Understanding the Effects of Current Students Receiving Support from Graduates and Graduate Associations at their Alma Mater

Recently, the importance of the role of graduates and graduate associations in supporting current students at their alma mater to maximize the performance of the university has been firmly established in Japan. In a previous experimental study focused on graduate services at our alma mater (2012-2014), the authors found that support from graduates and graduate associations to current students at the university not only benefitted the university but also provided the graduates and current students alike with the opportunity to gain in certain expertise. Students with the experience of receiving support from graduates of that university are highly likely to have the urge to support the university and its students after they themselves graduate. Furthermore, if students are fostered with this support of graduates, the strength of the role that the university plays in society will be heightened, and this will benefit graduates and lead to them maintaining and strengthening their links with their alma mater. There had been no nationwide study conducted on this. For this reason, this research was undertaken to investigate the current state of affairs in universities across the country in terms of how an attachment and sense of belonging to the university is fomented in graduate and current students alike due to support of current students by graduates and placement of interdependent enterprises to raise alumni consciousness. Of the 771 national, public, and private universities in Japan in 2016, a questionnaire was sent to all eligible members of 643 graduate associations across these universities in February 2017. Of these, 250 graduate associations returned completed questionnaires from their members, a response rate of 38.9%. A total of 1,702 questionnaires were returned. This paper presents the findings of this study and reports specific details and trends found regarding the nature of support of current students by graduate associations of those universities. In addition, the possibility of the formation of an attachment to and sense of belonging to one’s alma mater will be discussed.本研究，及び本報告におけるアンケート調査は，日本学術振興会「科研費15K04340」の助成を受けています。（基盤研究（C）「大学の持続的発展に資する校友（大学・学生・卒業生）事業の意義と可能性に関する研究」，研究代表者：大川一毅

High TC ferromagnetism in diluted magnetic semiconducting GaN:Mn films

Wurtzite GaN:Mn films on sapphire substrates were successfully grown by use of the molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) system. The film has an extremely high Curie temperature of around 940 K, although the Mn concentration is only about 3 ~ 5 %. Magnetization measurements were carried out in magnetic fields parallel to the film surface up to 7 T. The magnetization process shows the coexistence of ferromagnetic and paramagnetic contributions at low temperatures, while the typical ferromagnetic magnetization process is mainly observed at high temperatures because of the decrease of the paramagnetic contributions. The observed transport characteristics show a close relation between the magnetism and the impurity conduction. The double exchange mechanism of the Mn-impurity band is one of the possible models for the high-TC ferromagnetism in GaN:Mn.Comment: 20 pages, 4 figures, submitted to Physica

Immunomodulating Activity of Agaricus brasiliensis KA21 in Mice and in Human Volunteers

We performed studies on murine models and human volunteers to examine the immunoenhancing effects of the naturally outdoor-cultivated fruit body of Agaricus brasiliensis KA21 (i.e. Agaricus blazei). Antitumor, leukocyte-enhancing, hepatopathy-alleviating and endotoxin shock-alleviating effects were found in mice. In the human study, percentage body fat, percentage visceral fat, blood cholesterol level and blood glucose level were decreased, and natural killer cell activity was increased. Taken together, the results strongly suggest that the A. brasiliensis fruit body is useful as a health-promoting food

Immunohistochemical analyses of parathyroid hormone-dependent downregulation of renal type II Na-Pi cotransporters by cryobiopsy

The “in vivo cryotechnique” (IVCT) is a new method of morphological analysis which has the advantage of freezing tissues in living animals without stopping their blood circulation. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of parathyroid hormone (PTH) on renal type II Na-Pi transporters (NaPi-IIa and NaPi-IIc) and ”cryobiopsy” (CB) using special cryoforceps as a simple method of the IVCT. The kidney tissues were biopsied at various time points after PTH administration by CB using liquid nitrogen as the cryogen. By hematoxylin-eosin (HE) staining the kidney tissues, well-frozen areas without visible ice crystals were obtained in the tissue surface areas, and the brush border membrane (BBM) of proximal tubules was well preserved at a light microscopic level. Immunohistochemical evaluation showed that PTH downregulated NaPi-IIa and NaPi-IIc at the BBM, being controlled by a different mechanism. In this method, the PTHinduced internalization of NaPi-IIc from microvilli to subapical compartments was not observed in the tissue preparations. NaPi-IIc protein appears to be degraded in microvilli of the proximal tubular cells after the injection of PTH. We suggest that CB using liquid nitrogen is useful to investigate renal type II Na-Pi transporters at the light microscopic level