Regional leadership—Japanese style: Japan through the crisis

The Japanese government faces many competing challenges as it seeks to balance its multilateral and bilateral relationships within and beyond the region: whilst addressing its rapidly changing contentious domestic politics, there is pressure for it to realign relations with the USA, manage the rise of China, strengthen links with its region and continue to deal with its lingering historical legacy. All of these demands are now set against the backdrop of a so-called ‘lost decade’ of economic woes and global economic recession. This article demonstrates how the Japanese government is apparently adopting a de facto multilevel foreign policy, attempting to engage in a range of bilateral and collective initiatives simultaneously and to assume a regional leadership role whilst having to manage difficult bilateral relations, notably with the USA and China.     

An Empirical Study of Patent Grant Rates as a Function of Race and Gender

In this article we examine the rate at which patent applications are granted as a function of the inventor's race and gender. Empirical analysis of more than 3.9 million U.S. applications finds minority and women applicants are significantly less likely to secure a patent relative to the balance of inventors. Further analysis indicates that a portion of this bias is introduced during prosecution at the Patent Office, independent of the quality of the application. Mechanisms underlying these disparities are explored. The article concludes with a discussion of our results and their interaction with patent law, innovation policy, and employment trends.     

Ingredients of institutional reputations and citizen engagement with regulators

The purpose of this study is to examine the link between the reputational components of efficacy and moral reliability of institutions, and citizens' compliance with institutional recommendations. Research on bureaucratic reputations highlights the significance of positive political reputations based on credibility and legitimacy, but the impact of these components is not systematically isolated and studied. We draw insights from political psychology to move beyond a positive‐negative valence‐based approach of reputation, and highlight the different effect of efficacy and moral reliability components of reputation on citizens' cooperation, engagement in water saving activities, and levels of complaints. We use the Cypriot Water Authority as a case study and inquire how its institutional reputation influences Cypriot citizens' behavior regarding water use. Our data was collected via a representative national survey administered to a random sample of 800 Cypriots in the spring of 2009 and show that favorable perceptions of particular components of institutional reputation shape the levels of satisfaction with specific organizational outputs.     

Radiographic Identification Using Midline Medical Sternotomy Wires,

Forensic anthropologists are regularly asked to assist with the identification of unknown individuals using comparative medical radiography. This study addressed the use of midline medical sternotomy wires as a means for personal identification. Antemortem and postmortem radiographic comparisons were completed by 46 professional forensic anthropologists and anthropology graduate students familiar with comparative medical radiography as a technique for assessing identification. Participants were asked to make five radiographic matches from a pool of 20 radiographs. Participants also completed an anonymous survey detailing their education level and experience making radiographic comparisons. Participants were 99.5% accurate in matching the radiographs. Sensitivity was 98.7%, and specificity was 99.7%. Logistic regression analysis found no statistically significant differences in the participants' ability to make a correct match. As the high accuracy rates indicate, the shape, size, and various characteristics of the sternotomy wires are individualizing and can confidently be used when assisting with personal identification cases.