The report of the Emas (votive picture) in Mitsugi shrine

今回，筆者らは広島県三原市に所在する御調八幡宮の絵馬を調査する機会を得た。本稿では，昭和戦前（昭和20年）までに奉納されたと考えられる64 面について，画題・奉納年・奉納者・規模などの概要を述べた。作者については，ほとんどの絵馬で詳らかにすることはできなかったが，西村楠亭のように名の知れた画家の作品があること，大阪の絵馬屋で購入したものが含まれることなどが明らかとなった。また額等に残る銘から奉納年が判明しているものが52面と約8割もあった。これらから奉納の最盛期が明治時代，特に1880年から1900年の20年間であり，1900年以降は次第に減少していることが判明した。後世の着彩，すなわち修理が行われていることも確認でき，地域として絵馬を保護しようとした姿勢を窺え，64面という県内では有数な奉納数の多さと考え合わせると地域の民衆の信仰心の厚さを示していると考えられた

Angiomatous Nasal Polyp Diagnosed by Preoperative Imaging and Successfully Resected by Endonasal Endoscopic Surgery: A Case Report

Angiomatous polyp is a benign, nonneoplastic nasal polyp that accounts for 4-5% of all inflammatory nasal polyps but is rarely reported in the literature. It can grow rapidly and exhibit an aggressive clinical behavior that can simulate malignant sinonasal tumor. We herein report a case of a 13-year-old boy with a rapidly growing angiomatous polyp in the nasal cavity. We had followed up the patient without significant changes for two years, but the tumor had rapidly grown in the last six months. At first, the rapid growth of the tumor and the bone erosion of the maxilla were suggestive of a malignant tumor. However, with preoperative magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and [18F]-2-fluoro-2-deoxy-D-glucose positron emission tomography imaging findings, we established the corrective diagnosis of an angiomatous polyp. After the diagnostic imaging, we performed an endoscopic endonasal surgery and totally resected the tumor without unnecessary excessive surgery. Recognition of this disease that can mimic malignancy is important to avoid excessive surgery such as en bloc resection by craniofacial approach, and we believe that MRI findings can be helpful for the imaging diagnosis

Language endangerment and language documentation in Africa

Non peer reviewe

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead

A Study of Early Childhood Development in Kenya : Case Study of Kipungani Village in Lamu Island

This paper aims to determine the current situation of Early Childhood Development (ECD) in Kenya, and the background of issues on repetition at ECD stage. Kenya is known for its development in ECD in Sub-Saharan Africa. The roll of ECD in developing countries is as a preparation to primary education focusing on playing and learning from experience. The Kenyan government emphasizes this roll and is trying to include ECD as a part of basic education. However, it was revealed that the ECD educators teach according to the demands and expectations of parents, and sometimes this has led to “Early Schooling," e.g. testing small children. Kipungani village in Lamu District, my research field, is a fishermen's village, where traditional lifestyle still remains. There are many pupils who repeat the same class in Nursery. Repetition differs from the concept of ECD, but there is no demonstrative research on repetition of pupils at ECD. Therefore, I tried to determine the reality of repetition in nursery through IST method and semistructured interviews. As a result, it was revealed that the ECD educators impose an examination to promote students to the next class according to parents' demand, and when the pupil cannot pass the exam, they must repeat the same class next year. I also researched the parents' expectations toward education to understand the reason for that demand. From this research, I found two factors that directly influenced the parents' need for examination in Nursery. One is strict implementation of automatic promotion in primary school without any repetition and the other is immigration. These factors demand that Nursery class a conduct examinations to guarantee reading, writing, and other skills. The Community network in the village also has a major impact on parents' attitude toward primary school and Nursery class. They regard problems in the school as their own problems to solve, as in other problems in the village, even those that come from the outside. Kenyan ECD has developed with the local community, therefore, they tend to change their system and pedagogy according to parents' and the local community's demand. We should conduct demonstrative research focusing more on local reality and its effects on children

Long-lasting effects of incentives and social preference: A public goods experiment

International audienceThis paper addresses the question of the effectiveness and permanence of temporary incentives to contribute to a public good. Using a common experimental framework, we investigate the effects of a recommendation that takes the form of an exhortative message to contribute, a monetary punishment and a non-monetary reward to sustain high levels of contributions. In particular, we shed light on the differential impact these mechanisms have on heterogeneous types of agents. The results show that all three incentives increase contributions compared to a pre-phase where there is no incentive. Monetary sanctions lead to the highest contributions, but a sudden drop in contributions is observed once the incentive to punish is removed. On the contrary, Recommendation leads to the lowest contributions but maintains a long-lasting impact in the Postpolicy phase. In particular, it makes free-riders increase their contribution over time in the post-incentive phase. Finally, non-monetary reward backfires against those who are weakly conditional cooperators. Our findings emphasize the importance of designing and maintaining incentives not only for free-riders, but for strong and weak conditional cooperators as well, depending on characteristics of the incentives

Improvement of peripheral vascular impairment by a phosphodiesterase type 5 inhibitor tadalafil prevents oxaliplatin-induced peripheral neuropathy in mice

Oxaliplatin, a platinum-based chemotherapeutic drug, frequently induces peripheral neuropathy. Accumulating evidences suggest a possible relationship between peripheral vascular impairment and peripheral neuropathy. In this study, we investigated the effects of vasodilators on cumulative peripheral neuropathy induced by repeated injections of oxaliplatin (10 mg/kg) once a week for 8 weeks in mice. Single injections of vasodilators, including a phosphodiesterase type 5 inhibitor tadalafil acutely alleviated oxaliplatin-induced cold hypersensitivity, while tadalafil had no effect on the mechanical hypersensitivity. By contrast, long-term administration of tadalafil (0.1% in chow diets) during the oxaliplatin injection period reduced the oxaliplatin-induced decreases in skin temperature and blood flow without affecting platinum concentrations in blood, sciatic nerves, and dorsal root ganglion. The long-term administration significantly suppressed cold, mechanical, and electrical current hypersensitivities as well as thermal hypoesthesia. Furthermore, it prevented the decreases in sensory nerve conductance velocity and the number of endoneurial microvessels, and axon degeneration in the sciatic nerves. In vitro studies confirmed that tadalafil does not interfere with the cytotoxicity of oxaliplatin against human cancer cell lines. Altogether, these results suggest that improvement of peripheral vascular impairment by tadalafil could alleviate and prevent oxaliplatin-induced peripheral neuropathy