Three essays on communication games and behavioral economics

This dissertation consists of three chapters devoted to the study of communication games and behavioral economics. The first chapter extends the cheap talk model of Crawford and Sobel (1982) (CS). In CS, a speaker (S) uses cheap talk to persuade a decision maker (DM) to select an action as profitable to S as possible. This paper shows that the presence of an outside option -- that is, allowing DM to avoid taking any action, yielding state-independent reservation utilities to DM and S -- has an important qualitative impact on the results. Contrary to CS, in this model, the informativeness of communication is not always decreasing in the level of conflict of interest. Relatedly, communication can be more informative than in CS. The second chapter uses a different version of my cheap talk model with an outside option to explore managerial issues such as delegation and interpersonal authority. In this chapter, actions are costly for DM, and S's information is noisy. Hence, the agents may agree or disagree on the ex-ante ranking over projects, and DM may choose not to carry out any project. Unlike in the standard cheap talk model (without an outside option), when their ex-ante rankings coincide, S is more tempted to lie and hide bad news about both agents' ex-ante most preferred project because DM is highly likely to carry it out. Consequently, when their ex-ante rankings coincide, DM can have less incentives to delegate the choice of project to S and more incentives to use interpersonal authority than when their ex-ante rankings differ. The third chapter develops a theory of "personal rules" to explain a paradoxical stylized fact that increasing punishment rates can increase crime. This theory, based on the tradeoff between one's self-image of criminal productivity and the temptation of committing a crime, analyzes the way the agent may transform lapses into precedents. The foundation for this transformation is imperfect recall of one's own criminal productivity, which leads people to draw inaccurate inferences from their past actions. Rationalization may lead them to overestimate the utility of committing a crime when the opportunity presents itself

Longitudinal study on factors affecting assertiveness among preceptors of novice nurses

Purpose: This study aims to understand the assertiveness of preceptors of novice nurses and factors affecting the assertiveness through a longitudinal perspective. Methods: Anonymous self-rating questionnaire surveys were administered to 1292 preceptors working in participating city and university hospitals across Japan (August, 2013 (baseline) and March, 2014 (second survey)). The surveys had question items from the Japanese version of the Rathus Assertiveness Schedule (J-RAS, 30 items), demographic details of the participants, evaluation of novice nurses by preceptors, instruction framework, selfevaluation of preceptors, working environment, and a burnout inventory (Japanese version of the Maslach Burnout InventoryHuman Services Survey, 22 items). Bivariate analyses (T-tests and one-way analysis of variance) were conducted using assertiveness of the second survey as the objective variable, and other items of the baseline survey as explanatory variables. Selecting variables with p values smaller than 0.2 obtained in the bivariate analysis as explanatory variables, a multiple linear regression analysis (Stepwise method) was conducted. For the analyses, we used a statistics analysis software, SPSS Statistic 22. Results: Choosing 836 valid respondents of the baseline survey as a cohort group, we repeated the survey 8 months after the baseline survey to identify the factors affecting the assertiveness of preceptors of novice nurses. Excluding 62 who had missing values in the question items for assertiveness, 472 participants who were followed were included in analyses. As the results, following factors were found to affect the assertiveness: thinking that ‘they make rapid decisions’, and that ‘they are valuable as others’. Further, participants who have higher total burnout scores had lower assertiveness. Adjusted coefficient of determination was 0.153. Discussion: It can be inferred that the assertiveness of preceptors is higher than that of novice nurses measured by the J-RAS used in this study, and lower than that of administrative nurses. The assertiveness of preceptors was higher among participants who evaluated themselves positively, thinking that ‘they make rapid decisions’, and that ‘they are valuable as others’. It was also found that higher ‘total burnout scores’ was a factor that lowers the assertiveness. These findings suggest that a positive self-evaluation improves assertiveness and helps to prevent burnou

Evaluation of Infliximab Effects on Gastrointestinal Bleeding in Crohn's Disease Using Double-Balloon Endoscopy

Tumor necrosis factor α plays an important role in the pathogenesis of Crohn's disease (CD). The effects of infliximab on gastrointestinal bleeding in CD have not yet been fully evaluated. Herein we describe three CD cases who presented with gastrointestinal bleeding and received infliximab treatment. In case 1, double-balloon endoscopy showed a large ulcer with several irregularly shaped ulcers in the terminal ileum; 8 weeks after infliximab administration, complete healing of all lesions was observed. In case 2, double-balloon endoscopy showed linear ulcers and mucosal edema in the jejunum and ileum; 5 weeks after infliximab administration, all lesions were decreased in size and were healed. In case 3, double-balloon endoscopy revealed ulcerations and stenosis in the terminal ileum; 12 weeks after infliximab administration, ulcer healing and an increased diameter of the ileal stenosis were observed. These three cases have been receiving ongoing infliximab maintenance therapy and are currently symptom-free. Infliximab thus appears to be useful for treatment of gastrointestinal bleeding in CD patients

看護学臨地実習指導者自己教育力尺度を用いた実習指導者の自己教育力とその関連要因－職業的アイデンティティ・バーンアウトを含む関連要因の検討－

本研究は，看護学臨地実習指導者自己教育力尺度を用いて，看護学臨地実習指導者（以下指導者）の自己教 育力とその関連要因を明らかにすることを目的とした． 北海道・東北・中部・近畿地方の300 床以上の病院に勤務する指導者1692 人を対象として自記式質問紙 調査（ 郵送留置法）を 2019年 9 月～10 月に実施した． 目的変数である指導者の自己教育力と説明変数の2 変量解析において，有意差のみられた変数を抽出し， 重回帰分析（ステップワイズ法）を実施した（ｐ＜ 0.05）． 回収数は1435 部（回収率84.8%）であった．看護管理者を除く指導者で，自己教育力尺度に欠損がない 1018 部（有効回答率60.2%）を分析対象とした． 対象者の平均年齢37.1 ± 7.9 歳，平均臨床経験14.4±8.1 年，平均実習指導経験5.4±5.5 年であった．本 研究における指導者の自己教育力の平均は65.8±10.8 点であり，本研究のCronbachα 係数は0.91 であった． 重回帰分析の結果，自由度調整済み決定係数は0.55 であった．指導者の自己教育力に最も強く関連していた 変数は，看護師の職業的アイデンティティであった．さらに，学生をチームの一員として認めている， 実習目標 を達成できるように指導している，実習指導を振り返っている，学生に看護について語っているなどであった． 指導者の自己教育力に最も強く関連していた要因は，看護師の看護観の基盤となる職業的アイデンティティ であった．これは，指導者が学生に看護を意味づける上で，実習教育の質を左右する重要（安酸, 2015）な 要因であり，指導者の自己教育力の高さと強く関連していたことが明らかになった

Christopher Simpson The Division-Viol, or The Art of PLAYING Ex tempore upon a GROUND. EDITIO SECVNDA Part III "The Method of ordering Division to a Ground" (2)

本訳稿はChristopher Simpson (1605頃－1669) 著 The Division-Viol, or, The Art of PLAYING Ex tempore upon a GROUND. DIVIDED INTO THREE PARTS. EDITIO SECVNDA, London, 1665 のPart III "The Method of ordering Division to a Ground" より§7～§12(pp.42-56)の全訳である

The whole blood transcriptional regulation landscape in 465 COVID-19 infected samples from Japan COVID-19 Task Force

「コロナ制圧タスクフォース」COVID-19患者由来の血液細胞における遺伝子発現の網羅的解析 --重症度に応じた遺伝子発現の変化には、ヒトゲノム配列の個人差が影響する--. 京都大学プレスリリース. 2022-08-23.Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a recently-emerged infectious disease that has caused millions of deaths, where comprehensive understanding of disease mechanisms is still unestablished. In particular, studies of gene expression dynamics and regulation landscape in COVID-19 infected individuals are limited. Here, we report on a thorough analysis of whole blood RNA-seq data from 465 genotyped samples from the Japan COVID-19 Task Force, including 359 severe and 106 non-severe COVID-19 cases. We discover 1169 putative causal expression quantitative trait loci (eQTLs) including 34 possible colocalizations with biobank fine-mapping results of hematopoietic traits in a Japanese population, 1549 putative causal splice QTLs (sQTLs; e.g. two independent sQTLs at TOR1AIP1), as well as biologically interpretable trans-eQTL examples (e.g., REST and STING1), all fine-mapped at single variant resolution. We perform differential gene expression analysis to elucidate 198 genes with increased expression in severe COVID-19 cases and enriched for innate immune-related functions. Finally, we evaluate the limited but non-zero effect of COVID-19 phenotype on eQTL discovery, and highlight the presence of COVID-19 severity-interaction eQTLs (ieQTLs; e.g., CLEC4C and MYBL2). Our study provides a comprehensive catalog of whole blood regulatory variants in Japanese, as well as a reference for transcriptional landscapes in response to COVID-19 infection