Disability, EU law and the CRPD: A New Dawn?

This paper will examine the definition of disability in anti-discrimination employment law in Europe. This paper reviews some of the approaches to defining disability both within the European Union and by the European Union. The underlying theme of this paper is to assess what if any impact the European Union’s ratification of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) will have on those definitions. The CRPD is a significant development for persons with disabilities, described by some commentators as “ground breaking.”2 It is ground breaking for a number of reasons, but most significantly for ensuring that it embodies the social model of disability.3 The main focus of this paper is to assess whether the various definitions of disability perpetuate the medical/individual model of disability or support the social model of disability and to determine the most appropriate approach to the definition within the EU.Peer reviewe

Disability, EU law and the CRPD: A New Dawn?

This paper will examine the definition of disability in anti-discrimination employment law in Europe. This paper reviews some of the approaches to defining disability both within the European Union and by the European Union. The underlying theme of this paper is to assess what if any impact the European Union’s ratification of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) will have on those definitions. The CRPD is a significant development for persons with disabilities, described by some commentators as “ground breaking.”2 It is ground breaking for a number of reasons, but most significantly for ensuring that it embodies the social model of disability.3 The main focus of this paper is to assess whether the various definitions of disability perpetuate the medical/individual model of disability or support the social model of disability and to determine the most appropriate approach to the definition within the EU.Peer reviewe

Preliminary investigations into the effects of breathing retraining techniques on end-tidal carbon dioxide measures in patients with asthma and healthy volunteers during a single treatment session

Objectives: Preliminary investigations into the physiological effects of breathing retraining techniques in order to establish the feasibility of the proposed methodology, produce data for power calculations and determine the potential for future research in this area.Design: Two preliminary, exploratory studies with an experimental design.Setting: Research laboratories.Participants: Study 1: 15 patients with mild to moderate asthma and nine healthy volunteers. Study 2: 15 healthy volunteers.Interventions: Physiological data from asthma patients and healthy volunteers were recorded before, during and after a single session of slow breathing and breath holds. A separate group of healthy participants carried out the slow breathing technique with and without visual biofeedback.Outcome measures: The primary outcome was end-tidal carbon dioxide (ETCO2), and the secondary outcomes were respiratory rate, pulse rate, oxygen saturation and lung function.Results: All groups showed an increase in ETCO2 from baseline during slow breathing. Study 1 found a mean rise in ETCO2 of 0.48 kPa [95% confidence interval (CI) 0.28–0.68] for healthy participants and 0.46 kPa (95% CI 0.29–0.63) for asthma patients. In healthy volunteers, ETCO2 stayed above baseline for 5 minutes after the intervention. ETCO2 rose minimally (mean 0.06 kPa) in both groups after breath holds. Study 2 found a mean rise in ETCO2 of 0.35 kPa (95% CI 0.09–0.60) during slow breathing with visual feedback, and 0.36 kPa (95% CI 0.13–0.60) during slow breathing without visual feedback.Conclusions: The results of these preliminary studies provide data to power larger studies. They suggest that ETCO2 rises during slow breathing in both asthma patients and healthy volunteers, and that this effect may persist beyond the intervention itself in healthy volunteers. The use of visual biofeedback had no effect on ETCO2 in healthy volunteers

Quest Volume 5 Number 3

Charles Darwin at the Cape: On his voyage around the world in the Beagle Darwin singled out the Cape in his notebooks; Charles Darwin: Reluctant hero of science?: Charles Darwin was a modest, self-taught biologist living at home with his family; Darwin at home - His love of science: Darwin's great-great-grandson looks at how Darwin pursued his love of science with his family; Darwin as a geologist: Few people realise that Darwin's first love was geology; The many colours of Galaxies: Astronomers use light to see galaxies providing an array of astonishing effects; You, me and UV - Under the sun Just how harmful are the rays that make us 'sunny South Africa'?; Managed Cape honeybee colonies and conservation: There is more to the production of honey than we realise; How might drought affect biodiversity in South Africa?: Will climate fluctuations affect the biodiversity of the succulent Karoo?; Young concerns: How one small clinic is responding to the challenge of increasing HIV prevalence young people; A year-long celebration of life and survival: How the University of the Free State is celebrating Darwin's life; Gateways to the West: Understanding the ocean circulation at the Mascarene Plateau Research in a remote part of the Indian Ocean gives us important information about the biological and oceanographic effects of the currents in the area; Teaching and learning about evolution: Part 2 Dealing with the controversies;Department of Science and Innovatio

Linkage of autosomal-dominant common variable immunodeficiency to chromosome 4q.

Contains fulltext : 50715.pdf (publisher's version ) (Closed access)The phenotype of common variable immunodeficiency (CVID) is characterized by recurrent infections owing to hypogammaglobulinemia, with deficiency in immunoglobulin (Ig)G and at least one of IgA or IgM. Family studies have shown a genetic association between CVID and selective IgA deficiency (IgAD), the latter being a milder disorder compatible with normal health. Approximately 20-25% of CVID cases are familial, if one includes families with at least one case of CVID and one of IgAD. Nijenhuis et al described a five-generation family with six cases of CVID, five cases of IgAD, and three cases of dysgammaglobulinemia. We conducted a genome-wide scan on this family seeking genetic linkage. One interval on chromosome 4q gives a peak multipoint LOD score of 2.70 using a strict model that treats only the CVID patients and one obligate carrier with dysgammaglobulinemia as affected. Extending the definition of likely affected to include IgAD boosts the peak multipoint LOD score to 3.38. The linkage interval spans at least from D4S2361 to D4S1572. We extended our study to a collection of 32 families with at least one CVID case and a second case of either CVID or IgAD. We used the same dominant penetrance model and genotyped and analyzed nine markers on 4q. The 32 families have a peak multipoint LOD score under heterogeneity of 0.96 between markers D4S423 and D4S1572 within the suggested linkage interval of the first family, and an estimated proportion of linked families (alpha) of 0.32, supporting the existence of a disease-causing gene for autosomal-dominant CVID/IgAD on chromosome 4q