ロンブン チョウサ ケンキュウ ホウコク ニホン ニオケル コウトウ キョウイク ノ タイシュウカ シジョウ ケイザイ ゲンソク ノ コウカ

高等教育のマス化がなぜ日本でおきたのか、が本稿のテーマである。周知のように、日本の高等教育への進学率は、1997年に47.6％に達している。約2人に1人は高等教育に進んでいることになる。この数値の高さはなぜ生じたのか。しかも、その ..

Intake of Radionuclides in the Trees of Fukushima Forests 4. Binding of Radioiodine to Xyloglucan

The 1, 4-linked glucans such as xyloglucan and amylose are known to form a complex with iodine/iodide ions and to also be precipitated with CaCl2 in the presence of iodine. Here, we show that iodine gas could be specifically incorporated into xyloglucan. Furthermore, we show that [125I]I2 gas is, over time, incorporated at high levels into the entire outer surface of poplar seedlings but that spraying seedlings with abscisic acid to close stomata decreases the incorporation of the gas. There was less incorporation of the gas in a transgenic poplar overexpressing xyloglucanase at the early stages when compared with a wild type. This shows that xyloglucan serves as a key absorber of iodine gas into a plant body. After individual leaves of cultured seedlings were exposed to the gas for 30 min, no radioiodine was emitted from those leaves over the following two weeks, indicating that no turnover occurs in radioiodine once it is bound to the polysaccharides in plant tissues. We conclude that forest trees could serve as one of the largest enormous capture systems for the radioiodine fallout following the nuclear power plant accident in Fukushima

Origine du financement public des universités privées au Japon

Le but de la présente étude est d’examiner l’origine et les méthodes de financement des universités privées à l’aide de capitaux publics au Japon. Au milieu des années 70, le Parlement national a voté pour la première fois de son histoire une loi permettant d’allouer l’argent des contribuables aux établissements privés d’enseignement supérieur. Le législateur a justifié son action en invoquant le fait que plus de 75 % des étudiants japonais fréquentaient des établissements privés, ces derniers étant confrontés à de graves difficultés financières. Cependant, l’adoption de cette loi a donné naissance à une série de controverses et de débats parmi les intellectuels et les éducateurs s’agissant des mécanismes de financement, de la transparence et de l’autonomie d’établissements d’enseignement supérieur bénéficiant d’argent public.

Review of Antimicrobial Resistance in Wastewater in Japan: Current Challenges and Future Perspectives

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) circulates through humans, animals, and the environments, requiring a One Health approach. Recently, urban sewage has increasingly been suggested as a hotspot for AMR even in high-income countries (HICs), where the water sanitation and hygiene infrastructure are well-developed. To understand the current status of AMR in wastewater in a HIC, we reviewed the epidemiological studies on AMR in the sewage environment in Japan from the published literature. Our review showed that a wide variety of clinically important antibiotic-resistant bacteria (ARB), antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs), and antimicrobial residues are present in human wastewater in Japan. Their concentrations are lower than in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) and are further reduced by sewage treatment plants (STPs) before discharge. Nevertheless, the remaining ARB and ARGs could be an important source of AMR contamination in river water. Furthermore, hospital effluence may be an important reservoir of clinically important ARB. The high concentration of antimicrobial agents commonly prescribed in Japan may contribute to the selection and dissemination of AMR within wastewater. Our review shows the importance of both monitoring for AMR and antimicrobials in human wastewater and efforts to reduce their contamination load in wastewater

Characterization of extended-spectrum β-lactamase-producing Escherichia coli isolated from municipal and hospital wastewater in Japan

ABSTRACT: Objectives: The purpose of this study was to characterize the strains of extended-spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL)-producing Escherichia coli (ESBL-EC) isolated from municipal and hospital wastewater by detecting antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) as well as antibiotic susceptibility. To identify the source of ESBL-EC, multi-locus sequence typing and typing plasmids that may carry ESBL-producing genes were conducted. Methods: Wastewater was sampled twice a month from February 2019 to February 2020 from a municipal wastewater treatment plant and hospital located in a city in northeastern Japan. Throughout the study period, 279 and 37 strains of ESBL-EC were isolated from municipal and hospital wastewater, respectively. Results: All 316 isolates were resistant to ampicillin and cefotaxime and susceptible to imipenem and tigecycline. Almost all (98.1%) of the ESBL-EC isolates possessed blaCTX-M, and the blaCTX-M-9 group was detected most frequently (62.3%). Multi-locus sequence typing revealed a higher diversity of sequence types (STs) in the isolates from municipal wastewater than in those from hospital wastewater; although ST131, which recently caused nosocomial- and community-associated infections worldwide, was dominant in both types of wastewater. All ST131 isolates possessed the IncFII plasmid, which is often reported to carry blaCTX-M. Conclusions: These results demonstrated that healthy people carry clinically important antibiotic-resistant bacteria and ARGs, motivating routine monitoring of municipal wastewater to detect such antibiotic-resistant bacteria and ARGs from a variety of sources supported by the high diversity of STs in the present study