A case study on the interaction between childcare workers and young children for establishing their good relationships : From the viewpoint of social referencing

乳幼児にとって認定こども園等の保育施設は家族以外の人と一日の大半を過ごす場所であり、家族と離れる不安を取り除き、自己を発揮しながら生活するには保育者との信頼関係が必要不可欠である。本研究では生後9 カ月頃から見られる社会的参照を保育者が受け止め、適切に応答するというやりとりを重ねることが信頼関係を築くかかわりのひとつとなり得ると仮定し、事例をもとに検討することを目的とした。事例から、①社会的参照は行動を決定・調整する手がかりを保育者に求める内容が、年齢が上がるにしたがって、「受容」から「確認」へと変化していくこと、②子どもの視線を保育者が受け止め、適切にかかわればそれが保育者への信頼となり、信頼関係を築く基盤となり得ること、③信頼関係を築く基盤となり得るには、子どもの性格や行動を十分理解し、子どもからの視線を予測する配慮が大切であること、などが明らかになった。社会的参照への応答が、信頼関係を培う要素となることを保育者が意識化すれば、かかわり方に、より一層の配慮ができるようになり、自己肯定感が育つことにもつながることから、保育者の社会的参照に対する意識化の必要性が示唆された。For young children, childcare facilities such as certified children centers are the places where they spend most of the daytime with people outside of their families. It is necessary for young children to establish a good relationship with their childcare workers in order to spend their time at the childcare facilities without anxiety. This study hypothesizes that an accumulation of childcare workers’ recognizing children’s social referencing and responding appropriately to it could form the basis for building a good relationship between childcare workers and children. The purpose of this study is to examine this hypothesis, by using some case examples as data. The main findings are as follows. (1) What children seek by using their social referencing changes as they grow up. (2) If childcare workers recognize children’s social referencing and appropriately respond to it, they will win children’s confidence. This will then help them build a good relationship with children. (3) It is important for childcare workers to get a deep understanding of children’s characteristics and behaviors and to be ready for recognizing children’s social referencing. If childcare workers keep in mind that responding children’s social referencing is a crucial factor in establishing a good relationship with children, they will pay more attention to the way they care children. This helps childcare workers develop children’s self-affirmation

Unravelling the Diversity of the Cyclopiazonic Acid Family of Mycotoxins in Aspergillus flavus by UHPLC Triple-TOF HRMS

Cyclopiazonic acid (α-cyclopiazonic acid, α-CPA) is an indole-hydrindane-tetramic acid neurotoxin produced by various fungal species, including the notorious food and feed contaminant Aspergillus flavus. Despite its discovery in A. flavus cultures approximately 40 years ago, its contribution to the A. flavus mycotoxin burden is consistently minimized by our focus on the more potent carcinogenic aflatoxins also produced by this fungus. Here, we report the screening and identification of several CPA-type alkaloids not previously found in A. flavus cultures. Our identifications of these CPA-type alkaloids are based on a dereplication strategy involving accurate mass high resolution mass spectrometry data and a careful study of the α-CPA fragmentation pattern. In total, 22 CPA-type alkaloids were identified in extracts from the A. flavus strains examined. Of these metabolites, 13 have been previously reported in other fungi, though this is the first report of their existence in A. flavus. Two of our metabolite discoveries, 11,12-dehydro α-CPA and 3-hydroxy-2-oxo CPA, have never been reported for any organism. The conspicuous presence of CPA and its numerous derivatives in A. flavus cultures raises concerns about the long-term and cumulative toxicological effects of these fungal secondary metabolites and their contributions to the entire A. flavus mycotoxin problem.Valdet Uka was financially supported by Project Basileus V (Erasmus Mundus Action 2) funding from the European Commission

Cyclopiazonic Acid Biosynthesis of Aspergillus flavus and Aspergillus oryzae

Cyclopiazonic acid (CPA) is an indole-tetramic acid neurotoxin produced by some of the same strains of A. flavus that produce aflatoxins and by some Aspergillus oryzae strains. Despite its discovery 40 years ago, few reviews of its toxicity and biosynthesis have been reported. This review examines what is currently known about the toxicity of CPA to animals and humans, both by itself or in combination with other mycotoxins. The review also discusses CPA biosynthesis and the genetic diversity of CPA production in A. flavus/oryzae populations

Genetic Predisposition to Ischemic Stroke

Background and Purpose—The prediction of genetic predispositions to ischemic stroke (IS) may allow the identification of individuals at elevated risk and thereby prevent IS in clinical practice. Previously developed weighted multilocus genetic risk scores showed limited predictive ability for IS. Here, we investigated the predictive ability of a newer method, polygenic risk score (polyGRS), based on the idea that a few strong signals, as well as several weaker signals, can be collectively informative to determine IS risk.Methods—We genotyped 13 214 Japanese individuals with IS and 26 470 controls (derivation samples) and generated both multilocus genetic risk scores and polyGRS, using the same derivation data set. The predictive abilities of each scoring system were then assessed using 2 independent sets of Japanese samples (KyushuU and JPJM data sets).Results—In both validation data sets, polyGRS was shown to be significantly associated with IS, but weighted multilocus genetic risk scores was not. Comparing the highest with the lowest polyGRS quintile, the odds ratios for IS were 1.75 (95% confidence interval, 1.33–2.31) and 1.99 (95% confidence interval, 1.19–3.33) in the KyushuU and JPJM samples, respectively. Using the KyushuU samples, the addition of polyGRS to a nongenetic risk model resulted in a significant improvement of the predictive ability (net reclassification improvement=0.151; P<0.001).Conclusions—The polyGRS was shown to be superior to weighted multilocus genetic risk scores as an IS prediction model. Thus, together with the nongenetic risk factors, polyGRS will provide valuable information for individual risk assessment and management of modifiable risk factors