Impact of Imported Chinese Furniture on The Local Furniture Sector in Arusha City, Tanzania: Focusing on the Strategies of Furniture-Makers for Using Indigenous Timber Species

The aim of this paper is to elucidate the strategies used by Tanzanian furnituremakers to deal with price competition from Chinese imported furniture by examining the changes in the local use of timber, which is becoming scarce due to destructive harvesting. Chinese furniture flowing into Tanzania is not only of a fashionable design but it is also cheap because it is constructed from low-quality timber and alternative materials. Small-scale Tanzanian furniture-makers operate their business based on a face-visible relationship with customers who expect a certain quality from the craftsmen; therefore, it is often difficult for the furniture-makers to reduce costs by changing from high-quality hardwood to cheap softwood or alternative materials. Thus, maintaining a certain degree of quality by using hardwood while imitating the fashionable designs of Chinese furniture is an important way Tanzanian furnituremakers remain competitive with Chinese products. However, for these reasons, Tanzanian furniture-makers continue to use scarce hardwood, which indirectly promotes the influx of cheap, low-quality Chinese furniture

Chapter 5 The System of Circulating Debt : The Money Transfer System of Mobile Phones in Tanzania

A Pirate’s View of World History : A Reversed Perception of the Order of Things From a Global Perspective, 2016年4月27-29日, 国際日本文化研究センタ

Auditory Feedback of False Heart Rate for Video Game Experience Improvement

Changes in emotions affect our physiological responses, and perhaps vice versa. We investigate a new game interaction system that uses false heart rate (fHR) feedback to improve the player experience (PX). The fHR feedback presents false HR information to players so that they perceive changes in the presented HR as being a result of alteration in PX. We introduced auditory fHR feedback into game interaction and investigated its effects through an experiment. Participants repeated gameplay of an action game while hearing heartbeat-like sounds and answered questionnaires regarding PX. Some participants heard the heartbeat-like sounds synchronized with their actual HR, whereas others heard the heartbeat-like sounds whose tempo became gradually faster or slower than their actual HR. The results indicated that an accelerating fHR feedback pattern with +5 bpm/min was appropriate for improving PX; participants were able to maintain their motivation to continue the game. The experiment also indicated that it is necessary for participants to perceive the presented heartbeat-like sounds as reflecting their actual HR. Participants did not maintain their motivation when they were told that the presented sounds were not correlated with their actual HR. The present work provides new principles for video game interaction design based on physiological measurements

Brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity and symptomatic cerebral infarction in patients with type 2 diabetes: a cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND: Recently a new automatic device that measures brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity using an oscillometric method has been developed. However, the practical significance of brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity measurement remains uncertain. The purpose of this study was to examine the association between brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity and symptomatic cerebral infarction in patients with type 2 diabetes. METHODS: One thousand sixty six patients with type 2 diabetes were studied cross-sectionally. Measurements of brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity were made using the automatic device. Logistic regression analysis was used to calculate the odds ratio for cerebral infarction. RESULTS: The presence of symptomatic cerebral infarction was confirmed in 86 patients. In these patients brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity was found to be significantly higher than in patients without cerebral infarction (18.94 ± 4.95 versus 16.46 ± 3.62 m/s, p < 0.01). The association between brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity and cerebral infarction remained significant after adjustment for traditional risk factors. There was an increasing odds ratio for each tertile of brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity, from the second tertile (odds ratio, 2.28; 95% confidence interval, 1.05 to 4.94), to the third (odds ratio, 2.53; 95% confidence interval, 1.09 to 5.86). CONCLUSION: Overall, we conclude that an increase in brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity is associated with symptomatic cerebral infarction in patients with type 2 diabetes

Item response theory-based validation of a short form of the Eating Behavior Scale for Japanese adults

Obesity has become a serious social problem in industrialized countries in recent years. Clinically, although the evaluation of dietary behavior abnormalities is as important as any method of risk assessment for obesity, almost all the existing scales with many items may have numerous practical clinical difficulties. In this study, we aimed to prepare a short questionnaire to assess the dietary behavior abnormalities related to obesity. A total of 1032 individuals aged 20 to 59 years participated in the present study. Using item response theory (IRT), we selected the items for a short version from among 30 items of Sakata Eating Behavior Scale (EBS), which is widely used in Japan. As a result of the IRT-based analysis on the original 30-item version, 7 items were adopted as the short version. The correlation between the total score of the original EBS and the EBS short form was extremely high (r = 0.93, P = .001). In examining the criterion validity, for all participants (n = 1032), male (n = 516), and female (n = 516), the correlation coefficients between the total score of the EBS short form and body mass index (BMI) were r = 0.26, r = 0.28, and r = 0.28, respectively. The results of the receiver operating characteristic analysis was performed with obesity BMI > 25 kg/m2 as a dependent variable, the value of the area under the curve in the ROC was significantly higher in the 7-item version than in the total score of the original items (P = .0005). In conclusion, the 7-item EBS short form was created. Furthermore, it was found that the EBS short form is a reliable and valid measure that can be used as an indicator of obesity in both clinical and research settings

Generation of hypoimmunogenic induced pluripotent stem cells by CRISPR-Cas9 system and detailed evaluation for clinical application

In order to expand the promise of regenerative medicine using allogeneic induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), precise and efficient genome editing of human leukocyte antigen (HLA) genes would be advantageous to minimize the immune rejection caused by mismatches of HLA type. However, clinical-grade genome editing of multiple HLA genes in human iPSC lines remains unexplored. Here, we optimized the protocol for good manufacturing practice (GMP)-compatible CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing to deplete the three gene locus (HLA-A, HLA-B, and CIITA genes) simultaneously in HLA homozygous iPSCs. The use of HLA homozygous iPSCs has one main advantage over heterozygous iPSCs for inducing biallelic knockout by a single gRNA. RNA-seq and flow cytometry analyses confirmed the successful depletion of HLAs, and lineage-specific differentiation into cardiomyocytes was verified. We also confirmed that the pluripotency of genome-edited iPSCs was successfully maintained by the three germ layers of differentiation. Moreover, whole-genome sequencing, karyotyping, and optical genome mapping analyses revealed no evident genomic abnormalities detected in some clones, whereas unexpected copy number losses, chromosomal translocations, and complex genomic rearrangements were observed in other clones. Our results indicate the importance of multidimensional analyses to ensure the safety and quality of the genome-edited cells. The manufacturing and assessment pipelines presented here will be the basis for clinical-grade genome editing of iPSCs

Type A Behavior Pattern and Obesity in Japanese Workers: A Cross-Sectional Study

Obesity is associated with personality. The Type A behavior pattern (TABP), which is characterized by hostility and competitive behavior, is related to psychological stress. However, the relationship between obesity and the TABP has not been examined. This study aimed to examine the relationship between obesity and the Type A behavior pattern in 3,099 Japanese workers. The Type A behavior pattern was measured via the Maeda Type A Behavior Checklist. Data were analyzed using multivariate logistic regression adjusted for age, being current smokers, heavy drinker, lack of exercise, occupation, and rapid eating. The multivariate odds ratio (95% confidence interval) for obesity associated with TABP was 1.55 (1.13 to 2.13) in men. Regarding other variables, age, lack of exercise, and rapid eating were associated with obesity in men. The multivariate odds ratio (95% confidence interval) for obesity associated with TABP was 1.27 (0.81 to 2.02) in women. Regarding other variables, age andrapid eating were associated with obesity in women. The findings suggest that the Type A behavior pattern was associated with increased obesity prevalence in Japanese men. People with TABP tend to eat larger portions during mealtimes repeatedly by rapid eating; it is possible that eating large portions may lead to an increase weight in men with TABP

本邦で分離されたカルバペネマーゼ産生肺炎桿菌の分子遺伝学的解析

Carbapenemase-producing Enterobacteriaceae represent a serious public health threat worldwide. Carbapenemase genes, harbored on a transferable plasmid, have been isolated globally with distinct geographical features. Klebsiella pneumoniae, included in Enterobacteriaceae, also produces carbapenemase and often shows hypervirulence. Overlapping carbapenem resistance and hypervirulence in K. pneumoniae have been reported, but such strains have not yet been found in Japan. Here, we screened 104 carbapenemase-producing K. pneumoniae isolates collected from 37 hospitals and outpatient clinics in Japan between September 2014 and July 2015. PCR and DNA sequencing demonstrated IMP-1 in 21 isolates and IMP-6 in 83 isolates, 77 of which coharbored CTX-M-2. Most of the isolates showed low MICs toward imipenem and meropenem but high MICs toward penicillin and cephalosporins. Conjugation experiments with an Escherichia coli J53 recipient showed that most of the plasmids in IMP-6 producers were transferable, whereas only one-half of the plasmids in IMP-1 producers were transferable. PCR-based replicon typing and multiplex PCR identified five isolates belonging to the CG258 non-tonB79 cluster and no isolate belonging to the CG258-tonB79 cluster or sequence type 307 (ST307). Four K1-ST23 isolates, 10 K2-ST65 isolates, and 7 K2-ST86 isolates were detected that harbored virulence genes. The resistance genes in 85 isolates were transferable, but the virulence genes were not transferred. These results demonstrate the acquisition of IMP-type carbapenemase genes and CTX-M-type genes among hypervirulence isolates in Japan, warranting further attention and countermeasures. In this study, we have determined the molecular characteristics and epidemiology of IMP-6 producers that coharbored various CTX-M genes in Japan.IMPORTANCE Carbapenems serve as a last resort for the clinical treatment of multidrug-resistant infections. Therefore, the rapid spread of carbapenemase-producing strains represents a serious public health threat, further limiting antibiotic choices. The current findings of hypervirulent carbapenemase-producing Klebsiella pneumoniae clinical isolates in Japan demonstrate the potential broad spread and transfer of these genes, necessitating close surveillance.博士（医学）・乙第1509号・令和3年3月15日Copyright © 2020 Yonekawa et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license(https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)