Search results

The purpose of this study is to examine individual differences in the susceptibility to pluralistic ignorance of avoidance among Japanese by measuring the value of social harmony.

Two studies were conducted to examine the effects of a concern for social harmony on pluralistic ignorance of conflict avoidance among Japanese, hypothesizing that the pluralistic ignorance of avoidance will occur more frequently among those with a low regard for the value of social harmony than those with a high regard.

Consistent with the hypothesis, pluralistic ignorance occurred only among Japanese participants with a low regard for the value of social harmony and not among those who valued it highly.

These findings suggest that those who have a different stance from the cultural value feel a normative pressure by the biased perception of others' behavior due to pluralistic ignorance, which, as a result, works to preserve the predominant cultural value.

The purpose of this paper was to examine individual differences in the susceptibility to pluralistic ignorance of avoidance among Japanese by measuring the value of social harmony. It was hypothesized that the pluralistic ignorance of avoidance will occur more frequently among those with a low regard for the value of social harmony than those with a high regard.

In two scenario studies, the authors had participants rate both their own avoidance and others’ avoidance in conflict situations. In Study 1, the authors measured the value of social harmony by Yamaguch et al.’s (1995) Collectivism Scale, and they originally constructed a scale to measure the value in Study 2.

Consistent with the hypothesis, pluralistic ignorance occurred only among Japanese participants with a low regard for the value of social harmony and not among those who valued it highly.

These findings suggest that those who have a different stance from the cultural value feel a normative pressure by the biased perception of others’ behavior due to pluralistic ignorance, which, as a result, works to preserve the predominant cultural value.

To prevent malpractices, medical staff has adopted inventory time-outs and/or checklists. Accurate inventory and maintenance of surgical instruments decreases the risk of operating room miscounting and malfunction. In our previous study, an individual management of surgical instruments was accomplished using Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate a new management method of RFID-tagged instruments.

The management system of RFID-tagged surgical instruments was used for 27 months in clinical areas. In total, 13 study participants assembled surgical trays in the central sterile supply department.

While using the management system, trays were assembled 94 times. During this period, no assembly errors occurred. An instrument malfunction had occurred after the 19th, 56th, and 73th uses, no malfunction caused by the RFID tags, and usage history had been recorded. Additionally, the time it took to assemble surgical trays was recorded, and the long-term usability of the management system was evaluated.

The system could record the number of uses and the defective history of each surgical instrument. In addition, the history of the frequency of instruments being transferred from one tray to another was recorded. The results suggest that our system can be used to manage instruments safely. Additionally, the management system was acquired of the learning effect and the usability on daily maintenance. This finding suggests that the management system examined here ensures surgical instrument and tray assembly quality.

In Japan, one of the countermeasures used to avoid the symptoms of hay fever (HF) is a hygiene mask; however, a mask can cause discomfort. The authors believe that co-occurrence analysis, which has been widely in the sciences, will be valuable to this issue. The purpose of this paper is to identify problems associated with the use of hygiene masks and recommend improvements in their function and comfort. The goal of this study was to obtain information for the development of effective hygiene masks for HF sufferers and therefore, improve their quality of life.

The authors conducted a survey of university students with HF (n=1,519) to identify problems with hygiene masks. Students completed self-report questionnaires and co-occurrence analyses were used to examine the data from a holistic perspective. Moreover, technical data, relative to the problems of wearing a mask were acquired experimentally using thermal, hygroscopic, and airflow properties.

Among Japanese university students, hygiene masks were the most popular countermeasure against HF symptoms. In addition, it was found that wearing a mask was not influenced of the type of symptoms. Most problems were related to the masks’ thermal, hygroscopic, and airflow properties.

The paper proposed the use of co-occurrence analysis to analyze problems with hygiene masks. Most problems appear to be related to the thermal, hygroscopic, and airflow properties of the masks. Moreover, such phenomena have been experimentally demonstrated.

We make use of the Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI) data to extract the total extent of the roads using remote sensing images. VGI data is often provided only as vector data represented by lines and not as full extent. Also, high geolocation accuracy is not guaranteed and it is common to observe misalignment with the target road segments by several pixels on the images. In this work, we use the prior information provided by the VGI and extract the full road extent even if there is significant mis-registration between the VGI and the image. The method consists of image segmentation and traversal of multiple agents along available VGI information. First, we perform image segmentation, and then we traverse through the fragmented road segments using autonomous agents to obtain a complete road map in a semi-automatic way once the seed-points are defined. The road center-line in the VGI guides the process and allows us to discover and extract the full extent of the road network based on the image data. The results demonstrate the validity and good performance of the proposed method for road extraction that reflects the actual road width despite the presence of disturbances such as shadows, cars and trees which shows the efficiency of the fusion of the VGI and satellite images.

This paper aims to introduce a strategic visioning method called vision by design and to use the example of Harley‐Davidson's corporate regeneration to illustrate how the method works in practice. This approach conceives visioning as a practical tool of management whose power stems from the facilitation of strategic conversations among stakeholders and the reflexive engagement of business leaders in past‐present‐future thinking.

The paper presents a four‐dimensional visioning model that facilitates exploration of both the internal and external contexts of the business. The advantage of the approach lies in breaking down vision into its component parts, lending simplicity and structure to the visioning process. The study employs a case study of the turnaround of Harley‐Davidson to illustrate this method.

The paper finds that, in undertaking corporate regeneration, Harley‐Davidson's senior management recognized the need for a vision that was comprehensive, inclusive and dynamic, but also realistic and grounded in the history and present circumstances of the business. The visioning process at the company was transformational because it ignited a strategic conversation that went beyond the boardroom to include employees, customers, partners and financiers.

The vision by design method adds value by simplifying the visioning process and focusing on a series of transitions, whereby the emerging vision is rooted squarely in business realities. As the picture of a regenerated enterprise is built up, both internal and external contexts are scrutinized, ensuring that the future vision is consistent and complete, attractive externally and deliverable internally.

Social participation (SP) has been shown to have a favorable impact on health status, particularly among elders in developed countries. However, empirical study is scarce for China. This study explores the relation between social participation (SP) and health status among middle-aged adults and elders in China when controlled socioeconomic characteristics of individuals.

This paper employs an empirical study based on the data from a three-wave national longitudinal survey: the Chinese Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) from 2011, 2013 to 2015. It collects data from 28,895 individuals aged 45–84. It uses lagged variable method (LV) to address the reverse causality problem, and the random-effects model or fixed-effect model to address the heterogeneity problem.

The paper finds the social participation positively affect self-reported health statistically. The influence of social participation on self-reported health flows through two channels: the improved mental health effect (SP-MH-SRH channel) and the increased income effect (SP-income-SRH channel). In comparison with the SAP-income-SRH channel, the influence of the SP-MH-SRH channel l is greater.

First, the absence of other measures of volunteering, such as hours of social participation that are not available in the employed dataset. Second, even though the LV model and FE model are used in the paper, there may remain the endogeneity problem in the results. Third, the influences of formal and informal social participation should be distinguished in the future research.

Social participation may improve the self-reported health status. The influence of SP on health may be due to the improved mental health effect (SP-MH-SRH channel). In order to improve the mental and physical health status of middle-aged adults and elders the government should consider even more promotion of social participation.

First, this paper focuses on the correlation between social participation and well-being (self-reported health) of middle-aged adults and elderly in China, the previous studies on the issue for China are scarce. Second, this paper uses the lagged variable method (LV) to address the reverse causal relation problem, and the fixed-effects model or the random-effects model to address the heterogeneity problem. Third, the two channels (the improved mental health effect and the increased income effect) are firstly investigated in this study.