Own-age bias is a well-known bias reflecting the effects of age, and its role has been demonstrated, particularly, in face recognition. However, it remains unclear whether an own-age bias exists in facial impression formation. In the present study, we used three datasets from two published and one unpublished functional magnetic resonance imaging study that employed the same pleasantness rating task with fMRI scanning and preferential choice task after the fMRI to investigate whether healthy young and older participants showed own-age effects (...) in face preference. Specifically, we employed a drift-diffusion model to elaborate the existence of own-age bias in the processes of preferential choice. The behavioral results showed higher rating scores and higher drift rate for young faces than for older faces, regardless of the ages of participants. We identified a young-age effect, but not an own-age effect. Neuroimaging results from aggregation analysis of the three datasets suggest a possibility that the ventromedial prefrontal cortex was associated with evidence accumulation of own-age faces; however, no clear evidence was provided. Importantly, we found no age-related decline in the responsiveness of the vmPFC to subjective pleasantness of faces, and both young and older participants showed a contribution of the vmPFC to the parametric representation of the subjective value of face and functional coupling between the vmPFC and ventral visual area, which reflects face preference. These results suggest that the preferential choice of face is less susceptible to the own-age bias across the lifespan of individuals. (shrink)

Abstract:Pedro Erber discusses with Naoki Sakai the history of Heidegger's influence on philosophy in Japan.

Peter-Paul Verbeek elaborates on the concept of “relational freedom” in Moralizing Technology (2011). In this paper, I propose to extend and reinterpret it as a concept of personal autonomy. Generally, studies of autonomy do not examine the use of technology thoroughly, because these studies mainly focus on an individual’s mental process regarding reasons or motives. Consequently, these studies fail to understand technological aspects that contribute to the agent’s actions and decisions. When we take into consideration that our autonomous behaviors and (...) lives are highly intertwined with technologies, it becomes necessary to clarify the aspect of autonomy that relates to the use of technology. This is where Verbeek’s relational freedom comes into play. This is because it refers to the set of capacities to constitute one’s subjectivity in the process of deliberately using technological means. However, some conceptual analysis and critical discussion are necessary. The former includes whether it is a procedural or substantive notion. The latter consists of the problem concerning the correspondence between human participant(s) and a hybrid agent, and the difference between the hybrid agent and a moral subject. (shrink)

The evolution of altruism and reciprocity has been explained mainly from ultimate perspectives. However, in order to understand from a proximate perspective how humans evolved to be such cooperative animals, comparative studies with our evolutionary relatives are essential. Here we review several recent experimental studies on chimpanzees’ altruism and reciprocity. These studies have generated some conflicting results. By examining the differences in the results and experimental paradigms, two characteristics of prosociality in chimpanzees emerged: chimpanzees are more likely to behave altruistically (...) and/or reciprocally upon a recipient’s request, than without request, and chimpanzees also show a tendency to regard others and help in contexts not involving food. Supposing that these two characteristics of altruism, recipient-initiated altruism and non-food altruism, were present in the common ancestor of chimpanzees and humans, it is possible that increased social cognitive abilities, capacity for language, necessity for food sharing, and enriched material culture favored in humans the unique evolution of cooperation, characterized by voluntary altruism and frequent food donation. (shrink)

The paper aims to clarify Ratnākaraśānti?s epistemological theory that mental images in a cognition are false (*alīkākāravāda) in comparison with Śāntarakṣita?s criticism of the Yogācāra position. Although Ratnākaraśānti frequently uses the neither-one-nor-many argument for explaining his Yogācāra position, the argument, unlike Śāntarakṣita?s original one, does not function for refuting the existence of awareness itself as the basis of mental images. This point is examined in the first two sections of this paper by analyzing Ratnākaraśānti?s proof of the selflessness of entities (...) (dharmanairātmya) and his application of the neither-one-nor-many argument for demonstrating the falsehood of mental images. On the other hand, the last section investigates into his defense of the alīkākāravāda against Śāntarakṣita?s severe criticism of it. Here, too, we can find his tactical usage of the neither-one-nor-many argument, or more precisely, one of its variants: the neither-identical-nor-different argument. Through the above procedure, we can see how Yogācāra philosophy survived in the late period of Indian Buddhism by blending the Madhyamaka opponent?s argument with its own thought. (shrink)

This study reports an ecologic analysis of the relationship between mean birth weight (MBW) and nutritional, medical and social variables, using 1982 data for 47 prefectures in Japan.

The Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries has fostered economic growth recently but in the process has encountered a number of serious problems regarding environmental destruction, such as the air and water pollution. In addition, due to rapid population growth and urbanization, there are emerging concerns about decline of the environment in those countries in the near future. One of the surveys that tries to measure the attitudes of ASEAN citizens on environmental issues is the ASEAN Barometer survey (...) conducted in 2009. This paper aims to unfold how ASEAN citizens evaluate environmental problems and what underlie their evaluations using the aforementioned ASEAN Barometer survey. The results of analysis will mainly reveal the next three points: (1) Filipinos showed higher environmental consciousness; (2) people in a less developed country were more likely to worry about environment deterioration and showed more commitment to the environmental movement, but, at the same time, they were more reticent about their immediate ecological activities; (3) those who thought that central governments needed to commit more to environmental problems and should take greater responsibility for environmental deterioration. Those who expected regional international organizations to take more measures were more inclined to engage in environmental activities. (shrink)

Minami–Sakai :883–898, 2016) investigated the cofinal types of the Katětov and the Katětov–Blass orders on the family of all \ ideals. In this paper we discuss these orders on analytic P-ideals and Borel ideals. We prove the following:The family of all analytic P-ideals has the largest element with respect to the Katětov and the Katětov–Blass orders.The family of all Borel ideals is countably upward directed with respect to the Katětov and the Katětov–Blass orders. In the course of the proof (...) of the latter result, we also prove that for any analytic ideal \ there is a Borel ideal \ with \. (shrink)

Secreted signaling molecules act as morphogens to control patterning and growth in many developing tissues. Since locally produced morphogens spread to form a concentration gradient in the surrounding tissue, spreading is generally thought to be the key step in the non‐autonomous actions. Here, we review recent advances in tool development to investigate morphogen function using the role of decapentaplegic (Dpp)/bone morphogenetic protein (BMP)‐type ligand in the Drosophila wing disc as an example. By applying protein binder tools to distinguish between the (...) roles of Dpp spreading and local Dpp signaling, we found that Dpp signaling in the source cells is important for wing patterning and growth but Dpp spreading from this source cells is not as strictly required as previously thought. Given recent studies showing unexpected requirements of long‐range action of different morphogens, manipulating endogenous morphogen gradients by synthetic protein binder tools could shed more light on how morphogens act in developing tissues. (shrink)

This paper aims to examine the role of self-awareness ( svasaṃvedana ) for the Sautrāntika epistemological tenet known as the doctrine that cognition has a form ( sākārajñānavāda ). According to this theory, we perceive external objects indirectly through the mental forms that these objects throw into our minds, and this cognitive act is interpreted as self-awareness. However, if one were to interpret the cognitive act such that the subjective mental form ( grāhakākāra/svābhāsa ) grasps the objective mental form, the (...) position of the subjective mental form becomes problematic—it becomes superfluous, as can be demonstrated with reference to Dignāga’s explanation of the Sautrāntika’s pramāṇa-pramāṇaphala argument. As a result, self-awareness itself becomes precarious. In connection with this problem, an argument on the relationship between self-awareness and the yogic perception of other minds given by Dharmakīrti leads us to discover that self-awareness is important for establishing subjectivity, in order to avoid another person’s access to one’s own mental states. Through examining Pramāṇavārttika 3.448–459, this paper tries to find a way to interpret the svābhāsa -factor without relating to its object-factor ( grāhyākāra ), and to shed new light on the problem of subjectivity in the Sautrāntika epistemology. (shrink)

This article discusses what constituted Japan's conception of the world order, by analyzing political discourse of international order in modern Japan. It has been generally assumed that the Japanese vision of international order in the pre-World War II years was dominated by a belief in the supremacy of the sovereign state. Contrary to the conventional supposition, this paper will argue that modern Japan actually abounded in discourses of transnationalism, and that most of them cannot be seen as the product of (...) liberal ideas but rather the result of an unstable image of the sovereign state system. Surveying the historical development of political discourse of sovereignty and colonial administration in modern Japan, the way in which the ambivalence of Japanese transnationalism had affected the theoretical construction of the international order will be elucidated. Keeping in mind that previous studies on the genealogy of international relations have focused exclusively on the paradigmatic debate over the League of Nations, this article will also pay more attentions to the fact that rearrangement of empire had occupied the significant place in building the image of the world order. Based on the historical considerations mentioned above, the conclusion will offer generalized consideration of what constituteｄ Japan's conception of the world order. (shrink)

About Japan at the beginning of the postmodernity, through the reading of David Pollack’s Fracture of Meaning and the comment of positions on is history of two young Japanese philosophers : Kôyama Iwao and Kôsaka Masaaki, Naoki Sakai problematise relations between universalism and particulartism. The identity of Japan which dialectise with which of China, exists only as Jar as Japan break loose as a particular object in the Occidental field. The criticism of the West and of modern expressed in (...) its denunciation of the monistic history reveals that all the rhetoric of the anti-modernity is a coverage without principles of all which is modern. Because world is mainly a sphere of heterogeneity and plurality, history has to be interpreted as a synthesis of time and internationalized spaces. (shrink)

BackgroundThe concept of career identity is integral to nursing practices and forms the basis of the nursing professions. Positive career identity is essential for providing high-quality care, optimizing patient outcomes, and enhancing the retention of health professionals. Therefore, there is a need to explore potential influencing variables, thereby developing effective interventions to improve career identity.ObjectivesTo investigate the relationship between moral distress, moral courage, and career identity, and explore the mediating role of moral courage between moral distress and career identity among (...) nurses.DesignA quantitative, cross-sectional study.MethodsA convenient sample of 800 nurses was recruited from two tertiary care hospitals between February and March 2022. Participants were assessed using the Moral Distress Scale-revised, Nurses’ Moral Courage Scale, and Nursing Career Identity Scale. This study was described in accordance with the STROBE statement.Ethical considerationResearch ethics approval was obtained from the researcher’s university and hospital where this study was conducted prior to data collection.FindingsMoral distress is negatively associated while moral courage is positively associated with career identity among nurses. Moral courage partially mediates the relationship between moral distress and career identity ( β = −0.230 to −0.163, p < 0.01).DiscussionThe findings reveal a relationship between moral distress, moral courage, and career identity among nurses.ConclusionBy paying attention to nurses’ moral distress and courage, healthcare providers can contribute to the development of effective interventions to improve career identity, and subsequently performance, among nurses. (shrink)

It is known that there is a close relation between Prikry forcing and the iteration of ultrapowers: If U is a normal ultrafilter on a measurable cardinal κ and 〈Mn, jm,n | m ≤ n ≤ ω〉 is the iteration of ultrapowers of V by U, then the sequence of critical points 〈j0,n | n ∈ ω〉 is a Prikry generic sequence over Mω. In this paper we generalize this for normal precipitous filters.

This article examines whether democracy affects quality of life. Scholars have conducted surveys to investigate whether democracy is likely to lead to good quality of life. There are two contested views to the relationship: some suggest that democracy has a positive causal effect on quality of life, whereas others contend that democracy does not play such a role. Previous findings are supported by cross-national statistical analysis with aggregated survey data. However, aggregated survey data may cause ecological fallacy. Also, in order (...) to ascertain the extant research, it would be beneficial to test the hypothesis by incorporating both individual- and country-level variables. Therefore, this paper applied hierarchical modeling to investigate the regularity. Both individual-level perception of democracy and country-level political regime data were incorporated in our empirical model. Our findings suggest that individual-level satisfaction with democracy has positive causal effect on one's quality of life, whereas the country-level characteristic of the political regime has no effect. (shrink)

We investigate how weak square principles are denied by Chang’s Conjecture and its generalizations. Among other things we prove that Chang’s Conjecture does not imply the failure of \documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$${\square_{\omega_1, 2}}$$\end{document}, i.e. Chang’s Conjecture is consistent with \documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$${\square_{\omega_1, 2}}$$\end{document}.

Translation is an act of articulation that takes place in the social topos of difference or incommensurability. The topos of difference, to which translation is a response, is anterior to the conceptual difference of species or particularities. Yet, translation is often represented as a process of establishing equivalence according to the model of communication. This misapprehension of translation derives from the confusion of the act of translation with its representation. By representing translation that is unrepresentable in itself through the schema (...) of co-figuration, the representation of translation inscribes and re-inscribes the twin figures of languages between which a transfer of information is supposed to have taken place. This whole regime organized around the schema of co-figuration is a historical construct of modernity that has worked powerfully to project national/ethnic languages and the international world, only within which national languages are possible. Our task is to historicize this regime of translation. (shrink)

Today in Japan psychoactive drugs are widely prescribed for various psychiatric disorders including so-called ‘functional’ disorders. They are undoubtedly effective in relieving various psychological and behavioral symptoms. However, Japan has yet to address some basic questions: (1) uncertainty concerning the cause of various psychiatric functional disorders; (2) unknown factors that affect the function of psychotropic drugs in patients; (3) the difficulty in obtaining objective data concerning the effects of these medications * both on the brain and the psychological symptoms (behavior); (...) and most importantly, (4) due to both the behavioral and organic (brain and CNS) effects of psychoactive drugs, the difficulty in evaluating the risk/benefit ratio between the behavioral (primary) effect and the organic (side) effect. In addition, there are bioethical problems, since these uncertainties tend to permit too broad a range of intention and too many modes of intervention in (a) prescribing and (b) taking psychoactive drugs on the part of therapists and patients, respectively. Though the increased risk of the inappropriate use of these drugs – the non-therapeutic uses, and their over-prescription – has been indicated in other industrialized countries, it has not yet been fully recognized and adequately discussed in Japan. Moreover, it is necessary to establish a sound basis for the ‘somato-psychic’ evaluation of these effects in the context of the physician-patient relationship, including the patient's family and even the broader society. Keywords: bioethics, pharmacological treatment, primary and secondary effects, psychiatric-functional disorders, risk/benefit ratio CiteULike Connotea Del.icio.us What's this? (shrink)

Japanese nationalism after World War II emerged out of the U. S. occupation of Japan. Rather than oppressing nationalist sentiment, the U. S. occupation administration nurtured the sense of national uniqueness and continuity in Japan and helped absolve Japanese colonial guilt and war responsibility. This U S. strategy toward Japan is best symbolized by the way the emperor system was reconstructed as part of the American reign in East Asia. Although it sometimes reveals its anti-American emotion, Japanese nationalism is in (...) complicity with the US. hegemony in East Asia, in such a way that Japan’s subjugation to US. policies is further intensified as its nationalism manifests more jingoistic tendencies. Perhaps we should find an intimation of today’s global complicity of the peripheral state with the super-state in this entanglement. (shrink)

In the division problem with single-peaked preferences, an allocation rule is strategy-proof for same tops if no one can gain by reporting a false preference relation having the true peak. This new condition is so weak that it is implied by strategy-proofness and tops-only. We show that the uniform rule is the only rule satisfying this mild property under efficiency and envy-freeness. We then analyze how largely the preference domain can be extended with admitting a rule satisfying the three axioms, (...) and show that the single-plateaued domain is the unique such maximal domain. (shrink)

The concept of contingency is very much debated. In this paper, I’ll offer a novel interpretation of it in Dharmakīrti’s ontology, focusing on his treatment and understanding of vināśa which is, according to Dharmakīrti, not contingent and thus occurs necessarily to everything. I will do so by clarifying some important terms, motivating and explaining Dharmakīrti’s position, and analyzing firsthand some Dharmakīrtian debate excerpts with Nyāya and/or Vaiśeṣika philosophers as the main opponents. In the course of this, I will show that (...) basically, for Dharmakīrti, contingency is tantamount to dependency, whereas Nyāya and/or Vaiśeṣika authors, e.g., Śrīdhara and Bhāsarvajña, claim that something can be dependent on something else and still be necessary. (shrink)

This article contributes to the revision of the procedure of robustness analysis of mathematical models in epistemic democracy using the systematic review method. It identifies the drawbacks of robustness analysis in epistemic democracy in terms of sample universality and inference from samples with the same results. To exemplify the effectiveness of systematic review, this article conducted a pilot review of diversity trumps ability theorem models, which are mathematical models of deliberation often cited by epistemic democrats. A review of nine models (...) extracted from 352 papers exemplifies the effectiveness of robustness analysis supplemented by systematic review in epistemic democracy. (shrink)

Microautophagy is originally defined as lysosomal (vacuolar) membrane dynamics to directly enwrap and transport cytosolic components into the lumen of the lytic organelle. Molecular details of microautophagy had remained unknown until genetic studies in yeast identified a set of proteins required for the process. Subsequent studies with other experimental model organisms resulted in a series of discoveries that accompanied an expansion of the definition of microautophagy to also encompass endosomal membrane dynamics. These findings, however, still impose puzzling, non‐integrated images as (...) to the molecular mechanism of microautophagy. By reviewing recent studies on microautophagy in various experimental systems, we propose the classification of microautophagy into three types, as the basis for developing a comprehensive view of the process. (shrink)

The weakly compact reflection principle\\) states that \ is a weakly compact cardinal and every weakly compact subset of \ has a weakly compact proper initial segment. The weakly compact reflection principle at \ implies that \ is an \-weakly compact cardinal. In this article we show that the weakly compact reflection principle does not imply that \ is \\)-weakly compact. Moreover, we show that if the weakly compact reflection principle holds at \ then there is a forcing extension preserving (...) this in which \ is the least \-weakly compact cardinal. Along the way we generalize the well-known result which states that if \ is a regular cardinal then in any forcing extension by \-c.c. forcing the nonstationary ideal equals the ideal generated by the ground model nonstationary ideal; our generalization states that if \ is a weakly compact cardinal then after forcing with a ‘typical’ Easton-support iteration of length \ the weakly compact ideal equals the ideal generated by the ground model weakly compact ideal. (shrink)

We study the relationship between the semistationary reflection principle and stationary reflection principles. We show that for all regular cardinals Λ ≥ ω₂ the semistationary reflection principle in the space [Λ](1) implies that every stationary subset of $E_{\omega}^{\lambda}\coloneq \{\alpha \in \lambda \,|\,{\rm cf}(\alpha)=\omega \}$ reflects. We also show that for all cardinals Λ ≥ ω₃ the semistationary reflection principle in [Λ](1) does not imply the stationary reflection principle in [Λ](1).