Stress of Kindergarten teachers: How we tried to detect and to reduce it by using a small and wearable ECG and acceleration measuring device?

In 2014 school year, four female teachers of Nazareth Kindergarten decided to resign (DRT) due to workplace stress caused by human relationships between themselves. Our preliminary interview investigation revealed there was a stressor (STR), a certain elder female teacher and her less polite words and attitude. Using small and wearable ECG and acceleration measuring device, we measured 24 hour's autonomic nervous system's activity (ASNA) and sleep behavior of the STR and surrounding teachers, and tried to evaluate their stress objectively and to understand the reason of STR's less polite behaviors.

Comparative survey of go/no-go results to identify the inhibitory control ability change of Japanese children.

This research, conducted in 1998 and 2008, uses go/no-go data to investigate the fundamentals of cognitive functioning in the inhibitory control ability of Japanese children. 844 subjects from kindergarten to junior high school participated in go/no-go task experiments. Performance of go/no-go tasks, which are frequently used to investigate response inhibition, measures a variety of cognitive components besides response inhibition.

Value of the extracellular water ratio for assessment of cirrhotic patients with and without ascites.

Aims: Ascites, which often complicates liver cirrhosis, is reported to be a factor that worsens the outcome. The aims of this study were to quantify body water compartment changes in cirrhotic patients, with and without ascites, and to elucidate the value of body water analysis for predicting the development of ascites.

Methods: A total of 109 cirrhotic patients, with and without ascites, and 65 controls were studied.

Impaired regulation of serum hepcidin during phlebotomy in patients with chronic hepatitis C.

Aim: This study was conducted to determine the clinical relevance of hepcidin, a recently identified key iron regulatory hormone, in patients with chronic hepatitis C virus (C-HCV).

Methods: Serum hepcidin levels were measured in 9 C-HCV patients by surface-enhanced laser desorption/ionization time of flight mass spectrometry (SELDI-TOF-MS), and compared to those of healthy controls. Sequential changes of hepcidin were also investigated during phlebotomy.

Iron overload is associated with hepatic oxidative damage to DNA in nonalcoholic steatohepatitis.

Several lines of evidence have suggested that oxidative stress plays an important role for the pathogenesis of nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). Therefore, by using immunohistochemical staining of liver biopsy samples, we measured hepatic 7,8-dihydro-8-oxo-2' deoxyguanosine (8-oxodG), a DNA base-modified product generated by hydroxyl radicals, of 38 NASH patients and compared with 24 simple steatosis and 10 healthy subjects. Relation of hepatic 8-oxodG with clinical, biochemical, and histologic variables and changes after iron reduction therapy (phlebotomy plus iron-restricted diet) were also examined.

Patients with chronic hepatitis C achieving a sustained virological response to peginterferon and ribavirin therapy recover from impaired hepcidin secretion.

Background/aims: The aim of this study is to determine the clinical relevance of hepatic producing iron regulatory hormone-hepcidin, on iron overload in patients with chronic hepatitis C (CHC).

Methods: Serum hepcidin was measured in 73 CHC patients by surface-enhanced laser desorption/ionization time of flight mass spectrometry (SELDI-TOF-MS), and compared to those of healthy controls and anemia of inflammation patients, and analyzed their relationship to hepatic hepcidin mRNA expression levels and clinical, hematological, and histological findings. The sequential changes of hepcidin were investigated in 27 CHC patients treated with a 48 week-course of pegylated-interferon (PEG-IFN) plus ribavirin therapy.

Hepcidin expression in the liver: relatively low level in patients with chronic hepatitis C.

Patients with chronic hepatitis C frequently have serum and hepatic iron overload, but the mechanism is unknown. Recently identified hepcidin, exclusively synthesized in the liver, is thought to be a key regulator for iron homeostasis and is induced by infection and inflammation. This study was conducted to determine the hepatic hepcidin expression levels in patients with various liver diseases.

Upregulation of transferrin receptor 2 and ferroportin 1 mRNA in the liver of patients with chronic hepatitis C.

Background: Iron accumulation has been reported to be associated with progression of liver injury. The mechanism of iron accumulation in the liver is not known. In the present study, hepatic messenger RNA (mRNA) expression of transferrin receptor (TfR)1, TfR2, and ferroportin (FP)1 was measured in patients with chronic hepatitis (CH).

Efficacy of long-term dietary restriction of total calories, fat, iron, and protein in patients with chronic hepatitis C virus.

Objectives: A diet restrictive in total calories, fat, iron, and protein intake reduces serum alanine aminotransferase levels in patients with long-term hepatitis C virus infection. However, whether long-term dietary therapy causes adverse effects such as malnutrition and anemia due to a shortage of energy intake is not clear. We evaluated the balance of energy intake and changes in physical and hematologic indices of nutrition after a long-term dietary therapy.

Different hepatitis C virus dynamics of free-virions and immune-complexes after initiation of interferon-alpha in patients with chronic hepatitis C.

Background/aims: To elucidate the mechanisms of action of interferon (IFN) against hepatitis C virus (HCV), we studied the serum HCV dynamics of free-virions (FV) and immune-complexes (IC) in patients treated with IFN.

Methods: FV and IC were separated by immunoprecipitation using anti-human immunoglobulin and quantified serially using real-time detection-polymerase chain reaction.

Results: Initially [1st phase (0-24 h)], the FV decreased more rapidly compared to IC [exponential decay slope (EDS)=1.

Nonimmune complexed HCV RNA titer in serum as a predictor of interferon response in patients with chronic hepatitis C.

Objective: Hepatitis C virus (HCV) has been reported to exist in the circulation of patients in various forms such as free virions, immune complexes, and nucleocapsids. To clarify the clinical significance of serum HCV titers according to the forms of virus particles, we evaluated the immune complexed (IC) and nonimmune complexed (NIC) HCV RNA titers in 77 chronic hepatitis patients treated with interferon (IFN).

Methods: IC and NIC forms in pretreatment serum were separated by immunoprecipitation using antihuman immunoglobulin antibody, and quantified by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction.

The educational experiments of school health promotion for the youth in Japan: analysis of the 'sport test' over the past 34 years.

The objective of this study was to analyze independently the results of a 'sport test' that had been conducted in Japanese schools for 34 years without interruption, and to examine how physical education in Japanese schools affects health promotion in youths and what problems remain to be solved. The source of materials for the present study were the Annual Reports on the Survey of Physical Fitness and Athletic Ability for the period 1965-1998, published by the Ministry of Education, Science, Sports and Culture. Means and standard deviations of total scores from physical fitness and athletic ability tests in 11-year-olds (6th graders in elementary school), 14-year-olds (3rd graders in junior high school) and 17-year-olds (3rd graders in senior high school) were analyzed.