Corporate Pension Reform in Japan: Big Bang or Big Bust?

This paper investigates the events leading up to the passage of defined contribution pension legislation in Japan in June 2001. Expectations ran high that defined contribution (DC) legislation would induce a massive wave of DC plan conversion as Japanese companies began unloading their traditional defined benefit (DB) plans. However, despite the continuing pressures on Japanese companies, such a widescale movement did not occur. What appeared as a clear solution in the new DC option, then becomes a puzzle given the lukewarm response in Japan. Here I argue that the main determinant of corporate decision-making on the pension issue was the binding constraints of the DC legislation, not the paternalistic ways of Japanese companies. In broader strokes, this analysis also sheds light on the nature of policymaking in Japan today

Comparison of Awareness of Exertional Heatstroke among Certified Athletic Trainers and Emergency Medical Services Providers

The goal of this project is to facilitate nurses’ duties throughout the unit in order to provide faster, more efficient patient care in the clinical setting while also increasing patient safety and outcomes. This teaching tool will provide nurses, assistive personnel, and other staff on the telemetry with proper techniques for applying and maintaining cardiac monitors. Non-actionable patient alarms create false readings of abnormal patient conditions that offset alarms and take attention away from clinically significant alarms that require immediate medical interventions. The targeted audience included the staff on the Progressive Care Unit/Telemetry Unit at Norwalk Hospital. Patient satisfaction has been interrupted due to the constant alarms sounding on units. Staff can provide interventions when applying EKG electrodes in order to help minimize the amount of non-actionable patient alarms. Electrodes can fall off during transportation, placed incorrectly, and present with false readings. Interventions include correct electrode preparation and placement, such as cleaning the site and using Skin Prep Paper. This project aimed to improve patient safety and outcomes as well as decrease alarm fatigue and work load. This will help to decrease the amount of alarm fatigue experienced by nurses. Overall, the patient safety and patient-centered care has been improved by these interventions

Trabecular variation in the first metacarpal and manipulation in hominids

Objectives: The dexterity of fossil hominins is often inferred by assessing the comparative manual anatomy and behaviors of extant hominids, with a focus on the thumb. The aim of this study is to test whether trabecular structure is consistent with what is currently known about habitually loaded thumb postures across extant hominids. Materials and methods: We analyze first metacarpal (Mc1) subarticular trabecular architecture in humans (Homo sapiens, n = 10), bonobos (Pan paniscus, n = 10), chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes, n = 11), as well as for the first time, gorillas (Gorilla gorilla gorilla, n = 10) and orangutans (Pongo sp., n = 1, Pongo abelii, n = 3 and Pongo pygmaeus, n = 5). Using a combination of subarticular and whole‐epiphysis approaches, we test for significant differences in relative trabecular bone volume (RBV/TV) and degree of anisotropy (DA) between species. Results: Humans have significantly greater RBV/TV on the radiopalmar aspects of both the proximal and distal Mc1 subarticular surfaces and greater DA throughout the Mc1 head than other hominids. Nonhuman great apes have greatest RBV/TV on the ulnar aspect of the Mc1 head and the palmar aspect of the Mc1 base. Gorillas possessed significantly lower DA in the Mc1 head than any other taxon in our sample. Discussion: These results are consistent with abduction of the thumb during forceful “pad‐to‐pad” precision grips in humans and, in nonhuman great apes, a habitually adducted thumb that is typically used in precision and power grips. This comparative context will help infer habitual manipulative and locomotor grips in fossil hominins

Gestural communication of the gorilla (Gorilla gorilla): repertoire, intentionality and possible origins

Social groups of gorillas were observed in three captive facilities and one African field site. Cases of potential gesture use, totalling 9,540, were filtered by strict criteria for intentionality, giving a corpus of 5,250 instances of intentional gesture use. This indicated a repertoire of 102 gesture types. Most repertoire differences between individuals and sites were explicable as a consequence of environmental affordances and sampling effects: overall gesture frequency was a good predictor of universality of occurrence. Only one gesture was idiosyncratic to a single individual, and was given only to humans. Indications of cultural learning were few, though not absent. Six gestures appeared to be traditions within single social groups, but overall concordance in repertoires was almost as high between as within social groups. No support was found for the ontogenetic ritualization hypothesis as the chief means of acquisition of gestures. Many gestures whose form ruled out such an origin, i.e. gestures derived from species-typical displays, were used as intentionally and almost as flexibly as gestures whose form was consistent with learning by ritualization. When using both classes of gesture, gorillas paid specific attention to the attentional state of their audience. Thus, it would be unwarranted to divide ape gestural repertoires into ‘innate, species-typical, inflexible reactions’ and ‘individually learned, intentional, flexible communication’. We conclude that gorilla gestural communication is based on a species-typical repertoire, like those of most other mammalian species but very much larger. Gorilla gestures are not, however, inflexible signals but are employed for intentional communication to specific individuals

Nut-cracking behaviour in wild-born, rehabilitated bonobos (Pan paniscus): a comprehensive study of hand preference, hand grips and efficiency

There has been an enduring interest in primate tool-use and manipulative abilities, most often with the goal of providing insight into the evolution of human manual dexterity, right-hand preference, and what behaviours make humans unique. Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) are arguably the most well-studied tool-users amongst non-human primates, and are particularly well-known for their complex nut-cracking behaviour, which has been documented in several West African populations. However, their sister-taxon, the bonobos (Pan paniscus), rarely engage in even simple tool-use and are not known to nut-crack in the wild. Only a few studies have reported tool-use in captive bonobos, including their ability to crack nuts, but details of this complex tool-use behaviour have not been documented before. Here, we fill this gap with the first comprehensive analysis of bonobo nut-cracking in a natural environment at the Lola ya Bonobo sanctuary, Democratic Republic of the Congo. Eighteen bonobos were studied as they cracked oil palm nuts using stone hammers. Individual bonobos showed exclusive laterality for using the hammerstone and there was a significant group-level right-hand bias. The study revealed 15 hand grips for holding differently sized and weighted hammerstones, 10 of which had not been previously described in the literature. Our findings also demonstrated that bonobos select the most effective hammerstones when nut-cracking. Bonobos are efficient nut-crackers and not that different from the renowned nut-cracking chimpanzees of Bossou, Guinea, which also crack oil palm nuts using stones

The Holly Project: Effects on Captive Chimpanzee (Pan trogolodytes) Behavior of Applying Sensory Integration Therapy

Captive apes often display behavioral abnormalities that may threaten their health or disrupt functioning of social groups. This research is part of an on-going project by a multi-disciplinary team that includes anthropologists, child psychologists, occupational therapists, veterinarians, and zoo personnel. My contribution to the team is as a chimpanzee behavioral specialist. This is ground-breaking research examining the effects of utilizing human behavioral therapy techniques with a captive group of chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes} at the Saint Louis Zoo, with particular focus on one young adult female, Holly, who has displayed extensive atypical, autistic-like, behavior. Since 2009, we have focused on sensory integration difficulties in this individual, and have instituted a series of therapeutic interventions with the goal of alleviating some of Holly\u27s abnormal behavior and improving the social environment of the entire group. Initial data have been promising and suggest further use of sensory integration theory is warranted. Widespread application of occupational therapy and sensory integration theory to zoological management may be possible, impacting a large captive population of chimpanzees