Independent Media in a Time of War

Amy Goodman is the host and executive producer of Democracy Now! This talk, on one of the subjects of her book (co-authored with her brother, David Goodman), The Exception to the Rulers (Hyperion, 2004), was presented at the Tenth Annual Media Studies Symposium at Sacred Heart University on April 20, 2005

Title VII Is Not the Only Cure for Employment Discrimination: The Implications of \u3cem\u3eDoe v. Mercy Catholic Medical Center\u3c/em\u3e in Expanding Claims for Medical Residents Under Title IX

In March 2017, in Doe v. Mercy Catholic Medical Center, the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit established that medical residents, who function as both students and as employees of a hospital, could bring private causes of action for sex discrimination under Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972. This ruling revived a long-standing split amongst the Circuits, with the Third Circuit parting company from the Fifth and Seventh Circuits and aligning with the First and Fourth Circuits, which hold Title VII’s carefully crafted administrative remedial procedure does not pre-empt claims under Title IX. This Comment argues that the Third Circuit’s decision to allow medical residents to bring Title IX claims furthers the goals of the legislation, which seeks to combat discrimination against minorities in education and, more specifically, to advance the number of women in professional fields such as law and medicine. Since successfully completing a medical residency program is a pre-requisite to practicing as a physician, it is important that U.S. courts give medical residents full access to the panoply of remedies available and allow discretion in bringing either a Title VII or Title IX discrimination claim

A “Natural” Stand Off Between the Food and Drug Administration and the Courts: The Rise in Food-Labeling Litigation & the Need for Regulatory Reform

Faced with the health and financial toll from escalating rates of chronic disease, consumers are demanding healthier food products and increased transparency regarding the ingredients in their food. Food labels provide the primary means for businesses to communicate with customers about their food products. In response to consumer demand, food companies are stocking grocery store shelves with products claiming to be wholesome, “natural” and healthy. Yet, many of these products are not as healthy or natural as purported. Although both consumers and food manufacturers place importance on the term “natural,” the Food and Drug Administration has refused to define the term. In the absence of a legally enforceable definition, there has been a rise in class action litigation against allegedly mislabeled “all natural” food products. This Note evaluates the impact of the courts, rather than the FDA, on the interpretation of food-labeling laws. The Note discusses the confusion among courts over whether primary jurisdiction should apply and litigation should be stayed due to possible agency action. This Note goes on to analyze the results of the FDA’s public comment process initiated in May 2016 to determine whether the agency should define the term “natural.” Finally, this Note explores how and why the FDA, not the courts or legislature, should define the term “natural.

Reportaje a Joshua Oppenheimer

El 1ro de octubre señala el 50° aniversario del comienzo del genocidio en Indonesia de 1965, el cual dejó un saldo de más de un millón de personas asesinadas. Algunos grupos que bregan por los derechos humanos han hecho circular peticiones que demandan que el gobierno de los Estados Unidos reconozca su participación en dicho genocidio y que dé a conocer los registros militares, gubernamentales y de la CIA en relación al exterminio en masa. Los Estados Unidos proveyeron a la Armada indonesia de apoyo económico, militar y de inteligencia en aquel momento. Actualmente, podemos observar la búsqueda de un hombre indonesio que confronta a los asesinos de su hermano. En 1965, el hermano mayor de Adi Rukun fue asesinado por el Comando ANSI, una organización paramilitar en Aceh. El propósito de Adi Rukun constituye el foco del nuevo documental de Joshua Oppenheimer, The Look of Silence. En 2012, Oppenheimer estrenó un film independiente titulado The Act of Killing, en el cual entrevistaba a los jefes de bandas de aniquilamiento indonesios y trabajaba junto a ellos para dramatizar los asesinatos ocurridos en la vida real. El film fue nominado a un Premio de la Academia. Transcripción La presente es una transcripción de último momento. Esta copia podría no ser la versión final

Associations between birth characteristics and eating disorders across the life course: findings from 2 million males and females born in Sweden, 1975-1998.

Birth characteristics predict a range of major physical and mental disorders, but findings regarding eating disorders are inconsistent and inconclusive. This total-population Swedish cohort study identified 2,015,862 individuals born in 1975-1998 and followed them for anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and eating disorder not otherwise specified until the end of 2010. We examined associations with multiple family and birth characteristics and conducted within-family analyses to test for maternal-level confounding. In total, 1,019 males and 15,395 females received an eating disorder diagnosis. Anorexia nervosa was independently predicted by multiple birth (adjusted hazard ratio = 1.33, 95% confidence interval: 1.15, 1.53) for twins or triplets vs. singletons) and lower gestational age (adjusted hazard ratio = 0.96, 95% confidence interval: 0.95, 0.98) per extra week of gestation, with a clear dose-response pattern. Within-family analyses provided no evidence of residual maternal-level confounding. Higher birth weight for gestational age showed a strong, positive dose-response association with bulimia nervosa (adjusted hazard ratio = 1.15, 95% confidence interval: 1.09, 1.22, per each standard-deviation increase), again with no evidence of residual maternal-level confounding. We conclude that some perinatal characteristics may play causal, disease-specific roles in the development of eating disorders, including via perinatal variation within the normal range. Further research into the underlying mechanisms is warranted. Finally, several large population-based studies of anorexia nervosa have been conducted in twins; it is possible that these studies considerably overestimate prevalence

Magnetorotational Instability in a Swirling Partially Ionized Gas

The magnetorotational instability (MRI) has been proposed as the method of angular momentum transport that enables accretion in astrophysical discs. However, for weakly-ionized discs, such as protoplanetary discs, it remains unclear whether the combined non-ideal magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) effects of Ohmic resistivity, ambipolar diffusion, and the Hall effect make these discs MRI-stable. While much effort has been made to simulate non-ideal MHD MRI, these simulations make simplifying assumptions and are not always in agreement with each other. Furthermore, it is difficult to directly observe the MRI astrophysically because it occurs on small scales. Here, we propose the concept of a swirling gas experiment of weakly-ionized argon gas between two concentric cylinders threaded with an axial magnetic field that can be used to study non-ideal MHD MRI. For our proposed experiment, we derive the hydrodynamic equilibrium flow and a dispersion relation for MRI that includes the three non-ideal effects. We solve this dispersion relation numerically for the parameters of our proposed experiment. We find it should be possible to produce non-ideal MRI in such an experiment because of the Hall effect, which increases the MRI growth rate when the vertical magnetic field is anti-aligned with the rotation axis. As a proof of concept, we also present experimental results for a hydrodynamic flow in an unmagnetized prototype. We find that our prototype has a small, but non-negligible, $\alpha$-parameter that could serve as a baseline for comparison to our proposed magnetized experiment, which could be subject to additional turbulence from the MRI.Comment: 14 pages, 13 figures, submitted to MNRA

Early life characteristics, social mobility during childhood and risk of stroke in later life: findings from a Swedish cohort.

AIMS: To investigate if early life characteristics and social mobility during childhood are associated with incident thrombotic stroke (TS), haemorrhagic stroke (HS) and other stroke (OS). METHODS: Our study population consists of all live births at Uppsala University Hospital in 1915-1929 (Uppsala Birth Cohort; n = 14,192), of whom 5532 males and 5061 females were singleton births and lived in Sweden in 1964. We followed them from 1 January 1964 until first diagnosis of stroke (in the National Patient Register or Causes of Death Register), emigration, death, or until 31 December 2008. Data were analysed using Cox regression, stratifying by gender. RESULTS: Gestational age was negatively associated with TS and OS in women only. Women had increased risk of TS if they were born early preterm (<35 weeks) (HR 1.54 (95% CI 1.02-2.31)) or preterm (35-36 weeks) (HR 1.37 (95% CI 1.03-1.83)) compared to women born at term. By contrast, only women who were early preterm (HR 1.98 (95% CI 1.27-3.10) had an increased risk of OS. Men who were born post-term (⩾42 weeks) had increased risk of HS (HR 1.45 (95% CI 1.04-2.01)) compared with men born at term, with no association for women. TS was associated with social mobility during childhood in women: women whose families were upwardly or downwardly mobile had increased risk of TS compared to women who were always advantaged during childhood. CONCLUSIONS: Gestational age and social mobility during childhood were associated with increased risk of stroke later in life, particularly among women, but there was some heterogeneity between stroke subtypes

Understanding the associations between receipt of, and interest in, advice from a healthcare professional and quality of life in individuals with a stoma from colorectal cancer:a latent profile analysis

Purpose: To explore whether profiles derived from self-reported quality of life were associated with receipt of, and interest in, advice from a healthcare professional in people with a stoma. Methods: Secondary analysis of cross-sectional national survey data from England of 4487 people with a stoma from colorectal cancer. The survey assessed quality of life using various scales, receipt and interest in various forms of advice, and physical activity. A three-step latent profile analysis was conducted to determine the optimum number of profiles. Multinomial regression explored factors associated with profile membership. A series of logistic regression models examined whether profile membership was associated with interest in advice. Results: Five profiles were identified; ‘consistently good quality of life’, ‘functional issues’, ‘functional and financial issues’, ‘low quality of life’ and ‘supported but struggling’. Individuals in the ‘functional and financial issues’ and ‘low quality of life’ profiles were more likely to have received financial advice compared to the ‘consistently good quality of life’ profile. When compared to the ‘consistently good quality of life’ profile, all other profiles were more likely to report wanting advice across a range of areas, with the strongest associations in the ‘low quality of life’ profile. Conclusion: Findings indicate that people with a stoma are not a homogenous group in terms of quality of life. Participants in profiles with quality of life concerns report wanting more advice across various categories but findings suggest there is scope to explore how this can be tailored or adapted to specific groups.</p

A systematic review and meta‐analysis of the effectiveness of self‐management interventions in people with a stoma

Aims: Explore the evidence from randomized controlled trials for the effect of self management interventions on quality of life, self-management skills and self-efficacy, and to explore which intervention characteristics are associated with effectiveness.Design: Systematic review.Data sources: A search of the literature was conducted in these databases: MEDLINE (OVID), EMBASE (OVID) and PsychINFO (OVID) from January 2000 to February 2020.Review methods: Studies were included if participants had a bowel stoma, were over the age of 18 and the design was a randomized controlled trial of a self-management programme. The outcome measures for this review were quality of life, self management skills and self-efficacy. The Behaviour Change Technique Taxonomy was used to code interventions for underlying components and alongside other intervention characteristics, associations with improvements in outcomes were explored.Results: The search identified 3141 articles, 16 of which were eligible. A meta-analysis of self-efficacy scores from five studies (N = 536) found an improvement in those that received the self-management intervention at follow-up with a 12-point meandifference compared with the usual care group. Effects on quality of life and self management skills were mixed, and meta-analyses of these data were not possible. Across 13 studies an average of 10 behaviour change techniques were used with, credible source (e.g. nurse, doctor, therapist) (n = 13), instruction on how to perform the behaviour (n = 13), demonstration of the behaviour (n = 12) used most often. The behaviour change technique of self-monitoring was associated with an improvement in quality of life. The involvement of a nurse was associated with higher self-efficacy and self-management skills.Conclusion: This review suggests that self-management interventions can increase peoples’ self-efficacy for managing their stoma.Impact: A standardized approach to the reporting of interventions and the measures used is needed in future studies to better understand the effect on quality of life and self-management skills

Socio-economic position at four time points across the life course and all-cause mortality: updated results from the Uppsala Birth Cohort Multigenerational Study

Socio-economic position (SEP) is associated with all-cause mortality across all stages of the life course; however, it is valuable to distinguish at what time periods SEP has the most influence on mortality. Our aim was to investigate whether the effect of SEP on all-cause mortality accumulates over the life course or if some periods of the life course are more important. Our study population were from the Uppsala Birth Cohort Multigenerational Study, born 1915–29 at Uppsala University Hospital, Sweden. We followed 3,951 men and 3,601 women who had SEP at birth available, during childhood (at age ten), in adulthood (ages 30–45) and in later life (ages 50–65) from 15 September 1980 until emigration, death or until 31 December 2010. We compared a set of nested Cox proportional regression models, each corresponding to a specific life course model (critical, sensitive and accumulation models), to a fully saturated model, to ascertain which model best describes the relationship between SEP and mortality. Analyses were stratified by gender. For both men and women the effect of SEP across the life course on all-cause mortality is best described by the sensitive period model, whereby being advantaged in later life (ages 50–65 years) provides the largest protective effect. However, the linear accumulation model also provided a good fit of the data for women suggesting that improvements in SEP at any stage of the life course corresponds to a decrease in all-cause mortality.</jats:p