The time is ripe for the full recognition and protection by the law of same-sex marriages : blasphemy or benediction?

This short dissertation is an appraisal of same-sex marriages. The traditional arguments against same-sex unions are examined and rejected as being circular, unconvincing and baseless. Some of the international developments on the subject of same-sex unions are examined and it is noted that a slow but distinct change in attitude towards same-sex marriages is beginning to emerge from international judiciaries. The legal position of people with same-sex orientation in the South African legal system is examined with special reference to our Constitution. It is submitted that our Constitution is the foremost vehicle for legal change in this regard and that the equality clause of our Constitution is authority for the recognition by the law of same-sex marriages. This dissertation concludes that same-sex marriages ought to be fully accepted and recognised by the law for reasons, inter alia, of fairness and equality for people of same-sex orientation.Constitutional, International and Indigenous LawLL. M

Dental professionals’ knowledge and behavior towards utilization of gloves: a cross-sectional survey

Introduction: The purpose of this study was to assess the perception and beliefs of dental healthcare providers towards usage of different type of gloves.Methods: A self-administered questionnaire was distributed among a total of 241 participants out of which 198 participants (77 interns, 58 dental post-graduate students (PG) and 63 dental faculty members) returned completed questionnaire (response rate of 82.15%). The questionnaire comprised of questions on dental professionals’ preferences for certain types of gloves and the reasons for these preferences, as well as determining their knowledge, beliefs and behavior concerning the use of dental gloves as a means of barrier protection.Results: Dental faculty members had a better knowledge regarding use of gloves as compared to dental PG students and interns. Most of the study participants preferred certain types of gloves for the purpose of better protection followed by comfort. Most of the participants believed that gloves provide full protection as long as there is no visible tear (interns 70.1%; PG students 50%; faculty members 60.3%). Most of the interns (42.9%) and PG students (41.4%) did not know about the fact that petroleum based products affect the integrity of the gloves. 2.6% interns, 29.3% PG students and 20.6% faculty members reported that they would not change gloves during an uninterrupted three-hour long procedure.Conclusion: Most of the interns and PG students had poor knowledge regarding usage of gloves which calls for an action on the part of educators to educate and train dental professionals regarding proper infection control practices

Sargassum inspired, optimized calcium alginate bioplastic composites for food packaging

Plastic pollution, more specifically from food packaging and containers which account for the largest share of 36% of current plastic production, is one of the greatest threats to the natural environment and human health. Thus, the development of alternative renewable plastics are needed to complement a circular economy and reduce resource depletion. Seaweeds have been known to possess good film forming properties ideal for bioplastic production, and Sargassum natans-an invasive brown seaweed which has been inundating the shores of the Caribbean, has been shown to be an excellent candidate. This study presents, for the first time, the development of a novel optimized biodegradable alginate composite bioplastic as an alternative to traditional plastic packaging. The optimization process was carried out using Response Surface Methodology (RSM) resulting in a formulation of 6 wt% alginate, 0.263 wt% starch, 0.35 wt% CMC, 0.065 g/g sorbitol and 0.025 g/g PEG 200- with ultra-high oxygen barrier (OP - 0.2 cm3 μm m−2 d−1 kPa−1), good water vapor barrier (WVP - 2.18 × 10−12 g m/m2 s Pa) and high tensile modulus ( - 3.93 GPa)- with no migration of additives into a simulated aqueous food system in 10 days. Furthermore, composite films were found to fully degrade in 14 days and possessed better OP, higher WVP and comparable material properties to HDPE, PET and PLA. Ultimately, our results support alginate composite films as a viable alternative for food packaging best fitted for low moisture environments-encouraging the use of renewable materials for packaging innovation and supporting UNSDGs

Re-democratization in Guyana and Suriname: Critical Comparisons

Guyana and Suriname both re-assumed the path to  democracy in the early 1990s. Guyana had from  1968 to 1992 experienced an authoritarian regime  with the People’s National Congress (PNC), led by  Forbes Burnham, maintaining power by rigged  elections and the support of the security forces. In  Suriname, on the other hand, the elected government of Prime Minister Henck Arron was overthrown by a military coup in 1980. This article traces  the establishment of authoritarianism in these two  countries and examines the factors which propelled  each country towards the restoration of democracy.  The central argument is that authoritarianism in  Guyana resulted from the success of Forbes Burnham in subordinating the military to party rule  while the military take-over in Suriname resulted  from the mismanagement of civil-military relations  by the government of Henck Arron. However,  maintaining an authoritarian regime proved costly  in both cases. The need for external aid rendered  the regimes susceptible to foreign pressure for a  return to free and fair elections. All of this occurred  in a new hemispheric context shaped by the end of  the Cold War, the stated goal of the United States  to have the area become a zone of democracy, and  impending foreign military intervention to restore  the ousted Aristide government to power in Haiti. Resumen: Redemocratización en Guyana y Suriname: Comparaciones CríticasTanto Guyana como Suriname retomaron el  camino hacia la democracia a comienzos de la  década de los noventa. Desde 1968 hasta 1992,  Guyana tuvo un régimen autoritario con el Congreso Nacional del Pueblo (People’s National  Congress o PNC), liderado por Forbes Burnham,  que se mantuvo en el poder gracias a la manipulación de las elecciones y al apoyo de las fuerzas  de seguridad. En Suriname, por otro lado, el  gobierno electo del primer ministro Henck Arron  fue derrocado por un golpe de estado militar en  el año 1980. Este artículo describe el establecimiento del autoritarismo en estos dos países y  examina los factores que empujaron a cada uno  de ellos hacia la restauración de la democracia.  El argumento central es que el autoritarismo en  Guyana fue consecuencia del éxito de Forbes  Burnham a la hora de subordinar el ejército al  partido, mientras que en Suriname el golpe de  estado militar fue el resultado de la negligencia  en el manejo de las relaciones civiles-militares  por parte del gobierno de Henck Arron. Sin  embargo, el mantenimiento de un régimen autoritario demostró ser costoso en ambos casos. La  necesidad de ayuda externa hizo que ambos  regímenes fueran vulnerables a la presión extranjera a favor de un retorno a las elecciones libres  y justas. Todo esto ocurrió en un contexto hemisférico delineado por el fin de la Guerra Fría, el  claro objetivo de los Estados Unidos de hacer  que el área se convirtiera en una zona de democracia, y una inminente intervención militar para  restaurar en el gobierno de Haití al derrocado  Aristide

The United States and the Caribbean in the 21st Century: Towards a New Era of Engagement?

Did the United States neglect or increase its engagement with the Caribbean during the twenty-first century? I argue that from the Bush to the Obama administrations (2001-2016), there was an effort by the United States to increase engagement with the Caribbean nations. My main research question was, why did the United States increase its engagement with the Caribbean during the twenty-first century? I focus on the Anglophone Caribbean and I examine the cases of The Bahamas, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, and Guyana. By measuring engagement based on levels of U.S. foreign assistance, legislative changes, regional initiatives, and high-level diplomacy, I demonstrate that there was an increase rather than decrease in U.S. activities in the Caribbean over the last fifteen years. My results show that engagement activities in the Caribbean fell into five categories: security, energy, health, development, and humanitarian. By examining the variables U.S. security interests, U.S. economic interest, political ideology and development concerns, I conclude that American engagement was driven by a combination of factors, but principally by U.S. security concerns. Security however from a U.S. perspective was viewed as a multidimensional concept therefore funding in areas of development, health and energy was part of a broader national security strategy. There was much consistency in policies from conservative to liberal administrations given the consensus that a stable and prosperous Caribbean is in the interest of the United States.</p

The World Health Organization's External Quality Assurance System Proficiency Testing Program Has Improved the Accuracy of Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing and Reporting among Participating Laboratories Using NCCLS Methods

A total of 150 laboratories in 33 countries that followed the NCCLS testing procedures participated in the World Health Organization's External Quality Assurance System for Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing (EQAS-AST) from January 1998 through March 2001. Laboratories tested seven bacterial isolates for antimicrobial resistance and reported the results to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, Ga. The results were compared to the results generated at the CDC with the NCCLS broth microdilution and disk diffusion reference methods. Although there were few testing errors with Salmonella enterica subsp. enterica serovar Enteritidis, drugs that are not appropriate for therapy of Salmonella infections were tested and reported by 136 (91%) of 150 laboratories. In addition, 29 (20%) of 150 laboratories used the Staphylococcus aureus breakpoints to report oxacillin results for Staphylococcus saprophyticus. For a vanB-containing Enterococcus faecalis strain, 124 (83%) of 150 laboratories correctly reported vancomycin results that were ±1 doubling dilution from the reference MIC or ±3 mm from the reference disk diffusion result. Of the laboratories that tested Streptococcus agalactiae by disk diffusion, 17% reported nonsusceptible results for penicillin in error. While 110 laboratories (73%) tested the S. pneumoniae challenge isolate against a fluoroquinolone, 83% tested it against ciprofloxacin, for which there are no NCCLS interpretive criteria. Ten of 12 laboratories testing levofloxacin and 4 of 4 laboratories testing ofloxacin by an MIC method correctly reported resistant results for the isolate. Feedback letters sent to participating laboratories highlighted areas of susceptibility testing in individual laboratories that needed improvement. The positive impact of the feedback letters and the overall effectiveness of the EQAS program were documented in repeat testing challenges with pneumococci and staphylococci. The 31 and 19% increases in the numbers of laboratories using appropriate testing methods for pneumococci and staphylococci, respectively, in 2000 versus 1998 indicate that laboratory performance is improving

Pulsed-Field Gel Electrophoresis Typing of Oxacillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus Isolates from the United States: Establishing a National Database

Oxacillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (ORSA) is a virulent pathogen responsible for both health care-associated and community onset disease. We used SmaI-digested genomic DNA separated by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) to characterize 957 S. aureus isolates and establish a database of PFGE patterns. In addition to PFGE patterns of U.S. strains, the database contains patterns of representative epidemic-type strains from the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia; previously described ORSA clonal-type isolates; 13 vancomycin-intermediate S. aureus (VISA) isolates, and two high-level vancomycin-resistant, vanA-positive strains (VRSA). Among the isolates from the United States, we identified eight lineages, designated as pulsed-field types (PFTs) USA100 through USA800, seven of which included both ORSA and oxacillin-susceptible S. aureus isolates. With the exception of the PFT pairs USA100 and USA800, and USA300 and USA500, each of the PFTs had a unique multilocus sequence type and spa type motif. The USA100 PFT, previously designated as the New York/Tokyo clone, was the most common PFT in the database, representing 44% of the ORSA isolates. USA100 isolates were typically multiresistant and included all but one of the U.S. VISA strains and both VRSA isolates. Multiresistant ORSA isolates from the USA200, -500, and -600 PFTs have PFGE patterns similar to those of previously described epidemic strains from Europe and Australia. The USA300 and -400 PFTs contained community isolates resistant only to β-lactam drugs and erythromycin. Noticeably absent from the U.S. database were isolates with the previously described Brazilian and EMRSA15 PFGE patterns. These data suggest that there are a limited number of ORSA genotypes present in the United States