'Learn from Daqing': More dark clouds for workers in state-owned enterprises

Now that China has joined the World Trade Organization, workers employed in the already hard-hit state-owned sector of the economy face the certain prospect of massive new lay-offs. Already, in the early months of 2002, China has seen its largest labor demonstrations since 1949. Not surprisingly, these took place at struggling state-owned enterprises that have recently dismissed thousands of workers. These workers have expressed a great deal of anger at their situation and show little faith in the Communist Party-approved union's--the All China Federation of Trade Unions--ability to protect their interests. For this reason, they have formed an independent trade union, even though the Chinese government has declared such unions illegal. This article provides a context in which to understand these increasingly serious tensions and argues that, without a fundamental change in direction on the part of the Communist Party, China is sure to witness further and more explosive labor problems in the near future.     

Insecure Attachment Mediates Effects of Partners’ Emotional Abuse and Violence on Women’s Relationship Quality

Men’s emotional abuse and violence have a broad and pervasive impact on women that may include long-term effects on women’s attachment and relationship quality. In this longitudinal study, women’s Wave 6 ratings of their insecure attachment were hypothesized to mediate the relationship between partners’ Wave 5 abuse (emotional and physical) and Wave 6 relationship quality, with differences in associations by women’s Wave 5 self-classification as secure or insecure. Mediation was tested with data from a sample of 574 African American, Euro-American, and Mexican American community women who had completed at least three waves of a six wave study. Differences occurred in the final structural equation models by women’s Wave 5 attachment style, with direct paths from emotional abuse to insecure attachment and from violence to relationship quality for both groups, but direct effects of violence on relationship quality only for insecurely attached women.     

A comparison of methods used in the UK and Ireland for the extraction and detection of semen on swabs and cloth samples

The recent formation of a United Kingdom and Irish working group, the Body Fluids Forum (BFF), highlighted the need to investigate different working practices prior to any inter-laboratory comparison work and identification of best practice. Various dilutions of semen were seeded onto swabs and cloth samples for each BFF member laboratory to test using their standard techniques. The results showed that the detection of acid phosphatase on swabs is best achieved using direct testing rather than on an extract from the swab. Extraction methods for spermatozoa require a balance to be achieved between using a sufficient volume of water to ensure optimal release and minimal volume to ensure a concentrated extract. PSA tests were investigated and found to be more sensitive than Choline. DNA profiles were obtained from samples in which no spermatozoa had been detected during microscopic examination.     

Britain and European Human Rights Law: An Author’s Apology

Netherlands International Law Review - In four books published between 1990 and 2008, I, along with my two co-authors, was very optimistic about the up-ward trajectory of European human rights law,...     

Reputational inmate leaders: Some comparative contact patterns

A small number of studies have presented data on the sociolegal correlates of inmate leadership. These studies have based their results on traditional designs of data collection, including official records and interview questionnaires. The literature has not captured reciprocal contact patterns between inmate leaders and followers, nor has research addressed the question of how leaders differ from nonleader inmates on behavioral dynamics. This article presents the results of a videotaping procedure which captures leader contact patterns in task-related decision making. The general findings support the behavioral leadership studies performed on noninmate populations and suggest that leadership is a transcendental quality which cannot be explained by the functional model of inmate subculture.