In 1999, the Japanese Law on Equal Employment Opportunity and Conditions was amended and the previous prohibition of the assignment of female workers to night work was abolished. Subsequently, the number of female shift workers has been increasing in Japan, necessitating greater attention to the health care of this population. The aim of the current study is to evaluate the relationship between anxiety expressed about starting three-shift work and background characteristics among female workers who were being assigned to three-shift work for the first time. The subjects were 38 middle-aged female workers (age range: 44 to 59 years) who were working at a chemical plant. The women completed a self-administered questionnaire before starting three-shift work. Levels of anxiety about starting three-shift work were assessed by the question 'Do you feel anxious about starting three-shift work?' The available responses were: 'Very agree', 'Considerably agree', 'Rather agree', 'Slightly agree' and 'Not agree at all', and 63% of the subjects gave one of the first two answers, which were defined as indicating anxiety. We also acquired information regarding lifestyle and occupation for each subject, including the following factors: frequency of breakfast consumption, subjective sleep insufficiency, previous experience of similar work before beginning shift work, previous experience of two-shift work, and responsibility for household duties. In the study, we found a marginally statistically significant trend association between frequent breakfast consumption and anxiety about starting three-shift work(P_trend=0.09), Anxiety was also high among subjects with sleep disorders, especially those suffering from subjective sleep insufficiency(P=0.08). Due to the small study population, these results should be interpreted with caution and confirmed by future studies.

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A search of streptomycin-resistant bacteria was carried out using ten creek water samples collected in Saga prefecture by spreading the sample water on an R2A medium containing 10μg/ml of streptomycin. It was clarified that such streptomycin-resistant bacteria as Bacillus, Novosphigobium, Sphingopyxis and Oceanobacillus were distributed in the creek water. Further, 60% of the isolates didn't form an inhibitory zone by the application of 700μg/ml streptomycin solution in the cup method assay. Further, the effectiveness of the MALDI-TOF MS analysis for the grouping of the isolates was examined. The discriminating ability of MALDI-TOF MS analysis was higher than that of RFLP analysis and it was almost equal to that of sequence analysis using 16S rDNA. Considering the high-throughput ability of the MALDI-TOF MS instrument, MALDI-TOF mass spectral identification of bacteria will be a powerful method in the construction of a MALDI-TOF mass spectra database.

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TiO₂ ultrafine particles are used as photo-catalysis. When ultrafine particles are exposed to hosts, they are invaded in alveolar, transferred to organs through blood vessels and may express biological effects. We administered TiO₂ ultrafine particles (5 nm, 100 nm) intratracheally to mice, and collected whole blood and removed organs (liver, lung, kidney, spleen and brain) after 1, 4 and 24 hours. The quantity of Ti in the blood and these organs was analyzed by PIXE (Particle Induced X-Ray Emission) or ICP/MS (Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectrometry). Compared to control mice, the quantity of Ti in the exposed mice was not different. Consequently, we observed the solution of dissolved TiO₂ ultrafine particles by Scanning Electron Microscope, and observed the particles which aggregated. That diameter was about 1μm. We concluded that the particles had aggregated before administration to mice, so they didn't invade the blood vessels or organs from the pulmonary alveolus in the lung.

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Airborne particulate matters contain many kinds of organic pollutants. Among them, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), nitropolycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (NPAH) and quinoid PAHs were reported to have several human health effects. We collected airborne particulates in Kitakyushu, Japan and Tieling, China in summer and winter, and analyzed the PAH and NPAH to evaluate the direct- and indirect-acting mutagenicities and generating activities of reactive oxygen species (ROS). The concentrations of PAHs and NPAHs in Tieling were much higher than in Kitakyushu, with seasonal variations. The mutagenicity level was higher in winter while the ROS generation activity was higher in summer. These results suggest that concentrations of PAH and NPAH didn' t correlate with mutagenicity and ROS generation activity. More studies are needed on the environmental behaviors of compounds other than PAHs and NPAHs, such as quinoid PAHs, and their biological activities.

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Cancer chemotherapy regimens which had been used at a ward and outpatient chemotherapy in various departments were collected and made available to everybody in October, 2003. However, it was difficult to manage cancer chemotherapy regimens in real time, from the viewpoint of risk management. Then, the Cancer Chemotherapy Center took the leading part and established a chemotherapy exploratory committee, which consists of 4 doctors, 2 nurses and 2 pharmacists, in June, 2006. The department of pharmacy could control all cancer chemotherapy regimens by this system, and lead the proper use of increasing anticancer agents. Inquiries on prescription by the pharmacist contributed to proper medical treatment. The role of the cancer chemotherapy exploratory committee and its outcome are described for the purpose of the prevention of medical accidents in this paper.

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This study aimed to examine the status of cancer nursing courses at four-year nursing colleges, and to investigate the needs entailed in establishing such courses. Of 142 affiliate universities of the Japanese Association for Nursing Programs, we conducted a questionnaire survey in 2006 targeting the 19 universities with established courses in cancer nursing and analyzed their syllabi. The results of the questionnaire consisted of valid responses from 15 universities (78.9% valid response rate). Among these 15 universities, 12 (80%) responded that there was a need for establishing cancer nursing courses in the basic curricula of four-year nursing colleges. Our study indicates it is necessary to teach cancer nursing as an independent course in conjunction with other nursing fields at four-year nursing colleges. To accomplish this, we find it ideal to first clarify the goals of the entire curriculum and then find a place for cancer nursing courses therein.

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The health of factory workers is a resource of business activity. However, at present, the rate of positive findings in the periodic medical checkups of factory workers is still increasing in Japan. After a 1-year health education program, we investigated the health awareness, a behavioral survey, and the data of the periodic medical checkups of factory workers. Most survey items of physical activities and mental health were significantly improved, and those of dietary habits and knowledge of lifestyle-related diseases also had a beneficial change. As an effective result, there was an improvement in most data of the physical examinations.

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The purpose of this study is to investigate which learning strategies nursing students use to acquire the nursing skills of cleanliness. The investigation of 71 first-year nursing students consists of self-evaluation of shampooing and bed-bath/foot-bath/changing the night-clothes (19 questions each) and learning strategies (15 questions). To compare the difference between 2 groups in the acquisition of learning strategies, we used the Mann-Whitney U test to calculate the average evaluation of each skill, the self-evaluation, and the total scores of each of cognitive domain, psychomotor domain and affective domain, categorizing the students into higher evaluation and lower evaluation. The recovery rate of questionnaires was 81.7%. The psychomotor domain in the self-evaluation was high, but the cognitive domain and affective domain were low. As for the learning strategies used, the higher evaluation group in total self-evaluation used lectures and prior learning and nursing practice (P<0.05, P<0.01). Moreover, the higher evaluation group of the cognitive domain used explanations by the teacher in lectures and practice, and the higher evaluation group of the psychomotor domain used explanations of basic activity in lectures and training and guidance in the practice room (P<0.05, P<0.01). Also, the higher evaluation group of the affective domain didn' t use learning strategies to acquire skills of the affective domain. In the future, it is necessary to consider learning strategies in acquiring the affective skills.

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