Socially responsible behaviour: Who supports societal crowdfunding among Chinese and Japanese university students?

Crowdfunding is one of social finance measures and has been become a global phenomenon of growing socio-economic importance. To identify who supports social-good fields of crowdfunding, this study determined: (a) consumer consciousness and actual crowdfunding usage, (b) awareness and the image of crowdfunding, and (c) factors supporting crowdfunding, by sampling younger university students as potential major users to understand their tendencies. The results showed that the top three fields of crowdfunding that both groups would like to support were child education, disaster recovery and medical welfare, recognized as societal fields. Furthermore, the results of personality and intentionality traits showed that individuals with openness, instead of agreeableness, were inclined toward many fields of crowdfunding. Social-oriented individuals would support medical welfare and environmental protection, those with conscientiousness would support child education, and those with neuroticism would support natural disaster recovery. In contrast, individual-oriented persons with neuroticism would support human rights, and those with neuroticism and openness would support minority rights. This study is the first to clarify the consumer character willing to engage in socially responsible behaviour on current global issues.Bulletin論文Articledepartmental bulletin pape

4次元可解ソリトンに対応する部分多様体の極小性について

In our previous study, the author and Tamaru proved that a left invariant Riemannian metric on a three-dimensional simply-connected solvable Lie group is a solvsoliton if and only if the corresponding sub manifold is minimal. In this paper, we study the minimality of the corresponding sub manifolds to solvsolitons on four-dimensional cases. In four-dimensional nilpotent cases, we prove that a left-invariant Riemannian metric is a nilsoliton if and only if the corresponding sub manifold is minimal. On the other hand, there exists a four-dimensional simply-connected solvable Lie group so that the above correspondence does not hold. More precisely, there exists a solvsoliton whose corresponding sub manifold is not minimal, and a left-invariant Riemannian metric which is not solvsoliton and whose corresponding sub manifold is minimal.広島大学(Hiroshima University)博士(理学)Sciencedoctora

Factors that support societal crowdfunding : Analysis from a Japan-Swiss perspective

Since the 2008 global financial crisis, the importance of social finance measures, such as crowdfunding, has been recognized worldwide. To identify the mechanism that supports crowdfunding, this study determined: (a) consumer consciousness and actual crowdfunding usage, (b) awareness and the image of crowdfunding, and (c) factors supporting crowdfunding, by comparing Japanese and Swiss university students as potential major users to understand their tendencies. The results indicated that the Swiss respondents were more aware of (Japan 68.1%, Switzerland 87.1%), more willing to use (Japan 38.7%, Switzerland 51.0%), and more likely to use (Japan 3.2%, Switzerland 17.2%) crowdfunding than Japanese respondents. Japanese respondents considered crowdfunding less accessible. More respondents from both countries selected societal causes over individual causes to support crowdfunding, and social-oriented individuals tended to support child education, medical welfare, disaster recovery, and earthquake and typhoon recovery regardless of the country. This study is the first to clarify the consumer character willing to engage in societal crowdfunding on current global issues. It highlights mechanism of factors that support crowdfunding, which may prove useful for the government authorities as well as companies in designing marketing strategies on approaching consumers and promoting societal consumer behaviors.Article

Implications of the Swiss ESD Promotion System for Japan: A Case Study of School Education Support by “education 21”

本研究は科学研究費基盤研究(B) 21H00859および基盤研究(C) 24K05579の助成による成果の一部である。departmental bulletin pape

Hyperadiponectinemia enhances bone formation in mice

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>There is growing evidence that adiponectin, a physiologically active polypeptide secreted by adipocytes, controls not only adipose tissue but also bone metabolism. However, a role for adiponectin in bone development remains controversial.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We therefore investigated the endocrine effects of adiponectin on bone metabolism using 12-week-old male transgenic (Ad-Tg) mice with significant hyperadiponectinemia overexpressing human full-length adiponectin in the liver.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In Ad-Tg mice, the serum level of osteocalcin was significantly increased, but the levels of RANKL, osteoprotegerin, and TRAP5b were not. Bone mass was significantly greater in Ad-Tg mice with increased bone formation. In contrast, bone resorption parameters including the number of osteoclasts and eroded surface area did not differ between Ad-Tg and their littermates.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>These findings demonstrate that hyperadiponectinemia enhances bone formation in mice.</p