Characteristics and psychological consequences of Japanese adolescents\u27 personal autonomy

Previous studies on the concept of parental authority during adolescence have reported that the mental health of adolescents tend to deteriorate when parents control their behavior in their personal domain. Three surveys were conducted with Japanese early, middle, and late adolescents to examine whether adolescents that underestimate parental authority and exhibit personal autonomy are mentally healthy. Study 1: six-grade elementary school students (N=276), Study 2: junior high school students (N=246)and senior high school students (N=357), and Study 3: university students (N=148).In each study, judgments of adolescents about personal freedoms involved in moral, conventional, multifaced,and prudential issues that would be regulated in Japanese society were examined, and correlations with their self-formation and adaptation were analyzed. The results of in every study, adolescents could distinguish situations in which they could demonstrate their personal freedom from those in which their personal freedom is regulated.Furthermore, cluster analysis was conducted on judgments about personal freedom. The results indicated that in every study, there were two types of young people, other than those that made a judgment consistent with characteristics of each domain. One type had excessive feelings of freedom and tended to judge that personal freedom should be valued even in conventional and prudential situations. The other type excessively suppressed personal freedoms and tended to suppress it even in personal settings. The former type had relatively bad relationships with their parents and showed lower adaptation to school (Study 1). They tended to have a moral self with a sense of helplessness and social avoidance (Study 2). Moreover, their mental health deteriorated significantly (Study 3). Based on the above results and those of previous studies, it is suggested that too much control by parents and too strong feelings of personal freedom might have negative effects on the development of the self in adolescence

Microtensile Bond Strength of Self-Adhesive Luting Cements to Ceramics

The purpose of this paper was to compare the bond strengths of the self-adhesive luting cements between ceramics and resin cores and examine their relation to the cement thickness. Three self-adhesive luting cements (Smartcem, Maxcem, and G-CEM) and a resin cement (Panavia F 2.0) for control were used in the paper. The thickness of the cements was controlled in approximately 25, 50, 100, or 200 μm. Each 10 specimens were made according to the manufacturers' instructions and stored in water at 37°C. After 24 hours, microtensile bond strength (μTBS) was measured. There were significant differences in cements. Three self-adhesive cements showed significantly lower μTBSs than control that required both etching and priming before cementation (Tukey, P < 0.05). The cement thickness of 50 or 100 μm tended to induce the highest μTBSs for each self-adhesive luting cements though no difference was found

Clonal origin of Epstein-Barr virus-infected T/NK-cell subpopulations in chronic active Epstein-Barr virus infection

Clonal expansion of Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) infected B-cells occasionally occurs in immunocompromized subjects. EBV-infected T/natural killer (NK)-cells proliferate in patients with chronic active EBV infection (CAEBV) that is a rare mononucleosis syndrome. It is classified into either T-cell type or NK-cell type according to the primary target of infection, while the pathogenesis remains unclear. To search the clonal origin of EBV-infected T/NK-cells, virus distribution and clonotype were assessed by using highly purified cell fractions obtained from 6 patients. Patient 1 had a monoclonal proliferation of EBV-infected T-cell receptor V&#x3b4;2/V&#x3b3;9-expressing cells, and carried lower copy number of EBV in &#x3b1;&#x3b2;T-cells. Patients 2 and 3 had a clonal expansion of EBV-infected CD4+T-cells, and lower EBV load in CD56+cells. Patients 4, 5 and 6 had an expansion of CD56+cells with higher EBV load than CD3+cells. EBV-terminal repeats were determined as clonal bands in the minor targeted populations of 5 patients. The size of terminal repeats indicated the same clonotype in minor subsets as in major subsets of 4 patients. However, EBV was not detected in bone marrow-derived lineage negative CD34+cells of patients. These results suggested that EBV could infect T/NK-cells at differentiation stage, but spared bone marrow CD34+hematopoietic stem cells in CAEBV patients

Curative two-stage resection for synchronous triple cancers of the esophagus, colon, and liver: Report of a case

AbstractIntroductionCases of synchronous triple cancers of the esophagus and other organs curatively resected are rare.Presentation of caseA 73-year-old man was admitted to our hospital with bloody feces. He was diagnosed with synchronous triple cancers of the esophagus, colon, and liver. We selected a two-stage operation to safely achieve curative resection for all three cancers. The first stage of the operation comprised a laparoscopy-assisted sigmoidectomy and partial liver resection via open surgery. The patient was discharged without complications. Thirty days later, he was readmitted and thoracoscopic esophagectomy was performed. Although pneumonia-induced pulmonary aspiration occurred as a postoperative complication, it was treated conservatively. The patient was discharged on postoperative day 24.DiscussionEsophagectomy is a highly invasive procedure; thus, simultaneous surgery for plural organs, including the esophagus, may induce life-threatening, severe complications. Two-stage surgery is useful in reducing surgical stress in high-risk patients. For synchronous multiple cancers, the planning of two-stage surgery should be considered for each cancer to maintain organ function and reduce the stress and difficulty of each stage.ConclusionWe successfully treated synchronous triple cancers, including esophageal cancer, by a two-stage operation