ダンワ レベル デノ カイワキョウイク ニ オケル シドウコウモク ノ テイアン ダンワ カイワ ブンセキテキアプローチ ノ カンテン カラ ミタ ダンワギノウ ノ コウモク

文法シラバス中心の教育のみを受けた学習者には、正確に文は作れても、談話レベルにおける十分なコミュニケーションが行えず、本人の意思に反して相手に誤解を生じさせるような話し方をしてしまうことがある。このような問題を防ぎ、学習者が積極的に会話へ参加していけるようにするためには、早い段階から文法シラバス中心の教育だけでなく、談話レベルでの会話教育を行なう必要があり、そのための指導項目の整理と教師間での指導項目の共有が必要となる。そこで、本稿では、談話レベルでの会話教育に関する先行研究をその観点の違いから、(1)会話ストラテジー教育の観点から会話教育の指導項目化を試みた先行研究と、(2)談話・会話分析の観点から会話教育の指導項目化を試みた先行研究として見直し、整理する。そして、先行研究においてリスト化されてきた会話教育のための指導項目に、ビジターセッションを利用した会話授業及び演劇プロジェクトの授業での指導項目を実践研究からの成果として加え、それらを談話・会話分析的アプローチから整理し直し、談話レベルでの会話教育を行なうための談話技能の指導項目として提案する。提案する指導項目は、「A.言語的項目」、「B.非言語的項目」、「C.音声的項目」、「D.言語・非言語・音声の総合的技能項目」という4つに分類して整理した。このような指導項目リストの作成により、同じクラスを担当する教師間において会話指導とその指導項目に対する意識の共有もより容易になるものと考える。It has been pointed out that language learners who have been instructed only through grammatical syllabuses have communication problems on the discourse level, even though they are able to produce grammatically accurate sentences. In order to avoid these problems, it is necessary to teach conversation on the discourse as well as grammatical level, starting from the elementary learning stages. Therefore, it is necessary for teachers to share their understanding of syllabuses needed for teaching conversation. However, this kind of syllabus has not been fully designed yet, due to individual differences in teachers’ understanding of the need to teach conversational items and in the ways of dealing with them. In this study, we will review two types of previous research on teaching conversation on the discourse level: 1) syllabuses based on conversation strategies, and 2) syllabuses based on discourse/conversation analysis. We will then propose a conversational syllabus based on both conversation strategies and discourse/conversation analysis, which was designed for Japanese language learners to promote their discourse skills in conversation. The syllabus consists of four categories: A) Verbal category, B) Nonverbal category, C) Prosodic category, and D) Overall category. The items in the syllabus were extracted from the syllabuses used in the Japanese language courses, including visitor sessions and a drama project, which were designed based on discourse/conversation analysis. The goals of these courses were to promote learners’ discourse abilities. This syllabus will enable teachers to teach conversational items which are not found in grammatical syllabuses, starting from the elementary level. It will also help Japanese language teachers to reach a shared conunderstanding of the syllabuses necessary for conversational instruction

Qualitative investigation of the factors that generate ambivalent feelings in women who give birth after receiving negative results from non-invasive prenatal testing

Background: Women who receive negative results from non-invasive prenatal genetic testing (NIPT) may find that they later have mixed or ambivalent feelings, for example, feelings of accepting NIPT and regretting undergoing the test. This study aimed to investigate the factors generating ambivalent feelings among women who gave birth after having received negative results from NIPT. Methods: A questionnaire was sent to women who received a negative NIPT result, and a contents analysis was conducted focusing on ambivalent expressions for those 1562 women who responded the questionnaire. The qualitative data gathered from the questionnaire were analyzed using the N-Vivo software package. Results: Environmental factors, genetic counseling-related factors, and increased anticipatory anxiety, affected the feeling of ambivalence among pregnant women. Furthermore, pregnant women desired more information regarding the detailed prognosis for individuals with Down syndrome and living with them and/or termination, assuming the possibility that they were positive. Conclusions: Three major interrelated factors affected the feeling of ambivalence in women. Highlighting and discussing such factors during genetic counseling may resolve some of these ambivalences, thereby enhancing the quality of decisions made by pregnant women

DOCK2 is involved in the host genetics and biology of severe COVID-19

「コロナ制圧タスクフォース」COVID-19疾患感受性遺伝子DOCK2の重症化機序を解明 --アジア最大のバイオレポジトリーでCOVID-19の治療標的を発見--. 京都大学プレスリリース. 2022-08-10.Identifying the host genetic factors underlying severe COVID-19 is an emerging challenge. Here we conducted a genome-wide association study (GWAS) involving 2, 393 cases of COVID-19 in a cohort of Japanese individuals collected during the initial waves of the pandemic, with 3, 289 unaffected controls. We identified a variant on chromosome 5 at 5q35 (rs60200309-A), close to the dedicator of cytokinesis 2 gene (DOCK2), which was associated with severe COVID-19 in patients less than 65 years of age. This risk allele was prevalent in East Asian individuals but rare in Europeans, highlighting the value of genome-wide association studies in non-European populations. RNA-sequencing analysis of 473 bulk peripheral blood samples identified decreased expression of DOCK2 associated with the risk allele in these younger patients. DOCK2 expression was suppressed in patients with severe cases of COVID-19. Single-cell RNA-sequencing analysis (n = 61 individuals) identified cell-type-specific downregulation of DOCK2 and a COVID-19-specific decreasing effect of the risk allele on DOCK2 expression in non-classical monocytes. Immunohistochemistry of lung specimens from patients with severe COVID-19 pneumonia showed suppressed DOCK2 expression. Moreover, inhibition of DOCK2 function with CPYPP increased the severity of pneumonia in a Syrian hamster model of SARS-CoV-2 infection, characterized by weight loss, lung oedema, enhanced viral loads, impaired macrophage recruitment and dysregulated type I interferon responses. We conclude that DOCK2 has an important role in the host immune response to SARS-CoV-2 infection and the development of severe COVID-19, and could be further explored as a potential biomarker and/or therapeutic target

The whole blood transcriptional regulation landscape in 465 COVID-19 infected samples from Japan COVID-19 Task Force

「コロナ制圧タスクフォース」COVID-19患者由来の血液細胞における遺伝子発現の網羅的解析 --重症度に応じた遺伝子発現の変化には、ヒトゲノム配列の個人差が影響する--. 京都大学プレスリリース. 2022-08-23.Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a recently-emerged infectious disease that has caused millions of deaths, where comprehensive understanding of disease mechanisms is still unestablished. In particular, studies of gene expression dynamics and regulation landscape in COVID-19 infected individuals are limited. Here, we report on a thorough analysis of whole blood RNA-seq data from 465 genotyped samples from the Japan COVID-19 Task Force, including 359 severe and 106 non-severe COVID-19 cases. We discover 1169 putative causal expression quantitative trait loci (eQTLs) including 34 possible colocalizations with biobank fine-mapping results of hematopoietic traits in a Japanese population, 1549 putative causal splice QTLs (sQTLs; e.g. two independent sQTLs at TOR1AIP1), as well as biologically interpretable trans-eQTL examples (e.g., REST and STING1), all fine-mapped at single variant resolution. We perform differential gene expression analysis to elucidate 198 genes with increased expression in severe COVID-19 cases and enriched for innate immune-related functions. Finally, we evaluate the limited but non-zero effect of COVID-19 phenotype on eQTL discovery, and highlight the presence of COVID-19 severity-interaction eQTLs (ieQTLs; e.g., CLEC4C and MYBL2). Our study provides a comprehensive catalog of whole blood regulatory variants in Japanese, as well as a reference for transcriptional landscapes in response to COVID-19 infection

Up-regulation of Syndecan-4 contributes to TGF-β1-induced epithelial to mesenchymal transition in lung adenocarcinoma A549 cells

Syndecan-4 (SDC4) is a cell-surface proteoglycan associated with cell adhesion, motility, and intracellular signaling. Here, we present that SDC4 functions as a positive regulator of the transforming growth factor (TGF)-β1-induced epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT) via Snail in lung adenocarcinoma, A549 cells. TGF-β1 up-regulated the expression of SDC4, accompanied by the induction of EMT. Wound-healing and transwell chemotaxis assay revealed that SDC4 promoted cell migration and invasion. SDC4 knockdown recovered the E-cadherin and decreased vimentin and Snail expression in EMT-induced A549 cells. However, depletion of SDC4 resulted in little change of the Slug protein expression and mesenchymal cell morphology induced by TGF-β1. The double knockdown of SDC-4 and Slug was required for reversal of epithelial morphology; it did not occur from the SDC4 single knockdown. These findings suggest that Snail is a transcriptional factor downstream of SDC4, and SDC4 regulates TGF-β1-induced EMT by cooperating with Slug. Our data provide a novel insight into cellular mechanisms, whereby the cell-surface proteoglycan modulated TGF-β1-induced EMT in lung adenocarcinoma, A549 cells