[Purpose] Discrimination between end-

types is difficult, and years of clinical experience is considered a factor for improving the accuracy of the discrimination. The present study investigated whether the accuracy of classification of end- types improves with the increase in years of clinical experience. [Participants and Methods] In total, 44 therapists (range of years of clinical experience: 1–26 years) and 13 students were included. The participants identified the type of end simulated by our newly developed simulator. The proportion of correct answers of the therapists was compared with that of the students. For the therapists, years of clinical experience and their awareness of end were examined, and their relationships with the ability to classify end- types were analyzed. [Results] The therapists showed a higher ability to identify end- type than the students. The ability of the therapists improved according to their years of clinical experience. The cutoff values for years of clinical experience to improve the ability for identifying bone-to-bone, muscular, and tissue approximations were 15, 6, and 15, respectively. The therapists who were always conscious about end were associated with a higher ability to classify end- types. [Conclusion] Our present study demonstrated that the ability to classify end improves with the increase in years of clinical experience.

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The modified Attention Distribution Test (mADT) is a tool for evaluating subjects’ fatigue status, which is a simple computer program with character-based user interface (CUI). The test records times between mouse-click on numerical numbers randomly placed on 6 by 6 matrix in ascending order. This study considered to upgrade the mADT with graphical user interface (GUI). Implementing GUI has following benefits, a) Enriched look and , such as click feeling or noticeable warning for wrong response, reduces mistakes caused by poor usability. b) The examiner can select subjects from prepared drop-down list. This could be a strong merit when examiner intends to have many subject take the test. To test the possible impacts of upgrading the mADT on subjects’ response characteristics, 8 participants who felt no fatigue took the original and GUI version of the test for 5 consecutive days. The 25 %iles value of reaction times for each number showed no statistical significance between original and GUI version of the test except for the second and final days. The quick response (QR) index showed significant main effect of the test versions, suggesting larger QR for the GUI version of the test. Results suggest that upgrading the mADT reduced the workload of taking the test.

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Although various tactile sensing systems have been developed, it is difficult to evaluate the tactile

of cosmetics and cosmetic materials. We believe that the nonlinearity of the friction phenomena occurring on the surface of the skin is one of the causes of delicate touch texture. We have developed biomimetic materials that mimic the mechanical, surface properties and shapes of human fingers and skin. Next, we tried to elucidate the physical origin of tactile texture using the human finger model and artificial skin. Recently, a friction evaluation system that imitates the movement when a human touches things has been developed. In this system, nonlinear sinusoidal motion is achieved by the rotation of the motor with an eccentric cam. In addition, an in-situ observation type tactile sensing system is also used to simultaneously evaluate motion and mechanical stimulation when applying cream or touching powder. In this review, we introduce some recent studies on tactile sensing systems.

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運転支援システムが普及する中、危険や周囲の状況をドライバーに直観的に分からせることが更なる安全性向上に繋がる。本研究では、その中でも音による情報提示に着目し、直観的に緊急・重大感を感じる音に加えて、高頻度な音に対する煩わしさ低減のため、耳あたりを考慮した高級感のある音の両立を検討した。

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【目的】顎関節症に対する理学療法を行う場合，開口距離や下顎の変位，咬合力は定量的な評価が可能であるが，症状や違和感，顎関節の副運動などは定性的な評価が一般的に行われる．特に顎関節の副運動は検者が感じ取るend によって評価されるが，end は検者によって感じ方が違うことがある．しかしend の評価如何によって治療プログラム，治療成績にも影響を及ぼすことがあるため，理学療法の効果をさらに高めるためには，end を何らかの形で定量的な評価とする試みが必要である．今回，体表に近く比較的触診の行いやすい顎関節を対象に，徒手的に行った副運動の評価と機械を用いて測定した押し込み量-荷重関係を比較し，顎関節の副運動を定量的に数値として表すことができるか検討したので報告する．
【対象および方法】開口時に下顎がどちらか一方に変位する大学21名を対象とした．対象に文書で同意を得た後，まず顎関節の横方向の副運動を触診にて評価し，「硬い」，「動く」，「よく動く」，「大変よく動く」の4段階に分類した．触診は日頃より徒手療法を行っている理学療法士によって行われた．押し込み量-荷重関係はビーナストロン（AXIOM社製）を用いて測定し，顎関節関節裂隙より1横指下の下顎枝にプローブを当て，皮膚に接触してから7mm押し込むよう設定した．ビーナストロンでの測定は3回行い，皮膚に接してから5mm押し込んだところの値を算出し，3回の平均値を代表値とした．なお，触診を行う検者と，ビーナストロンを用いて測定する検者は別とし，single blindとなるように配慮した．
【結果および考察】21名のうち16名の被検者で測定が可能であった。押し込み量5mmでの荷重は31.4～115.0gであったが，触診での「硬い」～「大変よく動く」を反映した結果とはならなかった。また，顎関節の左右を比較し，触診でより動きが少ないと判定された関節の荷重量が大きかった被検者は10名で，カイ2乗検定の結果，相対的にでも硬さを判定することはできなかった。関節の副運動を定量的に評価する方法として膝関節の前方動揺性の評価は,ある程度確立されているが，他の関節では未だ触診に頼らざるを得ないのが現状である。今回，押し込み量-荷重関係を測定可能なビーナストロンを用いて，副運動の定量化を試みたが個人差があり，絶対値として評価することはできなかった。今回の測定では押し込み量を一定としたが，膝の前方動揺性の評価のように荷重量を一定とした評価であれば，定量化できる可能性がある。また，同じ横方向の副運動を測定しているといっても，触診での評価とビーナストロンでの評価では実際の動きが異なっており，今後さらに測定方法に工夫を加えていく必要がある。

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The Sara-sara

, which means “a state in which things are not damp or sticky and dry,” is a preferred tactile sensation when people touch human skin, hair, clothing, and cosmetics. In this study, the Sara-sara was evaluated for silicone powder, cellulose powder, hydrophobized sericite powder, and various mixes of these powders. It was found that the highest Sara-sara score was achieved by the silicone powder. A multiple regression analysis showed that the Sara-sara was strongly correlated with a slippery . The relationship between certain physical properties, e.g., particle size distribution, and the slippery was analyzed to demonstrate how the subjects felt the slippery . It was observed that as the friction coefficient µ _k was reduced, most subjects strongly felt the slippery . This coefficient slightly decreased when the composition of spherical silicone powder increased, because the contact area between spherical particles is smaller than that between plate and amorphous particles.

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Many studies indicate that steering force characteristics influence steering

and driver-vehicle closed-loop response. This study investigated the influence of steering force characteristics for ordinary drivers who drive by commuting, leisure or shopping, not professional test drivers, using a stationary-type driving simulator. Steering force characteristics were evaluated by changing the non-linearity of the steering angle-the steering torque and hysteresis without changing the vehicle response to the steering angle. The influence of these characteristics was evaluated based on the vehicle response, electromyography recording and subjective evaluation by the drivers. The electromyography results show that drivers can steer most smoothly when the steering force characteristics with moderate nonlinearity and hysteresis. However, some drivers in this study subjectively preferred the linear steering force property.

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化粧品における「高級感」は，すべての価格帯にとってもっとも重要なキー品質である。本研究では，ハイプレステージブランドと低価格帯ブランドとで，使用感と高級感との関係に着目した。顧客はどのような側面から高級感を感じているのかを明らかにすることが目的である。さらに，商品の連用時における時系列上の分析を行い，連用した際に感じる使用感の変化が高級感にどのような影響を与えるのかを明らかにする。コンセプト文を読んで感じる使用感と化粧品の連用による評価構造の変化とから，使用感と高級感とのつながりを，共分散構造分析を使用して特定した。2つのブランドでの高級感を向上させるための手立てを明らかにした。

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This paper presents a study to quantify the difference in roll experienced by the driver with a change in damper characteristics between “comfort” and “sport” mode. The vehicle and driver’s motion are measured during the double lane change maneuver. In “sport” mode, the timing of steering operation was found to be faster (P = 0.0456), which can be explained by the driver being able to make quick upper body corrections to resist the slow vehicle roll motion. This difference in steering operation because of the man-machine feedback system can be considered as an objective measure to quantify roll .

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The aim of this research is to figure out design variables that have an effect on user satisfaction for the operation of automotive switch and to investigate the relative importance of the variables and the utility of attribute level. To achieve these goals, an empirical evaluation was made through operating of automotive switchs. First, five design variables were selected for the external design elements and the internal design variables of switch were chosen based on the opinions of design experts and previous studies. Next, an experiment was designed using the fractional factorial design for 18 alternatives by 5 design variables (stroke, peak force, drop force, angle of surface, and curvature) that affect user satisfaction. Then, the level of satisfaction of each alternative were evaluated on 100-point scale by 22 subjects. Finally, ANOVA was conducted to verify the significant level of the 5 design variables of the automotive switch. A conjoint analysis was used to investigate the relative importance of each design variable by the utility of attribute level. As a result, the design variables turned out to be of significant importance. Moreover, the result showed relative importance for each design variable and utility of attribute level. It is expected that the results of this study could be utilized to improve the affective quality of the automotive switch.

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The tactile evaluation was performed on 16 cotton towel samples that had been washed different numbers of times. Twenty-seven female and 24 male university students (20–24 years old) participated in the assessment. The surface and compression properties of fabrics were measured with the KES system. The tactile feels of softness and of smoothness were related to the geometrical roughness (SMD) and compression linearity (LC). The tactile

was worse for washed towels with higher SMD and LC values. For washed towel fabrics, we found no significant correlation between the tactile and compression energy (WC). The results were related to the changes that occurred in the pile loop geometry during washing and caused matting of the pile. The changes were characterized by the ratio of ground fabric area observed in microscope images. To evaluate the initial resistance of the matted pile, we measured the frictional force (Ff) during movement of a friction contactor on the pile. The slope of the Ff peak (S-FfP) was a useful indicator for investigating the tactile change in towel fabrics after washing.

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