Interdisciplinary collaboration between climate and cultural understanding education for promoting the fundamental ESD literacy A report of the lesson practice in the university on climate and “seasonal feeling” in the northern Europe

ESD的視点を育むための学際的な指導法開発へ向けて，北欧の夏の気候と季節サイクルを中心に日々の気温の変動幅にも注目した気候背景を解析するとともに，大学での授業実践結果を分析した。北欧の冬には，平均気温だけでなく極端な低温日の気温もドイツより更に低く，極端な低温日は4月初め頃まで出現する。また，夏至〜7月一杯までが気温のピークで，その後は急降温する。授業では，絵画作品の鑑賞や，伝統的な季節の行事やくらしについての映像の視聴，伝承曲の鑑賞を行ない，夏至祭をテーマとする音楽や美術の表現活動を行った。音楽の創作活動では小物の打楽器類などを用いた。表現活動を通して，季節の特徴や移り変わり，人々の生活，気持ちなどへの自分の注目点を意識することにより，そこに住む人々の季節感と自分の感じ方とに繋がりを得る機会になったと考えられる

The Analysis of Vocational Aptitude Changing with Age

The assumption that vocational aptitude changed with age and with the kind of occupation was examined from the tendency of the fitted curve for the score of the aptitude test. 9 vocational aptitudes were measured by the general vocational aptitude test by Japan Labor Ministry. Subjects were 382 male workers (design engineers, turners, welders, can manufacturing workers, and crane operators) of from 20 to 59 years old, and 348 male and female students (junior high school, vocational school, and university) of from 15 to 19 years old. The design engineers' aptitudes advanced along the quadratic curve until 31 years old, but almost all the aptitudes of the other workers fell along the linear curve with age. The design engineers preserved various aptitudes until 52 years old, the turners 44, and the welders, the can manufacturing workers, and the crane operators 37. The students' aptitudes were equal to those of the workers of from 15 to 25 years old. The workers preserved Spatial aptitude and Numerical aptitude until 45 years old. This could be said in all the occupations here. Further it was made clear from the micromotion study that the influence of age was caused by therblig

Asymmetric Seasonal March from Autumn to the next Spring around Japan (At the Viewpoint of Development of Interdisciplinary Class on the Climate Environment and the Seasonal Feeling)

The present study is a part of the activity to develop an interdisciplinary class on the climate environment around the Japan Islands and the “seasonal feeling” there, with attention to the relation to the phase difference among seasonal marches of the Asian monsoon subsystems. As an interesting example for that, we compared detailed features from autumn to midwinter with those from midwinter to spring around the Japan Islands, with focus on the asymmetric seasonal march between them. Comparison of “seasonal feeling” expressed in the Japanese classic poems called “Wa-Ka” and in the Japanese artistic songs between those seasons was made, at the viewpoint of the above asymmetric seasonal march

Interdisciplinary Class in Okayama University on the Climate Environment around Japan in Association with the Variety of Seasonal Feeling (with Attention to the Seasonal Cycle of Rainfall in the Warm Season)

The present study is a part of the activity to develop an interdisciplinary class on the climate environment around the Japan Islands in association with the “seasonal feeling”, with attention to the seasonal cycle of the weather systems and the rainfall characteristics during the warm season. Firstly, the school song “Wa-ka-ba” (which means the deep green leaves) was analyzed as a typical song expressing the season just between the spring and the Baiu, for developing study materials for the joint activity of meteorology to music. Next, seasonal difference of the rainfall characteristics around the Japan Islands was reviewed together with the new preliminary analyses, with attention to the contribution of the “heavy rainfall days” to the total precipitation amount. Finally, the joint activity of the art with meteorology for the class at the Faculty of Education, Okayama University was reported, together with the analyses of the students’ works expressing the rainfall event in a specified season by themselves

Coagulation and fibrinolysis abnormalities in familial amyloid polyneuropathy

Objective: Familial amyloid polyneuropathy (FAP) is an autosomal dominant form of hereditary amyloidosis. Several studies reported coagulation factor X deficiency and excessive fibrinolysis in immunoglobulin light chain amyloidosis. However, few have investigated coagulation and fibrinolysis in FAP. The objective of this study was to determine abnormalities in plasma biomarkers of coagulation and fibrinolysis in FAP. Methods: We prospectively recruited eight FAP patients with transthyretin mutations and ten age-matched control patients with other neuropathies in our university. We examined plasma biomarkers of coagulation and fibrinolysis including prothrombin time, activated partial thromboplastin time, fibrinogen, fibrin/fibrinogen degradation products, D-dimer, α2-antiplasmin, antithrombin, plasminogen, thrombin-antithrombin complex, plasmin-α2-antiplasmin complex, prothrombin fragment 1+2, and coagulation factor X. The MannWhitney U test was performed for statistical comparisons between FAP and control groups. Results: FAP patients exhibited significantly decreased levels of coagulation factor X, plasminogen and α2-antiplasmin, and significantly increased levels of prothrombin fragment 1+2 compared to control patients. Conclusion: Our results indicate abnormalities of coagulation and fibrinolysis in FAP patients. © 2012 Informa UK, Ltd

Apparent Power Law Scaling of Variable Range Hopping Conduction in Carbonized Polymer Nanofibers

We induce dramatic changes in the structure of conducting polymer nanofibers by carbonization at 800°C and compare charge transport properties between carbonized and pristine nanofibers. Despite the profound structural differences, both types of systems display power law dependence of current with voltage and temperature, and all measurements can be scaled into a single universal curve. We analyze our experimental data in the framework of variable range hopping and argue that this mechanism can explain transport properties of pristine polymer nanofibers as well