The Use of ICT in Social Studies Lessons: Comparing the Lessons Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Japan

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced a significant shift in the Japanese educational setting. This study aims to explore the characteristics of ICT use in social studies lessons during the pandemic with a Japanese case study. Comparing classes held before and classes during the COVID-19 pandemic, there is a distinct trend visible. In lessons prior to the pandemic, the primary usage for ICT was to record lessons and search online. However, during the pandemic, lessons were remotely conducted using a web conferencing system and students used an online application for a simulated experience. This suggests that ICT may be positioned at the center of practice when considering lessons after the COVID-19 pandemic.This article is based on the manuscript of a presentation, “Issue Research I: Reconstruction of Social Studies in ICT and Digital Society with a View to the Post-COVID-19 Pandemic society”, given at the 71st National Research Conference of the Japanese Association for Social Studies (JASS), held on November 28th, 2021

Technology Transfer to China to Address Climate Change Mitigation

This paper analyzes whether and how transfer of climate mitigation technologies to China occurs, by studying cases of seven technologies that are at the stage of deployment or diffusion. Most of these technologies were already transferred to China in terms of both technology adoption and local production. International division of labor of manufacturing and localization policies by the Chinese government facilitated local production by China, which resulted in deep cuts in production costs. Such cost reduction, coupled with technology diffusion policies by the Chinese government, then accelerated deployment and diffusion in China and other emerging economies that import Chinese products

Local anesthetic failure associated with inflammation: verification of the acidosis mechanism and the hypothetic participation of inflammatory peroxynitrite

The presence of inflammation decreases local anesthetic efficacy, especially in dental anesthesia. Although inflammatory acidosis is most frequently cited as the cause of such clinical phenomena, this has not been experimentally proved. We verified the acidosis mechanism by studying the drug and membrane lipid interaction under acidic conditions together with proposing an alternative hypothesis. Liposomes and nerve cell model membranes consisting of phospholipids and cholesterol were treated at different pH with lidocaine, prilocaine and bupivacaine (0.05%–0.2%, w/v). Their membrane-interactive potencies were compared by the induced-changes in membrane fluidity. Local anesthetics fluidized phosphatidylcholine membranes with the potency being significantly lower at pH 6.4 than at pH 7.4 (p < 0.01), supporting the acidosis theory. However, they greatly fluidized nerve cell model membranes even at pH 6.4 corresponding to inflamed tissues, challenging the conventional mechanism. Local anesthetics acted on phosphatidylserine liposomes, as well as nerve cell model membranes, at pH 6.4 with almost the same potency as that at pH 7.4, but not on phosphatidylcholine, phosphatidylethanolamine and sphingomyelin liposomes. Since the positively charged anesthetic molecules are able to interact with nerve cell membranes by ion-paring with anionic components like phosphatidylserine, tissue acidosis is not essentially responsible for the local anesthetic failure associated with inflammation. The effects of local anesthetics on nerve cell model membranes were inhibited by treating with peroxynitrite (50 μM), suggesting that inflammatory cells producing peroxynitrite may affect local anesthesia

Highly complex mitochondrial DNA genealogy in an endemic Japanese subterranean breeding brown frog Rana tagoi (Amphibia, Anura, Ranidae).

The endemic Japanese frog Rana tagoi is unique among Holarctic brown frogs in that it breeds in small subterranean streams. Using mitochondrial 16S ribosomal RNA and NADH dehydrogenase subunit 1 genes, we investigated genealogical relationships among geographic samples of this species together with its relative R. sakuraii, which is also a unique stream breeder. These two species together form a monophyletic group, within which both are reciprocally paraphyletic. Rana tagoi is divided into two major clades (Clade A and B) that are composed of 14 genetic groups. Rana sakuraii is included in Clade A and split into two genetic groups, one of which forms a clade (Subclade A-2) with sympatric R. tagoi. This species-level paraphyly appears to be caused by incomplete taxonomy, in addition to introgressive hybridization and/or incomplete lineage sorting. Rana tagoi strongly differs from other Japanese anurans in its geographic pattern of genetic differentiation, most probably in relation to its unique reproductive habits. Taxonomically, R. tagoi surely includes many cryptic species

Diagnosis of the repetitive brain concussion

In this paper the effectiveness of the support system which predicts the risk of the repetitive brain concussion is studied biomechanically. In the risk prediction system, the accident that caused the concussion is reconstructed by analyzing the game video via multibody dynamics and the resulting brain injury is calculated in detail by the finite element method. In order to calculate the aggravation of the brain injury by the repeated brain concussion, the following two methods are examined. In the first method, the material properties of the part of the brain damaged by the1st impact are changed in the simulation of the 2nd impact. In the second method, each brain damage caused by the repeated impacts is accumulated. The system was applied to the real-life accidents that occurred during Judo and American football games. As a result of the simulations, the aggravation of the brain damage due to repetitive concussion was determined numerically in terms of the maximum strain of the brain and the brain damage rate of the whole brain. The biomechanical process of the collision accidents and the resulting brain damage were reconstructed based on the video and the results are effective to prevent the future repeated concussion accidents

Wheeler-DeWitt Equation in AdS/CFT Correspondence

We discuss a quantum extension of the holographic RG flow equation obtained previously from the classical Hamiltonian constraint in the bulk AdS supergravity. The Wheeler-DeWitt equation is proposed to generate the extended RG flow and to produce 1/N subleading corrections systematically. Our formulation in five dimensions is applied to the derivation of the Weyl anomaly of boundary N=4 SU(N) super-Yang-Mills theory beyond the large N limit. It is shown that subleading 1/N^2 corrections arising from fields in AdS_5 supergravity agree with those obtained recently by Mansfield et al. using their Schroedinger equation, thereby guaranteeing to reproduce the exact form of the boundary Weyl anomaly after summing up all of the KK modes.Comment: 7 pages, LaTex, references adde

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人間学・人類学 : 研究ノートResearch Note