Effects of intense exercise on the physiological and mental condition of female university judoists during a training camp

To clarify the physical and mental fatigue caused by intense exercise and the relationship between the two types of fatigue, we examined changes in anthropometric and biochemical variables, neutrophil function, and the Profile of Mood States (POMS) questionnaire in 13 female university judoists attending a one-week training camp. Blood glucose, total cholesterol, haemoglobin, leukocyte count, IgG, and phagocytic activity all decreased after the training camp compared with baseline (P < or = 0.046). Aspartate aminotransferase, lactate dehydrogenase, creatine kinase, and neutrophil oxidative burst activity increased after the training camp (P < or = 0.007). Of the POMS scores, that for Fatigue increased after the training camp (P = 0.041) and that for Vigour decreased (P = 0.042). The changes in several POMS scores correlated with the changes in blood biochemical variables. In particular, the change in Total mood disturbance was negatively associated with changes in myogenic enzymes (P < or = 0.032). Our results suggest that intense exercise during training camps for female judoists leads to the appearance and accumulation of mental and physical fatigue, which are related to each other.     

Educational access is educational quality: Indigenous parents’ perceptions of schooling in rural Guatemala

This paper presents the findings and implications of a qualitative study conducted in Guatemala, which focused on rural, indigenous parents’ perceptions of their children’s schooling and educational quality. For these parents, the simple fact that their children had improved access to school signifies a satisfactory educational accomplishment; this conceptualization is shaped in large part by their own limited experiences with formal education. Although these parents recognized the importance of education, they held low expectations of and aspirations for their children’s academic performance, likely reflecting their own low educational levels. They identified homework as a key indicator for learning, and parental involvement in homework should be a point of departure in fostering learning environments that help improve student outcomes. The social organization and corresponding family responsibilities of children and youth dictate much of the parents’ thinking with respect to schooling and the children’s future.     

EDUCATION AND THE AGED: SOCIAL AND CONCEPTUAL CHANGES IN JAPAN

Japan is moving into an aging society at a greater speed than any other country in the world has ever experienced. As this speed is very rapid, the concept of life in the aged life‐cycle stage which has emerged has not been fully established yet; here the cultural lag phenomenon is acutely observed. Among many possible activities, however, learning activities will be expected to have increasing popularity among aged persons as a source of happiness and inspiration for the fulfillment of their lives. Since not only young persons, but also aged persons, are involved in learning activities, the concept expressed by the term education is changing into a broader one to include the transmitting of values, knowledge, and skills through secondary communication.     

Attitudes of Japanese Learners and Teachers of English towards Non-Standard English in Coursebooks

Over the decades, efforts have been made to incorporate diverse perspectives on World Englishes into English Language Teaching (ELT) practice and teaching materials. To date, the majority of ELT learners and teachers have not yet been exposed to materials which use and explore non-standard forms of English. This paper examines the attitudes of Japanese learners and teachers of English towards the use of these forms in ELT coursebooks. This study, conducted through questionnaires, surveys, focus groups and interviews, indicates that junior and high school teachers in Japan are open to the possibility of exposing students to different varieties of English. There are also indications that teachers and students share practical concerns about this.     

Higher education and gender roles in Japanese society: An assessment of disparity

Conclusion The 1947 education reform and mass education after the period of high economic growth have greatly influenced women's higher education attainments. These changes are beginning to transform women's views towards education and more women with higher education attainment are entering the labour marker. However, as previously indicated, many obstacles to equal opportunity and results in the labour market still remain for women. Higher education for women has never had the same social impact as that for men. So far as the academic career of women is regarded as having ‘symbolic value’—it has a close relationship to marriage in Japanese society. Women's higher education is a social way of maintaining a sub-culture and traditional gender norms. Ph.D. in education (dissertation: ‘The gender roles of Japanese women’) from the University of California in 1993. At present affiliated to the PHP Research Institute (Japan) as a senior research associate. Areas of interest include comparative higher education, educational policy, and gender and education. Her most recently published works in English are ‘Higher education in partnership with industry: the necessity to employ off-the-job-training system’ in theInternational journal of lifelong education (vol. 12, no. 2, 1994) and ‘The gender roles of Japanese women: an assessment of gender roles of Japanese housewives in the United States’ inPHP research report (vol. 9, 1995).     

Learning from analogy-enhanced science text

The present study examined the role that an elaborate analogy can play when middle school students learn a major concept from a science text. The elaborate analogy had both graphic and text components that integrated and mapped key features from an analog (a factory) to the target concept (an animal cell). The target features were the functions of the cell parts. In Experiment 1, eighth graders who studied an analogy-enhanced text had greater immediate and 2-week recall of cell-part functions than students who studied a control text. In Experiment 2, sixth graders who studied an analogy-enhanced text considered the target concept to be more understandable than students who studied a control text. The sixth graders who studied the analogy-enhanced text also had greater immediate and 2-week retention, as measured by both recall and recognition. In both experiments, the analogy was interpreted as acting as a mediator between the students' existing knowledge and the new knowledge in the text. The analogy mapped a familiar, concrete schema onto that of the target concept, making the target concept more understandable and memorable. Implications for the meaningful learning of science text are discussed. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 35: 1129–1149, 1998.     

The intercultural trust paradigm: Studying joint cultural interaction and social exchange in real time over the Internet

Distance transcending technology of the Internet generated a new experimental paradigm for the study of intercultural, or joint cultural interaction between members of different societies. University students from Japan, China, and Taiwan participated in experiments involving participants from their own society and another society in real time using an intercultural trust paradigm derived from a game theoretic and evolutionary approach to social exchange. The modified trust game improves on the Prisoner's Dilemma Game by eliminating greed as an explanation for lack of cooperation: the truster unilaterally decides whether or not to trust their exchange partner, and the allocator then decides whether or not to divide the reward fairly between the two of them. Participants earned real money by playing six rounds of one-shot trust games with three in-group members and three out-group members over the Internet. Across three experiments involving two interacting societies each, Japanese were found to be less trusting and trustworthy exchange partners compared to cultural Chinese. This suggests that Japanese collectivism is based more on long-term assurance networks, whereas Chinese collectivism provides a more expansive, guanxi-based approach to building new social networks. Japanese also showed less in-group favoritism in both trust and trustworthiness (or conditional fairness) at the national-level compared to cultural Chinese, suggesting that culture-specific content (e.g., collective guilt for WWII) may influence ethnocentrism at the national level.     

元好问和元结

元好问将元结视为自己的远祖,诗中多次提到他.元好问从政治、隐逸、文学三个方面评价元结,评价较为客观.元好问也正是在这三个方面受到元结的影响.     

Association between COMT Val158Met polymorphism and competition results of competitive swimmers

Recent studies have shown the contribution of genetic determinants to athletes’ physical ability. However, despite the fact that cognitive abilities like self-control and stress-tolerance influence athletes’ competitive performance, few studies to date have investigated the association between genetic polymorphism, which is linked to cognitive ability and athletic performance. The present study investigated the link between single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), which are known to exert influences on dopaminergic neural function and competitive performance of swimmers. The results have revealed superior competitive performance in competitive swimmers with Met allele of catechol-O-methyltransferase Val158Met polymorphism than those with Val/Val genotype. The investigated SNPs of DRD2 and DRD3 were not associated with swimmer’s competitive performance. This finding indicates that genetic polymorphism linked to cognitive ability influences the athletes’ performance.