Evaluating the Product Portfolio of NHK,the Japanese Public Service Broadcaster: A Propensity Score Matching Approach

Public service broadcasters (PSBs) around the world are restructuring their constituencies to meet the new challenges of increasing media diversification. New PSB management approaches include the diversification of transmission channels and development of contents. The optimum deployment of distribution channels and content genres, referred to as Portfolio Management, is now a major management priority and will provide the most efficient strategic allocation of management resources. In this article, we take NHK (Nippon Hoso Kyokai), Japan’s PSB, as a research target and analyze and evaluate its portfolio management. NHK has introduced the Value for Money (VFM) index through the measurement of WTP (Willingness to Pay), and has initiated channel-genre matrix management. This study aims to estimate the WTP of viewers’ reception fees from viewer surveys, and then distribute these WTP values to the channel-genre matrix. We then use Propensity Score Matching (PSM) to evaluate how NHK’s channel-genre matrix management is oriented toward public service value by dividing the sample population into high citizen orientation and low citizen orientation groups, and examining how the distributed WTP to genres differs between the two groups.     

Attitudes of healthcare students on gross anatomy laboratory sessions

At Chiba University, gross anatomy laboratory sessions (“laboratories”) are required for physical therapy students. Though most physical therapy schools require their students to participate in laboratories so that they will better understand the structure of the human body, few data exist on the value of these laboratories specifically for physical therapy students. We administered questionnaires to physical therapy undergraduate students both before and after they participated in laboratories. Questionnaire items focused on student attitudes toward the laboratories and on human life and dignity. Data from 83 students were analyzed, with the following results: (1) 74.7% of students had a positive attitude about attending laboratories before doing so; (2) with few exceptions, students' attitudes about upcoming laboratories grew more positive after experiencing the laboratory work (P < 0.001); (3) laboratories caused students to contemplate the topics of human life and dignity; and (4) 83.1% of students hoped to participate in laboratories at least four times. These results indicate that laboratories reinforce physical therapy students' positive attitudes about laboratory learning and promote student reflection on human life and dignity. This study provides support for the implementation of multiple laboratory sessions using cadavers into a uniform curriculum for physical therapy students in Japan. Anat Sci Educ 2: 273–279, 2009. © 2009 American Association of Anatomists.     

Habitual rowing exercise is associated with high physical fitness without affecting arterial stiffness in older men

The present study elucidated the effects of habitual rowing exercise on arterial stiffness and plasma levels of the vasoconstrictor endothelin-1 and the vasodilator nitric oxide (NO) in older men. Eleven rowers (68.0 ± 1.6 years) and 11 sedentary control older men (64.9 ± 1.1 years) were studied. Peak oxygen uptake (36.0 ± 1.7 vs. 27.7 ±1.9 ml · kg(-1) · min(-1)), leg press power (1346 ± 99 vs. 1077 ± 68 W), and HDL-cholesterol (75 ± 5 vs. 58 ±3 mg · ml(-1)) were higher and triglyceride (78 ± 9 vs. 120 ± 14 mg · ml(-1)) was lower in rowers than in control participants (all P < 0.05). Arterial stiffness indices (carotid β-stiffness and cardio-ankle vascular index) and plasma endothelin-1 and NOx (nitrite + nitrate) levels did not differ between the two groups. These results suggest that habitual rowing exercise in older men is associated with high muscle power and aerobic capacity, and favourable blood lipid profile without affecting arterial stiffness or plasma levels of endotheline-1 and NO.     

Surface-mounted bender elements for measuring horizontal shear wave velocity of soils

The bender element testing features its in-plane directivity, which allows using bender elements to measure the shear wave velocities in a wider range of in-plane configurations besides the standard tip-to-tip alignment. This paper proposed a novel bender element testing technique for measuring the horizontal shear wave velocity of soils, where the bender elements are surface- mounted and the axes of the source and receiver elements are parallel to each other. The preliminary tests performed on model ground of silica sand showed that, by properly determining the travel distance and time of the shear waves, the surface-mounted bender elements can perform as accurately as the conventional ＂tip-to-tip＂ configuration. Potentially, the present system provides a promising nondestructive tool for characterizing geomaterials and site conditions both in laboratory and in the fields.