Adolescent Parents and Their Children: A Multifaceted Approach to Prevention of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE)

Childhood experiences can have long-term effects. Research shows that children who undergo adverse childhood experiences (ACE) often have negative health and mental health outcomes later in life. Children of adolescent parents with high ACE Scores are at greater risk of ACE. As such, an intergenerational approach to preventing ACE is proposed in this article, addressing the needs of both the adolescent parent and their children. A review of the literature indicates that a public health perspective can guide the development of a prevention model aimed at reducing the effects of ACE. The current article proposes a universal, multifaceted, and interdisciplinary prevention science model that has two targets: adolescent parents and their children. Schools and early childhood programs can be mobilized to offer community prevention strategies across realms to include the individual, community, provider, coalitions/networks, organizational practices, and policy/legislation.     

HIV-infected prisoners: what mental health services are constitutionally mandated?

State and federal correctional facilities currently have approximately 23,000 inmates who are infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). These inmates suffer from the same mental health disorders as uninfected inmates but are additionally subject to mental health problems uniquely related to their HIV infection. Many prison systems are struggling to provide minimal mental health care to uninfected inmates. How will prisoners address the additional mental health needs of the staggering number of inmates being diagnosed with AIDS and HIV? This article describes the type of mental health services that are constitutionally mandated and discusses whether and how prisons will have to respond to the distinct mental health issues related to HIV infection.     

Suicide by Intentional Air embolism

Venous air embolism occurs when air enters the venous system. The main causes of venous air embolism include medical procedures, neck and head trauma, and injuries of the genitals. Self‐induced suicidal (and intentional) air embolism is extremely rare. The authors report a rare case of a suicidal air embolism committed using a self‐made tool composed of a plastic bottle and an infusion set, injecting nearly 2000 mL of air into the cubital vein. The toxicological analysis suggested that midazolam, together with air, was also injected into the circulation using the same bottle and infusion set.     

Tractor driving and alcohol—A highly hazardous combination

Introduction

Approximately half of all injury-related fatalities in the agricultural industry are associated with farm tractors. Skill-based psychomotor tasks, such as driving and operating such machines, are easily impaired as a consequence of the use of alcohol. We have analyzed characteristics of fatal traffic accidents involving tractors in Zagreb County, with special accent to prevalence of alcohol use among drivers.

Subjects and methods

The material comprised all fatal accidents involving tractor drivers in Zagreb County between the years 2001 and 2005 where a medicolegal autopsy had been performed and samples taken for subsequent forensic toxicological analysis. The total of 47 cases were included. Data were collected on characteristics of the fatally injured as well as on circumstances and dynamics of the accident itself. The results are presented with absolute and relative frequencies.

Results

Ninety-one percent (43 out of 47 cases) of fatally injured were males. No person was under the age of 18, 70% were between 18 and 65 years of age and 30% were above 65 years of age. Blood alcohol reading was negative in only 13 out of 47 analyzed cases (28%). Six cases (13%) had blood alcohol concentration (BAC) below 0.50 mg/mL, further 6 between 0.50 and 1.49 mg/mL, 16 (34%) between 1.50 and 2.49 mg/mL and the remaining six had BAC between 2.50 and 3.49 mg/mL. Median BAC among 34 fatalities with positive blood alcohol level was 1.80 mg/mL, while the highest concentration observed was 3.49 mg/mL. Multiple injuries were the most common cause of death (43%) followed by crush asphyxia (26%). Most of the victims (81%) died at the scene of the accident and all of them died within the first 24 h. In the majority of accidents (79%), the tractor operator was a victim of the vehicle rollover.

Conclusion

High percentage of farm tractor users driving under influence and high median BAC indicates that legislation alone is not sufficient in preventing accidents. Further effort should be directed toward education aimed to increase awareness of the obvious risk that alcohol use represents to driving and workplace safety. Taking into account that the overwhelming majority of fatalities occurred from rollovers, strong encouragement should be given to implementation of rollover protecting structure (ROPS) devices in order to prevent such type of fatalities.     

Is There a Culture or Religion of Torture? International Support for Brutal Treatment of Suspected Terrorists

Do certain cultures or religions predispose citizens to support the deployment of torture against suspected terrorists? Based on an international survey of 31 different countries, we examine how religion and culture affect respondents' position on torture. We find that at the individual level, the nonreligious are resolutely opposed to torture, and that Christians, Buddhists, Hindus, Jews, and other faiths are more supportive. Among world cultures, Muslim/African cultures are most opposed to the torture of terrorists, while Confucian, English-speaking, and South Asian cultures are the most supportive of it. We also find that the use of torture has less support in countries that are suffering from terrorism, once religion and culture are considered.     

paradise,built in hell: decolonising feminist utopias in <Emphasis Type="Italic">Top of the Lake</Emphasis> (2013)

Jane Campion and Gerard Lee’s miniseries Top of the Lake (2013) marked New Zealand-born but Australian resident Campion’s return to New Zealand for the first time since The Piano (1993). The show’s central subject of child sexual abuse by state officials echoes the different yet resonating political situations in twenty-first century Australia and New Zealand, a state of emergency that allows for the emergence of what Rebecca Solnit (2009) calls a ‘disaster community’. Implicitly addressing critiques of her colonialist gaze in the earlier film, the miniseries both decolonises the idea of the utopian no-place and offers an alternate, emplaced vision of relational, anti-colonial provisional utopia through the main, mirroring female characters, Detective Robin Griffin and her half-sister Tui Mitcham. In contrast to contemporaneous police procedurals focussed on lone female officers, Top of the Lake rejects the authority of the police state and offers a resolution aslant that critiques generic expectations of individual heroism and resolution within a legal framework. Looking specifically at how the show knows its place—Lake Wakatipu on South Island, New Zealand—the article offers a close reading of Top of the Lake’s formal critique of the male colonial gaze and its adoption of a feminist soundscape in relation to Campion’s oeuvre; and considers its politics through indigenous media theory, to argue that it marks an initial step towards a decolonisation of viewing practices in relation to feminist conceptions of utopia.     

What Happens at the Polling Place: Using Administrative Data to Look Inside Elections

Tremendous attention has been paid to local election administration since the 2000 presidential election meltdown, yet policy makers still lack basic information about what happens at the polling place. One strategy to understand the interactions between citizens and street‐level election bureaucrats is to turn to administrative data. Using logs collected by polling place workers, the authors analyze more than 66,000 individual incidents recorded from four different statewide elections. Such data provide novel insights and guidance for the administration of elections. Findings indicate that task scale (in terms of the number of ballots) and complexity (in terms of absentee ballots) increase the incident rate. Managerial choices about how polling places are run also matter: the use of electronic voting machines and central count processing of ballots reduce the incident rate, while splitting poll worker shifts increases it. Operator capacity, measured in terms of experience, also reduces the number of incidents.