se debe a la diferencia entre las realizaciones fonéticas de los acentos españoles y las de los acentos japoneses. Se debería instruir a los estudiantes japoneses que las sílabas acentuadas del español no siempre se pronuncian con un tono alto

Hardness Distribution and Endosperm Structure on Polishing Characteristics of Brewer’s Rice Kernels

This study was designed to determine the effects of the hardness distribution and the endosperm structure on the polishing characteristics of brewer’s rice kernels. We used four brewer’s rice cultivars, Kairyo-omachi, Hattan-nishiki No. 1, Senbon-nishiki and Yamada-nishiki. The broken kernel ratios in Kairyo-omachi and Hattan-nishiki No. 1 were significantly higher than those in Senbon-nishiki and Yamada-nishiki. Vickers hardness (VH) values in white-core tissues in kernels differed among varieties, which were significantly lower in Kairyo-omachi and Hattan-nishiki No. 1. However, no varietal differences were observed in VH values in the peripheral translucent tissues surrounding the white-core tissues. The tissues along the dorsoventral axis were softer than those along the longitudinal axis of the kernels. The tissues on the ventral side were softer than those on the dorsal side. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) observations revealed the presence of closely arranged compound starch granules and few varietal differences in the peripheral translucent tissues surrounding the white-core tissues. However, as compared with Yamada-nishiki and Senbon-nishiki, in Hattan-nishiki No. 1 and Kairyo-omachi, the starch granules were loosely packed and the airspaces between the starch granules were more numerous in the white-core tissues. A higher number of airspaces and less starch were present in the endosperm cells along the dorsoventral axis when compared with along the longitudinal axis and on the ventral side than on the dorsal side. The present study showed that polishing characteristics are closely related with the endosperm structure, which is characterized as the density of starch granules

Difference in the Physical Properties of White-Core and Non-White-Core Kernels of the Rice Varieties for Sake Brewing is Unrelated to Starch Properties

This study was designed to determine whether or not the difference in the physical properties between white-core and non-white-core kernels of the rice varieties for sake brewing is associated with their starch properties. We used two rice cultivars for sake brewing, Senbon-nishiki and Yamada-nishiki, from three different plots in Hiroshima prefecture. Hardness values of kernels were significantly higher in non-white-core than in white-core kernels in both varieties. Vickers hardness (VH) values were lowest at the center of the kernel in both types of kernels. VH values of white-core tissues of white-core kernels were significantly lower than those of corresponding tissues of non-white-core kernels. No significant differences were observed between the two types of kernels in VH values of the surrounding translucent tissues and in the starch properties (amylose content, pasting properties analyzed using a rapid viscoanalyzer and gelatinization properties analyzed using a differential scanning calorimetry). These results suggest that the difference in physical properties between the two types of kernels of the rice varieties for sake brewing are associated with the difference in structure of endosperm cells and not in starch properties