Analysis on the causes of summer temperature distributions in Hiroshima : For making “Urban Environmental Climate Maps”

内容の要旨 , 審査の要旨広島大学(Hiroshima University)博士(工学)Doctor of Engineeringdoctora

Urban Heat Island Mitigation: A GIS-based Model for Hiroshima

The phenomenon of overheating in urban areas is an increasingly important issue as far as the quality of life and public health are concerned. This paper proposes a simple model, integrated with a Geographic Information System (GIS) tool, that can be used to analyze the microclimate of outdoor spaces, considering the relationship between the air temperature and the characteristics of an urban environment. The Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect was analyzed by assessing parameters that describe the urban context, such as the density of the population and of the buildings, and the urban morphology. Remote sensing data and satellite images were used to evaluate the presence of vegetation and the type of surfaces in the urban space. Through the construction of linear regression models, the main variables of influence were identified for a typical summer day. It has been found, from the results, that the UHI effect decreases proportionally with the presence of vegetation and with higher values of the albedo of urban surfaces, as well as of the altitude and the distance from the sea. The UHI effect instead increases proportionally for higher values of the canyon height-to-width ratio, the building density and the Land Surface Temperature. These models can be used to analyse the outdoor thermal comfort and the livability of an urban territory

Autophagy enhances memory erasure through synaptic destabilization

There is substantial interest in memory reconsolidation as a target for the treatment of anxiety disorders, such as post-traumatic stress disorder. However, its applicability is restricted by reconsolidation-resistant boundary conditions that constrain the initial memory destabilization. In this study, we investigated whether the induction of synaptic protein degradation through autophagy modulation, a major protein degradation pathway, can enhance memory destabilization upon retrieval and whether it can be used to overcome these conditions. Here, using male mice in an auditory fear reconsolidation model, we showed that autophagy contributes to memory destabilization and its induction can be used to enhance erasure of a reconsolidation-resistant auditory fear memory that depended on AMPAR endocytosis. Using male mice in a contextual fear reconsolidation model, autophagy induction in the amygdala or in the hippocampus enhanced fear or contextual memory destabilization, respectively. The latter correlated with AMPAR degradation in the spines of the contextual memory-ensemble cells. Using male rats in an in vivo LTP reconsolidation model, autophagy induction enhanced synaptic destabilization in an NMDAR-dependent manner. These data indicate that induction of synaptic protein degradation can enhance both synaptic and memory destabilization upon reactivation and that autophagy inducers have the potential to be used as a therapeutic tool in the treatment of anxiety disorders

Synapse-specific representation of the identity of overlapping memory engrams

Memories are integrated into interconnected networks; nevertheless, each memory has its own identity. How the brain defines specific memory identity out of intermingled memories stored in a shared cell ensemble has remained elusive. We found that after complete retrograde amnesia of auditory fear conditioning in mice, optogenetic stimulation of the auditory inputs to the lateral amygdala failed to induce memory recall, implying that the memory engram no longer existed in that circuit. Complete amnesia of a given fear memory did not affect another linked fear memory encoded in the shared ensemble. Optogenetic potentiation or depotentiation of the plasticity at synapses specific to one memory affected the recall of only that memory. Thus, the sharing of engram cells underlies the linkage between memories, whereas synapse-specific plasticity guarantees the identity and storage of individual memories

Impact of Various Effects of Smoking in the Mouth on Motivating Dental Patients to Quit Smoking

We explored the impact of addressing personally relevant effects of smoking in the mouth on promoting the motivation to quit in a dental setting at personal and public levels. Stages of behavior change and attempts to quit smoking by smokers were recorded during dental visits. Dentists selected and gave motivational information from 24 topics relevant to a patient's oral health status, risk, or dental treatment. During the dental visit, each topic was presented to patients. Topics of gingival melanin pigmentation and periodontal disease risk were most frequently presented. Progression through stages of behavior change and attempts to quit smoking were observed after presentation of each topic. At a personal level, progression through stages was most frequently observed after the patient was shown an image of pediatric dental caries and smoker's palate, and attempts to quit was most frequently observed after the patient shown an image of the effects of smoking cessation and pediatric dental caries. At the public level, enhancing the motivation to progress through stages and attempts to quit was most frequently observed after the presentation of effects of smoking cessation and discoloration of teeth, although the intensity of enhanced motivation significantly correlated with the frequency of presentation, which was not the highest for these topics. Although various smoking effects on the mouth have potential impact on promoting the motivation to quit, the impact on enhancing motivation is not necessarily consistent at personal and public levels

A49T, V89L and TA repeat polymorphisms of steroid 5α-reductase type II and breast cancer risk in Japanese women

BACKGROUND: Breast cancer is hormone related, as are cancers of the endometrium, ovary, and prostate. Several studies have suggested that higher extracellular levels of androgens are associated with breast cancer risk, while biological evidence indicates that androgens are protective. The codon 49 alanine to threonine substitution (A49T), codon 89 valine to leucine substitution (V89L) and TA repeat polymorphisms of the steroid 5α-reductase type II (SRD5A2) gene are considered functional with respect to enzyme activity converting testosterone into dihydrotestosterone. To test the hypothesis that these three polymorphisms are associated with risk of breast cancer, a case–control study was conducted with patients of Aichi Cancer Center Hospital. METHODS: The cases were 237 patients histologically diagnosed with breast cancer, and the controls were 185 noncancer outpatients. DNA from peripheral blood was genotyped by PCR methods. RESULTS: The threonine allele of A49T was not found in our subjects. Compared with the V/V genotype of V89L, the L/L genotype was associated with a decreased risk (crude odds ratio [OR] = 0.61, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.36–1.05). This was also the case for the TA(9/9) genotype, with an OR of 0.58 (95% CI = 0.13–2.63) relative to TA(0/0). Among women with the TA(0/0) genotype, however, the OR for the L/L genotype was 0.46 (95% CI = 0.24–0.88) compared with the V/V genotype, and those with the V/V and TA(0/0) genotypes had the highest risk. The haplotype with the L and TA(9) repeat alleles was not found. CONCLUSION: This study is the first to our knowledge focusing on Japanese women, suggesting that SRD5A2 polymorphisms might have an association with breast cancer risk. Further large-sample studies will be required to confirm the association and to assess any interactions with environmental factors

ガイコクゴ ノ ガクシュウ キョウジュ ヒョウカ ノ タメ ノ ヨーロッパ キョウツウ サンショウワク (CEF) ノ ニホンゴ キョウイク ニ オケル カツヨウ - ドイツ ・ ベルリンシュウ ノ チュウトウ キョウイク ニホンゴ ガイドライン ノ レイ

ヨーロッパ評議会 (Council of Europe) により開発された言語教育の評価基準である、外国語の学習、教授、評価のためのヨーロッパ共通参照枠(Common European Framework of Lan-guages、以下CEF) と言語学習記録のためのツール、言語ポートフォリオ (European LanguagePortfolio、以下ELP) は、ドイツの学校教育において着実に導入が進んでいる。一例として、2003年、2004年に相次いで策定された、第一外国語の「教育スタンダード」には、CEFの能力モデルが全面的に取り入れられている。ベルリン州では2003/04年度にこの「教育スタンダード」の能力モデルに基づき、全ての外国語科目の中等教育後期用ガイドラインの改訂が行なわれた。 外国語科目のひとつである日本語のガイドラインも、CEF に基づいて改訂され、ドイツの学校における日本語に初めて CEF の基準が適用された。本稿では、まず、このガイドライン開発の契機となった教育スタンダードを概観し、ドイツの教育界が「パラダイムの変化」を遂げようとしている点を指摘する。そして、ヨーロッパ言語を中心に開発されたCEFの外国語能力記述が、中等教育の日本語教育へどのように応用されているかを、ベルリンの日本語ガイドラインの分析を通して明らかにする。最後にこれらの分析を通して、CEFを採用した改訂版日本語ガイドラインが授業の現場と教師、更にドイツの日本語教育に及ぼしうる影響に言及する。また、CEFにみる外国語教育の合理主義への動きと、それと並存しうる人文主義的教育の重要性を指摘し、教師の新たな役割についても論じる。The Council of Europe recently developed the Common European Framework (CEF) of Reference for Languages: Learning, Teaching, and Assessment and the European Language Portfolio (ELP) in order to promote language teaching and learning by setting clear and attainable standards at different levels of language education. The Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs of the federal states in the Federal Republic of Germany (Kultusministerkonferenz, KMK) published the “Educational Standards” in 2003 and 2004 for teaching the first foreign language in secondary schools. These “Educational Standards” clearly state and adopt the competence model from the CEF.The State of Berlin then revised the teaching guidelines for all foreign languages for upper secondary education based on the “Educational Standard” and consequently on the competence model of the CEF in the academic year 2003–04. The revised guidelines for Japanese turned out to be the first implementation of the CEF in the field of Japanese education in Germany.This paper first summarizes the competence model introduced in the “Educational Standard” for foreign languages and points out that the educational system in Germany is facing a “paradigm shift.” We then analyze the Japanese guidelines for Berlin as an example of examining the problems in applying the competence model of the CEF to Japanese language education at the secondary school level, when it was developed mainly for the European languages. Finally, we refer to the possible impact of the revised version of the guidelines for Japanese on the actual lessons, teachers, and over all Japanese language education in Germany. We also argue that adopting the CEF implies a commitment to efficiency-oriented rationalism in the field of foreign language teaching and a discussion on the importance of humanistic education, which may coexist with rationalism, while suggesting new roles for language teachers

Autophagy enhances memory erasure through synaptic destabilization

There is substantial interest in memory reconsolidation as a target for the treatment of anxiety disorders, such as post-traumatic stress disorder. However, its applicability is restricted by reconsolidation-resistant boundary conditions that constrain the initial memory destabilization. In this study, we investigated whether the induction of synaptic protein degradation through autophagy modulation, a major protein degradation pathway, can enhance memory destabilization upon retrieval and whether it can be used to overcome these conditions. Here, using male mice in an auditory fear reconsolidation model, we showed that autophagy contributes to memory destabilization and its induction can be used to enhance erasure of a reconsolidation-resistant auditory fear memory that depended on AMPAR endocytosis. Using male mice in a contextual fear reconsolidation model, autophagy induction in the amygdala or in the hippocampus enhanced fear or contextual memory destabilization, respectively. The latter correlated with AMPAR degradation in the spines of the contextual memory-ensemble cells. Using male rats in an in vivo LTP reconsolidation model, autophagy induction enhanced synaptic destabilization in an NMDAR-dependent manner. These data indicate that induction of synaptic protein degradation can enhance both synaptic and memory destabilization upon reactivation and that autophagy inducers have the potential to be used as a therapeutic tool in the treatment of anxiety disorders

Immobilization of Photoelectric Dye on the Polyethylene FilmSurface

PE film was treated with fuming nitric acid at 80℃ for 20 min, resulting in introduction of COOH moieties on the film surface. The COOH’s were reacted with ethylenediamine, whose amino groups were used for linking with (2-[4-(dibutylamino)phenyl]ethenyl)-3-carboxy-methylbenzo-thiazolium, photoelectric dye (NK-5962), which absorbs visible light and converts the photon energy to electric potentials. The dye molecules were immobilized on the PE film surface and they were able to stimulate chick retinal tissues on incidence of visible light. These facts hopefully lead to development of an artificial retinal prosthesis