Sino-Ghana bilateral relations and Chinese migrants’ illegal gold mining in Ghana

ABSTRACT

This article examines the participation of some Chinese migrants in illegal gold mining (known as galamsey) in Ghana, and how the Government’s policy to address the issue created diplomatic tension between China and Ghana. Drawing on primary data from in-depth, face-to-face interviews with 250 respondents and supplementary information from archival sources and personal observation, the study found that small-scale gold mining is an area legally reserved for Ghanaian indigenes, who faced stern competition from some Chinese migrants’ miners. Their ability to mobilize resources and machinery to execute galamsey virtually displaced the indigenes from their source of livelihood and caused environmental catastrophes. The Ghana Government’s policy response to the Chinese migrants’ galamsey, which led to arrests, sentencing and deportations of some Chinese miners, angered Beijing and fractured Ghana–China diplomatic ties. But the dispute could not collapse the entrenched bilateral relations between the two nations because the calculated mutual benefit derived from the relations was thought to be higher than the Chinese galamsey issue. Policy reforms which legally integrate Chinese migrants’ miners into the small-scale mining sector would stop galamsey and strengthen Sino-Ghana relations.     

Fingermark detection based on the in situ growth of luminescent nanoparticles--towards a new generation of multimetal deposition

The in situ deposition of zinc oxide on gold nanoparticles in aqueous solution has been here successfully applied in the field of fingermark detection on various non-porous surfaces. In this article, we present the improvement of the multimetal deposition, an existing technique limited up to now to non-luminescent results, by obtaining luminescent fingermarks with very good contrast and details. This is seen as a major improvement in the field in terms of selectivity and sensitivity of detection, especially on black surfaces.     

Fast PCR amplification using AmpFlSTR Identifiler: Second report

At ISFG2007, an earlier conference, we presented reports on two fast PCR cycling methods using AmpFlSTR Identifiler. In our current study, which involved PCR amplification using AmpliTaq Gold Fast PCR Master Mix, UP, and a standard PCR thermal cycler rather than the Fast PCR thermal cycler, we succeeded in allele typing while reducing PCR running times by half (to approximately 90 min).     

试论信息社会的公共安全保障

社会信息化使人类社会爆发出巨大的生产力,但同时也在快速提升不法分子的犯罪能力,尤其是信息犯罪,使公共安全保障领域由实体空间拓展到虚拟空间,信息社会的公共安全正面临着严峻挑战。面对各种违法犯罪活动,保障信息社会公共安全的主要途径是科技手段应用和法制治理。当前,重点是大力推进公共安全领域的信息工程———“金盾工程”的建设,尽快提高我国公共安全保障能力和管理服务水平。     

Searching for historical analogies in political economy: the Baltic states and the gold standard regime

This article compares the contemporary politico-economic regime in the Baltic countries with the classical gold standard regime, which successfully functioned in the Western world from 1870 until 1914. Both the classical gold standard system and the Baltic political economies were based on a hard currency peg policy supported by a high degree of economic flexibility. Politically, this flexibility was ensured by a strong insulation of economic policy-making due to a weak political left. Furthermore, the classical gold standard system and the Baltic regimes shared an ideational consensus supporting economic liberalism in general and hard currency peg policy in particular.     

日本“金解禁”政策史论

为建立与西方列强相同的金融制度,日本明治政府于1897年建立了金本位制。但在第一次世界大战期间,日本出于各种考虑,以禁止黄金出口的方式,暂时停止了金本位制。一战之后,日本执政者出于政治上的考虑,放弃了恢复金本位制的这一极好机会。"金解禁"问题经过20世纪20年代的长时间酝酿,民政党内阁终于在1930年1月完成了"金解禁"。"金解禁"虽然对当时日本经济有一定的作用,但这时"金解禁"却是在世界性经济危机已经爆发的情况下实施的,日本经济遭到双重打击。继而波及日本社会各个方面,给日本历史造成深远影响。     

Single-metal deposition (SMD) as a latent fingermark enhancement technique: an alternative to multimetal deposition (MMD)

This paper proposes an alternative solution to multimetal deposition (MMD) for the development of latent fingermarks on non-porous and porous surfaces. MMD offers a good sensitivity, however it is very time-consuming and requires many reagents to be carried out. Single-metal deposition (SMD) replaces the silver enhancement of the gold colloids by a gold enhancement procedure. This reduces the number of baths by one as well as the number of reagents and their cost, utilizes reagents with a longer shelf life, and most importantly reduces the labor-intensity of the procedure. It offers quasi-identical results to MMD and thus makes a very attractive alternative.