Collaborative Language Learning through Cross-Cultural Understanding among Domestic and International Students in Provincial Technical Colleges

This is a practical report of our research project on language learning through cross-cultural understanding among Japanese and international students in regional technical colleges in Japan. The goal of this educational practice is to improve the followings; students’ opportunities to encounter a multiracial, multilingual and multicultural environment, to use foreign languages, and to understand cross-cultural affairs. In order to achieve this goal, we tried to conduct lessons by virtual videolink meetings as well as real face-to-face camps. Japanese government has been promoting the entry of international students and researchers to all universities. Now Japan has over 200,000 students from overseas. As almost half of them enter huge universities in the Tokyo metropolitan area and each university campus is adjacent, domestic or Japanese students in the area can easily meet with international students in order to have a chance at intercultural exchange. However, the other half enter provincial universities and colleges. Hokkaido is one of 47 prefectures in Japan, and also a regional, broad area, away from Tokyo. Universities and Colleges in Hokkaido are much smaller than the ones in Tokyo metropolitan area in particular. Hokkaido only has fewer than 3,000 foreign students in total and each university has a limited number of international students, scattered all around the Hokkaido area. In addition, those universities and colleges are distant from each other by 50-200 km. This means students in urban area like Tokyo have enough opportunity to encounter foreigners in and out of the campus, but on the other hand, students in regional areas like Hokkaido have much less opportunites to meet foreigners. The authors came to recognize that this might be a big problem to motivate second language learning and to understand the importance of cross-cultural understanding from the viewpoint of learning environment. In this project, the authors tried to build a new learning environment so that even students in regional universities and colleges could encounter cross-cultural environment just as students in Tokyo metropolitan area have. They chose three provincial cities, Muroran, Tomakomai, and Hakodate, which are all located in Hokkaido prefecture. Each city is a neighbor city but away from others by 50-200km. To make the most use of a limited number of international students who belong to each provincial university or college as a resource of intercultural exchange, the authors suggested and introduced a quasi-interactive environment of a ICT, videolink space as well as a face-to-face training camps. In the future, the author hope to demonstrate the educational effectiveness of ICT-based interactions similar to face-to-face interactions

Lymph node metastasis from colon carcinoma at 11 years after the initial operation managed by lymph node resection and chemoradiation: A case report and a review of the literature

AbstractINTRODUCTIONLymph node metastasis from colorectal cancer after a disease-free interval (DFI) of >5years is extremely rare, and occurs in <0.6% cases.PRESENTATION OF CASEA 60-year-old man underwent low anterior resection for sigmoid colon cancer. The lesion was an adenocarcinoma with no lymph node metastasis of Stage II. At 9years after the colectomy, he was diagnosed with prostate cancer and was treated with radiation and hormonal therapies; at 11years, he exhibited suddenly elevated carcinoembryonic antigen levels. Computed tomography (CT) and positron emission tomography-CT revealed a 2.0-cm para-aortic lymph nodes swelling invading the small intestine. These lymph nodes and the affected segment of the small intestine were resected, and histopathology of the resected specimen confirmed a metastatic tumor. The patient was administered radiation therapy after 22 cycles of 5-fluorouracil, oxaliplatin and leucovorin. He however presented with a residual lesion in the para-aortic lymph node, but currently, he has been symptom free for 4years.DISCUSSIONA review of the literature indicates that the median survival of all previously reported patients is 12months, and that colon cancer with a long DFI might be a slow growing. One of these patients and our patient both had received radiation and/or hormonal therapy for another cancer, which probably impaired their immune systems, thus resulting in metastatic tumors.CONCLUSIONWe report a case of lymph node metastasis after a DFI of >5years and review relevant literature to assess the significance and possible reasons for delayed colorectal cancer metastases

In Vivo Function and Evolution of the Eutherian-Specific Pluripotency Marker UTF1

Embryogenesis in placental mammals is sustained by exquisite interplay between the embryo proper and placenta. UTF1 is a developmentally regulated gene expressed in both cell lineages. Here, we analyzed the consequence of loss of the UTF1 gene during mouse development. We found that homozygous UTF1 mutant newborn mice were significantly smaller than wild-type or heterozygous mutant mice, suggesting that placental insufficiency caused by the loss of UTF1 expression in extra-embryonic ectodermal cells at least in part contributed to this phenotype. We also found that the effects of loss of UTF1 expression in embryonic stem cells on their pluripotency were very subtle. Genome structure and sequence comparisons revealed that the UTF1 gene exists only in placental mammals. Our analyses of a family of genes with homology to UTF1 revealed a possible mechanism by which placental mammals have evolved the UTF1 genes.This study was supported in part by the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), and mostly by the Support Program for the Strategic Research Foundation at Private Universities, 2008–2012. This study was performed as a part of the Core Research for Evolutional Science and Technology (CREST) Agency. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript

Two genetic variants of CD38 in subjects with autism spectrum disorder and controls

金沢大学医薬保健研究域医学系The neurobiological basis of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) remains poorly understood. Given the role of CD38 in social recognition through oxytocin (OT) release, we hypothesized that CD38 may play a role in the etiology of ASD. Here, we first examined the immunohistochemical expression of CD38 in the hypothalamus of post-mortem brains of non-ASD subjects and found that CD38 was colocalized with OT in secretory neurons. In studies of the association between CD38 and autism, we analyzed 10 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and mutations of CD38 by re-sequencing DNAs mainly from a case-control study in Japan, and Caucasian cases mainly recruited to the Autism Genetic Resource Exchange (AGRE). The SNPs of CD38, rs6449197 (p 70; designated as high-functioning autism (HFA)) in the U.S. 104 AGRE family trios, but not with Japanese 188 HFA subjects. A mutation that caused tryptophan to replace arginine at amino acid residue 140 (R140W; (rs1800561, 4693C>T)) was found in 0.6-4.6% of the Japanese population and was associated with ASD in the smaller case-control study. The SNP was clustered in pedigrees in which the fathers and brothers of T-allele-carrier probands had ASD or ASD traits. In this cohort OT plasma levels were lower in subjects with the T allele than in those without. One proband with the T allele who was taking nasal OT spray showed relief of symptoms. The two variant CD38 poloymorphysms tested may be of interest with regard of the pathophysiology of ASD. © 2010 Elsevier Ireland Ltd and the Japan Neuroscience Society

Littérature et identité (l'oeuvre de Maryse Condé)

[Résumé en français]Interroger l'identité du peuple antillais, et surtout celle de la femme noire : telle est l'une des préoccupations constantes de la romancière guadeloupéenne Maryse Condé. Consciente dès son enfance des contradictions propres à une famille comme la sienne une famille petite-bourgeoise fière d'être noire tout en restant strictement attachée aux valeurs de la civilisation occidentale , Condé, pour qui toute appartenance risque de restreindre la liberté individuelle, cherche dans la création la possibilité de se délier des contraintes communautaires. Cette interrogation sur l'identité est exprimée dans ses romans par certains motifs récurrents qui convergent tous sur le rapport entre mère et enfant. Cependant, s'il y a chez Condé le rêve d'une identité fluide qui resterait, comme dans une œuvre en conception, à l'état de potentialité, c'est certainement, malgré et par ce désir à jamais inassouvi, pour mieux accepter notre " ici et maintenant ".[Résumé en anglais]In the works of Caribbean writer Maryse Condé, to explore the identity of the Caribbean people, especially that of the Black woman, is one of her constant preoccupations. Since childhood, she has been keenly conscious of the contradictions particular to families like hers families of the petit bourgeois Blacks who are much proud of being Black while uncritically endorsing the values of the western civilization. Condé, for whom all forms of belonging might undermine individual liberty, seeks in her creative writings the possibility of liberating oneself from the collective constraints. This interrogation about identity manifests itself in certain recurrent motifs of her novels, all of which converge on the relation between mother and child. But if Condé's works dream of a fluid identity that remains, like a work under conception in progress, in the realm of potentiality, this desire that is never to be satisfied urges us to accept more positively our here and now .ST DENIS-BU PARIS8 (930662101) / SudocSudocFranceF

At The Edge of the Wood (Keshiki): 6

When his wife returns to her parents house to have their second child, an unnamed narrator and his son are left to manage by themselves. Instead of absence, what the father and son begin to notice is a strange noise opening up between them, reverberating through their home, their television set, and the books they read at night. The wood outside their home hums with it, too: leaves fall from branches which are already naked, trees wriggle when walked past, and the hills on the horizon rise and fall in a building rhythm. Ono's stories teeter on the edge of something unsayable, exploring repetition and contradiction to sketch compelling, otherworldly characters. The strange sound which hums through the twinned narratives is distilled in Carpenter's translation, which masterfully employs the rhythms and echoes of the English language to convey Ono's sense that something is coughing, laughing, turning under the words on the page