Big Five Personality Traits and Physical Aggression between Siblings in South Korea: an Actor-Partner Interdependence Analysis

The present study examined actor and partner effects of the Big Five personality traits, assessed by the NEO Five-Factor Inventory, on physical aggression within sibling dyadic interactions. Data were collected from 86 target adolescents receiving counseling services, their mothers, and closest-age siblings in South Korea. Mothers rated their children’s personalities. Target adolescents and siblings reported their own personality, as well as their sibling’s and their own perpetration of physical aggression against one another. Substantial self-other (i.e., mother and sibling) agreement was found for personality traits. Both actor and partner effects were found for the negative associations between extraversion, openness to experience, and conscientiousness and physical aggression among siblings. The current findings increase our understanding of personality traits implicated in physical aggression in general, and specifically aggression among siblings.     

Contactless Visualization of Latent Fingerprints on Nonporous Curved Surfaces of Circular Cross Section—A Statistical Evaluation on the Materials as Plane Mirror

A new contactless technique for latent fingerprint visualization on nonporous curved surfaces of circular cross section was introduced by Low et al. (1). The technique utilizes a plane mirror to convey the light rays toward the inspected surfaces for latent fingerprint visualization. This research activity came up as an extension of the previous study which utilized an aluminum plate as the plane mirror to illuminate the inspected surfaces. Dulling spray was used to increase the diffuse component of the reflective aluminum plate. However, the amount of dulling spray will affect the uniformity of the illumination on the inspected curved surfaces. In this study, a study on the new materials for the plane mirror was carried out. Coated aluminum, opal, and ground glass diffusers were selected as the new materials. The performance of the new materials was compared to the aluminum based on the quality of the captured images on various nonporous cylindrical surfaces. A statistical approach known as randomized complete block design was used to design the experiment. The quality of the captured images was obtained using Spectral Image Validation and Verification. Two‐way analysis of variance and Fisher's least significant difference test were used to analyze the quality of the images. From the results of the statistical analysis, coated aluminum has the best performance compared to aluminum, opal, and ground glass diffusers.     

STR data for the AmpFlSTR Profiler loci from the three main ethnic population groups (Malay, Chinese and Indian) in Malaysia

Allele frequencies for the nine STRs genetic loci included in the AmpFlSTR Profiler kit were obtained from samples of unrelated individuals comprising 139-156 Malays, 149-153 Chinese and 132-135 Indians, residing in Malaysia.     

An Exploratory Study on the Relationship Between Justice and Social Conflict and the Mediating Role of Trust and Communication

This study aimed to analyze the effect of Korean people’s awareness of justice on the level of social conflict and the roles of trust and communication as mediating factors. Using the survey data obtained from 8000 Korean people in 2016, the study’s main findings are the following. First, the average values of justice and social conflict reveal that the respondents thought that Korean society is not fair and that social conflict is a serious issue. Second, the awareness of justice had a positive effect on the factors of trust and communication. This indicates that people who perceived society as fair were also more likely to perceive higher levels of trust and communication. Third, justice was the most influential factor on the level of social conflict, followed by trust in social institutions. Fourth, people’s age, education, and income levels also showed differences in the level of perception of social conflict. Finally, trust in social institutions was a mediating factor in the relationship between justice and social conflict and thus reduced the seriousness of social conflict.

     

Formation of Trifluoroacetylated Ephedrine During the Analysis of a Pseudoephedrine-Formaldehyde Adduct by TFAA Derivatization Followed by GC-MS

Abstract:  (+)-Pseudoephedrine reacts with formaldehyde to form (4 S ,5 S )-3,4-dimethyl-5-phenyloxazolidine. Gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC-MS) analysis after the reaction of this oxazolidine with excess trifluoroacetic acid anhydride (TFAA) shows predominantly N , O- bis(trifluoroacetyl)pseudoephedrine with some of the monotrifluoroacetylated derivative. In addition, variable amounts of N , O- bis(trifluoroacetyl)ephedrine were detected by GC-MS. N , O- bis(trifluoroacetyl)ephedrine was not detected upon trifluoroacetylation of the source (+)-pseudoephedrine, and nuclear magnetic resonance analysis of the (4 S ,5 S )-3,4-dimethyl-5-phenyloxazolidine showed no evidence of the (4 R ,5 S ) isomer. This suggests that the N ,O-bis(trifluoroacetyl)ephedrine is formed by epimerization during the TFAA derivatization and GC-MS analysis of the pseudoephedrine-formaldehyde adduct.     

China: an East Asian alternative to neoliberalism?

The political-economic evolution of post-Mao China has been portrayed as a historically inevitable embrace of neoliberalism; as an exemplification of the East Asian developmental state and as an extension of Soviet New Economic Policy-style state capitalism. This paper evaluates these portrayals through a broad historical and geographical framework. It examines the position of China as a new state after 1949. It then places the shifting logics of socioeconomic regulation in China in relation to (1) the global neoliberal hegemony since the 1980s and (2) the concomitant shifts in the economic policies of Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. In so doing, the paper demonstrates how the Communist Party of China creatively adapted and re-purposed regulatory logics from the Washington Consensus and East Asian policies to consolidate its own version of Leninist state-led development.     

Locating Transition: the prospect for a US–China transition in Asia

In charting the water of the post-Cold War world, one of the most prominent questions touches upon the likely effects of China's rise. Echoing more or less explicitly power transition theory's assumptions, the rapid and multifaceted ascent of China has popularized the idea of a likely overtaking of the American dominant power by the rising challenger. Sceptics have, however, pointed out that by most standards China remains far from being on a par with the United States. This paper argues that though a global power transition lies far beyond the horizon, the relevant level at which the transition should be considered is the East Asian region, or the Asian ‘super-region’.     

The Female Body and Reviews of Women Pianists in 1950s London

Women pianists in London in the 1950s, performing mainstream repertoire (Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann, Brahms, Liszt and Chopin) as well as modern pieces which demanded stamina, physicality and bravura, were often the subject of negative reviews. The critics’ attitudes towards them seems to echo the prevailing Freudian mantra, ‘anatomy is destiny’: women, generally smaller than men, apparently possessing less power and mental capacity, were deemed unfit for this repertoire. But if some women pianists demonstrated ‘unusual’ (for women) physical and mental power, successfully performing long and difficult pieces, they too were damned by the critics, because they did not fit the traditional notion of femininity. In this article, the author demonstrates the magnitude of the effect of the cultural image of women on the reception of both the ‘feminine’ and ‘unfeminine’ women pianists in 1950s London.     

Big Data and Strategic Intelligence

This article examines the intersection of Big Data and strategic intelligence from a theoretical-conceptual viewpoint. Adopting Popperian refutation as a starting point, it approaches methodological issues surrounding the incorporation of Big Data into the intelligence cycle, and argues that Big Data analytics is best used to discern long-term developments, generate intelligence hypotheses, and adduce refuting facts. The article then briefly examines the use of Big Data via social media, an increasingly fertile platform for intelligence analysis. Finally, the article argues that despite its potential in filling our epistemic gaps, Big Data should continue to complement traditional subject-matter expertise, supported by game theory, as part of a tripartite analytical framework for strategic intelligence consisting of ‘subtext’, ‘context’ and ‘metatext’. In this respect, Big Data may well become the midwife for more open modes of intelligence management and, ultimately, a more open society.