Preoperative Evaluation of the Right Upper Lobe Pulmonary Artery by 3D-CT Pulmonary Angiography vs. Thin-Section Multiplanar Reconstruction Images Obtained by Contrast-Enhanced Multidetector-Row CT

We compared the effectiveness of 3-dimensional computed tomography pulmonary angiography (3D-CTPA) and thin-section multiplanar reconstruction (MPR) images obtained using contrast-enhanced multidetector row CT (MDCT), in the evaluation of pulmonary artery (PA) branches of the right upper lobe. We studied 127 patients suspected of having lung cancer of the right upper lobe who underwent contrast-enhanced MDCT scans and a right upper lobectomy. We compared the intraoperative findings of the PA branches of the right upper lobe obtained with 3D-CTPA and thin-section MPR images. In 125 (97.7%) patients, one or more PA branches arose from arteries other than the superior trunk. Among 10 (7.9%) patients, a PA branch arose from the middle lobe in one patient and from the superior segment of the lower lobe in the other 9 patients. According to the intraoperative findings, 97.2% and 99.7% of the PA branches were identified by 3D-CTPA and thin-section MPR images, respectively (p＜0.03). The single branch missed by both imaging modalities was 1.0mm in dia. The 8 branches missed only by 3D-CTPA were＜1.4mm in dia. Both the 3D-CTPA and thin-section MPR images provided precise preoperative information regarding PA branches of the right upper lobe. However, the thin-section MPR images appeared to contribute more to the evaluation of smaller PA branches

New Goals For Counseling In Japanese Workplaces : A System For Development Of Sound Mind

経済の混迷する現在、職場の労務管理は、家族的温情主義から、個人と組織の欲求を統一した人的資源管理への移行が時代の趨勢となり、キャリアカウンセリングの台頭を見ることになった。職場カウンセリングの来談に動機づけられない日本人の意識構造をカバーするために、スクリーニングとして「労働意識調査」を介した回答結果によって、自己の意識を客観的に見てもらう体験を通して、来談のための内発的な動機づけを高めると考えられた。呼び出しに応じて来談したクライエントは、面接場面で、象徴的な自己を吐露する現象が見られた。これらのクライエントの抱える問題の内容は、多種多様で、かつ深刻であった。問題がさらに重大にならない前の早い時期に、もし、パーソンセンタードのカウンセリングによって、認知変容ができれば、クライエントの人生の真の意味を気づかせるばかりか、さらに精神的健康の増進にもつながると考えられる。さらに医療費の軽減をもたらすことが期待でき、今後の医療政策へも、一つの示唆を与えることが出来ると考えられる。Today, business is dull, and it is the trend of the times in the workplace that Personnel Management turns from Familiar Paternalism to Human Resource Management which unifies the needs of individual and organization. Therefore we have seen that Career Counseling has come to the front. To cover the consciousness structure of Japanese who cannot be motivated to come to Employee Counseling Room, I thought they might be motivated interiorly through an experience which would make them look at their consciousness objectively by his answered profile through the medium of a "work consciousness survey" as screening. I found a phenomenon that the client who came to a talk spontaneously expressed his symbolic self in his interview screening. The contents of the problems which these clients held out on were various, and serious. At an early stage before the problem became more serious, if they could transform their recognition spontaneously through person-centered counseling, not only would they be aware of the true meanings of their life, but also they could enhance their spiritual health. Moreover we can expect it produce a reduction in medical care cost. I think we can give a suggestion for planning future medical policies too

Mental Factors of Quality of Working Life : An empirical study on hotel workers.

本研究は，某ホテル従業員の意識調査に基いて，労働生活の精神的充足要因について，主観的職務充足要因，客観的職務充足要因，人間関係充足要因，経営管理充足要因，家庭・余暇充足要因から成立しているという仮設を立てて検討を行ったものである。次に就労上の精神状況を，至高型，成功型，生きがい型，両立型，無力型の6タイプに分類した。6タイプとの平均値が高い順に，①主観的職務，②客観的職務，③人間関係，④家庭・余暇，⑤経営管理の各々の充足要因であった。これらの6タイプは主観的職務充足要因と客観的職務充足要因の間では，明確な2極分化がみられ，人間関係充足要因，家庭・余暇充足要因ではあいまいであり，経営管理充足要因では，全く2極分化はみられなかった。The purpose of this article is to show some important mental sufficiency factors of Quality of Working Life. At first, we prepared questionnaires about five mental sufficiency factors, that is, subjective job sufficiency, objective job sufficiency, human relation sufficiency, management sufficiency, family-and-leisure sufficiency. Secondly, we had questionnaires about workers\u27 consciousness, that is, supremacy, success, worth living, reconcilation, leisure, powerlessness, etc. According to the result of the research, the workers are most sufficient about subjective job factor, second most about objective job factor, third about human relation factor, fourth with family-and-leisure, factor and the least sufficient about management factor. We investigated whether six groups of workers classified by workers\u27 consciousness have similar answer patterns about mental sufficiency factor. In subjective job sufficiency and in objective job sufficiency, we found a clear polarisation of patterns. In family-and-leisure sufficiency, we found an ambiguous polarisation. And we could not find any polarisation in management sufficiency. Still more, we can classify these mental sufficiency factors into two levels, namely, "upper level of working consciousness" and "under level of working consciousness"創立百周年記念特

CT Assessment of Subtypes of Pulmonary Emphysema in Females

We performed a retrospective study examining the prevalence and subtypes of pulmonary emphysema (PE) identified by computed tomography (CT) in females. We reviewed the records of 1,687 female subjects who had undergone CT. They were divided into the following 2 age groups:group A (＜50 years) and group B (>_50 years). PE was diagnosed by the presence of low-attenuation areas using visual assessment (grades 0-3) on CT images. Two subtypes of PE were observed:centrilobular emphysema (CLE) and paraseptal emphysema (PSE). PE was divided into the following 3 categories:I (CLE or CLE-predominant);II (CLE and PSE of equal extent);and III (PSE or PSE-predominant). PE was found in 64 of 274 smokers (23.3%) and 54 of 1,413 non-smokers (3.8%). In smoking subjects, when grades 1 and 2 were grouped together as mild PE, the mean age for CT grade 3 (severe PE) was significantly higher than that for mild PE. In group A, category III predominated, whereas category I was more prevalent in group B, in both smoking and non-smoking subjects. A high incidence of PE was found in smoking subjects as compared with non-smoking subjects. PSE predominated in younger subjects, whereas CLE predominated in older subjects

Reappraisal of the Cerebral Blood Flow Measured Using 123I-I-iodoamphetamine Single-photon Emission Computed Tomography in Normal Subjects and Patients with Alzheimer’s Disease and Dementia with Lewy Bodies

Purpose: Our aim was to re-evaluate the usefulness of perfusion single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) for the diagnosis of AD and DLB.Methods: A total of 1,232 patients, including 180 cognitively normal subjects (NSs), 148 patients with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI), 802 patients with AD and 102 patients with dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) were enrolled. A voxelbasedstereotactic extraction estimation analysis was used to assess hypoperfusion areas using the cut-off value of 20% for the “extent %” and >2 hypoperfused lesions.Results: The top 10 areas with hypoperfusion in AD were the angular gyrus, supramarginal gyrus, precuneus, superior occipital gyrus, inferior parietal lobule, middle temporal gyrus, superior parietal lobule, inferior temporal gyrus, superior temporal gyrus. and posterior cingulate, while DLB had 6 areas in common with AD. The respective sensitivity and specificity for differentiating AD from NSs were 84.2% and 78.9% for 50-59 years old, and 91.8% and 70.0% for 60-69 years old, butthose values decreased from 70 years old. The respective sensitivity and specificity in DLB patients were 100% and 75.6% for 50-69 years old, 84.6% and 70.1% for 70-79 years old and 81.4% and 77.1% for 80-89 years old. In aMCI patients, the 1-year change in the MMSE scores was -2.38±2.02 (n=16) in patients with abnormal SPECT images and -0.67±1.81 (n=18) in those with normal SPECT images (P<0.02).Conclusions: Our study confirms that perfusion SPECT is still a valid alternative for the diagnosis of AD and DLB when fluorodeoxyglucose-PET is unavailable

Evaluation of olfactory impairment using a simple test kit “The Odor Stick Identification test for the Japanese” (OSIT-J) in neurodegenerative diseases

Purpose: Olfactory deficit has been studied in aging, amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI), Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Parkinson\u27s disease (PD), dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) and idiopathic REM-sleep behavior disorder (iRBD). Our aim was to investigate the usefulness of a simple test kit “The Odor Stick Identification test for the Japanese ”(OSIT-J) in clinical practice.Methods: A total of 240 patients were enrolled in this study, including 44 cognitively normal subjects (NS), 31 patients with aMCI, 70 patients with mild AD (AD-mild), 28 patients with DLB, 31 patients with PD and 36 patients with iRBD. The OSIT-J consists of 12 types of odor sticks. The subjects were asked to select an odor from a list of 4 odors that were rubbed on the medicine wraping paper for each odor stick. The maximum score was 12.Results: The mean odor identification (OI) score decreased in the order of aMCI, iRBD, AD-mild, PD and DLB (NS: aMCI, P<0.05, NS: AD-mild, DLB, PD and iRBD, P<0.001, aMCI: DLB, P<0.001, aMCI: PD, P<0.01 (Kruskal-Wallis, Dunn’s test). The sensitivity and specificity in differentiating each disease from NS at a cutoff value of 8 was 96.8% and 79.5%, respectively, in PD, and 96.4% and 79.5% in DLB. An ageing effect was observed in NSs ( r=-0.453 (p<0.01)).Conclusions: Olfactory deficit is a non-specific phenomenon. However, it is important to be aware of the underlying diseases or future development of diseases. The OSIT-J, which is a simple test, is useful for detecting OI abnormalities in daily clinical practice

Using the Acropora digitifera genome to understand coral responses to environmental change

Despite the enormous ecological and economic importance of coral reefs, the keystone organisms in their establishment, the scleractinian corals, increasingly face a range of anthropogenic challenges including ocean acidification and seawater temperature rise1, 2, 3, 4. To understand better the molecular mechanisms underlying coral biology, here we decoded the approximately 420-megabase genome of Acropora digitifera using next-generation sequencing technology. This genome contains approximately 23,700 gene models. Molecular phylogenetics indicate that the coral and the sea anemone Nematostella vectensis diverged approximately 500 million years ago, considerably earlier than the time over which modern corals are represented in the fossil record (~240 million years ago)5. Despite the long evolutionary history of the endosymbiosis, no evidence was found for horizontal transfer of genes from symbiont to host. However, unlike several other corals, Acropora seems to lack an enzyme essential for cysteine biosynthesis, implying dependency of this coral on its symbionts for this amino acid. Corals inhabit environments where they are frequently exposed to high levels of solar radiation, and analysis of the Acropora genome data indicates that the coral host can independently carry out de novo synthesis of mycosporine-like amino acids, which are potent ultraviolet-protective compounds. In addition, the coral innate immunity repertoire is notably more complex than that of the sea anemone, indicating that some of these genes may have roles in symbiosis or coloniality. A number of genes with putative roles in calcification were identified, and several of these are restricted to corals. The coral genome provides a platform for understanding the molecular basis of symbiosis and responses to environmental changes

韓国における移民関連施策および支援状況に関する実態調査報告(6)

移民の受入れと,それに伴う移民政策が急速に進んできている韓国。そこに,筆者らの研究グループ「日本語教育保障法研究会」は科学研究費補助金によって2009年より3か年にわたって赴き,移民関連施策や移民への生活・教育支援に関する調査を行ってきた。本稿は,2011年9月に実施した第3 回目となる現地実態調査の報告後編であり,2009年度調査の報告書から通算して第6号にあたる。本稿は,本研究全体の概略及び韓国現地実態調査の概要(第1章),「ソル・ドンフン氏」(第2章),「法務部(法務省)」(第3章),「アジア人権文化連帯」(第4章),「富川市労働者の家」(第5章)に関する調査報告によって構成される。なお,2011年度調査報告の前編は本号に報告(5)として掲載されている

Associations between the orexin (hypocretin) receptor 2 gene polymorphism Val308Ile and nicotine dependence in genome-wide and subsequent association studies

Impact of the HCRTR2 gene risk variant on schizotypal personality traits (mean ± SD). (DOC 54 kb