Analyzing the Relationship Between Poverty and Work: Exploring ways to solve the problem of the working poor (Japanese)

International comparison analyses have clarified that the relative poverty rate among working households in Japan is high. Based on this fact, this study analyzed the relationship between poverty and work, using the Keio Household Panel Survey 2004-2010 (KHPS). Our study showed that households where the head of the household is working as a temporary worker have a higher probability of being in poverty than households where the head of the household is unemployed and not engaged in any other income-earning activity. However, concerning the poverty dynamic, households where the head of the household is working in any capacity including temporary work are more likely to exit from poverty than households where the head of the household is not working. Needless to say, households where the head of the household is working as a regular worker have the least probability of falling into poverty, and shifting from temporary work to regular work is an effective solution for the working poor. Because of this fact, our study also analyzed the probability of shifting from temporary workers to regular workers. Results for women showed that those who invest in self-development are more likely to make the shift from temporary workers to regular workers; accordingly, investing in human capital—for instance, in the form of self-training—is important for making this shift. Moreover, among the unemployed who are in poverty, those receiving unemployment benefits and investing in job-training are more likely to get out from poverty than those not eligible for unemployment benefits. This implies that it is necessary to build a support system for those who are not eligible for unemployment benefits.

Cyclophosphamide Promotes Arrested Development of the Dental Root in Mice

Cyclophosphamide (CPA) is a commonly used chemotherapeutic agent to treat cancer. Among its many side effects is the well-known consequence on tooth development when administered at early ages. This study elucidated the effects of CPA on development of the mandibular molar in mice. Mice received a single intraperitoneal injection of CPA at different doses and development times. CPA treatment led to weight loss and alopecia but had no effect on disturbances in tooth eruption or crown shape. However, at higher doses, there was arrested root development and early apical foramen closure histologically related to the formation of the cervical loop structure in the apical portion of the root. In cell culture experiments, the Hertwig\u27s epithelial root sheath cell line (HERS01a) was cultured with or without CPA. At high doses of CPA, HERS01a cells showed decreases in E-cadherin expression, while N-cadherin expression was upregulated, indicating that this cadherin switch may promote an epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT)-like phenomenon. These findings suggest that administration of high doses of CPA can lead to arrested root development of the molars and an EMT-like phenomenon.福岡歯科大学2019年

A simple method for dehydrogenase assay of soil microorganisms to evaluate the biospheric behavior of C-14 originated in transuranic waste

When carbon-14 (14C) that originated in transuranic (TRU) waste reaches the ground surface in low molecular weight organic forms, it is reported that microbial activity has influence on 14CO2 gas production. This study aims to develop a simple method to determine soil microbial respiratory activity, which results can be applied to evaluate their correlations with 14C gasification ratios. Respiratory activity was measured using 2-(p-iodophenyl)-3-(p-nitrophenyl)-5-phenyltetraxolium chloride (INT), which is reduced to INT-formazan by the dehydrogenase enzyme. Soil samples were incubated at a solid: liquid ratio of 1 to 10, often used in the gasification ratio experiments. Our experiment showed that three-hour incubation with INT was appropriate. Vortexing samples with 4mL of methanol for one minute sufficiently extracted the resultant INT-formazan. Extracted INT-formazan was stable in the dark at both 4oC and room temperature. These procedures and following results, considering the gasification ratio experiments, simply enable to examine the relationship between microbial activity and 14CO2 gasification ratio.The fifth international symposium in the series of Asia-Pacific Symposium on Radiochemistr