For genetic algorithms, it is important to maintain the population diversity. Some genetic algorithms have been proposed, which have an ability to control the diversity. But these algorithms use the distance between two individuals to control the diversity. Therefore, these performances become worse on ill-scaled functions. In this paper, we propose a new genetic algorithm, DIDC(a genetic algorithm with Distance Independent Diversity Control), that does not use a distance to control the population diversity. For controlling the diversity, DIDC uses two (...) GAs that have different natures. For realizing different natures, one GA uses a crossover operator as a search operator, and the other GA uses a mutation operator in DIDC. By applying DIDC to several benchmark problems, we show that DIDC has a good performance on high dimensional, multimodal, non-separable and ill-scaled problems. Finally, we show that the control parameter of DIDC has the same effect on the search with the number of generating children n c. (shrink)

There is an increasing emphasis on clear disclosure of conflict of interest in medical communities, following repeated scientific frauds in clinical trials. However, incomplete COI statements continue to be prevalent in the medical community, as appears to have occurred in the Capecitabine for Residual Cancer as Adjuvant Therapy trial, which was recently published in the New England Journal of Medicine. The authors of the article did not clearly report the roles of the Japan Breast Cancer Research Group, a sponsor and (...) funder of the study, although a majority of the Japanese authors served in important positions in the organization. Furthermore, the conflict of interest related to Chugai Pharmaceutical Company, a Japanese distributor of capecitabine, was not correctly disclosed. More transparent statements of conflict of interest and clarification of sponsors and funders’ roles, as well as rigorous review by academic journals are required to fairly interpret the findings of clinical trials, including and beyond the single case of the CREATE-X trial. (shrink)

In my view, human rights must find an appropriate philosophical foundation/justification to be incorporated into non-Western societies and such a foundation/justification must be attractive and inspiring for ordinary citizens in those societies and be based on their own intellectual resources, including local languages. In contemporary Japan, ‘KEN RI (??)’ is considered as the Japanese term corresponding to human rights. However, Fukuzawa Yukichi, the most influential intellectual leader of the early Meiji period, introduced human rights as ‘KEN RI TSUU GI (????)’. (...) The Chinese character ‘KEN (?)’, in the most fundamental text of Confucianism, the teachings of Confucius (551-479 B.C.), Analects, means being able to weigh occurring events and determine the application of principles to them. In the account of Tomonobu Imamichi, a Japanese philosopher, ‘GI (?)’, usually considered as justice, originally meant responsibility. Thus, ‘KEN RI TSUU GI (????)’ can be reinterpreted as being able to practically apply principles (?) to those events, while assuming responsibility (?) before Heaven and the community to which the person belongs. This view of humans as being embedded in communities and as centers of responsibility in the secular and transcendental dimensions is apparently different from the Western philosophical view of humans as rational beings with the capacity to act according to the universal law, but still defends human rights and the democratic development of society. Key words: human rights, philosophical foundation, Confucianism. (shrink)

In June 2017, Japanese and Korean authors published the results of the CREATE‐X trial in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM). After we identified their inadequate disclosures of Financial Conflict of Interests (FCOIs), the authors made a post‐publication correction of their FCOIs. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the accuracy of the post‐publication corrections by the Japanese authors of the CREATE‐X trial. All the Japanese authors of the CREATE‐X trial were included in the study. We determined the (...) payments received by these authors in 2016 using publicly available data published by 78 pharmaceutical companies based on the stipulated Japanese transparency guidelines. We retrieved the original and revised versions of the FCOI disclosures as published on the NEJM website, and compared the payments reported by the pharmaceutical companies and the original and revised FCOI disclosures of the authors. Of the 12 authors, nine received payments made by the drug manufacturer involved in the CREATE‐X trial. Of these nine, only three (33.3%) originally disclosed their relationships, and another three (33.3%) later disclosed such relationships in the post‐publication corrections. Similarly, of the 11 receiving at least one payment from other manufacturers of breast cancer products, none correctly disclosed the payments in the original or the revised disclosure. In the CREATE‐X trial, FCOIs with pharmaceutical companies were not properly disclosed by 11 of the 12 Japanese authors, even after the post‐publication corrections, which highlights the need to pay more attention to the accuracy of FCOI disclosures in academic publications. (shrink)

This paper presents a new argument to defend the normativity of meaning, specifically the thesis that there are no meanings without norms. The argument starts from the observation inferentialists have emphasized that incompatibility relations between sentences are a necessary part of meaning as it is understood. We motivate this approach by showing that the standard normativist strategy in the literature, which is developed in terms of veridical reference that may swing free from the speaker’s understanding, violates the ought-implies-can principle, but (...) ours does not. In addition, our approach is superior because, unlike the representationalist approach, it can be extended from declarative sentences to non-representational uses of language. In this paper, however, we only formulate the argument for the base case that involves incompatibility relations between declarative sentences. The goal is not to derive norms from something that is not normative, but to explicate the distinctive type of normativity that is built into meaning as it is understood by language-users. The explication proceeds in two steps. (1) For any sentence s a speaker understands, there is an incompatible sentence s’ the speaker understands to be incompatible with s. (2) In virtue of understanding this incompatibility of meanings, she ought not to be committed to both s and s’. This prohibition is not derived from instrumental practical reason, nor is it based on representational correctness, but its source is the incompatibility of meanings. (shrink)

Motivated by semantic inferentialism and logical expressivism proposed by Robert Brandom, in this paper, I submit a nonmonotonic modal relevant sequent calculus equipped with special operators, □ and R. The base level of this calculus consists of two different types of atomic axioms: material and relevant. The material base contains, along with all the flat atomic sequents (e.g., Γ0, p |~0 p), some non-flat, defeasible atomic sequents (e.g., Γ0, p |~0 q); whereas the relevant base consists of the local region (...) of such a material base that is sensitive to relevance. The rules of the calculus uniquely and conservatively extend these two types of nonmonotonic bases into logically complex material/relevant consequence relations and incoherence properties, while preserving Containment in the material base and Reflexivity in the relevant base. The material extension is supra-intuitionistic, whereas the relevant extension is stronger than a logic slightly weaker than R. The relevant extension also avoids the fallacies of relevance. Although the extended material consequence relation is defeasible and insensitive to relevance, it has local regions of indefeasibility and relevance (the latter of which is marked by the relevant extension). The newly introduced operators, □ and R, codify these local regions within the same extended material consequence relation. (shrink)

I present a sequent calculus that extends a nonmonotonic reflexive consequence relation as defined over an atomic first-order language without variables to one defined over a logically complex first-order language. The extension preserves reflexivity, is conservative (therefore nonmonotonic) and supraintuitionistic, and is conducted in a way that lets us codify, within the logically extended object language, important features of the base thus extended. In other words, the logical operators in this calculus play what Brandom (2008) calls expressive roles. Expressivist logical (...) systems have already been proposed for propositional logics (see Hlobil, 2016, and Kaplan, 2018) but not for first-order logics. An advantage of this calculus over standard first-order calculi (e.g., those in Gentzen, 1935/1964) is that universally quantified variables behave as they should even in the presence of arbitrary nonlogical axioms. I claim that because of this robust well-behavedness of variables, this calculus also provides logical inferentialists with a way to understand the meanings of variables in terms of the roles those variables play in a wide range of inferences that is not limited to purely logical ones (e.g, mathematical inferences). (shrink)

In this paper, we present a version of Fraïssé theory for categories of metric structures. Using this version, we show that every UHF algebra can be recognized as a Fraïssé limit of a class of C*-algebras of matrix-valued continuous functions on cubes with distinguished traces. We also give an alternative proof of the fact that the Jiang–Su algebra is the unique simple monotracial C*-algebra among all the inductive limits of prime dimension drop algebras.

In their examination of elementary science classrooms, Amerine and Bilmes (1988) found that following instructions requires students to understand the relationship between the projected outcome and the corresponding course of actions. One of the most important resources for instructions is the lesson plan, which prescribes the sequence of teaching. However, there is often a gap between what is planned and what actually happens in the classroom. This raises the question of how teachers come to terms with contingent variants and unexpected (...) outcomes that real-time interactions occasion and how lesson plans are configured into these processes. This study examines a teacher education program that uses lesson plans as a central resource for teaching mathematics. The results suggest that classroom teachers use lesson plans as communicative resources to identify problems, specify assumptions about their teaching and act on the evolving contingency of classroom interaction. The interactional contingency is the locus of teaching practices, not an obstacle to the application of procedures in lesson plans. (shrink)

In recent times, international comparative studies on managers’ beliefs regarding ethical/unethical leadership have increased in number. These studies focus on both Eastern and Western countries. However, although these previous studies focused on the effects of national culture, they did not pay sufficient attention to the effects of institutions. Moreover, these studies covered only a few countries. Despite Japan’s strong influence on the world economy, it has not been included in previous studies on ethical leadership. Thus, to reveal unexplored factors—particularly cultural (...) and institutional factors—and to determine the generalizability of previous findings, this study used a qualitative research method to examine Japanese business managers’ beliefs about ethical/unethical leadership. The data revealed the convergence and divergence in beliefs regarding ethical/unethical leadership between managers in Japan and in other countries. The analysis identified mostly the same themes of ethical/unethical leadership as found in other countries albeit with different distributions. In addition, We identified new themes that may be specific to Japan or that were neglected in previous studies. Moreover, this study suggests the necessity of considering each society’s history of business ethics and current ethics-related institutional contexts in ethical/unethical leadership studies. (shrink)

This article proposes an alternative approach in sustainability assessment. The conceptual framework was developed by modifying Ken Wilber's All Quadrants, All Levels (AQAL) approach, and focuses on the inter-relatedness/inter-connection of various perspectives inherent to the concept of sustainability. To look at how our framework can facilitate the practice of sustainability assessment, we apply the framework to examine the relationships between social systems and the environmental changes in the Ili River basin across the period 1900?2008. This approach enables us to investigate (...) the environmental problems of the Ili River basin in a four-quadrant framework, and combine the empirics of quadrants obtained from traditional disciplinary methodologies. The four-quadrant framework adopted in this study illustrates the interlocking relationships among various perspectives of environmental issues in the Ili River basin, namely, physical perspective, personal perspective, cultural perspective, and social perspective. In particular, the protruding development (evolution) of the lower right dimension is the fundamental cause of the environmental degradation and its related social problems in the Ili River basin. Compared to other established approaches in literature that emphasize on the tradeoffs of various perspectives of sustainability, our findings indicate the potential contributions of four-quadrant framework to sustainability assessment through its focus on the inter-relatedness/inter-connection of different perspectives. (shrink)

Chef de file de la réflexion psychiatrique au Japon, le Professeur Kimura Bin s’oppose dans cet article aux réductionnismes physicalistes en découvrant au coeur de la subjectivité une articulation complexe entre le personnel et l’impersonnel qui simultanément confirme la conception spirituelle zen de la constitution de l’individualité et donne une base à la fondation d’une science psychiatrique véritable. Il démontre que l’orientation donnée par les sciences cognitives et la philosophie analytique conduit à ignorer la différence entre réalité et actualité, (...) et occulte ainsi le fait que chaque existant est unique, manquant de la sorte à la fois son unité et son unicité. Pour retrouver l’originalité propre à chacun, Kimura propose d’en retrouver l’originarité, esquissée dans le concept heideggérien de Befindlichkeit, et d’élargir la subjectivité au sens proposé par Victor von Weizsäcker en tant que rencontre avec le milieu. Il conclut cette étude phénoménologique en proposant de fonder une psychopathologie en première personne, c’est-à-dire d’introduire la subjectivité dans la science psychiatrique, seule voie pour comprendre l’existence et résoudre l’énigme de la schizophrénie. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Death and Dying in JapanRihito Kimura (bio)A majority of Japanese, at present, feel that the modern biomedical and technological innovations pertaining to human life and death have been forcing a change in our common understanding of what, historically, was simply the natural event and process of death and dying. The meaning of death and the dying process in our lives is changing as have the traditional criteria for (...) determining death, namely, cessation of heartbeat and respiration.An individual’s death should be a personal and private matter as well as a familial, communal, and social matter. It has been regarded as such for many thousands of years in our Japanese society and culture. It is well understood that our traditional socio-cultural understanding of human life positively admits the natural process of death as the final event of life. The ideas expressed in Zen-Buddhist phrases such as “accept death as it is” and “life-death as one phenomenon” have been key motifs totally integrated into our traditional understanding of life (Tomomatsu 1939).However, the traditional perception of death as an acceptable process has [End Page 374] been vanishing as the Japanese have applied modern biomedical technologies more frequently in well-equipped hospital settings. Although the involvement of family members in the process of dying and particularly in the death event continues in a variety of ways, the care of dying patients in Japan is becoming much more similar to that delivered in advanced hospital settings in many countries of the world, than it is different. Now, in Japan, a majority of people end their lives in the hospital, surrounded by high-technology machines. Yet, in a survey by the Yomiuri Shimbun of 15 June 1991, half of the respondents said they would prefer to die at home.In addition, there has been a tradition of not explaining to terminally ill people the true nature of their condition, on the ground that this is most appropriate way to proceed (Kashiwagi 1994, pp. 78–85). However, views on this matter are changing. There is a gradual move toward telling patients the truth, and the notion of informed consent has been widely publicized in the clinical setting (Leflar 1996, pp. 96–107). In the 1991 nationwide opinion poll by the Yomiuri Shimbun, 65 percent of the participants said that they would like to be given full diagnostic information about themselves even if they were terminally ill. Nevertheless, only 22 percent of the people questioned said they themselves would definitely be prepared to disclose such information to a family member.The same survey indicated that 78 percent of people considered palliative care desirable, even though it might shorten life, while 16 percent thought life should be sustained as long as possible, irrespective of the pain that patients might be suffering.Challenges of Care for the DyingA special task force on terminal care, set up by the Ministry of Health and Welfare, issued a report in 1989 that encouraged the disclosure of diagnostic information to patients, provided that consideration was given to patients’ life histories, personalities, relationships with family members, and other factors. The report favored the use of drugs for pain control; it also dealt with matters such as spiritual requirements and the care of the family members.Traditionally, the physician-patient relationship in Japan is based on a complete and unquestioning trust of the physician by the patient, such that the physician acts to make health care decisions on behalf of the patient (Kimura 1991). However, increasingly it is believed that people should not have to accept without question the authority of doctors in the treatment of disease. Responsibility for the care of the dying should be shared between family members and all health professionals, not only physicians. Changes are needed in the mentalities of health care providers, patients, and family members, and it must be recognized that the medical system and institutions are not immutable (Annas and Miller 1994, pp. 374–76). [End Page 375]To complicate matters even further, although a patient’s family is informed of the incurable nature of the disease affecting their family member, the patient, as noted above, usually is not told of... (shrink)

The key mutation of the schizophrenic psyche can be described as a disturbance of the first person-ness of the I-sense, i.e., of the sense of the "I" as personal subject of experience and of action. Under these circumstances, representations of things are not definitively experienced as "my" representations—with the self-evidence of belonging to me. This uncertainty of selfhood, specific to schizophrenia, cannot be reduced to a disability of intellect, logic, judgment, or memory. In the course of developing his argument, the (...) author criticizes philosopher Michel Henry's critique of Heidegger's (1961) interpretation of Descartes's cogito ergo sum. (shrink)

Japan is unusual among industrialized countries in its reluctance to use brain criteria to determine death and harvest transplant organs. This results from public distrust of the medical profession due to an earlier incident, and from concern that technological interventions will threaten religious and cultural traditions surrounding death and dying. Public acceptance is growing, however, as medical professional groups and universities develop brain criteria, and as pressure from patients who could benefit from a transplant, as well as from foreign countries, (...) increases. (shrink)

Previous empirical studies have shown that perceptions of organizational politics are negatively related to individuals’ affective commitment. The key contribution of this study was that it found the interactive moderating effects of political skill and quality of leader–member exchange (LMX) on the relationship between perceptions of organizational politics and affective commitment. Our results indicated that politics perception affective commitment relationship was weaker when both political skill and quality of LMX are high. When only political skill is high and the quality (...) of LMX is low, or LMX quality is high but political skill is low, the negative relationship between politics perception and affective commitment was not mitigated. Limitations and implications for future research are discussed. (shrink)

Recently, some studies revealed that transcranial direct current stimulation reduces dual-task interference. Since there are countless combinations of dual-tasks, it remains unclear whether stable effects by tDCS can be observed on dual-task interference. An aim of the present study was to investigate whether the effects of tDCS on dual-task interference change depend on the dual-task content. We adopted two combinations of dual-tasks, i.e., a word task while performing a tandem task and a classic Stroop task while performing a tandem task. (...) We expected that the Stroop task would recruit the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and require involvement of executive function to greater extent than the word task. Subsequently, we hypothesized that anodal tDCS over the DLPFC would improve executive function and result in more effective reduction of dual-task interference in the Stroop-tandem dual-task than in the word-tandem dual-task. Anodal or cathodal tDCS was applied over the DLPFC or the supplementary motor area using a constant current of 2.0 mA for 20 min. According to our results, dual-task interference and the task performances of each task under the single-task condition were not changed after applying any settings of tDCS. However, anodal tDCS over the left DLPFC significantly improved the word task performance immediately after tDCS under the dual-task condition. Our findings suggested that the effect of anodal tDCS over the left DLPFC varies on the task performance under the dual-task condition was changed depending on the dual-task content. (shrink)

The mental fatigue elicited by working and studying consumed mental resources, thereby eliciting a declined performance and an increased mental stress. The long-term continuous work and study, which is typical for modern workers and students, can increase mental fatigue and health risks. Previous studies reported that the natural environment has a restorative of mental resources and reducing stress. However, it is difficult for urban workers and students to take sufficient breaks in real natural environment. We conducted an experiment to examine (...) whether brief and indirect exposure to the natural environment elicits a restorative of attention and reducing stress. Twenty-five undergraduate and graduate students from the university of modern city participated in the experiment. The experiment involved measuring the changes in the task performance of the participants and the subjective mental workload, while the attention restoration was indexed from physiological response over time. The participants had two types of resting periods in the middle of the task, i.e., by looking at a blank display or by watching a nature video having scenes of, e.g., a forest, small waterfall, and rustling leaves. The results indicate that the natural environment indirectly depicted through the nature videos does not affect the task performance and the subjective mental workload but decreases the SCL. The results of the physiological response suggest that having rest periods depicting the natural environment, even if indirectly and briefly, can restore the directed attention for the task. This experiment revealed a useful method of resting for urban workers and students to restore their attention to a task. (shrink)

Foodways are important in understanding the bio-cultural dynamics of crop diversity. This paper examines the example of tsukemono and their importance for heirloom vegetables. Social histories of heirlooms and tsukemono were difficult to obtain, so various sources from archives, published reports, to interviews were used to stitch together the stories of the tsukemono-heirloom relationships. The paper finds that tsukemono has provided different opportunities for heirlooms. Tsukemono can enhance the taste and flavors of heirlooms. Pickling can make the best of heirloom’s (...) unique tastes even when they are not suited for other uses. Moreover, certain tsukemono has historically been associated with important social customs like gift-giving and seasonal events. The theoretical contribution of this study is to analyze the foodway-heirloom relationships from the vantage point of the political economy of agrofood systems. It is not enough to say a particular foodway is important for heirlooms. The paper reveals the necessity of analyses that situate the heirloom- foodway relationships in the modern agrofood systems. Changes not only in agriculture but also in consumption, retail, and processing are crucial in understanding the heirloom-foodway relationship. (shrink)

This paper reports on recent developments in the rise of bioethics in Japan. Much of the recent interest in bioethics in Japan is seen as a response to various civic movements. The women's liberation movement, access to equal opportunity, and the recognition of patients' rights and the importance of informed consent are among some of the movements influencing the development of bioethics in Japan. The author argues that this movement is to be encouraged and fostered by health care professionals, public (...) policy makers, as well as lay persons in Japan. Keywords: bioethics, Japan, patients' rights, informed consent CiteULike Connotea Del.icio.us What's this? (shrink)

Recent studies in pedestrian simulation have been able to construct a highly realistic navigation behaviour in many circumstances. However, when replicating the close interactions between pedestrians, the replicated behaviour is often unnatural and lacks human likeness. One of the possible reasons is that the current models often ignore the cognitive factors in the human thinking process. Another reason is that many models try to approach the problem by optimising certain objectives. On the other hand, in real life, humans do not (...) always take the most optimised decisions, particularly when interacting with other people. To improve the navigation behaviour in this circumstance, we proposed a pedestrian interacting model using reinforcement learning. Additionally, a novel cognitive prediction model, inspired by the predictive system of human cognition, is also incorporated. This helps the pedestrian agent in our model to learn to interact and predict the movement in a similar practice as humans. In our experimental results, when compared to other models, the path taken by our model’s agent is not the most optimised in certain aspects like path lengths, time taken and collisions. However, our model is able to demonstrate a more natural and human-like navigation behaviour, particularly in complex interaction settings. (shrink)