A study on the correlation between the results of entrance examination and the academic record of the students in the department of laboratory technology

1987年4月から1995年4月の9年間に衛生技術学科へ入学した361名を対象に,高校評点,入学試験(学力試験)成績と,入学後の学業成績,退学,留年,臨床検査技師国家試験との関係を調べた｡ 1)入学者総数は361名で,このうち留年者が39名(10,8%),退学者が18名(5%)であった｡退学者の中には,実質入学辞退者が6名,4年制大学へ進路を変更した者が4名いたが,こうした退学者は1992年度までの入学者に多かった｡ 2)入学者全体では,予定卒業者,留年者,退学者の間で高校評点,入学試験成績には差がなかったが,入学年度ごとにみると,1987,1988年度は留年者が予定卒業者に比べて入学試験の総得点が高い傾向があり,逆に1991年,1993年度は予定卒業者に比べて有意に低かった｡ 3)高校評点は,データが入手できた1991年度以降一貫して留年者の評点が予定卒業者より低く, とくに1991年,1993年度は留年者の評点が有意に低かった｡ 4)留年者も含めて,一般教育科目の成績と専門科目の成績との間に有意を正の相関がみられた｡ 5)高校評点と入学試験成績との間には軽度の相関しかみられなかったが,高校評点および入学試験総合点は入学後の一般教育科目,専門科目の成績と高い正の相関を示した｡ 6)しかし,個々の入学試験科目の得点は,入学後の成績と相関しないか,軽度の相関しかみられなかった｡ 7)国家試験不合格者は,高校評点,入学試験総合点,一般科目平均点,専門科目平均点のいずれも合格者に比べて得点が低かったが,有意差はなかった｡以上の結果から,短期大学部開設当初は留年者,退学者の中に予定卒業者より学力のある学生がいたが,年を追うごとに入学者の学力が均質化し,学力が不十分なために留年する学生が多くなってきていると言える。一般教育科目の成績と専門科目の成績が強い正の相関を示すことは,1年次の成績がそのまま2,3年次の成績に反映されることを示しており,入学当初の動機付けと勉学意欲の喚起が重要なことを示している｡高校評点や学力試験の成績は入学後の成績とよく相関しており,学生選抜の有効な指標であると考えられたが,各入試科目との相関は乏しかったことから,個々の試験科目の問題内容については改善すべき課題があると思われた｡The correlation between the school record in high school, result of entrance examination and the academic record, failure in promotion and withdrawal from school was examined in 361 students entered into department of laboratory technology from 1987 to 1995. 1) Thirty-nine students (10.8%) had failed in promotion, and 18 students (5%) had leaved from the school. The reason of withdrawal was refusal in 6 cases, and 4 students had changed their course to other universities. These cases were more frequent in the period until 1990 than in the period after 1991. 2) There were no differences in the school record in high school and the result of entrance examination among students who graduated scheduled period of attendance (regular students), those who failed in promotion, and those who had leaved the school. However, the students who failed in promotion had got higher score in entrance examination than regular students in 1987 and 1988. In contrast, regular students had got higher score in entrance examination than the students failed in promotion in 1991 and 1993. 3) The school record in high school could be cheked during the period from 1991 to1995. In this period, the students failed in promotion had got lower score in high school than regular students. Especially, the difference was significant in 1991 and 1993. 4) There was a significant positive correlation between the results in examination of general subjects and those in examination of technical and proffesional education. 5) The school records in high school had relatively weak positive correlation with the results of entrance examination. In contrast, both the school record in high school and result of entrance examination had clear positve correlations with both the results in examination of general subjects and technical and proffesional education. 6) However, the result of each subject of entrance examination, i.e. Japanese, Mathematics, English, and Science, had no or weak positive correlation with both the results in examination of general subjects and technical and proffesional education. 7) The students who had not passed the national examination of laboratory technologist had lower score in school record in high school, entrance examination, examination of general subjects and technical and proffesional education, but the diffenreces were not statistically significant. The results of the study indicate that there were students who failed in promotion or leaved school despite their excellent ability during four years following the establishment of School of Health Sciences, but thereafter the ability of students gradually became homogeneous and increased the students who failed in promotion because of insufficient ability. The highly positive correlation between the results in examination of general subjects and those in examination of technical and proffesional education indicate that the results of examination in the first year were directly reflected in the results of examination in second and third year, and that it is important to encourage the students's motivation and volition to study with ardor immediately after the entrance. The positive correlation of school record in high school and result of entrance examination with academic record after the entrance implicate the potential usefulness of school record in high school and result of entrance examination in determining the eligibility to enter the school. However, it is desirable to improve the subjects and problems of entrance examination because the result of each subject of entrance examination was poorly reflected in the academic record

肺癌同所移植モデルマウスの経時的評価における小動物用呼吸同期PET/CTの有用性

Our aim in this study was to clarify the effects of respiratory-gated PET in the evaluation of lung cancer according to the 18F-FDG uptake in an orthotopic transplantation mouse model. We created such a model, and we performed PET/CT. The mice were divided into two groups according to tumor volume: a small-tumor group (20 mm3). We reconstructed the following conditions based on list-mode data: non-gated (3D) images and gated (4D) images, divided based on the respiratory cycle (expiration phase, stable phase, and inspiration phase). We calculated the maximum standardized uptake values (SUVmax) in each phase. We used the % difference [= (4D SUVmax – 3D SUVmax)/3D PET SUVmax × 100 (%)] to evaluate the differences in the 4D SUVmax and 3D SUVmax. The 4D SUVmax values were significantly higher than the 3D SUVmax, regardless of the tumor size. The % difference for the small tumors was greater than that for the large tumors, and it was highest in the stable phase. We conclude that the SUVmax in the stable phase under respiratory-gated PET are the most reliable. The SUVmax observed under non-gated PET are considered to be more frequently underestimated in cases involving small tumors than in those involving large tumors. In the chronologic study evaluating the time course of tumor development, the size of the tumor is small in early stage, and respiratory-gated PET is effective in reducing the underestimation of such tumors caused by respiratory motion

Phenomenological Aspects of Gauge Mediation with Sequestered Supersymmetry Breaking in light of Dark Matter Detection

In a recent work, a model of gauge mediation with sequestered supersymmetry (SUSY) breaking was proposed. In this model, the mass of the gravitino is O(100) GeV without causing the flavor-changing neutral-current problem. In contrast to traditional gauge mediation, the gravitino is not the lightest SUSY particle and the neutralino is the candidate of the dark matter. In this paper, we investigate phenomenological aspects of this model and discuss the possibility of the direct detection of the dark matter. In particular, we focus on the light neutralino case and find that the light-Higgsino scenario such as the focus point is interesting, taking account of the recent CDMS result.Comment: 17 pages, 8 figures; v2:references added, some corrections; v3:version accepted for publication in JHE

Effectiveness of Messenger RNA Coronavirus Disease 2019 Vaccines Against Symptomatic Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 Infections During the Delta Variant Epidemic in Japan: Vaccine Effectiveness Real-time Surveillance for SARS-CoV-2 (VERSUS)

Background. Although high vaccine effectiveness of messenger RNA (mRNA) coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccines has been reported in studies in several countries, data are limited from Asian countries, especially against the Delta (B.1.617.2) variant.Methods. We conducted a multicenter test-negative case-control study in patients aged ≥16 years visiting hospitals or clinics with signs or symptoms consistent with COVID-19 from 1 July to 30 September 2021, when the Delta variant was dominant (≥90% of SARS-CoV-2 infections) nationwide in Japan. Vaccine effectiveness of BNT162b2 or mRNA-1273 against symptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infections was evaluated. Waning immunity among patients aged 16–64 years was also assessed.Results. We enrolled 1936 patients, including 396 test-positive cases and 1540 test-negative controls for SARS-CoV-2. The median age was 49 years, 53.4% were male, and 34.0% had underlying medical conditions. Full vaccination (receiving 2 doses ≥14 days before symptom onset) was received by 6.6% of cases and 38.8% of controls. Vaccine effectiveness of full vaccination against symptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infections was 88.7% (95% confidence interval [CI], 78.8%–93.9%) among patients aged 16–64 years and 90.3% (95% CI, 73.6%–96.4%) among patients aged ≥65 years. Among patients aged 16–64 years, vaccine effectiveness was 91.8% (95% CI, 80.3%–96.6%) within 1–3 months after full vaccination, and 86.4% (95% CI, 56.9%–95.7%) within 4–6 months.Conclusions. mRNA COVID-19 vaccines had high effectiveness against symptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infections in Japan during July–September 2021, when the Delta variant was dominant nationwide

Coordinated Control of Acoustical Field of View and Flight in Three-Dimensional Space for Consecutive Capture by Echolocating Bats during Natural Foraging

<div><p>Echolocating bats prey upon small moving insects in the dark using sophisticated sonar techniques. The direction and directivity pattern of the ultrasound broadcast of these bats are important factors that affect their acoustical field of view, allowing us to investigate how the bats control their <i>acoustic attention</i> (pulse direction) for advanced flight maneuvers. The purpose of this study was to understand the behavioral strategies of acoustical sensing of wild Japanese house bats <i>Pipistrellus abramus</i> in three-dimensional (3D) space during consecutive capture flights. The results showed that when the bats successively captured multiple airborne insects in short time intervals (less than 1.5 s), they maintained not only the immediate prey but also the subsequent one simultaneously within the beam widths of the emitted pulses in both horizontal and vertical planes before capturing the immediate one. This suggests that echolocating bats maintain multiple prey within their acoustical field of view by a single sensing using a wide directional beam while approaching the immediate prey, instead of frequently shifting <i>acoustic attention</i> between multiple prey. We also numerically simulated the bats’ flight trajectories when approaching two prey successively to investigate the relationship between the acoustical field of view and the prey direction for effective consecutive captures. This simulation demonstrated that acoustically viewing both the immediate and the subsequent prey simultaneously increases the success rate of capturing both prey, which is considered to be one of the basic axes of efficient route planning for consecutive capture flight. The bat’s wide sonar beam can incidentally cover multiple prey while the bat forages in an area where the prey density is high. Our findings suggest that the bats then keep future targets within their acoustical field of view for effective foraging. In addition, in both the experimental results and the numerical simulations, the acoustic sensing and flights of the bats showed narrower vertical ranges than horizontal ranges. This suggests that the bats control their acoustic sensing according to different schemes in the horizontal and vertical planes according to their surroundings. These findings suggest that echolocating bats coordinate their control of the acoustical field of view and flight for consecutive captures in 3D space during natural foraging.</p></div

Large-scale 3D microphone-array system.

<p>(A) Photograph of study site and microphone-array system with 44 microphones consisting of U-shaped 32-ch microphone-array and L-shaped 12-ch microphone-array in 2014. Four Y-shaped arrays (green dots) are part of the U-shaped array. Total of 24 microphones distributed over the entire U-shaped array at the same horizontal level were used to measure horizontal pulse direction, whereas L-shaped array units (orange dots) measured vertical pulse direction. Y-shaped array was used to reconstruct 3D flight paths of the bats. (B) A schematic diagram of the Y-shaped array unit. (C) Side view of the L-shaped array unit. The vertical pulse direction (blue arrow) was determined from the peak of a Gaussian curve (light blue curve), based on the sound pressure vectors (red arrows) across all 12 microphones. The horizontal pulse direction was also determined by the same procedure using the horizontal U-shaped microphone-array. (D) Definitions of the positional relationship between the bat and the target. The gaze angle <i>φ</i>_gaze (or <i>θ</i>_gaze) was the pulse direction (blue arrow) relative to the flight direction (yellow arrow) of the bat. The directions of the capture positions (prey position) <i>φ</i>_fp (or <i>θ</i>_fp) and <i>φ</i>_pp (or <i>θ</i>_pp) were the prey direction (magenta arrow) relative to the flight direction and the pulse direction of the bat, respectively. Here, <i>φ</i> is the horizontal angle and <i>θ</i> is the vertical angle. (See <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0169995#pone.0169995.s001" target="_blank">S1 Table</a>).</p

Relationship between target positions and bat sonar beam while approaching targets.

<p>(A–C) Time series data of <i>φ</i>_pp (top panels) and <i>θ</i>_pp (bottom panels) during the approach and terminal phases in <i>long-</i> (A) and <i>short-interval captures</i> (B, C) shown in <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0169995#pone.0169995.g002" target="_blank">Fig 2A–2C</a>. <i>φ</i>_pp (or <i>θ</i>_pp) indicates the direction of the prey position relative to the pulse direction. (See <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0169995#pone.0169995.s001" target="_blank">S1 Table</a>.) The light blue areas show the range of the −6 dB beam width of the bat’s sonar beam relative to the bat’s pulse direction. The vertical dashed lines show the timing of transition from the approach phase to the terminal phase.</p