Japanese Social Exclusion and Inclusion from a Housing Perspective

"This paper examines conditions of social exclusion and attempts at social inclusion in Japan from a housing perspective. Companies, households and the government have previously supported housing in Japan. However, corporate welfare was withdrawn following the globalization of the economy from the 1990s onwards, support from families and communities declined due to a reduction in household size, and governmental housing support has shifted away from direct support. A reduction in income and unstable work left many people with unstable housing. Certain workers, such as foreigners performing dispatched labour, could not maintain continuous work under the influence of the Lehman Brothers' bankruptcy in 2008. Household size has shrunk according to changes in the industrial structure, and the number of households that cannot sustain housing is increasing. Such vulnerable households - elderly people, the handicapped, low-income earners and single parents - can become excluded from the rental housing market. On the other hand, governmental measures are promoting local dwellings and maintaining the condition for a dwelling service. Activities, such as local community support of the homeless have been initiated by various Non-profit Organisations (NPOs) and NPO activities are increasingly exemplifying measures to achieve social inclusion." (author's abstract

XAFS analyses of molten metal fluorides

X-ray absorption fine structure studies of molten metal fluorides containing the materials related to nuclear engineering are intensively summarized. By using XAFS spectra data of divalent and trivalent cation metal fluorides in molten state which have been collected by authors’ group for a few years, local structure have been extracted and discussed systematically in conjunction with other spectroscopic studies and numerical calculations. In molten divalent fluorides, tetrahedral coordination of fluorides around a cation is predominant. In the case of pure molten trivalent fluorides, structure with more than 6-coordination has been suggested in some cases, but octahedral coordination structure is much stabilized at heavier rare earth metal fluorides. By mixing with alkali metal fluorides, it is a general trend that inter-ionic distances keep constant, but coordination number of fluorides decreases. In experimental chapter, all the details of sample preparation, furnace installation, X-ray optics setups and data analyses procedures are explained. Finally, future expectations of XAFS technique are also suggested

Myanmar migrant laborers in Ranong, Thailand

Thailand is the major destination for migrants in mainland Southeast Asia, and Myanmar (Burmese) migrants account for the dominant share. This paper sheds light on the actual working conditions and the life of Myanmar migrants in Thailand, based on our intensive survey in Ranong in southern Thailand in 2009. We found a wide range of serious problems that Myanmar migrants face in everyday life: very harsh working conditions, low income, heavy indebtedness, risk of being human-trafficking victims, harassment by the police and military (especially of sex workers), high risk of illness including malaria and HIV/AIDS and limited access to affordable medical facilities, and a poor educational environment for their children.Myanmar, Thailand, Migrant labor, Migration, Household

An experimental study on the relation of T2-signal high intensity in MRI to histopathological changes in the kainic acid model of temporal lobe epilepsy in rats.

側頭葉てんかんでは，てんかん焦点に一致してMRI T2高信号領域が見られ，FLAIR法でこれがより明瞭になるが，このMRI所見と病理組織学的変化との関係は必ずしもはっきりしていない。そこで，Sprague－Dawleyラットにカイニン酸（KA）でけいれん発作重積状態を起こし，経時的にMRIを記録するとともに，ニッスル染色，GFAP免疫染色での病理組織学的変化を調べて両者の関係について検討した。KA群では，MRIで1～8週間後のいずれにおいてもpiriform cortexからentorhinal cortexにかけて不整形のT2高信号領域がみられたが，stage3のけいれん発作しか出現しなかったラットではstage4，5が出現したラットに比べて程度が弱かった。組織学的には，CA1，subiculum，piriform cortex，entorhinal cortexで神経細胞の消失，濃染細胞の増加と萎縮，GFAP免疫反応の増強が見られたが，piriform cortex，entorhinal cortexでの神経細胞消失の程度はT2信 号の程度と相関せず，GFAP免疫反応が増強した領域に一致して高信号がみられた。しかし，海馬のGFAP免疫反応増強はMRI所見に反映されず，これはMRIの解像度の限界にもよると考えられた。The relation of T2-signal high intensity areas observed in temporal lobe epilepsy to histopathological changes in limbic structures was examined in the rat kainic acid (KA) model of epilepsy. Male 8-week-old Sprague-Dawley rats were injected with 10mg/kg(i.p.) of KA or saline (control). Repetitive generalized convulsions (stage 3, or stage 4,5 seizures of amygdala kindled seizures) lasted for 3 to 4 hrs. were induced by KA injection in all rats. MRI was recorded on the day before the KA injection and 1, 2, 4, 8 weeks after the injection by fluid-attenuated inversion recovery method under deep pentobarbital anesthesia. Following the last MRI recording, rats were perfused with 4% paraformaldehyde (PFA) from left cardiac ventricle, post-fixed overnight in 4% PFA and brains were embedded in parafin. Coronal brain sections (6μm) were stained with cresyl violet, or mouse anti-GFAP antibody followed by biotinylated goat anti-mouse IgG and avidin-biotin-peroxidase (vectastain ABC kit). Irregularshaped moderate to severe high T2-signal areas were observed in bilateral piriform and entorhinal cortex in MRI. These high T2-signal areas were ovserved from 1 week after the KA injection to 8 weeks after the injection, and were more prominent in rats elicited stage 4 or 5 seizures than in rats elicited stage 3 seizures. Loss of pyramidal neurons and increased GFAP immunoreactivity were observed in piriform cortex, entorhinal cortex, CA1, subiculum, and hilus of dentate gyrus. The increase of GFAP immunoreactivity, but not the intensity of neuronal loss, in piriform and entorhinal cortex was almost correponded to the size and intensity of T2-signal. However, the increase of GFAP immunoreactivity in hippocampus was not detected as the increase of T2-signal in MRI. These findings indicate that astroglial reactions in piriform and entorhinal cortex are more sensitive to T2-weighted MRI than those in hippocampus

Myanmar migrant laborers in Ranong, Thailand

Thailand is the major destination for migrants in mainland Southeast Asia, and Myanmar (Burmese) migrants account for the dominant share. This paper sheds light on the actual working conditions and the life of Myanmar migrants in Thailand, based on our intensive survey in Ranong in southern Thailand in 2009. We found a wide range of serious problems that Myanmar migrants face in everyday life: very harsh working conditions, low income, heavy indebtedness, risk of being human-trafficking victims, harassment by the police and military (especially of sex workers), high risk of illness including malaria and HIV/AIDS and limited access to affordable medical facilities, and a poor educational environment for their children