Search

We focused on the production of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA)-containing microbial lipids by Aurantiochytriumsp. using of defatted soybean (DS) as a nitrogen source. Defatted soybean is a plant biomass that could provide a sustainable supply at a low cost. Results showed that Aurantiochytriumsp. could not directly assimilate the DS as a nitrogen source but could grow well in a medium containing DS fermented with rice malt. When cultivated in a fermented DS (FDS) medium, Aurantiochytriumsp. showed vigorous growth with the addition of sufficient sulfate and chloride ions as inorganic nutrients without seawater salt. A novel isolated Aurantiochytriumsp. 6-2 showed 15.8 ± 3.4 g/L DHA productivity (in 54.8 ± 12.1 g/L total fatty acid production) in 1 L of the FDS medium. Therefore, DHA produced by Aurantiochytriumsp. using FDS enables a stable and sustainable DHA supply and could be an alternative source of natural DHA derived from fish oil.Graphical AbstractFor the development of novel fish feed, docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) produced by a novel isolated strain Aurantiochytriumsp. 6-2 was applied as an alternative source of DHA by using defatted soybean treated with koji.

ω3 Polyunsaturated fatty acids are currently obtained mainly from fisheries; thus, sustainable alternative sources such as oleaginous microorganisms are required. Here, we describe the isolation, characterization, and application of 3 novel ω3 desaturases with ω3 polyunsaturated fatty acid–producing activity at ordinary temperatures (28 °C). First, we selected Pythium sulcatumand Plectospira myriandraafter screening for oomycetes with high eicosapentaenoic acid/arachidonic acid ratios and isolated the genes psulω3and pmd17, respectively, which encode ω3 desaturases. Subsequent characterization showed that PSULω3 exhibited ω3 desaturase activity on both C18 and C20 ω6 polyunsaturated fatty acids while PMD17 exhibited ω3 desaturase activity exclusively on C20 ω6 polyunsaturated fatty acids. Expression of psulω3and pmd17in the arachidonic acid–producer Mortierella alpinaresulted in transformants that produced eicosapentaenoic acid/total fatty acid values of 38% and 40%, respectively, at ordinary temperatures. These ω3 desaturases should facilitate the construction of sustainable ω3 polyunsaturated fatty acid sources.Graphical AbstractCharacterization of ω3 fatty acid desaturases from oomycetes and their application toward eicosapentaenoic acid production in Mortierella alpina.

ABSTRACTOne of the institutional challenges of taking in large numbers of international graduate students is supporting their academic literacy skills. To accommodate a large population of international students, Japanese universities offer various services to support their academic studies and life-related issues, such as hiring international student advisors, offering Japanese language courses, and implementing peer-support programs. As a type of academic support for writing for international students, writing centers have caught the attention of universities in the last decade. To examine the institutional role of the writing center at a Japanese university, this study employs a language management lens to compare the beliefs and interests among administrators, tutors, and international students in improving international students’ Japanese writing. Interviews with the three groups of participants displayed incongruences between the administrators’ interests aligned with institutional goals, the educational philosophy of the writing center, and international students’ language learning needs. The findings point to the tutors' crucial role as language specialists who inform organized language management, and the necessity for collaboration between academic support units and faculty members in providing sufficient academic socialization environments for international students.

This study looks into the increasing emphasis on the use of language tests for global workplace preparation in Japan. It presents particular usages of English language tests in higher education curricula designed to foster “Global Human Resources” (GHRs), a special global workforce with high levels of English proficiency deemed necessary by the Japanese government. Focusing on a government-initiated five-year funding program, “The Project for Promotion of Global Human Resources”, government documents and the project planning sheets of 11 universities are analyzed to trace how language tests act as a form of governmentality (Foucault. 2007 [1977]. Security, territory, population: Lectures at the Collège de France, 1977–1978(Trans. by Graham Burchell). New York: Palgrave Macmillan) to maximize the number of GHRs. I describe how language tests are used to portray a reality about the lack of English proficiency among Japanese youth, how they work as a powerful accountability measure for universities, and how these tests are incorporated into language education curricula with the goal of increasing students’ language capital. Three functions of language tests are then identified in the universities’ proposed curricula: motivating, categorizing, and prioritizing through testing. These governing techniques represent how language tests can work to promote neoliberal forms of international education that instrumentalize language learning, stimulate inequitable competition, and (un)reward certain global subjectivities.

The writing center is a common form of academic writing support in Canadian and U.S. universities (Moussu & David, [Moussu, L., 2015]). With its nonproofreading policy, some scholars have indicated the service may be less effective for international students who require more explicit assistance on surface‐level features in their academic writing (Harris & Silva, [Harris, M., 1993]; Myers, [Myers, S. A., 2003]). However, these discussions often omit or insufficiently address international graduate students as a distinctive population (Phillips, [Phillips, T., 2013]). To address this gap, this article presents results from two complementary case studies involving the use of writing centers by three second language (L2) Chinese graduate students (two doctoral and one master's) at a research‐intensive Canadian university. Drawing on a second language socialization theoretical framework (Duff, [Duff, P., 2007]; Zuengler & Cole, [Zuengler, J., 2005]), the researchers examine the role of the university's writing center in the participants’ enculturation into academic discourses, practices, identities, and communities. Data indicate that international graduate students spend considerable time and effort seeking out writing support to improve academic practices. Only the master's student was able to make full use of the writing center tutorials due to her strategic socialization of the tutor. Implications are provided to minimize student burden and maximize specialized writing support for L2 graduate students.