English Language Education for Engineering Majors at a University in Japan : Predictive Factors and Reflections on Screening for Effective and Riveting In-Class Activities

The objective of this study is to illuminate key predictive variables as well as preferences and wishes of Japanese undergraduate students majoring in engineering, in terms of English language education. By means of a questionnaire, relevant data were collected from 120 students at the University of Hyogo in January 2016. To reckon statistical predictors, lambda for nominal variables and gamma for ranked variables were calculated. The results elucidated the following: (1) the degrees of liking English in junior and senior high school days are each predictive of how much the respondent likes English today; (2) the numbers of weekly hours spent studying English at home in junior and senior high school days are predictive of the weekly hours spent studying English at home today; and (3) the degree of how much the respondent likes English today is predictive of his/her score on the proficiency quiz. The survey also highlighted that speaking was the most liked in-class activity among the students, while studying grammar rules was the least favored. With regard to selecting in-class activities, a number of factors such as the students’ age, gender, knowledge level, proficiency (both in native and English languages), interest, personality, in-class “chemistry,” social capital, motivation level, and the field of study should be taken into consideration, in addition to statistical as well as intuitive factors

コウレイシャ フクシ シセツ ノ ケイエイ ト マネジメント ノ シンテンカイ ケマキラクエン ノ ケース スタディ ト イチ コウサツ

This article is a cooperative effort conceived by a highly skilled leader in the field of social welfare practices and a professor studying business management. The purpose of the article is to establish a management theory for long-term nursing care facilities for the elderly. The article is organized into three parts. Part 1 is a case study of the best practices in a long-term nursing care organization, The Kirakuen Group in Hyogo Prefecture, which has been consistently developing management techniques and other practices based on the value of a living support model. Part 2 is a case analysis of The Kirakuen Group, focusing on an innovative process of organization, which has pursued practices for the realization of their basic philosophy, "Normalization", "Human Rights" and "Democracy". Key features of the process are: value and mission, capabilities in the field, commitment of the participants, scientific problem solving based on stated values and visionary leadership. Part 3 discusses implications of the case analysis, which suggest changes in long-term nursing care systems towards a living support model

Verteilung der im Walzgut hervorgerufenen Spannungen beim Breitenabnahmenprozeß der Brammen

In dieser Arbeit wurde ein Modellversuch über die bei der Breitenabnahme im Walzgut entstehende Spannung anhand der Plasticine-Platten und gleichzeitig eine rechnerische Untersuchung darüber mit dem Finite-Elemente-Verfahren durchgeführt. Die berechneten Werte der Spannungen stimmten mit den gemessenen Werten im ganzen nicht nur qualitativ, sondern auch quantitativ gut überein. Daraus erklärte sich, wie die Walzbedingungen auf die Spannungsverteilung im Walzgut wirken, und gewonnene wichtige Kenntnis ist wie folgende: Beim Vertikalwalzen und auch beim nachfolgend durchgeführten Horizontalwalzen entsteht im allgemeinen eine Druckspannung, und ihre Größe ist am größten an den Breitenseiten der Bramme. Aber die Spannung in der Walzrichtung wendet sich mit Näherung zur Breitenmitte von Druckspannung zu Zugspannung. Dies bedeutet, daß die im Strangguß unerwartet in der Umgebung der Breitenmitte der Bramme erscheinenden Innenrisse durch die beim Walzen dort entstehende Zugspannung vergrößert werden können. Daher sollte die Entstehung von Innenrissen beim Stranggießverfahren völlig zurückgehalten werden

General Survey of Tohoku Hybrid Magnet System(Part I. Establishment and Tests of Hybrid Magnet System at HFLSM)

Outline of Tohoku Hybrid Magnet system is briefly described. High Field Laboratory was established in the Research Institute for Iron, Steel and Other Metals, Tohoku University, in 1981, for accelerating research and development of high field superconducting materials. Three hybrid magnets generating magnetic fields more than 20 T have been constructed as its main apparatuses. The strongest hybrid magnet, HM-1, could produce 31.1 T in November, 1986, which was the world record as this kind of hybrid magnet. Several important features of the hybrid magnet system are introduced which will be also useful to understand the following papers

A genome-wide gain-of-function analysis of rice genes using the FOX-hunting system

Funding Information: Acknowledgements This work was supported by a grant from the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of Japan (Green Technology Project EF-1004). We are grateful to Dr. Takuji Sasaki for his encouragement throughout the project and his excellent advice on the improvement of this manuscript, and to Dr. Shoshi Kikuchi for providing useful information on rice FL-cDNAs. We thank Professors Kokichi Hinata, Atsushi Hirai, Hiroshi Kamada and Masashi Ugaki for their encouragement, critical comments and helpful suggestions, and Drs. Hisato Okuizumi and Hiroyuki Kawahigashi for their administrative support throughout the project. We also thank Mayumi Akagawa, Hiroko Abe, Keiko Mori, Etsuko Sugai, Yumiko Nakane, Ken-ichi Watanabe, Mayumi Takeya, and Kana Miyata for their technical assistance; the members of the Technical Support Section of the National Institute of Agrobiological Sciences for their help in the care of the FOX-rice plants; Haruko Onodera and Kazuko Ono for their technical assistance and advice on rice transformation; Inplanta Innovations Inc. for their technical help on the construction of theThe latest report has estimated the number of rice genes to be ∼32 000. To elucidate the functions of a large population of rice genes and to search efficiently for agriculturally useful genes, we have been taking advantage of the Full-length cDNA Over-eXpresser (FOX) gene-hunting system. This system is very useful for analyzing various gain-of-function phenotypes from large populations of transgenic plants overexpressing cDNAs of interest and others with unknown or important functions. We collected the plasmid DNAs of 13 980 independent full-length cDNA (FL-cDNA) clones to produce a FOX library by placing individual cDNAs under the control of the maize Ubiquitin-1 promoter. The FOX library was transformed into rice by Agrobacterium-mediated high-speed transformation. So far, we have generated approximately 12 000 FOX-rice lines. Genomic PCR analysis indicated that the average number of FL-cDNAs introduced into individual lines was 1.04. Sequencing analysis of the PCR fragments carrying FL-cDNAs from 8615 FOX-rice lines identified FL-cDNAs in 8225 lines, and a database search classified the cDNAs into 5462 independent ones. Approximately 16.6% of FOX-rice lines examined showed altered growth or morphological characteristics. Three super-dwarf mutants overexpressed a novel gibberellin 2-oxidase gene, confirming the importance of this system. We also show here the other morphological alterations caused by individual FL-cDNA expression. These dominant phenotypes should be valuable indicators for gene discovery and functional analysis.publishersversionPeer reviewe

Antisynthetase syndrome: Pulmonary computed tomography findings of adult patients with antibodies to aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases

AbstractObjectivesTo describe the pulmonary CT findings in patients with anti-ARS-antibody-positive interstitial lung disease (anti-ARS-ILD)MethodsThe CT findings of 64 patients with anti-ARS-ILD were retrospectively reviewed. The images were retrospectively reviewed independently by 2 chest radiologists, and the final decision on the CT findings was made by a third chest radiologist.ResultsThere were 16 male and 48 female patients, aged 54.2±13.4 years. Sixteen patients had anti Jo-1, 24 had anti-EJ, 9 had anti-PL-7, 7 had anti-PL-12, 5 had anti-KS, and 3 had anti-OJ antibodies. Overall, 63 patients (98.4%) had CT findings predominantly in the lower lobe; 61 patients (95.3%) showed peripheral opacities, and 47 patients (73.4%) showed peribronchovascular opacities. Ground-glass attenuation, consolidation, and reticulation showed similar distribution patterns. Regarding detailed CT findings, 89.1% of patients had lower volume loss, 76.6% had interlobular septal thickening, and 67.2% had thickening of bronchovascular bundles. The final radiologic diagnoses were as follows: inconsistent with usual interstitial pneumonia (UIP) in 63 patients (98.4%), which included nonspecific interstitial pneumonia (NSIP) in 35 patients (55.6%), organizing pneumonia (OP) in 4 patients (6.3%), and OP with fibrosis in 22 patients (34.9%).ConclusionsThe characteristic CT findings of patients with anti-ARS-ILD were areas of ground-glass attenuation and reticulation, predominantly distributed as lower and peribronchovascular lesions, which is compatible with NSIP. One-third of patients showed OP with fibrosis

Sex-inducing effects toward planarians widely present among parasitic flatworms

Summary Various parasitic flatworms infect vertebrates for sexual reproduction, often causing devastating diseases in their hosts. Consequently, flatworms are of great socioeconomic and biomedical importance. Although the cessation of parasitic flatworm sexual reproduction is a major target of anti-parasitic drug design, little is known regarding bioactive compounds controlling flatworm sexual maturation. Using the planarian Dugesia ryukyuensis, we observed that sex-inducing substances found in planarians are also widespread in parasitic flatworms, such as monogeneans and flukes (but not in tapeworms). Reverse-phase HPLC analysis revealed the sex-inducing substance(s) eluting around the tryptophan retention time in the fluke Calicophoron calicophorum, consistent with previous studies on the planarian Bipalium nobile, suggesting that the substance(s) is likely conserved among flatworms. Moreover, six of the 18 ovary-inducing substances identified via transcriptome and metabolome analyses are involved in purine metabolism. Our findings provide a basis for understanding and modifying the life cycles of various parasitic flatworms.journal articl

RiceFOX: A Database of Arabidopsis Mutant Lines Overexpressing Rice Full-Length cDNA that Contains a Wide Range of Trait Information to Facilitate Analysis of Gene Function

Identification of gene function is important not only for basic research but also for applied science, especially with regard to improvements in crop production. For rapid and efficient elucidation of useful traits, we developed a system named FOX hunting (Full-length cDNA Over-eXpressor gene hunting) using full-length cDNAs (fl-cDNAs). A heterologous expression approach provides a solution for the high-throughput characterization of gene functions in agricultural plant species. Since fl-cDNAs contain all the information of functional mRNAs and proteins, we introduced rice fl-cDNAs into Arabidopsis plants for systematic gain-of-function mutation. We generated >30,000 independent Arabidopsis transgenic lines expressing rice fl-cDNAs (rice FOX Arabidopsis mutant lines). These rice FOX Arabidopsis lines were screened systematically for various criteria such as morphology, photosynthesis, UV resistance, element composition, plant hormone profile, metabolite profile/fingerprinting, bacterial resistance, and heat and salt tolerance. The information obtained from these screenings was compiled into a database named ‘RiceFOX’. This database contains around 18,000 records of rice FOX Arabidopsis lines and allows users to search against all the observed results, ranging from morphological to invisible traits. The number of searchable items is approximately 100; moreover, the rice FOX Arabidopsis lines can be searched by rice and Arabidopsis gene/protein identifiers, sequence similarity to the introduced rice fl-cDNA and traits. The RiceFOX database is available at http://ricefox.psc.riken.jp/