The relationship of body temperature to movement and daily life in a nursery was examined in 181 children at a day care center, and the importance of body temperature to the life and health management of the children was evaluated. (1) The children were divided into three groups. Group A comprised 28 children (15.5%) whose body temperature exceeded 37.0 degrees at 9:00 a.m., and whose average temperature was 37.19 degrees. Group B comprised 127 children (70.1%) whose body temperature ranged from 36.0 to 37.0 degrees, and whose average temperature was 36.48 degrees. Group C comprised 26 children (14.4%) whose body temperature was under 36.0 degrees, and whose average temperature was 35.58 degrees. (2) Children in Groups B and C, whose temperature was under 37.0 degrees when they arrived at the day care center, showed a temperature rise after movement and play in the morning. On the other hand, the children in Group A, whose temperature exceeded 37.0 degrees, showed a decrease in temperature in spite of walking an average of 3209 steps per person in the morning, which was about 200-400 steps more than Groups B or C. (3) Keeping early hours, having regular bowel movements after breakfast, and walking to school help to raise children's body temperature when they reach school. This temperature increase assists mental and physical warming up, encourages efficient exercise, and aids better release of energy. If more steps are taken to improve the quality of exercise after 3:00 p.m. as well as in the morning, problems such as children needing snacks before supper or going to bed late will be solved. The children will become hungry after playing and will be ready to eat supper at the right time. At night they will feel moderately tired and become sleepy around 8:00 p.m.. Recently there has been a rapid increase in the number of children who tend to watch TV or play video games while eating snacks before their parents come home, and this is exactly what needs to be addressed in order to improve juvenile health in modern life. In conclusion, physical exercise and play are considered important in children for activating the autonomic nervous system, which controls body temperature.

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For many senior citizens, advancing age is associated with progressive increases in functional impairment, morbidity, and disability. Living with multiple morbid conditions or disability predisposes an individual to a considerably poor quality of life. However, a substantial body of scientific evidence suggests that regular exercise or physical activity can provide a multitude of health benefits in people of all ages and abilities. Considering today's society in Japan where there is an extremely low birth rate and a rapidly increasing number of older persons, this review describes the importance of regular participation in healthy exercise and physical activity, including horticultural work, for maintaining an ideal quality of life (QoL). As the number of older persons continues to rise, maintaining and/or improving overall QoL becomes more crucial. In particular, it is emphasized here that exercise and sports science (or human kinesiology) can undoubtedly contribute to maximization of individual life benefits and health status, thereby maintaining QoL. This idea is consistent with classical concepts in gerontology, sports medicine, and human kinesiology involving the assessment of QoL and exercise intervention studies in middle-aged and older persons with chronic or lifestylerelated diseases. Four domains, each consisting of several factors, are hypothesized to constitute overall QoL for humans: the physical dimension, mental dimension, lifestyle and environmental dimension, and economic dimension. Furthermore, the concept of a "support-sharing system" is introduced as a means of developing more comprehensive, effective and stable administrative reform in municipalities. The support-sharing system stems from the interaction and collaboration of many sectors including policy makers, community planners, health care providers, employers, land and transportation experts, and other diverse groups and organizations and areas of professional expertise. Implementing this novel concept effectively into the administrative sphere in municipalities will promote various benefits associated with exercise and physical activity for maintaining overall QoL, in particular the physical and mental dimensions. These efforts can then be translated into nationwide (national) action for QoL enhancement. This article summary is part of a larger initiative known as the Tsukuba Advanced Research Alliance (TARA), established at the University of Tsukuba in Mav 1994.

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A study was conducted to examine the relationship between the "climate" of physical education classes and students' formative evaluation of the classes. Through analysis of this relationship, we clarified the importance of "climate" for effective physical education. The data were collected by observing 59 physical education classes in elementary schools. The instrument for observing students' human relationships and affective behavior developed by Hirano et al. was employed, and the results were assessed using the scale of students' formative evaluation of physical education classes developed by Takahashi et al. The main findings were as follows: 1) Positive human relationship behavior and positive affective behavior were significantly correlated with students' formative evaluation in both ball game and gymnastics classes. 2) In ball game classes, negative human relationship behavior and negative affective behavior were negatively correlated with students' formative evaluation. 3) Thus, it was confirmed that the learning results were influenced as much by "climate" as by "momentum".

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Some previous investigations have discussed whether visceral adipose tissue may decrease as a result of exercise intervention. However, there is no evidence that the lipid metabolism of visceral adipose tissue predominates during aerobic exercise. The purpose of this study was to examine whether there is a difference in lipolysis of intra-abdominal fat and endocrine hormone during prolonged exercise at ventilatory threshold (VT) load intensity. Sixteen healthy obese women, aged 51.8 ± 7.5 years were categorized into two groups according to their intra-abdominal fat area: a visceral fat obesity (VF-Ob) group and a subcutaneous fat obesity (SF-Ob) group. Mean ± SD of body weight and body mass index were 67.2 ± 4.0 kg and 28.1 ± 1.7 kg/m^2 respectively for the VF-Ob group, and 68.2 ± 3.0 kg and 27.3 ± 0.7 kg/m^2, respectively for the SF-Ob group. Each subject perfomed a submaximal cycling exercise test for 60 min at a constant VT level load, which had been previously determined by an incremental protocol exercise. There were no significant differences between the two groups in catecholamines, %fat oxidation, insulin, and glucose at each of the measurement points (0, 30, 60 min). Significant differences were found in free fatty acid and glycerol in the VF-Ob group (two-way repeated ANOVA, P<0.05), but these remained unchanged during the last 30 min of exercise. There was no significant difference in energy expenditure of fat metabolism over exercise between the two groups. These results suggest that visceral adipose tissue seems to be affected more instantly by lipolysis than subcutaneous fat tissue during prolonged exercise. However, both types of fat show approximately equal consumption during exercise. Therefore, more investigations are needed to determine whether there is a specific form of metabolism for visceral fat during exercise.

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