[Objective]Skeletal Muscle atrophy is induced in response to unloading by Hindlimb Suspension (HS). Numerous studies have been performed to prevent Skeletal Muscle atrophy. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying Electro-acupuncture (EA) on skeletal muscle have not been identified, and the effect of EA to prevent skeletal muscle atrophy is unknown. Therefore, we aimed to determine the effect of EA and Chishin (where the needles are kept in muscle for thirty minutes) on skeletal muscle atrophy in an animal experiment.
[Methods]Twenty mice (8 week, C57BL6) were randomly grouped into 4 groups;Normal group (N group), Hindlimb Suspension Group (HS group), HS +Chishin group (Chishin group), and HS +EA 1Hz group (1Hz group) (n = 5/group, respectively). Acupuncture interventions were conducted on the gastrocnemius of the Chishin and 1Hz groups. We measured the muscle mass, the cross sectional area, the percentage of Antrogin-1 and MuRF1 (Atrophy related E3ubiquitin ligases) expressions of the soleus 0f each mouse at 2 weeks after acupuncture interventions.
[Result]The weight and Cross sectional area of the soleus of the 1Hz group were significantly greater than the HS group (P<0.01, P<0.01, respectively). On the contrary, the percentage of Atrogin-1 and MuRF1 expressions of the 1Hz group was significantly less than the HS groups (P<0.01, P<0.05, respectively).
[Conclusion]These results suggest that EA and Chishin may influence the activity of Atrogin-1 &MuRF1 expression.

Objective: This study quantitatively analyzes the factors causing dispensing errors in community pharmacies and explores the characteristics of these factors and their order of importance.
Design and Methods: We collected data records on the contents and causes of dispensing errors as reported between April and July 2009 by a total of 320 pharmacists at 56 stores of two pharmacy chains (15 stores in Hokkaido and 41 stores in the Kansai area).  We focused on the following three types of dispensing error: 1) “measurement error”, 2) “wrong drug dispensing error” and 3) “wrong dosage form specification error”.  We conducted multiple regression analyses and discriminant analyses with occurrence frequency of each type of error as dependent variables and count frequency of each causal factor as independent variables.
Results: The result of the multiple regression analyses indicated that the primary causes of the three types of errors in order of strength of the regression coefficients were as follows.  For “measurement error”: 1) pharmacist’s wrong assumption and 2) calculation error; for “wrong dosage form specification error”: 1) insufficient confirmation of prescription and 2) pharmacist’s wrong assumption; for “wrong drug dispensing error”: 1) pharmacist’s wrong assumption and 2) insufficient confirmation of prescription.  The results of the discriminant analysis indicated that only for the discriminant coefficient between “wrong dosage form specification error” and “wrong drug dispensing error” no significant difference in the mean was found (p=0.539).
Conclusions: Results show that partly different factors cause “measurement error” as compared with the two other types of dispensing errors.  In addition, while basically the same factors were found to cause “wrong drug dispensing error” and “wrong dosage form specification error,” there was a difference in the order of importance of these factors.  This study uncovered differences in terms of causal factors affecting each dispensing error type.