SummaryDevelopment of intelligent robots and rapid increase of aged societies have brought serious necessity of such systems that should facilitate mutual translation of sensory data and linguistic expressions. They are expected to help people, especially with some defected sense-organ, by translating sensory data into words such as "Pungent smell is sensed in the refrigerator!", and otherwise enable people to order a robot to work by words such as "Search the room for a varicolored object."For the purpose to develop such a system, the authors have recently analyzed and described the concepts of Japanese words for "color" and "lightness" based on MIDST(Mental image directed semantic theory) proposed by Yokota,M. et al.The analysis and description of the word concepts were performed approximately in the process as follows. Firstly, each word representing a specific color or lightness(" (=red)", " (=dark)", etc) was associated with a set of specific coordinates (point or range) of the color solid and its concept was defined as such a set of coordinates. Secondly, the words concerning temporal change or spatial distribution of color or lightness(" (=redden)", " (=gradate)", etc) were described as spatiotemporal relations among coordinates of the color solid. Thirdly, a computer system working with image input devices was constructed in order to ground words on real sensory data of color and lightness via the coordinates of the color solid in an interactive way with a human instructor, and has been found a fairly good success.

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A lecithin-type macromonomer 1 was synthesized from natural egg phosphatidylcholine (lecithin). The macromonomer has an olefinic polymerizable group at the hydrophilic site, and is characterized by its chemical structure resembling lecithin. It could be polymerized in a liposome system by UV irradiation, giving polymers with a maximum molecular weight of 98000. Polymers with molecular weights above 48000 form thin and flexible membranes with a few 10 pm in thickness. The polymers can also be redispersed in water and the liposomes can be reconstituted.

Two studies examined the declining of memory functions in normal elderly persons using the Yokota memory test (YMT), which includes 15 items concerning verbal and non-verbal memory functions. In the first study, 552 subjects over 40 years of age in five age groups were examined. Factor analysis revealed that YMT consisted of two factors pertaining to short-term/working memory, and two factors pertaining to long-term memory. It is suggested that the former was more affected than the latter, with aging. In the second study, YMT was examined in relation to the revised version of Hasegawa dementia scale (HDS-R), which was the most popular intelligence scale for the elderly in Japan. As a result, memory functions differentially declined with the decreasing score of HDS-R, which suggests that memory functions differentially declined with progressive risk of dementia.

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