Fast gas chromatography of explosive compounds using a pulsed-discharge electron capture detector

The detection of a mixture of nine explosive compounds, including nitrate esters, nitroaromatics, and a nitramine in less than 140 sec is described. The new method employs a commercially available pulsed-discharge electron capture detector (PDECD) coupled with a microbore capillary gas chromatography (GC) column in a standard GC oven to achieve on-column detection limits between 5 and 72 fg for the nine explosives studied. The PDECD has the benefit that it uses a pulsed plasma to generate the standing electron current instead of a radioactive source. The fast separation time limits on-column degradation of the thermally labile compounds and decreases the peak widths, which results in larger peak intensities and a concomitant improvement in detection limits. The combination of short analysis time and low detection limits make this method a potential candidate for screening large numbers of samples that have been prepared using techniques such as liquid-liquid extraction or solid-phase microextraction.     

From government to governance: External influences on business risk management

The influence of external organizations and pressures on business risk management practices has hitherto been examined through the influence of state regulatory regimes on businesses. This article concentrates on key socio‐legal concerns about the influence of the law in social and economic life. We know that the sources of regulation and risk management are diversifying beyond the state. What we do not have is much empirically informed research about the range of sources influencing the business world and in particular the weighting of influence exercised by them. In this paper we explore the understandings regulatory actors have of the different external pressures on business risk management through an empirical study of the understandings of those in the food retail sector about the management of food safety and food hygiene risks. A broader objective is to throw some further light onto the debate about regulation within and beyond the state.     

Of diet and profit: on the question of subsistence crises in nineteenth-century Iran

This article enquires into the socioeconomic causes of recurrent food scarcity in the nineteenth-century Middle East. Focusing on Iran as a case study, the paper shows that certain categories involved in the production and distribution of grain engaged in profiteering schemes and thereby contributed to the making of food shortage in urban settings. The most important of these groups were the government officials, the landed classes, and the grain merchants. The local bakers were also involved, but they did not have as decisive a role as the other groups. In showing how these categories engaged in market manipulation, the paper contends that food scarcity cannot be explained without a proper understanding of the commercialization of grain and the economic integration of the Middle East in the nineteenth century.     

Critical junctures and institution-building: regional cooperation on free trade and food security in East Asia

This study examines conditions under which states in East Asia engage in the development of regional institutions. It assumes that crucial external events and shocks, which produce specific historical breakpoints – critical junctures – constitute a significant breakpoint at which the regional states willingly elevated a path to develop regional institutions to a new level. The analysis of the development of regional institutions for a free trade area and food stock for emergency revealed that regional states in East Asia changed their views on the evolving reality created by external shocks and such changes led to the creation of new regional institutions.     

Dissonance on the Brexit Menu: What does Britain Want to Eat?

This article focusses on the future of food in the UK in the context of Brexit. It examines the claims and promises made by Brexiteers before the referendum and juxtaposes these with the approach pursued by the Conservative‐led government since. The article argues that there is a clear dissonance between the two. This dissonance is the result of two important factors. First, the government is stuck in a non‐decision‐making mode, making it unable to pursue clear policies. Second, the food claims and promises made by Brexiteers are in opposition to what the vast majority of the public, food experts, farmers and food businesses want. Through exploring these two factors, and the Brexiteers’ claims and promises, the article explains what leaving the EU might mean for the future of food in the UK.     

非“适度进口”的风险防范

"适度进口"是在公平国际贸易体制下,基于国内粮食供需平衡合理进口的农业可持续发展策略。受"新自由主义"、有限农业资源与GDP主义等因素的影响,特别是"基因革命","过度"的粮食进口将进一步加剧粮食市场结构性矛盾、农业环境与生命健康的潜在风险以及粮食主权的安全。为此,应以独立平等的立法权、"双反"的司法救济权与农业"特殊保障机制"的自卫权维护粮食主权;以完善农业政策立法调整粮食产业结构,使粮食供需与生态平衡,限制和禁止转基因粮食进口,构建"适度进口"策略的法律框架,确保粮食安全。     

零工经济从业者工作时间配置与生活质量：抑制还是促进？

工作时间配置有数量和结构两层含义，具体表现为工作绝对时长、工作相对时长以及各种工作 时间占比。研究基于时间配置视角，将个人生活质量分为工作生活质量、闲暇生活质量、家庭生活质量以及生 理生活质量 4 个维度，以外卖骑手为研究对象，通过问卷调查收集数据，并采用结构方程模型分析工作时间配 置对零工经济从业者生活质量的影响。实证结果表明：零工经济从业者工作绝对时长变化会产生收入效应、倦 怠效应和替代效应，与工作生活质量呈 M 型非线性关系，与闲暇生活质量、家庭生活质量和生理生活质量均呈 倒 U 型关系；工作相对时长则会通过抑制工作恢复降低工作、闲暇以及生理生活质量；对于外卖骑手而言，对 骑手工作依赖度越高，其生活质量越低。研究建议，应健全和完善制度体系，培养劳动者多维技能，让劳动者 科学管理工作时间，以提升零工经济从业者的生活质量。     

“Carrying the black pot”: Food safety and risk in China's reactive regulatory state

This paper explores the struggles of China's party-state to address chronic food safety problems by adopting international best practices of risk-based regulation. Despite formally adopting risk-based approaches for targeting inspections and enforcement in 2002, implementation has been halting and uneven, as we show in the first analysis of risk-based regulation beyond its OECD heartlands. Drawing on policy document analysis and 36 key informant interviews with food business operators and government officials working on food safety regulation at every level of the state, we identify contradictions between official commitments to risk-based inspection and top-down demands for zero tolerance and strict accountability, which leave local inspectors preoccupied with avoiding blame more than reducing safety risks. Our analysis advances recent scholarship on regulatory states of the global South by highlighting how risk-based ideas, instruments, and practices are refracted through the distinctive norms and style of China's reactive regulatory state.