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When toilet paper disappeared from store shelves across Japan in November 1973, the housewives who searched their neighborhood markets and stood in long lines for the scarce packs were described as unwitting perpetrators of a "toilet paper panic." The word "panic" evoked well-established notions of a social frenzy, irrational and overwrought. This article overturns a conception of panic laden with condescension and adopts, instead, a more empathetic approach to examining why a run on toilet paper and other daily necessities occurred in late 1973, and why it resonated so deeply across Japan as a "panic." In the broader context of the early 1970s, the toilet paper scare and its characterization as a "panic" can be understood as responses to sweeping and multifaceted economic challenges that destabilized daily life and threatened to upend middle-class lifestyles. After more than fifteen years of high economic growth, that sense of middle-class comfort and security was shaken by shortages and inflation as well as mounting evidence of government ineptitude and corporate profiteering. Buffeted by insecurity and uncertainty, Japanese "middle-classness" as both an experience and an ideal had never seemed as vulnerable as it did in the early 1970s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and his government have implemented bold defence, diplomatic and economic policies against the challenges to the status quo order posed by Russia's invasion of Ukraine and increased Chinese assertiveness. What do these policies unveil about Japan's strategy and response to the transformed strategic environment? This article argues that the Kishida government has upgraded Japan to a front-line guardian of the status quo order. To achieve its front-line role, the Kishida government has consolidated Japan's deterrence policy, namely focusing on two main pillars—military and rules. To ensure Japan's frontline role is sustainable, this policy paper makes three recommendations: Japan must develop strategic clarity and clear operational plans on how to respond to a regional contingency, such as the Taiwan Strait; Japan must resolve domestic problems that prevent the increase in defence spending to 2 per cent in the period to 2027. Japan's role as a front-line state to protect the status quo order is very much dependent on the availability of resources that would be provided by this increase in defence spending; Japan should re-energize its efforts towards east Asia through a sustained diplomatic, economic and security means. This is important in securing support for Japan's preferred vision of regional and global order from not only like-minded partners and friends in east Asia, but also China. Japan's approach should underscore how the extant status quo order benefits all states, including China, especially in terms of spreading economic prosperity, development and connectivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report on the results of a survey we conducted on the Japanese public's attitudes toward astronomy. This survey was conducted via an online questionnaire, with 2000 responses received. Based on these data, we present what kind of interest the general public in Japan has in astronomy. We also conducted a questionnaire survey of those involved in communicating astronomy to the public, in order to examine how they differ from the general public. The results suggest that while there are clear differences between these groups in terms of their engagement in astronomy, there is also continuity between them when looking at their attributes in more detail. The data presented in this paper could help us to promote the communication of astronomy to the public. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To evaluate the effectiveness of mass screening of newborns for congenital hypothyroidism of central origin (CH-C) by measurement of free thyroxine (FT4) and thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH). Design: Questionnaire-based survey of CH-C patients born between 1999 and 2008 in Kanagawa prefecture, Japan. Methods: TSH and FT4 levels in dried blood spots on filter paper were measured using ELISA kits, and CH-C was diagnosed at FT4 levels below a cutoff of 0.7 ng/dl (9.0 pmol/l). Survey results were collated with the database created by the screening organizer Results: Twenty-four CH-C patients (18 males) were identified, 14 of whom had multiple pituitary hormone deficiencies (group M), eight had isolated CH-C (group I), and two had undetermined pituitary involvement (group U). In groups M, I, and U, the number of patients with FT4 levels below the cutoff value at screening was five (36%), seven (88%), and one (50%) respectively; other patients had been diagnosed clinically. Thus, 13 patients were true positives, while nine were false negatives, yielding screening sensitivity of 59.1% and positive predictive value of 11.5%. The calculated sensitivity was 81.8% at a higher cutoff value of 0.9 ng/dl (11.6 pmol/l). The overall incidence of CH-C was estimated at 1 in 30 833 live births, while that of CH of thyroidal origin (CH-T) is 1 in 3472 live births in Kanagawa prefecture (CH-T/CH-C, 8.9). Conclusions: Newborn screening with combined FT4 and TSH measurements can identify a significant number of CH-C patients before manifestation of clinical symptoms, but a more appropriate FT4 cutoff value should be considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we explore the use of seismicity data on a single-station basis in site response characterization. We train a supervised deep-learning model, SeismAmp, to recognize and separate seismic site response with reference to seismological bedrock (VS  = 3.45 km s−1) in a broad frequency range (0.2–20 Hz) directly from single-station earthquake recordings (features) in Japan. Ground-truth data are homogeneously created using a classical multistation approach—generalized spectral inversion at a total number of 1725 sites. We demonstrate that site response can be reliably separated from single-station seismograms in an end-to-end approach. When SeismAmp is tested at new sites in both Japan (in-domain) and Europe (cross-domain), it achieves the lowest standard deviation among all tested single-station techniques. We also find that horizontal-to-vertical spectral ratio (HVSR) is not the optimal use of single-station recordings. The individual components of each record carry salient information on site response, especially at high frequencies. However, part of the information is lost in HVSR. SeismAmp could lead to improved site-specific earthquake hazard prediction in cases where recordings are available or can be collected at target sites. It is also a convenient tool to remove repeatable site effects from ground motions, which may benefit other applications, for example, improving the retrieval of seismic source parameters. Finally, SeismAmp is trained on data from Japan, future studies could explore transfer learning for practical applications in other regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What determines people's preferences regarding trade policy? Existing studies have assumed that people consider trade policy merely trade politics; accordingly, these studies have focused on economic factors, such as benefits to individual or national welfare; ideational factors, such as xenophobia; or domestic political factors. This paper reveals that the international political factor of national security influences ordinary people's preferences for trade policy. While several studies have addressed the effect of the national security factor, they did not persuasively reveal the causal mechanism of the relationship between the national security factor and people's trade preferences. The present study conducted a factorial survey experiment to investigate the causal effect and the causal mechanism of the security factor on people's preferences regarding free trade agreements (FTAs). The results of the experiment conducted in Japan reveal that ordinary people consider the national security factor along the so-called realism path in forming their opinions regarding FTAs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Peak ground acceleration (PGA) is a key parameter used in earthquake early warning systems to measure the ground motion strength and initiate emergency protocols at major projects. The traditional P -wave peak displacement-dependent PGA prediction model (Pd-PGA model) tends to underestimate the PGA for large earthquakes because it cannot make full use of the fault continuity rupture information hidden in the time-varying process of ground motion. In this paper, a continuous PGA prediction long short-term memory (LSTM) neural network model is proposed. The model takes eight sequential features of stations that are proxies of the energy and other physical parameters as input and provides the recorded PGA at the station as the target output. A total of 5961 records from 119 earthquakes recorded by the Japanese Strong-Motion Earthquake Network (K-NET) in Japan are used to train the neural network and 3433 records from 73 earthquakes are used as the test set to verify the model's generalization ability. The results show that within the same data set, the residuals of the predicted PGA for the proposed model are smaller than those of the Pd-PGA model and that the problem of PGA underestimation is resolved. The prediction accuracy also improves with increasing sequence length, which indicates that the LSTM neural network learns the rules hidden in the time series. To further verify the model's generalization ability, the model performance is analyzed for an M 7.3 earthquake that was not included in the training or test data sets. The results show that the residuals of the predicted PGA for the event are consistent with those for the test data set, indicating that the model has good generalization ability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Extensive research investigates how immigration shapes natives' anti-immigrant sentiment. However, several areas require further scrutiny. This paper explores how processes of immigration affect anti-immigrant sentiment in a new immigration destination country—Japan—drawing on longitudinal data to examine these processes over time and explicitly testing the mechanisms of perceived threat and intergroup contact posited to underpin this relationship. Through this analysis, the paper aims to: examine how generalizable the immigrant share/immigration attitudes theoretical framework is to non-Western societies; refine our understanding of the mechanisms underpinning this relationship; and more robustly test its causal assumptions. To pursue these aims, the study draws on two sets of nationally representative Japanese data, designed to generate complementary insights, including: four waves of longitudinal panel data (2008–2014) and a unique cross-sectional dataset containing measures of perceived threat and contact. Applying multilevel and fixed-effects panel data approaches, the findings demonstrate that as immigration increases in Japanese prefectures and municipalities, residents become increasingly averse toward immigration (although there is some evidence of non-linearity at the municipality level, with sentiment improving again in high immigrant share environments). This overall relationship appears largely driven by two competing processes. In higher immigrant share environments, perceived threat is higher, increasing anti-immigrant sentiment. However, concurrently, intergroup contact also increases in these environments, reducing anti-immigrant sentiment. Therefore, despite the overall negative relationship (driven primarily by perceived threat), rising contact exerts a countervailing positive effect as immigration increases. Taken together, this research demonstrates that theories of attitudinal-change with higher immigration, developed within Western-contexts, also appear salient for newer destination, non-Western societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is a brief description of the impact that the SARS-CoV-2 global pandemic has had on both mental health and U.S. Navy policies through the narrative of a deployed enlisted sailor, medically evacuated from Japan. Although the introduction of vaccines and loosening of state-specific mandates have signaled a slow return to our "normal," pre-pandemic, way of life, there is now an opportunity to look back and understand how the situation impacted the presentation and outcome of certain cases. We believe that the sailor presented introduces a discussion about the impacts of heightened restrictions on some personality types. As the pandemic has continued to impact and reshape every facet of force health protection, we believe that understanding the impact of public health orders on individuals with specific personality disorders or traits will help us provide care and leadership counsel going forward. The discussion within our case report provides insight and an opportunity for healthcare providers to reflect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Low-dose aspirin (ASP) is prescribed to millions of people around the world as a secondary preventative strategy for the majority of significant cardiovascular events; however, it carries a substantial risk of gastric ulcer and bleeding. CabpirinVR tablets, which include low-dose ASP and vonoprazan fumarate (VON), are approved in Japan for the treatment of acid-related diseases in patients who require a low dose of ASP but are at risk of ASP-associated gastric ulcers. Objective: This paper describes the first published quantitative analytical approaches for the determination of ASP and VON. Method: The normal ultraviolet absorption spectra of ASP and vonoprazan overlap significantly. The ratio spectra of the studied drugs were created and manipulated by ratio difference (RD) and first derivative of ratio spectra approaches. In the RD approach, the differences in the amplitude values between 229 and 283nm enabled the quantitative analysis of ASP, and the differences in the amplitude values between 255 and 212nm enabled the quantitative analysis of vonoprazan. In the first derivative of the ratio spectra approach, the created ratio spectra of each drug were transformed to the first-order derivative. ASP could be determined selectively at 237.40nm without interference from vonoprazan. Moreover, vonoprazan could be determined selectively at 244nm without interference from ASP. Results: The applied approaches were validated according to the ICH guideline, with good results. Linear correlations were obtained for ASP and vonoprazan over concentration ranges of 2-25 and 1-10 mg/mL, respectively. Conclusions: The described methods were optimized, validated, and applied for determination of the studied drugs in the synthetic mixtures and in pharmaceutical tablets without interferences. Highlights: Two spectrophotometric ratio spectra manipulating approaches were developed for the determination of the ASP and vonoprazan in their pharmaceutical combination tablets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We observed a stellar occultation by (3200) Phaethon, which occurred in western Japan on 2021 October 3 (UTC). This observation was requested by the DESTINY+ mission team, which plans to conduct a flyby of asteroid Phaethon in 2028. Overall, this research effort contributes towards a large-scale observation campaign with a total of 72 observers observing from western Japan to southern Korea. 36 stations were established, and stellar occultation by the asteroid Phaethon was detected in 18 of them. This is the first time that this many multiple chord observations have been made for such a small asteroid (it has a diameter of 5–6 km). Observational reductions show that the apparent cross-section of Phaethon at the time of the occultation could be approximated using an ellipse with a major diameter of 6.12 ± 0.07 km and a minor diameter of 4.14 ± 0.07 km, and a position angle of 117.°4 ± 1.°5. As can be seen from the small error bars of the fitted ellipse, we have succeeded in estimating the shape and size of the asteroid with an extremely high degree of accuracy. Our observation results, together with other observations, will be used to create a 3D model of Phaethon and to improve its orbit. The instruments that we used for this observation are commonly used by many amateur astronomers in Japan for occultation observations and are not difficult to obtain. This paper describes the method and results of our observations using a CMOS camera and a GPS module, so that many people can participate in occultation observations in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The action-oriented approach (AoA) is a powerful basis to inform teaching, learning, and assessment in the classroom that identifies learners as social agents and focuses on language learning through language use. This paper answers the call for developments that help teachers teach and learners learn in an AoA-informed way. We argue that cognitive discourse functions (CDFs) align with AoA, helping to develop learner thinking by focusing on the learners' use of language. We complement our conceptual discussion referring to the process of developing a self- and peer-assessment tool informed by AoA and CDFs and the initial application of this tool in an advanced academic writing course in a Japanese university with B1 and B2 level students. We discuss how this tool can guide learners' understanding of their writing process and fosters learners' responsibility for deciding how they mobilize their linguistic resources to express particular language functions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present an automated radar data analysis algorithm developed to calculate probability distributions of meteor- and meteoroid parameters for head echoes detected with the Middle and Upper atmosphere (MU) radar in Shigaraki, Japan. The algorithm utilizes direct Monte Carlo simulations of uncertainties, with Bayesian Markov-chain Monte Carlo estimation of meteor model parameters and N -body propagation of distributions to perform orbit determination. The implementation has been validated using raw data simulations and a comparison with previous analysis methods. The concepts are applicable on a wide range of possible head echo measurements with other radar systems. The generated probability distributions provide quantitative reliability, which enables improved statistical studies and investigating the origins of detected meteoroids. The methodology section is highly detailed in order for the methods to be reproducible and provide a solid reference foundation for future studies. One such study is presented in a companion paper called 'High-altitude meteors detected by the interferometric MU radar'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tōjisha research is a methodology intended to help psychiatric patients through dialogue. It was introduced in the context of community care in Bethel House (Hokkaido, Japan) in the early 2000s and later spread to other parts of Japan as well as abroad because of its originality and apparent therapeutic success. It offers patients a framework to investigate their own problems, symptoms, and delusions and to build a discourse around them. In this paper, I present a short account of tōjisha research and I put it in the context of current debates over the benefits and drawbacks of narrative medicine. I argue that there is an original conception of the self and of empowerment of patients in tōjisha research compared to other models of narrative medicine. Finally, I mobilize these original aspects to address some rebuttals of narrative medicine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on the implementation of a language learning project in a Japanese EFL classroom in which the trigger, or motivational energy for involvement, came from interacting with English-speaking international students. The project provided a context to investigate the trajectory of one group's (three learners) sustained engagement across three tasks that formed the subgoals of the project. Data sources include learner diaries, engagement questionnaires, and transcripts of task conversations, which together were used to describe the level of engagement for each learner at key times throughout the project. The findings indicate that engagement is sustained by certain flow-like conditions during tasks (i.e. control, interest, challenge-skill balance), group cohesion among project members, and a growing focus on the long-term goal of the project. The results highlight project design features that teachers should consider when implementing projects with the purpose of engaging students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the potential of learner-initiated exploratory practice (EP), which encourages learners to set their own investigative agenda based on their curiosity-driven puzzles. A case study was conducted in a remedial course for undergraduate students at a university in Japan. Data included student puzzles, posters, and reflective questionnaires. Student investigations of their puzzles remind teachers and researchers of the affordances of learning from learners. The results suggested that, despite their previously disoriented attitudes towards learning English, this form of fully inclusive practitioner research, EP, provides learners with an opportunity to realize their curiosity and reinvigorate their motivation towards language learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the making of university and industry research collaboration from the perspective of matching theory. Our analysis, based on an original survey in Japan, aims at identifying the mechanism of matching. The major findings are as follows. There is significant evidence for positive assortative matching at the project level: a researcher with better seeds or better needs gives a higher value to the partner's research capability and the goodness-of-fit between the project and the partner's capability in selecting its partner. The projects with the partners selected for research capability and goodness-of-fit are associated with high university and industry research collaboration performance. Furthermore, own contact is most used for positive assortative matching. These results indicate the importance of deep field knowledge and tacit knowledge of the researcher in the search process. These findings suggest that technology transfer policy would need to pay significant attention to the contribution of the decentralized matching process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For Japan—a country that has always been described with virtually no major natural resources such as oil, gas, and coal—the Middle Eastern region has a special place in its economic and foreign policy. In 2017, 39% of Japan's energy came from oil, and 87% of Japan's imported oil came from the Middle East, predominantly Saudi Arabia and the UAE. The above facts are enough to discern the critical significance of the Middle Eastern region for Japan. For Japan to have an unhindered supply of oil and other natural resources, it is pertinent that this region remains peaceful. In this scenario, the Middle East-related articles in Japan's newspapers can help understand Japan's perspective towards the Middle East. This paper would first apply the topic modelling approach non-negative matrix factorization (NMF) on Middle East-related articles from three newspapers of Japan. After discovering crucial topics, we would utilize traditional supervised machine learning algorithms to determine the overall and topic-specific sentiments from the collected headlines. Our topic modelling results discovered that the Japanese media widely reported issues like Islamic State, the refugee crisis, the Syrian civil war, Qasem Soleimani killing, and Iran nuclear deal. Further, the news related to Saudi Arabia, Syria, and Trump garnered high negative sentiment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two frequently encountered but underrecognized challenges for causal inference in studying the long-term health effects of disasters among survivors include 1) time-varying effects of disasters on a time-to-event outcome and 2) selection bias due to selective attrition. In this paper, we review approaches for overcoming these challenges and demonstrate application of the approaches to a real-world longitudinal data set of older adults who were directly affected by the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami (n  = 4,857). To illustrate the problem of time-varying effects of disasters, we examined the association between degree of damage due to the tsunami and all-cause mortality. We compared results from Cox regression analysis assuming proportional hazards with those derived using adjusted parametric survival curves allowing for time-varying hazard ratios. To illustrate the problem of selection bias, we examined the association between proximity to the coast (a proxy for housing damage from the tsunami) and depressive symptoms. We corrected for selection bias due to attrition in the 2 postdisaster follow-up surveys (conducted in 2013 and 2016) using multivariable adjustment, inverse probability of censoring weighting, and survivor average causal effect estimation. Our results demonstrate that analytical approaches which ignore time-varying effects on mortality and selection bias due to selective attrition may underestimate the long-term health effects of disasters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes an efficient approach to high-resolution time-reversal source imaging simulation. Dense seismograph network records are backpropagated from stations to the hypocentre through a 3-D subsurface structure model to estimate the initial source wavefield at the earthquake initiation time. By assimilating high-density observational data into the time-reversal wave propagation, a clearer source image can be determined, even for deep and distant earthquakes, than is achievable with conventional source imaging. The effectiveness of data-assimilation-based source imaging by a time-reversal wave propagation simulation with a 3-D heterogeneous structural model was demonstrated using recordings from a nationwide strong-motion seismograph network during the 2007 Off Niigata, Japan, M w 6.6 earthquake, and the 2007 Off Ibaraki, Japan, M w 6.8 earthquake. Such data-assimilated-based simulations are also effective for early forecasting of strong ground motions caused by large earthquakes through fast time-advancing simulations based on the current assimilated wavefield. We will discuss the feasibility of a disaster prevention system for the early forecasting of strong motion disasters due to large earthquakes, based on repeatedly estimating source parameters and forecasting strong motions in future time based on the current assimilated wavefields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recovery of ground displacements from strong motion accelerographs alone is still performed in an empirical way. This paper starts with a theoretical description of strong motion instruments. Then, based on observations from the non-tilt 2-D shake table tests, this paper proposes a baseline correction procedure with a cumulative correction pattern. The procedure is validated by recorded displacements of the shake tables. The paper also extends the baseline correction procedure to deal with 3-D strong motions by introducing a tilt correction pattern. The results from the proposed baseline correction procedure are compared with those from an existing empirical baseline correction procedure as well as nearby GPS measurements. The accuracy of the proposed procedure is studied considering 41 accelerographs and the corresponding GPS stations that recorded the 2011 M w 9.0 Tohoku earthquake in Japan. We find that the corrected displacements from recorded accelerations alone are not always consistent with the GPS measurements. In this specific Tohoku event of which the primary direction of motion was eastward, the ground displacements derived from strong motion stations using the proposed baseline correction procedure achieve the best agreement in the east–west direction. Meanwhile, the proposed procedure is computationally efficient. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Structural realists might reasonably predict that foreign policy elites in countries like Japan and Australia would view China's economic and military rise as a potential threat and seek to balance against it. However, the actual policy behaviour of Japanese and Australian policy elites has been quite complex—pushing forward at times, hesitating at others and generally uncertain if an explicit counter-coalition against China through bilateral security cooperation is the right policy path. Why is this? This paper explains the puzzle by focusing on the perceptions of policy-makers regarding the risk of provoking China; entrapment with the other; and entrapment with the United States. The paper demonstrates how policy-makers' concerns regarding entrapment or abandonment related to their mutual US ally—as well as concerns about potentially provoking China—have had an instrumental effect on the degree to which Japan and Australia have strengthened their security commitments to each other. While the rise of China—and the relative decline of US power—has shaped the overall direction of Japan–Australia security ties, such structural imperatives are of course also complicated by how domestic actors think about the tactical aspects of understanding and surviving these structural features. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Shinmoe-dake volcano started with three sub-Plinian eruptions from 26 to 27 January 2011, followed by a magma effusive stage from 28 to 31 January 2011, and Vulcanian eruptions occurred frequently during 1 to 10 February 2011. During the magma effusive and Vulcanian stages, multiple episodes of harmonic tremors were observed at stations near the summit crater. Although harmonic tremors have been observed at various volcanoes worldwide, the source mechanism remains poorly understood. This paper proposes a source model for harmonic tremors, which is composed of a non-linear viscous fluid flow in a flexible channel. A simple lumped parameter model is used to consider the process. The dynamics are described by a third-order system of ordinary differential equations using model variables for a cross-sectional area of the constricted segment and the fluid velocities in the upstream and downstream tubes. This model produces various kinds of trajectories for self-sustained oscillations that change the reservoir pressure connected on the upstream channel of the model. Linearization analysis around the stationary point and global analysis using nullcline planes reveal the mechanism of self-sustained oscillations of the system qualitatively. To consider both the frequency peaks of the harmonic tremor and the characteristics of observed phase spectra, the qualitative characteristics of an observed phase portrait are compared to those of a simulated one. This tremor model simulates the frequency peaks and the phase portraits of typical harmonic tremors observed during the 2011 Shinmoe-dake eruption. Because this model involves several geometrical configuration parameters, it has the potential to reveal the source mechanism of various kinds of harmonic tremors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Carbohydrates are the major source of dietary energy, but their role in health and disease remains controversial. Recent epidemiological evidence suggests that the increased consumption of carbohydrates is associated with obesity and increased risk of mortality and dietary trials show that carbohydrate restriction leads to weight loss and improved glycaemic status in obese and diabetic subjects. In contrast, the diets of populations with long and healthy lifespans (e.g. traditional Okinawans from Japan) are high in carbohydrate and low in protein, and several clinical and preclinical studies have linked low-carbohydrate–high-protein diets with increased mortality risk. In this paper we attempt to reconcile these contradictory findings by moving beyond traditional single-nutrient analyses to consider the interactions between nutrients on health outcomes. We do so using the Geometric Framework (GF), a nutritional modelling platform that explicitly considers the main and interactive effects of multiple nutrients on phenotypic characteristics. Analysis of human data by GF shows that weight loss and improved cardio-metabolic outcomes under carbohydrate restriction derive at least in part from reduced caloric intake due to the concomitantly increased proportion of protein in the diet. This is because, as in many animals, a specific appetite for protein is a major driver of food intake in humans. Conversely, dilution of protein in the diet leverages excess food intake through compensatory feeding for protein ('protein leverage'). When protein is diluted in the diet by readily digestible carbohydrates and fats, as is the case in modern ultra-processed foods, protein leverage results in excess calorie intake, leading to rising levels of obesity and metabolic disease. However, when protein is diluted in the diet by increased quantities of less readily digestible forms of carbohydrate and fibre, energy balance is maintained and health benefits accrue, especially during middle age and early late-life. We argue that other controversies in carbohydrate research can be resolved using the GF methodology in dietary studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reviews developments regarding the use of plasma-free amino acid (PFAA) profiles as biomarkers for detecting and predicting disease risk. This work was initiated and first published in 2006 and was subsequently developed by Ajinomoto Co. Inc. After commercialization in 2011, PFAA-based tests were adopted in over 1500 clinics and hospitals in Japan, and numerous clinician-led studies have been performed to validate these tests. Evidence is accumulating that PFAA profiles can be used for diabetes prediction and evaluation of frailty; in particular, decreased plasma essential amino acids could contribute to the pathophysiology of severe frailty. Integration of PFAA evaluation as a biomarker and effective essential amino acid supplementation, which improves physical and mental functions in the elderly, could facilitate the development of precision nutrition, including personalized solutions. This present review provides the background for the technology as well as more recent clinical findings, and offers future possibilities regarding the implementation of precision nutrition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The notion of English as a multilingua franca (EMF) positions English within multilingualism, and EMF awareness prepares students to communicate effectively in this multilingual world of mobility. The present paper explores how, if ever, EMF-aware pedagogic intervention influences Japanese students' perceptions of their communicative practices, particularly for English-major undergraduates in L1-shared classrooms. This intervention was made by providing opportunities for participants to engage in EMF and by examining their first-hand experiences and published EMF communication extracts in the classrooms. Empirical data from an open-ended questionnaire demonstrate that multilingual and transmodal accommodation was a way for them to notice and take advantage of global networks, develop capability and confidence in communication, and foster sensitivity to interactants' backgrounds. The data also illustrate the invaluable role of individual multilingual experiences as classroom 'materials', and suggest that discussing these experiences potentially turns L1-shared classrooms into EMF scenarios through foregrounding students' multilingual repertoires. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of determining the dislocation Love numbers using GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) data and calculating the corresponding Green's functions is presented in this paper. As a case study, we derive the dislocation Love number h of vertical displacement by combining 1232 onshore GPS data and 7 GPS-Acoustic data with the 2011 Tohoku-Oki earthquake (M w 9.0). Three fault-slip distributions are used to compare and verify the theory and results. As the GPS stations are only located in Japan Island and along the Japan trench, we use the theoretical vertical displacements of a spherically layered Earth structure to constrain the low-order signal. The L-curve and an a priori preliminary reference skill are applied in the inversion method. Then, the GPS-observed vertical displacement changes are used to invert for the vertical displacement dislocation Love numbers h based on three different fault-slip models. Our results indicate that the estimated dislocation Love numbers |$h$| fluctuate significantly from the earth model (i.e. the preliminary reference earth model), especially for the |$h_{n1}^{32}$| component, and these changes in |$h_{n2}^{12}$| and |$h_{n0}^{33} - h_{n0}^{22}$| are relatively small. The vertical displacements derived from the inversion results agree well with the GPS vertical observations. The inverted dislocation Love numbers are considered to profile the regional structure which differs from the mean 1-D heterogeneous structure of the Earth, and the corresponding Green's functions of four independent dislocation sources describe a more reasonable seismic deformation field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Neurasthenia became a common disease and caused widespread concern in Japan at the turn of the twentieth century, whereas only a couple of decades earlier the term "nerve" had been unfamiliar, if not unknown, to many Japanese. By exploring the theories and practices of breathing exercise-one of the most popular treatments for neurasthenia at the time-this paper attempts to understand how people who practiced breathing exercises for their nervous ills perceived, conceived, and accordingly cared for their nerves. It argues that they understood "nerve" based on their existing conceptions of qi. Neurasthenia was for them a disorder of qi, although the qi had assumed modern appearances as blood and nervous current. The paper hopes to contribute to the understanding of how the concept of nerves has been accepted and assimilated in East Asia. It also points out the need to understand the varied cultures of nerves not only at the level of concept and metaphor, but also at the level of perception and experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently the Japanese government revised its copyright law, and one of the major changes in it is that illegal downloaders in Japan now face up to two years' imprisonment or a fine of ¥2 million (approximately US$19,265), or a combination of the two for downloading certain kinds of copyrighted content. These momentous changes have triggered backlashes around the country from below, as might be expected. Interestingly, the industrial practices of Japanese content industries have developed certain domestic and foreign copyright-related strategies that tolerate some alleged copyright-infringing fan activities. This paper argues that, although some of these strategies are incompatible with the current copyright law regime, and specifically the aforementioned revision to Japan's copyright law, they have unconsciously created unexpected positive outcomes. This paper uses an integrative approach that combines market analysis and comparative law methods--to examine these copyright strategies, and proposes an alternative solution to deal with the copyright problems raised by fanbased activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, numerical investigation is performed on a realistic source-to-site earthquake scenario, with the aim to assess the role of complex 3-D geological structures on the predicted wavefield.With this respect, the paper pointedly targets the seismic response of nuclear power plants in near-field conditions and the verification of some simplified assumptions commonly adopted for earthquake ground motion prediction and site effects analysis. To this purpose, the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Plant (Japan) is assumed as reference case-study. In 2007, the nuclear site and its surroundings were struck by the Niigata-Ken Chūetsu-Oki seismic sequence, which caused some of the peak ground motion design limits to be largely overpassed. The dense observation network deployed at the site recorded a highly incoherent and impulsive earthquake ground motion. Many studies argued that the intricate synclineanticline geology lying underneath the nuclear facility was highly responsible of the observed seismic response. Therefore, a physics-based numerical model of the epicentral area is builtup (≈60 km wide) and tested for small aftershocks, so to discount the effect of extended source on the synthetic site-response. The numerical model (based on the Spectral Element Method) reproduces the source-to-sitewave propagation by embracing the effects of the surface topography along with the presence of the Japan Sea (i.e. the bathymetry, the coastline and the fluid--solid interaction). Broad-band (0-5 Hz) synthetic waveforms are obtained for two different aftershocks, located at the two opposite sides of the nuclear facility, aiming to assess the influence of the incidence angle the radiated wave field impinges the foldings beneath it. The effect of the folding presence is assessed by comparing it to a subhorizontally layered geology, in terms of numerical outcome, and by highlighting the differences with respect to the observations. The presence of an intricate geology effectively unveils the reason behind the observed ground motion spatial variability within a relatively small area, stressing its crucial role to properly reproduce the modification the wavefield undergoes during its propagation path towards the surface. The accuracy of the numerical exercise is discussed along with its results, to show the high-fidelity of these deterministic earthquake ground motion predictions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims: Alcoholic liver disease (ALD) is now a well-recognized indication for liver transplantation. This paper reviews existing literature on living donor liver transplantation (LDLT) for ALD and presents data from a single, high volume United States liver transplant center. Methods: For the literature review, a PubMed search was undertaken using the search terms 'living donor' and 'alcoholic liver disease'. Studies were included that presented outcome data for patients who underwent LDLT for ALD. For the single-center data collection, all patients who underwent LDLT from 2003 to 2016 at our center were reviewed and the data for recipients with ALD was subsequently analyzed and compared with those patients who underwent LDLT for other indications. Results: Of 110 studies that resulted from the PubMed query, only 5 contained data that was relevant to this manuscript. These studies represented data collected from two Asian countries: one single center in Korea and a collection of centers in Japan. The relapse rate following LDLT for ALD ranged from 7.9% to 22%, and pre-transplant abstinence did not impact post-transplant relapse in any of these studies. For the single-center data, of 136 LDLT performed at our institution during the time period, 22 were performed for ALD. There was no difference in 1- or 5-year survival between patients transplanted for ALD and those transplanted for other etiologies (94.7% vs. 93.4%, P = 0.79 and 78.9% vs. 87.5%, P = 0.6). Conclusion: There is a very limited amount of data available on LDLT for ALD. Existing data suggests that LDLT for ALD results in excellent outcomes. Short Summary: Published data on living donor liver transplantation (LDLT) for alcoholic liver disease (ALD) are limited. One- and five-year survival rates range from 82% to 100% and 78% to 87%, respectively. Rates of alcohol relapse following transplant appear low, ranging from 7% to 23%; 6-month abstinence periods prior to LDLT for ALD do not appear to have a significant impact on relapse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Japanese food allergen labeling regulation was designed to match real Japanese food allergy circumstances and also to be enforced effectively; thus, (1) regulated food allergens were selected by prevalence and seriousness according to food allergy surveys in Japan; (2) the detection criterion for ELISA monitoring, 10 μg food allergen protein/g (or mL) food, was set up as the threshold value to regulate commercial prepackaged foods; and (3) official food allergen analytical methods, which can determine the threshold value accurately, were developed. These three points are distinctive from other countries. Furthermore, as an on-going project, the regulation has been amended according to food allergy circumstances and requirements of society. This paper presents recent changes regarding the Japanese food allergen labeling regulation. To date, the Japanese food allergen labeling regulation has been enforced for more than 15 years and seems to be working effectively. Now would be an opportune time to review the regulation for its next level of development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A common view of Japan's International Relations (IR) studies in the post-World War II period is that they are characterized by pacifism and historical approaches. This paper argues that while pacifism has continued to serve as the basis of them, the approaches adopted by researchers have become increasingly diversified. Specifically, although the main issues for Japanese IR studies in the postwar period (i.e. defense strategy, world political economy, and global issues) have been consistently addressed by researchers on the basis of pacifism, the theoretical orientation of researchers has continually become stronger. Finally, this paper argues that both changing and continuous characteristics of IR studies in Japan have been supported by global developments, and concludes that this trend will continue into the near future. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This pilot study explores the apologies Japanese nursing college students thought they would use in their L1 (i.e. Japanese) and their L2 (i.e. English) when bumping into each other. The students completed a questionnaire, the results of which indicated that they believed they should always apologize for bumping into someone. The paper describes apologies students expected to use in both languages and their observations of real-world apologies in Japan and the US. After reviewing differences between their L1 and L2 apologies and their perceived and observed apologies, the paper discusses students’ sociopragmatic, pragmalinguistic, and linguistic discoveries. The findings have implications for instructors who are interested in investigating and teaching the speech act. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

While there is much theoretical and academic discussion of human security, as well as regional expressions of human security by the Organization of American States, African Union, and the European Union, little of this is translated into substance except for Japan, which has incorporated human security into foreign policy. This paper examines Japan's definition and aspiration for human security, especially its plans to expand development aid through this modality in Southeast Asia. This scrutiny will encompass Japanese human security foreign policy and its substantive action through the Japan International Cooperation Agency and the UN Trust Fund for Human Security. Thus, the potential for Japanese human security cooperation with Southeast Asian partners will be reviewed in light of Japan's projected trajectory. The paper concludes by positing that bilateral engagement might be expected for the considerable future and suggests policy consolidation before regional engagement can be effected. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper examines news coverage of overseas natural disasters in Japan and the United States and assesses the extent to which that coverage affects amounts and types of emergency assistance provided by each country's ODA program. The comparison between the two cases allows for the examination of the different effects of media on foreign policy as well as the different ways in which those effects are filtered through institutional arrangements within the aid policy-making apparatus in each country. Following up comparative work on media impact on development aid programs in five countries, this paper argues that the organization of emergency assistance programs is a key determinant in explaining media impact on aid policy. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Slip on major faults primarily occurs during ‘characteristic’ earthquakes. The recurrence statistics of characteristic earthquakes play an important role in seismic hazard assessment. A major problem in determining applicable statistics is the short sequences of characteristic earthquakes that are available worldwide. In this paper, we introduce a rescaling technique in which sequences can be superimposed to establish larger numbers of data points. We consider the Weibull and log-normal distributions, in both cases we rescale the data using means and standard deviations. We test our approach utilizing sequences of microrepeaters, micro-earthquakes which recur in the same location on a fault. It seems plausible to regard these earthquakes as a miniature version of the classic characteristic earthquakes. Microrepeaters are much more frequent than major earthquakes, leading to longer sequences for analysis. In this paper, we present results for the analysis of recurrence times for several microrepeater sequences from Parkfield, CA as well as NE Japan. We find that, once the respective sequence can be considered to be of sufficient stationarity, the statistics can be well fitted by either a Weibull or a log-normal distribution. We clearly demonstrate this fact by our technique of rescaled combination. We conclude that the recurrence statistics of the microrepeater sequences we consider are similar to the recurrence statistics of characteristic earthquakes on major faults. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study looks at the state of collaboration in scientific research between universities and industries in Japan by measuring the level of coauthorship of academic publications. The analysis is based on data retrieved from the databases of the National Citation Report for Japan, which was produced by Thomson Scientific (ISI) and included papers published from 1981 to 2003, and the Citation Database for Japanese Papers, which was produced by the National Institute of Informatics, Japan, and included papers published from 1995 to 2004. It is revealed that there is a large 'perception gap' between industries and universities concerning their collaborations. The situation, trends and characteristics of industry-university collaborations are investigated and discussed from international and national perspectives. The disciplinary and regional differences in such collaborations are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Citizen deliberations cannot be entirely isolated from their wider social, political and cultural context. The fact that particular deliberative mechanisms are based on sound theories does not mean that they will necessarily produce sound results in specific instances. Similarly, the fact that such mechanisms have been found to work well in practice in one social environment does not mean they will necessarily work equally well in another. Using a recent deliberation initiative in Japan, this paper addresses this important issue. It explores how the process of the Japanese consensus conference on genetically modified crops in 2000 was influenced by Japan's sociopolitical environment and how its outcomes challenged the established understanding of the policymaking process. The paper argues that the transfer of a particular policy process from one culture to another can result in a conflict of values between the process and its new social environment [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Information about several articles related to the field of public opinion, published in the various journals is presented. The paper "Framing science: The stem cell controversy in an age of press/politics," by Matthew C. Nisbet and coworkers published in "The Harvard International Journal of Press/ Politics" focuses on the controversy arose over human embryonic stem cell research in the United States and the role of mass media in the dispute. In the paper "Restricting the broadcast and publication of pre-election and exit polls: Some selected examples," Tim Bale studies the impact of legal restrictions on the publication of election polls. The paper "'Exit' and 'Voice' in the Japanese general elections," by Takahiro Kimura explores the cause of non-voting in Japan.

Earthquake swarms in the area east of the Izu Peninsula, Central Japan have been active and have been repeated intermittently since 1978 after 40 years of quiescence. The activities were always accompanied by crustal deformations, which were well modelled by dyke intrusions. To study the process ora dyke intrusion, precise hypocentres of the latest activity occurring in 1998 are obtained in this paper using waveform similarity, by which new images of volcanic processes have been successfully acquired at several volcanoes. The relocated hypocentres are mainly aligned on a thin vertical plane with a circular shape at a depth of 3-7 km, and there is an aseismic area at the centre. The normal direction to the plane coincides well with the direction of tectonic extensional stress around the hypocentral area and matches theoretical models well. At the beginning of the activity, a small fraction of the events occurred at greater depth, where hypocentres align on a vertical line and migrate upward at a rate of 1 km h[sup -1]. The migration rate in this stage agrees well with a theoretical model of buoyancy-driven dyke propagation. After 1 day from the beginning, earthquakes began to occur around the aseismic area, and hypocentres spread on the thin circular plane described above. During this activity, the hypocentres seemed to migrate downwards and upwards from the centre. The earthquakes are caused by shear fracture at the tip of the dyke and the migration of hypocentres reflects that the dyke expands downward and upward from the neutrally buoyant layer that is located at the centre of the swarm. In this paper, we also propose a process of magma intrusion based on the precise migration of hypocentres, and show that the 1998 activity is composed ora few simple volcanic processes: magma rising by buoyancy, it staying at a neutral buoyancy point and spreading outward from the neutral point with elastic fracture by an inside excess magma pressure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper I discuss ways that Applied Linguistics literature on topics in academic and professional writing can be used in a multidisciplinary graduatelevel EAP class. I focus on three main uses: providing students with information about issues in academic and professional writing; helping them make comparisons of form and style with academic articles in their own fields; and serving as resources for common and formulaic expressions that can be incorporated into their own writing. The paper includes a discussion of the strengths and limitations of this approach in a foreign language setting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholars have conceptualized the interaction between law and organizations as a game of tug-of-war in which organizations try to protect those internal operations regulated by law. This suggests that organizations are likely to substantively comply if symbolic compliance alone is insufficient. This conceptualization, however, cannot capture a radical response: organizations may stop interpreting legal demands or protecting their internal operations and simply leave the game. In this case, they change their internal operations in order to disengage from the law. I term this negative compliance. In this paper, I identify conditions under which this occurs and demonstrate the unexpected consequences. Analyzing panel data on corporate responses to Japan's equal employment opportunity law and its revision, I show that after the revision strengthened the law, firms followed one of three paths: substantive compliance (hiring more women); symbolic compliance (no change in hiring practices, effectively protecting sex segregation); or negative compliance (externalizing female labor and hiring even fewer women). I discuss the implications of negative compliance, which is likely to be an increasingly common corporate response to regulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Current earthquake early warning (EEW) systems lack the ability to appropriately handle multiple concurrent earthquakes, which led to many false alarms during the 2011 Tohoku earthquake sequence in Japan. This paper uses a Bayesian probabilistic approach to handle multiple concurrent events for EEW. We implement the theory using a two-step algorithm. First, an efficient approximate Bayesian model class selection scheme is used to estimate the number of concurrent events. Then, the Rao-Blackwellized Importance Sampling method with a sequential proposal probability density function is used to estimate the earthquake parameters, that is hypocentre location, origin time, magnitude and local seismic intensity. A real data example based on 2 months data (2011 March 9-April 30) around the time of the 2011M9 Tohoku earthquake is studied to verify the proposed algorithm. Our algorithm results in over 90 per cent reduction in the number of incorrect warnings compared to the existing EEW system operating in Japan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Single mothers' relatively high levels of poverty are well documented, but the role that intergenerational coresidence may play in mitigating this disadvantage is not well understood. In this paper, we use multiple rounds of a large national survey between 1986 and 2007 (n = 67,252) to evaluate the extent to which income sharing via intergenerational coresidence limits poverty among single mothers in Japan. Results indicate that conventional poverty rates based on single-mother households overstate the prevalence of poverty among single mothers by 12–20 percent as a result of excluding those who are coresiding with parents. We find no evidence that the prevalence of intergenerational coresidence has changed in a way that would offset the poverty-increasing effect of growth in single parenthood. Finally, we show not only that shared income is the most important factor in limiting poverty among single mothers living with parents, but also that many single mothers are coresiding with parents who are themselves economically disadvantaged. We discuss the implications of our findings for understanding relationships between rapid family change and poverty in countries like Japan, where public income support for single mothers is limited and where family support via intergenerational coresidence is both common and normative. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article discusses a research paper in which the n-1 fatty acid as an antibacterial constituent was identified from the edible freshwater cyanobacterium Nostoc verrucosum. Topics discussed include ethanolic extract of cyanobacterium Nostoc verrucosum, habitat of Nostoc verrucosum in clear streams called "ashitsuki," and its consumption by the ancient population of Japan.

This paper argues that a fundamental failing in the debate on the decline of American economic power is not taking globalization seriously. With the rise of transnational corporations ( TNCs), transnational modular production networks, and the globalization of corporate ownership, we can no longer give the same relevance to national accounts such as balance of trade and GDP in the twenty-first century as we did in the mid-twentieth. Rather, we must summon data on the TNCs themselves to encompass their transnational operations. This will reveal, for example, that despite the declining global share of United States GDP from 40% in 1960 to below a quarter from 2008 onward, American corporations continue to dominate sector after sector. In fact, in certain advanced sectors such as aerospace and software-even in financial services-American dominance has increased since 2008. There are no serious contenders, including China. By looking at the wrong data, many have failed to see that American economic power has not declined-it has globalized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Real-time seismology has made significant improvements in recent years, with source parameters now available within a few tens of minutes after an earthquake. It is likely that this time will be further reduced, in the near future, by means of increased efficiency in real-time transmission, increasing data coverage and improvement of the methodologies. In this context, together with the development of new ground motion predictive equations (GMPEs) that are able to account for source complexity, the generation of strong ground motion shaking maps in quasi-real time has become ever more feasible after the occurrence of a damaging earthquake. However, GMPEs may not reproduce reliably the ground motion in the near-source region where the finite fault parameters have a strong influence on the shaking.In this paper we test whether accounting for source-related effects is effective in better characterizing the ground motion. We introduce a modification of the GMPEs within the ShakeMap software package, and subsequently test the accuracy of the newly generated shakemaps in predicting the ground motion. The test is conducted by controlling the performance of ShakeMap as we decrease the amount of the available information. We then update ShakeMap with the GMPE modified with a corrective factor accounting for source effects, in order to better constrain these effects that likely influence the level of (near-source) ground shaking.We investigate two well-recorded earthquakes from Japan (the 2000 Tottori, Mw 6.6, and the 2008 Iwate-Miyagi, Mw7.0, events) where the instrumental coverage is as dense as needed to ensure an objective appraisal of the results. The results demonstrate that the corrected GMPE can capture only some aspects of the ground shaking in the near-source area, neglecting other multidimensional effects, such as propagation effects and local site amplification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the definition of standardization and the statistical correlation between standardization and corporate innovativeness in Japan. Through econometric analysis we test the validity of a definition of standardization that is based on: planning, negotiation, and support. It is calculated using the number of full-time equivalent employees from 2008, 2009 and 2010. To reveal the statistical correlation between corporate innovativeness and standardization, the number of patent applications submitted by a corporation is compared with the number of persons engaged in intellectual property (IP)-related standardization activities, which is a proxy for the number of persons engaged in standardization-related activities. In the case of the electrical machinery industry in Japan, a significant positive relationship was found between corporate innovativeness and standardization in terms of IP activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]