The purpose of this study is to clarify what impact the regional mutual support businesses (RMBs) give on the structure of urban life. The impact was clarified by a case study of a group for in-home care services in which local residents are involved. The service quality was classified as high or low in terms of the degree of specialization and cooperation, and then compared with the services provided in the existing (public, private and voluntary) sectors.
The findings show that, depending on the differences in the quality of service, there are three types of impact on the structure of urbn life.
1) A market economy type that pursued convenience in the current structure of urban life, without promoting relationships with other residents in the region.
2) A type to restore mutual support systems in the region, or RMB to serve to promote resident relationships.
3) A type to create a professional mutual support. This is a new type of professional services within the mutual support system.
RMBs, an alternative sector, are managed in different ways. There are indications that the RMB participants seek to formulate their own cooperative systems to process tasks in the current structure of life. Their efforts seem to be directed toward creating an out-sourcing type of mutual support system with a time lag element.

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DBA/1J mice were fed on either a control or brewer's yeast (BY) diet for 4 months to study the effect of a BY diet on the immune system. In the first experiment, the effect of a BY diet on the intestinal immune system was investigated by immuno-histological observation. The number of B cells in the intestines was decreased in the BY group. In the second experiment, the effect of a BY diet on murine type II collagen-induced arthritis (CIA) was analyzed. The mice were immunized with type II collagen (CII) in Freund's complete adjuvant to induce arthritis. Tolerance was induced by orally administering CII for 6 weeks. A pathological analysis of joint inflammation showed that arthritis was suppressed by feeding BY in comparison with the control mice. Oral tolerance may thus have been influenced by feeding BY. These results suggest that BY may not only influence the intestinal immune system, but also suppress CIA.

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The relationship between the hardness of mashed potato and its swallowing characteristics were studied. The textural properties of mashed potato consisting of water or skim milk, oil and standard potato were investigated by texture measurements. In the mashed potato without oil, the addition of water or skim milk had little effect on the hardness. In the mashed potato with oil, the effect of the component ratio of water-oil-potato on the hardness was different from that of the skim milk-oil-potato. The hardness of the water-oil-potato mash was lower than that of the skim milk-oil-potato mash. We presume that this difference in the hardness of the mashed potato was due to the emulsification of the skim milk-oil-potato mash. The properties of oil and liquid (water or skim milk) for mashed potato were varied. The mashed potato with a high oil ratio was harder than that with a low oil ratio. The state of emulsification of the oil in the mashed potato sample was observed by microphotography. The sensory evaluation panel judged the mashed potato sample containing a relatively large quantity of skim milk to be the easiest to swallow.

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The influence of dietary environment on the eating habits and nutritional consciousness, and on the establishment of desirable dietary habits of junior high school students at 3 schools in Yamanashi Prefecture was studied by a questionnaire investigation on 94 first-year and 98 third-year students.
Five factors were extracted from a factor analysis : factor 1, eating with the family; factor 2, cooking; factor 3, full dietary habit; factor 4, physique; and factor 5, aspiration for slenderness.
Significant differences were recognized between the 3 schools in the response rate to questions regarding factors 1, 2 and 3. There was a significant difference between the ages of 12 and 14 in the rate for factor 3, and between the sexes in the rate for factors 4 and 5.
A cluster analysis of 8 ingested food groups showed a trend for those eating dinner with the family to have well-balanced nutrition, while those eating dinner alone had poorly balanced nutrition in respect of protein, oil and fat, vitamins and minerals.

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This study aims (1) to clarify needs for children's play space with play leaders as well as the actual use and evaluation of users, and (2) to consider how the children's play space in future should be. The authors selected “Play-School” operated by the Play-School Foundation. The findings of our research based on the results of the questionnaire sent to and collected from parents at the Play-School are as follows :
1) The parents who were not satisfied with neighborhood play space and worried about children's play itself sent their children to the Play-School.
2) The respondents state that they chose the Play-School mainly because of the contents of play as well as the presence of play leaders; they highly evaluated the play activities offered by the Play-School and the quality of their children's play mate.
3) Most of the respondents regard the play leaders as their children's senior play mates, or seniors who are tasked to teach a lot of things other than play. In other words, the parents appreciate their presence.
4) Many of the parents hope that the children's play space is located within an area of their children's daily activities and easily available free of charge.

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Focusing on the role of the Action for Green Environment (AGE) as part of leisure activities considered instrumental for the elderly to derive pleasure in learning about and actively taking part in the protection of natural environment, this study aims to clarify the efficacy for the senior citizens living in urban areas to work with the AGE organization.
The results are as follows :
1) The course for natural environment seems to have increased the elderly consciousness and prompted their participation in the AGE. Their speciality and group activities are especially noted.
2) The foremost factor preventing their activities was personal or their inability to find time for participation. The other factors included no knowledge of communicating with the natural environment and no friends to start work with.
3) The largest factor for encouraging their activities, on the other hand, was the course offered to provide the elderly with technical knowledge and skills for preservation of natural environment.
4) The elderly who have attended the course fine themselves more active in the line of their daily activities as well; what they have learned for preservation of natural environment also contributed to their positive way of life.
5) It is found that the elderly living in urban areas who have worked with the organization which supports them in acquiring knowledge and skills to be acquainted with natural environment admits that they are able to find ways to eradicated factors preventing their AGE.

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The optimum cooking conditions for apple compote prepared by vacuum cooking were determined by using the random centroid optimization (RCO) method. The conditions for ordinary and vacuum cooking were selected with reference to five popular cooking books : the sugar concentration of the syrup was 20% and heating was for 30 min at 98°C. The apple compote made by vacuum cooking was preferred by a paired comparison test, so the optimum conditions for vacuum cooking were investigated by an RCO search regarding the two factors of the sugar concentration in the syrup and the heating time at 98°C. The optimum sugar concentration in the syrup and the heating time were defined as 37% and 32 min, respectively, from the overall preference scores.

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The effect of the temperature of butter on the characteristics of proteins derived from egg foam were studied by using SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE). Three kinds of foam of egg yolk (40 g of egg yolk and 52.8 g of distilled water), of egg white (60 g of egg white and 20.4 g of distilled water), and of egg-yolk and-white mixtures (40 g of egg yolk and 60 g of egg white) were prepared. Each sample contained 15 g of butter, the temperature of the added butter being 40 or 98°C. After each foam had been centrifuged, the coagulum was obtained from the upper or lower layer. SDS-PAGE results showed that each coagulum contained high-molecular-weight proteins linked by disulfide bridges. When butter was added at 98°C, the foam from the yolk and egg mixture contained large amounts of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) and high-density lipoprotein (HDL) from the egg yolk with a very good emulsifying property, and also contained conalbumin and ovalbumin from the egg white with a very good foaming property in the coagulum from the lower layer. Air cells in this foam may have subsequently been strengthened to make the foam stable, and swelling of the sponge cake would consequently be accelerated.

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