61 research outputs found

    日本在住コリアンのニューカマーにおける二言語併用

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    学位の種別:課程博士University of Tokyo(東京大学

    Knowledge and risk perception of radiation for Japanese nursing students after the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant disaster

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    Background: The Japanese have had three experiences of radiation disasters: the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, and the 2011 Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant disaster. The former two experiences have been covered in compulsory education programs. In light of these incidents, a strong fear of radiation has pervaded people of several generations. In such a situation, the role of nurses is important. When nurses treat residents, their attitudes change depending on how they understand and feel about radiation. The foundations of these attitudes are formed through student education. Hence, it is necessary to explore nursing students' understanding and risk perception of radiation, and the nature of radiation education received. Objectives: To assess the levels of understanding and risk perception of nursing students regarding radiation. Design: Cross-sectional survey. Methods: A questionnaire survey was administered to all students (74 first-year, 79 second-year, 65 third-year, and 69 fourth-year students) in the nursing department of a Japanese national university. The response rate was 84%. Respondents were asked to rate their level of understanding of 50 phrases chosen from two supplementary texts about radiation for elementary school students and for middle and high school students, prepared by the Japanese Ministry. Further, they were asked to rate their risk perception for 30 events, and to answer six questions about radiation. Results: It was found that knowledge about radiation among Japanese nursing students was poor, because sufficient radiation education had not been provided. Hence, they displayed a greater fear of X-rays as compared to American students and members of the League of Woman Voters. However, it was also found that an increase in understanding might decrease risk perception. Conclusions: It was concluded that nursing students require adequate education about radiation, in order to reduce their fear of X-rays and to mitigate their risk perception

    ORAL HEALTH AND SELF-EFFICACY

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    Background : Bidirectional relationships exist between diabetes and periodontal disease. Fostering timely oral health assessments of patients with diabetes, the modified diabetes oral health assessment tool (M-DiOHATⓒ) for nurses was studied. The DiOHATⓒ has four factors, namely oral health conditions, oral hygiene behaviors, perception and knowledge, and health record sharing. It was modified as the M-DiOHATⓒ scale. To change people's health behaviors, “efficacy beliefs" and “outcome expectancies" are important. However, no studies have been reported that addressed efficacy beliefs and outcome expectancies of oral health conditions and behaviors of patients with diabetes. Objective : To clarify the oral health conditions and behaviors of patients with diabetes using the M-DiOHATⓒ, and to describe their associations with the Self-Efficacy Scale for Self-Care (SESS)/the Outcome Expectancy Scale for Self-Care (OESS). Methods : Twenty-eight patients with diabetes participated in the study. Their personal characteristics were determined from the items of self-efficacy for brushing of the teeth (SE-B), self-efficacy for dental consultations (SE-DC), OESS that are comprised of three factors, namely, the social outcome expectancy (OE-Social), oral outcome expectancy (OE-Oral), and self-evaluative outcome expectancy (OE-Self), and the M-DiOHATⓒ. Results : Forty-three percent of patients had retained their expected number of present teeth, and 68% of them had dental problems. The scores of health record sharing were low, and patients who were under 65 years old had fewer “expected number of present teeth," and lower SE-B/oral health conditions scores than those patients aged over 65 years. The scores of oral hygiene behaviors were significantly correlated with the SE-B scores, SE-DC, OE-Oral, and OE-Self. However, the oral health conditions showed no correlation with SE-B, SE-DC, OESS. Conclusion : The findings suggest that nursing interventions to promote SE-B, SE-DC, and OESS could be effective in enhancing patients' oral hygiene behaviors. However, severity of patients' periodontal disease require different types of dental self-efficacy procedures

    Comparison of TGSE-BLADE DWI, RESOLVE DWI, and SS-EPI DWI in healthy volunteers and patients after cerebral aneurysm clipping

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    Diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging is prone to have susceptibility artifacts in an inhomogeneous magnetic field. We compared distortion and artifacts among three diffusion acquisition techniques (single-shot echo-planar imaging [SS-EPI DWI], readout-segmented EPI [RESOLVE DWI], and 2D turbo gradient- and spin-echo diffusion-weighted imaging with non-Cartesian BLADE trajectory [TGSE-BLADE DWI]) in healthy volunteers and in patients with a cerebral aneurysm clip. Seventeen healthy volunteers and 20 patients who had undergone surgical cerebral aneurysm clipping were prospectively enrolled. SS-EPI DWI, RESOLVE DWI, and TGSE-BLADE DWI of the brain were performed using 3 T scanners. Distortion was the least in TGSE-BLADE DWI, and lower in RESOLVE DWI than SS-EPI DWI near air–bone interfaces in healthy volunteers (P < 0.001). Length of clip-induced artifact and distortion near the metal clip were the least in TGSE-BLADE DWI, and lower in RESOLVE DWI than SS-EPI DWI (P < 0.01). Image quality scores for geometric distortion, susceptibility artifacts, and overall image quality in both healthy volunteers and patients were the best in TGSE-BLADE DWI, and better in RESOLVE DWI than SS-EPI DWI (P < 0.001). Among the three DWI sequences, image quality was the best in TGSE-BLADE DWI in terms of distortion and artifacts, in both healthy volunteers and patients with an aneurysm clip

    Long-Term Persistent GBV-B Infection and Development of a Chronic and Progressive Hepatitis C-Like Disease in Marmosets

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    It has been shown that infection of GB virus B (GBV-B), which is closely related to hepatitis C virus, develops acute self-resolving hepatitis in tamarins. In this study we sought to examine longitudinally the dynamics of viral and immunological status following GBV-B infection of marmosets and tamarins. Surprisingly, two of four marmosets but not tamarins experimentally challenged with GBV-B developed long-term chronic infection with fluctuated viremia, recurrent increase of alanine aminotransferase and plateaued titers of the antiviral antibodies, which was comparable to chronic hepatitis C in humans. Moreover, one of the chronically infected marmosets developed an acute exacerbation of chronic hepatitis as revealed by biochemical, histological, and immunopathological analyses. Of note, periodical analyses of the viral genomes in these marmosets indicated frequent and selective non-synonymous mutations, suggesting efficient evasion of the virus from antiviral immune pressure. These results demonstrated for the first time that GBV-B could induce chronic hepatitis C-like disease in marmosets and that the outcome of the viral infection and disease progression may depend on the differences between species and individuals

    Cyclical and Patch-Like GDNF Distribution along the Basal Surface of Sertoli Cells in Mouse and Hamster Testes

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    BACKGROUND AND AIMS: In mammalian spermatogenesis, glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF) is one of the major Sertoli cell-derived factors which regulates the maintenance of undifferentiated spermatogonia including spermatogonial stem cells (SSCs) through GDNF family receptor α1 (GFRα1). It remains unclear as to when, where and how GDNF molecules are produced and exposed to the GFRα1-positive spermatogonia in vivo. METHODOLOGY AND PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Here we show the cyclical and patch-like distribution of immunoreactive GDNF-positive signals and their close co-localization with a subpopulation of GFRα1-positive spermatogonia along the basal surface of Sertoli cells in mice and hamsters. Anti-GDNF section immunostaining revealed that GDNF-positive signals are mainly cytoplasmic and observed specifically in the Sertoli cells in a species-specific as well as a seminiferous cycle- and spermatogenic activity-dependent manner. In contrast to the ubiquitous GDNF signals in mouse testes, high levels of its signals were cyclically observed in hamster testes prior to spermiation. Whole-mount anti-GDNF staining of the seminiferous tubules successfully visualized the cyclical and patch-like extracellular distribution of GDNF-positive granular deposits along the basal surface of Sertoli cells in both species. Double-staining of GDNF and GFRα1 demonstrated the close co-localization of GDNF deposits and a subpopulation of GFRα1-positive spermatogonia. In both species, GFRα1-positive cells showed a slender bipolar shape as well as a tendency for increased cell numbers in the GDNF-enriched area, as compared with those in the GDNF-low/negative area of the seminiferous tubules. CONCLUSION/SIGNIFICANCE: Our data provide direct evidence of regionally defined patch-like GDNF-positive signal site in which GFRα1-positive spermatogonia possibly interact with GDNF in the basal compartment of the seminiferous tubules

    The Constrained Maximal Expression Level Owing to Haploidy Shapes Gene Content on the Mammalian X Chromosome.

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    X chromosomes are unusual in many regards, not least of which is their nonrandom gene content. The causes of this bias are commonly discussed in the context of sexual antagonism and the avoidance of activity in the male germline. Here, we examine the notion that, at least in some taxa, functionally biased gene content may more profoundly be shaped by limits imposed on gene expression owing to haploid expression of the X chromosome. Notably, if the X, as in primates, is transcribed at rates comparable to the ancestral rate (per promoter) prior to the X chromosome formation, then the X is not a tolerable environment for genes with very high maximal net levels of expression, owing to transcriptional traffic jams. We test this hypothesis using The Encyclopedia of DNA Elements (ENCODE) and data from the Functional Annotation of the Mammalian Genome (FANTOM5) project. As predicted, the maximal expression of human X-linked genes is much lower than that of genes on autosomes: on average, maximal expression is three times lower on the X chromosome than on autosomes. Similarly, autosome-to-X retroposition events are associated with lower maximal expression of retrogenes on the X than seen for X-to-autosome retrogenes on autosomes. Also as expected, X-linked genes have a lesser degree of increase in gene expression than autosomal ones (compared to the human/Chimpanzee common ancestor) if highly expressed, but not if lowly expressed. The traffic jam model also explains the known lower breadth of expression for genes on the X (and the Z of birds), as genes with broad expression are, on average, those with high maximal expression. As then further predicted, highly expressed tissue-specific genes are also rare on the X and broadly expressed genes on the X tend to be lowly expressed, both indicating that the trend is shaped by the maximal expression level not the breadth of expression per se. Importantly, a limit to the maximal expression level explains biased tissue of expression profiles of X-linked genes. Tissues whose tissue-specific genes are very highly expressed (e.g., secretory tissues, tissues abundant in structural proteins) are also tissues in which gene expression is relatively rare on the X chromosome. These trends cannot be fully accounted for in terms of alternative models of biased expression. In conclusion, the notion that it is hard for genes on the Therian X to be highly expressed, owing to transcriptional traffic jams, provides a simple yet robustly supported rationale of many peculiar features of X's gene content, gene expression, and evolution
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