マンガに描かれる女性の体形と日本人若年女性のボディイメージ

日本のマンガの持つ内容の広さ、豊かさ、洗練性および画像表現の自由度は、読む者のボディイメージに強い影響を与える可能性がある。マンガにおける若年女性の体形の描かれ方に関して、ジャンル別(男性向け一女性向け、成人向け-子供向け)の体形の特徴、物語上の役割や人物の性格が体形に及ぼす影響、作者の性別と作品のジャンルの関係について検討した。描かれた身体像は、現代日本の若年女性の標準体形と比較して、若年女子短期大学生らの視点から評価した。男性向けのマンガではやや細いウェストと大きなヒップを持った若年女性が描かれているのに対して、女性向けのマンガではウェスト・ヒップ共に細い若年女性が描かれていた。作品中の若年女性の役割や性格と体形の関係では、女性誌において女性性や母性がいずれも細い身体像と結びつき、また依存性が太いウェストと結びついていた。男性向けのマンガを男性が画いている一方、女性向けのマンガは女性が画いていた。これらの結果から、マンガにおいては非現実的な「やせ理想像」が、女性読者を対象として、女性マンガ家により作られていることが示された

Central Administration of Glucose Modifies Brain Amino Acid Metabolism in Neonatal Chicks

Intracerebroventricular injection of glucose can induce a sedative effect in chicks under social isolation stress. In addition, central injection of glucose improves memory formation in chicks in the passive avoidance task. In the present study, we confirmed that intracerebroventricular injection of glucose modified aspartate, arginine, glutamate, β-alanine, glycine and serine-ortho-phosphate levels of the telencephalon which are known to induce sedative effects in chicks. In addition, not only glutamate in the telenephalon, one of whose receptors is involved in the formation of memory in chicks, but also its metabolite glutamine was affected. These results suggest that some types of amino acid metabolism may be linked to the functions of glucose in the brain, attenuate the stress response and improve memory formation in chicks

RNA-seq analysis, targeted long-read sequencing and in silico prediction to unravel pathogenic intronic events and complicated splicing abnormalities in dystrophinopathy

International audienc

High titers of infectious SARS-CoV-2 in corpses of patients with COVID-19

Objectives: The prolonged presence of infectious SARS-CoV-2 in deceased patients with COVID-19 has been reported. However, infectious virus titers have not been determined. Such information is important for public health, death investigation, and handling corpses. The aim of this study was to assess the level of SARS-CoV-2 infectivity in the corpses of patients with COVID-19. Methods: We collected 11 nasopharyngeal swabs and 19 lung tissue specimens from 11 autopsy cases with COVID-19 in 2021. We then investigated the viral genomic copy number by real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction and infectious titers by cell culture and virus isolation. Results: Infectious virus was present in six of 11 (55%) cases, four of 11 (36%) nasopharyngeal swabs, and nine of 19 (47%) lung specimens. The virus titers ranged from 6.00E + 01 plaque-forming units/ml to 2.09E + 06 plaque-forming units/g. In all cases in which an infectious virus was found, the time from death to discovery was within 1 day and the longest postmortem interval was 13 days. Conclusion: The corpses of patients with COVID-19 may have high titers of infectious virus after a long postmortem interval (up to 13 days). Therefore, appropriate infection control measures must be taken when handling corpses