An Inquiry into the Heterogeneous Outcomes of International Migration: Evidence from Rural Households in Bangladesh

There are considerable differences in the duration, intensity, and history of migration experiences among migrant households. The variation can have a significant effect on their investment behaviour. We classify our sample households in Bangladesh into four groups depending on the history and stage of migration and estimate its differential effect on physical and human capital investment. The results show that the patterns of investment are distinct between the groups and even of opposite directions in some cases. These heterogeneous effects often cancel each other out, leading to insignificant effects of migration when the average effect on all migrant households is estimated.     

Modeling Determinants of Individual Punitiveness in a Late Modern Perspective: Data from Japan

Asian Journal of Criminology - There is a growing trend to both theoretically and empirically explain public punitiveness from a general social theory of late modernity. Yet, research which has...     

Subendocardial small infarct in the superior ventricular septum as a cause of sudden death

In autopsy files from April 1999 to April 2001, five cases showed macroscopic subendocardial small infarct above 1 cm diameter in the superior ventricular septum (SVS) near the atrioventricular (AV) junction, and all five were finally considered to be sudden cardiac death after full investigation. All these small infarcts in these Japanese patients were located at the posterior site of the SVS, an area mainly nourished by branches which ramified from the AV node artery and which branched from the right coronary artery (RCA). Four of the five showed acute (A) or subacute (SA) foci in or around the healed (H) lesion and surviving myocytes were visible in infarcts, in all cases, which suggested a recurrent or chronic prolonged ischemia in the territory. Four of the five had a significant stenosis of the RCA and in the other one, there was an anomalous origin of the RCA. As all five had also small artery disease in the SVS, small infarct of the posterior SVS may have formed by hemodynamic impairment in the territory of the AV node artery caused by RCA disorders. We consider the evidence of macroscopic small infarct of the posterior SVS greatly aids in determining the cause of sudden death in forensic autopsy and may be notable lesion for discussing the pathogenesis of sudden cardiac death with RCA disorder.     

Estimating age of humans based on telomere shortening

To estimate age using DNA based on telomere shortening, we determined the terminal restriction fragment (TRF) length, as telomere length, using Southern blot analysis of peripheral human blood and blood stains. All blood stains had been stored at room temperature for 5 months. The average TRF length clearly showed a tendency to shortening with aging. The formula for age estimation was based on a correlation between average TRF length and age of the subjects. The estimated age calculated from TRF length widely depends on environmental and genetic factors. However, as long as the DNA is well preserved, use of our method is feasible regardless of age of the subject and can give a rough estimation of age of subjects in forensic samples that carry no morphological information.     

Applying Crime Prediction Techniques to Japan: A Comparison Between Risk Terrain Modeling and Other Methods

In recent years, the field of crime prediction has drawn increasing attention in Japan. However, predicting crime in Japan is especially challenging because the crime rate is considerably lower than that of other developed countries, making the development of a statistical model for crime prediction quite difficult. Risk terrain modeling (RTM) may be the most suitable method, as it depends mainly on the environmental factors associated with crime and does not require past crime data. In this study, we applied RTM to cases of theft from vehicles in Fukuoka, Japan, in 2014 and evaluated the predictive performance (hit rate and predictive accuracy index) in comparison to other crime prediction techniques, including KDE, ProMap, and SEPP, which use past crime occurrences to predict future crime. RTM was approximately twice as effective as the other techniques. Based on the results, we discuss the merits of and drawbacks to using RTM in Japan.     

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.