The Meaning of their Existence in Multicultural Business Environments and their Workplace for Former Taiwanese Students

　本研究の目的は、近年増加傾向にある日本留学を経て日本企業に就職した台湾人元留学生を対象とし、職場における自己の存在意義と自分の職場の意味をどのように捉えているかを質的な分析を通して解明することである。就労開始後10 年以内の台湾人元大学院留学生9 名を対象に半構造化インタビューを実施し、KJ 法を援用し分析を行った結果、自己の存在意義計29 件、職場の意味計31 件が抽出された。この結果から、本調査対象者は、多文化就労場面における元留学生である自己の存在意義を見出せるケースと見出せないケースが拮抗していること、また、自分の職場を概ね肯定的に捉えているものの、同時に二律背反的な見方が一個人の中に併存することが示された

Chemical synthesis of novel taurine-containing uridine derivatives

Recently, novel taurine-containing uridine derivatives were discovered in mammalian mitochondrial tRNAs, and these modified ribonucleosides existed at the first position of the anti-codon. This paper describes the chemical synthesis of these novel uridine derivatives, 5-taurinomethyluridine (τm5U) and 5-taurinomethyl-2-thiouridine (τm5s2U). These taurine-containing uridine derivatives were synthesized in the good yields by the reaction of the corresponding S-hydroxymethyluridine derivatives with taurine under basic conditions

Large-Scale RNA Interference Screening in Mammalian Cells Identifies Novel Regulators of Mutant Huntingtin Aggregation

In polyglutamine (polyQ) diseases including Huntington's disease (HD), mutant proteins containing expanded polyQ stretch form aggregates in neurons. Genetic or RNAi screenings in yeast, C. elegans or Drosophila have identified multiple genes modifying polyQ aggregation, a few of which are confirmed effective in mammals. However, the overall molecular mechanism underlying polyQ protein aggregation in mammalian cells still remains obscure. We here perform RNAi screening in mouse neuro2a cells to identify mammalian modifiers for aggregation of mutant huntingtin, a causative protein of HD. By systematic cell transfection and automated cell image analysis, we screen ∼12000 shRNA clones and identify 111 shRNAs that either suppress or enhance mutant huntingtin aggregation, without altering its gene expression. Classification of the shRNA-targets suggests that genes with various cellular functions such as gene transcription and protein phosphorylation are involved in modifying the aggregation. Subsequent analysis suggests that, in addition to the aggregation-modifiers sensitive to proteasome inhibition, some of them, such as a transcription factor Tcf20, and kinases Csnk1d and Pik3c2a, are insensitive to it. As for Tcf20, which contains polyQ stretches at N-terminus, its binding to mutant huntingtin aggregates is observed in neuro2a cells and in HD model mouse neurons. Notably, except Pik3c2a, the rest of the modifiers identified here are novel. Thus, our first large-scale RNAi screening in mammalian system identifies previously undescribed genetic players that regulate mutant huntingtin aggregation by several, possibly mammalian-specific mechanisms

Carnitine for Body Composition in Hemodialysis Patients

Background: Authors and colleagues have continued clinical research for hemodialysis patients. Currently, a pilot study presents intervention of carnitine for changes of the body composition. Subjects and Methods: Subjects were six patients on hemodialysis with intervention of carnitine (group 1). Average data were 74.3 years, 65.4 kg, 22.6 in BMI. As levocarnitine, L-Cartin FF injection 1000 mg was administered three times a week for six months. Group 2 has six control patients for age-, sex-, body weight, BMI-matched (group 2). Body composition of muscle and fat tissues were measured by InBody 770 on 0 and 6 months. Results: In group 1, muscle volume and skeletal muscle showed increasing tendency without statistical significance. In contrast, there were significant decreases of body fat volume (22.3 kg vs 20.5 kg, 39.0% vs 35.8%) (p<0.05). No significant differences were found in hemoglobin, total protein, albumin and Cardio-Thoracic Ratio (CTR) of chest X-ray. Group 2 showed no significant changes. Discussion and Conclusion: Hemodialysis patients often have muscular reduction. Previous reports showed improved lean body mass by carnitine administration, which may support our result. These results from current pilot study would be expected to become useful reference data in the pathophysiological investigation in patients on hemodialysis

Cardiac side population cells have a potential to migrate and differentiate into cardiomyocytes in vitro and in vivo

Side population (SP) cells, which can be identified by their ability to exclude Hoechst 33342 dye, are one of the candidates for somatic stem cells. Although bone marrow SP cells are known to be long-term repopulating hematopoietic stem cells, there is little information about the characteristics of cardiac SP cells (CSPs). When cultured CSPs from neonatal rat hearts were treated with oxytocin or trichostatin A, some CSPs expressed cardiac-specific genes and proteins and showed spontaneous beating. When green fluorescent protein–positive CSPs were intravenously infused into adult rats, many more (∼12-fold) CSPs were migrated and homed in injured heart than in normal heart. CSPs in injured heart differentiated into cardiomyocytes, endothelial cells, or smooth muscle cells (4.4%, 6.7%, and 29% of total CSP-derived cells, respectively). These results suggest that CSPs are intrinsic cardiac stem cells and involved in the regeneration of diseased hearts

紫外線発光ダイオード照射は宿主細胞内でのウイルスRNAの複製と転写を抑制することでA型インフルエンザウイルスを不活化する

Influenza A viruses (IAVs) pose a serious global threat to humans and their livestock, especially poultry and pigs. This study aimed to investigate how to inactivate IAVs by using different ultraviolet-light-emitting diodes (UV-LEDs). We developed sterilization equipment with light-emitting diodes (LEDs) those peak wavelengths were 365 nm (UVA-LED), 310 nm (UVB-LED), and 280 nm (UVC-LED). These UV-LED irradiations decreased dose fluence-dependent plaque-forming units of IAV H1N1 subtype (A/Puerto Rico/8/1934) infected Madin-Darby canine kidney (MDCK) cells, but the inactivation efficiency of UVA-LED was significantly lower than UVB- and UVC-LED. UV-LED irradiations did not alter hemagglutination titer, but decreased accumulation of intracellular total viral RNA in infected MDCK cells was observed. Additionally, UV-LED irradiations suppressed the accumulation of intracellular mRNA (messenger RNA), vRNA (viral RNA), and cRNA (complementary RNA), as measured by strand-specific RT-PCR. These results suggest that UV-LEDs inhibit host cell replication and transcription of viral RNA. Both UVB- and UVC-LED irradiation decreased focus-forming unit (FFU) of H5N1 subtype (A/Crow/Kyoto/53/2004), a highly pathogenic avian IAV (HPAI), in infected MDCK cells, and the amount of FFU were lower than the H1N1 subtype. From these results, it appears that IAVs may have different sensitivity among the subtypes, and UVB- and UVC-LED may be suitable for HPAI virus inactivation

地域社会により順応するための方言教材作成のための方言データベースの開発について

会議名: 言語資源活用ワークショップ2017, 開催地: 国立国語研究所, 会期: 2017年9月5日-6日, 主催: 国立国語研究所 コーパス開発センター言語には様々な異種が存在する。方言（ここでは特に地域方言）はその一つである。同じ日本語であっても様々な方言があり，別の言語であるかと思うほど理解し合えない時もある。「熊本方言を話せなくてもいいから理解できる」ということを目指し，留学生を対象とした熊本方言の特徴を学ぶ教科書『さしより熊本弁』（「さしより」とは共通語では「とりあえず」という意味を持つ熊本方言である）を作成している。その作成の中で，熊本方言話者の会話データを収集し，文字化した。その会話データにおいて方言要素を抽出し，教材作成者（熊本方言話者）が内省を施し使用頻度が高いと思われるものを選んだ。熊本方言といっても各地域によって大きく異なるため，熊本市で使われる方言に限定し，方言の世代差についても，大学生の使用を念頭において選定した。本稿では，熊本方言話者の会話データにおいてどのような方言要素を抽出し，方言タグを付与し，言語資源化したのかについて述べる