Some issues concerning women in senior management: a case study from Ghana

This article considers issues concerning women's managerial careers in the Ghanaian Civil Service, which have emerged from an analysis of data collected in Accra as part of a Government of Ghana project supported by the United Kingdom Department for International Development. This examined the position and status of Women in Public Life in Ghana and was known as the WIPL project. Within this project, information was collected from women civil servants, and it is this which is presented here. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

UK Abortion Law: Reform Proposals,Private Members’ Bills,Devolution and the Role of the Courts

UK abortion law remains unsettled, and subject to on‐going controversy and reform. This article offers a comprehensive critique of all reforms implemented or proposed since 2016. It examines reforms proposed in both Houses of Parliament and contextualises them within a public law analysis, showing both that the complex parliamentary processes relating to Private Members’ Bills have frustrated reform attempts, and that these attempts have been contradictory in their aims between the two Houses. Secondly, it examines the unique positions of Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales to show the extent to which devolutionary settlements have influenced both reforms and executive involvement. Finally, it examines the potential impact of the courts on abortion law following Re Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission's Application for Judicial Review, showing that the Supreme Court's reframing of the debate in human rights terms is likely to affect abortion law, not only in Northern Ireland, but in the whole of the UK.     

Analyzing and Interpreting Lime Burials from the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939): A Case Study from La Carcavilla Cemetery

Over 500 victims of the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939) were buried in the cemetery of La Carcavilla (Palencia, Spain). White material, observed in several burials, was analyzed with Raman spectroscopy and powder XRD, and confirmed to be lime. Archaeological findings at La Carcavilla's cemetery show that the application of lime was used in an organized way, mostly associated with coffinless interments of victims of Francoist repression. In burials with a lime cast, observations made it possible to draw conclusions regarding the presence of soft tissue at the moment of deposition, the sequence of events, and the presence of clothing and other evidence. This study illustrates the importance of analyzing a burial within the depositional environment and taphonomic context.     

The ‘Reasonable Man’, his Nineteenth‐century ‘Siblings’, and their Legacy

The reasonable man is the best known, but not the only, legal construct to be born into the nineteenth‐century common law. This article introduces the man's siblings – including those from the areas of trust law, criminal law, contract law, and intellectual property law (both patents and trademarks). The fact that some of these ‘men’ changed the law is not controversial; this research further highlights that while several of these came to life in that century, only some had a significant role into the twentieth century. Those that did are tied to the foundations of our society through their role in facilitating innovation and consumer protection. The argument is that it was the constructs’ nature and their capacity to accommodate public policy issues that enabled the vitality of the ‘reasonable person ‘ (negligence) and the ‘person skilled in the art’ (patents).     

Dyadic Representation in a Westminster System

Is policy representation in contemporary Westminster systems solely a function of programmatic national parties, or does the election of legislators via single‐member districts result in MPs whose policy positions are individually responsive to public opinion in their constituencies? We generate new measures of constituency opinion in Britain and show that, in three different policy domains and controlling for MP party, the observed legislative behavior of MPs is indeed responsive to constituency opinion. The level of responsiveness is moderate, but our results do suggest a constituency‐MP policy bond that operates in addition to the well‐known bond between voters and parties.     

Russia's Artificial Intelligence Strategy: The Role of State-Owned Firms

In 2017, Russian President Vladimir Putin declared that whichever country becomes the leader in artificial intelligence (AI) “will become the ruler of the world.” Yet Russia lags competitors like China and the United States substantially in AI capabilities. What is Russia's strategy for boosting development of AI technologies, and what role do groups within the Russian elite play in shaping this strategy? Russia's AI development strategy is unique in that it is led not by the government, nor by the private sector, but by state-owned firms. The government's distrust of Russia's largest tech firm, Yandex, has sidelined the company from national AI planning. Meanwhile, Russia's defense conglomerate Rostec publicly appears to focus less on artificial intelligence than on other high-tech priorities. As a result, Russia's AI development has been left to a state-owned bank, Sberbank, which has taken the lead in devising plans for government-backed investment in AI.     

Sickle cell trait-associated deaths: a case series with a review of the literature

This study presents a series of 16 carriers of hemoglobin S (HbS) who died during various circumstances. Many of the cases were associated with mild to moderate exertion. The onset and/or duration of symptoms varied from a few minutes to several hours with many displaying a prolonged lucid interval with stable vital signs. Despite seeking medical treatment, sickle cell trait-related micro-occlusive crisis was never considered in the differential diagnosis. Several cases were associated with sudden death. In those deaths which were delayed, high anion gap and uncompensated metabolic acidosis were typical and were not heat related. Also characteristic were large increases in creatine kinase, alanine aminotransferase, and aspartate aminotransferase along with myoglobinemia. Although the antemortem diagnosis of rhabdomyolysis was made, the underlying cause was never deduced by the clinicians. The sickling found at autopsy is not always a postmortem artifact, and in the right circumstances can be diagnostic.     

Quantitative assessment of the percent fat in domestic animal bone marrow

Measurement of the amount of fat in femoral bone marrow can provide a quantitative assessment of the nutritional status of an individual animal. An analytical method is presented for quantitating the percent fat in bone marrow from three domestic species: bovine, canine, and equine. In this procedure, fat is extracted from bone marrow using pentane, and the percent fat recovered is determined gravimetrically. Based on analyses from adult animals (normal body condition scores), the average percentage of fat in the bone marrow was >80%. In cases in which animals have been diagnosed as emaciated or exhibit serous atrophy of fat (body scores of 1 or 2), the femoral bone marrow fat was less than 20%. In domestic animals, bone marrow fat analysis can be a useful, quantitative measure that, when used in conjunction with all other data available, can support a diagnosis of starvation or malnutrition.     

Iraq and the case for Australian war crimes trials

This article presents the case for Australian war crimes trials, following Australian participation in the invasion of Iraq and the subsequent deaths of as many as a million Iraqi civilians. It focuses on jus in bello (war crimes) rather than jus ad bellum (just war). The article sets out the argument and rationale that Australian war crimes trials are needed. Having established the necessity, the article identifies two of the principal alleged atrocities for which Australian officials should be held criminally accountable. It details Australian military support for the use of cluster bombs against civilians during the 2003 invasion, and senior Australian military commanders’ responsibility for planning and carrying out multiple purported war crimes during the attack on Fallujah in late 2004. The article recognises that, in order for Australian officials to be prosecuted under the International Criminal Court (ICC), all domestic remedies must be first exhausted. It therefore specifically addresses which Australian laws can be used, with particular emphasis on anti-terrorist legislation passed in 2002 under the Howard Government and the introduction into Australia’s domestic federal criminal legislation offences equivalent to the ICC Statute offences of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. These provide the most applicable legal tools for prosecuting senior Australian officials for war crimes in Iraq.