Effect of Others on the Gaze Behavior of Young Children during an Art Activity : Examining their Interactions Using Gaze Direction

本研究は，幼児の集団的な造形活動について，その相互作用の全体像を，視線分析を活用しながら明らかにする。分析データを得るために行った造形活動では，活動の構成メンバー全員の頭部にビデオカメラを装着し，各幼児の視界に広がる世界を個別的に捉えられるようにした。各動画記録は，誰が，いつ，どれだけの時間を伴って映っているのか，行動コーディングシステムを用いて数量化し，それぞれ幼児ごとに，他者に視線を向け続けている可能性が高い場面を特定していった。その結果，当該場面のなかで展開される造形行為の伝搬過程を捉える一方で，幼児が他者の制作物や発話からもアイデアを得ていることも明確化できた。また，応答としての造形行為の模倣や，協同関係にある者の造形行為の確認に伴う視線のやり取りも顕在化し，各幼児の他者への関わり方の特性が，他者に視線を向ける行動の差異として現れていく様相が確認できた。 / This study aimed to investigate the interactions between young children in an art activity using gaze analysis. To obtain analytical data, an art activity was cnducted where all young children had to wear a head-mounted wireless camera that was used to monitor their gaze direction. We quantified the time-series for which each person was recorded. Moreover, in each video, scenes where the child continued gazing at others were identified. As a result, the process of the propagation of skills in the scene was realized; moreover, it was apparent that young children acquired ideas by observing other’s creations and listening to other’s utterances. additionally, it was found that children imitated communication methods and observed others to gauge their cooperation. These results suggest that the characteristics of interactions differ based on the gaze direction towards others

Mass, nitrogen content, and decomposition of woody debris in forest stands affected by excreta deposited in nesting colonies of Great Cormorant

First online: 14 March 2015Great Cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo), a piscivorous bird, has established breeding colonies in a coniferous forest near Lake Biwa in central Japan. This study investigated the possible effects of the colony’s excreta on the mass, nitrogen (N) content, and decomposition of woody debris. Study plots were established in forest stands representing four stages from breeding colony establishment to post-abandonment. The mass of fallen branches (diameter 1–5 cm) and coarse woody debris (logs, snags, and stumps; diameter ≥10 cm) was greater in forest stands colonized by Cormorants than a control stand never colonized by Cormorants. This was primarily attributed to Cormorant activity that caused increased mortality of standing trees and by Cormorants breaking branches for nesting materials. Nitrogen content of branches and logs that had fallen to the forest floor was negatively correlated with the relative density of wood. Nitrogen content of branches was consistently higher (at a given value of relative density) in the colonized stands than in the control stand. The increase of branch N content was possibly caused by the incorporation of N into decomposing branches with excreta-derived N supplied as throughfall and/or soil solution. The mean value of 2-year mass loss of recently dead branches and logs was significantly greater for woody debris in the smallest diameter class but was not significantly different among the forest stands. This suggests that the excessive supply of excreta-derived N and concomitant enrichment of N in soil had negligible effects on the initial stages of decomposition of woody debris

Spacetime-emergent ring toward tabletop quantum gravity experiments

We propose a way to discover, in tabletop experiments, spacetime-emergent materials, that is, materials holographically dual to higher-dimensional quantum gravity systems under the AdS/CFT. The emergence of the holographic spacetime is verified by a mathematical imaging transform of the response function on the material. We consider theories on a one-dimensional ring-shaped material and compute the response to a scalar source locally put at a point on the ring. When the theory on the material has a gravity dual, the imaging in the low-temperature phase exhibits a distinct difference from the ordinary materials: The spacetime-emergent material can look into the holographically emergent higher-dimensional curved spacetime and provides an image as if a wave had propagated there. Therefore the image is an experimental signature of the spacetime emergence. We also estimate the temperature, ring size, and source frequency usable in experiments, with an example of a quantum critical material, TlCuCl₃