タイにおける所得格差と政治的対立 : 所得アプローチからケイパビリティ・アプローチへ

学位の種別:課程博士University of Tokyo(東京大学

INCOME DISTRIBUTION AND THE MEDIUM-TERM TREND OF INEQUALITY IN THAILAND

Income distribution in Thailand has become the central issue due to the unequal distribution between modern and agricultural sector especially in the poorest Northeast which has the greatest number of agricultural household among regions. The hypothesis on inequality which has been discussed widely is the Kuznets inverted U- curve hypothesis that income inequality increases in the early stage of economic development and decreases in the later stage. The inequality trend in the medium-term showed the downward trend after the peak of inequality in 1992. This could imply a development of Thai economy. However, income distribution and regional inequality are still problematic. Furthermore, although agricultural sector has an important role for Thai economy, the agricultural wage is still low, 2.61 and 1.69 times lower than the service and production sectors respectively. This research mainly focuses on the results of field survey in Mahasarakham and Kalasin provinces in the Northeast of Thailand. It is important to know the opinions of the people in the most unequal region. As field survey, people still would like to be supported from the government in terms of income more than other aspects but it is difficult to distribute enough support thoroughly. On the contrary, many people are satisfied with their living and not affected by the limitation of income. Moreover, gathering the group to support members could help to improve their living and without waiting only government’s support

Biomagnetic of Apatite-Coated Cobalt Ferrite: A Core–Shell Particle for Protein Adsorption and pH-Controlled Release

Magnetic nanoparticle composite with a cobalt ferrite (CoFe2O4, (CF)) core and an apatite (Ap) coating was synthesized using a biomineralization process in which a modified simulated body fluid (1.5SBF) solution is the source of the calcium phosphate for the apatite formation. The core–shell structure formed after the citric acid–stabilized cobalt ferrite (CFCA) particles were incubated in the 1.5 SBF solution for 1 week. The mean particle size of CFCA-Ap is about 750 nm. A saturation magnetization of 15.56 emug-1 and a coercivity of 1808.5 Oe were observed for the CFCA-Ap obtained. Bovine serum albumin (BSA) was used as the model protein to study the adsorption and release of the proteins by the CFCA-Ap particles. The protein adsorption by the CFCA-Ap particles followed a more typical Freundlich than Langmuir adsorption isotherm. The BSA release as a function of time became less rapid as the CFCA-Ap particles were immersed in higher pH solution, thus indicating that the BSA release is dependent on the local pH

Prolactin Receptor in Primary Hyperparathyroidism – Expression, Functionality and Clinical Correlations

<div><h3>Background</h3><p>Primary hyperparathyroidism (PHPT) is an endocrine disorder most commonly affecting women, suggesting a role for female hormones and/or their receptors in parathyroid adenomas. We here investigated the prolactin receptor (PRLr) which is associated with tumours of the breast and other organs.</p> <h3>Methodology/Principal Findings</h3><p>PRLr expression was investigated in a panel of 37 patients with sporadic parathyroid tumours and its functionality in cultured parathyroid tumour cells. In comparison with other tissues and breast cancer cells, high levels of prolactin receptor gene (<em>PRLR</em>) transcripts were demonstrated in parathyroid tissues. PRLr products of 60/70 kDa were highly expressed in all parathyroid tumours. In addition varying levels of the 80 kDa PRLr isoform, with known proliferative activity, were demonstrated. In parathyroid tumours, PRLr immunoreactivity was observed in the cytoplasm (in all cases, n = 36), cytoplasmic granulae (n = 16), the plasma membrane (n = 12) or enlarged lysosomes (n = 4). In normal parathyroid rim (n = 28), PRLr was uniformly expressed in the cytoplasm and granulae. In <em>in vitro</em> studies of short-term cultured human parathyroid tumour cells, prolactin stimulation was associated with significant transcriptional changes in JAK/STAT, RIG-I like receptor and type II interferon signalling pathways as documented by gene expression profiling. Moreover, <em>PRLR</em> gene expression in parathyroid tumours was inversely correlated with the patients’ plasma calcium levels.</p> <h3>Conclusions</h3><p>We demonstrate that the prolactin receptor is highly abundant in human parathyroid tissues and that PRLr isoforms expression and PRLr subcellular localisation are altered in parathyroid tumours. Responsiveness of PRLr to physiological levels of prolactin was observed in the form of increased PTH secretion and altered gene transcription with significant increase of RIG-I like receptor, JAK-STAT and Type II interferon signalling pathways. These data suggest a role of the prolactin receptor in parathyroid adenomas.</p> </div

Agomelatine, venlafaxine, and running exercise effectively prevent anxiety- and depression-like behaviors and memory impairment in restraint stressed rats.

Several severe stressful situations, e.g., natural disaster, infectious disease out break, and mass casualty, are known to cause anxiety, depression and cognitive impairment, and preventive intervention for these stress complications is worth exploring. We have previously reported that the serotonin-norepinephrine-dopamine reuptake inhibitor, venlafaxine, as well as voluntary wheel running are effective in the treatment of anxiety- and depression-like behaviors in stressed rats. But whether they are able to prevent deleterious consequences of restraint stress in rats, such as anxiety/depression-like behaviors and memory impairment that occur afterward, was not known. Herein, male Wistar rats were pre-treated for 4 weeks with anti-anxiety/anti-depressive drugs, agomelatine and venlafaxine, or voluntary wheel running, followed by 4 weeks of restraint-induced stress. During the stress period, rats received neither drug nor exercise intervention. Our results showed that restraint stress induced mixed anxiety- and depression-like behaviors, and memory impairment as determined by elevated plus-maze, elevated T-maze, open field test (OFT), forced swimming test (FST), and Morris water maze (MWM). Both pharmacological pre-treatments and running successfully prevented the anxiety-like behavior, especially learned fear, in stressed rats. MWM test suggested that agomelatine, venlafaxine, and running could prevent stress-induced memory impairment, but only pharmacological treatments led to better novel object recognition behavior and positive outcome in FST. Moreover, western blot analysis demonstrated that venlafaxine and running exercise upregulated brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) expression in the hippocampus. In conclusion, agomelatine, venlafaxine as well as voluntary wheel running had beneficial effects, i.e., preventing the restraint stress-induced anxiety/depression-like behaviors and memory impairment

Osteoporosis in diabetes mellitus: Possible cellular and molecular mechanisms

Osteoporosis, a global age-related health problem in both male and female elderly, insidiously deteriorates the microstructure of bone, particularly at trabecular sites, such as vertebrae, ribs and hips, culminating in fragility fractures, pain and disability. Although osteoporosis is normally associated with senescence and estrogen deficiency, diabetes mellitus (DM), especially type 1 DM, also contributes to and/or aggravates bone loss in osteoporotic patients. This topic highlight article focuses on DM-induced osteoporosis and DM/osteoporosis comorbidity, covering alterations in bone metabolism as well as factors regulating bone growth under diabetic conditions including, insulin, insulin-like growth factor-1 and angiogenesis. Cellular and molecular mechanisms of DM-related bone loss are also discussed. This information provides a foundation for the better understanding of diabetic complications and for development of early screening and prevention of osteoporosis in diabetic patients