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Japan's Toray Corporation is discussed to illustrate a successful company's evolvement from a textile company into a multi‐product high‐tech company. To achieve this, the company's product development strategy has gone from one of borrowing the technology from others to developing it for itself.

After World War II, many types of organizations were established in rural areas and that enabled women farmers to form networks. Most of these organizations, however, were clearly divided into those for women and those for men: a situation that still currently persists. Since the 1980s, the networking of women farmers for the development of personal networks increased and some nationwide network organizations were established. Through an analysis of the case of the “Rural Heroines Exciting Network” – one of the first networks of Japanese women farmers – the chapter points out the significance of networking. Networking is relevant because (1) it allows women to connect among themselves and as individuals with the outside world. In this way, women gain confidence. (2) Through the network, members get expressive support and information. (3) The common values at the network level play a balancing role in regard to the norms dominant at the local community. Those characteristics have some similarities with those of the “women in agriculture” movement that gained popularity in 1990s worldwide.

Since it has been regarded as an effective method to evaluate clothing pressure comfort with physiological and psychological techniques the purpose of this paper is to examine the effect on people s inhibition ability caused by the oppression from clothing on the body through event-related potentials (ERPs). A trial application of ERPs technology was made to evaluate clothing pressure comfort and investigate the relationship between some physical indexes of brain wave and clothing pressure. This research would also reveal the influence of clothing pressure on the thinking ability and mental activity of young women.

Stroop color-naming task was utilized to test the inhibition ability of participants. In the present research, some components of ERPs (e.g. N1, P2, N2 and N450) and behavioral indexes (RTs, and errors rates) were detected to verify the change of physiology and psychology caused by the pressure imposed by girdle on the body.

At behavioral level RTs were slower for the group under pressure rather than pressure-free group with no significant difference in errors rate between the two groups. Based on the early component statistics of ERPs the Stroop effects of both groups were similar. Besides there was no prominent difference in the latencies and amplitudes of N1, P2 and N2 components except the N450 components. The inhibition ability of young women who had worn girdle for 8 hours decreased causing them unable to make a timely response and thus affecting their attentiveness and executive ability.

This study would clarify that it is feasible to evaluate clothing pressure comfort with ERPs as a physiological technique, and enrich relative methods.

The pressure exerted on the body by clothes is one important factor affecting the comfort of clothing, it is an effective method to evaluate pressure comfort by physiology and psychology. The purpose of this paper is to measure, electroencephalography (EEG), an index of brain activity in order to examine the effect on brain activity conditions caused by oppression exerted by clothing on the body.

EEG power spectrum analysis was conduct to verify the electrophysiological characteristic of brain caused by pressure on the body by girdle.

Experimental results showed that the intensity of α waves in the pressure condition is decreased compared to the non-pressure condition, and the somatosensory activated by pressure of girdle mainly in occipital, frontal and parietal region of brain.

It was clarified that it is impossible to evaluate the clothes pressure by physiological technique of EEG, this study has enriched methods of evaluation pressure comfort.