[Study on empowerment factors for career continuity of hospital nurses].

Objectives: The resignation rate of nurses working in hospitals is extremely high. This study aims to identify both the factors related to the resignation of nurses and the empowerment factors supporting their job retention.

Methods: In 2011 we conducted a Web-based questionnaire survey of nurses with less than 10 years of working experience.

Consumer reactions to risk information on bovine spongiform encephalopathy in Japan.

Objectives: To investigate the impact of information on foodborne disease on consumers, we quantified consumers' anxiety, purchasing behaviors, and willingness-to-pay (WTP) in response to the reading of newspaper articles published in 2001 that documented the first cow in Japan to be infected with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE).

Methods: An online questionnaire survey of 993 females aged 20-59 years was conducted in 2007. The participants were randomly selected from the general population via the Internet and were divided into three groups.

Does the Japanese Society for Hygiene need its own Code of Conduct? A comparison of the responses of councilors and junior members based on a questionnaire survey.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to compare current awareness of the "On a Code of Conduct for Scientists" (OCCS) among members of the Japanese Society for Hygiene (JSH).

Method: An anonymous self-administered questionnaire was mailed to JSH members, including 439 councilors and 376 junior members (who were under 50 years of age with a membership of 3 years or longer, excluding councilors). Councilors were surveyed from November to December 2007, while junior members were surveyed from November to December 2008.

[Attitudes towards the code of conduct for scientists among council members of the Japanese Society for Hygiene].

Objectives: The aim of this study was to clarify the attitudes towards the code of conduct for scientists among council members of the Japanese Society for Hygiene (JSH). We also aimed to collect information to be used as baseline data for future studies.

Methods: From November to December 2007, 439 Council members of the Japanese Society for Hygiene completed a self-administered questionnaire.

Inverse relationship between serum erythropoietin and blood lead concentrations in Kathmandu tricycle taxi drivers.

Objective: Kathmandu tricycle taxi drivers, whose environmental lead (Pb) exposure is ascribable mainly to vehicular exhaust, were studied to examine a dose-response relationship between blood Pb (Pb-B) and serum erythropoietin (sEPO) concentrations.

Methods: Subjects were 27 drivers and 9 non-drivers. They were non-anemic healthy men with normal renal function.

Food consumption and serum nutritional status of people living in the Kathmandu valley in Nepal.

Objective: The food consumption and serum nutritional status of people living in the Kathmandu valley, Nepal, were examined to obtain actual data for comparison with our previous findings.

Methods: A dietary survey of 45 males and 60 females was carried out in March 1997 by the 24-hr dietary recall method and nutrient intake was calculated from food tables of India and Japan. Fasting venous blood samples were obtained and serum biochemical parameters were measured using clinical kits.

Magnetic resonance imaging shows delayed ischemic striatal neurodegeneration.

Brief focal ischemia leading to temporary neurological deficits induces delayed hyperintensity on T1-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in the striatum of humans and rats. The T1 hyperintensity may stem from biochemical alterations including manganese (Mn) accumulation after ischemia. To clarify the significance of this MRI modification, we investigated the changes in the dorsolateral striatum of rats from 4 hours through 16 weeks after a 15-minute period of middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO), for MRI changes, Mn concentration, neuronal number, reactivities of astrocytes and microglia/macrophages, mitochondrial Mn-superoxide dismutase (Mn-SOD), glutamine synthetase (GS), and amyloid precursor protein.