The Influence of Maternal Socialization on Infants’ Social Evaluation in Two Cultures

Although a growing body of research has explored the early development of social evaluation, no research has directly compared social evaluations of infants between different cultures. In addition, there has been little understanding regarding socialization's effects on this ability. The goal of this study was to expand on earlier findings on social evaluation in infants by investigating a broader sample from two cultures, and to explore the influence of maternal socialization on infants’ social evaluation. Using the violation of expectations and the preferential reaching paradigm, four groups aged 6‐, 9‐, 12‐, and 15–18 months and their mothers from Japan and the United States (159 dyads) were compared in terms of spontaneous social evaluations. Japanese and European American infants showed similar performance in dishabituation to the inconsistent behavior and in their reaching preference for prosocial over antisocial agents, indicating that the emergence of spontaneous social evaluation is not culture‐specific. Furthermore, our study provides a novel finding regarding the relationship between mothers’ socially evaluative speech and infants’ preference for prosocial over antisocial agents. These results suggest that the development of sociomoral understanding results from complicated interactions among evolutionary, cognitive, and social factors.     

Model selection for Lévy measures in diffusion processes with jumps from discrete observations

We deal with parametric inference and selection problems for jump components in discretely observed diffusion processes with jumps. We prepare several competing parametric models for the Lévy measure that might be misspecified, and select the best model from the aspect of information criteria. We construct quasi-information criteria (QIC), which are approximations of the information criteria based on continuous observations.     

Threshold Estimation for Stochastic Processes with Small Noise

Consider a process satisfying a stochastic differential equation with unknown drift parameter, and suppose that discrete observations are given. It is known that a simple least squares estimator (LSE) can be consistent but numerically unstable in the sense of large standard deviations under finite samples when the noise process has jumps. We propose a filter to cut large shocks from data and construct the same LSE from data selected by the filter. The proposed estimator can be asymptotically equivalent to the usual LSE, whose asymptotic distribution strongly depends on the noise process. However, in numerical study, it looked asymptotically normal in an example where filter was chosen suitably, and the noise was a Lévy process. We will try to justify this phenomenon mathematically, under certain restricted assumptions.     

Uniformly minimum variance unbiased estimation in lognormal and related distributions

The uniformly mimimum variance unbiased estimators and their variances from independent samples of lognormal distributions are concisely expressed using the hypergeometric functions     

On umvu estimators for the multivariate lognormal distribution and their variances

Uniformly minimum variance unbiased estimators of several parameters of the multivariate lognormal distribution are expressed by using the hypergeometric functions of matrix argument. And the variances are given in special cases.     

Feasibility and acceptability of using a web-based contraceptive support tool in a university health clinic

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate feasibility of integrating Bedsider.org, a web-based contraceptive decision support tool, at a university health clinic (UHC). Participants: Female students (ages 18–29) seeking contraceptive care at the UHC were enrolled in September 2015 (n?=?46). Methods: Providers recruited eligible patients during reproductive healthcare visits and introduced Bedsider. Surveys were administered immediately following the visit and a follow-up 2–4?weeks later. Electronic health records through 6?weeks post-enrollment were extracted. Results: Most patients had positive views toward Bedsider and appreciated receiving information during their UHC encounters. None were using long-acting reversible contraceptives (LARC) at enrollment. At follow-up, two patients self-reported IUD use. Among those recently sexually active, use of more effective contraceptive methods increased from 65% to 74%; 11% had initiated or were scheduled to receive a LARC. Conclusion: Bedsider can be feasibly integrated into UHC visits and may support women’s selection of more effective contraceptive methods, including LARCs.     

Incentives for International Migration of Scientists and Engineers to Japan

Many developed countries, welcome foreign talent, and Japan is no exception. The Japanese government has developed programmes for expanding the acceptance of foreign labour in specialized and technical fields, in order to compete with foreign nations in the global economy and accommodate the highly specialized domestic industrial structure. This paper focuses on scientists and engineers (S&E) as a component of the highly skilled labour force, and examines their incentives for migrating to Japan, which is one of the most technologically advanced countries in the world. According to a survey conducted in 2004, the majority of S&E working in Japan migrated from Asian nations, and many obtained their doctoral degrees in Japan and continued to stay in the country to work. Key incentives for migration are Japan’s high level of science and technology, opportunities to acquire cutting‐edge knowledge, and prospects for improving performance in an environment with large budgets, superior equipment and facilities, and good quality human resources. In particular, the technological environment is influential for S&E from countries with a significant technological gap when compared with Japan. However, this does not mean that S&E are indifferent to monetary rewards. The salary gap, which is considered to be a major factor in international mobility in to traditional economic theory, has also proven to be a significant incentive, particularly for S&E from countries where the gap in gross domestic product (GDP) per capita compared with Japan is large. In addition, cultural and social aspects of Japan attract mainly young S&E. The attractiveness of Japanese culture, opportunities to learn the Japanese language, and chances to build a network of personal contacts are important incentives for migration. This study presents some policy implications for countries competing over capable S&E.     

Role of Contextual Control in Second Language Performance

Transfer of training from an instructional environment to a natural environment may bring about ineffective language performance by bilingual individuals. In that regard, this study was designed to demonstrate the effect of such a transition on individuals'' language performance. A series of Japanese and English words were used as sample and comparisons in a matching procedure. Differential conditioning was implemented in the presence two types of contextual stimuli. After three sets of relations were established, the physical configuration of the contextual stimuli was changed to more subtle appearances, and the number of variations in the contextual stimuli was increased. Measures of percent correct and response latency were used to show the negative influence on second language performance. Percent correct responses decreased with the subtle contextual stimuli for 11 out of 14 participants, and average response latency increased with the increased number of variations in the last phase. These findings indicate that the change in environmental stimuli will be a significant participatory factor in training of second languages.     

日本江南史研究管窥——以20世纪80年代以后的研究为中心

日本的江南史研究在20世纪80年代获得了突破性的进展。第二次世界大战后的日本历史学曾经有过依据以“阶级斗争”等为代表的特定历史观来设定研究对象的情况，这种僵化的、从既有结论出发的研究难免会出现漏洞，于是从20世纪80年代以后，出现了以江南等地域为对象、尝试脱离战后历史学桎梏的研究方法。这些方法意在分析中国特定地域的社会形态，吸引了多数研究者的注意。而如今，直接针对江南地域社会史的研究并不多，地域研究大多成为更大的问题意识中的一部分。如同战后的历史学史观在20世纪80年代以后被地域社会史取代一般，随着日本的中国史研究者对江南这一地域看法的改变，江南地域史研究也在改变。目前，由于受到全球化的强烈影响，单纯细致观察某一地域状况的做法已经难以得到有意义的结论。可以说，对某一地域的研究已经成了“东亚史”等更大的研究范畴的一部分。     

Maximum likeihood estimation of an intraclass correlation in a bivariate normal distribution with missing observations

The maximum likeihood estimate is considered for an intraclass correlation coefficent in a bivariate normal distribution when some observations on either of the varibles are missuing. The estimate is given as the soulution of a polynomial equation of degree seven. An approximate confidence interval and a test procedure for the intraclass correlation are constricted based on an asymptotic variance stabilizing transformation of the resulting estimator. The distributional results are also considered under violation of the normality assumption. A Monte Carlo study was performed to examine the finite sample properties of the maximum likelihood estimator and to evaluate the proposed procedures for hypotheses testing and interval estimation.