In this ageing society, participating in daily physical exercise is becoming increasingly popular. Recently, there has been an increase among women engaging in various sports. Among middle-aged and senior women, HULA dance lovers have increased, HULA dance is commonly viewed as a only a"Hawaiian tourist entertainment"and has rarely been studied as a physical exercise. Therefore, this is an attempt to study the validity of HULA dance as a fitness exercise by gathering information from middle-aged and senior women who engage in order to examine their physiological response. Test subjects were 15 average healthy women aged 33〜68 participating in regular HULA lesson. HULA dance requires a constant straight vertical upper body position while knees (HULA Position). Making HULA steps while maintaining this position makes the hip-swings, that are characteristic of HULA dance, possible. There was a remarkable difference in leg muscle activity between the beginners and the experts according to the EMG recordings in various dance steps. HULA dance does not require jumping action, therefore, the dance is considered safe and valid training for leg muscles including M. vastus medialis that often lacks use in daily life. Even when using slow tempo music (♪=90), there was a remarkable difference in oxygen intake according to body weight between beginners and experts. This is probably because beginners bend the knees less causing very little leg muscle activity. Arms do most of the exercise. Among the beginners, using two different music tempos (♪=90〜100), heart rates during the dance were within 60%〜65%HRmax. When experts danced a vigorous slow dance, heart rate reached 75%HRmax. The movement intensity in the older beginners regardless of the music tempo was, 3〜6 METS; among the experts, it was 4〜7METS. During lessons, consideration is given to each to individual's age, physical strength and skill level. Therefore, HULA dance can be considered an appropriate exercise for seniors. Total energy consumption during the PULA MANA dance (♪=90), was; in beginners: 1.6〜3.8kcal/m. in experts: 2.4〜5.6kcal/m. Energy consumption was about the same as during a normal to fast walk depending on the individual's skill, the tempo of music and the choreography. Change in blood pressure during resting period compared to after dancing were no significant increase in blood pressure was found during half hour lessons that included periodic breaks. In general it is recommended that middle-aged people and seniors participate in walking. In addition, taking the joyful HULA lessons twice a week helps change the monotony of routine life and is also effective in maintaining and improving muscle tones and heart function. Dancing also helps burn exercise calories and is part of good fitness training.

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The human body, which is one of our greatest concerns today, is discussed from thethree Japanese points of view: a point of nikutai as to mean the physical aspect of abody with the whole chronological span of an individual existence, a point of shintai, thehuman being itself as an individual whole with both spiritual and physical aspectsorganically unified, and a point of karada as the totality of organic parts of a body.Generally speaking, Japanese concept of body is rather based on a monistic view ofhuman existence, while European one is on a dualistic view of human beings as beingthe body and soul/spirit/mind unified. Throughout the process of Japanese assimilationto the Western civilization, most Japanese are said to have lost a real sense of stabilityalong with the traditional sense of body. Thus some researches on our traditional bodylanguage have started now to recover a sense of the bodily center of gravity.

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From Hokkaido in the north to Okinawa in the south 47 local self-governing bodies or Prefectures of Japan emit information on their respective regions via web sites. Such information contains, without exception, the input-output tables of their regional economies. The majority of tables, consisting of basic transaction amount, input coefficient index and inverse matrix index, are down loadable in Excel spread sheets. Some of the Prefectures publish the tables only in paper and some provide floppy disks and a CD-ROM. The author has collected the tables with respect to 47 Prefectures. A result of the analysis turns out to be less exciting such as industries that create the largest value-added in the regions are rent and commerce (whole sale and retail) except Fukui Prefecture, where the largest value-added industry is thermo-nuclear power generation.

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Il giardino di Boboli, che appartiene al Palazzo Pitti di Firenze e che risale alla meta`del Cinquecento, e` uno dei piu` importanti giardini storici europei. Avendo un fortecarattere geometrico ed architettonico, il giardino e` un esemplare del giardino all'italiana. Tra gli elementi che lo compongono, il piu` peculiare e` l'edificio chiamato"Anfiteatro"che ha forma a U composta dai sedili scalinati come la cavea. Il ruolo diquesta costruzione era duplice: funzionava solitamente come elemento scenografico omonumentale puramente"da vedere", e in occasione della festa granducale, invece,funzionava come un vero e proprio teatro o una piazza recinta per l'opera-torneochiamato il"balletto a cavallo".Questo anfiteatro, trasformato dal"teatro di verzura", sub forti critiche subito dopo ilcompletamento nel 1635; in particolare erano valutati sfavorevolmente il suo tardivostile manierista e l'insufficienza funzionale, per cui furono proposti vari progetti per lasua trasformazione. Nel presente studio si desidera trattare soprattutto dei progettitardosecenteschi proposti dagli architetti non-professionisti della corte: Diacinto Maria Marmi (1625ca-1702) e Paolo Falconieri (1634-1704).D. M. Marmi, un cortigiano che si occupava del Guardaroba sotto i due granduchi Ferdinando II e Cosimo III de'Medici, svolse anche l'attivita` di architetto-disegnatore di corte. Tra i disegni fatti da Marmi vi furono anche alcuni progetti per l'anfiteatro. Diseguito si analizzano due disegni (GDSU5159A r; BNCF, II. I. 380, c. 108 r) per il nuovo anfiteatro. Marmi propose un anfiteatro di pianta simile all'attuale, ma di struttura piu` complessa. Nel suo progetto, Marmi si occupava particolarmente del problema della linea di flusso. Il suo anfiteatro era legato al palazzo tramite i vari"corridoi"e"gallerie",che componevano un sistema di comunicazione tra il palazzo, l'anfiteatro e il giardino, caratterizzato non solo dalla funzione pratica, ma anche dalle esigenze socio-morali della corte, soprattutto dal principio della divisione delle classi e del"decoro". Per quantoriguarda lo stile, il progetto di Marmi mancava di originalita` seguendo la soluzione di Alfonso Parigi (1641), che gia` aveva proposto l'adozione del linguaggio del cortile ammannatiano, del carattere fortemente simbolico.Paolo Falconieri, che fu"primo gentiluomo di camera"di Cosimo III ed architetto dilettante, propose nel 1681 la sostanziale trasformazione di Palazzo Pitti, incluso unprogetto del nuovo anfiteatro. Pur mancando una fonte visiva, e` possibile ricostruire tale progetto seguendone la descrizione di Filippo Baldinucci ( Notizie dei professori del disegno..., IV, Firenze 1688). Anche per Falconieri, uno degli scopi principali del progetto era larisistemazione della"comunicazione nobile"tra palazzo e giardino. Inoltre, Falconieri rivide la tipologia e lo stile dell'anfiteatro. Invece della forma a U, egli penso a quellaovale, la forma del vero e proprio anfiteatro antico. Questa scelta rispecchiava l'influenza di Bernini; dopo la famosa vicenda riguardante il Louvre di Luigi XIV, lacultura fiorentina inizio ad apprezzare finalmente il concetto pieno di"grandezza"delprotagonista della Roma barocca. Infatti Falconieri, vivendo a Roma e avendo esperienza parigina, tentava di"modernizzare"lo stile tardivo e regionale della Toscana granducale tramite l"'innestatura"dello stile dei nuovi centri culturali.

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In der Blutezeit der mittelhochdeutschen epischen Literatur, vor allem bei den sog. `Klassikern',findet man das Wort "wilde maere" als Bezeichnung fur ihre Literaturauffassung; diese Problematik wird in der Forschung kontrovers diskutiert. Ab der Mitte des 13. Jhds. kommt das Adjektiv wilde besonders bei Konrad von Wurzburg sehr haufig vor. Vor diesem Hintergrund wird hier das Wortfeld von wilde in der mhd. epischen Literatur von der Mitte des 12. Jhds. bis einschlieBlich zur zweiten Halfte des 13. Jhds. untersucht. AuBdem werden uber die Problematik der wilde maere weitere Uberlegungen angestellt.

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English media studies present special challenges for students who are non-English majors, and as a result traditional approaches to teaching often fail. Their relative lackof experience with reading and discussion means they have not developed suitable learning strategies to deal with newspaper articles which have a specialised style andvocabulary and move on to discussion of the topics. Furthermore, such students have additional problems of motivation and confidence with regard to learning English. Thispaper suggests a re-evaluation of the role of media studies as an opportunity to develop leaning strategies, and describes a teaching approach using integrated materials designed to help non-English majors improve learning skills and develop motivation and confidence as language learners.

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According to Focus on the Family, the American traditional family has been attacked by "secular humanists" so violently that it is on the verge of disintegration, especially through the generation gap in values and the high rate of employment of homemakers in the 1960s and 1970s. This "crisis," however, cannot be limited to the last few decades ; rather, we can see the generation gap through the whole of American history ; great number of American wives and mothers have been working outside home since before the Second World War.It seems to me that the "traditional family" as they called is based on the model of family which was (and is) dominant in the suburban communities, especially in 1950s.The traditional values on which the family stands are "traditional" only for conservative Christian Americans like Focus on the Family. The "traditional family" is not necessarily "traditional"; it is rather an ideal family intentionally recoveredand/or"invented"by a politico-religious purpose ; and, on a more unconscious level, itis a representation of desire to return to the ideal family. This sort of nostalgic desirefor the ideal family is also common to the members of New Religions in Japan, whichuse a rhetoric regarding their founders as the parents of not only all members of theircommunities but also human beings. Conservative Christian Americans insist that women should stay home as much aspossible. They try to revive the traditional values" here and now "in order to makeclear what the family should be. They attempt to"sanctify"the family by means of Judeo-Christian faith, and this "sanctification" corresponds with the "sanctification" of the United States as a "family" under the leadership of a father-president preservingthe spirits of the Founding Fathers. New Religions in Japan offer paradigms for humanrelationship based not on hierarchy but on equality to urban nuclear families which had lost the bond of local community and were isolated in the urbanized society. Theyfunction as models for the family and gave religious meaning to the parents-childrenand husband-wife relationships in the family. In other words, New Religions offer themeans to reconsecrate secularized family patterns.Thus, in spite of the historical and cultural differences, there are some importantcommonalties between Focus on the Family in the US and New Religions in Japan asthey regard family values. First, both of them present the model images of the familybased on traditional values to families which are wavering between tradition andmodernization (and secularization). Secondly, they regard the relationships in thefamily as the most important human relationships and attach greater importance to "harmony" and "togetherness" than individuality. Finally, the family is, for them first and foremost, the place of faith. Through the homologization of each family and thereligious community to which the family belongs, both Focus on the Family and New Religions "sanctify" each family as well as incorporating it into their value systems.

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