Japanese Political Parties: Ideals and Reality

Japanese political reformers embrace an image of the modern political party system that was modern in the early twentieth century but problematic in the early twenty-first century. The idea that politics should be conducted under a two-party format and that voters should ignore issues of candidate personality and constituency service and make their voting choices on the basis of party manifestos does not reflect political reality in any modern democracy. Political reformers would be better advised to focus on how to strengthen the prime minister vis-a-vis his own cabinet and own party and how to restructure the relationship between bureaucrats and politicians. Constantly chasing after a model of the modern party system that is unrealistic and unrealizable only contributes to reinforcing public cynicism about the political process.

Sex Worker and Proud: A Phenomenological Study of Consensual Sex Workers\u27 Lives

Ten consensual sex workers who were currently working in Nevada were qualitatively interviewed in an effort to explore their perceptions of the adult industry. Interviews specifically focused on their experience disclosing their profession to others and the potential effects that it has on their personal relationships, and access to effective treatment. The Moustakas method of phenomenological inquiry was used to analyze data from ten participants who self-identified as direct sex workers. Seven essential themes emerged from this analysis: (1) the adult industry provides professional and personal agency, (2) the industry is often transient, (3) disclosure is an impactful and ongoing process, (4) professional and personal lives often are compartmentalized, (5) Sex work can be an isolating, (6) therapy often involves factors that do not involve their work, (7) Sex work can provide an opportunity for self-exploration. Participants rejected the absolute victim narrative that is commonly reflected in media, film, and government-sanctioned actions surrounding the adult industry (Nielsen, 2009). The results of this study emphasize the need for future research on the relationships of people in the adult industry and provides couple and family therapies with a critical understanding of how authenticity, genuineness, and judgment can impact clinical treatment when working with this population

Staff Opinion Differences between Geriatric and Non-Geriatric Treatment Wards at a State Mental Hospital

The primary purposes of the present study were (1) to see in which way, if any, the measured attitudes of psychiatric aides employed on geriatric wards differed from those of aides employed on non-geriatric wards at the same hospital; and (2) to explore the relationships between measured attitudes and other variables such as age, education, amount of experience as an aide, amount of experience on either geriatric or non-geriatric wards, and the number of patients per aide on each ward

Genetic relationships of three Yukon caribou herds determined by DNA typing

In this paper we examine genetic relationships of caribou (Rangifer tarandus caribou) in the Aishihik, Chisana, and Wolf Lake herds in the Yukon using DNA fingerprinting. The assignment test used in this analysis showed that the caribou herds were distinct. This finding is consistent with movement data from radio-collared caribou which demonstrates home range fidelity. We found a high level of heterozygosity and a genetic basis for population boundaries. DNA fingerprinting may provide an effective means to compare ecological and genetic relationships

Chiasma

Newspaper reporting on events at the Boston University School of Medicine in the 1960s

ENVIRONMENTAL ACCOUNTS: TIME SERIES + ECO-TAXES

This study was commissioned by the European Commission in cooperation with Eurostat with the objective of improving and extending the scope of the environmental accounts for Ireland. It follows two previous studies, Pilot Environmental Accounts published by the Central Statistics Office and the Satellite Environmental Accounts for Ireland 1996, unpublished report to Eurostat (2000). As indicated in the title, this study presents time series, which in some cases are of considerable length, and provides information on what could loosely be called eco-taxes. Additionally, where feasible the study relates environmental information to the underlying economic magnitudes and movements, and broadens the information considerably. The report consists of three self-contained sections. The sections cover (1) emissions to air, (2) discharges to water and (3) disposals of solid waste and these three types of releases to the environment are disaggregated according to NACE Rev 1 by five major economic sectors: Agriculture/forestry/fishing Energy transformation Industry Transport Services Households though in some areas the breakdown is unavoidably less detailed and it is more detailed in others. Section 1 on emissions to air concentrates on greenhouse gases and on improving the underlying information on energy use. Behavioural analyses have been hampered in the past by inadequate time-series of energy-related prices and taxes so that a large effort was devoted here to presenting coherent time-series of these items

HfC(310) High Brightness Sources for Advanced Imaging Applications

The authors report on electron emission from HfC(310) operating in extended Schottky emission mode. Data are gathered from test stands as well as through operation in a commercial scanning electron microscope. Emitter end-form geometry consisted of rounded, via electrochemical etching, and truncated, via ion milling. The authors demonstrate high angular intensity operation of \u3e60 mA/sr especially for the rounded end-form emitters. Advantages include robustness of the material, which is not reliant on material supply as is the case with standard ZrO/W(100) sources. Hence, operation is available over a much larger range of temperatures, fields, and potentially pressures. Operation in a commercial scanning electron microscope gave ten times higher beam currents for identical operational parameters over a standard Schottky source

Needle-free Biojector injection of a dengue virus type 1 DNA vaccine with human immunostimulatory sequences and the GM-CSF gene increases immunogenicity and protection from virus challenge in Aotus monkeys

AbstractA dengue-1 DNA vaccine containing sequences encoding premembrane and envelope proteins (DIME) was previously shown to elicit virus neutralizing antibodies in rhesus and Aotus monkeys, and the primates were partially protected from viremia upon challenge. To increase the neutralizing antibody levels and subsequent protection from virus challenge, four strategies were evaluated: (a) coimmunization with a plasmid expressing Aotus GM-CSF gene; (b) coimmunization with a plasmid containing human immunostimulatory sequences (ISS); (c) coimmunization with both the GM-CSF gene and ISS; and (d) delivery of vaccine using the needle-free Biojector system. Vaccination with the mixed formulation containing DIME, GM-CSF gene, and ISS, by either needle injection or Biojector, led to neutralizing antibody titers that were stable for up to 6 months after vaccination. Furthermore, 6 of 7 monkeys (85%), and 7 of 8 monkeys (87%) receiving this formulation were completely protected from viremia when challenged 1 and 6 months after vaccination, respectively. This is a significant improvement compared to our previous study in which one of three monkeys (33%) receiving just the DIME vaccine was completely protected from viremia at 6 months after immunization

Engineering Proteinase Inihibitor Genes For Plant Defense Against Predators

Small proteinaceous inhibitors (Mr\u3c20,000) of the digestive serine proteinases of animals and microorganisms are found as moderately abundant proteins in storage organs and leaves of many plant genera. The proteins are powerful inhibitors of the digestive enzymes of plant predators and therefore are considered to be part of the array of defensive chemicals of plants. Proteinase inhibitor genes show excellent promise, using DNA technology, to manipulate plant genomes to express these biologically active proteins in order to improve natural defense systems. Members of two unrelated families of serine proteinase inhibitors found in tomato and potato plants, called Inhibitor I (monomer Mr 8000) and Inhibitor II (monomer Mr 12,300), are under both environmental and developmental regulation in different tissues of the plants. Genes coding for wound-inducible Inhibitors I and II have been isolated from both tomato and potato genomes and characterized. Tobacco plants have been transformed with the chimeric genes containing wound-inducible promoters fused with the reporter gene, chloramphenicol acetyl transferase, to assess promoter function and signal transmission. Transacting factors that regulate their expression in response to wounding are also being identified and purified. Intact genes are being employed to transform agriculturally important crop plants to determine their potential usefulness to enhance defensive capabilities of plants against herbivores and pathogens

Two-color QCD in 3D at finite baryon density

We study the low energy phase structure of SU(2) gauge theories in three-dimensional spacetime, at finite baryon density. The pseudoreality of representations of SU(2) permits an analytic study of a real baryon chemical potential, and the restriction to 3D results in a different global symmetry breaking pattern from the corresponding 4D model studied previously by Kogut et al. We find a second-order phase transition separating the normal phase and the baryon superconducting phase. The chemical potential dependence of condensates and baryon density are computed. We find that the phase structure and the excitation spectrum are essentially the same as in 4D, despite the different symmetry groups, indicating a universality that is rooted in the properties of Riemannian symmetric spaces.Comment: 11 pp, REVTeX4, no figures. (v2) references added and a typo fixed. version to appear in Nucl. Phys.