The Possibility of the Curriculum Designs implemented by the Social Studies Teachers : A Case Study on the Development and Application of the History Resource Book

The purposes of this paper are to describe the curriculum designs implemented by the four Social Studies teachers in the same school but from the different background, and to explain the reasons why they showed the various designs, even though they are requested to apply the common history resource book into the regular classes. The present results suggested that the ideas and aims concerning the subject which each Social Studies teacher conceived had much influences on the differentiation of their practices, but their experiences of the professional development on the curriculum and instruction, the orientation of the school management, and the leadership demonstrated by the principal had more influences on the assimilation of their attitude toward the class improvement, particularly in the case of sampled teachers and school

Numerical studies of the ABJM theory for arbitrary N at arbitrary coupling constant

We show that the ABJM theory, which is an N=6 superconformal U(N)*U(N) Chern-Simons gauge theory, can be studied for arbitrary N at arbitrary coupling constant by applying a simple Monte Carlo method to the matrix model that can be derived from the theory by using the localization technique. This opens up the possibility of probing the quantum aspects of M-theory and testing the AdS_4/CFT_3 duality at the quantum level. Here we calculate the free energy, and confirm the N^{3/2} scaling in the M-theory limit predicted from the gravity side. We also find that our results nicely interpolate the analytical formulae proposed previously in the M-theory and type IIA regimes. Furthermore, we show that some results obtained by the Fermi gas approach can be clearly understood from the constant map contribution obtained by the genus expansion. The method can be easily generalized to the calculations of BPS operators and to other theories that reduce to matrix models.Comment: 35 pages, 20 figures; reference added. The simulation code is available upon request to [email protected]

The whole blood transcriptional regulation landscape in 465 COVID-19 infected samples from Japan COVID-19 Task Force

「コロナ制圧タスクフォース」COVID-19患者由来の血液細胞における遺伝子発現の網羅的解析 --重症度に応じた遺伝子発現の変化には、ヒトゲノム配列の個人差が影響する--. 京都大学プレスリリース. 2022-08-23.Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a recently-emerged infectious disease that has caused millions of deaths, where comprehensive understanding of disease mechanisms is still unestablished. In particular, studies of gene expression dynamics and regulation landscape in COVID-19 infected individuals are limited. Here, we report on a thorough analysis of whole blood RNA-seq data from 465 genotyped samples from the Japan COVID-19 Task Force, including 359 severe and 106 non-severe COVID-19 cases. We discover 1169 putative causal expression quantitative trait loci (eQTLs) including 34 possible colocalizations with biobank fine-mapping results of hematopoietic traits in a Japanese population, 1549 putative causal splice QTLs (sQTLs; e.g. two independent sQTLs at TOR1AIP1), as well as biologically interpretable trans-eQTL examples (e.g., REST and STING1), all fine-mapped at single variant resolution. We perform differential gene expression analysis to elucidate 198 genes with increased expression in severe COVID-19 cases and enriched for innate immune-related functions. Finally, we evaluate the limited but non-zero effect of COVID-19 phenotype on eQTL discovery, and highlight the presence of COVID-19 severity-interaction eQTLs (ieQTLs; e.g., CLEC4C and MYBL2). Our study provides a comprehensive catalog of whole blood regulatory variants in Japanese, as well as a reference for transcriptional landscapes in response to COVID-19 infection

DOCK2 is involved in the host genetics and biology of severe COVID-19

「コロナ制圧タスクフォース」COVID-19疾患感受性遺伝子DOCK2の重症化機序を解明 --アジア最大のバイオレポジトリーでCOVID-19の治療標的を発見--. 京都大学プレスリリース. 2022-08-10.Identifying the host genetic factors underlying severe COVID-19 is an emerging challenge. Here we conducted a genome-wide association study (GWAS) involving 2, 393 cases of COVID-19 in a cohort of Japanese individuals collected during the initial waves of the pandemic, with 3, 289 unaffected controls. We identified a variant on chromosome 5 at 5q35 (rs60200309-A), close to the dedicator of cytokinesis 2 gene (DOCK2), which was associated with severe COVID-19 in patients less than 65 years of age. This risk allele was prevalent in East Asian individuals but rare in Europeans, highlighting the value of genome-wide association studies in non-European populations. RNA-sequencing analysis of 473 bulk peripheral blood samples identified decreased expression of DOCK2 associated with the risk allele in these younger patients. DOCK2 expression was suppressed in patients with severe cases of COVID-19. Single-cell RNA-sequencing analysis (n = 61 individuals) identified cell-type-specific downregulation of DOCK2 and a COVID-19-specific decreasing effect of the risk allele on DOCK2 expression in non-classical monocytes. Immunohistochemistry of lung specimens from patients with severe COVID-19 pneumonia showed suppressed DOCK2 expression. Moreover, inhibition of DOCK2 function with CPYPP increased the severity of pneumonia in a Syrian hamster model of SARS-CoV-2 infection, characterized by weight loss, lung oedema, enhanced viral loads, impaired macrophage recruitment and dysregulated type I interferon responses. We conclude that DOCK2 has an important role in the host immune response to SARS-CoV-2 infection and the development of severe COVID-19, and could be further explored as a potential biomarker and/or therapeutic target

Information and Communication Technologies and Online Platforms in Developing Economies

Information and search frictions are often cited as sources of market distortions and failures in developing economies. Information communications technology (ICT) and online platforms may help solve these problems, as evidenced by increased adoptions of mobile applications, e-commerce, and gig-economy platforms. Technology-enabled tools and marketplaces may also help address challenges faced by regulatory frameworks in developing economies, such as increased visibility on informal labor markets through digital traces. Furthermore, ICTs may also help lower the costs of providing public goods and services with limited resources and under weak institutions. In this dissertation, I address some of the challenges and opportunities that have arisen in the context of rapidly improving information communication technologies and the emergence of online marketplaces. In the first chapter, I focus on an online-platform-enabled informal labor market for low-skill workers and address the efficacy of regulatory interventions to improve worker welfare. My co-author and I document the effects of a government-mandated price-floor policy intended to improve workers' earnings in the ridesharing market in Indonesia. We hypothesize that when a market-wide impact is accounted for, a price floor regulation may have muted impact on policy objectives or unintended consequences due to adjustment mechanisms and general equilibrium effects. We measure the causal impact of the policy by taking advantage of an exogenous variation in the policy's rollout. We find that, on average, the policy increases the average trip price, as expected from a binding price floor. However, we do not find significant effects on the overall transaction volume, driver earnings, or wages. The results can be explained by a significant increase in labor supply, which reduces the number of transactions allocated per driver hour. We fail to find evidence that the price floor policy is redistributive; the excess labor supply comes from lower-earning drivers but does not lead to their increased earnings. We also find that the policy reduces driver productivity through increased excess supply and is driven by two margins: an increased share of less productive drivers in the workforce and reduced individual productivity due to the crowded supply side. In sum, we find that the price floor policy does not achieve its objectives at an efficiency cost.In the second chapter, I focus on the mechanics of information and search frictions in online marketplaces via a randomized controlled trial (RCT). My co-authors and I document how an information intervention triggers strategic responses, spillovers, and adjustments to the market in developing economies. We identify a context in which there is limited publicly available price information in the used car market in Pakistan and collaborate with a major online listing platform, PakWheels.com. In our randomized intervention, we provide estimates of transaction prices privately to sellers. We then measure the impact on sellers' pricing and advertising choices, and transaction outcomes. We design the experiment such that we capture both direct and spillover effects. We find that sellers in online markets respond to an exogenously varied information environment by adjusting their pricing and advertising behaviors and that their choices generate spillovers to other sellers. The empirical estimates show that the information intervention brings directly treated sellers' listing prices closer to our price estimates and reduces advertising usage. These adjustments by treated sellers induce spillovers to sellers who are not directly treated by increasing the page views they receive from potential buyers and improving their transaction probability. The findings point to two mechanisms: 1) effects of price information are mediated by advertising tools that could countervail effects of list-pricing choices, and 2) spillovers could propagate direct effects of information intervention via adjustments by competing sellers. In the third chapter, I address the role that ICTs can play in improving public service provision. My co-author and I focus on the context of air quality information provision in Lahore, Pakistan, where government services are intermittent and hard to access for the general public. With the availability of low-cost air quality sensors, private citizens' groups have emerged to record and disseminate real-time air quality information via social media. We test how citizens' demand for information and beliefs about air quality depend on the provider they receive information from. We conduct a field experiment in which we provide day-ahead air pollution forecasts via SMS and make salient one of the information sources---the government vs. a private citizens group. We then track respondents' willingness to pay for the SMS service and collect a series of incentivized belief measures on service quality and preference for information sources.We find that respondents have a high willingness to pay for the forecast service, yet not differentially so between the sources. We also find that they have a significantly higher revealed preference for the assigned source against the other. Respondents' beliefs about air pollution levels are not statistically different across treatment groups, but their belief about the government forecast error is 12% higher than for the private alternative. Our findings suggest that respondents have weak priors and malleable preferences for information sources yet expect lower service quality from the government. In summary, I provide empirical evidence on economic agents' beliefs and choices, their spillover effects, and market forces in the context of ICTs and online platforms in developing economies. In future work, I hope to extend my insights into the following areas. First, on informal labor markets, as discussed in Chapter 1, I hope to conduct with additional causal analysis on how workers adjust to income shocks and uncertainties via RCTs. Second, on information frictions on online platforms, as discussed in Chapter 2, I hope to explore other relevant types of frictions that may limit the efficacy of online markets in developing economies, such as trust and fraud. Third, on air quality information, as discussed in Chapter 3, I hope to understand how citizens adjust their behaviors in response to air quality information, with a focus on choices in the labor market

Collagen Content and Collagen Fiber Architecture in the Skin of Shamo Chicken, a Japanese Game Fowl

Collagen content and collagen fiber architecture in the skin of Shamo chickens were compared between sexes and body parts. Cervical, thoracic, dorsal, femoral, and crural skin samples were collected and their collagen content was analyzed. Collagen fiber specimens were prepared for scanning electron microscopy using the cell maceration method with a NaOH solution. Sex differences in collagen content were only observed in the femoral skin of mature chickens, but not in 10-week-old chicks. The difference in collagen content between body parts was obvious; femoral and crural skin had higher collagen content than those of other parts in both sexes. Scanning electron microscopy indicated that the collagen fiber architecture was quite different between the superficial and deep layers in the dermis, with the former consisting of loosely tangled band-like collagen fibers, and the latter composed of thick and dense layers of collagen bundles in a parallel arrangement. The width of collagen fibers in the superficial layer of the dermis differed between sexes in the dorsal, femoral, and crural skin. From these results, it is likely that the difference in collagen content in the femoral skin is not due to sex hormones but other factors, such as mechanical stimulation in daily activity. Additionally, collagen fiber width in the superficial layer is likely related to the difference in collagen content between sexes and between body parts