In this review, previous studies regarding the effects of cigarette smoking on parameters of physical fitness such as endurance performance, muscle strength, step test score, body mass index, blood pressure, serum lipoprotein profile, etc., have been summarized with a special reference to the quality of life for middle-aged and elder men, including the result of recent studies by the present authors. Additionally the hypothesized mechanisms of cigarette smoking to atherosclerosis have been shown. It is concluded mainly from our recent studies that : 1) the smoking has an effect to impair not only the aerobic power, but also the anaerobic power, 2) the abstention from chronic smoking would be expected to improve the parameters of physical fitness, and 3) even though the duration from the onset of smoking is less than one year, i.e., a relatively short-term smoking habit, the smoking has a serious damage to the several parameters of physical fitness.

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"Ondol" is a Korean unique heating system. It is a specific radiant floor heating system using combustion heat of briquette or timber in Korea. Such traditional "Ondol" is changed to radiant heating system with pipe-coil embedded in the floor or slab. This study has contributed to the understandings of the transient behaviours of Ondol-heated floor panels and enclosure exposed to this type of heating system. The result is that the water supply temperature had a large effect on the rate of increase in floor surface and room air temperature. But, in spite of a higher water supply temperature, the heat flow rate was not increased considerably. The shallow pipe embedding depths, of course, result in a low heat flow rate.

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The inter-relationships between visual lobe dimensions, search times and eye movement parameters were investigated for a competition search task with 18 subjects. The subjects had previously participated in a visual lobe measurement and two search performance experiments using the same set of stimulus material. Using an Eye Mark Recorder, the average search times of subjects were found to be comparatively longer than for previous search tasks not using the recorder, and relative search performance ranks of the subjects were altered. The method of stimulus presentation and the search area were different in this experiment, so we cannot be certain as to which factor or factors caused the lengthening of search times and changes in ranking. All subjects achieved a 100% hit rate with no mis-classification of targets. A very high correlation coefficient was obtained for cumulative detection percentage and pooled search times when fitted to a random search model. Average search times were found to be signifi-cantly correlated with fixation durations as well as with the number of fixations. Contrary to expectation, none of the visual lobe dimensions was found to correlate significantly with average search times nor with eye movement parameters.

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Changes of the surface electromyogram (EMG) during a fatiguing static contraction were studied at contraction levels of 5, l0, 15, 20, 30, 40, and 50% of the maximum voluntary contraction (MVC). Seven subjects performed the static contractions of the elbow flexion and 6 subjects performed those of the planter flexion. Bipolar surface EMG was led from biceps brachii (BB) in the elbow flexion and from soleus in the planter flexion. Power spectra, mean amplitudes of EMG (AEMG) and durations of averaged waves classified by amplitude (AWCA) were calculated from EMG. The AWCA was calculated by averaging EMG waves separately for the 5 amplitude ranges of the trigger points.

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The authors have studied the effects of physical exercise on extracellular substances of several tissues in animals. Hydroxyproline (Hyp) exist in the form of peptide and the free state in blood. It is generally thought that Hyp in blood derived from the decomposition of collagen in tissue. To clarify the influence on collagen metabolism due to aging and exercise training, we attempted to see the changes of Hyp content of serum before and after exercise in human being. Subjects were 51 adult aged 20 to 74 years, and 10 nonathletes and 51 athletes, aged 18 to 22 years. The Hyp content in serum was measured by woessner's method. The Hyp content of serum decreased with age. This fact suggests that the formation of intramolecular and intermolecular cross-links in collagen of tissue is accelerated by aging. And there is a possibil-ity that the proportion of insoluble collagen increased in tissue of aged human being. Before the exercise, Hyp content of serum in athlete was lower than that in nonathletes. Hyp content of serum increased remarkably after the exercise in athlete. These results suggest that the collagen metabolism may be accelerated by continuous exercise training.

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The purpose of this study was to investigate the laterality of muscle fiber conduction velocity in biceps brachii for badminton players, who have stronger arm in the handedness side for long term training. The muscle fiber conduction velocity was calculated from the propaga-tion time of the action potentials along the muscle fibers and the electrode separation using cross-correlation method. For badminton players, significant lateral differences (e.g. right side skillfull) were observed in the upper arm girth (P<0.01) and isokinetic peak torque at 0, 10, 20, 30, 40 rpm (P<0.01). For control subjects, significant lateral diffrences were in upper arm girth (P<0.05) and isokinetic peak torque at exactly 30 rpm (P<0.05). As for muscle fiber conduction velocity, there were no statistically significant diffrences between right (4.16±0.34m/sec) and left (4.08±0.34m/sec) sides in badminton players, and the contorl group exibited same tendency (right : 4.36±0.25m/sec, Ieft : 4.28±0.33m/sec) as well. These results suggest no training-induced change in the muscle fiber conduction velocity.

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