Referring to Cinderella in L2 Japanese: A preliminary study

This study reports how English-speaking learners of intermediate Japanese refer to the subject noun referents previously introduced within a given discourse. Tsuchiya, Yoshimura & Nakayama (2015) and Nakayama, Yoshimura & Tsuchiya (2015) report that English-speaking L2 Japanese learners only rarely used kanojo 'she' during their telling of the story of The Little Match Girl. Instead, we observed a frequent use of null pronouns as well as a positive correlation between language proficiency and a repetitive use of referential nouns. The use of null pronouns, but not kanojo, may come from an instructional effect as those learners were taught the null pronominal use earlier than kanojo. The current study analyzing the Cinderella story in L2 Japanese also finds a more frequent use of null pronouns than referential nouns and kanojo, which may indicate the importance of explicit instruction and more exposure to narratives in the target language

Factors Affecting Target Language Use in the Classroom

Within the profession, the fact that there are two groups of foreign language instructors is often overlooked: native and non-native speaking teachers. The present study focuses on non-native speaking teachers with special emphasis on English language teachers. Teachers of the English language have been encouraged by curricular documents and inspectors' reports which show an increase in the amount of target language use in the classrooms since the advent of the communicative approach. Even though there is no pedagogical evidence to show that more target language input results in more effective acquisition, the stress on teachers' quantity of target language use remains. Also, while native and non-native teachers differ in terms of their language proficiency, there are few studies focusing on target language use by non-NESTs (non-Native English Speaking Teachers). Previous studies show that exclusive use of the target language in classroom practice tends to be more idealistic than realistic, and that there is much uncertainty among non-NESTs as to how their language use should be adapted to their teaching philosophy. It has been revealed that there is a general consensus concerning the reasons for low usage of the target language, such as lack of confidence in the target language, large class size, and pupils' misbehaviour. The study discussed here identifies problems with target language usage faced by 172 non-NESTs from 16 countries, and aims to discern the real reasons behind those problems

Construction of Supergravity Backgrounds with a Dilaton Field

A new class of non-compact Kahler backgrounds accompanied by a non-constant dilaton field is constructed as a supergravity solution. It is interpreted as a complex line bundle over a base manifold comprising of a combination of arbitrary coset spaces, and also includes the case of Calabi-Yau manifolds. The resulting backgrounds have U(1) isometry. We consider N=2 supersymmetric sigma-models on them, and derive a non-Kahlerian solution by U(1) duality transformation, which preserves N=2 supersymmetry.Comment: 13 pages, minor correction

N=2 Supersymmetric Sigma Models and D-branes

We study D-branes of N=2 supersymmetric sigma models. Supersymmetric nonlinear sigma models with 2-dimensional target space have D0,D1,D2-branes, which are realized as A-,B-type supersymmetric boundary conditions on the worldsheet. When we embed the models in the string theory, the Kahler potential is restricted and leads to a 2-dim black hole metric with a dilaton background. The D-branes in this model are susy cycles and consistent with the analysis of conjugacy classes. The generalized metrics with U(n) isometry is proposed and dynamics on them are realized by linear sigma models. We investigate D-branes of the linear sigma models and compare the results with those in the nonlinear sigma models.Comment: 23 pages, 5 figure

Trend of anticoagulant therapy in elderly patients with atrial fibrillation considering risks of cerebral infarction and bleeding

The introduction of direct oral anticoagulants (DOACs) has greatly changed the use of anticoagulant therapy in patients with non-valvular atrial fibrillation (Af). Therefore, this study aimed to examine changes in the proportions of oral anticoagulant prescriptions in patients with non-valvular Af aged ≥ 65 years, taking into consideration the risk of cerebral infarction and bleeding. Anticoagulant prescriptions in outpatients aged ≥ 65 years with Af were temporally analyzed using the nationwide claims database in Japan. Trends in anticoagulant prescriptions were examined according to cerebral infarction and bleeding risk. The proportion of anticoagulant prescriptions for 12, 076 Af patients increased from 41% in 2011 to 56% in 2015. An increase in DOAC prescriptions was accompanied by an increase in the proportion of anticoagulant prescriptions in each group according to the CHA2DS2-VASc and HAS-BLED scores. The proportion of anticoagulant prescriptions for patients with a high risk of developing cerebral infarction and bleeding showed a marked increase. Trends in anticoagulant prescriptions in Af patient with a CHA2DS2-VASc score ≥ 2 and HAS-BLED scores ≥ 3 showed a marked increase in DOAC prescriptions. The widespread use of DOACs greatly changes the profile the prescription of anticoagulant therapy in patients with Af

Visual evoked potential and electroencephalogram of healthy females during the menstrual cycle

Flash visual evoked potential (VEP) and electroencephalogram (EEG) changes during the menstrual cycle were studied using healthy females having regular menstruation, with 21 at the follicular phase (FP) and 23 at the luteal phase (LP). The following results were obtained. (1)The waveforms of Group Mean VEPs of both groups had approximately similar triphasic contours, consisting of 16 components of P 1-N 8 up to 500 msec of latency. (2)Latencies tended to be longer in LP. (3)Interpeak amplitudes tended to be larger in LP, and one VEP interpeak amplitude (P 5-N 7) of long latency component was significantly larger at LP after eliminating the effect of body height by ANCOVA for 2 CH. (4)Quantitative analysis of EEGs between FP and LP resulted in a tendency for increased α, and decreased β power % at LP. Since estrogen increases the VEP amplitude, and decreases the VEP latency and the α activity of EEGs, the large VEP amplitude, the tendency for prolonged VEP latency, and the tendency for increased α power % at LP observed in this study indicate that the VEP amplitude at LP reflects the effect of estrogen, and that the VEP latency and EEGs at LP reflect the effect of progesterone