The association between problematic internet use and neck pain among Japanese schoolteachers

Objectives: Problematic internet use (PIU) has been suggested in relation to psychological symptoms among schoolteachers, but the relationship with physical symptoms remains unclear. We examined whether PIU or longer Internet usage time is associated with neck pain in schoolteachers. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study among 2582 teachers aged 20 years or older (35.6% women) in Shimane and Tottori, Japan in 2018. Neck pain was defined as ≥5 points on the Neck Disability Index. The Compulsive Internet Use Scale (CIUS) was used to assess PIU. Internet usage time on weekdays and weekends was divided into five groups: 0, 1–29, 30–59, 60–119, and ≥120 min/day. Logistic regression analysis was conducted to examine the association of the CIUS score and Internet usage time on weekdays or weekends with neck pain, adjusting for sex, age, position at school, insomnia, and psychological distress. Results: We observed 800 (31.0%) teachers with neck pain. The median (interquartile range) of their CIUS scores was 7 (2, 14). A higher CIUS score was independently associated with a higher prevalence of neck pain (odds ratio of 4th vs. 1st quartiles, 1.41; 95% confidence interval, 1.06–1.87; trend P = .006). Compared with non-Internet users, Internet users on weekdays had almost double the odds of neck pain although the difference did not reach the customary level for designating statistical significance. Conclusions: In conclusion, teachers with higher scores in CIUS were associated with a higher prevalence of neck pain in Japan, suggesting adults with PIU being at risk of physical disorders

Nursing assistance for psychological adjustment of gastrointestinal cancer patients undergoing laparotomy in the perioperative period

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Clinical Characteristics and Difference at First Detection among Hepatocellular Carcinoma Patients with Hepatitis B-, C- Virus, and Diagnosed as Non-B Non-C type

To investigate characteristic differences of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), 45 HCC patients with hepatitis B virus (HCC-B), 216 with hepatitis C virus (HCC-C) and 28 diagnosed as Non-B NonC type (HCC-N) were studied retrospectively. There was a male dominant difference irrespective of causes. The mean age for HCC-B, HCC-C, and HCC-N were 58 ± 9 years, 67 ± 8, and 71 ± 6, respectively. The detection age of HCC-B was younger with wider range, in contrast to older age with narrow range among HCC-C or HCC-N. Although the underlying liver status among HCC-B was broad spectrum from carriers without liver injury to cirrhosis, that among HCC-C was likely to be cirrhosis with liver damage in many cases. In contrast, many HCC-N had normal liver function except for heavy drinkers. HCC-B or-C was detected at relatively earlier stage through periodic screening, but HCC-N was often incidentally detected at an advanced stage. Considering these characteristic differences among each type of HCC, periodical screening including tumor markers and imaging studies should be performed for early HCC detection in hepatitis-B or -C carriers. It is also desirable for patients that are heavy drinkers, obese, or diabetic to undergo the same screening at least once a year, in consideration of rare but possible HC

Three-axial shape distributions of pebbles, cobbles and boulders smaller than a few meters on asteroid Ryugu

International audienceOver a broad size range, the shapes of impact fragments from catastrophic disruptions are distributed around the mean axial ratio 2: √2: 1, irrespective of experimental conditions and target materials. Although most blocks on asteroids are likely to be impact fragments, there is not enough quantitative data for reliable statistics on their three-axial lengths and/or ratios because it is difficult to precisely estimate the heights of the blocks. In this study, we evaluate the heights of blocks on asteroid Ryugu by measuring their shadows. The three-axial ratios of ~4100 small blocks with diameters from 5.0 cm to 7.6 m in Ryugu's equatorial region are investigated using eight close-up images of narrower localities taken at altitudes below 500 m, i.e. at <5.4 cm/pixel resolution, obtained immediately before the second touch-down of the Hayabusa2 spacecraft. The purpose of this study is to investigate the block shape distribution, which is important for understanding the geological history of asteroid Ryugu. Specifically, the shape distribution is compared to laboratory impact fragments. Our observations indicate that the shape distributions of blocks smaller than 1 m on Ryugu are consistent with laboratory impact fragment shape distributions, implying that the dominant shape-determining process for blocks on Ryugu was impact fragmentation. Blocks several meters in size in the equatorial region seem to be slightly flatter than the rest, suggesting that some blocks are partly buried in a bed of regolith. In conclusion, the shape distributions of blocks from several-cm to several-m in the equatorial region of asteroid Ryugu suggest that these are mainly fragments originating from the catastrophic disruption of their parent body and/or from a later impact