Is it a modacrylic fibre?

This study describes the characteristics of modacrylic fibres and includes over 80 samples (previous and current) representing 15 trade names. Fibre morphology was examined using brightfield microscopy. Signs of elongation were determined using polarised light microscopy. Fibre cross sections were also examined. The generic class of fibre was divided into sub groups using polymer composition as determined by FTIR-microscopy. Microscopically, some modacrylic fibres cannot be distinguished from acrylic fibres. Others display unusual optical and morphological features which are a strong indication of their generic class. The infrared spectra provide information about the co-monomer, termonomers added to produced dye sites, the presence of solvent residue, dyes, and additives, e.g. flame retardant material. The infrared spectra should always be recorded before and after any thin layer chromatographic examination of the dye, otherwise peaks attributable to dyes, which may be a valuable comparative feature in casework will be lost.     

Crime in China—As we saw it

The turmoil and prisoner violence that frequently follow court efforts to improve prison conditions have been called the “paradox of reform,” in which the very process intended to make the prison better can make it a more dangerous place. This argument implies that prisoners are often safer before the reforms and that high rates of violence and fear become a normal element of postreform prison life. The present analysis examines violence rates and prisoners' perceptions of risk before and through nearly a decade of litigated reform in the Texas prison system. Results show that prisoners did not feel at all safe in the “old days” and that the paradox exists only in the short term.     

The system's rigged — or is it?

From the beginning of the Seventies until almost the end of the Eighties, the Public Prosecution Service in the Netherlands concentrated a major part of its resources on combatting white collar and corporate crime. This effort climaxes in a number of spectacular fraud trials, involving in one case the directors of a large commercial bank, in another high-ranking public officials. Almost all were acquitted. As dramatically as interest in white collar and corporate crime had increased, so too did it decline at the end of the Eighties, until by now public interest in fraud is primarily concerned with social security frauds at one end of the scale, and money laundering by organised crime at the other. This article examines the rise and fall of the fraud-issue in Holland, the parts played by the Public Prosecution Service and the media, and the structural (economic and social) limitations to the criminalisation of white collar and corporate behaviour.     

Settlor control--what kind of a problem is it?

Trustee duties are defined when the trust is created, and thetrustee controls management and distribution with the powersgiven to the trustee by the trust instrument. If the settloror a third party has the power to consent to or direct trusteedecisions, is there a trust at all? Trust law is equivocal.It is a question of degree. Family law courts to the contrarywant to know what is really going on, and have refused to acknowledgesuch a trust. In New Zealand, Harrison v Harrison is the latestinstance of this.