The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of physical loads, measured physiologically and biochemically, on baseball umpires during a baseball game in hot weather in the summer.
These baseball games were held under the high temperature of about 30°C, a high humidity of 70% and high levels of solar radiation with a black-globe temperature of 45°C.
The results obtained were as follows.
1) The decreases in umpires' body weights immediately after the game were significant without exception, being about 1.19kg (1.7%). This could have been due to perspiration during the baseball game.
2) Blood pressures, systolic and diastolic, were observed to have decreased significantly after the game.
3) Total protein, albumin, total cholesterol, blood urea nitrogen, uric acid and creatinine in blood were observed to have significantly increased after the game.
4) The serum electrolytes sodium, chloride, calcium and phosphorus showed a significant increase after the game, but potassium was observed to have significantly decreased then.
5) Protein and creatinine in the urine increased significantly, but the entire urine volume decreased significantly due to perspiration.
6) The average energy consumption of the umpire during a baseball game was about half as much as that of a player.
The total amount of physical exercise by the former was ‘mild’ in degree as compared with that of the latter.
The physical load produced by the umpiring labor presumably resulted mainly from the heat stress brought about by exposure to the summer heat for a long time.
7) The physical loads were different depending on the position of the umpire, the umpire-in-chief having the greatest load, followed in descending order by the second-base umpire, the first-base umpire and the third-base umpire.

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A simple and rapid method for determining inorganic and organic mercury in urine was developed by improving the method of flameless atomic absorption spectrophotometry introduced by Littlejohn et al. (1976). In the present method, more than 1ml of 60% KOH solution (final concentration 7.1%; 1.8M) was added to 5ml of urine for atomizing mercury after the addition of stannous chloride as the reductant for inorganic mercury. In the determination of organic mercury reduced by a mixture of stannous chloride and cadmium chloride, more than 11ml of 60% KOH solution (final concentration 34.7%; 8.7M) was needed. In the inorganic mercury determination procedure, the reduction of ethylmercury was not completely inhibited by the addition of acidic L-cysteine solution.
The patterns of calibration curves for mercury determination were the same for mercury (II) chloride, methylmercury (II) chloride, ethylmercury (II) chloride and phenylmercury (II) acetate. The detection limit of all types of mercury used was 0.5ppbHg. The recoveries of mercury (II) chloride, methylmercury (II) chloride, ethylmercury (II) chloride and phenylmercury (II) acetate, which were added to urine, were 95.7%, 98.9%, 121.8% and 90.8%, respectively.

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Serum concentrations of prealbumin, cholesterol, carotene, and retinol binding protein in inhabitants living in rural areas along the coast in Japan and China were examined. The subjects were healthy adults (250 males and 436 females in Japan, and 88 males and 133 females in China), more than 30 years old. Serum cholesterol, prealbumin, retinol binding protein, and carotene concentrations were lower in both male and female Chinese. Serum carotene concentrations were lower in males (Japanese: 35.2μg/dl, Chinese: 18.7μg/dl) than in females (Japanese: 74.9μg/dl, Chinese: 25.8μg/dl). In contrast, the mean values of retinol binding protein were slightly higher in males than in females both in Japanese and Chinese. These results were closely related to dietary habits in both areas.
These results suggest that continuous lower levels of prealbumin, cholesterol and carotene may be associated with the earlier onset and higher incidence of cancer in Chinese.

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Even at present there are few experiments dealing with the levels of inorganic anions present in human serum; only chloride and phosphate are determined routinely. The fact that much less attention has been paid to other anions is due to a lack of rapid or convenient analytical methods. A suitable, though novel, method for the determination of anions is ion chromatography. After an appropriate dilution, the sample is directly injected into the ion chromatography without further pretreatment and plural anions are determined simultaneously.
In this paper, the authors report on ion chromatography measurements; i. e., on (1) the accuracies of measurements, (2) comparisons with colorimetric assays, and (3) an approach to the quantitative analysis of inorganic anions present in human serum.
Standard solutions including equal amounts of 7 anion species fluoride, chloride, nitrite, phosphate, bromide, nitrate, and sulphate, were made. These anions were accurately measured simultaneously, ranging from about 100mg/l to 0.1mg/l. Using river and hot spring water in Oita prefecture, good results were obtained from a comparative study of traditional colorimetric assays and the ion chromatographic methods. The concentrations of phosphate, bromide, nitrate, and sulphate in a standard human serum were determined and these agreed with the values found by other methods.
The ion chromatographic method is a rapid and reliable technique for the simultaneous determination of these anions in a small volume of serum. At present the authors are engaged in investigating the effects of various diseases on the levels of inorganic anions.

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In winter, many people have trouble with chilliness in their arms and legs. Many women are especially, sensitive to cold, and the chilliness of their hands and feet is difficult to ease even after entering a warm environment. They even feel pain owing to coldness of the limbs in daily life. This study will attempt to investigate the problem of chilliness of the limbs in females. The subjects were twenty female junior college students dressed in their own winter clothes, who were located in a cold, winter environment (12°C, 40% R. H.) just prior to the commencement of the experiment. They then changed to sportswear and entered a heated environment (25°C, 55% R. H.). The subjects sat on chairs with a minimum of physical movement and thermister sensors were attached to their left arms and left legs for measurement. After five minutes, the first measurement of skin temperature of the limbs commenced. Measurements were taken at 5-minute intervals over a period of 90 minutes. The skin temperature of the limbs was measured in two conditions: with bare feet and with socks on. The measurement clearly revealed the cold condition of the limbs, the reaction of limb temperature to heating, and the influence of socks on skin temperature.
The major results were as follows:
1. The subjects were grouped into three classes by rate of increase in thumb temperature in barefoot condition.
(a) Low skin-temperature group (L. G.): It was very low (22°C) at the beginning and rose to only about 25°C with difficulty at the end.
(b) Middle skin-temperature group (M. G.): It was relatively low at 22-26°C but rose suddenly above 30°C within thirty minutes from the initial measurement.
(c) High skin-temperature group (H. G.): It was measured to be over 30°C from beginning to end.
2. The skin temperature of toes in the L. G. was the same as that of fingers and did not rise above 25°C. With socks on, the skin temperature of the fingers rose more than that of the toes. The subjects in this group were well aware of the chilliness according to a questionnaire.
3. The skin temperature of fingers in the M. G. increased at a greater rate in both barefoot and socks-on conditions. But the skin temperature of toes increased at a very low rate in barefoot condition, and the skin temperatures of half of this group did not increase even with socks on.
4. The skin temperature of toes in the H. G. increased to above 30°C at the beginning; the same as that of fingers. Therefore, the influence of socks was very small.
5. The influence of socks was revealed to affect finger temperature more than toe temperature.
6. The reaction of skin temperature as observed in the L. G. is related to the chilliness called “hiesho” in the Japanese language.

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Questionnaires about health services for the aged were sent to 3, 278 wards, cities, towns and villages in May 1985 for the porpose of making clear the differences among local government health examination services under the “Health Service Law for the Aged” enforced in 1982.
The results can be summarized as follows:
1. 2, 645 Local government authorities responded to the inquiry. The response rate was 80.7%.
2. The items of the general health examination fixed by the law were well practiced by local governments in areas with large populations as compared with those with small populations, since finances and medical resources were different by population size.
3. The population of local governments not charging individuals for general health examinations was the highest in those areas with populations of more than 50, 000 persons.
4. The major information media for health examination were public relations magazines for local governments in areas with large populations and community organizations for those with small populations.
5. About half of the local governments with populations under 10, 000 reported the results of the general health examination by multiple measures. Twenty-seven point three percent local governments with populations of more than 50, 000 did not report the results of health examination, perhaps because of manpower shortages.
6. Efforts to improve public relations magazines in order to attain a higher response to health examinations were practiced regardless of population size. Consideration of time schedules was well practiced in areas with small populations. This is thought to be because the industrial structure was different by population size.
7. Doctors performing the general health examination were generally affiliated with the Japan Medical Association in areas with large populations and the local Health Center in areas with small populations.

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The high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method for detecting prostaglandins (PGs) and thromboxane (TX) which was reported previously was found to have a serious problem in the detection of PGs and TX. In the present study, we tried to solve this problem by developing a sensitive HPLC method for determining PGs and TX in human plasma. An analytical wavelength (412nm when excited at 350nm) which was not interfered with by the Raman spectrum was found to be suitable for the detection of PGs- and TX-ADAM (9-anthryldiazomethane) derivatives. Moreover, partial purification of 9-anthyryldiazomethane (ADAM) derivatives by using a GEL PACK-A110 column enabled us to remove interfering substances from the chromatogram. The levels of 6-Keto-PGF₁, PGE₂ & D₂, PGF₂ and TXB₂ in plasma were detected simultaneously using our method. The present HPLC method is useful for determining the PGs and TX levels in biological samples.

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Polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins (PCDDs) in flue gases, slag and fly ashes from 7 incinerators in Kyoto Prefecture were measured as the total amounts of T₄-O₈CDDs by packed-column GC/MS analysis.
The results showed that various amounts of T₄-O₈CDDs were present in many samples and that their main component was O₈CDD. Although there was no correspondence between the distributions of concentration of any congeners in different species of samples, a similarity was found in the case of the distribution of concentration of each isomer in different incinerators and samples. A tendency for the concentrations of congeners to increase was observed in proportion to the number of chlorine atoms in the ashes of the electrostatic precipitators and gases.
Estimations of the emission amounts of each congener per day and per refuse by each incinerator were also carried out. The emission amounts of each congener per day were from 1.1 to 5800mg/d. The emission ratio from each sample varied according to the incinerator and congener.
The range of emission amounts of each congener per 1 ton of refuse was from 0.013 to 64mg/t, with T₄CDDs and P₅CDDs being 0.013-2.1mg/t and 0.022-4.4mg/t, respectively.
Therefore, it was suggested that the formation and decomposition of PCDDs depends on the different incinerator designs and operating conditions.

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The Research Committee of Epidemiology of Intractable Diseases (Ministry of Health and Welfare, Japan) analyzed the characteristics of medical institutions (hospitals and clinics) caring for 100, 563 patients with 26 intractable diseases who were provided with public aid for the diseases in 1985.
The results can be summarized as follows:
1) Thirty point six per cent of the patients visited large hospitals with more than 700 beds and 28.6 per cent of the patients were treated in hospitals of universities or medical schools. These rates were much higher than the rate for patients with common diseases.
2) Aged patients, whose physical activities seemed to have decreased, tended to visit small hospitals or clinics and many of them were treated in medical institutions within their prefecture of residence.
3) A large percentage of patients with diseases which inhibited physical activities, such as malignant rheumatoid arthritis, SMON and Parkinson's disease, visited small hospitals and medical institutions located in their neighborhoods.
4) Many patients living in prefectures near large cities, such as Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka and Fukuoka, visited medical institutions in the large cities.
5) In several prefectures where new medical school hospitals were established after 1970, other hospitals still played a leading role in medical treatment in the prefecture.

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In order to obtain basic knowledge about the factors associated with the intelligence level of the aged, a survey which consisted of measurement of the intelligence level of the elderly with a scale designed by Hasegawa (HS), assessment of activities of daily living (ADL), and interviews for getting information about the social environment of the subject were carried out on 851 people over 65 years of age residing in 3 regions located in the center of Wakayama prefecture. The results of this survey were as follows:
1. Both psychological space and the living sphere become smaller with aging.
2. The ADL assessment method designed for the aged in nursing homes is applicable to the elderly residing at home. By cluster analysis, 5 factors constituting ADL were identified. Those were physical independence, moving and acting ability, fundamental life circumstances, sensory ability and the ability to communicate.
3. By the analysis using a quantification method entitled “I” (designed by Hayashi), 5 factors associated with the HS score were differentiated between the sexes. In the case of males, they were age, secretory function, ideal life style, minor adjustment ability in daily life and education. In the case of females, age, having a purpose in life, the sphere of daily activity, education and participation in meetings for the elderly.

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By concentric circles with radiuses of 10km, 20km and 30km centered on Mt. Sakurajima, 25 cities, towns, and villages in the area surrounding this volcano were classified into three regional groups on the basis of human settlements. Utilizing data from the vital statistics issued by the Kagoshima prefectural government, the mortality figures for selected respiratory diseases covering an 11-year period 1975 to 1985 were compared among these regional groups. Patterns for the year-by-year variation of the age-adjusted mortality rates for these respiratory diseases were also examined in relation to some of the air pollution indices for correlation with the volcanic activity of Mt. Sakurajima. Results were as follows:
1) In the regional groups within 20km of Mt. Sakurajima, the observed number of deaths from bronchitis significantly exceeded the expected one for the standard population, and a clear declining gradient in the SMR (standardized mortality ratio) was observed with increased distance from this volcano. On a year-by-year basis for the 11-year period, the positive correlation coefficient obtained between the age-adjusted mortality rate and the atmospheric concentration of sulfur dioxide was statistically significant.
2) For asthma, the observed number of deaths was not significantly different from the expected one in the two regional groups within 20km of Mt. Sakurajima, but it exceeded the expected one in another regional group, 20km to 30km from the volcano. On a year-by-year basis, the age-adjusted rate for mortality due to asthma did not correlate with any of the air pollution indices for the volcanic activity of Mt. Sakurajima.
3) For emphysema, the observed number of deaths exceeded the expected one in the study area as a whole but no evidence for increased or decreased mortality was found in association with the distance from Mt. Sakurajima.
4) The observed number of deaths from pneumonia significantly exceeded the expected one in the regional group within 10km of Mt. Sakurajima. On a year-by-year basis, the age-adjusted mortality rate for pneumonia correlated with the number of eruptions of this volcano but correlated inversely with the atmospheric concentrations of sulfur dioxide and total suspended particles.
5) For acute bronchitis, no differences between the observed and expected numbers of deaths were found in any of the three regional groups but its age-adjusted mortality rate correlated with the atmospheric concentration of sulfur dioxide on a year-by-year basis.
From the above, it is considered possible that volcanic air pollution may have a causal association with the mortality figure for bronchitis but not with those for other respiratory diseases.

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