子どもにとっての「ジェンダーの二分法」 : 幼児を対象にしたインタビューの分析

The purpose of this article is to examine the structure of children\u27s attitudes toward the "dichotomy of gender" through interviews with preschool children. Data was collected during July and August 2006. A total of 67 children in the Kyushu and Chugoku districts responded to the interview. Questions were about their preference of clothing (shorts and skirt), colors (red, blue, green, pink) toys (car, a stuffed animal, blocks, and play house items), characters (Hello Kitty, GoGo Sentai Boukenger, Futari wa Pretty Cure, Pikachu); their attitudes toward play activities (playing jump rope, playing soccer, playing untei, a horizontal ladder, and playing house), and asking them which gender these things were appropriate for. The findings are as follows : Firstly, the children\u27s preferences with clothing, colors, toys and characters were differentiated according to heir gender, and they took them for granted. Secondly, these children thought that three of the play activities were gender differentiated: playing soccer and playing untei are for boys and playing house is for girls. thirdly, some children could cross the gender border, with variation of preferences. I discuss these results in terms of gender construction during early childhood

スポーツマンガにおけるジェンダー秩序に関する考察 : 野球マンガにおける女性監督の分析より

The purpose of this article is to examine the subversion and maintenance of gender order as portrayed in Japanese baseball comics through content analysis of the images of female managers. The content analysis in this study was based on the idea of "social constructionalism," in which researchers read and interpret the texts subjectively, rather than analyze the texts objectively. For this analysis, four baseball comics describing female managers of senior high school baseball teams were chosen, three of which were popular. The content analysis was conducted with interpretive reading of each comic, interpreting the representation of the female baseball manager from feminist\u27s and queer sociologist\u27s perspectives. The findings were as follows: Firstly, female managers were represented as exceptions, especially in earlier published comics. Secondly, they were resistant to opposition from their players and other persons through demonstration of their power and skills. Thirdly, their femininity was a point of focus and some male characters looked upon them as sexual objects. These items are discussed in terms of Sedgwick\u27s`homosocial desire\u27 and Butler\u27s`subversion\u27 and maintenance of the gender order

スポーツマンガに描かれたジェンダー文化 : 女子バレーボールを題材に

The purpose of this article is to examine the aspects of gender culture as portrayed in Japanese volleyball comics through content analysis. The content analysis in this study was based on the idea of "social constructionalism," in which researchers read and interpret the texts subjectively, rather than analyze the texts objectively. For this analysis, six volleyball comics describing female players were chosen, three of which were popular. The content analysis was conducted with interpretive reading of each comic, interpreting the representation of the female players and their coaches from feminist\u27s perspectives. The findings were as follows: Firstly, most of the coaches were male, they were represented as tough, conducting rigorous training to their teams, so there was an asymmetrical relationships related to gender in the coach-player relationships. Secondly, especially in the girls\u27 comics, some kinds of "romantic love" were represented, in which a female will finally find her sweetheart. Thirdly, however, some different patterns of coach-player relationship and male-female relationship were represented in the recent comics. These items are discussed in terms of the `subversion\u27 and maintenance of the gender order

Identification and characterization of a fluorescent flagellar protein from the brown alga Scytosiphon lomentaria (Scytosiphonales, Phaeophyceae): A flavoprotein homologous to Old Yellow Enzyme

The posterior flagellum of the zoospore of the brown alga Scytosiphon lomentaria exhibits bright green autofluorescence. To identify the fluorescent flagellar substance(s), we isolated flagella from zoospores and partially purified a flavoprotein by anion-exchange and gel-filtration chromatography. Spectrofluorometric and chromatographic analyses showed that the flavoprotein had an apparent molecular mass of 41 kDa and a non-covalently bound flavin mononucleotide as a chromophore. Based on partial amino acid sequences of the protein, a cDNA of the 41-kDa flavoprotein was cloned and sequenced. The deduced amino acid sequence of the cDNA was homologous to that of the Old Yellow Enzyme family distributed in proteobacteria, yeasts and vascular plants

Interferometric Observations of the T Tauri Stars in the MBM 12 Cloud

We have carried out a millimeter interferometric continuum survey toward 7 YSOs in the MBM 12 cloud. Thermal emissions associated with 2 YSOs were detected above the 3-$\sigma$ level at 2.1 mm, and one also showed a 1.3 mm thermal emission. Another object was marginally detected at 2.1 mm. Spectral energy distributions of the YSOs are well fitted by a simple power-law disk model. Masses of the circumstellar disks are estimated to be an order of 0.05 M_{\sun}. The circumstellar disks in the MBM 12 cloud have properties in common with the disks in nearby star-forming regions, in terms of disk parameters such as a disk mass, as well as an infrared excess.Comment: 9 pages, 3 figures, accepted by ApJ Letter

H band Image of a Planetary Companion around HR 8799 in 2002

The discovery of three planetary companions around HR 8799 (Marois et al. 2008) marked a significant epoch in direct imaging of extrasolar planets. Given the importance of this system, we re-analyzed H band images of HR 8799 obtained with the Subaru 36-elements adaptive optics (AO) in July 2002. The low-order AO imaging combined with the classical PSF-subtraction methods even revealed the extrasolar planet, HR 8799b. Our observations in 2002 confirmed that it has been orbiting HR 8799 in a counter-clockwise direction. The flux of HR 8799b was consistent with those in the later epochs within the uncertainty of 0.25 mag, further supporting the planetary mass estimate by Marois et al. (2008).Comment: 14 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ Lette

Hornerin deposits in neuronal intranuclear inclusion disease : direct identification of proteins with compositionally biased regions in inclusions

Neuronal intranuclear inclusion disease (NIID) is a neurodegenerative disorder, characterized by the presence of eosinophilic inclusions (NIIs) within nuclei of central and peripheral nervous system cells. This study aims to identify the components of NIIs, which have been difficult to analyze directly due to their insolubility. In order to establish a method to directly identify the components of NIIs, we first analyzed the huntingtin inclusion-rich fraction obtained from the brains of Huntington disease model mice. Although the sequence with expanded polyglutamine could not be identified by liquid-chromatography mass spectrometry, amino acid analysis revealed that glutamine of the huntingtin inclusion-rich fraction increased significantly. This is compatible with the calculated amino acid content of the transgene product. Therefore, we applied this method to analyze the NIIs of diseased human brains, which may have proteins with compositionally biased regions, and identified a serine-rich protein called hornerin. Since the analyzed NII-rich fraction was also serine-rich, we suggested hornerin as a major component of the NIIs. A specific distribution of hornerin in NIID was also investigated by Matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization imaging mass spectrometry and immunofluorescence. Finally, we confirmed a variant of hornerin by whole-exome sequencing and DNA sequencing. This study suggests that hornerin may be related to the pathological process of this NIID, and the direct analysis of NIIs, especially by amino acid analysis using the NII-rich fractions, would contribute to a deeper understanding of the disease pathogenesis.Peer reviewe