A Study of Learning Factours on International Fieldwork -Focus on Interaction with Partners in the Program-

本研究では，海外フィールドワークに参加する学生の学習を促す要因を，他者との関わりに着目して明らかにすることを目的とした.関西大学大学院が行う海外フィールドワークに参加する学生を対象として，半構造化インタビューを実施した.結果，【研修に参加する教師の状況の理解】と【活動を継続させるための学生間の協働】という二つの要因がわかった.また実践に参加する学生の学習は，他者との関わりだけではなく，継続的な参加によって促されていた.海外フィールドワークでは大学の教師と学生間の関わりに加え，継続的な参加と，学生と現地の人との関わりや学生間の相互支援を促す学習環境をデザインすることが重要であることがわかった

Development of the photomultiplier tube readout system for the first Large-Sized Telescope of the Cherenkov Telescope Array

The Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) is the next generation ground-based very high energy gamma-ray observatory. The Large-Sized Telescope (LST) of CTA targets 20 GeV -- 1 TeV gamma rays and has 1855 photomultiplier tubes (PMTs) installed in the focal plane camera. With the 23 m mirror dish, the night sky background (NSB) rate amounts to several hundreds MHz per pixel. In order to record clean images of gamma-ray showers with minimal NSB contamination, a fast sampling of the signal waveform is required so that the signal integration time can be as short as the Cherenkov light flash duration (a few ns). We have developed a readout board which samples waveforms of seven PMTs per board at a GHz rate. Since a GHz FADC has a high power consumption, leading to large heat dissipation, we adopted the analog memory ASIC "DRS4". The sampler has 1024 capacitors per channel and can sample the waveform at a GHz rate. Four channels of a chip are cascaded to obtain deeper sampling depth with 4096 capacitors. After a trigger is generated in a mezzanine on the board, the waveform stored in the capacitor array is subsequently digitized with a low speed (33 MHz) ADC and transferred via the FPGA-based Gigabit Ethernet to a data acquisition system. Both a low power consumption (2.64 W per channel) and high speed sampling with a bandwidth of $>$300 MHz have been achieved. In addition, in order to increase the dynamic range of the readout we adopted a two gain system achieving from 0.2 up to 2000 photoelectrons in total. We finalized the board design for the first LST and proceeded to mass production. Performance of produced boards are being checked with a series of quality control (QC) tests. We report the readout board specifications and QC results.Comment: In Proceedings of the 34th International Cosmic Ray Conference (ICRC2015), The Hague, The Netherlands. All CTA contributions at arXiv:1508.0589

Applying Japanese Educational Experiences to the Construction of Essential Perspectives for Educational Development in Developing Countries : Case Studies of Myanmar, the Philippines, and Cambodia

本研究の目的は，日本が関わる途上国への教育開発プロジェクトにおいて考慮する観点を提示することである．途上国の教育開発は，21世紀に入り校舎建設などのハード面から，教育方法の改善といったソフト面に重点が移ってきた．しかし，社会歴史的な文脈を考慮しないまま，工学的なアプローチでプロジェクトが運営されてきた．そこで途上国の研究協力者との共同分析を採用することで，途上国の教育問題がどのような社会文化的な状況との関係性のなかで生起しているのか，ミャンマー，フィリピン，カンボジアの3カ国について分析をする．分析の結果，「教師と児童生徒のパワーバランス」「地域間にある教育環境の差」「教師の努力に依存する傾向にある学校体制」「新しい教育方法を教育政策として教育現場に適切に伝えること」に問題があることが明らかになった．今後は，個々の事例をマクロな視点を含めて考察する必要がある．The purpose of this research is to clarify the viewpoints that need to be considered in educational development projects for developing countries. Educational development in developing countries has shifted from infrastructure development, such as constructing school buildings, to pedagogic development, such as improving teaching methods for the 21st Century. However, an engineering approach has often been taken to the management of these projects, ignoring their social-historical contexts. Therefore, undertaking collaborative research with teachers and researchers in developing countries, the authors analyzed relationships between educational challenges and social-cultural contexts in Myanmar, the Philippines, and Cambodia. A number of challenges were identified, including power imbalances between students and teachers, regional gaps in the educational environment, school systems that are overreliant on the efforts of teachers, and the dissemination of new educational methods. Future research needs to take a macro approach to the investigation of each of these challenges.本研究は，科研費基盤研究 (B) 海外学術調査「社会文化的アプローチによる国際教育協力の学習環境デザイン」 (17H04572) の成果の一部である

Serotonin 5-HT7 Receptor in the Ventral Hippocampus Modulates the Retrieval of Fear Memory and Stress-Induced Defecation

Background: Patients with posttraumatic stress disorder or panic disorder are often troubled by inappropriate retrieval of fear memory. Moreover, these disorders are often comorbid with irritable bowel syndrome. The main aim of the present study is to elucidate the involvement of hippocampal serotonergic systems in fear memory retrieval and stress-induced defecation. Methods and Results: Microinjection of serotonin7 receptor antagonist, but not other serotonin receptor antagonists (serotonin1A, 2A, 2C, 3, 4, and 6), into the rat ventral hippocampus significantly suppressed the expression of freezing behavior, an index of fear memory retrieval, and decreased the amount of feces, an index of stress-induced defecation, in the contextual fear conditioning test. Electrophysiological data indicated that the serotonin7 receptor agonist increased the frequency of action potentials in the ventral hippocampal CA3 pyramidal neuron via the activation of the hyperpolarization-activated nonselective cation current Ih. Moreover, in situ hybridization demonstrated that Htr7 mRNA was abundantly expressed in the CA3 compared with other subregions of the hippocampus and that these Htr7 mRNA-positive cells coexpressed hyperpolarization-activated cyclic nucleotide-gated channel 2 and 4 mRNAs, which are components of the Ih channel. Conclusions: These results indicated that the released serotonin activates the serotonin7 receptor in the CA3 ventral hippocampus subregion, enhances the sensitivity to inputs via hyperpolarization-activated cyclic nucleotide 2 and 4 channels, and thereby facilitates fear memory retrieval. The serotonin7 receptor might be a target of drug development for the treatment of mental disorders involving fear memory and gastrointestinal problems

Large Axillary Defect after Lymph Node Dissection Directly Closed by Suturing the Pectoralis Major to the Latissimus Dorsi

Summary: In 2009, the Union for International Cancer Control defined lymph node (LN) metastasis ≥6 cm in diameter as stage 4 in squamous cell carcinoma of the skin. Lesions from such LNs become ulcerated and infected and bleed without treatment. A 67-year-old man suffered from skin cancer on his right back and a 7-cm-diameter LN metastasis. After axillary LN dissection, a large skin and soft tissue defect was apparent. To rectify the defect, we simply sutured the pectoralis major muscle to the latissimus dorsi muscle and covered the suture with a split-skin mesh graft. After the surgery, the range of motion of the upper limb on the side where surgery was performed remained in good condition

Distinct Neurochemical and Functional Properties of GAD67-Containing 5-HT Neurons in the Rat Dorsal Raphe Nucleus

The serotonergic (5-HTergic) system arising from the dorsal raphe nucleus (DRN) is implicated in various physiological and behavioral processes, including stress responses. The DRN is comprised of several subnuclei, serving specific functions with distinct afferent and efferent connections. Furthermore, subsets of 5-HTergic neurons are known to coexpress other transmitters, including GABA, glutamate, or neuropeptides, thereby generating further heterogeneity. However, despite the growing evidence for functional variations among DRN subnuclei, relatively little is known about how they map onto neurochemical diversity of 5-HTergic neurons. In the present study, we characterized functional properties of GAD67-expressing 5-HTergic neurons (5-HT/GAD67 neurons) in the rat DRN, and compared with those of neurons expressing 5-HTergic molecules (5-HT neurons) or GAD67 alone. While 5-HT/GAD67 neurons were absent in the dorsomedial (DRD) or ventromedial (DRV) parts of the DRN, they were selectively distributed in the lateral wing of the DRN (DRL), constituting 12% of the total DRL neurons. They expressed plasmalemmal GABA transporter 1, but lacked vesicular inhibitory amino acid transporter. By using whole-cell patch-clamp recording, we found that 5-HT/GAD67 neurons had lower input resistance and firing frequency than 5-HT neurons. As revealed by c-Fos immunohistochemistry, neurons in the DRL, particularly 5-HT/GAD67 neurons, showed higher responsiveness to exposure to an open field arena than those in the DRD and DRV. By contrast, exposure to contextual fear conditioning stress showed no such regional differences. These findings indicate that 5-HT/GAD67 neurons constitute a unique neuronal population with distinctive neurochemical and electrophysiological properties and high responsiveness to innocuous stressor