児童英語におけるスピーキング力向上のために― 効果的な指導方法を探る試行的実践 ―

外国語学習者の関心は4技能のうちスピーキング力を向上させたいという希望が年齢を問わず多く、児童も同じである。本研究では、より児童に適したスピーキングの学習方法を検討する。研究目的は児童に効果的と考える指導の前後での結果からスピーキング力の「伸び」を明らかにすること、児童の関心・意欲・態度を明らかにすること、そして児童にとって学びやすい方法を明らかにすることとし、それらの考察を記したものである

Structural dynamics of cereal mitochondrial genomes as revealed by complete nucleotide sequencing of the wheat mitochondrial genome

The application of a new gene-based strategy for sequencing the wheat mitochondrial genome shows its structure to be a 452 528 bp circular molecule, and provides nucleotide-level evidence of intra-molecular recombination. Single, reciprocal and double recombinant products, and the nucleotide sequences of the repeats that mediate their formation have been identified. The genome has 55 genes with exons, including 35 protein-coding, 3 rRNA and 17 tRNA genes. Nucleotide sequences of seven wheat genes have been determined here for the first time. Nine genes have an exon–intron structure. Gene amplification responsible for the production of multicopy mitochondrial genes, in general, is species-specific, suggesting the recent origin of these genes. About 16, 17, 15, 3.0 and 0.2% of wheat mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) may be of genic (including introns), open reading frame, repetitive sequence, chloroplast and retro-element origin, respectively. The gene order of the wheat mitochondrial gene map shows little synteny to the rice and maize maps, indicative that thorough gene shuffling occurred during speciation. Almost all unique mtDNA sequences of wheat, as compared with rice and maize mtDNAs, are redundant DNA. Features of the gene-based strategy are discussed, and a mechanistic model of mitochondrial gene amplification is proposed

Web会議システム（Zoom）を利用した同時双方向遠隔教育の試験的実践

　昨今の新型コロナウイルスの蔓延によって、これまでのような対面式授業が実施しづらくなり、オンライン授業に変更せざるを得ない状況になっている。学習者と教師の双方にとって、いわば未知の領域であるオンライン授業においても、より良い教育を提供するため、基礎的な環境整備のあり方をはじめとして、Web会議システムの使用感やオンライン授業の現状と課題を整理しておくことが重要である。さらに学習者（とその保護者）が対面式授業とオンライン授業の長短についてどのように受け止めているかに関する幅広い知見の蓄積と共有が喫緊の課題でもある。そこで、Web会議システム（主としてZoom）を利用した同時双方向遠隔教育の試験的実践を行い、対面式授業とオンライン授業の長短について調べるために、学習者（とその保護者）に質問紙調査を実施し、オンライン授業の学習者の受け止め方と、オンライン授業に対する教員の側の創意工夫に対する学習者の反応を明らかにすることを試みた

Roles of DRB1*1501 and DRB1*1502 in the pathogenesis of aplastic anemia

金沢大学医学部附属病院内科Objective: Although a number of reports have documented a significantly increased incidence of HLA-DR15 in aplastic anemia (AA), the exact role of HLA-DR15 in the immune mechanisms of AA remains unclear. We herein clarify the difference between DRB1*1501 and DRB1*1502, the two DRB1 alleles that determine the presentation of HLA-DR15, in the pathophysiology of AA. Materials and Methods: We investigated the relationships of the patients* HLA-DRB1 allele with both the presence of a small population of CD55-CD59- (PNH-type) blood cells and the response to antithymocyte globulin (ATG) plus cyclosporin (CsA) therapy in 140 Japanese AA patients. Results: Of the 30 different DRB1 alleles, only DRB1*1501 (33.6% vs 12.8%, pc < 0.01) and DRB1*1502 (43.6% vs 24.4%, pc < 0.01) displayed significantly higher frequencies among the AA patients than among a control. AA patients possessing HLA-DR15 tended to be old, and especially, the frequency of DRB1*1502 in patients 40 years of age and older (52.4%) was markedly higher than that in those younger than 40 years old (16.2%, pc < 0.01). Only DRB1*1501 was significantly associated with the presence of a small population of PNH-type cells and it also showed a good response to ATG plus CsA therapy in a univariate analysis. A multivariate analysis showed only the presence of a small population of PNH-type cells to be a significant factor associated with a good response to the immunosuppressive therapy (p < 0.01). Conclusions: Although both DRB1*1501 and DRB1*1502 contribute to the development of AA, the methods of contribution differ between the two alleles. © 2007 International Society for Experimental Hematology

Graft rejection and hyperacute graft-versus-host disease in stem cell transplantation from non-inherited maternal antigen complementary HLA-mismatched siblings

金沢大学大学院医学系研究科機能再生学Human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-mismatched stem cell transplantation from non-inherited maternal antigen (NIMA)-complementary donors is known to produce stable engraftment without inducing severe graft-versus-host disease (GVHD). We treated two patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and one patient with severe aplastic anemia (SAA) with HLA-mismatched stem cell transplantation (SCT) from NIMA-complementary donors (NIMA-mismatched SCT). The presence of donor and recipient-derived blood cells in the peripheral blood of recipient (donor microchimerism) and donor was documented respectively by amplifying NIMA-derived DNA in two of the three patients. Graft rejection occurred in the SAA patient who was conditioned with a fludarabine-based regimen. Grade III and grade IV acute GVHD developed in patients with AML on day 8 and day 11 respectively, and became a direct cause of death in one patient. The findings suggest that intensive conditioning and immunosuppression after stem cell transplantation are needed in NIMA-mismatched SCT even if donor and recipient microchimerisms is detectable in the donor and recipient before SCT. © 2007 The Authors

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead

Remarkable response of juvenile diffuse sclerosing osteomyelitis of mandible to pamidronate.

We report a juvenile case of diffuse sclerosing osteomyelitis of the mandible that showed a favorable response to pamidronate, a bisphosphonate derivative. Although conventional treatments had been ineffective for five years, pamidronate administration brought about conspicuous improvement both clinically and radiographically. Severe adverse reaction was not found except for low-grade fever and lassitude only on the day following administration. During the course of the treatment, however, nonsuppurative osteomyelitis of the right humerus also occurred, leading to the established diagnosis of chronic recurrent multifocal osteomyelitis. Then, pamidronate therapy was again performed successfully with almost disappearance of clinical symptoms. Both bone-specific alkaline phosphatase (bone formation marker) and pyridinoline cross-linked carboxyterminal telopeptide of type I collagen (ICPT) (bone resorption marker) showed a marked decrease with pamidronate therapy, which suggested that pamidronate is useful for the treatment of chronic recurrent multifocal osteomyelitis with inhibitory effect on bone turnover

Local factors affecting winter habitat use of non-native rainbow trout in a boreal stream in northern Japan

Despite its potential use for population control, the winter ecology of nonnative fishes is still poorly understood due to the difficulty of conducting field surveys. In this study, we investigated the winter habitat use of invasive rainbow trout Oncorhynchus mykiss at the cannel unit scale (i.e., pool, riffle). Twenty-four reaches were surveyed in late December 2013 along the Obicha River, a tributary of the Otofuke River, Tokachi River basin, Hokkaido, Japan. A total of 532 fish were captured, of which 96% were rainbow trout, whereas native salmonid was only a single southern Asian Dolly Varden Salvelinus curilus. Smaller rainbow trout (< 250 mm) used reaches with low velocity, whereas larger trout (250-520 mm) aggregated in specific reaches with deep pools with abundant cover and coarse substrate. A previous tributary-scale study in the same river system showed the importance of velocity and temperature, but not depth and substrate. Therefore, habitat selection would be scale-, as well as size-, dependent. This study provides useful information on capturing large mature adults in winter for effective control of nonnative salmonids