[Objective]To evaluate the efficacy of the different depth of acupuncture on the motor function and the pain with osteoarthritis of the knee.
[Design]Single blind randomized controlled trial.
[Method]Subjects were randomly allocated to one of two groups. Acupuncture needles were inserted about 3mm in the superficial acupuncture group and 10 to 20 mm in the deep acupuncture group. Subjects in both groups received the treatments for ten minutes on ten tender points. Acupuncture sessions were performed once a week for 8 weeks and without treatment 4 weeks.
[Outcome Measures]Pain intensity (visual analogue scale :VAS) , Objective evaluation of the motor function (Timed Up &Go test, 20m walking time, Time of going up and down stairs) and QOL (Western Ontario and MacMaster Universities osteoarthritis index :WOMAC).
All measurements were recorded at baseline, 4th, 8th and 11thweek.
[Result]Motor function improved significantly only in the superficial acupuncture group(P<0.05). The degree of pain decreased significantly in both groups (P<0.05).
[Conclusion]Superficial acupuncture provided the improvements on pain and motor function and contributed to the QOL improvement. Therefore the superficial acupuncture would be suggested to be one of the most effective method for the acupuncture treatment of OA of the knee.

Introduction: The regional palliative care support center (PCSC) has set the following palliative care goals for correction of misunderstanding and prejudice of the general community against palliative care, home care and home death of cancer patients: practice palliative care early after diagnosis, educate the community to understand palliative care and build a regional palliative care cooperation system. Method: This study reviewed four years (2009-2012) of data from the PCSC. Outcome data of the patients were collected during outpatient care, inpatient care, and in-home care that were supported by the PCSC. The PCSC managed palliative care based on patient conditions and symptoms in the early stage after diagnosis. The PCSC worked to spread the idea and importance of palliative care to the general community and health care professionals of the region, and also worked to promote the regional palliative care cooperation. Result: These efforts led to an increase in the number of first center visit of patients, especially introduction patients, and an extension of the period of treatments of both tumor department and palliative care department. These outcomes resulted in an increase in the rate of in-home care transitions, the length of in-home care and the number of deaths at home. These results suggest that the place of appropriate medical and caregiving treatments and the place of death are converting into home gradually from hospital.

We investigated the effects on medical education of early exposure of undergraduate students to a summer camp for children with asthma. An objective evaluation by the editorial staff found final improvements in the following areas (in descending order of frequency): learning of basic medical behavior (91% of students); cooperative attitude of medical staff in general treatment with the patient and the patient's family (88%); understanding of childhood growth and development (80%); knowledge of childhood asthma (69%); and mastery of basic techniques for therapy and examination (41%). The differences in the ratio of improvement (%) before and after visiting the camp, were (in descending order of frequency): cooperative attitude of medical care staff in general medical treatment with the patient and the patient's family (47%); understanding of childhood growth and development (45%); knowledge of childhood asthma (38%); learning of basic medical manner (34%); and mastery of basic techniques for therapy and examination (25%). These findings suggest that a summer camp is useful for exposing undergraduate medical students to children with asthma and is effective for helping them understand patients and family-oriented pediatric medicine.

This report describes the molecular characterization of the Tc8.2 gene of Trypanosoma cruzi. Both the Tc8.2 gene and its encoded protein were analyzed by bioinformatics, while Northern blot and RT-PCR were used for the transcripts. Besides, immunolocalization of recombinant protein was done by immunofluorescence and electron microscopy. Analysis indicated the presence of a single copy of Tc8.2 in the T. cruzi genome and 2-different sized transcripts in epimastigotes/amastigotes and trypomastigotes. Immunoblotting showed 70 and 80 kDa polypeptides in epimastigotes and trypomastigotes, respectively, and a differential pattern of immunolocalization. Overall, the results suggest that Tc8.2 is differentially expressed during the T. cruzi life cycle.
Amino Acid Sequence ; Chagas Disease/*parasitology ; Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental ; Humans ; Life Cycle Stages ; Molecular Sequence Data ; Protozoan Proteins/*genetics/metabolism ; Sequence Alignment ; Trypanosoma cruzi/*genetics/*growth & development/isolation & purification/metabolism

PEP (the study group of Practical English for Pharmacists) was started by teachers from different fields at Hokkaido Pharmaceutical University, and has been offering English conversation class for local pharmacists. As with its turning point of three years, in January 2016, it conducted an online questionnaire survey for pharmacists all over Japan. The purpose was to find their needs for learning English, as well as to make sure if PEP teaching materials were proper enough for them. The questionnaires consisted of five areas: current working situation in terms of using English; self-evaluation for their attitudes towards English-speaking customers/ patients; their preference in learning English; their foresight into the English-related situation around their job; and evaluation on PEP sample materials. Participants were 220 pharmacists at work who were interested in learning English. They were divided into two groups (Yes-group and No-group) according to the answer to the question of whether they, as a pharmacist, thought it necessary to learn English or not. The groups were compared with each other within each of the five areas mentioned above. The results showed the overall illustrations of the pharmacists today and positive evaluation for a PEP material. Most importantly, however, contrastive difference between Yes-No groups for the type of English needed was revealed (p<0.01). This was interpreted as an evidence that No-group just have a naive intention to learn English, while Yes-group have already been involved in the situations where rather high English proficiency is required for their pharmacy jobs.