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With the wide spread of the ubiquitous environment, it is necessary to provide adequate multimedia communication services for various users under various networked environments. In such situations, it is essential to organize multimedia software components dynamically to provide necessary services for effective service provision based on the system's operational environment during the run time of the system. The purpose of this paper is to propose a new scheme for observing and controlling behavior of the QoS‐aware agent organization, which provides a flexible QoS control of multimedia service components.

Two models are proposed in this paper: a flexible distributed system (FDS) model and a behavioral characteristics model (BCM), which were applied to the design of network middleware constructed as a QoS‐aware agent organization. Experiments were performed using the middleware prototype system.

Results confirmed that the proposed models provide an effective scheme for designers of multimedia communication services.

This paper shows that using the FDS model, a multiagent system can be designed and constructed systematically. In addition, using BCM, a multiagent system with flexible QoS control capability can deal with changes of the system's operational situations and thereby maintain the required QoS as well as its behavioral characteristics.

This study examines the websites of central government ministries, prefectures and municipalities to obtain a comprehensive bird’s-eye view of how they are preparing for natural disasters in the context of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak.

This study examines the websites of central government ministries, prefectures and municipalities in Japan to survey the actual status of information dissemination on “evacuation and sheltering” in the context of COVID-19.

This study found that the central government issued many notices, notifications and administrative communications to prefectures, cities with public health centers and special wards, which were mainly related to opening, securing and operating evacuation centers and improving the environment. It was found that most prefectures disseminated information on both survival and living evacuation and did so from June onward, when the flood season was approaching. Among the municipalities, there were differences in information dissemination tendencies by prefecture, and it became clear that smaller municipalities were especially incapable of fully disseminating information via the Web.

The data from the prefectures and municipalities surveyed in this study were collected from websites and do not necessarily represent the actual response to disaster-related evacuation in the context of COVID-19 in those areas. To clarify this evacuation, more detailed surveys are needed.

This study is unique because no research has been conducted on the response of Japanese administrative agencies to disaster-related evacuation in the context of COVID-19; the actual situation was analyzed in this study by examining central government ministries, prefectures and municipalities as administrative agencies and comparing their responses.

The purpose of this paper is to use an assessment sheet clarifying the characteristics related to adaptation in order to support the relocation of older people to recovery phase rehabilitation wards (RPRW).

A survey was conducted with older people aged 70 and above two weeks after relocation. Nurses responsible for the older people were asked to complete the sheet. Of the 44 items on the sheet, the 38 items not directly related to basic attributes constituted the scale of the state of adaptation. A total of 336 valid response sheets were analyzed.

Higher scores on the scale represented higher levels of adaptation, and when scores were analyzed, results showed that there was a tendency for the scores of older people aged 80 and above and older people with dementia to be significantly lower. Items that showed differences according to the presence of dementia included those showing adaptive tasks, such as “Condition has deteriorated since the time of relocation” and “Experiencing difficulties when nurses are giving care.” The tendencies of older people to adapt to relocation depending on the presence of dementia were clarified through the items on the scale.

It is necessary to pay attention to older people's physical and social environmental factors, adaptive tasks, and coping skills when they relocate to RPRW. The authors suggest that an approach based on the results of this study could help older people adapt to their new environment.