京都大学 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(経済学) / 甲第24381号 / 経博第668号 / 新制||経||303(附属図書館) / 京都大学大学院経済学研究科経済学専攻 / (主査)教授 関口 格, 教授 原 千秋, 教授 NEWTON Jonathan Charles Scott / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Economics / Kyoto University / DGAM

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This investigation was an analysis of the effects of methylphenidate (MPH; trade name: Ritalin) on drug reward using the conditioned place preference (CPP) behavioral paradigm in a rodent model and underlying mechanisms of this effect. Animals were conditioned in adolescence from postnatal day (P)33-39) or P44-49 with saline, 1 or 5 mg/kg MPH. Rats administered 5 mg/kg but not 1 mg/kg MPH, resulted in a significant preference that was more robust in younger male adolescent rats. The 5 mg/kg dose of MPH also resulted in a significant decrease of the dopamine transporter in both the nucleus accumbens and striatum, revealing dopamine clearance is decreased by MPH in brain areas that mediate reward. Finally, MPH-induced CPP was blocked by the dopamine D1 but not D2 antagonist, demonstrating the importance of the D1 receptor in the rewarding effects of MPH. These results demonstrate that dopamine mediates the rewarding effects of MPH in adolescence.

With the proliferation of mobile applications and the abundance of wireless devices, it is increasingly common for devices to support multiple radios. When two devices are communicating they should choose the best available radio based on user preference and application requirements. This type of “radio switching” should happen automatically, so that the system optimizes performance dynamically. To achieve this objective, we design an Autonomous and Intelligent Radio Switching (AIRS) system to leverage the radio heterogeneity common in today's wireless devices. The AIRS system consists of three key components. First, we design a radio preference evaluation module to dynamically select the best radio according to users' preference, application's QoS requirements, and the device battery usage. Second, we propose a link quality measurement and prediction module to predict the radio quality under a variety of mobility and interference conditions. Third, we present a radio switching decision making module to switch to the preferred available radio intelligently, based on the preference and link quality evaluations. The AIRS system maintains connectivity, as well as improves link quality, via dynamic and intelligent radio switching, regardless of interference or collisions from the interfaces of other devices. The radio preference evaluation module is able to generate and adjust a preference list dynamically. Multiple users' requirements are satisfied in a mutually beneficial manner and the selected radio is Pareto optimal. The link prediction module is able to achieve an accuracy above 90% under a variety of mobility and interference conditions. The module can dynamically increase the link measurement interval and significantly reduce its power consumption, without sacrificing accuracy. The decision algorithm uses several parameters to avoid switching radios too frequently, and is able to provide dynamic, but stable radio switching, while balancing the competing objectives of high throughput and low power consumption. Overall, the AIRS system is able to achieve high goodput (application level throughput) and long battery life as applied to handoff management in a frequently changing mobile environment.

One of the most important decisions in the product development process is the selection of a promising design concept because of the large influence it has on the final product. A thorough search for the best design is a significant challenge to designers, who are trying to balance the objective and subjective performance of the designs they create. In this thesis, a computationally-assisted design methodology is developed and used in the early stages of design to more thoroughly search for designs that perform well according to objective physics-based models and subjective designer-specific preference-based models. The method presented herein uses an initial pool of user-created designs that is parameterized and used in a numerical search that recombines design features to form new designs in a semi-automated way. Designs are then evaluated quantitatively by objective performance calculations and evaluated qualitatively by human designers. Designer preference is interactively gathered when visual representations of new computer-created designs are presented to the designer for subjective evaluation. A mathematical model is then formed using statistical probability methods to approximate the designer's preference and incrementally updated after the designer subjectively evaluates a new set of designs at each iteration of the automated search process. The methodology uses a multiobjective approach to search for optimally performing designs, treating both the physics-based models and the preference-based models as objectives. The methodology couples the speed of computational searches with the ability of human designers to subjectively evaluate unmodeled objectives. The method is demonstrated with two product examples to find optimal designs that designers may not have otherwise discovered among the vast number of possible combinations of features. The proposed methodology brings the ability to search for and find numerous, optimal solutions across a wide solution space, in an efficient and human-centered way, and does so in the early stages of design.

Idag står barnmorskor för 80 procent av förskrivningen av antikonception och 74 procent av kvinnor i 19 årsåldern har vid något tillfälle använt antikonception. Upprepade undersökningar tyder på att unga personer sexdebuterar tidigare, har fler sexpartners och samtidigt blir sämre på att använda skydd. På grund av detta är unga personer i behov av individanpassade och väl fungerande antikonception. För att som barnmorska kunna möta detta behov behövs kunskap om vilka faktorer som påverkar unga kvinnors i sitt val av antikonception. Mot bakgrund av detta finns ett intresse av att sammanställa den befintliga forskningen. Syftet var att belysa vilka faktorer som påverkar kvinnliga ungdomar och unga vuxnas val av antikonception.  Val av metod var en allmän litteraturöversikt med induktiv ansats som bearbetades via en integrerad analysmetod. Datainsamlingen skedde via databaserna PubMed och CINAHL under februari 2023. Artiklarna kvalitetsgranskades genom Caldwells kvalitetsgranskningsmall och sammanställdes i en artikelmatris. Genom numrering och färgkodning identifierades kategorier.  Det inkluderades sexton artiklar varav fem kvalitativa och elva kvantitativa. Resultatet sammanställdes under två huvudkategorier och fem subkategorier. Faktorer som påverkade unga kvinnor när de valde antikonception var metodens effektivitet, dess önskvärda egenskaper samt biverkningar och farhågor de hade om metoden. Mötet med hälso- och sjukvården samt kvinnans familj, vänner och hennes relationsstatus influerade även hennes val.   Slutsatsen var att unga kvinnor har olika prioriteringar när de väljer antikonception. Många kvinnor använder en metod vars egenskaper ej stämmer överens med deras individuella önskemål. Detta tyder på att hälso- och sjukvården brister i informationsöverföringen. Barnmorskan har ett ansvar gentemot unga kvinnor att stödja dem i att uppnå reproduktiv och sexuell hälsa. Vidare forskning om hur unga personer upplever antikonceptionsrådgivningen med barnmorskor hade varit av intresse. Detta skulle kunna resultera i kunskap om vilket stöd de unga personerna är i behov av under rådgivningen. / Today, midwives account for 80 percent of prescriptions of anticonception and 74 percent of women aged 19 have at some point used anticonception. Repeated surveys indicate that young people make their sex debut earlier, have more sex partners and at the same time are becoming worse at using protection. Because of this, young people are in need of individually adapted and well-functioning anticonception. In order for a midwife to be able to meet this need, knowledge is needed about the factors that influence young women's choice of contraception. Against this background, there is an interest in compiling the existing research. The aim is to shed light on which factors influence female adolescents and young adults' choice of contraception. The choice of method was a general literature review with an inductive approach that was processed via an integrated analysis method. The data collection took place via the databases PubMed and CINAHL during February 2023. The articles were quality-reviewed through Caldwell's quality review template and compiled in an article matrix. Through numbering and color-coding categories were identified. The study included sixteen articles, five qualitative and eleven quantitative. The results were compiled under two main categories and five subcategories. Factors influencing young women when choosing an anticonception method were the method's effectiveness, its desirable characteristics and side effects and concerns they had about the method. The meeting with the healthcare personnel as well as the woman's family, friends and her relationship status also influenced her choice. The conclusion was that young women have different priorities when choosing contraception. Many women use a method whose characteristics do not match their individual wishes. This indicates that the healthcare system is lacking in information transfer. The midwife has a responsibility towards young women to support them in achieving reproductive and sexual health. Further research on how young people experience anticonception counseling with midwives would have been of interest. This could result in knowledge of what support the young people need during counseling.

Background: Pre-operative anxiety remains a serious problem affecting surgical patients. The prevalence rate ranges between 60% to 80% percent among western surgical patients. Nothing is known about the prevalence of pre-operative anxiety among Nigerian Hausa speaking elective surgical patients. It is also not known what non-pharmaceutical pre-operative anxiety reduction interventions are preferable in reducing their anxiety before they undergo elective surgery. Participants: Thirty adult patients scheduled to undergo elective surgery in a tertiary health facility in north eastern Nigeria. Design/procedure: The study consists of three phases: Phase 1- translating and cross-cultural validation of Amsterdam Pre-operative Anxiety and Information Scale (APAIS) into Nigerian Hausa Language. Phase 2- administering the translated scale to assess the prevalence of pre-operative anxiety among the study participants. Phase 3 - finding out which non-pharmaceutical pre-operative anxiety reduction interventions would the Hausa speaking elective surgical patients prefer in reducing their anxiety before they undergo elective surgery. Results: The translated Hausa and validated version of the scale (APAIS-H) has shown a good psychometric property with Cronbach's alpha of 0.82 for anxiety related to surgery subscale and 0.71 for information desire subscale respectively. The finding of phase 2 revealed that there is high prevalence of pre-operative anxiety among the Hausa speaking elective surgical patients. The patients' anxiety continues to increase in intensity as they approach their time of operation. Results of phase 3 shows that the Hausa speaking elective surgical patients have high preference for counselling services, information and education, video-film intervention and low preference for music therapy. Conclusion: There is high prevalence of pre-operative anxiety among the Hausa speaking elective surgical patients. It is therefore recommended that, before undergoing elective surgery, clinicians should assess the Hausa patients' pre-operative anxiety so as to provide them with their preferred pre-operative anxiety reduction interventions proportionate to their level of anxiety. The thesis argued that the translated and validated APAIS-H is be a good measure of assessment particularly of those Hausa patients who could not read and understand the English Language version of assessment tool. / Yobe State University

Several researchers have over the past decades criticised the efficient market hypothesis as several studies have presented evidence of causality and co-integrating relationships in  inancial markets. As preference shares have become increasingly popular, in recent years, as a mean of raising capital in the Swedish real estate sector, this study investigates the causal relationships between common shares and their corresponding preference share of nine listed Swedish real estate companies. By using daily closing prices over the period Dec 2014 – April 2016, we find weak support for short-run causalities in five of the nine examined pairs but no long-run cointegrating relationships. Further, we find causality running from the largest five firms to the four smallest in the sample firms. These findings violate the weak form of the efficient market hypothesis, which state that asset price fluctuations are random and not possible to forecast by the use of historical asset prices.