看護基礎教育に求められる政策コンピテンシー ―「学士課程教育における公共政策学分野の参照基準」との比較から―

【要旨】超高齢社会に対応するための制度改革が頻回に行われ，制度設計にアドボケーターとして看護職の関わりが求められていることから，看護基礎教育において政策の基本を体系的に学ぶことが必要と考え，政策教育プログラム開発に関する研究を行った。 1 年目の研究では看護に関連した政策に現に取り組んでいる 政策企画者等を対象に面接調査を行い，政策教育において獲得すべきコンピテンシー77 項目を抽出し，これを日本公共政策学会の参照基準をもとに 8 つのカテゴリーに分類した。この結果を参照基準と比較すると，参照基準の「政策の働きに関する基本的理解」などの項目は少なかったが，「政策問題を主体的に考える力」の項目は非常に豊富であった。このことは対象者が政策の実践者であったことが影響しており，また，看護教育に対して政策決定に関する“知識”に力点を置くよりも，看護現場の課題を解決するための能力獲得に期待がされていることが明らかとなった。Abstract: With frequent revisions in the medical-care system in response to the aging society, nurses are required to be involved in system design as advocators. This suggests the necessity for nursing students to systematically learn the basics of policy studies in basic nursing education. Given this background, we conducted research into the development of a nursing education program related to policy studies. In the first year of the research, we conducted an interview survey with policy planners who worked on policies related to nursing. From the interview data, we extracted 77 items of competencies to be acquired through the education program, and classified the items into 8 categories based on the academic standards of the Public Policy Studies Association, Japan (PPSAJ). Comparing the results in this study with the items of the academic standards, there were fewer items related to the “Basic understanding of the functions of policy” than those in the standards, but there were many items related to the “Competencies to think independently about policy issues”. These results may be because the participants in the interviews were policy practitioners. The findings suggest that it is important for nursing education to place more emphasis on competencies needed to solve problems in nursing settings than on knowledge about policy making

Support for UNRWA's survival

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) provides life-saving humanitarian aid for 5·4 million Palestine refugees now entering their eighth decade of statelessness and conflict. About a third of Palestine refugees still live in 58 recognised camps. UNRWA operates 702 schools and 144 health centres, some of which are affected by the ongoing humanitarian disasters in Syria and the Gaza Strip. It has dramatically reduced the prevalence of infectious diseases, mortality, and illiteracy. Its social services include rebuilding infrastructure and homes that have been destroyed by conflict and providing cash assistance and micro-finance loans for Palestinians whose rights are curtailed and who are denied the right of return to their homeland

Accelerated FDPS: Algorithms to use accelerators with FDPS

We describe algorithms implemented in FDPS (Framework for Developing Particle Simulators) to make efficient use of accelerator hardware such as GPGPUs (general-purpose computing on graphics processing units). We have developed FDPS to make it possible for researchers to develop their own high-performance parallel particle-based simulation programs without spending large amounts of time on parallelization and performance tuning. FDPS provides a high-performance implementation of parallel algorithms for particle-based simulations in a "generic" form, so that researchers can define their own particle data structure and interparticle interaction functions. FDPS compiled with user-supplied data types and interaction functions provides all the necessary functions for parallelization, and researchers can thus write their programs as though they are writing simple non-parallel code. It has previously been possible to use accelerators with FDPS by writing an interaction function that uses the accelerator. However, the efficiency was limited by the latency and bandwidth of communication between the CPU and the accelerator, and also by the mismatch between the available degree of parallelism of the interaction function and that of the hardware parallelism. We have modified the interface of the user-provided interaction functions so that accelerators are more efficiently used. We also implemented new techniques which reduce the amount of work on the CPU side and the amount of communication between CPU and accelerators. We have measured the performance of N-body simulations on a system with an NVIDIA Volta GPGPU using FDPS and the achieved performance is around 27% of the theoretical peak limit. We have constructed a detailed performance model, and found that the current implementation can achieve good performance on systems with much smaller memory and communication bandwidth. Thus, our implementation will be applicable to future generations of accelerator system

Revisiting glucose metabolism in cancer: lessons from a PKM knock-in model

Isoform selection of pyruvate kinase M (PKM), a glycolytic enzyme, influences fates of glucose-derived carbons in cellular metabolic networks. We recently developed novel mouse lines to study PKM isoform function and identified PKM1 as a potential target in a subset of human lung cancers. This work provides new insight into cancer metabolism

Influence of Different Arm External Loads on Kinematics of Scapular and Trunk during Arm Elevation

[目的]本研究は,上肢挙上運動時にさまざまな負荷を与えた際の肩甲骨および体幹の運動を分析することにより,どの程度の負荷量が肩甲骨上方回旋,後傾運動および体幹伸展運動を増大させるかを明らかにすることを目的とした。[対象]対象は肩関節に疼痛の訴えがない健常成人男性15名とした。[方法]無負荷,2 kg,4 kg,6 kgを上肢に負荷した状態での上肢挙上動作を,デジタルビデオカメラにて撮影し,肩甲骨上方回旋角度,肩甲骨後傾角度,胸椎伸展角度,腰椎伸展角度,骨盤前傾角度を算出した。[結果]肩甲骨上方回旋角度は上肢挙上角度150°以降で6 kgの負荷が無負荷より有意に大きかった。胸椎伸展角度は上肢挙上角度60°,90°で4 kg,6 kgの負荷が無負荷より有意に大きく,上肢挙上角度120°以降では2 kg,4 kg,6 kgの負荷が無負荷より有意に大きかった。[結語]負荷を与えた上肢挙上動作では,肩甲骨上方回旋に加え,胸椎伸展運動も大きくなっていた。[Purpose] The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of the magnitude of external loads on the arm on the orientation of the scapula and trunk during arm elevation in the scapular plane. [Subjects] Fifteen healthy subjects participated in this study. [Methods] We measured the angle of scapular upward rotation, scapular posterior tilt, thoracic extension, lumbar extension and pelvic anterior tilt with four levels of external loads (0 kg, 2 kg, 4 kg, 6 kg) at 0, 30, 60, 90, 120, 150 degrees of arm elevation and maximum arm elevation. Kinematic data were collected using four digital video cameras. [Results] With 6 kg at 150° and maximum elevation, scapular upward rotation was greater than in the normal condition. We observed significant increases of thoracic extension with 4 kg and 6 kg at 60° and 90°, and significant differences between 2-6 kg loads and the normal condition over 120°. [Conclusion] The results suggest that the magnitude of the arm external load affects scapular upward rotation and thoracic extension

Characteristics of mitral valve leaflet length in patients with pectus excavatum: A single center cross-sectional study.

The mitral valve morphology in patients with pectus excavatum (PE) has not been fully investigated. Thirty-five patients with PE, 46 normal controls, and patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) who underwent 2 leaflet length measurements of Carpentier classification P2 and A2 using a transthoracic echocardiography were retrospectively investigated. The coaptation lengths and depths, papillary muscle tethering length, and mitral annular diameters were also measured. The P2 and A2 lengths were separately compared between 2 groups: older than 16 years and 16 years or younger. Furthermore, the correlations between actual P2 or A2 lengths and Haller computed tomography index, an index of chest deformity, were investigated in patients with PE exclusively. Among subjects older than 16 years, patients with PE had significantly shorter P2, longer A2, shorter copatation depth, and longer papillary muscle tethering length compared with normal controls. Similarly, patients with PE had significantly shorter P2 and shorter coaptation depth even compared with patients with HCM, while no significant difference was found in A2 length and papillary muscle tethering length. The same tendency was noted between 4 normal controls and 7 age- and sex-matched patients with PE ≤ 16 years old. No significant difference regarding A2/P2 ratio was found between patients with PE older and younger than 16 years. No significant correlation between the Haller computed tomography index and actual mitral leaflet lengths in patients with PE older than 16 years was noted; the same was observed for A2/P2 in all patients with PE. In conclusion, the characteristic features of the shorter posterior mitral leaflet, the longer anterior mitral leaflet, the shorter coaptation depth, and the longer papillary muscle tethering length in patients with PE was demonstrated. This finding might provide a clue regarding the etiology of mitral valve prolapse in PE at its possible earliest form

Recording the Fragrance of 15 Types of Medicinal Herbs and Comparing Them by Similarity Using the Electronic Nose FF-2A

Medical herbs have been recognized till now as having different constituents that act on the human body. However, the fragrance of herbs is a complex mixture of odors, which makes it difficult to qualify or quantify the scent objectively on the human sense of smell. In this study, aromas of 15 medicinal herbs were recorded using an electronic nose FF-2A, and their characteristics were compared with aroma samples of wine such as Le Nez du Vin, to determine which wine aromas are similar to each medicinal herb. Thereafter, the aromas of the 15 herbs were standardized to create a reference axis for the aroma of each herb, and the similarity of tea herbs to the reference axis was examined. Additionally, the results were compared with those obtained by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). In FF-2A, the measured scent is recorded as an absolute value. We succeeded in calculating the similarity of the scents of other herbs with the axes of the scent of each herb by standardizing their scents and creating new axis data. Conversely, although GC-MS is able to identify the components and concentrations of fragrances, an electronic nose can analyze fragrances in a way that is uncommon with GC-MS, such as comparison of similarities between fragrances

Recording the Fragrance of 15 Types of Medicinal Herbs and Comparing Them by Similarity Using the Electronic Nose FF-2A

Medical herbs have been recognized till now as having different constituents that act on the human body. However, the fragrance of herbs is a complex mixture of odors, which makes it difficult to qualify or quantify the scent objectively on the human sense of smell. In this study, aromas of 15 medicinal herbs were recorded using an electronic nose FF-2A, and their characteristics were compared with aroma samples of wine such as Le Nez du Vin, to determine which wine aromas are similar to each medicinal herb. Thereafter, the aromas of the 15 herbs were standardized to create a reference axis for the aroma of each herb, and the similarity of tea herbs to the reference axis was examined. Additionally, the results were compared with those obtained by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). In FF-2A, the measured scent is recorded as an absolute value. We succeeded in calculating the similarity of the scents of other herbs with the axes of the scent of each herb by standardizing their scents and creating new axis data. Conversely, although GC-MS is able to identify the components and concentrations of fragrances, an electronic nose can analyze fragrances in a way that is uncommon with GC-MS, such as comparison of similarities between fragrances