Advanced Information Society Research Articles

Research on optical computing system architecture for simple recurrent neural networks

Moore’s Law, relating to the speed and capabilities of computers is becoming less applicable. In this ‘post-Moore’ era, a cross-disciplinary team based in the Constructive Electronics Laboratory, Kyushu University, Japan, is investigating optical computing system infrastructures, with a view to driving computing technology forward in a way that negates the need to comply with Moore’s Law. Associate Professor Satoshi Kawakami is an expert in electric circuits and computer architecture who is part of the team. The team’s expertise covers materials, devices, circuits, architectures and algorithms and is geared towards pioneering new computing technologies in the post-Moore era. Kawakami believes that the continuous improvement of computer systems with higher performance and lower power consumption/energy consumption will be essential to realise a sustainable advanced information society and wants to maximise the advantages of devices and hide their disadvantages at the system level, which will necessitate collaboration with higher system layers. Another important goal is reducing power consumption by improving the efficiency of computers. In one current project, the researchers are exploring optical computing system infrastructure for simple recurrent neural networks. The team is keen to re-examine the ideal state of optical circuits from the perspective of the entire system, including electrical memory and interfaces.

Performance improvement of a Ag-ion controlled molecular-gap atomic switch by reducing a switching area for applying to a deep learning system

In today’s advanced information society, hardware-based neuromorphic systems attract much attention for achieving more efficient information processing. Hardware-based neuromorphic systems need devices that change their resistance in an analog manner like biological synapses. A molecular-gap atomic switch exhibits analog resistance change over a wider range compared to other non-volatile memory devices. However, several issues remain with the device, such as in cyclic endurance and retention. In this study, we fabricated a molecular-gap atomic switch with a reduced switching area. We expected that the reduction would limit the number of Ag+ cations that contribute to a switching phenomenon and solve the remaining issues. The fabricated devices endured 1000 switching cycles and exhibited stable analog resistance change. Deep learning was successfully demonstrated using 293 fabricated devices as synapses, which resulted in the accuracy of 93.65% in 26th epoch in a 5 × 5 pixel image classification task.

Effects of the presence of a cell phone and exposure to natural environments on remote associates task performance

In today’s advanced information society, creativity in work is highly valued, and there is growing interest in the kinds of work environments that produce more creative outcomes. Recent researchers have demonstrated that when environmental factors change a worker’s attentional state to a diffused state, the worker has access to more information than usual, which can contribute to creativity. Here, we examined whether manipulating environmental factors (the presence of a cell phone and exposure to natural environment) that could affect such attention states would improve performance on the Remote Associates Task, a measure of creativity. Our results showed that the presence of a cell phone increased creative performance regardless of immersion in natural environment. In contrast, exposure to nature did not facilitate creative performance; instead, feelings of pleasure increased, and frustration decreased. These results suggest that the presence of a cell phone can enhance creativity by influencing workers’ attentional states. The current study provides a meaningful approach to enhancing creativity by modulating attentional states through environmental factors. It also highlights the essential features of environmental factors that can moderate creative abilities.

Silicon meets group-II metals in energy and electronic applications—How to handle reactive sources for high-quality films and bulk crystals

In the present advanced information society, the group IV element Si is inevitably used for various high-performance devices, such as transistors and solar cells. When Si meets group-II elements such as Mg, Ca, Sr, or Ba, semiconducting silicides are formed, which are applicable to energy conversion devices such as thin-film solar cells and thermoelectric devices. In this Tutorial, we focus on two representative typical semiconducting silicides among them: Mg2Si and BaSi2 composed of earth-abundant elements. Mg2Si has been extensively studied for light-weight high-performance thermoelectric devices, whereas BaSi2 has been studied for thin-film solar cells, and recently has also been attracting attention as a thermoelectric material. However, these group-II elements are highly reactive with oxygen and water. Thus, we need to be careful when handling these elements. In this Tutorial, we provide guidance on how to handle these group-II elements and their compounds in an easy-to-understand manner for beginners. In addition, we introduce thin-film growth and bulk growth techniques, as well as the points to be considered when characterizing these materials.

Application of Monte Carlo stochastic optimization (MOST) to deep learning

In this paper, we propose a new optimization method based on the Monte Carlo method. The proposed method is applied to several benchmark problems, and the result of applying it to the optimization of neural network is reported. Deep machine learning using neural networks is one of the important keywords to promote innovation in today’s advanced information society. Therefore, research on large-scale, high-speed, and high-precision algorithms has been actively conducted. The author has developed an optimization method in which the search region for multivariate parameters constituting the objective function is divided into two regions for each parameter, the integral values of each divided region are numerically calculated by the Monte Carlo method, the magnitude of each integral value is compared, and the optimum point is judged to be in a small region. The proposed method was applied to 50 variable benchmark functions (Schwefel and Ackley Functions), and was compared with the results of genetic algorithm (GA) which was a representative of existing optimization methods. As a result, it was confirmed that the proposed method is faster and more accurate than GA. In addition, the proposed method is applied to machine learning by neural networks, specifically XOR gate circuits and IRS classification problems, and verified. The neural network optimized by MOST reproduced teacher data and test data faster and more accurately than conventional Adam and genetic algorithms.

Clarifying the Positive Thoughts Structure of Sport Societal Values by Neural Network Approaches in COVID-19 Pandemic

Purpose of this study was to clarifying the relationship structures with social values of complex sports and positive thought under today's COVID-19 social anxiety by neural networks and network-centric analysis. The Value items were the terminal ones (benevolence, equality, accomplishment, global stability, hope for future, proud country, family bond etc.) and the instrumental ones (consistent, creative, light hearted, honest, ambition, creative, polite, etc.). The subjects (university students; n = 221) received an explanation of the study’s structure and of various sports-related benevolent activities such as donations, charity matches and voluntary disaster relief activities. Next, they were asked, ‘What types of values do you recognize in benevolent sports activities in world-wide health anxiety under COVID-19 pandemic?’ Neural network model, random forest model and correspondence analysis were executed and discussed some relation structure of societal human values of sport with the positive thoughts under COVID-19 pandemic. Current study shows the possibility of supporting the understanding of the complex, gradual, transitive, and central structures of diverse sport values by approaching network analysis. As a result, it was clarified that the social wisdom of these sports would be a desire to support the survival of the physical society more creatively. Under the social unrest in the advanced information society, the importance of tactile communities such as sports was confirmed.

Takis Zenetos’s Electronic Urbanism and Tele-Activities: Minimizing Transportation as Social Aspiration

Takis Zenetos was enthusiastic about the idea of working from home, and believed that both architecture and urban planning should be reshaped in order to respond to this. He supported the design of special public spaces in residential units, aiming to accommodate the inhabitants during working hours. This article argues that Zenetos’s design for “Electronic Urbanism” was more prophetic, and more pragmatic, than his peers such as Archigram and Constant Nieuwenhuys. Despite the fact that they shared an optimism towards technological developments and megastructure, a main difference between Zenetos’s view and the perspectives of his peers is his rejection of a generalised enthusiasm concerning increasing mobility of people. In opposition with Archigram, Zenetos insisted in minimizing citizens’ mobility and supported the replacement of daily transport with the use advanced information technologies, using terms such as “tele-activity”. Zenetos was convinced that “Electronic Urbanism” would help citizens save the time that they normally used to commute to work, and would allow them to spend this time on more creative activities, at or near their homes. The main interest of “Electronic Urbanism” lies in the fact that it not only constitutes an artistic contribution to experimental architecture, but is also characterized by a new social vision, promising to resynchronize practices of daily life. An aspect that is also examined is the relationship of Zenetos’s ideas and those of the so-called Metabolists in the 1960s in Japan, including Kenzo Tange’s conception of megastructures. Zenetos’s thought is very topical considering the ongoing debates about the advanced information society, especially regarding the social concerns of surveillance, governance, and sovereignty within the context of Big Data. His conception of “tele-activities” provides a fertile terrain for reflecting on potential implications and insights concerning home-office conditions not only within the context of the current pandemic situation but beyond it as well.

Realization and countermeasures for current location spoofing attacks

Recently, many retailers have rapidly increased cashless services. Customer guidance technology by providing advertisements and premiums linked with location information is drawing attention in cashless services using smartphones. While such technology is highly convenient, incidents such as the exploitation of premium points by disguising location information have occurred. It has become a major issue that shakes the reliability of cashless services and, in turn, affects the trust of the advanced information society that involves future financial services. In particular, the point acquisition service by visiting retail stores using smartphones has emerged as a real problem, with reports of cases of exploiting points by falsifying the location information of users who hold smartphones. This research will confirm the current location information spoofing attack method using smartphones for specific services and propose countermeasures.

Comments on Total Factor Productivity Changes in Japanese Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises in 1982–2016: Suggestive Indications of an IT Revolution?

October 01 2020 Comments on Total Factor Productivity Changes in Japanese Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises in 1982–2016: Suggestive Indications of an IT Revolution? Author and Article Information Online Issn: 1536-0083 Print Issn: 1535-3516 © 2020 by the Asian Economic Panel and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology2020Asian Economic Panel and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Asian Economic Papers (2020) 19 (3): 38–39. https://doi.org/10.1162/asep_a_00782 Cite Icon Cite Permissions Share Icon Share Twitter LinkedIn Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Search Site Citation Comments on Total Factor Productivity Changes in Japanese Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises in 1982–2016: Suggestive Indications of an IT Revolution?. Asian Economic Papers 2020; 19 (3): 38–39. doi: https://doi.org/10.1162/asep_a_00782 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu nav search search input Search input auto suggest search filter All ContentAll JournalsAsian Economic Papers Search Advanced Search Somkiat Tangkitvanich, Thailand Development Research Institute: The paper measures total factor productivity (TFP) of Japanese manufacturing and service firms, most of which were small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), before and after the year 2000. The year was chosen as it was the timing around the implementation of the Basic Law for the Formation of an Advanced Information and Communication Network Society (2000), the launch of the e-Japan initiative (2001) and the rapid rise in information and communications technology (ICT) adoption among Japanese households and SMEs. By dividing the time around the year, the paper aims to measure the impacts of “ICT revolution” on productivity of Japanese firms. The paper finds that TFP rose across the studied sectors, although there was only slight improvement in some, such as finance and insurance, and leasing. It also found that ICT product manufacturing firms achieved much more productivity growth than those in the ICT... You do not currently have access to this content.

Ideological motives, digital divides, and political polarization: How do political party preference and values correspond with the political use of social media?

Social media provides new platforms for political participation and ideological categorization. However, little research has been done on how party preference is related to politically active social media use. We begin with a consideration of how political participation on social media has evolved between various socio-economic and demographic groups in advanced information societies and especially in Finland. In our empirical analysis we examine the general use of social media as well as its use for political purposes with the aid of a nationally representative dataset, collected in 2017–2018 from 3724 Finnish citizens. We argue that there are notable differences between parties when examining their supporters’ social media use for political purposes. The differences are related to the digital divides and political extremes. The results confirmed the idea that new political movements made up of younger and more educated supporters have been successful by leveraging social media. The study also revealed that the ideological gap between party supporters is greater in social media especially when examining new kinds of politics based on cultural questions, identity issues, and post-materialist values.

What are Russian Scholars Writing about the Czech Republic? A View from the Russian Electronic Library

ABSTRACTWe may not think of Russia as an advanced information society with open access to its scholarship, but it is. The Russian Electronic Library at elibrary.ru offers us twenty-eight million academic journal articles, essays in edited volumes, book reviews, and other texts from all disciplines, many of them in PDF full text and free to download. All of Russia’s periodical scholarship is open to the world in elibrary.ru. Just one keyword search, for “Чешская республика” [Czech Republic], brings us 863 results, 372 of them (forty-three percent) in full text. We can find much more writing about Czech subjects with other search terms, but even this single corpus of 863 results shows us the diversity of scholars, interests, and perspectives in Russia on the Czech Republic and the Czech people in the past and present. The Russian Electronic Library can help us reduce ethnocentrism in Czech studies. It gives us open access to a diverse and unfolding scholarship outside the Czech Republic, the European Union and the West.

Identification of Aquatic Organisms Using a Magneto-Optical Element.

In recent advanced information society, it is important to individually identify products or living organisms automatically and quickly. However, with the current identifying technology such as RFID tag or biometrics, it is difficult to apply to amphibians such as frogs or newts because of its size, stability, weakness under a wet environment and so on. Thus, this research aims to establish a system that can trace small amphibians easily even in a wet environment and keep stable sensing for a long time. The magnetism was employed for identification because it was less influenced by water for a long time. Here, a novel magnetization-free micro-magnetic tag is proposed and fabricated with low cost for installation to a living target sensed by Magneto-Optical sensor for high throughput sensing. The sensing ability of the proposed method, which was evaluated by image analysis, indicated that it was less than half of the target value (1 mm) both in the water and air. The FEM analysis showed that it is approximately twice the actual identification ability under ideal conditions, which suggests that the actual sensing ability can be extended by further improvement of the sensing system. The developed magnetization-free micro-magnetic tag can contribute to keep up the increasing demand to identify a number of samples under a wet environment especially with the development of gene technology.

Changing patterns of social media use? A population-level study of Finland

This article examines the changing patterns of Finnish social media use during the years 2008–2016. This is the first temporal look at changes in Finnish social media use with representative population-level data. We assess how social media use has evolved between socio-economic and demographic groups in advanced information societies, with a focus on Finland. We also look at how demographic factors associate with use purposes of social media. The target of empirical analysis is on social media use and use purposes by gender, age, education level and area of residence. The data come from nationally representative and temporally comparable surveys focusing on adult populations. Findings show that the effect of socio-demographic factors on overall use and different use purposes of social media persists. Furthermore, the results seem to show a diminishing of the socializing impact of social media; on the other hand, individual, commercial and goal-oriented use practices seem to have become a major focus of social media use.

Development of Educational Resources Using the Blue LED Fabrication and Introduction to an Engineering Experiment

Since the development of semiconductor devices has become more and more important to realize the advanced information society such as Internet of Things (IoT), educational resources to study about the semiconductor from both sides of theory and practice are required to improve the education level of National Institute of Technology. The students are interested in the blue light emitting diode (LED) because three Japanese researchers developed this technology in Japan that consequently led them to the Nobel Prize. Therefore, the engineering experiments using the blue LED fabrication were developed to study the theory of light emitting, fabrication process, and the heat generation that is unavoidable problem not only LED but also all kind of devices. Then, this educational resources were introduced into an engineering experiment actually and the effectiveness was verified. The experiment had a good reputation among students.

Special Issue on Nanosensing and Microsensing

Sensors, which are transducer-type devices, are indispensable to today’s advanced information society. A huge number of sensors are used not only in everyday devices but also in advanced industrial systems. They are used in Internet of things (IoT) services to gather external information, intelligent robots to recognize the world around them and control their movements, and all advanced vehicle technologies to operate safely and automatically. Sensors detect light, motion, force, fluid flow, electric/magnetic fields, and other physical, chemical, and biological aspects of the external environment. To improve the performances of these sensors, such as their sensitivity, sensing resolution, and power consumption, extensive R&D is conducted in industry and academia. Recent technological progress in MEMS technology has allowed sensors to be manufactured on scales that are increasingly microscopic. More recently, the extreme downsizing of structures to nanometer scale has led to innovative sensing devices called NEMS. This special issue addresses the latest research advances in nanosensing and microsensing science and engineering. It covers a wide range of topics, including novel sensing devices and technologies; small structures fabrication technologies for sensors; MEMS/NEMS sensing devices; physical, chemical, optical and biological sensing devices; and nanoscale science and engineering for sensors. All papers were refereed through careful peer reviews. We would like to express our sincere thanks to the authors for their submissions and to the reviewers for their invaluable efforts. Lastly, we hope this special issue provides valuable and useful information to our interested readers and researchers.

Harm-advocating online content and subjective well-being: a cross-national study of new risks faced by youth

Harm-advocating online content includes pro-eating disorder, pro-self-harm, pro-suicide, and the positive portrayal of the deaths of real people (snuff or death sites). This material is often user-generated and easily accessible for an average online user, therefore offering a potential source of risk for many Internet users. This cross-sectional study examined the association between exposure to harm-advocating online content and users’ subjective well-being (SWB) among American (n = 1032) and Finnish (n = 555) young people aged 15–30. Exposure to different types of online harm-advocating content was prevalent in both countries. Lower SWB was associated with exposure to this material even when controlling for social networking site (SNS) activity and online and offline victimization. In the US sample, seeing death sites was not associated with SWB, but seeing other harm-advocating sites was. In both countries, those with high SNS activity were more likely to be exposed to online harm-advocating material. These results from two advanced information societies underline the importance of recognizing the existence of harmful online communities. These communities are grounded on social interaction that might involve risks for the well-being of adolescents and young adults.

The anti-counterfeiting trade agreement: the ethical analysis of a failure, and its lessons

The anti-counterfeiting trade agreement (ACTA) was originally meant to harmonise and enforce intellectual property rights (IPR) provisions in existing trade agreements within a wider group of countries. This was commendable in itself, so ACTA's failure was all the more disappointing. In this article, I wish to contribute to the post-ACTA debate by proposing a specific analysis of the ethical reasons why ACTA failed, and what we can learn from them. I argue that five kinds of objections--namely, secret negotiations, lack of consultation, vagueness of formulation, negotiations outside any international body, and the creation of a new governing body outside already existing forums--had only indirect ethical implications. This takes nothing away from their seriousness but it does make them less compelling, because agreements should be evaluated, ethically, for what they are, rather than for the alleged reasons why they are being proposed. I then argue that ACTA would have caused three ethical problems: an excessive and misplaced kind of responsibility, a radical decrease in freedom of expression, and a severe reduction in information privacy. I conclude by indicating three lessons that can help us in shaping a potential ACTA 2.0. First, we should acknowledge the increasingly vital importance of the framework of implicit expectations, attitudes, and practices that can facilitate and promote morally good decisions and actions. ACTA failed to perceive that it would have undermined the very framework that it was supposed to foster, namely one promoting some of the best and most successful aspects of our information society. Second, we should realise that, in advanced information societies, any regulation affecting how people deal with information is now bound to influence the whole `onlife' habitat within which they live. So enforcing IPR becomes an environmental problem. Third, since legal documents, such as ACTA, emerge from within the infosphere that they affect, we should apply to the process itself, which one day may lead to a post-ACTA treaty, the very framework and ethical values that we would like to see promoted by it.

The Growing Influence of Private Expressions and Public Responsibility in Advanced Information Society: A Socio-Legal Approach to the Minerva Case

By examining the Minerva case from 2008-10 this paper deals with the issues surrounding freedom of expression that arise from the increased influence of private expressions on public bulletin board systems in the context of a technically and socially developed Internet. In section 2 we review the legal context of the Internet bulletin board system, especially public Internet bulletin board systems, and introduce the Minerva case in the social context of the year 2008-9 in section 3. In section 4 we discuss the legal process of the Minerva case at courts, and present a socio-legal consideration of the Constitutional Court’s decision in section 5. We conclude by arguing for the necessity of rebalancing freedom of expression and public interest, and properly specifying the meaning of public interest in the social public in a democratic Internet society.

The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement: The Ethical Analysis of a Failure, and its Lessons

The anti-counterfeiting trade agreement (ACTA) was originally meant to harmonise and enforce intellectual property rights (IPR) provisions in existing trade agreements within a wider group of countries. This was commendable in itself, so ACTA’s failure was all the more disappointing. In this article, I wish to contribute to the post-ACTA debate by proposing a specific analysis of the ethical reasons why ACTA failed, and what we can learn from them. I argue that five kinds of objections— namely, secret negotiations, lack of consultation, vagueness of formulation, negotiations outside any international body, and the creation of a new governing body outside already existing forums—had only indirect ethical implications. This takes nothing away from their seriousness but it does make them less compelling, because agreements should be evaluated, ethically, for what they are, rather than for the alleged reasons why they are being proposed. I then argue that ACTA would have caused three ethical problems: an excessive and misplaced kind of responsibility, a radical decrease in freedom of expression, and a severe reduction in information privacy. I conclude by indicating three lessons that can help us in shaping a potential ACTA 2.0. First, we should acknowledge the increasingly vital importance of the framework of implicit expectations, attitudes, and practices that can facilitate and promote morally good decisions and actions. ACTA failed to perceive that it would have undermined the very framework that it was supposed to foster, namely one promoting some of the best and most successful aspects of our information society. Second, we should realise that, in advanced information societies, any regulation affecting how people deal with information is now bound to influence the whole ‘onlife’ habitat within which they live. So enforcing IPR becomes an environmental problem. Third, since legal documents, such as ACTA, emerge from within the infosphere that they affect, we should apply to the process itself, which one day may lead to a post-ACTA treaty, the very framework and ethical values that we would like to see promoted by it.

International Credibility at Risk: Australian Privacy Foundation Submission on Japan's Proposed Changes to its Data Privacy Law

This is a submission from the Australian Privacy Foundation (AFP) to the Government of Japan, following its June 2014 request for submissions on proposed changes to Japan's 2003 data privacy law (Strategic Headquarters for the promotion of an Advanced Information and Telecommunications Network Society (TI Strategic Headquarters) 'Outline of the System Reform Concerning the Utilization of Personal Data', 24 June, 2014). The APF's submission argues that Japan's Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA) has the weakest privacy principles of any Asia-Pacific country that has a data privacy law. These proposals will, overall, weaken the principles in Japan's law, although they do have some positive aspects. To obtain international credibility for its privacy laws, Japan needs to move its law more in line with the 103 other countries with data privacy laws, rather than aligning itself with the isolated United States position of no comprehensive privacy law. The principle danger to privacy in the current proposals is the proposal to remove most privacy protections from supposed 'reduced indentifiability' data. No standards for de-identification are proposed, and it will be essentially a self-regulatory system. No penalties are proposed against any party if data is in fact re-identified. It is a 'best efforts' approach with no consequences for 'failure' to de-identify. This will depart from current international standards for 'personal data' and put Japan out-of step with other countries, rather than in advance of them. The submission argues that the proposed changes will provide little benefit to most Japanese businesses, and will primarily benefit US business interest.The APF suggests improvement to both the privacy principles in the PIPA, and the enforcement of those principles.