  In a one-pion plus one-kaon exchange model, we calculate the kaon production
cross sections in nucleon-nucleon, nucleon-delta and delta-delta interactions.
We find that this model describes reasonably well the experimental data on kaon
production in the proton-proton interaction. Near the kaon production
threshold, the cross section obtained from this model is smaller than that from
the linear parameterization of Randrup and Ko. For kaon production cross
sections from the nucleon-delta and delta-delta interactions, the cross
sections are singular in free space, so we calculate them in a nuclear medium
by including the (complex) pion self-energy. The results are compared with the
scaling ansatz of Randrup and Ko. The theoretical cross sections are then used
in a transport model to study kaon production from Au+Au collisions at 1
GeV/nucleon.
