Using GIS in community design charrettes: Lessons from a Japan–U.S. collaboration in earthquake recovery and mitigation planning for Kobe

Charrettes have become popular in the urban design field, especially for use among multidisciplinary teams of professionals and non-professional community stakeholders seeking to incorporate a rich array of expertise in short visioning activities. Geographic Information Systems are among the technologies with potential to provide sophisticated spatial information to charrette participants efficiently. This article reports on a charrette carried out jointly by teams from Kobe University and the University of Washington, Seattle, USA, using GIS to inform urban design in three neighborhoods affected by the Great Hanshin–Awaji Earthquake of 1995 in Kobe, Japan. The article describes the charrette itself, and discusses the utility of GIS, given the challenges of disaster recovery in a context of undeveloped institutions for public participation, and with participants of different linguistic and educational backgrounds. In combination with electronically storable drawing technology, GIS proved useful in enlarging the multidisciplinary and cross-cultural reach of urban design; in incorporating new layers of pre-prepared expert data, and in combining such data with dynamically-generated “advice maps” and design ideas. For GIS-based charrettes to become more widely useful in community-scale design in Japan, however, additional property-scale data need to be available.     

Dynamics of the term structure of interest rates and monetary policy: is monetary policy effective during zero interest rate policy?

The monetary policy targets the short rates; however, during zero interest rate policy (ZIRP), the short end of the yield curve cannot serve as a policy instrument. Relying on the joint yields-macro latent factors model, this study empirically examines the effect of monetary policy stances on term structure and the possible feedback effect on the real sector using the Japanese experience of ZIRP. The analysis indicates that it is the entire term structure that transmits the policy shocks to the real economy rather than the yield spread only. The monetary policy signals pass through the yield curve level and slope factors to stimulate the economic activity. The curvature factor, besides reflecting the cyclical fluctuations of the economy, acts as a leading indicator for future inflation. In addition, policy influence tends to be low as the short end becomes segmented toward medium/long-term of the yield curve. Furthermore, volatility in bond markets is found to be asymmetrically affected by positive and negative shocks and long end tends to be less sensitive to stochastic shocks than the short maturities. The expectation hypothesis of the term structure does not hold during the ZIRP period.     

Invariant U-statistics

For a class of distributions which are invariant under a group of transformations, we propose an estimator ot an estimable parameter. The estimator, which we call the invariant U-statistic, is the uniformly minimum variance unbiased estimator of the corresponding estimable parameter for the class of all continuous distributions which are invariant under the group of transformations.     

Construdtion of shrinkage estimators for the regression coefficient matrix in the gmanova model

This paper extensively investigates the theory of estimating the regression coefficient matrix in the normal GM.4KOVA model. We explicitly construct estimators which improve upon the maximum likelihood estimator under an invariant scalar loss function. These include the double shrinkage estimatois and those shrinking the maximum likelihood estimators directly. The underlying method is the decomposition of the problem into the conditional subproblems due to Kariya, Konno, and Strawderman(l996) and application of integration-by-parts technique to derive an unbiased estimate of the risk for certain class of invariant estimators.     

'Instruments', 'employees', 'companions', 'social assets': understanding relationships between persons with disabilities and their assistants in japan

In Japan, as in other advanced industrial societies, user-helper relationships shaped by the Independent Living Movement have gradually been taking root. In this study, we interviewed 31 Center for Independent Living (CIL) consumers in Japan in order to explore the nature of the relationship between persons with disabilities influenced by IL ideals and their assistants. Interviews revealed three significant dimensions to the relationship—one functional, one interpersonal and one collective. The functional dimension of the relationship was expressed in a characterization of assistants as 'instruments', the interpersonal dimension in their characterization as 'employees' (a task-orientated aspect) and 'companions' (a socio-emotional aspect), and the collective dimension in the characterization of assistants as 'social assets'—individuals without disabilities who understand the ideals and demands of independent living. Participant responses also form the basis of our discussion of theoretical and practical implications for the building of user-helper relationships based within a user-centred agency in the context of Japanese medical and social services.     

How Applicable are Western Models of Patient‐Physician Relationship in Asia?: Changing Patient‐Physician Relationship in Contemporary Japan

Abstract:  The social and political environments surrounding patient-physician relationship have been changing in Japan for the last few decades. This paper aims to illustrate social and cultural factors that underlie current situations and problems of patient-physician relationship in Japan through a comparison with those in western countries, and to consider how mutual participation model of patient-physician relationship could be applied and fostered in Japan as well as other Asian cultures. Four major sociocultural factors are discussed in relation to the patient-physician relationship in Japan: (1) individualism versus collectivism; (2) low context versus high context; (3) femininity versus masculinity; and (4) Christianity versus Confucianism. Two key issues in discussing the mutual participation model of patient-physician relationship in Japan have emerged; the family and the communication style. The patient autonomy in Japan should be considered within the context of the triadic relationship of patient, family, and physician. Also, since the communication style might differ between Japan and western countries, communication training programs and interventions for medical professionals as well as for patients should be tailored in a culturally appropriate way in order to improve the communication in medical encounters and to achieve the mutual participation. Beyond mere advocacy of the patient autonomy, the mutual participation model of patient-physician relationship should be pursued within our social and cultural context to be truly fruitful for patients and physicians in Japan.     

Estimation of a common mean vector in bivariate meta-analysis under the FGM copula

We propose a bivariate Farlie–Gumbel–Morgenstern (FGM) copula model for bivariate meta-analysis, and develop a maximum likelihood estimator for the common mean vector. With the aid of novel mathematical identities for the FGM copula, we derive the expression of the Fisher information matrix. We also derive an approximation formula for the Fisher information matrix, which is accurate and easy to compute. Based on the theory of independent but not identically distributed (i.n.i.d.) samples, we examine the asymptotic properties of the estimator. Simulation studies are given to demonstrate the performance of the proposed method, and a real data analysis is provided to illustrate the method.     

日本现代化进程中公共性的构造转换

现在的日本正由集权的、官僚主导型的开发国家向分权的、市民主导型的起业国家转变。这种变化是建立在由国家性公共性向市民性公共性进行转换的基础上的。市民性公共性以政府垄断公共性的终结、分权化导致权力向地方政府转移、市民自发的公益活动的成长、地方中间集团的重要性的提高等为特征。宏观地说,这种公共性的构造转换能够使日本这个国民国家适应全球化的过程得以把握。