Post-traumatic stress disorder in child sexual abuse prosecutions : gaps and opportunities

The interface between psychiatry and the law has become common place. Reliance on psychiatry has certainly conduced to more informed court decisions to which it deserves high praise. With specific regard to Post- Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), a host of court decisions abound on the critical role that PTSD-evidence has played in informing court decisions over the years. The role of PTSD-evidence, however, remains at its crawling stages in child sexual abuse (CSA) cases despite the potential it bears in effectively prosecuting these cases. This article draws on randomly selected CSA judgments to offer insight on the exact place and role of PTSDevidence in CSA prosecutions.http://www.sapsac.co.za/carsa.htmlam2016Public La

Revisiting the historical context surrounding the development of the ultimate issue rule to inform its future in South African law of evidence

The controversy surrounding the issue whether or not mental health professionals in South Africa should offer opinion testimony that touches upon the ultimate-issue has been ongoing and remains unsettled. This controversy has left the exact place of the ultimate-issue rule in balance hence causing uncertainty. This uncertainty has impacted negatively on the advancement of opinion testimony by mental health professionals. One notable area that has been affected is the one pertaining to child sexual-abuse cases. The authors trace the historical foundations surrounding the development of the ultimate-issue rule. It is demonstrated that the rule finds its basis in justice systems with jury trials, with the aim of the rule having been to ensure that experts do not usurp the role of the jury. Historically, juries were not schooled in law hence the need to screen the evidence they received ensuring that experts' opinions did not awe them to a point of them relinquishing their decision-making powers. In this context, the unsoundness of the rule in non-jury systems such as South Africa's (where decisions are made by judges schooled in law) is underscored. It is highlighted that the policy considerations surrounding the development of this rule are not applicable to South Africa. Recommendations are made for its express abolition by way of statutory guidelines.http://www.legalhistory.org.za/?file=fundamina2017-07-01am2016Public La

Behavioural science evidence in child sexual abuse prosecutions in South Africa : a jurisprudential and comparative insight

The role of behavioural science (BSE) in proving the occurrence of child sexual abuse (CSA) is well documented. Equally, its role in placing the evidence of the CSA victim into proper perspective is undisputable. South Africa stands out as one of the very few or perhaps the only criminal justice system in Africa which has over the years admitted BSE in CSA prosecutions. This potentially makes it a source of good practice for many criminal justice systems in Africa and the world over. Despite the many years of admitting BSE in CSA prosecutions, little is known about the critical role it has played thus far, the gaps in the courts’ current approach to BSE and how these gaps can be addressed. The present article, with reference to selected recent case law from South Africa and comparative case law from America, analyses the critical role of BSE in affording broader redress to CSA victims. The article identifies the gaps in the current approach of the courts in South Africa. Drawing from the approach of selected courts in America, it suggests additional reforms which may be relevant if the potential of BSE in CSA prosecutions is to be fully and appropriately exploited.http://reference.sabinet.co.za/sa_epublication/obiteram201

Post-intervention Status in Patients With Refractory Myasthenia Gravis Treated With Eculizumab During REGAIN and Its Open-Label Extension

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate whether eculizumab helps patients with anti-acetylcholine receptor-positive (AChR+) refractory generalized myasthenia gravis (gMG) achieve the Myasthenia Gravis Foundation of America (MGFA) post-intervention status of minimal manifestations (MM), we assessed patients' status throughout REGAIN (Safety and Efficacy of Eculizumab in AChR+ Refractory Generalized Myasthenia Gravis) and its open-label extension. METHODS: Patients who completed the REGAIN randomized controlled trial and continued into the open-label extension were included in this tertiary endpoint analysis. Patients were assessed for the MGFA post-intervention status of improved, unchanged, worse, MM, and pharmacologic remission at defined time points during REGAIN and through week 130 of the open-label study. RESULTS: A total of 117 patients completed REGAIN and continued into the open-label study (eculizumab/eculizumab: 56; placebo/eculizumab: 61). At week 26 of REGAIN, more eculizumab-treated patients than placebo-treated patients achieved a status of improved (60.7% vs 41.7%) or MM (25.0% vs 13.3%; common OR: 2.3; 95% CI: 1.1-4.5). After 130 weeks of eculizumab treatment, 88.0% of patients achieved improved status and 57.3% of patients achieved MM status. The safety profile of eculizumab was consistent with its known profile and no new safety signals were detected. CONCLUSION: Eculizumab led to rapid and sustained achievement of MM in patients with AChR+ refractory gMG. These findings support the use of eculizumab in this previously difficult-to-treat patient population. CLINICALTRIALSGOV IDENTIFIER: REGAIN, NCT01997229; REGAIN open-label extension, NCT02301624. CLASSIFICATION OF EVIDENCE: This study provides Class II evidence that, after 26 weeks of eculizumab treatment, 25.0% of adults with AChR+ refractory gMG achieved MM, compared with 13.3% who received placebo

Minimal Symptom Expression' in Patients With Acetylcholine Receptor Antibody-Positive Refractory Generalized Myasthenia Gravis Treated With Eculizumab

The efficacy and tolerability of eculizumab were assessed in REGAIN, a 26-week, phase 3, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study in anti-acetylcholine receptor antibody-positive (AChR+) refractory generalized myasthenia gravis (gMG), and its open-label extension

Between China and South Asia: A Middle Asian corridor of crop dispersal and agricultural innovation in the Bronze Age

© The Author(s) 2016. The period from the late third millennium BC to the start of the first millennium AD witnesses the first steps towards food globalization in which a significant number of important crops and animals, independently domesticated within China, India, Africa and West Asia, traversed Central Asia greatly increasing Eurasian agricultural diversity. This paper utilizes an archaeobotanical database (AsCAD), to explore evidence for these crop translocations along southern and northern routes of interaction between east and west. To begin, crop translocations from the Near East across India and Central Asia are examined for wheat (Triticum aestivum) and barley (Hordeum vulgare) from the eighth to the second millennia BC when they reach China. The case of pulses and flax (Linum usitatissimum) that only complete this journey in Han times (206 BC–AD 220), often never fully adopted, is also addressed. The discussion then turns to the Chinese millets, Panicum miliaceum and Setaria italica, peaches (Amygdalus persica) and apricots (Armeniaca vulgaris), tracing their movement from the fifth millennium to the second millennium BC when the Panicum miliaceum reaches Europe and Setaria italica Northern India, with peaches and apricots present in Kashmir and Swat. Finally, the translocation of japonica rice from China to India that gave rise to indica rice is considered, possibly dating to the second millennium BC. The routes these crops travelled include those to the north via the Inner Asia Mountain Corridor, across Middle Asia, where there is good evidence for wheat, barley and the Chinese millets. The case for japonica rice, apricots and peaches is less clear, and the northern route is contrasted with that through northeast India, Tibet and west China. Not all these journeys were synchronous, and this paper highlights the selective long-distance transport of crops as an alternative to demic-diffusion of farmers with a defined crop package

Between China and South Asia: A Middle Asian corridor of crop dispersal and agricultural innovation in the Bronze Age.

The period from the late third millennium BC to the start of the first millennium AD witnesses the first steps towards food globalization in which a significant number of important crops and animals, independently domesticated within China, India, Africa and West Asia, traversed Central Asia greatly increasing Eurasian agricultural diversity. This paper utilizes an archaeobotanical database (AsCAD), to explore evidence for these crop translocations along southern and northern routes of interaction between east and west. To begin, crop translocations from the Near East across India and Central Asia are examined for wheat (Triticum aestivum) and barley (Hordeum vulgare) from the eighth to the second millennia BC when they reach China. The case of pulses and flax (Linum usitatissimum) that only complete this journey in Han times (206 BC-AD 220), often never fully adopted, is also addressed. The discussion then turns to the Chinese millets, Panicum miliaceum and Setaria italica, peaches (Amygdalus persica) and apricots (Armeniaca vulgaris), tracing their movement from the fifth millennium to the second millennium BC when the Panicum miliaceum reaches Europe and Setaria italica Northern India, with peaches and apricots present in Kashmir and Swat. Finally, the translocation of japonica rice from China to India that gave rise to indica rice is considered, possibly dating to the second millennium BC. The routes these crops travelled include those to the north via the Inner Asia Mountain Corridor, across Middle Asia, where there is good evidence for wheat, barley and the Chinese millets. The case for japonica rice, apricots and peaches is less clear, and the northern route is contrasted with that through northeast India, Tibet and west China. Not all these journeys were synchronous, and this paper highlights the selective long-distance transport of crops as an alternative to demic-diffusion of farmers with a defined crop package

On the Origins and Dissemination of Domesticated Sorghum and Pearl Millet across Africa and into India: a View from the Butana Group of the Far Eastern Sahel

Four decades have passed since Harlan and Stemler (1976) proposed the eastern Sahelian zone as the most likely center of Sorghum bicolor domestication. Recently, new data on seed impressions on Butana Group pottery, from the fourth millennium BC in the southern Atbai region of the far eastern Sahelian Belt in Africa, show evidence for cultivation activities of sorghum displaying some domestication traits. Pennisetum glaucum may have been undergoing domestication shortly thereafter in the western Sahel, as finds of fully domesticated pearl millet are present in southeastern Mali by the second half of the third millennium BC, and present in eastern Sudan by the early second millennium BC. The dispersal of the latter to India took less than 1000 years according to present data. Here, we review the middle Holocene Sudanese archaeological data for the first time, to situate the origins and spread of these two native summer rainfall cereals in what is proposed to be their eastern Sahelian Sudan gateway to the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean trade