BAT KINEMATICS IN BALL HITTING TASK

The purpose of this study was to investigate relationship between timing of ball-bat impact and bat kinematics. University baseball players were asked to hit one of three kinds of ball (a baseball, a polystyrene ball, a small polystyrene ball) hung with a string. Peak velocity of the distal end of the bat appeared in different timing among ball conditions. Regardless of conditions, the lowest position of the distal end of the bat during bat swing showed up at almost same timing for each SUbject. These results showed that height of the distal end of the bat might be useful for estimating impact point of each baseball batter

Political outcomes of the slips of the tongue of Japanese ministers

Slips of the tongue' of Japanese cabinet ministers have attracted the attention of scholars. But, focusing mainly on the backgrounds of these slips, the scholars have not paid sufficient attention to the outcomes. The present paper is an attempt at empirical identification of the political outcomes of such slips of the tongue. We distinguishs two levels of outcomes: the personal level and the government or party level. At the personal level, acknowledgment of individual responsibility is the most important of the outcomes. The ministers in question have to bear responsibility for their verbal missteps in one of three ways: resignation, apology or explanation. If they have to resign from the ministerial posts, they will never be appointed again to the post of a minister. Nevertheless, most of them will be successful in holding their seats in the Diet even after the slips of the tongue. At the government or party level, there are three major outcomes, two or all of which frequently occur simultaneously. First, slips of the tongue may cause a split in the diplomatic relations of Japan with other countries. Secondly, they may threaten the stability of a coalition government. Thirdly, they may be used as a means of attack against the government or government party by the opposition parties. It seems that the main objective of such an attack against the government or ruling party is to achieve support expansion and vote acquisition for the opposition(s). But, the examination of the results of national elections does not give us any definitive conclusion about whether these objectives are attained or not

Language of Politics or Politics of Language? Toward an Integrated Perspective

The present paper is an attempt at the clarification of the relationship between language and politics. Previous studies involving both language and politics can be apparently divided into two major research fields: “language of politics" and “politics of language." However, a close examination of the differences between them will show that, in addition to the important and useful differences, these two fields have one critical underlying property in common, that is, they both involve a selection from linguistic alternatives. On the basis of the concept of the selection, we will propose an integrative model which enables us to understand the issue of “language and politics" in a unified way

Study on interannual variations of summer sea surface temperature anomaly in the North Pacific Ocean

東京海洋大学海洋工学部海事システム工学科東京海洋大学海洋工学部海事システム工学

セミパラチンスク核実験場近郊被曝証言の日本語版全文データベース化

The present paper is an initial report of the project for a full-text Japanese database of the testimonies of those exposed to radiation near the nuclear test site of Semipalatinsk, Kazakhstan. 139 testimonies were gathered in four villages near Semipalatinsk in 2002. We translated them into Japanese from Russian and Kazakh, and created a full-text database by using a Japanese text retrieval program, KR. In this paper, we attempt to show how the database can be used to understand tragic realities of the effects of exposure to radiation from nuclear tests. In the attempt, we try to demonstrate that radiation exposed residents near the test site are affected physically and mentally, by citing retrieved testimonies complaining illness and bad health, environmental pollution, and mental disorder, resulting finally in suicide. We also try to clarify differences between experiences in Semipalatinsk, and those in Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Cloning of a Putative Vesicle Transport-related Protein, RA410, from Cultured Rat Astrocytes and Its Expression in Ischemic Rat Brain

To elucidate the role of astrocytes in the stress response of the central nervous system to ischemia, early gene expression was evaluated in cultured rat astrocytes subjected to hypoxia/reoxygenation. Using differential display, a novel putative vesicle transport-related factor (RA410) was cloned from reoxygenated astrocytes. Analysis of the deduced amino acid sequence showed RA410 to be composed of domains common to vesicle transport-related proteins of the Sec1/Unc18 family, including Sly1p and Sec1p (yeast), Rop (Drosophila), Unc18 (Caenorhabditis elegans), and Munc18 (mammalian), suggesting its possible role in vesicular transport. Northern analysis of normal rat tissues showed the highest expression of RA410 transcripts in testis. When astrocyte cultures were subjected to a period of hypoxia followed by reoxygenation, induction of RA410 mRNA was observed within 15 min of reoxygenation, reaching a maximum by 60 min. At the start of reoxygenation, the addition of diphenyl iodonium, an NADPH oxidase inhibitor, blocked in parallel astrocyte generation of reactive oxygen intermediates and expression of RA410 message. In contrast, cycloheximide did not affect RA410 mRNA levels, indicating that RA410 is an immediate-early gene in the setting of reoxygenation. Using polyclonal antibody raised against an RA410-derived synthetic peptide, Western blotting of lysates from reoxygenated astrocytes displayed an immunoreactive band of ≈70 kDa, the expression of which followed induction of the mRNA. Fractionation of astrocyte lysates on sucrose gradients showed RA410 antigen to be predominantly in the plasma membrane. Immunoelectron microscopic analysis demonstrated RA410 in large vesicles associated with the Golgi, but not in the Golgi apparatus itself, consistent with its participation in post-Golgi transport. Consistent with thesein vitro data, RA410 expression was observed in rat brain astrocytes following transient occlusion of the middle cerebral artery. These data provide insight into a new protein (RA410) that participates in the ischemia-related stress response in astrocytes

Adamantinoma of the Tibia. - Report of a Case with Findings of Ultrastructural and Immunohistochemical Studies,

A case of tibial adamantinoma in a one-year and ten-month old girl is reported. She had gait disturbance and her roentogenogram showed a well circumscribed radiolucent area in the tibia. Light microscopic examination showed the epithelial component of nests and pseudoglandular arrays in the loose fibrous connective tissue. We finally diagnsed the tumor as adamantinoma of the tibia based on roentogenographical and histological findings. Moreover, the nature of the neoplastic cells was studied by the immunohistochemical and electron microscopic methods. The adamantinoma is regarded as a unique neoplasm capable of differen - tiating into epithelial elements as well as mesenchymal ones . Detection of epithelial component is important to differentiate from similar disorders. The fibrous dysplasia- like lesion in stroma is interpreted as a part of the spectrum of mesenchymal differentiation

An Autopsy Case of Biliary Cystadenocarcinoma of the Liver

Summary : An autopsy case of a 58-year-old female with biliary cystadenocarcinoma is presented. A large cyst occupied the entire left lobe of the liver associating with multilocular daughter cysts and solid lesion. Histologically, tumor showed papillary, back-to-back glandular, cribriform pattern in the inner surface of the cysts with stromal invasion. Polygonal atypical cells were arranged in cords and adenoid cystic pattern in the solid lesion. Immunohistochemically, EMA was stained in the tumor cells as well as normal hepatocytes. CEA was diffusely stained in the cytoplasm and luminar surfaces of the tumor cells, while CEA was stained only in the luminar surfaces of benign-appearing eptithelial cells of the cysts. Keratin and α-fetoprotein were not stained in the tumor cells. The origin of this tumor remains unknown, although transformation from congenital solitary cyst, biliary cystadenoma and reminiscence of cystadenoma of the pancreas or originally occurrence of cystadenocarcinoma in the liver are considered the basic histogenesis of cytadenocarcinoma of this case