Nagano Shigeo: Business Leadership in the Asia Pacific Region and the Formation of the Pacific Basin Economic Council

The Pacific Basin Economic Council (PBEC) was established in 1968 through the initiatives taken by the Japanese and Australian business leaders. This article focuses on the ideas and activities of the Japanese and Australian business leaders in the establishment of PBEC, especially those of Nagano Shigeo and W.R.C. Anderson, both of whom devoted themselves to the establishment of PBEC, while cooperating with each other. The central questions posed are: how and why Nagano and Anderson came to consider it desirable to establish an economic institution in the Asia Pacific region in the mid-1960s; how and why those ideas were refined and transformed into the establishment of PBEC; what approaches business leaders in other countries took towards Pacific cooperation and how the Japanese and Australians adjusted different interests of people in other countries in organising PBEC. Finally, the article assesses the role played by PBEC in the development of economic cooperation in Asia and the Pacific and insists that it should help set up foundations for the subsequent organisations of regional economic institutions such as the Pacific Economic Cooperation Council (PECC) and the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum.     

Indication and limitations of using palatal rugae for personal identification in edentulous cases

To explore the availability and the limitations of using the palatal rugae pattern in forensic practice for personal identification in edentulous cases, we set up an experiment, which involved 48 patients who had both old and new complete dentures and we observed their rugae. First, we made 48 pairs of maxillary casts from their old and new dentures and a further 50 maxillary casts from complete dentures at random, to use as variables. All the initial impressions taken from the mucosal surfaces of complete dentures were made from alginate impression materials, and the maxillary casts were made from hard dental plaster. Secondly, all 146 casts were trimmed so that all the areas except for the rugae area were removed. Subsequently, 50 examiners were given the 48 casts from the old dentures and were then asked to compare them with the other 98 casts for possible matches. The case numbers, which matched correctly, were recorded. The median percentage of correct matches among the 50 examiners was 94%, despite variations in their experience with forensic identification, and this accuracy does not differ significantly from that in dentate cases, as described in previous publications. The median percentage of correct matches among the 48 cases was 90%. Analyzing the incidence of obtaining a correct match in each case revealed that there were three major misleading shapes that could give rise to a low rate of correct matches; (1) severely low and poorly demarcated eminences of rugae, (2) change of palatal height, and (3) non-complex rugae pattern. These features are mainly due to the shape of the edentulous palate itself and rarely due to the dentures, and could lead to difficulties in finding unique points for use in matching rugae patterns. The results suggest that an appropriate selection of cases, taking into consideration the above misleading shapes, may establish an increased rate of accuracy for identification with this method, thereby bringing the percentage of correct matches closer to 100% in edentulous cases, which is also the percentage of correct matches previously reported in dentate cases.     

Taxing and Spending in Japan and Texas: Whose Cities Are Better Off?

This article compares the budgetary positions of Japanese and Texas cities. The appropriate criteria for evaluating municipal taxing and spending policies are identified. After determining which municipalities are better off, recommendations are offered for improving the less well-off cities' budgetary position.     

A novel fluorescent quadruplex STR typing system and the allele frequency distributions in a Thai population

We have previously reported a new triplex amplification and typing system by silver staining for three short tandem repeat (STR) loci, 9q2h2 (D2S3020), D15S233, and D14S299 without "microvariant" alleles such as .1, .2, and, .3 alleles in the Japanese population. In the present study, we established a new quadruplex system with an additional locus D7S809 using primer sets labeled with fluorescent multi-color dyes. Using this system, we genotyped 183 Thai people, found only one "microvariant" allele (allele 20.2) at D7S809, and calculated allele frequencies and some statistical properties at these four STR loci. From these allele frequencies at four STR loci, we performed three statistical analyses including a homozygosity test, a likelihood ratio test, and an exact test for Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium (HWE). Deviations from HWE (p < 0.05) were observed only in the two tests at the locus D7S809. In the present study, we compared the allele frequencies at these four loci in the Thai population to those in the Japanese population described previously. Consequently, all observed heterozygosities and power of discrimination (PD) at those loci in the Thai population were higher than 0.8 and 0.9, respectively, and all statistical values for discriminating power in the Thai population were slightly higher than those in the Japanese population. The combined paternity exclusion rate (combined PE) in the Thai population (0.978) was almost the same as that in the Japanese population (0.971). Therefore, this novel PCR amplification and typing system for four STR loci would be a convenient and informative DNA profiling system in the forensic field.