In this study, we report the curriculum of a programming course case study of senior citizens jointly implemented by the university and a local government in Japan. The objective of the course is to offer high-quality lifelong learning opportunities for retired seniors. The program also offers them necessary skills for impacting programming education in the local elementary schools, and the participatory action research (PAR) was adopted as a research method. Through a questionnaire and participant observation, we design the course by collecting the opinions of a lecturer or assistant to understand the manner in which the participants developed human relations and learning for one year. The research objectives are to study the learnability of the programming course and the course operation among differently aged participants. Through qualitative analysis, we observed distinct characteristics of senior learners with respect to their diversities in terms of motivation, background knowledge, and skills. The second course was taught by senior lecturers who had previously attended the course and the learnability of the second course was better than the previous one. With respect to the instructional design for senior citizens, scheduling, pacing, and diverse learning styles were observed to be the key. For future study, we attempt to address the conflicts among members and guarantee the quality of education for senior lecturers to support the teaching of programming in elementary schools. This study was supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Number JP18K02828.

高性品種と矮性品種のヒマワリ（Helianthus annuus）を播種して12日目に芽生えの草丈を比較すると, 矮性品種「小夏」の草丈は高性品種「かがやき」の草丈の約20％しかなかった。また, 矮性品種の播種後5日目の芽生えに1.0×10–4 MのGA3溶液を投与すると, 播種後12日目（投与後7日目）には, 草丈が対照の2倍以上となった。この間の平均伸長速度は, 7.6 mm/日であり, 無処理の高性品種の平均伸長速度8.0 mm/日とほぼ同じ値となった。すなわち, 矮性品種の芽生えは, 投与したジベレリンに応答し, 高性品種の伸長成長速度まで回復した。これらの結果に基づき, 高性品種と矮性品種の芽生えにジベレリンを投与し, 節間の伸長を1週間にわたり測定する生徒実験を行なった。ワークシートを用いて, 生徒たちに草丈の変化のグラフを作成させた。さらに, 草丈伸長の差異を品種や処理区の間で比較し, 草丈の違いとジベレンとの関係を考えさせた。この実践の前後に学習の理解を評価したところ, 生徒たちは品種の違いとジベレリンとの関係に関する問いに対して, 正答を選択する割合が57％から86％へと, 有意に上昇した。アンケートでは95％の生徒が, 植物の成長の仕組みに興味を持てたと回答した。また, 品種間の草丈の違いとジベレリンの関係を深く調べる方法を問うと, ジベレリン量の測定や遺伝子の操作をあげた生徒が見られ, 多くの生徒が品種別にジベレリンの生産量を測定することを考えたり, 一部にはその原因となる遺伝子について考えたりするようになった。

Background: Kawasaki disease (KD) is a systemic vasculitis and the leading cause of acquired heart disease. There are some cases that show unresponsiveness to initial intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) and require addition treatment. High incidence of coronary artery lesions (CAL) is seen in unresponsive cases. Pentraxin 3 (PTX3) is produced at the site of vascular inflammation, and used as a new biomarker for vasculitis. The aim of this study is to explore the application of PTX3 to KD. Methods: 128 patients with KD are enrolled. Blood samples are collected at before IVIG and 1, 3, 6 month later from the onset of KD. PTX3 values are compared with IVIG unresponsive scoring system by Kobayashi et al. (Circulation, 2006). Results: Mean values of PTX3 before IVIG and 1, 3, 6 month were respectively 25.1*, 7.1*, 3.8, 3.6 ng/ml (asterisk shows statistical significance with age-matched control: 3.6). Mean values of PTX3 in unresponsiveness (n=20) and responsiveness (n=108) at before IVIG and 1, 3, 6 month were 46.8* vs. 20.9, 9.1* vs. 6.7, 4.2 vs. 3.7, 3.9 vs. 3.5 ng/ml (asterisk shows statistical significance between two groups). There is statistical positive correlation between PTX3 and score points by Kobayashi et al. (r=0.602, p=0.000). According to the statistical analysis, the area under the ROC curve (AUC) was 0.87 and sensitivity and specificity of PTX3 as IVIG unresponsiveness prediction were 90 and 81 %, if cut off value was set as 28 ng/ml. Conclusions: 1. vasculitis continues at least 1 month after onset of disease. 2. PTX3 can be a candidate biomarker for prediction of unresponsiveness in patients with KD.