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The present paper aims to explore how a certain class mode emerges in the context of collaborative learning, which affects student motivation and learning. Multiple sources of data were collected f...

Self-regulated learning explores learners' complex intrinsic factors, including their learning strategies and motivation to learn. It offers learners the opportunity to become autonomous – a situation that is essential for ensuring that Japanese students acquire English proficiency. This study aims to explore the factors involved in self-regulated language learning of Japanese senior high school students and to identify the different types of self-regulated English learners. A 45-item questionnaire covering learners' cognitive, behavioral, and affective aspects was distributed among 1076 students from seven prefectural senior high schools in Japan. Exploratory factor analysis confirmed the presence of five factors. Cluster analysis was used to classify students into four distinct profiles, and a follow-up interview was conducted with six students extracted from each cluster group. The findings confirmed that Japanese high school students have very complex internal factors that affect their learni...

Aims/Introduction: Platelet-derived microparticles (PDMP) are released from the platelets either after activation or in response to physical stimulation in vivo. The present study examined the association between blood pressure and PDMP, and the effects of high-dose angiotensin receptor blockers (ARB) on PDMP in patients with type 2 diabetes. Materials and Methods: The study subjects consisted of 28 type 2 diabetes patients with blood pressure ≥130/80 mmHg who were treated with valsartan (80 mg daily). The patients were randomly assigned to take either 80 mg of telmisartan (Tel group) or 160 mg of valsartan (Val group) and then were followed up for 24 weeks. Thereafter, the patients were switched to combination therapy (5 mg of amlodipine with 40 mg of telmisartan [Tel group] or 80 mg of valsartan [Val group]) for 12 weeks. Results: Although the ambulatory blood pressure did not change, the PDMP levels were significantly decreased from baseline to week 24 (high dose ARB). In contrast, combination therapy reduced both blood pressure and PDMP levels compared with the baseline. Although the PDMP level was significantly correlated with the morning BP elevation at baseline and week 36 (combination therapy), this same relationship was not found at week 24. There were no significant differences in the blood pressure and PDMP levels between the two groups. Conclusions: Patients with morning hypertension might be at risk for cardiovascular diseases. High-dose renin-angiotensin system inhibition and blood pressure control are both considered to reduce cardiovascular events in patients with type 2 diabetes. (J Diabetes Invest, doi: 10.1111/j.2040-1124.2010.00048.x, 2010)

We encountered an adult patient with Henoch-Schonlein purpura. He had been infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and antiretroviral therapy improved his nephritis, indicating that HIV infection might have contributed to the development of Henoch-Schonlein purpura in our case.

We encountered an adult patient with acute parvovirus B19 infection who presented with transient lupus-like symptoms (i.e., polyarthritis, fever, myalgia, pancytopenia, hypocomplementemia, and nephritis). Our case is characterized by the demonstration of acute nephritis as a complication of this infection, making it difficult to distinguish between a viral infection and the first episode of systemic lupus erythematosus.

In this study of the performance of a group of adult Japanese ESI learners on a listening test, an attempt is made to discover the relationship between correctness in answering and accuracy in judging the correctness incorrectness of answers chosen. Each time the learners chose an answer, they had to indicate on a 5-point scale how confident they were of the correctness of the answer. While average ratings for correct answers were higher than for wrong answers, two other patterns of “nonconfident correct answering” and “very confident wrong answering” were found. In order to investigate these phenomena in terms of the individual learner's performance, some analytic procedures from the Theory of Signal Detection were applied. An explanation and exemplification of those procedures are presented. The results show that there can be substantial differences in individual performances, despite identical test scores. These differences in terms of self-monitoring ability and confidence arc demonstrated and discussed. The study shows that the analytic procedures described can yield a number of important insights into learner performance and that the assumption of a straightforward relationship between accuracy and confidence in answering test items is mistaken.