Home-school partnership is key to students' success at schools. Japanese schools have attempted to invite families to participate in school educational activities. However, these efforts are embedded ...into Japanese school cultures and were not studied empirically. This study aimed to explore teachers' attitudes and actions toward home-school partnership and examine their effects on teachers' burnout. Based on a preliminary study, we developed a questionnaire with 30 items for the partnership attitude (PAT) scale, 37 items for the partnership actions (PAC) scale and three other scales. We examined the concurrent validity of the scales with a sample of 254 teachers. Exploratory factor analysis yielded four subscales for the PAT (Appreciation, Positive Attitude, Traditional Attitude, Difficulty) and five subscales for the PAC (Respect Parents, Individual Contact, Classroom Information Sharing, Being Proactive, Facilitating Conversation). Reliability was moderately supported, while the criterion validity coefficients were moderately supported using correlation analysis. The results of the multiple regressions show that some PAT factors had negative effects, while some PAC factors had positive effects on teachers' burnout. Thus, while it is important for teachers to build a good home-school partnership through partnership actions, a systematic support system is necessary for teachers experiencing difficulties in collaborating with parents.
Videophone euable parson to do face-to-face communication between distant places. Traditional evaluation method measure degradation degree of decoded picture quality. In this report, new evaluation ...based on degree of transmission of nonverbal language, which is important for face-to-face communication, is studied. Test image sequences are generated and used by experiment of new evaluation method. Motions of upper part of body as nonverbal languages are effective for new evaluation method.
Silibinin is the main constituent of silymarin, an extract from the seeds of milk thistle (Silybum marianum). Because silibinin has many pharmacological activities, extending its clinical use in the ...treatment of a wider variety of diseases would be desirable. In this study, we report on the binding of silibinin to plasma proteins, an issue that has not previously been extensively studied. The findings indicated that silibinin mainly binds to human serum albumin (HSA). Mutual displacement experiments using ligands that primarily bind to sites I and II clearly revealed that silibinin binds tightly and selectively to site I (subsites Ia and/or Ic) of HSA, which is located in subdomain IIA. Thermodynamic analyses suggested that hydrogen bonding and van der Waals interactions are major contributors to silibinin–HSA interactions. Furthermore, the binding of silibinin to HSA was found to be decreased with increasing ionic strength and detergent concentration of the media, suggesting that electrostatic and hydrophobic interactions are involved in the binding. Trp214 and Arg218 were identified as being involved in the binding of silibinin to site I, based on binding experiments using chemically modified- and mutant-HSAs. In conclusion, the available evidence indicates that silibinin binds to the region close to Trp214 and Arg218 in site I of HSA with assistance by multiple forces and can displace site I drugs (e.g., warfarin or iodipamide), but not site II drugs (e.g., ibuprofen).
The hemoglobin-vesicle (HbV), a vesicle in which a concentrated human hemoglobin solution is encapsulated, was developed as an artificial oxygen carrier. Although HbV has a favorable safety, ...metabolic, and excretion performance in healthy animals, the effect of a massive amount of HbV, which also contains a large amount of a lipid component including cholesterol, on physiological response and metabolic performance under hyperlipidemic conditions is unclear. The aim of this study was to evaluate whether administration of HbV causes toxicity in apolipoprotein E-deficient mice (hyperlipidemic model mice). Apolipoprotein E-deficient mice were given a single injection of HbV (2000 mg hemoglobin/kg), and physiological responses and metabolic profiles were monitored for 14 d thereafter. All the mice tolerated the massive amount of HbV and survived, and adequate biocompatibility was observed. Serum biochemical parameters indicate that liver and kidney function were not remarkably affected, and morphological changes in the liver and spleen were negligible. Lipid parameters in serum were significantly increased until 3 d after HbV administration, but recovered within 7 d after the administration. In a pharmacokinetic study, HbV was mainly found distributed in the liver and spleen, and disappeared from the body within 14 d. In conclusion, even under conditions of hyperlipidemia, a massive dose of HbV and its components resulted in favorable biological compatibility, metabolic, and excretion profiles. These findings provide further support for the safety of HbV for clinical use.
Feline polycystic kidney disease (PKD), an inherited autosomal dominant disease, has been reported to occur mostly in Persian or Persian related cats, and to be associated with a mutation from C to A ...at position 10063 in exon 29 of the feline PKD1 gene (PKD1 mutation). Many clinical cases have been recognized in Japan, but the mutation rate in cats has not been reported. The objective of this study was to determine epidemiological characteristics and clinical features in cats with the PKD1 mutation. Referring veterinarians sent blood samples of 377 cats for the PKD1 gene evaluation. The blood samples were from 159 cats with renal cysts confirmed by ultrasonography, 60 cats without renal cysts, and 158 cats that did not undergo ultrasonography. In total, 150 cats carried the PKD1 mutation and the signalment, site and number of renal cysts, and results of blood test were evaluated in cats with the PKD1 mutation. The breeds with the highest rate of the PKD1 mutation were Persian (46%), Scottish Fold (54%) and American Shorthair cats (47%). However, mixed breed cats also showed high rates of the PKD1 mutation. Of cats with the mutation, the incidence of high plasma creatinine (≥1.6 mg/dl) was greater in cats ≥3 years old, although a few cats ≥9 years of age had low plasma creatinine (<1.6 mg/dl). The coincidence of renal and hepatic cysts was 12.6%, with the high prevalence in Persian cats (31%).
Versatile transformations of azo compounds are utilized not only in synthetic organic chemistry but also in materials science. In this study, a hitherto unknown stereoselectivity was observed by ...low-temperature in situ NMR spectroscopy for the photochemical denitrogenation of a cyclic azoalkane (2,3-diazabicyclo2.2.1heptane) derivative. Direct (singlet) photodenitrogenation at 188 K afforded two products, the configurationally retained ring-closed compound (ret-CP) and the inverted compound (inv-CP), in a ratio of 82/18 (±3) (ret-CP/inv-CP), with an overall yield of >95%. Triplet-sensitized denitrogenation at 199 K using benzophenone (3BP*) or xanthone (3Xan*) selectively produced inv-CP, with a ret-CP/inv-CP ratio of 7/93 (±3). Thermal isomerization of inv-CP into ret-CP was observed by low-temperature NMR spectroscopy. Transient absorption spectroscopy revealed that two distinct singlet diradicals are involved in the formation of CP during direct photodenitrogenation, that is, puckered puc-1 DR and planar pl-1 DR diradicals. The former produces ret-CP, whereas the latter affords inv-CP. Kinetic analysis using the integrated profiles method was used to determine the molecular absorption coefficient of pl-1 DR (ε560 = 4900 ± 250 M–1 cm–1) for the first time. The involvement of the puckered singlet diradical resolves the mechanistic puzzle of stereoselective denitrogenation of diazabicycloheptane-type azoalkanes.
There is an alarming increase in the obesity prevalence among children in an environment of increasing availability of preprocessed high-calorie foods. However, some people maintain a healthy weight ...even in such obesogenic environments. This difference in body weight management could be attributed to individual differences in dietary restraint; however, its underlying neurocognitive mechanisms in adolescents remain unclear.
This study aimed to elucidate these neurocognitive mechanisms in adolescents by examining the relationships between dietary restraint and the food-related value-coding region located in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC).
The association between dietary restraint and BMI was tested using a multilinear regression analysis in a large early adolescent cohort (n = 2554; age, 12.2 ± 0.3 years; BMI, 17.9 ± 2.5 kg/m2; 1354 boys). Further, an fMRI experiment was designed to assess the association between the vmPFC response to food images and dietary restraint in 30 adolescents (age, 17.6 ± 1.9 years; BMI, 20.7 ± 2.2 kg/m2; 13 boys). Additionally, using 54 individuals from the cohort (age, 14.5 ± 0.6 years; BMI, 18.8 ± 2.6 kg/m2; 31 boys), we assessed the association between dietary restraint and intrinsic vmPFC-related functional connectivity.
In the cohort, adolescents with increased dietary restraint showed a lower BMI (β = −0.38; P < 0.001; B = −0.06; SE = 0.003). The fMRI results showed a decreased vmPFC response to high-calorie food were correlated with greater dietary restraint. Moreover, there was an association of attenuated intrinsic vmPFC-related functional connectivity in the superior and middle frontal gyrus and the middle temporal gyrus with greater dietary restraint.
Our findings suggest that dietary restraint in adolescents could be a preventive factor for weight gain; its effect involves modulating the vmPFC, which is associated with food value coding.
Carbapenemase-producing Enterobacteriaceae (CPE) are increasing worldwide. Rapid and accurate detection of CPE is necessary for appropriate antimicrobial treatment and hospital infection control. ...However, CPE contains some strains that are difficult to detect depending on genotype and MIC value of carbapenem, and a detection method has not been established. The recently reported modified carbapenem inactivation method (mCIM) has been developed in CLSI M100-S27 as a phenotypic technique for detecting carbapenemase activity. In the present study, we examined mCIM as a new CPE detection method using 207 Enterobacteriaceae isolates in comparison with the three existing screening methods of modified Hodge test, Carba NP test and carbapenem inactivation method and evaluated its performance. Consequently, both the sensitivity and specificity of mCIM were 100%, indicating better results than the conventional screening methods. The mCIM is a useful tool for microbiology laboratories due to its simplicity, clear criteria, cost-effectiveness and availability at any laboratory.
PDF
