Effect of Students’ Reflection on their Teaching Practice Experiences: Discussions during Case Conferences in Teaching Practice

The purpose of this study was to clarify the effect of reflecting by student A, who participated in a teaching practice. As a result, the following three points were clarified. First, student A made more comments at case conferences than student teacher B. Moreover, student A made more comments concerning “alternatives” in which students’ reflections appear in case conferences than student teacher B. Second, the students’ reflections at case conferences revealed a commonly shared viewpoint on “teaching skills”. Student A also held the viewpoint of an “approach to the objective” and that the content of the class was appropriate to the goal of the lesson. Regarding the difference between student A and student teacher B, it was suggested that the mentoring received by student A from mentor D during the teaching practice had some degree of influence. Third, both student A and student teacher B has difficulties with “schoolchild understanding” despite mentor D talking at case conferences about this issue. Based on these findings, it is suggested that it is difficult to engage in reflection that enables student to comprehend “schoolchild understanding” in teaching practice

Successful Allogeneic Bone Marrow Transplantation Using Immunosuppressive Conditioning Regimen for a Patient with Red Blood Cell Transfusion-Dependent Pyruvate Kinase Deficiency Anemia

Pyruvate kinase deficiency (PKD) is the rare glycolytic enzyme defect causing hemolytic anemia. Treatments are mainly red cell transfusion and/or splenectomy, leading to iron overload. Allogeneic bone marrow transplantation (BMT) is alternatively curative treatment for severe PKD. The intensity of conditioning is often controversial because of higher risk of graft failure and organ damage. Here, we present a transfusion-dependent PKD patient undergoing BMT from an HLA-identical sibling using intensively immunosuppressive conditioning regimen. This report suggests that BMT using immunosuppressive conditioning regimen may be a feasible and effective treatment for patients with severe PKD with iron overload. We suggest the timing of the transplantation at an earlier age in severe PKD predicted from gene mutation is preferred before cumulative damage of transfusion

A Single Neonatal Injection of Ethinyl Estradiol Impairs Passive Avoidance Learning and Reduces Expression of Estrogen Receptor α in the Hippocampus and Cortex of Adult Female Rats.

Although perinatal exposure of female rats to estrogenic compounds produces irreversible changes in brain function, it is still unclear how the amount and timing of exposure to those substances affect learning function, or if exposure alters estrogen receptor α (ERα) expression in the hippocampus and cortex. In adult female rats, we investigated the effects of neonatal exposure to a model estrogenic compound, ethinyl estradiol (EE), on passive avoidance learning and ERα expression. Female Wistar-Imamichi rats were subcutaneously injected with oil, 0.02 mg/kg EE, 2 mg/kg EE, or 20 mg/kg 17β-estradiol within 24 h after birth. All females were tested for passive avoidance learning at the age of 6 weeks. Neonatal 0.02 mg/kg EE administration significantly disrupted passive avoidance compared with oil treatment in gonadally intact females. In a second experiment, another set of experimental females, treated as described above, was ovariectomized under pentobarbital anesthesia at 10 weeks of age. At 15-17 weeks of age, half of each group received a subcutaneous injection of 5 μg estradiol benzoate a day before the passive avoidance learning test. Passive avoidance learning behavior was impaired by the 0.02 mg/kg EE dose, but notably only in the estradiol benzoate-injected group. At 17-19 weeks of age, hippocampal and cortical samples were collected from rats with or without the 5 μg estradiol benzoate injection, and western blots used to determine ERα expression. A significant decrease in ERα expression was observed in the hippocampus of the estradiol-injected, neonatal EE-treated females. The results demonstrated that exposure to EE immediately after birth decreased learning ability in adult female rats, and that this may be at least partly mediated by the decreased expression of ERα in the hippocampus

A new highly sensitive real-time quantitative-PCR method for detection of BCR-ABL1 to monitor minimal residual disease in chronic myeloid leukemia after discontinuation of imatinib.

Tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) targeting the BCR-ABL1 fusion protein, encoded by the Philadelphia chromosome, have drastically improved the outcomes for patients with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML). Although several real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RQ-PCR) kits for the detection of BCR-ABL1 transcripts are commercially available, their accuracy and efficiency in laboratory practice require reevaluation. We have developed a new in-house RQ-PCR method to detect minimal residual disease (MRD) in CML cases. MRD was analyzed in 102 patients with CML from the DOMEST study, a clinical trial to study the rationale for imatinib mesylate discontinuation in Japan. The BCR-ABL1/ABL1 ratio was evaluated using the international standard (IS) ratio, where IS < 0.1% was defined as a major molecular response. At enrollment, BCR-ABL1 transcripts were undetectable in all samples using a widely-applied RQ-PCR method performed in the commercial laboratory, BML (BML Inc., Tokyo, Japan); however, the in-house method detected the BCR-ABL1 transcripts in five samples (5%) (mean IS ratio: 0.0062 ± 0.0010%). After discontinuation of imatinib, BCR-ABL1 transcripts were detected using the in-house RQ-PCR in 21 patients (21%) that were not positive using the BML method. Nineteen samples were also tested using a commercially available RQ-PCR assay kit with a detection limit of IS ratio, 0.0032 (ODK-1201, Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co., Tokyo, Japan). This method detected low levels of BCR-ABL1 transcripts in 14 samples (74%), but scored negative for five samples (26%) that were positive using the in-house method. From the perspective of the in-house RQ-PCR method, number of patients confirmed loss of MMR was 4. These data suggest that our new in-house RQ-PCR method is effective for monitoring MRD in CML