Representation of HIV and AIDS in Japanese Novels <Article>

This paper analyzed the representation of HIV and AIDS in Japanese novels since 1980 and contextualized this representation in social discourse related to the disease. It also considered the kind of novels that are likely to be written in the present decade. During the 1980s, when the first AIDS panic seized Japanese society and the notorious AIDS Prevention Law was enforced, Masahiko Shimada, a well-known postmodern satirist, wrote Mikakunin-bikō-buttai (An Unidentified Stalking Object). In this novel, AIDS was represented as the comical, but radically subversive, figure of a transgender stalker, thereby questioning the exclusion and containment policy of that time. In the 1990s, after the second AIDS panic hit the nation, lawsuits concerning HIV infection among hemophiliacs drew public attention, and the Communicable Diseases and Medical Care Law was introduced. As a result, the Japanese public became better informed about the disease. At that time, Jakuchō Setouchi, a novelist and Buddhist nun, wrote Aishi (Love-Death). In this novel, Setouchi depicted the lives of various types of people living with HIV, including a gay activist, a housewife, and a hemophiliac; despite their suffering, their positivity was presented vividly. However, in the process, the novel almost romanticized the disease. At the turn of the century, when the problem of HIV in Africa began receiving international attention, the Japanese started losing interest in HIV as a problem that particularly concerned them. However, in a bold attempt to tackle the issue of HIV and Africa, Hōsei Hahakigi, a novelist and psychiatrist, wrote Afurika no Hitomi (The Pupil of Africa). In this novel, a Japanese doctor exposed the scandal of the government of a southern African nation― the thinly disguised Republic of South Africa―and a pharmaceutical company concerning HIV drugs. Nevertheless, as a fictional work, it almost trivialized the HIV drug controversy. In the present decade, now that the focus of attention with HIV in Japan has returned to gay men, it is to be expected that novels will be written about gays and other vulnerable groups, such as sex workers, young people, foreigners, and drug users

Fabrication of one-dimensional GaAs channel-coupled InAs quantum dot memory device by selective-area metal-organic vapor phase epitaxy

Narrow wirelike openings were defined on SiO2-masked GaAs (001) substrates by electron-beam lithography and wet chemical etching methods. A one-dimensional GaAs channel-coupled InAs quantum dot memory device was fabricated in this opened area by the selective-area metal-organic vapor phase epitaxy. Drain current measurement by sweeping the gate voltage forward and backward showed clear hysteresis up to 180 K due to electrons charging into the quantum dots with a threshold voltage difference (△Vth) of 165 mV at 20 K and 29 mV at 180 K. Comparison of experimental △Vth values with the theoretically calculated ones showed that around 300 and 50 electrons were responsible for the memory operation at 20 and 180 K, respectively. Real time measurements showed that the write/erase states of the memory device were discriminated for more than 5 min at 20 K and about 100 s at 77 K

Incomplete Annular Pancreas with Ectopic Opening of the Pancreatic and Bile Ducts into the Pyloric Ring: First Report of a Rare Anomaly

The patient was a 56-year-old woman who had experienced epigastralgia and dorsal pain several times over the last 20 years. She was admitted for a diagnosis of acute cholecystitis, and severe intra- and extrahepatic bile duct dilatation with inner air density was noted. No papilla of Vater was present in the descending duodenum, and 2 small holes were present in the pyloric ring. Bile excretion from one of the small holes was observed under forward-viewing endoscope. It was considered that the pancreatic and bile ducts separately opened into the pyloric ring. Based on these findings, malformation of the pancreaticobiliary duct was diagnosed. She did not wish treatment, but the obstruction associated with duodenal stenosis was noted after 2 years. Pancreatoduodenectomy was performed as curative treatment for duodenal stenosis and retrograde biliary infection through the bile duct opening in the pyloric ring. The ventral pancreas encompassed almost the entire circumference of the pyloric ring, suggesting a subtype of annular pancreas. Generally, lesions are present in the descending part of the duodenum in an annular pancreas, and the pancreatic and bile ducts join in the papillary region. However, in this patient, (1) the pancreas encompassed the pyloric ring, (2) the pancreatic and bile ducts opened separately, and (3) the openings of the pancreatic and bile ducts were present in the pyloric ring. The pancreas and biliary tract develop through a complex process, which may cause various types of malformation of the pancreaticobiliary system, but no similar case report was found on a literature search. This case was very rare and could not be classified in any type of congenital anomaly of the pancreas. We would classify it as a subtype of annular pancreas with separate ectopic opening of the pancreatic and bile ducts into the pyloric ring