Traumatic Brain Injury Among Mothers Identified as Having a High Risk of Child Maltreatment: A Pilot Study

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) occurs frequently and may result in deficits in concentration, fatigue, attention, aggression and emotion regulation; significantly impacting an individual’s ability to function. This study examined reports of TBI among mothers identified as having high risk for child abuse/maltreatment. Participants were 206 Mothers referred to a child abuse prevention programme (The Family Help Trust, Christchurch, New Zealand) between 2003 and 2010 (n?=?206); TBI prevalence of 36.4 % (n?=?75). One-third had experienced multiple TBI (n?=?24), and 58.7 % (n?=?44) of those reporting TBI had experienced their first injury prior to age 16. TBI in at-risk mothers was more than three times the TBI found in community samples, with many injuries occurring in childhood. Given the increased prevalence of TBI among mothers at high risk of child abuse, there is a need for greater information regarding the long-term outcomes of TBI, particularly for vulnerable groups requiring assistance to manage life roles.     

Towards an EC directive on plant breeder's rights?

Legal context: Although ‘Brussels’ has established many Directivesand Regulations in the field of IP law during the last two decades,there is still no Council Directive on plant breeder's rights. Key points: The article first examines the current national plant varietyprotection laws in force in the EC Member States. It then focuseson some figures with regard to national applications and Communityapplications for plant breeder's rights filed in the years 2001–2005.Subsequently, it discusses a number of optional provisions laiddown in the 1991 UPOV Convention and it points out the manydifferences in national laws that result from this UPOV text.In particular, it draws attention to national differences withregard to the protection of products made directly from harvestedmaterial, the farmer's privilege, and the term of protection. Practical significance: The article concludes that national applications for plant varietyprotection still play a significant role next to Community applications.It argues that the establishment of a Directive would be worthconsidering, as the differences between the laws of the MemberStates lead to barriers to the free movement of goods and toa distortion of the conditions of competition on the commonmarket.     

Reduce optimisation time and effort: Taguchi experimental design methods

Development and validation of new methods and technologies frequently require long periods of time and high costs to determine the optimal system. A commonly used approach to optimisation is the factorial method, where each variable is tested at every level of the other variables. An alternative approach is to modify the experimental design using a multifactorial approach. The Taguchi design method utilises orthogonal arrays, which distribute the variables in a balanced manner, thus greatly reducing the number of experiments required. We applied the Taguchi experimental design method to PCR optimisation, and significantly reduced the number of reactions required to create highly successful reactions. We found the Taguchi design method a valuable tool for the optimisation of multifactor experiments.     

Does Sanskrit Knowledge Exist?

This paper addresses the near impossibility of writing the social history of knowledge production in India. It also considers the question of the historicity of Sanskrit traditions. It concludes with pointing at a major lacuna in the SKS project, namely the examination or ritual and religious knowledge.     

Ein amerikanischer Eisberg: Sozialkapital und die Erzeugung politischer Verdrossenheit

Ohne Zusammenfassung Rezensionsessay zu Robert D. Putnam: Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community. New York u.a.: Simon and Schuster 2000, 541 S., $26,-, und zu Susan J. Pharr und Robert D. Putnam (Hg.): Disaffected Democracies: What’s Troubling the Trilateral Countries? Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press 2000, xxi + 362 S., $19,95.     

Strategic Narratives of the Past: An Analysis of China’s New Silk Road Communication

ABSTRACT

Political actors communicate strategic narratives to shape the meaning of place-images in the past, present and future. Whether narratives about the past are persuasive depends on the translation of historical ideas embedded in these narratives across time and space. Moreover, the imagination and re-imagination of historical place-images in foreign policy communication are contentious, because they stand for specific power relations and identity narratives. Therefore, actor’s selective uses of history require disambiguation to increase positive perception. This abstract argument is theorised in an investigation of China’s Belt and Road Initiative, specifically the communication of a New Silk Road. China’s promotion of the Silk Road legacy is frequently contested with Great Game interpretations. Through the novels of Marco Polo and Rudyard Kipling, which present historical imaginations of the Silk Road and the Great Game, this study shows the contentiousness of historical place-images across time and space.     

Pragmatic internationalism: public opinion on South Africa's role in the world

This report of a public opinion survey on South Africa’s foreign policy did not attempt to gauge South Africans’ knowledge about specific issues in international politics, but rather their underlying attitudes, specifically their foreign policy postures. After providing a brief overview of the scholarly debates about the role of public opinion in foreign policy analysis, we contextualise the nature and methodological approach of the survey. Thereafter we organise the article according to three key themes that illuminate ‘ordinary’ South Africans’ foreign policy postures and how South Africans view their country’s international identity. These themes include, first, debates about what the purpose of our foreign policy should be; second, the country’s international role; and third, who South Africans consider to be our allies and role models. Finally, we distil possible patterns emerging from the survey into a posture that we relate to two concepts: ‘pragmatic internationalism’, and a ‘middle power role’.     

Equal reproduction rights? The right to found a family in United Nations’ disability policy since the 1970s

ABSTRACT

With the adoption of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) in 2006, disability as an issue of human rights and international law can no longer be ignored. The history of this convention can be traced back to the 1970s, when disability was framed in United Nations (UN) declarations as a human-rights issue at the global level. One of the recurrent topics of debate during this trajectory was the right of people with disabilities to found a family. This right was far from self-evident and was evaluated very differently by various stakeholders.

This study follows the right to have a family in UN disability policy since the 1970s. The history of the family in relation to disability at the global level has been a neglected field of enquiry compared to other concepts such as gender and race. This study investigates how and why the right to found a family was framed in the Declarations on the Rights of Mentally Disabled Persons (1971) and Disabled Persons (1975), the International Year of Disabled Persons (1981), the International Decade of Disabled Persons (1983 ? 1992), the Standard Rules on the Equalization of Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities (1993) and the UNCRPD in 2006.

The trajectory of the right of people with disabilities to found a family that emerges from these cases shows a change in the 1990s from a social-policy to a human-rights approach towards disability – which reflects a broader trend in global and local histories of human rights. In the case of reproductive rights of people with disabilities this change meant that the emphasis was laid more on providing a legal protection for the individual against the interference of others (so-called negative freedom) than on enhancing the opportunities for disabled people to practice their (positive) freedom.