'Living a 'normal ' life: young people living with thalassaemia major or sickle cell disorder

This qualitative paper explores the strategies and resources young people use to cope with sickle cell disorder or thalassaemia major, two haemoglobin disorders with serious implications for health and survival. By focusing on coping strategies, we explore how young people attempt to take control over their lives. The respondents, largely of South Asian and African Caribbean origin, aged between 10 and 19 years, valued maintaining a ‘normal’ life and struggled to achieve this normalcy. Strategies were employed to minimise difference from peers but these strategies remained vulnerable. Coping occurred in a dynamic space, involving negotiation and engagement with both personal and structural factors. Threats to normalcy did not always reside in the condition; life transitions, changes in social relationships and racist, disablist or sexist marginalisation also threatened coping strategies

What Kind of Property is "Relationship Property"?

This article explores the meaning of "property" in the Property (Relationships) Act 1976. The definition of "property" in the Act is a wide one and is fundamental to jurisdiction under the Act. The article surveys the spectrum of legislative definitions of property. Then, with respect to the definition in the 1976 Act and in light of contemporary legislative aims, it is suggested that the meaning of the term should not be shackled by traditional concepts. Some of the leading judgments are examined, including two regarding relationship property from the Supreme Court, and it is found that the courts have already been adventuresome

Compensation for Personal Injury in New Zealand - Its Rise and Fall

This article is a book review of Ian Campbell Compensation for Personal Injury in New Zealand: Its Rise and Fall (Auckland University Press, Auckland, 1996) 286 + x pages, $39.95. Atkin notes that New Zealand's accident compensation scheme was initially developed in a largely non-partisan way and was greeted positively. However, he notes that accident compensation has become a political football in recent years. Atkin thus recognises the timeliness of this book which provides the scheme's history and competing arguments for future change. Atkin concludes that the book's reference to the scheme's rise and fall is too pessimistic a picture, as the scheme continues to work well for many New Zealanders. However, Atkin notes that the book adds legitimate weight to the idea that accident compensation is under attack. Thus, with its grounding in the history of compensation mechanisms, the book is said to represent a valuable addition to the debate about future directions.&nbsp

Family Property Law Reform

This article sets out some of the recent history of family property reform in New Zealand. The courts, parliament and government bodies have been involved in this process over the past three decades but further reforms are likely. The writer lists a number of considerations which should be borne in mind when reform is considered and then some possible future policy directions are foreshadowed

Tort Law Text and Materials by Mark Lunney and Ken Oliphant

This article is a book review of Mark Lunney and Ken Oliphant, Tort Law Text and Materials Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2000, 819 + lix pages (Reg Retail NZ$95). Lunney and Oliphant's book is a book of materials and cases of English tort law developments, although the authors have both done research in New Zealand as well. Atkin reviews the tort law developments in England covered in the book and then compares it to that of New Zealand, including the torts of invasion of privacy and negligence. Atkin commends the book for its innovative writing and style. The frequent pattern of the book is to include critique and commentary after the relevant case law, which Atkin states are memorable and of high quality.&nbsp

Narrative as re-fusion: making sense and value from sickle cell and thalassaemia trait

The moral turn within sociology suggests that we need to be attentive to values and have a rapprochement with philosophy. The study of illness narratives is one area of sociology that has consistently addressed itself to moral domains but has tended to focus on stories of living with genetic or chronic illness per se rather than liminal states such as genetic traits. This article takes the case of genetic carriers within racialized minority groups, namely, those with sickle cell or thalassaemia trait, and takes seriously the notion that their narratives are ethical practices. In line with the work of Paul Ricoeur, such storied practices are found to link embodiment, social relationships with significant others and wider socio-cultural and socio-political relations. At the same time, such practices are about embodying values. These narratives may be considered as practices that re-fuse what genetic counselling has de-fused, in order to make sense of a life in its entirety and to strive ethically and collectively towards preferred social realities

An Analysis of Research Article Productivity by Telecommunication Scholars Over the Past Decade

The article presents a study which assesses scholarly productivity in telecommunication-oriented journals from 1985-1995. Telecommunication can be defined as mediated communication across a distance. Sixteen journals were selected for this analysis. Most were listed among publications with the highest number of telecommunication authorship credits, according to Vincent\u27s study. Some of the differences in journal contributions may be a function of publication frequency and size. For instance, Journal of Media Economics (3.6 percent of articles) offered two issues/year through 1990 before expanding to four issues in 1993. Journalism Quarterly publishes more articles per issue than any of the other criterion journals. This study set out to establish a yardstick for telecommunication productivity in peer-reviewed communication journals

Long 3’-UTRs target wild-type mRNAs for nonsense-mediated mRNA decay in \u3ci\u3eSaccharomyces cerevisiae\u3c/i\u3e

The nonsense-mediated mRNA decay (NMD) pathway, present in most eukaryotic cells, is a specialized pathway that leads to the recognition and rapid degradation of mRNAs with premature termination codons and, importantly, some wild-type mRNAs. Earlier studies demonstrated that aberrant mRNAs with artificially extended 3’-untranslated regions (3’-UTRs) are degraded by NMD. However, the extent to which wild-type mRNAs with long 3’-UTRs are degraded by NMD is not known. We used a global approach to identify wild-type mRNAs in Saccharomyces cerevisiae that have longer than expected 3’-UTRs, and of these mRNAs tested, 91% were degraded by NMD. We demonstrate for the first time that replacement of the natural, long 3’-UTR from wild-type PGA1 mRNA, which encodes a protein that is important for cell wall biosynthesis, with a short 3’-UTR renders it immune to NMD. The natural PGA1 3’-UTR is sufficient to target a NMD insensitive mRNA for decay by the NMD pathway. Finally, we show that nmd mutants are sensitive to Calcofluor White, which suggests that the regulation of PGA1 and other cell wall biosynthesis proteins by NMD is physiologically significant