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In this paper, we compare air‐conducted (AC) speech with bone‐conducted (BC) speech for the purpose of utilizing them in packet loss concealment (PLC) for speech quality of voice over internet protocol (VoIP). Instead of the autocorrelation method of linear prediction (LP), which was utilized in the conventional PLC techniques, we employ the modified covariance (MC) method. The MC method provides accurate LP estimation from short input data samples and avoids the numerical problem the autocorrelation method suffers from. The lost frame is compensated from both forward and backward directions in which linear gain and weighting are applied. When BC speech is used as the input speech data for PLC in the case where the speech sender is in noisy environments, BC speech behaves more accurately than the corresponding AC speech, resulting in an excellent performance of the LP‐based PLC technique. This unveils a useful use of BC speech in speech information systems. Experiments show that in severe noise environments of AC speech‐to‐noise ratio being less than 10 dB, BC speech is superior to AC speech for PLC. It is also shown that the transmitted BC speech is more accurately reconstructed for PLC than transmitted AC speech is done. © 2023 The Authors. IEEJ Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Engineering published by Institute of Electrical Engineer of Japan and Wiley Periodicals LLC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Hokuriku area, where lightning strikes with a large amount of electric charge occur in winter, failure rate of lightning protection devices such as surge arresters and devices with built‐in zinc oxide (ZnO) elements tends to be high. In order to prevent failure of surge arresters, 5 kA surge arresters which have a larger energy capability are installed on terminal poles of distribution lines. As for lightning protection of pole‐mounted distribution transformers, insulators with ZnO are utilized to support medium‐voltage drop wires connected to the transformers on non‐terminal poles. In this paper, we have studied the effect of insulators with 5 kA ZnO which have a larger energy capability as a lightning protection measure for transformers on terminal poles using lightning‐surge analysis. The lightning outage rate, which is the total of insulation breakdown rate and failure rate of a lightning protection device, is found to be lower in the case of insulators with 5 kA ZnO than in the case of 5 kA surge arresters. In addition, by replacing 5 kA surge arresters with insulators with 5 kA ZnO, a cost reduction effect is found to be also expected. © 2023 Institute of Electrical Engineer of Japan and Wiley Periodicals LLC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Along with the commercialization of SiC‐MOSFETs and progress in the development of GaN power devices, high‐speed, high‐frequency switching and reduction in conduction loss of power devices are expected. Hence reduction of the size and increase of conversion efficiency of power electronics equipment is greatly expected. On the other hand, even if power devices are switched at high speed and high frequency, the loss of passive devices such as transformers, inductors, and capacitors used in power converters increases, making it difficult to make the power converters smaller than expected. In other words, there is a demand for performance improvements of passive devices from various viewpoints, including miniaturization and low loss, which are compatible with high‐speed, high‐frequency switching operations of power devices. This paper introduces recent research results on loss evaluation methods considering the operating state of passive devices used in small‐to‐medium‐capacity power converters those perform high‐frequency switching operations. © 2023 Institute of Electrical Engineer of Japan and Wiley Periodicals LLC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dissolved gas in transformer oil (DGA) online monitoring data can reflect equipment insulation performance, which provides an important basis for transformer condition assessment. The accuracy of online monitoring data directly affects the correctness of transformer condition assessment, and the health condition of the online monitoring data device also affects the effectiveness and reasonableness of online monitoring data. With the accumulation of operation time, the DGA online monitoring device faces many problems, resulting in the overall deviation of this indicator data from the actual value, and the transformer online monitoring device cannot play its monitoring effect. To solve these problems, this paper firstly linearizes the data of the DGA online monitoring device by segmentation, extracts the characteristics of the line segment curve, constructs a segmented correlation mining model, and mines the correlation of different indicators of DGA. Then, according to the change of correlation strength and weakness between online monitoring data in time sequence, the data deviation is tracked. Finally, a multi‐indicator back propagation (BP) neural network algorithm optimized by the genetic simulated annealing algorithm is constructed to calibrate the deviated data. The analysis shows that the method can identify the population deviation of online monitoring data and calibrate the deviated data effectively. © 2023 Institute of Electrical Engineer of Japan and Wiley Periodicals LLC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ongoing global pandemic has brought into sharp relief the possible interactions between the epidemiology of a virus, the structure of the economy and society that becomes exposed to it, and the actions chosen by government, individuals, and communities to combat it or ameliorate its economic impact. Surprisingly, there has not been sufficient research on these economic and policy interactions of the 1918–1920 influenza pandemic—the deadliest pandemic of the 20th century. This paper focuses on Japan, which as a minor participant of and was not directly affected by World War I. We exploit the diversity of experiences with the pandemic and its attendant policy responses across Japanese prefectures; and investigate the importance of the pandemic's toll (measured by excess mortality), and of nonpharmaceutical policy interventions (NPIs), in determining the pandemic's economic impact. We do so by focusing on the production and employment in the textile sector, given the availability of data and the general importance of the textile sector for emerging economies (as Japan was at the time). We find a significant adverse impact of the pandemic on textiles (almost 30% for an average prefectural excess mortality shock) and indeed find that the implemented NPIs were effective in ameliorating around one half of the pandemic's adverse economic consequences, especially for textile output (rather than employment). Furthermore, these NPIs were more effective when the excess mortality was higher. In this case, there was no trade‐off between money and life, but rather the two were complimentary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The politics of international finance for coal power plants have intensified since the 2015 Paris climate agreement was negotiated. Over the past few years, Japan and South Korea have signaled their intent not to fund new coal projects overseas, leaving China and its Belt and Road Initiative as the 'financier of last resort.' In September 2021, China too announced its intent to stop providing finance for overseas coal projects. What accounts for their decision to cease financing overseas coal projects despite prominent differences in political systems, degree of internationalization of their financial systems, and economic size? Drawing on datasets of coal projects and financing supplemented by case material and interviews, this paper explores the dynamics of coal export finance and how the combination of international reputational pressures and declining demand for coal finance diminished the domestic support for incumbent coal exporters in all three countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A molecular phylogeny of Tinocladia and Eudesme based on specimens covering a large proportion of the known species was done using mitochondrial cox1 and cox3, chloroplast atpB, psaA, psbA and rbcL genes and 5.8S rDNA and its ITS2 region sequences. The phylogeny revealed a close phylogenetic relationship between the two genera and the occurrence of a cryptic species within the generitype T. crassa. Eudesme species (E. borealis, E. shandongensis and the generitype E. virescens) showed a sister relationship with the northern hemisphere Tinocladia (T. crassa, including a cryptic sister species T. pseudocrassa sp. nov., and T. sanrikuensis), whereas southern hemisphere Tinocladia (T. australis, T. falklandica, T. novae-zelandiae, and a cryptic species from New Zealand) nested in the Eudesme clade. Morphologically, Tinocladia species have been distinguished from Eudesme by their denser medullary filaments and more extensive subcortical layer, but our molecular phylogenetic analyses suggest that these features do not correlate with genetic differences. The cox3 sequence divergence between northern hemisphere Tinocladia and the lineage that includes Eudesme and southern hemisphere Tinocladia was comparable to or smaller than those within selected ectocarpalean genera. We therefore propose to merge Tinocladia with Eudesme and resurrect Eudesme crassa (Suringar) Okamura for T. crassa. Although the two independent lineages of T. crassa do not show marked morphological differences, they are genetically isolated even in sympatric populations. We therefore propose to treat them as independent species. In this paper we neotypify Tinocladia crassa (=Eudesme crassa), describe E. pseudocrassa sp. nov., and determine that the Californian population of E. crassa is an introduction from Northeast Asia. HIGHLIGHTS •A taxonomic revision of Eudesme and Tinocladia, based on genetic and morpho-anatomy, provides evidence to merge Tinocladia with Eudesme. •The finding of cryptic species in New Zealand highlights the need for further taxonomic studies in this region. •The genetic data have revealed the occurrence of a cryptic species within T. crassa in Japan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On March 16, 2020, the Director‐General of the World Health Organization said: "We have a simple message to all countries—test, test, test." This seems like sound advice, but what if limiting the number of tests has a positive effect on infection control? Although this may rarely be the case, the possibility raises an important ethical question that is closely related to a central tension between deontological and consequentialist approaches to ethics. In this paper, we first argue that early during the COVID‐19 pandemic, Japan offers an interesting case because it experienced few deaths due to COVID while the number of tests was limited, suggesting that there may be cases in which low testing contributes to infection control indeed. After that, we examine deontological constraints on such a "low‐testing" policy, focusing on issues related to a supposed "right to know," which is a central issue in medical ethics in general. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the impact of varying the input seismic excitation directions on the system fragility of a geometrically complex highway bridge structure. The traditional approach of fragility derivation in the principal loading directions (longitudinal and transverse) results in an under/overestimation of the system fragility. To reduce such errors, the contribution of all major vulnerable components to the system fragility in the critical loading direction must be considered. For this purpose, a series of nonlinear time-history analyses were conducted for a testbed configured geometrically curved highway bridge structure in Japan. Shear strain, ductility, and distortion strain were considered as engineering demand parameters for bearings, concrete pier, and steel piers, respectively. The demand dependency among the components was considered using the correlation coefficient matrix for fragility estimation. Subsequently, fragility functions with respect to the input loading directions were generated for the bridge components and system to quantify their sensitivity to seismic input excitation directions. The results show that the component fragility is significantly influenced by the input excitation direction. A relative comparison of the system fragility for different loading directions indicated that a 150° loading direction yielded a higher fragility demand. The findings suggest that the critical fragility assessment should not always be decided only along the principal loading directions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Precise charging time prediction can effectively mitigate the inconvenience to drivers induced by inevitable charging behavior throughout trips. Although the effectiveness of the machine learning (ML) algorithm in predicting future outcomes has been established in a variety of applications (transportation sector), the investigation into electric vehicle (EV) charging time prediction is almost new. This calls for the investigation of the ML algorithm to predict EV charging time. The study developed an EV charging time prediction model based on two years of charging event data collected from 500 EVs in Japan. To predict EV charging time, this paper employed three ML algorithms: extreme learning machine (ELM), feed-forward neural network (FFNN), and support vector regression (SVR). Furthermore, ML algorithms parameters are optimized by a metaheuristic techniques: the gray wolf optimizer (GWO), particle swarm optimizer (PSO), and genetic algorithm (GA) to achieve higher accuracy and robustness. The prediction results reveal that GWO-based ML models yielded better results compared to other models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction. Candida auris is a relatively novel pathogen first described in 2009 in Japan. It has increased its presence worldwide, becoming a public health concern due to its innate resistance to antifungals and outbreak potential. Methods. We performed a query using the word "Candida auris" from the Scopus database, further performing a bibliometric analysis with the open-source R package Bibliometrix. Results. 907 original articles were retrieved, allowing us to map the principal authors, papers, journals, and countries involved in this yeast research, as well as analyze current and future trends and the number of published articles. Conclusion. C. auris will continue to be a pivotal point in fungal resistance research, either for a better understanding of its resistance and pathogenic mechanisms or for developing novel drugs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although individual factors play a vital role in determining professional autonomy, their specific impact during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has not been studied. This study aimed to compare nurses' professional autonomy when caring for patients with COVID-19 and for other patients and explore factors related to autonomy when caring for these patients. A paper-based questionnaire survey was conducted from June to August 2022 among nurses working at a university hospital in Japan. The survey included demographic factors (10 items, including, age, section, years of nursing experience, position, educational background, ladder level, and having certified nurse specialists or certified nurse qualifications) and individual experience factors (4 items: number of COVID-19 patients experienced, frequency and contents of searching for the latest information about COVID-19, frequency of using scientific sources, and frequency of training/study sessions on COVID-19 attended at the hospital). Additionally, basic knowledge of COVID-19 was evaluated. The scale for nurses' professional autonomy was developed based on a previous study. A paired t-test and stepwise multiple linear regression were used for the analyses. Overall, 241 nurses participated in the survey. The average length of nursing experience was 10.3 ± 9.2 years. The total scores for nurses' professional autonomy in all 5 factors 27 items were significantly lower (t = −12.1, p < 0.001) when caring for COVID-19 patients than when caring for other patients. Specifically, Factor 1 (Cognition) exhibited the most decreased scores when caring for COVID-19 patients than when caring for other patients. Factor 4 (Abstract judgment) differed the least between caring for COVID-19 and for other patients, but the average score was the lowest. More years of nursing experience (β = 0.208, p = 0.001) and a higher number of patients with COVID-19 cared for (β = 0.140, p = 0.026) were associated with higher autonomy scores. In conclusion, to enhance professional autonomy during an unprecedented pandemic, nurses must enhance cognition and abstract judgment. In the event of a future pandemic, nurses need to create an environment in which they routinely access and utilize the latest information and scientific evidence to provide high-quality nursing care based on their professional judgment and competence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An environmental DNA (eDNA) detection technique using TaqMan qPCR and LAMP analysis was developed for the Asian clam Corbicula fluminea, which is causing alarm in Japan and worldwide as an invasive alien species. The qPCR primer and probe designed in this study specifically amplified C. fluminea DNA, but did not amplify C. sandai or C. japonica DNA, both native Japanese species. In contrast, LAMP analysis showed that C. sandai DNA also reacted, but with a delay after the amplification of C. fluminea DNA, and it was possible to specifically detect C. fluminea DNA by setting the LAMP analysis time to 30 min. Field surveys at three study sites with different habitat conditions for C. fluminea showed that eDNA detection using qPCR/LAMP analyses were consistent with C. fluminea distribution. The applicability of a simple filtration and concentration method for eDNA using glass fibers in suspension (SGF method) was verified, and the SGF method had a higher eDNA recovery capacity than the conventional aspiration method using glass fiber filter paper. eDNA extraction using the SGF method and eDNA analysis using qPCR/LAMP may be useful for qualitative and simple habitat estimation of C. fluminea in poor water quality environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Infectious diseases are often important contributors to morbidity and mortality in dogs. In kennel environments, dog density, herd immunity, cleaning practices, dog to dog contact, and environmental factors can significantly influence infectious disease transmission rates. Dogs can easily transmit infectious diseases to one another, leading to increased morbidity and mortality in a population. Background: Leptospirosis is a systemic disease in dogs caused by Leptospira bacteria. Susceptible canines typically acquire a leptospirosis infection from direct or indirect contact with urine or tissues of an infected animal. Leptospirosis serovars differ between the United States and Japan and can cause subclinical infections to severe systemic disease and death. Case Series: This paper examines a population of eight military working dogs located in the Kanto Region of Japan that showed similar clinical signs of an infectious disease, from August to December 2021. Differential diagnoses considered for the suspected infectious disease outbreak included leptospirosis, brucellosis, and mycoplasmosis. Isolation protocols were implemented, including the use of an alternate kennel facility. All dogs received antibiotics to limit suspected Leptospira urine shedding and shorten the duration of clinical signs. Discussion: Only one dog had a positive leptospirosis urine PCR test. Limited positive test results may have resulted from various serovars, a dog's vaccination status, and limited testing modalities used on this population. It could have also been a result of a different, undiagnosed, infectious disease outbreak that was not originally considered. Conclusion: All dogs were treated successfully and returned to duty. Strict isolation protocols were followed, preventing spread of the suspected infection to one dog. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At the beginning of 19th century Ino Tadataka surveyed almost whole coast lines of Japanese Islands and main roads, and made 214 sheet maps of 1:36000 and 8 sheet maps of 1:216000 in scale. This paper deals with his map compilation and scale-down. method. Almost every night, if possible. Ino measured elevation angles of 20 to 30 stars crossing meridian to determine latitude. The Y coordinates of the observation points were calculated from the latitudes using the ratio that one degree difference in latitude was 28.2 ri (or 101.52×36000 sun). Here ri and sun are Japanese old measures. Ino could not measure longitude astronomically because he had not chronometer. He corrected coordinates (x,y) obtained in surface survey "Dosen-Ho", a kind of open traverse method. The X coordinates of the observation points were estimated as x Y/y. In this way, he obtained coordinates (X,Y) on scale of 1:36000 concerning approximately 1220 astronomical observation points in whole Japanese Islands. For the first step, he prepared local maps of 1:36000 from local surface survey, then corrected them by using the coordinates of astronomical observation points. For second step. he compiled the wide area maps of 1:36000 from local maps to control reference to the coordinates of observation points. The maps of 1: 216000 were compiled from the maps of 1:36000 by using the reduced coordinate values of one six. In this process, the coordinates of the observation points were referred to keep precision of the maps. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effects of early childhood education and care (ECEC) have been widely researched, but most studies focus on targeted or relatively short-term programmes. This paper investigates the long-term effects of a universal ECEC programme and underlying mechanisms. By exploiting differences in expansion rates of childcare institutions across Japan from the 1960s to the 1980s, I find a positive effect of ECEC on income at up to age 50. The overall effect is driven by a significant impact among women, who were disadvantaged at that time, while there are no adverse effects on others. Mediation analysis shows that an increase in wages leads to an increase in income, which is triggered by improved educational attainment and not an increase in labour supply. The results imply that a universal childcare system has the potential to reduce income inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This scoping review explores the professional literature in allied healthcare to determine which self-assessments of mentor skills are the most valid and reliable for use in occupational therapy doctoral capstone programs. The aims of this scoping review include mapping evidence related to mentor assessments in healthcare, exploring implications for occupational therapy doctoral mentor training programs, and identifying common characteristics of mentor self-assessments for occupational therapy programs to consider when developing capstone mentoring resources. Researchers applied and reported via PRISMA Extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR). A librarian and authors formulated keywords and database selections to search PubMed/MEDLINE/PMC, and Embase were searched from across healthcare professions for training outcomes, mentor self-assessment, mentor attributes, and use of researcher-developed assessments. The search was limited to English publications from the last 20 years. Data were extracted for quantitative information regarding study characteristics and qualitative information about mentoring skills. A total of 852 results were delivered across all databases. Nineteen papers met the final eligibility criteria and were included in the data extraction. Populations were included from several healthcare professions, including 11 nursing, four healthcare researchers, one pharmacy, one midwifery, one medicine, and one medical dietetics. Countries included the United States (n = 7), Finland (n = 5), United Kingdom (n = 4), Japan (n = 1), South Africa (n = 1) and Canada (n = 1). The authors identified four valid self-assessment tools, demonstrating III and IV levels of evidence, that may be implemented by occupational therapy programs as they develop resources for mentor programs. Occupational therapy programs can use the mentor attributes found in this scoping review to create their own mentor assessment measures or may choose to use a validated tool. The authors recommend additional research in mentor education and mentor skill acquisition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Morita therapy is one of the leading alternative psychotherapeutic approaches that has emerged from Japan and has adapted with notable success to the mores and demands of the Western medical establishment. Although still on the margin, Morita therapy has the potential to offer a viable option for those who seek therapeutic assistance for various neuroses and psychosomatic illnesses that culminate in psychiatric symptoms such as generalized anxiety disorder, obsessive‐compulsive disorder, or posttraumatic stress disorder. Diverging considerably from conventional Western psychiatric approaches, Morita therapy has its own modes of conceiving mental illness and offers distinct curative methods that are in some ways akin to the techniques of meaning‐centred psychotherapies, but in many other ways are rather different. In this paper, the meaning‐formation and the building of a constant sense of purpose in Morita therapy is explored, with a special focus on how these relate to creating a stable psychological framework for the client. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims: Hikikomori is a common phenomenon reported in Japan and many other countries. However, the broad trends of the research publications on hikikomori are unclear. Therefore, this study examined the patterns of research on hikikomori using bibliometric analysis. Methods: Relevant publications were searched in Web of Science. Bibliometric analyses were performed with CiteSpace, R and VOSviewer. Results: In total, 297 publications on hikikomori met the eligibility criteria. The International Journal of Social Psychiatry (IF = 10.461) published the most papers (K = 17, or 5.7%) on hikikomori. Takahiro A. Kato from Kyushu University (41; 13.8%; H‐index = 18) was the most influential author, while Takahiro A. Kato (total link strength [TLS]: 235), Alan R. Teo (TLS: 157), and Masaru Tateno (TLS: 153) separately had the strongest research collaboration with other researchers. Of all countries that published on hikikomori, Japan had the highest number of publications (K = 91). The keywords "United States" and "psychiatric diagnosis" received the most attention between 2013 and 2015, whereas "health" and "autism spectrum disorder" received the most attention in 2021 and 2022. Conclusions: Peer‐reviewed research publications on hikikomori are growing rapidly and the research trends in this field are also changing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) systems, carrier frequency offsets (CFOs) influence the different users. In this paper, we proposed a CFO estimation algorithm with strong interference resistant capability for OFDMA systems. The first part of the proposed algorithm processes the received signals so as to deal with the CFO estimation problem. And the second part of the proposed algorithm is to use the proposed adaptive process to obtain the updated CFO estimation and track the parameters' time‐variations. Simulations demonstrate the effectiveness of this method and show that its performance is to the Cramer‐Rao Bounds (CRB). © 2023 Institute of Electrical Engineer of Japan and Wiley Periodicals LLC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the influence of the loss distribution and magnetic saturation on the efficiency performance, which includes the location of maximum efficiency point, the size of high‐efficiency region and the value of maximum efficiency, for an interior permanent magnet synchronous motor (IPMSM). The loss expressions considering magnetic saturation are first proposed and then the efficiency‐losses function model of the IPMSM is constructed. The efficiency performance of the motor is analyzed quantitatively. The general principle is summarized including adjusting the location of maximum efficiency point, expanding the size of high‐efficiency zone and improving the maximum value of efficiency from the perspective of loss distribution and magnetic saturation. Two IPMSMs with different magnetic circuit characteristics are designed to verify the correctness of the analytical method by finite‐element analysis (FEA). Finally, prototypes are manufactured for the experiment and measurement results are given for validations. © 2023 Institute of Electrical Engineer of Japan and Wiley Periodicals LLC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to reduce the clock offset caused by network delay jitter, network asymmetry, clock drift and clock frequency difference in the clock synchronization process of IEEE1588, a modified Strong Tracking Adaptive Kalman Filter (MSTAKF) algorithm was proposed. The Kalman filter model established by the algorithm is based on clock offset, network delay, frequency deviation and asymmetry ratio. The filter includes the modified strong tracking algorithm based on fuzzy logic and hypothesis test proposed in this paper, which can effectively eliminate the influence of outliers, and finally make the model tracking effect better. In addition, the modified Sage‐Husa algorithm based on Cholesky decomposition is also included, which makes the measurement noise more stable and ensures the positivity of the measurement noise covariance. The experimental results show that the proposed MSTAKF is smoother than Karman filter (KF), Sage‐Husa adaptive Kalman filter (AKF) and strong tracking Sage‐Husa adaptive Kalman filter (STAKF). Compared with these filter algorithms after testing in the LAN environment, the precision improvement and accuracy rate are significantly improved. © 2023 Institute of Electrical Engineer of Japan and Wiley Periodicals LLC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Train real‐time ethernet network (TREN) is responsible for the transmission of train control commands and equipment status information. Due to the harsh and changeable climatic environments, complex electromagnetic environments, and long service, the TREN has a high incidence of physical layer failures, which affects train operation safety. This paper presents a novel fault diagnosis method in which waveform electrical signal features are extracted from the physical layer signal of TREN. Random forest is used for identifying typical failure modes of actual TREN, and the model parameters are optimized to improve diagnostic performance. Finally, the physical layer signals of actual TREN are collected. The results show that the performance of the proposed fault diagnosis method is better than other advanced methods. © 2023 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by Wiley Periodicals LLC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Elementary functions are widely integrated in many embedded applications such as speech recognition and signal processing. This paper deals with the issues related to the hardware implementation of those functions. Indeed, a novel efficient Error‐Margin aware Approach for non‐uniform Segmentation of Elementary Functions using degree‐N Polynomial Approximation (EMASEF‐NPA) has been proposed. The bit‐width optimization (BWO) process has been used to obtain a better representation of the approximation polynomial coefficients. The principle of content‐addressable memory (CAM) and Horner's rules have been used in the physical implementation. Functional verification, logical synthesis, and physical implementation were performed using the FPGA platform. The results obtained using EMASEF‐NPA approach show a significant reduction, up to 70%, in the number of segments compared to conventional approaches. The findings of the physical implementation show a considerable decrease in area and delay. © 2023 Institute of Electrical Engineer of Japan and Wiley Periodicals LLC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The integration of vast quantities of clean energy causes intense impact on the power grid reliability. Digital Twin can be used to handle the high‐growth data flow generated in the power grid, and thus accelerate its digitalization process to fulfill the clean energy consumption target. As the traditional central cloud network structure can no longer effectively support the operation of digital twin power grid, the mobile edge network can be used as a reasonable substitute. To support the information interaction process of the mobile edge network, considering total profit, time delay and energy consumption, this paper proposes the mobile edge network communication and computing resource joint allocation model. On the basis, the GA‐PSO algorithm is proposed to solve the resource allocation optimization function. The feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed model is verified by the related simulation experiment. © 2023 Institute of Electrical Engineer of Japan and Wiley Periodicals LLC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Off‐line partial discharge (PD) diagnosis, which requires an additional power supply has been accepted as an essential step in ensuring the integrity of power cable systems during commissioning testing. Many types of energizing voltage sources (e.g., alternating current resonance, damped alternating current, very low frequency [VLF] sine, and VLF‐cosine rectangular) have been developed, which are used in practice. However, choosing the optimal energizing voltage waveforms for PD testing is still controversial because their capability to motivate PD activities is still unclear. Accordingly, this paper compares the PD ignition capacity of the aforementioned power sources on six well‐designed PD defects in real cable joints. The influence of test voltage frequencies and waveforms are verified. The results show that the PD inception voltage and PD magnitudes in the cable joint defects do not change significantly as a function of the sinusoidal voltage frequency and the VLF‐cosine rectangular voltage exhibits excellent PD ignition capability with a low PD inception voltage and large PD magnitude. Moreover, the dynamic behavior of space charge in a PD defect caused by a gap is analyzed in order to explain the obtained results. © 2023 Institute of Electrical Engineer of Japan and Wiley Periodicals LLC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accurately predicting wind power is premise for the large‐scale integration of wind energy into the power grid and realizing reliable power grid scheduling and efficient wind farm operation. The spatial–temporal differences between the acquisition points of numerical weather prediction and wind farm sites should be considered because they significantly affect the accuracy of wind power output. Meanwhile, since there are different actual constraints on wind farm electrical networks and units, and the weather conditions may vary, there are no universal methods for identifying and correcting wind power output. To this end, this paper proposes a wind speed calibration model based on an Attention‐Bi‐LSTM network and a self‐adaptive recognition‐correction model based on SHAP‐CART classification for wind power output prediction. First, a spatial–temporal dataset is established by using real weather data from wind farm sites and data from the surrounding NWP points. Then, wind speed is accurately calibrated using the Attention‐Bi‐LSTM model. Next, considering the practical constraints on wind farm electrical networks and units, the self‐adaptive recognition‐correction model based on SHAP‐CART classification is employed to effectively recognize and predict the operating states and power output of the units, thus improving the accuracy and stability of wind power output prediction. Finally, the effectiveness and superiority of the proposed method is verified by using a wind farm in Eastern China as an example and analyzing the prediction results in various approaches. © 2023 Institute of Electrical Engineer of Japan and Wiley Periodicals LLC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, investigation has been made on the electrical properties of graphene/Al contact, ZnO/Al contact and Al/graphene/ZnO contacts in detail. Al metallization is considered, and it is performed via thermal vacuum coating technique under strict monitoring of the rate of thickness of the metal. Spin coating method and shadow masking are done for depositing fabricated graphene and ZnO on the thin film. Comparative analysis has been made on the parameters like saturation current, Barrier height and ideality factors which are calculated using Schottky barrier height (SBH) method. I–V characteristics are analyzed using the key‐sight B2029A semiconductor parameter analyzer. It is seen that the ZnO/Al contact has more ideality factor nearly 0.059 and exhibits Schottky behavior. Meanwhile, maximum saturation current is obtained for Graphene/Al contact whereas maximum barrier height is for ZnO/Al contact. © 2023 Institute of Electrical Engineer of Japan and Wiley Periodicals LLC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pedestrians are essential component in traffic, and with the advent of intelligent transportation systems, conflicts over right‐of‐way between pedestrians and other traffic participants have become prevalent. Predicting pedestrian intentions and motions is crucial for autonomous driving and intelligent transportation. However, pedestrian prediction faces challenges such as the variability of pedestrian intentions and the flexibility of their motions, as well as the need for highly generalization capability and lightweight modeling on autonomous vehicles with limited computing power. To face these challenge, this paper proposes a Social Artificial Potential Field (Social‐APF) method for pedestrian trajectory prediction. The method combines target intention feature and surrounding obstacles features. We test the performance of Social‐APF on several public datasets. The results demonstrate that the Social‐APF method outperforms state‐of‐the‐art approaches on the public datasets in both lightweight and model accuracy. © 2023 Institute of Electrical Engineer of Japan and Wiley Periodicals LLC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The vegetable‐insulating oils are used in electrical systems recently. Most of vegetable‐insulating oils are manufactured from new oils. In this paper, we propose to develop the insulating oils from the used cooking oil. The used cooking oils that means thermal degraded—vegetable oil has high kinematic viscosity that does not meet the JIS values. In this study, the kinematic viscosity of thermal degraded oil was decreased using ester exchange reaction. We simulated the thermally‐degraded rice ester oil as used cooking oil, and investigated the potential of used cooking oil as insulating oil. We manufactured rice ester oil after thermal degradation before and after the ester‐exchange reaction and measure kinematic viscosity, AC breakdown voltage, moisture amount and volume resistivity for oil samples. We evaluated the degree of thermal degradation of the sample oil using total polar molecule (TPM). The results are described as follows. (1) The kinematic viscosity and volume resistivity of the rice oil increased with the thermal degradation progress (increase in TPM). The kinematic viscosity of the rice ester oil at each TPM value decreased after the ester‐exchange reaction. (2) After vacuum deaeration (2 h at 80°C and 22 h at room temperature), the moisture content of the rice oil before and after the ester‐exchange reaction was almost the same. (3) The AC breakdown strength after ester‐exchange reaction was higher than that of the untreated oil. © 2023 Institute of Electrical Engineer of Japan and Wiley Periodicals LLC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines to what extent a rise in inflation expectations stimulates current household expenditure in Japan. Using matched household datasets, we find the following. First, to the extent that the rise in inflation expectations is from about 0% to the 2−10% range, durable goods expenditure is significantly stimulated. Second, total expenditure increases by 1.0% in response to a one percentage point rise in inflation expectations, about 82% of which is explained by the response of durable goods expenditure. Third, storable and non-storable non-durable goods expenditures (especially the latter) do not respond significantly to the inflation expectations. Finally, a temporary rise in inflation expectations immediately stimulates total expenditure, but produces a similar degree of decline over a few quarters, with virtually no long-run impact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper advocates using museum collections for archaeological research by offering a new approach to generate questions on the sociocultural lives of ancient people. I define "diaspora" collections as historical and archaeological artifacts excavated in a homeland site but currently stored in museums that are outside the homeland country. Of particular importance in this approach is the identification of artifacts' diagnostic traits, including material composition, morphology, and symbolic decoration, that are to be linked to the "original" data in their homeland. Diaspora collections-based research necessitates provenience studies, as well as direct observation of both the diaspora collection and its original data. It also takes advantage of the recent development of various digital and remote technologies. A case study to show this methodology comes from dedicatory lanterns currently stored outside Japan that were part of the shogun (Tokugawa) family's graveyards in modern Tokyo during the 18th and 19th centuries a.d. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The storage and access of genetic testing results have unique considerations for medical records. Initially, genetic testing was limited to patients with single gene diseases. Genetic medicine and testing have expanded, as have concerns about appropriately handling genetic information. In this study, we surveyed the management of genetic information in general hospitals in Japan using a questionnaire on access restrictions. Our questions included whether any other medical information was managed in a unique way. We identified 1037 hospitals designated for clinical training located throughout Japan and received responses from 258 hospitals, and 191 reported that they handle genetic information and results of genetic tests. Of the 191 hospitals that handle genetic information, 112 hospitals implement access restrictions to genetic information. Seventy-one hospitals, one of which uses paper medical records rather than electrical medical records, do not enforce access restrictions. For eight hospitals, it was not known whether access restrictions were enforced or not. The responses from these hospitals indicated that access restrictions and storage methods varied across institution type (e.g., general vs. university hospitals), institution size, and the presence of a clinical genetics department. Other information, such as infectious disease diagnosis, psychological counseling records, abuse, and criminal history, was also subject to access restriction in 42 hospitals. The disparity in how medical facilities handle sensitive genetic information demonstrates a need for discussion between medical professionals and the general public on the storage of sensitive records, including genetic information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the ideas that underpinned American psychological war (psywar) in the Pacific. While we cannot precisely measure its effects, we can trace its intellectual history with more confidence. US psywar was a combination of scientific method and myth-making. Assessments of the Imperial Japanese Army tended to be careful, discriminating, and increasingly sophisticated, if not uniformly accurate. At the level of the battle front, practitioners of the ‘mind war’ strove to overcome stereotypes and refine and complexify their view of the enemy.The further they moved from the battlefield towards assessments of Japanese military leadership, society, and high politics, the more they became myth-makers, projecting onto Japan a powerful set of preconceived ideas. These included notions of the superstitious and malleable Japanese mind, the suicidal military elite, and the innocent symbol emperor. In their analysis two models of culture evolved. Their approach to the IJA mostly presented culture as dynamic, layered, and conflicted, whereas their view of Japanese society was monolithic, bounded, and timeless. This contradictory pattern can be explained by different levels of exposure to the subject, the practice of filling ‘knowledge gaps’ with preconceptions, and by American policymaking interests. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article presents abstracts on medical topics which include endoscopic retrograde cholangiography after gastric resection using double balloon endoscopy, a case of crohn's disease with esophagal longitudinal aphthaes, and on the current status of colorectal cancer screening in Japan.

The discusses the history of gender equality in Japan and the pre-2006 gender equality laws, including the Labor Standards Law, the original EEOL, the 1997 EEOL and the Child Care and Family Care Law (CCFCL). It examines the Japanese gender equality laws as they stand now, the problems with the current laws, the current status of Japanese women and what the Japanese government plans to do to further women's equality. It evaluates the situation of women in Norway and Norwegian law, particularly focusing on the Norwegian Act Relation to Gender Equality and the quota system.

The article presents a study that aims to compare the key academic journals in Japan and Great Britain. The articles found in the "Studies on Social Work of Japan" journal in 1997 were compared to the articles in the "British Journal of Social Work." These articles were categorized based on the work of Toyomichi Sato. To analyze those articles, Sato has used 61 items which were arranged and sorted into five groups including study methods, social work process studies, explanation study, social work skills and treatment study, and social work practice model and approach study. Some of the findings revealed that the largest number of articles which comprised of 38.6% in the Japanese journal, was on the explanation study group, while only 8.7% fell on social work skills and treatment study.

A reduced incidence of graft versus host disease (GvHD) has been documented among Japanese allogeneic bone marrow transplantation (BMT) patients, as the Japanese are genetically more homogeneous than western populations. To clarify whether this ethnic difference affects the results of allogeneic peripheral blood stem cell transplantation (PBSCT), we conducted a nationwide survey to compare clinical outcomes of allogeneic PBSCT (n = 214) and BMT (n = 295) from a human leucocyte antigen- identical-related donor in Japanese patients. The cumulative incidence of grades II-IV acute GvHD was 374% for PBSCT and 320% for BMT. The cumulative incidence of extensive chronic GvHD at 1 year was significantly higher after PBSCT than BMT (42% vs. 27%; P < 001). The organ involvement patterns of GvHD were different between the two groups. By multivariate analyses, the incidence of chronic GvHD was significantly increased in PBSCT, whereas the stem cell source did not affect the incidence of acute GvHD, transplant-related mortality, relapse or survival. We concluded that Japanese PBSCT patients have an increased risk of chronic GvHD compared with BMT patients, but the incidence of acute GvHD was still lower than in western populations. Thus, the choice of haematopoietic stem cell source should be considered based on data for individual ethnic populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines the allelopathic activity of medicinal plant species using the sandwich method in Japan. Growth in the radicle and hypocotyl of lettuce seedlings; Inhibitory and promotive responses of the plant species to the radicle growth of lettuce; Significance on the allelopathic activity in Garcinia oblongifolia.

We have developed a circuit board using materials that are inexpensive and familiar to elementary school students. Most of the responses from students who made this board were relatively positive and we observed them enjoy making the boards at a Science Festival in Japan and in elementary school. As an application, we also developed a tiny torch using similar materials and a similar method. The method of making the board and the torch are explained in detail, and the characteristics of the board are presented along with students' impressions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reports developments in geology of May 2001. Discovery of evidence for asteroids causing the mass extinctions at the end of the Permian; Excavation of the site at Chubut province containing examples of 160 million-year-old vertebrate fossils; Attribution of Mount Fujiyama as a Japanese icon.

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a common sleep disorder, and polysomnography (PSG) is the gold standard for diagnosing OSA. However, patients often have to wait long before receiving the costly PSG test in a hospital. Hence, low‐cost and easy‐to‐use portable screening tools were developed for predicting OSA. Based on our recent study, this paper presents a feature extraction method with multiple receptive fields applied to the input electrocardiography (ECG) signals of a model to improve its performance in OSA severity classification. This work also employs unsegmented ECG signals as input to keep all the advantages from our original approach. The proposed model achieves an overall accuracy of 59.49% for four‐level OSA severity classification, giving an improvement of approximately 2% compared to our original work. The effectiveness of the proposed method is demonstrated. © 2023 Institute of Electrical Engineer of Japan and Wiley Periodicals LLC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mechanical characterization of cells is important for understanding their behavior. This paper reports on an in situ evaluation of the stiffness of cellular spheroids using a pinching device. The pinching device is integrated with a bimorph piezoactuator and strain gauge. It can pinch an object by combining a piezo bimorph actuator and a thin Si structure and can detect the reaction force from an elastic object using a strain gauge integrated into the thin Si structure. The strain gauge can detect the bending deformation of the device and estimate the reaction force by considering actuation. This paper presents the design of the pinching device and experimental results when used for the in situ evaluation of the stiffness of cellular spheroids. © 2023 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by Wiley Periodicals LLC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Pregnant women are vulnerable to stress. The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has caused a global pandemic and created significant stress for many people. Social distancing to reduce the spread of COVID-19 has also reduced social interactions, which has increased social isolation and loneliness. Loneliness is thought to increase perceived stress, cause psychological distress, and increase the risk of mental illness, such as depression. This study examined the association between serious psychological distress (SPD) and loneliness during the COVID-19 pandemic in pregnant Japanese women. Patients and Methods: An internet survey of 1022 pregnant women in Japan was conducted between June 1 and July 21, 2021. The 6-item Kessler Psychological Distress Scale, 3-item Revised UCLA Loneliness Scale, and Fear of COVID-19 Scale were used as measurement tools. The prevalence of SPD was defined as a K6 score of ≥ 13. Results: The prevalence of SPD was 16.5%. Multivariate analysis revealed that the risk factors for SPD were younger age (odds ratio [OR] 1.05; 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.01 to 1.10; p = 0.020), history of abortion or miscarriages (OR 1.56; 95% CI 1.04 to 2.36; p = 0.034), unemployment (OR 1.67; 95% CI 1.14 to 2.45; p = 0.008), fear of COVID-19 (OR, 1.12; 95% CI, 1.08 to 1.17; p < 0.001), and loneliness (OR 1.53; 95% CI 1.38 to 1.70; p < 0.001). Conclusion: Pregnant women in Japan showed a high prevalence of SPD. Younger age, unemployment, history of abortion or miscarriages, fear of COVID-19, and loneliness were independently associated with SPD. Clinicians and health officials should pay particular attention to the psychological health of pregnant women during the COVID-19 pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The paper examines integrated reporting (IR) practices of two Japanese universities and three South African universities by evaluating and comparing their 2019 integrated reports. Design/methodology/approach: A multiple case study research method is used in this study. Findings: The paper reveals that IR is in its infancy at the sample universities. Some universities have initiated disclosing information to their stakeholders on how they create value. However, the universities lack a comprehensive approach to integrating financial and non-financial information, thereby affecting the IR disclosure quality. The findings indicate that informal coercive pressure of South African universities is a primary driving factor that enables the universities to achieve a higher IR disclosure quality than their Japanese counterparts. Research limitations/implications: This paper argues that institutional theory is relevant for explaining the differences in IR practices of the universities in the two different jurisdictional settings. Practical implications: The research will be of interest to university administrators, policymakers, regulators and other stakeholder groups of universities. The assessment of integrated reports serves as a first step to help the universities improve IR practices as well as to facilitate the diffusion of IR in higher education institutions (HEIs) globally. There is also a need for universities to pay more attention to the storytelling of their value creation in future IR disclosures. Originality/value: It is the first to assess the IR quality of the Japanese sample universities as well as the first to conduct a comparative analysis for IR practices of universities in two different jurisdictional settings that have adopted IR. The findings of this study add to the current scholarly debate on universities' ability to tell their stories on their value creation to stakeholders via integrated reports. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the local beliefs of the sea gods in Japan, represented by the Sumiyoshi Sanjin 住吉三神, and their acceptance of the foreign culture of Mazu 媽祖. While there are many differences between the two in terms of their backgrounds, functions, and identities, the evolution of Japanese sea god beliefs has been characterized by a gradual acceptance of Mazu culture, culminating in the co-culturing of the two in shrines. This paper adopts an empirical research design to compare the local beliefs of the sea gods in Japan with the culture of Mazu and to analyze the reasons for their acceptance of Mazu culture from the perspective of the other. This article argues that the Japanese sea gods accepted Mazu for two reasons: the tangibility of Mazu's beliefs and the superb spirituality of Mazu's beliefs. Superb spirituality means effective protection, both in terms of safety at sea and swiftness in rescuing shipwrecks, and in terms of the smooth running of the fishing industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an evolutional topology optimization of electric machines, which works like gradient‐based local search methods, based on the covariance matrix adaptation evolution strategy (CMA‐ES). The present method enables to improve the performance of initial machine shapes without computing the deviation of the objectives. Moreover, for the resultant shapes obtained by the present topology optimization method, this paper also presents a sensitivity analysis method based on the normal distribution which is used to seek for solutions in CMA‐ES. Using the present sensitivity analysis method, important parts which contribute to improve a machine characteristic can be visualized. The two present methods are applied to the optimization problem of a synchronous reluctance motor. It is shown that initial rotor shapes defined by designers can effectively be modified using the present optimization method. Moreover, it is also shown that the sensitivity distributions with respect to some machine characteristics are visualized by the present method. In addition, each machine characteristic is respectively improved by modifying the machine shape according to the respective sensitivities. © 2022 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by Wiley Periodicals LLC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, the object‐tracking algorithm based on Siamese network has gradually become the mainstream algorithm in the field of object tracking due to its characteristics of balancing speed and accuracy. The majority of Siamese‐based trackers only use the first frame extraction template for subsequent tracking in order to prevent the introduction of noise. However, merely with a single initial template employed, it is difficult to achieve the best performance of the tracker in the face of complex tracking environments such as occlusion, motion blur, and non‐rigid deformation. Therefore, the present paper proposes a new multi‐template fusion module based on graph attention network (G‐M module), which consists of two parts: a graph‐attention‐network‐based feature‐embedding module (G module) and a multi‐template fusion module (M module). It can greatly reduce the background noise introduced by template updating while improving the tracker's ability to adapt to changes in object appearance. In addition, in order to maximize the value of G‐M module, the present paper also puts forward a two‐stage template update threshold judgment mechanism. The Pearson correlation coefficient (PCCs) is introduced and combined with APCE and the maximum response value (F‐max) to filter out reliable templates for updating. In this paper, the proposed method is applied to the SiamFC and SiamFC++ trackers. Extensive experiments on mainstream data sets, such as OTB2015, VOT2016, and GOT‐10 k, show that the proposed method can effectively update the tracking template and improve the tracker performance. © 2022 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by Wiley Periodicals LLC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper evaluates the driving forces of urban shrinkage, focusing on transportation infrastructure using a conceptual framework. Employing a difference‐in‐difference approach, this study explores the impact of the high‐speed railway on local shrinkage by focusing on implementing the bullet train in the Kyushu Shinkansen region of Japan. Our results show that after the introduction of the bullet train line, remote peripheral regions suffered population loss while suburban areas near the metropolitan area experienced population growth. Further analysis verifies that the bullet train had a particularly significant negative impact on local employment and establishments in the service sector in remote regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]