Just a Walk in the Park

One of the things that makes living in Beijing enjoyable is being able to walk through a public park on the way to work.The park in the northwestern part of the cityisasanctuaryforseniorcitizens,who pour down from the surrounding high-rise apartment blocks that characterize Beijing,to go through their time-honored morning rituals.At the park entrance are the"bird men."Most people who imagine life in China will no doubt have an image somewhere in their minds of elderly,vest-wearing men     

New Perspectives on the Chinese Rural Economy, 1885-1935

Abstract

In 1929 a nationa "uproar" erupted over the "Confucius Saw Nanzi Case" (Zi jian Nanzi an). It was sparked by Confucius' meeting Nanzi, the Duchess of Wei, on stage in the June 28, 1929 student performance of Lin Yutang's "one-act tragicomedy" Confucius Saw Nanzi at the Second Normal College at Qufu, Shandong Province, the birthplace of Confucius. Examined in detail in this study are both the "tragicomedy" and the "uproar," both the modern creative project and the social and political forces that shaped its text and reception.     

Squaring the circle? Collective and distributive effects of United Nations Security Council reform

Changing the composition and voting system of the Security Council, in an effort to increase the institution’s global legitimacy, is proving to be one of the most difficult hurdles to overcome for the global community of states represented in the United Nations (UN). This paper demonstrates that due to institutional hurdles, it is considerably more difficult today than it was in the early years of the UN to reach a winning coalition in the General Assembly to secure Security Council reform. In addition, the paper analyzes the effects that adapted patterns of voting, as prescribed by recent reform proposals, would have on the distribution of power among UN member states in the Security Council and on the probability that this institution can form a winning coalition, i.e., reach decisions. Our power and decision capacity computations are based on (modified) Penrose-Banzhaf-Coleman measures.     

Toxicologic analysis in cases of possible sudden infant death syndrome: a worthwhile exercise?

The diagnosis of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) is one of exclusion. At the Department of Forensic Medicine, Westmead Hospital, toxicologic analysis is performed as part of the postmortem examination of all apparent SIDS deaths. The results for the 5-year period January 1, 1994, to December 31, 1999, were audited to determine whether such routine testing was worthwhile. During this time there were 117 cases with a history consistent with SIDS. Drugs were detected in 19 (16%) of these cases. In 1 case, death was attributed to the finding of methadone. The presence of methadone was regarded as a possible contributing factor to death in a further 2 cases. The presence of possible methadone toxicity had not been expected from the history given before the examination in these 3 cases. In 114 cases there was a suitable sample for alcohol testing; in no case was alcohol detected. In 13 cases the postmortem examination revealed an anatomic cause of death (including 3 cases consistent with whiplash/shaken baby/impact head injury), which excluded a diagnosis of SIDS. In conclusion, routine toxicologic testing in all possible cases of SIDS death supplements the postmortem examination in excluding cases of non-SIDS.     

Determination of human immunodeficiency virus antibody status in forensic autopsy cases in Vancouver using a recombinant immunoblot assay

Sera from 207 forensic autopsy cases were tested for the presence of antibody to the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) using a recombinant immunoblot assay (RIBA) technique developed by Chiron Corporation of Emeryville, California--the Chiron RIBA-HIV216 test system. Out of these cases, 172 autopsies were of individuals with no known risk factors for HIV infection, and of these, 169 had no detectable antibodies to HIV. In 2 cases, the serum reacted with p24 alone on the RIBA-HIV216 assay, but these results were not confirmed by further testing and are considered to be false positive reactions. In 1 case, the serum reacted only with gp41 on the RIBA-HIV216 test but was nonreactive with further testing. This result has been designated equivocal. Of the 35 cases at high risk of HIV infection, 4 had antibodies to HIV detected in postmortem serum samples. The sensitivity (100%) and specificity (98.5%) of the RIBA-HIV216 test system are high. However, the test appears to be more suitable for routine diagnosis of HIV infection than for rapid screening in the mortuary.     

The Distortion of Related Beliefs

When forming beliefs about themselves, politics, and how the world works more generally, people often face a tension between conclusions they inherently wish to reach and those which are plausible. And the likelihood of beliefs about one variable (e.g., the performance of a favored politician) depends on beliefs about other, related variables (e.g., the quality and bias of newspapers reporting on the politician). I propose a formal approach to combine these two forces, creating a tractable way to study the distortion of related beliefs. The approach unifies several central ideas from psychology (e.g., motivated reasoning, attribution) that have been applied heavily to political science. Concrete applications shed light on why successful individuals sometimes attribute their performance to luck (“imposter syndrome”), why those from advantaged groups believe they in fact face high levels of discrimination (the “persecution complex”), and why partisans disagree about the accuracy and bias of news sources.     

Autonomy-related Parenting Processes and Adolescent Adjustment in Latinx Immigrant Families

Journal of Youth and Adolescence - It is unclear how autonomy-related parenting processes are associated with Latinx adolescent adjustment. This study uses Latent Profile Analysis to identify...