Large language models (LLMs) have increasingly been applied to automatic programming code generation. This task can be viewed as a language generation task that bridges natural language, human knowledge, and programming logic. However, it remains underexplored in domains that require interaction with hardware devices, such as quantum programming, where human coders write Python code that is executed on a quantum computer. To address this gap, we introduce QCoder Benchmark, an evaluation framework that assesses LLMs on quantum programming with feedback from simulated hardware devices. Our benchmark offers two key features. First, it supports evaluation using a quantum simulator environment beyond conventional Python execution, allowing feedback of domain-specific metrics such as circuit depth, execution time, and error classification, which can be used to guide better generation. Second, it incorporates human-written code submissions collected from real programming contests, enabling both quantitative comparisons and qualitative analyses of LLM outputs against human-written codes. Our experiments reveal that even advanced models like GPT-4o achieve only around 18.97% accuracy, highlighting the difficulty of the benchmark. In contrast, reasoning-based models such as o3 reach up to 78% accuracy, outperforming averaged success rates of human-written codes (39.98%). We release the QCoder Benchmark dataset and public evaluation API to support further research.

Graffiti is a common challenge in urban development worldwide. Governments recognize graffiti as a serious issue because, as explained by the broken windows theory, even minor disorder can lead to broader disorder and crime across a city. For example, in Paris, workers patrol daily to remove graffiti from building walls as a preventive measure. However, this requires significant financial and time investments, placing a heavy burden on the government. As an alternative approach, initiatives that systematically introduce painting as urban art are gaining attention. In other words, actively incorporating art can reduce opportunities for graffiti. To evaluate this effect, it is essential to compare the impact of unpainted surfaces, graffiti, and art on urban attractiveness under identical conditions. This study addresses a gap in the existing literature by examining these effects. A randomized controlled trial conducted on a Japanese shopping street found that art enhances the city’s attractiveness and increases residents’ intention to live there compared to graffiti. The positive impact of art over graffiti is particularly pronounced among men and older individuals. Just as industries like food and automobiles rely on thorough experimentation to validate effectiveness, urban development strategies should also be grounded in rigorous testing to inform decision-making.

Since economic value and environmental considerations often involve a trade-off, companies continue to engage in superficial environmental activities unrelated to their core business under the guise of corporate social responsibility, which has led to increasing criticism of greenwashing and ESG washing. To address this, companies are seeking initiatives that balance economic value and environmental responsibility, with e-waste recycling emerging as a promising solution. The rapid accumulation of e-waste poses significant environmental risks by contaminating natural resources such as air, soil, and water, yet it also holds economic value due to its high concentration of rare earth elements essential for electronic product development. However, consumers generally lack a positive attitude toward recycling, as they do not perceive direct personal benefits. This study examined whether, in the case of PCs—where concerns about personal information leakage are high—appeals to privacy protection are more effective than appeals to environmental protection in promoting recycling. A randomized controlled trial conducted through an online survey of 1,600 participants revealed that egoistic appeals, such as privacy protection, made PC recycling activities more attractive than altruistic appeals, such as environmental protection, even among individuals with green purchasing habits. Practitioners aiming to promote ethical consumption should not hesitate to emphasize egoistic appeals.

The omnichannel strategic approach integrates physical and digital channels to deliver seamless customer experiences. While it has been widely adopted in the retail industry, where digital channels play a key role in enhancing consumer loyalty, its effectiveness in manufacturing remains unclear. Because manufacturers face structural barriers in directly engaging with consumers, the consumer experience with digital channels in manufacturing is underexplored in the existing literature. To address this gap, this study investigates whether digital channels affect consumer loyalty in the manufacturing sector. An online survey of 1,500 Japanese consumers across electronics, fashion, and food industries was conducted, and the results were analysed using structural equation modelling. The findings show that digital channels alone do not significantly influence consumer loyalty across industries, age groups, or innovation tendencies ( β = 0.080, p = 0.127). However, for consumers with high product involvement, digital channels significantly enhance loyalty ( β = 0.154, p = 0.045). These findings suggest that targeting young or innovative consumers is insufficient. Rather, increasing product involvement through content marketing focused on product usability and functionality, and combining digital efforts with real-world experiences, is key. This study offers contextual knowledge on when digital channels work, contributing both theoretically and practically to the development of omnichannel strategies for businesses in the manufacturing sector.

ABSTRACT An Ising model is a mathematical model defined by an objective function comprising a quadratic formula of multiple spin variables, each taking values of either or . The task of determining a spin value assignment to these variables that minimizes the resulting value of an Ising model is a challenging optimization problem. Recently, quantum annealers, consisting of qubit cells interconnected according to principles of quantum mechanics, have emerged as a solution for tackling such problems. Ising models characterized by fewer quadratic terms are preferable as they reduce the resource requirements of quantum annealers. Additionally, it is advantageous for the absolute values of coefficients associated with linear and quadratic terms to be small to facilitate the discovery of good solutions, given the inherent limitations in the resolution of quantum annealers. The primary contribution of this article lies in presenting Ising models tailored for solving the ‐Queens puzzle. The conventional Ising model for this puzzle involves quadratic terms, with the maximum absolute value of coefficients being . Our novel Ising model significantly reduces the number of quadratic terms to only , with a maximum absolute coefficient of 6. Furthermore, we provide embedding results for a quantum annealer D‐Wave Advantage utilizing a Pegasus graph . We succeeded in embedding our novel Ising model for up to the 21‐Queens puzzle, while the conventional Ising model can be embedded only for up to the 14‐Queens puzzle.

Summary Quadratic unconstrained binary optimization (QUBO) is a combinatorial optimization to find an optimal binary solution vector that minimizes the energy value defined by a quadratic formula of binary variables in the vector. The main contribution of this article is to propose the bit duplication technique that can specify the number of duplicated bits, so that it can generate hard QUBO problem with adjustable sizes. The idea is to duplicate specified number of bits and then to give constraints so that the corresponding two bits take the same binary values. By this technique, any QUBO problem with bits is converted to a hard QUBO problem with bits . We use random QUBO problems, N‐Queen problems, traveling salesman problem and maximum weight matching problems for experiments. The performance of QUBO solvers including Gurobi optimizer, Fixstars Amplify AE, OpenJij with SA, D‐Wave samplers with SA, D‐Wave hybrid and ABS2 QUBO solver are evaluated for solving these QUBO problems. The experimental results show that only a small scale of duplicated bits can make QUBO problems harder. Hence, the bit duplication technique is a potent method to generate hard QUBO problems and generated QUBO problems can be used as benchmark problems for evaluating the search performance of QUBO solvers.

To improve product value, research has been conducted on the sound of automobiles. However, studies of perception, including sound, may overestimate the contribution of sound because each perception is treated as an independent object of study. In this study, we clarified the influence of sound on attractiveness in the form of an overarching study of each perception and confirmed the contribution of hearing. A covariance structure analysis of the results of an online survey on the presentation of each perceptual information about automobiles revealed that hearing is the second most important factor for automobile attractiveness after sight.

Even if the same color type, such as white, is applied in product design, it differs slightly depending on the manufacturer. However, the color effects on consumer behavior have been centered on hue units such as blue and white. The viewpoint of analyzing a specific color in detail has been limited to saturation and lightness. Therefore, this study focused on bluish-white, known to have an unhealthy impression as a human facial expression, and examined its effect on the exterior design of automobiles. Through randomized controlled trials in Japan, it was found that bluish-white harms attractiveness compared to white.

Even if the project leader can set the priority within the range of the department, it is difficult for the management to set it from a company-wide perspective. One reason is that there is a lack of bird’s-eye view evaluation. Therefore, this study quantitatively evaluated the loyalty factors for the Japanese automobile industry, covering the corporate brand image, products, dealers, sales staff, and after-sales services. As a result, the most effective factor is the product, and the emotional value represented by design and usability is more important than the functional value. For sales staff, familiarity was more effective than specialty.

Recent consumer behavior research highlights the concern that too many options cause consumers to feel burdened by selection, and hence, reduce their purchasing intention. Existing research focus on the amount of product and information present on product packaging Therefore, in this study, the effects of the number of addition options in the Japanese automobile industry, on the willingness to pay (WTP) were examined, using a randomized controlled trial. Seven categories of options were defined: Color, Interior, Safety, Audio/Navigation, Utility, Technology, and Decoration. The results showed that WTP was not significantly affected by the number of options.

Open-source software (OSS) has been widely used in the software development process to reduce development cost and development period. However, adopting OSS requires crucial decision-making in terms of various aspects including business, technology, and intellectual property management; these may not be mutually independent and may exhibit a complex set of relationships. This research studies the structured analysis to break down the evaluation criterion axis and the contributing factors when adopting OSS and attempts to clarify the structured evaluation criterion map.

As IT grows, Web advertisement continues to grow. The cost of Web advertising media in Japan reached 1,220.6 billion yen in 2017. This was 23.6% of the total advertising expenditure. On the other hand, the more involved a product is, the less likely a consumer is to purchase it impulsively due to an advertisement. Those who spontaneously search for information can be expected have similar purchasing behavior. However, there are few examples that quantitatively validate that theory. Therefore, focusing on the Japanese automobile industry, we validated the difference in purchasing behavior (estimation of price on the web) between customers induced by Web advertisement and customers who voluntarily searched for information.

In order to acquire target brand images, companies develop various activities to manage brands as assets. However, in fact, since companies cannot grasp the necessary elements for the image, there are companies that make inconsistent products and promotions into the world. Therefore, in this research, we verified the factors that form "quality" brand image, which is said to be ambiguous and complicated. Quality is said to include not only objective value (Functional value) such as performance and durability but also subjective value (Emotional value) such as beauty and perceived quality. In recent years, companies such as Apple and Samsung, which have excellent emotional value, are emerging, so the value is considered as a major source of competition in the manufacturing industry. We believe that this research will enable companies to undertake effective decision-making without obscuring the elements necessary to acquire the target brand image.

In recent years, it has been pointed out that the management competitiveness is shifting from the “functional value” such as high performance and advanced technology to the “emotional value” such as experience and design, but there are few cases that quantitatively demonstrated it. Therefore, we verify the idea that emotional value is more important than functional value based on data of pure recall as a factor that contributes to corporate favor.

In recent years, the manufacturing industry has seen a shift of the domain of competition from “performance” which can easily be expressed numerically to “design” which is hard to be represented with numerical values. The rise of companies that focus on design, such as Apple, Samsung and IKEA, is remarkable. However, design presents two challenges for the manufacturing industry. Firstly, it is difficult to conduct a questionnaire survey on a design to external customers due to confidentiality. Secondary, subjectivity is involved as evaluators tend to use their experiences and feelings, which makes it quantitative evaluation almost impossible. Therefore, this study takes up automobile exterior design as a subject and aims to realize customer-oriented evaluation process by linking customers’ sensibilities to feature values of automobile exterior designs to enable simulating new designs.