A Multicentre Randomized Controlled Trial of Recombinant Interferon-Alpha-2a in the Treatment of Patients with Chronic Hepatitis C

Sixty-one chronic hepatitis C patients were randomly assigned to receive either 6x106 or 9x106 U of recombinant interferon-alpha-2a (IFNα-2a) six days a week for the first two weeks of treatment, followed in both cases by 6x106 U three days a week for the next 22 weeks. In the low dose group, 11 patients showed a complete response maintained for at least six months, 12 responded but then relapsed and nine did not respond; the corresponding figures in the high dose group were 10, 15 and five patients, respectively. The differences between groups are not statistically significant. Thus, this study provides no evidence of therapeutic benefit from increasing the initial dose of IFNα-2a. In both treatment groups, complete responders had significantly lower pretreatment viral titres than nonresponders and were significantly more likely to be infected by type 2a versus type 1b virus

An Analysis on Process of an After-school Tutorial Project and Its Modelization

The purposes of this study are to propose a pilot support system of an after-school tutorial project delegated by MEXT, which is aimed to develop learning qualities and abilities of both pupils and teacher trainee students and to make a report of the proceedings and results of a practice in Akita. We instituted the following support systems to overcome various issues left by the conventional style of teacher trainee students volunteer program : creation of a discussing place for teacher trainee students and university teacher, coordination by a university teacher, and preparation of records for teacher trainee students. Through analyzing the process of this project in Akita, we proposed a pilot collaborative model for this after-school tutorial project