The Development of Lesson Plans to Enable Diversity and Authentic Learning using Music and Body Movement

In this study, the authors aimed to develop lessons in which diversity, collaboration , and authentic learning are ensured through children’s cooperative involvement in a special class for students with intellectual disabilities. The authors framed three practices and analyzed children’s activities and the teachers’ environment setting , including music and body movements. The authors found three key results. First, the ability to recognize the diversity of body movements and expression in different contexts was improved in the practices which caused authentic learning. Second, collaborativeness promote s and nurture s cooperation (sharing roles) when children and teachers work together to achieve collaboration (creation by synergistic effect), finally realizing authentic learning. Third, music and body movements have the power to communicate what words are often unable to－the ability to make others feel that they are wanted and valued. Music and body movements served as the medium and catalyst for deepening authentic dialog

The Development of Lesson Plans to Enable Diversity and Authentic Learning using Music and Body Movement.

In this study, the authors aimed to develop lessons in which diversity, collaboration, and authentic learning are ensured through children’s cooperative involvement in a special class for students with intellectual disabilities. The authors framed three practices and analyzed children’s activities and the teacher’s environment setting, including music and body movements. The authors found three key results. First, the ability to recognize the diversity of body movements and expression in different contexts was improved in the practices which caused authentic learning. Second, collaborativeness promotes and nurtures cooperation (sharing roles) when children and teachers work together to achieve collaboration (creation by synergistic effect), finally realizing authentic learning. Third, music and body movements have the power to communicate what words are often unable to－the ability to make others feel that they are wanted and valued. Music and body movements served as the medium and catalyst for deepening authentic dialog

Field Effect of Alcohol, Cigarette Smoking, and Their Cessation on the Development of Multiple Dysplastic Lesions and Squamous Cell Carcinoma: A Long-term Multicenter Cohort Study

[Background and Aims] Multiple developments of squamous dysplasia and squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) in the upper aerodigestive tract have been explained by field cancerization phenomenon and were associated with alcohol and cigarette use. Second primary SCC development after curative treatment impairs patients’ quality of life and survival; however, how these consumption and cessation affect field cancerization is still unknown. [Methods] This is a multicenter cohort study including 331 patients with superficial esophageal SCC (ESCC) treated endoscopically and pooled data from 1022 healthy subjects for comparison. Physiological condition in the background esophageal mucosa was classified into 3 groups based on the number of Lugol-voiding lesions (LVLs) per endoscopic view: grade A, 0; grade B, 1–9; or grade C, ≥10 LVLs. Lifestyle surveys were conducted using a self-administered questionnaire. Patients were counseled on the need for alcohol and smoking cessation by physicians and were endoscopically surveyed every 6 months. [Results] LVL grades were positively associated with alcohol drinking intensity, flushing reactions, smoking, and high-temperature food and were negatively associated with eating green and yellow vegetables and fruit. Second primary ESCC and head/neck SCC were significantly more prevalent in the grade C LVL (cumulative 5-y incidences 47.1%, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 38.0–57.2 and 13.3%, 95% CI = 8.1–21.5, respectively). Alcohol and smoking cessation significantly reduced the development of second primary ESCC (adjusted hazard ratios 0.47, 95% = CI 0.26–0.85 and 0.49, 95% CI = 0.26–0.91, respectively). [Conclusion] Alcohol drinking, smoking, flushing reaction, and high-temperature food were closely associated with field cancerization, and cessation of alcohol and smoking significantly reduced the risk of development of second primary cancer. UMIN Clinical Trials Registry ID:UMIN000001676

KaPPA-View4: a metabolic pathway database for representation and analysis of correlation networks of gene co-expression and metabolite co-accumulation and omics data

Correlations of gene-to-gene co-expression and metabolite-to-metabolite co-accumulation calculated from large amounts of transcriptome and metabolome data are useful for uncovering unknown functions of genes, functional diversities of gene family members and regulatory mechanisms of metabolic pathway flows. Many databases and tools are available to interpret quantitative transcriptome and metabolome data, but there are only limited ones that connect correlation data to biological knowledge and can be utilized to find biological significance of it. We report here a new metabolic pathway database, KaPPA-View4 (http://kpv.kazusa.or.jp/kpv4/), which is able to overlay gene-to-gene and/or metabolite-to-metabolite relationships as curves on a metabolic pathway map, or on a combination of up to four maps. This representation would help to discover, for example, novel functions of a transcription factor that regulates genes on a metabolic pathway. Pathway maps of the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) and maps generated from their gene classifications are available at KaPPA-View4 KEGG version (http://kpv.kazusa.or.jp/kpv4-kegg/). At present, gene co-expression data from the databases ATTED-II, COXPRESdb, CoP and MiBASE for human, mouse, rat, Arabidopsis, rice, tomato and other plants are available

Evaluation of Selected Cytokine Gene Expression in Colonic Mucosa from Dogs with Idiopathic Lymphocytic-plasmacytic Colitis

Lymphocytic-plasmacytic colitis (LPC) is a common form of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) affecting the canine large intestine. Cytokines are thought to be involved in the pathogenesis of IBD. However, to date, few studies have investigated cytokine mRNA expression in dogs with LPC. In this study, we investigated mRNA transcription levels of T helper cell cytokines, such as IFN-gamma, IL-4, IL-17 and IL-10 and pro-inflammatory cytokines, such as IL-1 beta, IL-6, TNF-alpha., IL-8, IL-12 and IL-23, in colonic mucosa from LPC dogs by quantitative real-time RT-PCR. No significant differences were detected in cytokine mRNA expressions between dogs with LPC and controls, except for IL-23p19. Dogs with LPC failed to express a predominant cytokine profile in inflamed colonic mucosa as opposed to human IBD

Relationship between self-disclosure to first acquaintances and subjective well-being in people with schizophrenia spectrum disorders living in the community.

OBJECTIVE:Focusing on people with schizophrenia spectrum disorders living in the community, the present study aims to examine the characteristics of and gender differences in self-disclosure to first acquaintances, and to clarify the relationship between self-disclosure and subjective well-being. METHODS:Participants (32 men and 30 women with schizophrenia spectrum disorders) were examined using the subjective well-being inventory, an original self-disclosure scale for people with mental illness, as well as the Rosenberg self-esteem scale, the Link devaluation-discrimination scale, and the affiliation scale. RESULTS:The self-disclosure content domains in descending order were as follows: "living conditions," "own strengths," "experiences of distress," and "mental illness and psychiatric disability." There were no significant gender differences in self-disclosure in the total and domain scores. Multiple regression analyses by gender revealed that: (1) in men, decreasing feelings of ill-being were significantly predicted by self-disclosure about "living conditions," self-esteem, and perceived stigma; (2) in women, increasing feelings of well-being were significantly predicted by self-disclosure about "own strengths," self-esteem, and sensitivity to rejection. CONCLUSIONS:Self-disclosure to first acquaintances was related to subjective well-being in people with schizophrenia spectrum disorders living in the community. This result supports the recovery model and the strengths model. It suggests the importance of interventions targeting self-disclosure to first acquaintances about experiences as human beings, such as "living conditions" and "own strengths," as it relates to subjective well-being in community-based mental health rehabilitation

Ureteral morphology and pathology during urolithiasis in cats

Cats exhibit high susceptibility to urinary organ-related diseases. We investigated the healthy ureter morphol-ogies and compared these with ureters that were surgically resected distal to a urolithiasis obstruction in cats. Healthy ureters (total length 9.88 +/- 0.38 cm) developed adventitia composed of collagen fibers (ADCF), con-taining a longitudinal muscular layer, toward the distal segment. The healthy ureter was the smallest in the middle segment (4.71-6.90 cm from the urinary bladder) with significantly decreased luminal and submucosal areas compared to those in the proximal segment. Diseased cats exhibited a high incidence of calcium oxalate urolithiasis with renal dysfunction, regardless of age, sex, and body size. Diseased ureters showed increased perimeters, inflammation, and decreased nerves in ADCF. Collagen fibers were increased in the submucosal area, intermuscular spaces, and ADCF, particularly near the obstructed lesion. The mean resected ureter length was 5.66 +/- 0.49 cm, suggesting a high obstruction risk in the middle segment. The middle segment also increased the cross-sectional area of the ureter and ADCF, regardless of the distance from the obstructed lesion. The ureters in several cases either lacked the transitional epithelium, or exhibited transitional epithelial hyperplasia, and some of these formed the mucosal folds. In conclusion, we demonstrated the following characteristics and histo-pathological features of cat ureters: decreases in the ureter size, lumen area, and submucosa area from proximal to middle segment in healthy; ADCF changes in urolithiasis, including increased connective tissues with inflammation and decreased nerves. These data are important to understand the pathogenesis of feline ureteral obstruction