(Un)veiling equity: a critical analysis of the insider and outsider roles of a Muslim female Shi’i educator in academy

This is a critical personal narrative of a Canadian Middle-Eastern Muslim female Shi’i educator’s experiences in a Western academy. The different cultural and religious backgrounds that shape a Muslim woman’s academic work and her understanding of social justice are described. Specifically, the author describes religio-historical figures and the counter-narratives of women of color in the author’s life responsible for shaping her appreciation of the importance of engaging in social justice and equity. The subjectivity in this work is manifested as an alignment with her religious beliefs and doctrine that draws from a counter-narrative (i.e. the Shi’i narrative of Karbala and, more broadly, the marginalized and dissenting ideological position of Shi’ is in relation to global Islam). Her upbringing with and introduction to Shi’i rituals, empower her understanding towards issues related to justice, equal rights, and loyalty. Throughout her narrative, the author utilizes the role of a researcher as an insider and outsider based on religious and feminist approaches. Three significant themes are noted: (a) the critical role of spirituality as a powerful catalyst and feminist for transformative change; (b) the role of reflexive skills and self-criticism as a means to balance religious and academic identities; and (c) the import role of ‘border-crossers’ in negotiating and connecting between religious and academic worlds. Insights about the experiences associated with minority Shi’i Muslim female graduate educators and the importance of being critically reflective when working towards social justice and equity are provided.     

“Demystifying” the police: a participant observation study of police stops (and searches)

Police are empowered by law to stop and search vehicles and their occupants, once reasonable grounds for suspicion come into being. However, as attested by this study, not all suspicions are followed up, nor all stops-searches follow on suspicions. Police stops-searches involve bounteous discretion of whom, where, and when to stop-search, and this process entails a long chain of judgments and actions on behalf of the constables faced with given street-level situations. A six-month complete participant observation study of the Emergency Response Unit of the Cyprus Police resulted in asserting that police stops-searches of vehicles and their occupants rest upon multiple, perplexed, and intertwined factors that range from racial predilections to heat tolerance levels of constables who may or may not be inclined to enforce the law. In all, over one hundred dimensions were found to relate to constables’ decision-making process on whether to conduct a stop-search or not.     

Why “Trauma-Related Dissociation” Is a Misnomer in Courts: a Critical Analysis of Brand et al. (2017a,b)

Forensic psychologists are sometimes faced with the task of educating triers of fact about the evidential weight of dissociative experiences reported by claimants in litigation procedures. In their two-part essay, Brand et al. (Psychological Injury and Law, 10, 283–297, 2017a; Psychological Injury and Law, 10, 298–312, 2017b) provide advice to experts who find themselves in such situation. We argue that the Brand et al. approach is problematic and might induce confirmation bias in experts. Their approach is not well connected to the extant literature on recovered memories, dissociative amnesia, memory distortions, and symptom validity testing. In some instances, Brand et al. (Psychological Injury and Law, 10, 283–297, 2017a; Psychological Injury and Law, 10, 298–312, 2017b) simplify the current body of knowledge about dissociation; in other instances, they ignore relevant empirical studies to an extent that is worrisome.     

The age of war orphans: Construction and realities of a group of state wards between education and assistance (1917–1935)

At the beginning of the twentieth century there was a great diversity in the definition of “legal age” in France. The age of entrance into institutions for orphans, for example, varied greatly throughout the country. In 1917 a special status was introduced specifically for French war orphans that was unique in Europe—that of state ward. Having that status, a child was entitled to help in relation to needs over the life cycle. Orphans received assistance until they reached the age of majority. With time, the aging of these war orphans engendered new difficulties in the organization of assistance, notably because of the increase in the numbers of adolescents in need of higher subsidees. The debt contracted by the state on behalf of orphans who were “victims” of the service rendered by their fathers, met with resistance from various conflicting interests and financial realities.     

Aspects of childhood in rural Greece: Children in a mountain village (ca. 1900–1940)

This essay examines childhood in a mountain village in central mainland Greece during the early 20th century and the interwar period. It gives an overview of an analytical case study conducted by the author within the context of the project “Historical Archives of Greek Youth” at the Greek National Research Center. The article draws on various sources, although principally on oral evidence. After a brief survey of the general and local socioeconomic context, it looks at children's lives and socialization inside and outside the household, focusing on family economy and interfamilial relationships within the context of home, school, community, and play, and tracing the relations of these domains to family and household. It points to the existence of childhoods rather than childhood, defined by gender and the specific socioeconomic position of the family. It argues that rural mountain society in Greece did not see its future in agriculture and examines the extent to which school education of boys functioned as a means of family urbanization and social mobility. Children alternated between traditional social structures and urban living patterns.     

Examining 19 years of officially reported child abduction incidents (1995–2013): employing a four category typology of abduction

Child abduction has generated extensive media attention due to deep-seated fear elicited by infamous incidents. Perceptions of an abduction epidemic during the 1970s and 80s entrenched a perception of ‘stranger danger’. Limited research on child abduction overemphasizes stranger abductions, which account for fewer than half of all abductions. As a result, less is known about the victim/abductor relationship across other abduction types. Prior work has emphasized simplistic stranger vs. family dichotomies, and similar trichotomies. This study, drawing on officially reported child abductions employing NIBRS datasets (N = 29,293), emphasizes differences across abductors/victims in a four category relationship-based typology, including a newer category – ‘intimate partner abductions’. Findings contribute baseline knowledge about child abductions by countering misplaced media driven fears and placing empirical findings in a more accurate context. Findings also reveal that intimate partner abductions have a unique victim/offender/incident profile and are the most serious and most consequential to adolescent female victims.     

Sudden cardiac death in a young woman: tumor of the atrioventricular (AV) node or citalopram intoxication?

Atrioventricular (AV) node tumor is a very rare lesion of the cardiac conduction system. Clinically, it is associated with complete AV block and sudden cardiac death, often in apparently healthy young people.We report a case of a 24-year-old woman who developed ventricular fibrillation during sexual intercourse and died before admittance to the hospital. The woman had a medical history of depression and was treated with citalopram.At first, no macroscopic or microscopic pathologic changes were found. Toxicologic analysis showed a toxic level of citalopram in the blood. Further microscopic examination of the cardiac conduction system disclosed a tumor of the AV node. Immunohistochemical staining confirmed endodermal origin in accordance with the latest hypothesis of the pathogenesis of this tumor.It was concluded that this young woman died of cardiac arrhythmia due to the AV tumor and not from citalopram intoxication, as first suspected. This case emphasizes the importance of a microscopic examination of the cardiac conduction system in cases of sudden unexpected death, even in cases with a plausible cause and manner of death at first glance.     

Delegated decree authority in a parliamentary system: the exercise of legislative delegation in Italy (1987–2013)

The substantial increase in the delegation of legislative powers from the parliament to the executive has been singled out as one of the most prominent changes in the Italian political system of the last three decades. It has given traditionally weak executives the opportunity to adopt significant reforms while bypassing the notorious fetters of the ordinary legislative process. While the literature has to date focused on the motivations to delegate, there is still a research gap on what the executive does with the delegated authority. Based on a newly collected data set covering all delegation provisions adopted from 1987 to 2013, this article analyses why, in a remarkable number of cases, the cabinet did not use the delegations. Results show that the existence of an agreement on the policy in question (as captured by the precision of delegating criteria), as well as the complexity and timing of the delegation have a significant impact on the likelihood a delegation is used.     

Lanzhou Univ. of Tech., Lanzhou 730050

C square-wave pulse inverter controlled by DSP was introduced. TMS320-serial DSP produced by Texas Instruments Corp., its developing environment and program flow, and the use of the software CCS were also introduced. According to the requirement of output waveform, the main program of control system, interruption service routine, and subroutines were designed by using modularized software design method. Offline and online experimental results indicated t     

Constitutional pluralism: Chronicle of a death foretold?

What remains of the idea of constitutional pluralism in the wake of the Euro‐crisis? According to the new anti‐pluralists, the recent OMT saga signals its demise, calling to an end the tense stalemate between the ECJ and the German Constitutional Court on the question of ultimate authority. With the ECJ's checkmate, OMT represents a new stage in the constitutionalisation of the European Union, towards a fully monist order. Since constitutional pluralism was an inherently unstable and undesirable compromise, that is both inevitable and to be welcomed. It is argued here that this is misguided in attending to the formal at the expense of the material dimension of constitutional development. The material perspective reveals a deeply dysfunctional constitutional dynamic, of which the judicial battle in OMT is merely a surface reflection. This dynamic now reaches a critical conjuncture, encapsulated in the debate over ‘Grexit’, and the material conflict between solidarity and austerity. Constitutional pluralism, in conclusion, may be an idea worth defending, but as a normative plea for the co‐existence of a horizontal plurality of constitutional orders. This requires radical constitutional re‐imagination of the European project.     

Bilateral fractures of transverse processus: a diagnostic sign of overrun?

Injuries caused by traffic accidents can be complex and extensive. Due to the highly dynamic course of actions, reconstructive questions may be challenging to investigators. Differentiation of a single collision from an overrun is a central question. We hypothesized that the existence of spine fractures such as spinous and transverse processus fractures may be helpful to distinguish both. The postmortem CT-data of pedestrian fatalities were analyzed in a retrospective manner. A group finally assessed as being overrun (n=13; 7 m, 6 f, 18-86 y, mean 65 y) and a control group being hit but not overrun (n=11; 7 m, 4 f, 31-89 y, mean 61 y) were compared. Secondarily, the CT results were compared to the localization of fractures detected in routine autopsy. Cases in the overrun group showed 1-31 fractures of processus (mean 14.6) and 9 cases presented with bilateral fractures of partly opposite transverse processus. In the control group there were 6 cases without any fractures and 5 cases showed 1-9 injuries (mean 1.7). There were no bilateral fractures of transverse processus in the control group. Autopsy only detected fractures of spinous processus in 4 cases from the overrun group. Bilateral fractures of transverse processus are a possible sign for an overrun. Unilateral fractures of the transverse processus are not specific. Post-mortem CT is more sensitive for the evaluation of vertebral processus than conventional autopsy.     

Cohabitation in Europe: a revenge of history?

Unmarried cohabitation is often seen as a radically ‘new’ phenomenon, originating in the 1960s, but in fact it has long historical antecedents. The question is, however, whether traditional and modern cohabitation are comparable and whether we can speak of persistence. This article offers a literature review on cohabitation in Europe, with the focus on persistence over time, integrating the results of a 2013 conference on this topic. What sources are available to confirm or reject such persistence? How should we understand persistence? In terms of the motivations of unmarried cohabitants? Or in terms of the acceptance of the community at large? And if no real persistence is found, does this mean that European cohabitation since the 1970s truly represents ‘new’ behaviour? We show that, on the regional level, the legacy of the past is still visible in factors affecting the timing and frequency of marriage of cohabiting couples. These factors are a mixture of regional socio-economic constraints, the relative cultural importance attached to marriage, the religious history, and the level of secularization.     

The concept of exceptionality: a legal farce?

How do we decide which treatments should be offered by the National Health Service (NHS) when we cannot afford to fund them all? In the absence of a positive appraisal by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE), which mandates the provision of a treatment by the NHS, Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) are free to decide whether to provide a particular drug to some, or all, of their population. However, as public bodies, it is a well-established principle of Administrative Law that PCTs are not at liberty to fetter the exercise of their own discretion. They must recognise the possibility that some patients will have exceptional circumstances, and as a consequence, any general policy prohibiting the funding of a drug cannot be absolute. In the absence of statutory guidance on what might constitute exceptional, clinicians are left guessing as to whether their patients might be eligible for funding on the grounds of exceptionality. Using the context of expensive cancer drugs, I will examine the concept of exceptionality from clinical, moral, and legal perspectives, focussing particularly on the role of social factors in determining exceptionality. I will review the cases where PCTs' decisions not to fund cancer drugs were subject to legal action and argue that the courts have provided little guidance on interpreting the term exceptional, and that the concept has a limited role to play in the allocation of scarce health resources at a local level.     

Liberation(s): The Notion of Release (vimokkha) in the Paṭisambhidāmagga

The Vimokkhakathā, a section of the Pa?isambhidāmagga, expounds the longest list of vimokkhas (releases, deliverances) found in Pali; it also finely elaborates on the notion of vimokkha through a crucial shift in Theravāda exegesis. In order to explore the meaning and nuances of vimokkha in the Pa?isambhidāmagga, this article focuses on its classifications and definitions, discussing their relation to the standard lists found in the Nikāyas. This examination highlights a multifaceted soteriology that supplies meditative practice with a consistent wholesome attitude; I will also demonstrate how various microstructure-levels affect the macrostructure of the Pa?isambhidāmagga, which in turn draws upon the wider structure of the Tipi?aka. In addition, the commentary to the enunciation of the releases (Vimokkhuddesava??anā), translated in Appendix, clarifies the structure of the vimokkhas, and their relationship with the whole Pa?isambhidāmagga.     

Foundations for a ‘secret history’ of judicial review: a study of exclusion as bureaucratic routine

This article considers the effective exclusion of judicial review created by the treatment of urgent applications for funding by the Legal Aid Agency. Drawing upon new empirical evidence, I show that the recent approach of the Agency to urgent applications for judicial review funding was presenting lawyers with a dilemma of having to choose between three unhelpful options: risk doing work that was unpaid; refuse a case and put a client at risk; or wait for a decision before doing work and put a client at risk due to delay. It is very difficult, if not impossible, to extract – or even construct through imagination – a satisfactory justification for why the administration of a policy preference for a more restrictive legal aid system ought to incorporate a device of this kind. Though this analysis focuses on one small aspect of judicial review in practice, this article demonstrates the need for further and wider work on exclusions from judicial review. It also offers an example of the complex nature of exclusions in judicial review. Finally, it provides some instructive lessons on the challenges that further inquiry into exclusions of judicial review may encounter.