In this paper, we propose a novel medium for interactions based on an interpersonal psychological approach referred to as ‘naïve psychology’. We adopt the visual assessment of clustering tendency (VAT) to naïve psychology for the visual understanding of other people. The VAT algorithm produces a visual display that can be used to assess clustering tendencies in a set of persons (notions) by reconstructing a digital image representation of a square relational dissimilarity matrix for its set. This algorithm clearly represents two (...) types of imbalanced situations in naïve psychology: crisp and fuzzy. The visual image of a balanced or imbalance situation is useful for a deeper human understanding. (shrink)

The endangered species Tokudaia osimensis has the unique chromosome constitution of 2n = 25, with an XO/XO sex chromosome configuration (2n = 25; XO). There is urgency to preserve this species and to elucidate the regulator(s) that can discriminate the males and females arising from the indistinguishable sex chromosome constitution. However, it is not realistic to examine this rare animal species by sacrificing individuals. Recently, true naïve induced pluripotent stem cells were successfully generated from a female T. osimensis, and the (...) sexual plasticity of its germ cells was elucidated. This achievement constitutes the basis of an attractive research area, including embryonic fate determination, sex determination, and factor(s) that can replace the Y chromosome. In this essay, concrete strategies to conserve rare animal species and to reveal their specific characteristics using other compatible and abundant animals are proposed. -/- . (shrink)

Journal Name: Apeiron Issue: Ahead of print.

Cellular pattern formations of some epithelia are believed to be governed by the direct lateral inhibition rule of cell differentiation. That is, initially equivalent cells are all competent to differentiate, but once a cell has differentiated, the cell inhibits its immediate neighbors from following this pathway. Such a differentiation repeats until all non-inhibited cells have differentiated. The cellular polygonal patterns can be characterized by the numbers of undifferentiated cells and differentiated ones. When the differentiated cells become large in size, the (...) polygonal pattern is deformed since more cells are needed to enclose the large cell. An actual example of such a cellular pattern was examined. The pupal wing epidermis of a butterfly Pieris rapae shows a transition of the equivalent-size cell pattern to the pattern involving large cells. The process of the transition was analyzed by using the method of weighted Voronoi tessellation that is useful for treatment of irregularly sized polygons. The analysis supported that the pattern transition of the early stage of the pupal wing epidermis is governed by the lateral inhibition rule. The differentiation takes place in order of largeness, but not smallness, of the apical polygonal area in the differentiating region of the pupal wing. (shrink)

Volume 20, Issue 8, August 2020, Page 32-36.

Some researchers on binary choice inference have argued that people make inferences based on simple heuristics, such as recognition, fluency, or familiarity. Others have argued that people make inferences based on available knowledge. To examine the boundary between heuristic and knowledge usage, we examine binary choice inference processes in terms of attribute substitution in heuristic use (Kahneman & Frederick, 2005). In this framework, it is predicted that people will rely on heuristic or knowledge‐based inference depending on the subjective difficulty of (...) the inference task. We conducted competitive tests of binary choice inference models representing simple heuristics (fluency and familiarity heuristics) and knowledge‐based inference models. We found that a simple heuristic model (especially a familiarity heuristic model) explained inference patterns for subjectively difficult inference tasks, and that a knowledge‐based inference model explained subjectively easy inference tasks. These results were consistent with the predictions of the attribute substitution framework. Issues on usage of simple heuristics and psychological processes are discussed. (shrink)

Freezing of gait is a common symptom in the late stages of Parkinson’s disease and related disorders. Videos are the gold standard method to conduct FOG scoring; however, the measurement accuracy of FOG scoring based on videos has not been formally assessed, despite its use in previous studies. This study aimed to calculate the measurement accuracy of video-based FOG scoring. Three evaluators scored the FOG based on 157 video data points collected from 21 patients using an annotation tool. One evaluator (...) measured the intra-rater reliability of the retest. The total duration of observed FOG, percentage of the time spent with FOG during the walking task, and FOG phenotypes were evaluated. Intraclass correlation coefficients were used to determine the intra- and inter-rater reliabilities. The duration of FOG and %FOG showed good measurement accuracy for both intra-rater and inter-rater reliabilities. However, the FOG phenotypes showed poor measurement accuracy in inter-rater reliability. These results indicate that the temporal characteristics of FOG can be scored with a high degree of measurement accuracy, even with different evaluators; conversely, the FOG phenotypes need to be scored by several evaluators. (shrink)

This paper compares two philosophical views from vastly different intellectual traditions: the views typical of neo-Aristotelian naturalism and the views that Kitarō Nishida describes in his An Inquiry into the Good. I concentrate on the following points. Nishida and neo-Aristotelian naturalists share the view that the mind tends to construct experience as it characterizes phenomena. It evaluates those that fulfill this tendency positively and those that fail to fulfill it negatively. Moral judgment is one manifestation of this tendency. This allows (...) both approaches to claim that the natural goodness/defect that characterizes human beings results from the capacity of rational choice, and that normalcy in developing and exercising this capacity provides criteria for evaluating the moral status of individuals. Nevertheless, they diverge on whether or not the application of these criteria is agent-neutral or agent-relative. Based on these considerations, I argue that Nishida’s view is free from a major difficulty that the neo-Aristotelian naturalist encounters. (shrink)

プラトンの理想郷はアキバ!?デカルトは「人形萌え」、萌え逃げの達人ゲーテ、ヘーゲルのセカイ系哲学vs.キルケゴールのキモイ系哲学、「乙女化」の先駆者アンデルセン、女に捨てられて「俺萌え」に走ったニーチ ェ、「国家萌え」で悲劇を招いたナチス、喪男の精神に分け入ったフロイト。偉大な思想家はみんな喪男だった。.

Inspired by Rick Grush's emulation theory, we reinterpreted a series of our neuroimaging experiments which were intended to examine the representations of complex movement, modality-specific imagery, and supramodal imagery. The emulation theory can explain motor and cognitive activities observed in cortical motor areas, through the speculation that caudal areas relate to motor-specific imagery and rostral areas embrace an emulator for amodal imagery.

The anchoring effect is a form of cognitive bias in which exposure to some piece of information affects its subsequent numerical estimation. Previous studies have discussed which stimuli, such as numbers or semantic priming stimuli, are most likely to induce anchoring effects. However, it has not been determined whether anchoring effects will occur when a number is presented alone or when the semantic priming stimuli have an equivalent dimension between a target and the stimuli without a number. We conducted five (...) experimental studies using stimuli to induce anchoring effects. We found that anchoring effects did not occur when a number was presented alone or when phrases to induce semantic priming were used without presenting a number. These results indicate that both numerical and semantic priming stimuli must be presented for anchoring effects to occur. Our findings represent a substantial contribution to the literature on anchoring effects by offering insights into how these effects are generated. (shrink)

This paper applies Dehornoy et al.’s Z theorem and its variant, called the compositional Z theorem, to prove confluence of Parigot’s \-calculi extended by the simplification rules. First, it is proved that Baba et al.’s modified complete developments for the call-by-name and the call-by-value variants of the \-calculus with the renaming rule, which is one of the simplification rules, satisfy the Z property. It gives new confluence proofs for them by the Z theorem. Secondly, it is shown that the compositional (...) Z theorem can be applied to prove confluence of the call-by-name and the call-by-value \-calculi with both simplification rules, the renaming and the \-rules, whereas it is hard to apply the ordinary parallel reduction technique or the original Z theorem by one-pass definition of mappings for these variants. (shrink)