Developing Critical Thinking Skills and Attitude: An Analysis of a Reading Course in a University English Program

The purpose of this paper is to examine whether an English academic readingcourse in a Japanese university fosters critical thinking skills and attitudeamong its students. Critical thinking has long been a topic of debate ineducation, but especially recently, it has become a center of attention ofeducators in Japan. The English program of International Christian University,Tokyo, has been providing quality education with the aim of nurturing criticalthinking skills through academic English. The research question asked in thispaper is “How does the reading course of this program provide the studentswith opportunities to engage in critical thinking?” Based on definitions ofcritical thinking provided by several scholars, this paper analyzes classes andassignments to identify which critical thinking skills the students need toemploy. The findings show that students do engage in activities that requirecritical thinking. This paper also implies that skills and attitude are inseparablefor effective critical thinking

実習担当保育者の持つ実習生のイメージと実習生に期待する資質に関する検討

保育現場での実習において、指導者である保育者は保育者を目指す実習生のモデルであり、実習生の保育者アイデンティティの獲得に大きく寄与する。本研究では、実習生を指導した保育者102名を対象に質問紙調査を実施し、「実習生を指導した感想」、「実習生に対するイメージ」、「実習生に対する不安」、「保育者としての力量や資質を獲得すべき時期」の視点から、保育者が実習生に対してどのようなイメージを持ち、どのような資質を期待しているのかについて検討した。その結果、以下の点が明らかになった：(1)保育者が実習生を受容しているか否かが、保育者の持つ実習生のイメージおよび実習生に対する不安に影響を与えていた。(2)実習生に基礎的な保育技量があるか否かが、保育者における実習生に対する困難さの主な要因であり、保育者の経験年数が短いほど指導の困難さを感じている。(3) 保育者としての基本的な態度や保育技量は実習前に身につけることが、子どもへ関わる力量は実習の中で獲得することが期待されていた。保護者との関わり、環境構成、発達に問題をもつ子どもへの対応は、就職後の課題として認識されていた。During students\u27 on-site training of child nursing or kindergarten education, teachiers at the institutes, functioning as their mentors, present role models to those practice-teachers, and contribute to the young trainees developing their professional "identity as nursery school or kindergarten teachers". In this research a questionnaire is given to 102 caretakers and kindergarten teachers who have experienced mentoring of practice-teaching students, with questions as to "their impression about mentoring", "their image of practice-teachers", "their anxiety toward trainees\u27 participation" or "their idea about the best timing to acquire skills and talents as a teacher", and their answers are analyzed. The results of the analysis are as follows: 1.Whether mentors accept their trainee affects the image or anxiety they hold toward the younger ones. 2.The main element of the difficulty mentors hold toward their trainees is whether the students already have basic caring skills or not. The shorter experience mentors have, the more difficult they feel mentoring is. 3.Mentors\u27 expectation is that basic attitudes and basic skills needed as nursing school/kindergarten teachers should be acquired before on-site practice, and that the skills to develop relationship with children should be acquired during the on-sight experience. They recognize that the skills to developing relationship with guardians, structuring children\u27s environment, and treatment of children with special needs may be acquired after employment

Phosphodiesterase Inhibitors Suppress Lactobacillus casei Cell-Wall-Induced NF-κB and MAPK Activations and Cell Proliferation through Protein Kinase A—or Exchange Protein Activated by cAMP-Dependent Signal Pathway

Specific strains of Lactobacillus have been found to be beneficial in treating some types of diarrhea and vaginosis. However, a high mortality rate results from underlying immunosuppressive conditions in patients with Lactobacillus casei bacteremia. Cyclic AMP (cAMP) is a small second messenger molecule that mediates signal transduction. The onset and progression of inflammatory responses are sensitive to changes in steady-state cAMP levels. L. casei cell wall extract (LCWE) develops arteritis in mice through Toll-like receptor-2 signaling. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether intracellular cAMP affects LCWE-induced pathological signaling. LCWE was shown to induce phosphorylation of the nuclear factor κB (NF-κB) and mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling pathways and cell proliferation in mice fibroblast cells. Theophylline and phosphodiesterase inhibitor increased intracellular cAMP and inhibited LCWE-induced cell proliferation as well as phosphorylation of NF-κB and MAPK. Protein kinase A inhibitor H89 prevented cAMP-induced MAPK inhibition, but not cAMP-induced NF-κB inhibition. An exchange protein activated by cAMP (Epac) agonist inhibited NF-κB activation but not MAPK activation. These results indicate that an increase in intracellular cAMP prevents LCWE induction of pathological signaling pathways dependent on PKA and Epac signaling

Two genetic variants of CD38 in subjects with autism spectrum disorder and controls

金沢大学医薬保健研究域医学系The neurobiological basis of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) remains poorly understood. Given the role of CD38 in social recognition through oxytocin (OT) release, we hypothesized that CD38 may play a role in the etiology of ASD. Here, we first examined the immunohistochemical expression of CD38 in the hypothalamus of post-mortem brains of non-ASD subjects and found that CD38 was colocalized with OT in secretory neurons. In studies of the association between CD38 and autism, we analyzed 10 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and mutations of CD38 by re-sequencing DNAs mainly from a case-control study in Japan, and Caucasian cases mainly recruited to the Autism Genetic Resource Exchange (AGRE). The SNPs of CD38, rs6449197 (p 70; designated as high-functioning autism (HFA)) in the U.S. 104 AGRE family trios, but not with Japanese 188 HFA subjects. A mutation that caused tryptophan to replace arginine at amino acid residue 140 (R140W; (rs1800561, 4693C>T)) was found in 0.6-4.6% of the Japanese population and was associated with ASD in the smaller case-control study. The SNP was clustered in pedigrees in which the fathers and brothers of T-allele-carrier probands had ASD or ASD traits. In this cohort OT plasma levels were lower in subjects with the T allele than in those without. One proband with the T allele who was taking nasal OT spray showed relief of symptoms. The two variant CD38 poloymorphysms tested may be of interest with regard of the pathophysiology of ASD. © 2010 Elsevier Ireland Ltd and the Japan Neuroscience Society