Two aspects of Gitai-Go in the Japanese language and the role of vagueness in interpersonal communication

[Abstract] In this presentation, I will illustrate and discuss how Gitai-go in the Japanese language work in our communication — the field of semiogenesis, considering our development as cultural being. Gitaigo, meaning “state imitating words”, is a group of characteristic words in the Japanese language, that frequently appear in conversations and other colloquial expressions. Although they share the same structural characteristics with onomatopoeia, they are connected not with specific sound but with state, like atmosphere, movement, texture and even our subjective impression of a person. Analyzing our use of Gitai-go with a consideration to our life long development, I can figure out two aspects of Gitai-go used in daily communication. One is our use of them as primitive expression that is closely connected with our perceptions of dynamic properties of objects. It is exemplified in their frequent appearance in picture books for very young children. Another usage that appears later in our development is, to use Gitai-go in order to extend or blur the field of meaning under negotiation. It can be seen in our tactical use of them in the colloquial description of others’ personality. These two different aspects of Gitai-go are based on one characteristic — their potential to present vivid subjective feeling that is related to visual or tactile senses, though their meanings are indefinite. After the original usage seen in early childhood, they would be re-introduced into our communication to make the most of their unique feature. Using them, we avoid the emergence of clear meaning that often brings sharp contrast of values and speaker’s standpoint for evaluation. In other words, such cultural usage of Gitai-go makes us open to many behavioral or relational option in inter individual relationship

Meaning-Making for Living

This Open Access Brief analyzes the dynamics in which children’s selves emerge through their everyday activities of meaning construction, both in their relationships with family and within school education. It begins with a discussion of new psychological inquiries into children's selves and builds upon the innovative theoretical notion of the Presentational Self, developed by the author over the last decade. The book illustrates how the observation of children’s meaning construction in their everyday lives becomes a starting point for theoretical and empirical inquiries into child development and gives a framework that promotes new inquiries in this area. The book describes the Presentational Self Theory as a sense of how the notion of the Self is being worked upon in everyday life encounters. Chapters feature in-depth analyses of exchanges between adults and children in the Japanese cultural context. Meaning-Making for Living will be of interest to researchers and graduate students in the fields of cognitive, social, developmental, educational, and cultural psychology

Meaning-Making for Living

This Open Access Brief analyzes the dynamics in which children’s selves emerge through their everyday activities of meaning construction, both in their relationships with family and within school education. It begins with a discussion of new psychological inquiries into children's selves and builds upon the innovative theoretical notion of the Presentational Self, developed by the author over the last decade. The book illustrates how the observation of children’s meaning construction in their everyday lives becomes a starting point for theoretical and empirical inquiries into child development and gives a framework that promotes new inquiries in this area. The book describes the Presentational Self Theory as a sense of how the notion of the Self is being worked upon in everyday life encounters. Chapters feature in-depth analyses of exchanges between adults and children in the Japanese cultural context. Meaning-Making for Living will be of interest to researchers and graduate students in the fields of cognitive, social, developmental, educational, and cultural psychology

On the Precipitation in Aluminium-Zinc-Magnesium Alloys

The precipitation characteristics in Al-5wt% Zn-2wt% Mg alloys with or without a trace addition of Ag, Cu or Cr have been studied as the function of solution temperature and time, quenching temperature and medium, and pre-aging between quenching and artificial aging mainly by electrical resistivity measurement and tensile test. Imperfections such as sub-boundaries still remained after incomplete solution treatment, though it is particularly the case when added Cr, influence remarkably the following precipitation. Vacancy-solute clusters, which could be formed during or immediately after quenching, can act as precipitation nuclei of η' intermediate phase and, therefore, influence considerably the age-hardening at higher temperatures. Pre-aging and small additions of Ag have also many favorable effects on higher temperature aging

Value Chain Analysis of Park Volunteers between Their Assessment to the Activity and Consciousness to the Region

This paper argues that park volunteer activities affect a sense of community of volunteers, based on covariance structure analysis. The adopted model shows that “scheme forinteraction between volunteers” positively affects “overall satisfaction of volunteer activities”and “human interaction” of a sense of community. Because variables of volunteer activities(“Scheme for contact with plants” “scheme for obtaining the skill and knowledge” and “schemefor social contribution”) have a chain reaction, volunteer activities improve social-capital consciousness of volunteers. This result indicates that park volunteer activities have ripple effects of both the expansion of human interaction with peers and the expansion of contribution to society, and have a potential to be a mean to trigger regional revitalization

Laboratory Verification of a Proposed New Method to Determine the In-Situ Effective Porosity of Unsaturated Soil

A laboratory validation of a proposed new method of determining the in-situ effective porosity of unsaturated soils was carried out on unsaturated river sand. The proposed method consists of boring a small diameter hole into the soil and inserting an Amplitude Domain Reflectometry (ADR) probe at the bottom part of the hole. Water is supplied into the hole till saturation and later de-saturated. The water content with time is determined from the ADR probe voltage potential readings. The effective porosity is determined from the difference between the saturated and de-saturated water contents. However, in the laboratory, the water is supplied through the top and bottom parts of the sample. From the experiments the obtained effective porosity ranged from 0.28 to 0.29 for wetting from the top with an average of 0.287 and 0.29 to 0.30 for wetting from the bottom with an average of 0.293. The determined effective porosity ranged from 71.7-73.3% of the real initial porosity of 0.40 of the river sand. The maximum attained degree of saturation during the experiment was 91%. The results indicated that the method will be suitable and useful in determining the effective porosity of medium grained unsaturated soils

Stand-to-sit motion in older women

Objectives : The aims of this study were to examine the biomechanics of StandTS movements in older adults and to identify their optimal StandTS motion by measuring sitting impact forces. Methods : Healthy older women (n = 17) and healthy young women (n = 18) were asked to perform SitTS and StandTS motions at a natural speed using a chair. We measured the ground reaction forces from the participants’ feet and the chair, the angle of the trunk and ankle, vertical velocity, and postural muscle activities using a force plate, motion analyzer, and electromyography, respectively. Results : Sitting impact force was significantly greater in the older women than in the young women during the StandTS motion. There was a significant difference between the trunk angle and the ankle angle during the StandTS motion and sitting impact force had a significant negative correlation with the ankle joint motion in the older women. Conclusions : The ankle joint strategy was characterized by body sway resembling a single-segment-inverted pendulum and suggests that this response is less developed in the older adult. These results indicate that the ankle joint strategy may be an important factor involved in the sitting impact force

State of the Art on Filter Design and Particle Clogging; and Proposed New Numerical Approach to Redesign

Filters are essential in the design of embankments/dams, drains and wells for water and oil supplies. As a result of these functions, filter use is increasing. In order to use the required filter, various empirical relations have been given based on mathematical and field experience. However, these guidelines have not worked to perfection considering the fact that clogging within the filter face is a serious challenge. A short review on filter design criteria is given in this script coupled with a numerical formulation to propose the design limits

Cosmic-Ray Positron from Superparticle Dark Matter and the PAMELA Anomaly

Motivated by the anomalous positron flux recently reported by the PAMELA collaboration, we study the cosmic-ray positron produced by the pair annihilation and the decay of superparticle dark matter. We calculate the cosmic-ray positron flux and discuss implications of the PAMELA data. We show that the positron excess observed by the PAMELA can be explained with some of the superparticle dark matter.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Dark Matter in Classically Scale-Invariant Two Singlets Standard Model

We consider a model where two new scalars are introduced in the standard model, assuming classical scale invariance. In this model the scale invariance is broken by quantum corrections and one of the new scalars acquires non-zero vacuum expectation value (VEV), which induces the electroweak symmetry breaking in the standard model, and the other scalar becomes dark matter. It is shown that TeV scale dark matter is realized, independent of the value of the other scalar's VEV. The impact of the new scalars on the Higgs potential is also discussed. The Higgs potential is stabilized when the Higgs mass is over ~120 GeV.Comment: 6 pages, 1 figure, published versio