This study experimentally investigated effects of an earthquake with aftershocks on human performance using a virtual reality nuclear power plant simulator and a chair-type seismic motion simulator to simulate operations in a main control room of a nuclear power plant when an earthquake occurs. Seven participants with knowledge of nuclear power plants performed accident response operations in the following two conditions: “with earthquake” and “without earthquake”. In the condition with earthquake, one main shock and two aftershocks occurred during the operations. In order to confirm whether the simulated earthquake causes stress, the heart rate and electrodermal activities during the operations were measured, and the psychological state during the operations was assessed using a questionnaire. The results showed that the earthquake caused physiological and psychological stress to the participants. Besides, more errors occurred in the condition with earthquake, especially after a large aftershock.

This study aims to prototype a stiffness identification experience kit for people who are visually impaired and wish to become licensed masseurs, based on the needs of acupuncture, moxibustion, and manual therapy teachers at schools for the blind. Furthermore, the effectiveness of the information transmission method was examined. We prototyped a stiffness identification experience kit consisting of eight devices and conducted an experiment in which users were asked to sort the stiffness of the phantom in order from soft to hard. The accuracy and speed of the sorting and the effectiveness of the stiffness confirmation method using voice and tactile numbers were evaluated respectively. The results confirmed that users could accurately and relatively quickly identify the stiffness of the phantom. Additionally, the results showed that voice could be effective as a confirmation method for the stiffness of the phantom. Conversely, it became clear that the content of the voice information output and the types of tactile objects need to be further studied.

Endoscopists are at a high risk of developing musculoskeletal disorders （MSDs） due to such as prolonged standing posture in endoscopic submucosal dissection （ESD）, which has recently been established as a therapy for early gastrointestinal cancer of the esophagus, stomach, and colon. We hypothesize that use of the sit-stand endoscopic workstation may mitigate the risk of ESD-induced MSDs. Therefore, this study aims to compare the effects of standing and sit-stand workstation on the subjective discomforts of endoscopists in their local body parts during ESD procedures. The following were set: 1） the standing condition in which the subjects had a continuous standing posture during operation procedures, and 2） the sit-stand condition, wherein the subjects could switch between sitting or standing at their own discretion. A stratified sample assignment of 104 ESD cases was conducted in the standing （n＝51） and the sit-stand （n＝53） conditions with repeated measures by four endoscopists. Local discomfort levels increased with operation time at all sites. Compared with the standing condition, however, the sit-stand condition suppressed the progression of subjective discomfort levels in the right knee/right lower leg （p＝0.01）, right foot/right ankle （p＝0.04）, left knee/left lower leg （p＝0.04）, and lumbar regions （p＝0.10）. Thus, the results suggest that the use of a sit-stand workstation could reduce the risks of MSDs of lumbar area and lower legs during endoscopic procedures.

Many visual items are inspected during railway vehicle inspections, and local lighting devices such as handy lights are used for checking areas insufficiently illuminated by general lighting. LEDs have replaced conventional incandescent bulbs and fluorescent lights as local lighting sources. However, it is difficult for workers aged over 50 years to see with LED lighting. Therefore, local lighting conditions suitable for different age groups need to be identified. Visual inspections roughly detect two types of abnormalities: those based on two-dimensional information such as color and black-white contrast, and those based on three-dimensional information, such as deformations and dents, among others. This survey examined lighting conditions suitable for detecting two-dimensional black-white contrast and color differences by people of different age groups. The results indicated that luminance around 5000 lx was appropriate for all workers regardless of age. In contrast, lighting conditions suitable for discriminating specific colors differed according to age because of aging-related changes in visual functions. Warm color lights are appropriate for participants aged over 50 years.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the demand for sanitizing products has increased drastically. However, it is unclear what kind of cues contribute to the evaluation for the perceived sanitizing effect of sanitizing products. This study focused on olfactory cues and examined the influence of ethanol odor on the evaluation of the perceived sanitizing effect of wet wipe products. Participants were required to clean a desk using ethanol-containing （ethanol condition） and ethanol-free （smell-free condition） wet wipes. After the cleaning task, they evaluated their perceived sanitizing effect of the wet wipes. The results showed that the perceived sanitizing effect was larger under the ethanol condition than under the smell-free condition. It was also demonstrated that the awareness of the ethanol odor improved the evaluation. These results indicate that the ethanol odor as an olfactory cue plays a crucial role in the evaluation of perceived sanitizing effect.

In recent years, the number of fatalities due to traffic accidents has been decreasing, but the proportion of casual driving and overworked driving in fatal accidents has been gradually decreasing or increasing. In order to prevent accidents caused by inadvertent driving or overworked driving, it is important to improve the arousal level by an appropriate method when the arousal level of the driver decreases. There is a concern that it may cause annoyance. The purpose of this study is to verify the effect of improving alertness by expressing the sound image of the engine sound that the driver always listens to while driving. Therefore, when the engine sound whose sound image changes was presented to the driver in the low arousal state, the effect was verified by the driving simulator by the change in the arousal level and the change in the heart rate. As a result, it was shown that the effect of improving the arousal level by expressing the sound image of the engine sound is equivalent to the alarm sound. On the other hand, the change in heart rate tended to be smaller than that when the alarm sound was presented, but no significant difference was observed.

Pelvic incidence （PI）, which is measured by lateral spine radiography, has been attracting attention as one of the determinants of low back pain. This study assessed the external validity of the Kendall postural types and the Camper plane categories using their estimated PIs with a validated non-invasive way. In addition, we devised four simple classification tools for non-medical personnel to evaluate the Kendall classification （S, M, L, and LL） and the Camper plane categories （S, M, and L） from standing posture, and evaluated their inter-rater reliability. The results obtained from 62 photographs of lateral standing posture indicated that there was a significant trend of a dose-response relationship between the Kendall postural types and the estimated PIs （p＝0.06）, but there was no significant difference in multiple comparisons among them. The maximum inter-rater reliability （Kappa coefficient） of the four simple classification tools was 0.41 （95％ CI: 0.37-0.45）. From these results, we concluded that posture assessment using the Kendall postural types and the Camper plane categories cannot be used for estimating PI. Further improvement is warranted to enhance the inter-rater reliability of the four simple classification tools for practical use.