Petrological Studies on the Ryoke Metamorphic Rocks in the Toyone-mura Area, Aichi Prefecture, Japan

The Ryôke metamorphic rocks in the Toyone-mura area, Aichi Prefecture are described in regard to their mode of occurrence, petrography, chemistry and mineralogy. Physical conditions of the Ryôke regional metamorphism are discussed from the viewpoints of mineralogical equilibria and the nature of the constituent minerals. The metamorphic terrain of this area can be divided into three progressive zones based on the mineralogical variations in the pelitic rocks. The metamorphic rocks are characterized by the mineral association of cordierite-K-feldspar, and the metamorphic reactions of andalusitesillimanite transition and muscovite breakdown in pelitic ones. The Ryôke regional metamorphism can be regarded as the result of the general upheaval of iso-geotherm intimately connected with the vast granitic intrusions. The geological situation of the Ryôke zone is refered its special character to the metamorphism which had occurred in the ascending part of the Honshû geosyncline during or continued from the time preceeding to the metamorphism

Play face in Japanese macaques reflects the sender's play motivation

Animals often initiate social interactions by exchanging signals. Especially when initiating amicable interactions, signaling one’s friendly stance toward others in advance may be important to avoid being misunderstood as having hostile intentions. We used data on dyadic play fighting in a group of Japanese macaques, Macaca fuscata, to examine the function of “play face” at the opening of a play session. We found no support for the previously proposed hypothesis that play face expression is likelier before entering risky situations (e.g., before gaining an undue advantage over the partner) to avoid being misunderstood. The results showed that play face expression was likelier in male juveniles before initiating play with other males than in females before initiating play with males or other females and that juveniles were likelier to express play face before initiating play with others closer in age. As male Japanese macaques play more frequently than females, and juveniles prefer to play with individuals closer in age, play face expression before play initiation may reflect the individual’s motivation for subsequent play interactions. This interpretation is supported by our observation that play bouts lasted longer when initiated with bidirectional play face by both participants than when initiated without play face. We also argued that since there was no tendency that play face was likelier to be expressed toward individuals with low play propensity (e.g., females) or infrequent partners to play with (e.g., individuals more distant in age), Japanese macaques may not tactically deploy this signal to recruit reluctant partners

Contact-induced language divergence and convergence in Tanzania: Forming new varieties as language maintenance

The language situation in Tanzania has changed greatly since the overwhelming spread of Swahili, the national language and one of the official languages of Tanzania. Previous studies have reported that Swahili has encroached on the domains of ethnic community languages (Legère 1992, Meka- cha 1993, Yoneda 1996), and its linguistic influence can easily be recognized throughout the ethnic community languages of Tanzania, even in remote areas. This situation has been described as ‘Swahilization’ of ethnic community languages (Yoneda 2010) or ‘language drift’ (Brenzinger & Marten 2016), as opposed to a clear language shift. This study describes the influence of Swahili on Tanzanian ethnic community languages, presenting specific examples to substantiate the previous studies (e.g. Yoneda 2010, Marten & Petzell 2016, Rosendal & Mapunda 2017, among others). It shows that the language shift that Batibo (1992) expected has not taken place. Instead, people have kept their ethnic community languages, developing a new type of language use to enable meaning-making for the community in this changing world. The ongoing process in an ethnic community consists of Swahilization of their language, rather than its disappearance through a complete shift away from its use. In addition, the influence of language contact between Swahili and ethnic community languages is not a one-way effect; Swahili is also affected by the various ethnic community languages. As a result, each language is forced to undergo ‘-ization’ by the other and their differences are, not only sociolinguistically but also structurally and lexically convergent

Effect of \gamma-irradiation on superconducting transition temperature and resistive transition in polycrystalline YBa_{2}Cu_{3}O_(7-\delta)

A bulk polycrystalline sample of YBa_(2)Cu_(3)O_(7-\delta) (\delta \approx 0.1) has been irradiated by \gamma-rays with ^{60}Co source. Non-monotonic behavior of T_{c} with increasing irradiation dose \Phi (up to 220 MR) is observed: T_{c} decreases at low doses (\Phi < 50 MR) from initial value (\approx 93 K) by about 2 K and then rises, forming a minimum. At higher doses (\Phi > 120 MR) T_{c} goes down again. The temperature width of resistive transition increases rather sharply with dose below 75 MR and drops somewhat at higher dose. The results observed are discussed, taking into account the granular structure of sample studied and the influence of \gamma-rays on intergrain Josephson coupling.Comment: 2 pages, to appear in the proceeding of M2S-HTSC-VI conference, Housto

A study on a newly rising concern on “the absence of mother tongue education” in the discussion of quality education in Tanzania: A case study of 10 primary schools

There has been increased interest in quality education in Tanzania, and there is a new trend from the perspective of ‘mother tongue education’, which enforces the use of each ethnic language from early education in Tanzania. To examine the validity of this newly risen concern, this paper reports on fi eld research conducted in 10 primary schools in Njombe, Ruvuma and Dar es Salaam regions between 2015- 2017. After the high enrolment has been achieved, Tanzania needed to focus on improving the quality of education. To address the poor learning performance called ‘learning crisis,’ the government introduced learner-centered instruction. The teachers were then required to apply instructional methods where the students actively participated in their learning. In this context, the question of the language of instruction in schools is given more attention than before. In Tanzania, the language of instruction has been a major issue mainly at the secondary education level, especially to introduce a new policy to enforce the use of Kiswahili, which enables the students to better understand the subjects at all levels and achieve higher performance. However, recently, there is a new trend. Some researchers concern the negative effect of making Kiswahili the language of instruction from the fi rst years of education on the assumption that Kiswahili is not the students’ ‘mother tongue’, and ethnic languages are therefore better understood. Through interviews with teachers and observations in classrooms, this study reveals that the assumption which support this new language question in primary schools seems not really the case. Moreover, it is diffi cult to assess whether poor performance is caused by language or not in the current setting, which faces challenges such as the lack of teaching material, lack of teachers, and inadequate educational environment. At the same time, if the ethnic languages are to be used as the medium of instruction, new challenges would arise, such as that new text books must be written, qualified teachers are needed for every ethnic language, etc. The issues concerning the language of instruction may therefore create more challenges and undermine the every efforts towards quality education

Head Rubbing and Licking Reinforce Social Bonds in a Group of Captive African Lions, Panthera leo

AbstractMany social animals have a species-specific repertoire of affiliative behaviours that characterise individualised relationshipswithin a group. To date, however, quantitative studies on intragroup affiliative behaviours in social carnivores have beenlimited. Here, we investigated the social functions of the two most commonly observed affiliative behaviours in captiveAfrican lions (Panthera leo): head rubbing and licking. We conducted behavioural observations on a captive group of lionscomposed of 7 males and 14 females, and tested hypotheses regarding three social functions: tension reduction, socialbonding, and social status expression. Disproportionately frequent male–male and female-to-male head rubbing wasobserved, while more than 95% of all licking interactions occurred in female–female dyads. In accordance with the socialbond hypothesis, and in disagreement with the social status expression hypothesis, both head rubbing and lickinginteractions were reciprocal. After controlling for spatial association, the dyadic frequency of head rubbing was negativelycorrelated with age difference while licking was positively correlated with relatedness. Group reunion after daily separationdid not affect the frequencies of the affiliative behaviours, which was in disagreement with the predictions from the tensionreduction hypothesis. These results support the social bond hypothesis for the functions of head rubbing and licking.Different patterns of affiliative behaviour between the sexes may reflect differences in the relationship quality in each sex orthe differential predisposition to licking due to its original function in offspring care