Firms’ Perceptions of the Business Cycle and Their Managerial and Financial Conditions

Perception of the business cycle can differ among firms, which has been confirmed by extensive survey data. The question we want to answer in this paper is "What causes differences in business cycle perception?" by utilizing a newly designed questionnaire. Specifically, we match properties emphasizing the absolute level of economic activities or the direction of their changes and indicators of a firm's managerial and financial conditions, and examine the relationship between them. Based on our results, we could not find a particular indicator for the properties of firms that indicate level or trend change. However, a higher level of capital or number of employees suggests a tendency to emphasize change or rate of change, rather than the level of the business survey index. With regards to the time horizon of the business cycle, profit ratios (profit against sales or total assets) in general are good indicators. Firms with a high debt ratio tend to be myopic. Regression analysis shows that firms with high rates of investment/sales significantly tend to have a long-term vision.business cycle perception, financial indicators, managerial indicators, firm, Regression analysis

Universally Leptophilic Dark Matter From Non-Abelian Discrete Symmetry

The positron anomaly recently reported by the cosmic-ray measurements can be explained by the decaying dark matter scenario, where it decays mainly into leptons with the lifetime of O(10^26) second. When the dark matter is a fermionic particle, the lifetime of this order is known to be obtained by a dimension 6 operator suppressed by the unification scale 10^16 GeV, while such decay operators do not necessarily involve only leptons. In addition, the scenario would be spoiled if there exist lower-dimensional operators inducing the dark matter decay. We show in this letter that a single non-Abelian discrete symmetry such as A_4 is possible to prohibit all such harmful (non-leptonically coupled and lower-dimensional) operators. Moreover, the dark matter decays into charged leptons in a flavor-blind fashion due to the non-Abelian flavor symmetry, which results in perfect agreements not only with the PAMELA data but also with the latest Fermi-LAT data reported very recently. We also discuss some relevance between the discrete symmetry and neutrino physics.Comment: 13 pages, 2 tables, 1 figur

1998 Superoutburst of the Large-Amplitude SU UMa-Type Dwarf Nova WX Ceti

We observed the 1998 November superoutburst of WX Cet, a dwarf nova originally proposed as a WZ Sge-like system. The observation established that WX Cet is an SU UMa-type dwarf nova with a mean superhump period of 0.05949(1) d, which is 2.1% longer than the reported orbital period. The lack of early superhumps at the earliest stage of the superoutburst, the rapid development of usual superhumps, and the possible rapid decay of late superhumps seem to support that WX Cet is a fairly normal large-amplitude SU UMa-type dwarf nova, rather than a WZ Sge-type dwarf nova with a number of peculiarities. However, a period increase of superhumps at a rate dot(P)/P = (+8.5+/-1.0) x 10^-5 was observed, which is one of the largest dot(P)/P ever observed in SU UMa-type dwarf novae. A linear decline of light, with a rate of 0.10 mag/d, was observed in the post-superoutburst stage. This may be an exemplification of the decay of the viscosity in the accretion disk after the termination of a superoutburst, mechanism of which is proposed to explain a variety of post-superoutburst phenomena in some SU UMa-type dwarf novae.Comment: 8 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication in Publ. Astron. Soc. Japa

Narrative-based research and psychosocial practices in Japan

The aim of this study was to investigate how the narrative mode of thinking creates therapeutic meaning in psychosocial practice in Japan. The main question of research guide was how the narrative mode of thinking can facilitate reconstructing the self. The idea of the Japanese psychologist Hayao Kawai was reviewed. It was indicated that his idea was examined according to the movement of the narrative turn in the field of the practice of human science. The methodology of this study was based on the analysis on the clinical vignette in the field of psychological counseling and the social support for delinquents by group music therapy. Next, the personal life story of a Teacher was analyzed in this study. The point of analysis was focused on the act of meaning making and the semiotic activity of the narrative process. In this point, the Japanese cultural concept of ma was examined, the boundary transitive zone. The concluding remark was that the semiotic activity of meaning was generated and forms the dynamism of tension around opposites. Personal narratives were created in the boundary transitive zone

Revisiting Aire and tissue-restricted antigens at single-cell resolution

The thymus is a highly specialized organ that plays an indispensable role in the establishment of self-tolerance, a process characterized by the “education” of developing T-cells. To provide competent T-cells tolerant to self-antigens, medullary thymic epithelial cells (mTECs) orchestrate negative selection by ectopically expressing a wide range of genes, including various tissue-restricted antigens (TRAs). Notably, recent advancements in the high-throughput single-cell analysis have revealed remarkable heterogeneity in mTECs, giving us important clues for dissecting the mechanisms underlying TRA expression. We overview how recent single-cell studies have furthered our understanding of mTECs, with a focus on the role of Aire in inducing mTEC heterogeneity to encompass TRAs

PHENOTYPIC ANALYSIS OF MICE DEFICIENT FOR Ly6C1/Ly6C2

Ly6C comprises two homologous components of Ly6C1 and Ly6C2, and the expression of either of the Ly6C molecules defines unique functional subsets of monocytes. Ly6C is also expressed by other immune cell types, including Aire-expressing medullary thymic epithelial cells. Because the role of Ly6C expression in determining the functional subsets remains unclear, we generated mice deficient for both Ly6C1 and Ly6C2 with CRISPR-Cas9–mediated deletion. Mice deficient for Ly6C1/Ly6C2 showed no major alterations in the subsets and function of monocyte and other immune cells, including the cells involved in the dextran sulfate sodium salt–induced colitis model. By generating the mice deficient for Ly6C1 alone, we have also investigated the expression pattern of Ly6C1 and Ly6C2 in immune cells. Except for medullary thymic epithelial cells and CD4 single-positive T cells, immune cells predominantly expressed Ly6C2. Thus, despite the importance as a marker with a unique differential expression pattern, the Ly6C molecules have no major impact on determining the functional subsets and maintaining immune homeostasis

Aire suppresses CTLA-4 expression from the thymic stroma to control autoimmunity

Impaired production of thymic regulatory T cells (Tregs) is implicated in the development of Aire-dependent autoimmunity. Because Tregs require agonistic T cell receptor stimuli by self-antigens to develop, reduced expression of self-antigens from medullary thymic epithelial cells (mTECs) has been considered to play a major role in the reduced Treg production in Aire deficiency. Here, we show that mTECs abnormally express co-inhibitory receptor CTLA-4 if Aire is non-functional. Upon binding with CD80/CD86 ligands expressed on thymic dendritic cells (DCs), the ectopically expressed CTLA-4 from Aire-deficient mTECs removes the CD80/CD86 ligands from the DCs. This attenuates the ability of DCs to provide co-stimulatory signals and to present self-antigens transferred from mTECs, both of which are required for Treg production. Accordingly, impaired production of Tregs and organ-specific autoimmunity in Aire-deficient mice are rescued by the depletion of CTLA-4 expression from mTECs. Our studies illuminate the significance of mTEC-DC interaction coordinated by Aire for the establishment of thymic tolerance