Alliteration in Mate Selection: Does Barbara Still Marry Barry?

More than 30 years ago research found that alliteration is a factor in assortative mating (i.e., marriages). Alliterative matches were even more frequent when using nicknames than when using given names. Subsequently, researchers have confirmed the higher than chance occurrence of alliterative matches for given names. But nicknames have not been examined over the past 30 years. The present research finds support for three hypotheses. As predicted, nicknames are more associated with alliterative matches than are given names. Implications for practice are discussed.     

Sudden infant death syndrome: diagnostic practices and investigative policies, 2004

Using a 2004 population-based survey of all US medical examiner and coroner offices, we examined the characteristics of offices accepting an infant death case and calculated the percentage of offices that had death scene investigation or autopsy policies for the investigation of sudden unexpected infant death (SUID). We also calculated the percentage of offices that used and did not use sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) as a cause of death, and we compared differences in characteristics among those offices.Of medical examiner and coroner offices, 52% did not report an infant death in 2004. Of the 7957 infant deaths reported, 43% occurred in jurisdictions that experienced 1 or 2 infant deaths. Of the offices that used SIDS as a classification, 34% did not have policies for conducting death scene investigations and autopsies for SUID. At least 5% of offices that reported an infant death did not use SIDS as a cause of death classification. These findings have important implications for understanding recent trends in SIDS and SUID. Supporting the implementation of national standards for investigating and certifying infant deaths could provide guidelines for consistent practices in medical examiner and coroner offices.     

The Formation of the New Government in Taiwan and Japan-Taiwan Relations

This article introduces the background of the presidential and congressional election and discusses the reason for the results. The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) won both the presidential and congress members' elections, which signals emergence of the first real regime change in Taiwan. However, the style of the Tsai government isn't the same as that of the Chen Shui-bian government and will probably adopt a more modest policy on the cross-strait issue. On the other hand, the Nationalist Party (KMT) lost the election so severely that it's so difficult to recover the situation. On this point, it’s possible that the policy framework of Taiwan, like a two party system, will change drastically in the near future. Foreign policy, especially policy regarding Japan, will be changed by the new government. Actually, the People's Republic of China (PRC) government basically didn't interfere with Ma's foreign policy, so Ma could achieve many foreign policy initiatives. He concluded an economic partnership agreement (EPA) with Singapore and New Zealand, and agreements for investment and fishing with Japan. However, the PRC probably won't provide enough room for foreign policy for the Tsai government.     

From retrenchment to performance: civil service reform in Africa

Whether or not an unfettered market is the best solution to Africa's problems, the public service is both the subject and the object of reform. It is an arena of policy change and adjustment in economic management, as well as the locus of struggle over principles and patterns of administrative practice. Below we take empirical stock of the patterns and progress made in public service reform in Africa, a process characterized by cost containment and retrenchment. Then we examine what is entailed in a qualitatively different public service that well serves a liberal economy, concluding with observations on whether and how that might happen in Africa.     

The Changing U.S. Immigration Policy on the Nexus of Security and Economy: Extending Visa-Waiver Program and Advocacy-Coalition Framework

By examining the Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF) in the case of the U.S. Visa Waiver Program (VWP), this article suggests that a dynamic foreign policy change on immigration issues is a function of trade-off between economy and security. In other words, when policy makers ensure that economic gains can offset security loss and vice versa, policy change in immigration issues is rapidly made. Two polarizing advocacy coalitions, security-concerned and economy-concerned, exist within the policy subsystem on the VWP and each coalition has different belief systems, policy actors and stakeholders.     

The Four Principles that Formed the Basis of Friendly Relations between Japan and China: The China Policy of the Nakasone Yasuhiro Government

This article examines Nakasone Yasuhiro’s policy toward China as a politician, including his remarks in the Diet before appointment as prime minister as well as exchanges with Chinese leaders during his prime ministership. Nakasone raised Japan-China relations to a level called a “honeymoon” in the 1980s, at which time the four principles of Japan-China relations were shared and there was the prospect of continued friendly relations into the 21st century. Behind the emergence of this era was not only Japan’s support for China’s economic development through ODA, but also the closeness of the stances that both Japan and China held toward the Cambodia and Korean Peninsula issues at the end of the Cold War. This may have been because there was the possibility for both parties to share information and mutually support each other. Nakasone actively talked not only with Hu Yaobang but also leaders such as Deng Xiaoping and Zhao Ziyang. However, as Nakasone’s partner Hu Yaobang was dismissed and the Cold War approached its end, the “honeymoon” between Japan and China came to an end, and the four principles by Nakasone and Hu gradually became just one frame of history.     

Asphyxiating death due to basal lingual cyst (thyroglossal duct cyst) in two-month-old infant is potentially aggravated after central catheterization with forced positional changes

There are various causes of possible upper airway obstruction in infants. Particularly, large cysts on the base of tongue may cause severe airway obstruction by a mass effect on the hypopharynx and by displacing the epiglottis. Of these basal lingual cysts, thyroglossal duct cyst is rare but occasionally its remnants can be found at the base of the tongue. Although they are pathologically benign, basal lingual cysts may result in death by asphyxia. There are a few reported cases of asphyxia caused by basal lingual cyst. All died suddenly in the bed or cot while sleeping without any significant symptoms and signs. The authors experienced a unique case of death due to airway obstruction by basal lingual cyst (thyroglossal duct cyst), confirmed by postmortem examination, probably aggravated after central catheterization in 2-month-old infant who had open heart surgery for atrial and ventricular septal defect and report with a literature review.     

Changing patterns of social network structure in composer-singer relationships: A case study of the Korean popular music industry, 1927–1997

This study focuses on relationships between two different sets of actors in the Korean popular music industry—songwriters and singers—who were mutually connected in the production of hit songs during the period of 1927–1997. Data for the present study were obtained from a set of publications providing the following information about hit songs in Korea since 1925: title, musical style, year of recording and release, lyricist(s), composer(s), singer(s), and the label company producing the record or album. Data are used to test a series of hypotheses on the nature of relationships between songwriters and singers. Results of the present analysis show that composer-singer pairs are likely to have produced only one hit song together, due to a high degree of market competition in the popular music industry. Because composers tend to have more control over their relationships with singers than singers have in their relationships with composers, composers are more likely to have multiple hit songs with more than one singer than are singers to have multiple hit songs with more than one composer. Genres of popular music in Korea have changed significantly since 1950, and these changes have also affected composer-singer relations. The diversification of genres has reduced the concentration of hit songs by selected elite composer-singer pairs over time. Another important consequence of the changes in genres is that the proportion of hit songs by artists playing dual roles as composer and singer has dramatically increased in recent years.