Sharebon and the Courtesans: A Phase of Edo Aesthetics as the Dispersal of Ideology.

The dissertation deals with one aspect of Edo aesthetics in 18th century Japan that is often described as the juxtaposition of refinement and vulgarity. I explore the system of this aesthetics through the examination of the literary genre of sharebon, whose subject matter is exclusively demimonde visits. The works designate a corpus of booklets produced almost anonymously in vernacular language, but with a cover that resembles a serious classical Chinese text. Sharebon content features caricatured characters, jokes, and anecdotes around a visit to the courtesans, and produces a form of literary entertainment designed for occasional consumption and performance. Its cover, including the preface and postscript, in contrast, assumes a lofty and universal appearance written in Chinese characters. The booklets present a contrast between the refined and the mundane or vulgar, and this juxtaposition generates an ironic beauty. This study views the courtesans and the demimonde from the cultural as well as socioeconomic perspective, paying particular attention to how they were articulated within contemporaneous public discourses. It analyzes the dual reception of Chinese culture and literature in Edo Japan. One layer is a solid function of the Tokugawa feudalism founded on Neo-Confucianism and the other culls from the Chinese literati tradition, while resonating with the Heian Japanese courtly tradition of poetry and eros. I argue that this literary genre was originally produced by the samurai military class, and not by the merchant class as asserted by the majority of the present scholarship in the U.S. I also examine the materiality of these sharebon texts, seeing the front page, preface and postscript as a kind of wrapping using Chinese classical texts in Japanese transcription in order for the authors to playfully parody their own status. Moreover, the multiple meanings generated by the reading of Chinese graphs in the Japanese pronunciation are meant to undermine or destabilize the Edo official culture of refinement. The mixing of literary levels of high and low culture suggests the Bakhtinian concept of the carnivalesque that in European culture served as a critique of the feudal class structure through the dispersal of stable social identities and proprieties.Ph.D.Comparative LiteratureUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/89808/1/naka_1.pd

Phase 1b Randomized Trial and Follow-Up Study in Uganda of the Blood-Stage Malaria Vaccine Candidate BK-SE36

<div><p>Background</p><p>Up to now a malaria vaccine remains elusive. The <i>Plasmodium falciparum</i> serine repeat antigen-5 formulated with aluminum hydroxyl gel (BK-SE36) is a blood-stage malaria vaccine candidate that has undergone phase 1a trial in malaria-naive Japanese adults. We have now assessed the safety and immunogenicity of BK-SE36 in a malaria endemic area in Northern Uganda.</p><p>Methods</p><p>We performed a two-stage, randomized, single-blinded, placebo-controlled phase 1b trial (Current Controlled trials ISRCTN71619711). A computer-generated sequence randomized healthy subjects for 2 subcutaneous injections at 21-day intervals in Stage1 (21–40 year-olds) to 1-mL BK-SE36 (<i>BKSE1.0</i>) (<i>n</i> = 36) or saline (<i>n</i> = 20) and in Stage2 (6–20 year-olds) to <i>BKSE1.0</i> (<i>n</i> = 33), 0.5-mL BK-SE36 (<i>BKSE0.5</i>) (<i>n</i> = 33), or saline (<i>n</i> = 18). Subjects and laboratory personnel were blinded. Safety and antibody responses 21-days post-second vaccination (Day42) were assessed. Post-trial, to compare the risk of malaria episodes 130–365 days post-second vaccination, Stage2 subjects were age-matched to 50 control individuals.</p><p>Results</p><p>Nearly all subjects who received BK-SE36 had induration (Stage1, <i>n</i> = 33, 92%; Stage2, <i>n</i> = 63, 96%) as a local adverse event. No serious adverse event related to BK-SE36 was reported. Pre-existing anti-SE36 antibody titers negatively correlated with vaccination-induced antibody response. At Day42, change in antibody titers was significant for seronegative adults (1.95-fold higher than baseline [95% CI, 1.56–2.43], <i>p</i> = 0.004) and 6–10 year-olds (5.71-fold [95% CI, 2.38–13.72], <i>p</i> = 0.002) vaccinated with <i>BKSE1.0.</i> Immunogenicity response to <i>BKSE0.5</i> was low and not significant (1.55-fold [95% CI, 1.24–1.94], <i>p</i> = 0.75). In the ancillary analysis, cumulative incidence of first malaria episodes with ≥5000 parasites/µL was 7 cases/33 subjects in <i>BKSE1.0</i> and 10 cases/33 subjects in <i>BKSE0.5 vs.</i> 29 cases/66 subjects in the control group. Risk ratio for <i>BKSE1.0</i> was 0.48 (95% CI, 0.24–0.98; <i>p</i> = 0.04).</p><p>Conclusion</p><p>BK-SE36 is safe and immunogenic. The promising potential of BK-SE36, observed in the follow-up study, warrants a double-blind phase 1/2b trial in children under 5 years.</p><p>Trial Registration</p><p>Controlled-Trials.com ISRCTN71619711 <a href="http://www.controlled-trials.com/ISRCTN71619711" target="_blank">ISRCTN71619711</a></p></div