Working hours in supply chain Chinese and Thai factories: evidence from the fair labor association's 'soccer project'

This article examines the determinants of working excessive hours, defined as working in excess of 60 hours per week or for more than six consecutive days, in Chinese and Thai supply chain factories. We use a matched employer-employee dataset collected from 15 Chinese and Thai footwear and sporting apparel supply chain factories, which supply international brands. Matched employer-employee data allow us to examine the effect of worker and firm characteristics on hours worked. We find that in addition to the demographic and human capital characteristics of workers, firm-level characteristics and worker awareness of how to refuse overtime are important in explaining variation in hours worked. © John Wiley & Sons Ltd/London School of Economics 2011.

Sugar and spice: the golden age of the Hindi movie vamps, 1960s-70s

How do we define the globalized cinema and media cultures of Bollywood in an age when it has become part of the cultural diplomacy of an emerging superpower? Is it still an 'other' industry in a world dominated by Hollywood? Bollywood and Its Other(s) aims to compensate for the lack of scholarly literature on Indian film by opening up hitherto unexplored sites or sites that are in formation. It focuses on the aesthetic-philosophical questions of the other, Indian diaspora's negotiations with national identity, alternative reading strategies/research methods, marginal genres (sci-fi, horror), marginal characters (flaneuse, vamps), marginal gender (non-normative sexualities), marginal cinema (Hindi avant-garde), marginal language (Hinglish), and marginal regions (the Kashmir valley). It intends to address film scholars, South Asian studies researchers, cinephiles and lay readers alike.

Linking masculinity to negative drinking consequences : the mediating roles of heavy episodic drinking and alcohol expectancies

This study extends previous research on masculinity and negative drinking consequences among young men by considering mediating effects of heavy episodic drinking (HED) and alcohol expectancies. We hypothesized that masculinity would have a direct relationship with negative consequences from drinking as well as indirect relationships mediated by HED and alcohol expectancies of courage, risk, and aggression.

The effect of gender and alcohol placement in the processing of sexual intent

Alcohol consumption in women is known to be perceived by men as signalling sexual intent. However, it is unclear whether such assumptions extend to the simple presence of alcohol. The present study investigated the association between gender and alcohol placement on processing of sexual intent.

Adolescent substance use and educational attainment: an integrative data analysis comparing cannabis and alcohol from three Australasian cohorts

BACKGROUND: The relative contributions of cannabis and alcohol use to educational outcomes are unclear. We examined the extent to which adolescent cannabis or alcohol use predicts educational attainment in emerging adulthood. METHODS: Participant-level data were integrated from three longitudinal studies from Australia and New Zealand (Australian Temperament Project, Christchurch Health and Development Study, and Victorian Adolescent Health Cohort Study). The number of participants varied by analysis (N=2179-3678) and were assessed on multiple occasions between ages 13 and 25. We described the association between frequency of cannabis or alcohol use prior to age 17 and high school non-completion, university non-enrolment, and degree non-attainment by age 25. Two other measures of alcohol use in adolescence were also examined. RESULTS: After covariate adjustment using a propensity score approach, adolescent cannabis use (weekly+) was associated with 1½ to two-fold increases in the odds of high school non-completion (OR=1.60, 95% CI=1.09-2.35), university non-enrolment (OR=1.51, 95% CI=1.06-2.13), and degree non-attainment (OR=1.96, 95% CI=1.36-2.81). In contrast, adjusted associations for all measures of adolescent alcohol use were inconsistent and weaker. Attributable risk estimates indicated adolescent cannabis use accounted for a greater proportion of the overall rate of non-progression with formal education than adolescent alcohol use. CONCLUSIONS: Findings are important to the debate about the relative harms of cannabis and alcohol use. Adolescent cannabis use is a better marker of lower educational attainment than adolescent alcohol use and identifies an important target population for preventive intervention.

Sober assessment of the link between substance abuse and crime-eliminating drug and alcohol use from the sentencing calculus

The relevance of drug and alcohol involvement to sentencing law and practice is one of the most perplexing and unsettled areas of sentencing law and practice.1 It is also one of the most important issues in the criminal justice system. Most crimes are committed by offenders who are substance involved, and nearly half of all crimes that are committed are done so by offenders who are intoxicated at the time of the offense. Substance involved individuals are grossly over-represented in the criminal courts. Addiction and intoxication impair sound judgment, and hence, it intuitively appears that intoxicated offenders are less culpable for their crimes. Moreover, there is often a sense that addiction and intoxication causes aberrant behavior and that curing the substance involvement will lead to more prudent (law-abiding) conduct.

Problem gambling, familial violence and alcohol misuse: exploring the triad for treatment-seekers

Research into the co-occurrence of problem gambling, familial violence, and alcohol misuse is limited. While these issues have been considered in combination (i.e.violence and alcohol misuse, problem gambling and alcohol misuse, problem gambling and violence), within Australia, in particular, there has been an absence of exploration of this triad. The current research attempts to fill the gap in the literature, to establish whether there is any difference between problem gamblers with co-occurring violence and problem gamblers who had not experienced violence in terms of their alcohol misuse and gambling behaviours. Interviews were conducted with 81 treatment- seeking problem gamblers to explore how a history of victimization only, perpetration only, victimization and perpetration, or no history of family violence impacted on gambling behaviours (including baseline Victorian Gambling Screen), as well as alcohol misuse. Results indicated that in this treatment-seeking sample there were no significant differences for gambling behaviours or alcohol misuse between problem gamblers with issues of violence and those without. Males demonstrated (on average) a greater tendency toward hazardous drinking or disordered alcohol use. It would be prudent for treatment services to routinely examine problem gamblers’ history of violence and alcohol misuse until research verifies the nature of this triad

The effects of gender, clothing style, and alcohol consumption on the perception of sexual intent

Background: Alcohol consumption in women is known to be perceived by men as signaling sexual intent. The current study investigated the influence of gender, female clothing style, and female alcohol use on the perception of sexual intent.Method: Eighty-seven men and 72 women viewed a one-minute video of a male–female interaction where clothing style and alcohol use were experimentally manipulated. Participants were then asked to rate the female target on sexual intent.Results: The female actor was rated higher on sexual intent when she was dressed revealingly, and consuming alcohol, compared to when she was wearing conservative clothing and drinking water. Gender differences were not found with respect to the effect of personality characteristics (sociosexual effectiveness, sexually preoccupation, masculine sex role orientation, limited sexual experience and negative sexual attitudes, and low self-esteem and traditional attitudes toward women) on sexual intent.Conclusions: These findings suggest that alcohol may be a social cue used by men to process sexual intent. The implications of the findings are discussed with reference to how women are viewed when consuming alcohol.

The association between alcohol outlet density and alcohol use among urban and regional Australian adolescents

AIMS: While recent evidence suggests that higher alcohol outlet density is associated with greater alcohol use among adolescents, influence of the four main outlet types on youth drinking within urban and regional communities is unknown. This study provides the first investigation of this relationship. DESIGN: Repeated cross-sectional surveys with random samples of secondary students clustered by school. Mixed-effects logistic regression analyses examined the association between each outlet type and the drinking outcomes, with interaction terms used to test urban/regional differences. SETTING: Australia, 2002-11. PARTICIPANTS: Respondents participating in a triennial survey (aged 12-17 years); 44 897 from urban settings, 23 311 from regional settings. MEASUREMENTS: The key outcome measures were past month alcohol use, risky drinking among all students and risky drinking among past week drinkers. For each survey year, students were assigned a postcode-level outlet density (number of licences per 1000 population) for each outlet type (general, on-premise, off-premise, clubs). FINDINGS: Interaction terms revealed a significant association between off-premises outlet density and risky drinking among all adolescents in urban (odds ratio = 1.36, 95% confidence interval CI = 1.05-1.75, P < 0.05) but not regional areas. Similarly, club density was associated with the drinking outcomes in urban communities only. General and on-premises density was associated with alcohol use and risky drinking among all adolescents. CONCLUSIONS: Higher densities of general, on- and off-premises outlets in an adolescent's immediate neighbourhood are related to increased likelihood of alcohol consumption among all adolescents. The density of licensed clubs is associated more strongly with drinking for urban than for regional adolescents.

Effects of sugar and fat consumption on sweet and fat taste

Excessive consumption of fat and sugar is associated with development of diet related diseases. While there are multiple factors involved with overconsumption of sweet and fatty foods, the taste system is responsible for identifying sugars and fats in foods, and in this way inform consumption of potential foods. Published research linking sweet taste and sugar consumption is limited and conflicting with one recent dietary intervention supporting a link between sweet taste and sugar consumption. Fat taste is an emerging area of interest, and recent research illustrates a direct link with high-fat diet increasing fat taste thresholds while low-fat diets decrease fat taste thresholds.

Energy density of foods and beverages in the Australian food supply: influence of macronutrients and comparison to dietary intake

Objectives: The energy density (ED) of the diet is considered an important determinant of total energy intake and thus energy balance and weight change. We aimed to compare relationships between ED and macronutrient content in individual food and beverage items as well as population diet in a typical Western country. Design: Nutrient data for 3673 food items and 247 beverage items came from the Australian Food and Nutrient database (AusNut). Food and beverage intake data came from the 1995 Australian National Nutrition Survey (a 24-h dietary recall survey in 13 858 people over the age of 2). Relationships between ED and macronutrient and water content were analysed by linear regression with 95% prediction bands. Results: For both individual food items and population food intake, there was a positive relationship between ED and percent energy as fat and negative relationships between ED and percent energy as carbohydrate and percent water by weight. In all cases, there was close agreement between the slopes of the regression lines between food items and dietary intake. There were no clear relationships between ED and macronutrient content for beverage items. Carbohydrate (mostly sucrose) contributed 91, 47, and 25% of total energy for sugar-based, fat-based, and alcohol-based beverages respectively. Conclusions: The relationship between ED and fat content of foods holds true across both population diets and individual food items available in the food supply in a typical Western country such as Australia. As high-fat diets are associated with a high BMI, population measures with an overall aim of reducing the ED of diets may be effective in mediating the growing problem of overweight and obesity.