This study seeks to clarify whether nursery staffs of the Tokyo metropolitan government wish to obtain degrees of Bachelor and Master of Science. In August 1999, a postal questionnaire survey was conducted on a sample of 934 nurses, public health nurses, midwives and teachers at nursing schools("teachers"),and 84.2% of the questionnaires were returned. The number of respondents who wished to obtain degrees was 265(34.8%),including 77 teachers among them (57.0% of 135 teachers who returned questionnaires). Regardless of their occupation, the first reason for wishing to obtain degrees was self-fulfillment(172 respondents,64.9%). Improving the quality of their work came next(120 respondents, 45.3%). Moreover 254 respondents (33.4%) wished to obtain a master's degree, including 67 teachers (49.6% of all teachers surveyed). Some 735 respondents indicated the subject they wished to study: 337 (45.9%) replied clinical psychology, and 299(40.7%) their own specific areas, which varied according to their occupation;Nurses-certain specified nursing courses. Public health nurses-sociai welfare. Midwives-bioethics. Teachers-nursing education. The results of the survey showed that a high ratio of nursery staffs of Tokyo metropolitan government to go on for degrees, especially teachers. Even the nursery staffs who did not wish to obtain degrees indicated motivation to continue more specialized nursery areas for their own occupation. The above investigation suggested some ways to implement lifelong education at the Tokyo Metropolitan University of Health Sciences.

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In our study, we analyzed comments written freely by supervisors in the student report cards on practical training, and examined the correlation between the results of the analysis and the over-all grades. The purpose of the study was to grasp how well the students learned during the practical training. The subjects were 124 students who received the training in their third year in the physical therapist training course of our school between 1997 and 2000. The report card of our school consists of two parts; the over-all grade and the item-by-item evaluation. In the item-by-item evaluation part, scores for each of the items and comments are presented. In the over-all grade part, 4 different grades from A (very good) through D (poor) are given as a comprehensive evaluation of the student. In this study, we analyzed comments in the over-all grade part freely written by evaluators; they had written comments on what was improved, what was not improved, and future prospects. More specifically, we categorized the freely written comments as attitudes, knowledge, and technique. "Attitude"included the sub-items of (1) basic stance, (2) communication, (3) positiveness, and (4) attitude towards learning, "knowledge"included the subitems of (5) practice, (6) knowledge, and (7) writing articulacy, and"technique"included the sub-items of (8) examination and assessment, (9) grasp of patient, and (10) treatment. In addition to scores in the item-by-item supervisors and over-all grades, we analyzed the comments freely written by supervisors in this study, which helped us to grasp how supervisors saw our students during the practical training. At the same time, we came to understand better the characteristics of the institutions where the practical training was carried out, and what were the focal points of the supervisors. 1. Across the three sections; (1) what was improved, (2) what was not improved and (3) future prospects, comments on the grasp of patients were seen most. In the"future prospects"section, or aptitude, comments on attitude were presented most. 2. Looking into different grade groups,"not improved"section of the group of A grade students contained few comments, while"not improved" section of the group of C grade students contained many comments on attitude.3. Looking into the three terms, differences were found in the attitudinal aspects among the groups of A, B, and C students in the first term, which implies that the groups of B and C students left problems unsolved concerning (8) examination and assessment, which was the goal set for the first term. In the second term, supervisors seem to have focused on the improvement of technical aspects of the A student group. There were differences found in the attitudinal, technical and knowledge aspects among the groups of A, B and C students. In the third term, the A student group left no problem unsolved concerning attitudinal and knowledge aspects, but the C student group left problems unsolved concerning these aspects.

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The objectives of the present study were to clarify the educational effects and characteristics of video-teaching material presenting problems associated with initial assessments in occupational therapy, and to investigate methods of effectively utilizing this teaching material. The video-teaching program was produced by the 2000 Research Project,hosted by the Tokyo Metropolitan University of Health Sciences. Subjects were 39 sophomores majoring in occupational therapy at the university who consented to participate in the present study. Answers to a questionnaire presented before and after viewing the video were compared. The results revealed that the learning effect associated with concrete examples involving assessment techniques demonstrated in the video was high (p < 0.01). While learning effects associated with abstract concepts such as manners as a professional were not necessarily high. In addition, the effect of learning that followed video viewing varied greatly from one student to the next. These findings suggest that the educational effect of the present video-teaching material can be further improved by combining with group discussion.

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In our previous report, we applied 6-aminoquinolyl-N-hydroxysuccinimidyl carbamate (AQC) to histamine assay released from mast cells. In this study, we reinvestigated analytical conditions of reversed-phase high performance chromatography:elution solvent, reproducibility of elution time, sensitivity and stability of modified histamine (AQC-Him). In the newly developed assay system, AQC-Him was reproducibly separated within less than 9 min on C18-column with 10 mM phosphate buffer containing 2.4 % acetonitrile (pH 2.12). It was detected with high sensitivity (>0.4 pmol) and stability (>1 week). The analysis of a large number of samples by HPLC with an automatic injector was performed. This assay system will be valuable for various biochemical researches.

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It is important to optimize parameters in data analysis to determine a function describing data and to interpret meaning of the parameters obtained. We constructed a conventional algorithm to optimize parameters using maximum likelihood method. At the first stage, n-dimentional parameter space is divided into equally spaced grids, and numerical values of the likelihood function are calculated at each grid in order to find the highest value of them. Once it has been found, the parameters at this point are used as initial values in the iteration process to find optimized parameters. This process is performed efficiently adjusting a vector of step of the parameters. We coded the program MLFIT in C programming language following the conventional algorithms to utilize the maximum likelihood at PC or small scale computer workstations. Since non-linear likelihood function is assumed in this program, it is usuful to perform leastsquare fit of a non-linear function to data. It will be helpful in data analysis in the field of health sciences.

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