Japanese graduate education and its problems

This paper analyses why the highly developed Japanese system ofschool and undergraduate education seems inversely proportional to studentnumbers proceeding to graduate education. Only a few do proceed. Traditionalattitudes, which are not supportive of graduate education, are shown to stemfrom the view generally taken by the world of business and industry thatgraduate education is not of significance when recruiting staff. Adistinction is, however, drawn between the humanities (in which graduateeducation is seen as appropriate only for those planning an academic career)and more recent developments in the fields of engineering and the naturalsciences indicating a growing recognition of the value of post-graduatetraining. The work of the government University Chartering Commission– the body which authorises the establishment of graduate schools, isdescribed – focusing on its measure to maintain the quality ofgraduate education. The author shows that university-based doctoral studentsmay be at a disadvantage in terms of job-prospects, financial provision andlaboratory-funding in comparison with industry-based students.The paper concludes by reviewing recent innovations aimed at tackling theproblems described. Programs of continuing and professional education havebeen established with part-time attendance or a mixture of full-time(sometimes on leave from the company) and part-time attendance as well asspecially designed inter-disciplinary programs with a focus on applied areassuch as development in developing countries. The government is promotingrefresher programs and cooperation between universities and businessenterprises including joint research projects involving company-basedengineers.     

Analysis of policies for allocating university resources in heterogeneous social systems: a case study of university admissions in Sri Lanka

This paper focuses on the complex nature of designing andeffectively implementing policies, assuring fair access to universityeducational opportunities in heterogeneous societies. First, the universityadmission problem is modeled as a load balancing, scheduling and resourceallocation problem in a heterogeneous distributed system with policies toallocate student loads in university resources. Then the paper analyses thedifferent policies implemented in Sri Lanka for the last three decades todistribute the limited university level training resources in theengineering and medical faculties equally among the citizens.It is observed that in Sri Lanka, the schools in thirteen out of twentytwo districts did not produce a single engineering or medicine student until1974. Two districts enjoyed several times their fair share. Other districtshad less than their fair share in access to free higher education resources.It is also observed that no standardisation methods have been used in bothadding and comparing the marks received in multiple-language examinationsfor different subjects.The policy changes helped the talented low-income students who live indisadvantaged areas to set access, to begin, complete and get ahead on theirown. Furthermore, it generated a new wave of regional economic development.The same policies badly affected the happy few who enjoyed more than theirfair share of the university resources. Dube claimed the policy wasdiscriminatory and contributed to the on-going civil war (1995) .     

Review:On dendritic cell-based therapy for cancers

Dendritic cells(DCs),the most prevalent antigen-presenting cell in vivo,had been widely characterized in the lastthree decades.DCs are present in almost all tissues of the body and play cardinal roles in recognition of microbial agents,autoantigens,allergens and alloantigen.DCs process the microbial agents or their antigens and migrate to lymphoid tissues topresent the antigenic peptide to lymphocytes.This leads to activation of antigen-specific lymphocytes.Initially,it was assumedthat DCs are principally involved in the induction and maintenance of adaptive immune responses,but now it is evident that DCsalso have important roles in innate immunity.These features make DCs very good candidates for therapy against variouspathological conditions including malignancies.Initially,DC-based therapy was used in animal models of cancers.Data fromthese studies inspired considerable optimism and DC-based therapies was started in human cancers 8 years ago.In general,DC-based therapy has been found to be safe in pati     

On dendritic cell-based therapy for cancers

Dendritic cells (DCs), the most prevalent antigen-presenting cell in vivo, had been widely characterized in the last three decades. DCs are present in almost all tissues of the body and play cardinal roles in recognition of microbial agents,autoantigens, allergens and alloantigen. DCs process the microbial agents or their antigens and migrate to lymphoid tissues to present the antigenic peptide to lymphocytes. This leads to activation of antigen-specific lymphocytes. Initially, it was assumed that DCs are principally involved in the induction and maintenance of adaptive immune responses, but now it is evident that DCs also have important roles in innate immunity. These features make DCs very good candidates for therapy against various pathological conditions including malignancies. Initially, DC-based therapy was used in animal models of cancers. Data from these studies inspired considerable optimism and DC-based therapies was started in human cancers 8 years ago. In general,DC-based therapy has been found to be safe in patients with cancers, although few controlled trials have been conducted in this regard. Because the fundamentals principles of human cancers and animal models of cancers are different, the therapeutic efficacy of the ongoing regime of DC-based therapy in cancer patients is not satisfactory. In this review, we covered the various aspects that should be considered for developing better regime of DC-based therapy for human cancers.