Expatriate Japanese Families as Unexpected Users of Public Libraries: A Case Study in a College Town Community in the United States

This study explores the use of local public libraries by expatriate Japanese families staying in a micro-urban, university-centered community in the United States, with a specific focus on their reading and information gathering practices. The data used for the study was collected through semi-structured interviews the authors conducted in 2013. The expatriate families in this study consist of those who temporarily live in the area with clear prospects of returning to Japan. All of the families the authors interviewed included a member who was either a corporate transferee (i.e. an employee of a transnational corporation assigned to work in a U.S. office) or a degree-seeking international student, and had concrete plans to move back to Japan after a few years of stay in the United States. Dali (2012) identifies “immigrant readership” as one area in the library and information science scholarship where more research and evidence-based discussions are desired. Reading and information gathering activities of short-term transnational residents of the United States, such as the Japanese families in this study, are similarly less well documented or understood. Furthermore, due to the transient nature of their stay, border-crossing families of corporate transferees and international students have traditionally been less visible as members of “local communities” while public libraries sought to reach out to diverse and diversifying bodies of local residents. “Trailing” family members of international workers and students have also been outside of the scope of the service of academic and research libraries. This study finds that despite not being seen as a potential patron group, the non-employee or non-student members of the expatriate families frequently used local public libraries. Highly used and desired items centered on audio-visual titles and children’s books, due largely to their limited ability to read in English, but they were enthusiastic users of the public libraries, who actively chose materials to borrow based on their mobility prospects and (self-)educational needs. In addition, the study finds that in spite of obvious benefits to border-crossing families, the adoption of e-books was extremely low. This was partly due to a mismatch between the families’ language preferences and local libraries’ digital lending collections, and partly due to limited circulation of e-books published in Japan outside of the Japanese market. Drawing on the new mobilities paradigm (Sheller and Urry 2006) that posits different population groups and material objects ride the flow of globalization at much different rates, the authors argue that public libraries in the 21st century face challenges of developing effective strategies to engage with patrons with different levels of social, physical and transnational mobilities, as well as differentially mobile materials. The authors also discuss possibilities of future, more full-scale studies, as well as possibilities of building partnerships with public libraries based on the findings.https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/lib_present/1009/thumbnail.jp

インドネシアジン カイゴ フクシシ コウホシャ オ タイショウ トスル ニホンゴ ケンシュウ ノ コースデザイン : イリョウ カンゴ カイゴブンヤ ノ センモン ニホンゴ キョウイク ト カンサイ コクサイ センター ノ キョウイク リネン トノ カンケイ ニオイテ

2007年に締結された日本インドネシア経済連携協定(EPA)に基づき、2008年8月にインドネシア人看護師・介護福祉士候補者第1期生208名が来日した。国際交流基金関西国際センター(以下KC)では、そのうち介護福祉士候補者56名の日本語研修を担当した。 先行事例・先行研究を検討したところ、ゼロ初級から約半年間で現場での就業を目指すケア・ワーカーのための日本語教育プログラムは過去に類を見ないことがわかった。そこで本研修では、KCで培われた日本語教育理念とノウハウ、さらに2007年に公開したデータベース『日本語でケアナビ』を活用する形でコースデザインを行った。本稿は、KCで行われたインドネシア人介護福祉士候補者を対象とする日本語研修について、「初級からの専門日本語」を中心に、その成果と課題を報告し、介護分野の専門日本語教育への一提言を試みるものである。In August 2008, 208 Indonesian nurse and care giver candidates came to Japan under the Japan- Indonesia Economic Partnership Agreement signed in 2007, with 56 of the care giver candidates attending ”The Japan Foundation Japanese-Language Institute, Kansai”(“KC”)for Japanese language education. As a result of looking into previous cases and studies, we found that no Japanese language programs had ever been offered for absolute beginners intending to work for approximately six months as care workers. Due to this situation, we designed a language program using KC’s language education policies, know-how, and, moreover, “Nihongo de Care-navi, ” its data base released in 2007. This paper will focus on the Japanese-language education for Indonesian care worker candidates conducted at KC, with a particular emphasis on “Specialized Japanese for Beginners, ” while reporting the results and problems of our program design and offering recommendations on specialized Japaneselanguage education for the care giving field

Guideline on the use of new anticancer drugs for the treatment of Hepatocellular Carcinoma 2010 update

The "Guideline on the Use of New Anticancer Drugs for the Treatment of Hepatocellular Carcinoma" was prepared by the Study Group on New Liver Cancer Therapies established by the "Research Project on Emergency Measures to Overcome Hepatitis" under the auspices of the Health and Labour Sciences Research Grant. The Guideline brings together data collected by the Study Group on the use and incidence of adverse events in 264 patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) treated using sorafenib and in 535 patients with advanced HCC treated using miriplatin at 16 participating institutions up until 22 December 2010, as well as referring to the published studies, academic presentations, and reports from the private sector. The aim of this Guideline is to facilitate understanding and current thinking regarding the proper usage of new anticancer drugs towards actual use in therapy. In terms of the format, the Guideline presents "clinical questions" on issues pertaining to medical care, makes "recommendations" on diagnosis and treatment in response to each of these clinical questions, and provides a rationale for these recommendations in the form of "scientific statements". © 2012 The Japan Society of Hepatology

Association of variations in HLA class II and other loci with susceptibility to EGFR-mutated lung adenocarcinoma

Lung adenocarcinoma driven by somatic EGFR mutations is more prevalent in East Asians (30-50%) than in European/Americans (10-20%). Here we investigate genetic factors underlying the risk of this disease by conducting a genome-wide association study, followed by two validation studies, in 3,173 Japanese patients with EGFR mutation-positive lung adenocarcinoma and 15,158 controls. Four loci, 5p15.33 (TERT), 6p21.3 (BTNL2), 3q28 (TP63) and 17q24.2 (BPTF), previously shown to be strongly associated with overall lung adenocarcinoma risk in East Asians, were re-discovered as loci associated with a higher susceptibility to EGFR mutation-positive lung adenocarcinoma. In addition, two additional loci, HLA class II at 6p21.32 (rs2179920; P =5.1 × 10(-17), per-allele OR=1.36) and 6p21.1 (FOXP4) (rs2495239; P=3.9 × 10(-9), per-allele OR=1.19) were newly identified as loci associated with EGFR mutation-positive lung adenocarcinoma. This study indicates that multiple genetic factors underlie the risk of lung adenocarcinomas with EGFR mutations

DOCK2 is involved in the host genetics and biology of severe COVID-19

「コロナ制圧タスクフォース」COVID-19疾患感受性遺伝子DOCK2の重症化機序を解明 --アジア最大のバイオレポジトリーでCOVID-19の治療標的を発見--. 京都大学プレスリリース. 2022-08-10.Identifying the host genetic factors underlying severe COVID-19 is an emerging challenge. Here we conducted a genome-wide association study (GWAS) involving 2, 393 cases of COVID-19 in a cohort of Japanese individuals collected during the initial waves of the pandemic, with 3, 289 unaffected controls. We identified a variant on chromosome 5 at 5q35 (rs60200309-A), close to the dedicator of cytokinesis 2 gene (DOCK2), which was associated with severe COVID-19 in patients less than 65 years of age. This risk allele was prevalent in East Asian individuals but rare in Europeans, highlighting the value of genome-wide association studies in non-European populations. RNA-sequencing analysis of 473 bulk peripheral blood samples identified decreased expression of DOCK2 associated with the risk allele in these younger patients. DOCK2 expression was suppressed in patients with severe cases of COVID-19. Single-cell RNA-sequencing analysis (n = 61 individuals) identified cell-type-specific downregulation of DOCK2 and a COVID-19-specific decreasing effect of the risk allele on DOCK2 expression in non-classical monocytes. Immunohistochemistry of lung specimens from patients with severe COVID-19 pneumonia showed suppressed DOCK2 expression. Moreover, inhibition of DOCK2 function with CPYPP increased the severity of pneumonia in a Syrian hamster model of SARS-CoV-2 infection, characterized by weight loss, lung oedema, enhanced viral loads, impaired macrophage recruitment and dysregulated type I interferon responses. We conclude that DOCK2 has an important role in the host immune response to SARS-CoV-2 infection and the development of severe COVID-19, and could be further explored as a potential biomarker and/or therapeutic target

A practice of twitter as a communication tool in two different university classes

本報告では, Twitterを用いた大学間での授業実践について述べる。現在ICTの活用が幅広い分野で求められており, TwitterはICT活用のメディアの1つとして挙げられる。今回は異なる二大学間で電子書籍に関する同一の課題を設定し, Twitterを用いて発言させる演習を行った。それぞれの授業は曜日も時間帯も異なっていたが, Twitterを用いることで, 互いの受講生の交流を実現でき, 協力要請を行った大学図書館員の授業参加を容易に行えた。授業後の受講生に対するアンケート結果では, 授業に対する積極的な評価がある一方, 授業計画の見直しや, 教材について改善が必要であることを示唆するような評価も見られた。This paper describes a cooperative practice using Twitter between two universities. Twitter is the most popular social networking tool in Japan. We offered a class about electronic books between two universities. In the class, we gave an assignment of report and feedback about using Twitter. The situation of the two classes was different of place, time, and member. Using Twitter, we could communicate each other beyond those boundaries. Even a librarian could join the class. Considering students\u27feedback, our teaching scheme and materials have a room for improvement

Neck dissection complicated with congenital internal carotid artery hypoplasia: A case report

Preoperative diagnosis of the presence of anomalies or abnormalities of the cervical vessels is important to safely perform neck dissection in patients with head and neck cancer. We present a case of cervical lymph node metastasis from carcinoma of unknown primary origin in a 72-year-old man. The patient had a huge lymph node metastasis in his right neck that was more than 90° adjacent to the common carotid artery. Imaging studies incidentally revealed right internal carotid artery hypoplasia. Internal carotid artery hypoplasia is a very rare vascular anomaly with an incidence of <0.01%. Previous reports have focused on the imaging findings and have not shown the macroscopic findings of a cervical hypoplastic internal carotid artery in a living patient. Intraoperative findings of the neck dissection in the present case showed that the hypoplastic internal carotid artery branched from the common carotid artery as a cord thinner than the vagus nerve, and no pulsation was observed. This is the first report of neck dissection in a patient complicated with internal carotid artery hypoplasia. Although this is a very rare condition, it is a vascular anomaly that should be considered by head and neck surgeons who routinely perform operations around the carotid artery

A Novel Funnel-Shaped Flap for Reconstruction Surgery after Total Laryngopharyngectomy with Total Glossectomy

Summary:. Reconstruction following total laryngopharyngectomy with total glossectomy (TLPTG) is challenging. To reconstruct this extended range of mucosal defect, it is necessary to overcome the remarkable discrepancy of apertures of oral and esophageal sides. We report a case of reconstruction surgery for total laryngopharyngectomy with total glossectomy with a funnel-shaped rectus abdominis musclocutaneous flap. The patient recovered without major complications and could keep a relatively good swallowing function. We believe this simple method should contribute to cases with complicated ablation