An Evaluative Survey of Cross-Cultural Learning through Video Materials

本報告は、日本の地域紹介番組が実際に米国の大学で活用された際の評価調査の結果である。番組自体に対する反応は概ね好意的であり、具体的な学習結果や番組の改善点に関する記述も得た。一方、学習評価の結果からは、まず番組中の日本人のイメージについて、先行イメージに比較して親しみ深さは上昇したが有能さは下降した。後者の結果は、非現実的に高かった日本人の有能さの評価が下方修正されたものと考えられる。また、視聴後、文化領域での日本への関心や日米両国間の類似性感覚が増大した。さらに、パス解析を行ったところ、事前の日本人イメージの肯定度と類似性感覚の大きさが学習成果にプラスに影響することが示唆された。An evaluative survey was held in the US regarding three video programs recently produced to facilitate understanding of the realities of ordinary Japanese life. The viewers evaluated these programs as having satisfactory educational qualities. In addition, the programs created significant learning effects on the viewers, who felt the Japanese were more understandable and easier to get along with, after seeing the films. But they also found the Japanese less intelligent, which may reflect a realistic modification of Americans\u27 high regard of Japanese industriousness. Moreover, the films increased the viewers\u27 cultural interest toward Japan, as well as their feelings of similarity between the two cultures. Path analysis suggested that positive images of the people and feelings of similarity contributed significantly in cross-cultural learning processes. Specific descriptions of learning outcome and suggestions for program improvement were also collected

Does personality affect premating isolation between locally-adapted populations?

Background: One aspect of premating isolation between diverging, locally-adapted population pairs is female mate choice for resident over alien male phenotypes. Mating preferences often show considerable individual variation, and whether or not certain individuals are more likely to contribute to population interbreeding remains to be studied. In the Poecilia mexicana-species complex different ecotypes have adapted to hydrogen sulfide (H2S)-toxic springs, and females from adjacent non-sulfidic habitats prefer resident over sulfide-adapted males. We asked if consistent individual differences in behavioral tendencies (animal personality) predict the strength and direction of the mate choice component of premating isolation in this system. Results: We characterized focal females for their personality and found behavioral measures of ‘novel object exploration’, ‘boldness’ and ‘activity in an unknown area’ to be highly repeatable. Furthermore, the interaction term between our measures of exploration and boldness affected focal females’ strength of preference (SOP) for the resident male phenotype in dichotomous association preference tests. High exploration tendencies were coupled with stronger SOPs for resident over alien mating partners in bold, but not shy, females. Shy and/or little explorative females had an increased likelihood of preferring the non-resident phenotype and thus, are more likely to contribute to rare population hybridization. When we offered large vs. small conspecific stimulus males instead, less explorative females showed stronger preferences for large male body size. However, this effect disappeared when the size difference between the stimulus males was small. Conclusions: Our results suggest that personality affects female mate choice in a very nuanced fashion. Hence, population differences in the distribution of personality types could be facilitating or impeding reproductive isolation between diverging populations depending on the study system and the male trait(s) upon which females base their mating decisions, respectively

Differential Allelic Expression in the Human Genome: A Robust Approach To Identify Genetic and Epigenetic Cis-Acting Mechanisms Regulating Gene Expression

The recent development of whole genome association studies has lead to the robust identification of several loci involved in different common human diseases. Interestingly, some of the strongest signals of association observed in these studies arise from non-coding regions located in very large introns or far away from any annotated genes, raising the possibility that these regions are involved in the etiology of the disease through some unidentified regulatory mechanisms. These findings highlight the importance of better understanding the mechanisms leading to inter-individual differences in gene expression in humans. Most of the existing approaches developed to identify common regulatory polymorphisms are based on linkage/association mapping of gene expression to genotypes. However, these methods have some limitations, notably their cost and the requirement of extensive genotyping information from all the individuals studied which limits their applications to a specific cohort or tissue. Here we describe a robust and high-throughput method to directly measure differences in allelic expression for a large number of genes using the Illumina Allele-Specific Expression BeadArray platform and quantitative sequencing of RT-PCR products. We show that this approach allows reliable identification of differences in the relative expression of the two alleles larger than 1.5-fold (i.e., deviations of the allelic ratio larger than 60∶40) and offers several advantages over the mapping of total gene expression, particularly for studying humans or outbred populations. Our analysis of more than 80 individuals for 2,968 SNPs located in 1,380 genes confirms that differential allelic expression is a widespread phenomenon affecting the expression of 20% of human genes and shows that our method successfully captures expression differences resulting from both genetic and epigenetic cis-acting mechanisms

lincRNAs act in the circuitry controlling pluripotency and differentiation

Although thousands of large intergenic non-coding RNAs (lincRNAs) have been identified in mammals, few have been functionally characterized, leading to debate about their biological role. To address this, we performed loss-of-function studies on most lincRNAs expressed in mouse embryonic stem (ES) cells and characterized the effects on gene expression. Here we show that knockdown of lincRNAs has major consequences on gene expression patterns, comparable to knockdown of well-known ES cell regulators. Notably, lincRNAs primarily affect gene expression in trans. Knockdown of dozens of lincRNAs causes either exit from the pluripotent state or upregulation of lineage commitment programs. We integrate lincRNAs into the molecular circuitry of ES cells and show that lincRNA genes are regulated by key transcription factors and that lincRNA transcripts bind to multiple chromatin regulatory proteins to affect shared gene expression programs. Together, the results demonstrate that lincRNAs have key roles in the circuitry controlling ES cell state.Broad InstituteHarvard UniversityNational Human Genome Research Institute (U.S.)Merkin Family Foundation for Stem Cell Researc

Long Engagements

vii.235 hal.;ill.;25 c

Long engagements : maturity in modern Japan

235 hal.; 21c