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This paper explores the genre of flexible architecture - buildings that are intended to respond to changing situations in their use, operation, or location. This is architecture that adapts rather than stagnates; responds to change rather than rejects it; is motive rather than static. It is a design form that is by its essence cross-disciplinary and multi-functional and consequently, is frequently innovative and expressive of contemporary design issues. By revealing its basis and the factors that are determining its development, the value and relevancy of flexible architecture to contemporary problems associated with technological, social and economic change can be revealed.

The characteristics of flexible architecture are explored by examining the design decisions that lead to culturally responsive buildings. It examines the underlying factors that generate a sense of place and why traditional and historic building patterns have been successful in creating genuinely adaptable architecture. It relates the characteristics of flexible architecture to Open Building principles and examines the effect that such design can have within the different levels in the built environment. The paper focuses special attention on contemporary architecture by examining the recent work of the Japanese architect Toyo Ito, in particular his recently completed Matsumoto Performing Arts Centre, Nagano Prefecture, Japan. Based on conversation with the designer and first-hand study of the building, the specific factors that make this new design a valuable resource in the search for flexible architecture strategies are explored.

This paper expands on the author's previous research into the foundation areas of this topic, in particular the genre of portable architecture, the impact of technology on the development of architectural form, and the development of experimental and innovative house design in the twentieth century. Its subject is expanded in his forthcoming book Flexible: Architecture That Responds to Change to be published by Laurence King, London, in 2006.

The 1997-98 financial crisis has had a profound effect on how East Asian economies the role of the IMF and its strategic interests relative to those of the United States in the international financial regime. It has prompted them to create a regional mechanism for financial and monetary cooperation, ranging from deeper policy dialogue and surveillance, to a system of financial cooperation, and common exchange rate arrangements. This paper analyses the economic and strategic motivations behind this and outlines recent developments in financial cooperation in East Asia to provide possible directions for the future.

A network of bilateral swap arrangements under the Chiang Mai Initiative(CMI) needs stronger policy dialogue and surveillance to develop into a regional financing facility, a sort of East Asian IMF. The facility plays a role as an regional lender of last resort, providing short-term funds to a member country facing a temporary liquidity shortage and for market intervention to stabilize foreign exchange rate. East Asian countries need to achieve regional exchange rate stability. In the long run, the region may develop a common currency arrangement, but it cannot be expected in the very near future because there is no convergence of macroeconomic conditions, economic structure and systems. A realistic approach would be for East Asian developing countries to adopt a currency basket system to minimize the impact of dollar/yen exchange rate volatility on their economies. Strong political will and a vision for regional integration will be required to introduce it.

This paper aims to present a preliminary experimental result on a large-scale experiment on a cyber-physical hybrid discussion support environment in a panel discussion session in an international conference.

In this paper, the authors propose a hybrid (cyber-physical) environment in which people can discuss online and also offline simultaneously. The authors conducted a large-scale experiment in a panel discussion session in an international conference where participants can discuss by using their online discussion support system and by physical communications as usual.

The authors analyzed the obtained date from the following three viewpoints: participants’ cyber-physical attention, keywords cyber-physical linkage and cyber-physical discussion flow. These three viewpoints indicate that the methodology of the authors can be effective to support hybrid large-scale discussions.

Online large-scale discussion has been focused as a new methodology that enable people to discuss, argue and make consensus in terms of political issues, social complex problems (like climate change), city planning and so on. In several cases, the authors found that online discussions are very effective to gather people opinions and discussions so far. Moreover, this paper proposes a hybrid (cyber-physical) environment in which people can discuss online and also offline simultaneously.

This paper tests for longrun relationships among the national equity markets of the G'7 countries using the Engle‐Granger two‐step procedure. Results indicate that cointegration is the norm among these seven equity markets in the post‐Bretton Woods period. Further, market adjustments to system equilibria are accelerating as one moves toward the present implying that markets are becoming more integrated.

The purpose of this paper is to improve the modeling accuracy of the magnetostrictive hysteretic characteristics by introducing hysteresis energy instead of pinning energy in the assembled domain structure model (ADSM).

First, the magnetostrictive characteristics and the domain movement process in an electrical steel sheet are measured and observed. The reasons for the influence of stress on magnetostriction are discussed on the mesoscopic level. Second, the ADSM model using the hysteresis energy is investigated to estimate the influence of external stress. Finally, the simulation results of the modified ADSM model are compared with the experimental data under the same calculation conditions.

The results show that the improved model not only explains the cause of hysteresis clearly from the perspective of the magnetic moment but also improves the modeling ability of magnetostrictive hysteretic.

The magnetostriction in electrical steel lags behind the external magnetic field, and it is significant for reducing core vibration to estimate the magnetostrictive hysteretic property accurately. This paper proposes an effective approach to model the hysteretic characterization of magnetostriction.

This study aims to examine the association of frontal functioning with subclinical bipolar spectrum by a newly developed convenient method. We investigated subclinical bipolar tendency and frontal lobe activation during word productions using multi-channel near infrared spectroscopy. Participants: 44 healthy university students (mean ages 20.5 years old, and 29 female) gave their written informed consent, and we strictly protected privacy and anonymity was carefully preserved. A 13-items self-report questionnaire (Mood Disorders Questionnaire; MDQ) and a 16-channel near-infrared spectroscopy were used to compare frontal activations between two samples divided by median (4 points) of the total MDQ scores and to analyze correlations between relative changes of cerebral blood volume and bipolarity levels. There was no case suspected as bipolar disorders by MDQ screening (mean 3.4, max 10). Significant differences in lower activations were noted in the right and left pre-frontal cortex (PFC) with higher bipolarity scores using the specific software to analyze the NIRS waveform (P<0.05). Total MDQ were correlated significantly with frontal activation negatively in many channels; therefore, we conducted multiple linear regression to select significant frontal activations using the MDQ as a dependent variable. Stepwise method revealed that activation in left lateral PFC was negatively associated to bipolar tendency, and this regression model was significant (R2=0.10, F=4.5, P=0.04). Differences in frontal functioning suggest that subclinical bipolar tendencies might be related to left lateral PFC activations. It should be confirmed whether the identical pattern can be identified for clinical subjects with bipolar disorders.

This paper aims to present the estimation of the output voltage of metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistor (MOSFET) using the extended Kalman filter (EKF) method.

The method uses EKF for MOSFET output voltage estimation. To implement the EKF method, the state space model has been obtained using Kirchhoff’s current law and Enz-Krummenacher-Vittoz model of the MOSFET circuit.

The proposed method can be used for any mode of MOSFET operation besides near the quiescent point region. The nonlinearity that occurs in the saturation region of MOSFET can also be considered in the proposed method. The proposed method can also be used for a large input signal. Though Kalman filter can be used for the small amplitude input signal, it results in inaccurate estimation due to the linearization of the nonlinear system.

The method is able to track the parameters when they are slowly changing with time.

The proposed method presents maximal precision of simulation as the maximal precision of simulation requires modeling of the circuit in terms of device parameters and circuit elements.

This paper gives a review of the finite element techniques (FE) applied in the area of material processing. The latest trends in metal forming, non‐metal forming and powder metallurgy are briefly discussed. The range of applications of finite elements on the subjects is extremely wide and cannot be presented in a single paper; therefore the aim of the paper is to give FE users only an encyclopaedic view of the different possibilities that exist today in the various fields mentioned above. An appendix included at the end of the paper presents a bibliography on finite element applications in material processing for the last five years, and more than 1100 references are listed.

This study was conducted to understand students' achievements in learning and to improve the overall curriculum of the first-year experience course.

In this study, a series of questionnaire-based surveys were conducted on students enrolled in the Introductory Seminar for Policy Science, a mandatory first-year experience course offered in the first semester (from April to July) at a university in Japan. The studies were conducted in 2015 (n = 29), 2016 (n = 29) and 2017 (n = 31).

Results revealed that, regardless of the year, students deepened their understanding of policy science and gained increased confidence to explain what group works and reports are throughout the semester. In addition, students' level of worry about life at the university decreased throughout the course in all three years. A stepwise multiple regression analysis (n = 84) revealed that those students who knew what policy science was (B = 0.271) and had the confidence to write their opinions in reports (B = 0.264) more likely answered that they knew what they wanted to study over four years at the university.

This study revealed that the mandatory first-year experience course taught by the same instructor generated similar educational effects for different students in different years. The results elucidated the progressive effects of different components of the course, eliminating possibilities of any bias or specific characteristics of a single group of students.

Indium tin oxide (ITO) is a material belonging to the group of transparent conductive oxides, which are widely used in many fields of technology including optoelectronics and photovoltaics. However, the properties of ITO thin films depend on many factors. Therefore, the aim of the study was thorough investigation of the properties of sputtered ITO thin films of various thicknesses.

ITO coatings were deposited by magnetron sputtering in pure argon atmosphere using ceramic ITO target. Various deposition times resulted in obtaining thin films with different thickness, which had significant influence on the optoelectronic properties of deposited coatings. In this work the results of investigation of structural, surface, optical and electrical properties were presented.

Increase of the coating thickness caused change of the microstructure from amorphous to nanocrystalline and occurrence of grains with a size of 40 to 60 nm on their surface. Moreover, the fundamental absorption edge was red-shifted, whereas the average transmission in the visible wavelength range remained similar. Increase of the thickness caused considerable decrease of the sheet resistance and resistivity. It was found that even thin films with a thickness of 10 nm had antistatic properties.

The novelty and originality of presented work consists in, among other, determination of antistatic properties of ITO thin films with various sheet resistances that are in the range typical for dielectric and semiconducting material. To date, there are no reports on such investigations in the literature. Reported findings might be very helpful in the case of, for example, construction of transparent antireflective and antistatic multilayers.