112 research outputs found
The current state and problems regarding teacher training in Japan as seen from the point of view of fostering practical teaching performance
This study aimed to clarify the teacher education status and problems of Japan seen from the point of view of fostering practical teaching abilities based on the results of questionnaires and interviews targeting teachers of faculty members of training organizations that offer elementary school and Lower Secondary PE teacher education courses. The results of our questionnaire indicate that the following five points can be presented as future tasks for fostering practical teaching performance through practical training in Japan. The first challenge is extending the period of student teaching. The second challenge is establishing cooperation between student teaching schools and universities. The third challenge is to solidify an assessment system for student teaching. The fourth challenge is to nurture the instruction abilities of student teaching school teachers. The last challenge is to hire university teachers who are capable of giving student teachers appropriate instructions and advice
Spin-projection for quantum computation: A low-depth approach to strong correlation
Although spin is a core property in fermionic systems, its symmetry can be
easily violated in a variational simulation, especially when strong correlation
plays a vital role therein. In this study, we will demonstrate that the broken
spin-symmetry can be restored exactly in a quantum computer, with little
overhead in circuits, while delivering additional strong correlation energy
with the desired spin quantum number. The proposed scheme permits drastic
reduction of a potentially large number of measurements required to ensure
spin-symmetry by employing a superposition of only a few rotated quantum
states. Our implementation is universal, simple, and, most importantly,
straightforwardly applicable to any ansatz proposed to date.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figures, 2 table
Preliminary evaluation of resorcinol-formaldehyde carbon gels for water pollutants removal
The present work was aimed to evaluate the suitability of resorcinol-formaldehyde carbon gels as adsorbent for water pollutants removal. The carbon gels were characterized using N2 adsorption-desorption isotherm for specific surface area, and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) for surface functional groups. Methylene blue and cesium were employed as model water pollutants. Results show that the un-oxidized carbon gel, despite its lower specific surface area (333 m2/g) displayed a 118 mg/g removal of methylene blue, that is higher than 35 mg/g by the oxidized carbon gel (418 m2/g). The evaluation of adsorption kinetics revealed a lower pseudo-first order rate constant of 0.088 h–1 for 10 mg/L methylene blue adsorption. A positive effect of surface oxidation was demonstrated for cesium adsorption. On molar basis, however, the oxidized carbon gel exhibits a selective removal towards methylene blue compared to cesium. Carbon gel is a promising candidate for water pollutants removal, and further treatment needs to be sought to boost its performance
Frozen section is superior to imprint cytology for the intra-operative assessment of sentinel lymph node metastasis in Stage I Breast cancer patients
BACKGROUND: A standard intra-operative procedure for assessing sentinel lymph node metastasis in breast cancer patients has not yet been established. PATIENTS AND METHODS: One hundred and thirty-eight patients with stage I breast cancer who underwent sentinel node biopsy using both imprint cytology and frozen section were analyzed. RESULTS: Seventeen of the 138 patients had sentinel node involvement. Results of imprint cytology included nine false negative cases (sensitivity, 47.1%). In contrast, only two cases of false negatives were found on frozen section (sensitivity, 88.2%). There were two false positive cases identified by imprint cytology (specificity, 98.3%). On the other hand, frozen section had 100% specificity. CONCLUSION: These findings suggest that frozen section is superior to imprint cytology for the intra-operative determination of sentinel lymph node metastasis in stage I breast cancer patients
In Vivo and In Vitro Studies Suggest a Possible Involvement of HPV Infection in the Early Stage of Breast Carcinogenesis via APOBEC3B Induction
High prevalence of infection with high-risk human papilloma virus (HPV) ranging from 25 to 100% (average 31%) was observed in breast cancer (BC) patients in Singapore using novel DNA chip technology. Early stage of BC demonstrated higher HPV positivity, and BC positive for estrogen receptor (ER) showed significantly higher HPV infection rate. This unique association of HPV with BC in vivo prompted us to investigate a possible involvement of HPV in early stages of breast carcinogenesis. Using normal breast epithelial cells stably transfected with HPV-18, we showed apparent upregulation of mRNA for the cytidine deaminase, APOBEC3B (A3B) which is reported to be a source of mutations in BC. HPV-induced A3B overexpression caused significant γH2AX focus formation, and DNA breaks which were cancelled by shRNA to HPV18 E6, E7 and A3B. These results strongly suggest an active involvement of HPV in the early stage of BC carcinogenesis via A3B induction
Sociodemographic factors affecting not receiving COVID-19 vaccine in Japan among people who originally intended to vaccinate: a prospective cohort study
ObjectiveVaccine hesitancy is a major issue for acquiring herd immunity. However, some individuals may go unvaccinated owing to inhibitory factors other than vaccine hesitancy. If there is even a small number of such people, support is needed for equitable vaccine distribution and acquiring herd immunity. We investigated sociodemographic factors that affected not undergoing COVID-19 vaccination in Japan among individuals who had strong intention to vaccinate before beginning the vaccination.MethodsWe conducted this prospective cohort study on workers aged 20–65 years from December 2020 (baseline), to December 2021 using a self-administered questionnaire survey. There were 27,036 participants at baseline and 18,560 at follow-up. We included 6,955 participants who answered yes to this question at baseline: “Would you like to receive a COVID-19 vaccine as soon as it becomes available?” We applied multilevel logistic regression analyses to examine the association between sociodemographic factors and being unvaccinated at follow-up.ResultsIn all, 289 participants (4.2%) went unvaccinated. The odds ratios (ORs) for being unvaccinated were significantly higher for participants aged 30–39 and 40–49 than those aged 60–65 years. Being divorced, widowed, or single, having low income, and having COVID-19 infection experience also had higher ORs.DiscussionWe found that some participants who initially had strong intention to vaccinate may have gone unvaccinated owing to vaccine side effects and the financial impact of absenteeism due to side effects. It is necessary to provide information repeatedly about the need for vaccination as well as social support to ensure that those who intend to vaccinate are able to do so when aiming for acquiring herd immunity through vaccination against COVID-19 as well as other potential infection pandemics in the future
Dynamics of Quasi-ordered Structure in a Regio-regulated pi-Conjugated Polymer:Poly(4-methylthiazole-2,5-diyl)
Dynamics of regio-regulated Poly(4-methylthiazole-2,5-diyl) [HH-P4MeTz] was
inves tigated by solid-state 1H, 2D, 13C NMR spectroscopies, and differential
scanning calorimetry(DSC) measurements. DSC, 2D quadrupolar echo NMR, 13C
cross-polarization and magic-angle spinning(CPMAS) NMR, and 2D spin-echo(2DSE)
CPMAS NMR spectroscopy suggest existence of a quasi-ordered phase in which
backbone twists take place with weakened pi-stackings. Two-dimensional exchange
2D NMR(2DEX) detected slow dynamics with a rate of an order of 10^2Hz for the
CD_3 group in d_3-HH-P4MeTz at 288K. The frequency dependence of proton
longitudinal relaxation rate at 288K shows a omega^-1/2 dependence, which is
due to the one-dimensional diffusion-like motion of backbone conformational
modulation waves. The diffusion rate was estimated as 3+/-2 GHz, which was
approximately 10^7 times larger than that estimated by 2DEX NMR measurements.
These results suggest that there exists anomalous dispersion of modulation
waves in HH-P4MeTz. The one-dimensional group velocity of the wave packet is
responsible for the behavior of proton longitudinal relaxation time. On the
other hand, the 2DEX NMR is sensitive to phase velocity of the nutation of
methyl groups that is associated with backbone twists. From proton T_1 and T_2
measurements, the activation energy was estimated as 2.9 and 3.4 kcal/mol,
respectively. These were in agreement with 3.0 kcal/mol determined by
Moller-Plesset(MP2) molecular orbital(MO) calculation. We also performed
chemical shielding calculation of the methyl-carbon in order to understand
chemical shift tensor behavior, leading to the fact that a quasi-ordered phase
coexist with the crystalline phase.Comment: 14 pages, 11 figures, to appear in Phys.Rev.
Spatiotemporal Control of Ice Crystallization in Supercooled Water via an Ultrashort Laser Impulse
Takahashi H., Kono T., Sawada K., et al. Spatiotemporal Control of Ice Crystallization in Supercooled Water via an Ultrashort Laser Impulse. Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters, 14(19), 4394-4402, 18 May 2023: © 2023 American Chemical Society. DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpclett.3c00414.Focused irradiation with ultrashort laser pulses realized the fine spatiotemporal control of ice crystallization in supercooled water. An effective multiphoton excitation at the laser focus generated shockwaves and bubbles, which acted as an impulse for inducing ice crystal nucleation. The impulse that was localized close to the laser focus and accompanied by a small temperature elevation allowed the precise position control of ice crystallization and its observation with spatiotemporal resolution of micrometers and microseconds using a microscope. To verify the versatility of this laser method, we also applied it using various aqueous systems (e.g., plant extracts). The systematic study of crystallization probability revealed that laser-induced cavitation bubbles play a crucial role in inducing ice crystal nucleation. This method can be used as a tool for studying ice crystallization dynamics in various natural and biological phenomena
Antipsychotic olanzapine-induced misfolding of proinsulin in the endoplasmic reticulum accounts for atypical development of diabetes
オランザピンの非典型的糖尿病誘発機構を解明 --体重増加以外にも注意が必要--. 京都大学プレスリリース. 2020-12-02.Second-generation antipsychotics are widely used to medicate patients with schizophrenia, but may cause metabolic side effects such as diabetes, which has been considered to result from obesity-associated insulin resistance. Olanzapine is particularly well known for this effect. However, clinical studies have suggested that olanzapine-induced hyperglycemia in certain patients cannot be explained by such a generalized mechanism. Here, we focused on the effects of olanzapine on insulin biosynthesis and secretion by mouse insulinoma MIN6 cells. Olanzapine reduced maturation of proinsulin, and thereby inhibited secretion of insulin; and specifically shifted the primary localization of proinsulin from insulin granules to the endoplasmic reticulum. This was due to olanzapine’s impairment of proper disulfide bond formation in proinsulin, although direct targets of olanzapine remain undetermined. Olanzapine-induced proinsulin misfolding and subsequent decrease also occurred at the mouse level. This mechanism of olanzapine-induced β-cell dysfunction should be considered, together with weight gain, when patients are administered olanzapine
Growth Enhancement of Organic Nonlinear Optical Crystals by Femtosecond Laser Ablation
Takahashi H., Yamaji M., Ikeyama J., et al. Growth Enhancement of Organic Nonlinear Optical Crystals by Femtosecond Laser Ablation. Journal of Physical Chemistry C, 125(15), 8391-8397, 22 April 2021: © 2021 American Chemical Society. DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpcc.0c10636.The impact of femtosecond (fs) laser ablation on the shape and nonlinear optical (NLO) properties of organic crystals was investigated. fs laser ablation of a local region of a NLO crystal can selectively enhance the growth of targeted faces. Reflection imaging of crystal surfaces revealed that a number of new crystal steps are generated from ablated area, which induces the crystal growth enhancement. In addition, the evaluation of terahertz wave emission from ablated crystals shows that NLO properties are not deteriorated after fs laser ablation. We foresee that crystal shape control by such a damage-less ablation process will potentially improve the NLO properties of organic crystals
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