(2014). Introduction to the Special Issue on Strategy, Story, and Emergence: Essays on Scenario Planning. World Futures: Vol. 70, Strategy, Story, and Emergence: Essays on Scenario Planning, pp. 2-4.

Researchers have been interested in what retrieval process is responsible for overgeneral autobiographical memories (OGM) in depression. Previous cross-sectional studies demonstrated that, for negatively valenced cues, directly retrieved OGM, rather than generatively retrieved OGM, are associated with depression. However, longitudinal evidence of this relationship is still lacking and needs to be tested. We conducted a re-analysis of the online computerised memory specificity training (c-MeST) data to examine whether directly retrieved OGM for negative cues prospectively predicts high levels of depression 1 (...) month later. Participants who met the criteria of current major depressive disorders (N = 116; n = 58 in the c-MeST group and n = 58 in the control group) recalled autobiographical memories for positive and negative cues and judged each retrieval process (i.e. direct or generative). The results supported our prediction, and directly retrieved OGM for negative cues predicted high levels of depressive symptoms 1 month later even after controlling for the group effect, baseline depressive symptoms, executive functioning and rumination. Exploratory analysis showed that direct retrieval of specific memories prospectively predicted low levels of depression. These results support the theory that elevated accessibility of negatively valenced general memory representations is a vulnerability factor for depressive symptoms. (shrink)

We review some techniques and notions for quantum information theory. It is shown that the dynamical entropies is discussed and some numerical computations of these entropies are carried for several states.

We review some notions for general quantum entropies. The entropy of the compound systems is discussed and a numerical computation of the quantum dynamical systems is carried for the noisy optical channel.

For ${b \in {^{\omega}}{\omega}}$ , let ${\mathfrak{c}^{\exists}_{b, 1}}$ be the minimal number of functions (or slaloms with width 1) to catch every functions below b in infinitely many positions. In this paper, by using the technique of forcing, we construct a generic model in which there are many coefficients ${\mathfrak{c}^{\exists}_{{b_\alpha}, 1}}$ with pairwise different values. In particular, under the assumption that a weakly inaccessible cardinal exists, we can construct a generic model in which there are continuum many coefficients ${\mathfrak{c}^{\exists}_{{b_\alpha}, 1}}$ (...) with pairwise different values. In conjunction with these results, we give a generic model in which there are many Yorioka’s ideals ${\mathcal{I}_{f_\alpha}}$ with pairwise different covering numbers. (shrink)

In 2002, Yorioka introduced the σ-ideal ${{\mathcal {I}}_f}$ for strictly increasing functions f from ω into ω to analyze the cofinality of the strong measure zero ideal. For each f, we study the cardinal coefficients (the additivity, covering number, uniformity and cofinality) of ${{\mathcal {I}}_f}$.

Discovery of representative Web pages regarding specific topics is important for assisting users' information retrieval from the Web. Researches on Web structure mining, whose goals are to discover or to rank important Web pages based on the graph structure of hyperlinks, have been very active recently. A complete bipartite of Web graph, which is composed of centers (containing useful information regarding specific topic) and fans (containing hyperlinks to centers), can be regarded as a Web community sharing a common interest. Although (...) Murata's method for discovering Web communities is a simple method for finding related Web pages, it has the following weaknesses: (1) since the number of centers increases monotonously, pages irrelevant to the members of Web communities may be added in the process of discovery, and (2) since the number of fans decreases monotonously according as the number of centers increases, the method may suffer topic drift. This paper describes an improved method for refining Web communities in order to acquire representative Web pages of the topics of input Web communities. The method is based on the assumption that most of the fans contain hyperlinks pointing to representative pages regarding their topic, and that hyperlinks to the pages of the same quality often co-occur. In our new method, both fans and centers are renewed iteratively by the result of the majority vote of the members of previous Web community. Results of our experiments show that the new method has abilities of finding desirable pages for several topics. (shrink)

(2014). The Mind of the Scenario Thinker. World Futures: Vol. 70, Strategy, Story, and Emergence: Essays on Scenario Planning, pp. 44-51.

(2014). Virtue-Based Management. World Futures: Vol. 70, Strategy, Story, and Emergence: Essays on Scenario Planning, pp. 19-27.

This paper proposes a method for discovering Web communities. A complete bipartite graph K i, j of Web pages can be regarded as a community sharing a common interest. Discovery of such community is expected to assist users’ information retrieval from the Web. The method proposed in this paper is based on the assumption that hyperlinks to related Web pages often co-occur. Relations of Web pages are detected by the co-occurrence of hyperlinks on the pages which are acquired from a (...) search engine by backlink search. In order to find a new member of a Web community, all the hyperlinks contained in the acquired pages are extracted. A page which is pointed by the most frequent hyperlinks is regarded as a new member of the community. We have build a system which discovers complete bipartite graphs based on the method. Only from a few URLs of initial community members, the system succeeds in discovering several genres of Web communities without analyzing the contents of Web pages. (shrink)

あの高名な「絶対矛盾的自己同一」とは、いったいどういう意味なのか―。西田哲学の本質をつかみ、その全貌をわかりやすく示す!

ウィトゲンシュタインさんと落語を探検!「粗忽長屋」は“私とは何か”という謎をめぐる物語であり、「堀の内」は“笑いの本質”についての深淵な哲学書。そして「芝浜」には、“わたしたちの世界は夢ではないのか” というテーマが隠されていた...

Against the Newtonian view of color, according to which the world is colorless and colors are subjective sensations, phenomenologists keep insisting that colors are in the world. In order to defend this view of the “being in the world” of colors, this paper tries to elucidate the essential spatiality of colors on the basis of James’s thesis of the intrinsic spatiality of sensation, Katz’s phenomenological description of various spatial characters of color, and Gibson’s ecological optics. The noticeable correspondence between Katz’s (...) phenomenology and Gibson’s ecological optics indicates to us a possible way to an ecological phenomenology of colors. (shrink)

PurposeThis paper aims to deal with the attitudes towards and social impact of Edward Snowden’s revelations in Japan, taking the Japanese socio-cultural and political environment surrounding privacy and state surveillance into account.Design/methodology/approachA questionnaire survey of 1,820 university students and semi-structured follow-up interviews with 56 respondents were conducted, in addition to reviews of the literature on privacy and state surveillance in Japan. The outcomes of the survey were statistically analysed, and qualitative analyses of the interview results were also performed.FindingsSnowden’s revelations have (...) had little influence over Japanese youngsters’ attitudes towards privacy and state surveillance, mainly due to their low level of awareness of the revelations and high level of confidence in government agencies.Practical implicationsThe study results imply a need for reviewing educational programmes for civic education in lower and upper secondary education.Social implicationsThe results of this study based on a large-scale questionnaire survey indicate an urgent necessity for providing Japanese youngsters with opportunities to learn more about privacy, liberty, individual autonomy and national security.Originality/valueThis study is the first attempt to investigate the social impact of Snowden’s revelations on Japanese youngsters’ attitudes towards privacy and state surveillance as part of cross-cultural analyses between eight countries. (shrink)

Over the past century, six studies – the most recent data from 2000 – and one review have comprehensively examined the content of medical oaths and oath-taking practices, all focusing on North Amer...