Sleep in relation to age, sex, and chronotype in Japanese workers

The Morningness-Eveningness Questionnaire and Life Habits Inventory were administered to 622 Japanese workers matched for sex and age. We investigated the distributions of the scores on the Morningness-Eveningness Questionnaire and sleep-wake habits by age and sex. Subjects were classified into five age groups and three chronotypes. The distributions and mean scores on the questionnaire advanced slightly toward the Morning type from the young to the aged group. The habitual bedtimes and waking times were significantly earlier in all the chronotypes from the young to the aged group, and the preferred bedtimes and waking times were also clearly earlier from the young to the aged group. The length of sleep was shorter for the Evening than the Morning types, especially in the group below 24 yr. The differences in habitual and preferred sleep length were greater than 1 hour for all age groups, especially the two groups under 34 yr. The number of awakenings during night sleep increased from the young to the aged group for all chronotypes. The older Evening type tended more toward frequent napping and longer naptime. The variabilities of bedtime and sleep length were larger for the young and Evening type than for the old group and Morning types. Further, the mood upon waking and satisfaction with sleep length were better in the aged Evening type than the young Morning type. The women under 44 yr. woke up earlier than the men of the same age, and the women of the 35-54 yr. groups had a shorter length of sleep than others. These may be related to childcare and housework. These results indicated that the phase of circadian rhythms had moved forward from the young to the aged group, and the individual's rhythm, of those that were aged Morning types, showed better agreement with sleep-wake rhythms than did others.     

On-Line Shape recognition with incremental training using binary synaptic weights algorithm

Recognition of hand drawn shapes is beneficial in drawing packages and automated sketch entry in handheld computers. In this paper, we propose a new approach to on-line geometric shape recognition with incremental training function, which utilizes a heuristic function to reduce noise and a neural network for classification and on-line training. Instead of recognizing segments of a drawing and then performing syntactical analysis to match with a predefined shape, which is weak in terms of generalization and dealing with noise, we examine the shape as a whole. The main concept of the recognition method is derived from the fact that internal angles are very important in the perceived shape of outlines. Our application's aim is to recognize elliptic, rectangular, and triangular shapes in a way similar to human cognition of these shapes. Human beings recognize such basic shapes regardless of the variations in size, noise on the shape border, rotation and in the case of triangles, regardless of the type of the triangle. The key concept is that the neural network learns the relationships between the internal angles of a shape and its classification, therefore only a few training samples which represent the class of the shape are sufficient. Fast meremental training, which is performed on-line, is accomplished by the use of the Binary Synaptic Weights algorithm, a one pass, feedforward neural network training algorithm. Incremental training offers the advantage of adjusting the recognition capability of the system to the user's drawings. the results are very successful, such that the neural network correctly classified shapes that did not have any resemblance to the shapes in the initial training set.     

Determination of horseradish peroxidase concentration using the chemiluminescence of Cypridina luciferin analogue, 2-methyl-6-(p-methoxyphenyl)-3,7-dihydroimidazo[1,2-a]pyrazin-3-one

The chemiluminescence of the Cypridina luciferin analogue, 2-methyl-6-(p-methoxyphenyl)-3,7-dihydroimidazo[1,2-a]pyrazin++ +-3-one (MCLA) was observed at 462 nm in the presence of horseradish peroxidase (HRP) and the total spectrum of light emitted was found to depend linearly on HRP concentration. Methods for the determination of HRP concentration using the chemiluminescence was investigated. HRP could be detected in the range from 100 pmol/L to 100 nmol/L under the optimum condition, H2O2 (10 mmol/L) and MCLA (10 mumol/L) at pH 5.8.     

Dynamics and organization of MAP kinase signal pathways

In the budding yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, four separate but structurally related mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) activation pathways are known. The best understood of these regulates mating. Pheromone binding to receptor informs cells of the proximity of a mating partner and induces differentiation to a mating competent state. The MAPK activation cascade mediating this signal is made up of Ste11 (a MEK kinase [MEKK]), Ste7 (a MAPK/ERK kinase [MEK]), and the redundant MAPK-related Fus3 and Kss1 enzymes. Another MAPK activation pathway is important for cell integrity and regulates cell wall construction. This cascade consists of Bck1 (a MEKK), the redundant Mkk1 and Mkk2 enzymes (MEKs), and Mpk1 (a MAPK). We exploited these two pathways to learn about the coordination and signal transmission fidelity of MAPK activation cascades. Two lines of evidence suggest that the activities of the mating and cell integrity pathways are coordinated during mating differentiation. First, cells deficient in Mpk1 are susceptible to lysis when they make a mating projection in response to pheromone. Second, Mpk1 activation during pheromone induction coincides with projection formation. The mechanism underlying this coordination is still unknown to us. Our working model is that projection formation generates a mobile second messenger for activation of the cell integrity pathway. Analysis of a STE7 mutation gave us some unanticipated but important insights into parameters important for fidelity of signal transmission. The Ste7 variant has a serine to proline substitution at position 368. Ste7-P368 has higher basal activity than the wild-type enzyme but still requires Ste11 for its function. Additionally, the proline substitution enables the variant to transmit the signal from mammalian Raf expressed in yeast. This novel activity suggests that Ste7-P368 is inherently more permissive than Ste7 in its interactions with MEKKs. Yet, Ste7-P368 cross function in the cell integrity pathway occurs only when it is highly overproduced or when Ste5 is missing. This behavior suggests that Ste5, which has been proposed to be a tether for the kinases in the mating pathway, contributes to Ste7 specificity and fidelity of signal transmission.     

GBLT-VG for High User Densities by User Group Behavior and Hot Point in MMO Virtual Environment

Massively Multiplayer Online (MMO) games have large-scale virtual environments. Here, we propose a load distribution technique called the Group Based Load-distribution Technique with Virtual Group (GBLT-VG) that utilizes Peer-to-Peer (P2P) communication to maintain scalability under high user density conditions in MMO virtual environments. A common problem of P2P virtual environments is that user group behavior frequently generates high user density conditions. Existing techniques to manage the virtual environment cannot maintain performance in such high user density situations. The proposed technique, GBLT-VG, reduces area management loads of manager peers by introducing a new manager who manages a user neighbor group. GBLT-VG forms the user neighbor group efficiently by using party function under high user density conditions caused by users?? cooperative behaviors. In addition, GBLT-VG reduce the management load by using a virtual group when a number of parties is small, thereby decreasing the existing managers?? loads dynamically. This paper also presents simulation results demonstrating how GBLT-VG can reduce the average number of users managed by the server.     

Selective oxidation of Fe-30Ni alloy in a low-temperature range (433–473 K)

Fe-30Ni alloy specimens were oxidized for 10–240 min at 433–473 K in pure oxygen at a pressure of 1.33×10⁴ Pa. The thickness of oxide films was measured by a multiple-angle-of-incidence ellipsometer. The kinetics of film growth were found to obey a parabolic rate law. The depth-profiling of oxidized surfaces, performed with simultaneous use of Auger electron spectroscopy (AES) and argon-ion sputter-etching technique, reveals that iron component is selectively oxidized and an iron-depeletion zone is formed in the underlying alloy. The thickness of the iron depletion zone increases with increasing oxidation time or oxidation temperature. During surface oxidation of the alloy, the transport rate of iron component in the film is almost equal to the interdiffusion rate in the underlying alloy, indicating the establishment of a steady state. The values of the interdiffusion coefficient, , of the underlying alloy estimated from the depth-composition profiles are more than 10 orders of magnitude as large as the values extrapolated from the lattice diffusion data of the corresponding alloy obtained at high temperature. The enormously large values of may be explained in terms of the vacancy (monovacancy or divacancy)-enhanced lattice diffusion mechanism.     

Gas permeation property of polyaniline films

We examined the influence of polyaniline (PAn)'s unit sequence and doping with low molecular weight dopants or polymer dopants on permeation property. It was found that CO₂ permeability was increased by the formation of a quinonediimine unit in PAn with the oxidation. CO₂ sorption amount of PAn was decreased by oxidation. The increase of CO₂ permeability with oxidation, therefore, resulted from the increase of diffusivity, which was attributable to morphological variation by the increase of a quinonediimine unit. The permselectivity of PAn films was found to be remarkably improved by doping. In particular, the selectivity value of the PAn film doped with polyvinyl sulphonic acid as a polymer dopant went up to over 2,000. This remarkable increase of selectivity was found to result in the increase of selectivity, depending on diffusivity. It was also found that the permselectivity of the PAn film doped by polymer dopants was surpassed, as compared with that doped by low molecular dopants. © 1995 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Study on modified phenolic resin. I. Modification with homopolymer prepared from p-hydroxyphenylmaleimide

We studied the improvement of heat resistance and mechanical properties of phenolic resin modified with polymers prepared from p-hydroxyphenylmaleimide (HPMI). Homopolymers of HPMI and copolymers of HPMI with some vinyl monomers were synthesized and M_n T_g and thermal decomposition temperature of them were measured by GPC, DSC, and TG, respectively. The miscibility of homopolymer with novolac was examined by DSC. It was found that the homopolymer had good heat resistance and good miscibility with novolac. Molding compounds were prepared by hot roll-kneading the mixtures of novolac, the homopolymer, hexamethylenetetramine, and glass fiber. It was found that molded test pieces had good heat resistance.