Workplace reform with changing management through the user participation workshop : the case study of Seiyo City Office / Ikumi Egawa

The research explains about workplace reform, aimed at improving productivity of General Affairs and Policy Planning department of Seiyo officeby changing management through the user participation workshop at 4th floor of Seiyo city office and on the changes of workplace reform. The purpose of this research is to find the changes that are worker's behaviour and worker’s awareness of workplace through workplace reform. The researchers surveyed changes, worker's behaviour and worker's awareness of workplace using workplace reform at 4th floor of Seiyo office as case study. In workplace reform, in order to create a place where new work style can be practiced, the researchers conducted the user participation workshops with workers a total of 6 times. Through the workshops, concept of work style and plan of renovation were proposed. In addition, the researchers did a survey using two methods which were a set of questionnaire and 3 observationsthat is before the workplace renovation, 3 months after the renovation, and 1 year and 3 months after the renovation. The findings obtained from the questionnaire in the first three months after the renovation showed that the opinions of the workers were divided between pros and cons against workplace reform. However, the survey of 1 year and three months after the renovation showed that almost all workers are satisfied with the new environment. In addition, the researchers found that a positive correlation exist between participation rate of workshops and the satisfaction level. The findings suggest the worth of workshops for workplace reform. In the Observation Survey, the workers needed to select a place freely where they can work comfortably after the workplace reform. For example, they chose to work in refresh space. In addition, the findings from the survey showed that the floor became livelier when the participation rate increses at that workplace. Additionally, the participants became more conscious of the work style such as features of work style, after workplace renovation; they are able to clearly differentiate between short intermittent works separated by conversation and phone and personal work on concentration

HPV16 and 18 genome amplification show different E4-dependence, with 16E4 enhancing E1 nuclear accumulation and replicative efficiency via its cell cycle arrest and kinase activation functions

To clarify E1^E4's role during high-risk HPV infection, the E4 proteins of HPV16 and 18 were compared side by side using an isogenic keratinocyte differentiation model. While no effect on cell proliferation or viral genome copy number was observed during the early phase of either virus life cycle, time-course experiments showed that viral genome amplification and L1 expression were differently affected upon differentiation, with HPV16 showing a much clearer E4 dependency. Although E4 loss never completely abolished genome amplification, its more obvious contribution in HPV16 focused our efforts on 16E4. As previously suggested, in the context of the virus life cycle, 16E4s G2-arrest capability was found to contribute to both genome amplification success and L1 accumulation. Loss of 16E4 also lead to a reduced maintenance of ERK, JNK and p38MAPK activity throughout the genome amplifying cell layers, with 16E4 (but not 18E4) co-localizing precisely with activated cytoplasmic JNK in both wild type raft tissue, and HPV16-induced patient biopsy tissue. When 16E1 was co-expressed with E4, as occurs during genome amplification $\textit{in vivo}$, the E1 replication helicase accumulated preferentially in the nucleus, and in transient replication assays, E4 stimulated viral genome amplification. Interestingly, a 16E1 mutant deficient in its regulatory phosphorylation sites no longer accumulated in the nucleus following E4 co-expression. E4-mediated stabilisation of 16E2 was also apparent, with E2 levels declining in organotypic raft culture when 16E4 was absent. These results suggest that 16E4-mediated enhancement of genome amplification involves its cell cycle inhibition and cellular kinase activation functions, with E4 modifying the activity and function of viral replication proteins including E1. These activities of 16E4, and the different kinase patterns seen here with HPV18, 31 and 45, may reflect natural differences in the biology and tropisms of these viruses, as well as differences in E4 function.The work was supported by the UK Medical Research Council (grant ref. MC_PC_13050 / Molecular biology of human papilloma virus infection to JD, http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk/ project/A691 306C-DAA9- 4078-B5D E- 2096CF3C8A18)

Lineage Diversion of T Cell Receptor Transgenic Thymocytes Revealed by Lineage Fate Mapping

Background: The binding of the T cell receptor (TCR) to major histocompatibility complex (MHC) molecules in the thymus determines fates of $TCR\alpha\beta$ lymphocytes that subsequently home to secondary lymphoid tissue. TCR transgenic models have been used to study thymic selection and lineage commitment. Most TCR transgenic mice express the rearranged $TCR\alpha\beta$ prematurely at the double negative stage and abnormal TCRαβ populations of T cells that are not easily detected in non-transgenic mice have been found in secondary lymphoid tissue of TCR transgenic mice. Methodology and Principal Findings: To determine developmental pathways of TCR-transgenic thymocytes, we used Cre-LoxP-mediated fate mapping and show here that premature expression of a transgenic $TCR\alpha\beta$ diverts some developing thymocytes to a developmental pathway which resembles that of gamma delta cells. We found that most peripheral T cells with the HY-TCR in male mice have bypassed the RORγt-positive $CD4^{+}8^{+}$ (double positive, DP) stage to accumulate either as $CD4^{-}8^{-}$ (double negative, DN) or as $CD8\alpha^{+}$ T cells in lymph nodes or gut epithelium. Likewise, DN $TCR\alpha\beta$ cells in lymphoid tissue of female mice were not derived from DP thymocytes. Conclusion: The results further support the hypothesis that the premature expression of the $TCR\alpha\beta$ can divert DN thymocytes into gamma delta lineage cells

Discrete approaches to quantum gravity in four dimensions

The construction of a consistent theory of quantum gravity is a problem in theoretical physics that has so far defied all attempts at resolution. One ansatz to try to obtain a non-trivial quantum theory proceeds via a discretization of space-time and the Einstein action. I review here three major areas of research: gauge-theoretic approaches, both in a path-integral and a Hamiltonian formulation, quantum Regge calculus, and the method of dynamical triangulations, confining attention to work that is strictly four-dimensional, strictly discrete, and strictly quantum in nature.Comment: 33 pages, invited contribution to Living Reviews in Relativity; the author welcomes any comments and suggestion

Comment on "Drug Screening for ALS Using Patient-Specific Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells"

Egawa et al. recently showed the value of patient-specific induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) for modeling amyotrophic lateral sclerosis in vitro. Their study and our work highlight the need for complementary assays to detect small, but potentially important, phenotypic differences between control iPSC lines and those carrying disease mutations

Cultural trauma, counter-narratives, and dialogical intellectuals: the works of Murakami Haruki and Mori Tatsuya in the context of the Aum affair

In this article, we offer a new conceptualization of intellectuals as carriers of cultural trauma through a case study of the Aum Affair, a series of crimes and terrorist attacks committed by the Japanese new religious movement Aum Shinrikyō. In understanding the performative roles intellectuals play in trauma construction, we offer a new dichotomy between “authoritative intellectuals,” who draw on their privileged parcours and status to impose a distinct trauma narrative, and “dialogical intellectuals,” who engage with local actors dialogically to produce polyphonic and open-ended trauma narratives. We identify three dimensions of dialogical intellectual action: firstly, the intellectuals may be involved in dialogue with local participants; secondly, the intellectual products themselves may be dialogical in content; and thirdly, there might be a concerted effort on the part of the intellectuals to record and to disseminate dialogue between local participants. In the context of the Aum Affair, we analyze the works of Murakami Haruki and Mori Tatsuya as dialogical intellectuals while they sought, with the help of local actors’ experiences, to challenge and to alter the orthodox trauma narrative of Aum Shinrikyō as exclusively a social evil external to Japanese society and an enemy to be excluded from it. Towards the end of the article, we discuss the broader significance of this case study and suggest that in light of recent societal and technological developments, the role and scope of dialogical intellectuals as carriers of trauma are changing and possibly expanding

Pion photoproduction on the nucleon in the quark model

We present a detailed quark-model study of pion photoproduction within the effective Lagrangian approach. Cross sections and single-polarization observables are investigated for the four charge channels, $\gamma p\to \pi^+ n$, $\gamma n\to \pi^- p$, $\gamma p\to \pi^0 p$, and $\gamma n\to \pi^0 n$. Leaving the $\pi N\Delta$ coupling strength to be a free parameter, we obtain a reasonably consistent description of these four channels from threshold to the first resonance region. Within this effective Lagrangian approach, strongly constrainted by the quark model, we consider the issue of double-counting which may occur if additional {\it t}-channel contributions are included.Comment: Revtex, 35 pages, 16 eps figures; version to appear on PR

Photoproduction of pions and properties of baryon resonances from a Bonn-Gatchina partial wave analysis

Masses, widths and photocouplings of baryon resonances are determined in a coupled-channel partial wave analysis of a large variety of data. The Bonn-Gatchina partial wave formalism is extended to include a decomposition of t- and u-exchange amplitudes into individual partial waves. The multipole transition amplitudes for $\gamma p\to p\pi^0$ and $\gamma p\to n\pi^+$ are given and compared to results from other analyses.Comment: 18 pages, 14 figure