明海大学

Discrimination against ethnic minorities in rental housing markets is widely documented, yet the mechanisms through which such discrimination arises remain less well understood. Discriminatory behavior may operate at different stages of the rental process, reflecting distinct economic incentives faced by market intermediaries. We investigate these mechanisms using a correspondence experiment in Tokyo's rental housing market, exploiting Japan's unique institutional feature in which some real estate agencies provide only brokerage services while others also conduct post-tenancy property management. This setting allows us to distinguish discrimination at the transaction stage from discrimination arising from anticipated management responsibilities. We find that foreign applicants are less likely to receive responses from both types of agents, but that discriminatory responses are significantly stronger among agents responsible for property management, particularly for properties with lower management fees. These results suggest that agents' decisions reflect cost-benefit considerations related to expected future management burdens. Importantly, we also show that discrimination persists even among brokerage-only agents, indicating that agent-driven discrimination cannot be attributed solely to post-tenancy management concerns or landlords' preferences. By identifying distinct channels of discrimination and the role of agents' organizational responsibilities, our findings contribute to the literature on statistical discrimination and highlight the broader role of intermediaries in shaping discriminatory outcomes in housing and other matching markets.

Pyrazole and pyrazoline derivatives are heterocyclic compounds with notable anticancer activity, and some are already in clinical use. Although many such compounds have been reported to induce apoptosis through G2/M arrest, studies on pyrazole/pyrazoline-benzenesulfonamides in both malignant and non-malignant cells from the same tissue are limited. In this work, we designed and synthesized 95 pyrazoline-benzenesulfonamides having 4[5-Aryl-3-(phenyl/p-tolyl/4-methoxyphenyl/4-fluorophenyl/thiophene-3-yl)-4,5-dihydro-1H-pyrazole-1-yl] benzenesulfonamides (1-95) chemical structure and evaluated their cytotoxicity in oral cancer cells (Ca9-22, HSC-2) and normal oral cells (HGF, HPLF). Among them, three compounds (56, 63, and 94) exhibited strong tumor selectivity. These compounds induced G1 arrest without subG1 accumulation or apoptosis, suggesting a non-apoptotic mechanism. QSAR analysis showed that tumor-specificity correlated with descriptors reflecting molecular topology, charge distribution, and size. Tox21 database screening indicated possible involvement of multiple signaling pathways, including ERRPGC, AhR, TSHR, VDR, and PPAR delta. Notably, estrogen-related receptor activation with PGC agonist may contribute to tumor selectivity, treatment resistance, and malignancy. Overall, our findings highlight the tumor-specific potential of pyrazoline-benzenesulfonamides and the importance of predicting optimal chemical structures through molecular descriptors to guide the design compounds in future studies.