Academic literature on the topic 'Japan Themes, motives'

This study examined whether perceived barriers, benefits, and motives for physical activity differed based on allocation to 2 different types of primary-care activity-prescription programs (pedometer-based vs. time-based Green Prescription). Eighty participants from the Healthy Steps study completed a questionnaire that assessed their perceived barriers, benefits, and motives for physical activity. Factor analysis was carried out to identify common themes of barriers, benefits, and motives for physical activity. Factor scores were then used to explore between-groups differences for perceived barriers, benefits, and motives based on group allocation and demographic variables. No significant differences were found in factor scores based on allocation. Demographic variables relating to the existence of chronic health conditions, weight status, and older age were found to significantly influence perceived barriers, benefits, and motives for physical activity. Findings suggest that the addition of a pedometer to the standard Green Prescription does not appear to increase perceived motives or benefits or decrease perceived barriers for physical activity in low-active older adults.

The aim of this study was to describe experiences of physical activity, perceived meaning, and the importance of and motives and barriers for participation in physical activity in people 80 years of age and older. A qualitative design with focus-group methodology was used. The sample consisted of 20 community-living people age 80–91 yr. Data analyses revealed 4 themes: physical activity as a part of everything else in life, joie de vivre, fear of disease and dependence, and perceptions of frailty. Our results suggest that physical activity was not seen as a separate activity but rather as a part of activities often rated as more important than the physical activity itself. Thus, when designing physical activity interventions for elderly people, health care providers should consider including time for social interaction and possibilities to be outdoors. Moreover, assessment of physical activity levels among elderly people should include the physical activity in everyday activities.

This article assesses the spiritual journey of a Christian priest in seventeenth-century Japan in Masahiro Shinoda’s 1971 film, Silence. With a specific focus on cinematic elements like soundscapes and themes, it evaluates how the director utilizes filmic features to establish and heighten prevalent motif’s such as religious boundaries and apostasy. Furthermore, it strives to understand how the film reflects its contemporary sociopolitical climate and aims to explore any authorial influences.

Non Government Organisations as known as Kelompok Swadaya Masyarakat (KSM) Mekar IIand Pucuk Rebung became the only Insang style of weaving craft employers in the city ofPontianak were located on Jalan Khatulistiwa, Batulayang District. The Insang style of weavingis one of the features produced by KSM, besides the typical weaving of Sambas. Only a smallportion of craft employers or weavers which produces the weaving of Insang style because it isfeared that the market target is not much, however this pattern is a typical of Pontianak city;The capital of West Kalimantan Province. Decreased motivation for weaving since it faced theproblem not knowing how to understand that is the upstream process in weaving. Training isdone by giving the material about the weaving process, especially the stage of understandingand motivation and business development opportunities to the partners until all the materialpresented and implemented. Participants said that they were ready to weave back and werewilling to support the development of their area into a village or a weaving center. One of themis shown by the willingness of their house to be decorated or painted with Insang style. Thetraining that was done successfully resulted in more than 15 people weavers who haveunderstood how to do the “nganik” process.

Motives for the Publication of the ""Journal of Robotics and Mechatronics"" and Fundamental Coverage Kazoo Yamafuji Several successful results of research and technology attained for the last two decades in the fields of high-level science and technology have produced a considerable effect all over the world. Their infiltration into industrial fields has led to the promotion of high economic growth in several countries. Above all, the accelerated economic progress seen in the East Asian countries is noteworthy. It is however regrettable that these countries have functioned up to date as recipients of technological information, but as unimportant suppliers of information. It is noted in particular that total number of researchers and engineers in Japan is equal to that of all the EC countries, and is next to the United States in respect of the huge scale of funds allotted to research and development. Recently in Europe and America, the research results in such a situation are not only highly appreciated but also taken many times as a warning of Japan's challenge in the field of high-technology. Meanwhile, Korea, Taiwan and China, with their efforts in accordance with their national policy formulated with a view to attaining a high-degree of industrial structure and promoting education related to science and technology, will become possibly formidable industrial countries in the near future not only for Japan but also for the Occidental countries. The emergence of East Asian countries in the fields of science and technology cannot be neglected. In spite of that, their results in the fields is unfortunately not thoroughly known to the world. The main cause being the linguistic difficulty, coupled with unfamiliarity or unskillfulness, we Japanese are hesitant in making research results public in English. However, the economic upswing in the East Asian countries is an important aspect in world history, leading to expectations in the West of a greater share of responsibility for these nations. In view of this situation, we, engaged in research and development of robotics and mechatronics, are now determined to be senders or dispatchers of information related to this field. It is not permissible to confine this information within specific countries or areas. Accordingly, we intend to make a worldwide contribution by publishing a journal, although based on the situation in Japan, containing excellent results and information sources related to robotics and mechatronics. Encouraged by the strong support and encouragement for our project by a number of prominent researchers and engineers in several countries including those in Europe and America, we decided to launch this journal on the following basic lines. (1) This is an English journal on robotics and mechatronics, and from Japan, covers the whole world. (2) We intend to develop this magazine into one of the most important information resources among those who are interested in robotics and mechatronics. (3) It covers highly practical technologies as well as the latest academic research. (4) Research papers and development reports are screened by more than one editor. (5) Priority is given to creative syntheses and technological developments, rather than to analytic theses. (6) Latest topics, exciting news, statistics-based industrial technology trends and other interesting articles are carried frequently. (7) This magazine is a bimonthly, in which several special editions will be complied a year, featuring important technological developments. For the present, this magazine focuses on major R&D and technological advances in Japan. In the near future, however, we intend to include overseas information, too. Our goal is to develop this specialist magazine into a highly rated worldwide magazine. We hope that you will participate in the development by contributing to this magazine on your research results and news.

Perfume is a Japanese “techno-pop” idol trio formed in 2000 consisting of three women–Ayano Omoto, Yuka Kashino, and Ayaka Nishiwaki. Since 2007, when one of their songs was selected for a recycling awareness campaign by Japan's national public broadcaster, Perfume has been a consistent fixture in the Japanese pop music charts. They have been involved in the full gamut of typical idol activities, from television and radio shows to commercials for clothing brands, candy, and drinks. Their success reflects Japanese pop culture's long-standing obsession with pop idols, who once breaking into the mainstream, become ubiquitous cross-media presences. Perfume’s fame in Japan is due in large part to their masterful performance of traditional female idol roles, through which they assume the kaleidoscopic positions of daughter, sister, platonic friend, and heterosexual romantic partner depending on the standpoint of the beholder. In the lyrical content of their songs, they play the various parts of the cute but shy girl who loves from a distance, the strong compatriot that pushes the listener to keep striving for their dreams, and the kindred spirit with whom the listener can face life's ordinary challenges. Like other successful idols, their extensive lines of Perfume-branded merchandise and product endorsements make the exercise of consumer spending power by their fans a vehicle for them to approach the ideals and experiences that Perfume embodies. Yet, Perfume's videos, music, and stage performances are also replete with subversive images of machines, virtual cities and landscapes, and computer generated apparitions. In their works, the traditional idol as an object of consumer desire co-exists with images of the fragmentation of identity, distrust in the world and the senses, and the desire to escape from illusion, all presented in terms of encounters with technology. In what their fans call the "Near Future Trilogy", a set of three singles released soon after their major label debut (2005-06), lyrics refer to the artificiality and transience of virtual worlds ("Nothing I see or touch has any reality" from "Electro-World," or "I want to escape. I want to destroy this city created by immaculate computation" from "Computer City"). In their later work, explicit lyrical references to virtual worlds and machines largely disappear, but they are replaced with images and bodily performances of Perfume with robotic machinery and electronic information. Perfume is an idol group augmented by technology. In this paper, I explore the significance of these images of technological augmentation of the human body in the work of Perfume. I suggest that the ways these bodily encounters of the human body and technology are articulated in their work reflect broader social and economic anxieties and hopes in Japan. I focus in the first section of this paper on describing some of the recurring technological motifs in their works. Next, I show how their recent work is an experiment with the emergent possibilities of human-technology relationships for imagining Japan's future development. Not only in their visual and performance style, but in their modes of engagement with their fans through new media, I suggest that Perfume itself is attempting to seek out new forms of value creation, which hold the promise of pushing Japan out of the extended economic and social stagnation of its 1990s post-bubble "Lost Decade,” particularly by articulating how they connect with the world. The idol's technologically augmented body becomes both icon and experiment for rethinking Japan and staking out a new global position for it. Though I have referred above to Perfume as its three members, I also use the term to signify the broader group of managers and collaborating artists that surrounds them. Perfume is a creation of corporate media companies and the output of development institutions designed to train multi-talented entertainers from a young age. In addition to the three women who form the public face of Perfume, main figures include music producer Yasutaka Nakata, producer and choreographer MIKIKO, and more recently, the new media artist Daito Manabe and his company, Rhizomatiks. Though Perfume very rarely appear on stage or in their videos with any other identifiable human performers, every production is an effort involving dozens of professional staff. In this respect, Perfume is a very conventional pop idol unit. The attraction of these idols for their fans is not primarily their originality, creativity, or musicality, but their professionalism and image as striving servants (Yano 336). Idols are beloved because they "are well-polished, are trained to sing and act, maintain the mask of stardom, and are extremely skillful at entertaining the audience" (Iwabuchi 561). Moreover, their charisma is based on a relationship of omoiyari or mutual empathy and service. As Christine Yano has argued for Japanese Enka music, the singer must maintain the image of service to his or her fans and reach out to them as if engaged in a personal relationship with each (337). Fans reciprocate by caring for the singer, and making his or her needs their own, not the least of which are financial. The omoiyari relationship of mutual empathy and care is essential to the singer’s charismatic appeal (Yano 347). Thus it does not matter to their fans that Perfume do not play their own instruments or write their own songs. These are jobs for other professionals. However, mirroring the role of the employee in the Japanese company-as-family (see Kondo), their devotion to their jobs as entertainers, and their care and respect for their fans must be evident at all times. The tarnishing of this image, for instance through revelations of underage smoking or drinking, can be fatal, and has resulted in banishment from the media spotlight for some former stars. A large part of Japanese stars' conventional appeal is based on their appearance as devoted workers, consummate professionals, and partners in mutual empathy. As charismatic figures that exchange cultural ideals for fans’ disposable income, it is not surprising that many authors have tied the emergence of the pop idol to the height of Japan's economic prosperity in the 1970s and 1980s, when the social contract between labor and corporations that provided both lifelong employment and social identity had yet to be seriously threatened. Aoyagi suggests (82) that the idol system is tied to post-war consumerism and the increased importance of young adults, particularly women, as consumers. As this correlation between the health of idols and the economy might imply, there is a strong popular connection between concerns of social fission and discontent and economic stagnation. Koichi Iwabuchi writes that Japanese media accounts in the 1990s connected the health of the idol system to the "vigor of society" (555). As Iwabuchi describes, some Japanese fans have looked for their idols abroad in places such as Hong Kong, with a sense of nostalgia for a kind of stardom that has waned in Japan and because of "a deep sense of disillusionment and discontent with Japanese society" (Iwabuchi 561) following the collapse of Japan's bubble economy in the early 1990s. In reaction to the same conditions, some Japanese idols have attempted to exploit this nostalgia. During a brief period of fin-de-siècle optimism that coincided with neoliberal structural reforms under the government of Junichiro Koizumi, Morning Musume, the most popular female idol group at the time, had a hit single entitled "Love Machine" that ended the 1990s in Japan. The song's lyrics tie together dreams of life-long employment, romantic love, stable traditional families, and national resurgence, linking Japan's prosperity in the world at large to its internal social, emotional, and economic health. The song’s chorus declares, "The world will be envious of Japan's future!", although that future still has yet to materialize. In its place has appeared the "near-future" imaginary of Perfume. As mentioned above, the lyrics of some of their early songs referenced illusory virtual worlds that need to be destroyed or transcended. In their later works, these themes are continued in images of the bodies of the three performers augmented by technology in various ways, depicting the performers themselves as robots. Images of the three performers as robots are first introduced in the music video for their single "Secret Secret" (2007). At the outset of the video, three mannequins resembling Perfume are frozen on a futuristic TV soundstage being dressed by masked attendants who march off screen in lock step. The camera fades in and out, and the mannequins are replaced with the human members frozen in the same poses. Other attendants raise pieces of chocolate-covered ice cream (the music video also served as an advertisement for the ice cream) to the performers' mouths, which when consumed, activate them, launching them into a dance consisting of stilted, mechanical steps, and orthogonal arm positions. Later, one of the performers falls on stairs and appears to malfunction, becoming frozen in place until she receives another piece of ice cream. They are later more explicitly made into robots in the video for "Spring of Life" (2012), in which each of the three members are shown with sections of skin lifted back to reveal shiny, metallic parts inside. Throughout this video, their backs are connected to coiled cables hanging from the ceiling, which serve as a further visual sign of their robotic characters. In the same video, they are also shown in states of distress, each sitting on the floor with parts exposed, limbs rigid and performing repetitive motions, as though their control systems have failed. In their live shows, themes of augmentation are much more apparent. At a 2010 performance at the Tokyo Dome, which was awarded the jury selection prize in the 15th Japan Media Arts Festival by the Japanese Agency for Cultural Affairs, the centerpiece was a special performance entitled "Perfume no Okite" or "The Laws of Perfume." Like "Secret Secret," the performance begins with the emergence of three mannequins posed at the center of the stadium. During the introductory sequence, the members rise out of a different stage to the side. They begin to dance, synchronized to massively magnified, computer generated projections of themselves. The projections fluctuate between photorealistic representations of each member and ghostly CG figures consisting of oscillating lines and shimmering particles that perform the same movements. At the midpoint, the members each face their own images, and state their names and dates of birth before uttering a series of commands: "The right hand and right leg are together. The height of the hands must be precise. Check the motion of the fingers. The movement of the legs must be smooth. The palms of the hands must be here." With each command, the members move their own bodies mechanically, mirrored by the CG figures. After more dancing with their avatars, the performance ends with Perfume slowly lowered down on the platform at the center of the stage, frozen in the same poses and positions as the mannequins, which have now disappeared. These performances cleverly use images of robotic machinery in order to subvert Perfume's idol personas. The robotic augmentations are portrayed as vectors for control by some unseen external party, and each of the members must have their life injected into them through cables, ice cream, or external command, before they can begin to dance and sing as pop idols. Pop idols have always been manufactured products, but through such technological imagery Perfume make their own artificiality explicit, revealing to the audience that it is not the performers they love, but the emergent and contingently human forms of a social, technological, and commercial system that they desire. In this way, these images subvert the performers' charisma and idol fans' own feelings of adoration, revealing the premise of the idol system to have been manufactured to manipulate consumer affect and desire. If, as Iwabuchi suggests, some fans of idols are attracted to their stars by a sense of nostalgia for an age of economic prosperity, then Perfume's robotic augmentations offer a reflexive critique of this industrial form. In "The Laws of Perfume", the commands that comport their bodies may be stated in their own voices, yet they issue not from the members themselves, but their magnified and processed avatars. It is Perfume the commercial entity speaking. The malfunctioning bodies of Perfume depicted in "Secret Secret" and "Spring of Life" do not detract from their charisma as idols as an incident of public drunkenness might, because the represented breakdowns in their performances are linked not to the moral purity or professionalism of the humans, but to failures of the technological and economic systems that have supported them. If idols of a past age were defined by their seamless and idealized personas as entertainers and employees, then it is fitting that in an age of much greater economic and social uncertainty that they should acknowledge the cracks in the social and commercial mechanisms from which their carefully designed personas emerge. In these videos and performances, the visual trope of technological body augmentation serves as a means for representing both the dependence of the idol persona on consumer capitalism, and the fracturing of that system. However, they do not provide an answer to the question of what might lie beyond the fracturing. The only suggestions provided are the disappearance of that world, as in the end of "Computer City," or in the reproduction of the same structure, as when the members of Perfume become mannequins in "The Laws of Perfume" and "Secret Secret." Interestingly, it was with Perfume's management's decision to switch record labels and market Perfume to an international audience that Perfume became newly augmented, and a suggestion of an answer became visible. Perfume began their international push in 2012 with the release of a compilation album, "Love the World," and live shows and new media works in Asia and Europe. The album made their music available for purchase outside of Japan for the first time. Its cover depicts three posed figures computer rendered as clouds of colored dots produced from 3D scans of the members. The same scans were used to create 3D-printed plastic figures, whose fabrication process is shown in the Japanese television ad for the album. The robotic images of bodily augmentation have been replaced by a more powerful form of augmentation–digital information. The website which accompanied their international debut received the Grand Prix of the 17th Japan Media Arts Prize. Developed by Daito Manabe and Rhizomatiks, visitors to the Perfume Global website were greeted by a video of three figures composed of pulsating clouds of triangles, dancing to a heavy, glitch-laden electronic track produced by Nakata. Behind them, dozens of tweets about Perfume collected in real-time scroll across the background. Controls to the side let visitors change not only the volume of the music, but also the angle of their perspective, and the number and responsiveness of the pulsating polygons. The citation for the site's prize refers to the innovative participatory features of the website. Motion capture data from Perfume, music, and programming examples used to render the digital performance were made available for free to visitors, who were encouraged to create their own versions. This resulted in hundreds of fan-produced videos showing various figures, from animals and cartoon characters to swooshing multi-colored lines, dancing the same routine. Several of these were selected to be featured on the website, and were later integrated into the stage performance of the piece during Perfume's Asia tour. A later project extended this idea in a different direction, letting website visitors paint animations on computer representations of the members, and use a simple programming language to control the images. Many of these user creations were integrated into Perfume's 2013 performance at the Cannes Lions International Festival as advertising. Their Cannes performance begins with rapidly shifting computer graphics projected onto their costumes as they speak in unison, as though they are visitors from another realm: "We are Perfume. We have come. Japan is far to the east. To encounter the world, the three of us and everyone stand before you: to connect you with Japan, and to communicate with you, the world." The user-contributed designs were projected on to the members' costumes as they danced. This new mode of augmentation–through information rather than machinery–shows Perfume to be more than a representation of Japan's socio-economic transitions, but a live experiment in effecting these transitions. In their international performances, their bodies are synthesized in real-time from the performers' motions and the informatic layer generated from tweets and user-generated creations. This creates the conditions for fans to inscribe their own marks on to Perfume, transforming the emotional engagement between fan and idol into a technological linkage through which the idols’ bodies can be modified. Perfume’s augmented bodies are not just seen and desired, but made by their fans. The value added by this new mode of connection is imagined as the critical difference needed to transform Perfume from a local Japanese idol group into an entity capable of moving around the world, embodying the promise of a new global position for Japan enabled through information. In Perfume, augmentation suggests a possible answer to Japan’s economic stagnation and social fragmentation. It points past a longing for the past towards new values produced in encounters with the world beyond Japan. Augmentations newly connect Perfume and Japan with the world economically and culturally. At the same time, a vision of Japan emerges, more mobile, flexible, and connected perhaps, yet one that attempts to keep Japan a distinct entity in the world. Bodily augmentations, in media representations and as technological practices, do more than figuratively and materially link silicon and metal with flesh. They mark the interface of the body and technology as a site of transnational connection, where borders between the nation and what lies outside are made References Aoyagi, Hiroshi. Islands of Eight Million Smiles: Idol Performance and Symbolic Production in Contemporary Japan. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2005. Iwabuchi, Koichi. "Nostalgia for a (Different) Asian Modernity: Media Consumption of "Asia" in Japan." positions: east asia cultures critique 10.3 (2002): 547-573. Kondo, Dorinne K. Crafting Selves: Power, Gender and Discourses of Identity in a Japanese Workplace. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1990. Morning Musume. “Morning Musume ‘Love Machine’ (MV).” 15 Oct. 2010. 4 Dec. 2013 ‹http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6A7j6eryPV4›. Perfume. “[HD] Perfume Performance Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.” 20 June 2013. 11 Nov. 2013 ‹http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gI0x5vA7fLo›. ———. “[SPOT] Perfume Global Compilation “LOVE THE WORLD.”” 11 Sep. 2012. 11 Nov. 2013 ‹http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28SUmWDztxI›. ———. “Computer City.” 18 June 2013. 10 Oct. 2013 ‹http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jOXGKTrsRNg›. ———. “Electro World.” 18 June 2013. 10 Oct. 2013 ‹http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zh0ouiYIZc›. ———. “Perfume no Okite.” 8 May 2011. 10 Oct. 2013 ‹http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2EjOistJABM›. ———. “Perfume Official Global Website.” 2012. 11 Nov. 2013 ‹http://perfume-global.com/project.html›. ———. “Secret Secret.” 18 Jan. 2012. 10 Oct. 2013 ‹http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=birLzegOHyU›. ———. “Spring of Life.” 18 June 2013. 10 Oct. 2013 ‹http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PtvnaEo9-0›. Yano, Christine. "Charisma's Realm: Fandom in Japan." Ethnology 36.4 (1997): 335-49.

This essay largely explores early Muromachi flower-and-bird painting in Zen monastic context and examines how these works convey symbolic connotations related to Zen (Chan) Buddhism. The development of Zen Buddhism in 13^th century Japan not only paved the way for the flourishing of Gozan culture, but also contributed to vigorous cultural exchange between Japan and China in the Muromachi period. The author analyzes the spiritual insights of the Zen priest-painters and their productions, which are a combination of art and poetry. The religious meanings of the flower-and-bird motifs are investigated according to the artistic and literary traditions of that time. The influence of Zen on other Japanese art forms are just as salient and the author concludes that the later development of 2-D art and contemporary 3-D installations of Buddhist art shows the continual development of the Zen spiritual journey.

This chapter examines institutional transfer, a special form of the knowledge diffusion process and an imitation of best practices that follows the model of the somewhat better-studied technology transfer. Central to the concept is the deliberate reference to a foreign model. The most common motive for institutional transfer is catch-up modernization and the urgent need for developed institutions. There are numerous examples of such transfers: Japan, Turkey, but also postcommunist Eastern Europe, where expectation of EU membership speeded up the transition process. A central problem is the fact that political, economic, and social institutions are embedded in a social context. They correspond to certain social values. Where they are too far apart from the latter transplanted institutions are hardly adaptable.

The introduction begins with an overview of the sources of the study: articles by journalists like Yokoyama Gennosuke and Matsubara Iwagorō, official records, and reminiscences of literary figures. It then notes the dominant motifs of popular late-Meiji writers who saw the hinmin as pitiable, responsible for their own plights, lazy and morally lax—in other words, inferior. That section is followed by a summary of key themes of social scientists, particularly Nakagawa Kiyoshi, who have found a less pejorative, more objective reality characterized by dense housing, low wages, long work hours, and multiple reasons for being poor. The introduction concludes with a summary of the key points that the book will make in its effort to understand how the poor themselves experienced life: that life was grim, that the hinmin were resilient with a strong sense of agency, and that joy and hope were important in their lives.

The religious and spiritual content of anime is one of its remarkable qualities, as in the West it is not common for popular cultural forms to be so saturated with the religious and the spiritual. This chapter has four distinct sections. First, it discusses the role and function of religion in Japanese society, and analyses the complex historical dynamic existing between Shinto and Buddhism, giving greater attention to Shinto as the religious tradition that has contributed most substantially to anime. Second, it considers the Western conceptual categories of animism and anthropomorphism as tools of analysis in the identification of religious and spiritual motifs in anime. The third section examines human to animal and animal to human metamorphosis in Japanese folklore, and the role of magical animals in general and their treatment in anime. The final section identifies supernatural themes and motifs in anime (for example types of spirit beings, animal transformations, and issues of life, death and afterlife) and traces their connections with Shinto, Buddhism, and to a lesser extent, the minority traditions of Christianity and new religions (shin shūkyō) in Japan.

We first derived site amplification factors (SAFs) from the observed strong motions by the Japanese nationwide networks, namely, K-NET and KiK-net of National Institute of Earthquake Research and Disaster Resilience and Shindokei (Instrumental Seismic Intensity) Network of Japan Meteorological Agency by using the so-called generalized spectral inversion technique. We can use these SAFs for strong motion prediction at these observation sites, however, we need at least observed weak motion or microtremor data to quantify SAF at an arbitrary site. So we tested the capability of the current velocity models in Japan whether they can reproduce or not the observed SAFs at the nearest grid of every 250 m as the one-dimensional theoretical transfer functions (TTF). We found that at about one-half of the sites the calculated 1D TTFs show more or less acceptable fit to the observed SAFs, however, the TTFs tend to underestimate the observed SAFs in general. Therefore, we propose a simple, empirical method to fill the gap between the observed SAFs and the calculated TTFs. Validation examples show that our proposed method effectively predict better SAFs than the direct substitute of TTFs at sites without observed data.

This chapter examines the emergence of the manga and anime forms in terms of the historical development of Japanese artistic modes that are antecedent to these forms, and also through consideration of the development of Japanese modernity. It is argued that the manga and anime forms and Japanese modernity both retain traditional Eastern religious and aesthetic concerns, while freely appropriating Western religious and aesthetic motifs, which results in a unique new cultural synthesis that is equally appealing to Eastern and Western audiences. The intention of this chapter is to demonstrate that the earliest precursors of manga are a number of centuries old and that manga, and thus anime, is deeply embedded in the history of Japanese art, religion and life, as highlighted in certain studies. This interpretation is important in that it offers an alternative to the claim that the origins of the comic book aesthetic are European, and that the influence of Walt Disney (1901–1966) on early manga illustrators is more important than their Japanese forebears.

Increasing energy demand urge the developing countries to consider different types of energy sources. Owing the fact that the energy production capacity of renewable energy sources is lower than a nuclear power plant, developed countries like US, France, Japan, Russia and China lead to construct nuclear power plants. These countries compensate 80% of their energy need from nuclear power plants. Further, they periodically conduct tests in order to assess the safety of the existing nuclear power plants by applying impact type loads to the structures. In this study, a sample third-generation nuclear reactor building has been selected to assess its seismic behavior and to observe the crack propagations of the prestressed outer containment. First, a 3D model has been set up using ABAQUS finite element program. Afterwards, modal analysis is conducted to determine the mode shapes. Nonlinear dynamic time history analyses are then followed using an artificial strong ground motion which is compatible with the mean design spectrum of the previously selected ground motions that are scaled to Eurocode 8 Soil type B design spectrum. Results of the conducted nonlinear dynamic analyses are considered in terms of stress distributions and crack propagations.

Not many prehistoric houses survive above their foundations. The three dimensions of the buildings are collapsed (sometimes literally) into the two dimensions of the site plan. That may be all that can be discovered by archaeology, and yet the missing component could have been all-important. The change of perspective is revealing, for the treatment of the walls and roof may be just as significant as the layout of the floor. Few excavated houses are as well preserved as those in the Near East, and there are many parts of Europe in which the question cannot be investigated directly. Here, the existence of ceramic models suggests an alternative approach. During 2010, two exhibitions featuring the arts of the first farmers took place in Britain. They ran simultaneously, one in Oxford and the other in Norwich. They also complemented one another geographically and thematically. The Lost World of Old Europe was organized by The Institute for the Study of the Ancient World at New York University (Anthony 2010), and Unearthed by the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts of the University of East Anglia (Bailey et al 2010). The display at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford featured artefacts from Romania, Moldova, and Bulgaria, whilst that in Norwich was restricted to finds of figurines from Romania, Albania, and Macedonia, although they were compared with others from the Jomon Culture of Japan. Not surprisingly, the Neolithic and Chalcolithic objects spanned a long period of time and were associated with several regional groups. Some were elaborately decorated, while others were entirely plain. The artefacts shown in Norwich were all depictions of the human form, but those in Oxford also included pottery vessels, stone artefacts, and early metalwork. One small group of objects was especially striking, for it consisted of ceramic models of domestic buildings. In one case, from the Cucuteni Culture of Romania, a group of figurines had been discovered inside a miniature house of this kind. The evidence of such models is revealing. There were examples in which the outer wall was highlighted by angular designs, as if to emphasize the rectilinear outline of the building, but there was also a model in the Oxford exhibition which showed a structure with a similar ground plan whose exterior was covered by curvilinear motifs.