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This study focuses on the relationship between fandom and well-being. Fandom refers to the act of endorsing something, whether it is a person or a nonperson such as an artist, game character, or specific brand. In other words, fandom can be seen as the ultimate customer engagement. Previous study has suggested that customer-brand engagement contributes to improved customer well-being with the concept of flourishing. This study provides quantitative support for this finding by surveying those involved in fandoms. Under the COVID-19 pandemic conditions, people were subjected to various behavioral restrictions. Entertainment was deemed unnecessary, and various events had to be canceled or scaled back. However, fans supported their favorites in a variety of ways and in turn found fulfillment and happiness through such activities. In the long run, the act would have contributed to the improvement of the fans’ own well-being. This study presents a way of value co-creation between the supporters and the recipients that can be paraphrased as that between a customer and brand.

To build relationships with customers, sustainable engagements are crucial. Ostensibly, firm profits are derived from customers’ financial contributions; in addition, their non-financial contributi...

Since 2020, we have faced drastic changes in our lives due to the pandemic. This caused a big paradigm shift in working styles. Parallel careers or multiple jobs are getting more common, and people are ascertaining their own competencies. The utilization of personal knowledge will continue to accelerate and this study sheds light on its societal value; the other side of sharing economy. Aoki (2021) revealed that participation in knowledge sharing has a significant positive impact on contributors’ well-being. Those findings are more pertinent as utilization of personal knowledge increases under the ongoing paradigm shift in work style, and the expansion of C-to-C business. However, the reason for the correlation between knowledge sharing and well-being has not been identified. Thus, this study explores this issue by carefully examining knowledge-sharing contributors and their experiences. Finally, this study finds that contributors increased their well-being by deepening their knowledge and experience via competitive co-creation. Furthermore, their concerns shifted towards passing on their knowledge and experience to the next generation. Stakeholders of this study’s results are those who utilize personal knowledge. For example, policymakers who wish to shed light on people with hidden potential, managers of knowledge-sharing platforms, such as crowdsourcing, marketing managers who collaborate with consumers, employers who wish to motivate their employees, and so on.

The advent of the internet has increased the means by which consumers can make positive contributions to enhance brand value. There are many significant benefits associated with building sustainable relationships with customers, especially if it becomes possible to forge connections with individuals to build acommunity or ecosystem through which customers interact with each other. Associate Professor Kei Aoki, based within the Hirao School of Management at Konan University in Japan, is carrying out research to understand customer engagement with brands, with a specific focus on customer-to-customer relationships and how they have an effect on participants' wellbeing.

This research studies the relationship between well-being and knowledge sharing. While user innovation has garnered greater attention in recent years, the market has failed to properly incentivize the diffusion of user innovations. This study proposes that this shortcoming could be resolved through a consumer-to-consumer (C-to-C) marketplace and sheds light on non-financial benefits for the contributors, specifically, how knowledge sharing impacts contributor well-being. This research consists of two online survey studies. In both studies, the level of well-being was compared between knowledge sharing contributors and a control group using a scale developed in positive psychology. This study empirically shows that participation in knowledge sharing has a significant positive impact on contributor well-being. In a C-to-C marketplace, contributors diffuse and monetize their creations themselves, resulting in increased well-being. Contributing to knowledge sharing may be a sufficient incentive for user innovators to diffuse their innovations. The findings of this study will gain significance as the utilization of personal knowledge increases due to the expansion of the C-to-C business and the paradigm shift in work style.

In the digital era, there are several consumer touchpoints and some of them, such as word of mouth, occur even if they are not intended by the firms. Conversation among customers has become one of ...

Water application has been used widely and considered as one of the most reliable fire extinguisher systems. Although Actual Delivered Density (ADD) is a vital property to evaluate its performance that fire can be suppressed when the value of ADD is higher than that of Required Delivered Density (RDD). It is still unclear how to accurately estimate the amount of water penetrated through flames, which is essential to calculate ADD. The purpose of this study is to assess the influential factors of ADD and to establish proper evaluation criteria of water application. To this end, a series of experiments were conducted to measure the effects of a fire source on the amount of spraying water delivered by water application. The variable parameters include the type of head, the height between head and fire source (later, spraying height), the dimensions of the fire source, and the heat release rate. The experimental results show that the spraying height and the nozzle characteristics can dramatically influence the water penetration ratio. Furthermore, when JJXP060 was within 0.5 m spraying height, the ADDs were significantly affected by the scale of the fire source. Large-scale fire source scenarios were also simulated using Fire Dynamics Simulator (FDS). It shows that the ratio of the ADD with a fire source to the ADD without a fire source, directly below a nozzle at 3 m height, is within 10%, and its value does not decrease as the scale of fire increases. Lastly, a simple predictive model was calibrated experimentally, which can serve as a tool to estimate the amount of water penetrated through flames.

Glycans, including glycosphingolipids, are broadly expressed in plasma membranes and play important roles in cell-cell interactions. Recently, it has been revealed that glycans participate in the regulation of malignant phenotypes of cancer cells, e.g. growth and invasion. However, their roles in irradiation-tolerant cancer cells have not yet been elucidated. In this study, we show that specific glycosphingolipids are highly expressed in invasive, irradiation-tolerant lung cancer cells. Particularly, the glycosphingolipid GM2 contributes to the development of an invasive phenotype in these lung cancer cells. Our results suggest that glycosphingolipids, including GM2, are implicated in the regulation of invasiveness in irradiation-tolerant lung cancer cells and may therefore serve as potential therapeutic targets for lung cancers following radiotherapy.Key words: glycosphingolipids, GM2, invasion, lung cancer cells, radiotherapy.

Aim Hepatitis A virus (HAV) is the most common cause of infectious hepatitis worldwide. Although hepatitis A cases imported from South-East Asian countries, including the Philippines, have been reported in Japan, the molecular epidemiological data have been limited for these HAV-endemic countries. Methods The full-length genomic sequences of HAV isolates were determined and subjected to the phylogenetic analyses. Results The HAV isolates (HA12-0796 and HA12-0938) obtained from two Japanese patients who developed acute hepatitis A in July 2012, 1 month after traveling to the Philippines, where they consumed undercooked shellfish, differed by only one nucleotide (nt) over the entire genome. These HAV isolates of genotype IA were 99.1–99.5% identical within 228–237 nt to those recovered from river water in the Philippines, suggesting that the HA12-0796 and HA12-0938 isolates represent HAV circulating in the Philippines. HAV isolates belonging to one of the two IA sublineages (IA-2) which were implicated in some of the mini-epidemics in 2010 in Japan are hypothesized to be connected with the Philippines. In support of this speculation, the present IA isolates (HA12-0796 and HA12-0938) shared 98.8% identity over the entire genome with one IA-2 isolate (HAJIH-Fukuo10) recovered from a Japanese female who developed a domestic HAV infection during the mini-epidemics. In the phylogenetic tree constructed based on the entire genome, these three isolates (HA12-0796, HA12-0938 and HAJIH-Fukuo10) segregated into a cluster with a bootstrap value of 100%. Conclusion These results indicate that HAV isolates belonging to the IA-2 lineage might have been imported from the Philippines.

The aim of this study was to determine the feasibility of cine magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for diagnosing strangulated small bowel obstruction (SBO).This study included 38 patients with clinically confirmed SBO who had undergone cine MRI. Cine MRI scans were evaluated regarding the presence of the "peristalsis gap sign" (referring to an akinetic or severely hypokinetic closed loop), indicating strangulation. Computed tomography (CT) was performed in 34 of 38 patients with (n = 25) or without (n = 9) contrast enhancement. CT images were evaluated using a combination of criteria (presence of hyperattenuation, poor contrast enhancement, mesenteric edema, wall thickening, massive ascites) indicating strangulation. Sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), and negative predictive value (NPV) of cine MRI and CT for the diagnosis of strangulation were calculated and compared using surgical findings and the clinical course as the reference standard.Sensitivity, specificity, PPV, and NPV of cine MRI were 100%, 92.9%, 83.3%, and 100%, respectively; and those of CT (of which 26.5% was performed without contrast enhancement) were 66.7%, 92.0%, 75.0%, and 88.5%, respectively. There was no significant difference in diagnostic accuracy between the two methods (P = 0.375).Cine MRI is a feasible and promising technique for diagnosing strangulation.

Background: Endoscopic mucosal resection (EMR) is effective treatment for mucosal gastric neoplasm. Endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD), a novel EMR method, has been reported to enable en bloc resection more frequently than conventional EMR methods such as strip biopsy (SB). However, ESD requires more time than SB. A small lesion can be resected en bloc and effectively treated with SB. Goal: To evaluate using a 15 mm resection area as the dividing line between SB and ESD prospectively. Study: SB was applied for resection area less than 15mm (SB group) and ESD for 15 mm or larger resection (ESD group). We compared characteristics of lesions and outcomes of EMR between the 2 groups. Results: Ninety lesions were prospectively assigned to SB group (36 lesions) and ESD group (54 lesions). The average neoplasm size was 9.0 ± 3.9 mm in the SB group and 19.1 ± 11.3mm in the ESD group (P

BACKGROUND: It has been reported that inhibitors of gastric acid secretion prevent bleeding after endoscopic mucosal resection for mucosal gastric neoplasm. However, uncertain whether an histamine2-receptor antagonist or proton-pump inhibitor is more effective. AIM: To evaluate prospectively the effectiveness of famotidine or omeprazole for ulcer management after endoscopic mucosal resection. METHODS: From July 2003 to October 2004, 57 patients were randomly assigned to famotidine or omeprazole for the management of endoscopic mucosal resection. Both drugs were given intravenously for the first 2 days, thereafter by mouth. The bleeding rates after endoscopic mucosal resection, the effects on the healing of endoscopic mucosal resection-induced ulceration, and cost-benefits were compared. RESULTS: Twenty-eight patients received famotidine and 29 received omeprazole. No significant difference was observed between the two groups in patient characteristics. The bleeding rates after endoscopic mucosal resection were not significantly different (18% vs. 14%) between the groups. Similarly, no differences were seen in the size of the endoscopic mucosal resection-induced ulceration at 1, 30 and 60 days after resection between groups. The total costs of anti-secretory agents demonstrated a significant cost-benefit to those treated with famotidine (10,420 yen vs. 17,782 yen). CONCLUSIONS: Famotidine is suggested as a better alternative to omeprazole for the management of endoscopic mucosal resection, as it showed a clear cost-benefit, and the healing results after endoscopic mucosal resection were similar for the two treatment strategies.

In the distributed systems in which information cannot be exchanged directly among agents, we deal with problems of deciding how each agent holds the shared resource. To achieve a lot of tasks greedily, agents tend to attempt to hold the resources for a long term. However the system performance decreases consequentially because it competes with the processing of other agents' tasks. To acquire cooperative policies that avoid above competition, we formulate the shared resource problems to multi-criteria decision making problems with the priority level by using the domain knowledge. We propose autonomous distributed control using distributed reinforcement learning that narrows the choice of action space by using the α-domination strategy based on value functions for the performance and the cooperation. The proposed method is applied to the distributed database systems, and simulation results shows that our method acquires cooperative policies and improves the throughput performance of the system.

This paper describes the optimization of hip joint characteristics of a hip disarticulation prosthesis. We attempted to optimize the characteristics for improved ability to walk using our passive walking model, which can walk by utilizing mechanical properties of rigid body segments and joint resistance.In order to understand how the hip disarticulation prosthesis gait is performed, we interviewed two hip disarticulation prosthesis users. The interviews showed that practical gait in daily life is different from the gait at a training stage. These two types of gaits were named “practical gait” and “training gait.” Users indicated that the training gait velocity was slower than that of the practical gait. Moreover, in the practical gait the heel contact on the prosthesis side was more natural in comparison with the training gait.Gait measurements showed that the lumbar angle pattern has rapid extension and lateral bending involving the swing prosthesis in training gait. Step length on the sound side is in agreement despite the different types of gait. In practical gait, step length on the sound side agrees with that on the prosthesis side. Gait velocity in practical gait compared with training gait was 28% faster with subject 1 and 7% faster with subject 2. Therefore, practical gait has an improved gait velocity by swinging the prosthesis, as step length on each side is the same. Motion of prosthesis is achieved not by sound lower extremities but by lumbar flexion, extension, and lateral bending. Furthermore, practical gait reduces lumbar motion as much as possible, and reduces muscle force around the lumbar area.We developed a passive swing model by applying the above characteristics. This model is composed of eight rigid segments: upper torso, pelvis, upper extremities, thigh, shank-foot. Each joint has passive resistance by ligament. The sound hip and lumbar joint have active moments by muscle, which were obtained from measurement. The objective function for practical gait is defined by the following parameters: (1) difference of each step length, (2) amplitude of active moments, (3) difference of cycles between gait patterns and active moments. As these parameters are minimized, postures of segments, translational velocity, angular velocities and cycle, and amplitude of active moment are recorded. In comparison of subjects, calculated motion patterns on the prosthesis side were well in agreement, so this model is available to estimate hip joint characteristics.When this model simulates a condition of the current hip elastic characteristic weakened by half, the gait velocity is 6% faster and amplitude of lumbar lateral bending moment is reduced 26%. For this reason, weakening current elastic characteristics around the hip joint can easily control the swing of the prosthesis. As a result, adjustment of the hip elastic characteristic can improve the walk capability.

Background: Dieulafoy's lesion is an important cause of GI bleeding. The results of hemoclip application as the first treatment of choice for Dieulafoy's lesions have not been reported. This study prospectively examined the short- and long-term outcomes of hemoclip application for Dieulafoy's lesions. Methods: The study was conducted over a 7-year period beginning in January 1995 during which hemoclip application was used as the first-choice hemostatic treatment for Dieulafoy's lesions. Clinical data, endoscopic findings, and outcome of treatment were evaluated. Long-term outcome for patients was also investigated. Results: A Dieulafoy's lesion was diagnosed in 34 patients (27 men, 7 women; mean age, 54 years, range 21-81 years) after a mean of 1.2 endoscopies; 79.4% of the patients had active bleeding. Initial hemostasis was attained by hemoclip placement in 94.1%. The rate of recurrent bleeding was 9.3%. No patient required additional treatment such as surgery. The 30-day mortality rate was 2.9% (1 death, unrelated). For the remaining 33 patients, median follow-up was 53.8 months (range 19 to 90 months). Another Dieulafoy's lesion developed in one patient during follow-up, but in a different location compared with the index lesion. Conclusions: Endoscopic hemoclip application for Dieulafoy's lesions was effective and safe with short- and long-term benefits. (Gastrointest Endosc 2003;57:653-6.)

In this paper, we propose a new simulation-based Distributed Reinforcement Learning approach that solves large planning problems under uncertain environment. The proposed method is a distributed state-action representation for softening an interaction and reward design for making agents cooperate. We apply it to real sewerage control systems, as the problem with uncertainty. Simulation results show it finds good control rules, which can cope with various situations, by dealing with the uncertainty included in real data directly on a simulator based on real systems.

One of the most important aims of training for ballet is to reform the posture of the ballet dancer. A special training sandal is proposed by a dance supply maker as Figure 1. The sandal has higher...

The piezoelectric ceramics is embedded in the glass fiber reinforced plastics (GFRP) laminate. A dielectric sensor is also embedded in the GFRP laminate as a reference sensor for the degree of cure. The cure monitoring of the FRP by the piezoelectric ceramics in autoclave processing is experimentally demonstrated. The impedances of the piezoelectric ceramics have strong tempera-ture dependence. However, the impedances of the piezoelectric ceramics can be corrected to the temperature by the exponential function. Thus, the impedances of the piezoelectric ceramics at the non-resonance frequency are adopted as cure index of the GFRP laminate. The change of impedance at non-resonance frequency shows good correspondence with change of the log ion viscosity, which is measured by the dielectric cure monitoring sensor.

交差点やトソネル内におけるような低濃度NOの繊維状活性炭(ACF)による分離・濃縮に関連して,ACFのNO吸着除去特性を定電位電解方式NOセソサーを組み込んだ流通法・吸着試験により調べた..5PPmという低濃度のNO(空気あるいはN2中)は,入手した状態のままの未処理のACFによって常温で吸着できることがわかった.その際,試料ガスは乾燥することが不可欠であった.一方,大気中で加熱前処理したACFのNO吸着能は,PAN系ACFを除いて低かった.原料を異にする4種類のACFのNO吸着特性は異なり,PAN系ACFがもっとも良好なNO吸着能を示した.加熱処理してもNO吸着能を損なわない条件および加熱で低下したACFのNO吸着能を回復させる条件は,ACFがPAN系ACFであって,大気中,383KあるいはN2気流中,473Kで加熱処理をしたり,加熱処理のあと室内静置による吸湿を行う,といった限定されたものであった.NOを十分吸着したACFから加熱・脱離によって排出されるガス中にはNO2は少なく主としてNOであった.

Hepatitis A virus (HAV) is the most common cause of infectious hepatitis worldwide. Although hepatitis A cases imported from South-East Asian countries, including the Philippines, have been reported in Japan, the molecular epidemiological data have been limited for these HAV-endemic countries.The full-length genomic sequences of HAV isolates were determined and subjected to the phylogenetic analyses.The HAV isolates (HA12-0796 and HA12-0938) obtained from two Japanese patients who developed acute hepatitis A in July 2012, 1 month after traveling to the Philippines, where they consumed undercooked shellfish, differed by only one nucleotide (nt) over the entire genome. These HAV isolates of genotype IA were 99.1-99.5% identical within 228-237 nt to those recovered from river water in the Philippines, suggesting that the HA12-0796 and HA12-0938 isolates represent HAV circulating in the Philippines. HAV isolates belonging to one of the two IA sublineages (IA-2) which were implicated in some of the mini-epidemics in 2010 in Japan are hypothesized to be connected with the Philippines. In support of this speculation, the present IA isolates (HA12-0796 and HA12-0938) shared 98.8% identity over the entire genome with one IA-2 isolate (HAJIH-Fukuo10) recovered from a Japanese female who developed a domestic HAV infection during the mini-epidemics. In the phylogenetic tree constructed based on the entire genome, these three isolates (HA12-0796, HA12-0938 and HAJIH-Fukuo10) segregated into a cluster with a bootstrap value of 100%.These results indicate that HAV isolates belonging to the IA-2 lineage might have been imported from the Philippines.

優良系統豚を利用した良食味豚肉の開発に関する研究の中で, 豚肉の食味性について検討を試み, 官能検査に係わる以下の結果を得た。(1) 官能検査における豚肉の調理条件は, 厚さ2.5mmで一定とし, 試料の2倍量の1.5%食塩水を用いた時, 肉本来の味の判定がしやすいことが分かった。(2) 冷凍肉は解凍によって, 水分6～8%, タンパク質3～4%が失われ, 官能検査の「多汁性」に影響を与えた。(3) 肉は加熱調理により, 重量, 表面積は減少し, 厚さは増加したが, その程度はいずれも冷蔵に比べ冷凍の方が大となった。(4) 肉の硬さは加熱により3～4倍に増加したが, 冷凍は冷蔵より厚くなったにもかかわらず, 官能検査では「軟らかい」と評価された。(5) 肉の冷凍保存は官能検査に多くの影響を及ぼした。冷凍に際しては, 凍結, 包装, 保存温度など, 各条件を統一する必要がある。

Un styrene portant un groupe hydrolysat de la chitine est prepare et polymerise par voie radicalaire. Le polymere obtenu est soluble dans l'eau et le DMSO a une activite optique faible. La surface d'une boite de Petri en polystyrene devient mouillable par l'eau lorsqu'elle est traitee par une solution aqueuse du polymere

Recently, the use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug(NSAID) as an anti-inflammatory analgesic and antithrombotic has increased with the general aging of our society. Although it is understood that gastric mucosal injury is most-frequent side-effect of NSAID, there are actually a variety of mechanisms that NSAID has, some which are due to the depressed production of prostaglandin (PG). The main action of PG in the gastric mucosa is the regulation of gastric mucosa protecting mechanism and if PG is insufficient, the gastric mucosa is weakened. As endogenous PG decreases, there is a decrease in mucus production accompanied by a decrease in bicarbonate secretion, problems with, an increase of stomach motility, tissue restoration suppression and so on. As a result, it is considered that the defense mechanisms decrease and gastric mucosal injury occurs.