The Dynamic Impact of Periodic Review on Women’s Rights

Human rights treaty bodies have been frequently criticized as useless and the regime’s self-reporting procedure widely viewed as a whitewash. Yet very little research explores what, if any, influence this periodic review process has on governments’ implementation of and compliance with treaty obligations. We argue oversight committees may play an important role in improving rights on the ground by providing information for international and primarily domestic audiences. This paper examines the cumulative effects on women’s rights of self-reporting and oversight review, using original data on the history of state reporting to and review by the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CmEDAW). Using a dynamic approach to study the effects of the periodic review process, we find that self-reporting has a significant positive effect on women’s rights. We explore three clusters of evidence for the domestic mobilization mechanism: information provision through domestic civil society organizations; publicity and critique through the domestic media; and parliamentary attention, debate, and implementation of recommendations. This is the first study to present positive evidence on the effects of self-reporting on rights and to describe the mechanisms that link Geneva bodies with local politics. Our findings challenge the received wisdom that the process of reporting to these treaty bodies is basically useless

Psychological health of Australian veterans of the 1991 Gulf War: an assessment using the SF-12, GHQ-12 and PCL-S

Background. Elevated rates of psychological morbidity and symptomatology have been widely reported in 1991 Gulf War veterans. The present study used brief self-report instruments to compare the psychological health of Australian Gulf War veterans with that of a randomly sampled military comparison group. Method. The 12-item Short Form Health Survey (SF-12), 12-item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12), Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Checklist – Specific (PCL-S) and Military Service Experience (MSE) questionnaire were administered to 1424 male Australian Gulf War veterans and 1548 male Australian Defence Force members who were operational at the time of the Gulf War conflict, but were not deployed there. Results. The Gulf War veterans exhibited poorer psychological health, as measured by the above three instruments, than the comparison group members. For Gulf War veterans, the number of stressful experiences, as measured by the MSE questionnaire, was correlated with scores on the three instruments. SF-12 mental health component summary scores and PCL-S caseness, but not GHQ-12 caseness, differed significantly between Gulf War veterans and comparison group members who had been on at least one active deployment. Conclusions. More than a decade after the 1991 Gulf War, Australian Gulf War veterans are exhibiting higher levels of current (past month) psychological ill-health, as measured using the GHQ-12 and PCL-S, as well as lower mental health status, as measured by the SF-12, than the comparison group. Although not a replacement for formal psychiatric diagnosis, instruments such as those above may aid in the assessment of veterans' psychological health.D. P. McKenzie, J. F. Ikin, A. C. McFarlane, M. Creamer, A. B. Forbes, H. L. Kelsall, D. C. Glass, P. Ittak and M. R. Si

Partisan Asymmetries in Online Political Activity

We examine partisan differences in the behavior, communication patterns and social interactions of more than 18,000 politically-active Twitter users to produce evidence that points to changing levels of partisan engagement with the American online political landscape. Analysis of a network defined by the communication activity of these users in proximity to the 2010 midterm congressional elections reveals a highly segregated, well clustered partisan community structure. Using cluster membership as a high-fidelity (87% accuracy) proxy for political affiliation, we characterize a wide range of differences in the behavior, communication and social connectivity of left- and right-leaning Twitter users. We find that in contrast to the online political dynamics of the 2008 campaign, right-leaning Twitter users exhibit greater levels of political activity, a more tightly interconnected social structure, and a communication network topology that facilitates the rapid and broad dissemination of political information.Comment: 17 pages, 10 figures, 6 table

Local correlations in a strongly interacting 1D Bose gas

We develop an analytical method for calculating local correlations in strongly interacting 1D Bose gases, based on the exactly solvable Lieb-Liniger model. The results are obtained at zero and finite temperatures. They describe the interaction-induced reduction of local many-body correlation functions and can be used for achieving and identifying the strong-coupling Tonks-Girardeau regime in experiments with cold Bose gases in the 1D regime.Comment: 8 pages, REVTeX4, published in the New Journal of Physic

Supersymmetric QCD: Exact Results and Strong Coupling

We revisit two longstanding puzzles in supersymmetric gauge theories. The first concerns the question of the holomorphy of the coupling, and related to this the possible definition of an exact (NSVZ) beta function. The second concerns instantons in pure gluodynamics, which appear to give sensible, exact results for certain correlation functions, which nonetheless differ from those obtained using systematic weak coupling expansions. For the first question, we extend an earlier proposal of Arkani-Hamed and Murayama, showing that if their regulated action is written suitably, the holomorphy of the couplings is manifest, and it is easy to determine the renormalization scheme for which the NSVZ formula holds. This scheme, however, is seen to be one of an infinite class of schemes, each leading to an exact beta function; the NSVZ scheme, while simple, is not selected by any compelling physical consideration. For the second question, we explain why the instanton computation in the pure supersymmetric gauge theory is not reliable, even at short distances. The semiclassical expansion about the instanton is purely formal; if infrared divergences appear, they spoil arguments based on holomorphy. We demonstrate that infrared divergences do not occur in the perturbation expansion about the instanton, but explain that there is no reason to think this captures all contributions from the sector with unit topological charge. That one expects additional contributions is illustrated by dilute gas corrections. These are infrared divergent, and so difficult to define, but if non-zero give order one, holomorphic, corrections to the leading result. Exploiting an earlier analysis of Davies et al, we demonstrate that in the theory compactified on a circle of radius beta, due to infrared effects, finite contributions indeed arise which are not visible in the formal limit that beta goes to infinity.Comment: 28 pages, two references added, one typo correcte

Diagnostic Utility of the Impact of Event Scale-Revised in Two Samples of Survivors of War

The study aimed at examining the diagnostic utility of the Impact of Event Scale-Revised (IES-R) as a screening tool for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in survivors of war. The IES-R was completed by two independent samples that had survived the war in the Balkans: a sample of randomly selected people who had stayed in the area of former conflict (n = 3,313) and a sample of refugees to Western European countries (n = 854). PTSD was diagnosed using the MINI International Neuropsychiatric Interview. Prevalence of PTSD was 20.1% in the Balkan sample and 33.1% in the refugee sample. Results revealed that when considering a minimum value of specificity of 0.80, the optimally sensitive cut-off score for screening for PTSD in the Balkan sample was 34. In both the Balkan sample and the refugee sample, this cut-off score provided good values on sensitivity (0.86 and 0.89, respectively) and overall efficiency (0.81 and 0.79, respectively). Further, the kappa coefficients for sensitivity for the cut-off of 34 were 0.80 in both samples. Findings of this study support the clinical utility of the IES-R as a screening tool for PTSD in large-scale research studies and intervention studies if structured diagnostic interviews are regarded as too labor-intensive and too costly

When are the hands of healthcare workers positive for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus?

Hand hygiene is a key component in reducing infection. There are few reports on the prevalence of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) on healthcare workers\u27 (HCWs\u27) hands. The aim of this study was to establish whether HCWs\u27 fingertips were contaminated with MRSA in a clinical hospital setting. The study was conducted in an acute tertiary referral hospital on four MRSA wards that were part of a larger research study on MRSA epidemiology and four other wards not included in the study. The fingertips from all categories of 523 HCWs were sampled on 822 occasions by the imprinting of fingertips on MRSA chromogenic agar plates. The type of hand hygiene agent used, if any, and the immediate prior activity of the HCW were recorded. Overall, 38/822 (5%) fingertips from 523 HCWs were MRSA-positive; 12/194 (6%) after clinical contact, 10/138 (10%) after contact with the patient\u27s environment and 15/346 (4%) after no specific contact. MRSA was recovered on 2/61 (3%) occasions after use of alcohol hand rub, 2/35 (6%) after 4% chlorhexidine detergent, 7/210 (3%) hand washing with soap and water, and 27/493 (5%) when no hand hygiene had been performed. MRSA was recovered from HCWs on seven of the eight wards. MRSA was more frequently present on fingertips on the four non-study wards vs the four MRSA study wards [18/250 (7%), 3/201 (1%), respectively; P\u3c=0.004]. The isolation of MRSA from HCWs\u27 fingertips, including after hand hygiene, indicates that more educational programmes are necessary to improve the quality of hand hygiene to prevent transmission of MRSA

(De)Legitimation at the WTO Dispute Settlement Mechanism

International courts employ a variety of legitimation strategies in order to establish and maintain a sound basis of support among their constituents. Existing studies on the legitimating efforts and legitimacy of the World Trade Organization\u27s (WTO) judicial bodies have relied largely on theoretical or normative priors about what makes them legitimate. In contrast, this Article directly connects the study of courts\u27 legitimating efforts with their effects by empirically mapping the reception of the WTO Dispute Settlement Mechanism\u27s (DSM) exercise of authority by the system\u27s primary constituents--WTO Members. Using an original data set of WTO Member statements within meetings of the Dispute Settlement Body from 1995-2013 and a series of interviews, this Article provides a descriptive analysis of expressed views on the DSM\u27s exercise of authority over time and across subsets of Members. Through an in-depth examination of statements on focal reports, this Article sheds new light on the sources of the DSM\u27s legitimacy by identifying practices that contribute to reducing or enhancing it in the eyes of the primary constituents of this international institution

Spontaneous symmetry breaking in the non-linear Schrodinger hierarchy with defect

We introduce and solve the one-dimensional quantum non-linear Schrodinger (NLS) equation for an N-component field defined on the real line with a defect sitting at the origin. The quantum solution is constructed using the quantum inverse scattering method based on the concept of Reflection-Transmission (RT) algebras recently introduced. The symmetry of the model is generated by the reflection and transmission defect generators defining a defect subalgebra. We classify all the corresponding reflection and transmission matrices. This provides the possible boundary conditions obeyed by the canonical field and we compute these boundary conditions explicitly. Finally, we exhibit a phenomenon of spontaneous symmetry breaking induced by the defect and identify the unbroken generators as well as the exact remaining symmetry.Comment: discussion on symmetry breaking has been improved and examples adde