To investigate the effect of acupuncture treatment combined with extreme infra-red rays radiation, we measured both skin surface and deep temperature at the stimulated area and peripheral site. The subjects were seven healthy volunteers with no problems involving the skin or autonomic nervous system. Acupuncture stimulation was performed on the Subject's back in combination with extreme infra-red rays radiation. The skin surface and deep temperature were measured at both the stimulated area and peripheral site (sole of the foot) using a thermistor temperature sensor and deep tissue thermometer during stimulation. We also measured temperature at those sites during extreme infrared rays radiation without acupuncture stimulation as a control study. Acupuncture stimulation combined with extreme infra-red rays radiation on the subject's back increases both surface and deep temperature at both the stimulated area and the peripheral site (sole of the foot), while the radiation alone had no effect on the temperature at the peripheral site. We suggested that acupuncture treatment combined with extreme infra-red rays radiation was useful to increase skin surface and deep temperature not only at the stimulated area but also at the peripheral site.

Because of geographical conditions in Japan, most of our rice is grown in paddies. It is very hard to work in paddies wearing a prosthesis.
The type of prosthesis, called the “DOLINGEL” or “Iron Leg”, are not suitable in paddies. The followings were our research and development objections;
1. To select strong light materials and design for the new prosthesis.
2. To have a simple design which could be cleaned easily after use.
3. To consider the problem of skin irritation on the stump end.
4. To select the best foot shape for easy lifting from the mud. From the above objectives, we improved it after actual use.
A summary of our improvement;
Aluminium was used as the main material for its light weight. The lower leg was made of plastic for its ease of clearing.
Regarding the knee joint settlement during work;
The old prosthesis was too unsteady to permit the worker to carry things. So we reconstructed it. By bending it forward, putting a long boot on the prosthesis was very easier. We used a system where by the whole lower leg section can be changed by a “one touch” prosedure. We put rubber on the sole to prevent slipping. We put a belt on the affected side. Its design is the result of our experiments and of actual field use.

　　This study was designed to clarify the factors affecting hospital staff behavior toward participation in lectures and workshops held in our hospital. A questionnaire survey was conducted to evaluate staff background and staff participation in these events. The survey revealed that in the past year, 78.7% of staff had attended lectures or workshops at least once. The participation rate in lectures and workshops associated with medical safety and infection control was 50.4% and 38.4%, respectively. Additionally, the participation rate was dependent on job type. Of interest, staff behavior toward participation was strongly influenced by factors related to the training content, such as medical safety and infection control, but not by environmental factors, such as marital status and familial status (with or without children). The survey results also showed that factors related to “hassle”, such as rearranging their work hours to allow for participation, negatively affected active participation in meeting events. These results suggest that factors affecting hospital staff participating in these events may, in part, be implicated in professionalism as medical staff, and that this can be influenced by job type and motivation, rather than by environmental factors.

　　This study sought to examine the impact of the approaches being taken to deal with current problems between the hospital and staff from the viewpoint of organizational identity. First, we devised educational strategies that allowed staff to speak directly to the hospital director. Next, the director spoke to staff about the background and history, the basic philosophy, and the vision of the hospital, as well as their place and mission in the community. We also conducted a 7-item questionnaire survey (1-5 graded Likert scale) of 894 staff from November 2012 to September 2013. Collection and response rates were 80.3% each. Regarding the direct communication between our hospital director with staff, response to the items “background and history of our hospital”, “espoused the basic philosophy of our hospital”, “had a collective vision our hospital”, and “understood one's place and mission in the community” were significantly increased after the on-the-job training compared with before receiving the training. We confirmed that about 90% of staff understood the items “background and history of our hospital”, “espoused the basic philosophy of our hospital”, “had a collective vision our hospital”, and “understood their place and mission in the community”. Also, two factors, “organizational identity” and “a sense of distance from the hospital organization”, were extracted from the 7 questions for factor analysis. The reliability of this scale was high and showed high internal consistency (Cronbach's α coefficient＝0.837 and 0.670, respectively). The results of these tests for validity of the scale indicate its high content validity. Together, these results suggest that direct communication between our hospital director and staff was extremely useful for penetrating the organizational environment and enhancing staff's organizational identity.

　　This study sought to elucidate factors that affect the cultivation of organizational identity among our hospital staff. We conducted a questionnaire survey among hospital staff (N＝894) from November 2012 to September 2013. The following items were queried: job category, age, sex, marital status, with or without children, participation in lectures or workshops in the previous year, and experience in clinical research and related data analysis. The response rate for the survey was 80.3%. Univariate analysis showed that all abovementioned parameters affected the cultivation of organizational identity. Further study using multivariate logistic regression analysis was performed to clarify which factors are significantly involved in the cultivation of organizational identity. Our results show that job category, participation in lectures or workshops in the previous year, and experience in clinical research and related data analysis are effective in cultivating organizational identity. These results suggest that a sense of professionalism as medical staff may play a critical role in the cultivation of organizational identity.

　The number of medical staff who can conduct clinical research in our hospital has been decreasing every year, and thus education that enhances medical staff's understanding of the importance of clinical research is an important factor in improving patient management. Although staff education has begun to develop infrastructure necessary for conducting clinical research, it is unclear whether medical staff who must play a critical role in clinical research are actually interested in conducting research and participating in research-related educational programs. We carried out a cross-sectional questionnaire survey of medical staff to determine their interest in clinical research activities and related education. Of 894 medical staff who participated in a workshop at Anjo-Kosei Hospital, 718 responded to the survey (response rate: 80.3%), 24.9% of whom had experience in clinical research and 51.0% had an interest in the field and related data analysis. Furthermore, 51.0% of respondents showed demonstrable intention to participate in staff education. Such intention to participate was particularly obvious among clinicians, pharmacists, registered dietitians, radiologists, and rehabilitation therapists. Also, staff in their 30s and 40s were frequently interested in conducting clinical research and related data analysis. This suggests that these staff prefer a research environment where they can undertake clinical research soon after completing clinical training. Moreover, regarding the question of specific educational areas, statistical methods for data analysis garnered the highest interest, followed by methods of writing a research paper, use of statistical software, data interpretation, designing research, and identifying research topics. Therefore, such educational programs should be flexible to suit medical staff who perform data analysis as well as clinical research.

AIMThe redox dynamics of the rat liver in the whole body hyperthermia was measured by the decay rate of the ESR spectra used carbamoyl-PROXYL as a spin probe.

METHODSFifty-two Wistar male rats were randomly assigned to four groups and each group was subjected to only one of the following treatments: heat stress (HS group), anesthesia without hyperthermia (control group), pretreatment with MPG (MPG + HS group) and pretreatment with saline (No-MPG group). The solution of carbamoyl PROXYL was added to rat liver homogenate from 0, 1, 2, 6 and 24 h after heating at concentration of 0.1 mmol/L. sequentially the ESR spectra of the samples were immediately recorded by X-band ESR spectrometer.

RESULTSCompared with the control group, the signal decay rate was increased gradually after heat treatment, and attained the maximum at 2 h, and then returned to the normal level at 24 h. This signal intensity effect was reduced by MPG pretreatment.

CONCLUSIONGeneration of reactive oxygen species in liver may be induced by heat stress.

Animals ; Electron Spin Resonance Spectroscopy ; methods ; Heat-Shock Response ; Hot Temperature ; Liver ; physiopathology ; Male ; Oxidation-Reduction ; Oxidative Stress ; Rats ; Rats, Wistar

The effect of acupuncture on the autonomic nervous system was analyzed by simultaneous measurement of sympathetic skin response (SSR), sympathetic flow response (SFR) and Palmer emotional sweating evoked with electric stimuli to the forehead at random interval and intensity. The mutual relation of measurements by those parameters was examined electrophysiologically.
The subjects were ten healthy male volunteers. SSR at the left palm and SFR at the fingertip of the left forefinger were measured using laser doppler flowmetry, and emotional sweating at teh right palm was measured with the ventilated capsule method (hydrography). The measurements were performed in two sessions, with and without acupuncture stimulation that was given at L14 with the technique of sparrow picking (1Hz) for 1 minute and retaining the needle for 10 minutes. The amplitude of SSR, the reduction rate of SFR, and the sweat rate were measured before and after acupuncture stimulation, while those were measured before and after resting in the other session as a control study. As a result, habituation in each response was not seen and the correlation coefficient in each index was low, while SSR and Palmar sweating were inhibited significantly in the stimulation group only, and SFR was inhibited in both groups.
These results suggested that acupuncture stimulation might inhibit the activity of the skin sympathetic nerve system.

¹²³I-meta-iodobenzylguanidine (MIBG) has become widely applied in Japan since its introduction to clinical cardiology and neurology practice in the 1990s. Neurological studies found decreased cardiac uptake of ¹²³I-MIBG in Lewy-body diseases including Parkinson's disease and dementia with Lewy bodies. Thus, cardiac MIBG uptake is now considered a biomarker of Lewy body diseases. Although scintigraphic images of ¹²³I-MIBG can be visually interpreted, an average count ratio of heart-to-mediastinum (H/M) has commonly served as a semi-quantitative marker of sympathetic activity. Since H/M ratios significantly vary according to acquisition and processing conditions, quality control should be appropriate, and quantitation should be standardized. The threshold H/M ratio for differentiating Lewy-body disease is 2.0-2.1, and was based on standardized H/M ratios to comparable values of medium-energy collimators. Parkinson's disease can be separated from various types of parkinsonian syndromes using cardiac ¹²³I-MIBG, whereas activity is decreased on images of Lewy-body diseases using both ¹²³I-ioflupane for the striatum and ¹²³I-MIBG. Despite being a simple index, the H/M ratio of ¹²³I-MIBG uptake is reproducible and can serve as an effective tool to support a diagnosis of Lewy-body diseases in neurological practice.
3-Iodobenzylguanidine ; Cardiology ; Dementia ; Diagnosis ; Japan ; Lewy Bodies ; Lewy Body Disease ; Neurology ; Nuclear Medicine ; Parkinson Disease ; Parkinsonian Disorders ; Quality Control