The effect of dynamic control of ambient temperature (T_a) and relative humidity on sleep quality during nocturnal sleep in summer was evaluated from psychological and physiological responses. Four healthy male subjects volunteered for the experiments in August 2007-2008. By comparing with the constant 28℃/60% condition, six dynamically controlled thermal conditions were tested. The EEG, body core temperature (T_<cr>) and subjective evaluation on sleep were recorded. The results demonstrated that a gradual increase of T_a from 26℃ at the beginning of sleep to 28℃ until awaking may be the best for ensuring sleep quality as well as circadian rhythm of T_<cr>.

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Recent publications have not addressed whether depression influences ratings of perceived exertion (RPE) during exercise testing. In this study, we examined whether depression influenced the relationship between RPE and workload during exercise testing. Subjects included 12 females who had just entered the university. They were chosen from 169 the university newcomers based on completion of the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) scores and agreement to participate in the study. Six of 12 subjects showed high BDI scores (23.7±3.6) and seemed to feel high levels of stress just because they were undergraduate students. Another 6 showed low BDI scores (1.0±0.9). An exercise test was designed to increase exercise intensity to exhaustion levels using a cycle ergometer with 60rpm. During exercise, VO2, heart rate, and blood lactate accumulation were assessed as a measure of physiological index, and exertion or pain in the chest, exertion or pain in the leg, overall exertion, and feeling scores (FS) were assessed as a measure of perceptual index. FS assesses the affective dimension of the exercise experience, ranging from "very bad" to "very good" (-5 to +5). Results showed that physiological and perceptual indices of workload did not differ significantly between subjects who had high or low BDI scores. Among women in this study, RPE during cycling was not influenced by depression. Larger studies are needed to obtain results that can be generalized to other populations.

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The purpose of this study was to examine the basic characteristics of the movement pattern in a walk-to-run transition. Twenty healthy adults participated in this experiment. They walked on a treadmill, and their walking speed was increased 0.2km/h every 15 seconds. The participants were instructed to walk or run naturally depending on their speed. The phases of walking or running of each participant were measured by foot switches, and, at the same time a simple response task was given to the participant while walking or running. The result was that the instability of the movement pattern occurred during the transition, and the simple response task, didn't affect it. There were instabilities in each phase time, but not in the overall stride time.

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To reveal the relation with swelling and fatigue on lower leg, 19 legs of working women in the morning and in the evening were measured by physical and physiological measurements. The effects of swelling were confirmed by the volume of lower leg and the ratio of extracellular water. Similarly the effects of fatigue on lower legs were confirmed by the muscle stiffness, but not confirmed by the electromyogram and mechanomyogram on voluntary muscle construction. It suggested that the relation with fatigue and swelling on lower legs were not clearly confirmed by using the voluntary muscle construction method.

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