Application of the Hope Theory to Understand Reconstruction Beliefs and Life Satisfaction Level among Residents following the Fukushima Disaster

The Great Eastern Japan Earthquake struck in 2011, which had an enormous impact on society and lives in the northern part of the Japan (Tohoku region). The disaster also led to hydrogen explosion at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant (FDNP), resulting in leakage of radioactive substances that contaminated the surrounding area. The Fukushima population is highly stressed and lives under constant fear of radiation, in addition to losing neighbors to evacuations during the earthquakes and the tsunami. Yet, there is lack of research on the psychological state of Japanese earthquake survivors. The present study uses psychological variables to measure hope for understanding how these factors could explain beliefs toward reconstruction and life satisfaction level of the local residents in Miyakoji town of Fukushima Prefecture. The survey (n=223) showed that only a few residents (about 30%) believed in successful reconstruction. Regression analysis revealed that factors of hope such as pathway and agency thinking have an influence on respondents’ beliefs regarding reconstruction and their level of life satisfaction. Future outreach and supporting activities should target raising residents’ hope to increase their psychological well-being

Factors Affecting Sustainability of Agriculture Land Management in Sarangan Magetan Indonesia

The Satoyama Agriculture Development Tools (SADT) is a widely used set of measures used across the globe to assess the sustainability of agriculture land management. While the SADT only use three dimensions: environmental, economic, and social factors, a fourth dimension, namely, institutional factors, is considered important to understand the authority and ability to facilitate sustainable development in a comprehensive, harmonious, and balanced manner. This study adds an institutional dimension to the SADT framework to evaluate the sustainability of agriculture land management in Magetan Regency, Indonesia. Specifically, we compare the perceptions of farmers and government officials regarding current agriculture land management by conducting a questionnaire survey and semi-structured interviews. The results reveal that there are gaps between the perceptions of farmers and government officials, especially regarding the environmental and socio-economic dimensions of land management. Government officials tend to believe that the environment, including keystone species, is well protected while farmers disagree. The Satoyama Evaluation shows that Sarangan Village is viewed as “Satoyama Like” from the point of view of government officials but appears to be “In Transition” based on farmer perceptions. Adding an institutional factor provides fruitful information on the perception gap between farmers and government officials in terms of local government conflict management performance

The importance of relational values in gaining people’s support and promoting their involvement in social-ecological system management: A comparative analysis

People’s support and involvement are critical to the sustainable use and conservation of social-ecological systems (SESs). Integrating people’s values into management decisions is pivotal. Without proper integration, the resulting SES may not align with their desires and may not be supported by people. Furthermore, values can be a deep leverage point within a system that is difficult to change, as people may be more willing to be involved in activities that support what they value. Recent studies have illustrated the importance of relational values as the third value class (in addition to instrumental and intrinsic). Relational values are preferences, principles, and virtues associated with human-nature relationships. Although studies on relational values are available, empirical studies, particularly studies about the usefulness of relational values in promoting pro-SES behavior, are rare. Consequently, our study administered questionnaires to residents in three SESs in Japan (N = 864, 1136, and 1000, respectively) to understand how relational values impact people’s support and involvement in SES management as measured by pro-SES behavior scales. In addition, due to the lack of pro-SES behavior measurements, we developed measurement items and a development guideline. Our findings support previous theoretical discussions positing that relational values are critical as a single value class or as part of the plural values and need to be integrated into SES management decisions to gain people’s support. Furthermore, our study demonstrated that cultivating relational values could promote pro-SES behavior to realize a desirable state of SES. Although from the viewpoint of residents, relational values overlapped with instrumental and intrinsic values; however, as per theoretical discussions, the results indicated that relational values were important in their own right as they were well associated with pro-SES behavior scales. The findings were similar across the three SESs, with different social-ecological characteristics. In summary, managers must integrate relational values into management decisions to gain people’s support and should cultivate relational values to promote pro-SES behavior, in order to realize a desirable state of SES

Pressure-Induced Restoration of the Reversed Crystal-Field Splitting in α\alpha-Sr2_2CrO4_4

Motivated by an experimental finding that the successive phase transitions in $\alpha$-Sr$_2$CrO$_4$ observed at ambient pressure ceases to exist under high pressures, we carry out the density-functional-theory-based electronic structure calculations and demonstrate that the reversal of the crystal-field splitting reported previously is restored under high pressures, so that the orbital degrees of freedom disappears, resulting in the single phase transition that divides the system into high-temperature Mott insulating and low-temperature antiferromagnetic insulating phases.Comment: 5 pages, 1 figure, to appear in JPS Conf. Proc. (Proceedings for SCES2019

Oxalate-bridged heterometallic chains with monocationic dabco derivatives

A series of bimetallic oxalate-bridged one-dimensional chains with monocationic dabco derivatives, ({R-dabco}[M(solv)2][Cr(ox)3]·n(solv)) (dabco = 1,4-diazabicyclo[2.2.2]octane, H2ox = oxalate; R = H, M = Co (1); R = H, M = Zn (2); R = Bu, M = Co (3); R = Bu, M = Zn (4)) were synthesized. All compounds have one-dimensional zig-zag chain structures with R-dabco cations located between chains. Cryomagnetic studies reveal that 1 and 3 showed intrachain ferromagnetic interactions between Co(II) and Cr(III) ions and metamagnetic behaviour due to interchain antiferromagnetic interactions. Permittivity measurements on compound 4 indicate specific paraelectronic relaxation behaviour originating from the rotational motion of the dabco alkyl substituent

A Coupled Spintronics Neuromorphic Approach for High-Performance Reservoir Computing

The rapid development in the field of artificial intelligence has increased the demand for neuromorphic computing hardware and its information-processing capability. A spintronics device is a promising candidate for neuromorphic computing hardware and can be used in extreme environments due to its high resistance to radiation. Improving the information-processing capability of neuromorphic computing is an important challenge for implementation. Herein, a novel neuromorphic computing framework using spintronics devices is proposed. This framework is called coupled spintronics reservoir (CSR) computing and exploits the high-dimensional dynamics of coupled spin-torque oscillators as a computational resource. The relationships among various bifurcations of the CSR and its information-processing capabilities through numerical experiments are analyzed and it is found that certain configurations of the CSR boost the information-processing capability of the spintronics reservoir toward or even beyond the standard level of machine learning networks. The effectiveness of our approach is demonstrated through conventional machine learning benchmarks and edge computing in real physical experiments using pneumatic artificial muscle-based wearables, which assist human operations in various environments. This study significantly advances the availability of neuromorphic computing for practical uses