• Acta Via Serica
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.55-90
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• 2021

In the last several decades, and especially since the Chinese launching of the Belt and Road (BRI) initiative in 2013, the Chinese presence in Central Asia has intensified. Russia and Chinese leaders deny that there is any conflict of interests between them, while the standard narrative has been that the two states adhere to a functional division of tasks in which China concentrates on economic activity while Russia acts as the security guarantor for the region. This article argues that the professed equanimity between the Russian and Chinese leaderships masks the emergence of widening cracks in their relationship with regard to Central Asia. The convenient narrative of a functional division of tasks between the two states is called into question by China's increasingly active presence in the military and security sector in the region, but China's influence is growing throughout the Central Asian economic, political, and social order. China's movement into Central Asia challenges Russia's claim to act as an equal partner of China, as well as its pretensions to regional hegemony. This development reflects the widening disparity between the two states with respect to their power capabilities but it also exposes the interactions between Russia and China in Central Asia as the most vulnerable aspect of their relationship. In Central Asia, a defensive Russia encounters an ascendant China.

• Journal of Contemporary Eastern Asia
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.40-60
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• 2020

Among Filipino entertainers in Japan, trans women (transgender women) or transpinay (Filipino trans woman) entertainers remain understudied compared to cisgender women. Though the number of entertainers has declined, transpinay entertainers remain relevant as transgender issues continue to be salient globally. This study explains the gendered experiences of the transpinay migrants, particularly in entertainment work and their relationships, which are different from cisgender Filipino women entertainers' experiences. Using grounded theory and drawing on concepts of performativity in interactions to analyze the narratives of transpinay entertainers, I delve into how transpinay entertainers negotiate their gender and migrant identities as they establish professional and personal relationships. Moreover, the transpinays' entertainment work is a significant contributing factor to their sense of belonging in Japan, as they form relationships with colleagues, clients, and partners who support them and, thereby, sustain their lifestyles as trans women. The transpinay entertainers' flows of migration between Japan and the Philippines reveal that they embrace various aspects of social remittances and use them to their advantage to create and enhance their transpinay identity in Japan. By examining the transpinays' migrant experiences, this study aims to elucidate the gendered experiences of transpinay entertainers, which involve significant negotiations in their migration pathways notably different from cisgender Filipino women entertainers, reveal resilience.

• KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Systems (TIIS)
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.792-812
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• 2022

Multi-agent systems often need to achieve the goal of learning more effectively for a task through coordination. Although the introduction of deep learning has addressed the state space problems, multi-agent learning remains infeasible because of the joint action spaces. Large-scale joint action spaces can be sparse according to implicit or explicit coordination structure, which can ensure reasonable coordination action through the coordination structure. In general, the multi-agent system is dynamic, which makes the relations among agents and the coordination structure are dynamic. Therefore, the explicit coordination structure can better represent the coordinative relationship among agents and achieve better coordination between agents. Inspired by the maximization of social group utility, we dynamically construct a factor graph as an explicit coordination structure to express the coordinative relationship according to the utility among agents and estimate the joint action values based on the local utility transfer among factor graphs. We present the application of such techniques in the scenario of multiple intelligent vehicle systems, where state space and action space are a problem and have too many interactions among agents. The results on the multiple intelligent vehicle systems demonstrate the efficiency and effectiveness of our proposed methods.

• International Journal of Computer Science & Network Security
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• v.22 no.7
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• pp.283-293
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• 2022

One of the important areas of state policy in the socio-economic and cultural development of the country is cultural diplomacy. It contributes to the information dissemination about the country, strengthens interstate relations, and forms a positive image. Through cultural diplomacy, we achieve a positive perception of the world community of the country, determined by its place in the modern system of international relations. The aim of the study is a comparative analysis of cultural diplomacy opportunities for sustainable development at different levels of public relations, as well as the impact of cultural diplomacy opportunities on the indicators of the Global Sustainable Competitiveness Index and the Global Sustainable Development Index. Regarding the results of the research on the impact of cultural diplomacy opportunities on the indicators of the Global Index of Sustainable Competitiveness and the Global Index of Sustainable Development, four groups are identified among the countries of the European Union: countries with a very high level of sustainable competitiveness and sustainable development; countries with a high level of sustainable competitiveness and sustainable development; countries with low levels of sustainable competitiveness and sustainable development.

• International Journal of Contents
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.62-78
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• 2021

This ethnographic multiple case study, based on Zappa-Hollman and Duff's construct of individual networks of practice (INoPs), explored English as a second language (L2) competence development and socialization process of a group of English-major undergraduates through their social connections and interactions at a public university located in an underdeveloped city in Northwest China. The study lasted for one academic semester and three students were selected as primary participants. Semi-structured interviews, student observations in English-related micro-settings, and associated texts were used to collect data. These data were coded to identify the thematic categories, and then data triangulation and member checking were conducted to select the most representative evidence to provide an in-depth description of students' perspective about mediating their English L2 socialization by their INoPs. Findings showed that factors in the formation of students' INoPs, including intensity, density, and nature, played significant roles in their academic or affective returns from their English learning, both of which had a substantial influence on the students' English L2 socialization. Considering that the macro-setting was a non-English, underdeveloped monolingual society, both educational institutions and individual students need to seek and create more English-mediated interactional opportunities to develop their English proficiency and adapt to local English learning communities.

• Journal of the Semiconductor & Display Technology
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.130-133
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• 2021

Recently, as the expansion of the metaverse accelerated due to the spread of the non-face-to-face trend after the COVID-19 pandemic, various metaverse platforms using it have appeared. In this study, we propose research and development of a virtual reality spatial psychological counseling service platform utilizing the advantages of metaverse. A counseling service platform was developed through virtual reality hardware including Unity 3D game engine and Head Mounted Display. Counseling participants create and participate in their own avatars, and counseling facilitators respond to the situation and environment of the counseling target in various virtual environments. It was attempted to improve the efficiency of the counseling service by allowing the space and counselor avatar to be selected. Furthermore, various interactions were implemented, and development was carried out so that it could be extended and utilized for social activities such as group counseling and general meetings and presentations. In the future, through additional research and development, we will prove the practical effectiveness of the psychological counseling service platform developed by conducting clinical trials under the support of psychological counseling experts and participation in actual counseling.

• Child Health Nursing Research
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.84-95
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• 2023

Purpose: This study aimed to conduct a concept analysis of health-related quality of life in children with epilepsy to promote conceptual clarification and facilitate mutual understanding of the concept. Methods: Walker and Avant's concept analysis method was adopted. Results: Health-related quality of life in children with epilepsy consists of six attributes: health status, inner strength, close relationships, resource-rich community, social acceptance, and changeability. According to the ecological system paradigm, these attributes are structured into five dimensions: organism, microsystem, macrosystem, exosystem, and chronosystem. These dimensions provide a comprehensive approach to the relationship between children with epilepsy and their environment. Epilepsy and interactions with multilevel ecological systems that are directly and indirectly related to children with epilepsy precede the concept, followed by positive and negative affective responses. Conclusion: The findings of this study may support effective communication in various practice settings, thereby contributing to the health and well-being of children with epilepsy, as well as the development and expansion of interventions to improve their health-related quality of life.

• The Journal of Korea Robotics Society
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.322-333
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• 2022

The Avatar robot, which is one of the teleoperation robots, aims to enable users to feel the robot as a part of the body to intuitively and naturally perform various tasks. Considering the purpose of the avatar robot, an end-effector identical to a human hand is advantageous, but a robotic hand with human hand level performance has not yet been developed. In this paper we propose a new 3-finger robotic hand with human-avatar hand posture mapping algorithm which were integrated with TOCABI-AVATAR, one of the teleoperation system. Due to the flexible rolling contact joints and tendon driven mechanism applied to the finger, the finger could implement adaptive grasping and absorb the impact force caused by unexpected contacts. In addition, human-avatar hand mapping algorithm using five calibration hand postures propose to compensate physical differences between operators. Using the TOCABI-AVATAR system with the robotic hands and mapping algorithm, the operator can perform 13 out of 16 hand postures of grasping taxonomy and 4 gestures. In addition, using the system, we participated in the ANA AVATAR XPRIZE Semi-final and successfully performed three scenarios which including various social interactions as well as object manipulation.

• ETRI Journal
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• v.44 no.4
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• pp.613-623
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• 2022

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a developmental disorder associated with cognitive and neurobehavioral disorders. It affects the person's behavior and performance. Autism affects verbal and non-verbal communication in social interactions. Early screening and diagnosis of ASD are essential and helpful for early educational planning and treatment, the provision of family support, and for providing appropriate medical support for the child on time. Thus, developing automated methods for diagnosing ASD is becoming an essential need. Herein, we investigate using various machine learning methods to build predictive models for diagnosing ASD in children using facial images. To achieve this, we used an autistic children dataset containing 2936 facial images of children with autism and typical children. In application, we used classical machine learning methods, such as support vector machine and random forest. In addition to using deep-learning methods, we used a state-of-the-art method, that is, automated machine learning (AutoML). We compared the results obtained from the existing techniques. Consequently, we obtained that AutoML achieved the highest performance of approximately 96% accuracy via the Hyperpot and tree-based pipeline optimization tool optimization. Furthermore, AutoML methods enabled us to easily find the best parameter settings without any human efforts for feature engineering.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.20 no.11
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• pp.47-59
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• 2022

Purpose: The study aims to synthesize research trends regarding the distribution of 'other customer perception' on 'brand experience'; concurrently, to identify the promising research directions and suggest useful for managers. Research design, data, and methodology: The paper deals with the distribution of 'other customer perception' on 'brand experience' through evaluating a systematic review combined with biological mapping analysis (VOS viewer) with 226 documents published in 142 journals from 1987 to 2021. Results: The study synthesizes and analyzes existing literature reviews on the distribution of 'other customer perception' on 'brand experience', which mainly highlights three research topic groups. Exploring the component of relationship should be considered in the brand experience scale when the research context is the social interactions surrounding the customer's purchasing process. Moreover, the presence of mindfulness in several publications has suggested a potential research direction in the consumer behavior field. Conclusions: The systematic reports can be a useful reference for managers towards building brand experience based on distribution of 'other customer perception' with moderating of mindfulness - a new finding of behavioral interaction that has just experienced the Covid-19 pandemic which is experienced directly at the store and lead to many changes in consumer psychology.