Experience of Psychoeduation in Schools and Its Effect on University Students' Adjustment.

The aims of this study were twofold. One was to comprehend the extent of experience to which university students had psychoeducation in Japanese elementary, junior high and high schools. The other was to explore relations between that experience and students' present adjustment. Participants were 656 university students who completed a series of questionnaires. The results indicated as follows: University students experienced a variety of psychoeducation in elementary, junior high and high schools; approximately 70% of students had the psychoeducation acknowledged in the ministry's curriculum guideline or its notification; and the psychoeducation directly treating stress and emotions was less likely to be experienced. It appears that specific types of psychoeducation such as self-esteem education and depression/suicidal prevention education that students have experienced associated with better adjustment than others did. Especially, the experience in elementary schools showed stronger relationships to the adjustment than one in high schools

An Endoscopic Endonasal Approach for Early-Stage Olfactory Neuroblastoma: An Evaluation of 2 Cases with Minireview of Literature

We describe the clinical findings in two patients with pathologically diagnosed olfactory neuroblastoma (ONB) of the sinonasal area and the surgical methods used for its treatment. Using an endoscopic endonasal approach (EEA) without dura resection, along with radiotherapy, we successfully treated ONB at the Kadish stage A. One of our patients, however, experienced tumor recurrence 24 years after open surgery with radiotherapy that was conducted at another hospital. This patient was no longer eligible for radiotherapy, and the tumor was therefore resected with dura resection using an EEA combined with duraplasty. The dura resection with duraplasty using fascia lata and a pedicled nasal septal flap was minimally invasive. As with surgery without duraplasty, a postoperative computed tomography (CT) examination revealed that EEA with duraplasty led to quick improvement of the postoperative inflammatory response as well as pneumocranium. Here, we investigated whether to modify the method of surgery depending upon the primary site of early-stage ONB. We suggest that, in early-stage ONB, an endoscopic endonasal approach is an effective and less invasive method. It is also advisable to perform dura mater resection of the lesion site despite the absence of obvious intracranial invasions in image findings

Effectiveness of universal school-based social-emotional learning programs in promoting social-emotional skills, attitudes towards self and others, positive social behaviors, and improving emotional and conduct problems among Japanese children: a meta-analytic review

The implementation of universal school based Social–Emotional Learning (SEL) programs is increasing in Japanese schools with the aim of enhancing children’s social–emotional skills and reducing mental health problems. However, there is a lack of meta-analyses evaluating the effectiveness of these programs in Japan that specifically include studies with control groups and examine program moderators. Conducting such a meta-analysis would be valuable for improving future implementations of SEL programs in Japan. The present meta-analysis analyzed 85 intervention studies with control groups to examine the effectiveness and moderators of universal school based SEL programs for Japanese children aged 5–18 years. The analysis indicates that these programs have a small overall effect (ES = 0.26), as well as small effects in improving social–emotional skills (ES = 0.24), attitude toward the self and others (ES = 0.30), positive social behavior (ES = 0.31), conduct problem (ES = 0.20), and emotional problem (ES = 0.22) at post-intervention among Japanese children. The analysis further revealed that publication type, number of participants, and school level of children moderated the overall effects of universal school based SEL programs, suggesting potential biases in effect sizes reported in peer-reviewed journals published by scientific societies, lower effectiveness for older children, and decreased effectiveness when programs are delivered to larger numbers of children. Future research should explore more effective delivery methods for SEL programs, particularly for older children and larger groups, such as integrating community components and information and communication technology into the programs

EMPRESS. IX. Extremely Metal-Poor Galaxies are Very Gas-Rich Dispersion-Dominated Systems: Will JWST Witness Gaseous Turbulent High-z Primordial Galaxies?

We present kinematics of 6 local extremely metal-poor galaxies (EMPGs) with low metallicities ($0.016-0.098\ Z_{\odot}$) and low stellar masses ($10^{4.7}-10^{7.6} M_{\odot}$). Taking deep medium-high resolution ($R\sim7500$) integral-field spectra with 8.2-m Subaru, we resolve the small inner velocity gradients and dispersions of the EMPGs with H$\alpha$ emission. Carefully masking out sub-structures originated by inflow and/or outflow, we fit 3-dimensional disk models to the observed H$\alpha$ flux, velocity, and velocity-dispersion maps. All the EMPGs show rotational velocities ($v_{\rm rot}$) of 5--23 km s$^{-1}$ smaller than the velocity dispersions ($\sigma_{0}$) of 17--31 km s$^{-1}$, indicating dispersion-dominated ($v_{\rm rot}/\sigma_{0}=0.29-0.80<1$) systems affected by inflow and/or outflow. Except for two EMPGs with large uncertainties, we find that the EMPGs have very large gas-mass fractions of $f_{\rm gas}\simeq 0.9-1.0$. Comparing our results with other H$\alpha$ kinematics studies, we find that $v_{\rm rot}/\sigma_{0}$ decreases and $f_{\rm gas}$ increases with decreasing metallicity, decreasing stellar mass, and increasing specific star-formation rate. We also find that simulated high-$z$ ($z\sim 7$) forming galaxies have gas fractions and dynamics similar to the observed EMPGs. Our EMPG observations and the simulations suggest that primordial galaxies are gas-rich dispersion-dominated systems, which would be identified by the forthcoming James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) observations at $z\sim 7$.Comment: Submitted to ApJ; After revisio

The whole blood transcriptional regulation landscape in 465 COVID-19 infected samples from Japan COVID-19 Task Force

「コロナ制圧タスクフォース」COVID-19患者由来の血液細胞における遺伝子発現の網羅的解析 --重症度に応じた遺伝子発現の変化には、ヒトゲノム配列の個人差が影響する--. 京都大学プレスリリース. 2022-08-23.Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a recently-emerged infectious disease that has caused millions of deaths, where comprehensive understanding of disease mechanisms is still unestablished. In particular, studies of gene expression dynamics and regulation landscape in COVID-19 infected individuals are limited. Here, we report on a thorough analysis of whole blood RNA-seq data from 465 genotyped samples from the Japan COVID-19 Task Force, including 359 severe and 106 non-severe COVID-19 cases. We discover 1169 putative causal expression quantitative trait loci (eQTLs) including 34 possible colocalizations with biobank fine-mapping results of hematopoietic traits in a Japanese population, 1549 putative causal splice QTLs (sQTLs; e.g. two independent sQTLs at TOR1AIP1), as well as biologically interpretable trans-eQTL examples (e.g., REST and STING1), all fine-mapped at single variant resolution. We perform differential gene expression analysis to elucidate 198 genes with increased expression in severe COVID-19 cases and enriched for innate immune-related functions. Finally, we evaluate the limited but non-zero effect of COVID-19 phenotype on eQTL discovery, and highlight the presence of COVID-19 severity-interaction eQTLs (ieQTLs; e.g., CLEC4C and MYBL2). Our study provides a comprehensive catalog of whole blood regulatory variants in Japanese, as well as a reference for transcriptional landscapes in response to COVID-19 infection

DOCK2 is involved in the host genetics and biology of severe COVID-19

「コロナ制圧タスクフォース」COVID-19疾患感受性遺伝子DOCK2の重症化機序を解明 --アジア最大のバイオレポジトリーでCOVID-19の治療標的を発見--. 京都大学プレスリリース. 2022-08-10.Identifying the host genetic factors underlying severe COVID-19 is an emerging challenge. Here we conducted a genome-wide association study (GWAS) involving 2, 393 cases of COVID-19 in a cohort of Japanese individuals collected during the initial waves of the pandemic, with 3, 289 unaffected controls. We identified a variant on chromosome 5 at 5q35 (rs60200309-A), close to the dedicator of cytokinesis 2 gene (DOCK2), which was associated with severe COVID-19 in patients less than 65 years of age. This risk allele was prevalent in East Asian individuals but rare in Europeans, highlighting the value of genome-wide association studies in non-European populations. RNA-sequencing analysis of 473 bulk peripheral blood samples identified decreased expression of DOCK2 associated with the risk allele in these younger patients. DOCK2 expression was suppressed in patients with severe cases of COVID-19. Single-cell RNA-sequencing analysis (n = 61 individuals) identified cell-type-specific downregulation of DOCK2 and a COVID-19-specific decreasing effect of the risk allele on DOCK2 expression in non-classical monocytes. Immunohistochemistry of lung specimens from patients with severe COVID-19 pneumonia showed suppressed DOCK2 expression. Moreover, inhibition of DOCK2 function with CPYPP increased the severity of pneumonia in a Syrian hamster model of SARS-CoV-2 infection, characterized by weight loss, lung oedema, enhanced viral loads, impaired macrophage recruitment and dysregulated type I interferon responses. We conclude that DOCK2 has an important role in the host immune response to SARS-CoV-2 infection and the development of severe COVID-19, and could be further explored as a potential biomarker and/or therapeutic target

Examination of the effectiveness of Neuroscience-Informed Child Education (NICE) within Japanese school settings

Social innovation in mental health education is imperative in Japan. Mental health problems such as depression and anxiety disorders among Japanese children that may compromise their education and future occupational performances have become prevalent. Accordingly, the early prevention of mental health problems with cognitive-behavioral oriented Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) programs, which have mostly been developed in western countries, have been implemented. However, studies have revealed that cognitive-behavioral oriented programs tend to have limited efficacies within the Japanese context due to culturally unique challenges such as low confidence and time and resource constraints. Research in neuroscience has found that cognitive oriented top-down approaches that focus on cognitive change predominantly may not be developmentally appropriate for Japanese children. Consequently, the efficacy and feasibility of a neuroscience-informed child education (NICE) program was developed and examined in this study to address the demands of the Japanese school context by integrating neuroscientific perspectives into a cognitive-behavioral oriented school-based SEL program. Teachers and first-grade students (6–7 years old) were divided into two groups. In the program group, teachers conducted an eight-session NICE program during 20-minute after-class periods. In the information group, teachers applied the approach and skills in daily class management. While the students completed questionnaires regarding their class adjustment and social support awareness at three-time points, the teachers assessed students’ behaviors, including difficulties and prosocial behavior. The results supported the efficacy of the NICE program for promoting psychological well-being and increasing social support awareness and prosocial behaviors among Japanese students