Taylor and McCallum Rule during the Unprecedented Monetary Easing Era: The Recent Japanese Case

The Taylor and McCallum rules have been examined a lot in many studies. After these frameworks were presented, deflation has been prevailing and market interest rates have been low, almost zero, or negative in the world. Japan is a typical example. Unconventional monetary policy based on monetary base instead of based on interest rates, has been conducting. This study examines whether or not the Taylor and McCallum rule fit well in Japan. The empirical results show that the McCallum rule fits for recent Japanese cases, but the Taylor rule does not

Impact of the Prevailing Internet on International Trade in Asia

This article provides empirical evidence for the relationship (1) between the prevailing Internet and international trade and (2) between the prevailing Internet and economic growth in Asian countries. The empirical results show that Internet promotes international trade both in developed countries and developing Asian countries; however, the effect is larger in Asian countries. The Internet can increase economic international trade; on the other hand, it has not necessarily been linked to economic growth. If countries seek to enhance international trade and economic growth, they need to implement specific policies that facilitate investment in information and communications technologies (ICT) to encourage efficient and effective economic growth. A digital revolution can form the foundation of a sustainable global economy. It is important to respond to this opportunity

AR Model or Machine Learning for Forecasting GDP and Consumer Price for G7 Countries

This paper examines the validity of forecasting economic variables by using machine learning. AI (artificial intelligence) has been improved and entering our society rapidly, and the economic forecast is no exception. In the real business world, AI has been used for economic forecasts, but not so many studies focus on machine learning. Machine learning is focused in this paper and a traditional statistical model, the autoregressive (AR) model is also used for comparison. A comparison of using an AR model and machine learning (LSTM) to forecast GDP and consumer price is conducted using recent cases from G7 countries. The empirical results show that the traditional forecasting AR model is a little more appropriate than the machine learning model, however, there is little difference to forecast consumer price between them

Structure of the Milky Way stellar halo out to its outer boundary with blue horizontal-branch stars

We present the structure of the Milky Way stellar halo beyond Galactocentric distances of $r = 50$ kpc traced by blue horizontal-branch (BHB) stars, which are extracted from the survey data in the Hyper Suprime-Cam Subaru Strategic Program (HSC-SSP). We select BHB candidates based on $(g,r,i,z)$ photometry, where the $z$-band is on the Paschen series and the colors that involve the $z$-band are sensitive to surface gravity. About 450 BHB candidates are identified between $r = 50$ kpc and 300 kpc, most of which are beyond the reach of previous large surveys including the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. We find that the global structure of the stellar halo in this range has substructures, which are especially remarkable in the GAMA15H and XMM-LSS fields in the HSC-SSP. We find that the stellar halo can be fitted to a single power-law density profile with an index of $\alpha \simeq 3.3$ ($3.5$) with (without) these fields and its global axial ratio is $q \simeq 2.2$ ($1.3$). Thus, the stellar halo may be significantly disturbed and be made in a prolate form by halo substructures, perhaps associated with the Sagittarius stream in its extension beyond $r \sim 100$ kpc. For a broken power-law model allowing different power-law indices inside/outside a break radius, we obtain a steep power-law slope of $\alpha \sim 5$ outside a break radius of $\simeq 100$ kpc ($200$ kpc) for the case with (without) GAMA15H and XMM-LSS. This radius of $200$ kpc might be as close as a halo boundary if there is any, although larger BHB sample is required from further HSC-SSP survey to increase its statistical significance.Comment: 12 pages, 8 figures, revised version, accepted for publication in PAS

Language development in Japanese children who receive cochlear implant and/or hearing aid

Objectives: This study aimed to investigate a wide variety of factors that influence auditory, speech, and language development following pediatric cochlear implantation (CI). Study design: Prospective collection of language tested data in profound hearing-impaired children. Hypothesis: Pediatric CI can potentially be effective to development of practical communication skills and early implantation is more effective. Methods: We proposed a set of language tests (assessment package of the language development for Japanese hearing-impaired children; ALADJIN) consisting of communication skills testing (test for question-answer interaction development; TQAID), comprehensive (Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-Revised; PVT-R and Standardized Comprehension Test for Abstract Words; SCTAW) and productive vocabulary (Word Fluency Test; WFT), and comprehensive and productive syntax (Syntactic processing Test for Aphasia; STA). Of 638 hearing-impaired children recruited for this study, 282 (44.2%) with >70 dB hearing impairment had undergone CI. After excluding children with low birth weight (11 points on the Pervasive Developmental Disorder ASJ Rating Scale for the test of autistic tendency, and those <2 SD on Raven's Colored Progressive Matrices for the test of non-verbal intelligence, 190 children were subjected to this set of language tests. Results: Sixty children (31.6%) were unilateral CI-only users, 128 (67.4%) were CI-hearing aid (HA) users, and 2 (1.1%) were bilateral CI users. Hearing loss level of CI users was significantly (p < 0.01) worse than that of HA-only users. However, the threshold level, maximum speech discrimination score, and speech intelligibility rating in CI users were significantly (p < 0.01) better than those in HA-only users. The scores for PVT-R (p < 0.01), SCTAW, and WET in CI users were better than those in HA-only users. STA and TQAID scores in CI-HA users were significantly (p < 0.05) better than those in unilateral CI-only users. The high correlation (r = 0.52) has been found between the age of CI and maximum speech discrimination score. The scores of speech and language tests in the implanted children before 24 months of age have been better than those in the implanted children after 24 months of age. Conclusions: We could indicate that CI was effective for language development in Japanese hearing-impaired children and early CI was more effective for productive vocabulary and syntax.ArticleINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PEDIATRIC OTORHINOLARYNGOLOGY. 76(3):433-438 (2012)journal articl

Design of Vibration Control and Electricity Generating Device

This paper deals with a vibration control device which generates electricity by using absorbed vibration energy. This device consists of a Hula-Hoop and generator. In this paper, we researched the design of the device. As the result of the numerical calculation, the following were made clear : (1) The influences of parameters of this device, damping force related to the capacity of the generator, the length of Hula-Hoop, and moment of inertia of the Hula-Hoop on the vibration control and on generating electricity were made clear. (2) The operating curve was shown by composing the resonance curve when the Hula-Hoop rotates and that when it does not. (3) The design diagram that describes the vibration control effect of this device was shown