Acquiescence/Estoppel in International Boundaries: Temple of Preah Vihear Revisited

Boundaries between States have long been a major source of internationalconflicts, and international law has adopted the principlesof acquiescence and estoppel in stabilising and adjudicatingupon any such frictions. Whilst the principles have generallyserved their purpose, the International Court of Justice failedto apply them correctly in Temple of Preah Vihear, a decisionthat will be scrutinised herein against the essential elementsof acquiescence and estoppel.     

The use of a packed column for the determination of bupivacaine in human plasma by gas chromatography: an application in a pharmacokinetic study of bupivacaine.

The method involves a single extraction of the drug and the internal standard, etidocaine, from alkalinized plasma with n-hexane. The gas chromatograph is equipped with a glass column (2.0 m x 2 mm) packed with 3% W/W SP2250 on Chromosorb W, (80/100 mesh) and a nitrogen sensitive detector. The method can accurately measure plasma bupivacaine concentrations down to 0.01 micrograms ml-1 using a sample size of 0.5 ml. The day-to-day variation of bupivacaine at 2.0 micrograms ml-1 is 6.90% (n = 10). The calibration graph is linear over the range 0.1-4.0 micrograms ml-1. The method is accurate, fast and sensitive and has been applied in a pharmacokinetic study of bupivacaine.     

Verdict selection processes in insanity cases

Judicial instructions (traditional American Law Institute vs. Guilty But Mentally Ill [GBMI]) were manipulated within an insanity defense vignette portraying a highly psychotic defendant. Construals were highly predictive of verdicts in both instructional conditions. Instead of influencing case construals, the GBMI option seems to operate by increasing respondents' decisional thresholds for insanity and guilty verdicts, creating a collapsing effect such that few such verdicts are rendered. Between-instruction comparisons reveal that the construals of respondents who choose insane and guilty verdicts are considerably more homogeneous and extreme under the GBMI conditions. Results suggest that many respondents intend their GMBI verdicts to signify diminished blame and punishment, indicating that such verdicts entail cognitive compromises that reflect both the thresholdraising effects and also probable confusion about the jurisprudential meaning of a GBMI verdict.This article is an expanded version of a paper entitled Insanity case construals are not simply verdict justification effects, which was presented at the 99th annual convention of the American Psychological Association at San Francisco, August, 1991. We would like to thank Linda Roberts, Norman Finkel, and the anonymous reviewers for their comments on an earlier version of this paper. Support for this research was provided in part by a grant from the Baldy Center on Law and Social Policy at the State University of New York at Buffalo.     

Vietnam’s and China’s Diverging Industrial Relations Systems: Cases of Path Dependency

ABSTRACT

This article explains why Vietnam and China, one-party states that allow only one official trade union, are traversing different paths in their trade unions’ institutional structures, the state’s and trade union’s attitudes towards strikes, their willingness to allow independent trade unions and willingness to engage with the international labour union movement. These will be examined in terms of the path dependency of their recent histories, in which changes have been incremental on a path laid down by pre-existing entrenched institutions, until each national system no longer operated properly and new contingencies obliged the leadership to revamp the system. As a consequence of China’s and Vietnam’s divergent path dependencies, when external contingencies finally forced institutional change, countries have veered onto divergent trajectories – the Trans-Pacific Partnership energising Vietnam to debate the acceptance of autonomous trade unions, while Xi Jinping in China has intensified Party control over industrial relations.     

Dimensionality of Hardiness and Its Role in the Stress-Distress Relationship Among Chinese Adolescents in Hong Kong

The three components of hardiness, life events, coping strategies, and psychological distress, were assessed in a sample of 245 Chinese secondary school students in Hong Kong. While commitment, control, and challenge were not clearly differentiable as distinct constructs, three dimensions interpretable as resigned acceptance, cynical concession, and pragmatic orientation emerged. In the stress-distress relationship, hardiness did not interact with stress to moderate its influence on distress, however, both hardiness and stress had independent main effects on distress. Although high hardy students, compared with low hardy students, did not appraise positive events as having greater impact, they perceived that negative events had significantly lesser impact. In addition, low hardy students reported using passive and avoidant coping strategies significantly more frequently than high hardy students.     

Stressful Life Events,Cognitive Appraisals,and Psychological Symptoms Among Chinese Adolescents in Hong Kong

Stressful life events, cognitive appraisals of the impact and desirability of these events, and psychological symptoms were assessed in a sample of 745 Chinese adolescents from six secondary schools in Hong Kong. Reporting that an average of eight events were experienced, these adolescents appraised that over half of these events were undesirable and had twice the impact of desirable events on their lives. These events were generally related to interpersonal problems in schools, in family, and with friends. While the appraisal of the subjective impact of these events was highly associated with the simple counting of events when event–symptom relationship was considered, the pessimistic appraisal of events had an independent and noninteractive effect on general and specific psychological symptoms. However, there was some evidence that positive events might moderate the effects of negative events on psychological distress. Implications of cognitive appraisals in coping with life stressors among Chinese adolescents are discussed.     

美国大学的办学理念及其影响

美国的大学使用英语作为教学用语,其著名大学的排名位居世界前列,使成千上万的海外学子赴美求学.美国大学对世界的影响在于其先进的理念和良好的学术环境.