127 research outputs found
Tradition or Cruelty: Following the History of Small Scale Whaling in Taiji, Japan
No full textabstract: Every season from September to March in Taiji, Japan, around 23,000 dolphins, and other small cetaceans are slaughtered or sold to dolphinariums in the name of a 400-year-old tradition. The word ‘tradition’ is often used to rationalize and justify the terrible acts of animal cruelty, as seen in many countries such as bullfighting in Spain, fox hunting in Britain, Thanksgiving in America, and drive hunting in Japan. However, just because something is deemed as a tradition, does not mean it should not be challenged and judged against the standards of morality. Whale and dolphin hunting has stopped becoming a proud cultural tradition of small-scale subsistence whaling and has become a business run on wholesale slaughter and the exploitation of another species. The disconnect between the past and present has led to an evil distortion of the past.
However, this event cannot simply be explained by blaming solely greed and selfishness for driving this long-lasting tradition. By analyzing poems by Misuzu Kaneko, early hunting methods, memorial services, and graves built in the past and comparing them to the current hunting methods, dolphin shows, and the Taiji Whale Museum, one can determine the variety of factors driving these actions and find the point in time when the intentions of these practices shifted. By having a better understanding of the past and the present, one can follow a once-proud tradition becoming a source to justify unethical and cruel behavior. (abstract
Risk factors of undescended testis
No full textA study on possible association of maternal factors with undescended testis was undertaken. A comparison was made using mothers of boys with the disease (No. = 108) and mothers of boys without the disease (No. = 108). The boys without the disease were selected from outpatients by individually matching the birth year with the case. A smaller proportion of mothers having babies with the disease experienced vomiting during the index pregnancy (the estimated relative risk RR = 0.51, P = 0.02). A larger proportion of them had delivered by vacuum extractor delivery, cesarean section, or breech extraction (RR = 2.10, P = 0.04). A higher proportion of cases were complicated with inguinal hernia (RR = 9.00, P = 0.03), congenital cardiac diseases (RR = infinity, P = 0.008), or other various kinds of congenital disorders. A larger proportion of these mothers had never breastfed for the cases (RR = 3.75, P = 0.02). Exposure to external estrogen in the utero was not noted to be associated with undescended testis
The Stability of End Carbonyl Groups of Polyvinyl Acetate Telomers Prepared in the Presence of Various Aldehydes
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Studies on Polymerization of Divinyl Compounds (I)-Intermolecular-Intramolecular Polymerization of N-Acryloyl Acrylamide.
No full textStudies on Polymerization of Divinyl Compounds II. Infrared Spectra of Polyacrylic Anhydride and Polymethacrylic Anhydride.
No full textStructure of End Carbonyl Group of Polyvinyl Acetate Prepared in the Presence of Acetaldehyde.
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