Appraising the unhappiness due to the Great East Japan Earthquake: Evidence from weekly panel data on subjective well-being

After severe disasters, persons living not only in the directly affected areas, but also in distant areas could be seriously affected thorough images of the disaster on television and in newspapers. Hence, it can be difficult to define qualified beneficiaries for policy compensation in terms of psychological suffering. Building on the case of Great East Japan Earthquake, we appraise psychological suffering from disaster-related news through the experienced utility approach. We take advantage of the serendipitous timing of our original nationwide weekly panel survey that became a timely investigation of subjective well-being in the immediate aftermath of the earthquake. Although a pale was cast over the whole society, we found that there was a robust and large geographical heterogeneity between the disaster area and non-disaster areas in mental costs. This finding may capture the focusing effect, suggesting that resources for compensating mental suffering should be concentrated on persons living in the disaster area

A Numerical Study on Assessing Sustainable Development with Future Genuine Savings Simulation

This paper presents a numerical examination of sustainability from the perspective of "Genuine Savings," using a data set provided by the World Bank. Unlike previously-used criteria of sustainability that focuses on observed paths of genuine savings rates, we consider future sustainability by simulating future paths of genuine savings. This analysis shows that some countries that had been classified as being sustainable by previous studies, using observed paths, are, in fact, not sustainable from the perspective of future sustainability. We provide information on capital components which should be targeted by policymakers in order to maintain future sustainability.

Cyclic Undrained Behavior of an Undisturbed Gravel for Aseismic Design of a Bridge Foundation

For the aseismic design of a pier foundation constructed on a lightly cemented dense gravel deposit of a 3,910m-long suspension bridge, cyclic and monotonic undrained triaxial tests were performed on undisturbed specimens with a diameter of 30cm taken from the deposit under a sea depth of about 55m. Using the results of the cyclic undrained triaxial tests together with irregular cyclic stresses evaluated for the design earthquake motion by a dynamic FEM analysis, maximum strains in the gravel deposit were obtained by the cumulative damage concept. The strain values thus estimated indicated a sufficiently high degree of seismic stability of the foundation. Further, for the same initial mean Principal stress, the strength for monotonic undrained triaxial compression of isotropically consolidated specimens was found not greater than the strength against irregular cyclic undrained loading of the specimens anisotropically consolidated as in the field. This means that the former strength can be used as an approximated value of the latter

A novel reductive amino-cyclization method and its application for the total syntheses of (±)-aurantio-clavine and (±)-lophocerine

A novel reductive amino-cyclization method for the synthesis of azacycloalkanes is developed. Its versatility is proved by the total syntheses of (±)-aurantioclavine (1), an ergot alkaloid, and (±)-lophocerine (2), a cactus alkaloid, as examples of azepane and piperidine skeletons, respectively. © 2007 The Japan Institute of Heterocyclic Chemistry

A novel reductive amino-cyclization method and its application for the total syntheses of (±)-aurantio-clavine and (±)-lophocerine

金沢大学医薬保健研究域薬学系金沢大学名誉教授A novel reductive amino-cyclization method for the synthesis of azacycloalkanes is developed. Its versatility is proved by the total syntheses of (±)-aurantioclavine (1), an ergot alkaloid, and (±)-lophocerine (2), a cactus alkaloid, as examples of azepane and piperidine skeletons, respectively. © 2007 The Japan Institute of Heterocyclic Chemistry