Japan's death penalty is cruel, secretive and out of step with much of the developed world say its opponents. As a record 97 men and 5 women await the hangman's noose, one man alive and free who knows its true horrors speaks.

After breakfast on Christmas Day, 2006, three Japanese pensioners and a middle-aged former taxi-driver were given an hour to live. The men were told to clean their cells, say their prayers and write a will. Fujinami Yoshio, 75, scribbled a note to his supporters before he was taken to the gallows of the Tokyo Detention Center in a wheelchair. “I cannot walk by myself, I am ill and yet you still kill such a person,” he wrote. “I should be the last person executed.”

Folate and choline are methyl donor nutrients that may play a role in fetal brain development. Animal studies have reported that prenatal folate and choline supplementation are associated with better cognitive outcomes in offspring and that these nutrients may interact and affect brain development. Human studies that have investigated associations between maternal prenatal folate or choline levels and neurodevelopmental outcomes have reported contradictory findings and no human studies have examined the potential interactive effect of folate and choline on children’s neurodevelopment. During the second trimester of pregnancy, maternal red blood cell folate was measured from blood samples and choline intake was estimated using a 24-h dietary recall in 309 women in the APrON cohort. At 3–5 years of age, their children’s neurodevelopment was assessed using the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scales of Intelligence – Fourth EditionCND, NEPSY-II language and memory subtests, four behavioral executive function tasks, and the Movement Assessment Battery for Children – Second Edition. Adjusted regressions revealed no associations between maternal folate and choline levels during pregnancy and most of the child outcomes. On the Dimensional Change Card Sort, an executive function task, there was an interaction effect; at high levels of choline intake (i.e., 1 SD above the mean; 223.03 mg/day), higher maternal folate status was associated with decreased odds of receiving a passing score (β = −0.44; 95%CI −0.81, −0.06). In conclusion, maternal folate status and choline intake during the second trimester of pregnancy were not associated with children’s intelligence, language, memory, or motor outcomes at 3–4 years of age; however, their interaction may have an influence children’s executive functions.

We present a theoretical explanation for why migrant workers in China should be less likely to participate in protests than other categories of workers. While grievance-based theories of protest would suggest that migrant workers have more incentive to protest than other categories of workers, resource mobilization theory suggests that their capacity to mobilize for collective action is impeded by the conditions of their work situation and their residence. Using survey data from CGSS 2010, we test propositions derived from this framework. We find that a greater sense of relative deprivation is associated with a greater likelihood of participating in protest across all categories of workers. However, we also find that migrant worker status functions as a moderator between grievances and protest participation: compared to urban registered workers, migrant workers are significantly less likely to take part in protest activities when both of them have high levels of perceived unfairness. These findings are robust across all models.

The burial of multiple individuals within a single funerary monument invites speculation about the relationships between the deceased: were they chosen on the basis of status, gender or relatedness, for example? Here, the authors present the results of aDNA and isotope analyses conducted on seven individuals from an Early Iron Age barrow at Dolge njive, south-eastern Slovenia. All seven individuals are close biological relatives. While the group composition suggests strict adherence to neither patrilineal nor matrilineal structures, the funerary tradition appears highly gendered, and family links through both the male and female lines seem important in structuring of the community. The results have implications for understanding of kinship and funerary practices in late prehistoric Europe.

In 1952 Sinclair Hood found a large deposit of pottery in front of the Great Poros Wall at Mycenae and published a brief account of its discovery the following year. In 1966 Elizabeth French published a paper discussing the pottery, assigning it an early Late Helladic IIIB1 date. From these accounts, we know that the deposit appeared in four trenches: Prehistoric Cemetery Central (PCC) III, where it sat on a surface of hard tramped earth; PCC IV, where it lay on bedrock; and PCC III Extension East and Area VII, where it rested on white clay plaster floors. But otherwise we learn little about the stratigraphy of these four trenches. Using Hood's unpublished excavation notebook, this paper examines the stratigraphy of the trenches associated with the deposit and uncovers the archaeological history of the area. In doing so, it reveals several omissions in the published accounts, most notably that there was another surface immediately below the white clay plaster floor in PCC III Extension East and a deposit of pottery associated with it. The pottery from this layer, designated Level 3, was mistakenly included by French in her paper. Fifty-four decorated sherds from Level 3 were kept, seven of which were illustrated by French. Most of the sherds come from small stirrup jars; kylikes, including the Zygouries type; Group A deep bowls; and stemmed bowls. The five most popular motifs on the sherds are the flower, whorl-shell, wavy line, parallel chevrons and panelled patterns. The shapes and motifs reflect those in the main pottery deposit and indicate a date of early Late Helladic IIIB1 for the group. The conclusion emphasises the importance of using excavation notebooks in research.

Diamondback moth, Plutella xylostella (Linnaeus) (Lepidoptera: Plutellidae), a globally important pest of Brassicaceae crops, migrates into all provinces of Canada annually. Life tables were used to determine the mortality levels contributed by the parasitoid complexes associated with diamondback moth in British Columbia, Ontario, Prince Edward Island, and insular Newfoundland. Overall, diamondback moth populations showed high generational mortality (> 90%) in all provinces, although parasitism levels were generally low. The net reproductive rate of increase in diamondback moth was less than 1.0 (populations declined) in both years in British Columbia and in each of two years in Newfoundland and Ontario, but it was greater than 1.0 in all three years in Prince Edward Island. Lower parasitism levels were found in Prince Edward Island (3.0–6.3%) compared with other provinces (8.4–17.6%, except one year in British Columbia). Diadegma insulare was the main larval parasitoid found; it was present in all provinces. Microplitis plutellae was present in all provinces except British Columbia. Oomyzus sokolowskii was found in British Columbia and Ontario. The parasitoid community documented from sentinel sampling was less diverse than that found through destructive sampling. Hypotheses are provided to explain the presence of major parasitoids. Increasing larval parasitism would have the largest effect on diamondback moth population growth in Canada.

We present a theory on how trust in the central government to remedy grievances combined with a lack of trust in local government to act motivates people to participate in local protests in China. Low trust in local government combined with high trust in the central government gives people expectation that protest will not be an exercise in futility. People protest to redress injustices when they believe that such protests have a chance of producing a favorable resolution of their grievances. Utilizing individual level data from the Asian Barometer Survey Wave 4, our analysis suggests that, in contemporary China, people who have greater trust in the central government than the local government are more likely than others to report having participated in protests. In a society without meaningful elections, participating in protest is an effective strategy for attracting the attention from the upper-level authorities in hope of redressing unfavorable situations.

Implementation of clinically useful research discoveries in the academic environment is challenged by limited funding for early phase proof-of-concept studies and inadequate expertise in product development and commercialization. To address these limitations, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) established the National Centers for Accelerated Innovations (NCAI) program in 2013. Three centers competed successfully for awards through this mechanism. Here, we present the experience of one such center, the Boston Biomedical Innovation Center (B-BIC), and demonstrate its remarkable success at the translation of innovations to clinical application and commercialization, as well as skills development and education.

In rapidly changing work environments, individuals need a willingness and ability to learn new skills and knowledge to contribute to their organization's goals and their own employability. As the baby-boomer generation begins to exit the workplace, organizations need to pay attention to developing the capability of younger, novice workers who will increasingly comprise the core workforce of the future. The present study, grounded in social cognitive theory, develops and examines a model of learning and development for younger workers. In total, 1,732 employees in New Zealand aged 16–24 years completed a survey relating to their perceptions, beliefs, and intentions regarding learning and development. The results from structural equation modeling show that individual and work-environment factors both influence younger workers' developmental intentions but affect this through different pathways. The study contributes to a better understanding of the development process for younger workers and offers implications for management based on these findings.

Wild sheep and many primitive domesticated breeds have two coats: coarse hairs covering shorter, finer fibres. Both are shed annually. Exploitation of wool for apparel in the Bronze Age encouraged breeding for denser fleeces and continuously growing white fibres. The Merino is regarded as the culmination of this process. Archaeological discoveries, ancient images and parchment records portray this as an evolutionary progression, spanning millennia. However, examination of the fleeces from feral, two-coated and woolled sheep has revealed a ready facility of the follicle population to change from shedding to continuous growth and to revert from domesticated to primitive states. Modifications to coat structure, colour and composition have occurred in timeframes and to sheep population sizes that exclude the likelihood of variations arising from mutations and natural selection. The features are characteristic of the domestication phenotype: an assemblage of developmental, physiological, skeletal and hormonal modifications common to a wide variety of species under human control. The phenotypic similarities appeared to result from an accumulation of cryptic genetic changes early during vertebrate evolution. Because they did not affect fitness in the wild, the mutations were protected from adverse selection, becoming apparent only after exposure to a domestic environment. The neural crest, a transient embryonic cell population unique to vertebrates, has been implicated in the manifestations of the domesticated phenotype. This hypothesis is discussed with reference to the development of the wool follicle population and the particular roles of Notch pathway genes, culminating in the specific cell interactions that typify follicle initiation.

The Tlahuica, a Nahua ethnic group, arrived in what is now western Morelos and conquered several preexisting towns circa a.d. 1100. Members of Tlahuica elite lineages took control of irrigable land and founded altepeme (small city-states). As population increased, segmentation occurred until there were 32 altepeme. The elite's control of the irrigable land was the basis for collecting tribute consisting of cotton cloth. The 32 altepeme in western Morelos became part of three señoríos (regional centers) comprised of multiple altepeme by a.d. 1400: Cuauhnahuac, Tlaquiltenango, and Xiutepec. Coatlan, located in the southwestern part of western Morelos, remained an independent polity separate from the three señoríos. The 32 altepeme were conquered by the Triple Alliance in the 1430s and 1450s, putting a halt to further conquests by these señoríos and leaving Coatlan as an independent buffer state between the Tlahuica señoríos and Chontal polities to the southwest. The Triple Alliance did not displace the local population in western Morelos or send colonists from the Basin of Mexico, as they did in non-Nahua provinces of the empire.