Factors Affecting Home Care of Elders Report 1. Support Expected by the Elderly and Family

For the rapid increase of the elders in population in Japan after the 2nd world war, the arrangement of medical care for aged persons, both therapeutic and preventive, has become the serious social problem. To estimate the possibility of care at home and needs of elders and their family for public and volunteer services, questionnaire survey was carried out at Konko town in Okayama prefecture, Japan, in August 1990. More than half of the 105 elders older than 65 years and living alone (group A, 9 males and 96 females) replied to want to be cared for at home and 178 families with elders (group B) wanted to care for them at home. As for services they would wish to be offered when they would become bedridden at home, while group A wished to be visited and cared for by 'physician', 'home helper' and 'neighbor' in order of high rate group B 'physician', 'public health nurse' and 'nurse'. As for facility or assistance services, the former wanted 'purchasing, sweeping and washing', food delivery' and 'calling on' and the latter 'care consultation', 'assist of body bath' and 'economic aid'. Other supports or cares were also hopefully expected by both groups. The results shows that well-arrangement and promotion of a variety of constitional and personal support for home cares for elders in the community must be urged

Pancreatic β Cell–specific Expression of Thioredoxin, an Antioxidative and Antiapoptotic Protein, Prevents Autoimmune and Streptozotocin-induced Diabetes

The cytotoxicity of reactive oxygen intermediates (ROIs) has been implicated in the destruction of pancreatic β cells in insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM). Thioredoxin (TRX), a redox (reduction/oxidation)-active protein, has recently been shown to protect cells from oxidative stress and apoptosis. To elucidate the roles of oxidative stress in the development of autoimmune diabetes in vivo, we produced nonobese diabetic transgenic mice that overexpress TRX in their pancreatic β cells. In these transgenic mice, the incidence of diabetes was markedly reduced, whereas the development of insulitis was not prevented. Moreover, induction of diabetes by streptozotocin, an ROI-generating agent, was also attenuated by TRX overexpression in β cells. This is the first direct demonstration that an antioxidative and antiapoptotic protein protects β cells in vivo against both autoimmune and drug-induced diabetes. Our results strongly suggest that oxidative stress plays an essential role in the destruction of β cells by infiltrating inflammatory cells in IDDM

Quantitative Values from Synthetic MRI Correlate with Breast Cancer Subtypes

The purpose of this study is to correlate quantitative T1, T2, and proton density (PD) values with breast cancer subtypes. Twenty-eight breast cancer patients underwent MRI of the breast including synthetic MRI. T1, T2, and PD values were correlated with Ki-67 and were compared between ER-positive and ER-negative cancers, and between Luminal A and Luminal B cancers. The effectiveness of T1, T2, and PD in differentiating the ER-negative from the ER-positive group and Luminal A from Luminal B cancers was evaluated using receiver operating characteristic analysis. Mean T2 relaxation of ER-negative cancers was significantly higher than that of ER-positive cancers (p < 0.05). The T1, T2, and PD values exhibited a strong positive correlation with Ki-67 (Pearson’s r = 0.75, 0.69, and 0.60 respectively; p < 0.001). Among ER-positive cancers, T1, T2, and PD values of Luminal A cancers were significantly lower than those of Luminal B cancers (p < 0.05). The area under the curve (AUC) of T2 for discriminating ER-negative from ER-positive cancers was 0.87 (95% CI: 0.69–0.97). The AUC of T1 for discriminating Luminal A from Luminal B cancers was 0.83 (95% CI: 0.61–0.95). In conclusion, quantitative values derived from synthetic MRI show potential for subtyping of invasive breast cancers

Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation on the PC-5 and PC-6 Points Alleviated Hypotension after Epidural Anaesthesia, Depending on the Stimulus Frequency

Neuraxial blockade causes arterial hypotension. Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) at the Neiguan (PC-6) and Jianshi (PC-5) reduces the severity of hypotension after spinal anaesthesia, but did not clarify the optimal stimulus frequency. We hypothesized that the stimulus frequency of TENS at the PC-6 and PC-5 points would influence the severity of hypotension after epidural anaesthesia. 65 ASA I or II male patients presenting for inguinal hernia repair were randomized to five groups: the control group received no treatment; the 2 Hz, 10 Hz, 20 Hz, and 40 Hz groups received TENS at a frequency of 2 Hz, 10 Hz, 20 Hz, and 40 Hz, respectively. The lowest SBP was significantly higher in the 40 Hz group [the control, 84 (74–110) mmHg; the 2 Hz, 96 (62–116) mmHg; the 10 Hz, 100 (68–110) mmHg; the 20 Hz, 96 (64–115) mmHg; the 40 Hz, 104 (75–140) mmHg: P = 0.004]. Significantly less patients experienced hypotension in the 40 Hz group [the control, 78%; the 2 Hz, 43%; the 10 Hz, 38%; the 20 Hz, 38%; the 40 Hz, 8%: P = 0.008]. TENS on the PC-6 and PC-5 points reduced the severity and incidence of hypotension after epidural anaesthesia, depending on the stimulus frequency

Strong localization of oxidized Co3+ state in cobalt-hexacyanoferrate

Secondary batteries are important energy storage devices for a mobile equipment, an electric car, and a large-scale energy storage. Nevertheless, variation of the local electronic state of the battery materials in the charge (or oxidization) process are still unclear. Here, we investigated the local electronic state of cobalt-hexacyanoferrate (Na x Co[Fe(CN)6]0.9), by means of resonant inelastic X-ray scattering (RIXS) with high energy resolution (~100 meV). The L-edge RIXS is one of the most powerful spectroscopic technique with element- and valence-selectivity. We found that the local electronic state around Co2+ in the partially-charged Na1.1Co2+0.5Co3+0.5[Fe2+(CN)6]0.9 film (x = 1.1) is the same as that of the discharged Na1.6Co2+[Fe2+(CN)6]0.9 film (x = 1.6) within the energy resolution, indicating that the local electronic state around Co2+ is invariant against the partial oxidization. In addition, the local electronic state around the oxidized Co3+ is essentially the same as that of the fully-charged film Co3+[Fe2+(CN)6]0.3[Fe3+(CN)6]0.6 (x = 0.0) film. Such a strong localization of the oxidized Co3+ state is advantageous for the reversibility of the redox process, since the localization reduces extra reaction within the materials and resultant deterioration

The Effects of the Introduction of the Video-tape Recorder to Basic Nursing Care Education - The Use of Video-tapes taken at the Practice of Aseptic Handling Technique by Students -

The Video-tape recorder was introduced to tape the scene of a preliminary test of students' practice to aseptically handle syringes. These video-tapes taken were released to students to watch and to refer back to for their self-study. Students were consequently divided into four groups on how to utilize the video-tapes. The scores of the preliminary and final test and their differences were statistically compared by the groups. The results suggested that the use of video-tapes is effective for the achievement of skills in delicate techniques of nursing care and especially the utilization upon their own initiative leads to a more successful result

Measurements of ultrafast dissociation in resonant inelastic x-ray scattering of water

There has been a discussion on the interpretation of the resonant inelastic x-ray scattering (RIXS) spectra of liquid water in terms of either different structural environments or that core hole dynamics can generate well-resolved dissociative spectral components. We have used RIXS with high resolution in the OH stretch vibration energy part, at extremely high overtones going toward the continuum of full OH bond breakage, to identify the amount of dissociative contributions in the valence band RIXS spectra at different excitation energies. We observe that at low excitation energies, corresponding to population of states with strongly antibonding character, the valence band RIXS spectra have a large contribution from a well-resolved dissociative feature. Instead, at higher excitations, this spectral component diminishes and becomes a weak structure on the high-energy side of one of the spectral peaks related to the 1b1 state from tetrahedral configurations. This result brings both interpretations to be essential for the understanding of RIXS spectra of liquid water

Efficacy of a check list and a video tape in learning the aseptic method

Basic nursing care includes many kinds of techniques. The aseptic method is especially very important technique among them. We gave students check lists and video tapes in order to master the method by themselves and obtained following results. 1) Students can properly assess their techniques of nursing care by using a check list and watching a video. 2) Students can assess by themselves more effectively in a simple and easy action. 3) Even for a complicated action, students can make better their self-assessments by watching a video

Uracils at nucleotide position 9–11 are required for the rapid turnover of miR-29 family

MicroRNAs are endogenous small RNA molecules that regulate gene expression. Although the biogenesis of microRNAs and their regulation have been thoroughly elucidated, the degradation of microRNAs has not been fully understood. Here by using the pulse–chase approach, we performed the direct measurement of microRNA lifespan. Five representative microRNAs demonstrated a general feature of relatively long lifespan. However, the decay dynamic varies considerably between these individual microRNAs. Mutation analysis of miR-29b sequence revealed that uracils at nucleotide position 9–11 are required for its rapid decay, in that both specific nucleotides and their position are critical. The effect of uracil-rich element on miR-29b decay dynamic occurs in duplex but not in single strand RNA. Moreover, analysis of published data on microRNA expression profile during development reveals that a substantial subset of microRNAs with the uracil-rich sequence tends to be down-regulated compared to those without the sequence. Among them, Northern blotting shows that miR-29c and fruit fly bantam possess a relatively rapid turnover rate. The effect of uracil-rich sequence on microRNA turnover depends on the sequence context. The present work indicates that microRNAs contain sequence information in the middle region besides the sequence element at both ends