A study for the influence of human behavior on a safety marking of electrical machines

Manufacturers aim to design electric machines so that users will not get injured if they misuse them. However, manufacturers are not able to consider all types of misuse that may occur. Therefore, an instruction marking that instructs users regarding actions that prevent misuse of the machine in question must be effective, in particular because it is easy to add an instruction marking to a machine. In this study, we have tried to ascertain what types of instruction markings are effective in terms of preventing users from misusing a machine. For a marking to be effective, it may be important that users can easily notice the marking as then they are more likely to heed the related warning. We have carried out experiments on human behavior focusing on the differences in the position of a marking, whether or not a marking includes an illustration, and whether or not a marking has a flashing light in close proximity

A study for the influence of human behavior on a safety marking of electrical machines

Manufacturers aim to design electric machines so that users will not get injured if they misuse them. However, manufacturers are not able to consider all types of misuse that may occur. Therefore, an instruction marking that instructs users regarding actions that prevent misuse of the machine in question must be effective, in particular because it is easy to add an instruction marking to a machine. In this study, we have tried to ascertain what types of instruction markings are effective in terms of preventing users from misusing a machine. For a marking to be effective, it may be important that users can easily notice the marking as then they are more likely to heed the related warning. We have carried out experiments on human behavior focusing on the differences in the position of a marking, whether or not a marking includes an illustration, and whether or not a marking has a flashing light in close proximity

Does the NIMBY strategy really promote a self-interest?: Evidence from England\u27s waste management policy

経済学 / EconomicsNIMBY (not in my backyard) is the word used to describe the human behavior whereby a person agrees on an issue but refuses to accept it when it happens \u27in his own back yard\u27. This paper analyzes this type of NIMBY activity and, using evidence from England\u27s waste management policy, determines that NIMBY decisions are not necessarily the result of personal self-interest. If people disagree with building a nuisance facility, such as a site for waste and recyclables, in their own backyard, the result is an increase in illegal dumping rather than the legal and proper disposal of waste materials at an official facility. Using the spatial econometrics approach, we further provide evidence that the broken window theory is also applicable to illegal dumping.http://www.grips.ac.jp/list/jp/facultyinfo/yoshida_yuichiro

Human Hepatocyte Growth Factor Promotes Functional Recovery in Primates after Spinal Cord Injury

Many therapeutic interventions for spinal cord injury (SCI) using neurotrophic factors have focused on reducing the area damaged by secondary, post-injury degeneration, to promote functional recovery. Hepatocyte growth factor (HGF), which is a potent mitogen for mature hepatocytes and a mediator of the inflammatory responses to tissue injury, was recently highlighted as a potent neurotrophic factor in the central nervous system. We previously reported that introducing exogenous HGF into the injured rodent spinal cord using a herpes simplex virus-1 vector significantly reduces the area of damaged tissue and promotes functional recovery. However, that study did not examine the therapeutic effects of administering HGF after injury, which is the most critical issue for clinical application. To translate this strategy to human treatment, we induced a contusive cervical SCI in the common marmoset, a primate, and then administered recombinant human HGF (rhHGF) intrathecally. Motor function was assessed using an original open field scoring system focusing on manual function, including reach-and-grasp performance and hand placement in walking. The intrathecal rhHGF preserved the corticospinal fibers and myelinated areas, thereby promoting functional recovery. In vivo magnetic resonance imaging showed significant preservation of the intact spinal cord parenchyma. rhHGF-treatment did not give rise to an abnormal outgrowth of calcitonin gene related peptide positive fibers compared to the control group, indicating that this treatment did not induce or exacerbate allodynia. This is the first study to report the efficacy of rhHGF for treating SCI in non-human primates. In addition, this is the first presentation of a novel scale for assessing neurological motor performance in non-human primates after contusive cervical SCI

The Decoupling of Affluence and Waste Discharge under Spatial Correlation: Do Richer Communities Discharge More Waste?

経済学 / EconomicsAlthough there are many studies on the environmental Kuznets curve, very few of them address municipal solid waste cases, and there is still controversy concerning the validity of the waste Kuznets curve hypothesis. In this paper, we provide empirical evidence for the waste Kuznets curve hypothesis by applying spatial econometrics methods to municipal-level data in Japan. To our knowledge, this is the first study that finds valid evidence for the waste Kuznets curve hypothesis in the absolute decoupling manner. The successful result owes in part to our highly disaggregated data and also to the use of a spatial econometric model that takes into account the mimicking behavior among neighboring municipalities. The former indicates that distinguishing between household and business waste is the key to revealing the waste–income relationship, while the latter implies the importance of peer effects when municipal governments formulate waste-reduction policies.http://www.grips.ac.jp/list/jp/facultyinfo/yoshida_yuichiro

Reexamining the waste-income relationship

経済学 / EconomicsEven though many studies on Environmental Kuznets curve (EKC), are following a seminal work by Grossman and Krueger (1991), limited studies are available for municipal solid waste’s cases (WKC). Mazzanti and Montini eds. (2009) is a first comprehensive study of WKC with European data. More importantly, they define a absolute decoupling as ‘descending side of an inverted U shape’ and relative decoupling as ‘ascending path of an inverted U shape. In this paper, we add a new evidence for WKC by using municipal solid waste’s data in Japan. The successful result was derived due to highly disaggregated data as was suggested by Mazzanti and Zoboli (2009) as well as the richness of data set.http://www.grips.ac.jp/list/jp/facultyinfo/yoshida_yuichiro

Economic Geography and Productive Efficiency of Solid-Waste Logistics in Japan\u27s Prefectures: Measurements via the Data Envelopment Analysis

経済学 / EconomicsThis paper measures the productive efficiency of the municipal-solid-waste (MSW) logistics by applying the data envelopment analysis (DEA) to the cross-sectional data of prefectures in Japan. Either through public operation or by outsourcing private waste-collection operators, prefectural governments possess the fundamental authority of waste-processing operation in Japan. We thus estimate a multi-input-multi-output production efficiency at the prefectural level via DEA, where several different model settings are employed. Our data classify the volume of MSW into household solid waste (HSW) and business solid waste (BSW) collected by both private and public operators as separate outputs, while the numbers of trucks and workers used by private and public operators enter as inputs. Results consistently show that the geographical characteristics such that the number of inhabited remote islands is relatively larger than others is a dominant factor determining the inefficiency. While the implication that in these small islands minimum efficient scale is not achieved is in accord to the literature that waste logistics is increasing-return at the municipal level, our results indicate that the production of waste collection in Japan is well described as CRS technology at the prefectural level. Results also show that the prefectures that are inefficient in MSW logistics have higher spatial correlation with their neighbors both in terms of waste collection efficiency and the volume of illegal dumping of industrial waste.JEL Classification Codes: R49, R59, Q53http://www.grips.ac.jp/list/jp/facultyinfo/yoshida_yuichiro

Alpha-CaMKII deficiency causes immature dentate gyrus, a novel candidate endophenotype of psychiatric disorders

Elucidating the neural and genetic factors underlying psychiatric illness is hampered by current methods of clinical diagnosis. The identification and investigation of clinical endophenotypes may be one solution, but represents a considerable challenge in human subjects. Here we report that mice heterozygous for a null mutation of the alpha-isoform of calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II (alpha-CaMKII+/-) have profoundly dysregulated behaviours and impaired neuronal development in the dentate gyrus (DG). The behavioral abnormalities include a severe working memory deficit and an exaggerated infradian rhythm, which are similar to symptoms seen in schizophrenia, bipolar mood disorder and other psychiatric disorders. Transcriptome analysis of the hippocampus of these mutants revealed that the expression levels of more than 2000 genes were significantly changed. Strikingly, among the 20 most downregulated genes, 5 had highly selective expression in the DG. Whereas BrdU incorporated cells in the mutant mouse DG was increased by more than 50 percent, the number of mature neurons in the DG was dramatically decreased. Morphological and physiological features of the DG neurons in the mutants were strikingly similar to those of immature DG neurons in normal rodents. Moreover, c-Fos expression in the DG after electric footshock was almost completely and selectively abolished in the mutants. Statistical clustering of human post-mortem brains using 10 genes differentially-expressed in the mutant mice were used to classify individuals into two clusters, one of which contained 16 of 18 schizophrenic patients. Nearly half of the differentially-expressed probes in the schizophrenia-enriched cluster encoded genes that are involved in neurogenesis or in neuronal migration/maturation, including calbindin, a marker for mature DG neurons. Based on these results, we propose that an "immature DG" in adulthood might induce alterations in behavior and serve as a promising candidate endophenotype of schizophrenia and other human psychiatric disorders

Underestimation of Inefficiency in Social Efficiency Benchmarking with Non-Parametric Methods of Production Technology Identification: A Note

経済学 / EconomicsIn the conventional social productive efficiency measurement, a DEA-based non-parametric method is typically employed to identify the piece-wise-linear production possibility frontier. Applying the directional distance-function approach a-la Luenberger (1992) to the production possibility frontier obtained in this fashion can, however, lead to an underestimation of inefficiency for a DMU with relatively large undesirable outputs. This underestimation becomes more acute if the sample size is small or data are clustered. This paper reveals the mechanism behind this underestimation bias, and then quantifies the degree of underestimation using nine-year panel data of rail and aviation sectors in Japan. Through a comparative analysis between parametric and non-parametric methods, we find, among others, that the underestimation of the aviation sector’s productive inefficiency is as large as 80%, which the non-parametric method failed to detect.http://www.grips.ac.jp/list/jp/facultyinfo/yoshida_yuichiro