A Comparative Analysis of Trust among Megacities: The Case of Shanghai, Seoul and Tokyo

In recent decades, trust has become a major issue in social science as globalization has become pervasive. Hence the study of trust has become essential in understanding and coping with the serious impacts of globalization. This is especially true of contemporary globalized megacities, where great numbers of people flow into and out of countries. The security and interpersonal trustworthiness of life in the village has been supplanted by something much different, where people move about and are now an amalgam from a variety of cultures and social systems. But today we observe that trust levels are declining among many industrialized nations. The present study uses the Three-Item Rosenberg Scale, common to many general attitudinal surveys. Correspondence analysis, also used here, is a statistical technique especially useful for categorical data, yielding simple but elegant graphic displays. Data for the present study were collected based on nationwide attitudinal general social surveys among 19 nations in the Pacific region. The present study uses data from three megacities: Shanghai, Tokyo and Seoul. The trust structures of the megacities, analyzed using the Three-Item-Rosenberg Scale, are similarly consistent with respect to the locations of the three trust items. Trust was found to be associated with the social status characteristics of age, gender, and education, with younger people being distrusting and those over 50 being trusting. The present study also found that women are trusting and men are distrusting; that trusters are less educated; that optimism and wellbeing are associated with trust among the three megacities; and finally that informal social personal networks are associated with trust

一般的信頼感の測定―国際比較分析―

　Today, it has been observed that interpersonal levels of trust are declining among many industrialized nations thus calling for greater attention and concern. Trust is an important subject for many research fields, including sociology, economics, political science, psychology, philosophy, morality, and ethics. But, trust seems often to be considered as intrinsic rather than a topic for empirical or theoretical exploration. The present study examines the measurement validity of a three-item general trust scale（“Three-Item Rosenberg Scale”）used frequently in general attitudinal surveys. If trust is interpreted not only as an interpersonal phenomenon but also as a social and cultural phenomenon, then how does general trust differ among nations? Specifically, this paper seeks to determine if the three questions assessing levels of interpersonal trust are scalable among nations in general, by investigating their validity when used in nations in differing world regions with differing trust levels and differing cultural backgrounds. Data were collected based on nationwide attitudinal surveys of general trust conducted among eight nations: Russia, Japan, the United States, Finland, the Czech Republic, Germany, Taiwan, and Turkey, all selected based on their overall World Values Surveys trust indices. They form four groups: high trust: Finland; relatively high trust: Japan, the U.S., Germany, and Taiwan; middle trust: Russia and the Czech Republic; and low trust: Turkey. Crosstabulations and correspondence analyses were conducted. Results indicated that the Three-Item Likert trust scale can be used for all eight nations, regardless of differences in their languages, cultural backgrounds and trust levels, and that the first dimension（i.e., the X-axis）, based on correspondence analysis, creates a trust scale for the eight nations

Elevation of Pancreatic Enzymes in Gallbladder Bile Associated with Heterotopic Pancreas. A Case Report and Review of the Literature

Context This is the first report associating heterotopic pancreas in the gallbladder and elevated pancreatic enzymes in bile. Case report A 60-year-old woman underwent abdominal ultrasonography at a medical check-up, revealing a nodular protrusion at the neck of the gallbladder. It seemed likely to be a lymph node, but we could not exclude the possibility of gallbladder cancer. In order to make a correct diagnosis, laparoscopic cholecystectomy was successfully performed. Pathological examination revealed heterotopic pancreatic tissue in the gallbladder wall. In addition, we detected elevated levels of amylase and lipase in gallbladder bile. Conclusions Preoperative diagnosis of heterotopic pancreas in the gallbladder is difficult. However, an increase of pancreatic enzymes in gallbladder bile may potentially play an important role in the occurrence of acalculous cholecystitis and biliary cancer. We need more accumulation of cases to know the true significance of this anomaly

Water in amine-mediated single electron transfer reaction of N-allylic trichloroacetamides

金沢大学医薬保健研究域薬学系Water contaminating 1,4-dimethylpiperazine was thought to play an important role in effecting a single electron transfer reaction (radical cyclization) of N-allylic trichloroacetamides. © 2010 The Japan Institute of Heterocyclic Chemistry

Synthesis of (-)-trachelanthamidine using a single electron transfer reaction in 1,4-dimethylpiperazine

金沢大学医薬保健研究域薬学系Synthesis of (-)-trachelanthamidine, one of the pyrrolizidine alkaloids, has been achieved by using a single electron transfer reaction of 2-(2-acetoxyethenyl)-N-(trichloroacetyl)pyrrolidine in boiling 1,4-dimethylpiperazine as the key step. © 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Synthesis of nitrogen-containing heterocycles using exo- and endo-selective radical cyclizations onto enamides

金沢大学大学院自然科学研究科生理活性物質科学The effect of positional change of the carbonyl group of enamides on Bu3SnH-mediated alkyl radical cyclization leading to five-, six-, seven-, and eight-membered nitrogen-containing heterocycles was examined. A 5-exo cyclization is generally preferred over a 6-endo ring closure in systems having an alkyl radical center on the enamide-acyl side chain, whereas enamides having an alkyl radical center opposite to the acyl side chain predominantly gave 6-endo cyclization products. These results suggest that the exo or endo selectivity of radical cyclization onto the alkenic bond of enamides can be controlled by positional change of the carbonyl group. For an understanding of these selectivities, heat of formation for each transition state was calculated. 6-endo-Selective radical cyclization was applied to the radical cascade, enabling a concise synthesis of a cylindricine skeleton. A 7- or 8-endo alkyl radical cyclization, however, predominated over a corresponding 6- or 7-exo ring closure regardless of the positional change of the carbonyl group of enamides. © 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved