A Short-term Longitudinal Study of Children's Playground Games in Primary School: Implications for Adjustment to School and Social Adjustment in the USA and the UK

In this study we described development of boys’ and girls’ games on the school playground at recess as they progressed across the first year of primary school in London (UK) and Minneapolis (USA) in order to document age‐related trends in games during this period and to examine the predictive role of games in children's adjustment to school and more general social adjustment. Consistent with expectations, games accounted for a significant portion of children’s, but especially boys’, behavior during recess. American children played games more frequently, especially simple games, relative to English children. Consistent with expectation, the complexity of games increased, especially for boys, across the school year for children in both countries. We also examined the extent to which facility with games forecasted adjustment to school and social adjustment. Games predicted both, but only in the USA sample. Results are discussed in terms of games being an important developmental task for children of this age. Implications for future research and educational policy are discussed.     

Cultural self-construction and identity formation in emerging adulthood: a study on Japanese university students and workers

Cultural pathways of identity formation have been largely unexplored. In many Asian cultures, youth are expected to concentrate on adaptation to their groups or relationships rather than pursuing their own uniqueness. Then, how do they develop a sense of identity while considering groups or relationships to be important? The purposes of this study were (a) to examine relationships between cultural self-construction (i.e. independence and interdependence) and identity processes (i.e. commitment, in-depth exploration, and reconsideration of commitment) in both societal and relational domains, and (b) to analyze the relationships of self-construction and identity processes with well-being, using a sample of Japanese emerging adults (i.e. university students and workers) aged 18–25 years. The findings indicated that relational identity was related to both independence and interdependence, whereas societal identity was mainly related to independence. Moreover, independence and identity in both societal and relational domains was positively related to well-being. Furthermore, the patterns of relationships among self-construction, identity, and well-being were found to be similar between university students and workers. These findings imply that while Japanese emerging adults have developmental needs to express one's own uniqueness, they are also directed to form a sense of identity emphasizing the maintenance of harmonious relationships with others.     

Comparing reactive Kanban and reactive CONWIP

This paper compares a reactive Kanban system to a reactive CONWIP system under conditions of unstable changes in demand using simulation experiments. After an introduction, a model of the JIT ordering systems, the Kanban and the CONWIP systems, is constructed. In order to obtain the fundamental information for developing a control rule of buffer size, the performance of the two types of the JIT ordering systems is analysed under various stable-demand conditions by simulation experiments. Based on the results, the reactive JIT ordering systems are proposed, and the performance of the proposed systems is investigated. The results showed that both of the proposed systems can react to unstable changes in demand and maintain the mean waiting time of demand at less than the required level. In the reactive Kanban system, the total of the mean work-in-process inventories becomes much less than that in the traditional Kanban system without controlling buffer size. However, in the reactive CONWIP system, the total of the mean work-in-process inventories becomes much more than or nearly equal to that in the traditional CONWIP system without controlling buffer size under the strongly correlated or the weakly correlated processing times, respectively. Based on the results, it can be claimed that, in the proposed systems, the reactive Kanban system is more effective to react to unstable changes in demand than the reactive CONWIP system.     

‘Sex is violence’: African‐American parents' perceptions of the link between exposure to community violence and youth sexual behaviours

In Chicago, African‐American youth experience disproportionately high rates of exposure to community violence. Growing evidence documents that such exposures are related to youth sexual behaviours. This qualitative study seeks to illuminate the various ways in which violence and sex are intertwined in the lives of African‐American youth. Analysing data from four focus groups (N = 54), major themes indicated that parents linked community violence with: (i) influencing youth sexual interests and opportunities for having sex; (ii) specific notions of youth sexual identities and social status; (iii) increased gang involvement and sexual initiations; and (iv) girls' grudges and their sexual concurrency with boys. These findings suggest that addressing these specific issues is important in parent‐centred and community‐grounded interventions aimed at reducing risky sexual behaviours among African‐American youth.     

Questionnaire survey of customer satisfaction for product categories towards certification of ergonomic quality in design

Customer satisfaction was surveyed for 6 product categories (consumer electronics, daily commodities, home equipment, information systems, cars, and health appliances) by questionnaires based on the Analytic Hierarchy Process. Analyzing weight of evaluation factors, the 6 product categories were reorganized into 4 categories, those were related to 4 aspects in daily living that formed by two axes: home living - mobility life and healthy life - active communication. It was found that consumers were attracted by the actual user test by public institutes for all product categories. The certification based on the design process standard established by authorities, such as EQUID was the second best attractor for consumers.     

中国追诉时效制度的背景——从古代中国法的观点

追诉时效制度是指犯罪发生后,经过法定期限不提起公诉,求刑权即归于消灭的制度。在中国,这一制度通常被认为是一个"舶来品"。然而,古代世界各国均普遍存在追诉时效制度。所以要解密"为什么在古代中国没有出现"。虽然古代中国没有明确的追诉时效制度,但已显示出相似的思想。对古代中国没有出现追诉时效制度的原因进行了分析,并指出现行中国的追诉时效制度实际继承了古代中国法的思想。     

Two Components of Wage Gaps Induced by Individual-level Variables: Intra-firm or Inter-firm?

Individual-level variables such as gender, education, occupation, and employment type are well-known factors that induce wage gaps in the labor market. This article aims to divide wage gaps into two components—those arising within each firm (the intra-firm wage gap) and those arising between different firms (the inter-firm wage gap)—and measure their respective proportions by individual-level variables, as studies suggest that each wage gap based on an individual-level variable has a unique mix of an intra-firm and inter-firm wage gap. This measurement can help enrich investigation into the generative process of wage gaps and formulate effective labor policies to reduce them. Accordingly, we compared the coefficients of the independent variables of the wage function estimated by a pooled ordinary least squares model and a fixed-effect model, using nationwide employer–employee matching data collected by the Japanese government. We found that wage gaps by gender and employment type mostly consist of intra-firm wage gaps, and those by education and occupation have a larger share of inter-firm wage gaps. The findings suggest that different research strategies are required to investigate the generative process of each wage gap, and that regulations on and interventions in organizational processes are important to reduce wage gaps based on gender and employment type.     

An exact test for comparing two predictive values in small‐size clinical trials

Positive and negative predictive values describe the performance of a diagnostic test. There are several methods to test the equality of predictive values in paired designs. However, these methods were premised on large sample theory, and they may not be suitable for small‐size clinical trials because of inflation of the type 1 error rate. In this study, we propose an exact test to control the type 1 error rate strictly for conducting a small‐size clinical trial that investigates the equality of predictive values in paired designs. In addition, we execute simulation studies to evaluate the performance of the proposed exact test and existing methods in small‐size clinical trials. The proposed test can calculate the exact P value, and as a result of simulations, the empirical type 1 error rate for the proposed test did not exceed the significance level regardless of the setting, and the empirical power for the proposed test is not much different from the other methods based on large‐sample theory. Therefore, it is considered that the proposed exact test is useful when the type 1 error rate needs to be controlled strictly.