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This paper investigates the acceptance of Autonomous Vehicles (AVs) in Japan, the UK and Germany and speculates on the implications for policy and practice. Three on-line surveys of 3,000 members of the public in total, which were conducted in January 2017 (Japan), March 2018 (UK) and November/December 2018 (Germany) were analysed using Principal Component Analysis and then with an Ordered Logit Model. It finds that acceptance of AVs was higher amongst people with higher expectations of the benefits of AVs, those with less knowledge of AVs, and those with lower perceptions of risk. It also finds frequent drivers and car passengers to be more accepting, but that socio-economic factors were mostly insignificant. Finally, there were significant cultural differences between the levels of acceptance between Japan (broadly positive), the UK (broadly neutral) and Germany (broadly negative). These findings suggest that AV promoters should raise (or at least maintain) expectations of AVs among the public; engage with the public to reverse the negative perception of AVs; address AV-generated fears; not bother targeting people by socio-economic group; target frequent car drivers and passengers with information about what AVs could do for them; and target countries where AVs already enjoy a positive image. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a structural time series model is estimated to analyse the effect of quantitative easing (QE) on stock prices for the US, UK and Japan. The model is estimated by maximum likelihood in a time-varying parametric framework, using the DJIA, S&P500, NASDAQ, FTSE100 and the NIKKEI225 as the dependent variable and the balance sheet of the respective Central Bank as an explanatory variable, along with the unobserved components that account for the behaviour of other explanatory variables that are not explicitly specified in the model. The results show that QE had a significant but not exclusive effect on the DJIA, S&P500 and the NASDAQ, suggesting that these stock prices are also affected by other missing variables and cyclical movements. However, for the UK and Japan, no effect of QE on the FTSE100 and the NIKKEI225 is found, suggesting that variables other than QE are important for the rise in these stock prices. One plausible explanation for this result is that perhaps QE becomes effective only after a certain threshold level is met. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper constructs a theoretical framework for multi-population mortality modeling via generalized linear models and Lévy stochastic perturbations driven by a common Brownian motion and idiosyncratic factors to capture the mortality shocks. By having Lévy stochastic perturbations, our model admits various jump types, which is increasingly important for capturing mortality shocks such as pandemics, particularly when they affect various populations differently. At the same time, the proposed model allows a novel dependence structure of multiple populations, which is essential when it comes to the development of multi-population or joint-life products in the context of mortality shocks. In our empirical investigations, the mortality experiences of male and female lives in the UK and Japan are used. Compared with pure Poisson-generalized linear models, the proposed multi-population model shows superiority in predicting future mortality rates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper produces the first cross-country evidence on the relationship between the size of foreign exchange reserves and local currency internationalization using a sample of Switzerland, Japan and the UK. It finds that a high ratio of foreign exchange reserves to international reserves has a significant, but negative, impact on local currency internationalization during the period 1976-2009. After controlling for interest rate differential, different indicators for long-run depreciation and volatility of exchange rates, as well as the once-in-a-century global financial crisis of 2007-2009, the above conclusion still holds. Additionally, these results are robust to different methods (Pooled OLS and Pooled IV/2SLS) and measures of the scale of foreign exchange reserves. This study is informative for any policy decisions and will provide a strategic reference for the Chinese government as it optimizes the composition of its international reserves, promotes the process of renminbi (RMB) internationalization and becomes a major power through financial development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hydrogen energy technologies are envisioned to play a critical supporting role in global decarbonisation. While low-carbon hydrogen is primarily targeted for reducing industrial emissions, alongside decarbonising parts of the transport sector, environmental benefits could also be achieved in the residential context. Presently, gas-dependent countries such as Japan and the United Kingdom are assessing the feasibility of deploying hydrogen home appliances, as part of their national energy strategies. However, prospects for the transition will hinge on consumer acceptance, alongside an array of other socio-technical factors. To support potential ambitions for large-scale and sustained technology diffusion, this study advances a Unified Theory of Domestic Hydrogen Acceptance. Through an integrative, comparative literature review targeting hydrogen and domestic energy studies, the paper proposes a novel Domestic Hydrogen Acceptance Model (DHAM), which accounts for the cognitive and emotional dimensions of human perceptions. Through this dual interplay, the proposed framework can increase the predictive power of hydrogen acceptance models. [Display omitted] • A unified theory of domestic hydrogen acceptance is proposed. • Researchers should integrate multiple acceptance constructs into survey studies. • Comprehensive perceived risks, costs, and benefits predict attitudes toward hydrogen. • Cognitive and emotional processes influence perceptions of hydrogen homes. • Community-level factors should be incorporated into hydrogen acceptance research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We employ a multi-factor analysis from both a firm-specific (microeconomic) and market-specific (macroeconomic) perspective to examine the determinants of credit default swap (CDS) spreads in the USA, the UK and Japan between 2005 and 2012. We investigate both aggregate (cross-country) and individual market data so that a comparative analysis can be performed. Our results reveal that (i) in general, Tobin's Q, stock market returns, and the risk-free interest rate possess significant explanatory power for CDS spreads; (ii) the relationship identified is found to exist in all three markets with varying strength; (iii) despite the added information flow, the 2007–2009 financial crisis did not shorten the persistence (adjustment speed) of CDS spreads to variations in our explanatory variables; and (iv) degree of firm leverage appears to have a significant influence on CDS spreads. These results are robust to various model specifications. Synthesizing our overall results, we maintain that to reap the benefits of using CDSs as a risk management tool, greater attention should be devoted to supporting a stable market (economic and financial) environment. This paper contributes to elucidate how firm performance and macroeconomic conditions play a significant role in explaining CDS spreads. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to identify the literacy skills of individuals whose highest level of education was in the field 'teacher training and educational sciences'. The study sample comprised 10,618 individuals in the field of teacher training and educational sciences, selected from 31 countries (participating in the International Adult Skills Assessment Programme during the 2014-2015 survey) using a multi-stage sampling method. The study employed multi-level latent class analysis and three-step analysis in order to determine both the number of multi-level latent classes of educators' literacy scores as well as the selected independent variables' success in predicting those latent classes. The analysis revealed that educators in Germany constituted the group with the highest literacy skills while educators from Singapore comprised the group with the lowest literacy skills. [This study was presented at the 9th International Congress of Educational Research. Ordu University, Ordu, Turkey.]

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]

This paper presents the results of a cross-national study into the ecologically conscious consumer behaviour of senior consumers (aged 50+, mean age 64 years) in the UK, Germany, Japan, and Hungary. Using a survey, the study (n = 1275) utilises a modified version of the Ecologically Conscious Consumer Behaviour Scale, in addition to a battery of variables to measure wider ethical purchasing behaviour and sociodemographic characteristics. Findings suggest that there are segments of older consumers in all countries under study who demonstrate ecologically conscious consumer behaviour, and at the same time there are segments that do not. These segments cannot be identified by sociodemographic variables, but do differ in their wider ethical purchasing behaviour. The study is the first of its kind to measure actual ecologically conscious consumer behaviour in the senior market across different nations. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Index tracking is one of the most popular passive strategy in portfolio management. However, due to some practical constrains, a full replication is difficult to obtain. Many mathematical models have failed to generate good results for partial replicated portfolios, but in the last years a data driven approach began to take shape. This paper proposes three heuristic methods for both selection and allocation of the most informative stocks in an index tracking problem, respectively XGBoost, Random Forest and LASSO with stability selection. Among those, latest deep autoencoders have also been tested. All selected algorithms have outperformed the benchmarks in terms of tracking error. The empirical study has been conducted on one of the biggest financial indices in terms of number of components in three different countries, respectively Russell 1000 for the USA, FTSE 350 for the UK, and Nikkei 225 for Japan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we apply a rolling‐window strategy using data from the United States (US), the United Kingdom (UK), and Japan to determine the dynamic linear and nonlinear Granger causality relationship between short‐ and long‐term interest rates over time and visualize the results. Our findings from US data show an asymmetrical relationship between short‐ and long‐term interest rates. We find that in the overall sample period, the long‐term interest rate nonlinearly Granger‐causes the short‐term interest rate. Using the rolling‐window approach, when the start of the subsample is earlier than 2000 we find evidence that the long‐term interest rate Granger‐causes the short‐term interest rate, either linearly or nonlinearly, while in most of the subsamples the short‐term interest rate does not linearly or nonlinearly Granger‐cause the long‐term interest rate. However, for the UK and Japan, there are bidirectional Granger causality relationships between short‐ and long‐term interest rates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Teacher education has gathered interest globally and nationally among teachers, educators, researchers and policy makers. Madalinska-Michalak, O 'Doherty and Assuno Flores (2018) observe that regional/ national, social, economic, political and historical factors impact upon teacher education and 'it is also impacted by global problems and tendencies' (pp. 567). This paper builds on these debates and examines the effects of global discourses of teacher education in the national contexts of developed and developing countries, for example, Guyana, Japan, South Africa, United States of America (USA) and the United Kingdom (UK). This includes consideration of teacher education and training before and during the current global COVID-19 pandemic (UNESCO, 2020). The paper concludes that teacher education continues to be under scrutiny due to global and national expectations, the demand of and how they are positioned in preparing teachers for the 21st century. Notwithstanding, as globalisation becomes more integrated in societies globally teacher education curricula not only has to retain its emphasis on standards, but equally its agility to ensure that the needs of all learners are met.

This paper is a critical systematic literature review of empirical work on creative pedagogies from 1990 to 2018. It responds to the increased international attention being afforded creativity and creative pedagogies in research, policy and practice and examines the evidence regarding creative pedagogical practices and the potential impact of these on students' creativity. The methodology encompassed four stages. Firstly, an educational database keyword search was undertaken and 801 papers identified, manual searches added 12 further papers. Secondly, through applying inclusion/exclusion criteria, 89 papers were identified for closer scrutiny; these papers focused on students aged 0-18 years in formal educational settings and were peer-reviewed reports of empirical work. Thirdly, these papers were subjected to in-depth review and rating, this reduced the included selection to 35 papers. Finally, these papers were subject to further analysis and synthesis. The findings reveal that seven interrelated features characterise creative pedagogical practice, namely generating and exploring ideas; encouraging autonomy and agency; playfulness; problem-solving; risk-taking; co-constructing and collaborating; and teacher creativity. The paper also reveals that the evidence for the impact of these pedagogical practices on students' creativity is inconclusive. It highlights the complexities and challenges of documenting creative pedagogies in the years of formal schooling and concludes with key recommendations and implications for research, policy and practice.

Modern medicine has developed a number of technologies to observe, diagnose, and intervene in the human body. Medical technologies make bodies visible by number and form. Many historians have studied how such medical technologies as the stethoscope, pulse meter, cardiograph, and thermometer were invented and subsequently influenced societies. However, recent historians have turned their attention to the technology-in-practice to show a unidirectional history intertwined by devices, clinicians, and users. This paper aims to follow this line of study by focusing on a history of clinical thermometry inmodern Britain and Japan. First, it surveys secondary works on medical technologies in history and explores how clinical thermometers were invented, improved, sold, and consumed in two distinct cultures in Britain and Japan. It argues that clinical thermometry was used for consumers' own sakes, for example, performing a gender role and dreading influenza, and also framed by such external factors as war and pandemics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With climate change, many cultural landscapes will be lost or permanently altered. One approach to managing this is through international designation, through UNESCO, and the focus that it provides. National designations such as National Park status also offer a set of strategies for managing and adapting. This paper explores landscape designations in Japan and the UK focusing on the UNESCO World Heritage List. It is suggested that the UK's dualistic governmental structures for landscapes prioritise some attributes over others. This is examined through the recent inscription of the Lake District as a World Heritage Property and counterpointed through looking at the recent Landscape Review also known as the Glover Report. A case study on a Japanese approach to landscape designation is explored to suggest alternative approaches. Both country's relationship with international designation is discussed. Methodologies and theoretical approaches are examined with the conclusion that landscape change and loss are dealt with in Japan differently and arguably more effectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper employs narrative research methods to provide new theoretical and empirical insights into the role of individual agency in student migration. The paper begins with a theoretical exploration of agency in international migration, broadly conceived, and applies this to student migration specifically. This exploration emphasizes the strengths of a life-course perspective in analyzing the role of individual agency in student-migration journeys, as this perspective is sensitive to temporality. Following this approach, the paper offers a novel theoretical framework for analyzing student-migration, drawing on Emirbayer & Mische's (Emirbayer and Mische, American Journal of Sociology 103:962-1023, 1998) 'chordal triad' model of agency, and presents analysis of 18-months of narrative data collection with 26 international student-migrants in the UK and Japan. Interview data demonstrate how three agentive orientations--habit, imagination, and judgment--are each associated with specific tactics that individuals can use to navigate the challenging terrain of their student migration trajectories. Participants also exhibited changing agentive orientations over time. The results of this analysis indicate that the role of agency is dynamic within the education-migration nexus, changing in relation to: (1) the evolving relationship between individual student-migrants and their contexts, and (2) the simultaneous evolution of each individual's life-course project. In summary, while student-migrants are influenced by context, they also exhibit the capacity to evolve and adapt agentively in the pursuit of their goals.

Background/objectives: Sedentary behavior (SB), defined as sitting (nonexercising), reclining, and lying down (posture), or by low energy expenditure, is a public health risk independent to physical activity. The objective of this systematic literature review was to synthesize the available evidence on amount of SB reported by and measured in older adults. Data source: Studies published between 1981 and 2014 were identified from electronic databases and manual searching. Large-scale population studies/surveys reporting the amount of SB (objective/ subjective) in older adults aged ≥ 60 years of age were included. Appraisal and synthesis was completed using MOOSE guidelines. Results: 349,698 adults aged ≥ 60 within 22 studies (10 countries and 1 EU-wide) were included. Objective measurement of SB shows that older adults spend an average of 9.4 hr a day sedentary, equating to 65-80% of their waking day. Self-report of SB is lower, with average weighted self-reports being 5.3 hr daily. Within specific domains of SB, older adults report 3.3 hr in leisure sitting time and 3.3 hr watching TV. There is an association with more time spent in SB as age advances and a trend for older men to spend more time in SB than women. Conclusion/ implications: Time spent sedentary ranges from 5.3-9.4 hr per waking day in older adults. With recent studies suggesting a link between SB, health, and well-being, independent of physical activity, this is an area important for successful aging. Limitations: Different methodologies of measurement and different reporting methods of SB made synthesis difficult. Estimated SB time from self-report is half of that measured objectively; suggesting that most self-report surveys of SB will vastly underestimate the actual time spent in SB. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article provides an analysis of the economic cost incurred by the world through the use of the fiat international reserve currency since the end of the 1971 gold standard system. The article uses the Quantity Theory of Money to provide an empirical manifestation of how reserve currency yields income to its issuing country through the provision of an inflation buffer, which is equivalent to what the article frames as an imperial rent of reserve currency. The article then provides a method to estimate the cumulative quantity of this rent by using data on the broad money supply, nominal GDP, and world total official foreign exchange holdings of the currency of the country in question. The article estimates that the quantity of the imperial rent of reserve currency that accrued to the four major reserve currency-issuing states (US, Euro area, UK, Japan) from the end of the gold standard until the end of 2021, which was accumulated through the official channel only, is of a value equivalent to 11.1 trillion USD, 71 % of this amount went to the US singly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is an urgent need to expand the scale and scope of refugee resettlement schemes, and yet country approaches to resettlement vary markedly and there is little cross-country learning from approaches and refugee experiences. In Japan, resettlement focuses on economic self-sufficiency through employment; whereas the UK, through Community Sponsorship volunteers, on providing social connections to facilitate integration. This paper explores the strengths and short-comings of each approach and examines the ways in which refugee resettlement programmes prioritising different integration domains might influence refugee experiences of integration more widely. Drawing on principles and domains set out in the Indicators of Integration Framework (Ndofor-Tah, C. Strang, A. Phillimore, J. Morrice, L., Michael, L., Wood, P., Simmons, J. (2019) Home Office Indicators of Integration framework 2019), insight is provided into the multi-dimensionality of integration and new understandings about the nature of social connections are offered. The findings highlight the context specific nature of integration policy and practice and underline the importance of a holistic approach. We conclude that resettlement initiatives might incorporate both employers and local communities working in collaboration to support newly arrived refugees but with some state involvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a compilation of personal reflections from 66 contributors on the impact of, and responses to, COVID-19 in accounting education in 45 different countries around the world. It reveals a commonality of issues, and a variability in responses, many positive outcomes, including the creation of opportunities to realign learning and teaching strategies away from the comfort of traditional formats, but many more that are negative, primarily relating to the impact on faculty and student health and well-being, and the accompanying stress. It identifies issues that need to be addressed in the recovery and redesign stages of the management of this crisis, and it sets a new research agenda for studies in accounting education.

Background: Pre‐implantation genetic testing (PGT) has been performed worldwide since it was first used by Handyside et al in the United Kingdom to sex embryos in 1990. Until about 2010, cleavage stage embryo biopsy and fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) were mainstream; however, in 2012, blastocyst biopsy (trophectoderm; TE biopsy) became mainstream. In addition, array comparative genomic hybridization (aCGH) was used for analysis and further evolved to next‐generation sequencing (NGS), which is used worldwide. Methods: PGT for reciprocal balanced translocation and Robertsonian translocation (PGT‐SR) was approved in Japan for habitual abortion to reduce pregnancy loss, and since 2008, we have been performing PGT‐SR using cleavage stage embryos and FISH. In 2014, we performed TE biopsy and NGS analysis. Main findings: In this paper, I separately described the details of our methods and clinical results of FISH and NGS. NGS is superior to FISH because it can detect all chromosomes. Conclusion: TE biopsy and NGS, which have recently become mainstream, have stable outcomes, because TE biopsy yields more cells and fewer mosaics than the cleavage stage. As a result, diagnoses are more reliable, resulting in higher pregnancy rates and lower abortion rates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Throughout the 1900s, Britain and Japan enjoyed a close diplomatic relationship that was best exemplified by their alliance of twenty years (1903–1923). Cultural ties during this period though were more distant. Despite this complex relationship, British film distributors were active in Japan during the 1910s. However, their competiveness would weaken to the extent that they were eventually displaced by the Hollywood studios by the 1920s. Against this backdrop, Anglo-Japanese relations also became more distant following the end of World War I. The common perception is that the political situation related to the war had a significant impact on the decline of Europe's film industries. This paper examines the factors behind the British film industry's struggles in Japan that seem to correlate with the final chapter of the close political relationship in the late 1910s. It will show that actually the post-World War I political environment had little impact upon the decline of the British presence in the Japanese film market. Rather it was industrial factors ranging from changes in film distribution to the quality of films produced that limited the opportunities for British film companies. Such findings have important implications for Europe's film industries today who are confronted by Hollywood's dominance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper offers an account of the historic and ongoing international interchange between Britain and Japan in the field of progressive education. Concentrating on the last half-century, it takes two reference points from Roy Lowe’s writings in 1977 and 2006. Eveline Lowe Primary was a newly built model progressive school when documented by him in a seminal work on school architecture, later becoming a key point of interest for Japanese educationists. The British educational policy context against which this exchange of ideas and practices occurred was later documented by Lowe in a major book. Contemporaneous debates and events within Japanese society and government meanwhile provided the impetus for networks of research and transmission of progressive practices. The most recent turn in the narrative presented here demonstrates Japanese support for independent progressive practice continuing in the UK. Responding to an extensive historical research literature on transnational migration of educational ideals and practices this paper constitutes a micro-study that draws on personal memory, oral testimony, records of classroom observation on site and by means of video-conferencing, in addition to more formal documentation of conference proceedings and policy-making. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Entrepreneurial ecosystems are the focus of government economic policies around the world for their potential to generate entrepreneur-led economic development. The paper identifies key research questions and challenges to building effective public policy: (i) the limitations of existing data sources, (ii) the need to balance findings from quantitative and qualitative studies, (iii) the danger that entrepreneurial ecosystems will be just a policy fad, (iv) the narrow focus of policy and research on high tech firms and scale-ups, and (v) the need to balance research approaches between simplified models and a complex systems approach. There is a need for a better understanding of the diversity of policy contexts (level of government, country context) and model of ecosystem governance. A more granulated understanding of ecosystem thinking is required, with greater consideration of the diversity of actors and the institutional context, with more attention given to the heterogeneous nature of places and complex interactions between actors and networks. Looking to the future, the potential of new data sources and methodologies is identified. Future research should give greater consideration to the institutional context to understand how policy can better support entrepreneurial activity and the extent to which specific policies can be replicated elsewhere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It has been claimed that, for dynamic investment strategies, the simple act of rebalancing a portfolio can be a source of additional performance, sometimes referred to as the volatility pumping effect or the diversification bonus because volatility and diversification turn out to be key drivers of the portfolio performance. Stochastic portfolio theory suggests that the portfolio excess growth rate, defined as the difference between the portfolio expected growth rate and the weighted-average expected growth rate of the assets in the portfolio, is an important component of this additional performance (see Fernholz [Stochastic Portfolio Theory, 2002 (Springer)]). In this context, one might wonder whether maximizing a portfolio excess growth rate would lead to an improvement in the portfolio performance or risk-adjusted performance. This paper provides a thorough empirical analysis of the maximization of an equity portfolio excess growth rate in a portfolio construction context for individual stocks. In out-of-sample empirical tests conducted on individual stocks from 4 different regions (US, UK, Eurozone and Japan), we find that portfolios that maximize the excess growth rate are characterized by a strong negative exposure to the low volatility factor and a higher than 1 exposure to the market factor, implying that such portfolios are attractive alternatives to competing smart portfolios in markets where the low volatility anomaly does not hold (e.g. in the UK, or in rising interest rate scenarios) or in bull market environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we analyze the relationship between unconventional monetary policy (UMP), measured through shadow interest rates, and housing markets for the USA, the United Kingdom, Japan, and the Euro Area using a set of time-varying parameter vector autoregressive models. Our findings suggest that the monetary policy transmission mechanism to the housing market has not changed with the implementation of quantitative easing or forward guidance for most economies considered. A counterfactual exercise provides some evidence that UMP has been particularly successful in dampening the consequences of the financial crisis on housing markets in the USA, while the effects are more muted in the remaining countries considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Classical business cycles, following Burns and Mitchell (1946), can be defined as the sequential pattern of expansions and contractions in aggregate economic activity. Recently, Harding and Pagan (2002, 2006) have provided an econometric toolkit for the analysis of these cycles, and this has resulted in a recent surge in researchers using these methods to analyze developing country business cycles. However, the existing literature consists of diminutive samples, and the majority of the studies fail to consider the statistical significance of the concordance statistics. To address this shortfall, this paper examines the business cycle characteristics and synchronicity for thirty-two developing countries. Furthermore, the United States, United Kingdom, and Japan are included. This provides benchmarks upon which to compare the characteristics of the developing country cycles and also to examine the degree of synchronization between developed and developing countries. Significantly, this research reveals that business cycles of developing countries are not, as previously believed, significantly shorter than those of the developed countries. However, the amplitude of both expansion and contraction phases tends to be greater in the developing countries. Furthermore, a clear relationship is exhibited between the timing of business cycle fluctuations and periods of significant regional crises, such as the Asian financial crisis. However, the more specific timing of the onset of these fluctuations appears to be determined by country-specific factors. Moreover, there are no clear patterns of concordance either within regions or between developed and developing country business cycles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the UK and Japan, midwives provide health services for women with concerns about a genetic condition or who are considering antenatal screening. In both countries, competences related to genetic health care have been devised but there is little evidence about midwifery competence in practice. A systematic literature review was undertaken to determine the extent to which midwives are achieving the genetic competences that are prescribed for their practice. English and Japanese literature from January 1999 to March 2009 was retrieved. Original studies or reviews, in which an aspect of midwifery practice was related to genetic competences, were eligible for inclusion. After a critical appraisal, six UK and five Japanese papers were eligible for inclusion. The findings indicated that midwives are not achieving the competences, nor are they confident about their genetics knowledge. Moreover, women are not being supported to make informed decisions regarding antenatal screening. We have confirmed that little research is being undertaken in both countries regarding competency achievement in practice. Changes to midwifery curricula and further continuing education are required to ensure that midwives are able to provide effective care regarding genetics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The global community, from UNESCO to NGOs, is committed to promoting the status of women in science, engineering and technology, despite long-held prejudices and the lack of role models. Previously, when equality was not firmly established as a key issue on international or national agendas, women's colleges played a great role in mentoring female scientists. However, now that a concerted effort has been made by governments, the academic community and the private sector to give women equal opportunities, the raison d'être of women's universities seems to have become lost. This paper argues otherwise, by demonstrating that women's universities in Japan became beneficiaries of government initiatives since the early 2000s to reverse the low ratio of women in scientific research. The paper underscores the importance of the reputation of women's universities embedded in their institutional foundations, by explaining how female scientific communities take shape in different national contexts. England, as a primary example of a neoliberal welfare regime, with its strong emphasis on equality and diversity, promoted its gender equality policy under the auspices of the Department of Trade and Industry. By contrast, with a strong emphasis on family values and the male-breadwinner model, the Japanese government carefully treated the goal of supporting female scientists from the perspective of the equal participation of both men and women rather than that of equality. Following this trend, rather contradictorily, women's universities, with their tradition of fostering a 'good wife, wise mother' image, began to be highlighted as potential gender-free institutions that provided role models and mentoring female scientists. By drawing on the cases of England and Japan, this paper demonstrates how the idea of equality can be framed differently, according to wider institutional contexts, and how this idea impacts on gender policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to characterize the distribution of extreme returns for US, UK and Japanese equity indices over the years 1963–2000. In particular, the suitability of the following distributions is investigated: Normal, Frechet, Gumbel, Weibull, Generalized Extreme Value (GEV), Generalized Pareto and Generalized Logistic (GL). Daily returns were obtained for each of the countries, and the minima over a variety of selection intervals were calculated. Plots of higher moment statistics for the minima on statistical distribution maps suggested that the best fitting distribution would be either the GEV or the GL. The results from fitting each of these distributions to extremes of a series of US, UK and Japanese share returns supported the preliminary evidence that the GL distribution best fitted the data in all three countries over the period of study. The GL distribution has fatter tails than the GEV distribution; hence this finding is of importance to investors who are concerned with assessing the risk of a portfolio. The paper highlights the important finance implications and in particular the potential for underestimation of risk if distributions without fat enough tails are employed. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper empirically analyses the stability of the aggregate import demand function for G7 countries. The standard cointegration test and a test developed by Gregory and Hansen are performed. The results of standard cointegration tests suggest that there is no stable cointegrating relation between real import, real GDP and relative import price for all G7 countries. The cointegrating relation is empirically supported for France and Germany if structural change for cointegrating vector is explicitly taken into consideration. The cointegrating relation is empirically rejected for Canada, Italy, Japan, the UK and the USA. Thus, the stimulation of domestic business conditions will not necessarily link the quantity of imports for these five countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Countries have been shown to be competitive in specific industries. This paper contends that this industrial specialization can be understood in terms of an affinity between national 'models of capitalism' and the characteristics of industrial task environments. Put differently, industry-specific competitiveness is conceived to arise out of a fit between patterns of national business systems and patterns of industrial task environments. Specifically, the paper will propose a relationship between the communitarian or individualistic nature of national business systems and the organization-specificity of knowledge in an industry. More communitarian business systems are thought to enjoy a competitive advantage in industries with a high organization-specificity of knowledge, i.e. in industries that rely more on the long-term accumulation of organization-specific knowledge within tightly-knit corporate communities. More individualistic business systems, on the other hand, are thought to enjoy a competitive advantage in industries with a low organization-specificity of knowledge, i.e. in industries that thrive more on the speedy dissemination or reallocation of company-unspecific knowledge through a constant reconfiguration of social relationships. The paper will offer some illustrations of these proposed relationships in terms of the competitive profiles of the United States, Japan, Germany and Britain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relationship between money growth and inflation is a topic of debate among macroeconomists. This paper contributes to the empirical literature on the money‐inflation pass‐through using a Nonlinear Auto‐Regressive Distributed Lag model (NARDL) for three countries (the U.S., U.K. and Japan) over an estimation period spanning 1950Q1 to 2014Q4. This methodology allows for empirical tests of short‐ and long‐run asymmetric responses of inflation to both positive and negative shocks affecting money growth of three monetary aggregates (M1, M2, M0). The results reveal that inflation responds asymmetrically to monetary shocks in the long‐run for all three countries. Robustness tests are also undertaken by carrying out the Hatemi‐J (Empirical Economics, Vol. 43 (2012), pp. 447–456) causality test and splitting the sample period into two, before and after the financial crisis. The findings indicate the existence of a relation between money growth and inflation in the post‐crisis period only in the case of the U.K. When we use different break points, we find that the symmetric relationship more likely occurs in the post‐crisis period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses several reports published within issue on topics related to constitutional law in Japan and Great Britain.

This paper reports on the transfer of Japanese supervisory practices to their Great Britain-based Japanese transplants and to the Great Britain-based emulators. To this end the paper is divided into three further sections. The first section briefly reviewing the state-of-the-debate on Japanization: was it a 'straw man' debate, is it yesterday's news or does it still retain some saliency? The second section will provide a context for the study of supervisory systems and the third will provide the results of a recent empirical study, before conclusions are drawn.

This paper assesses the transferability of a Japanese form of manufacturing organization to an alien institutional environment - the Principality of Wales in the UK. After characterizing what we mean by a 'Japanese form of manufacturing organization' and the arrival of Japanese companies in Wales, we describe the forms of organization, day-to-day management and working practices which have been established. Our conclusion is that the Japanese form of manufacturing organization has been re-created on Welsh soil, and that any 'adaptations' are not such as to alter the fundamental features of the new organizational form. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces new models for comparing several social mobility tables that provide various one-degree-of-freedom tests for two mobility tables on substantively meaningful structural components. These components include differences between mobility tables in (1) the strength of off-diagonal associations, (2) the strength of diagonal effects, and (3) the extent of structural mobility. Most of the models in this paper use association models and the Sobel-Hout-Duncan model but are specifically formulated to analyze three-way tables that have either nations or periods as the third dimension. American, British, and Japanese mobility tables are compared. Together, they show that equality of occupational opportunity is larger for the United States than for Great Britain, that Japan's mobility structure is closer to quasi-independence than that of the two other nations, and that Japan's mobility structure became more like that of the United States in 1975 rather than in 1955. These analyses also demonstrate that comparative mobility research based on indexing mobility has strong limitations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this review study was to conduct a thematic exploration of prior studies related to the transition between primary and secondary school. The aim of the paper was to discover (1) the extent of earlier research, (2) how earlier research thematises social and emotional issues, and (3) suggestions of those studies concerning how to improve schools. Searches were conducted across four international databases of peer-reviewed research to identify articles published in the last decade on the topic 'transition between primary and secondary school'. Articles related to social and emotional issues were further selected, and thematic analysis was conducted on the selected 29 articles to identify the topical focus. This review study draws attention to the importance of understanding challenges related to the transition between primary and secondary school. Overall, the analysed studies indicate that this is an important focus for educational research. Key issues related to support and wellbeing/bullying have emerged, which clarify the importance of further research in this field. The present study may also contribute to increasing awareness among policy makers and school leaders of the challenges related to the transition between primary and secondary school.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the legal issues of simultaneous Internet transmission of broadcasting programs of the Open University of Japan (OUJ) and to take legal measures to promote the mutual utilization of open university courses in Japan, the UK, China and Korea. Design/methodology/approach: The author examines the legal relationship regarding Internet simultaneous distribution of broadcast courses at the OUJ. The author then considers the legal relationship between the UK, China and South Korea regarding the simultaneous transmission of broadcast courses over the internet. Based on that consideration, this paper clarifies legal measures to promote its utilization. Findings: Internet transmission of broadcasting courses will be webcasting. Arguably, it can be assumed to be streaming and on-demand, albeit controversial. Webcasting will be publicly transmitted, but there is only an on-demand provision for Internet transmission. As webcasting is streaming and on-demand, it involves reproduction of broadcasting courses. Therefore, webcasting needs to provide streaming provision for public transmission rights and associate them with reproduction right. Originality/value: The originality of this paper lies in clarifying the legal response of the object, subject and rights of webcasting from the perspective of the OUJ, in order to dispel legal problems that may arise in the future against this unexplored phenomenon. Additionally, this paper is valuable in that it presents legal consistency from the point of view of the comparative laws of Japan, the UK, China and South Korea, based on an examination of the legal response in Japan.

This paper is one of two that bring together a range of education scholars to consider how education might be for democracy in a time of complex challenges facing twenty-first century societies. In this paper, scholars from Australia, Japan and the United Kingdom consider how sites of formal and informal education can respond to multiple unfolding crises, including the COVID-19 global pandemic, catastrophic climate change and ecological collapse, political upheaval, and growing social and economic inequality. What emerges is a wide-ranging set of reflections that engage with these complexities and challenges in a considered and hopeful way.

The ability to identify which factors best capture systematic return covariation is central to applications of multifactor pricing models. This paper uses a common data set to evaluate the performance of various proposed factors in capturing return comovements. Factors associated with the market, size, past return, book-to-market, and dividend yield help explain return comovement on an out-of-sample basis (although they are not necessarily associated with large premiums in average returns). Except for the default premium and the term premium, macroeconomic factors perform poorly. We document regularities in the behavior of the more important factors, and confirm their influence in the Japanese and U.K. markets as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]