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To provide an approach to design the optimal open type magnetic circuit of permanent magnet producing uniform field.

The Biot‐Savart's law and evolution strategy are used for the initial design of permanent magnet configuration. In order to improve the uniformity, the ON/OFF method, which is the topology optimization method, is used for determining the shape of magnetic material which is set around the permanent magnet.

The optimal topology of permanent magnet and shape of magnetic material around it, which can produce nearly uniform field of about 0.15T, is obtained. The obtained uniformity is 3,583 ppm. More work for improving the uniformity is necessary.

A new approach for obtaining the optimal shape of open type magnetic circuit which may be used for magnetic resonance imaging is carried out.

This paper aims to formulate a hedonic pricing model for Japanese rice wine, sake, via hierarchical Bayesian modeling estimated using an efficient Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) method. Using the estimated model, the authors examine how producing regions, rice breeds and taste characteristics affect sake prices.

The datasets in the estimation consist of cross-sectional observations of 403 sake brands, which include sake prices, taste indicators, premium categories, rice breeds and regional dummy variables. Data were retrieved from Rakuten, Japan’s largest online shopping site. The authors used the Bayesian estimation of the hedonic pricing model and used an ancillarity–sufficiency interweaving strategy to improve the sampling efficiency of MCMC.

The estimation results indicate that Japanese consumers value sweeter sake more, and the price of sake reflects the cost of rice preprocessing only for the most-expensive category of sake. No distinctive differences were identified among rice breeds or producing regions in the hedonic pricing model.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to estimate a hedonic pricing model of sake, despite the rich literature on alcoholic beverages. The findings may contribute new insights into consumer preference and proper pricing for sake breweries and distributors venturing into the e-commerce market.