STR Data for the AmpFlSTR Identifiler loci in three ethnic groups (Malay, Chinese, Indian) of the Malaysian population

Allele frequencies for the 15 STR loci in the AmpFlSTR Identifiler kit were determined and compared for the three main ethnic groups of the Malaysian population comprising 210 Malays, 219 Chinese and 209 Indians. Blood was placed on FTA paper and DNA was purified in-situ.     

Social change, political elections, and the middle class in Korea

The primary purpose of this study is to analyze the political orientations of the Korean middle classes as they were manifested in their voting behavior in the general and presidential elections. In addition, the present study examines the nature of the involvement of the middle classes in the context of each of the major historical events since the liberation from the Japanese colonial rule. The event-specific analysis of the middle class participation made it possible to test the fitness of different hypotheses about the political orientation of the Korean middle classes. With few notable exceptions, the middle classes had not been actively involved in protest movements. Rather, they rely on the democratic political systems to passively promote their own agenda and political transformation. Overall, the middle classes have remained a substantial and silent force, with the potential to be backbone of stability or the engine for change. Their force has been felt strongest in the general and presidential elections, where their support for or opposition to, the ruling party has consistently determined the outcomes. With the growth of voluntary associations representing a wide variety of causes, the middle classes' strength may be diluted somewhat by the number of issues for protest. A cause that finds support across the middle class An earlier version this article was presented at the Conference on “The Republic of Korea After 50 Years: Continuity and Convergence,” Georgetown University, Washington, D.C., October 2–3, 1998.     

What matters to citizens in crisis recovery? Being listened to,action, and confidence in government

Policy Sciences - The policy decision-making process in the aftermath of a crisis is a dynamic and iterative process involving circumstances that are emotionally convoluted rather than stable and...     

Voter polarisation and party responsiveness: Why parties emphasise divided issues,but remain silent on unified issues

How does voter polarisation affect party responsiveness? Previous research has shown that political parties emphasise political issues that are important to their voters. However, it is posited in this article that political parties are not equally responsive to citizen demands across all issue areas. The hypothesis is that party responsiveness varies considerably with the preference configuration of the electorate. More specifically, it is argued that party responsiveness increases with the polarisation of issues among voters. To test these theoretical expectations, party responsiveness is analysed across nine West European countries from 1982 until 2013. Data on voter attention and voter preferences with regard to specific policy issues from a variety of national election studies is combined with Comparative Manifestos Project data on parties' emphasis of these issues in their election manifestos. The findings have major implications for understanding party competition and political representation in Europe.     

Transportation Access,Rental Vouchers,and Neighborhood Satisfaction: Evidence From the Moving to Opportunity Experiment

The Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) program is designed in part to expand the neighborhood choices of assisted households, thereby enabling assisted households to find a living environment that simultaneously meets their housing and neighborhood preferences. While several studies have examined the impact of rental subsidies on neighborhood satisfaction, few have examined whether access to adequate transportation enables HCV recipients to locate housing in more desirable locations. This article relies on data from the Moving to Opportunity experiment to examine the impact of transportation access, rental housing vouchers, and geographic constraints on neighborhood satisfaction. We find that access to both vehicles and public transit positively influences neighborhood satisfaction, and the influence of vehicle access varies with transit proximity. These findings point to the importance of transportation in helping low-income assisted renter households locate housing in more desirable neighborhoods.     

Postwar Japan-China Relations: A Consideration from the Perspective of Reconciliation

This article attempts to take a new look at postwar Japan-China relations from the perspective of reconciliation. In contrast to the Murayama and Koizumi statements, one key phrase characterized both the August 14, 2015 Abe Statement and the report of the 21st Century Advisory Panel, which had been submitted earlier to the government: that key phrase is “postwar reconciliation.”     

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.     

Branding K-REDD+ and its implications for South Korea's middle power diplomacy

ABSTRACT

The need for new and stronger middle power diplomacy is growing as global challenges are increasingly governed by various horizontal inter- and trans-national networks. Climate change is one of the most complex and urgent global challenges that require collective action, and it is an issue for which more middle power leadership is greatly needed. The Republic of Korea (ROK) has been successful in becoming a primary actor in green growth governance, and its success has been attributed to its strategic middlepowermanship, integrating both material and ideational contents. Reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+) in tropical developing countries has been lauded as an immediate and effective solution to mitigate climate change. ROK's unique history of forest transition before rapid economic growth highlights the fact that improving forest management is possible even with imperfect governance, rapid population growth, and low economic development. The lessons learned from ROK's forest transition can be developed as a distinct contribution to the international effort to address forest-related impacts on climate change, and offer an important opportunity for ROK to play a constructive role and achieve enhanced stature within the international community.     

Study on the standard components of digital forensics laboratory

Recently, digital forensics has become increasingly important as it is used by investigation agencies, corporate, and private sector. To supplement the limitations of evidence capacity and be recognized in court, it is essential to establish an environment that ensures the integrity of the entire process ranging from collecting and analyzing to submitting digital evidence to court. In this study, common elements were extracted by comparing and analyzing ISO/IEC 17025, 27001 standards and Interpol and Council of Europe (CoE) guidelines to derive the necessary components for building a digital forensic laboratory. Subsequently, based on 21 digital forensic experts in the field, Delphi survey and verifications were conducted in three rounds. As a result, 40 components from seven areas were derived. The research results are based on the establishment, operation, management, and authentication of a digital forensics laboratory suitable for the domestic environment, with added credibility through collection of the opinions of 21 experts in the field of digital forensics in Korea. This study can be referred to in establishing digital forensic laboratories in national, public, and private digital forensic organizations as well as for employing as competency measurement criteria in courts to evaluate the reliability of the analysis results.