Participatory risk assessment: a new approach for safer food in vulnerable African communities

Women play the major role in food supply in developing countries, but too often their ability to feed their families properly is compromised; the result is high levels of food-borne disease and consequent limited access to higher-value markets. We argue that risk-based approaches – current best practice for managing food safety in developed countries – require adaptation to the difficult context of informal markets. We suggest participatory research and gender analysis as boundary-spanning mechanisms, bringing communities and food-safety implementers together to analyse food-safety problems and develop workable solutions. Examples show how these methodologies can contribute to operationalising risk-based approaches in urban settings and to the development of a new approach to assessing and managing food safety in poor countries, which we call ‘participatory risk analysis’.     

Innovating Science Policy: Restructuring S&T Policy for the Twenty-first Century1

Over the next twenty years, accelerating scientific and technical developments will spawn immense changes to society that can be both crucially beneficial and tragically destructive. This trend, principally occurring outside of government control, is both helping the United States to improve defense and economic security and producing threats to national security. To deal with these increasingly technical issues, the nation's leadership needs to be armed with considerable scientific and technological acumen. Hence, the United States should explore the creation of a national security science and technology (S&T) strategy that improves: (1) scientific analysis available to decision makers; (2) understanding of the S&T needed to maintain national security; (3) coordination and collaboration among S&T providers; (4) control of dangerous technologies; (5) technology prioritization and acquisition processes; and (6) the dialog on enhancing the application of the products of private sector and foreign research for American national security purposes. Policies that address these issues will have to achieve the difficult balance between government and scientists’ influence over research and development (R&D). This article explores how to better deliver technical advice to high-level decision makers, as a means to better deal with emerging threats that are enabled by the rapid innovation and proliferation of scientific knowledge throughout the world.     

Sex-typed role in male adolescent sexual abuse survivors

Confusion and conflicts regarding sexual identity have been identified by clinicians as sequelae of sexual abuse in male adolescents. The empirical evidence supporting this assertion is limited, however. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between sexual abuse of male adolescents and their sexual self-concept in comparison to other clinical and nonclinical adolescent populations. The Bem Sex-Role Inventory (BSRI) was administered to 31 sexually abused male adolescents, 14 nonabused, psychiatrically treated male adolescents, and 35 nonabused, nonpsychiatric male adolescents. A significant difference in sex-typed roles was found between sexually abused male adolescents and nonabused, nonpsychiatric male adolescents.     

Collateral Damage: An Analysis of the Achievements and Unintended Consequences of Batterer Intervention Programs and Discourse

This paper reviews and critiques two prevailing program models for batterer intervention in order to highlight both their valuable achievements and attendant costs and consequences. We analyze these batterer intervention program models at 3 levels. First, we describe the historical development and basic program components of the intervention models. Second, we trace differences in the models to their grounding in different psychological assumptions and theories about behavior change, masculinity, and violence. Third, differences between the models are mapped onto contrasting approaches to the regulation of human deviance in the criminal justice and mental health systems. Based on this analysis, we conclude that further attention to structural and contextual factors, such as class, race, economic stress, and substance abuse in explanations of domestic violence is needed, together with alternative approaches to collaboration between victim advocates and batterer intervention providers.     

Thorns among the roses: A year of the socialist experiment in France

The election of President Mitterrand in May 1981 promised a new era of social and economic reform. The Socialist appeal to national solidarity sought a consensus to promote social justice and to revive the economy. After an initial period of grace during which a number of reforms were implemented, the government encountered increasing difficulties, partly caused by the international economic situation but also due to a failure to win business confidence and to the inconsistencies of its own policies. In consequence, the government was forced to introduce a range of deflationary and austerity measures which put the whole of its reforming strategy in question.     

Mothers of children removed under a care order: outcomes and experiences

ABSTRACT

Focusing on accounts by women who have children taken into care, this paper reports on a socio-legal case study in England, investigating the life experiences of nine mothers, whose children have been made subject to care orders under the Children Act 1989. In particular it considers the women’s experiences of their relationships with their own mothers and places this within the context of the mothers’ own experiences of having their children taken into care. Drawing on free association narrative interviews, the study focuses on the mothers’ accounts of long-term harm that began in their childhoods, especially their experiences of their mothers’ own difficulties and of their experiences of harm. It highlights the impact of relationship difficulties between mother and child, and questions how the legal concepts of harm and reasonable parental care are defined and deployed. In conclusion, it demonstrates a need for the legal framework to address children’s experiences of harm in a more intergenerational and intersubjective way. It highlights a new approach, suggesting consideration of harm, reasonable parental care and welfare to involve an increased concentration on the welfare of mothers and the relationship between mother and child, akin to an intersubjective and intergenerational approach to harm.     

Britain and the Recognition of Bangladesh in 1972

This analysis reviews the discussion behind Britain's recognition of Bangladesh as an independent state in February 1972. It concentrates on correspondence in the preceding six weeks between Whitehall and its diplomatic postings, particularly in the Commonwealth, and considers in detail the role of the Commonwealth Secretariat. Perceptions of recognition are first briefly discussed, followed by Bangladesh's historical background and the international security issues surrounding it. Government and Commonwealth Secretariat files are studied in detail. They show above all the influence on Government decision-making of diplomatic intelligence, in particular the importance of economic and political factors. Also revealed are London's concern for Pakistan's president, Zulfiquar Bhutto, its desire not to recognize alone and the attitude of the Commonwealth's Secretary General. The study suggests that recognition is a far more complex matter than the legal definition would imply and presents a compelling case for its further analysis in an historical context.     

Development of a real-time method to detect DNA degradation in forensic samples

Abstract: Knowledge of the degradation state of evidentiary DNA samples would allow selection of the appropriate analysis method (standard short tandem repeats [STRs] vs. mini STRs vs. mtDNA). This article describes the development of a Plexor® technology/real‐time PCR DNA degradation detection assay, which uses a common forward primer and two reverse primers (different fluorophores) to generate two Alu amplicons (63 and 246 bp). This very sensitive assay was optimized for reaction volume, cycle number, anneal/extend time, and temperature. Using DNA samples degraded with DNaseI, the ratio of the concentration of the short amplicon to the concentration of the long amplicon (degradation ratio) was increased versus time of degradation. Experiments were performed on a variety of environmentally degraded samples (age, sunlight, heat) and with seven commonly encountered forensic inhibitors. The degradation ratio was found to predict the observed loss of larger STR loci seen in the analysis of comprised samples.