Prostaglandin (PG) D2 and PGE2 are positional isomers; however, they sometimes exhibit opposite physiological functions, such as in cancer development. Because DP receptors are considered to be a duplicated copy of EP2 receptors, PGD2 and PGE2 cross‐react with both receptors. These prostanoids may act as biased agonists for each receptor. In reviewing this field, a hypothesis was proposed to explain the opposed effects of these prostanoids from the viewpoints of the evolution of, mutations in, and biased activities of their receptors. (...) Previous findings showing more mutations/variations in DP receptors than EP2 receptors among individuals worldwide indicate that DP receptors are still in a rapid evolutionary stage. The opposing effects of these prostanoids on cancer development may be attributed to the biased activity of PGE2 for DP receptors, which may incidentally develop during the process of the old ligand, PGE2 gaining selectivity to newly diverged DP receptors. (shrink)

A one-dimensional scattering problem off a δ-shaped potential is solved analytically and the time development of a wave packet is derived from the time-dependent Schrödinger equation. The exact and explicit expression of the scattered wave packet supplies us with interesting information about the “time delay” by potential scattering in the asymptotic region. It is demonstrated that a wave packet scattered by a spin-flipping potential can give us quite a different value for the delay times from that obtained without spin-degrees of (...) freedom. (shrink)

Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are heterogeneous neurodevelopmental disorders that are reportedly characterized by aberrant neural networks. Recently developed multiscale entropy analysis (MSE) can characterize the complexity inherent in EEG dynamics over multiple temporal scales in the dynamics of neural networks. We encountered an 18-year-old man with ASD whose refractory catatonic obsessive–compulsive symptoms were improved dramatically after electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). In this clinical case study, we strove to clarify the neurophysiological mechanism of ECT in ASD by assessing EEG complexity using MSE. (...) Along with ECT, the frontocentral region showed decreased EEG complexity at higher temporal scales, whereas the occipital region expressed an increase at lower temporal scales. Furthermore, these changes were associated with clinical improvement associated with the elevation of brain-derived neurotrophic factor, which is a molecular hypothesis of ECT, playing key roles in ASD pathogenesis. Changes in EEG complexity in a region-specific and temporal scale-specific manner we found might reflect atypical EEG dynamics in ASD. Although MSE is not a direct approach to measuring neural connectivity and the results are from only a single case, they might reflect specific aberrant neural network activity and the therapeutic neurophysiological mechanism of ECT in ASD. (shrink)

Profit Sharing is one of the reinforcement learning methods. An agent, as a learner, selects an action with a state-action value and receives rewards when it reaches a goal state. Then it distributes receiving rewards to state-action values. This paper discusses how to set the initial value of a state-action value. A distribution function ƒ( x ) is called as the reinforcement function. On Profit Sharing, an agent learns a policy by distributing rewards with the reinforcement function. On Markov Decision (...) Processes (MDPs), the reinforcement function ƒ( x ) = 1/ L x is useful, and on Partially Observable Markov Decision Processes (POMDPs), ƒ( x ) = 1/ L w is useful, where L is the sufficient number of rules at each state, and W is the length of an episode. If episodes are always long, the value of the reinforcement function is little. So the differences of rule values become little, and the agent learns little by using the roulette selection as an action selection. This problem is called as Learning Speed Problem. If the value of the reinforcement function for an action is very higher than its state-action value, an agent will not select other action. There is a problem when its action is not a optimal action. This problem is called as Past Experiences Problem. This paper shows that both Learning Speed Problem and Past Experiences Problem are caused by the bad setting between the initial values of a state-action values and the function values of a reinforcement function. We propose how to set the initial values of a state-action values at each state. The experiment shows that an agent can learn correctly even if the length of episode is large. And shows the effectiveness on both MDPs and POMDPs. Our proposed method focuses on the initialization of state-action values and does not limit reinforcement functions. So it can apply to any reinforcement function. (shrink)

Ethics education for professionals has become popular in Japan over the last two decades. Many professional schools now require students to take an applied ethics or professional ethics course. In contrast, very few courses of professional ethics for teaching exist or have been taught in Japan. In order to obtain suggestions for teacher education, this paper reviews and examines practices of ethics education for engineers and nurses in Japan that have been successfully implemented. The paper concludes that difficulties in professional (...) ethics education in Japan are caused by the fact that both teachers and students lack experience in leading and participating in discussion‐based classes and misunderstand the effectiveness of a case‐based pedagogy. It also suggests that we need to offer teachers systematic opportunities to be trained to be proficient in enabling students to be active and critical in class. (shrink)

This special issue of the _ Revue d’études benthamiennes _, entitled the 'International and Colonial Thought of the British Empire', aims to broaden recent debates on global intellectual history and imperial history. While this subject has been extensively studied in current scholarship, the issue attempts to approach several relatively under-examined figures, including Adam Ferguson, Josiah Tucker, and Frederic Rogers, as well as classical thinkers such as Jeremy Bentham and Adam Smith, from new perspectives. In this Introduction, we describe a pan-European (...) intellectual setting wherein these thinkers’ international and imperial thought should partly be situated, with a focus on the idea of international law, cosmopolitanism, and colonialism. (shrink)

BackgroundEach individual’s unique health-related beliefs can greatly impact the patient-clinician relationship. When there is a conflict between the patient’s preferences and recommended medical care, it can create a serious ethical dilemma, especially in an emergency setting, and dramatically alter this important relationship.Case presentationA 56-year-old man, who remained comatose after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, was rushed to our hospital. The patient was scheduled for emergency coronary angiography when his adolescent daughter reported that she and her father held sincere beliefs against radiation exposure. (...) We were concerned that she did not fully understand the potential consequences if her father did not receive the recommended treatment. A physician provided her with in depth information regarding the risks and benefits of the treatment. While we did not want to disregard her statement, we opted to save the patient’s life due to concerns about the validity of her report.ConclusionsVariations in beliefs regarding medical care force clinicians to incorporate patient beliefs into medical practice. However, an emergency may require a completely different approach. When faced with a patient in a life-threatening condition and unconscious, we should take action to prioritize saving their life, unless we are highly certain about the validity of their advance directives. (shrink)

Smith’s critique of empire has recently attracted scholarly attention, but it has mostly been from the perspective of justice. The present article, however, argues that his views on it could also be appreciated by his 'utilitarian' attitude toward it. Combined with a similar line of analysis of Josiah Tucker, another key (though neglected) figure, the authors hope to add to the current trends of scholarship on the Enlightenment critique of empire. Neither Smith nor Tucker appealed merely to political right principles, (...) but rather frequently explored imperial problems from 'utilitarian' viewpoints. A difference between Smith and Tucker derives from the latter's explicit appeal to Christian, or Protestant, ethics, by which Tucker was in a way associated not only with his mentor, Joseph Butler, but also with some of his adversaries, such as Richard Price and Joseph Priestley. The non-welfarist or non-consequentialist concept of justice was a significant element in the Enlightenment crit... (shrink)

This paper discusses Adam Smith’s intellectual relationship with the French Enlightenment, with a particular focus on his view of French culture as conveyed in The Theory of Moral Sentiments. Compared to England at that time, eighteenth-century Scotland is considered as having a closer affiliation with France in terms of their intellectual and cultural life during what has been dubbed the Enlightenment. While David Hume was representative of the affinity between the French and Scottish literati, Smith also held an enduring interest (...) in the French philosophy, literature, and other aspects of its civilisation, long before the historic visit to Toulouse and Paris that would shape his political economy greatly. While this paper shall examine Smith’s Francophile and Europeanist tendency within his moral argument, it also emphasises that he was abundantly aware of the moral cultural tensions between these two branches of the European Enlightenment. (shrink)

Revisiting Guattari's visits to Japan in the 1980s during the country's ‘bubble economy’, this paper investigates from a personal perspective the Radio Homerun mini-FM station as well as other stops on Guattari's Tokyo ‘pilgrimage’. Guattari's reception and influence in Japan is contextualised through the writer Kõbõ Abe and philosopher Kiyoteru Hanada, in addition to the groundbreaking work of Tetsuo Kogawa, against the backdrop of the rise of postmodernism. Similarities between Guattari's sense of Japan and Brazil are then broached.

Si pretendemos interpretar el significado de “Bu” con el pensamiento y las ideas actuales, dicha letra representaría el concepto de violencia, de la magnitud de una masacre. Esto es algo similar a la ficción que supone la tecnología que Winston-Churchill, narra en su obra sobre la Crisis Mundial, donde una sola llamada de teléfono podía hacer que miles de soldados mujeres y niños murieran, empujando de este modo a la humanidad al borde de la extinción. La Constitución de Japón, que (...) proclama la amenaza permanente de “La intimidación o el uso de la fuerza”, ilustra claramente este razonamiento. Nuestra guerra moderna en realidad implica poco más que derrotar la tecnología enemiga pero, el concepto que encierra la letra “Bu” no es tan mecánico ni superficial. (shrink)

Macroautophagy is a major degradation mechanism of cell components via the lysosome. Macroautophagy greatly contributes to not only cell homeostasis but also the prevention of various diseases. Because macroautophagy proceeds through multi‐step reactions, researchers often face a persistent question of how macroautophagic activity can be measured correctly. To make a straightforward determination of macroautophagic activity, diverse monitoring assays have been developed. Direct measurement of lysosome‐dependent degradation of radioisotopically labeled cell proteins has long been applied. Meanwhile, indirect monitoring procedures have been (...) developed. In these assays, autophagosome marker proteins, microtubule‐associated proteins 1A/1B light chain 3B‐II (LC3B‐II) and gamma‐aminobutyric acid receptor‐associated protein‐II (GABARAP‐II) have been analyzed and the validity of the assays strongly depends on appropriate assessment of the fluctuation of LC3‐II and/or GABARAP‐II levels in the presence or absence of lysosomal inhibitors. This article describes these monitoring methods, paying special attention to the principles and characteristics of each procedure. (shrink)

Despite the police preventing special fraud victimisation of older adults, both the number of cases and the amount of damage have remained high in Japan. ‘Special fraud’, in Japan, is a crime in which victims are tricked by fraudsters who through phone or postcards impersonate the victims’ relatives, employees and other associates, to dupe the victims of their cash or other valuables. The number of recognised cases of special fraud has been turned to increase in 2021. Although police or consumer (...) affairs administrations have been conducting all-encompassing enlightenment or public education for prevention, it is also necessary to reach out to those who are vulnerable to fraud. In this study, we determine the psychosocial characteristics of victims of special fraud in Japanese older adults. We analysed the age, gender, education, residential status, household satisfaction, risk perception and scam vulnerability scale of 56 older adults aged 60 years or older who had been victims of special fraud and 99 older adults aged 60 years or older who had never been victims of special fraud. The study found that the victimised older adults were more likely to be females who live alone and go out less frequently than the non-victimised older adults. The total scores of the scam vulnerability scale were higher among the elderly victims of special fraud compared to those who had never been scammed, suggesting that the psychosocial characteristics of victims of special fraud among older adults are being female, living alone, going out infrequently, having high confidence against fraud victimisation and responding quickly to phone calls and unknown visitors. Therefore, government agencies or family members should take care of older women who meet these characteristics to reduce their contact with fraudsters. (shrink)

This paper studies the theory and practice of Minna in Manabi, as the Japanese concept of learning from the perspective of moral education. The Japanese word Minna, which means “all” or “everyone,” plays an important role in Manabi. The word “Minna” is often found in textbooks used in moral education classes, and great value is placed on “thinking about everyone.” Minna, a component of Manabi, not only makes the self (the learner) nothing and selfless, but also makes it possible to (...) enter all, everyone, and the world. This may create possibilities for inclusiveness, reciprocal harmony, hospitality, solidarity, and cooperativeness. This Manabi of “thinking about everyone” can be found in moral classes and in all aspects of learning (educational) activities in Japanese schools. Among them, in addition to being a traditional Buddhist practice dealing with Nothingness and Selflessness, Souji (cleaning time) is also very important in schools as a Japanese moral practice of “thinking about everyone.” The moral concepts developed in the West, such as democracy, community, solidarity, engagement, and citizenship, are not only realized through the establishment of the individual, self-realization, and perfection of personality, but by “thinking about everyone,” as expressed in Nothingness, Selflessness, and Minna. (shrink)

This chapter contains sections titled: Notes.