EDUCATION ON DISASTER PREPAREDNESS AND RESPONSE OF DENTAL HYGIENISTS IN VOCATIONAL UNIVERSITIES/COLLEGES IN JAPAN

Due to the increasing global frequency of disasters, disaster preparedness training is becoming more important. The fact that Japan has many earthquakes is well known worldwide. In the field of nursing, the importance of disaster preparedness education in universities has gradually increased in Japan. Many people lose their homes in earthquakes and have to live in shelters. The relationship between pneumonia and the oral cavity environment is understood; for example, in certain shelter environments that provide an insufficient water supply, oral cavity hygiene is affected. Keeping a clean oral cavity prevents death from pneumonia, especially in elderly people. To keep a clean oral cavity, the role of dental hygienists is important. In Japan, education on disaster preparedness and response for dental hygienists in vocational university/college is rarely provided. Therefore, this is the focus of our research. We administered an anonymous questionnaire survey to 119 dental hygienist training schools by mailing them surveys asking about their education on disaster preparedness and response for dental hygienists. In this paper, we report on the education on disaster preparedness and response for dental hygienists in vocational universities and colleges in Japan.&nbsp

Dietary fiber intake and risk of incident disabling dementia: the Circulatory Risk in Communities Study

OBJECTIVES: It has been hypothesized that dietary fiber intake has a beneficial impact on prevention of dementia, but the epidemiological evidence is scant. We sought to examine whether dietary fiber intake is inversely associated with risk of dementia requiring care under the national insurance (disabling dementia). METHODS: The study setting was the Circulatory Risk in Communities Study, involving 3739 Japanese individuals aged 40-64 years at the dietary surveys (1985-99). Dietary fiber intake was estimated using the 24-hour dietary recall method. Incident disabling dementia was followed up from 1999 through 2020. Disabling dementia was further classified into that with or without a history of stroke. Hazard ratios of disabling dementia according to quartiles of total, soluble, and insoluble fiber intake were calculated using the Cox proportional hazards model. RESULTS: During a median 19.7-year follow-up, a total of 670 cases of disabling dementia developed. Dietary fiber intake was inversely associated with risk of dementia: the multivariate hazards ratios (95% confidence intervals) were 0.83 (0.67-1.04), 0.81 (0.65-1.02), and 0.74 (0.57-0.96) for individuals with the second, third, and highest quartiles of dietary fiber intake, respectively, as compared with the lowest quartile (P for trend = 0.03). The inverse association was more evident for soluble fiber intake and was confined to dementia without a history of stroke. As for fiber-containing foods, potatoes, but not vegetables or fruits, showed a similar association. CONCLUSIONS: Dietary fiber intake, especially soluble fiber, was inversely associated with risk of disabling dementia in a general Japanese population

ニホンゴ ジュギョウ ニ オケル ILL リネン ノ グゲンカ ニ ムケタ トリクミ -エイガキョウザイ 『シアワセ カゾク ケイカク』 ヲ モチイタ キョウシケンシュウ セイカ カラ-

本稿は、1990年代後半以降、オーストラリアの学校教育において言語学習に不可欠の理念となったILL(Intercultural Language Learning)に着目し、近年の動向とその理念に基づく授業デザインを示した国際交流基金シドニー日本文化センターでの教師研修成果をまとめた実践報告である。 まず関係資料を整理した結果、ILLは導入予定のナショナルカリキュラム(Australian Curriculum)にも散見され、将来に向けた教育政策にその理念が継承されていることがわかった。次にILLを取り入れ作成した映画教材『しあわせ家族計画』を用いた教師研修では、参加者がその場でILLを体験していることがうかがえ、さらにILLを日々の授業に照らし合わせ、自らの実践を振り返っていたことが研修の記録や任意の聞き取りによって確認された。This paper focuses on the ILL (Intercultural Language Learning) approach, which has been a fundamental element of language education in Australia since the late 1990s. From an investigation of the reference material it was evident that ILL is included in the draft of the new Australian Curriculum for languages, and that ILL principles will continue to feature in education policy in the future. In this paper we report on the results of a teacher professional development seminar conducted by the Japan Foundation, Sydney which demonstrates ILL teaching practices. For the professional development seminar we used the film resource `Happy Family Plan\u27 which incorporates aspects of ILL. Through the participants\u27 responses to questioning, we were able to confirm that they gained an experience in ILL, which led them to make comparisons with and reflect on their own daily teaching practices

Dietary intake of beans and risk of disabling dementia: The Circulatory Risk in Communities Study (CIRCS)

Objective: To examine whether bean intake (including soybeans) among Japanese adults is associated with risk of disabling dementia severe enough to require care under the national insurance system. / Methods: This cohort study involved 3739 individuals aged 40 to 64 years. The participants were categorized into five groups based on their dietary bean intake estimated by a 24h dietary recall. Hazard ratios and 95% confidence intervals of disabling dementia were estimated using Cox proportional hazard models adjusted for potential confounding factors (smoking, drinking, and intakes of energy and fish). / Results: During the 59,681 person-year follow-up, 670 cases of disabling dementia were observed. A weak inverse association between bean intake and risk of disabling dementia was found; the multivariable hazard ratios (95% CIs) were 0.79 (0.62–1.00), 0.80 (0.63–1.01), 0.84 (0.67–1.06), and 0.78 (0.62–0.99) for the four groups with higher bean intake, respectively, compared with the lowest group (P for trend = 0.21). A significant inverse association was observed for dementia without a history of stroke; for the four groups with higher bean intake the multivariable hazard ratios were 0.81 (0.61–1.08), 0.70 (0.52–0.95), 0.71 (0.52–0.95), and 0.69 (0.51–0.92), respectively, (P for trend = 0.03). No such association was observed for dementia with history of stroke. The group with increased natto intake were inversely associated with risk of disabling dementia (P for trend = 0.003), but tofu intake was not (P for trend = 0.19). / Conclusions: Bean intake was inversely associated with risk of disabling dementia in those without a history of stroke

Glutathione and mitochondria

Glutathione (GSH) is the main non-protein thiol in cells whose functions are dependent on the redox-active thiol of its cysteine moiety that serves as a cofactor for a number of antioxidant and detoxifying enzymes. While synthesized exclusively in the cytosol from its constituent amino acids, GSH is distributed in different compartments, including mitochondria where its concentration in the matrix equals that of the cytosol. This feature and its negative charge at physiological pH imply the existence of specific carriers to import GSH from the cytosol to the mitochondrial matrix, where it plays a key role in defense against respiration-induced reactive oxygen species and in the detoxification of lipid hydroperoxides and electrophiles. Moreover, as mitochondria play a central strategic role in the activation and mode of cell death, mitochondrial GSH has been shown to critically regulate the level of sensitization to secondary hits that induce mitochondrial membrane permeabilization and release of proteins confined in the intermembrane space that once in the cytosol engage the molecular machinery of cell death. In this review, we summarize recent data on the regulation of mitochondrial GSH and its role in cell death and prevalent human diseases, such as cancer, fatty liver disease, and Alzheimer's disease. © 2014 Ribas, Garcia-Ruiz and Fernandez-Checa.Vicent Ribas is recipient of an Institut d’Investigacions Biomèdiques August Pi i Sunyer (IDIBAPS) Post-doctoral Fellowship-BIOTRACK, supported by the European Community’s Seventh Framework Programme (EC FP7/2007-2013) under the grant agreement number 229673 and the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO) through the grant COFUND2013-40261. The work was supported by Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Enfermedades Hepáticas y Digestivas, Fundació la Marató de TV3 and grants PI11/0325 (META) from the Instituto Salud Carlos III and grants, SAF2011-23031, and SAF2012-34831 from Plan Nacional de I+D, Spain; Fundación Mutua Madrileña and the center grant P50-AA-11999 (Research Center for Liver and Pancreatic Diseases, NIAAA/NIH)Peer Reviewe