The Imperial Japanese Soldiers and Perpetrator Trauma

The Imperial Japanese Soldiers and Perpetrator Trauma. Volume 36, Issue 2 of the New England Journal of Public Policy

Summary of the First Symposium: Japan\u27s Experience of the War

Summary of the First Symposium: Japan\u27s Experience of the War. Volume 36, Issue 2 of the New England Journal of Public Policy

First Symposium Discussion

First Symposium Discussion. Volume 36, Issue 2 of the New England Journal of Public Policy

A Study on Parental Involvement in Children’s Education in Post-socialist Mongolia : Focuses on Pre-primary and Primary Education

This study focuses on students in Mongolia, who have succeeded on their educational path to university despite childhood hardships caused by educational confusion after the introduction of a market economy in the 1990s. The purpose of this study is to clarify the factors of parental involvement in children’s education in post-socialist Mongolia. In the verification process, an analysis proved that parental involvement in children’s education has no statistically significant correlations to the students’ hometown or parents’ educational background, which is contradictive to past studies which were mainly conducted in developed countries. The analyses of the focus group data as well as the quantitative data show that parental aspiration and incentive for their children’s education exert a beneficial impact on parental involvement. This shows that understanding educational development necessitates examining developing countries within their local context

Activities of bone morphogenetic proteins in prolactin regulation by somatostatin analogs in rat pituitary GH3 cells

Involvement of the pituitary BMP system in the modulation of prolactin (PRL) secretion regulated by somatostatin analogs, including octreotide (OCT) and pasireotide (SOM230), and a dopamine agonist, bromocriptine (BRC), was examined in GH3 cells. GH3 cells are rat pituitary somato-lactotrope tumor cells that express somatostatin receptors (SSTRs) and BMP system molecules including BMP-4 and -6. Treatment with BMP-4 and -6 increased PRL and cAMP secretion by GH3 cells. The BMP-4 effects were neutralized by adding a BMP-binding protein Noggin. These findings suggest the activity of endogenous BMPs in augmenting PRL secretion by GH3 cells. BRC and SOM230 reduced PRL secretion, but OCT failed to reduce the PRL level. In GH3 cells activated by forskolin, BRC suppressed forskolin-induced PRL secretion with reduction in cAMP levels. OCT did not affect forskolin-induced PRL level, while SOM230 reduced PRL secretion and PRL mRNA expression induced by forskolin. BMP-4 treatment enhanced the reducing effect of SOM230 on forskolin-induced PRL level while BMP-4 did not affect the effects of OCT or BRC. Noggin treatment had no significant effect on the BRC actions reducing PRL levels by GH3 cells. However, in the presence of Noggin, OCT elicited an inhibitory effect on forskolin-induced PRL secretion and PRL mRNA expression, whereas the SOM230 effect on PRL reduction was in turn impaired. It was further found that BMP-4 and -6 suppressed SSTR-2 but increased SSTR-5 mRNA expression of GH3 cells. These findings indicate that Noggin rescues SSTR-2 but downregulates SSTR-5 by neutralizing endogenous BMP actions, leading to an increase in OCT sensitivity and a decrease in SOM230 sensitivity of GH3 cells. In addition, BMP signaling was facilitated in GH3 cells treated with forskolin. Collectively, these findings suggest that BMPs elicit differential actions in the regulation of PRL release dependent on cellular cAMP-PKA activity. BMPs may play a key role in the modulation of SSTR sensitivity of somato-lactotrope cells in an autocrine/paracrine manner

Fertility knowledge and the timing of first childbearing: a cross-sectional study in Japan

Although fertility educational initiatives have increased in developed countries to prevent infertility and to broaden fertility choices, the relationship between knowledge and behaviour is still poorly understood. In order to investigate the association between fertility knowledge and timing of childbearing, we investigated male and female participants between 35 and 44 years of age who had children (n = 640) from an online survey conducted in Japan in 2013. The age at which participants actually gave birth to or fathered their first child was compared between those who were aware for at least a decade of age-related decline in female fertility (hereinafter, those with past fertility knowledge) and those without. Age at first birth was significantly younger and more narrowly distributed among women with past fertility knowledge than among those without: 28.2 ± 3.4 vs. 29.8 ± 4.6 (mean ± SD). A multivariate linear regression analysis showed that women with past fertility knowledge gave birth to their first child 2.34 [95% confidence interval (CI): 1.09–3.59] years earlier compared to those without such knowledge. No significant relation existed among men. Being informed in young adulthood about the facts of fertility might be related to starting a family at an earlier age, although further longitudinal evaluation will be necessary

Facile synthesis of WO3•H2O square nanoplates via a mild aging of ion-exchanged precursor

A facile method to synthesize WO3·H2O square nanoplates via a mild aging (50°C) of ion-exchanged precursor was developed. The ion-exchanged precursor was prepared by passing the sodium tungstate solution (Na2WO4) through a protonated cation-exchange resin, and used as impurity-free acidified solution (H2WO4) for synthesizing WO3·H2O nanoplates. No shape-directing additive was employed. It was observed that the yellow particles were precipitated under aging at 50°C. After aging for 8 h, the precipitated particles were characterized as the WO3·H2O nanoplates, and their morphological evolution to square platelet proceeded with an increase of aging time. After aging for 24 h, the WO3·H2O square nanoplates were predominantly synthesized. The square nanoplates consisted of a few or several stacked thin layers (thickness, ~10 nm/layer), and provided the well-defined {010} facet for two dominantly exposed surfaces and {101} side facets. Their lateral dimension reached several hundreds of nanometers. It is thus demonstrated that the mild aging (50°C) of the ion-exchanged precursor is a simple and impurity-free synthetic route for WO3·H2O square nanoplates. In addition, the monoclinic WO3 nanoplates were successfully obtained by dehydration-induced topochemical transformation of the WO3·H2O nanoplates

AAO-template assisted synthesis and size control of one-dimensional TiO2 nanomaterials

Anodic aluminum oxide (AAO)-template method is a synthesis process that AAO film with uniform pores is used as a template for 1-D nanostructure. In this study, we have synthesized well-defined TiO2 nanorods or nanowires using AAO-template method. As for the first method, AAO template was immersed for 1 min in the Ti precursor solution with slightly decompressed atmosphere (Immersion setting, IS). As for the second method, AAO template was put on the filtering flask as a cover plate. Precursor solution was dropped on the AAO template for 1 min with vacuuming from the bottom part of AAO template (Vacuum and drop setting, VDS). With the calcination and HCl treatment to remove AAO, polycrystalline TiO2 anatase nanorods and nanowires were successfully fabricated, just by changing the sample setting, viz., IS and VDS, respectively