Preventing suicide in prisons, part I. Recommendations from the International Association for Suicide Prevention Task Force on Suicide in Prisons

In 2000 the Department of Mental Health of the World Health Organization (WHO) published a guide named Preventing Suicide. A Resource for Prison Officers as part of the WHO worldwide initiative for the prevention of suicide. In 2007 there are new epidemiological data on prison suicide, a more detailed discussion of risk factors accounting for the generally higher rate of suicide in correctional settings in comparison to the general population, and several strategies for developing screening instruments. As a first step, this paper presents an update of the WHO guide by the Task Force on Suicide in Prisons, created by the International Association for Suicide Prevention. A second paper, by the same Task Force, will present some international comparisons of suicide prevention services in correctional facilities.     

Exchange Rate Pass-through to Import Prices,and Monetary Policy in South Africa

Abstract

Understanding how import prices adjust to exchange rates helps anticipate inflation effects and monetary policy responses. This article examines exchange rate pass-through to the monthly import price index in South Africa during 1980–2009. Short-horizon pass-through estimates are calculated using both single equation equilibrium correction models and systems (Johansen) models, controlling for both domestic and foreign costs. Average pass-through is incomplete at about 50 per cent within a year and 30 per cent in six months, and in the long-run, from the Johansen analysis including feedback effects, is about 55 per cent. There is evidence of slower pass-through under inflation targeting; pass-through is found to decline with recent exchange rate volatility and there is evidence for asymmetry, with greater pass-through occurring for small appreciations.     

Do Project Pedagogies Make a Difference?

Community-based action research (CBAR) encourages students to view internships and other civic-engagement opportunities as the first steps in collaborative projects that build long-term relationships with community partners and model how democracy works. We marshal longitudinal data, qualitative and quantitative, on both attitudes and behaviors to demonstrate meaningful impacts of community-based work by university students. Our approach to this difficult question involves the use of a treatment group contrasted with two distinct control groups: one situated somewhat closely to the experiences of the treatment group and one more distantly. Despite the difficulty of developing metrics of attitude and behavior change over relatively short periods of time, we achieve leverage on the question of how project pedagogies and experiential learning shape civic attitude formation and associated changed behaviors.     

The political economy of Southeast Asia's techno-glocalism

Asian economies' prospects for upward mobility within the global division of labour hinge significantly on the degree to which transnational corporations' (TNCs) global production networks (GPNs) accommodate or hinder their efforts to shift from simple production into more remunerative roles. A growing literature notes the rise in various countries of a ‘neo-techno-nationalism’ that aims to bolster local innovation and challenge TNCs' technologically derived leverage over the distribution of roles and rewards within GPNs. Industrial and technological policies in Southeast Asia, however, reflect a quite different ‘techno-glocalist’ strategy. Such strategies are based on a ‘governance bargain’ in which host governments, in exchange for technological upgrading, facilitate TNCs' exercise of governance authority transnationally as well as in coordinating local investments in innovation and other cluster-building activities. They highlight a conceptual distinction between the degree of internalization and hierarchy within networks that is typically elided in theories of GPN governance.     

The Circulation of Secularism

Inquiring into the causes behind the spread of secularism in the modern world, this paper proposes that the concept has proliferated owing to its peculiar property as culture: It is simultaneously a piece of culture and also a reflection upon culture. In its latter capacity, it imagines a world in which alternative religious belief systems divide people. It spreads as a piece of culture because it enables sharing and, hence, community, across the cultural boundaries erected by religious belief. For this reason, some governments have embraced the concept and incorporated it into official state discourse. Other governments, in turn, have copied the language of secularism not for its intended meaning but for pragmatic purposes—namely, to proclaim a position within the community of modern nations. State discourse, however, irrespective of the reasons for which it was adopted, affects how ordinary people reason about religion. Reasoning from the possibility of alternative religions opens a space for unbelief. Through an analysis of constitutional language, census data, and interviews, the paper concludes that secularism has more to do with the circulation of discourse and the reasons behind it, than with an immanent versus transcendent solution to the puzzle of existence—the transcendent solution being the foundation for the circulation of religious belief itself.     

Fatal postpartum spontaneous liver rupture: case report and literature review

Maternal hepatic rupture is a rare complication of pregnancy that can be fatal to both mother and child. This phenomenon is most often associated with preeclampsia/eclampsia and/or HELLP syndrome, which is defined by a collection of clinical features including hemolysis (H), elevated liver enzymes (EL), and a low platelet count (LP). These disease processes are typically identified and treated during pregnancy, often in the last trimester. The described case is unusual in that the decedent had no known history of preeclampsia/eclampsia or HELLP syndrome during this pregnancy, and she died suddenly several days postpartum of liver rupture with massive intraperitoneal hemorrhage following a routine cesarean section delivery and an uneventful hospital course. Similar cases are infrequent in the literature, which is reviewed in this report.