Effects of introducing intermittent standing during desk work were studied by examining lower-leg swelling, subjective fatigue and performance. Twelve students (6 males and 6 females) carried out a computer task ( transcription task) for two hours in three conditions: 1) sitting, 2) sitting-standing (twice repeating 20-min standing and 40-min sitting) and 3) standing. The circumference of the left lower leg, subjective fatigue including sleepiness and symptoms of discomfort in the body parts were recorded at 20 min, 60 min, 80 min and 120 min after the beginning of the task. Fatigue of the feet was prominent in the standing condition and decreased in sitting and sitting-standing conditions. Fatigue of the hips was prominent in the sitting condition and tended to decrease in sitting-standing and standing conditions. Sleepiness tended to decrease during sitting-standing compared to that during sitting. Lower leg swelling was the smallest after sitting-standing, significantly smaller than in the case of the sitting condition.

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The aim of this study was to demonstrate the effect of the types of leading and following vehicles on the inter-vehicle gap between the front of a driver’s vehicle and the rear of the leading vehicle. Data (n = 7,370) were obtained from naturalistic observations of vehicles on a motorway. Although we anticipated that the following vehicle drivers would leave a larger gap when the leading vehicle was large, this hypothesis was not supported. In fact, heavy vehicle drivers tended to keep a greater inter-vehicle gap than passenger car drivers. These results were discussed by comparing the observed data with actual data in motorway accidents.

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An infant disorder, so-called meningitis in infancy (SCMI), was firstly reported in the 28^th year of the Meiji era (1895) in Japan. Professor Ikutaro Hirai at the Kyoto University Department of Pediatrics clarified in the 12^th year of the Taisho era (1923) that SCMI was a chronic lead-poisoning disease caused by white lead contaminated in the mothers’ cosmetic powder. The special regulation of white lead was stipulated in the 5^th year of the Showa era (1930) and came into force in the 10^th year of the Showa era (1935). We traced the history of SCMI research using the publications in the pediatric medicine in 1931-1935.: we studied 132 SCMI articles which were published in Acta Paediatrica Japonica issued in this period. These articles were classified into seven groups, namely, reviews, statistical studies, case studies, clinical observations, laboratory findings, pathology and experimental study articles. In this study, we took up and discussed the review, statistics and case study articles.

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