Heart transplantation: its risks, the expectations, and cultural negotiations in Japan

PhDThe aim of this thesis is to facilitate an understanding of the experiences of Japanese heart transplant recipients in terms of how their identities are transformed. The thesis contributes to the discipline by providing an understanding of issues relating to the surgical procedure of heart transplants, the labelling of the recipients by the Japanese government and Japanese cultural factors. This is a qualitative study based on semi-structured interviews, which have been analysed thematically. The thesis sheds light on two major aspects of heart transplantation. One is the experiences of heart transplant recipients, from diagnosis through surgery to recovery. The other is the influence of Japanese cultural expectations about the body and the custom of reciprocal gift-exchange on recipients’ experiences. In so doing, this thesis argues that heart transplant recipients face an issue of identity crisis when making a decision to have transplant surgery, and that identity is reconstructed in the post-operational period. In this process, the recipients face social stigma as the result of having a heart transplant. Considering heart transplants as they are viewed by Japanese people in everyday life, the use of an organ for this medical purpose is in conflict with conventional attitudes towards the treatment of the dead body in Japan. In addition, it is difficult for the practice of altruistic organ donation to take root in the modern consumer culture of Japan, where gift-giving has become a quasi-commercial transaction. As a result of these phenomena, anonymous relationships between heart transplant recipients and donors are varied in terms of the gift relationship. It is key how Japanese heart transplant recipients repay their donor. The repayment strategies are impacted by cultural factors.Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundatio

Search for particle-stable tetraneutrons in thermal fission of 235^{235}U

Background: The existence of a tetraneutron comprising four neutrons has long been debated. Purpose: Motivated by a recent observation of particle-stable tetraneutrons, we investigated potential particle-stable tetraneutron emission in thermal neutron-induced $^{235}$U fission using a nuclear research reactor. Methods: We performed $\gamma$-ray spectroscopy for a $^{88}$SrCO$_3$ sample irradiated in a reactor core. Stable $^{88}$Sr was expected to produce $^{91}$Sr by a tetraneutron-induced ($^4n$,n) reaction; hence, observation of $\gamma$-rays followed by $\beta$ decay of $^{91}$Sr would indicate particle-stable tetraneutron emission. Results: The $\gamma$-ray spectrum of an irradiated $^{88}$SrCO$_3$ sample did not show any photopeak for $^{91}$Sr. Conclusion: The emission rate of particle-stable tetraneutrons, if they exist, is estimated to be lower than $8\times 10^{-7}$ per fission at the 95% confidence level, assuming the cross-sections of reactions induced by hypothetical particle-stable tetraneutrons.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.

The many faces of disability in evidence for policy and practice: embracing complexity

Background: This special issue examines the relationship between disability, evidence, and policy. Key points: Several themes cut across the included papers. Despite the development of models of disability that recognise its socially constructed nature, dis/ableism impedes the involvement of people with disability in evidence production and use. The resultant incomplete representations of disability are biased towards its deproblematisation. Existing data often homogenise the heterogeneous. Functioning and impairment categories are used for surveys, research recruitment and policy enactments, that exclude many. Existing data may crudely evidence some systematic inequalities, but the successful and appropriate development and enactment of disability policies requires more contextual data. Categories and labels drawn from a deficit model affect social constructions of identity, and have been used socially and politically to justify the disenfranchisement of people with disability. Well rehearsed within welfare systems, this results in disempowered and devalued objects of policy, and, as described in one Brazilian paper, the systematic breakup of indigenous families. Several studies show the dangers of policy developed without evidence and impact assessments from and with the intended beneficiaries. Conclusions and implications: There is a need to mitigate barriers to inclusive participation, to enable people with disability to collaborate as equals with other policy actors. The combined application of different policy models and ontologies, currently in tension, might better harness their respective strengths and encourage greater transparency and deliberation regarding the flaws inherent in each. Learning should be shared across minority groups

Arsenic Contamination of Groundwater at the Middle Basin of Ganges in India

This paper shows the situation and mechanism of arsenic contamination of groundwater at the worst contaminated areas in UP (Uttar Pradesh) state, India, which is obtained from the integrated arsenic mitigation project by University of Miyazaki under the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) Partnership Program (JPP). The project has been executed from 2008 until now. The integrated mitigation, such as the raising awareness of villager, installing of alternative water supply units and healthcare of arsenocosis patients, have been executed at the 2 villages. The symptom of the arsenocosis patients was not so severe, which will be, therefore, improved by drinking arsenic-safe water supplied through arsenic removal units, installed by this project. We have obtained following results for the situation and mechanism of arsenic contamination of groundwater, objected in connection with the installation of arsenic removal units:(1) Groundwater is almost contaminated with arsenic in deep tubewell (depth: about 30m), but scarcely in shallow tubewell (depth: about 10m). (2) Arsenic contaminated groundwater is under the reduced condition with the oxidized condition for no-arsenic contaminated groundwater. (3) Arsenic concentration shows almost linear correlation with concentrations of Fe2+ and NH4+-N. (4) Ground is composed of sand with high arsenic content at around 25m depth. (5) Arsenic exists mainly in the phase of reducible fraction or weak acid soluble fraction but no oxidizable fraction in the ground

A turning point in the industrial and economic restoration and the establishment of the Agency of Industrial Science and Technology

社会学部設立十周年記念特

The Reform of the Scientific Research Organisation and the Establishment of Science Council of Japan

中井駿二教授古稀記念特

男と女の農村経済 : 西アフリカ・サバンナの父系社会における資源の配分と分配の民族誌

学位の種別: 課程博士審査委員会委員 : (主査)東京大学教授 井上 真, 東京大学教授 小林 和彦, 東京大学教授 羽田 正, 東京大学教授 池本 幸生, 弘前大学人文学部教授 杉山 祐子University of Tokyo(東京大学