The variation in the colour of paint on individual vehicles

The Nanospec 10S microspectrophotometer has been used to study the variations in topcoat colour over the external painted surface of a number of vehicles. The colour differences observed between samples of the manufacturers' original finish topcoats from different points on the vehicles were relatively small. Visual inspection of the reflectance spectra obtained from individual paint layers is a satisfactory method for showing that two layers have the same pigment composition.     

Perceptions of Sexual Harassment: The Effects of Gender,Legal Standard,and Ambivalent Sexism

This research tests the possibility that the reasonable woman as compared to the reasonable person test of hostile work environment sexual harassment interacts with hostile and benevolent sexist beliefs and under some conditions triggers protectionist attitudes toward women who complain of sexual harassment, We administered to a sample of undergraduates the ambivalent sexism inventory along with the fact patterns in two harassment cases and asked them to make legally relevant decisions under either the reasonable woman or person standard. We found that those high in hostile sexism, and women, found more evidence of harassment. However, those high in benevolent sexism did not exhibit the hostile sexism effects. Although men were less sensitive to the reasonable woman standard than women, under some conditions the reasonable woman standard enabled both genders to find greater evidence of harassment. The results are discussed from the perspectives of law and psychology.     

Announcement

The process of calibrating a tachograph makes use of a mechanical head drive unit and an electronic clock tester. Both these devices should be checked against a standard at 6-month intervals. The design of such a substandard, based on a highly stable 1 MHz crystal oscillator, is described.     

Tort, Insurance and Incoherence

Some commentators have doubted whether, as is generally believed, liability insurance has had a significant expansionary effect on the law of tort. This article contends that the common assumption is, indeed, correct, and the crucial influence of insurance is clearly seen in the recent cases of Vowles v Evans and Gwilliam v West Herts NHS Trust . Once this has been acknowledged, the consequent radical incoherence in the basis of tort law needs to be confronted. The argument here is that only through faithful adherence to principles of individual responsibility and corrective justice, inherent as these are within the structure of tort law, can we hope to preserve coherence in the law of tort.     

Mbeki's African Renaissance Vision as Reflected in isiXhosa Written Poetry: 2005–2011

IsiXhosa literary critics have not yet interrogated literature that was produced during and after the tenure of Thabo Mvuyelwa Mbeki as deputy president and president of the Republic of South Africa in order to study the impact of his African Renaissance doctrine. This article analyses poetry that was produced from 2005 to 2011. The content of the isiXhosa written poetry is profoundly influenced by the context of former President Mbeki's African Renaissance philosophy, its implementation structures and philosophy of self-confidence and self-reliance. The selected poems analysed and interpreted in this article suggest that Mbeki's legacy of the African Renaissance empowered poets to develop a narrative that advances the building of a regenerated South African nation and the African continent. Selected poetry of the period is contextualised, and the findings reveal that the poets have a dialectical relationship with historical developments of the time, and that they demonstrate acquiescence to the African Renaissance ideology, and support the operational structures created; namely African Union, Pan-African Parliament and the Vuk’uzenzele programme.     

Political Culture, Political System Characteristics, and Public Policies Among the American States

Daniel Elazar's typology of political culture is updated forall states for 1980 using religious affiliation data. On average,the political culture indices do not vary much from simitarmeasures constructed for 1906–1936. The effects of politicalculture on state politics and policy are tested in two ways:(1) by calculating partial correlation coefficients for tendependent variables holding four environmental variables constant(affluence, industrialization, fertility, and liberal politicalideology), and (2) by estimating regression equations withintwo categories of political culture (individualistic and traditionalistic)to gauge the indirect or contextual effects of culture. Thepartial correlation analysis yields the expected outcome—moralisticstates have more interparty competition, higher voter turnout,more policy-relevant parties, and more liberal and innovativepolicies; traditionalistic states show the opposite result.The attempt to assess the contextual effects of political cultureproves less satisfactory. No such effects appear for about halfthe dependent variables, and the contextual effects that arefound correspond only in part to expectations.