Climatological study on large-scale situation associated with the cool summer around the Northeastern Japan in 1990s (in comparison with that in 1970s)

It is pointed out by the previous studies that the Baiu front tends to stagnate around the Japan Islands even in midsummer season in 1990s, although the global warming is going on. The present study examined the climatological features of the appearance of daily fronts on the surface weather maps and the large-scale factors associated with the activity of the polar frontal zone to the north of the Baiu frontal zone based on the observational data in the summer of 1971-2000. It was found that the midsummer when the Baiu front tends to stagnate around the Japan Islands appeared rather frequently in 1970s as in 1990s. However, the baroclinicity around the Eurasian polar frontal zone was stronger in 1970s than in 1990s. Thus while the fronts around the Japan Islands in midsummer were greatly due to the southward invasion of cold front associated with the disturbances on the polar frontal zone in 1970s, the Okhotsk High tends to stagnates to the northeast of the fronts around the Japan Islands in 1990s

Induction of podoplanin by transforming growth factor-β in human fibrosarcoma

AbstractPodoplanin/aggrus is increased in tumors and its expression was associated with tumor malignancy. Podoplanin on cancer cells serves as a platelet-aggregating factor, which is associated with the metastatic potential. However, regulators of podoplanin remain to be determined. Transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β) regulates many physiological events, including tumorigenesis. Here, we found that TGF-β induced podoplanin in human fibrosarcoma HT1080 cells and enhanced the platelet-aggregating-ability of HT1080. TGF-β type I receptor inhibitor (SB431542) and short hairpin RNAs for Smad4 inhibited the podoplanin induction by TGF-β. These results suggest that TGF-β is a physiological regulator of podoplanin in tumor cells

Embedding Learning Assistance into First-Year Seminars to Understand Students’ Needs for a Smooth Transition

This article demonstrates the benefits of embedding learning assistance into first-year seminars which will collect information from the students to provide assistance that best meets their learning needs in Japan. Whereas American universities already have demographic and academic data on their students from grade school through high school, Japanese institutions are just beginning to collect this data. Data collected from former student surveys help us understand first-year students as a collective body. However, providing certain students with the specific assistance and support they need is still a challenge. To solve this problem, first the weekly journal entries of the students enrolled in the first-year seminar program at Shinshu University over the last four years were analyzed. Students’ needs were discovered and that they consistently change every three to four weeks throughout their first semester. This suggests that proactively providing assistance to meet students’ needs when they need it is a more preferable strategy than waiting for them to fail and ask for assistance voluntarily. Providing students incentives for utilizing assistance programs is also useful. Second, instructors of first-year seminars meet with all students individually to provide writing assistance. This gives instructors a better understanding of their students other challenges which need addressing, then instructors can direct students to appropriate campus resources. Often times students don’t know what their needs are until it’s too late, but this first-year seminar program helps students recognize their needs early and utilize appropriate assistance programs. At the same time, we can collect individual students’ information for institutional research.本研究は，科研費（16K04463）の助成を受けて行われた

分子遺伝学的手法を用いたわが国メロン品種の多様性と分類

For the breeding of Japanese netted melon, various types of foreign cultivars have been utilized for improving adaptability, disease and pest resistance, fruit quality and so on. However, little is known about their genetic diversity and relationships, since most cultivars derived from crosses between various horticultural groups. To figure out the genetic structure of Japanese melon, in this study, 57 melon accessions from three horticultural groups were examined using 55 RAPD markers produced by 24 RAPD primers. Genetic diversity of the Japanese netted melon was as high as those of cultivar groups of Groups Cantalupensis and Inodorus, while it was low in Group Conomon irrespective of large variations in fruit traits. Cluster analysis and PCO analysis based on genetic distance showed that Group Conomon was distantly related to other melon accessions. Among the latter, European cantaloupe (nonnetted) and American open-field type (netted) proved to be genetically close, while England glasshouse melon (netted) including ‘Earl’s Favourite’ is distantly related to these two groups and closely related with Group Inodorus. It was therefore suggested that England glasshouse type was established from hybrids between European cantaloupe and Group Inodorus. Japanese netted melon was most closely related with England glasshouse type, irrespective of the fact that various kinds of melon accessions have been crossed to improve adaptability, disease resistance and so on. In contrast, pure line cultivars of the Japanese netted melon bred by pure line selection from ‘Earl's Favourite’ or by crossing ‘Earl’s Favourite’ with ‘British Queen’ were confirmed to be mostly homogenous, and it was difficult to establish RAPD markers to discriminate each cultivar. Group Conomon var. makuwa and var. conomon, which have been cultivated and utilized as different crops, proved to be genetically indistinguishable and were considered to share the same gene pool

会話授業におけるメディアに対する性格づけについて

　本研究では,初級学習者35名を対象として,5つのメディア活動(歌の聞き取り,ビデオに基づくロールプレイ,テキストに基づくロールプレイ,教師の説明,ビデオの視聴)に対する学習者の性格づけを「学習への期待」「難しさの知覚」「利用の好み」の3尺度から明らかにすることを試みた。また,学習者の特性と,メディアに対する性格づけがどのように関連しているかについても考察を行った。その結果,次の4点が明らかになった。1)「学習期待」と「好み」の2尺度は,メディア活動の順位に対応して正相関を示したが,「難しさ」は,他の2尺度と異なる順位であった。2)「難しさの尺度」において「歌の聞き取り」に対する性格づけは,性別,国籍によって有意傾向が見られた。女性よりも男性が,また,アジア系より欧米系学習者が,歌を難しいと知覚していた。3)学習期間は,「難しさの尺度」で「歌の聞き取り」に対する性格づけのみに有意な負の相関関係(p<.01)が認められた。よって,学習期間が長いほど,歌の聞き取りは難しくないと知覚していた。4)「難しさ」と他の2尺度間では,「ビデオに基づくロールプレイ」にのみ,有意な負の相関関係が認められ,「ビデオに基づくロールプレイ」は好まれないほど,また,学習に対する期待が低いほど,難しいと知覚されていた。　The purpose of this study was 1) to investigate preconceptions toward five educational media by three scales (preference, difficulty, and learning expectancy), 2) to examine the relationship between preconceptions toward media and background factors of subjects. Major findings were as follows: 1) Preference and learning expectancy scale correlated significantly with each other, but difficulty scale did not show such relationship. 2) Sex and nationality influenced subjects\u27 preconceptions of listening Japanese songs on the scale of difficulty. 3) Prior study in Japanese negatively influenced subjects\u27 preconceptions of listening Japanese songs on the scale of difficulty. 4) Difficulty scale correlated negatively and significantly with other scales concerning subjects\u27 preconceptions of role-play related video

Sorption-desorption column tests to evaluate the attenuation layer using soil amended with a stabilising agent

Sorption-desorption column tests using acrylic columns (ϕ 5 cm × h 10 cm) were employed to evaluate the sorption performance of an attenuation layer against geogenic contamination. The attenuation layer material was silica sand amended with 1, 5, or 10% of a stabilising agent. The main component of the agent was magnesium oxide. The sorption behaviour of the materials was determined by a fluoride solution (C₀ = 80 mg/L F-), while the desorption behaviour was determined by distilled water. Breakthroughs (C/C₀ > 0.05) occurred after approximately 1, 20, and 50 PVF for stabilising agent contents of 1, 5, and 10%, respectively. The one-dimensional advection-dispersion equation modelled the breakthrough curves obtained from the tests. The predictions gave unrealistic estimates, especially for the breakthrough point where C/C₀ = 0.05. For the 1% agent content, approximately 20% of the sorbed mass, Ss, was desorbed, but the percentage of desorbed mass, Sd, was much smaller for the higher agent contents. The difference between the sorbed and desorbed masses was defined as the immobilised fraction, Ss - Sd. For the 5% agent content, Ss - Sd = 4.0 mg/g. The results suggest that when silica sand is amended with magnesium oxide as an agent, the mixture can immobilise the fluoride in the attenuation layer

Impact of renal dysfunction on the choice of diagnostic imaging, treatment strategy, and outcomes in patients with stable angina

We investigated the interaction between the prognostic impact of a decrease in eGFR and the choice of initial diagnostic imaging modality for coronary artery disease. Out of 2878 patients who enrolled in the J-COMPASS study, 2780 patients underwent single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT), coronary computed tomography (CT) angiography, or coronary angiography (CAG) as an initial diagnostic test. After excluding patients with routine hemodialysis or lacked serum creatinine levels, 2096 patients in the non-decreased eGFR group (eGFR ≥ 60 ml/min/1.73 m²) and 557 patients in the decreased eGFR group (eGFR < 60 ml/min/1.73 m²) were analyzed in this study. Major adverse cardiac events, including death, myocardial infarction, heart failure hospitalization, and late revascularization, were followed, with a median follow-up duration of 472 days. SPECT or CAG was preferable to CT in patients in the decreased eGFR group (p < 0.0001 and p = 0.0024, respectively). There was a marginally significant interaction between the prognostic impact of a decrease in eGFR and the choice of diagnostic imaging modality (interaction-p = 0.056). A decrease in eGFR was not associated with a poor outcome in patients who underwent CT, while a decrease in eGFR was associated with poor outcomes in patients who underwent SPECT or CAG. In conclusion, the prognostic impact of a decrease in eGFR tended to be different among the initial imaging modalities

Association of coronary revascularisation after physician-referred non-invasive diagnostic imaging tests with outcomes in patients with suspected coronary artery disease: a post hoc subgroup analysis

Objective: We aimed to evaluate the association of the prognostic impact of coronary revascularisation with physician-referred non-invasive diagnostic imaging tests (single photon emission CT (SPECT) vs coronary CT angiography) for coronary artery disease. Design: A post hoc analysis of a subgroup from the patient cohort recruited for the Japanese Coronary-Angiography or Myocardial Imaging for Angina Pectoris Study. Setting: Multiple centres in Japan. Participants: From the data of 2780 patients with stable angina, enrolled prospectively between January 2006 and March 2008 in Japan, who had undergone physician-referred non-invasive imaging tests, 1205 patients with SPECT as an initial strategy and 625 with CT as an initial strategy were analysed. We assessed the effect of revascularisation (within 90 days) in each diagnostic imaging stratum and the interaction between the two strata. Primary and secondary outcome measures: Major adverse cardiac events (MACEs), including death, myocardial infarction, hospitalisation for heart failure and late revascularisation, were followed up for 1 year. The χ2 test, Student’s t-test, Kaplan-Meier analysis, log-rank test and multivariable Cox proportional hazard model were used in data analysis. Results: A total of 210 (17.4%) patients in the SPECT stratum and 149 (23.8%) in the CT stratum underwent revascularisation. Although in each stratum, the cumulative 1 year incidence of MACEs was significantly higher in patients who underwent revascularisation than in those who did not (SPECT stratum: 9.1 vs 1.2%, log-rank p<0.0001; CT stratum: 6.1 vs 0.8%, log-rank p=0.0001), there was no interaction between the risk of revascularisation and the imaging strata (SPECT stratum: adjusted HR (95% CI), 4.25 (1.86–9.72); CT stratum: 4.13 (1.16–14.73); interaction: p=0.97). Conclusion: The association of revascularisation with the outcomes of patients with suspected coronary artery disease was not different between SPECT-first and CT-first strategies in a physician-referred fashion

回復期リハビリテーション病棟看護師の多職種との連携実践力に関する影響モデルの開発：構造方程式モデリングを用いた分析

Objective: This study aimed to clarify the factors influencing nurses’ practicalmultidisciplinary collaboration skills in convalescent rehabilitation wards and teamoutcomes through a questionnaire-based survey and structural equation modeling.Methods: We conducted an anonymous, self-administered questionnaire survey of 401nurses working in convalescent rehabilitation wards in nine prefectures located in theShin-etsu, Hokuriku, and Tokai regions of Japan. The survey data were analyzed usingstructural equation modeling.Results: A total of 170 nurses provided valid responses (a valid response rate of 42.4%).The mean length of the respondents’ nursing experience was 18.9 years, with a standarddeviation of ±10.7 years. The mean length of their nursing experience in a convalescentrehabilitation ward was 4.4 years, with a standard deviation of ±3.7 years. We foundthat the ability of nurses to collaborate with coworkers in a multidisciplinary team inconvalescent rehabilitation wards was associated with sharing post-discharge lifestyleinstructions at pre-discharge conferences, monitoring skills and communication skills,which in turn influenced the extent of collaboration and satisfaction with team activities.Conclusion: Improving the multidisciplinary collaboration skills of nurses workingin convalescent rehabilitation wards requires coordination and the support of othermultidisciplinary team members to facilitate patients’ discharge. The provision of supportfor the improvement of monitoring and communication skills is also necessary