Jogakusei: A Cultural Icon of Meiji Japan

The term joshidaisei, female college students, is often associated with an image of modernity, stylishness, and intelligence in contemporary Japan, and media such as TV, fashion magazines, and websites feature them as if they were celebrities. At the same time, intellectuals criticize joshidaisei for focusing too much on their appearance and leading an extravagant lifestyle. In the chapter, “Branded: Bad Girls Go Shopping” in the book Bad Girls of Japan, Jan Bardsley and Hiroko Hirakawa assert that male intellectuals have criticized the consumer culture of young single woman, which joshidaisei has been a major part of, as a cause of the destruction of the “good wives, wise mothers” ideal, which many people still consider to be the ideal for young women in Japan. I argue that educated young women have been a subject of adoration and criticism since the Meiji period when Japanese government started to promote women’s education as a part of the modernization and westernization process of Japan. It was also the time when people started to use the term “good wives, wise mothers” to promote an ideal image of women who could contribute to the advancement of the country. Thus, it is crucial to analyze jogakusei (schoolgirls) in the Meiji period to understand the image of educated women in Japan and the public view of those women. The Meiji period was the time when Japan went through rapid modernization and westernization in order to catch up with Western countries, and many scholars such as Carol Gluck have done significant work discussing the history and ideology of the Japanese populace during the Meiji period. Yet, there are fewer studies that focus on the image of jogakusei during the period despite of the significance of jogakusei who were the first women to be able to obtain higher education in Japan. Thus, in this thesis, I will analyze the culture and lifestyle of jogakusei during the Meiji period. I will focus on how the media, especially novels, treated jogakusei, and in so doing, I will to show how educated women were regarded by intellectuals during that time. In the last section, I will discuss the image of joshidaisei in contemporary Japan to compare the status of educated women in contemporary Japan with the status of educated women in the Meiji period. This research will show that both jogakusei and joshidaisei have been subjects of the public gaze in both positive and negative ways. Both in Meiji Japan and in today’s Japan, women with higher education who combine youth, modernity, and intelligence are adored and cherished by the public. Their modernity is often symbolized by their modern fashion and attitudes. Students, especially those who attend universities that began as mission schools, are often associated with the ability to speak English and have the reputation of being stylish, which was also the case during the Meiji period. Those female students attract people’s attention; however, at the same time, people also criticize them for their culture and lifestyle, when they are seen as undermining morals or threatening to change society

Effects of weather variability and air pollutants on emergency admissions for cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases.

This is an Author's Original Manuscript of an Article submitted for consideration in the International journal of environmental health research copyright (c) 2012 Taylor & Francis; International journal of environmental health research is available online at http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/09603123.2011.650155信州大学博士（医学）・学位論文・平成23年3月31日授与（甲第901号）・掘綾We examined the effect of ambient temperature, air pressure and air pollutants on daily emergency admissions by identifying the cause of admission for each type of stroke and cardiovascular disease using generalized linear Poisson regressionmodels allowing for overdispersion, and controlling for seasonal and inter-annual variations, days of the week and public holidays, levels of influenza and respiratory syncytial viruses. Every 1 degrees C decrease in mean temperature was associated with an increase in the daily number of emergency admissions by 7.83% (95% CI 2.06-13.25) for acute coronary syndrome (ACS) and heart failure, by 35.57% (95% CI 15.59-59.02) for intracerebral haemorrhage (ICH) and by 11.71% (95% CI 4.1-19.89) for cerebral infarction. An increase of emergency admissions due to ICH (3.25% (95% CI 0.94-5.51)), heart failure (3.56% (95% CI 1.09-5.96)) was observed at every 1 hPa decrease in air pressure from the previous days. We found stronger detrimental effect of cold on stroke than cardiovascular disease.Articlejournal articl

Acquired Idiopathic ADAMTS13 Activity Deficient Thrombotic Thrombocytopenic Purpura in a Population from Japan

Thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (TTP) is a type of thrombotic microangiopathy (TMA). Studies report that the majority of TTP patients present with a deficiency of ADAMTS13 activity. In a database of TMA patients in Japan identified between 1998 and 2008, 186 patients with first onset of acquired idiopathic (ai) ADAMTS13-deficient TTP (ADAMTS13 activity <5%) were diagnosed. The median age of onset of TTP in this group of patients was 54 years, 54.8% were female, 75.8% had renal involvement, 79.0% had neurologic symptoms, and 97.8% had detectable inhibitors to ADAMTS13 activity. Younger patients were less likely to present with renal or neurologic dysfunction (p<0.01), while older patients were more likely to die during the TTP hospitalization (p<0.05). Findings from this cohort in Japan differ from those reported previously from the United States, Europe, and Korea with respect to age at onset (two decades younger in the other cohort) and gender composition (60% to 100% female in the other cohort). We conclude that in one of the largest cohorts of ai-TTP with severe deficiency of ADAMTS13 activity reported to date, demographic characteristics differ in Japanese patients relative to those reported from a large Caucasian registry from Western societies. Additional studies exploring these findings are needed

3,4-Dicaffeoylquinic Acid, a Major Constituent of Brazilian Propolis, Increases TRAIL Expression and Extends the Lifetimes of Mice Infected with the Influenza A Virus

Brazilian green propolis water extract (PWE) and its chemical components, caffeoylquinic acids, such as 3,4-dicaffeoylquinic acid (3,4-diCQA), act against the influenza A virus (IAV) without influencing the viral components. Here, we evaluated the anti-IAV activities of these compounds in vivo. PWE or PEE (Brazilian green propolis ethanol extract) at a dose of 200 mg/kg was orally administered to Balb/c mice that had been inoculated with IAV strain A/WSN/33. The lifetimes of the PWE-treated mice were significantly extended compared to the untreated mice. Moreover, oral administration of 3,4-diCQA, a constituent of PWE, at a dose of 50 mg/kg had a stronger effect than PWE itself. We found that the amount of tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL) mRNA in the mice that were administered 3,4-diCQA was significantly increased compared to the control group, while H1N1 hemagglutinin (HA) mRNA was slightly decreased. These data indicate that PWE, PEE or 3,4-diCQA possesses a novel and unique mechanism of anti-influenza viral activity, that is, enhancing viral clearance by increasing TRAIL

Functional expression of thiocyanate hydrolase is promoted by its activator protein, P15K

AbstractThiocyanate hydrolase (SCNase) is a cobalt-containing enzyme with a post-translationally modified cysteine ligand, γCys131-SO2H. When the SCNase α, β and γ subunits were expressed in Escherichia coli, the subunits assembled to form a hetero-dodecamer, (αβγ)4, like native SCNase but exhibited no catalytic activity. Metal analysis indicated that SCNase was expressed as an apo-form irrespective of the presence of cobalt in the medium. On the contrary, SCNase co-expressed with P15K, encoded just downstream of SCNase genes, in cobalt-enriched medium under the optimized condition (SCNase(+P15K)) possessed 0.86 Co atom/αβγ trimer and exhibited 78% of the activity of native SCNase. SCNase(+P15K) showed a UV–Vis absorption peak characteristic of the SCNase cobalt center. About 70% of SCNase(+P15K) had the γCys131-SO2H modification. These results indicate that SCNase(+P15K) is the active holo-SCNase. P15K is likely to promote the functional expression of SCNase probably by assisting the incorporation of cobalt ion

Novel Variants in the CLCN1, RYR2, and DCTN1 Found in Elderly Japanese Dementia Patients: A Case Series

Dementia has an enormous impact on medical and financial resources in aging societies like Japan. Diagnosis of dementia can be made by physical and mental examinations, imaging tests, and findings of high abnormal proteins in cerebrospinal fluids. In addition, genetic tests can be performed in neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease (AD), frontotemporal dementia (FTD), and Parkinson's disease (PD). In this case series, we presented three cases of dementia with unknown causes who carry novel variants in the genes associated with neurodegenerative diseases. Three patients (Patients 1, 2, and 6) were found by screening 18 dementia patients using a gene panel including 63 genes. The age of onset for Patient 1 was 74 years old, and his father had PD and mother had AD. The age of onset for Patient 2 was 75 years old, and her mother had AD. The age of onset for Patient 6 was 83 years old, and her father, two sisters, and daughter had dementia. The Mini-Mental State Examination produced results of 20, 15, and 22, respectively. The suspected diagnosis by neurological examinations and imaging studies for Patients 1 and 2 was AD, and for Patient 6 was FTD. Patient 1 was treated with donepezil; Patient 2 was treated with donepezil and memantine; and Patient 6 was treated with donepezil, galantamine, and rivastigmine. The three rare variants identified were: CLCN1, encoding a chloride channel, c.2848G>A:p.Glu950Lys (Patient 1); RYR2, encoding a calcium releasing ryanodine receptor, c.13175A>G:p.Lys4392Arg (Patient 2); and DCTN1, encoding a subunit of dynactin, c. 3209G>A:p.Arg1070Gln (Patient 6). The detected variants were interpreted according to the American College of Medical Genetics (ACMG) guidelines. The minor allele frequency for each variant was 0.025%, 0.023%, and 0.0004% in East Asians, respectively. The DCTN1 variant found in Patient 6 might be associated with FTD. Although none of them were previously reported in dementia patients, all variants were classified as variants of unknown significance (VUS). Our report suggests that results of genetic tests in elderly patients with dementia need to be carefully interpreted. Further data accumulation of genotype-phenotype relationships and development of appropriate functional models are warranted

Important cardiac transcription factor genes are accompanied by bidirectional long non-coding RNAs

BackgroundHeart development is a relatively fragile process in which many transcription factor genes show dose-sensitive characteristics such as haploinsufficiency and lower penetrance. Despite efforts to unravel the genetic mechanism for overcoming the fragility under normal conditions, our understanding still remains in its infancy. Recent studies on the regulatory mechanisms governing gene expression in mammals have revealed that long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are important modulators at the transcriptional and translational levels. Based on the hypothesis that lncRNAs also play important roles in mouse heart development, we attempted to comprehensively identify lncRNAs by comparing the embryonic and adult mouse heart and brain.ResultsWe have identified spliced lncRNAs that are expressed during development and found that lncRNAs that are expressed in the heart but not in the brain are located close to genes that are important for heart development. Furthermore, we found that many important cardiac transcription factor genes are located in close proximity to lncRNAs. Importantly, many of the lncRNAs are divergently transcribed from the promoter of these genes. Since the lncRNA divergently transcribed from Tbx5 is highly evolutionarily conserved, we focused on and analyzed the transcript. We found that this lncRNA exhibits a different expression pattern than that of Tbx5, and knockdown of this lncRNA leads to embryonic lethality.ConclusionThese results suggest that spliced lncRNAs, particularly bidirectional lncRNAs, are essential regulators of mouse heart development, potentially through the regulation of neighboring transcription factor genes