The challenge of labour in China: strikes and the changing labour regime in global factories

China has become a global manufacturing centre with its `unlimited' supply of low cost and unorganised peasant workers. The potential of Chinese workers to change this condition has significant meaning for global labour politics. This study offers an ethnographic portrait and a sociological account of the transformation of labour relations and labour politics in China from 2004 to 2008 focusing on workers' strikes, community and organisation. It reveals how wages and working conditions are bargained, fought over, and determined in the global factories. Geographically this study concerns the city of Shenzhen, China's first Special Economic Zone (SEZ), where labour conflict is most prevalent. Historically, it is traced back to the late 1970s to explore how the pattern of labour conflict has changed over time. The author spent one year conducting participant observation based in a grass-roots labour non-governmental organisation (NGO) in an industrial zone from 2005 to 2006. A multi-case method is used to document workers' stories to strive for a higher wage and better working conditions and their relationships with management, NGOs, the trade union and the local state. The author suggests that benefiting from an expanding labour market, an escalating dynamic community, and the skilled and supervisory workers' network, workplace struggle has exerted significant challenges to the state authorities and the global capital. The capital responded to these challenges by work intensification, production rationalization, expansion and relocation. The local state reacted by better enforcement of the labour regulations and steady enhancement of the minimum wage rate, while the central state initiated a new round of labour legislation to better protect workers. The author refers to the changing labour regime in this stage as `contested despotism'. Its potential to give way to a new form of factory regime is dependent on the possibility of effective workplace trade unionism

The making of a new working class? A study of collective actions of migrant workers in South China

In this study, we argue that the specific process of the proletarianization of Chinese migrant workers contributes to the recent rise of labour protests. Most of the collective actions involve workers' conflict with management at the point of production, while simultaneously entailing labour organizing in dormitories and communities. The type of living space, including workers' dormitories and migrant communities, facilitates collective actions organized not only on bases of locality, ethnicity, gender and peer alliance in a single workplace, but also on attempts to nurture workers' solidarity in a broader sense of a labour oppositional force moving beyond exclusive networks and ties, sometimes even involving cross-factory strike tactics. These collective actions are mostly interest-based, accompanied by a strong anti-foreign capital sentiment and a discourse of workers' rights. By providing detailed cases of workers' strikes in 2004 and 2007, we suggest that the making of a new working class is increasingly conscious of and participating in interest-based or class-oriented labour protests

Précarité, plateformes et agentivité : la multiplication des formes du travail en Chine

« Je veux qu’on me rende l’argent que j’ai gagné avec mon sang et ma sueur » (Wo yao wode xuehan qian 我要我的血汗錢) : voilà les paroles prononcées par Liu Jin 劉進, un coursier de 47 ans qui travaillait pour la plateforme de livraison de repas d’Alibaba Ele.me, avant de s’immoler par le feu au début du mois de janvier 2021. Ce drame qui a suscité des débats animés sur les réseaux sociaux chinois, est survenu après la mort d’un jeune homme de 22 ans employé chez Pinduoduo, une autre entreprise d’e-co..

Editorial – Precarity, Platforms, and Agency: The Multiplication of Chinese Labour

“I want my blood and sweat money back” (Wo yao wode xuehan qian 我要我的血汗錢): these are the words of Liu Jin 劉進, a 47-year-old delivery rider who worked for Ele.me, Alibaba’s food-delivery platform, when he set himself on fire in early January 2021. This tragic event, which sparked heated discussions on the Chinese social media, was preceded by the death of a 22-year-old employee at Pinduoduo, another e-commerce company claiming more than 700 million users in China. As the company announced it wo..

Sudden cardiac death due to deficiency of the mitochondrial inorganic pyrophosphatase PPA2

We have used whole exome sequencing to identify biallelic missense mutations in the nuclearencoded mitochondrial inorganic pyrophosphatase (PPA2) in ten individuals from four unrelated pedigrees that are associated with mitochondrial disease. These individuals show a range of severity, indicating that PPA2 mutations may cause a spectrum of mitochondrial disease phenotypes. Severe symptoms include seizures, lactic acidosis and cardiac arrhythmia and death within days of birth. In the index family, presentation was milder and manifested as cardiac fibrosis and an exquisite sensitivity to alcohol, leading to sudden arrhythmic cardiac death in the second decade of life. Comparison of normal and mutated PPA2 containing mitochondria from fibroblasts showed the activity of inorganic pyrophosphatase significantly reduced in affected individuals. Recombinant PPA2 enzymes modeling hypomorphic missense mutations had decreased activity that correlated with disease severity. These findings confirm the pathogenicity of PPA2 mutations, and suggest that PPA2 is a new cardiomyopathy-associated protein, which has a greater physiological importance in mitochondrial function than previously recognized

Effects of antiplatelet therapy on stroke risk by brain imaging features of intracerebral haemorrhage and cerebral small vessel diseases: subgroup analyses of the RESTART randomised, open-label trial

Background Findings from the RESTART trial suggest that starting antiplatelet therapy might reduce the risk of recurrent symptomatic intracerebral haemorrhage compared with avoiding antiplatelet therapy. Brain imaging features of intracerebral haemorrhage and cerebral small vessel diseases (such as cerebral microbleeds) are associated with greater risks of recurrent intracerebral haemorrhage. We did subgroup analyses of the RESTART trial to explore whether these brain imaging features modify the effects of antiplatelet therapy

Antimicrobial resistance among migrants in Europe: a systematic review and meta-analysis

BACKGROUND: Rates of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) are rising globally and there is concern that increased migration is contributing to the burden of antibiotic resistance in Europe. However, the effect of migration on the burden of AMR in Europe has not yet been comprehensively examined. Therefore, we did a systematic review and meta-analysis to identify and synthesise data for AMR carriage or infection in migrants to Europe to examine differences in patterns of AMR across migrant groups and in different settings. METHODS: For this systematic review and meta-analysis, we searched MEDLINE, Embase, PubMed, and Scopus with no language restrictions from Jan 1, 2000, to Jan 18, 2017, for primary data from observational studies reporting antibacterial resistance in common bacterial pathogens among migrants to 21 European Union-15 and European Economic Area countries. To be eligible for inclusion, studies had to report data on carriage or infection with laboratory-confirmed antibiotic-resistant organisms in migrant populations. We extracted data from eligible studies and assessed quality using piloted, standardised forms. We did not examine drug resistance in tuberculosis and excluded articles solely reporting on this parameter. We also excluded articles in which migrant status was determined by ethnicity, country of birth of participants' parents, or was not defined, and articles in which data were not disaggregated by migrant status. Outcomes were carriage of or infection with antibiotic-resistant organisms. We used random-effects models to calculate the pooled prevalence of each outcome. The study protocol is registered with PROSPERO, number CRD42016043681. FINDINGS: We identified 2274 articles, of which 23 observational studies reporting on antibiotic resistance in 2319 migrants were included. The pooled prevalence of any AMR carriage or AMR infection in migrants was 25·4% (95% CI 19·1-31·8; I2 =98%), including meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (7·8%, 4·8-10·7; I2 =92%) and antibiotic-resistant Gram-negative bacteria (27·2%, 17·6-36·8; I2 =94%). The pooled prevalence of any AMR carriage or infection was higher in refugees and asylum seekers (33·0%, 18·3-47·6; I2 =98%) than in other migrant groups (6·6%, 1·8-11·3; I2 =92%). The pooled prevalence of antibiotic-resistant organisms was slightly higher in high-migrant community settings (33·1%, 11·1-55·1; I2 =96%) than in migrants in hospitals (24·3%, 16·1-32·6; I2 =98%). We did not find evidence of high rates of transmission of AMR from migrant to host populations. INTERPRETATION: Migrants are exposed to conditions favouring the emergence of drug resistance during transit and in host countries in Europe. Increased antibiotic resistance among refugees and asylum seekers and in high-migrant community settings (such as refugee camps and detention facilities) highlights the need for improved living conditions, access to health care, and initiatives to facilitate detection of and appropriate high-quality treatment for antibiotic-resistant infections during transit and in host countries. Protocols for the prevention and control of infection and for antibiotic surveillance need to be integrated in all aspects of health care, which should be accessible for all migrant groups, and should target determinants of AMR before, during, and after migration. FUNDING: UK National Institute for Health Research Imperial Biomedical Research Centre, Imperial College Healthcare Charity, the Wellcome Trust, and UK National Institute for Health Research Health Protection Research Unit in Healthcare-associated Infections and Antimictobial Resistance at Imperial College London

The proinsulin C-peptide—a multirole model

The C-peptide links the insulin A and B chains in proinsulin, providing thereby a means to promote their efficient folding and assembly in the endoplasmic reticulum during insulin biosynthesis. It then facilitates the intracellular transport, sorting, and proteolytic processing of proinsulin into biologically active insulin in the maturing secretory granules of the β cells. These manifold functions impose significant constraints on the C-peptide structure that are conserved in evolution. After cleavage of proinsulin, the intact C-peptide is stored with insulin in the soluble phase of the secretory granules and is subsequently released in equimolar amounts with insulin, providing a useful independent indicator of insulin secretion. This brief review highlights many aspects of its roles in biosynthesis, as a prelude to consideration of its possible additional role(s) as a physiologically active peptide after its release with insulin into the circulation in vivo