This report is designed to evaluate the five-year management of a tool known as the Table of Communication (Inquiries) for the Home Care Support Program, whose preparation was begun by the Yanai Medical Association, Yanai Municipal Government and local home care support specialists in 2005.　　From a questionnaire survey performed once a year on the use of the Table of Communication (Inquiries) by members of the Medical Association and care support specialists, an attempt is made here to extract and compare good and bad points inherent to the contact between 2009 and 2011.　　In the initial phase, some members of the Medical Association did not assume a forward- looking posture in setting forth their views or failed to respond to the questionnaires delivered to them. Instead of giving up our approach, nevertheless, we kept distributing them to those members. As time went by, however, they came at last to realize it necessary to fill them out along with additional comments and promptly sent them back to the sponsors. On the other hand, there were signs that few replies with personal comments were turned in from doctors assigned to general hospitals. With awkward relations gradually dissipating over a period of five years, this tool, hailed as “Yanai Formula,&rquo; has developed into a system indispensable for attending doctors and home care support specialists.　　Recently prepared, the Table of Communication (Inquiries) has turned out to be a useful tool, which serves to reinforce the contact between attending doctors and home care support specialists. The major factor contributory to this successful venture is that this tool has been prepared and managed by a committee of three agents - to wit: the Medical Association, the municipality and the home care support specialists. When it comes to teamwork with a general hospital’s doctors, however, there still remain many issues yet to cope with, even though it has served as an operation center, so much so that we wish this method to develop into a genuine tool of teamwork that involves general hospitals' doctors.

Objective Cryptococcus neoformans var.grubii isolates from 6 different cities in our country using multilocus microsatellite typing(MLMT) method were genotyped to explore the genotypic distribution of the variety.Methods The DNA of forty-three isolates of Cryptococcus neoformans var.grubii was extracted.The DNA fragments covering microsatellite loci CNG1,CNG2 and CNG3 were amplified using PCR,and then sequenced.The numbers of each motif repeat in 3 microsatellite regions("TA" repeats for CNG1,"GA" repeats for CNG2,and "CAT" repeats for CNG3) were calculated.According to the repeat numbers of these motif,the MLMT types of 43 strains of Cryptococcus neoformans var.grubii were determined.Results Out of 43 isolates,the percentage of MLMT-17 was 83.72%.In the clinical and environmental isolates,the percentages of MLMT-17 were 86.67% and 70%,respectively.Two new genotypes MLMT-39 and-40 were found.Conclusion MLMT-17 of Cryptococcus neoformans var.grubii is prevalent in both clinical and community environment in China.Implying the most clinical strains which resulted in cryptococcosis originated from indigenous environmental strains.

Objective To understand the genotype distribution of clinical Cryptococcus neoformans var.grubii strains from China and Brazil using multilocus microsatellite typing(MLMT) method and to study the difference in their MLMT genotyping.Methods DNA was extracted from the identified 69 clinical Cryptococcus neoformans var.grubii strains.DNA fragments covering microsatellite loci(CNG1,CNG2,and CNG3) were amplified by PCR and sequenced.The number of each motif repeats in 3 microsatellite regions("TA","GA",and "CAT" repeats for CNG1,CNG2,and CNG3,respectively) was calculated.The MLMT types of 69 clinical Cryptococcus neoformans var.grubii strains were determined according to the repeat number of different motifs.Data were analyzed using SPSS 11.5 software.Results Five genotypes were identified in 33 clinical strains from China.Of these strains,29 were MLMT-17,accounting for 87.88% of the total strains.Ten genotypes were identified in 36 clinical strains from Brazil.Of the 36 strains,19 were MLMT-13,accounting for 52.78% of the total strains.Conclusion The difference is great in major genotype distributions of the clinical Cryptococcus neoformans var.grubii strains from China and Brazil.The genotype of clinical strains from Brazil is diversely distributed.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the reproducibility and validity of a short food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) for food group intake in Japan, the reproducibility and partial validity of which were previously confirmed for nutrients. METHODS: A total of 288 middle-aged healthy volunteers from 11 different areas of Japan provided nonconsecutive 3-day weighed dietary records (DRs) at 3-month intervals over four seasons. We evaluated reproducibility based on the first (FFQ1) and second (FFQ2) questionnaires and their validity against the DRs by comparing the intake of 20 food groups. Spearman's rank correlation coefficients (SRs) were calculated between energy-adjusted intake from the FFQs and that from the DRs. RESULTS: The intake of 20 food groups estimated from the two FFQs was mostly equivalent. The median energy-adjusted SRs between the FFQ1 and FFQ2 were 0.61 (range 0.38-0.86) for men and 0.66 (0.45-0.84) for women. For validity, the median de-attenuated SRs between DRs and the FFQ1 were 0.51 (0.17-0.76) for men and 0.47 (0.23-0.77) for women. Compared with the DRs, the proportion of cross-classification into exact plus adjacent quintiles with the FFQ1 ranged from 58 to 86% in men and from 57 to 86% in women. According to the robust Z scores and the Bland-Altman plot graphs, the underestimation errors in the FFQ1 tended to be greater in individuals with high mean levels of consumption for meat for men and for other vegetables for both men and women. CONCLUSION The FFQ demonstrated high reproducibility and reasonable validity for food group intake. This questionnaire is short and remains appropriate for identifying associations between diet and health/disease among adults in Japan.
Adult ; Aged ; Diet/statistics & numerical data* ; Diet Surveys ; Energy Intake ; Female ; Food/statistics & numerical data* ; Healthy Volunteers ; Humans ; Japan ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Reproducibility of Results