Forays into Japanese cultural psychology

Abstract

The search for a theory of Japanese personality and culture has been an epic endeavor among foreign specialists, filled with all the mystery and fantasy of discovering Atlantis. The inquiry began nearly a century ago when the venerable William Griffis described the moral character of the “average Japanese” as being “frank, honest, kind, gentle, courteous, confiding, affectionate, filial, loyal.” Reviewing his own inventory of personality traits, Griffis felt obliged to conclude that the “Japanese are simply human, no better, no worse than mankind outside.”     

Unemployment and the dynamics of offender populations

This paper models the increase in the participation rate of criminal behavior as either the initiation rate or the career length of criminals changes in response to increases in unemployment. Even with large instantaneous increases in unemployment, the models show a very slow increase in the criminal participation rate, giving a possible explanation of the failure of many studies to demonstrate a link between unemployment and crime levels.     

"政治伊斯兰"现象解析

近年来,穆斯林世界中伊斯兰教政治化的现象格外突出,不仅冲击着穆斯林国家中的世俗政权,而且不时地与“西方文明”发生激烈的摩擦和碰撞,已经引起各国政界及学术界的密切关注。美国知名学者格雷厄姆·E·富勒在其2003年出版的专著《政治伊斯兰的未来》中对此进行了入微分析。现将该书的主要内容综合介绍如下:何谓“政治伊斯兰”“政治伊斯兰”(“PoliticalIslam”或“Islamism”)是伊斯兰教政治化的直接产物,即“伊斯兰教中的政治”或“政治中的伊斯兰教”。严格地讲,伊斯兰教只是一种宗教信仰,并不具备政治意识形态的特性。然而,由于宗教…     

Forensic genetic analysis of mitochondrial DNA hypervariable region I/II sequences: an expanded Korean population database

We have analyzed variation of the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) hypervariable segments I and II (HVS-I and HVS-II) in 185 randomly chosen individuals from Korea to provide an expanded and reliable Korean database. Combined sequence comparison of HVS-I and HVS-II led to the identification of 167 different haplotypes characterized by 154 variable sites. One hundred and fifty-one of the haplotypes were individual-specific, 14 were found in two individuals and 2 were found in three individuals. A pairwise comparison of the 185 HVS-I/II sequences found an average of 10.11 +/- 4.63 differences between individuals. The random match probability and gene diversity for the combined hypervariable regions were estimated at 0.66% and 0.9988, respectively. Analyzing the expanded database including three previously reported data sets and the present data using haplogroup-based comparisons and comparison with closely related sequences allowed errors to be detected and eliminated, thus considerably improving data quality. Sample division comparisons based on PhiST genetic distance measures revealed no significant population differentiation in the distribution of mtDNA sequence variations between the present data set and a database in The Scientific Working Group on DNA Analysis Methods (SWGDAM), but did indicate differences from other sets of data. Based on the results of mtDNA profiles, almost all of the mtDNA types studied here could be classified into subsets of haplogroups common in east Asia, and show that the Koreans possess lineages from both the southern and the northern haplogroup complexes of east Asian populations. The new data, combined with other mtDNA sequences, demonstrate how useful comparison with closely related mtDNA sequences can be for improving database quality, as well as providing haplotype information for forensic and population genetic analyses in the Korean population.     

The impact of population heterogeneity and income inequality on homicide rates: a cross-national assessment

The current research produces regression models with sample sizes from 127 to 131 by initially employing a data set of 170 nations. The current study finds that ethnic heterogeneity and linguistic heterogeneity lead to higher homicide rates. However, religious heterogeneity has no impact on homicide rates. The present article also tests an interaction effect between population heterogeneity and income inequality. Unlike J. R. Blau and Blau (1982) and Avision and Loring (1986) proposition, the interaction term is not related to national homicide rates. The current study also discusses the theoretical implications of those findings.