We investigated how the surface coating of leathers influenced ‘touch feeling’ and ‘grip comfort’ of leather steering wheels. Four leather sheets coated by different urethane coating materials and four steering wheels covered by these leathers were used as samples. Both ‘touch feeling’ of the leather sheets and ‘grip comfort’ of the steering wheels were evaluated by the paired comparison method. Then each mean preference score of ‘touch feeling’ and ‘grip comfort’ was examined by the principal component analysis. From the result, it was found that ‘moisture’ and ‘smoothness’ were identified as principal factors of ‘touch feeling’ and ‘grip comfort’. And the physical properties (i.e. compression, friction, surface roughness, and q-max) of the leather sheets were measured. The relationship between the subjective evaluation (i.e. ‘touch feeling’ and ‘grip comfort’) and these measured physical properties were investigated. From the result, it was found that ‘moisture’ was correlated significantly with ‘MIU/MMD’ (MIU: mean coefficient of friction, MMD: mean deviation of MIU) and ‘dry’ was correlated significantly with ‘Ra’ (arithmetic mean deviation of the roughness profile). The measuring method of the physical properties was viable approach for the quantitative evaluation of ‘grip comfort’.

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A micro-macro approach for numerical simulation of concentrated dispersion system of oblate particles was investigated. In the present approach, the computation of macro flows was coupled with the micro simulation of dynamics of dispersed particles. Oblate particles were modeled by oblate spheroids, and the interaction between particles was expressed by a Maier-Saupe type mean field potential. The motion of each particle was described by a stochastic differential equation. The Brownian configuration method was used and the orientation of particles was described as a configuration field. The time evolution of the configuration field was solved using a finite element method. In addition, both the velocity and the pressure field were solved using a finite element method. Simple shear flows and flows between parallel plates were numerically simulated to investigate the applicability of the present approach to the simulation of concentrated dispersion system of oblate particles. The computational results indicated that the present approach was able to qualitatively simulate the behavior of concentrated dispersion systems of oblate particles, such as a flat velocity profile and the flow-induced orientation of particles, and that the micro-macro simulation was available at a realistic computational cost.

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To acquire basic knowledge about local cooling and thus achieve energy saving and comfortable clothing design, we measured the thermal sensation, mean skin temperature, and tympanic temperature under various local cooling temperatures between groups of varying subjective thermal sensitivity and investigated the effect of cooling temperature and subjective thermal sensitivity on the psychological and physiological response in local cooling. The results obtained were summarized as follows: The scores for general thermal sensation were close to a thermally neutral environment and the mean skin temperature decreased and the tympanic temperature increased with decreasing cooling temperature in a hot environment. The thermal sensation at the local cooling parts tended to change from a sensation of warmth form one of cold with decreasing cooling temperature. The general thermal sensation of the group with nonsusceptibility to heat was close to a thermal neutral environment with decreasing cooling temperature, while that of the group with susceptibility to heat remained almost constant. The pattern of tympanic temperature, however, was opposite to the general thermal sensation. The thermal sensation, skin temperature at the local cooling parts and the mean skin temperature were mainly affected by cooling temperature rather than the thermal sensation.

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In this paper, university students’ opinions on conscious attitudes toward Coming of Age costumes were studied. The results obtained by factor analysis are as follows: 1) The factor structure of female university students’ conscious attitudes toward Coming of Age costumes is interpreted as (F1) desire to wear, (F2) impracticality, (F3) festive dress, (F4) evaluation by men, (F5) coming of age, and (F6) economics. 2) As a result of comparing of the factor scores between people who like Kimonos and those who neither like nor dislike them, it was found that people who like Kimonos rated significantly higher than those who neither like nor dislike them in the case of (F1) desire to wear (p<0.01) and (F2) impracticality (p<0.10). 3) As a comparison of the factor scores between people for whom the Coming of age ceremony is very necessary and those for whom it is not, it was found that people who need the Coming of age ceremony very much rated significantly higher than those who do not in the case of (F6) economics (p<0.01), (F3) festive dress (p<0.05), and (F4) evaluation by men (p<0.10).

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