Pluralism and Universality of Environmental Discourse: The Dilemma Between Damage Caused by the Japanese Macaque and its Protection

Abstract:  The subject of this paper is to describe the complexity of relations between man and wild monkeys, which causes difficulties in forming a social consensus related to their conservation and management. To present how the relations are in everyday life, and how they are simplified in universal discursive spaces, interviews and a questionnaire survey have been conducted. As a result, it is clarified that there are three kinds of discursive spaces, that of politics, natural science, and residents. People who share the land with wild monkeys have various terms and stories about their relations with monkeys. The monkeys have various values in the discourse of residents, including many troubles. The existence of monkeys is vivid and close, and can be described as "accessible" nature. However, in discussion of politics or natural sciences, there is less diversity in monkeys' values. In these discursive spaces, monkeys are described simply in the framework of "distant" nature, and wild monkey issues are constructed as a "pest animal issue". The simplified protocol between accessible and distant nature makes the wild monkey issues simple. And the attitudes of residents are shown as controversial through the contradiction between simple-complex issues. In conclusion, this contradiction cannot be solved only by filling the gap between accessible and distant nature with social consensus, but also by connecting the two and enhancing the dynamism of society as a whole.     

Area-based urban regeneration comparing Denmark and Japan

In this paper, we study the characteristics and results of two different approaches to urban regeneration which we have termed ‘Metagovernance’ and ‘Pluricentric coordination’ following. We studied this through a comparative study of area-based, participatory urban regeneration projects in Denmark and Japan, representing each one approach. The paper aims to clarify results of the two approaches in terms of five aspects of urban regeneration, relevant to the process and results: (1) strategic spatial improvement, (2) influence of the legal system and transparency of the processes, (3) empowerment of citizens and diversity of participants, (4) innovative capacity (diversity and creativity of the projects) and (5) continuity and flexibility of the projects. The paper concludes that each approach has strengths and weaknesses and that each country can learn from the other to strengthen future participatory urban regeneration.     

Finding environmentally important industry clusters: Multiway cut approach using nonnegative matrix factorization

This paper proposes an optimal combinatorial method for finding groups of industries with relatively large CO₂ emissions through industrial relations. Using an economic input–output table, we estimated a non-symmetric matrix describing how much CO₂ is emitted in producing the commodity of industry i, which was purchased to produce commodity of industry j, to meet the final demand for a specific commodity. A symmetric strength of relations matrix describing the CO₂ emissions associated with the industrial relations was further estimated using the non-symmetric matrix. The strength of relations matrix can be viewed as a representation of the supply-chain network of the final commodity. In this study, we estimated the strength of relations matrix associated with the final demand for automobiles and applied the multiway cut approach using nonnegative matrix factorization to the matrix in order to find environmentally important industry clusters in the Japanese automobile supply chain. According to our empirical results, the optimal number of industry clusters is 19, and 4 industry clusters are playing a key role in CO₂ emission reduction.     

Japanese male gay and bisexual identity

Few studies have ever dealt with Japanese male gay and bisexual identity. This exploratory study investigated gay and bisexual identity through interviews of 34 Japanese gay and bisexual men. Though Japan has unique cultural aspects that are different from Western countries, it can be shown that Western concepts or models of homosexual identity are applicable to a considerable extent to Japanese gay and bisexual men. The results of this study suggest that there are two distinct types of Japanese men sexually interested in men, which the author will call "bisexual" and "gay." These two types are compared in terms of three aspects: self-identity, sexual preference, and social identity and role. A significant number of respondents have careers or vocations in the arts. This study touches on the correlation between art and male-male sexual orientation in Japan.     

The neyman accuracy and the wolfowitz accuracy of the stein type confidence interval for the disturbance variance

In this paper we consider the Neyman accuracy and the Wolfowitz accuracy of the Stein type improved confidence interval I?_S for the disturbance variance in a linear regression model. The Neyman accuracy is a measure related to the unbiasedness of a confidence interval, and the Wolfowitz accuracy is related to the closeness of the endpoints to the true parameter. We show that I?_S is not unbiased and give some numerical results for the Neyman accuracy. As for the Wolfowitz accuracy we derive the sufficient condition for I?_S to improve on the usual confidence interval under this criterion and show numerically that a large degree of improvement can be obtainted.     

Estimation of Benchmark Dose of Lifetime Cadmium Intake for Adverse Renal Effects Using Hybrid Approach in Inhabitants of an Environmentally Exposed River Basin in Japan

The aim of this study is to estimate the reference level of lifetime cadmium intake (LCd) as the benchmark doses (BMDs) and their 95% lower confidence limits (BMDLs) for various renal effects by applying a hybrid approach. The participants comprised 3,013 (1,362 men and 1,651 women) and 278 (129 men and 149 women) inhabitants of the Cd‐polluted and nonpolluted areas, respectively, in the environmentally exposed Kakehashi River basin. Glucose, protein, aminonitrogen, metallothionein, and β₂‐microglobulin in urine were measured as indicators of renal dysfunction. The BMD and BMDL that corresponded to an additional risk of 5% were calculated with background risk at zero exposure set at 5%. The obtained BMDLs of LCd were 3.7 g (glucose), 3.2 g (protein), 3.7 g (aminonitrogen), 1.7 g (metallothionein), and 1.8 g (β₂‐microglobulin) in men and 2.9 g (glucose), 2.5 g (protein), 2.0 g (aminonitrogen), 1.6 g (metallothionein), and 1.3 g (β₂‐microglobulin) in women. The lowest BMDL was 1.7 g (metallothionein) and 1.3 g (β₂‐microglobulin) in men and women, respectively. The lowest BMDL of LCd (1.3 g) was somewhat lower than the representative threshold LCd (2.0 g) calculated in the previous studies. The obtained BMDLs may contribute to further discussion on the health risk assessment of cadmium exposure.     

An approximation algorithm for maximum internal spanning tree

Given a graph G, the maximum internal spanning tree problem (MIST for short) asks for computing a spanning tree T of G such that the number of internal vertices in T is maximized. MIST has possible applications in the design of cost-efficient communication networks and water supply networks and hence has been extensively studied in the literature. MIST is NP-hard and hence a number of polynomial-time approximation algorithms have been designed for MIST in the literature. The previously best polynomial-time approximation algorithm for MIST achieves a ratio of \(\frac{3}{4}\). In this paper, we first design a simpler algorithm that achieves the same ratio and the same time complexity as the previous best. We then refine the algorithm into a new approximation algorithm that achieves a better ratio (namely, \(\frac{13}{17}\)) with the same time complexity. Our new algorithm explores much deeper structure of the problem than the previous best. The discovered structure may be used to design even better approximation or parameterized algorithms for the problem in the future.     

Japanese urban sociology: Development and current trends

This article focuses on current trends in Japanese urban sociology as they developed historically. They can be understood in the distinctive context of Japanese sociology, as the products of an interaction between Western sociological theories and their adaptation to Japan’s own materials. The article begins with the historical context of urban development and provides an overview of the development of urban studies in Japan, including issues in the theory of urbanization, the distinctive character of the neighborhood association, Cbonaikai, and the formation of new local communities in suburban areas. The current trends since the 1980s involve the macro approach to urban restructuring, studies on urban ethnicity, and social network analysis. Overall, it is suggested that the influence of American sociology makes Japanese urban analysis comparative. I thank Claude S. Fischer and Tazuko Hanzawa for their help with editing this paper. Remain-ing deficiencies are mine.     

Novel concentration-QTc models for early clinical studies with parallel placebo controls: A simulation study

The QTc interval of the electrocardiogram is a pharmacodynamic biomarker for drug-induced cardiac toxicity. The ICH E14 guideline Questions and Answers offer a solution for evaluating a concentration-QTc relationship in early clinical studies as an alternative to conducting a thorough QT/QTc study. We focused on covariance structures of QTc intervals on the baseline day and dosing day (two-day covariance structure,) and proposed a two-day QTc model to analyze a concentration-QTc relationship for placebo-controlled parallel phase 1 single ascending dose studies. The proposed two-day QTc model is based on a constrained longitudinal data analysis model and a mixed effects model, thus allowing various variance components to capture the two-day covariance structure. We also propose a one-day QTc model for the situation where no baseline day or only a pre-dose baseline is available and models for multiple ascending dose studies where concentration and QTc intervals are available over multiple days. A simulation study shows that the proposed models control the false negative rate for positive drugs and have both higher accuracy and power for negative drugs than existing models in a variety of settings for the two-day covariance structure. The proposed models will promote early and accurate evaluation of the cardiac safety of new drugs.