Clinical Teaching Behavior Factors

Aims：Challenges of novice nursing educators are initiated when they begin to engage in clinical teaching, often due to lack of support from experienced colleagues. This study was aimed to identify the factors associated with clinical teaching behaviors of novice nurse educators of Diploma Nursing schools in western Japan. Method：Of ２３１ Diploma Nursing schools in Western Japan,９２ institutions（３９．８３％）agreed to participate. The study participants were １４４ novice nursing educators with less than five years of teaching experience. Anonymized self-administered questionnaires including the Scale of Other Educators’ Support（SOES）and organizational education, associated with the Scale of Clinical Teaching Behaviors（SCTB）were mailed to participants. The SOES factors of work and reflection supports, organizational education factors of information-sharing opportunity and mini-workshops were used to determine association with SCTB. The multiple regression analysis with stepwise method was used for SCTB. Results：Conducting to multivariate analysis, age（p =０．０１）, information-sharing among nursing educators（p =０．０４）, participation in mini-workshops on clinical practice（p =０．０４）, and work support（p =０．０３）were significantly associated with the improvement of SCTB. Then, reflection support was significantly associated with the deterioration of SCTB（p =０．０２）. Discussion：The work support meaning direct advice and guidance from other nursing educators can enhance the effectiveness for SCTB. The reflection support encouraged the novice nurses to reflect on their teaching behaviors, but only made them aware of problems to be solved, which lowered the SCTB. The information-sharing opportunity and mini-workshops might be effective opportunities to learn about teaching behaviors to increase the SCTB. Conclusion：The SOES and organizational education factors enhance teaching behaviors measured by SCTB among novice nursing educators. Therefore, in developing novice nursing educators, it is necessary to create opportunities indicating these factors for novice nursing educators to learn about practical training and to collaborate with other nursing educators

Functional impairment of Tax-specific but not cytomegalovirus-specific CD8+ T lymphocytes in a minor population of asymptomatic human T-cell leukemia virus type 1-carriers

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Human T-cell leukemia virus type 1 (HTLV-1) causes adult T-cell leukemia (ATL) and HTLV-1-associated myelopathy/tropical spastic paraparesis (HAM/TSP) in a small percentage of infected individuals. ATL is often associated with general immune suppression and an impaired HTLV-1-specific T-cell response, an important host defense system. We previously found that a small fraction of asymptomatic HTLV-1-carriers (AC) already showed impaired T-cell responses against the major target antigen, Tax. However, it is unclear whether the impaired HTLV-1 Tax-specific T-cell response in these individuals is an HTLV-1-specific phenomenon, or merely reflects general immune suppression. In this study, in order to characterize the impaired HTLV-1-specific T-cell response, we investigated the function of Tax-specific CD8⁺T-cells in various clinical status of HTLV-1 infection.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>By using tetramers consisting of HLA-A*0201, -A*2402, or -A*1101, and corresponding Tax epitope peptides, we detected Tax-specific CD8⁺T-cells in the peripheral blood from 87.0% of ACs (n = 20/23) and 100% of HAM/TSP patients (n = 18/18) tested. We also detected Tax-specific CD8⁺T-cells in 38.1% of chronic type ATL (cATL) patients (n = 8/21), although its frequencies in peripheral blood CD8⁺T cells were significantly lower than those of ACs or HAM/TSP patients. Tax-specific CD8⁺T-cells detected in HAM/TSP patients proliferated well in culture and produced IFN-γ when stimulated with Tax peptides. However, such functions were severely impaired in the Tax-specific CD8⁺T-cells detected in cATL patients. In ACs, the responses of Tax-specific CD8⁺T-cells were retained in most cases. However, we found one AC sample whose Tax-specific CD8⁺T-cells hardly produced IFN-γ, and failed to proliferate and express activation (CD69) and degranulation (CD107a) markers in response to Tax peptide. Importantly, the same AC sample contained cytomegalovirus (CMV) pp65-specific CD8⁺T-cells that possessed functions upon CMV pp65 peptide stimulation. We further examined additional samples of two smoldering type ATL patients and found that they also showed dysfunctions of Tax-specific but not CMV-specific CD8⁺T-cells.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>These findings indicated that Tax-specific CD8⁺T-cells were scarce and dysfunctional not only in ATL patients but also in a limited AC population, and that the dysfunction was selective for HTLV-1-specifc CD8⁺T-cells in early stages.</p

Effect of aspirin treatment on serum levels of lipoprotein (a) : analysis from the apolipoprotein (a) isoforms

We have found that aspirin lowers elevated serum lipoprotein(a) [Lp(a)] levels via reduction of the transcriptional activity of apolipoprotein(a) [apo(a)] gene with suppression of apo(a) mRNA expression. In the present study, we evaluated the effect of aspirin treatment on serum Lp(a) level and analyzed its relation to type of apo(a) isoform. Serum levels of Lp(a) were measured by turbidimetric immunoassay before and after the oral administration of aspirin therapy (81 mg/day) in 57 patients with coronary artery disease or cerebral infarction. Apo(a) isoforms were determined by immunoblotting method. In patients with high serum Lp(a) levels (more than 30 mg/dl), aspirin reduced serum Lp(a) levels to approximately 80 % of the baseline after one month. Their levels sustained significantly low even after six months. The effect of aspirin in reducing elevated serum Lp(a) levels were stronger in patients with smaller-sized type or double-band type of apo(a) isoforms. The transcriptional efficiency of apo(a) gene is thought to be increased in patients with these apo(a) isoforms. Therefore, these findings suggest that aspirin reduces apo(a) gene transcription preferentialy in patients with high transcriptional efficiency of this gene

Unraveling acetogen gas fermentation using quantitative systems biology

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Enriched Expression of Serotonin 1B and 2A Receptor Genes in Macaque Visual Cortex and their Bidirectional Modulatory Effects on Neuronal Responses

To study the molecular mechanism how cortical areas are specialized in adult primates, we searched for area-specific genes in macaque monkeys and found striking enrichment of serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine, 5-HT) 1B receptor mRNA, and to a lesser extent, of 5-HT2A receptor mRNA, in the primary visual area (V1). In situ hybridization analyses revealed that both mRNA species were highly concentrated in the geniculorecipient layers IVA and IVC, where they were coexpressed in the same neurons. Monocular inactivation by tetrodotoxin injection resulted in a strong and rapid (<3 h) downregulation of these mRNAs, suggesting the retinal activity dependency of their expression. Consistent with the high expression level in V1, clear modulatory effects of 5-HT1B and 5-HT2A receptor agonists on the responses of V1 neurons were observed in in vivo electrophysiological experiments. The modulatory effect of the 5-HT1B agonist was dependent on the firing rate of the recorded neurons: The effect tended to be facilitative for neurons with a high firing rate, and suppressive for those with a low firing rate. The 5-HT2A agonist showed opposite effects. These results suggest that this serotonergic system controls the visual response in V1 for optimization of information processing toward the incoming visual inputs

Factors associated with the occurrence of injuries requiring hospital transfer among older and working-age pedestrians in Kurume, Japan

Abstract Background Pedestrian injuries among older people tend to occur near their residence. However, knowledge regarding whether distance travelled from home to the injury site or road environmental/socioeconomic factors affect injury severity remains limited. Methods A cross-sectional study was performed using injury registry data from the Kurume City Fire Department, Japan. Distance travelled from home was determined with geographic information system (GIS) software. Data were analyzed for potential association with injury occurrence and severity, with stratification by age. Signal detection analysis using 10 variables was applied to identify factors associated with the occurrence of severe pedestrian injuries. Results Among the 545 adult pedestrian injuries reviewed, the factors associated with the occurrence of severe pedestrian injuries for older people and working-age people were evaluated, focusing on the effect of the network distance travelled from home to injury site. Network distance travelled from home to injury site was not associated with the occurrence of severe pedestrian injuries among older people. By applying signal detection analysis, for older people, higher socioeconomic status, wider road width per lane, and higher aging rate in the residential area were significant factors, and for working-age pedestrians, longer network distance travelled between injury place and their residential area and a higher aging rate in the residential area were significantly associated. Conclusions To reduce severe pedestrian injuries among older people, improvement of road infrastructure in areas with wider roads, higher socioeconomic status and higher aging rates is required