Is "ten days" really ten days?--the National Labor Relations Act's strike notice requirement in the healthcare industry

Nearly thirty years ago, Congress amended the National Labor Relations Act (Act) and provided employees of healthcare institutions with the right to strike and picket. At the same time, Congress added a new Section 8(g) requiring a labor organization to provide a healthcare institution with ten days' notice before engaging in various types of concerted activity--primarily strikes and picketing--against the institution. Thus, Section 8(g) is an important statute for healthcare employers. But since the time Congress added Section 8(g), the National Labor Relations Board has taken various views on Section 8(g) and whether "ten days" is really ten days. This Note explores the purposes of Section 8(g), as well as the reach and limits of its language, noting areas in which the board may wish to reconsider its application of the statute. Ultimately, the Note provides a checklist for healthcare employers to keep in mind with respect to Section 8(g).     

Rapid determination of ketamine in urine by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry for a high throughput laboratory

In recent years, the abuse of ketamine had gained popularity in rave parties in Hong Kong. The Urinalysis Unit of the Government Laboratory of Hong Kong faced a tremendous increase in workload for ketamine analysis. The number of tests performed rose from 10 in 1999 to 15,000 in 2002. As a fully validated immunoassay test for ketamine was not available in the market, most laboratories analyzed ketamine by chromatographic techniques after liquid-liquid extraction. However, these methods reported in the literature are not suitable for high throughput laboratories. Hence, a rapid screening/confirmation method for ketamine by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS-MS) with a detection limit of 5 ng/ml was developed. After automated solid-phase extraction (SPE), the urine extract was analyzed for ketamine by a 2.5-min chromatographic run, the estimated recovery was 89% and the precision was 11% R.S.D. at 20 ng/ml. With the aid of an in-house developed computer program, the results were presented in spreadsheet format for easy checking. The method has been applied to our laboratory for routine ketamine analysis and a maximum of 200 samples per day can be achieved.     

Multi-resolution image fusion technique and its application to forensic science

Image fusion is a process of combining two or more images into an image. It can extract features from source images, and provide more information than one image can. Multi-resolution analysis plays an important role in image processing, it provides a technique to decompose an image and extract information from coarse to fine scales. In some practical forensic examinations (such as the cartridge image check), we cannot obtain all information from just one image; on the contrary, we need information from images with difference light sources (or light ways). In this paper, we apply an image fusion method based on multi-resolution analysis to forensic science. Synthetic and real images (such as images from closed-up photography and flash photography) are used to show the capability of the multi-resolution image fusion technique.     

Nonsex offenses committed by child molesters: findings from a longitudinal study

This study, which used a prospective as well as a retrospective methodology, examined the criminal records of 30 child molesters prior to, and up to 10 years after an index event of sexual abuse for which they were convicted: 73% had convictions for other offenses, 60% had convictions for offenses other than sex offenses, 50% had convictions for property offenses, 27% had convictions for offenses involving violence, and 23% had convictions for drug offenses. Offending levels for nonsex offenses were significantly higher than the general adult male population. Any theory concerning the dynamics of sex offending against children needs to account for the level of nonsex offenses committed by child molesters.     

STR data for the PowerPlex 16 loci for the Chinese population in Hong Kong

Allele frequencies for the 15 STR loci included in the PowerPlex 16 kit were obtained from a sample of 247 unrelated Chinese in Hong Kong.     

Colchicine poisoning resulting from accidental ingestion of meadow saffron (Colchicum autumnale)

A rare case of colchicine poisoning resulting from accidental ingestion of meadow saffron (Colchicun Autumnale) is reported. The plant can frequently be found in the woods of the Northern Hemisphere (1), also in Japan. A 48-year-old male was admitted to hospital complaining of vomiting, nausea and diarrhea following ingestion of the plant and died in four days. The most striking histological findings were metaphasic mitotic figures in the mucosa of the large intestine and the liver. Colchicine was detected in the bile with high-performance liquid chromatography/sonicspray ionization mass spectrometry (HPLC/SSI-MS).     

Patterns and Dynamics of China's International Strategic Behaviour

The acceptance and promotion of partnerships among major countries reflect an attempt on the part of China to re-define its position in the new international strategic pattern. They also reveal a strategic idea offered by China in the post-Cold War era in which it is emerging as a major power. The key questions are as follows. (a) What are the contents of such partnerships among major powers? (b) What are the differences between this partnership model among major powers and the Chinese foreign policy of independence and peace in the 1980s? (c) What are the motivations behind China's promotion of this model of partnerships among major powers? (d) Does the new model of partnerships among the major powers provide an important innovation in the management of relations among the major powers in the coming century? This article attempts to answer these questions so as to better understand China's international strategic behaviour patterns in the post-Cold War era, the inner logic of partnership relationships, and the trends of China's international strategy in the coming century.