Gardening has been recognized as a physical activity that increases well-being and health benefits among adults with and without mental disabilities. The aim of this study was to quantify trunk movements and conduct motion analysis of adult with （case group, n=6） and without （control group, n=7） mental disabilities while performing six gardening tasks of varying levels of intensity. A wireless tri-axial accelerometer was used to continuously measure, monitor, and record motion acceleration during the tasks. Results showed that the pattern of mean dynamic acceleration （MAD） differed between the case and control groups and between tasks over time. The case group showed significantly lower trunk movement （lower MAD values） in the high-intensity trunk movement tasks, such as digging, compared with the control group. In the low-intensity trunk movement tasks, such as seed sowing, the case group had higher MAD values compared with the control group, but not significantly different. In high-intensity trunk movement tasks, such as digging and turning over soil, the control group performed at a faster rate and showed a more harmonic pattern （3 s/cycle） compared with the case group （4 s/cycle）. The case and control groups may have responded differently to motion because of their habitual physical activity. The characteristics of movement during gardening tasks in adults with and without mental disabilities reported in this study could form the basis for selection data for gardening program development.

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In Hokkaido, the number of reported injuries due to accidents involving cows is more than 700； however, in the prefectures, a limited number of local governments are carrying out a survey of injury due to accidents and the issue has not become tangible. Therefore, an interview survey of dairy farmers from 40 houses in nine prefectures was conducted. This revealed that like in Hokkaido, in prefectures too, accidents often occur at the time of milking tied cows, and during movement of pasturing cows and there are cases of long-term hospitalization. However, in reality, farmers do not visit or get admitted to a hospital except in serious cases, as there is no workforce to spare. Analysis of the causes of accidents has shown that in the accidents occurring while milking tied cows, when dangerous movements of cows are controlled by reducing the stress on the cows, by improving the cowshed environment or handling of the cows, one can expect an increase in milk output as well as reduction of diseases. In case of accidents occurring due to the movement of pasturing cows, it was indicated that reduction in accidents can be expected by separating man and cows by improving the facilities.

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Although the drip irrigation technique has become widespread worldwide, and especially in Europe and Israel, it is used for only 2 percent of the total irrigated land in Japan. Because Japan receives sufficient rainfall throughout the year, farmers apparently do not consider it necessary to use an additional irrigation in open fields, except during occasional, extreme droughts. This study, however, verifies the hypothesis that using a drip irrigation technique can increase crop yields even in Japan’s open fields. A split-design experiment was conducted maintaining two irrigation treatments as main factor inputs and two different fertilizers as sub-factor inputs. The bell pepper was used as a test crop. The results showed that the crop yield, dry weight, and number of fruits increased in the drip-irrigated plots compared with the non-irrigated plots, regardless of fertilizer used. The crop yield differed significantly, especially in September and October when crop yields usually begin to decline. The most significant factor affecting the results appear to be the frequency of irrigation. This study indicates that if water is supplied daily to the crop using a drip irrigation technique, crop yields can be increased even in the open fields of Japan that receive sufficient rainfall.

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[in Japanese]

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