It is desirable for children in kindergartens and nursery schools to have sufficient time for play, and it should be noted that whether play time is replete or not is deeply related to the children's satisfaction i.e., the repletion of their inner feelings, and that the school activities are in fact ruled by the daily work schedule. A questionnaire survey involving child-care persons was conducted in 1987 with regard to the relation between "flow of play" and "daily work schedule." Again in 2007 the same survey was conducted to study what change had taken place in the twenty years. There was no difference between the two survey results as to the basic principle governing the length of play time. About 90 percent of the child-care persons answered in both surveys that play was basically controlled by the daily work schedule but the play time might be changed depending on children's eagerness. To the question "Do you find mismatched timing between the children's flow of play and the daily work schedule as well as hesitation to go to the next activity?," 70-80 percent of the answers were "Positive from time to time" though the number of the answers "Frequently positive" was higher in the 1987 survey. "We wait until the children's eagerness for play shows signs of being abating" was found at a relatively highrate in the 1987 survey.

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This study tried to suggest how the textural features of certain foods can be expressed which are difficult to characterize with conventional measuring apparatus. The difficulty is generally due to the targeted foods being too thin to be measured. Masticatory electromyography was applied to the foods in this investigation. The samples were 23 foods which could be formed into cubes of a mouthful amount and 24 foods which were thin by nature. Both of the cubic and thin foods were subjected to a sensory evaluation and masticatory electromyographic measurement. The cubic foods were also subjected to a breaking examination. The degree of contribution of the electromyographic values and of the breaking examination parameters to the sensory evaluation results was examined. It was found that, although the contribution of the results from the breaking examination was small, electromyographic measurement was useful for analyzing the texture of food which cannot be assessed with conventional measuring apparatus.

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The effect of occlusal condition on the mastication of 18 kinds of raw and cooked vegetables was studied to ease eating by the elderly. Vegetables which were difficult to eat by the elderly were fresh cucumber, boiled komatsuna, steamed sweet potato, and cherry tomato, the reasons cited being hardness, large slice and needing water to swallow. The young found it more difficult to eat bamboo shoot and spinach, and using more terminology to describe the physical properties of the foods. Based on their occlusal condition, the subjects were classified into five groups: group 1 containing all of young and a few elderly with good occlusal condition, to group 5 containing the elderly with the worst occlusal condition. This grouping was proved to correspond to the mastication time and number of chews. The elderly compensated for any difficulty in eating by prolonging the mastication time. It was found important to adapt the cooking method to the type of food to ensure ease of eating by the elderly.

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The objective of this study was to develop guidelines for clothing sizes, and to develop designs for ready-made clothes which are comfortable for the wearer. The movements of the cloth of wearers' shirts as well as the measurements of the wearers' bodies were measured simultaneously and then analyzed with a three-dimensional motion analysis system to determine the ease of movement was examined with respect to clothes of various sizes. A wearing test using a front-opening shirt was conducted on 22 young women. Subjects wore five sizes from one small size to three big size than their standard clothing size. The effects of the sizes were investigated in terms of their "ease of movement" and "sensory evaluation of wearing." The results showed that the subjects who wore shirts from one big size to three big size felt larger range of motion of the shoulder joint than the wearers of the one small size and the standard clothing size. It may be said, then, that it is not necessary for people to wear larger shirt than one big size. Wearers prefer clothing which exposes part of their body when they move and clothing which they have to adjust after moving. The research found that this type and size of clothing is optimal for wearers.

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We analyzed the MIU of blouse material and jacket material and motion adaptability of clothing by using sensory evaluation, motion time and EMG. The subjects were 10 university students 19-21 years of age and 9 elderly women 68-79 years of age, for a total of 19. (1) As for the motion adaptability of clothing for young women, the larger the MIU value the lower the sensuality evaluation. For the elderly women, not only MIU but also material characteristics such as flexural rigidity influenced motion adaptability of clothing. (2) For both age groups, when the MIU was large, the dressing/undressing time became longer, and deltoid muscle activity increased. This tendency was particularly noticeable for elderly women. The number of elderly women who experienced difficulty in putting their arms through the sleeveholes increased dramatically when the MIU value was large.

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The effect on the bitterness and taste of tea was studied of fermenting non-sterilized leaves with Aspergillus. A treatment with A. oryzae reduced the levels of both epigallocatechin gallate (EGCg) and epicatechin gallate (ECg), which tend to give a strongly bitter taste, and increased the levels of epigallocatechin (EGC) and epicatechin (EC) that can be easily ingested. The treatment also increased the levels of amino acids like Glu and Asp that are responsible for the umami taste. The results suggest that fermenting leaves with A. oryzae may provide a better taste and improve the ease of absorption of tea.

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We analyzed the levels of free amino acids and related substances, and nucleic acid-related compounds in a niboshi extract soup stock and niboshi-flavored mixed seasoning soup stock by using an amino acid analyzer. Niboshi (30 g) was soaked in 1 l of water for periods of 0, 30, and 180 min. Each solution was boiled for 5 min and used to prepare the niboshi extract soup stocks. These soup stocks contained serine, 3-phospho-1-serine, taurine, threonine, aspartic acid, asparagine, glutamic acid, glutamine, glycine, alanine, valine, cysteine, methionine, cystathionine, isoleucine, leucine, tyrosine, tryptophan, phenylalanine, ornithine, lysine, histidine, arginine, hydroxyproline, proline, urea, NH3, and nucleic acidrelated compounds of ATP, ADP, AMP, IMP and HxR. The mole fraction of glutamic acid in the total amino acids and their related substances in the mixed seasoning soup stock was 95%. The only nucleic acid-related compound detected in the mixed seasoning soup stock was IMP. The glutamic acid content was over 11.8-fold higher in the mixed seasoning soup stock than in the niboshi extract soup stocks. The IMP content was over 2.9-fold higher in the niboshi extract soup stocks than in the mixed seasoning soup stock.

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One hundred and twenty-two species of medicinal plants were tested for their inhibitory activity toward histidine decarboxylase (HDC), a histamine-synthesizing enzyme. The plant extract samples were prepared with 50% EtOH. Twenty-one extract samples exhibited significant HDC inhibitory activity. Among them, Artocarpus lakoocha, Amla, and Meadowsweet showed more than 90% inhibitory activity. The HDC inhibitory activities of the 21 extract samples were further examined by their taxonomic family categories and plant parts. Over 70% of the samples from the rose family exhibited inhibitory activity toward HDC, this rate being twice as high as that of other plant families. The samples obtained from the whole plant and from only the leaf, fruit, or seed showed higher HDC inhibitory activity than those taken from only the root or rhizome.

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