The aim of this research is to study the effects of dividing a childcare room into several small spaces which provide a calm environment suitable for play, with a specific focus on how one-year old children moved in the newly-partitioned room. We examined the characteristics and background of the movement of children by paying attention to situations where childcare teachers or other children were present or not.

  It became clear that the presence of childcare teachers and other children in the partitioned childcare room had an influence on the way children in the one-year old class chose to play. In addition, in order to carefully plan the provision of a calm environment suitable for play for children in small spaces, the perspectives that are considered to be important are, (1) a place where childcare teachers and children's peers are present and, (2) play contents that make use of a small space.

  Resistant starch (RS) is a form of starch that is not digested and absorbed in the stomach and small intestine, but passes to the large intestine. RS displays similar physiological properties to dietary fiber. In this study, bread making properties and sensory acceptability of bread replaced with RS type 4 (RS-4, chemically modified starch) were evaluated. Hydroxypropylated tapioca starch (HPTS) and cross-linked phosphate tapioca starch (CLTS) were used as RS-4 sources. RS-4 (20％) was used to replace (w/w) wheat flour, and the resulting breads were called RS-4 breads. Bread without RS-4 was called WF-bread. RS-4 breads showed lower fermentation volumes on fermentation tests and specific volume of bread than WF-bread. Hardness of RS-4 breads was higher than that of WF bread. The color of RS-4 breads was different from WF bread. However, RS-4 breads obtained overall acceptability similar to WF bread in sensory evaluation.

  In this study, the antioxidant activity and taste characteristics of early fresh onions and their leaves, grown in Minamishimabara, Nagasaki, Japan, were studied. Kazusa No. 13 (K13), a new cultivar, was compared with Super-Up (SU), a conventional cultivar. Additionally, function and taste characteristics in the leaves of early fresh onion were compared with those of the analogs of konegi (Welsh onion, small variety) and Chinese chive leaves. The 1, 1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) free radical-scavenging activity (p < 0.05) and total polyphenol content were higher in K13 than in SU; however, the total vitamin C content did not differ. Thus, K13 may have higher antioxidant activity than SU because of its higher total polyphenol content. Sourness, acidic bitterness, and astringency of initial tastes (determined using the Taste Sensing System) were higher in K13 than in SU (p < 0.05). The DPPH free radical-scavenging activity in SU and K13 leaves were found to be higher than that in konegi (p < 0.01) leaves, and their vitamin C content was higher than that of Chinese chives (p < 0.01). SU and K13 leaves had taste characteristics similar to those of konegi. These findings indicate that the leaves of early fresh onions grown in Minamishimabara have higher concentrations of antioxidant activity than the other evaluated cultivars. We suggest that the leaves of early fresh onions can be used as an alternative to those of konegi.