Vision for a Free and Open Indo-Pacific

The term “Free and Open Indo-Pacific Strategy” was used by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe for the first time at the sixth Tokyo International Conference of African Development (TICAD VI), held in Kenya in August 2016. Today, the United States also supports this initiative. Consequently, many regard it as part of the conflict between the United State and China, and furthermore believe that it is in opposition to China’s “One Belt One Road” (the Belt and Road Initiative). I would like to state that I do not believe this to be the case.     

The civil unrest as an obstacle toward financial development in Georgia, 1991–2007

Georgia has been experiencing robust GDP growth since the Rose Revolution despite its formal financial system remaining critically underdeveloped. This goes against a strongly supported proposition that a country’s economic development is followed by a well-developed and efficient financial system. In this paper we first explain the shallow financial deepening in Georgia and show that the economic growth in Georgia has been driven by such determinants as public spending and construction works mainly supported by foreign debt and FDI inflow. This paper further argues that prolonged civil conflict is one of the critical obstacles toward financial development in Georgia. Bank lending activity is associated with high level of uncertainty stemming from recurrent civil war. Newly privatized commercial banks are excessively cautious in expanding their loan assets to private non-financial corporations due mainly to the banks’ inability to precisely assess borrower’s risk involving not only with individual financial soundness but also with political uncertainty.     

Immunohistochemical study of tyrosine phosphorylation signaling in the involuted thymus

Thymic involution has been reported to be an important parameter of the degree and duration of child abuse. In the present study, we assessed the status of tyrosine phosphorylation signaling, which is known to play a key role in the physiological function of the thymus, in involuted thymuses of abused children through immunohistological studies performed with anti-phosphotyrosine antibodies. We found that tyrosine-phosphorylated proteins were present in high amounts in Hassall’s corpuscles (HC) in the medulla of control thymuses. In involuted thymuses of abused children, expression of tyrosine-phosphorylated proteins was reduced with accompanying morphological changes of HC, such as reduction in size or calcification. These findings lead us to the suggestion that tyrosine phosphorylation signaling is reduced in involuted thymuses of abused children and that reduction of the signaling may be associated with morphological changes of HC as observed in involuted thymuses of abused children. In order to certify the suggestion, we investigated expression of tyrosine-phosphorylated proteins in involuted thymuses of stressed rats as well as in control thymuses. Immunohistochemistry revealed that tyrosine-phosphorylated proteins were expressed in control thymuses, more abundantly in the medulla, and reduced remarkably in involuted thymuses of stressed rats. Further, immunoblot analysis also showed that expression of phosphotyrosine-containing proteins was reduced in thymus extracts of involuted thymuses of stressed rats, thus supporting the suggestion. Our results also raise the possibility that components of tyrosine phosphorylation signaling could be a molecular marker for thymic involution.     

Hyperuricemia in rats during acute carbon monoxide poisoning

The effect of carbon monoxide (CO) inhalation on plasma levels of uric acid and hypoxanthine in rats was investigated. Exposure to 3% CO caused respiratory arrest within about 2 minutes. The plasma uric acid level of CO-treated rats increased to 157% above that of ether-treated rats. When rats were exposed to 1% or 0.8% CO, the exposure periods until the onset of respiratory arrest were prolonged, and plasma uric acid levels at respiratory arrest were further elevated. Plasma uric acid levels at respiratory arrest increased with prolongation of the exposure periods. Under our experimental conditions, hypoxanthine or xanthine was not detected in plasma of CO-treated rats. These results are discussed in relation to the hyperuricemia in hemorrhagic shock or hypoxemia: CO-induced hyperuricemia can be attributed to the stimulated degradation of adenine nucleotides under tissue anoxia, and thus could be an excellent parameter of tissue anoxia.     

A simple spectrophotometric method for the determination of carboxyhemoglobin in blood

The spectrophotometric method for the determination of carboxyhemoglobin (HbCO) in blood reported by Fretwurst and Meinecke was modified so as to give the same values of percentage HbCO (HbCO%) as those determined by the oxygen electrode method. Values of HbCO% of nine practical samples determined by both the oxygen electrode method and the present method were nearly identical regardless of the presence of methemoglobin (Met-Hb) in blood. The present method is suitable for forensic practice.     

Lactic acid concentrations in vitreous humor: their use in asphyxial deaths in children

Lactic acid concentrations in brain tissue of humans have been shown to increase with an extended agonal period. Infants and children dying from various causes are undergoing different stress conditions terminally and the postulate of this study is that natural death cases and traumatic asphyxia cases are characterized by varying agonal periods, the former being somewhat prolonged with the latter being rather brief. One-hundred-and-two cases of infants and children were examined for vitreous humor lactic acid concentrations. They were divided into two major categories, Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) and non-SIDS cases. SIDS was further divided into SIDS without additional findings and SIDS with secondary findings which contributed to death. The non-SIDS category included traumatic asphyxia cases as well as those dying from blunt trauma, known respiratory diseases, and other causes. Categorical mean values and standard deviations were calculated. The vitreous humor lactic acid mean value for traumatic asphyxia was significantly lower than the mean value for SIDS. Also the mean value for known respiratory diseases was statistically lower than the mean value for SIDS with secondary findings. These findings are probably suggestive of agonal time differences and may be a reflection of the various mechanisms of death.     

Fourier transform infrared analyses of some particulate drug mixtures using a diamond anvil cell with a beam condenser and an infrared microscope.

Although the diamond anvil cell (DAC) has been used in many forensic science laboratories for the analysis of trace evidence, few applications of this technique for the analysis of controlled substances have been reported. This may be due to both an unfamiliarity on the part of forensic drug chemists with this accessory and the nature and quality of spectra that result from use of a DAC on a dispersive instrument. Along with low energy throughput, which results in relatively high noise levels, strong broad diamond absorptions occur. With the use of a Fourier transform infrared instrument, these do not present a problem and nanogram quantities of materials can be analyzed when the DAC is used with an infrared microscope. Since single crystals can be sampled with the DAC, simple physical separations (involving particle-picking) can be used in certain cases to isolate drugs from particulate mixtures for infrared analysis. This method is especially useful for some "difficult" mixtures and residues, and several examples of such analyses involving samples of forensic science interest are presented.     

Postmortem molecular screening for mutations in ryanodine receptor type 1 (RYR1) gene in psychiatric patients suspected of having died of neuroleptic malignant syndrome

Postmortem diagnosis of neuroleptic malignant syndrome (NMS) is difficult to perform, because the clinical symptoms just before death are not usually available. Malignant hyperthermia (MH) is a catastrophic, life-threatening hypermetabolic syndrome triggered by certain anesthetics. Ryanodine receptor type 1 (RYR1) gene mutations are known to be involved in susceptibility to MH. Similarities in clinical features, such as elevated body temperature, between NMS and MH have led to the suggestion that NMS is a neurogenic form of MH. In this study, we analyzed possible mutations of the RYR1 gene in 11 psychiatric patients suspected at autopsy to have died of NMS. All cases were suspected of having elevated body temperature at death, and their causes of death could not be determined by autopsy examinations. Two mutations (R4645Q and A612T) in the RYR1 gene were identified. The R4645Q mutation has previously been reported in MH patients, but five heterozygous mutations were also found in 400 Japanese control alleles. The other mutation was novel, and was not found in the same control alleles. The results of this study provide the first successful identification of RYR1 mutations in psychiatric patients suspected at autopsy of having died of NMS. However, the association between RYR1 gene mutations and cause of death in psychiatric patients suspected of dying of NMS remains unclear.     

Illegal Route Estimation of the Seized Illicit Drug, Methamphetamine, by the Comparison of Striation Marks on Plastic Packaging Films

Abstract:  In Japan, the most common illicit drug is methamphetamine. It is possible to trace the origin of this drug by analyzing its organic and inorganic impurities and/or byproducts using several methods, such as GC, GC/MS, and inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). As reported here, one other method includes comparison of the striation lines of polymer sheet layers from packaging using a polarized light method. Other alternative methods include analyzing the heat sealer pattern, layer thickness surface characteristics, and/or components of polymer sheet layers using infrared spectroscopy. Several of these alternative methods were used to analyze the origins of 29 packages confiscated from three regions over a 1000 km distance in Japan. Results indicated that packages seized from different regions had some polymer sheet layers which contained striation lines and heat sealer patterns that were similar.     

Corruption,interest rates and business cycles: comparison of emerging economies

We examine the hypothesis that corruption in a country negatively influences the macroeconomy through an increase in the country-specific interest rate (interest rate shock). An empirical study estimated the contribution of the interest rate shocks to the variance in output growth at 5.1% in Mexico within the framework of stochastic growth models for small open economies. We replicate this study with the same dataset and investigate which parameters affect the contribution of the interest rate shocks to business cycles. Then, we estimate the same model for different emerging economies to investigate the relationship between the corruption level and macroeconomic contribution of the interest rate shocks. For this purpose, we use Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) to measure the corruption level. Finally, we investigate the correlation between the CPI and the estimated series of the interest rate shock. Our findings are as follows. First, the average size of the interest rate shocks is positively associated with the contribution of these shocks to the variability of output growth. Second, the average size of the interest rate shocks is also positively associated with the corruption level. Third, the estimated interest rate shock and the corruption level are positively correlated with each other. As we treat the corruption level as an exogenous variable in the model, these findings lead us to accept the hypothesis. The “Appendix” further clarifies a well-known hypothesis that the cycle is the trend in an emerging economy.