Asymmetry in Japan and Korea's agricultural liberalization in FTA: domestic trade governance perspective

Abstract

This paper examines the nexus between food security and sustainability governance through a case study of palm oil. Palm oil's advocates claim that campaigns against palm oil and actions to halt its expansion due to sustainability concerns can undermine its food security role. However, palm oil expansion more directly undermines the food and livelihood security of rural and indigenous communities when land that rightfully belongs to, or has been used by, these communities is alienated to firms for oil palm cultivation with little or no consultation or compensation provided or alternatives considered. It is in this context that the paper examines whether the multi-stakeholder Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) is able to ensure that this commodity is cultivated in ways that minimise environmental damage and livelihood disruption, thereby safeguarding palm oil's contribution to food security. The findings are mixed. RSPO certification provides fairly comprehensive and progressive socio-environmental regulation that has enhanced sustainable production practises in this industry especially by the larger transnational plantation companies mindful of their global reputation. The RSPO is also far more responsive than governments have been to the land rights of rural and indigenous communities, providing due process for land claimants as well as recognising that these communities may have legitimate rights to land even if companies were awarded legal title by governments. However, multi-stakeholder regimes can be fragile, requiring a great deal of internal accommodation and trade-offs to work. Already, different interests in the RSPO are pulling in different directions while national certification systems have emerged that are less onerous compared to the RSPO even as the latter seeks to further enhance its sustainability credentials.     

A Topography of Civil Service Laws

ABSTRACT

We offer a comparative study of the differences in civil service laws across countries in order to observe how these systems relate to one another. We compare the civil service laws of 26 countries from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and eight non-OECD countries from Central and Eastern Europe to identify how different configurations of civil service systems are revealed through their shared attributes. Our data are drawn from the contents of civil service legislation and the status of those civil servants covered by the civil service laws of these countries. We use cluster analysis to identify several groups of countries whose civil service systems share similar features. We find that the estimated topography, or similarity among systems, depends on both subjective decisions about the number of groups and the variables used to estimate the space. However, we draw key conclusions about the value of certain cases, like the United States, for learning about other systems, and the need for expanded knowledge of systems from Central and Eastern Europe.     

Review of Heng Choon (Oliver) Chan & Lorraine L. Sheridan,Psycho-Criminological Approaches to Stalking Behavior: an International Perspective

Asian Journal of Criminology -     

Fluorescent TiO2 powders prepared using a new perylene diimide dye: applications in latent fingermark detection

A new, highly fluorescent dye was synthesised using oleylamine combined with a perylene dianhydride compound. The new dye was characterised by 1H NMR, UV-vis spectroscopy and fluorescence spectroscopy as well as quantum yield. The dye was absorbed onto titanium dioxide nanoparticles for use as a fingerprint detection powder. The new fluorescent powder was applied to latent fingermarks deposited onto different non-porous surfaces and compared with commercial fluorescent powders. The powder exhibits strong fluorescence at 650-700 nm under excitation at 505 nm. On glass surfaces, the new powder gave images showing tertiary-level detail of the fingermark ridges with almost no background development. Compared with current magnetic fluorescent powders, the new powder was slightly weaker in fluorescence intensity but produced significantly less background development, resulting in good contrast between the fingermark and the substrate.     

Political Issues, Generation Gap, and Voting Behavior in South Korea: The 2010 Seoul Mayoral Election

Against all odds, South Korea's 2010 local elections were a landslide victory for the coalition of the opposition political parties. This article aims to provide an insight on the dynamic nature of Korean elections and politics by using a public opinion survey in Seoul's mayoral election as a case study. This article finds that the "north wind" triggered by the sinking of the South Korean battleship Cheonan helped the ruling party candidate, but not as much as the ruling party had hoped. Furthermore, a high turnout of the younger voters helped the opposition party candidate by showing a clear generation gap in terms of the important issues, ideology, and party orientation.     

Multiple Identification and Risks: Examination of Peer Factors Across Multiracial and Single-Race Youth

Multiracial youth are thought to be more vulnerable to peer-related risk factors than are single-race youth. However, there have been surprisingly few well-designed studies on this topic. This study empirically investigated the extent to which multiracial youth are at higher risk for peer influenced problem behavior. Data are from a representative and longitudinal sample of youth from Washington State (N?=?1,760, mean age?=?14.13, 50.9% girls). Of those in the sample, 225 youth self-identified as multiracial (12.8%), 1,259 as White (71.5%), 152 as Latino (8.6%), and 124 as Asian American (7.1%). Results show that multiracial youth have higher rates of violence and alcohol use than Whites and more marijuana use than Asian Americans. Higher levels of socioeconomic disadvantage and single-parent family status partly explained the higher rates of problem behaviors among multiracial youth. Peer risk factors of substance-using or antisocial friends were higher for multiracial youth than Whites, even after socioeconomic variables were accounted for, demonstrating a higher rate of peer risks among multiracial youth. The number of substance-using friends was the most consistently significant correlate and predictor of problems and was highest among multiracial youth. However, interaction tests did not provide consistent evidence of a stronger influence of peer risks among multiracial youth. Findings underscore the importance of a differentiated understanding of vulnerability in order to better target prevention and intervention efforts as well as the need for further research that can help identify and explain the unique experiences and vulnerabilities of multiracial youth.     

The Influence of Emotional Intelligence on Negotiation Outcomes and the Mediating Effect of Rapport: A Structural Equation Modeling Approach

Although early research on negotiation focused on cognition and decision‐making processes, recently, negotiation scholars have started to pay attention to the importance of emotion in negotiation and have suggested that emotional intelligence is likely to improve negotiation performance. Few studies, however, have tested the relationship between emotional intelligence and negotiation outcomes. This study contributes by empirically testing the influence of emotional intelligence on specific negotiation outcomes (joint gain, trust between parties, and the desire of parties to work together again) and also examines the mediating effects of rapport. We used a laboratory experimental design with 202 participants to test the hypotheses. We found that a negotiator's emotional intelligence was correlated with his or her counterpart's trust level and desire to work again but had no effect on joint gain. In addition, rapport fully mediated the relationship between emotional intelligence and desire to work again, and between emotional intelligence and trust.     

Home and the materialization of the divergent subjectivities of older women in Hong Kong

Although the social status of women in Hong Kong has changed significantly in recent decades, Hong Kong women continue to perform mothering, caregiving and homemaking tasks into late adulthood. Employing an agential realist approach to analyse the homes and discursive–materialist practices of three older women, this paper explores how the entanglement of materialities, discourses and subjectivities at home as a site of cultural action contributes to the ongoing enactment of divergent subjectivities of older Hong Kong women. The structural–spatial configurations of the three homes manifest the patrilineal and male-dominated family system in Hong Kong, and such older women perform a set of ‘normal’ (house) wifely and motherly duties linked to the maintenance of the male-dominated family system. Nevertheless, these older women’s subjectivities and their domestic worlds evolve through ongoing discursive–materialist practices. This paper further argues that, even if such factors as materialities, structures and practices either are neutral or indeed reinforce existing power imbalances, the dynamic and ongoing intra-action of these factors results in exclusionary but open conditions that may stabilize or subvert social phenomena, such as the ones discussed in this study: patriarchal domestic practices in Hong Kong homes.     

A comparative study on the concentrations of 11-nor-Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol-9-carboxylic acid (THCCOOH) in head and pubic hair

In this study, the concentrations of 11-nor-Δ(9)-tetrahydrocannabinol-9-carboxylic acid (THCCOOH) in pubic, axillary and beard hair were measured and the correlation between the concentrations of THCCOOH in head and pubic hair from same cannabis users were evaluated. The papers on body hair analysis for THCCOOH were rarely found although police officers submit body hair as a complimentary specimen to forensic laboratories in case cannabis users had no hair. Head, pubic, axillary, and beard hair were collected. All hair samples were cut into 0.5mm segments and decontaminated with methanol, digested with 1 mL of 1M NaOH at 85 °C for 30 min and extracted in 2 mL of n-hexane:ethyl acetate (9:1) two times after adding 1 mL of 0.1N sodium acetate buffer (pH = 4.5) and 200 μL of acetic acid followed by derivatization with 50 μL of PFPA and 25 μL of PFPOH for 30 min at 70 °C. The extracts were analyzed using gas chromatography tandem mass spectrometry operating in negative chemical ionization mode (GC/MS/MS-NCI). We determined the concentrations of THCCOOH in both pubic and head hair. The concentrations of THCCOOH in pubic hair were higher than those in head hair. We also evaluated the concentrations of THCCOOH in body hair (pubic, axillary and beard hair) and head hair according to the positive/negative urine test results. There was no statistically significant difference in the concentrations of THCCOOH in head and body hair according to urine results.     

The Frontal Sinus Cavity Exhibits Sexual Dimorphism in 3D Cone‐beam CT Images and can be Used for Sex Determination

Few studies have assessed the use of the frontal sinus cavities for sex differentiation. In this study, a new methodology was used to assess the reliability of CBCT images of the frontal sinus cavity for determining sex based on the sexual dimorphism found in this anatomical structure. The survey sample consisted of 130 scans that were reconstructed three‐dimensionally. 3D images of the cavity volume in the frontal, lateral, and basal views were exported in TIFF. The following variables were measured in a second program: area, perimeter, bounding rectangle, ellipse fit, circularity, aspect ratio, roundness, solidity, and Feret's diameter. The methodology demonstrated the existence of sexual dimorphism with an accuracy of 80.0% in the logistic regression model. The basal view had the greatest explanatory power in the final model. This methodology may be used as an alternative way of determining a reliable biological profile during the analysis of skeletal remains.