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The right to equality in South African law gives rise to duties borne by both the state and private actors. In the law of succession, this constrains private testators’ powers to discriminate. Doctrinal developments bear this out: in King v De Jager and Wilkinson v Crawford, a majority of the Constitutional Court extended the reach of anti-discrimination duties to private testamentary decisions. I evaluate these judgments through two lenses: a normative lens that focuses on the principled underpinnings of the Court’s approach to substantive equality, autonomy and the public / private divide; and an adjudicative lens that surveys how these duties should be given effect to avoid proliferating parallelism. I argue that the judgments are welcome and confirm that the private sphere is not insulated from demands of equality, but they nevertheless neglect the importance of both equality legislation and a harmonized approach to adjudicating the anti-discrimination duty’s reach into common law.
During the perinatal period, women may be more susceptible to depressive symptoms because of fluctuating oestrogen levels. Genetic variations, epigenetic modifications and varying gene expression levels of oestrogen receptor genes may contribute to inter-individual differences in the encoded receptors’ sensitivity to oestrogen, ultimately modulating the susceptibility to depressive symptoms.
Aims
The aim of this systematic review was to provide an overview of the literature on the association between oestrogen receptor genes and perinatal depression symptoms by including genetic, epigenetic and gene expression studies.
Method
A systematic search of three public databases, PubMed, PsycINFO and Web of Science, was conducted in accordance with the PRISMA guidelines (PROSPERO registration number: CRD42023447446). Two independent reviewers extracted data and assessed study quality.
Results
A total of 29 studies were finally included, of which 16 investigated genetic variants, five investigated epigenetic modifications and eight investigated gene expression levels of oestrogen receptor genes. A limited number of genetic variations were found to be associated with perinatal depression symptoms, most of them in ESR1. Moreover, DNA methylation marks involved in oestrogen signalling, and gene expression levels of ESR1 and ESR2, were found to be associated with perinatal depression symptoms.
Conclusions
Genetic variations, epigenetic modifications and gene expression levels of oestrogen receptor genes are associated with susceptibility to perinatal depression symptoms. The underlying mechanism might be the inter-individual modulation of the encoded receptors’ sensitivity to oestrogen. Future research employing more comprehensive and integrative approaches is needed to better understand the aetiology of perinatal depression symptoms.
Social determinants of health (SDH) impact older adults’ ability to age in place, including their access to primary and community care services. Yet, older service users are infrequently consulted on the design and delivery of health services; when they are consulted, there is scant recruitment of those who are Indigenous, racialized and/or rural. This study aimed to identify SDH for socially and culturally diverse community-dwelling older adults and to understand their views on how primary and community care restructuring might address these SDH. We recruited a diverse group of 83 older adults (mean = 75 years) in Western Canada and compared quantitative and qualitive data. The majority resided rurally, identified as women, lived with complex chronic disease (CCD), had low income and/or lived alone; nearly a quarter were Indigenous or Sikh. Indigenous status correlated with income; gender correlated with income and living situation. Thematic analysis determined that income, living situation, living rurally, Indigenous ancestry, ethno-racial minority status, gender and transportation were the main SDH for our sample. Income was the most predominant SDH and intersected with more SDH than others. Indigenous ancestry and ethno-racial minority status – as SDH – manifested differently, underscoring the importance of disaggregating data and/or considering the uniqueness of ‘BIPOC’ groups. Our study suggests that SDH models should better reflect ageing and living rurally, that policy/decision makers should prioritize low-income and ethno-racial minority populations and that service providers should work with service users to ensure that primary and community care (restructuring) addresses their priorities and mitigates SDH.
Bias and discrimination influence the experience of many in health care, including antimicrobial stewardship providers. In this mixed-methods study, we explore the perceptions of bias and discrimination among antimicrobial stewards.
Methods:
We conducted a nationwide survey of stewardship providers including physicians, pharmacists, advanced practice providers, and trainees. Participants were recruited via convenience sampling using X and professional listservs during May and June 2023. We solicited steward and program demographics and responses to statements exploring bias and discrimination through a 67-item electronic survey (Qualtrics). We further explored these experiences through semi-structured interviews.
Results:
Of 211 responses, 204 participants were included. Approximately half had been practicing for 5 years or less, 65% identified as female, and 24% identified as nonwhite or multiracial. Half of female stewards (50%) reported experiencing bias or discrimination in their role as an antimicrobial steward compared to 26% of male stewards. When controlling for race and ethnicity, seniority, and credentials, females were 2.8 times more likely (95% CI, 1.5–5.4; P < 0.01) to have experienced bias or discrimination when performing stewardship duties. Themes from our 16 interviews illuminated sources of perceived bias against stewards, the impact they had, and strategies to mitigate the influence of these biases.
Conclusions:
Bias and discrimination are felt disproportionately by women and junior antimicrobial stewards and can lead to poor job satisfaction and a lack of perceived effectiveness. Acknowledging these experiences and equipping stewards with strategies to mitigate their effects should be a priority of institutions and professional societies.
We report the case of a 5-year-old boy with severe pulmonary arterial hypertension due to partial anomalous pulmonary venous connection and atrial septal defect. Sequential combination therapy using multiple pulmonary vasodilators enabled safe surgical repair. In this case of severe pulmonary arterial hypertension—associated with partial anomalous pulmonary venous connection and atrial septal defect—the treat-and-repair strategy proved effective.
This article critically examines the frequent claim that Pherecydes of Syros deliberately composed his treatise to be read figuratively. More specifically, it is argued that mythopoeic images from the sixth century BCE ought to be distinguished from Classical and Hellenistic allegories lest later categories and distinctions be anachronistically projected onto an archaic thinker. Since this study shows how mythopoeic images are used to fill conceptual gaps in abstract discourse, and how philosophical vocabulary arises in the process of metaphorization, its findings might have implications beyond the context of Pherecydes’ contribution to the development of the allegorical tradition.
As global migration continues to intensify, legislatures in liberal democracies increasingly feature policymakers with direct experiences with immigration. Concurrently, scholars often argue that electoral accountability creates incentives to appeal to public opinion, which in the context of immigration policymaking favors restrictions over admission. In this paper, we study these competing dynamics among these immigrant legislators. We theorize that political institutions—particularly political parties—impede the sincere expression of legislative preferences among legislators that come from immigrant backgrounds. To begin, we present stylized facts about legislative behavior drawing on roll-call votes from the Canadian, British, and American legislatures. Drawing on 25 in-depth interviews with representatives, we find strong evidence that the threat of political party sanction and individual concerns about legislators’ own parties affects legislative decision-making. These findings contribute to our understanding of legislative accountability and highlight how the trend of increasing immigration to democratic polities does not directly translate to political representation.
This article studies the identification of complete economic models with testable assumptions. We start with a local average treatment effect ($LATE$) model where the “No Defiers,” the independent IV assumption, and the exclusion restrictions can be jointly refuted by some data distributions. We propose two relaxed assumptions that are not refutable, with one assumption focusing on relaxing the “No Defiers” assumption while the other relaxes the independent IV assumption. The identified set of $LATE$ under either of the two relaxed assumptions coincides with the classical $LATE$ Wald ratio expression whenever the original assumption is not refuted by the observed data distribution. We propose an estimator for the identified $LATE$ and derive the estimator’s limit distribution. We then develop a general method to relax a refutable assumption A. This relaxation method requires finding a function that measures the deviation of an econometric structure from the original assumption A, and a relaxed assumption $\tilde {A}$ is constructed using this measure of deviation. We characterize a condition to ensure the identified sets under $\tilde {A}$ and A coincide whenever A is not refuted by the observed data distribution and discuss the criteria to choose among different relaxed assumptions.
Field hospitals are deployable hospitals that treat patients directly on site before they are transported to permanent medical facilities. The supply of sterile surgical instruments is important, but not every field hospital is equipped with a sterile processing department. This concept therefore attempts to test a method of reprocessing surgical instruments under field conditions that can at least provide a provisional form of disinfection in case of logistic breakdowns.
Methods
Development, testing, and evaluation of a provisional chemical reprocessing procedure for reusable surgical instruments using hydrogen peroxide. The evaluation was carried out visually, microbiologically, and with regard to material damage.
Results
The concept is easy to implement but requires thorough training. The reprocessed surgical instruments were free of residual protein, showed no bacteriological growth, and were not damaged by the chemical reprocessing even after 10 cycles.
Conclusions
Provisional reprocessing of reusable surgical instruments seems possible using high-level chemical disinfection with hydrogen peroxide (3% for 150 minutes or 7.5% for 30 minutes) in case of necessity due to logistic breakdowns and patients that need immediate treatment. In addition, a multibarrier approach that includes hygiene measures and antibiotic stewardship is required to effectively reduce the risk of surgical site infections.
Workers with a vulnerable position on the labour market face difficulties finding and maintaining decent work. An increasing body of research on the demand-side of the labour market investigates the involvement of employers in active labour market policies, often referred to as employer engagement. However, the concept of employer engagement varies, causing ambiguity in its definition and use in research. This scoping review investigated sixty-three documents (e.g., peer reviewed scientific papers and grey literature) on employer engagement and outlines the current conceptualisations of employer engagement. By combining the conceptualisations taking a stakeholder-oriented approach, a four stakeholder group perspective on employer engagement was developed. With the organisation as an entity, HRM, line managers, and institutional stakeholders. This review deepens the understanding of employer engagement and contributes to the literature by taking an interdisciplinary approach and offers suggestions for future research.
This article explores the evolution and shifting interpretations of the dissolution of the Kingdom of Hungary and the creation of its successor states as reflected in the historiographies of Central European nations. It analyses the complex interaction between politics and the socio-cultural milieu, on the one hand, and historiography, on the other. A palpable tension exists between the national narratives and the efforts to construct a commonly accepted story. Inspired by the entangled history approach, the paper identifies common features within these historiographies, which exist despite ostensibly distinct points of departure. Additionally, major interpretative trends in the area up to the present day are characterised, and the impact of the socio-cultural turn and the recent centenary of the First World War critically assessed. The article argues for the practicality of moderate national narratives, which should take into consideration recent developments in the discipline and can help bridge the divide between nation-states on sensitive issues.