Effect of fear of negative evaluation on excessive worry : An examination of modulation effect on cognitive control.

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships among fear of negative evaluation, excessive worry (state and trait), refraining from catastrophic thinking skill, and logical analysis skill. A survey was administrated to 211 undergraduate students on fear of negative evaluation, excessive worry (state and trait), refraining from catastrophic thinking skill, and logical analysis skill. The analysis showed that refraining from catastrophic thinking may be able to moderate the effects between fear of negative evaluation and state worry. The analysis also showed that the people who are higher fear of negative evaluation, higher refraining from catastrophic thinking skill, and lower logical analysis skill, tend to get worth their trait worry. In conclusion, when we intervene for the people who are higher fear of negative evaluation, we should explain not only the way how to use refraining from catastrophic thinking skill, but also the way how to use logical analysis skill

Syncretism: The Politics of Japan’s Financial Reforms

This paper examines how diversely organized capitalist societies evolve by analyzing the transformation of Japan’s financial system since the 1990s. The banking, securities, and insurance, as well as the postal financial institutions changed significantly, but are hardly converging to Anglo-American or ‘liberal market’ models. We contend that Japan’s new financial system is best characterized as syncretic, with new, traditional and hybrid forms of practices, organizations and norms coexisting. Syncretism in industry was driven by a distinctive pattern of interest group politics we call syncretization. Strong political leadership, facing serious electoral threats, shifted the policy logic from gradual incremental reforms following traditional interest group dynamics, to rapid reforms that excluded the traditionally powerful interest groups most affected by these reforms. We support the notion that diverse industry outcomes can be complementary to broader political economy reforms that take Japan away from its traditional model, part of a broader ‘convergence towards diversity’

Log-aesthetic Curves as Similarity Geometric Analogue of Euler's Elasticae

In this paper we consider the log-aesthetic curves and their generalization which are used in CAGD. We consider those curves under similarity geometry and characterize them as stationary integrable flow on plane curves which is governed by the Burgers equation. We propose a variational formulation of those curves whose Euler-Lagrange equation yields the stationary Burgers equation. Our result suggests that the log-aesthetic curves and their generalization can be regarded as the similarity geometric analogue of Euler's elasticae

Simulation of an interlocking hydraulic direct-drive system for a biped walking robot

Biped robots with serial links driven by an electric motor experience problems because the motor and transmission are installed in each joint, causing the legs to become very heavy. Previous solutions involved robots using servo valves, a type of highly responsive proportional valve. However, high supply pressure is necessary to realize high responsiveness and the resulting energy losses are large. To address this problem, we proposed a hydraulic direct-drive system in which the pump controls the cylinder meter-in flow, while a proportional valve controls the meter-out flow. Furthermore, our hydraulic interlocking drive system connects two hydraulic direct-drive systems for biped humanoid robots and concentrates the pump output on one side cylinder. The meter-in flow rate of the other side cylinder is controlled by the meter-out flow rate of the cylinder on which the pump is concentrated. A comparison of the walking simulation performance with that of the conventional independent system shows that our proposed system reduces the motor output power by 24.3%. These results prove the feasibility of constructing a two-legged robot without having to incorporate highly responsive servo valves