EXAMINING FACE-THREATENING ACT OF JAPANESE ADVERB YATTO

Abstract In intercultural communications, we can anticipate the occurrence of unintended face-threatening acts (FTA) which leads to miscommunication. This study discusses the possible FTA by the speaker who does not intend to threaten the interlocutor’s positive and negative face by using one of the Japanese temporal adverbs, yatto. This adverb expresses the speaker’s evaluative meaning, is achieved through various obstacles and the effect takes a long time to achieve. In addition, the word yatto also implies an achievement that is attained by either barely sufficient abilities or because of an immediate deadline. Therefore, when being used to talk about the interlocutor's or the other person’s action, it can threaten his/her face. It is necessary to clarify the possibility of threatening other people's positive and negative faces even though it is unintentional because Japanese teachers and learners are mostly unaware of it. Many of them associate the word yatto as akhirnya in Bahasa Indonesia or finally in English, which does not contain the speaker’s evaluative meaning. Accordingly, the subject of this study is to clarify the conditions of use when the word yatto becomes an FTA. To clarify the problem, this study uses descriptive and qualitative methods and employs the theory of politeness, especially the theory of face-threatening acts (FTA) by Brown and Levinson (1987). Inspired by Kamio (1990)’s notion of the territory of information, there are three types of the territory of information for the yatto adverb; (a) the information that falls to the territory of the speaker, (b) to both of the speaker’s and the interlocutor’s or the other person’s, and (c) to the interlocutor. As the main finding of the research, the factor causing FTA for positive and negative faces, namely FTA which occurs when the speaker talks about the action, falls to (c) the third territory. In the case of the benefactive -tekureru or -temorau forms used together, the meaning appreciating the actions of the interlocutor or the third person, it works as positive politeness to them as an agent. On the contrary, expressing thanks threaten the speaker's negative face

EXAMINING FACE-THREATENING ACT OF JAPANESE ADVERB YATTO

Abstract In intercultural communications, we can anticipate the occurrence of unintended face-threatening acts (FTA) which leads to miscommunication. This study discusses the possible FTA by the speaker who does not intend to threaten the interlocutor’s positive and negative face by using one of the Japanese temporal adverbs, yatto. This adverb expresses the speaker’s evaluative meaning, is achieved through various obstacles and the effect takes a long time to achieve. In addition, the word yatto also implies an achievement that is attained by either barely sufficient abilities or because of an immediate deadline. Therefore, when being used to talk about the interlocutor's or the other person’s action, it can threaten his/her face. It is necessary to clarify the possibility of threatening other people's positive and negative faces even though it is unintentional because Japanese teachers and learners are mostly unaware of it. Many of them associate the word yatto as akhirnya in Bahasa Indonesia or finally in English, which does not contain the speaker’s evaluative meaning. Accordingly, the subject of this study is to clarify the conditions of use when the word yatto becomes an FTA. To clarify the problem, this study uses descriptive and qualitative methods and employs the theory of politeness, especially the theory of face-threatening acts (FTA) by Brown and Levinson (1987). Inspired by Kamio (1990)’s notion of the territory of information, there are three types of the territory of information for the yatto adverb; (a) the information that falls to the territory of the speaker, (b) to both of the speaker’s and the interlocutor’s or the other person’s, and (c) to the interlocutor. As the main finding of the research, the factor causing FTA for positive and negative faces, namely FTA which occurs when the speaker talks about the action, falls to (c) the third territory. In the case of the benefactive -tekureru or -temorau forms used together, the meaning appreciating the actions of the interlocutor or the third person, it works as positive politeness to them as an agent. On the contrary, expressing thanks threaten the speaker's negative face

Antibiotic literacy among Japanese medical students

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is an urgent global issue. After the AMR action plan was introduced in 2016, a study on antibiotic literacy (i.e., awareness, knowledge, and attitude relating to antimicrobial use) among clinicians and lay people was conducted in Japan. However, no studies have hitherto targeted medical students who are expected to have a high level of antibiotic literacy. The present study was conducted between September 2019 and February 2020, enrolling undergraduate students at Okayama University Medical School. We collected data using a paper-based questionnaire form with 11 questions about antibiotic literacy. The response rate was 93.8% (661/705 students). Overall, 92.6% of the students knew that antibiotics inhibit the growth of bacteria. Student reporting that antibiotics could treat the common cold accounted for 77.0% (Year 1), 50.9% (Year 2), 48.2% (Year 3), 49.1% (Year 4), 23.8% (Year 5), and 26.2% (Year 6). Only 43 (6.5%) had heard about the AMR action plan. The study data suggested that medical students' level of literacy on antimicrobial use should be further enhanced to address AMR and promote antimicrobial stewardship

Prevalence of medical factors related to aging among older car drivers: a multicenter, cross-sectional, descriptive study

Aim An increasing number of older adults in Japan are at an increased risk of road traffic crashes. This study aimed to investigate the prevalence of potential underlying medical factors that increase the risk of road traffic crashes among older people. Methods This cross-sectional observational study was conducted in 11 medical institutions in Japan using self-administered questionnaires and physical examination from January to May 2021. The background and social data, data on the use of nursing care insurance, and clinical data suggestive of polypharmacy, sarcopenia, cognitive impairment, and frailty/oral frailty were obtained. The prevalence of these factors was compared between everyday and occasional drivers. Results Data of 127 patients were collected; their median (interquartile range) age was 73 (70-78) years. Of the total participants, 82 were men (64.6%) and 45 were women (35.4%). There were 77 everyday drivers and 50 occasional drivers. Of these, 121 (95.3%) had not applied for nursing care insurance, but the numbers of those who required help 1 and 2 were 1 (0.8%) and 3 (2.4%), respectively. Prevalence of medical factors was as follows: polypharmacy, 27.6%; sarcopenia, 8.7%; dementia, 16.4%; frailty, 15.0%; and oral frailty, 54.3%; it was not significantly different between every day and occasional drivers. Intention to return the car license was significantly higher among the occasional drivers (2.6% vs. 14.0%; odds ratio: 6.7, 95% confidence interval: 1.2-70.6, p = 0.024). Conclusion We uncovered the prevalence of medical factors that can be associated with road traffic crashes among Japanese older people aged >= 65 years in our community

妊娠期からの親向けの乳幼児予防接種教育プログラムを用いた介入研究

学位の種別: 課程博士審査委員会委員 : (主査)東京大学教授 松山 裕, 東京大学准教授 春名 めぐみ, 東京大学准教授 永田 智子, 東京大学教授 水口 雅, 東京大学教授 大須賀 穣University of Tokyo(東京大学

Interrelationships Between Serum Levels of Procalcitonin and Inflammatory Markers in Patients Who Visited a General Medicine Department

Various laboratory markers of inflammation are utilized in general practice, but their clinical diagnostic significance is often ambiguous. In the present study, we determined the clinical significance of the examination of serum levels of procalcitonin (PCT) by comparing the PCT levels with the levels of other inflammatory markers, based on a retrospective review of 332 PCT-positive patients, including cases of bacterial infection (20.5%), non-specific inflammation (20.8%), neoplasm (9.9%), connective tissue diseases (8.4%), and non-bacterial infection (7.2%), were analyzed. The serum PCT level was highest in the bacterial infection group (1.94 ng/ml) followed by the non-specific inflammatory group (0.58 ng/ml) and neoplastic diseases group (0.34 ng/ml). The serum PCT level was positively correlated with serum levels of C-reactive protein (rho=0.62), soluble interleukin-2 receptor (sIL-2R; rho=0.69), and ferritin, the plasma level of D-dimer, and white blood cell count, and negatively correlated with the serum albumin level (rho=−0.52), hemoglobin concentration, and platelet count. The serum PCT level showed a stronger positive correlation with the serum sIL-2R level than the other biomarkers. The results suggest that an increased PCT level may indicate not only an infectious state but also a non-bacterial inflammatory condition in the diagnostic process in general practice

Realization of the mean-field universality class in spin-crossover materials

In spin-crossover materials, the volume of a molecule changes depending on whether it is in the high-spin (HS) or low-spin (LS) state. This change causes distortion of the lattice. Elastic interactions among these distortions play an important role for the cooperative properties of spin-transition phenomena. We find that the critical behavior caused by this elastic interaction belongs to the mean-field universality class, in which the critical exponents for the spontaneous magnetization and the susceptibility are $\beta = 1/2$ and $\gamma = 1$, respectively. Furthermore, the spin-spin correlation function is a constant at long distances, and it does not show an exponential decay in contrast to short-range models. The value of the correlation function at long distances shows different size-dependences: $O(1/N)$, $O(1/\sqrt{N})$, and constant for temperatures above, at, and below the critical temperature, respectively. The model does not exhibit clusters, even near the critical point. We also found that cluster growth is suppressed in the present model and that there is no critical opalescence in the coexistence region. During the relaxation process from a metastable state at the end of a hysteresis loop, nucleation phenomena are not observed, and spatially uniform configurations are maintained during the change of the fraction of HS and LS. These characteristics of the mean-field model are expected to be found not only in spin-crossover materials, but also generally in systems where elastic distortion mediates the interaction among local states.Comment: 13 pages, 16 figure