TY  - JOUR
A1  - Bents, Dominik
A1  - Groth, Detlef
A1  - Satake, Takashi
T1  - The secular trend and network effects on height of male Japanese students from 1955 to 2015
JF  - Journal of biological and clinical anthropology
JF  - Anthropologischer Anzeiger ; Mitteilungsorgan der Gesellschaft für Anthropologie
N2  - Introduction: Body height is influenced by biological factors such as genetics, nutrition and health, but also by the social network, and environmental and economical factors. During centuries, the Japanese society has developed on islands. This setting provides ideal natural conditions for studying the influence of social networks on human height. Material and methods: We investigated body height of male Japanese students aged 17.5 years obtained in 47 prefectures, from the Japanese school health survey of the years 1955, 1975, 1995, and 2015. Results: Japanese students increased in height from 163.23 cm in 1955 to 170.84 cm in 1995, with no further increase thereafter (170.63 cm in 2015). Students living in neighboring prefectures were similar in height. The correlation of height between neighboring prefectures ranged between r = 0.79 and r = 0.49 among first degree neighbors, between r = 0.49 and r = 0.21 among second degree neighbors and dropped to insignificance among third degree neighbors indicating psychosocial effects of the community on body height. Tall stature and short stature prefectures did not remain tall or short throughout history. Autocorrelations of height within the same prefectures decreased from the 20 years periods of 1955-1975, 1975-1995 and 1995-2015 (r = 0.52, r = 0.61, r = 0.63, respectively) to the 40 years periods of 1955-1995 and 1975-2015 (r = 0.49, r = 0.52), down to the 60 years period of 1955-2015 (r = 0.27), indicating significant volatility of height. Conclusion: Body height of 17.5 years old Japanese students increased since 1955. Body height depended on height of the neighboring prefecture, but was volatile with decreasing autocorrelation during a period of 60 years.
KW  - body height
KW  - community effect
KW  - neighbor correlation
KW  - Japan
Y1  - 2018
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1127/anthranz/2018/0838
SN  - 0003-5548
VL  - 74
IS  - 5
SP  - 423
EP  - 429
PB  - Schweizerbart
CY  - Stuttgart
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Ganghof, Steffen
T1  - A new political system model
BT  - Semi-parliamentary government
JF  - European Journal for Political Research
N2  - Semi-parliamentary government is a distinct executive-legislative system that mirrors semi-presidentialism. It exists when the legislature is divided into two equally legitimate parts, only one of which can dismiss the prime minister in a no-confidence vote. This system has distinct advantages over pure parliamentary and presidential systems: it establishes a branch-based separation of powers and can balance the ‘majoritarian’ and ‘proportional’ visions of democracy without concentrating executive power in a single individual. This article analyses bicameral versions of semi-parliamentary government in Australia and Japan, and compares empirical patterns of democracy in the Australian Commonwealth as well as New South Wales to 20 advanced parliamentary and semi-presidential systems. It discusses new semi-parliamentary designs, some of which do not require formal bicameralism, and pays special attention to semi-parliamentary options for democratising the European Union.
KW  - semi-parliamentarism
KW  - bicameralism
KW  - Australia
KW  - New South Wales
KW  - Japan
Y1  - 2018
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1111/1475-6765.12224
SN  - 0304-4130
SN  - 1475-6765
VL  - 57
IS  - 2
SP  - 261
EP  - 281
PB  - Wiley
CY  - Hoboken
ER  -