Fetal alcohol spectrum disorders: a review of interventions for prevention and management in Indigenous communities

This resource sheet provides estimates on the prevalence of fetal alcohol spectrum disorders in the general and Indigenous populations of Australia, and reviews the local and international evidence on the effectiveness of programs that aim to prevent or alleviate this group of disorders. Introduction This resource sheet defines fetal alcohol spectrum disorders and provides currently available estimates of their prevalence in the overall Australian population and in the Indigenous population. The current recommendation of the National Health and Medical Research Council on the consumption of alcohol during pregnancy is also provided. Where appropriate, comparisons are made with other countries. The resource sheet reviews the Australian and international literature published since 1990 on the effectiveness of programs that aim to prevent fetal alcohol spectrum disorders or to alleviate its effects. Evidence on the effectiveness of Australian and Indigenous specific programs is also assessed, including those programs that have been developed and implemented in partnership with Indigenous Australians

My Response to Ramseyer’s Effort to Deny the History of Japanese Military Sexual Slavery

The main objective of this paper is to critically evaluate as many of Ramseyer’s arguments as possible included in his 2022 paper. It consists of three sections in addition to the introduction and concluding remarks. The first section summarizes the expanded literature that interpreted the “comfort women” system as sexual slavery, judgments, and recommendations to the Japanese government given by scholars, international human rights organizations and the legislative branches of four Western countries. Since Ramseyer published his article denying the “comfort women” system as sexual slavery without introducing this literature, we cannot consider his article as an academic work. The second section critically evaluates Ramseyer’s unacceptable and untenable arguments that Japanese and Korean “comfort women” were commercial sex workers with labor contracts rather than sexual slaves. The third section critically evaluates Ramseyer’s severe criticisms of the Korean council and its redress activities

EU sovereign ratings lags prior and after the great recession

Mestrado em Economia Monetária e FinanceiraEstudamos as variáveis que mais afetam a alteração dos ratings soberanos na UE para as agências de classificação de crédito Fitch e S&P. Utilizando um modelo de painel probit, avaliamos o impacto de diferentes variáveis econômicas e políticas nas mudanças gerais dos ratings soberanos, aumentamos e diminuímos antes e depois da Grande Recessão. Mais importante, também analisamos o tempo de espera para cada agência de classificação nesses dois períodos, cobrindo especificamente 1997: 12-2018: 12. Nossos resultados mostram que as variáveis econômicas e políticas são consideradas diferentemente nos dois períodos e que o atraso na liderança das mudanças de rating diminui após a crise, especialmente quando essa mudança é uma diminuição no rating. Ainda, trazemos alguns conceitos comportamentais para o raciocínio dessa mudança nas variáveis e comportamento nos lags.We study the variables that most affect the sovereign ratings change in the EU for Credit Rating Agencies Fitch and S&P. Using a panel probit model we assess the impact of different economic and political variables on sovereign ratings general change, increase and decrease before and after the Great Recession. Most importantly, we also analyse the lead lag time for each rating agency in these two periods, covering specifically 1997:12-2018:12. Our results show that economic and political variables are considered differently in both periods and that the lead lag for rating changes decreases after the crisis, especially when this change is a decrease in the rating. We then enrich the discussion by bringing some behavioural concepts into the reasoning of that change in the variables and lead lag behaviour.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Including Women? (Dis)junctures Between Voice,

Abstract Integrated development plans (IDPs) are municipal strategic plans designed to bring about developmental local government. They have been criticised for providing insufficient space for democratic participation. This paper explores the extent to which a marginalised group—women—has been incorporated into the IDP process, in response to three questions. First, how have IDP participatory processes incorporated women’s voice, and are the new participatory spaces realising their transformative potential? Secondly, how have women’s interests and a gender perspective been mainstreamed in the IDP, and has it promoted transformation? And finally, at the interface between officials and women themselves, how are IDP projects implemented and does agency promote or impede the goals of gender equality? A study of three KwaZulu-Natal municipalities reveals some achievements, but unequal gender relations have not been transformed. These case studies demonstrate some of the complexities and difficulties in the practice of democratic governance

On the frequency of permutations containing a long cycle

A general explicit upper bound is obtained for the proportion $P(n,m)$ of elements of order dividing $m$, where $n-1 \le m \le cn$ for some constant $c$, in the finite symmetric group $S_n$. This is used to find lower bounds for the conditional probabilities that an element of $S_n$ or $A_n$ contains an $r$-cycle, given that it satisfies an equation of the form $x^{rs}=1$ where $s\leq3$. For example, the conditional probability that an element $x$ is an $n$-cycle, given that $x^n=1$, is always greater than 2/7, and is greater than 1/2 if $n$ does not divide 24. Our results improve estimates of these conditional probabilities in earlier work of the authors with Beals, Leedham-Green and Seress, and have applications for analysing black-box recognition algorithms for the finite symmetric and alternating groups

One More Awareness Gap? The Behaviour–Impact Gap Problem

Preceding research has made hardly any attempt to measure the ecological impacts of pro-environmental behaviour in an objective way. Those impacts were rather supposed or calculated. The research described herein scrutinized the ecological impact reductions achieved through pro-environmental behaviour and raised the question how much of a reduction in carbon footprint can be achieved through voluntary action without actually affecting the socio-economic determinants of life. A survey was carried out in order to measure the difference between the ecological footprint of “green” and “brown” consumers. No significant difference was found between the ecological footprints of the two groups—suggesting that individual pro-environmental attitudes and behaviour do not always reduce the environmental impacts of consumption. This finding resulted in the formulation of a new proposition called the BIG (behaviour–impact gap) problem, which is an interesting addition to research in the field of environmental awareness gaps

Lithographic band gap tuning in photonic band gap crystals

We describe the lithographic control over the spectral response of three-dimensional photonic crystals. By precise microfabrication of the geometry using a reproducible and reliable procedure consisting of electron beam lithography followed by dry etching, we have shifted the conduction band of crystals within the near-infrared. Such microfabrication has enabled us to reproducibly define photonic crystals with lattice parameters ranging from 650 to 730 nm. In GaAs semiconductor wafers, these can serve as high-reflectivity (> 95%) mirrors. Here, we show the procedure used to generate these photonic crystals and describe the geometry dependence of their spectral response