日本的人类胚胎干细胞研究

干细胞研究的进展体现了人类智慧的一个胜利,但同时也对人类的生命提出了极大的挑战,因为这意味着无论是作为一个整体的社会还是个体,都将面临严肃的伦理、法律及社会问题.通过成人干细胞临床研究原则草案论纲,讨论日本的人类胚胎干细胞研究.     

Activity rescheduling: reasoned or habitual?

Utility maximization is widely used to model individuals’ activity scheduling and rescheduling behavior. Utility maximization is based on the assumption that the modeled behavior is the result of a reasoned decision. An alternative to a planned behavior is habitual behavior, whose execution process has become automatic due to its repeated performance. Compared to activity scheduling, little is known about the activity rescheduling behavior. In this paper, we focus our attention on the rescheduling behavior. We step back and ask a basic question: is the activity rescheduling behavior reasoned or habitual? Our initial expectation is that rescheduling behavior is mostly habitual behavior due to its feature of repeated performance. We answer this question by conducting an experiment. Results from the experiment confirm our original null hypothesis that rescheduling behavior is mostly a habitual behavior.     

Mommy, speak clearly: induced hearing loss shapes vowel hyperarticulation

Talkers hyperarticulate vowels when communicating with listeners that require increased speech intelligibility. Vowel hyperarticulation is said to be motivated by knowledge of the listener's linguistic needs because it typically occurs in speech to infants, foreigners and hearing-impaired listeners, but not to non-verbal pets. However, the degree to which vowel hyperarticulation is determined by feedback from the listener is surprisingly less well understood. This study examines whether mothers' speech input is driven by knowledge of the infant's linguistic competence, or by the infant's feedback cues. Specifically, we manipulated (i) mothers' knowledge of whether they believed their infants could hear them or not, and (ii) the audibility of the speech signal available to the infant (full or partial audibility, or inaudible). Remarkably, vowel hyperarticulation was completely unaffected by mothers' knowledge; instead, there was a reduction in the degree of hyperarticulation such that vowels were hyperarticulated to the greatest extent in the full audibility condition, there was reduced hyperarticulation in the partially audible condition, and no hyperarticulation in the inaudible condition. Thus, while it might be considered adaptive to hyperarticulate speech to the hearing-impaired adult or infant, when these two factors (infant and hearing difficulty) are coupled, vowel hyperarticulation is sacrificed. Our results imply that infant feedback drives talker behavior and raise implications for intervention strategies used with carers of hearing-impaired infants.     

Influence of rumination and self‐efficacy on depression in Japanese undergraduate nursing students

Researchers have suggested that self‐efficacy can predict and prevent depression, while negative coping strategies, as typified by rumination, can lead to depression. The authors examined the relationship between self‐efficacy, rumination, and depression in Japanese nursing students. The result of a structural equation model showed that rumination, but not self‐efficacy, predicted depression. The result of simultaneous multiple group analysis indicated that there was homogeneity within the same path diagram between genders. The result implied that stress management should focus on controlling the degree of rumination rather than self‐efficacy in order to efficiently maintain the mental health of Japanese nursing students.     

Correlates of retrospective early life experience with personality in young Japanese women

To examine the influence of early experiences on the development of personality. We used the Temperament and Character Inventory to assess 98 young women who had first entered a company. Different early experiences were linked, albeit weakly, to test scores. Both partial correlations and multiple regression analyses indicated that Self-directedness was higher if women reported more care of parents. Partial correlation, but not multiple regression analyses, showed that Cooperativeness was greater if women reported more care of parents and less frequent abuse. Reports of early parental loss or negative or positive early life events showed no correlation with scores on any of the Temperament and Character Inventory subscales.     

MA and Togetherness (Ittaikan) in the Narratives of Dancers and Spectators: Sharing an Uncertain Space

The Japanese concept/character MA (間), commonly translated as “gap, interval, or the in between,” partakes in many forms of Japanese arts and daily-life practices. In this article, we report the results of a qualitative research on the meaning or experience of MA and its relation with the feeling of togetherness in the context of contemporary dance improvisation. We interviewed performers and spectators (all professional dancers) while they watched the videotaped and reduced stick-figure versions of short dance improvisations created in a laboratory installed with motion-capture sensors. Based on the individual narratives, and inspired by Japanese and occidental aesthetic writings, we elaborate a specific understanding of MA as attending to the event's preacceleration, and how this experience causally relates to the feeling of togetherness (一体感, ittaikan). We propose that MA, understood not extensionally (as an empty space or a silent gap), but intentionally/internally as a certain quality of attention or perceptual mode, is fertile ground for serendipity. MA as an interpersonal ethical construct suggests a transsubjective difference as a foundation for a collective coming together.     

The Role of Coping Styles and Self-efficacy in the Development of Dysphoric Mood Among Nursing Students

Coping styles and self-efficacy have been recognized as important determinants of dysphoric mood. The objectives of this study were to determine the influence of these two factors on depression and anxiety in Japanese students. A set of questionnaires, including the Hospital Anxiety and Depression (HAD) Scale, the Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations (CISS), and the Self-efficacy Scale (SES) was distributed to 146 nursing students. Structural equation modelling was conducted to specify the relationships between measured variables. The HAD depression and anxiety scores were predicted by emotion-oriented coping. The HAD depression alone was predicted by avoidance-oriented coping. Self-efficacy scores predicted the emotion-oriented coping and HAD depression scores. Students’ dysphoric moods were influenced by emotional-oriented coping that mediated the effects of low self-efficacy, and self-efficacy also had a direct effect on depression.     

Observation system for the control of the hive environment by the honeybee (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Apis mellifera</Emphasis>)

The honeybee can control its hive environment to survive drastic changes in the field environment. To study the control of multiple environmental factors by honeybees, in this experiment, we developed a continual and simultaneous monitoring system for the temperature, moisture, and carbon dioxide (CO₂) concentration in a honeybee hive. Changes in hive weight, CO₂ production rate, and honeybee behavior were also monitored to estimate energy costs and behavioral activity for the environmental regulation. Measurements were conducted in August 2008. We found that the honeybee hive has a microclimate different from the ambient climate, and that the difference was partly accompanied by changes in honeybee activity. Our results also suggest that hive temperature, humidity, and CO₂ concentrations are controlled by different mechanisms. Additional monitoring of the hive environment and honeybee behavior for longer periods would enable us to understand the mechanisms of environmental control by honeybees, which is one of the behaviors that define honeybees as social insects.     

The Impact of Authoritative, Authoritarian, and Permissive Parenting Styles on Children’s Later Mental Health in Japan: Focusing on Parent and Child Gender

Few studies in Japan have examined whether children’s later mental health is influenced by the way parental authority is exercised, specifically with a focus on gender. Our main purposes of this study were to confirm the three-factor structure of the Japanese version of the Parental Authority Questionnaire (PAQ) and to verify its reliability and validity. We then used structural equation modeling to examine whether children’s later mental health was influenced by parents’ authoritative, permissive, and authoritarian parenting. The subcategories included in the Japanese version of the Clinical Outcomes in Routine Evaluation-Outcome Measure were chosen as mental health indices. A total of 1,320 people in Japan, including company employees, university students, and hospital staff members, were asked to recall and evaluate the parenting they received and to report on their current mental health. Confirmatory factor analyses verified the three-factor structure of the Japanese version of the PAQ, with a reduction in the number of items from the original version. The respondents, regardless of gender, evaluated their mothers as having been more authoritative than their fathers. Concerning the impact of parenting styles on respondents’ later mental health, both maternal and paternal authoritarian parenting styles worsened respondents’ later mental health, including symptomatic problems, risk to self and others, life functioning, and psychological well-being. Both maternal and paternal authoritative parenting had a beneficial impact on respondents’ later mental health. Simultaneous analyses of multi-groups demonstrated that the nature of these influences did not vary with respondent gender. We present the above results in detail, and discuss them from psycho-socio-cultural viewpoints.