A study of children’s play transition in the forest environment : Focus on the play area and play activity <Research papers>

This study attempts to clarify the process of play transition in the forest and its environs. The play activity of children in kindergarten is constantly evolving alongside changes of the components of play, including activity (action or movement), roles, rules, and the physical environment (Sato, 2004). By observing children who were playing in nursery-rooms, playrooms, and playgrounds, Sato discovered that the scale of communications among children at play is wide. To clarify how play transitions to the forest, an observational study of children playing in the forest near their kindergarten was conducted. The results affirmed three forms of play transition: transition of place, transition of activity, and transition of both place and activity. By analyzing the circumstances of the three forms of play transition, it was found that discoveries and applications of the natural environment are related to the opportunities arising from play transition. Furthermore, the observations of transitions of both place and activity revealed that the transition of place itself is often seen by the children as a type of play activity. This may be related to both the much wider expanse offered by the forest and the ongoing communication between the children

Construction of Childcare Support Program for two-children families: From Cooperation with Higashi-Hiroshima City Childcare Support Centers

The purpose of this study was to construct a childcare support program for the families who have two children to bring up. With the assistance of Higashi-Hiroshima city and childcare support centers, members from early childhood education research facility in Hiroshima University built up the program. In this program, it is demanded that the supporters draft the program while being conscious of four times, specifically approach-time, core-time, free-time and feedback-time. And this program also has four main components including topics, leaflet, picture books and reflection sheets. According to the practice, supporters can not only grow up with mothers and children by making use of their childcare specialty, but also can build a relationship of mutual trust with the participants. Besides, the support of the high quality is maintained by the collaboration of Higashi-Hiroshima city and childcare support centers and Hiroshima University.本研究は平成29年度「広島大学地域連携推進事業」に提案した「地域における虐待防止ペアレントトレーニングの効果検証－親が抱えるリスク要因の低減を目指して－」という研究の一環として，東広島市子ども家庭課の協力で実施したものである

ゼツアツ コウトウ ウンドウ ケイソク システム ニ ヨル パーキンソンビョウ カンジャ ノ エンゲ ドウタイ ヒョウカ

The different forms of flowers in a species have attracted the attention of many evolutionary biologists, including Charles Darwin. In Fagopyrum esculentum (common buckwheat), the occurrence of dimorphic flowers, namely short-styled and long-styled flowers, is associated with a type of self-incompatibility (SI) called heteromorphic SI. The floral morphology and intra-morph incompatibility are both determined by a single genetic locus named the S-locus. Plants with short-styled flowers are heterozygous (S/s) and plants with long-styled flowers are homozygous recessive (s/s) at the S-locus. Despite recent progress in our understanding of the molecular basis of flower development and plant SI systems, the molecular mechanisms underlying heteromorphic SI remain unresolved. By examining differentially expressed genes from the styles of the two floral morphs, we identified a gene that is expressed only in short-styled plants. The novel gene identified was completely linked to the S-locus in a linkage analysis of 1,373 plants and had homology to EARLY FLOWERING 3. We named this gene S-LOCUS EARLY FLOWERING 3 (S-ELF3). In an ion-beam-induced mutant that harbored a deletion in the genomic region spanning S-ELF3, a phenotype shift from short-styled flowers to long-styled flowers was observed. Furthermore, S-ELF3 was present in the genome of short-styled plants and absent from that of long-styled plants both in world-wide landraces of buckwheat and in two distantly related Fagopyrum species that exhibit heteromorphic SI. Moreover, independent disruptions of S-ELF3 were detected in a recently emerged self-compatible Fagopyrum species and a self-compatible line of buckwheat. The nonessential role of S-ELF3 in the survival of individuals and the prolonged evolutionary presence only in the genomes of short-styled plants exhibiting heteromorphic SI suggests that S-ELF3 is a suitable candidate gene for the control of the short-styled phenotype of buckwheat plants

The trans-ancestral genomic architecture of glycemic traits

Glycemic traits are used to diagnose and monitor type 2 diabetes and cardiometabolic health. To date, most genetic studies of glycemic traits have focused on individuals of European ancestry. Here we aggregated genome-wide association studies comprising up to 281,416 individuals without diabetes (30% non-European ancestry) for whom fasting glucose, 2-h glucose after an oral glucose challenge, glycated hemoglobin and fasting insulin data were available. Trans-ancestry and single-ancestry meta-analyses identified 242 loci (99 novel; P < 5 x 10(-8)), 80% of which had no significant evidence of between-ancestry heterogeneity. Analyses restricted to individuals of European ancestry with equivalent sample size would have led to 24 fewer new loci. Compared with single-ancestry analyses, equivalent-sized trans-ancestry fine-mapping reduced the number of estimated variants in 99% credible sets by a median of 37.5%. Genomic-feature, gene-expression and gene-set analyses revealed distinct biological signatures for each trait, highlighting different underlying biological pathways. Our results increase our understanding of diabetes pathophysiology by using trans-ancestry studies for improved power and resolution. A trans-ancestry meta-analysis of GWAS of glycemic traits in up to 281,416 individuals identifies 99 novel loci, of which one quarter was found due to the multi-ancestry approach, which also improves fine-mapping of credible variant sets.Peer reviewe

S-LOCUS EARLY FLOWERING 3 is exclusively present in the genomes of short-styled buckwheat plants that exhibit heteromorphic self-incompatibility.

The different forms of flowers in a species have attracted the attention of many evolutionary biologists, including Charles Darwin. In Fagopyrum esculentum (common buckwheat), the occurrence of dimorphic flowers, namely short-styled and long-styled flowers, is associated with a type of self-incompatibility (SI) called heteromorphic SI. The floral morphology and intra-morph incompatibility are both determined by a single genetic locus named the S-locus. Plants with short-styled flowers are heterozygous (S/s) and plants with long-styled flowers are homozygous recessive (s/s) at the S-locus. Despite recent progress in our understanding of the molecular basis of flower development and plant SI systems, the molecular mechanisms underlying heteromorphic SI remain unresolved. By examining differentially expressed genes from the styles of the two floral morphs, we identified a gene that is expressed only in short-styled plants. The novel gene identified was completely linked to the S-locus in a linkage analysis of 1,373 plants and had homology to EARLY FLOWERING 3. We named this gene S-LOCUS EARLY FLOWERING 3 (S-ELF3). In an ion-beam-induced mutant that harbored a deletion in the genomic region spanning S-ELF3, a phenotype shift from short-styled flowers to long-styled flowers was observed. Furthermore, S-ELF3 was present in the genome of short-styled plants and absent from that of long-styled plants both in world-wide landraces of buckwheat and in two distantly related Fagopyrum species that exhibit heteromorphic SI. Moreover, independent disruptions of S-ELF3 were detected in a recently emerged self-compatible Fagopyrum species and a self-compatible line of buckwheat. The nonessential role of S-ELF3 in the survival of individuals and the prolonged evolutionary presence only in the genomes of short-styled plants exhibiting heteromorphic SI suggests that S-ELF3 is a suitable candidate gene for the control of the short-styled phenotype of buckwheat plants

Biomarkers for antitumor activity of bevacizumab in gastric cancer models

Abstract Background Bevacizumab is a humanized monoclonal antibody to human vascular endothelial cell growth factor (VEGF) and has been used for many types of cancers such as colorectal cancer, non-small cell lung cancer, breast cancer, and glioblastoma. Bevacizumab might be effective against gastric cancer, because VEGF has been reported to be involved in the development of gastric cancer as well as other cancers. On the other hand, there are no established biomarkers to predict the bevacizumab efficacy in spite of clinical needs. Therefore, we tried to identify the predictive markers for efficacy of bevacizumab in gastric cancer patients by using bevacizumab-sensitive and insensitive tumor models. Methods Nine human gastric and two colorectal cancer mouse xenografts were examined for their sensitivity to bevacizumab. We examined expression levels of angiogenic factors by ELISA, bioactivity of VEGF by phosphorylation of VEGFR2 in HUVEC after addition of tumor homogenate, tumor microvessel density by CD31-immunostaining, and polymorphisms of the VEGF gene by HybriProbe™ assay. Results Of the 9 human gastric cancer xenograft models used, GXF97, MKN-45, MKN-28, 4-1ST, SC-08-JCK, and SC-09-JCK were bevacizumab-sensitive, whereas SCH, SC-10-JCK, and NCI-N87 were insensitive. The sensitivity of the gastric cancer model to bevacizumab was not related to histological type or HER2 status. All tumors with high levels of VEGF were bevacizumab-sensitive except for one, SC-10-JCK, which had high levels of VEGF. The reason for the refractoriness was non-bioactivity on the phosphorylation of VEGFR2 and micro-vessel formation of VEGF, but was not explained by the VEGF allele or VEGF165b. We also examined the expression levels of other angiogenic factors in the 11 gastrointestinal tumor tissues. In the refractory models including SC-10-JCK, tumor levels of another angiogenic factor, bFGF, were relatively high. The VEGF/bFGF ratio correlated more closely with sensitivity to bevacizumab than with the VEGF level. Conclusions VEGF levels and VEGF/bFGF ratios in tumors were related to bevacizumab sensitivity of the xenografts tested. Further clinical investigation into useful predictive markers for bevacizumab sensitivity is warranted.</p

Reconstruction of Creeks along the Lower Reach of the Chikugo River

筑後川下流クリーク地域では,国営事業等により基盤整備や土地改良施設整備が実施され統廃合されたクリークの法面崩壊が進み,維持管理に支障が生じるとともに,周辺住民の日常生活に影響を及ぼすなど大きな問題となっている.これに対して,クリークの再生を図るため,法面崩壊対策とともに,これを機に先の事業によって消失した親水性などを取り戻して豊かな水環境を備えた昔のクリーク水辺へと復元するための検討が進められている.このような背景のもとに,本研究では,筑後川下流左岸クリーク地域の関係7市町における対象地域で実施された周辺地域住民に対してのアンケート調査および生態系調査,水質調査,水位変動調査,法面状況調査などに関する現況把握に基づいて,クリークが用排水路や洪水調節などの本来の機能に加えて,親水機能などの多面的機能を有した周辺住民だけでなく多くの人々に親しまれるクリークへ再生するためのビジョン構築に資することを目的とした.アンケート調査の結果からは周辺住民が現在のクリ-クの姿に不満や不安を感じており,将来のクリークに安全性や親水性等を望んでいることを窺い知ることができる.よってクリーク再整備計画は本来の農業用水路としての機能とともに親水性などの機能も重視したものが望まれていると考えることができた.生態系調査と水質調査からは現在のクリーク環境の傾向を把握することができた.また,クリークの水質には家庭雑排水の流入等が影響を与えていると考えられるため,今後はさらにクリーク周辺の土地利用状況に関する調査も含めて,再整備が生態系と水質に及ぼす影響を長期的に調査する必要があると考えられる.法面状況調査からは現在の法面の危機的状況が明らかになった.住民の安全のためにも速やかな整備が必要とされるが,今後長きにわたって住民に利用されるクリークにするためには法面工法の決定は重要な再整備の要素と考えられるため,水位変動調査と併せて慎重に検討を行う必要があると考えられる.The Chikugo plain located in the southern part of Fukuoka Prefecture is prosperous in agriculture. In this region, there are a lot of creeks in various sizes, and it used to be closely related to its community. But, as modernization progresses, environmental problems such as water pollution and disruption of ecosystem have been emerging. By a land consolidation project or an irrigation and drainage project that started from 1970, water ways with straight lines and concrete banks were built. It made agriculture more efficient, but the environment problems in creeks progressed and consequently living areas for aquatic creatures have decreased. But in recent years, the creeks and irrigation systems have reached the end of their life, and the traditional functions of creeks are reconsidered. A base of farming, disaster prevention, environmental preservation, a place of recreation, and design of scenery are desired as functions in creeks. In the survey for citizen in neighboring area, they desire most of the above functions for future creeks, and especially the function of environmental preservation. And we hope that massive functions of recreation or scenery provided by re-construction of creeks help towns more animated. In this research, on-the-spot investigation and the survey for citizen in neighboring area are conducted to understand present problems and improvement desired especially about banks in the creeks, and consequently to find out ideal creeks