Kayaba Industry (Japan)

This study aimed to assess School Management Committee (SMC) members’ participation in using the Facility Financial Accounting and Reporting System (FFARs) to monitor financial expenditures in public primary schools. The study was guided by Agency Theory as articulated by Jensen and Meckling in the 1970s. Moreover the qualitative approach was used under the case study design, with purposive sampling technique. Data were collected from 20 SMC members across four public primary schools selected in Kyerwa, Tanzania, through interviews, focus-group discussions, and documentary review. The head teachers, school committee chairpersons, teachers, and parents were included as respondents of SMC. Also, trustworthiness was addressed to ensure credibility, dependability, transferability, and confirmability of study findings. However, the findings show that SMCs’ effective use of FFARs is constrained by centralized system control, limited training, and lack of direct access, which often downgrades members to passive roles in financial oversight. The study concluded that, without inclusive capacity building and policy reform, SMCs will remain marginalized in school financial governance, undermining participatory accountability. It recommended that, mandatory inclusive training for all SMC members, expanded access to FFARs, strict adherence to FFARs guidelines, and structural revisions to committee roles. If implemented, these measures can empower SMCs to take more active, informed roles in financial management, improve transparency in expenditure approvals, and thereby enhance the quality of education.

Levee overtopping poses a significant risk to flood defense infrastructure by inducing severe erosion and scour, particularly along the landward slope and toe regions. This study investigates the effectiveness of an integrated protection system combining seamless cement coating with strategically placed H-type piles to mitigate scour and modify flow dynamics under prolonged overflowing. A series of physical model tests were conducted to evaluate full and partial concrete slope protection with and without pile integration. Results showed that the seamless concrete revetment significantly delayed slope failure, resisted joint-related seepage, acted as a rigid cantilever, and maintained the structural integrity despite surrounding erosion. The inclusion of emergent H-type piles at the downstream toe disrupted the overflow jet, enhanced early energy dissipation, and reduced scour dimensions. The FC + P_ES (fully coated with emergent piles) configuration exhibited the strongest performance, reducing downstream scour length by 40%, upstream extent by 66.7%, and maximum scour depth by 7.7% compared to the FC_NP (fully coated, no-piles) condition. Partial slope coverage combined with emergent piles delayed scour initiation by approximately threefold, highlighting the synergistic effect of combined surface and flow-deflected structures measures. Conversely, bed-level piles redirected jet energy beneath the surface layer, intensifying vertical scour and upstream erosion, indicating the critical importance of pile placement and elevation. The findings emphasize the importance of integrating seamless surface protection with vertical flow disrupters to effectively manage flow-induced erosion and enhance levee resilience against overtopping floods. This hybrid approach offers a practical solution for flood-prone riverine levee systems.

Magnetic lead screws (MLSs) enable non-contact conversion of rotational motion to linear motion via magnetic force. Conventional MLSs often require numerous small permanent magnets (PMs) on both the screw and the nut, which increases the assembly complexity and manufacturing cost. A simplified structure called a reluctance-based MLS with consequent-pole (RBMLS-CP), in which radially magnetized arc-shaped PMs and helical ferromagnetic poles are alternately arranged along the nut circumference, was also proposed. This configuration improves manufacturability but exhibits reduced thrust and stiffness. To overcome these limitations, this paper presents an RBMLS with a flux-concentrating structure (RBMLS-FCS) that realizes high thrust density and manufacturability. We calculated the thrust characteristics of the proposed MLS using a three-dimensional finite element method. The results showed that RBMLS-FCS achieved a 60.6% increase in thrust density compared with RBMLS-CP. Furthermore, a prototype was fabricated, and the thrust performance and positioning accuracy were evaluated experimentally. Micrometer-level positioning accuracy was achieved by applying PID control, with an average positioning error of -4.5 μm observed at a 32-mm step input.

Kaveh Akbar’s Martyr! offers a profound exploration of trauma, queer identity, and cultural displacement through the experiences of Cyrus Shams, a queer Iranian-American poet navigating grief, addiction, and the search for meaning. This research examines how Akbar employs poetic prose, fragmented narrative, and symbolic motifs to convey the psychological and social dimensions of trauma and identity formation. By applying trauma theory, queer theory, and intersectionality, the study analyzes Cyrus’s struggles with parental loss, cultural expectations, and marginalization, highlighting the ways these experiences intersect to shape selfhood and resilience. The textual analysis demonstrates that Martyr! transcends conventional trauma narratives and queer storytelling by presenting nuanced, multifaceted characters and emphasizing the interplay of personal, cultural, and historical forces. Ultimately, the research illustrates how Akbar’s novel contributes to contemporary literary discourse, providing insight into the complexities of grief, identity, and the search for meaning in marginalized lives.

A method for performing spatial upsampling of Head-Related Impulse Responses (HRIRs) from sparse measurements is introduced. Based on a supervised elevation-wise encoder-decoder network design, we present two variants: one that performs progressive reconstructions with feed-forward connections from higher to lower elevations, and another that excludes these connections. The variants were evaluated in terms of the errors in interaural time and level differences, as well as the spectral distortion in the ipsilateral and contralateral ears. The additional complexity introduced by the variant with feed-forward connections does not always translate into accuracy gains, making the simpler variant preferable for efficiency. Performance generally improved as the number of available measurements increased. However, accuracy was also found to strongly depend on the spatial distribution of those measurements. Compared to an average non-personalized HRIRs, interaural time differences remain similar, while the proposed method achieves higher spectral and level accuracy, highlighting its practical use for HRIR upsampling.

To reduce the local scour around pier-type structures, a "porous plate method" was proposed, aiming at effectiveness in multidirectional horizontal flows. The porous plates installed on the pier surface near the bed play two important roles in the reduction of the local scour. One is "breaking down or weakening" of the horseshoe vortex by a decline in vorticity. In the neighborhood (just upstream region), the local scour depth greatly decreases due to suppression of picking up sediment grains from the bed. Another is the resultant "flow regulation" in the boundary layer on the pier surface. In the downstream side, the wake separated from the pier surface behaves as "semi-homogeneous turbulence" without a Kármán vortex street, then the scour area drastically decreases.

Injection-molded fiber-reinforced resins exhibit anisotropic mechanical properties due to the orientation of the fibers caused by resin flow.Therefore, the prediction of fiber orientation is important for predicting the function of injection-molded fiber-reinforced resin products.In previous reports, fiber orientation behavior has been observed in simple resin flow specimens such as flat plates.In this paper, fiber orientation was observed in the flat and rib parts of a ribbed two-point gate flat plate.As a result, the fiber in the center of the wall thickness was oriented in the flow direction in the rib section after flow-front meet, confirming a five-layer orientation different from that previously reported.To verify the fiber orientation mechanism, the velocity distribution and velocity history of the resin were measured.It was found that the fibers near the wall surface were oriented by shear forces, while the fibers in the center of the rib wall thickness were oriented by a combination of elongation flow and shear forces.1.