Customary International Humanitarian Law and Multinational Military Operations in Malaysia

The International Committee of the Red Cross published a study in 2005 identifying rules of customary international law applicable to armed conflict and theoretically binding on all nations. This study found that customary state practice has come to encompass and in some cases exceed protections contained in the Additional Protocols of 1977 to the Geneva Conventions of 1949, regardless of their applicability to a given conflict. These findings may impact the domestic law enforcement practices of states not parties to Additional Protocol II, which regulates non-international armed conflict. Furthermore, the study may have indirect effects on military cooperation and legal reform worldwide. By strengthening the legal criticism of domestic laws not compliant with international humanitarian law, the study directly challenges non-party states seeking to obtain unqualified military assistance during internal conflicts. However, this same effect will lend support to increased observance of international humanitarian law as intervening states’ militaries apply pressure to realize compliance with customary international law. This comment identifies these implications by considering a hypothetical future counter-insurgency in Malaysia in which the United States offers military assistance to the Malaysian government

Sheep Updates 2005 - Part 2

This session covers seven papers from different authors: CONCURRENT SESSIONS - STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT 1.Finishing Pastoral Lambs, Peter Tozer, Patricia Harper, Janette Drew, Department of Agriculture Western Australia 2. Coating Improves Wool Quality under Mixed Farming Conditions, KE Kemper, ML Hebart, FD Brien, KS Grimson, DH Smith AMM Ramsay, South Australian Research and Development Institute 3. J. S. Richards, K.D. Atkins, T. Thompson, W. K. Murray, Australian Sheep Industry Co-operative Research Centre and NSW Department of Primary Industries, Orange Agricultural Institute, Forest Rd. Orange 4. Strategic Risk Management in the Sheep Industry, J.R.L. Hall, ICON Agriculture (JRL Hall & Co) 5. Joining Prime Lambs for the Northern End of the Market - a Systems Approach, Chris Carter, Peter Tozer, Department of Agriculture Western Australia 6. Lifetime Wool - Dry feed budgeting tool, Mike Hyder, department of Agriculture Western Australia, John Young, Farming Systems Analysis Service, Kojonup, Western Australia 7. Influence of ultrafine wool fibre curvature and blending with cashmere on attributes of knitwear, B. A. McGregor, Primary Industries Research Victoria, Department of Primary Industries, Victori

Systematically reviewing and synthesizing evidence from conversation analytic and related discursive research to inform healthcare communication practice and policy: an illustrated guide

Background Healthcare delivery is largely accomplished in and through conversations between people, and healthcare quality and effectiveness depend enormously upon the communication practices employed within these conversations. An important body of evidence about these practices has been generated by conversation analysis and related discourse analytic approaches, but there has been very little systematic reviewing of this evidence. Methods We developed an approach to reviewing evidence from conversation analytic and related discursive research through the following procedures: • reviewing existing systematic review methods and our own prior experience of applying these • clarifying distinctive features of conversation analytic and related discursive work which must be taken into account when reviewing • holding discussions within a review advisory team that included members with expertise in healthcare research, conversation analytic research, and systematic reviewing • attempting and then refining procedures through conducting an actual review which examined evidence about how people talk about difficult future issues including illness progression and dying Results We produced a step-by-step guide which we describe here in terms of eight stages, and which we illustrate from our ‘Review of Future Talk’. The guide incorporates both established procedures for systematic reviewing, and new techniques designed for working with conversation analytic evidence. Conclusions The guide is designed to inform systematic reviews of conversation analytic and related discursive evidence on specific domains and topics. Whilst we designed it for reviews that aim at informing healthcare practice and policy, it is flexible and could be used for reviews with other aims, for instance those aiming to underpin research programmes and projects. We advocate systematically reviewing conversation analytic and related discursive findings using this approach in order to translate them into a form that is credible and useful to healthcare practitioners, educators and policy-makers

Credible knowledge: A pilot evaluation of a modified GRADE method using parent-implemented interventions for children with autism

Abstract Background Decision-making in child and youth mental health (CYMH) care requires recommendations that are developed through an efficient and effective method and are based on credible knowledge. Credible knowledge is informed by two sources: scientific evidence, and practice-based evidence, that reflects the "real world" experience of service providers. Current approaches to developing these recommendations in relation to CYMH will typically include evidence from one source or the other but do not have an objective method to combine the two. To this end, a modified version of the Grading Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) approach was pilot-tested, a novel method for the CYMH field. Methods GRADE has an explicit methodology that relies on input from scientific evidence as well as a panel of experts. The panel established the quality of evidence and derived detailed recommendations regarding the organization and delivery of mental health care for children and youth or their caregivers. In this study a modified GRADE method was used to provide precise recommendations based on a specific CYMH question (i.e. What is the current credible knowledge concerning the effects of parent-implemented, early intervention with their autistic children?). Results Overall, it appeared that early, parent-implemented interventions for autism result in positive effects that outweigh any undesirable effects. However, as opposed to overall recommendations, the heterogeneity of the evidence required that recommendations be specific to particular interventions, based on the questions of whether the benefits of a particular intervention outweighs its harms. Conclusions This pilot project provided evidence that a modified GRADE method may be an effective and practical approach to making recommendations in CYMH, based on credible knowledge. Key strengths of the process included separating the assessments of the quality of the evidence and the strength of recommendations, transparency in decision-making, and the objectivity of the methods. Most importantly, this method combined the evidence and clinical experience in a more timely, explicit and simple process as compared to previous approaches. The strengths, limitations and modifications of the approach as they pertain to CYMH, are discussed

Ribosomal frameshifting and dual-target antiactivation restrict quorum-sensing-activated transfer of a mobile genetic element

Symbiosis islands are integrative and conjugative mobile genetic elements that convert nonsymbiotic rhizobia into nitrogen-fixing symbionts of leguminous plants. Excision of the Mesorhizobium loti symbiosis island ICEMlSymR7A is indirectly activated by quorum sensing through TraR-dependent activation of the excisionase gene rdfS. Here we show that a +1 programmed ribosomal frameshift (PRF) fuses the coding sequences of two TraR-activated genes, msi172 and msi171, producing an activator of rdfS expression named Frameshifted excision activator (FseA). Mass-spectrometry and mutational analyses indicated that the PRF occurred through +1 slippage of the tRNAphe from UUU to UUC within a conserved msi172-encoded motif. FseA activated rdfS expression in the absence of ICEMlSymR7A, suggesting that it directly activated rdfS transcription, despite being unrelated to any characterized DNA-binding proteins. Bacterial two-hybrid and gene-reporter assays demonstrated that FseA was also bound and inhibited by the ICEMlSymR7A-encoded quorum-sensing antiactivator QseM. Thus, activation of ICEMlSymR7A excision is counteracted by TraR antiactivation, ribosomal frameshifting, and FseA antiactivation. This robust suppression likely dampens the inherent biological noise present in the quorum-sensing autoinduction circuit and ensures that ICEMlSymR7A transfer only occurs in a subpopulation of cells in which both qseM expression is repressed and FseA is translated. The architecture of the ICEMlSymR7A transfer regulatory system provides an example of how a set of modular components have assembled through evolution to form a robust genetic toggle that regulates gene transcription and translation at both single-cell and cell-population levels

Sheep Updates 2005 - Part 2

This session covers seven papers from different authors: CONCURRENT SESSIONS - STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT 1.Finishing Pastoral Lambs, Peter Tozer, Patricia Harper, Janette Drew, Department of Agriculture Western Australia 2. Coating Improves Wool Quality under Mixed Farming Conditions, KE Kemper, ML Hebart, FD Brien, KS Grimson, DH Smith AMM Ramsay, South Australian Research and Development Institute 3. J. S. Richards, K.D. Atkins, T. Thompson, W. K. Murray, Australian Sheep Industry Co-operative Research Centre and NSW Department of Primary Industries, Orange Agricultural Institute, Forest Rd. Orange 4. Strategic Risk Management in the Sheep Industry, J.R.L. Hall, ICON Agriculture (JRL Hall & Co) 5. Joining Prime Lambs for the Northern End of the Market - a Systems Approach, Chris Carter, Peter Tozer, Department of Agriculture Western Australia 6. Lifetime Wool - Dry feed budgeting tool, Mike Hyder, department of Agriculture Western Australia, John Young, Farming Systems Analysis Service, Kojonup, Western Australia 7. Influence of ultrafine wool fibre curvature and blending with cashmere on attributes of knitwear, B. A. McGregor, Primary Industries Research Victoria, Department of Primary Industries, Victori