Insufficient liver maturation affects murine early postnatal hair cycle

Abnormal hair loss results from a variety of factors, such as metabolic dysfunctions, immunodeficiency, and environmental stressors. Here, we report that mutant mice having defects in liver function, develop alopecia. We have shown previously that in mice lacking a Cnot3 gene, which encodes an essential component of the CCR4-NOT deadenylase complex in liver (Cnot3-LKO mice), the liver does not mature properly, resulting in various pathologies such as hepatitis, hepatic necrosis, and anemia. Unexpectedly, Cnot3-LKO mice start to lose hair around postnatal day 17 (P17). The region of hair loss expands all across their backs and symptoms persist until around P28-30. Afterward, hair re-grows, and Cnot3-LKO mice show complete hair recovery by P40. The phenotype is dependent on mouse genotype, indicating that hair follicle morphogenesis and cycling are influenced by abnormal liver development. By performing histological, quantitative PCR, and immunoblot analyses, we detected sebaceous gland (SG) hypertrophy accompanied by an increase of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPARgamma). Collectively, these findings suggest that paracrine signaling related to liver function influences hair growth, at least in part, by altering lipid metabolism

Social and Geographical Inequalities in Suicide in Japan from 1975 through 2005: A Census-Based Longitudinal Analysis

Background: Despite advances in our understanding of the countercyclical association between economic contraction and suicide, less is known about the levels of and changes in inequalities in suicide. The authors examined social and geographical inequalities in suicide in Japan from 1975 through 2005. Methods: Based on quinquennial vital statistics and census data, the authors analyzed the entire population aged 25–64 years. The total number of suicides was 75,840 men and 30,487 women. For each sex, the authors estimated odds ratios (ORs) and 95% credible intervals (CIs) for suicide using multilevel logistic regression models with “cells” (cross-tabulated by age and occupation) at level 1, seven different years at level 2, and 47 prefectures at level 3. Prefecture-level variance was used as an estimate of geographical inequalities in suicide. Results: Adjusting for age and time-trends, the lowest odds for suicide was observed among production process and related workers (the reference group) in both sexes. The highest OR for men was 2.52 (95% CI: 2.43, 2.61) among service workers, whereas the highest OR for women was 9.24 (95% CI: 7.03, 12.13) among security workers. The degree of occupational inequalities increased among men with a striking change in the pattern. Among women, we observed a steady decline in suicide risk across all occupations, except for administrative and managerial workers and transport and communication workers. After adjusting for individual age, occupation, and time-trends, prefecture-specific ORs ranged from 0.76 (Nara Prefecture) to 1.36 (Akita Prefecture) for men and from 0.79 (Kanagawa Prefecture) to 1.22 (Akita Prefecture) for women. Geographical inequalities have increased primarily among men since 1995. Conclusions: The present findings demonstrate a striking temporal change in the pattern of social inequalities in suicide among men. Further, geographical inequalities in suicide have considerably increased across 47 prefectures, primarily among men, since 1995

Social and Geographic Inequalities in Premature Adult Mortality in Japan: A Multilevel Observational Study from 1970 to 2005

Objectives: To examine trends in social and geographic inequalities in all-cause premature adult mortality in Japan. Design: Observational study of the vital statistics and the census data. Setting: Japan. Participants: Entire population aged 25 years or older and less than 65 years in 1970, 1975, 1980, 1985, 1990, 1995, 2000 and 2005. The total number of decedents was 984 022 and 532 223 in men and women, respectively. Main outcome measures: For each sex, ORs and 95% CIs for mortality were estimated by using multilevel logistic regression models with ‘cells’ (cross-tabulated by age and occupation) at level 1, 8 years at level 2 and 47 prefectures at level 3. The prefecture-level variance was used as an estimate of geographic inequalities of mortality. Results: Adjusting for age and time-trends, compared with production process and related workers, ORs ranged from 0.97 (95% CI 0.96 to 0.98) among administrative and managerial workers to 2.22 (95% CI 2.19 to 2.24) among service workers in men. By contrast, in women, the lowest odds for mortality was observed among production process and related workers (reference), while the highest OR was 12.22 (95% CI 11.40 to 13.10) among security workers. The degree of occupational inequality increased in both sexes. Higher occupational groups did not experience reductions in mortality throughout the period and was overtaken by lower occupational groups in the early 1990s, among men. Conditional on individual age and occupation, overall geographic inequalities of mortality were relatively small in both sexes; the ORs ranged from 0.87 (Okinawa) to 1.13 (Aomori) for men and from 0.84 (Kanagawa) to 1.11 (Kagoshima) for women, even though there is a suggestion of increasing inequalities across prefectures since 1995 in both sexes. Conclusions: The present findings suggest that both social and geographic inequalities in all-cause mortality have increased in Japan during the last 3 decades

Support system for homelessness in England : Policies against social exclusion and the role of Voluntary Sector under the Blair government

　1997年以降英国労働党ブレア政権下において推進された「社会的排除」への対策と特にその究極の状態としてのホームレス支援においては，イングランドの場合，ボランタリー・セクターが政府と連携して主たる支援活動を繰り広げてきた。したがって本稿は，政府と連携したボランタリー・セクターのホームレス支援について整理することを通して，「社会的排除」に対する地域での実践活動を概観するとともに，政府と連携しない独立型のボランタリー・セクターについても社会におけるその役割を検討する。 　ブレア政権時代のホームレス支援政策は，「社会的排除」という新しい概念を導入することにより，ホームレス問題を単なる住宅政策のひとつとしての問題ではなく複合的な問題に再編したが，その中では政府と連携したボランタリー・セクターが重要な役割を担った。同支援政策は一定の成果を上げたものの，短期的な該当者数の減少を主な目的としたものであったため，社会的排除の問題は路上から住宅へと場所を変えただけであり，本質的な問題は解決されていないことも少なくない。一方，政府と連携しないボランタリー・セクターも，コミュニティとして生活と就労を共にし，社会的包摂の点において前者ほどの規模には満たないが，重要な役割を担っていることが明らかになった。　In the practical implementation of the policies against social exclusion which had been triggered by the ‘New Labour’ government led by Tony Blair since 1997，and especially，in its ultimate case for those who were categorised as ‘homelessness’，it was ‘the Voluntary Sector’ in the case of England that took a major initiative to combat social exclusion in conjunction with the central and local governments. This study therefore intends to clarify the conceptual discourses and practices against social exclusion in Britain by illustrating the way in which the Voluntary Sector is involved in its supportive activities for homelessness especially in terms of contract with the central government. 　Policies to support homelessness had been dramatically restructured from just a housing issue to a combined multiple issue by the emergence of policies against ‘social exclusion’，and some organisations in the Voluntary Sector which were willing to cooperate with the government had taken a significant role in combating the problems by gaining a new fund offered by the government and which enabled it to achieve its prime objectives of reducing the number of homeless. However，since the policy tended to fall in the short-termism and its goals were just confined to the decrease in those who were categorised as ‘homeless’. On the other hand，some organisations in the Voluntary Sector which are independent from government policy，even though they are small-scale compared to the former，have taken a vital role in social inclusion by providing comprehensive services to reintegrate individuals back into the community

Support Systems and Reality : Experiences amongst Young Homeless in English Drop-in Centres

本稿は，若年ホームレス支援の実態を，政府とボランティア団体が連携して支援活動を繰り広げているイングランドを例に，地域におけるホームレス支援活動の実像を取り上げ，その背景となる「ホームレス問題」の捉え方，政策的変遷を考察しながら，これまであまり紹介されてこなかったその具体例を，筆者のバーミンガムにおける2000年から2001年の約1年に渡る若年ホームレス支援ボランティアの経験，ロンドンにおける2002年の現地調査，そして2010年春のバーミンガム，シェフィールドの現地調査から紹介するものである。 1960年代からホームレスの議論が盛んになり， 1977年の「ホームレス法」制定につながっていくイングランドでは，約40年に渡るホームレス問題との格闘があった。そして1997年にブレア政権下で野宿者問題が最重要課題として取り上げられてからは，「社会的排除」というキーコンセプトのもと多様なホームレス支援が各地で進められている。こうした具体的な事例は日本でのホームレス支援にも大いに示唆に富むものである。This paper investigates how 'homelessness issues', especially for the young, have been tackled in England by the government in association with the voluntary sector. Homelessness became an issue of public concern during the 1960s and the 'Homelessness Act' was enacted in 1977. After wrestling with subsequent homelessness problems for a long time, The Labour Party concluded that the 'rough sleeper' issue was the most crucial. Following their 1997 election victory government policies were based on the key concept of 'social exclusion' which consequently has had a strong impact on all subsequent homeless concerns. As a result, a variety of support systems are practiced at the community level. This study explores community-based support for youth homelessness through the lens of volunteer experiences at a Drop-in centre during 2000 to 2001 in Birmingham, and field researches carried out in London in 2002 and Birmingham and Sheffield in 2010. English experiences of practical support for youth homelessness also provide useful insights into how similar support systems could operate in Japan

Management of Volunteer Activities among Elderly Persons

Purpose: Volunteer activities in Japan may be expected to result in a variety of effects on health conditions and social contributions of the elderly depending on the degree of their activity participation. This study aims to identify differences in the health conditions and social contributions of the elderly in relation to the degree of volunteer activity participation, and determine what effective support can be provided for these elderly persons. Further, focusing on the differences in the level of activity of the elderly persons in volunteer activities, we discuss the effect of management through SWOT analysis from the perspectives suggested by the Balanced Scorecard (BSC), which is a performance management tool. Participants and Methods: The participants are elderly persons participating in volunteer activities, living in municipal housing owned by the Kumamoto prefecture in Japan. We classified the participants into an active group who contributed to the raising of funds for activities, and a non-active group. We conducted group interviews with the volunteers, organized interview data on the thoughts of the two groups according to the five perspectives of the balanced score card (BSC) management tool: (1) learning and development, (2) participants, (3) financial matters, (4) process of conducting activities, and (5) social contributions, and conducted a Strength-Weakness-OpportunityThreat (SWOT) analysis. In the SWOT analysis internal factors are distinguished into strengths and weaknesses, and external factors into opportunities and threats. Combining the internal and external factors, problems were extracted from the perspective of a positive strategy (S+O: strength + opportunity), a differentiation strategy (S+T: strength L threat), a stepwise strategy (W+O: weakness + opportunity), and a defensive strategy (W+T: weakness + threat). Then, we confirmed the main results by identifying the major factors in success to achieve salient aims, activity goals, and specific measures from the five perspectives provided by the BSC. Results: When comparing thestrengths of the two groups, the active group showed the following characteristics in the information collecting: more variety in the collected information (perspective of learning and development), ease of obtaining information of potential volunteers (perspective of participants), knowledge of how to raise funds (perspective of financial matters), and being physically more active and knowledgeable of the local community (perspective of social contributions).From the perspective of the process of conducting activities, both groups place importance on the relations among people. For weaknesses, and from the perspective of learning and development, the active group had difficulty in maintaining their motivation, and from the perspective of financial matters this group had difficulties in securing funds. From the perspective of social contributions, the non-active group depended on the active members. From the perspective of participants, both groups experienced a decline in physical function with age, and from the perspective of the process of activities there was a possibility that family or individual circumstances make it difficult to participate in all activities. In the SWOT analysis, combining the internal and external factors, we evaluated the directionality of volunteer activities from the five perspectives of the BSC. From the perspective of learning and development, regardless of the differences in the level of activity of the elderly persons in the volunteer activities, the volunteer members conducted a signature-collecting campaign to call for continuing volunteer activities for residents among those in their surroundings, and this made it possible to continue volunteer activities. From the perspective of the process of conducting activities, regardless of the differences in the level of activity of the elderly persons in the volunteer activities, the volunteer members became active in making remarks, and started to assume roles voluntarily. From the perspective of financial matters, the volunteer members were able to obtain donations for volunteer activities from neighboring establishments, as well as financial support from the social welfare council, by applying for subsidies for activities. From the perspective of participants, the number of new members increased through word of mouth spread by the existing membership. From the perspective of social cost, there was a remark that “I would like my schedule to be full of enjoyable events so that I become too busy to go to the hospital”, and in fact some members did reduce the frequency of hospital visitsDiscussion: Participants in this study are members of a volunteer group of elderly persons voluntarily formed in a regional city in Kumamoto prefecture where the elderly population accounts for 25.7% and is expected to increase. It appears that there is a self- and mutual- help relationship between active and non-active members where non-active members rely on the active members who assist the non-active members to be in harmony with the volunteer activities led by the active members, and that this relationship helps maintain independent lives. For the strengths, active members were able to collect more information from the perspective of learning and development, and contributed more through physical activity from the perspective of social contributions. It can be inferred that physically more active elderly persons are in a situation where they remain able to use their cognitive functions to collect information. For the weaknesses, the active members experienced loss of motivation. This may be due to the possibility that active members feel it a burden to assist non-active members. We wish to conduct further studies to understand how to maintain and improve motivation. The results of the SWOT analysis from the perspectives suggested by the BSC showed that there are differences in health conditions and social contributions of the elderly depending on the participation in volunteer activities, and what types of support from health services can be expected to be effective. This study evaluated the achievements of the volunteer activity goals of elderly persons by identifying the details of volunteer activities and quantifying the goals. The elderly members began to seek for new ideas to achieve better results when they were convinced that there were favorable results of their activities. This suggests that the PDCA cycle in volunteer activities may work by effecting empowerment in the process of BSC.

Fine Particulate Matter and Diabetes Prevalence in Okayama, Japan

Many studies have shown an association between long-term exposure to particulate matter having an aerodynamic diameter of 2.5 μm or less (PM2.5) and diabetes mellitus (DM), but few studies have focused on Asian subjects. We thus examined the association between long-term exposure to PM2.5 and DM prevalence in Okayama City, Japan. We included 76,591 participants who had received basic health checkups in 2006 and 2007. We assigned the census-level modeled PM2.5 data from 2006 and 2007 to each participant and defined DM using treatment status and the blood testing. PM2.5 was associated with DM prevalence, and the prevalence ratio (95% confidence interval) was 1.10 (1.00-1.20) following each interquartile range increase (2.1 μg/m3) in PM2.5. This finding is consistent with previous results and suggests that long-term exposure to PM2.5 is associated with an increased prevalence of DM in Okayama City, Japan, where the PM2.5 level is lower than in other cities in Asian countries

Longitudinal study on factors affecting assertiveness among preceptors of novice nurses

Purpose: This study aims to understand the assertiveness of preceptors of novice nurses and factors affecting the assertiveness through a longitudinal perspective. Methods: Anonymous self-rating questionnaire surveys were administered to 1292 preceptors working in participating city and university hospitals across Japan (August, 2013 (baseline) and March, 2014 (second survey)). The surveys had question items from the Japanese version of the Rathus Assertiveness Schedule (J-RAS, 30 items), demographic details of the participants, evaluation of novice nurses by preceptors, instruction framework, selfevaluation of preceptors, working environment, and a burnout inventory (Japanese version of the Maslach Burnout InventoryHuman Services Survey, 22 items). Bivariate analyses (T-tests and one-way analysis of variance) were conducted using assertiveness of the second survey as the objective variable, and other items of the baseline survey as explanatory variables. Selecting variables with p values smaller than 0.2 obtained in the bivariate analysis as explanatory variables, a multiple linear regression analysis (Stepwise method) was conducted. For the analyses, we used a statistics analysis software, SPSS Statistic 22. Results: Choosing 836 valid respondents of the baseline survey as a cohort group, we repeated the survey 8 months after the baseline survey to identify the factors affecting the assertiveness of preceptors of novice nurses. Excluding 62 who had missing values in the question items for assertiveness, 472 participants who were followed were included in analyses. As the results, following factors were found to affect the assertiveness: thinking that ‘they make rapid decisions’, and that ‘they are valuable as others’. Further, participants who have higher total burnout scores had lower assertiveness. Adjusted coefficient of determination was 0.153. Discussion: It can be inferred that the assertiveness of preceptors is higher than that of novice nurses measured by the J-RAS used in this study, and lower than that of administrative nurses. The assertiveness of preceptors was higher among participants who evaluated themselves positively, thinking that ‘they make rapid decisions’, and that ‘they are valuable as others’. It was also found that higher ‘total burnout scores’ was a factor that lowers the assertiveness. These findings suggest that a positive self-evaluation improves assertiveness and helps to prevent burnou

Donor mesenchymal stem cells trigger chronic graft-versus-host disease following minor antigen-mismatched bone marrow transplantation

Chronic graft-versus-host disease (cGVHD) is a complication after minor antigen mismatched bone marrow transplantation (BMT) characterized by an autoimmune-type reaction in various organs. Aberration in T cell regulation is involved, with donor mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) playing a possible role in immunomodulation. In a minor-antigen mismatched mouse BMT model, transplantation of mismatched, but not syngeneic MSCs triggered the onset of cGVHD, and was associated with fibrosis, increased IL-6 secretion, decreased Foxp3+ regulatory T cells and increased Th17 in the peripheral blood. Mismatched MSCs alone were sufficient to induce cGVHD, while removal of donor MSCs rescued mice from cGVHD. RAG2 knockout recipient mice did not suffer cGVHD, indicating that host T cells were involved. Residual host-derived T cells were significantly higher in cGVHD patients compared to non-cGVHD patients. In conclusion, donor MSCs react with residual host T cells to trigger the progression of cGVHD