Ethical Considerations in the Conduct of Electronic Surveillance Research

The extant clinical literature indicates profound problems in the assessment, monitoring, and documentation of care in long-term care facilities. The lack of adequate resources to accommodate higher staff-to-resident ratios adds additional urgency to the goal of identifying more cost-effective mechanisms to provide care oversight. The ever expanding array of electronic monitoring technologies in the clinical research arena demands a conceptual and pragmatic framework for the resolution of ethical tensions inherent in the use of such innovative tools. CareMedia is a project that explores the utility of video, audio and sensor technologies as a continuous real-time assessment and outcomes measurement tool. In this paper, the authors describe the seminal ethical challenges encountered during the implementation phase of this project, namely privacy and confidentiality protection, and the strategies employed to resolve the ethical tensions by applying principles of the interest theory of rights.     

Third World states as intervenors in ethnic conflicts: Implications for regional and international security

Third party involvement in internal ethnic conflicts has generated much interest in the post-cold war period. Yet few systematic studies focus on Third World states, which are among the most frequent intervenors in intrastate disputes. This article presents an initial empirical assessment of 975 interventions by third world states in ethnic conflicts in the South during the 1990s. It reveals that, contrary to expectations, the end of the Cold War has not led to a significant change in either major power or regional power interventions. Over one-half of all interventions are undertaken by states located in the region where the conflict occurs. Neighbours and regional powers can potentially threaten regional and international stability as they choose to furnish military assistance to ethnic groups in some 60% of their interventions. Conflicts involving ethnic groups seeking autonomy or secession are among the most likely to attract outside patrons.     

‘Two Bodies With One Spirit'

<正>Beijing Review recently interviewed Ashok K.Kantha,Indian Ambassador to China,eliciting his views on issues relevant to ChinaIndia relations:from managing cross-border disputes and addressing trade imbalances and infrastructure challenges to encouraging people-to-people exchanges and adapting to a new global economic environment.His responses touch upon the many important tasks     

Fatal Folic Acid Toxicity in Humans

Folic acid is B‐9 vitamin. Folic acid is prescribed commonly for pregnant women to prevent neural tube defects in the fetus, patients under chemotherapy, pernicious anemia and to reduce the risk of stroke and cardiovascular disease. Acute or chronic ingestion of a large dose of folic acid generally manifests as neurological complications, which are reversible. In this present case, a 23‐year‐old pregnant woman committed suicide by consuming folic acid tablets and succumbed to death within 36 h. Postmortem toxicological analysis detected folic acid in viscera. Death following acute consumption of folic acid is rare and has been not reported in the literature, to the best of our knowledge.     

Atomic force microscopic investigation of commercial pressure sensitive adhesives for forensic analysis

Pressure sensitive adhesive (PSA), such as those used in packaging and adhesive tapes, are very often encountered in forensic investigations. In criminal activities, packaging tapes may be used for sealing packets containing drugs, explosive devices, or questioned documents, while adhesive and electrical tapes are used occasionally in kidnapping cases. In this work, the potential of using atomic force microscopy (AFM) in both imaging and force mapping (FM) modes to derive additional analytical information from PSAs is demonstrated. AFM has been used to illustrate differences in the ultrastructural and nanomechanical properties of three visually distinguishable commercial PSAs to first test the feasibility of using this technique. Subsequently, AFM was used to detect nanoscopic differences between three visually indistinguishable PSAs.     

Economic changes during the Indian emergency

Abstract

North Korea (or the Democratic People's Republic of Korea—DPRK), more than any other industrial country, is a terra incognita in the Western consciousness. Most commonly it is abhorred as the embodiment of the irrational, the fanatical, and the threatening, and even among Western progressives it is dismissed as grotesque and/or irrelevant. Yet it is an important country and one that deserves close attention.     

The demographic correlates of admissions to the child and adolescent inpatient clinic at a midwestern metropolitan mental health complex

Using the data from the 1970 census of population and housing for the Standard Metropolitan Statistical Area (SMSA) of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, demographic information was recorded for each of the approximately 300 census tracts in the Milwaukee County pertaining to population characteristics, marital status, age stratification, economic characteristics, and housing characteristics. Also, information was collected on number of admissions into the child and adolescent inpatient clinic for each census tract. The 300 census tracts were then divided into four categories: very low admission, low admission, high admission, and very high admission. Using a computer method, a demographic analysis of these four groups of census tracts was then carried out to examine the correlation between the density of admissions and various demographic characteristics. During the course of the study, various correlations between high admissions to the child and adolescent psychiatric inpatient clinic and various demographic characteristics emerged. Implications of these findings, in terms of present service and future planning, are discussed.Received his medical training in India, his psychiatric training in England, and has practiced in the United States since 1976. Current interests are psychoanalytic psychiatry and the epidemiologic aspects of mental health.