DEVELOPING CURRICULA FOR GRANDPARENTS IN JAPAN

The purpose of this study was to determine how three generations view the contribution and needs of grandparents in Japan. A sample consisting of 239 grandparents, 266 parents, and 274 grandchildren from, urban and rural areas completed the Grandparent Strengths and Needs Inventory (Strom & Strom, 1993). Grandparents reported more satisfaction, success, and involvement in teaching than was observed by parents or grandchildren. Grandparents experienced greater difficulty as well as frustration and saw themselves as less informed about their role than was reported by younger people. Significant main effects were generation, grandchild gender, grandchild age, generations living together, frequency of grandchild care by the grandparent, and amount of time the generations spent together. Implications for building curricula and guidelines for program development are identified.     

Reconsideration of the Paradox of Inquiry

It is well known that the Meno presents the argument called “the paradox of inquiry.” This paper has two purposes. First, I analyze the paradox of inquiry and reformulate the argument as the “renewed paradox of inquiry.” Second, I clarify that the problem of inquiry posed by this paradox concerns the necessary conditions for a novice learner to learn to begin and advance an inquiry on her own. This problem of inquiry will be important to address even today in considering scientific and educational practice related to inquiry.     

Selective cell capture and analysis using shallow antibody-coated microchannels

Demand for analysis of rare cells such as circulating tumor cells in blood at the single molecule level has recently grown. For this purpose, several cell separation methods based on antibody-coated micropillars have been developed (e.g., Nagrath et al., Nature 450, 1235–1239 (2007)). However, it is difficult to ensure capture of targeted cells by these methods because capture depends on the probability of cell-micropillar collisions. We developed a new structure that actively exploits cellular flexibility for more efficient capture of a small number of cells in a target area. The depth of the sandwiching channel was slightly smaller than the diameter of the cells to ensure contact with the channel wall. For cell selection, we used anti-epithelial cell adhesion molecule antibodies, which specifically bind epithelial cells. First, we demonstrated cell capture with human promyelocytic leukemia (HL-60) cells, which are relatively homogeneous in size; in situ single molecule analysis was verified by our rolling circle amplification (RCA) method. Then, we used breast cancer cells (SK-BR-3) in blood, and demonstrated selective capture and cancer marker (HER2) detection by RCA. Cell capture by antibody-coated microchannels was greater than with negative control cells (RPMI-1788 lymphocytes) and non-coated microchannels. This system can be used to analyze small numbers of target cells in large quantities of mixed samples.     

Effects of viscoelastic properties of tendon structures on stretch - shortening cycle exercise in vivo

The aim of the present study was to examine the effects of viscoelastic properties of human tendon structures during stretch - shortening cycle exercise. The elongation of tendon and aponeurosis of the medial gastrocnemius muscle of 26 participants was measured by ultrasonography while they performed ramp isometric plantar flexion up to the voluntary maximum, followed by a ramp relaxation. The relationship between estimated muscle force and tendon elongation during the ascending phase was fitted to a linear regression, the slope of which was defined as stiffness. The percentage of the area within the muscle force-tendon elongation loop relative to the area beneath the curve during the ascending phase was defined as hysteresis. In addition, maximal voluntary concentric contractions at 2.09 and 3.14 rad x s(-1) with and without prior eccentric contractions were performed. The difference in the concentric torque at equivalent joint angles with and without prior eccentric contractions (i.e. pre-stretch augmentation) was negatively correlated with stiffness (P < 0.05) and hysteresis (P < 0.05). Furthermore, there was a higher correlation between the pre-stretch augmentation and the viscoelastic properties index--that is, the sum of normalized score values of stiffness and hysteresis (P < 0.01)--than with either stiffness or hysteresis alone. The results of this study suggest that performance during stretch-shortening cycle exercise is significantly affected by the viscoelastic properties of the tendon structures.     

Practice Makes Pretty Good: Assessment of Primary Literature Reading Abilities across Multiple Large-Enrollment Biology Laboratory Courses

Primary literature is essential for scientific communication and is commonly utilized in undergraduate biology education. Despite this, there is often little time spent training our students how to critically analyze a paper. To address this, we introduced a primary literature module in multiple upper-division laboratory courses. In this module, instructors conduct classroom discussions that dissect a paper as researchers do. While previous work has identified classroom interventions that improve primary literature comprehension within a single course, our goal was to determine whether including a scientific paper module in our classes could produce long-term benefits. On the basis of performance in an assessment exam, we found that our module resulted in longitudinal gains, including increased comprehension and critical-thinking abilities in subsequent lab courses. These learning gains were specific to courses utilizing our module, as no longitudinal gains were seen in students who had taken other upper-division labs that lacked extensive primary literature discussion. In addition, we assessed whether performance on our assessment correlated with a variety of factors, including grade point average, course performance, research background, and self-reported confidence in understanding of the article. Furthermore, all of the study conclusions are independent of biology disciplines, as we observe similar trends within each course.     

郭店楚简《五行》的修养论

本文基于"郭店楚简"等20世纪末年问世的新出土文献带来的新知见,探讨孟子性善论形成过程的一系列论考之中探讨《五行》思想的部分.《五行》将"知"视为觉醒认知能力之过程,并将之分为"圣"和"智"两种.在此格局上,《五行》设定修养过程为:借由"智"之觉醒察觉到"贤人"之"德",通过模仿"行"本身来掌握"仁""义"等,从而实现"人道"之"善",进而从此阶段上升,借由"圣"的觉醒达到"天道"之"德",亦即能够在"德之行"的层次实践"仁""义"等.另外,《五行》"说"的相关论述中,"说"的作者用"仁气""义气"等术语对上述过程加以解说.从这一点可推测出《五行》的思想与《性自命出》的"性即气"的思维方式相当接近.     

孟子与《五行》

20世纪末年郭店楚简等新出土文献问世后,新的知识与见解也随之而来.笔者基于此新知见,对孟子性善论的形成过程有一系列论考.本文即其中探讨《五行》与孟子思想关系的部分.孟子思想的形成虽然受到了子思《五行》的影响,但其中不动心体验往后的修养模式,却完全舍弃了《五行》中的理论.也就是说,孟子 舍弃了《五行》中"性即气"的思维,将"心"放置在"气"的上位,并以"心"为基础展开了四端说.通过这种立足 于"心"的修养论,孟子彻底解决了"性即气"思维模式中所包含的问题.而这种从"气"至"心"的转换,正是使孟子成为独具一格之思想家的重要之处.     

Development of a method for automatic basso continuo playing

The purpose of this study is to develop an automatic basso continuo playing system. In order to find a musically appropriate sequence of chords, we propose the principle of “harmony cost”, which is defined as the sum of two different costs: one is the “local cost” which indicates the unlikelihood of a certain chord allocation and the other is the “transition cost”, which indicates the unlikelihood of a certain connection between two chords. Automatic basso continuo playing is realised by searching for the optimal chord sequence, which minimises the accumulated harmony cost. The proposed method is evaluated by three experiments. Each experiment verifies the effectiveness of the proposed method.