Notes on contributors

A right to health is one of a range of socioeconomic rights for which states accept an obligation under international law. However, the politics of rights has meant that socioeconomic rights are rarely given the same status as liberal freedoms associated with civil and political rights. This article discusses the liberal rationale for rejecting socioeconomic claims as rights and examines the basic rights challenge to liberal arguments. Given the dominance of liberalism, the article concludes with an examination of the potential for promoting a right to health within the context of globalisation.     

Who will guard the guardians? Amartya Sen's contribution to development evaluation

An Action Learning process integrated with Sen's Capability Approach can support development agencies to formulate interventions that enhance freedom. The authors show that putting this approach into practice has important implications for the manner in which ‘development’ is undertaken as an ideological project. It may help to examine and challenge those who hold power in development: the guardians. This finding is the result of an emergent Action Learning process that was initiated by applying Sen's principles to focus-group interviews with women who care for people affected by HIV and AIDS. One of the findings of these focus groups was that the participants valued the process because it opened a space for them to influence the work of the implementing NGO. Essentially, they could hold the implementing agency to account. Reflection on this outcome by the agency led to important shifts in processes that are more supportive of freedom.     

The Roles of Women in Contemporary Political and Revolutionary Conflict: A Thematic Model

Global population-level patterns in female participation in contemporary political and revolutionary conflict remain largely unknown as systematic empirical research in the area is lacking. Accordingly, this study systematically documented the participation of a comprehensive sample of women involved in conflict around the world. A statistically derived model of female participation is proposed that consists of four thematic roles representing specific patterns of activity: active, representing fighting and leadership activities; caring, representing traditional feminine tasks; support, representing logistically based tasks, and; ideological, representing activities that propagate the ideology of the group. The contribution of the model to theory, research, and practice is considered.     

Retrograde venous cerebral air embolism from disconnected central venous catheter: an experimental model

There are few reported cases of death attributed to retrograde cerebral air embolism from central venous catheter. The pathophysiological mechanism and the necessary conditions are not fully understood, also because of missing experimental data. We performed experimental simulation while working on a possible case of retrograde cerebral air embolism. A hermetic system consisting of two containers connected to each other and to an electric pump by means of rubber hoses was built. In this system, a fluid (water and blood) could continuously flow under conditions similar to those of the common jugular vein. The part of the system representing the jugular vein could be freely positioned at angles between 0 and 90°. A central venous catheter was inserted into this part. After disconnection, the behavior of the air bubbles entering the hose through the tip of the catheter was evaluated at different positions. At angles between 0 and 45°, the air bubbles followed the fluid flow. At angles >45°, the air bubbles showed the tendency to flow upstream; this phenomenon was more evident the more vertically the hose was located. We were able to demonstrate that a retrograde air embolism can be caused by a disconnected catheter and is even more likely if the neck is in a vertical position.     

Infectious disease surveillance in the United States and the United Kingdom: from public goods to the challenges of new technologies

Infectious diseases are a long-standing and continuing threat to health and welfare, with their containment dependent on national disease surveillance and response capacities. This article discusses infectious disease surveillance in the United States and the United Kingdom, examining historical national traditions for identifying and controlling infectious disease risks and how globalization and technical advances have influenced the evolution of their respective approaches. The two systems developed in different but parallel ways. In the United States, surveillance remained quite localized at the state level until the early twentieth century and still retains many of those features. The U.K. approach became centralized from the latter part of the nineteenth century and has principally remained so. In both cases, disease surveillance was traditionally conceived as a public good, where national or local authorities held sovereign rights and power to protect public health. With the increasing globalized nature of infectious disease, such notions shifted toward surveillance as a global public good, with countries responding in turn by creating new global health governance arrangements and regulations. However, the limitations of current surveillance systems and the strong hold of national interests place into question the provision of surveillance as a global public good. These issues are further highlighted with the introduction of new surveillance technologies, which offer opportunities for improved disease detection and identification but also create potential tensions between individual rights, corporate profit, equitable access to technology, and national and global public goods.