The number of baby care room is increasing, but there are still many problems in use, which may be due to space composition and elements. The purpose of this study is to find out the relationship between the space elements of baby care room and the user evaluation. In this study, we have made clear the current situation of the spatial elements of baby care rooms through the field survey, clarified the problems encountered by users in the use through the group interview survey, and finally got user evaluations through the questionnaire survey. As the results, several types of baby care rooms in shopping malls are defined, several directions for improvement of the project are obtained, and the specific spatial elements with the highest correlation with the evaluation indexes are obtained. It provides a clear direction for further improvement programs in the future.

The poor kitchen environment causes a high turnover rate of foodservice companies, and it hinders the development of the food and beverage industry. It is required to organize the information that contributes to the legislation regarding the kitchen environment. In this study, we conducted a questionnaire survey (n=1,783) to clarify the effect of kitchen environment on productivity. By conducting a survey targeting those who are working in the actual field with using a highly objective questionnaire, we confirmed the mid-long term effects that could not be confirmed in previous subject experiments. It was clarified that the equipment environment of the kitchen such as thermal sensation affects the productivity of workers in the mid-long term. In addition, kitchen environmental factors affecting work engagement, work satisfaction and work functioning impairment were also clarified.

With the spread of digital games, board games as analog games are also popular. There are several discussions focusing on educational methods using board games. However, although it is said that it will have improved communication skills and educational effects, there is not much specific analysis. It is considered impossible to conduct social experiments that only control the use of board games, and it is generally difficult to measure them. Therefore, in this study, based on the hypothesis that it is effective, we set the “Fundamental Competencies for Working Persons” by METI as educational effects for 24 types of board games and analyzed the relationship. This paper describes the results. In addition, we discuss whether board games can be generalized for playing and learning, and the “Fundamental Competencies for Working Persons” for educational effects.

While there are reports on the reliability of the universal goniometer (UG) and smartphone application goniometer (SG), there have been no reports on user impressions when using these devices. In this study, impressions of users of UG and SG that are used in clinical practice were clarified and reliability was compared. Questionnaires on user impressions were administered to 13 staff members who work in the clinical field. Measurements in the hip and knee joints of seven participants were taken by three testers, and intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC) were obtained to assess reliability. Results showed that SG was superior in terms of appearance, weight, texture, portability, usability, versatility and readout. SG was inferior in terms of setting up measurement axes. However, SG demonstrated high reliability even when compared to UG. The intra-and inter-rater ICC were 0.51 to 0.89 and 0.65 to 0.75, respectively.

Soybean beverages are popular due to health consciousness of consumers, but soybean beverages, which have a high viscosity or a grassy smell, are less favored. Fine bubble processing for soybean beverages has attached much attention because of its ability to control their viscosity. However, it is not clear how fine bubble processing for soybean beverages affects consumer preferences. In this study, the effect of fine bubble processing on the drinkability of a soybean beverage was examined. As a result, it was found that fine bubble processing for soybean beverages affected the evaluation of drinking such as “mellowness”, “unique/peculiar”, and “ease of drinking”. From principal component analysis, drinking sensation of soybean beverages was expressed by two main components: “tasting” and “rich”. From the comparison between the unprocessed and processed samples, fine bubble processing made soybean beverages tastier and lighter.

Cedar wooden-shingle boards used as the Japanese traditional roofing material are handmade by craftsmen, and there is a need for technology that stabilizes its product performance. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to establish a method for quantitatively selecting cedar wooden-shingle boards by non-destructive methods based on color of the board, as done by craftsmen. Hence, in this report, a relationship was analyzed to evaluate the boards’ strength from colorimetric values by using a “transverse direction 3-point bending test”. As a result of multiple regression analysis, CIE L*, a*, and b* were adopted as coefficients, and confirmed that the maximum bending stress of the test piece can be predicted with a high correlation based only on the color. Furthermore, data from different types of color measurement instruments were compared and similar findings were observed.

Software development requires professional expertise such as system engineers and programmers. Software quality is immensely affected by the capabilities, experience and technological knowledge of users and professionals/ system engineers. Especially when users make erroneous judgements on design document which are only identifiable after system completion and attribute misjudgments to system flaws. Hence, we placed our emphasis on sensory judgment of the system engineer, I may have early detection of user’s misconception. We construct the software quality prediction model for quality estimation through rough set analysis by sensory judgment of the system engineer.

Medical workers need to improve understanding of the pain of their child patients in order to offer effective treatments. For adults, it is difficult to express their pain verbally, so it can be expected more difficulty for children. Therefore, we have developed a Digital Pain Assessment-Tool (DPAT) that allows children to visually express (1) pain intensity and (2) pain cycle. In the present study, we conducted three experiments to compare the DPAT with an Analogue Pain Assessment-Tool (APAT) and a visual analogue rating scale (VAS), by applying quantitative and qualitative methods. The results showed the effectiveness and usefulness of the DPAT, especially by allowing communication of type of pain, which cannot be done with other tools. Also, the results showed improved pain intensity, easiness of use and user satisfaction. Moreover, the possibility of complementary use of the APAT and the SPAT was discussed.

Because the color of lipstick is important for total fashion image, we tried to analyze the characteristics of colors of lipsticks of popular brands especially for Japanese female students. Preparing a database consists of 294 color images obtained from websites of lipsticks, we performed statistical analyses such as distribution chart and decision tree for their RGB values. The analysis results show that “MAC has relatively different RGB values from other brands,” “The products with high R values tend to be CHANEL,” and some similarities between brands. Those successfully gave the subjective evidences for the empirical knowledge of the fashion expert.