The purpose of this study is to clarify the post-partum care during hospitalization currently being provided by midwives now working in hospitals and other facilities who have prior local work experience and are utilizing their local work experience in their new hospital roles. The subjects were 9 midwives who consented to participate in this study, and interviews were conducted using interview guides. Data analysis was conducted using Krippendorff content analysis. As a result, 11 categories were identified from 37 codes. Of these, recording units supporting "assessment of subjects preparing to be discharged from hospitals" were higher than any other category, indicating that midwives have heightened their assessment skills through their local work experience and are utilizing these skills in their current post-partum care. This study revealed that the highly experienced assessment skills of midwives and their ability to build an image of life after being discharged from the hospital was particularly in demand, as they provided care to post-partum women during hospitalization that takes into account their life after they are discharged from the hospital.

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The purpose of this study was to analyze the factors related to newly graduated nurses' ability to adapt themselves to work places. A self-administered questionnaire survey was conducted among 187 newly graduated nurses at 15 hospitals in the Tokyo metropolitan area. Nursing Professional Identity Scale was used to measure the 187 nurses' identity in relation to individual characteristics (satisfaction at nursing skills, gratification from one's patients, feeling to patients' recovery, state of burning out, etc.) and their environmental characteristics (job satisfaction, significance of preceptor, support from staff). These characteristics were analyzed in relation to the nurses' adaptability to work places. The resultant factors were "statisfaction at nursing skills, gratification from one's patients, feeling to patients' recovery, state of burning out, job satisfaction support from one's preceptor and support from staff." These factors were regarded as explanatory variables after having conducted multiple regression analysis (step-wise). As a result, three variables, "state of burning out, gratification from one's patients, role models of senior nurses" explained 41.4% of the newly graduated nurses' adaptation to work places.

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Objective: The purpose was to investigate the effects of group exercise by elderly people on prevention of physical disability, maintenance of physical function, health-related QOL, and functional capacity of daily living. The effects of group exercise were compared between high risk elderly, preventive benefits elderly, and elderly day care attendees. Method: Participants comprising 75 high risk elderly, 122 preventive benefits elderly, and 89 elderly day care attendees, performed specially designed training consisting of muscle resistance training using an elastic band, flexibility exercises, and balance training twice a week for three months in 10 day-care facilities. Result: Performance in tests of 10m maximum walking speed, back and forth step-width, functional reach, timed up and go, knee extensor strength, and scores on the SF-8^<TM> health survey were significantly improved (p<0.05) in all groups. Gains of the high-risk elderly group in 10m maximum walking speed and knee extensor strength were significantly higher than those of the preventive benefits elderly group. Scores on the Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Gerontology Index of Competence were significantly improved (p<0.05) in only the elderly day care attendees.

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An exogenous neurite outgrowth factor, Z-LLL-H, induces neurite outgrowth of PC12 cells as progenitor cells of peripheral nervous system. In the present study, we examined the effects of Z-LLL-H on the neural stem cells derived from pluripotent embryonic stem cells. Z-LLL-H induced the neurite outgrowth of neural stem cells in a concentration-dependent manner as well as PC12 cells, but had a little effect on the cell-viability at a lower concentration than 40nM. Furthermore, both of immunohistchemical and RT-PCR analyses confirmed that neural stem cells by the addition of Z-LLL-H resulted in some kinds of the neurite-extended and differentiated neurons. We discussed also the usefulness and possibility to apply these neurons induced from embryonic stem cell-derived neural stem cells to regeneration of nervous system diseases.

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We have reported several acidic noncollagenous proteins in the acetic acid extract of bovine femoral cortical bone, characteristic of their acidity and high affinity to collagen. In this study, we investigated effects of the collagen-high affinity proteins (C-HAP) on the process of bone formation using osteoblast-like MC3T3-E1 cells. To the calcification-promoting medium for MC3T3-E1 cells were added the excess amount of endogenous protein fractions containing C-HAP or exogenous polyglutamic acid (PGA). The process of bone formation of MC3T3-E1 cells were evaluated by the change of cell shape, ALP activity, accumulation of protein and calcification of bone matrix. Thus, it concluded that (1) PGA stimulated ALP activity, accumulation of protein and calcification of bone matrix, (2) C-HAP inhibited ALP activity but stimulated accumulation of protein and calcification of bone matrix, and (3) PGA maintained a polygonal shape in cell structure and C-HAP modulated a cells to a spindle shape. We discussed also whether the collagen-high affinity proteins may play some important roles in the calcification process of bone formation.

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