Development, validity, and reliability of a scale of food preference of imbalanced diet

This study tried to develop the Food Preference Scale for Imbalanced Diet (FPSID), and evaluated its validity and reliability. For pilot study, 10 university students (5 males and 5 females) participated in semi-structured interview; it was used to construct scale items, considering food preference for imbalanced diet. A questionnaire survey was conducted on 920 university students, including 673 males and 247 females. Exploratory factor analysis which revealed the FPSID composed of the following subscales: aversion to hated food, aversion to food sensory, aversion to vegetables, receptivity to diverse food, and receptivity to the same food. Cronbach α were above .76. Confirmatory factor analysis confirmed validity of the scale too. Correlations between the FPSID and neuroticism and preference for novelty food were reported. Based on these results, it was concluded that the scale was valid and reliable for measuring food preference that relate to imbalanced diet.本研究は，科研費（課題番号23500945）の助成を受けたものである

Embedding Learning Assistance into First-Year Seminars to Understand Students’ Needs for a Smooth Transition

This article demonstrates the benefits of embedding learning assistance into first-year seminars which will collect information from the students to provide assistance that best meets their learning needs in Japan. Whereas American universities already have demographic and academic data on their students from grade school through high school, Japanese institutions are just beginning to collect this data. Data collected from former student surveys help us understand first-year students as a collective body. However, providing certain students with the specific assistance and support they need is still a challenge. To solve this problem, first the weekly journal entries of the students enrolled in the first-year seminar program at Shinshu University over the last four years were analyzed. Students’ needs were discovered and that they consistently change every three to four weeks throughout their first semester. This suggests that proactively providing assistance to meet students’ needs when they need it is a more preferable strategy than waiting for them to fail and ask for assistance voluntarily. Providing students incentives for utilizing assistance programs is also useful. Second, instructors of first-year seminars meet with all students individually to provide writing assistance. This gives instructors a better understanding of their students other challenges which need addressing, then instructors can direct students to appropriate campus resources. Often times students don’t know what their needs are until it’s too late, but this first-year seminar program helps students recognize their needs early and utilize appropriate assistance programs. At the same time, we can collect individual students’ information for institutional research.本研究は，科研費（16K04463）の助成を受けて行われた

Signaling Crosstalk between PPARγ and BMP2 in Mesenchymal Stem Cells

Recent studies have revealed that PPARγ's transactivation function is regulated by extracellular signals. In particular, cytokines and Wnt family proteins suppress the ligand-inducible transactivation function of PPARγ and attenuate adipogenesis/osteoblastogenesis switching in mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs). For example, Wnt5a suppresses PPARγ transcriptional activity through the NLK/SETDB1/CHD7 pathway. Among these factors, BMP2 strongly induces bone formation, but the effect of BMP2 on PPARγ function remains unclear. We examined the effect of BMP2 and PPARγ in ST2 cells and found that PPARγ activation affected BMP2's signaling pathway through epigenetic regulation. Although BMP2 did not interfere with PPARγ-mediated adipogenesis, BMP2 increased mRNA expression levels of PPARγ target genes (such as Fabp4 and Nr1h3) when cells were first treated with troglitazone (TRO). Moreover, PPARγ activation affected BMP2 through enhancement of histone activation markers (acetylated histone H3 and trimethylated Lys4 of histone H3) on the Runx2 promoter. After TRO treatment for three hours, BMP2 enhanced the levels of active histone marks on the promoter of a PPARγ target gene. These results suggest that the order of treatment with BMP2 and a PPARγ ligand is critical for adipogenesis and osteoblastogenesis switching in MSCs

Distribution of Lenticular Astigmatism in a Pre-Cataract Surgery Population

Recently custom ablation of LASIK (laserin situ keratomileusis) has rapidly evolved. It could achieve supervision temporarily, but we suspect that the vision could deteriorate due to against-the rule astigmatism decades after the operation. To clarify this concern, we evaluated distribution of the total and corneal astigmatism of 101 eyes of 65 pre-cataract surgery patients (meanage:73 years). Then we calculated the lenticular astigrlatism by vector analysis. The mean amounts of total and corneal astigmatism were 1.22±1.50D and 0.97±0.84D each. The percentages of no astigmatism: oblique: with-the-rule: against-the-rule were 32: 4: 15: 50 and 7: 28: 26: 40, respectively. The mean amount of lenticular astigrlatism measured by vector analysis was 1.6± 1.4D. The percentage of no astigmatism: oblique: with-the-rule: against-the-rule was 2: 0: 39: 59. This biased distribution of astigmatism might have contributed to the biased distribution (no and against-the-rule) of total astigmatism. These data indicate that in a pre-cataract surgery population against-the-rule astigmatism is predominant in both corneal and lenticular astigmatism. We suspect that custom correction of adolescent eyes, in which with-the-rule astigmatism is predominant, might elicit more against-the-rule astigmatism when they reach pre-cataract surgery age population, leading to a decline in quality of vision