Wheelchair bound paraplegics tend to spend a sedentary life. They seem to be vulnerable to prolonged strenuous exertion because of their many physical handicaps such as metabolic depression, cardiovascular instability, urinary incontinence, pressure sores and so on. In commemoration of The International Year of the Disabled, The First Oita International Wheelchair Marathon was held in Autumn of 1981. This paper is to review the results of an experiment made at this half marathon. The course length was 21.1 km. Ten competitors were selected at random as the subjects for measuring energy expenditure during the race. As a preliminary examination, a work load test was performed by using a wheelchair treadmill to obtain a regression equation of the individual relationship between oxygen uptake and heart rates. The oxygen uptake of individuals during the race was estimated from the heart rates which were recorded by the small memory box fixed beneath the wheelchair. Six subjects were successfully examined. The results revealed that paraplegics safely tolerated the prolonged strenuous exercise. Their average oxygen uptake, mean heart rate and the lap time during the race were 34.17±8.11 ml/kg/min (mean ± SD), 167.6 ± 15.8 beats/min and 87.1 ± 9.1 min respectively. Heart rate of the subjects was always very high during the race, although oxygen consumption was fairly low in comparison to able-bodied elite marathon runners.

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Because the change in the location of industries, if comprehensive health care is to be promoted,there is need to derive a methodology for finding the life cycle patterns of the residents and to set up health care regions from these results. Formally, health care had evolved within the prefecture or the Health Center administrative districts with each spectrum of health promotion, "disease prevention" and "diagnosis, treatment and rehabilitation" using fragmented and unrelated methods. However, there is need to designate the region for health care planning aside from the present units for administrative purposes. With this object in mind, Fukuoka Prefecture, which has experienced a dramatic change in industrial structure, was selected as an example. Regions were designated centering around the analysis of "socio-economic aspects" and "demographic characteristics". From the viewpoint of the relationship with the life style, the geographical extent of the activity of the residents was studied through the commuting areas. Based on this activity range and the geographical distribution of the industrial locations, a reasonable "Region for health care" was designated. The first quantitative approach to verify the results was made by using the weighted pair-group method and principal component analysis. And from the vantage of the Fuzzy Sets-theory, a multivariate technique centering around clustering analysis was next utilized to analyse. Multivariate quantitative analysis confirmed this result, and identical regions were derived at the 16% level, on the single linkage method of the clustering. Thus, from the analysis of the living area of the residents the health care planning regions of Fukuoka Prefecture were identical whether using the qualitative approach or the quantitative approach.

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Two commercial sustained release preparations of isosorbide dinitrate (lSDN), capsules (preparation A) and tablets (preparation B), were tested for content uniformity and dissolution pattern. The deviations in contents of the single doses from the declared content ranged from －7.7% to ＋9.7% which conformed to the standard (± 15%) of the Japanese Pharmacopeia X (JP X). Dissolution tests were performed using the rotating basket method described in JP X. The dissolution medium were No. 1 and 2 solutions (pH 1.2 and 6 8, respectively) specified in JP X disintegration test, and 0.05 M phosphate buffer solutions (pH 3.0 and 5.0). The dissolution patterns of both preparations were independent on the pH of the medium. However, there was a marked difference between the dissolution rates of the two: after 8 hr of the test, the rates of preparation A were 85－89%, but those of preparation B were only 42－50%. From preparation A a somewhat constant release of ISDN continued until the 6 hr. ISDN was determined by the HPLC method.

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Fifty forest stands and sixty plant species were ordinated by a reciprocal averaging (RA) method to extract the major vegetation patterns of the forest in northwestern Kitakyushu City and nearby areas. The RA stand ordination on the first and second axes revealed three gradients of vegetation. They are the gradients (1) from the Quercus serrata-dominated forest to the Machilus thunbergii- or Aphananthe aspera-dominated forest, (2) from the Quercus- to the Castanopsis cuspidata-dominated forest, and (3) from the Aphananthe- or the Machilus- to the Castanopsis-dominated forest. The first two gradients showed high correlations of the stand RA scores to the canopy height and to the number of species found in the stand, but the third one did not. The former two, therefore, were referred to as the successional series of forests on the moist (bottomland) habitat and that on the less moist (foothill) one, respectively, and the third as the environmental gradient from moist to less moist habitats in matured forests. The RA species ordination showed the distribution center of each species in the above mentioned patterns of the forest vegetation.

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This paper discusses measurements of physical work capacity. When the sample size is small, its model selection problem is difficult in the multiple regression analysis. Although the development of model selection may be correct, it is not always useful for practical data. Since the number of the parameters is large compared with the sample size, we shall discretize continuous data into categorical data and shall use the CATDAP program.

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A case of malum perforans pedis caused by spinal canal stenosis with spondylolisthesis in a 76-year-old female is reported with a brief review of literature. In our case, orthopedical and neurological evaluations were indispensable for correct diagnosis and treatment of the condition.

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Due to rapid development, industrial societies must now make a fresh start based on a new idea of society which will enable them to survive the fast approaching 21st century. In this situation, health problems must be dealt with not only by medical science but also by research in other areas such as economics and technology. In fact, we are now in a situation in which problems of health and health care can no longer be solved without cooperation from these other research areas. What is most necessary is a new ethical standard. This can be developed through ideas based on a system of bioethics in which Occidental humanism and Oriental humanism are combined to a substantial degree. I believe that the establishment of this type of bioethics can lead to the successful institutionalization of health, health care and welfare for the 21st century.

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Various slight modifications of electrophoretic techniques were tried to obtain more reproducible results for comparing several isozymes with individual mosquito larvae. Horizontal electrophoresis was done using polyacrylamide gel plates of 1 mm thickness on a simple cooling system in which ice-cold water was circulated. This made it possible to carry out electrophoresis effectively even during field work in tropical areas. Gel concentration in routine work is 5% for usual enzymes, but for esterase, 6% gels have been adopted. Gel concentrations, running distance, running time, visualization of isozyme bands, etc., have especially been considered.

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[in Japanese]

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