We investigated relationships among self-efficacy, self-management skills, communication with superiors and mental health of employees at a Japanese work-place. The subjects were 426 employees in a medium-sized manufacturing company in Kyushu. In 1999, with agreement of the company, we mailed a self-administrated questionnaire which included questions on age, gender, job rank, communication with superiors, a General Self-Efficacy Scale (GSES), a Self-Management Skill scale (SMS) and the Japanese version of the 12-item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12). Eighty percent of the subjects returned the questionnaire. Excluding senior managers and insufficient answers, the final response rate was 55 percent. By multiple regression analysis, we found that job rank contributed significantly and positively, and that age, communication with superiors and self-management skills contributed significantly and negatively to the GHQ-12. Our results implied that age, job rank, communication with superiors and self-management skills would contribute to the mental health of Japanese employees.

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Sound attenuation measurement of hearing protectors is done in accordance with JIS T 8161 in Japan. In the JIS T 8161 it is stated that more than three non-coherent sets which include a noise generator, one-third octave band-pass filter, amplifier, calibrated attenuator and signal interrupter are required. To realize this measurement system, various expenses and a large space are required. In our study, four channel test signals were generated by our programs, and fed to a digital/analog converter. Consequently, the hardware of a noise generator and one-third octave band-pass filter could be reduced. Moreover, a program, which automatically controlled sound pressure level by digitally controlled attenuators, was developed with the result that the sound attenuation measurement could be performed by operating the mouse. Furthermore, sound attenuation of the earplug was measured in accordance with JIS T 8161 to evaluate our system. The result showed that practical sound attenuation values were obtained by easy operation. It was considered that this system was effective in hardware reduction, and useful for sound attenuation measurement of hearing protectors.

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A small chamber for measuring the emission rate of formaldehyde gas and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from building materials was developed, and formaldehyde and VOCs (toluene and xylene) concentrations emitted from particle boards (PB), medium density fiberboards (MDF) and wall papers were measured. The emission rates measured by the chamber method were compared with the values by the desiccator method, several modified desiccator methods and the perforator method. The emission rate of formaldehyde increased with time and it became constant after about 20 hours. On the other hand, the emission rate of VOCs decreased with time. A good correlation was obtained on the emission rate of formaldehyde between the chamber method and the conventional desiccator method. The correlation coefficient between the perforator method and the chamber method was also high, but the correlation was low for surface treated materials.

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Joyce et al. proposed the hypothesis that the sugar moiety of nucleic acid evolved from some achiral, stable and acyclic sugar into the ribose or the deoxyribose. According to their hypothesis, we designed and synthesized new pseudonucleotides having pentaerythritol moiety as a sugar moiety of nucleic acid and estimated their biological activities. Although all chemicals were not toxic to Lepidium sativum, Rhodotolula rubra and Cercospora kikuchi in the eucaryotes, three compounds having adenine, benzimidazole or 6-chloropurine residue as the base component of nucleotide exhibited the growth inhibiting activity to a prokaryote Spirulina platensis at 100 ppm. In the plaque formation test with Vero cells, a chemical with 6-chloropurine moiety inhibited 65.7% of plaque formation by Herpes simplex virus (HSV-1) at 500 ppm. Three chemicals with 6-chloropurine, 2-mercaptomethylbenzimidazole or guanine as the nucleic base moiety inhibited 62.3, 63.1 and 52.5% of plaque formation by Parainfluenza virus (PIFV) at 500 ppm, respectively. The prepared chemicals exhibited no effect on the Vero cells at the same concentration.

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There is an increasing awareness of potential links between human health and environmental pollution. Endocrine disrupting compounds (EDCs), such as dioxins, are exogenous chemicals that either imitate endogenous hormones, interfere with pharmacokinetics or act by other mechanisms. It is generally assumed that the number of patients with endometriosis have been increasing. Endometriosis is estimated to occur in approximately 7-10% of reproductive age women. Recently, much more attention has been paid to the relationship between endometriosis and EDCs, especially dioxins. Endometriosis is a common disease that can affect any menstruating woman, but the pathogenesis and pathophysiology are still poorly understood and there is no strategy for prevention. However, there are some new studies that have investigated biological activity and consequences of exposure to EDCs. Endometriosis is the disease in which genetic and environmental factors act together to produce the phenotypes. Findings for environmental factors as well as genetic variants have been reviewed, but the issue remains controversial. The findings of these studies would be a great help to understand the mechanisms of endometriosis.

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Cervical mucus is egg white-like mucus that increases in the female cervical canal and external os of the uterus at ovulatory phase. Spermatozoa climb up through this mucus to the uterine tube, where they meet an oocyte causing fertilization. If this cervical mucus has quality or quantity problems, spermatozoa are unable to ascend. Then, so-called infertility due to cervical hostility would occur (5% in general). One day before ovulation, because there is the highest amount of cervical mucus, the greatest degree of Spinnbarkeit and the lowest degree of viscoelasticity, spermatozoa are able to penetrate it in the easiest way according to the paper by Moghissi KS, et al. In another paper by Wolf DP, et al., the strict measuring of the cervical mucus Spinnbarkeit and viscoelasticity using magnetic microrheometer was explained. On the other hand, we were able to calculate in an easier way the cervical mucus viscoelasticity by the NEVA (new equipment for viscosity assessment) meter (Ishikawa Iron Works Corporation, Kitakyushu). We review the rheology of human cervical mucus including our data with the NEVA meter.

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Basic life support (BLS) does not require any special instruments or drugs, and its skills can be understood and performed easily by the lay person. The main goal of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) for the victims of cardiac pulmonary arrest (CPA) is not only restoration of cardiopulmonary function but also return to their previous life. An early bystander CPR plays a pivotal role to achieve this target. When encountering an unconscious person, emergency medical systems (EMS) such as calling 119 must be activated immediately. As the next step, cardiopulmonary condition status has to be determined after assurance of airway patency. When there are no signs of breathing or pulse, BLS consisting of artificial respiration and/or chest compression must be started immediately and continued until EMS staffs arrive. In this article, the details of the revised guidelines for BLS by the American Heart Association are described. Current CPR education for pre- or early post-graduate medical students in our institution is reported.

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Graves' ophthalmopathy in hypothyroid state is called Hypothyroid Graves' Disease, which is a comparatively rare disease. We experienced a case of a 57 year old man with severe exophthalmos and diplopia, which are typical symptoms of Graves' ophthalmopathy, and with an extremely high thyroid-stimulating antibody (TSAb) level. He also had a firm diffuse goiter and hypothyroidism with positive anti-thyroglobulin and anti-thyroid microsomal antigen. These findings suggested Hashimoto's thyroiditis. Severity of ophthalmopathy and TSAb level were improved during replacement therapy with T₄. Although a thyroid stimulation-blocking antibody was also detected in this patient, we thought that hypothyroidism in this case was based on destructive change in the thyroid with Hashimoto's thyroiditis. Therefore, we should be aware of the fact that there are cases of hypothyroidism with Graves' ophthalmopathy and a high level of TSAb.

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The "health education" course is an important part of the baccalaureate curriculum in nursing. It is essential to teach students effective health education in a client oriented way. In order to improve the quality and content of this course, we extracted students descriptions from records of 44 students who had carried out group health education during nursing practice for the occupational health nursing course. We then analyzed students written sentences on their views concerning health teaching. After sentence analysis, we categorized these concepts into groups and titled them. The results of clarification of categories showed that the most common student awareness was in regard to technical and instructional skills, such as precise and suitable language selection for laymen, and utilization of teaching devices or mediums, during implementation of health teaching (43.6%). Secondly, assessment of health needs for a certain working population (10.3%), and effective teaching types such as instructional participant volunteers and full participation (9.2%) were deemed important. Thirdly, identification of the role of the occupational nurse (7.7%), and lastly the necessity of evaluation (2.3%) were considered necessary. Over all, in this study we found that students were most concerned about the instructional skills during the presentation of health education. Also, these results suggest that development of contents in the "health education" course to reinforce students assessment and evaluative abilities should be incorporated into the course. Furthermore, faculties who teach a "health education" course should provide a large variety of teaching materials and creative instructional methods for the students.

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