The problem of loneliness and isolation is becoming more and more severe in Japan. Unwanted lonelinesshas a negative impact on both body and mind. Face-to-face communication with others is an excellent way toreduce loneliness. Our group believes that if we can provide a system that allows users to experience face-tofacecommunication with others in a simulated way and make it enjoyable, it will reduce loneliness. In thispaper, we propose a framework that enables users to communicate with others using chatbots. We report onthe results of two technology workshops where participants experienced the proposed framework.

Urban parks in Japan, which should have served as hubs for sports in urban spaces, do not have sufficientsports environments. Furthermore, while many urban parks are basically free to use, there are restrictions onsports such as ball games. Therefore, there is a need to promote the development of sports environments inurban spaces, including urban parks. In this study, we will grasp the actual situation regarding the presence orabsence of sports environments in urban spaces. And we will consider the possibility of introducing sportsthrough social experiments. Finally, as a case study on Biwako Cultural Park in Shiga Prefecture, we wouldlike to propose images and strategies for creating a sports environment in urban spaces.

Urban parks are important facilities for local residents and other users to improve their health throughsports. As a change in the situation surrounding urban parks,the Park-PFI system was newly introduced due tothe revision of the Urban Parks Act,and has come to be used in many urban parks. As a result,there areexamples of urban parks in Japan being renovated by private companies and the number of users increasingdue to the introduction of commercial facilities and sports facilities. On the other hand,an issue raised is thatthere are also urban parks where there is insufficient cooperation between private companies and local groups.The purpose of this research is to understand the direction of collaboration that local governments seek whenselecting private companies,and to clarify the form of collaboration between private companies and localgroups.

Steroid hormones (SH) play an important role in living bodies such as control of homeostasis, immunogenicreaction, and ageing/development for health longevity. Thus, the similar SH effect of phytochemicals hasindicated human promoting heath using these supplements. Previous study showed that diosgenin (similar SHchemical) from Dioscorea esculenta have improvement effect of motor ability. On the other hand, thesebiological monitoring and investigation of SH and diosgenin are insufficient. In the development phase, SHprofiling from various types of studies such as in vitro, in vivo, and clinical studies have to be analyzed. Here,in this study, we tried to develop the simple and simultaneous analytical method for 17 series of SHs usingliquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). The method validated in vitro, in vivo,clinical model samples and applied to diosgenin supplied rat serum analysis.

The objective of this study was to explore the possibility of sleep conditioning using a wearable device, sowe asked the participants to simultaneously measure their heart rate variability and body movements duringsleep.Although discomfort caused by wearing the device and slippage of the electrodes had to be addressed,the data indicated the individuality of each athlete.The next challenge is how to summarize this informationand find effective indices for condition management.

The objective of this study was to examine the individual differences of subjective condition assessment.Off-season endurance runners were asked to complete daily subjective condition assessments for one monthand during the same season of the following year. The correlation structure among the evaluated items wasexamined. The results indicated that the correlation structure was unstable both within and betweenindividuals. Because the off-season is considered to have less conditioning variability compared with thetraining and last spurt periods, some ingenuity to calibrate athlete’s sensation is required to complete thesubjective evaluation effectively.

Every day, we see and hear the words “aging,” “aging population,” and “aging society”. These words areoften conveyed in a negative impression. Although everyone is getting old and aging, it has been difficult toconfront ourselves aging with own problems. Humans have not achieved eternal youth but longevity withaging. Medical advances will not stop and human life expectancy will continue to increase further. Therefore,for humans, the problems and challenges of aging will never be resolved. In such a society, while individual’saging is various, it is also necessary to consider the dignified life that all people should have. This paperexamines “life” and “death” with dignity in “aging” from various aspects of aging.In “Old age (La Vieillesse)” by Beauvoir, there is a marvelous collection of words of lamentation andsorrow that can be seen as a diverse definition of “aging” from poets, writers, novelists, politicians, militarypersonnel, and others in different positions and environments. Although there is a gap in time, I see positiveattitudes toward “aging” today in Takaaki Yoshimoto, Tomio Tada, and my own mother. What they all have incommon is an independent and self-selective attitude.As the aging society accelerates, there is much talk about “death with dignity,” but little talk about “life withdignity”. The law emphasizes that those in need of care should “maintain their dignity and lead independentdaily lives along with their abilities. Although there are various definitions, “independence” is considered tomean “making decisions” based on “one’s own will,” which is the core of dignity. In order to support “lifewith dignity,” it is important to sustain the act of self-selection (choice), i.e., not to reduce the options that arediminishing with “aging” and to compensate for the limited options.

The objective of this study was to develop the simulation model of the kick-start to determine the horizontaltake-off velocity on swimming. The human whole-body was modeled as a linked rigid-body segments tosimulate kick-start. This model simulates the kick-start motion using numerical integral. The cross-correlationcoefficient and the mean value of root mean squared error between the lower limb joint angles of simulationdata and actual data were determined to identify whether the simulation model could produce the kick-startmotion. In the horizontal take-off velocity, 0.05 m/s difference was found between the simulation data andactual data. The cross-correlation coefficient of lower limb joint angles between the simulation data and actualdata were larger than 0.76. Moreover, the mean value of root mean squared error of lower limb joint angleswere found 0.15-0.37 rad between simulation data and actual data. Therefore, developed simulation model ofkick-start on swimming can be used for studies which these errors have little effect for main findings.

This study aims to investigate the well-being of collegiate student athletes, addressing both psychologicaland subjective well-being. Collegiate student athletes and non-athletes were recruited via snowball samplingusing email to complete an online survey that queried their psychological and subjective well-being. Threehundred and fifty-one respondents completed the survey. Eleven respondents failed the attention check andwere excluded from the analysis. One hundred and ninety-seven collegiate student athletes and 143 nonathleteswere included in the final analysis. The survey utilized the 43-item Psychological Well-Being Scale,the 5-item Satisfaction with Life Scale, and the 12-item Affective Well-Being Scale to assess psychologicaland subjective well-being. Mann Whitney U analyses were utilized to discover differences in scores on eachquestionnaire between the athlete and non-athlete groups. The athlete group reported higher scores in the selfacceptancesubscale of the Psychological Well-Being Scale compared to the non-athlete group (P=0.044).The positive relationship with others subscale of the Psychological Well-Being Scale were lower in the athletegroup compared to the non-athlete group and while the difference approached statistical significance (P=0.053), it did not meet our criterion alpha (0.05). No significant differences were found in other subscales ofthe Psychological Well-Being Scale between the two groups (P<0.05). The Satisfaction with Life Scale wassignificantly higher in the athlete group compared to the non-athlete group (P=0.003). No significantdifferences were observed between the athlete and non-athlete groups in positive and negative affect scores onthe Affective Well-Being Scale (P<0.05). This study highlighted collegiate student athletes had greater selfacceptanceand better life satisfaction compared to non-athletes. Findings may offer valuable insights into thewell-being benefits associated with high levels of physical activity and participation in sports competition.Further research is required to explore the effects of sports on well-being, considering characteristicsassociated with various sports and levels of competition.

At the end of the 20th century, health challenges specific to female athletes gained attention, manifested inthe female athlete triad (consisting of menstrual dysfunction, low energy availability, and diminished bonemineral density). Female athletes exhibit a heightened susceptibility to sports injuries and disabilitiescompared to their male counterparts. In Japan, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science andTechnology initiated a comprehensive project in 2013 dedicated to the development and support of femaleathletes, with a particular emphasis on elite-level athletes. While significant progress has been made inresearching and supporting elite female athletes through various institutions and college organizations, thesame level of support has not been consistently extended to junior and developmental level athletes, includingthose engaged in school athletic activities. To bolster support for young female athletes, we developed targetedtraining programs aimed at injury prevention and performance enhancement during the 2018-2019 term of theJapan Sports Agency-funded project. Subsequently, during the second (2020-2021) and third (2022-2023)terms of the project, we established a bidirectional online platform, a website, and an online learning systemutilizing social networking services (SNS). These initiatives were designed to address the evolving needs ofboth athletes and their support networks. This paper presents evidence from a comprehensive six-year projectdetailing our proactive endeavors and system development throughout these projects. In this project, westrived to disseminate crucial support and information to adolescent female athletes, their parents, andcoaches, optimizing the well-being and knowledge of young athletes in their formative years.