While the ability to think for oneself is essential in this rapidly changing world, it has not been encouraged in Japan's traditional social and therefore its educational culture. Although the government of Japan has issued policies to engage students in independent thinking for almost two decades, high school and university students' responses to surveys about asking questions and expressing opinions in class suggest that students do not think deeply in the classroom. However, careful analysis of the students' responses could indicate that (1) students in Japan have difficulties expressing questions and ideas verbally because these activities do not agree with the values with which they have been raised, (2) students are not fully taught the different values reflected in these activities at school, and (3) very few Japanese teachers are able to teach values of which they have little direct experience themselves, nor can they encourage students to practice those activities. Evidence suggests that classes in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) offer the best opportunity for students to overcome these barriers and gain experience in asking questions and expressing opinions.

A rapid progress made for ultrathin sectioning technique in electron microscopy has contributed much to the analysis of microbial cell structures. Recently, several papers (3,(7)(8)(9)17,18,23) have appeared on the subject of electron microscopic studies of certain dermatophytes, and the structural details of fungal cells have been exposed to some extent through electron microscopy of ultrathin sections. However, the published electron micrographs of the organism, especially those in its early stage, were not of sufficient quality to reveal the detail architectures of the fungus. Moreover, the findings of the cell structures hitherto obtained have not been always agreeable among workers, and many problems of the fine structures of the organism still remained to be studied.Since Watson (1958)(25,26) succeeded in enhancing the contrast and resolution in thin sections of biological materials, using stain technique with heavy metals, several modifications(4,10,16) of his method have been reported, and these electron-opaque stains have been widely applied to tissue sections for electron microscopy. Vitols, North and Linnane (1961)(24) first reported that uranyl nitrate treatment of the whole cells of Saccharomyces cerevisiae after permanganate fixation leads to better preservation of the membrane structures and also to an improvement in general contrast. This paper describes some of the fine structures of Trichophyton mentagrophytes as observed chiefly by staining the thin sections of fungus cells with various heavy metals. MATERIALS AND METHODSOrganism employed: A stock culture of Trichophyton mentagrophytes, strain J-812, maintained on a glucose peptone agar at 27 C, was used. This strain was obtained from Dr. T. Tsuchiya, Professor of Juntendo University School of Medicine.Culture media employed: The medium mostly used was a glucose (1 per cent) peptone (1 per cent) water adjusted to pH 5.6.Electron microscopy of thin sections : Hyphal pellets of the strain grown on the medium for 5 to 7 days at 27 C were harvested by centrifugation and washed with sterile veronal-acetate buffer solution several times. These pellets of about 1 to 2 mm in diameter were fixed in 1 per cent osmium tetroxide solution, or 2 per cent potassium permanganate buffered at pH 6.99 with veronal-acetate buffer, for 24 hr at 4 C.

Context: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) incidence rates are 2- to 5-fold higher among persons incarcerated in the United States than in the general population. Program or Policy: We describe an outbreak investigation of COVID-19 at a jail (jail A) in Alameda County during March 2020-March 2021. Implementation: To prevent COVID-19 cases among incarcerated persons and employees, staff at jail A and the county public health department worked to develop and recommend infection control measures implemented by jail A including, but not limited to, face covering use among incarcerated persons and staff; cohorting incarcerated persons at a higher risk of severe COVID-19 in dedicated housing units; quarantining all newly detained individuals for 14 days; and offering testing for all symptomatic incarcerated persons, newly incarcerated persons at day 2 and day 10, and all persons who resided in a housing unit where a COVID-19 case was detected. Evaluation: A total of 571 COVID-19 cases were detected among incarcerated persons at jail A during March 2020-March 2021, which represented a total incidence of 280 per 1000 population, 5 times higher than the rate in Alameda County. Of the 571 cases among incarcerated persons, 557 (98%) were male; 415 (73%) were aged 18 to 40 years; 249 (44%) were Latino; and 180 (32%) were African American; 354 (62%) were not symptomatic; and 220 (39%) had no comorbidities. Less than 2% of infected incarcerated persons were hospitalized, and no deaths were reported. Discussion: COVID-19 disproportionately impacted persons incarcerated at jail A, with higher numbers among Latinos and African Americans. Implementation of COVID-19 infection control and testing measures, and collaboration between public health, law enforcement, and health care providers may have, in part, led to reductions in morbidity and mortality associated with COVID-19 at jail A.

The Course of Study by the Ministry of Education in 1998 and 2008 proposed to foster thinking abilities. To assess how often high school students engaged in activities with thinking, I conducted a survey with over 1,300 students in 1999 and 2014. The results in 2014 revealed that more students asked questions, spoke opinions, and wrote opinions than in 1999, while still about half of the students were reluctant to do these activities which requires thinking. Although the Japanese education system has achieved high standards in the world, it has failed to nurture students' thinking abilities which are essential to work with people from different backgrounds in the globalized society. To meet the demands of a rapidly changing world, it is proposed to make students objectively aware of their own culture and to provide materials to develop new teaching with thinking activities in the classroom.