Eight male students, wearing only shorts, were exposed to 20, 22, 24, 26, and 28°C for 90 minutes on separate days. Relative humidity was 50% and air velocity was less than 20cm/sec. Subjects kept rest in sitting posture for 60 minutes and then took a light fixed work (40W) for 30 minutes on a bicycle ergometer. Their exercise metabolic rate, heart rate, rectal temperature, and mean skin temperature were measured. Measurements between the 25th and 30th minute of exercise were used for statistical analyses.
Metabolic rate at 26°C was significantly lower than that at 20, 22, 24, and 28°C. Heart rate, rectal temperature, and mean skin temperature increased progressively in cooperate with rising of environmental temperature. Linear relationship was observed between air temperature and heart rate. This results means that under conditions of air temperature between 20°C and 28°C the metabolic rate during a light muscular exercise is influenced by the environmental temperature similar to the cases of heart rate and body temperature.

View full abstract

The purpose of this study was to clalify the development of locomotor movement in early childhood analyzing the coordination patterns of four limbs in motion. The coordination patterns of four limbs were defined as "backward cross type", " forward cross type", both of which named by IWAMOTO and TOMITA (1966), and synchronized cross type. To observe the movement sequence of four limbs of children, an experiment was designed employing creeping, running and walking. The subject was instructed by his nurse to walk, then to run quickly. Lastly he was asked to creep like a baby. Total of 162 nursery school children from two to six years of age took part in this experiment. Movements were recorded by 16mm cinecamera (24 frames/sec) or video tape recorder (30 frames/sec).
The results were summarized as follows:
1) The grater part of children aged from two to three years showed "backward cross type" creeping. With the advance of age, coordination pattern was somewhat changed. More than a half of the children, five-year-old and six-year-old, showed" forward cross type" in creeping.
2) Some of the two-year-old children were unable to run. Sequential movements of four limbs of children who were able to run were expressed mostly as "forward cross type". Some of the five-year-old and six-year-old children showed "backward cross type" or "synchronized cross type" in running, and their steps and arm swings in running were somewhat greater than that of the children who showed "forward cross type ".
3) More than a half of the two-year-old children showed their progression without arm swing when they were instructed to walk. With the advance in age, the children who were able to walk with arm swing increased in number, and almost all of them showed "forward cross type" in walking. A few children showed "synchronized cross type" and no one showed "backward cross type" in walking. It seemed that the "forward cross type" walking which had been observed in matured walking of man were obtained in this early childhood.

View full abstract

The purpose of the present study is to clarify the somatotype in the mentally retarded and the normal children 9 through 16 years of age. The mentally retarded subjects consist of 443 boys and 250 girls. The I.O.'s of most of them are under 75. The intellectually normal subjects are 339 boys and 302 girls. The three soatotype components (endomorphy, mesomorphy and ectomorphy) were measured with the use of the Heath-Carter's Anthropometric Method. The results obtained are as follow:
1) The mean endomorphic components ranged f ro n 3.1 to 4.8 in the mentally retarded boys (MRB) and from 2.9 to 3.9 in the normal boys (NB). The differences between the means for the endomorphic component in the two male groups were significant at the 0.05 or 0.01 level at ages 10, and 14. This component was rated higher in MRB than in NB. The largest mean difference occured at age 10.
2) The mean endomorphic components ranged from 4.5 to 5.9 in the mentally retarded girls (MRG) and from 3.4 to 5.4 in the normal girls (NG). The differences between the means in the two female groups were significant at the 0.05 or 0.01 level at ages 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 and 16. This component was rated higher in MRG than in NG.
3) The mean mesomorphic components ranged from 3.8 to 4.2 in MRB and from 3.9 to 4.4 in NB. The differences between the means in the two male groups were not significant at all ages.
4) The mean mesomorphic components ranged from 3.6 to 4.5 in MRG and from 3.1 to 3.7 in NG. The differences between the means in the two female groups were significant at the 0.05 or 0.01 level at ages 11, and 16. At all ages where significant differences occurred, the higher means were obtained in MRG.
5) The mean ectomorphic components ranged from 2.8 to 3.5 in MRB and from 3.2 to 3.6 in NB. Normal male children had significantly high t value only at the age of 10 years.
6) The mean ectomorphic components ranged from 1.7 to 2.9 in MRG and from 2.5 to 3.5 in NG. The differences between the means in the two female groups were significant at the 0.05 or 0.01 level at ages 11, and 16. At all ages where significant differences occurred, the higher means were obtained in NG.
7) The percentage distributions of the MRB and NB into the five somatotype categories (Primary Endomorph, Mesomorph, Ectomorph; Endomesomorphy and Mid-type) on the basis of the anthropometric assessment were 22%-5%-8%-20%-45% and 10%-6%-9%-9%-66% at ages 9, 10 and 11; 15%-11%-14%-17%-43% and 4%-10%-15%-13%-58% at ages 12, 13 and 14; 8%-8%-19%-11%-54% and 8%-13%-10%-12%-57% at ages 15 and 16.
The percentage distributions of MRG and NG were 27%-0%-7%-22%-44% and 19%-0%-10% -3%-68% at ages 9, 10 and 11; 45%-3%-9%-22%-21% and 41%-2%-9%-2%--46% at ages 12, 13 and 14; 47%-0%-2%-30%-21% and 62%-1%-1%-10%-26% at ages 15 and 16.

View full abstract

An adult female skull of the Epi-Jomon period (Esan culture) found at the Minami-Usu 6 site, Date, southern Hokkaido, was measured and described. Metrically, the skull was characterized, among other things, by a relatively long vault and a moderately high upper face. Morphological observations revealed that the facial skeleton of the skull was as a whole reduced in size as compared with that of Jomon crania, while attrition of the teeth was well advanced arid had reached Stage III or IV, as is frequently seen in Jomon crania. PENROSE's shape distances, based on 21 measurements, showed that the Minami-Usu 6 skull was closer to the skulls of the Ainu series than to those of the Jomon series in Honshu. Of the six cranial indices which have been effective in discriminating between Ainu and Jomon crania, four indices suggested the close affinity of the Minami-Usu 6 skull with the Ainu series. With regard to the indices of facial flatness, the frontal and simotic indices of flatness of the Minami-Usu 6 skull were intermediate between the averages of the Ainu and Jomon series, with only the zygomaxillary index of flatness exceeding the averages of both the Ainu and Jomon series. A likelihood ratio analysis of the non-metric cranial variants applied for the Ainu and modern Japanese, based on 29 traits, indicated that the Minami-Usu 6 skull was far more likely to have come from the Ainu population than from the Japanese population. Taking all the results obtained from this study into consideration, it was concluded that the total morphological pattern of the Minami-Usu 6 skull was slightly closer to that of the Ainu series, especially to that of the Ainu in southwestern Hokkaido, than to that of the Jomon series in Honshu.

View full abstract

In the upper deciduous fourth molars and first and second molars in South American squirrel monkeys (Saimiri), variation was found in the morphology of the postprotocrista and the prehypocrista and hence that of the entoflexus. Variations in the relationships between the postprotocrista and the prehypocrista occur as a a series that can be divided into the following five morphological categories. In type A, the postprotocrista connects the protocone with the metacone. The prehypocrista is not developed and thus the entoflexus occurs transversely along the posterior side of the postprotocrista. In type B, the postprotocrista connects the protocone with the metacone as in type A, but the prehypocrista running from the hypocone descends antero-buccally and connects with the base of the postprotocrista nearly at the midpoint between the protocone and the metacone. In type C, the prehypocrista is more developed than in type B and connects with the postprotocrista. Thus, the entoflexus is divided into two parts by the prehypocrista. In type D, the lingual part of the postprotocrista and the prehypocrista are contiguous forming a single ridge and the buccal part of the postprotocrista is less developed than the lingual. In type E, the remnant of the buccal half of the postprotocrista extends to the base of the buccal extremity of the lingual half of the postprotocrista.
In most of the examples the deciduous molars and the first malars of Saimiri were of type B. In the second molars, the frequency varied: in type B, 65%; in type C, 20%; in type D, 10% and in type E, 5%. Thus, in Saimiri, type B occurs most often. In specimens of howler monkeys (Alouatta) observed so far, type E occurred most frequently. On the other hand, in many specimens of night monkey (Aotus) types C and D appeared most often. Thus, the frequencies of the types of molar structure vary in different groups of South American monkeys.
The Miocene Stirtonia which gave rise to extant Alouatta has type A. In the lineage of Stirtonia-Alouatta, the molar structure evolved from type A to type E In this sense, Saimiri is considered to have retained a primitive molar structure.

View full abstract

In order to determine the maximum local energy metabolic rates of seven muscle groups during maximum voluntary contraction (MVC), an application of our prediction method of local muscle energy metabolic rate (YOKOYAMA, 1980a) was considered. Total energy metabolic rates and integrated bipolar surface electromyograms of the seven muscle groups were simultaneously measured during sixteen static contraction conditions. The measurements of the electromyograms were also performed during MVC. The subjects were seven Japanese healthy males between the age of 20 and 31 years. The predicted maximum energy metabolic rates were 254.047±139. 726(mean± S.D.) [n=7] in the muscles of the anterior abdominal wall, 126.343±49.672 [n=7] in the erector spinae muscles, 131.091±35.575 [n=7] in the muscles of the buttock, 80.169±20.689 [n=7] in the posterior femoral muscle group, 154. 977±38.362 [n=7] in the anterior femoral muscle group, 75.838±38.290 [n=7] in the posterior crural muscle group and 34.475±9.583 kcal/h [n=5] in the anterior crural muscle group.

View full abstract

The bipolar surface electromyogram (EMG) of the biceps brachii of school children was recorded during isometric contraction. The EMG power spectrum was obtained for the frequeny range from 6Hz to 192Hz by the autocorrelation and its Fourier transformation technique. The EMG power spectra of school children were compared with those of male adults examined previously. There was no significant difference in the EMG power spectra between school boys and school girls, and between school children and male adults. It could be concluded that the power spectra of the surface EMG are not affected by age and sex in healty subjects aged at least between 5 and 25 years.

View full abstract

Thirteen items of measurements done for each individual consisting of 27 males and 31 females of the Sidhis living in North Kanara, India, are provided. Basic statistical values, findings of the classification of data on major observation items and several photographs are added.

View full abstract