Analysis of Japanese newspaper articles on genetic modification

The rapid spread of technologies involving the application of “Genetic Modification (GM)” raised the need for science communication on this new technology in society. To consider the communication on GM in the society, an understanding of the current mass media is required. This paper shows the whole picture of newspaper discourses on GM in Japan. For the Japanese public, newspapers represent one of the major sources of information on GM. We subjected the two Japanese newspapers with the largest circulation, the Asahi Shimbun and Yomiuri Shimbun, to an analysis of the full text of approximately 4000 articles on GM published over the past to perform an assessment of the change of reportage on GM. As for the most important results, our analysis shows that there are two significant shifts with respect to the major topics addressed in articles on GM by Japanese newspapers

Institutional and Social Issues Surrounding Genetic Counselors in Japan : Current Challenges and Implications for the Global Community

Aizawa Y, Watanabe A and Kato K (2021) Institutional and Social Issues Surrounding Genetic Counselors in Japan: Current Challenges and Implications for the Global Community. Front. Genet. 12:646177. doi: 10.3389/fgene.2021.646177

Local Measurement of Microwave Response with Local Tunneling Spectra Using Near Field Microwave Microscopy

We have designed and built a near-field scanning microwave microscope, which has been used to measure the local microwave response and the local density-of-states (LDOS) in the area including the boundary between the gold deposited and the non-deposited region on highly-orientated pyrolytic graphite at a frequency of about 7.3 GHz. We have succeeded in measuring the spatial variation of both the LDOS and the surface resistance. It can be observed that the surface resistance in gold deposited region with the metallic tunneling spectra is smaller than that in the non-deposited region with the U-shaped tunneling spectra.Comment: 3 pages, 3 figures

A proposal on the first Japanese practical guidance for the return of individual genomic results in research settings

Aizawa, Y., Nagami, F., Ohashi, N. et al. A proposal on the first Japanese practical guidance for the return of individual genomic results in research settings. J Hum Genet (2019). doi:10.1038/s10038-019-0697-y

Social and Communicative Functions of Informed Consent Forms in East Asia and Beyond

The recent research and technology development in medical genomics has raised new issues that are profoundly different from those encountered in traditional clinical research for which informed consent was developed. Global initiatives for international collaboration and public participation in genomics research now face an increasing demand for new forms of informed consent which reflect local contexts. This article analyzes informed consent forms (ICFs) for genomic research formulated by four selected research programs and institutes in East Asia – the Medical Genome Science Program in Japan, Universiti Sains Malaysia Human Research Ethics Committee in Malaysia, and the Taiwan Biobank and the Taipei Medical University- Joint Institutional Review Board in Taiwan. The comparative text analysis highlights East Asian contexts as distinct from other regions by identifying communicative and social functions of consent forms. The communicative functions include re-contact options and offering interactive support for research participants, and setting opportunities for family or community engagement in the consent process. This implies that informed consent cannot be validated solely with the completion of a consent form at the initial stage of the research, and informed consent templates can facilitate interactions between researchers and participants through (even before and after) the research process. The social functions consist of informing participants of possible social risks that include genetic discrimination, sample and data sharing, and highlighting the role of ethics committees. Although international ethics harmonization and the subsequent coordination of consent forms may be necessary to maintain the quality and consistency of consent process for data-intensive international research, it is also worth paying more attention to the local values and different settings that exist where research participants are situated for research in medical genomics. More than simply tools to gain consent from research participants, ICFs function rather as a device of social communication between research communities and civic communities in liaison with intermediary agents like ethics committees, genetic counselors, and public biobanks and databases

Association between plasma concentration of tolvaptan and urine volume in acute decompensated heart failure patients with fluid overload

Background: Tolvaptan (TLV) is a useful diuretic for acute decompensated heart failure (ADHF) with fluid overload, but its clinical response varies between patients. The aim of this study is to investigate whether plasma TLV concentrations correlate with the urine volume. Methods: ADHF inpatients with evidence of fluid overload and total urine volume < 1,500 mL 24 h after initial intravenous administration of 40 mg furosemide were included in the study. On days 1–7, 7.5 mg oral TLV was added. The plasma TLV concentration, plasma renin activity (PRA), and plasma aldosterone concentration (PAC) were measured on days 1, 3 and 7. Results: In the 52 patients who completed the protocol, the TLV concentration increased significantly from 67.6 ± 30.1 ng/mL on day 1 to 98.3 ± 39.6 ng/mL on day 3 to 144.8 ± 44.2 ng/mL on day 7, and the TLV concentration correlated with total urine volume on days 3 and 7 (r = 0.392, p < 0.01; r = 0.639, p < 0.001, respectively) but not on day 1. The urine volume correlated inversely with PRA and PAC (r = −0.618, p < 0.05; r = −0.547, p < 0.05, respectively). Conclusions: Plasma TLV concentrations correlated with the urine volume in late phase of treatment but not in early phase, which suggests that the effect of TLV may possibly be inhibited by renin–angiotensin–aldosterone system activity.