Ethnic origin of the victim as an aggravating factor in sentencing sexual offenders

This article examines R v Jamal Muhammed Raheem Ul Nasir, a Court of Appeal case where leave to appeal against a seven-year custodial sentence for sexual offences against children was refused. The appellant argued that his sentence length was excessive because the judge viewed the female victims’ ethnic and religious origin as an aggravating factor. In light of a number of charities’ condemning the judgment, this article evaluates whether the Court of Appeal made the correct decision, particularly in the wider context of sentencing principles. It also considers whether causing shame to a victim and her family can be regarded as an aggravating factor when sentencing sexual offences, and discusses the circumstances where the victim’s ethnic origin should be taken into account

Calcified amorphous tumor: A rare cause of central retinal artery occlusion.

PurposeWe report the case of a central retinal artery occlusion secondary to presumed embolus from a calcified amorphous tumor of the heart, a very rare non-neoplastic cardiac mass.ObservationsA 60-year-old female presented with acute unilateral vision loss of the left eye. Examination revealed hand motion visual acuity of the left eye and a left relative afferent pupillary defect. Fundoscopy showed whitening of the macula with a cherry red spot, consistent with a central retinal artery occlusion. Initial workup was unremarkable, including hypercoagulability labs, magnetic resonance imaging of the brain, and magnetic resonance angiography of the head and neck. Transthoracic echocardiogram (TTE) showed calcification of the mitral valve but no masses. Subsequently, transesophageal echocardiogram (TEE) was performed, which revealed a mobile calcified amorphous tumor of the heart.ConclusionsCalcified amorphous tumor of the heart is a very rare cardiac mass that may cause retinal artery occlusion. TEE is a more sensitive imaging modality to assess for potential cardio-embolic sources if TTE is unrevealing

Eudaimonic Pathways of Activating Compassion Reduce Vulnerabilities to Paranoia

This study aimed to identify if compassion benefits paranoia and, if so what type of compassion. Following a series of different compassionate exercises in 104 participants it was found that mindfulness approaches were the most significant in reducing paranoia suggesting a new approach for psychological problems characterised by paranoia

Feasibility study of an explosive gun

Feasibility of high performance, explosively driven device, and calculations for deformable piston light gas gu

Comment on "Exclusion of time in the theorem of Bell" by K. Hess and W. Philipp

A recent Letter by Hess and Philipp claims that Bell's theorem neglects the possibility of time-like dependence in local hidden variables, hence is not conclusive. Moreover the authors claim that they have constructed, in an earlier paper, a local realistic model of the EPR correlations. However, they themselves have neglected the experimenter's freedom to choose settings, while on the other hand, Bell's theorem can be formulated to cope with time-like dependence. This in itself proves that their toy model cannot satisfy local realism, but we also indicate where their proof of its local realistic nature fails.Comment: Latex needs epl.cl

Interactions of Satellite Galaxies in Cosmological Dark Matter Halos

We present a statistical analysis of the interactions between satellite galaxies in cosmological dark matter halos taken from fully self-consistent high-resolution simulations of galaxy clusters. We show that the number distribution of satellite encounters has a tail that extends to as many as 3-4 encounters per orbit. On average 30% of the substructure population had at least one encounter (per orbit) with another satellite galaxy. However, this result depends on the age of the dark matter host halo with a clear trend for more interactions in younger systems. We also report a correlation between the number of encounters and the distance of the satellites to the centre of the cluster: satellite galaxies closer to the centre experience more interactions. However, this can be simply explained by the radial distribution of the substructure population and merely reflects the fact that the density of satellites is higher in those regions. In order to find substructure galaxies we applied (and present) a new technique based upon the N-body code MLAPM. This new halo finder MHF (MLAPM's-Halo-Finder) acts with exactly the same accuracy as the N-body code itself and is therefore free of any bias and spurious mismatch between simulation data and halo finding precision related to numerical effects.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, accepted by PASA (refereed contribution to the 5th Galactic Chemodynamics workshop, July 2003

The Politics of Ecumenical Disunity: The Troubled Marriage of Church World Service and the National Council of Churches

The fifty-year marriage between Church World Service (CWS) and the National Council of Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. (NCC) did not survive. In 2000, when they divorced to create separate 501(c)(3) organizations, CWS pleaded irreconcilable differences. The fact that two of America’s most prominent mainline ecumenical organizations, committed to Christian unity, were unable to maintain a healthy organizational marriage bears examination. Many people became aware of their troubles in the late 1990s when their financial arguments caught the attention of religious news services and periodicals such as The Christian Century. Few are aware, however, that the issues that caused their separation can be traced back nearly forty years when fault lines appeared amid their approaches to the Vietnam War. This essay will examine those fault lines and trace how their politicization transformed them into insurmountable rifts. The story reveals how profoundly American political culture affects religious life and work

The Value of an Educational Curriculum for Community Health Workers to Decrease Health Disparities

Abstract: Introduction: Community health workers (CHWs) are a group of health care workers that work with underserved populations in rural areas. Community health workers seldom require any formal education for their role, which may cause disparities in the information they present to the populations they serve. Problem: Underserved communities contain many low-income and marginalized populations that do not have access to adequate healthcare. Healthcare provider shortages can be particularly severe, leaving residents without access to primary care and emergency services from physicians, nurses, and allied health professionals. Aim/Objective: The purpose of the article is to propose a framework for developing an educational curriculum that will be useful in training community health workers. The proposed framework will be the Health Belief Model. Solutions: An understanding of HIPPA and cultural competence should be imparted through training. Other training that should be included are aspects of culture which may also impact a community health worker\u27s performance. Conclusion: Providing standardized training will increase awareness of racial and ethnic disparities in health care among the CHWs and serve as a bridge in the current educational gap

Diabetes Prevention and Management Education for Punjabi-Sikh Older Adults

Abstract Background: South Asians from Bangladesh, Pakistan, and India have a higher prevalence of diabetes than the general global population and are also more susceptible to developing diabetes due to biological and lifestyle factors. The South Asian diet is high in refined grains and monounsaturated fatty acids, increasing the risk of diabetes. Local Problem: Congregants of a Sikh gurdwara (place of worship) lacked knowledge of diet and lifestyle in relation to preventing and managing diabetes. Many senior congregants have been diagnosed with diabetes or are at high risk of developing the disease. Methods: Knowledge of diabetes prevention and management were assessed pre-and post-intervention for the effects of implementing a culture-specific educational intervention addressing diet and lifestyle for diabetes prevention and management. Responses were collected on a paper-based survey tool with 15 true/false prompts. Intervention: A two-hour educational curriculum with culture-specific content addressing diet and lifestyle was tailored to the older-adult congregants of the Sikh gurdwara and their families and presented in the Punjabi language. The specific aim was a 25% increase in knowledge from the baseline. Results: The individual mean score increased by 101.37% from pre- to post-education intervention, which was a significant increase from the goal of 25%. Conclusions: The project findings demonstrated that the participants gained a better understanding of diabetes education when training was culturally tailored and presented in the participants’ native language