Ryoko Fukuda

The Tokyo Oldest Old Survey on Total Health (TOOTH): A longitudinal cohort study of multidimensional components of health and well-being

BackgroundWith the rapid worldwide increase in the oldest old population, considerable concern has arisen about the social and economic burden of diseases and disability in this age group. Understanding of multidimensional structure of health and its life-course trajectory is an essential prerequisite for effective health care delivery. Therefore, we organized an interdisciplinary research team consisting of geriatricians, dentists, psychologists, sociologists, and epidemiologists to conduct a longitudinal observational study.Methods/DesignFor the Tokyo Oldest Old Survey on Total Health (TOOTH) study, a random sample of inhabitants of the city of Tokyo, aged 85 years or older, was drawn from the basic city registry. The baseline comprehensive assessment consists of an in-home interview, a self-administered questionnaire, and a medical/dental examination. To perform a wide variety of biomedical measurements, including carotid ultrasonography and a detailed dental examination, participants were invited to our study center at Keio University Hospital. For those who were not able to visit the study center, we provided the option of a home-based examination, in which participants were simultaneously visited by a geriatrician and a dentist. Of 2875 eligible individuals, a total of 1152 people were recruited, of which 542 completed both the in-home interview and the medical/dental examination, with 442 completed the in-home interview only, and another 168 completed self or proxy-administered data collection only. Carotid ultrasonography was completed in 458 subjects, which was 99.6% of the clinic visitors (n = 460). Masticatory assessment using a colour-changeable chewing gum was completed in 421 subjects, a 91.5% of the clinic visitors.DiscussionOur results demonstrated the feasibility of a new comprehensive study that incorporated non-invasive measurements of subclinical diseases and a detailed dental examination aiming at community-dwelling individuals aged 85 years or older. The bimodal recruitment strategy is critically important to capture a broad range of health profiles among the oldest old. Results form the TOOTH study will help develop new models of health promotion, which are expected to contribute to an improvement in lifelong health and well-being.Trial RegistrationThis study has been registered in the UMIN-Clinical Trial Registry (CTR), ID: UMIN000001842.

Gerontechnology for a Super-Aged Society

Various rapidly developed technologies are supporting the daily lives of younger users, but have left older adults behind. However, in a super-aged society, technologies could (and should) contribute to helping older adults maintain independent lives. The chapter introduces “gerontechnology,” which means the study of technology and aging, for the improvement of the daily functioning of the elderly. Through such means as behavior observation, eye tracking, and the subjective evaluation of participants in a daily situation, the difficulties older adults encounter in using technologies are clarified, and products aimed at the elderly are designed and produced based on the obtained data. More empirical studies are still required to verify the effectivity of products aimed at the elderly. At the same time, efforts should be made to help more people become familiar with gerontechnology.

Control Procedures and Exchanged Information for Cooperative Adaptive Cruise Control of Heavy-Duty Vehicles Using Broadcast Inter-Vehicle Communication

The Cooperative Adaptive Cruise Control system (CACC) is an enhancement of the Adaptive Cruise Control system (ACC) that uses inter-vehicle communication to realize safe cruising at shorter inter-vehicle distance. To effectively communicate via broadcasting, a vehicle must identify the ID of the preceding vehicle, and extract that vehicle’s information from the information sent by surrounding vehicles. In addition, the vehicle should ideally be able to reference information from other members of the platoon. In this manner, the system can evolve towards platooning with a very short inter-vehicle distance. On the other hand, if CACC is to acquire the same flexibility as ACC, the vehicle should handle common driving maneuvers such as lane-change of the preceding vehicle, cut-in of vehicles, and change of control mode of the preceding vehicle. Given the above requirements, this paper proposes control procedures and inter-vehicle communication schemes for implementing CACC of heavy-duty vehicles developed as part of the NEDO’s Development of Energy-Saving ITS Technologies project.

COMPARISON OF READING CAPACITY FOR JAPANESE, GERMAN, AND ENGLISH

The amount of information which can be perceived at a glance offers important indicators for text layout. Studies of the size of the effective visual field and average saccade length, in different languages, have clarified the visual capacity for reading. However, most of these studies examined only one language, and their results are reported as number of characters perceived at a glance, which, given differences in writing systems, precludes comparing results between languages. In the present study, reading capacity for Japanese, German, and English was compared using the amount of information perceived at a glance. There was up to 20 bits per fixation for Japanese and German random character strings, and 40 to 50 bits per fixation for texts written in all three languages, with no significant difference between languages. These results suggest that capacity for reading a native language is constant, regardless of language.

Spacing control of cooperative adaptive cruise control for heavy-duty vehicles

Abstract This study proposes a spacing control algorithm for the Adaptive Cruise Control system (ACC) using inter-vehicle communication. An important consideration in ACC controller design is string stability, which should be guaranteed in the control algorithm; that is, the amplitudes of the spacing vibration should not become amplified as they propagate upstream from vehicle to vehicle. When the controller uses inter-vehicle distance and relative velocity information, heavy-duty vehicles may lose string stability under short time-headway control on account of their slow-response acceleration characteristics. For example, the limiting headway time of a heavy-duty vehicle (with time constant of acceleration response 0.5 s) is 1 s. Under limiting conditions, spacing vibrations and acceleration vibrations are neither amplified nor attenuated. As an energy saving technique, our algorithm effectively attenuates acceleration vibrations under the limiting conditions of ACC by spacing control using information obtained by inter-vehicle communication. The proposed controller is validated by simulations.

Influence of User Experience on Affectiveness

Affectiveness is frequently discussed based on the first impression to the appearance of a product. However, experience in use of that product can also influence affectiveness. In order to clarify the influence of user experience on affectiveness, user perception of products should be investigated in several phases of using a product. In this paper, two experiments were presented, which compared user perception between before and after using products and investigated user perception during repeated use of products. The results suggested that user experience can affect affectiveness in several forms.

Needs of the elderly for “elderly-aiming” products: From the view of gerontechnology

In order to clarify the needs of the elderly for “elderly-aiming” products, a questionnaire survey and an experimental study were carried out. A questionnaire survey showed that features which contribute to facilitate use of the essential function of each product were required. In the experimental study, in addition to subjective evaluation of features of an “elderly-aiming” radio, behavior and eye movements of the participants were recorded while looking at the brochure of the radio and trying it. The results showed that the elderly take account of features which enhance their declined functions due to aging process. If such features lead further difficulties, they are no longer important for the elderly users.

The Human Capacity for Information Perception Measured in Reading Text and Music

The human capacity for perceiving information has been a topic of discussion for some time. Most studies which have been undertaken describe the capacity for information perception in terms of “bits per second”. In this study, however, the unit of “bits per fixation point” is used because visual j information can be perceived only at tixatton points. This study focuses on the human capacity for information perception when reading because reading is one of the most important and frequent behaviours of human beings. In reading, the size of the effective visual field can be regarded as a kind of visual information capacity. However, because this capacity has been previously discussed only in terms of the number of characters comparisons between different languages has not been possible. The introduction of the idea of information value allows for such comparisons. An assumption was made that the human capacity for information perception is essentially equal irrespective of the type of object observed and experiments with Japanese and German subjects were undertaken in order to confirm this assumption. In these experiments sentences and randomly arranged character strings of the subject’s native language were displayed to them. Musical scores (with melody) and randomly arranged musical notes were also displayed to Japanese subjects competent in musical score reading. Each eye movement of the subjects was recorded during the reading process. To calculate the capacity of information perception the information value of each stimulus was first calculated. In Shannon’s information theory (1948) the average information value per character or musical note I is given by: