The purpose of this study is to effectively utilize fragrance in order to form a comfortable working environment, for which we obtained necessary data. The subjects were 14 female students. We made them do addition work in laboratories with and without lemon fragrance, and investigated their task performances, physiological changes and mood conditions. Our results showed that, although the existence or nonexistence of fragrance did not affect their work efficiency, it was revealed that fragrance mitigated exhaustion and maintained vigor.

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We report a rare case of bilateral primary aldosteronism with renal cell carcinoma. A 55-year-old woman developed symptoms of hypertension and hypokalemia. The cause of these symptoms was suspected to be primary aldosteronism, based on the high levels of plasma aldosterone concentrations (PAC) and low levels of plasma rennin activity (PRA), resulting in a high PAC/PRA ratio. Abdominal CT and MRI revealed tumor masses in both adrenal glands, and a large left renal mass. The preoperative diagnosis was primary aldosteronism due to bilateral functioning adrenocortical adenomas and left renal cell carcinoma. The patient underwent left radical nephrectomy and right partial adrenalectomy. The Pathological diagnosis was left renal cell carcinoma and bilateral functioning adrenocortical adenomas. Primary aldosteronism due to bilateral functioning adrenocortical adenomas is relatively rare and its complication with renal cell carcinoma is an extremely rare case.

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The primary aim of this study was to examine the physical and psychological health conditions and the influence factors of home helpers. The secondary aim was to suggest a stress management system for home helpers. Self-report questionnaires were distributed to 1,147 home helpers who were with home health care agencies in Kitakyushu-city. Responses from 979 home helpers were received, yielding a response rate of 85.5%. A total of 967 home helpers (excluding 12 male home helpers) were used for analysis. The Japanese version of the General Health Questionnaire 28 (GHQ-28) was used to measure the physical and psychological health conditions of the home helpers. In addition, as an influence factor, stress coping was measured by the Lazarus-type Stress Coping Inventory (SCI). Home helpers also filled out the Ego Aptitude Scale (EAS) as a personality measure. Furthermore, the subjects were asked questions about individual background factors, including age, marital status, working hours, years working as a home helper, type of home helper, job satisfaction, job continuation and awareness of stress. The data were analyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS 11.5J). The groups of full-time or part-time home helpers showed GHQ-28 total scores of 6.86±5.48 and 5.21±4.97 (Mean±SD) : part-time home helpers had significantly higher scores than full-time home helpers. The GHQ-28 measure indicated that about 20% of home helpers had physical and psychological symptoms, and about 4% had mid-level depressive symptoms. About half of the subjects were aware of stress. There were significant negative correlations between GHQ-28 total scores and age. Also, there was a statistically significant relation between GHQ-28 and job satisfaction, awareness of stress, type of stress coping and individual personality. Furthermore, there was a statistically significant relation between GHQ-28 and the confrontive coping type, positive reappraisal of SCI, and critical attitude of Ego Aptitude categories. Findings suggested that for the management for home helper work stress, three points are required in the stress management of home helpers : 1) "Work Load", such as organization characteristics, job characteristics, work conditions; 2) "Influence Factors", such as personal characteristics (stress coping type and personality), social support (colleagues/supervisor), and job satisfaction are important; and 3) Enforcement of case management.

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In Mizumaki-cho, Fukuoka, a "School of muscle-building for the elderly" was held by the self-help group "MIZUMAKI Iki-iki senior club" once a week from Sep. 2002 to Mar. 2004. This school program included stretching, aerobics and resistance exercises. In this study, we clarified the effect of exercise for the 38 elderly females in this school. Their average age was 65.8 years old. Blood pressure, BMI, body %Fat, VO₂ max, grasping power, time of standing on one leg with eyes open, anteflexion while sitting, time of walking for 10 m and time of standing up from sitting on a chair were measured before starting school, after 6 months, 12 months and 18 months. Every measured value except BMI and VO₂ max was improved, and these improvements continued for 18 months. Especially, it was shown that time of standing on one leg with eyes open, time of standing up from sitting on a chair and time of walking for 10 m improved by 121.6%, 112.7%, 30.4%, respectively, compared with each measured value at the start. These improvements might produce the effect of fall prevention for the elderly. From the results of this study, it was clarified that regular exercise builds up the muscles of the female elderly, and continuation of exercise also extends the effect of exercise for the female elderly.

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In the 1980s, it was demonstrated that human tumors had tumor antigens, and immune responses against human tumor antigens were induced. These days, various new immunotherapies are attempted to enhance immune responses against tumors and prevent tumor growth and progression. Nonetheless, it is difficult to reject tumors by only immune responses. One of the reasons is an immunosuppressive state in tumor-bearing hosts. It is considered that an immunosuppressive state is induced by various factors from the tumor side or host side, but the precise mechanism is not clear. When we consider the effective immune responses against tumors, we need to make clear and improve the immunosuppressive state in the tumor-bearing hosts.

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At present, one-third of people die of cancer and the number is still increasing in Japan. A safe and effective treatment system is critically required. Recently, the discovery of new drugs and the development of medical oncology promotes out-patient treatment for cancer patients. Out-patient treatment in the cancer chemotherapy center of the University of Occupational and Environmental Health Hospital has been started, and many chemotherapy regimens were verified in this center. Not only different organ-specific chemotherapies but also summarizing the oncology team are necessary for performance of the mission. We describe in this review the characteristics of the cancer chemotherapy center.

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Three years have passed since the countermeasures against the adverse health effects of overwork started in Japan, and fruitful outcomes have been expected. In the current study, a systematic review of articles was performed regarding the association of long working hours (LWH) with cardiovascular diseases (CVD) to obtain recent evidence of their association. An electronic database search was conducted using PubMed among English-written original articles published until December, 2004. A total of twelve articles were found conforming to the study's inclusion criteria, but evidence supporting the association of LWH and CVD was not detected. However, some distinctive studies related to the prevention of CVD were found relating to the concept of sensitive psychosocial factors such as vital exhaustion, and to the statistical modeling of occupational factors and biological indicators with the interaction term of psychosocial factors. Further studies will be needed to clarify the association of LWH and CVD.

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Ibudilast, an antagonist of platelet-activating factor receptors, was administered to patients with chronic subdural hematoma (CSDH) to assess its effectiveness in preventing recurrence. The remaining volumes of subdural hematomas on brain computed tomography were measured approximately 1-2 months after using ibudilast. The hematomas were significantly smaller and there was no recurrence. Ibudilast administration may be useful in the prevention of recurrence of CSDH.

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This research was conducted as a self-reporting anonymous survey of 185 postpartum mothers in hospitals in order to clarify the causes of influence on the inter-child emotions of mothers, who are usually the main fosterers of the child. SPSS 12.0 J for Windows was used for statistical analysis, and the relationship between points of inter-child emotion and each questioned item was analyzed with Mann-Whitney U test and Kruskal-Wallis test. As a result, the following causes of influence on inter-child emotions were found : the existence of a key person, having a concrete birth plan during pregnancy, that it was a desired pregnancy, and that the mother was satisfied with her delivery. From this result, the following supports are thought to be important to realize : the importance of puberty education or contraception counseling, the establishment of a support system for mothers, and consistent support during pregnancy to postpartum at medial institutions where parturition is carried out.

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