It has been reported that there are seasonal variations in dietary intake in Japan. As the average summer temperature in Japan has increased in recent years, it is necessary to investigate the dietary habits and health of student athletes who are active in the summer heat environment. Thus, we investigated the dietary intake, eating speed, degree of chewing during meals, sleep duration, midpoint of sleep, and body composition in 27 young men from a university baseball club in the autumn and summer seasons. The results showed that the body weight, body mass index, percentage of body fat, and fat mass significantly increased in the autumn compared to those in the summer. The intake of several energy-adjusted nutrients in the summer was poor compared to that in the autumn. More subjects had insufficient intake of potassium and thiamine in the summer than in the autumn. However, the proportion of subjects who had insufficient intake of calcium, vitamin B₆, and total dietary fiber and excessive intake of salt was higher in both the summer and autumn when the values of Dietary Reference Intakes for Japanese, 2020 were applied. The intake of preferred beverages was higher in the summer compared to that in the autumn. Furthermore, subjects with a late midpoint of sleep on free days (MSF) had lower nutrient intake than those with an early MSF in the summer, but not in the autumn. This study suggests that student athletes who are active in the summer heat environment need nutritional education to support their dietary intake, depending on seasonal variations and their sleep patterns.

  Team childcare, which is the theme of this research, is a childcare method in which one class is conducted by two or more childcare professionals, and in recent years this method has been adopted in many nursery schools and kindergartens.

  The previous researches clearly showed that there were no indicators that could objectively measure team childcare practice.

  Therefore this research developed a scale to measure a practice of team childcare and analyzed factors affecting team childcare.

  This scale consists of three factors: “1st factor: enhancement of communication”, “2nd factor: collaboration for effective childcare practice”, “3rd factor: implementation of reviewing for improvement”.

  Furthermore, based on the result of examining the relationship between this scale and the role of the childcare professionals, it became clear that the presence or absence of a change of roles, which is a difference in the role form of teachers, has an influence on the practice of team childcare.

  The Japanese style of eating consists of pairing rice with soups and side dishes, and eating them alternately. Even when bread is substituted for rice, bread, soups and side dishes can be eaten alternately. The present study examined the palatability of saltiness (preference and acceptability) of low-sodium soups with concentrations ranging between 0.4 and 0.9％ when paired with bread.

  The results showed that many people selected the 0.5％ soup as the most preferred soup in the “soup only” assessment; however, not many selected it in the “soup followed by bread” and “bread followed by soup” assessments. In terms of acceptability of the saltiness of the soup, many preferred the 0.4 and 0.5％ soups in the “soup only” assessment. However, in the “soup followed by bread” assessment, there were very few who accepted the 0.4 and 0.5％ soups, and most indicated a preference for the 0.9％ soup. The preference for a higher concentration of salt in soup paired with bread was more prominent in “soup followed by bread” than in “bread followed by soup”.

  Therefore, the soup's saltiness when paired with bread decreases the palatability of low-sodium soups due to factors such as the adaptation to the saltiness of the bread and the bread's ability to remove the aftertaste.

  The increase in vacant houses has become a social problem. In particular, vacant houses that have been abandoned for a long time have a serious negative impact on the region. To understand the cause of these problems, the author conducted a survey to understand the status of private companies currently managing vacant houses. As a result, it was found that very few companies manage vacant homes in response to management requests from vacant house owners. Many vacant home management companies are housing affiliates, and not only do they receive fewer management requests from vacant homeowners, their administrative fees are too low for them to make a profit as a business. Therefore, most companies expect to help their original business rather than profit from managing vacant homes. The survey results also indicated that there seems to be a difference between residents in areas with vacant homes and vacant homeowners living far away from those homes in terms of how they feel about the seriousness of the problem.