1.Study on the Work Load and Women's Role in Agricultural Labor
Makoto Futatsuka ; Atsushi Ueda ; Tadako Ueda ; Yoshiki Arimatsu ; Megumi Nagano ; Tatsuro Ueno ; Shigeru Ohyama ; Shigeru Nomura
Journal of the Japanese Association of Rural Medicine 1983;32(2):112-126
In the farm household of “vegetable planting by plastic green house”, “mandarin orange”, “rush (igusa)”, “dairy-farming” and “silk worm”, measurement of energy expenditure in agricultural work and analysis of daily working hours were conducted at the busy season of each crops. The results are as follows:
The energy consumption per day are estimated respectively to be 3300 Cal for male and 2900 Cal for female in the household of the “plastic green house”; 3500 and 2500 Cal in the “mandarin orange”, 3800 and 3600 Cal in the “rush”, 3300 and 2700 Cal in the “dairy-farming”, 3400 and 2700 Cal in the “silk worm”.
The agricultural machines and tools are mainly operated by male and so attached muscular works not yet machanized are carried by female. And management of animals or crops specially required prudent care have a tendency to be also carried by female. Then the average relative metabolic rate (RMR) a working day is relatively higher in female than male, except “mandarin orange”.
In the “rush harvesting” and “dairy-farming”, having the most development of the agricultural mechanization it seems obviousely to be rising the labor efficiency, but because of expansion of management scale and decreasing number of employee the reduction of work load for a worker is not necessory obvious.
2.Work type and work load of female farmers in various kinds of agriculture.
Makoto FUTATSUKA ; Shigeru OHYAMA ; Naoko YASUTAKE ; Shigeru NOMURA ; Atsushi UEDA ; Tadako UEDA
Journal of the Japanese Association of Rural Medicine 1985;34(2):193-208
In order to observe the actual work types and the work load of female farmers in various kinds of agriculture that have gradually become a large part of agriculture in Japan as a result of changes in the structure of agricultural production, the authors performed a questionnaire and interview with a large number of female farmers (2, 113) and women in non-agricultural households.
Greenhouse farming was the most common work type for female farmers, followed by tobacco cultivation. The jobs conventionally undertaken by men, that have required a large dynamic work load, have been progressively mechanized, while auxiliary work before and after machinary work remain as manual labor by women. Some clear differences in the work type between full-time farming and part-time farming of female farmers were observed. On the other hand, it does not seem to be easy to estimate the work strain due to the work loads as mentioned above.
3.The effect of strength training in muscle and nerve is memorized and reinforced by retraining.
HAJIME OHMORI ; AKIHITO WATANABE ; KEIGO OHYAMA BYUN ; FUMIKO TSUKUDA ; HIDEYUKI TAKAHASHI ; TOSHIROU KUME ; HITOSHI SHIRAKI ; MORIHIKO OKADA ; YUJI ITAI ; SHIGERU KATSUTA
Japanese Journal of Physical Fitness and Sports Medicine 2000;49(3):385-392
The purpose of this study was to prove the hypothesis that the effect of strength training is memorized and reinforced by retraining. Untrained university-age men participated in this training program. The retraining leg was subjected to 5 weeks of isometric training, 17 weeks of detraining and 5 weeks of retraining in knee extension. The contralateral training leg was subjected to 5 weeks of isometric training during the same period as the retraining phase of the retraining leg. Maximal isometric torque of knee extension increased after the 5-week training and remained at the trained level during the 17week detraining period. Torque gain by retraining of the retraining leg was 2.6 times greater than that of the contralateral training leg. These changes in isometric torque corres-ponded with changes in iEMG of the vastus lateralis. The cross-sectional area of the quadriceps femoris muscle did not change with training. Results support the hypothesis that the effect of strength training is memorized and reinforced by retraining. In addition, results show that these adaptations would be explained by recruitment and rate coding of motor units.