Development of “A Training Course to Cultivate the Abilities Required for Teachers (3): a Program to Bring on Teachers with a High Degree of Specialization and Practical Leadership – Towards the Building of a Program for Undergraduate Education

教師力養成講座は、学生のニーズや不安感に関わるテーマについて現場のトップリーダーとして活躍されている現職校長・教員から、その本質と課題解決に向けた取り組みの状況を迫力ある生の言葉で学生に語りかける形で行われた。学生達は、その生の言葉に魅了され、勇気がわき、教師の使命と責任の大きさ、そして、教職に真剣に向き合うことから生まれる充実感に気づいてきた。センターが全学化されたことにより、教育学部以外の学生の積極的な参加が目立つようになり、教育学部生にも刺激となっている。DVDに録画、編集したものを参加できなかった学生たちに視聴させている。徐々に、視聴する学生が増加しDVDの有効性が感じられる。来年度はDVDを一層活用させ教師力の育成に役立てたい

Endometrial Polyps:MR Imaging Features

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the diagnostic usefulness of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) characteristics of endometrial polyps in order to differentiate them from other endometrial lesions. MRI was retrospectively reviewed in 40 patients with pathologically proven endometrial polyps. Special attention was paid to the sizes, shapes, margins, internal structures, signal intensities, and post-contrast enhancement patterns. A central fibrous core, intratumoral cysts, and hemorrhage were seen in 30 (75%), 22 (55%), and 14 (35%) patients, respectively. The predominant signal intensity of the lesions showed iso-to slightly low signal intensity relative to the endometrium on T2-weighted images in 36 (90%), low signal intensity on diffusion-weighted images in 32 (80%), and strong or moderate enhancement on enhanced T1-weighted images in 28 patients (70%), respectively. In 32 (80%) patients, the endometrial polyps showed global or partial early enhancement. On dynamic study, rapid enhancement with a persistent strong enhancement pattern was seen in 17 (42.5%) and a gradually increasing enhancement pattern was seen in 17 patients (42.5%). These MRI features can be helpful to distinguish the endometrial polyps from various other endometrial lesions

Development of "A Training Course to Cultivate the Abilities Required for Teachers," a Program to Bring on Teachers with a High Degree of Specialization and Practical Leadership - Towards the Building of a Program for Undergraduate Education

学級崩壊，心の病に陥る教師，増えるクレーマー等々の現実に，学生たちも教員採用試験に合格してから，教壇に立つことの責任の重さ，自分の指導力の未熟さを痛感し，押しつぶされそうになる。この状態を少しでも克服していくため教師力育成講座を開講することとした。不易と流行の両方の観点から具体的な教育課題を現職の小・中学校長に提案してもらい，それらの課題解決を通して教師力を育成していくことを目指す。また，他学部の教員志望学生や大学院生等にも参加を呼びかけ，志を一にする学生同士が互いに切磋琢磨し，より幅広い確かな教師力の育成に資するものである。Circumstances surrounding today’s schools are becoming increasingly harsh, as evidenced by the prevalence of dysfunctional classrooms, teachers who suffer mental illnesses, and excessively demanding students and their parents who complain at every opportunity. Even after passing the teacher employment examinations, students become overwhelmed with the daunting responsibilities of standing at the podium as a teacher, and are made painfully aware of their immature leadership skills. To overcome these problems as much as possible, we have decided to offer a training course to cultivate the abilities required for teachers. The aims are to have individuals currently serving as elementary and middle school principals propose concrete educational challenges from the perspectives of continuity and change, and to have the participants nurture their "power as teachers" through addressing those challenges. Students of other departments as well as graduate students hoping to become teachers are also encouraged to take part. The friendly competition and camaraderie among students who share the same aspirations and interests will contribute to fostering an even broader and sound power as teachers

Dynamical Critical Phenomena in three-dimensional Heisenberg Spin Glasses

Spin-glass (SG) and chiral-glass (CG) orderings in three dimensional (3D) Heisenberg spin glass with and without magnetic anisotropy are studied by using large-scale off-equilibrium Monte Carlo simulations. A characteristic time of relaxation, which diverges at a transition temperature in the thermodynamic limit, is obtained as a function of the temperature and the system size. Based on the finite-size scaling analysis for the relaxation time, it is found that in the isotropic Heisenberg spin glass, the CG phase transition occurs at a finite temperature, while the SG transition occurs at a lower temperature, which is compatible with zero. Our results of the anisotropic case support the chirality scenario for the phase transitions in the 3D Heisenberg spin glasses.Comment: 9 pages, 19 figure

Evaluation of olfactory impairment using a simple test kit “The Odor Stick Identification test for the Japanese” (OSIT-J) in neurodegenerative diseases

Purpose: Olfactory deficit has been studied in aging, amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI), Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Parkinson\u27s disease (PD), dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) and idiopathic REM-sleep behavior disorder (iRBD). Our aim was to investigate the usefulness of a simple test kit “The Odor Stick Identification test for the Japanese ”(OSIT-J) in clinical practice.Methods: A total of 240 patients were enrolled in this study, including 44 cognitively normal subjects (NS), 31 patients with aMCI, 70 patients with mild AD (AD-mild), 28 patients with DLB, 31 patients with PD and 36 patients with iRBD. The OSIT-J consists of 12 types of odor sticks. The subjects were asked to select an odor from a list of 4 odors that were rubbed on the medicine wraping paper for each odor stick. The maximum score was 12.Results: The mean odor identification (OI) score decreased in the order of aMCI, iRBD, AD-mild, PD and DLB (NS: aMCI, P<0.05, NS: AD-mild, DLB, PD and iRBD, P<0.001, aMCI: DLB, P<0.001, aMCI: PD, P<0.01 (Kruskal-Wallis, Dunn’s test). The sensitivity and specificity in differentiating each disease from NS at a cutoff value of 8 was 96.8% and 79.5%, respectively, in PD, and 96.4% and 79.5% in DLB. An ageing effect was observed in NSs ( r=-0.453 (p<0.01)).Conclusions: Olfactory deficit is a non-specific phenomenon. However, it is important to be aware of the underlying diseases or future development of diseases. The OSIT-J, which is a simple test, is useful for detecting OI abnormalities in daily clinical practice

Biomechanical and Psychophysical Evaluation of Operating Loads in Vehicular Driving

The present paper proposes an evaluation method of operation loads in vehicular driving, such as the joint-load, the seat pressure, and the perceiving force, based on biomechanical and psychophysical evidences to assist the human-centered design of driving interfaces. The prototype simulator is developed by means of a big experimental data of human motor properties and force-perception properties related with driving operations. The usefulness of the proposed methodology is then demonstrated through a set of simulation experiments in the case of the curve traveling situation.2013 IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, SMC 2013; Manchester; United Kingdom; 13 October 2013 through 16 October 201

Development of “A Training Course to Cultivate the Abilities Required for Teachers,” a Program to Bring on Teachers with a High Degree of Specialization and Practical Leadership – An Expansion of Functions of the Teaching Profession Counseling Room toward the Building of an All-Campus Course of Study for the Teaching Profession

岡山大学教師教育開発センターは，教職支援部門を中心として前身の岡山大学教育学部附属教育実践総合センターから取り組んできた「高度な専門性と実践的な指導力を有する教師の育成プログラム（教師力育成講座）の開発・実践を行っている。受講生に対するアンケート調査の結果から，本年度の講座も学生のニーズを的確にとらえた，質の高い内容を提供できていることが明らかになった。センターの全学化に伴い，昨年度は全体で4名であった他学部の受講生が，本年度は25名に増えた。講座の在り方を見直すための新しい視点として，講師を担当した校長先生からの意見聴取を行ない，これまでの取り組みを再検討した。その結果，学生自身の「気づき」に重点に置いた新しい全体構想図を作成した

Association between the tissue accumulation of advanced glycation end products and exercise capacity in cardiac rehabilitation patients

Background Advanced glycation end products (AGEs) are associated with aging, diabetes mellitus (DM), and other chronic diseases. Recently, the accumulation of AGEs can be evaluated by skin autofluorescence (SAF). However, the relationship between SAF levels and exercise capacity in patients with cardiovascular disease (CVD) remains unclear. This study aimed to investigate the association between the tissue accumulation of AGEs and clinical characteristics, including exercise capacity, in patients with CVD. Methods We enrolled 319 consecutive CVD patients aged >= 40 years who underwent early phase II cardiac rehabilitation (CR) at our university hospital between November 2015 and September 2017. Patient background, clinical data, and the accumulation of AGEs assessed by SAF were recorded at the beginning of CR. Characteristics were compared between two patient groups divided according to the median SAF level (High SAF and Low SAF). Results The High SAF group was significantly older and exhibited a higher prevalence of DM than the Low SAF group. The sex ratio did not differ between the two groups. AGE levels showed significant negative correlations with peak oxygen uptake and ventilator efficiency (both P <0.0001). Exercise capacity was significantly lower in the high SAF group than in the low SAF group, regardless of the presence or absence of DM (P <0.05). A multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that SAF level was an independent factor associated with reduced exercise capacity (odds ratio 2.10; 95% confidence interval 1.13-4.05; P = 0.02). Conclusion High levels of tissue accumulated AGEs, as assessed by SAF, were significantly and independently associated with reduced exercise capacity. These data suggest that measuring the tissue accumulation of AGEs may be useful in patients who have undergone CR, irrespective of whether they have DM