JAPANESE JOURNAL OF BIOMETEOROLOGY
Online ISSN : 1347-7617
Print ISSN : 0389-1313
ISSN-L : 0389-1313
Volume 52, Issue 2
Displaying 1-5 of 5 articles from this issue
Obituary
Review
  • Tetsuya Yoshida
    2015 Volume 52 Issue 2 Pages 97-104
    Published: June 01, 2015
    Released on J-STAGE: July 17, 2015
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    As global temperatures having been rising, there has been an increased incidence of heat disorders in Japan. In particular, cases of death due to heat-related injuries among subjects practicing outdoor sports and/or exercising or working outside have been reported. As heat disorders, for example those presenting as heat stroke, heat exhaustion, heat cramps or heat rashes, are caused by hyperthermia and dehydration, attenuating the physiological strain induced by these symptoms is very important for preventing such disorders when engaging in outdoor exercises or while working outside during the summer. Several guidelines for preventing heat disorders have been proposed by official Japanese facilities based on the findings of many studies evaluating physiological responses and/or human activities in hot environments and assessing environmental and epidemiological factors related to heat conditions. In the present review, several studies on the prevention of heat disorders in Japan are introduced.
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Original Article
  • Kunihito Tobita, Yoshihito Kurazumi, Yoshiaki Yamato, Kenta Fukagawa, ...
    2015 Volume 52 Issue 2 Pages 105-117
    Published: June 01, 2015
    Released on J-STAGE: July 17, 2015
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    Health and weather are two of the most common conversational topics in any language, but is this politeness or is this an indication of serious interest in these topics? The purpose of this paper is to clarify the general public’s level of interest in heat disorders. Data from questions posted on an online knowledge-sharing community was analyzed. People used the words “heat disorders” and “heat stroke” mainly and more than 90% of posts contained the term “heat disorders”. When the daily maximum WBGT is over 20℃, the question posts about heat disorders begin to increase and this trend has been generally increasing year by year. The common subject matters of the questions are: preventive measures, symptoms, diagnosis and the treatment of heat disorders. The people who have an interest in heat disorders tend to post a generic question that has no specific subject or place. However, questions concerning heat disorders of children under preschool age are described in detail; e.g. age, place, situation etc. Questions about heat disorders in the 6–18 year old age group describe an unspecified child at school. It is shown that the requisite information about heat disorders differs with the subject’s age and location.
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  • Shin Nagai, Tomoharu Inoue, Rikie Suzuki
    2015 Volume 52 Issue 2 Pages 119-129
    Published: June 01, 2015
    Released on J-STAGE: July 17, 2015
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    Leaf-coloring information published on web sites was evaluated for its utility in ground-truthing satellite remote-sensing data for mapping leaf phenology. We first collected leaf-coloring information from several web sites in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan, from 21 to 25 November 2014; we then evaluated the relationship between that leaf-coloring information and the green–red vegetation index (GRVI) derived from Landsat-8/OLI imaging on 23 November 2014. We found that (1) most of the leaf-coloring information available on web sites was for popular scenic areas in the Hakone and Tanzawa mountains and cities of Kamakura and Yokohama; (2) leaf-coloring information covering multiple points in mountainous regions was useful for ground-truthing satellite remote-sensing data in relation to altitude; and (3) leaf-coloring information published on web sites included uncertainties due to differing definitions of leaf-coloring phenology, imprecise locations of reported points, heterogeneity of vegetation, and imprecise correspondence between area of reported location and area per pixel in satellite remote-sensing data.
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Short Communication
  • Ruriko Okada, Kanji Matsukawa, Toshio Kobayashi, Yukiko Miyakoshi
    2015 Volume 52 Issue 2 Pages 131-137
    Published: June 01, 2015
    Released on J-STAGE: July 17, 2015
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    We examined the seasonal changes in water content of stratum corneum, skin surface temperature, and transepidermal water loss of forearm skin. Water content of stratum corneum and skin surface temperature were significantly lower (P<0.01) in winter (room temperature 21℃) than in summer (room temperature 25℃), although transepidermal water loss was not different. By increasing room temperature to 25℃ in winter, skin surface temperature and transepidermal water loss were increased, whereas water content of stratum corneum was kept unchanged. Thus it is likely that water content of stratum corneum was influenced by seasonal adaptation rather than a short-term change in room temperature.
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