Extracurricular Club Activity Reform in Japanese Public Junior High Schools: The Case of Takarazuka City

This paper examines the current state of Extracurricular Club Activities (ECAs) in Japan, focusing on the case of ECA reform in the Takarazuka City Board of Education (TCBE) and junior high schools in Takarazuka City. First, we provide an overview of the current status of ECAs in Japan. ECAs originated in the Meiji period (1868-1912) and grew out of the newly established Free Study subject under the post-war education reform. Furthermore, in the modern era of nuclear families and declining birthrates, ECAs have played an essential role as an educational activity that provides students with opportunities to engage in group activities with students of a variety of ages and to develop their communication skills. At the same time, the government has been promoting reform of ECAs with the aim of reducing the burden on teachers under the principles of the ‘school as a team’ and ‘work-style reform’ efforts. Next, we describe ECA reforms that our research group has implemented in cooperation with TCBE. In FY 2020, we conducted a questionnaire survey of students, parents and teachers to ascertain the status of ECAs in Takarazuka City. The results of this survey contributed to supporting the formulation of several education policies. We also recommended measures for ECA reform that TCBE should implement. First, the school board should allow students to commute out of the school district if a secondary school within a designated school zone does not have an ECA of their choice. Second, the school board funding for ECAs in each school should ensure that there are at least two instructors supervising each club. Third, the school board should encourage each school to train junior and senior high school students to become volunteer personnel in ECAs. We need further research into how local education boards and schools could train junior high and high school students for these volunteer roles.departmental bulletin pape

Effects of Social Support on Athletes' Psychological Well-Being: The Correlations among Received Support, Perceived Support, and Personality

Abstract The current study aimed to examine the impact of received support and perceived support on athletes' psychological well-being. Furthermore, correlations between received support, perceived support, and personality were investigated. Two hundred and thirty-nine Japanese university student athletes (M age = 19.69 ± 1.01 years) completed the questionnaires regarding social support, psychological well-being, and personality. The results indicated that received support was positively correlated with athletes' psychological well-being, while perceived support was not found to be a predictor of psychological well-being. Furthermore, it was demonstrated that received support and perceived support were positively correlated with each other. In addition, the results indicated that there was no relationship between received support and positive self-schema, whereas perceived support was positively correlated with positive self-schema. In conclusion, received support can be a salient predictor of athletes' psychological well-being

Generation of a human induced pluripotent stem cell line, BRCi009-A, derived from a patient with glycogen storage disease type 1a

Glycogen storage disease type 1a (GSD1a) is an autosomal recessive disorder caused by mutations of the glucose-6-phosphatase (G6PC) gene. Mutations of the G6PC gene lead to excessive accumulation of glycogen in the liver, kidney, and intestinal mucosa due to the deficiency of microsomal glucose-6-phosphatase.Human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) enable the production of patient-derived hepatocytes in culture and are therefore a promising tool for modeling GSD1a. Here, we report the establishment of human iPSCs from a GSD1a patient carrying a G6PC mutation (c.648G > T; p.Leu216 = )

D3h -Symmetric Porphyrin-Based Rigid Macrocyclic Ligands for Multicofacial Multinuclear Complexes in a One-Nanometer-Sized Cavity.

The one-step synthesis of D3h -symmetric cyclic porphyrin trimers 1 composed of three 2,2\u27-[4,4\u27-bis(methoxycarbonyl)]bipyridyl moieties and three porphyrinatozinc moieties was achieved from a nickel-mediated reductive coupling of meso-5,15-bis(6-chloro-4-methoxycarbonylpyrid-2-yl)porphyrinatozinc. Although cyclic trimers 1 were obtained as a mixture that included other cyclic and acyclic porphyrin oligomers, an extremely specific separation was observed only for cyclic trimers 1 when using columns of silica gel modified with pyrenylethyl, cyanopropyl, and other groups. Structural analysis of cyclic trimers 1 was carried out by means of NMR spectroscopy and X-ray crystallography. Treatment of an η(3) -allylpalladium complex with a cyclic trimer gave a tris(palladium) complex containing three η(3) -allylpalladium groups inside the space, which indicated that the bipyridyl moieties inside the ring could work as bidentate metalloligands.The one-step synthesis of D3h -symmetric cyclic porphyrin trimers 1 composed of three 2,2\u27-[4,4\u27-bis(methoxycarbonyl)]bipyridyl moieties and three porphyrinatozinc moieties was achieved from a nickel-mediated reductive coupling of meso-5,15-bis(6-chloro-4-methoxycarbonylpyrid-2-yl)porphyrinatozinc. Although cyclic trimers 1 were obtained as a mixture that included other cyclic and acyclic porphyrin oligomers, an extremely specific separation was observed only for cyclic trimers 1 when using columns of silica gel modified with pyrenylethyl, cyanopropyl, and other groups. Structural analysis of cyclic trimers 1 was carried out by means of NMR spectroscopy and X-ray crystallography. Treatment of an η(3) -allylpalladium complex with a cyclic trimer gave a tris(palladium) complex containing three η(3) -allylpalladium groups inside the space, which indicated that the bipyridyl moieties inside the ring could work as bidentate metalloligands

Induction of liver-resident memory T cells and protection at liver-stage malaria by mRNA-containing lipid nanoparticles

Recent studies have suggested that CD8+ liver-resident memory T (TRM) cells are crucial in the protection against liver-stage malaria. We used liver-directed mRNA-containing lipid nanoparticles (mRNA-LNPs) to induce liver TRM cells in a murine model. Single-dose intravenous injections of ovalbumin mRNA-LNPs effectively induced antigen-specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes in a dose-dependent manner in the liver on day 7. TRM cells (CD8+ CD44hi CD62Llo CD69+ KLRG1-) were induced 5 weeks after immunization. To examine the protective efficacy, mice were intramuscularly immunized with two doses of circumsporozoite protein mRNA-LNPs at 3-week intervals and challenged with sporozoites of Plasmodium berghei ANKA. Sterile immunity was observed in some of the mice, and the other mice showed a delay in blood-stage development when compared with the control mice. mRNA-LNPs therefore induce memory CD8+ T cells that can protect against sporozoites during liver-stage malaria and may provide a basis for vaccines against the disease