The right to physical integrity and informed refusal : just how far does a patient’s right to refuse medical treatment go?

The article presents a legal analysis of the right to physical integrity as guaranteed by the South African Constitution, 1996, and the subsequent right of a competent adult person to refuse medical treatment under South African law. We consider whether the right to refuse treatment is an absolute right and very briefly reflect on the application of the constitutional limitations clause to this right. Instances in which patients’ right to physical integrity is limited by factors, which detract from (patient) autonomy, are considered: these represent a limitation of their right to refuse medical treatment. We conclude that forced medical interventions, for the most part, are not desirable but, indeed, necessary in some narrowly defined circumstances. When a person makes a decision to refuse a medical intervention, which may seem unusual or may be perceived as irrational, it does not mean that person does not warrant the protection of the constitution and the courts. Provided that the patient makes an informed refusal while of sound mind, generally there is no reason to discredit his/her decision, difficult as it may be for others to accept. At all times the right to bodily integrity is pivotal in any health-related context and should not be lightly disregarded.http://www.sajbl.org.zaam2017Public La

The influence of CO adsorption on the surface composition of cobalt/palladium alloys

AM is grateful for funding from SASOL Technology UK Ltd (PhD studentship); JG is grateful for the award of a fellowship from the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation. TEJ and AGT acknowledge EPSRC funding of postdoctoral research (EP/E047580/1). The MEIS facility was funded via EPSRC grant EP/E003370/1.Segregation induced by the adsorption of gas phase species can strongly influence the composition of bimetallic surfaces and can therefore play an important role in influencing heterogeneous catalytic reactions. The addition of palladium to cobalt catalysts has been shown to promote Fischer Tropsch catalysis. We investigate the adsorption of CO onto bimetallic CoPd surfaces on Pd{111} using a combination of reflection absorption infrared spectroscopy and medium energy ion scattering. The vibrational frequency of adsorbed CO provides crucial information on the adsorption sites adopted by CO and medium energy ion scattering probes the surface composition before and after CO exposure. We show that cobalt segregation is induced by CO adsorption and rationalise these observations in terms of the strength of adsorption of CO in various surface adsorption sites.PostprintPeer reviewe

Gravimagnetic effect of the barycentric motion of the Sun and determination of the post-Newtonian parameter gamma in the Cassini experiment

The most precise test of the post-Newtonian gamma parameter in the solar system has been achieved in measurement of the frequency shift of radio waves to and from the Cassini spacecraft as they passed near the Sun. The test relies upon the JPL model of radiowave propagation that includes, but does not explicitly parametrize, the impact of the non-stationary component of the gravitational field of the Sun, generated by its barycentric orbital motion, on the Shapiro delay. This non-stationary gravitational field of the Sun is associated with the Lorentz transformation of the metric tensor and the affine connection from the heliocentric to the barycentric frame of the solar system and can be treated as gravimagnetic field. The gravimagnetic field perturbs the propagation of a radio wave and contributes to its frequency shift at the level up to 4 10^{-13} that may affect the precise measurement of the parameter gamma in the Cassini experiment to about one part in 10,000. Our analysis suggests that the translational gravimagnetic field of the Sun can be extracted from the Cassini data, and its effect is separable from the space curvature characterized by the parameter gamma.Comment: 12 pages, 1 figure, accepted to Physical Letters

Some Properties of the Speciation Model for Food-Web Structure - Mechanisms for Degree Distributions and Intervality

We present a mathematical analysis of the speciation model for food-web structure, which had in previous work been shown to yield a good description of empirical data of food-web topology. The degree distributions of the network are derived. Properties of the speciation model are compared to those of other models that successfully describe empirical data. It is argued that the speciation model unifies the underlying ideas of previous theories. In particular, it offers a mechanistic explanation for the success of the niche model of Williams and Martinez and the frequent observation of intervality in empirical food webs.Comment: 23 pages, 6 figures, minor rewrite

Linkage of national health and social care data: a cross-sectional study of multimorbidity and social care use in people aged over 65 years in Scotland

Background: Little is known about the relationship between multimorbidity and social care use (also known as long-term care). The aim of this study was to assess the relationship between receipt of formal social care services and multimorbidity. Methods: This retrospective data linkage, observational study included all individuals over the age of 65 in the population of Scotland in financial years 2014/15 and 2015/16 (n= 975,265). The main outcome was receipt of social care measured by presence in the Scottish Social Care Survey. Logistic regression models were used to assess the influence of multimorbidity, age, sex, and socioeconomic position on the outcome reporting Average Marginal Effects (AME). Findings: 93.3% of those receiving social care had multimorbidity. 16.2% of those with multimorbidity received social care compared to 3.7% of those without. The strongest magnitudes of AME for receiving social care were seen for age and multimorbidity (respectively 50% and 18% increased probability comparing oldest to youngest and most severe multimorbidity to none). A 5.5% increased probability of receiving social care was observed for the most-deprived compared to the least-deprived. Interpretation: Higher levels of social care receipt are observed in those with increasing age, severe multimorbidity and living in more deprived areas. Multimorbidity does not fully moderate the relationship between social care receipt and either age or deprivation

Multiple (inverse) binomial sums of arbitrary weight and depth and the all-order epsilon-expansion of generalized hypergeometric functions with one half-integer value of parameter

We continue the study of the construction of analytical coefficients of the epsilon-expansion of hypergeometric functions and their connection with Feynman diagrams. In this paper, we show the following results: Theorem A: The multiple (inverse) binomial sums of arbitrary weight and depth (see Eq. (1.1)) are expressible in terms of Remiddi-Vermaseren functions. Theorem B: The epsilon expansion of a hypergeometric function with one half-integer value of parameter (see Eq. (1.2)) is expressible in terms of the harmonic polylogarithms of Remiddi and Vermaseren with coefficients that are ratios of polynomials. Some extra materials are available via the www at this http://theor.jinr.ru/~kalmykov/hypergeom/hyper.htmlComment: 24 pages, latex with amsmath and JHEP3.cls; v2: some typos corrected and a few references added; v3: few references added

Rotating Resonator-Oscillator Experiments to Test Lorentz Invariance in Electrodynamics

In this work we outline the two most commonly used test theories (RMS and SME) for testing Local Lorentz Invariance (LLI) of the photon. Then we develop the general framework of applying these test theories to resonator experiments with an emphasis on rotating experiments in the laboratory. We compare the inherent sensitivity factors of common experiments and propose some new configurations. Finally we apply the test theories to the rotating cryogenic experiment at the University of Western Australia, which recently set new limits in both the RMS and SME frameworks [hep-ph/0506074].Comment: Submitted to Lecture Notes in Physics, 36 pages, minor modifications, updated list of reference

Fractional vortices on grain boundaries --- the case for broken time reversal symmetry in high temperature superconductors

We discuss the problem of broken time reversal symmetry near grain boundaries in a d-wave superconductor based on a Ginzburg-Landau theory. It is shown that such a state can lead to fractional vortices on the grain boundary. Both analytical and numerical results show the structure of this type of state.Comment: 9 pages, RevTeX, 5 postscript figures include

Phonon Pulse Shape Discrimination in SuperCDMS Soudan

SuperCDMS is the next phase of the Cryogenic Dark Matter Search experiment, which measures both phonon and charge signals generated by particle recoils within a germanium target mass. Charge signals are employed both in the definition of a fiducial volume and in the rejection of electron recoil background events. Alternatively, phonons generated by the charge carriers can also be used for the same two goals. This paper describes preliminary efforts to observe and quantify these contributions to the phonon signal and then use them to reject background events. A simple analysis using only one pulse shape parameter shows bulk electron recoil vs. bulk nuclear recoil discrimination to the level of 1:10^3 (limited by the statistics of the data), with little degradation in discrimination ability down to at least 7 keV recoil energy. Such phonon-only discrimination can provide a useful cross-check to the standard discrimination methods, and it also points towards the potential of a device optimized for a phonon-only measurement.Comment: Low Temperature Detector 14 conference proceedings, to be published in a special issue of the Journal of Low Temperature Physic

Charged lepton electric dipole moments with the localized leptons and the new Higgs doublet in the two Higgs doublet model

We study the lepton electric dipole moments in the split fermion scenario, in the two Higgs doublet model, where the new Higgs scalars are localized around the origin in the extra dimension, with the help of the localizer field. We observe that the numerical value of the electron (muon, tau) electric dipole moment is at the order of the magnitude of 10^{-31} (10^{-24}, 10^{-22}) (e-cm) and this quantity is sensitive the new Higgs localization in the extra dimension.Comment: 20 pages, 7 figure