Transition to a Multipolar Global Order and Diplomatic Challenges for Japan (Japanese)

The world is presently in the initial stages of transitioning from a post-Cold War unipolar structure centered on the U.S. to a multipolar order. The Obama administration is seeking to revamp U.S. diplomacy in recognition of this fact. China, whose rapid economic recovery has enhanced its presence, is also working to establish a firm foothold as a key player in this multipolar order. The EU and the major powers of Russia, India, and Brazil are similarly endeavoring to secure positions within the multipolar order. No clear-cut leadership will likely emerge in the international community for the time being, but it is also difficult to anticipate a decisive breakdown given the overall benefit of global interdependence. Without definitive leadership or a complete breakdown of the existing order, international order will be maintained simultaneously by great power constellations such as Sino-American relations and by multilateral regimes such as the G20. While political order is seeing cooperative efforts toward global governance, economic order is showing signs of a gradual erosion of the liberal economic system. Japan, no longer being the economic superpower, needs to adjust its foreign policies to these new international realities. The international situation will become comparatively challenging for Japan, whose relative national strength is in a downtrend. It can, however, maintain a certain say in the international community by bolstering its roles within East Asia and the Pacific region and it can participate in the establishment and management of the new international order. This orientation will likely come to serve as the fundamental guideline for ensuring Japan's stability and prosperity.

Mixing and Microbial Kinetics of Activated Sludge Process

In the activated sludge process, the characteristics of qualitative response observed in the aerator effluent depends largely on the induced microbiological reaction and the pattern of mixing. The latter controls the “age” distribution of mixing liquor. Authors introduced first two kinds of mixing model, one of which is modified complete mixed type and another is to apply for any intermediate mixing condition between complete mixing and plug flow, in order to explain the pattern of flow in the aeration tank. This serves especially for the investigation of microbiological characteristics of conventional and step aeration process. Next, the kinetics of microbial reaction was studied, referring to the previous formulation treating the metabolism of single substrate-organism combination, considering the significance of BOD5 while using it as index of amount of compounded substrates in the sewage ; consequently the over-all effect of miscellaneous sludge organisms was attributed to the term of activity, by which the modified mathematical representation of reaction for such mixed-culture system was proposed. Finally, the authors showed the possibility of calculating exact change in substrate concentration of the effluent by means of computations combining any proposed mixing model with reaction formula. For example, in case of zero- and first-order microbial reaction, the response in effluent substrate concentration was computed and summarized

Carbon Nanoarch Encapsulating Fe Nanowire on Ni (111)

We investigate the stable structures of Fe-filled single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) on Ni(111), using density functional theory calculations. We find stable geometries and electronic states for the nanotube on Ni(111). We propose the possibility that the C-C bonds of carbon nanotube are broken by Fe wire and Ni surface. That is, when Fe-filled SWNT(3, 3) adsorb on Ni(111) surface, SWNT transforms into arch-like structure.Comment: 13 pages, 6 figures, submitted to Japanese Journal of Applied Physics 22 April 2005. submitted to Japanese Journal of Applied Physics 22 April 200

Preleukemia: hematological disorders prior to onset of leukemia

Published data on Japanese leukemia patients with a preleukemic hematological disorder were assessed. The reexamined cases were from the &#34;Japona Centra Revuo Medicina&#34; reported during the period from 1952 to 1971. Among preleukemic hematological disorders, hypoplastic anemia was the most frequently reported (41 of 62 cases). These &#34;hypoplastic preleukemia&#34; patients were rather elderly and terminated mostly in atypical myelocytic leukemia. The chief hematological feature of the hypoplastic preleukemia cases was the coexistence of a relative erythroid hyperplasia and a slight increase of myeloblasts in the bone marrow that was unusual in hypoplastic anemia. The presence of pancytopenia and hypocellular marrow with a relative erythroid hyperplasia combined with a slight increase of myeloblasts probably indicates hypoplastic preleukemia that terminates later in acute leukemia.</p