Francisco Jesús Arjonilla García and Yuichi Kobayashi
This study aims to propose an offline exploratory method that consists of two stages: first, the authors focus on completing the kinematics model of the system by analyzing the…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to propose an offline exploratory method that consists of two stages: first, the authors focus on completing the kinematics model of the system by analyzing the Jacobians in the vicinity of the starting point and deducing a virtual input to effectively navigate the system along the non-holonomic constraint. Second, the authors explore the sensorimotor space in a predetermined pattern and obtain an approximate mapping from sensor space to chained form that facilitates controllability.
Design/methodology/approach
In this paper, the authors tackle the controller acquisition problem of unknown sensorimotor model in non-holonomic driftless systems. This feature is interesting to simplify and speed up the process of setting up industrial mobile robots with feedback controllers.
Findings
The authors validate the approach for the test case of the unicycle by controlling the system with time-state control policy. The authors present simulated and experimental results that show the effectiveness of the proposed method, and a comparison with the proximal policy optimization algorithm.
Originality/value
This research indicates clearly that feedback control of non-holonomic systems with uncertain kinematics and unknown sensor configuration is possible.
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This chapter contributes to deepening understandings of the diversity of young people’s political participation and the socio-political and cultural influences that shape the…
Abstract
This chapter contributes to deepening understandings of the diversity of young people’s political participation and the socio-political and cultural influences that shape the uptake of activism. Drawing on scholarly theorisation of ‘implicit activism’, it begins from the premise that forms of activism vary depending on the social values, culture, and politics of different societies. To unpack the relationships between socio-political and cultural contexts and different forms of activism, this study addresses the question: what kind of activism do Japanese citizenship teachers envisage for secondary school students? Interviews were conducted with 11 educators across Japan; data were thematically analysed, and findings suggest that Japanese citizenship teachers encourage implicit forms of activism. This includes students being encouraged to develop personal and political efficacy to participate in political structures and raise their voices. Teachers also aim to develop students’ critical thinking skills to analyse society, with a focus on decoding political messages in one’s daily life. In the Japanese social and cultural context, which favours cohesion rather than confrontation, the endorsement of philanthropic activism, such as making donations, is also evident. Findings indicate that implicit forms of activism are embedded in everyday life. The study offers fresh insights into less tangible forms of activism characterised by small acts that address social concerns and issues affecting people’s own lives and the lives of others. It is argued that such implicit activism should not be overlooked, for as with explicit activism, it is also centrally concerned with fostering change.
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This is an unusual book and a striking phenomenon. It comprises a collection of thirteen essays on the German Historical School of Economics (henceforth GHSE), exclusively written…
Abstract
This is an unusual book and a striking phenomenon. It comprises a collection of thirteen essays on the German Historical School of Economics (henceforth GHSE), exclusively written by Japanese contributors who are mainly full professors at leading universities and mostly have already published on various aspects of the GHSE. The editor, Yuichi Shionoya, is well known internationally as one of the most prominent students of Joseph Schumpeter and Max Weber, whose works provide the basis for the editor’s attempt to erect the framework of the rational reconstruction of the GHSE in the opening essay. This holds in particular for economic sociology, which – besides theory, history and statistics – constitutes the fourth discipline in economics, and includes the social institutions relevant to economic behaviour and also political, legal or religious aspects. The investigation of Schumpeter’s conception of economic sociology (see, e.g. Schumpeter, 1954, pp. 20–21) is at the very heart of Shionoya’s second essay (9) in which the author concludes that Schumpeter combined two essential elements of the GHSE, a belief in the unity of social life and the inseparable relationship among its components and a concern for development, with some stimulus by Max Weber’s analysis of comparative-static social systems and Marx’s analysis of the dynamic process of capital accumulation. It is Shionoya’s belief “that Schumpeter should be regarded as one of the successors of the German Historical School because he attempted a rational reconstruction of that school, especially Schmoller’s research program, in terms of economic sociology and made his own contribution from this perspective” (p. 9). Whether and how this statement from the editor’s first essay fully fits with the one from Shionoya’s second essay, that “Schumpeter’s conception of economic sociology intended to integrate history and theory, the antitheses at the Methodenstreit between Gustav von Schmoller and Carl Menger” (p. 139), is left to the reader’s judgement. Characteristically, the contradictions involved can be found in Schumpeter’s own writings. In the very same year, 1926, in which he published the article “Gustav von Schmoller and the Problems of Today,” which forms the key basis for Shionoya’s argument, Schumpeter eliminated the seventh chapter on “The Overall View of the Economy” of the first German edition of The Theory of Economic Development from the second German one and omitted it in all later editions of the book, including the 1934 English translation. The reason was that Schumpeter believed that this chapter with its much broader perspective and its fragment of cultural sociology has sometimes distracted the reader’s attention from pure and “dry” economic reasoning. It had led to a kind of consent which was at the very opposite of his intentions in so far as the seventh chapter was misunderstood as an alternative to economic theory. For that kind of reasoning Schumpeter did not want to provide any ammunition. For Shionoya, on the other hand, Chap. 7 is not a fragment of cultural sociology but a research program for a universal social science that he has specified in an earlier article (Shionoya, 1990) in which he regrets Schumpeter’s decision to omit it.
Yoshinori Nakata, Yuichi Watanabe, Hiroto Narimatsu, Tatsuya Yoshimura, Hiroshi Otake and Tomohiro Sawa
The purpose of this paper is to examine from the viewpoint of resource utilization the Japanese surgical payment system which was revised in April 2016.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine from the viewpoint of resource utilization the Japanese surgical payment system which was revised in April 2016.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors collected data from surgical records in the Teikyo University electronic medical record system from April 1 till September 30, 2016. The authors defined the decision-making unit as a surgeon with the highest academic rank in the surgery. Inputs were defined as the number of medical doctors who assisted surgery, and the time of operation from skin incision to closure. An output was defined as the surgical fee. The authors calculated each surgeon’s efficiency score using output-oriented Charnes–Cooper–Rhodes model of data envelopment analysis. The authors compared the efficiency scores of each surgical specialty using the Kruskal–Wallis and the Steel method.
Findings
The authors analyzed 2,558 surgical procedures performed by 109 surgeons. The difference in efficiency scores was significant (p = 0.000). The efficiency score of neurosurgery was significantly greater than obstetrics and gynecology, general surgery, orthopedics, emergency surgery, urology, otolaryngology and plastic surgery (p<0.05).
Originality/value
The authors demonstrated that the surgeons’ efficiency was significantly different among their specialties. This suggests that the Japanese surgical reimbursement scales fail to reflect resource utilization despite the revision in 2016.
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Yoshinori Nakata, Tatsuya Yoshimura, Yuichi Watanabe, Hiroshi Otake, Giichiro Oiso and Tomohiro Sawa
The purpose of this paper is to determine the characteristics of healthcare facilities that produce the most efficient inpatient orthopedic surgery using a large-scale medical…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to determine the characteristics of healthcare facilities that produce the most efficient inpatient orthopedic surgery using a large-scale medical claims database in Japan.
Design/methodology/approach
Reimbursement claims data were obtained from April 1 through September 30, 2014. Input-oriented Banker-Charnes-Cooper model of data envelopment analysis (DEA) was employed. The decision-making unit was defined as a healthcare facility where orthopedic surgery was performed. Inputs were defined as the length of stay, the number of beds, and the total costs of expensive surgical devices. Output was defined as total surgical fees for each surgery. Efficiency scores of healthcare facilities were compared among different categories of healthcare facilities.
Findings
The efficiency scores of healthcare facilities with a diagnosis-procedure combination (DPC) reimbursement were significantly lower than those without DPC (p=0.0000). All the efficiency scores of clinics with beds were 1. Their efficiency scores were significantly higher than those of university hospitals, public hospitals, and other hospitals (p=0.0000).
Originality/value
This is the first research that applied DEA for orthopedic surgery in Japan. The healthcare facilities with DPC reimbursement were less efficient than those without DPC. The clinics with beds were the most efficient among all types of management bodies of healthcare facilities.
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Yuichi Watanabe and Yoshinori Nakata
The purpose of this paper is to examine the association between outpatient orthopedic surgery costs and Japan’s healthcare facilities using a large-scale Japanese medical claims…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the association between outpatient orthopedic surgery costs and Japan’s healthcare facilities using a large-scale Japanese medical claims database.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors obtained reimbursement claims data for 8,588 patients who underwent orthopedic surgery between April 1 and September 30, 2014 at 3,347 Japanese healthcare facilities. Regression analysis, using ordinary least squares, examined the association between outpatient orthopedic surgery costs and healthcare facility characteristics. By using surgical fees as proxy for the surgical costs, the authors defined three dependent variables: surgical cost for each outpatient orthopedic surgery; pre- and post-operative cost one month before and after a surgical operation; and total cost for each patient. The authors also defined five independent variables, which capture healthcare facility characteristics and patient-specific factors: bed count; whether healthcare facilities are reimbursed in a diagnosis procedure combination system; patient’s age; sex; and anatomical surgical sites.
Findings
The authors analyzed 6,456 outpatient orthopedic surgical cases performed at 3,085 healthcare facilities. There were significant differences in the surgical costs for outpatient orthopedic surgery among different healthcare facilities by total beds (p=0.000). Multivariate regression analysis shows that surgical costs for outpatient orthopedic surgery are positively and significantly associated with healthcare facilities classified by total beds after adjusting for patient-specific characteristics (p<0.05).
Originality/value
This is the first research to examine the association between costs for outpatient orthopedic surgery and healthcare facility characteristics in Japan. This study via the multivariate regression method showed that outpatient orthopedic surgery is likely to cost higher as healthcare facility size increased. The average incremental costs for each outpatient orthopedic surgery per 100 beds were calculated at $48.5 for surgery, $40.7 for pre- and post-operative care, and $89.2 total cost.
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Mitsuo Ozawa, Zhou Bo, Yuichi Uchida and Hiroaki Morimoto
This paper investigates the relationship between spalling behavior and weight loss for ultra-high-strength fiber-reinforced concrete (UFC) containing different types short fibers…
Abstract
This paper investigates the relationship between spalling behavior and weight loss for ultra-high-strength fiber-reinforced concrete (UFC) containing different types short fibers (jute, PP, WSPVA) in high-temperature environments at 400, 600 and 800 °C. The explosive spalling that occurred under these conditions caused severe damage to the control specimen but only slight damage to the specimen with jute fiber. It was therefore inferred that adding 0.19% by volume of natural jute fibers (length: 12 mm) to UFC is effective in the prevention of spalling-related damage.
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Yoshinori Nakata, Tatsuya Yoshimura, Yuichi Watanabe, Hiroshi Otake, Giichiro Oiso and Tomohiro Sawa
– The purpose of this paper is to examine whether the current surgical reimbursement system in Japan reflects resource utilization after the revision of fee schedule in 2014.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine whether the current surgical reimbursement system in Japan reflects resource utilization after the revision of fee schedule in 2014.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors collected data from all the surgical procedures performed at Teikyo University Hospital from April 1 through September 30, 2014. The authors defined the decision-making unit as a surgeon with the highest academic rank in the surgery. Inputs were defined as the number of medical doctors who assisted surgery, and the time of operation from skin incision to closure. An output was defined as the surgical fee. The authors calculated surgeons’ efficiency scores using data envelopment analysis.
Findings
The efficiency scores of each surgical specialty were significantly different (p=0.000).
Originality/value
This result demonstrates that the Japanese surgical reimbursement scales still fail to reflect resource utilization despite the revision of surgical fee schedule.
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Yoshinori Nakata, Yuichi Watanabe, Hiroto Narimatsu, Tatsuya Yoshimura, Hiroshi Otake and Tomohiro Sawa
The sustainability of the Japanese healthcare system is in question because the government has had a huge fiscal debt. Despite an enormous effort to cut the deficit, our…
Abstract
Purpose
The sustainability of the Japanese healthcare system is in question because the government has had a huge fiscal debt. Despite an enormous effort to cut the deficit, our healthcare expenditure is increasing every year because of the rapidly aging population. One of the solutions for this problem is to improve the productivity of healthcare. The purpose of this paper is to determine the factors that change surgeons’ productivity in one year.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors collected data of all surgical procedures performed at Teikyo University Hospital from April 1 through September 30 in 2014 and 2015, and computed the surgeons’ Malmquist index (MI), efficiency change (EC) and technical change (TC) using non-radial and non-oriented Malmquist model under the constant returns-to-scale assumptions. The authors then divided the surgeons into two groups; one whose productivity progressed and the other whose productivity regressed. These two groups were compared to identify factors that may influence their MI.
Findings
The only significant difference between the two groups was ECs (p < 0.0001). The other factors, such as TC, experience, surgical volume, emergency cases, surgical specialty, academic ranks, medical schools and gender, were not significantly different between the two groups.
Originality/value
EC is a major determinant of surgeons’ productivity change. The best way to improve surgeons’ productivity may be to enhance their efficiency regardless of their surgical volume and personal backgrounds.