Journal of physiological anthropology and applied human science最新文献

In Japan, many sounds designed for the visually handicapped are not only useless, but also create noise for the impaired and non-impaired people alike. Interview surveys with visually handicapped people were analyzed to reveal why inappropriate barrier-free acoustic designs have been provided for them. Responses from participants were divided into three categories: (1) mistaken needs-assessments, (2) poor technical knowledge of the visually impaired and (3) problems of power/political relationships. Furthermore, the responses of almost all the participants seemed to apply as well to other kinds of barrier-free designs, in spite of the fact that the topic of this survey focused only on acoustic designs. The results suggest that we must examine social as well as technical and psychological issues when we plan barrier-free designs.

The objective of this research was to investigate how the pedestrians use the information in underground space. Furthermore, it is to determine the conditions under which pedestrians utilized signs. Therefore, the pedestrian walking behavior was investigated in an underground shopping center in Taegon City, South Korea. First, the routes taken by the pedestrians was observed; and secondly, the signs observed were categorized as follows, pedestrian movement patterns, conditions under which signs were utilized, the location of signs, the relationship between different spaces, the heights of the signs, and the types of information communicated by the signs. From our analysis of pedestrian walking behavior at the Taegon underground shopping center, it was found that it is necessary to adjust the content and placement of information signs for pedestrian use, because the content of the guidance information and the use of this information vary from place to place. As shown by our subjects' walking behavior, a good connection between information signs is necessary to provide good directional information to pedestrians.

The physiological characteristics of work in cold stores, as a typical artificial cold environment, are reviewed mainly from our various field and experimental studies. There are about 4,000 cold stores in Japan, and 85% of them are kept at temperatures below -20 degrees C. Although the duration of cold exposure per stay in a cold store was very short, forklift workers entered the cold stores very frequently. Cold stress and the decrease in workers' performance were the same as for continuous exposure to cold. Since the peripheral skin temperature of subjects at night is higher than that in the afternoon, they are less likely to feel cold or pain sensation at night. However, there was a marked decrease in rectal temperature and in manual performance. There is an increased risk of both hypothermia and accidents for those who work at night. The cold store workers, however, had adapted to cold through daily repeated cold exposures.

Congenitally deaf Japanese children with cochlear implants were tested on their recognition of theme songs from television programs that they watched regularly. The children, who were 4-9 years of age, attempted to identify each song from a closed set of alternatives. Their song identification ability was examined in the context of the original commercial recordings (vocal plus instrumental), the original versions without the words (i.e., karaoke versions), and flute versions of the melody. The children succeeded in identifying the music only from the original versions, and their performance was related to their music listening habits. Children gave favorable appraisals of the music even when they were unable to recognize it. Further research is needed to find means of enhancing cochlear implants users' perception and appreciation of music.

The present study examined the contribution of local airflow temperature to thermal sensation and comfort in humans. Eight healthy male students were exposed to local airflow to their faces (summer condition) or legs (winter condition) for 30 minutes. Local airflow temperature (Tf) was maintained at 18 degrees C to 36 degrees C, and ambient temperature (Ta) was maintained at 17.4 degrees C to 31.4 degrees C. Each subject was exposed to 16 conditions chosen from the combination of Tf and Ta. Based on the results of multiple regression analysis, the standardized partial regression coefficient of Tf and Ta were determined to be 0.93 and 0.13 in the summer condition, and 0.71 and 0.36 in the winter condition at the end of the exposure. Also, thermal comfort was observed to depend closely on the interrelation between Tf and Ta. The present data suggested that local airflow temperature is an important thermal factor regarding thermal sensation and comfort.

Users' fatigue is the biggest technological hurdle facing Interactive Evolutionary Computation (IEC). This paper introduces the idea of "absolute scale" and "neighbour scale" to improve the performance of predicting users' subjective evaluation characteristics in IEC, and thus it will accelerate EC convergence and reduce users' fatigue. We experimentally evaluate the effect of the proposed method using two benchmark functions. The experimental results show that the convergence speed of IEC using the proposed predictor, which learns from absolute evaluation data, is much faster than the conventional one, which learns from relative data, especially in early generations. Also, IEC with predictors that use recent data are more effective than those which use all past data.

Following the integration and modification of the sensory inputs in the spinal cord, the information is transmitted to the primary sensory cortex where the integrated information is further processed and perceived. Processing of the sensory information in the spinal cord has been intensively investigated. However, the mechanisms of how the inputs are processed in the cortex are still unclear. To know the correlation of the sensory processing in the dorsal horn and cortex, in vivo and in vitro patch-clamp recordings were made from rat dorsal horn and sensory cortex. Although dorsal horn neurons showed spontaneous and evoked EPSCs by noxious and non-noxious stimuli, most somatosensory neurons located at 100 to 1000 microm from the surface of the cortex exhibited an oscillatory activity and received synaptic inputs from non-noxious but not noxious receptors. These observations suggest that the synaptic responses in cortical neurons are processed in a more complex manner; and this may be due to the reciprocal synaptic connection between thalamus and cortex.

We propose and then evaluate a new framework for finding the physical parameters of an artificial environment which give rise to given target physiological characteristics. We assume that a human is a system that takes as inputs the physical parameters of an artificial environment and outputs physiological parameters in response. We define our task as the inverse problem; we must find the best inputs from given target outputs. Our proposed framework solves the inverse problem using evolutionary computation techniques to optimize an artificial environment. We evaluate this framework using a simulation with a vibration environment and verify that it works.

Over the past century there has been a large and continuing increase in the frequency of persons aged over 65 years; particularly those aged over 100 years. During the 21st century the number of persons over 100 years will continue to increase. This will occur at such a rapid rate that the 21st century may one day be called the century of centenarians. Frailty and disability secondary to senescence, disease, and trauma have accompanied old age (often defined as age 65 and over) as far back as recorded history. However, during the 20th century, age, frailty, disability, and chronic degenerative diseases have been decoupled to some extant in the most long-lived human populations. Until recently, there was little need to design artificial environments for the unique needs of the elderly due to their low representation in most national populations. Today that need is increasing in concert with the number of persons aged 65 and older. The purpose of this review is to suggest areas wherein physiological anthropologists may have an opportunity to contribute to design trends for this rapidly increasing aging population. Major considerations for design of environments for the elderly are based upon altering the environment to accommodate their declining visual, auditory, and kinesthetic senses, thereby enhancing their declining faculties and improving their autonomy, independence, and self perceptions of well-being. To date most design considerations have been directed toward improving environments for those suffering from Alzheimer's disease or residing within assisted living facilities. Many such design improvements also may be effective in improving life satisfaction and functional abilities of the non-institutionalized elderly.

Normal visual development requires: 1) environmental factors (i.e. sensory experience) and 2) molecular programs that are genetically determined. Experience determines the development and preservation of visual cortical circuitry in accordance with Hebb's principle. The molecular and genetic mechanisms that regulate visual plasticity are less known. Visual experience induces postnatal neural activity that triggers a cascade of molecular processes including release of neurotrophic factors from target neurons and genetic expression of protein synthesis, transcription factors and neurotransmitters. The continuous sensory experience induces activity-dependent tuning of synaptic connections. The present knowledge permits some manipulation of plasticity and the induction of functional changes beneficial for vision. Three areas of intervention will be discussed: 1) enhancement of visual experience for children with ocular disorders, 2) re-organization of visual cortical maps, 3) retinal and cortical implants (prostheses) and transplants.