Japanese Sample Research Articles

Infectivity of Hepatitis B Virus Surface Antigen-Positive Plasma With Undetectable HBV-DNA: Can HBsAg Screening Be Discontinued in Egyptian Blood Donors?

Hepatitis B Virus (HBV) infectivity data were reviewed and the 50% infectious dose (ID50) was reassessed in different HBsAg-positive infection stages enabling modelling of transfusion-transmitted (TT)-HBV infection risk if HBsAg donor screening was replaced by individual donation nucleic acid amplification technology (ID-NAT). Quantitative HBsAg and HBV-DNA assays were performed against international standards to compare the ratio between potential infectious HBV virions and subviral HBsAg particles in Egyptian HBsAg-positive blood donors as well as in Japanese chimpanzee samples of known infectivity. HBV-DNA load below the quantification limit of detection was estimated against a reference standard by replicate NAT testing (n = 25). Infectivity of chimpanzee samples collected during ramp-up and declining viremic phase were tested in a human liver chimeric mice (HLCM) model and compared with published infectivity data from different HBsAg-positive infection stages. Lowest estimates of ID50 in HBsAg-positive plasma were 3-6 HBV virions in chimpanzee studies. Infectivity decreased approximately 10-100-fold in the declining viremic phase using HLCM. In acute phase samples, HBV to HBsAg particle ratios varied between 1:102-104 but in HBsAg-positive blood donors this particle ratio reached 1:106-1012 when viral load was below 100 HBV-DNA copies/mL. Modelled TT-HBV risk of an HBsAg-positive/ID-NAT nonreactive blood transfusion was estimated at 5.5%-27% for components containing 20-200 mL of plasma when assuming an ID50 of 316 (point estimate between 100 and 1000) virions. It cannot be ensured that discontinuation of HBsAg donor screening and reliance on ID-NAT alone is safe.

Japanese Performance Profile on the WAIS-IV and Purported Cultural Influences.

The present exploratory study aimed to examine the potential impact of culture on cognitive skills and intelligence by comparing the Japanese Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-IV (WAIS-IV) (JW) subtests, IQs, and index scores to those of the U.S. WAIS-IV (USW). JW raw scores corresponding to a scaled score of 10 for each subtest were scored with USW norms. Subtest, index, and IQ scores were then calculated for each age range. The impact of education on scores was evaluated through ratio of educational attainment for each cohort of the Japanese and US samples. Japanese and US data were compared using one-sample t-tests. Correlations between subtest, index, and IQ scores and education were calculated. The USW sample performed higher than the JW sample on verbal comprehension subtests, while the JW sample demonstrated stronger performances in processing speed and perceptual reasoning subtests. However, all scores with the exception of Block Design, Matrix Reasoning, and Figure Weights were significantly associated with differential educational attainment between the two countries. Educational differences were linearly associated with age with the higher educational attainment for younger Japanese age groups and higher attainment for the older US cohorts. The present study demonstrates cognitive differences between Japan and the USA. Performance on the WAIS-IV subtest and composite measures are highly correlated with education. Cultural factors impacting the cognitive profile of the Japanese sample such as differences in worldview, customs, educational systems, and writing system, were proposed. Clinical neuropsychologists should take these aspects into account when administering and interpreting test results.

Development of a Japanese version of the patient perceptions of deprescribing – Short form

AbstractBackgroundDeprescribing is a critical component of clinical practice, especially in geriatric medicine. Nevertheless, the attributes of patients who are prepared for, interested in, and could potentially benefit from deprescribing have not been well examined. The Patient Perceptions of Deprescribing (PPoD) evaluates patients' overall readiness for deprescribing and is complemented by an 11‐item validated short form (SF‐PPoD). The objective of this study was to develop a Japanese version of the SF‐PPoD and assess its reliability and validity within Japanese older adults with polypharmacy.MethodsThe SF‐PPoD was translated, back‐translated, and assessed in a cognitive interview. We conducted a cross‐sectional survey with 196 patients aged 65 years or older with five or more medications using the Japanese version to test for reliability and validity. We examined internal consistency and construct validity to determine if the Japanese sample responses reproduce the two subscales in the original SF‐PPoD. Finally, we examined intra‐person replicability using the intraclass correlation coefficient, in which 100 participants were invited and 93 participated.Results118 males and 78 females, with a mean age of 79.2 [SD 6.5] years, completed the survey. Confirmatory factor analysis of the Japanese version of SF‐PPoD revealed satisfactory structural validity with two‐dimensional structure, “Motivation for Deprescribing” and “Primary Care Physician Relationship.” Cronbach's alpha showed good internal consistency, and test–retest demonstrated acceptable intra‐rater reliability.ConclusionsWe developed and validated a Japanese version of SF‐PPoD with an 11‐item, two‐dimensional structure consistent with the original SF‐PPoD. This scale may facilitate shared decision‐making for medication optimization among older adults living with multimorbidity.

Europium anomaly as a robust geogenic fingerprint for the geographical origin of aquatic products: A case study of nori (Neopyropia yezoensis) from the Japanese market

Rare earth element (REE) concentration patterns, while essential in geochemistry for tracing sample histories, have yet to be utilised entirely in food origin authentication. This research analysed 13 heavy metal(oid)s and REEs in Japanese edible seaweed Nori sheet samples (Neopyropia yezoensis), showing that the concentrations mirror the laver cultivation area's geological features (island arc-trench systems vs. continental crust). Thresholds for cadmium (0.5 ppm) and thorium (3.3 ppb) differentiate Japanese products from Korean imports. The slope of REE pattern, gadolinium anomalies, and yttrium/holmium ratios were also examined. However, nori samples significantly conveyed europium (Eu) anomalies, aligning with the mariculture hinterland's geochemistry. Both Japan's major seaweed mariculture areas, the Ariake Sea and the Seto Inland Sea, and Korean imports revealed distinct Eu anomalies (Eu/Eu* = 0.81–0.90, 0.58–0.66, 0.71–0.77), underscoring the potential of Eu anomalies as reliable seafood origin verifiers. This was also confirmed by literature values of Chinese samples.

The gratitude model of body appreciation and intuitive eating: Replication and extension of the model to explain intuitive eating facets among young adult women in China

The current study replicated and extended the gratitude model of body appreciation and intuitive eating in Chinese women. Using a sample of 957 young Chinese women, Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was employed to test two previously established models derived from samples of American (original model) and Japanese (modified model) women. Results indicated that the modified model had a better fit and was largely replicated in the Chinese context. Higher gratitude was associated with lower appearance and others’ approval of self-worth, higher body appreciation, and greater intuitive eating. Also, we further extended the model by exploring whether and how the model could explain intuitive eating facets. Results showed unique links between the core variables in the model and each facet of intuitive eating. Specifically, findings of the excellent model fit indicate that interventions focused on cultivating gratitude may be promising in promoting body appreciation and intuitive eating in young Chinese women. Also, interventions based on the model might be modified to address specific facets of intuitive eating, which may enhance the effectiveness of future interventions. Future research should use longitudinal and experimental designs and develop culturally adapted models to advance our understanding of how the gratitude model of body appreciation and intuitive eating applies to Chinese women.

Assessment of differences in mechanical properties and thickness of temporal and occipital bones and correlation with age in Japanese forensic samples

The mechanical properties and thickness of adult temporal and occipital bones were examined in modern Japanese forensic samples. Cranial bones were obtained from 293 Japanese corpses (179 men and 114 women). During autopsy, left temporal (LT), right temporal (RT), and occipital (O) bone samples were extracted from each skull. Sample thickness (ST) was measured using multidetector computed tomographic imaging. The fracture load (FL) of each sample was measured by a bending test, in which the flexural strength (FS) was calculated. The FL and ST values for O were significantly greater compared with those of the LT and RT bones. The temporal bones were thinner compared with other parts of the skull and at greater risk for fracture. There is a need to take precautions to prevent temporal bone fractures. There were no significant differences in any of the values between LT and RT, indicating bilateral symmetry of the temporal bones. There were significant negative correlations between age and the FL and FS values for all sites in both sexes, except for O in the male samples, suggesting that older individuals are at increased risk for fractures. No significant correlations were observed between age and ST values in any of the samples. There were significantly positive correlations between FL and ST values at all sites regardless of sex.

The Influence of Exposure and Attitude on YouTube’s Product Placement Advertising on Thai and Japanese Consumer Behavioral Responses

Technology has impacted people's lifestyles with the internet's expansion, and YouTube has emerged as a popular platform for product placement ads, especially in Japan and Thailand. However, concerns exist about their impact on audiences. Thus, training advertising professionals to handle such issues is crucial. This study aims to investigate the current state of product placement on YouTube in Thailand and Japan, a topic that has not been explored previously. This study analyzes product placement on YouTube in Thailand and Japan, and how cultural differences impact consumer behavior, norms, and attitudes. It also identifies factors that influence Thai and Japanese consumers' response to product placement on YouTube. This study utilized a quantitative approach to analyze data from 400 participants, comprising 200 Thai and 200 Japanese individuals who have experience in watching YouTube videos. The results of the multiple regression analysis indicate that "Consumer Ethnocentrism" has the greatest impact on the Thai sample group, while "Exposure" has the greatest impact on the Japanese sample group. Meanwhile, "Purchase Intention" has the most significant impact on the combined Thai and Japanese samples. This research provides insights for marketers, particularly concerning product placement on YouTube.

The Japanese Conception of Creativity: Myths and Facts

Abstract Empirical research on creativity spanning decades has identified several stereotypes on creativity that are not supported by scientific evidence. Known as creativity myths, these stereotypes can harm an individual’s creative endeavors in school or at the workplace. In prior research, the Creativity Myths and Facts Questionnaire (CMFQ) has been used to empirically investigate the extent to which people approved particular myths and facts related to creativity and the reasons for their belief in them (participants from Austria, Germany, Poland, the USA, China, and Georgia). The current study translated the CMFQ into Japanese and surveyed Japanese participants (N = 3,101). The approval rate for creativity myths among the Japanese was 58%, slightly lower than that for creativity facts (61%), a trend similar to that of other countries. The average approval rates for creativity myths in the Japanese sample suggest that the participants, compared to those from the six countries examined in prior research, have a stronger belief that creativity is a rare talent, that creativity is the same as art, or that it is difficult to change creativity. Furthermore, the results show that demographic variables, knowledge sources, and personality type, which have all been identified in existing studies as factors contributing to the belief in creativity myths, have a weak but significant influence among Japanese participants. We also discuss the high rate of uncertainty as a distinct characteristic in Japanese participants’ responses to creativity myths and facts.

Identification of Immunodominant Epitopes of Dengue Virus 2 Envelope and NS1 Proteins: Evaluating the Diagnostic Potential of a Synthetic Peptide.

Dengue is a major infectious disease with potential for outbreaks and epidemics. A specific and sensitive diagnosis is a prerequisite for clinical management of the disease. We designed our study to identify epitopes on theDengue virus (DENV) envelope (E) and non-structural protein 1 (NS1) with potential for diagnosis. Serology and immunoinformatic approaches were employed. We collected DENV-positive, DENV-negative and Japanese encephalitis virus-positive samples from collaborating hospitals in 2019 and 2022-2023. Seropositive peptides in 15-18 mer peptide arrays of E and NS1 proteins of DENV2 were determined by an indirect enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. B-cell linear and conformational epitopes were predicted using BepiPred2.0 and ElliPro, respectively. A consensus recombinant peptide was designed, synthesised and evaluated for its diagnostic potential using patient sera. Eight peptides of E protein and six peptides of NS1 protein were identified to be the most frequently recognised by Dengue-positive patients. These peptide sequences were compared with B-cell epitope regions and found to be overlapped with predicted B-cell linear and conformational epitopes. EP11 and NSP15 showed a 100% amino acid sequence overlap with B-cell epitopes. EP1 and NSP15 had 14 whereas EP28, EP31, EP60 16, NSP12 and NSP32 had more than 15 interacting interface residues with a neutralising antibody, suggesting a strength of interaction. Interestingly, potential epitopes identified were localised on the surface of proteins as visualised by PyMOL. Validation with a recombined synthetic peptide yielded 92.3% sensitivity and 91.42% specificity. Immunodominant regions identified by serology and computationally predicted epitopes overlapped, thereby showing the robustness of the methodology and the peptide designedfor diagnosis.

Diversity in gender and age, but not in race, enhances food purchase intentions in Japan

Team diversity must be promoted in many societies. While prior studies have emphasized the consequential impact of diverse teams on businesses, particularly in Western countries known for their racial and gender diversity, there is a notable gap in research exploring the role of team diversity on consumer evaluations among non-WEIRD (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic) consumers. Drawing upon signaling theory, our research aimed to investigate the influence of team diversity on consumer evaluations of both typical and novel food products within the non-WEIRD context of Japanese consumers. Japan, with its relatively low diversity in terms of gender and cultural ethnicity compared with North American and European countries, offers a unique background for exploring diversity issues. Through three online studies, we examined the impact of team ethnic diversity (Studies 1 and 2) and team age/gender diversity (Study 3) on purchase intentions toward typical and novel products. Our findings reveal that in Japan, information about gender and age diversity positively influences the purchase intention of food products, regardless of the novelty of the product. Notably, no such effect was observed for racial diversity. These results suggest that the positive influence of gender and age, but not racial diversity, can be generalized to non-WEIRD Japanese samples, contributing valuable insights into understanding team diversity dynamics in consumers’ evaluations of purchase intentions.

Measuring Risk Tolerance Among Japanese Adults and Cross-National Comparison of Its Role in COVID-19 Attitudes

Abstract: Risk propensity and attitudes influence how one responds and behaves in situations with different levels of risk. To date, limited studies have investigated domain-specific risk attitudes and their measurement in Japanese contexts or had direct comparisons between Japanese and other cultural contexts. In Study 1 ( N = 567), we developed a Japanese version of the multi-domain risk tolerance (MDRT) scale applicable to Japanese populations. The scale was further examined in Study 2 ( N = 509). We also tested cross-cultural measurement invariance between the Japanese and a US sample ( N = 495). In addition, we explored cultural differences in the predictive validity of MDRT on the concerns and attitudes relating to the COVID-19 pandemic. Our results demonstrated that MDRT has promising structure validity, reliability, convergent validity, and measurement invariance in the Japanese population. Results also showed that domain-specific risk attitudes as measured by MDRT have similarly important relationships with individuals’ concerns about COVID-19 in many life aspects, and their support for COVID-19 restrictions in both Japanese and US samples.

Contribution of the microbiome to differential drug efficacy and clinical trial outcomes between the US and Japan.

3086 Background: The gut microbiome is a source of patient variation that influences the efficacy of anticancer drugs (Spanogiannopoulos et al., 2022) . The microbiome also varies at a population level (Pasolli et al., 2019) .There is a limited understanding of the impact of this variation. We show for the first time that differences in drug-microbiome interactions may translate to differential clinical trial outcomes. For extensive-stage, small cell lung cancer (SCLC), irinotecan-cisplatin is a first-line treatment in Japan, based on data from Japan Clinical Oncology Group (JCOG) 9511 (Noda et al., 2002) demonstrating superior efficacy to etoposide-cisplatin (RR 87% vs 68%; PFS 12.8 vs 9.4 months). Despite employing an identical study design, the Southwest Oncology Group (SWOG) 0124 (Lara et al., 2009) failed to confirm this benefit for a US population. The reasons for this discrepancy are unclear. Methods: Microbiome analysis was performed using BioCorteX’s industry-leading knowledge graph and integrated proprietary engines v20231108_220940. 56,171 stool microbiome samples from the US adult population and 3,558 stool samples from the Japanese adult population were included. A database built on existing literature was used to identify proteins produced by organisms in these samples. These microbial-derived proteins were analysed for sequence similarity to human proteins that interact with irinotecan, etoposide and cisplatin. Interactions were ranked by the abundance of microbial genera producing a given protein. This was normalised by interaction prevalence to produce a clinical impact metric denoted the “Numbers Needed to Interact” (NNI). Results: Our results show that the NNI for irinotecan is almost 5 times lower in the US (US: 6.2; Japan: 30.9). By contrast, the NNI for both cisplatin and etoposide (US: 2.3; Japan: 1.7) is similar between countries. A pooled analysis of anticancer drugs shows that a negative Spearman’s rank correlation can be derived for NNI vs trial failure rate (ρ=-0.86, p<0.01). Analysis of the drug-microbiome interactions for irinotecan revealed 8 distinct, microbial-derived proteins with significant homology to proteins encoding human topoisomerases, including TOP1. All 8 of these molecular mimics were enriched in the US population. Only a single protein was found in Japanese stool samples. Conclusions: To our knowledge, this work represents the first demonstration that drug-microbiome interactions may contribute to the efficacy of anticancer drugs, as well as to differential trial outcomes between countries. Proteins produced by the microbiome that functionally mimic host proteins may interfere with the pharmacodynamics of cancer therapeutics, including irinotecan. This interaction is found 5 times more frequently in US stool samples than Japanese samples and may contribute to the observed differences in outcomes in JCOG9511 and SWOG0124.

Developmental trajectories of creativity during early adolescence in a Japanese sample: Links to perceived parental autonomy support and psychological control

This study aimed to determine the developmental trajectories of creativity during early adolescence and identify parental factors that predict the differences between these developmental trajectories. We examined the development of creativity in early adolescence using a group-based trajectory modeling. Data were collected from seventh-grade Japanese junior high school students. In this prospective longitudinal study, participants’ creativity was assessed using the verbal Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking at three time points (every six months). They also reported on perceived parental autonomy support and psychological control at the first phase of the study. Results of the analysis (N = 331) suggested that the developmental trajectories of creativity during early adolescence could be classified into three groups: low, moderate, and high. In addition, multinomial regression analyses (N = 293) showed that adolescents with higher perceived autonomy support or lower perceived psychological control were more likely to be grouped into the moderate-creativity group compared to the low-creativity group. These findings provide insights into the relationship between creativity in early adolescence and parental attitudes from the perspective of heterogeneous developmental trajectories.

Factors Associated with COVID-19 Vaccination Hesitancy and Most Frequently Vaccinated Status in a Japanese Population-Based Sample.

While many countries across the world have had difficulty in providing continuous coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine boosters, in Japan, the number of COVID-19 vaccinations has increased rapidly in the past two years to the point where the vaccination booster numbers are now at the highest level in the world (by March 2023). Against this backdrop, this study aimed to determine the characteristics of individuals who either refused to be vaccinated or who were vaccinated multiple (five) times during this period. We analyzed data from a sample of 3710 Japanese adults that were collected in a nationwide, cross-sectional Internet survey that was undertaken in March 2023. Several demographics (e.g., age, education level, marital status, job status), medical conditions, daily smoking, and mental health/psychological factors (i.e., perceived stress, anxiety symptoms, loneliness) were associated with not having been vaccinated. Although the most frequently vaccinated status was also associated with some demographics (e.g., age, employment status), medical conditions, and daily smoking, other predictors such as having a COVID-19 infection history were unique to this outcome. Moreover, age-stratified analyses showed that depression (OR: 2.05, 95%CI: 1.08-3.89) and anxiety (OR: 3.87, 95%CI: 1.80-8.31) symptoms were associated with higher odds of being unvaccinated while loneliness was associated with lower odds for the most frequently vaccinated status (OR: 0.72, 95%CI: 0.54-0.96) among older adults (aged ≥ 60 years). The findings of this study indicate that many of the same factors are associated with vaccine hesitancy and being vaccinated multiple times among adults in Japan but that among older individuals, worse mental/psychological health problems may be important for vaccine hesitancy/infrequent vaccine uptake in an age range where the majority of individuals (57.7%) had been vaccinated five times.

Order Effects on the Rubber Hand Illusion Expectancy: A Replication and Extension of Lush (2020)

The rubber hand illusion (RHI) is an illusion where the synchronized stroking of a rubber hand, placed in front of a participant, along with their concealed real hand results in a sense of ownership over the rubber hand. The questionnaire used to subjectively measure the RHI incorporated control and illusion statements to address demand characteristics. However, Lush (2020) demonstrated participants expected the illusion upon viewing a video of the RHI procedure despite the absence of tactile stimuli, indicating a lack of control over demand characteristics. In our study, Experiment 1, conducted with a Japanese sample (n = 27), was a preliminary direct replication of Lush (2020). Experiment 2, involving a larger sample (n = 185), also directly replicated Lush’s study and further investigated the influence of condition order on expectancies for the RHI. In both experiments, participants showed stronger agreement with the illusion statement expectancies in the synchronous condition compared to the asynchronous condition. However, this difference was not observed in the control statement expectancies, thereby replicating the outcomes of the original study. In Experiment 2, the group exposed to the asynchronous condition first showed stronger agreement with the illusion statement expectancies in that condition than those exposed to the synchronous condition first. As the RHI has been defined as the difference in direct and indirect measures between synchronous and asynchronous conditions, our results suggest that the methods in the RHI paradigm insufficiently control demand characteristics and order effects; thus, findings based on these methods are confounded by these effects.

Analysis of Multi-Intelligent Distributed Japanese Language Block Recognition Based on Knowledge Recognition Corpus

The Knowledge Recognition Corpus (KRC) serves as a comprehensive repository designed to capture and organize diverse forms of knowledge for computational analysis and understanding. This corpus encompasses a wide array of data sources, including text documents, images, videos, and structured datasets, covering various domains and topics. The concept of Multi-Intelligent Distributed Knowledge Recognition Corpus (MI-DKRC) represents an innovative approach to harnessing the collective intelligence of distributed systems for knowledge recognition tasks. This paper presents an analysis of Multi-Intelligent Distributed Japanese Language Block Recognition (MI-DJLBR) based on the Knowledge Recognition Corpus (KRC), employing multi-factor bi-gram Sentimental Classification (MFbi-SC). The MI-DJLBR system is designed to recognize and classify Japanese language blocks within a distributed framework, leveraging the collective intelligence of multiple intelligent agents. Through the utilization of the KRC, which encompasses a diverse array of Japanese text samples, images, and multimedia content, MI-DJLBR aims to enhance the efficiency and accuracy of Japanese language block recognition tasks. The incorporation of MFbi-SC further refines this process by considering multiple factors, including syntax, semantics, context, and sentiment, to classify Japanese language blocks with greater precision. Simulation demonstrated that a dataset of 1,000 Japanese language blocks, MI-DJLBR achieves an average recognition accuracy of 94.5%, demonstrating its effectiveness in accurately identifying and classifying Japanese text segments. Furthermore, the incorporation of MFbi-SC enhances the system's classification accuracy by an average of 7.2%, indicating the significance of multi-factor sentiment analysis in refining classification outcomes. In terms of computational efficiency, MI-DJLBR exhibits impressive processing times, with an average recognition speed of 200 blocks per second. This highlights the scalability and responsiveness of the distributed framework, enabling efficient processing of large-scale Japanese language datasets in real-time scenarios.

Sex and pathological personality traits: measurement invariance and comparisons

IntroductionThe Personality Inventory for DSM-5 (PID-5) is an instrument that aims to assess pathological personality traits according to the alternative model proposed by the DSM-5. To validate the comparison of an instrument’s scores between different groups, it is necessary that the measure’s invariance be attested, in order to guarantee that the same underlying constructions are being evaluated between the groups. Differences between sex in relation to the predominance of adaptive personality traits were portrayed in previous studies, a fact that seems to be related to culture.ObjectivesThis study aims to assess whether the PID-5 presents structural equivalence between sex (sex measuremet invariance) and whether there are differences between pathological personality traits in Brazilian men and women.MethodsA community sample of 1110 subjects was assessed (71.2% women, mean age 34.6 (±15.8) years, 68.8% higher education). They were recruited through advertisements in different media and by the “snowball” method. Participants responded to the PID-5 in person. The cross-culturally adapted version into Brazilian Portuguese was usedResultsThe PID-5 showed that its structure was invariant for sex at the configural level (CFI= 1.000; TLI=1.007; RMSEA<0.001), metric (ΔCFI=0.01; ΔTLI= 0.02; ΔRMSEA=0.02) and scalar (ΔCFI=0.006) ; ΔTLI= 0.006; ΔRMSEA=0.004), allowing comparisons. Regarding the domains evaluated by the PID-5, men showed more traits of Distancing, Antagonism, Disinhibition and Psychoticism (p<0.002), while for Negative Affectivity there were no differences between genders (p=0.06). In terms of facets, women showed higher indicators of lability, anxiety and impulsivity (p<0.01), while men showed perseverance, withdrawal, restricted affectivity, manipulation, dishonesty, grandiosity, attention seeking, insensitivity, irresponsibility, exposure to risks, unusual beliefs and eccentricity (p<0.04).ConclusionsThe findings reinforce the validity evidence of the DSM-5 trait model, which, through the PID-5, similarly evaluates such aspects between sex. Differences between genders were observed in relation to pathological personality traits, which bear similarities with differences observed in terms of adaptive personality traits. Specificities are observed at the cultural level, when, for example, the findings are compared with a Japanese university sample, reinforcing the role of culture at this levelDisclosure of InterestNone Declared

Forms of Peer Victimization and School Adjustment Among Japanese Adolescents: A Multilevel Analysis.

The psychosocial correlates and consequences of peer victimization are well documented. However, there is limited knowledge about whether different forms of peer victimization (relational and physical) are predictive of school-based social and motivational factors among adolescents from non-Western cultures. The present study examined the relationship between individual and school-level forms of peer victimization and school adjustment among Japanese adolescents, and the mediating role that these factors may play. The Japanese sample (N = 6109 from 185 schools, Mage = 15.78, SD = 0.29, 51% girls and 49% boys) was drawn from a large international dataset, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2018. Results showed that school-level relational victimization was associated with individual-level relational victimization, and school-level physical victimization was associated with individual-level physical victimization, after controlling for age, gender, and socioeconomic status. Individual-level relational victimization was also uniquely associated with indices of school adjustment (negative affect, positive affect, and fear of failure) over and above physical victimization. While controlling for relational victimization, individual-level physical victimization was associated with indices of school adjustment (positive affect and meaning in life). In further findings, school-level relational and physical victimization were indirectly, but not directly, related to some of students' school adjustment through individual-level relational and physical victimization. These parallel and differential associations suggest the importance of considering the role of relational and physical victimization in school adjustment among Japanese adolescents.

Inference of selective forces on house mouse genomes during secondary contact in East Asia.

The house mouse (Mus musculus), which is commensal to humans, has spread globally via human activities, leading to secondary contact between genetically divergent subspecies. This pattern of genetic admixture can provide insights into the selective forces at play in this well-studied model organism. Our analysis of 163 house mouse genomes, with a particular focus on East Asia, revealed substantial admixture between the subspecies castaneus and musculus, particularly in Japan and southern China. We revealed, despite the different level of autosomal admixture among regions, that all Y Chromosomes in the East Asian samples belonged to the musculus-type haplogroup, potentially explained by genomic conflict under sex-ratio distortion owing to varying copy numbers of ampliconic genes on sex chromosomes, Slx and Sly Our computer simulations, designed to replicate the observed scenario, show that the preferential fixation of musculus-type Y Chromosomes can be achieved with a slight increase in the male-to-female birth ratio. We also investigated the influence of selection on the posthybridization of the subspecies castaneus and musculus in Japan. Even though the genetic background of most Japanese samples closely resembles the subspecies musculus, certain genomic regions overrepresented the castaneus-like genetic components, particularly in immune-related genes. Furthermore, a large genomic block (∼2 Mbp) containing a vomeronasal/olfactory receptor gene cluster predominantly harbored castaneus-type haplotypes in the Japanese samples, highlighting the crucial role of olfaction-based recognition in shaping hybrid genomes.

Is subjective age a multidimensional construct in a Japanese sample aged 20-89?

Subjective age is an emerging concept in the aging literature that predicts various aspects of quality of life, but its nature is not fully understood. This study aimed to explore whether subjective age is a unidimensional or a multidimensional construct and its relationship with quality of life through a multi-aspects approach. We examined subjective age for 2896 Japanese adults aged 20-89 by using five subjective age measures and questions with regard to their quality of life and analyzed the results with four indexes. Factor analyses found one factor for the measures, indicating a unidimensional construct. Yet, the multi-aspect analyses revealed unique features of the measures, especially in relation to variables on the quality of life. Among the five measures, Perceived physical age is the best predictor of life satisfaction and perception of cognitive function (i.e., memory), such that the more satisfied individuals are with their life, the younger they feel. Ideal age is another best predictor in the opposite direction, such that the less satisfied individuals are with their life, the younger they want to be. Although the factor analyses revealed subjective age to be a unidimensional construct, the present results also suggest the possibility that it is multidimensional in nature. In future studies, a more systematic approach is essential for a thorough exploration of scales designed to measure the multiple aspects of subjective age. This is particularly crucial in the context of predicting our well-being. Such scales could also enable us to compare the universality and individuality of subjective age across different cultures. Geriatr Gerontol Int 2024; 24: 253-258.