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Mn doped spinel (MgAl 2 O 4 ) crystals have been grown by floating zone (FZ) techniques with various conditions of O 2 concentrations in the growth atmosphere from 0 to 75 vol%, with a starting composition of molar ratio x= MgO/(MgO+Al 2 O 3 ) from 0.3 to 1.0 and/or Mn concentrations from 1.0 to 6.0 at%. Optical absorption spectra and photoluminescence spectra were evaluated using crystals grown under various growth conditions. The color of the crystals is found to vary with their composition and the O 2 concentration in the atmosphere. Crystals grown under a 100 vol% Ar atmosphere, were a pale green color and emitted a strong green luminescence at λ =520 nm. Colors of stoichiometric crystals, x =1.0, and Mg-poor crystals grown under an oxidizing atmosphere are yellow and red, respectively. Both optical absorption spectra and photoluminescence spectra of Mg-poor, x 2 –Ar) atmosphere are found to vary greatly from those of the stoichiometric crystals.

Two shell color types of the exotic bivalve Corbicula fluminea were collected in Kyoto city, Japan. DNA microfluorometry revealed that both types were diploids with non-reductional spermatozoa. Maternal chromosomes were found to be extruded as two polar bodies at the first meiosis, and the second meiosis could not be observed. Only the male pronucleus was present in the egg cytoplasm and became metaphase chromosomes at the first mitosis. The present study indicates that the diploid C. fluminea in Japan has the same mode of androgenetic reproduction as the triploid C. leana.

The consistently triggered step back of a target during primary saccades of a human subject induced a gradual change in gain, the ratio of the saccade amplitude to the target eccentricity. After a few hundred trials, subjects were able to foveate the displaced target in a single saccade. Presentation of a displaced target showed that human memory guided saccades have gain adaptation just like the well-established adaptation of visually guided saccades. Examining the transfer of adaptation between the memory guided saccade and two other types of visually guided saccades showed that each saccade transferred a 10-25% adapted gain change to the other saccades. However, any pair of the three saccades acquired different gains by adaptation in the same horizontal direction simultaneously, hence each saccade had adaptive capability independent of the others. Adaptation took place even when the appearance of a displaced target was delayed by 400-600 ms from the end of a primary saccade. These findings have important implications about the adaptation, particularly the location and temporal property of the adaptive mechanism in saccade generation.