Tokoha Gakuen University

School absenteeism (futōkō) has increased substantially in Japan over the past decade, yet empirical research based on students who are actually experiencing prolonged school absence remains limited. This study aimed to (a) classify types of school absenteeism based on students’ self-reported reasons for absence, (b) identify factors associated with students’ willingness to maintain contact with teachers during home visits, and (c) examine the consequences of school absenteeism for parents, with particular attention to gender differences. Questionnaire data were collected from 211 student–parent pairs in a large urban municipality in Japan. Hierarchical cluster analysis identified three subtypes of school absenteeism: the Unclear-Reason Type, the Outside-Interest Type, and the Interpersonal-Conflict Type, with the Unclear-Reason Type constituting the largest proportion across both elementary and junior high school levels. Multiple regression analyses revealed developmental differences in factors associated with students’ willingness to meet teachers during home visits. Among elementary school students, the overall model was significant, but only communication mediated through parents showed a marginal positive association with willingness to meet teachers, whereas no trust-related teacher behaviors demonstrated unique effects when controlling for other variables. In contrast, among junior high school students, advance notification prior to home visits emerged as the strongest predictor of willingness to meet teachers, highlighting the importance of predictability and autonomy-respecting practices during early adolescence. In addition, school absenteeism was associated with substantial changes in parents’ daily lives and social participation, and, for some families, aspects of employment. Mothers reported higher levels of impact than fathers in social and school-related domains, while many parents also reported increased time spent interacting with their child. Together, these findings highlight the heterogeneity of school absenteeism in Japan and underscore the importance of developmentally sensitive school–student contact practices, as well as the need to address school absenteeism as a family-level issue that can intersect with gendered roles.

Microplastics (MPs) have become a major concern for the general public. Although their sources and sinks have been studied, the fate of MPs in the environment remains unclear. Understanding their fate is essential for governments to develop effective countermeasures against MP pollution. In this study, MP pollution was investigated at 22 rivers and 11 beaches in Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. Polyethylene (PE)-, polypropylene (PP)-, and polystyrene (PS)-MP concentrations in sediments ranged from 0.411 to 423, 0 to 206, and 0 to 45.1 particles kg-1, respectively. In river water and seawater, concentrations ranged from 0 to 14.7, 0 to 21.1, and 0 to 6.00 particles m-3, respectively. MP concentrations were rescaled to align with the 1 to 5,000-μm size range used to define the hazardous concentration for 5% of species (HC5). All aligned concentrations in this study were below the HC5 threshold. Population density was found to be significantly correlated with the PE-, PP-, and PS-MP concentrations in river water and with PE- and PP-MP concentrations in sediments, suggesting that local pollution sources drive MP pollution. The estimated ages of PE-MPs in river water, seawater, and sediments ranged from 0.061 to 5.5, 0.25 to 0.63, and 0.0 to 4.3 years, respectively. No significant differences in age were observed among sample types or sampling sites. These findings suggest that effective measures to reduce MP emissions could significantly decrease MP pollution within 1 year in Shizuoka Prefecture.

Humans working as a team can achieve higher performance. Studies in sports science, network science, and machine learning have extracted dynamic physical interaction structures of such coordination in team sports. However, the information processing, such as the application of team strategies, has not been fully discussed. The purpose of this cognitive science study was to investigate the application of team strategies for dynamic coordination across different expertise levels using 3-on-3 basketball. In a field experiment, female players, who were selected as prefecture representatives in Japan (Average experience 19.33 years, [Formula: see text] = 4.09), repeatedly engaged in mini-games. Their previous and current affiliated teams competed in national tournaments. We analyzed the difficulty in anticipating offensive movements for the opponent defensive team, quantified as entropy, using tracking position data. This was compared with female players recorded in a previous study. They affiliated with a university team ranked in the third division of the regional league (Average experience 11.33 years, [Formula: see text] = 3.42). There was no such achievement as those in the high expertise condition. Using a linear mixed model with the significance level ([Formula: see text]), the results showed that the entropy for the key player in the high expertise condition was significantly higher than that in the low expertise after the tips condition, and similar to that in the low expertise before the tips condition. The tips were concise coaching advice regarding coordination related to the crucial role of intervention decision and adjustment. This was also lower than that simulated in the random walk condition, which served as a minimal baseline for scientifically explaining the observed complexity. Our first step study suggests that the movement dynamics at the expert level may be relatively complex, making it difficult for the defensive team to anticipate, and related to the application of team strategies.

In this study, finger movement in early childhood was quantitatively analyzed to clarify their characteristics in musical expression. The Meta gloves system, which captures finger movements in detail, was connected to the MVN system used for movement analysis, and 3-year-old, 4-year-old, and 5-year-old children in the three child facilities participated in the movement analysis of musical expression (n=86). A three-way non-repeated analysis of variance was conducted on the calculated data for 19 types of finger movements, and several characteristics were found in the metacarpal bone of the first finger. A three-way non-repeated ANOVA for the total moving distance, the moving average velocity, the moving average acceleration and the moving smoothness regarding the first metacarpal bone verified a contrast between the moving average acceleration and the moving smoothness. Regarding the moving average moving acceleration, in all of participant facilities, the data for bright melodies were faster than the dark melodies, and it was observed in a tendency for the participant children to show larger pretend movement of imagination in response to the bright melodies, and a tendency was apparent for the participant children to show larger active movement in response to the bright melodies. This tendency was particularly clear in the participant children in Y facility. It was also found that finger movements were more pronounced for brighter tunes. The moving smoothness was observed in not very fast but a steady rhythm, but it was found that the moving smoothness was significantly larger for the dark melody than the bright melody.

The Liangzhu culture, which emerged in the mid-Holocene Yangtze Delta, established one of East Asia's earliest cities. At its core site, Liangzhu, numerous worked human bones were unearthed from canal and moat deposits. These remains date from 5000 to 4550cal BP, with a concentration between 4800 and 4600cal BP. One notable characteristic of the worked human bones is the high proportion of unfinished items. This suggests that the bones selected for working may not have been particularly rare or symbolically privileged materials. In light of this, it is necessary to consider not only the possibility-commonly seen in global cases of worked human remains-that the bones came from ancestors or close kin, but also the possibility that the working was carried out with different intentions, possibly unrelated to ancestor worship. As the practice persisted for over 200 years, it appears to have been culturally embedded. The sudden appearance of such items-absent in earlier Neolithic China-may be closely related to Liangzhu's urban nature. Population growth and increasing social complexity may have altered interpersonal relationships, reshaping social and cultural views of "others" and the dead. These transformations likely formed the background for the emergence of practices involving the use of human bones as raw materials.

The role of bacterial selenium metabolism in non-polluted environments remains underexplored within the selenium biogeochemical cycle. In this study, selenium-metabolizing bacteria were isolated from urban environmental samples. Among 12 isolates, 10 were identified as Citrobacter spp., while the remaining 2 were Scandinavium hiltneri and Klebsiella aerogenes. The Citrobacter isolates demonstrated high selenium-removal efficiency, removing over 95% of 5 mM selenium from the aqueous phase within one week. In contrast, S. hiltneri K24-1 and K. aerogenes K24-4 removed only 19% and 69%, respectively. A detailed investigation of five representative isolates, C. freundii K21-1, S. hiltneri K24-1, C. braakii K24-2, K. aerogenes K24-4, and C. freundii K24-5, revealed that Citrobacter spp. efficiently reduced selenate directly to elemental selenium, with minimal accumulation of selenite intermediates. These results highlight Citrobacter spp. as key selenium reducers and suggest their potential as bioindicators of selenium metabolic capacity in the environment.

Abstract The spectrum of school absenteeism, futoko in Japanese, encompasses various behaviors, from psychological school avoidance motivation to the initiation and persistence of absentee behaviors. This study determined if the progression from ideation to action in absenteeism is attributable to the intensification of ideation (i.e., the spectrum hypothesis) or the lowering of the behavioral hurdle that cannot be explained solely by ideation (i.e., the actualization hurdle hypothesis). Retrospective data from 156 students who had experienced futoko were used to examine their school avoidance motivation and absentee behavior at four time points before the onset of futoko. The analysis delineated a trajectory wherein students, 2 years before ceasing attendance, showed adaptation comparable to that of their attending peers, followed by progression into futoko, marked by an escalation in avoidance motivation over the following 2 years. This study found no substantial reduction in behavioral actualization hurdles, indicating that the emergence of such behaviors is linked to escalating school avoidance motivation. These findings underscore the importance of monitoring changes in ideation, specifically school avoidance motivation, to prevent absenteeism.

Abstract. We present a building damage dataset following the 2024 Noto Peninsula Earthquake. The database was compiled from freely available, multi-source, remote sensing data, verified through opt-in crowd-sourced information. The dataset consists of geo-referenced vector polygons representing the pre-event building footprints of 140,208 structures. Each building was classified through visual inspection using pre-disaster and post disaster vertical, oblique, survey, and verifiable news reporting imagery. Entries were validated using voluntary-submission data sourced through a web-API hosting a live version of the database. We calculate classification metrics for a subset of the database where ground survey photographs were provided by independent surveyors. An average F1-score of 0.94 suggests that the proposed assessment is consistent and high quality. We aim to inform future disaster research such as disaster dynamics models; statistical and machine learning damage models; logistics and evacuation studies. The present work describes the data collection process, damage assessment methodology, and rationale; including limitations encountered, the crowd sourcing validation process, and the dataset structure.

（公社） 全日本鍼灸学会臨床情報部安全性委員会では、 第73回 （公社） 全日本鍼灸学会学術大会 （宮城大会） において、 「有害事象文献レビューと鍼灸安全対策マニュアルの紹介」 というテーマでワークショップを開催した。 ワークショップでは、 以下の情報について3名の委員から提供があり、 その後、 参加者との質疑応答および意見交換がなされた。 1. 有害事象文献レビュー -灸関連有害事象- （宮脇太朗） 2. 有害事象文献レビュー -鍼関連有害事象- （福世泰史） 3. 鍼灸安全対策マニュアルの紹介 （菅原正秋） 鍼灸安全対策マニュアルは、 2024年7月に発刊された。 学会員諸氏においては、 是非ご高覧いただき、 日々の臨床における安全対策の参考としていただければ幸いである。