RECENT FOOD CONSUMPTION PATTERN OF JAPANESE HOUSEHOLDS: DRIVING FORCES BEHIND WESTERNIZATION

A complete demand system for 11 aggregated food categories with 24 demographic variables, is specified following QUAIDS and is estimated using Japanese household level data. The estimation results suggest that westernization is due to the income effect and the tendency is further enhanced by the demographic factors.Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,

Measuring Effects of Competition on Retail Power Charges in Public Procurement Bidding (Japanese)

Deregulation in the electric power industry has been aimed at promoting competition, thereby enhancing the industry's efficiency. We use public bidding data from procurements of electric power supply service to study the impact of the reform on the retail supply sector in Japan. We quantify this impact by measuring a decline in power charges controlling the endogeneity bias due to service providers' decisions on whether or not to bid. Our results suggest that power charges are likely to decline by about 0.46 yen/kWh on average when two or more providers bid.

An Overview of Psychological Studies on Anger and Anger Expression

本論文では、怒りとその表出に関わるこれまでの先行研究を、(1)進化、(2)生理、(3)動因-行動、(4)認知、(5)社会構成の5つのアプローチに分けて紹介する。その上で、各アプローチが怒りをどのように定義しているかを検討し、その相違点や関連性を示した上で、今後の研究の方向性について議論する。In this paper, previous studies about anger and anger expression are overviewed. They are divided into five approaches: (1) Evolutional, (2) Physical, (3) Drive-Behavioral, (4) Cognitive, and (5) Social Constructive. Following an examination of the definition of anger in each approach and showing the relations and differences between them, the direction of future studies on anger and anger expression is discussed.感情科学の展

Post-transcriptional regulation of human pregnane X receptor by micro-RNA affects the expression of cytochrome P450 3A4.

金沢大学医薬保健研究域薬学系金沢大学医薬保健研究域薬学系Pregnane X receptor (PXR) is a major transcription factor regulating the inducible expression of a variety of transporters and drug-metabolizing enzymes, including CYP3A4 (cytochrome P450 3A4). We first found that the PXR mRNA level was not correlated with the PXR protein level in a panel of 25 human livers, indicating the involvement of post-transcriptional regulation. Notably, a potential miR-148a recognition element was identified in the 3\u27-untranslated region of human PXR mRNA. We investigated whether PXR might be regulated by miR-148a. A reporter assay revealed that miR-148a could recognize the miR-148a recognition element of PXR mRNA. The PXR protein level was decreased by the overexpression of miR-148a, whereas it was increased by inhibition of miR-148a. The miR-148a-dependent decrease of PXR protein attenuated the induction CYP3A4 mRNA. Furthermore, the translational efficiency of PXR (PXR protein/PXR mRNA ratio) was inversely correlated with the expression levels of miR-148a in a panel of 25 human livers, supporting the miR-148a-dependent regulation of PXR in human livers. Eventually, the PXR protein level was significantly correlated with the CYP3A4 mRNA and protein levels. In conclusion, we found that miR-148a post-transcriptionally regulated human PXR, resulting in the modulation of the inducible and/or constitutive levels of CYP3A4 in human liver. This study will provide new insight into the unsolved mechanism of the large interindividual variability of CYP3A4 expression

Security Analysis of Cryptosystems Using Short Generators over Ideal Lattices

In this paper, we analyze the security of cryptosystems using short generators over ideal lattices such as candidate multilinear maps by Garg, Gentry and Halevi and fully homomorphic encryption by Smart and Vercauteren. Our approach is based on a recent work by Cramer, Ducas, Peikert and Regev on analysis of recovering a short generator of an ideal in the $q$-th cyclotomic field for a prime power $q$. In their analysis, implicit lower bounds of the special values of Dirichlet $L$-functions at 1 are essentially used for estimating some sizes of the dual basis in the log-unit lattice of the $q$-th cyclotomic field. Our main contribution is to improve Cramer et al.\u27s analysis by giving explicit lower and upper bounds of the special values of Dirichlet $L$-functions at 1 for any non-trivial even Dirichlet characters modulo $q$. Moreover, we give various experimental evidence that recovering short generators of principle ideals in $2k$-th cyclotomic fields for $k \geq 10$ is succeeded with high probability. As a consequence, our analysis suggests that the security of the above cryptosystems based on the difficulty of recovering a short generator is reduced to solving the principal ideal problem under the number theoretical conjecture so-called Weber\u27s class number problem

経済学の成績に対する数学学習の効果 : コントロール関数アプローチによる推定と予備検定

要旨あり原著論

The Influences of Narcissism on Helping Behavior

In this study, we examined the relationship between the level of narcissism and helping behavior. Participants, 108 students, were asked to rate the Narcissistic Personality Inventory-Short Version （NPI-S）, the normative attitude toward helping, helping ability, and daily helping behaviors. Results indicated that the higher the sense of superiority and competence, which was an aspect of the narcissistic personality, the higher they rated their helping ability. On the other hand, the higher the need for attention and praise, another aspect of the narcissistic personality, the more they rated positively on their normative attitude. Moreover, helping ability and the normative attitude were positively related to the daily helping behaviors. These results suggested that there would be two processes in the influences of narcissism on helping behavior.本研究では、対象者（108名の学生）に自己愛人格目録短縮版（NPI-S）と、援助規範意識、援助能力評価、援助行動について回答してもらい、自己愛傾向の程度によって援助行動に差異が見られるかどうかを検討した。その結果，自己愛傾向のうち、優越感・有能感が高いほど、援助能力評価が高いことが明らかとなった。また、注目・賞賛欲求が高いほど、肯定的な援助規範意識を持ちやすいことも明らかとなった。さらに、援助規範意識、援助能力評価は、援助行動に対して正の影響を及ぼしていた。これらの結果は、自己愛傾向は2つのプロセスを通じて援助行動に影響を及ぼしていることを示唆している