Europe versus Asia: foreign language education other than English in Japan’s higher education

The era of Asia has been felt in foreign language education in Japan, with more and more youth reportedly opting to study Chinese and Korean as the second foreign language. The shift in popularity, from European to Asian languages, not only reflects the societal demand for the institutional rearrangement of academic staff but also stirs teachers of European languages to appeal for the continued study of their language. The present discussion paper, drawing from secondary statistics and scholarly knowledge, first reviews a series of Japan’s foreign language education policies from the 1990s to 2012 that have been affecting the organizational structure of foreign language education in Japanese higher education. The study then addresses an array of issues that emerge with the changing needs of the times: the waning popularity of European languages, the Japanese government’s policy shift to English and Chinese, English language professionals’ detached attitudes toward other language education, and the dominance of university language teachers with little to no language teaching training. By addressing these pending yet gravely overlooked issues that merit due attention from language teaching professionals beyond Japan, the present study hopes to provide insight into the traditionally one-sided, English-centric discussion on foreign language education in Japanese higher education in a matter that is informative for international scholarship.     

A nonlinear dynamic finite-element analyses of the basketball-related eye injuries

Eye injuries from blunt forces and penetrating objects can cause morbidity, disability, and blindness. Most of these injuries are preventable not only by understanding the detail of injury, but also by portraying the role of the ball’s characteristics. Basketball can induce severe forms of injuries to the eye. This study was aimed at performing a numerical analysis through the fluid–structure interaction on ocular trauma. Balls with different diameters, elastic moduli, and pressures were shot to the eye. Injury in terms of the stresses and deformations in each component of the eye was computed at ~?0.72 mm deformation in the apex of the cornea. By increasing the diameter of the ball from 20 to 26 cm the stress in the eye components, excluding the aqueous body, vitreous body, and extraconal fat, increased. Stresses of 2.68 and 3.19 MPa were observed in the cornea under the ball diameters of 20 and 26 cm, respectively. Conversely, the elastic modulus and pressure of the ball in the defined range showed no considerable role on the stress in the eye components. The results revealed the importance of the ball size compared to the elastic modulus and pressure in the stress accumulation as a result of ocular trauma.     

Relationship between shoulder roll and hand propulsion in the front crawl stroke

This study re-evaluated the magnitude of hand propulsion (HP) in the pull and push phases of the front crawl stroke and investigated the association between the angular velocity of shoulder roll (ω_SR) and hand propulsive lift (HP_L). ω_SR was computed in the plane normal to a forward direction for 16 skilled swimmers performing the front crawl stroke at a maximal sprinting pace. HP, hand propulsive drag (HP_D) and HP_L were determined by a dynamic pressure approach. HP and HP_D in the pull phase were greater than in the push phase (P < 0.05) while HP_L in the pull phase was similar to that in the push phase. Eleven swimmers out of the 16 swimmers had a significant within-swimmers correlation between ω_SR and HP_L in the push phase (P < 0.05). That is, HP_L increased in the push phase as the ω_SR of rolling back to the neutral position became faster. A swimmer should use more drag for hand propulsion in the pull phase and propulsion from drag and lift equally in the push phase. Based on the relationship between ω_SR and HP_L in the push phase, a possible stroke technique to enhance HP_L using ω_SR is discussed.     

教育在市场中的位置:对香港国际学校及其运作模式的比较

本论文是对一个小的地区范围内不同学校体制的比较研究.过去十年里,香港的国际学校蓬勃发展,每年都有更多的新校开办,更多的老校扩建.除了满足各种侨民社区的需要外,这些学校也吸引了移民海外又回归的港人及寻求本地教育体制以外学校的当地家庭.     

HLA Gene in 5 Cases of Liver Injury Related to Baikal Skullcap

HLA association with drug-induced liver injury has recently been pointed out about multiple medicines. The aim of this study was to evaluate relationship between HLA gene and liver injury related to Baikal skullcap-containing Kampo medicines (BSCK). We previously examined HLA genes in 3 cases of BSCK-induced liver injury. Recently we could encounter 2 cases diagnosed as “definitely-related case” of BSCK-induced liver injury. HLA genes of the 2 cases were analyzed by Sequencing Based Typing method with Next Generation Sequencer at HLA Laboratory in Kyoto. HLA-DPA1*02:02:02 and DPB1*05:01:01 were observed in the 2 cases: concordance was not observed in HLA-A, B, C, DRB1, DRB4, DQA1, or DQB1. The previous 3 cases of BSCK-induced liver injury had the same allele type to the 2 cases only in HLA-DPA1. Putting all these together, HLA-DPA1*02:02:02 was observed in common among 5 cases of BSCK-induced liver injury. HLA-DPA1*02:02:02 is possibly associated with BSCK-induced liver injury.     

Continuing the conversation: British and Japanese progressivism

This paper offers an account of the historic and ongoing international interchange between Britain and Japan in the field of progressive education. Concentrating on the last half-century, it takes two reference points from Roy Lowe’s writings in 1977 and 2006. Eveline Lowe Primary was a newly built model progressive school when documented by him in a seminal work on school architecture, later becoming a key point of interest for Japanese educationists. The British educational policy context against which this exchange of ideas and practices occurred was later documented by Lowe in a major book. Contemporaneous debates and events within Japanese society and government meanwhile provided the impetus for networks of research and transmission of progressive practices. The most recent turn in the narrative presented here demonstrates Japanese support for independent progressive practice continuing in the UK. Responding to an extensive historical research literature on transnational migration of educational ideals and practices this paper constitutes a micro-study that draws on personal memory, oral testimony, records of classroom observation on site and by means of video-conferencing, in addition to more formal documentation of conference proceedings and policy-making.     

Tuning 2D magnetism in Fe3+XGeTe2 films by element dopingOA

Two-dimensional(2D) ferromagnetic materials have been discovered with tunable magnetism and orbital-driven nodal-line features. Controlling the 2D magnetism in exfoliated nanoflakes via electric/magnetic fields enables a boosted Curie temperature(T_C) or phase transitions. One of the challenges, however, is the realization of high T_C2D magnets that are tunable, robust and suitable for large scale fabrication. Here, we report molecular-beam epitaxy growth of wafer-scale Fe     

Japanese university students’ longing for an idealized France and encounters with global English in Europe

Higher Education - Japanese college students’ akogare (meaning “longing”) for an idealized West has conventionally been researched and discussed under the assumption that the West...     

From Learning Beliefs to Achievement Among Chinese Immigrant and European American Preschool Children

Little research exists on how immigrant children develop their beliefs about school learning (BASLs) in their home and host cultures. We examined the BASLs and achievement children of Chinese immigrants’ (CCI) and European American (EA) children. We followed longitudinally 120 middle-class children from age 4 to 5, balanced for gender. Children heard two story beginnings depicting a child eager to attend school and another not. Children completed the stories and were tested for math and literacy achievement. We found seven BASLs. CCIs and EAs showed similar BASLs. Awareness of parental involvement and intellectual benefit consistently explained their achievement, with CCIs showing greater achievement. CCIs’ (but not EAs’) valuation of learning explained their net academic growth. Implications on CCIs’ development are discussed.