X‐ray Diffraction and Rietveld Refinement in Deferrified Clays for Forensic Science

Soil vestiges might provide information about a crime scene. The Rietveld method with X‐ray diffraction data (RM‐XRD) is a nondestructive technique that makes it possible to characterize minerals present in the soils. Soil clays from the metropolitan region of Curitiba (Brazil) were submitted to DCB treatment and analyzed using XRD with CuK_α radiation in the step‐scan mode (0.02° 2θ/5 s). The GSAS+EXPGUI software was used for RM refinement. The RM‐XRD results, together with the principal component analysis (PCA) (52.6% total variance), showed the kaolinite predominance in most analyzed samples and the highest quartz contents in “site 1.” Higher anatase, and gibbsite and muscovite contents influenced discrimination, mainly in “site 3” and “site 1,” respectively. These results were enough to discriminate clays of four sites and two horizons using a reduced amount of sample showing that the technique can be applied to the investigation into soil vestiges.     

Book reviews

Deane Curtin, Chinnagounders’ Challenge: The Question of Ecological Citizenship. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1999.

Jim Yong Kim, et ah, ed., Dying For Growth: Global Inequality and the Health of the Poor. Monroe, ME: Common Courage Press, 2000.

Lester R. Brown, Christopher Flavin, Hilary French, et al., eds., State of the World 1998. New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 1998.

Margit Mayer and John Ely, eds., The German Greens. Paradox Between Movement and Party. Translated by Michael Schatzschneider. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1998.     

Le mythe de Cham dans quelques livrets scolaires du Congo belge

The author quotes and briefly analyses a few exerpts taken from textbooks written and printed by Christain missionaries for the Congo primary schools. The Bible story of Cham cursed by his father, told in those texts from which Congolese children learned to read in the first half of the 20th century, stressed the white man’s superiority as coming from God.     

Technology Trade

This study addresses the question of why some countries import more research and development-intensive goods than others. Using a panel data set of 80 countries for the period 1970–1995, results indicate that domestic investment, foreign direct investment and the quality of intellectual property rights systems positively affect technology imports. However, the higher the percentage of the workforce with primary studies, the lower technology imports are. Moreover, intellectual property rights tend to reinforce the positive role played by foreign direct investments in importing technology while the ability of imitation reduces the effect of intellectual property rights.     

Effort,Technology and the Efficiency of Agricultural Cooperatives

The inefficiency of cooperative agriculture relative to private farms is often attributed to difficulties in monitoring or poor incentives. We develop a model to show that, in technologies with numerous sequential steps, even small shortfalls in worker effort can result in large output declines. Using data on cooperative and private farms in El Salvador, we find greater shortfalls in efficiency between cooperatives and private farms, as well as among cooperatives, for coffee, a crop requiring numerous steps in its cultivation, than for maize and sugar, which require fewer steps. Thus the undersupply of effort in cooperatives may be less than differences in productivity suggest, and cooperative agriculture is most likely to be successful where production does not involve many sequential steps.     

Book reviews

Ackerman B &; A Alstott, The Stakeholder Society. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1999. 296pp. ISBN: 0–300–07826. US$26.00. http://www.yale.edu/yup

Adedeji A (ed.), Comprehending and Mastering African Conflicts: The Search for Sustainable Peace and Good Governance. London: Zed Books, in association with the African Centre for Development and Strategic Studies, Ijebu‐Ode, 1999. 377pp. ISBN: 1–85649–763–1. US$27:50. http://www.zedbooks.demon.co.uk

Berkovitch N, From Motherhood to Citizenship: Women's Rights and International Organisations. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999. 207pp. ISBN: 0–8018–6028–8. US$34.95. http://www.press.jhu.edu/ press/index.html

Bourgia R &; SG Miller (eds), In the Shadow of the Sultan: Culture, Power and Politics in Morocco. Massachussets: Harvard University Press, 1999. 310pp. ISBN 0–932885–20–9. £12.50. http://www.hup.harvard.edu

Cohen R &; Westbrook R (eds.), Armana Diplomacy . Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 2000. 307pp. ISBN: 0–8018–6199–3. US$57.00. http://www.press.jhu.edu

Cullather N, Secret History: The CIA's Classified Account of its Operations in Guatemala. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1999. 142pp. ISBN: 0–8047–3311–2. US$39.50. http://www.sup.org

De Cerreno ALC &; A Keynan, Scientific Co‐operation, State Conflict: The Roles of Scientists in Mitigating International Discord. Edited conference papers published as Volume 866 of Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. New York, 1999, 281 pp, ISBN: 1 57331 203 7, US$27,00. Http://www.press.jhu.edu

Donoso BP, Across the Footsteps of Africa: The Experiences of an Ecuadorian Doctor in Malawi and Mozambique. Trenton: Africa World Press, 1999, 242pp. ISBN: 0–86543–640–1. US$19.95. http.//www.africanword.com

Drèze J, The Economics of Famine, An Elgar Reference Collection, Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar, 1999. pp. 524. ISBN: 1–85898–689–3. £130. http://www.e‐elgar.co.uk

Emmett T, ‘A study of the development of a movement of national liberation in Namibia, between 1915 and 1966’, in Popular Resistance and the Roots of Nationalism in Namibia, 1915–1966. Basel, Switzerland: P Schlettwein Publishing, 1999. 420pp. ISBN: 3–908193–03–6. Swiss F55. http://www.baslerafrika.ch/bns.htm

Gaubatz K T, Elections and War: The Electoral Incentive in the Democratic Politics of War and Peace. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, 1999. 208pp. ISBN: 08047–3566–2. US$45.00. http://www.sup.org

Hawken P, Lovins AB &; LH Lovins, Natural Capitalism: The Next Industrial Revolution. London: Earthscan Publications Ltd, 1999. 396pp. ISBN: 1–85383–461–0. £18.99. http://www.earthscan.co.uk

Herbst J, States and Power in Africa: Comparative Lessons in Authority and Control. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2000, 280pp. ISBN: 069–10–10285. US$17.95. http://www.pupress.princeton.edu

Jett DC, Why Peacekeeping Fails. New York: St Martin's Press, 2000, 236pp. ISBN: 031–22269–85. US$49.95. http://www.stmartins.com

Hodgson G, Evolution and Institutions: On Evolutionary Economics and the Evolutions of Economics . Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, 1999. 345pp. ISBN: 1–85898–813–6. £55.00. http://www.e‐elgar.co.uk

Guha S, Environment and Ethnicity in India: 1200–1991. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999. 217pp. ISBN: 0–521–64078–4. £35.00. http://www.cup.cam.ac.uk

Iheduru OM, The Politics of Economic Restructuring and Democracy in Africa. London: Greenwood Press,1999. 169 pp. ISBN: 0–313–30833–0. £37.50. http://www.greenwood.com

Jain PC, Indians in South Africa: Political Economy of Race Relations. Delhi: Kalinga Publications, 1999. 175 pp. ISBN: 81–85163–102‐X. US$80.00.

Kathadra A, Letters from Robben Island: A Selection of his Prison Correspondence, 1964–1989. Bellville and East Lansing: Mayibuye Books and Michigan State University Press, 1999. 263pp. ISBN: 087–01352–79 R120.00. http://www.msu.edu/unit/msupress/index.htm

Middleton N &; D Thomas (eds), World Atlas of Desertification. United Nations Environment Programme, 2^nd edition. London: Arnold, 1997.182pp. ISBN: 0–340–69166–2. http://www.unep.org     

Subcontracting,growth and capital accumulation in small‐scale firms in the textile industry in Turkey

This study examines capital accumulation and growth among subcontracting small‐scale textile firms. We find that, in spite of the higher average profitability of non‐subcontracting production relative to subcontracting, the average annual rate of capacity expansion between the two groups is not statistically different from the former. This implies that the higher average productive capacity of the non‐subcontractors relative to that of the subcontracting firms are due to differences in their initial capacity. The study further suggests that there may be no easy transition from subcontracting to independent production. For many subcontractor firms in the sample, the cost of inputs required for independent production exceeds the current value of their gross earnings by a multiple.