Local Government Investments and Ineffectiveness of Fiscal Stimulus during Japan's Lost Decades

This paper provides an explanation of the reason why previous works suggest that the effect of fiscal stimulus measure is, if any, small during the lost decades in Japan. To show this, it focuses on public investment by local governments which occupies a substantial portion of the total investment. Specifically, we divide it into subsidized and non-subsidized expense, and empirically study the differences between their decision-making processes from the perspective of fiscal stimulus measures. The results of this analysis reveal that subsidized expense is countercyclical to the economic situation of the nation as a whole, but on the other hand, no connection with business cycles is seen at prefectural level. Contrastingly, non-subsidized expense shows no reaction to the state of the macro economy. In the 2000s, in particular, it is shown to be procyclical in relation to economic fluctuation at prefectural level, due to the fiscal rigidity of local governments. Based on the fact that the majority of Japan's public investment is carried out by local governments, it becomes clear that, as a problem prior to the evaluation of its policy effects, public investment is not implemented with adequate timing to offset business cycles in the first place

Nintedanib can be used safely and effectively for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis with predicted forced vital capacity <= 50%: A multi-center retrospective analysis

Background Nintedanib is a multi-kinase inhibitor approved for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF); however, its efficacy and safety for patients with IPF and restricted pulmonary function remain unclear. Therefore, the objective of this study was to determine the efficacy and safety of nintedanib for patients with IPF and forced vital capacity (FVC) ≤ 50%. Methods This was a multi-center retrospective study performed by the Okayama Respiratory Disease Study Group. Patients were allocated into FVC ≤ 50% and FVC > 50% groups based on their predicted FVC. The primary endpoints were FVC changes from baseline after 6 and 12 months. Results 45 patients were eligible for the study. 18 patients had FVC ≤ 50%, and 27 patients had FVC > 50%. Overall, 31 and 19 patients underwent pulmonary function tests at 6 and 12 months after initiating nintedanib, respectively. FVC changes from baseline at 6 and 12 months after initiating nintedanib were comparable between the two groups. Adverse events were seen in all patients, and the rates of patients who discontinued nintedanib were also comparable (38.9% vs. 37.0%, p = 1.000). Multiple regression analysis showed that age and forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1)/FVC were negatively correlated with changes in FVC at 6 months after initiating nintedanib. Conclusions Our data suggest that nintedanib can be a useful agent for IPF patients, including those with a low FVC, and that age and FEV1/FVC are predictive markers for changes in FVC following nintedanib treatment

Improvement of drill system for the third deep ice coring project around Dome Fuji, Antarctica - Focusing on selection of drilling fluids -

The Tenth Symposium on Polar Science/Ordinary sessions: [OM] Polar Meteorology and Glaciology, Wed. 4 Dec. / Entrance Hall (1st floor) , National Institute of Polar Researc

Classification between normal and abnormal respiratory sounds based on maximum likelihood approach

In this paper, we have proposed a novel classification procedure for distinguishing between normal respiratory and abnormal respiratory sounds based on a maximum likelihood approach using hidden Markov models. We have assumed that each inspiratory/expiratory period consists of a time sequence of characteristic acoustic segments. The classification procedure detects the segment sequence with the highest likelihood and yields the classification result. We have proposed two elaborate acoustic modeling methods: one method is individual modeling for adventitious sound periods and for breath sound periods for the detection of abnormal respiratory sounds, and the other is a microphone-dependent modeling method for the detection of normal respiratory sounds. Classification experiments conducted using the former method revealed that this method demonstrated an increase of 19.1% in its recall rate of abnormal respiratory sounds as compared with the recall rate of a baseline method. It has also been revealed that the latter modeling method demonstrates an increase in its recall rate for the detection of not only normal respiratory sounds but also for abnormal respiratory sounds. These experimental results have confirmed the validity of our proposed classification procedure.ICASSP 2009 - 2009 IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech and Signal Processing : Taipei, Taiwan, 2009.04.19-2009.04.2

Carotenoid Nostoxanthin Production by Sphingomonas sp. SG73 Isolated from Deep Sea Sediment

http://www.godac.jamstec.go.jp/darwin/cruise/natsushima/nt99-13/ehttp://www.godac.jamstec.go.jp/darwin/cruise/shinsei_maru/ks-18-j02/ehttp://www.godac.jamstec.go.jp/darwin/cruise/yokosuka/yk18-04/ehttp://www.godac.jamstec.go.jp/darwin/cruise/kaimei/km19-02/