China's expanding influence in Africa: projection,perception and prospects in Southern African countries

China's multi-faceted endeavour to expand its influence in Africa has attracted worldwide scholarly and media attention. This article examines the different moments of China's soft power endeavour, from projection through its state media to representation and lived experiences in South Africa and Zimbabwe, two African countries which receive a significant level of attention in China's policymaking. Through interdisciplinary methodologies such as content analysis, online questionnaires and in-depth interviews conducted in China, South Africa and Zimbabwe, the authors found that China's state-engineered soft power initiatives have resulted in partial success in the two countries. The conclusions indicate that China faces many challenges in fully accomplishing its intended goal. The findings provide new insight into China's political impact in Africa within the context of Beijing's growing influence on Africa's political and economic future.     

African American Child Discipline: Differences Between Mothers and Fathers

Child rearing methods used in African American homes have been the subject of much commentary among social scientists, child welfare, and legal personnel. Much of the deliberation has centered on firm disciplinary techniques used by African American mothers. However, few studies have included the perspectives of African American fathers. This study investigated the differences between African American mothers' and fathers' responses in relation to child misbehavior. Several significant differences were found with mothers utilizing more intense disciplinary methods than African American fathers. Results of this investigation underscored the importance of obtaining the viewpoints of African American fathers as well as mothers in understanding parenting in African American homes.     

Expressions of Culture in American Indian/Alaska Native Tribal Child Welfare Work: A Qualitative Meta-Synthesis

This qualitative meta-synthesis of materials from three national projects that had examined more than 75 American Indian/Alaska Native child welfare programs sought to articulate how culture is expressed within tribal child protective services (CPS)work and to uncover whether there are cultural elements of tribal child welfare practice that are distinct from practice in non-tribal settings. Through the meta-synthesis, a framework emerged outlining a cultural approach to practice that incorporates: (a) a culturally-distinct definition of Native child well-being; (b) tribal values that form a foundation for practice; (c) practice intentions linking child protection with cultural and community health; and (d) two specialized worker skills.     

美国智库对华战略构想的新内涵——以《更长电报:走向新的美国对华战略》为例

拜登执政后美国对华战略如何调整备受瞩目,美国一些智库则积极"兜售"相关政策主张,其中大西洋理事会发布的《更长电报:走向新的美国对华战略》匿名报告受到广泛关注。该报告反映出美国智库对华战略构想中区别于传统冷战思维的新内涵,在战略认知上更新涉华判断,臆想当前中国战略"脆弱点",批判特朗普政府对华"政治惯性",主张从外部瓦解中国;在战略目标上力推拓展核心利益、重塑国际秩序,强调"共同威胁"以重振霸权体系,旨在护持冷战后美国霸权地位;在战略布局层面,提出振兴国家权势和加强对华威慑、明确与华竞争合作界限并煽动意识形态斗争,以全面遏制中国。该报告肆意抹黑中国,错误界定中国国家利益,对中国充满恶意偏见和误判,其战略布局根本无法撼动中国大战略根基。值得警惕的是,该报告的部分战略与政策构想在拜登政府近期政策实践中已有体现,暴露出美国政治精英与知识群体在涉华政策方面具有很大程度上的共同认知。在中美战略竞争常态化下,必须厘清两国关系的"常量"与"变量",做好应对各种风险和挑战的准备,尤其维护好国家意识形态安全。     

The Prison Boom and the Decline of American Citizenship

The US imprisonment rate increased fivefold in the three decades from 1975 to 2005. Growth in the scale of criminal punishment was linked partly to a more punitive politics that repudiated the goal of rehabilitation, and partly to the collapse of economic opportunity for young unskilled men in inner cities. The growth of the penal system produced extraordinary rates of incarceration among recent cohorts of young black men with little schooling. We can understand the growth of incarceration to produce and erosion of citizenship among young black men, weakening the web of mutual obligation that defines full membership in American society.

Working in High School and Adaptation in the Transition to Young Adulthood among African American Youth

Researchers have found mixed support for documenting whether work is protective or harmful during adolescence. This study examined the association between work and problem behaviors among African American youth (N = 592; 53% female; M = 14.8 years, SD = .60) followed from mid-adolescence to young adulthood over eight Waves (90% response rate over the first four Waves and a 68% response rate across all eight Waves). We explored three competing operationalizations of work: work history (never worked, worked), work intensity (no work, 20 h or less, and 21 h or over), and work trajectories (never worked, episodic work, stopped working, late starter, and consistent worker). Non-working youth reported higher marijuana use during young adulthood than their working counterparts. Nonworkers reported lower self-acceptance during young adulthood than those working greater number of hours per week. Differences in work trajectories for cigarette use, depression, and anxiety during adolescence imply that when and for how long youth work are also important factors to explore. Our findings lend tentative support to the work benefits perspective and suggest that the association between work and problem behaviors may depend on the work measure used. We discuss the implications of employing different work measures in adolescent research.

论委托人与辩护律师的关系——以美国律师职业行为规范为切入的分析

“委托人与辩护律师的关系”在律师职业行为规范中处于核心的地位。相较于委托人与辩护律师基于合意而成立的民事合同关系,律师职业行为规范对辩护律师提出了更多更高的要求。这些要求体现在二者交往的多个方面,包括关系的成立、权利的分配、利益冲突的解决、关系的终止等。在这些规则的背后,辩护律师的忠诚义务和维护司法正义义务是贯彻始终的二大基本理念,其中,忠诚义务是核心,维护司法正义则为律师划定了行为的边界。在律师职业伦理亟待重新构建的我国,美国律师职业行为规范对我国在诸如调整委托人与律师的关系,即强调忠诚义务、引入有效辩护等方面具有重大的启发意义。     

The effects of four different solvent vapours on the restoration of obliterated stamp markings from five different wooden surfaces

The stamp markings on wooden surfaces, which are placed on trees and products including antiques, indicate the status of trees and involve identifying data regarding the products. Such markings are obliterated either to facilitate illegal logging or to conceal product information. Despite the wide literature on the restoration of obliterated characters on metal and polymer surfaces, the recovery of defaced characters on wooden surfaces appears to be understudied. Several reference texts in the forensic marks’ examination literature suggest that water, water vapor, and alkaline solutions are useful in restoring the abraded markings on the wood. Since there does not seem to be any experimental study proving such success, this study aimed to fill this gap. This study conducted experimental research by using water, ethanol, ammonia, and chloroform to recover the scraped characters on samples obtained from walnut, beech, spruce, oak, and cedar trees. The cold-stamped characters, which were defaced at varying depths, were restored using vapor and liquid phases of four solvents. While the vapor phases of water, ethanol, and ammonia yielded good outcomes on all types of wooden surfaces, the liquid phases did not seem to be useful in the revisualization process. The response of the vapors, which varied between 62 and 220 s, depended on the type of wood. The restoration technique developed in this research offers the possibility of on-site usage, easy application, utilization of low-cost solvents, rapid recovery, and effectiveness on various wooden surfaces. Overall, the restoration methodology used in this research appears to be fruitful in retrieving identifying information on wooden samples.     

Footnotes to Guamán Poma: Transtemporal Encounters in Nacha Vollenweider's Notas al pie

The graphic memoir Notas al pie (2017) written by Argentinian Nacha Vollenweider includes an illustration which reinterprets an image from the Nueva corónica y buen gobierno, a colonial document written by Quechua nobleman Felipe Guamán Poma de Ayala around 1615, when Peru was under Spanish rule. This article argues that if Guamán Poma's image portrays a critique of Western colonial power, Vollenweider's reappropriation follows its aftermath, and targets the structures of coloniality that underpin the formation of both individual and collective identity.