An autopsy case of malignant hyperthermia

A report is made of a 44-year-old female who died of malignant hyperthermia during general anesthesia for an operation of left subtrochanteric femoral fracture. Symptoms began with increases in heart rate and blood pressure after the introduction of anesthesia with halothane and were accelerated by the administration of succinylcholine, followed by muscle rigidity and high temperature. The typical wine red urine was observed. The oral temperature of 42 degrees C was recorded within 1 h after succinylcholine. The rectal temperature was 30 degrees C 22 h after death. Severe pulmonary edema and tubular necrosis of the kidney were found by postmortem examination. No latent myopathy was observed. The creatine phosphokinase levels in plasma obtained after the onset of malignant hyperthermia and at the time of autopsy were abnormally high and were 5632 and 34,854 mU/ml, respectively. Plasma myoglobin levels were 130,000 and 2.8 X 10(6) ng/ml, respectively.     

Effect of Institutions: Analysis of Japanese Municipal Public Procurement

Using data from Japanese municipalities, this article analyzes the impact of institutional reform processes on the average winning bid for municipal public procurement. The results are (1) the general competitive bidding method led to a decrease in the average winning bid, and (2) bidding reform itself led to a decrease in the average winning bid. The former is a factor that results from the competition function, and the latter is an authority's commitment factor, which is rooted in an aggressive atmosphere for efficiency through the reformed bidding system; this factor is similar to the “Hawthorne Effect,” in which changes in businesses’ behavior during the course of a particular term may be related only to the special social situation, and social treatment that they encountered.     

Women workers and flexible specialization: the case of Tokyo

Restructuring in flexible specializtion in the post-yen-shock era (since 1985) has created new and different employment opportunities for women in Tokyo and has led to a more flexible use of women workers so that corporaions can maintain flexibility (e.g. in developing new products and dversifying businesses) for quicker response to market changes or for the creation of new market demand. This paper explores effects of restructuring on the female labor market in the information industry in Tokyo's informaion-industry district. The central arguent is around the skill formation of women and a flexible workforce. The paper concludes with some thoughts on relations between flexible specialization and patriarchy.     

Gender, state, and industrial policy in Japan

This paper argues that state policy for working women, particularly Japan's sex-blind industrial policy has had negative effects on women in both the labor market and the family.     

Japan’s approach toward Asian regional security: from ‘hub-and-spoke’ bilateralism to ‘multi-tiered’

This article argues that Japan’s growing activism in promoting multilateral regional security arrangements since the early 1990s stems from the country’s adoption of the ‘multi-tiered approach’; a new policy perspective that packages different types of coordination among region states, including bilateral, multilateral, and minilateral or subregional, in a layered, hierarchical manner. The significance of the approach explains why Japan has retained its enthusiasm for promoting multilateral arrangements, despite continuous criticism of their effectiveness and significance, as well as the marked decline in Japan’s economic power to support financially the country’s activism in regional institution-building. Meanwhile, the multi-tiered approach also explains Japan’s effort to maintain and strengthen its bilateral security relationship with the United States during the last decade. Four factors – a perceived change in the regional security order, growing self-recognition of major-power status, the legacy of history, and constitutional constraints – worked essentially to lead Japanese policy-makers to settle on a multi-tiered approach as a desirable policy choice in shaping the country’s security policy in post-Cold WarAsia.     

Engaging Conflict History and Memory Across the Taiwan Strait: A Longitudinal Analysis of the Conflict Timelines from Interactive Conflict Resolution (ICR) Dialogues

An analysis of twenty pairs of Taiwanese and mainland Chinese timelines of cross-Strait relations demonstrates a highly dynamic way in which the two societies' conflict memories have evolved over two decades. These timelines were developed in the context of twenty weeklong Interactive Conflict Resolution (ICR) dialogues that the author facilitated. A cohort of civil society delegates from both sides of the Strait, each with five persons, participated in each of the dialogues and produced the timelines. A longitudinal content analysis of the timelines reveals that the participants' experiences of cross-Strait relations have continuously altered their mental frames of the conflict. It also reveals distinct patterns of their recollections. These findings challenge the prevailing practices of conflict mapping and analysis that uncritically presume a static nature of conflict parties' goals. Broader implications of the study include the usefulness of action research and applied practice for methodological innovations and theory building.