Socioeconomic development,infant mortality and fertility: A cross‐sectional and longitudinal analysis of 63 selected countries

Data from 63 selected countries of the world at two different points in time, 1958 and 1968, are used to test a path model in which infant mortality acts as an intermediate variable between two composite indicators of economic and social development and the fertility rate. The model is tested with both cross‐sectional and longitudinal data. In order to ascertain the appropriate time dimension in which the independent variables influence the trends of fertility, the results from an instantaneous model are compared with those from a lagged effect model.     

How well ordinary citizens understand democracy: the case of the South Korean electorate

How do mass citizens understand democracy? Are they capable of distinguishing it from its non-democratic alternatives? Does their understanding about democracy matter? To reveal the contours of cultural democratization in South Korea, this article addresses these questions largely overlooked in earlier survey-based studies. Analyses of the 2010 Korea Barometer survey indicate that all segments of the Korean electorate, including the young and the college-educated, are neither accurately nor fully informed about what distinguishes a democratic regime from its non-democratic alternatives. Moreover, the study provides strong evidence of democratic learning in that an increase in democratic knowledge leads to committed support for democracy. The findings together imply an urgent need to improve the quality of civic education for the development of democratic political culture in Korea and new democracies.     

A Ferris Wheel Accident at a Movable Amusement Park

This study presented a Ferris wheel accident case. A Ferris wheel is composed of many parts, and the outmost ring of it is assembled using a lock pin. This accident occurred because the lock pin caught the door of a gondola and the gondola overturned. Five of the seven passengers in the gondola fell to the ground, along with the gondola's viewing window. The investigation revealed that the gondola became stuck when its door was caught by a lock pin at the Ferris wheel's three o'clock position. The contact between the door and the lock pin was due to a structural problem: There was not enough space allotted between the door and the lock pin. Therefore, if a passenger pushed on the gondola's door, the potential existed for contact between the door and the lock pin.     

Population data of nine miniSTR loci in Koreans

For highly degraded DNA samples of forensic casework, new miniSTR systems have been developed to supplement the current STR systems. In the present study, nine miniSTR loci were analyzed in 300 unrelated Koreans using three multiplex PCR systems (multiplex I: D10S1248, D14S1434 and D22S1045; multiplex II: D1S1677, D2S441 and D4S2364; and multiplex III: D3S3053, D6S474 and D20S482), and allele frequencies and forensic parameters were calculated. These data demonstrated that D10S1248, D2S441, D22S1045, D14S1434, and D6S474 are as highly informative as the CODIS STRs suggesting that the miniSTRs could be useful for forensic analysis of degraded DNA.     

Haplotypes for 12 Y-chromosomal STR loci in a Korean population (the central region)

Haplotypes and allele frequencies of 12 STR loci included in the PowerPlex Y system (DYS391, DYS389I, DYS439, DYS389II, DYS438, DYS437, DYS19, DYS392, DYS393, DYS390, and DYS385a/b) were obtained from a sample of 569 unrelated individuals living in the central region of Korea. A total of 473 haplotypes were observed in the 569 individuals studied, of which 426 (90.06%) were unique. The overall haplotype diversity for the 12 Y-STR loci was 0.9985, and the discrimination capacity was 0.8313. In DYS439, we found a new intermediate-sized allele that added an A at base 3 upstream from the repeat region's first GATA motif. The allele was named 11 (U3Ains) according to its sequence structure.     

The impact of low self-control and delinquent peer associations on bullying perpetration and victimization among South Korean adolescents: Time-concurrent,time-lagged,and latent growth curve modeling

This study examines the impact of low self-control and deviant peer affiliations on bullying perpetration and victimization in South Korea. Our sample is drawn from a five-wave, longitudinal study of 2,844 Korean adolescents (ages 11–15), compiled by the Korean Youth Panel Study. Theoretically driven models are tested using time-concurrent and time-lagged models to assess the time-ordered relationship between deviant peer affiliations and bullying perpetration and victimization, and latent growth curve models to assess developmental trajectories of bullying outcomes. Low self-control is incorporated as a time-invariant construct, and deviant peer affiliations is incorporated as a time-varying construct. The impact of covariates drawn from the mixed model is slightly different for bullying perpetrators and victims. The time-concurrent effect of deviant peer associations is stronger than the time-lagged effect on both bullying perpetration and victimization. Deviant peer affiliations fully mediate the link between low self-control and only bullying victimization in a full model.     

Validation of Reduced Reagent Volumes in the Implementation of the Quantifiler® Trio Quantification Kit

The Quantifiler^® Trio Quantification Kit has been developed to quantify the total amount of amplifiable and human male DNA in samples and to estimate the extent of DNA degradation. To minimize the cost of DNA quantification, we evaluated kit performance using a reduced volume of reagents (1/10‐volume) using DNA samples of varying types and concentrations. Our results demonstrated concordance between the manufacturer's method and the low‐volume method for DNA quantification, DNA degradation index estimation, and human male DNA quantification. We confirmed the practical utility of the low‐volume method with 109 casework samples by evaluating short tandem repeat (STR) profiling success with respect to DNA quantity and quality. We also defined a cutoff value for DNA quantity to ensure reliable STR results. Using a reduced volume of reagents, 10 times more reactions per kit are possible; accordingly, this method reduces the cost of DNA quantification, while maintaining performance.     

Citizen participation and the redistribution of public goods

This study investigates whether citizen participation in public budgeting resulted in increased redistributive outcomes when compared with bureaucratic decision‐making. We focused on a specific budget item (i.e., the installation of surveillance cameras for crime prevention) and examined whether participatory budgeting yielded larger budget allocations to low‐income neighbourhoods. Results indicate that such participatory budgeting results in larger budget allocations for low‐income neighbourhoods when compared with allocations produced by bureaucratic budgeting practices. The results also indicate that budgets allocated through citizen participation may be no more or even less effective for advancing public goals. These findings suggest a potential trade‐off between equity and public service effectiveness. Citizen participation improves budget equity, but may be less effective for achieving public goals than bureaucratic decision‐making. To explain this, we offer the ‘social pressure hypothesis’, which posits that social pressure during public‐forum discussions can influence participating citizens to make redistributive decisions.     

State,Society, and Economic Development in Sports Life Cycles: The Case of Boxing in Korea

This study documents the rise and fall of boxing in Korea since its introduction in 1912. The participation of amateur athletes in boxing has decreased sharply since the 1980s. Also, the popularity of professional boxing among sports fans has diminished in recent decades. I consider boxing as a “product” that is “consumed” by individuals as participants and fans. I apply product life-cycle theory in analyzing the changing popularity of boxing. I argue that changes in the tastes of sports fans are closely linked to economic development, industrialization and standard of living. I present the rise in the popularity of soccer, baseball, and golf as illustrations of the changing tastes of consumers of sports that have accompanied economic development and social changes as well as the changing government policies on sports.