A Survey of Phonological Similarity between Japanese Kanji-Words and Vietnamese Han-Viet sounds

The Vietnamese language includes vocabulary derived from Chinese called “Han-Viet words (từ Hán Việt)”, and each Chinese character (Kanji) has a Vietnamese reading, which is referred to as “Han-Viet sounds (âm Hán Việt)”. The purpose of this study was to survey phonological similarity between Japanese Kanji-words and its corresponding Vietnamese Han-Viet sounds. Native speakers of Vietnamese who have never studied Japanese participated in the survey, and they were required to rate the phonological similarity between Han-Viet sounds and Japanese Kanji-words presented auditorily on a seven-point scale. The results of the survey were compiled in a list. After the survey, a memory experiment was conducted to verify the results. In the experiment, Vietnamese students learning Japanese as a second language were required to memorize visually-presented Japanese Kanji-words through reading aloud. The phonological similarity obtained from the survey was treated as an independent variable and the recall-test scores were dependent variables. The results showed that high phonological similarity led to better recall. This suggests that the phonological similarity data obtained from the survey is reliable

ベトナム人日本語学習者における日本語漢字単語の記憶と処理 : 越日2言語間の使用漢字の異同と音韻類似性を操作した実験的検討

内容の要約広島大学(Hiroshima University)博士(教育学)Doctor of Philosophy in Educationdoctora

Processing of Japanese Kanji Words by Vietnamese Learners of Japanese: The Effect of Kanji Consistency and Phonological Similarities in a Naming Task

The Vietnamese language includes vocabulary derived from Chinese called Han-Viet words (từ Hán Việt), and each Chinese character (kanji) has a Vietnamese reading, which is referred to as Han-Viet sounds (âm Hán Việt). The purpose of this study was to investigate the phonological processing of Japanese kanji words by Vietnamese learners of Japanese. In the experiment, intermediate Vietnamese learners of Japanese were asked to perform a naming task. The target Japanese kanji words were selected by manipulating the kanji consistency and the phonological similarities between Vietnamese and Japanese. The results showed that participants had longer reaction times for words having both different kanji and low phonological similarity. This indicates that L2 orthographic representation has strong links to L2 phonological representation regardless of kanji consistency and that the activation of L1 phonological representation does not affect the processing of Japanese kanji words in a naming task. This differs from Chinese and Korean learners of Japanese, in which the activation of L1 phonological representation facilitates the processing of kanji words in naming

A Narrative Analysis of Organizers for the Vietnam Festival in YAKAGE Town: an Activity to Visualize Existence of Vietnamese Technical Intern Trainees

本稿では，地方部在住のベトナム人技能実習生を巻き込んだ地域のイベントの企画運営者2名のインタビュー分析を通じて，活動の経緯とその広がりのあり方を解明することを目指した。分析の結果，もともとベトナムや技能実習生とかかわりのなかった一個人とその所属先の団体が，その地域で働く外国人の若者に対するホスピタリティと地域活性化への思いを原動力として，人的ネットワークを拡大しながら，イベントの実施に至った経緯が明らかになった。また，複数回のイベント実施により，それまで「顔の見えない」外国人であった技能実習生の存在がその地域で可視化され，彼らとの共生を目指す他の活動へと広がりを見せていることが示された

The Significance of 'Online Nihongo Cafe' in the Spread of COVID-19: With the Point of View of both the Participants and the Staff

本稿は、コロナ禍において対面からオンラインヘと実施形態を変更して開催することとなった正課外での多文化間交流を目的とした「にほんごカフェ」の活動が、参加者及びスタッフにとってどのように意義づけられていたのかを明らかにした上で、今後の活動のあり方を検討することを目的とする。2021年8月に行ったインタビュー調査の結果、「オンラインにほんごカフェ」が参加者とスタッフの双方にとっての多文化間交流機会かつ雑談の機会であり、非母語話者にとっての日本語使用機会として意義づけられていることが明らかとなった。一方で、多人数でのコミュニケーションの困難さや活動外への関係性の発展の難しさ等、オンライン特有の課題も見られた

ヨウジ ト ハハオヤ ノ コツミツド タイイ セイカツ シュウカン ニカンスル ケントウ

骨粗鬆症予防に効果的な保健対策のための基礎資料を得ることを目的として, 奈良市, 生駒市内の幼稚園に在籍する年長児と, その母親各146人を対象に, 骨密度と体位を測定し, 年長児の健康状況, 食生活, 生活習慣等を調査した。1) 女児は, S値が男児に比べて高く(p<0.05), 体脂肪量が, 低い(p<0.05)傾向がみられた。2) 5歳児は, 6歳児に比べて, 女児では身長が低く(p<0.05), 男児では, 身長, 体重, 除脂肪量が小さい値であった(p<0.05)。S値は男女とも年齢による大きな差はみられなかった。3) 低出生体重児の体位, S値は正常新生児の値と近似しており, 順調に成長している様子が伺われた。但し, 在胎36週の未熟児(出生体重1812gの女児)の場合, 体位は正常新生児並みに成長が見られたがS値は対象児の中で最も低い値であった。4) 母親のS値と, 対象児のS値の間には相関関係が認められなかった。母親の体格指数と対象児のS値の間には, 統計上の有意差はないものの, 母親がやせ型の場合は普通型に比べて, 子供のS値が幾分低い状況であった。5) 対象児のS値が低値群では, 標準群, 高値群に比べて, 身長が高い(p<0.05)という結果をえた。6) 乳児期に, 人工栄養法で育ったグループのS値は, 母乳・混合栄養で育ったグループに比べて, 幾分高い値であった。7) 海草を毎日食べるグループは, 毎日食べないグループに比べてS値が高く(p<0.05), 魚介類や, 大豆・大豆製品を毎日食べるグループにおいても, 毎日食べないグループに比べてS値はやや高い傾向がみられた。8) テレビの視聴時間が, 1時間未満のグループは, 長時間のグループに比べてS値が高く(p<0.05), 外遊びをするグループは, しないグループよりS値が少し高いことから, 幼児期の生活活動が, S値と関連することが示唆された

Hypoxia promotes the phenotypic change of aldehyde dehydrogenase activity of breast cancer stem cells

Stable breast cancer cell (BCC) lines are valuable tools for the identification of breast cancer stem cell (BCSC) phenotypes that develop in response to several stimuli as well as for studying the basic mechanisms associated with the initiation and maintenance of BCSCs. However, the characteristics of individual, BCC-derived BCSCs varies and these cells show distinct phenotypes depending on the different BCSC markers used for their isolation. Aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH) activity is just such a recognized biomarker of BCSCs with a CD44+/CD24− phenotype. We isolated BCSCs with high ALDH activity (CD44+/CD24−/Aldefluorpos) from a primary culture of human breast cancer tissue and observed that the cells had stem cell properties compared to BCSCs with no ALDH activity (CD44+/CD24−/Aldefluorneg). Moreover, we found Aldefluorpos BCSCs had a greater hypoxic response and subsequent induction of HIF-1α expression compared to the Aldefluorneg BCSCs. We also found that knocking down HIF-1α, but not HIF-2α, in Aldefluorpos BCSCs led to a significant reduction of the stem cell properties through a decrease in the mRNA levels of genes associated with the epithelial-mesenchymal transition. Indeed, HIF-1α overexpression in Aldefluorneg BCSCs led to Slug and Snail mRNA increase and the associated repression of E-cadherin and increase in Vimentin. Of note, prolonged hypoxic stimulation promoted the phenotypic changes of Aldefluorneg BCSCs including ALDH activity, tumorigenesis and metastasis, suggesting that hypoxia in the tumor environment may influence BCSC fate and breast cancer clinical outcomes

A subpopulation of endothelial progenitor cells with low aldehyde dehydrogenase activity attenuates acute ischemic brain injury in rats

Previous studies have examined the therapeutic effect of endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) during the chronic phase of cerebral infarction in rats; however, few studies have investigated the effects of EPCs during the acute phase of infarction. In this study, we evaluated the therapeutic effect of EPCs with low aldehyde dehydrogenase activity (Alde-Low EPCs) in rats with acute cerebral infarction, and our results provide insight that may help to identify a therapeutic mechanism of EPCs for acute cerebral infarction. The administration of Alde-Low EPCs into rats with acute cerebral infarction results in the accumulation and migration of the Alde-Low EPCs into the infarct area and the subsequent decrease of infarct volume. Moreover, we found that the stromal cell-derived factor-1 (SDF-1) and CXC chemokine receptor 4 (CXCR4) signaling pathway may regulate the accumulation of Alde-Low EPCs. The transplantation of Alde-Low EPCs may represent a potential treatment strategy for acute cerebral infarction