Beyond the scarcity scare: reframing the discourse of hunger with an eco-mind

Solutions to world hunger continue to be impeded by a frame – a set of assumptions – that keeps much of humanity focusing narrowly on quantitative growth. The result is greater food production and greater hunger. Yet, across the world another way of seeing, one grounded in the relational insights of ecology, is transforming food systems in ways that both enhance flora and fauna and strengthen human relationships, enabling farmers to gain a greater voice in food production and fairer access to the food produced.     

Jobactive and young job seekers: Strengths,limitations, and suggested improvements to current practices

This paper explores the efficacy of current employment services in Australia, jobactive, from the perspectives of young job seekers and their employment officers. As high youth unemployment rates and the efficacy of jobactive employment services are currently areas of priority for the Australian Government, the study offers a timely contribution to the social policy and youth employment literature by exploring the tensions experienced by young job seekers while registered with a jobactive provider, and employment officers when assisting young people to find sustainable employment. The study analyses data from 46 interviews with young job seekers and their employment officers in an outer western Melbourne region. The findings reveal particular concerns about appropriate and adequate service provision for marginalized young job seekers that are similar to those in evaluations of previous marketwise employment service contracts, Job Network and Job Services Australia. Suggestions for tailored employment assistance for young job seekers to gain sustainable employment are offered for future consideration.     

Mother's Darlings of the South Pacific: The Children of Indigenous Women and U.S. Servicemen,World War II

Mother's Darlings of the South Pacific: The Children of Indigenous Women and U.S. Servicemen, World War II. Edited by Judith A. Bennett and Angela Wanhalla (Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2016), pp.xxiv + 379, US$65.00 (hb).     

A comprehensive regression tree to estimate body weight from the skeleton

The purpose of this research is to estimate actual body weight (in particular obesity) from the human skeleton. Known individuals (total n=187) were studied from the Bass Collection from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. This research combines bone density, cross-sectional geometry of the femur and skeletal pathologies. Bone mineral density was calculated for the proximal femur. Three-dimensional bone surface models were created from computed tomographic scans. Cross-sectional geometry of the femur was calculated at five locations along the diaphysis. The pathologies analyzed were heel spurs, diffuse idiopathic skeletal hyperostosis (DISH), and tibial osteoarthritis. The best regression tree model included only four variables. The first split to estimate body weight was the minimum moment of inertia (I(y) ) at the distal femur, the second was midshaft width, then anteroposterior thickness at the proximal slice and the final split was the degree of DISH (SD 17.1-31.0 kg). The ability to estimate body weight from the skeleton is one more useful tool for the osteologist.     

Psychiatric correlates of medical care costs among veterans receiving mental health care

Research on increased medical care costs associated with posttraumatic sequelae has focused on posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). However, the provisional diagnosis of Disorders of Extreme Stress Not Otherwise Specified (DESNOS) encompasses broader trauma-related difficulties and may be uniquely related to medical costs. We investigated whether DESNOS severity was associated with greater nonmental health medical care costs in veterans receiving mental health care. Participants were 106 men and 105 women receiving VA outpatient mental health treatment. A standardized interview assessed DESNOS severity. The dependent variables consisted of primary and specialty medical treatment costs. Sequential zero-inflated negative binomial regression was used to evaluate the variance in medical costs accounted for by DESNOS severity, controlling for PTSD severity and established predisposing, enabling, and need-based health care factors. Contrary to our hypothesis, in fully adjusted models, DESNOS severity independently added a significant amount of variance to lower specialty medical care costs, whereas PTSD did not consistently account for significant variance in medical care costs. Greater DESNOS severity appears to be associated with lower specialty medical care costs but not primary care costs. These findings may indicate that patients with DESNOS symptoms are at risk for being underreferred for specialty care.     

The Various Relations between Law and Morality in Contemporary Legal Philosophy

This paper is intended to be a summary of the author's views on the relationship between law and morality worked out over the past three decades in jurisprudence. The paper preliminarily clarifies the matter by isolating some lines of cleavage separating different questions askable about this relationship. With this done, the author argues for two theses. One, that judges are obligated to use morality in their decisions in particular cases; and two, that the morality judges are obligated to use in their judicial reasonings, is best seen as the natural lawyer sees it, namely, as being part of the law that obligates judges in their role as judges. The author not only believes these theses to be true; he also thinks that these theses are practically important, in that their acceptance by judges (and by the legal culture that reinforces judges) makes for better judging.     

Association between education and domestic violence among women being offered an HIV test in urban and rural areas in Kenya

The objective of this study was to examine the association between education and domestic violence among women being offered an HIV test in urban and rural areas in Kenya. A sample selection of women who experienced physical (n = 4,308), sexual (n = 4,309), and emotional violence (n = 4,312) aged 15 to 49 allowed for the estimation of the association between education and domestic violence with further analysis stratified by urban and rural residence. The main outcome of interest was a three-factor (physical, sexual, and emotional) measure for violence with the main predictor being education. Nearly half of all domestic violence, physical (46%), sexual (45%), and emotional (45%) occurred among women aged 15 to 29. After adjusting for confounding variables, women who resided in urban areas and had a postprimary/vocational/secondary and college/university education were 26% (OR = 0.74, 95% CI: [0.64, 0.86]), p < .001 and 22% (OR = 0.78, 95% CI: [0.66, 0.92]), p < .01 less likely to have experienced physical violence compared to those who had a primary education respectively. This was 17% (OR = 0.83, 95% CI: [0.73, 0.94]), p < .01 and 17% (OR = 0.83, 95% CI: [0.72, 0.96]), p < .05 less likely among women who resided in rural areas. A surprising finding was that women residing in rural areas with less than a primary education were 35% less likely to have experienced sexual violence (OR = 0.65, 95% CI: [0.43, 0.99]), p < .01 compared to those who had a primary education. These findings suggest that physical, sexual, and emotional violence were prevalent in Kenya among married and formerly married women. This study indicates that more research is needed to understand factors for HIV/AIDS among Kenyan women who have specifically tested positive for HIV or identified as AIDS-positive and the implications for women's health.     

A survey of paint flakes on the clothing of persons suspected of involvement in crime

A survey was undertaken to determine the background level of paint flakes on the clothing of persons suspected of involvement in crime. The debris from 100 garments submitted for casework examination was studied and paint flakes recovered where present. Seventy two percent of garments bore one or more flakes. A total of 703 flakes were recovered; size, topcoat colour, and number and colour of any under-layers were recorded for each. The distribution of paint flakes on clothing surfaces and in pockets was also noted. Results were compared with the previously published survey of Pearson, May and Dabbs (1971). This survey provides scientists with an updated data set for reference when considering the strength of paint evidence.     

Moore’s Truths About Causation and Responsibility: A Reply to Alexander and Ferzan

In this response to the review of Moore, Causation and Responsibility, by Larry Alexander and Kimberly Ferzan, previously published in this journal, two issues are discussed. The first is whether causation, counterfactual dependence, moral blame, and culpability, are all scalar properties or relations, that is, matters of more-or-less rather than either-or. The second issue discussed is whether deontological moral obligation is best described as a prohibition against using another as a means, or rather, as a prohibition on an agent strongly causing a prohibited result that was not about to happen anyway while intending to do so.