Exploring prostituted women's experiences of a South African exit intervention: an interpretative phenomenological analysis

Prostitution is the oldest form of oppression. Many prostituted women in South Africa wish to exit sex work, but are unable to because they have no other means of earning money. There is a dearth of research available on assisting prostituted women to exit sex work in South Africa. This study explored the effectiveness of a Cape Town-based NGO's - Embrace Dignity - exit intervention for prostituted women. Using semi-structured interviews it investigated the experiences of eight prostituted women in Cape Town. The research goal was to be able to inform improvements to the intervention for exit. An interpretative phenomenological approach was used to analyse interviews of women's experiences of the intervention. Findings revealed that attempting to exit prostitution in South Africa is an incredibly difficult and deeply complex process. An exploration of women's experiences of Embrace Dignity suggested that whilst it provides emotional and social support to prostituted women, it does not address their physical needs, most importantly that of employment. This study reveals that although emotional support plays a crucial role in assisting prostituted women to exit, it is secondary to the urgent physical support needed to satisfy the basic survival needs of prostituted women living in extreme poverty in South Africa

Aspekte van gen. 1-3 en die natuurwetenskappe

This article wishes, from the angle of the subject of Revelation History, to offer thoughts and ideas about aspects touching on the shared issues of the various disciplines. The special nature of the material and of the purpose of Genesis 1 ff. does not necessarily imply that a closed suc­ cession of days is meant. God is the Creator and the Ruler over all things, and has a historical destiny for the earth. Man is the steward over creation, has an ecological task and is in that responsible to God. He is in a communational relation to God, and is free from the enslavement of a combination of natural and spiritual forces. There is a special re­ lation between man and beast, but there is no question of a communational relation there, only with God, of whom man is the image. Sin corrupted the relation between man and creation, but Genesis 2, 3 already stand in the sign of the expectation of restoration. There is a universal basis for the practice of scholarship, and at the same time the shaping demand is that knowledge begins with the service of God

Understanding the concept of land in the Old and New Testament: The importance of a personal factor

Since the early times of the calling of the patriarch Abraham, the land of Israel had a very important place in the Old Testament. Some say that the concept of land was “Christified” in the New Testament era and has since lost its importance. Others regard this approach as spiritualising and stress the sociological importance of the concept of land in the Old and New Testament. Some interpreters even advocate a theology of ecology. This article points out the important place of the personal factor with regard to land in the Old Testament and attempts to indicate how this line of thought also pervades the New Testament. It is only when this factor is borne in mind, that the theologian and preacher can see the different aspects of the concept of land in their true relation to each other

An electrophoretic study of fetal mouse brain proteins after in vivo exposure to phenytoin and disulfiram

Although there have been two-dimensional electrophoretic studies on fetal brain tissue (for instance, Yoshida and Takahashi, 1980), the emphasis in most of this work has been on developmental changes in protein expression, and not on the effects that drugs have on fetal brain protein complement. Klose and co-workers (1977) did an early study using two-dimensional gel electrophoresis to determine the effects of various teratogens on whole embryos. No protein changes were found and that line of research was not continued. In this study two-dimensional gel electrophoresis is extensively used, in the belief that the usefulness of this technique to experimental teratology has not been fully evaluated. It is reasonable to suppose that a central nervous system teratogen administered during critical periods of susceptibility will led to perturbations of orderly brain development, and that these perturbations will be reflected as changes to the protein complement. The total brain protein complement of mice that have been exposed to drugs in utero will therefore be analysed, in the hope that any inductions or deletions of proteins as a result of drug exposure may provide a clue to the molecular events underlying drug injury to the fetus

International diversification in a correlated world

In this paper I look at the correlation between developed and emerging markets, arguing that the increased correlation has reduced the potential benefits of international diversification. Furthermore, I look at markets that still seem to be highly uncorrelated to developed markets, and how to more efficiently include these in a global portfolio. By ranking emerging markets based on their 12 month rolling correlation coefficient to the MSCI World Index, the country weightings are determined. A global portfolio with different constraints is then created to demonstrate that investors can boost risk adjusted performance by using a more selective correlation based investment approach

Open barings historiese aksente: owerheidstaak en godsdiens

This article highlights some revelation-historical accents of Scripture which provide a background for understanding the task of public authority concerning religion. These accents concern the demand of Scripture that the sovereignty of God should be acknowledged and, simultaneously, the opposition of Scripture against formalism, and its emphasis on personal conviction, responsibility and engagement. Only when this demand and the Scriptural accent are taken into account the handling of the matter (inter alia as formulated in article 36 of the Belgic Confession) can be accompanied by freedom, responsibility and vitality, else with repression and stagnation

Rehabilitation pathways, satisfaction with functioning and wellbeing, and experienced rehabilitation needs after stroke

This international cohort study included 451 Norwegian and 348 Danish patients with first-ever stroke admitted to stroke units from one country region in north Norway and one in Denmark with different organization of rehabilitation services. Data were collected from national stroke registries and questionnaires with 3- and 12-months follow-up. The Quality of Life after Brain Injury-Overall Scale (QOLIBRI-OS), assessing satisfaction with functioning and well-being, was first-ever validated for patients of stroke. Two questions from the Norwegian Stroke Registry investigated met, unmet or no needs for help and training. Norwegian participants were older than Danish and had more severe strokes. Rehabilitation pathways for participants from the two country regions differed, with longer stay in stroke units and inpatient rehabilitation services more frequently applied in the north of Norway. At 3 months post-stroke, the participants reported equal levels of satisfaction, but at 12 months the Norwegian participants were more satisfied with function and well-being. Good health-related quality of life was stated by 83% in Norway and 71% in Denmark. There was no change in satisfaction at a group level from 3 to 12 months post stroke, but at an individual level 50 % reported clinical important change in perceived satisfaction with functioning. Patients below 65 years of age were more susceptible to report worsening of outcome in QOLIBRI-OS over time. The patients in the two country cohorts reported equal results for met, unmet or no needs for help and training at 3 months post stroke. However, every fifth patient with stroke conveyed unmet need for help and training with a correspondingly low health-related quality of life. Anxiety and depression were correlated with unmet needs. Optimizing stroke structure and processes and implementing strategies to reduce psychological distress may enable a higher degree of fulfilment of rehabilitation needs and hence increase satisfaction with functioning

Mortality, substance use disorder and cardiovascular health care in persons with severe mental illness

Background and aims - In the Nordic countries, people with severe mental illness die 15-20 years younger than others. Substance use and higher level of undiagnosed/untreated somatic diseases contribute to this disparity. We aimed to investigate; (i) mortality among people with schizophrenia and/or substance use disorder, with emphasis on the impact of a dual diagnosis; (ii) whether people with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder had higher odds of not being diagnosed with cardiovascular disease prior to cardiovascular death, and; (iii) whether people with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder had equal prevalence of diagnostic testing and treatment of cardiovascular disease prior to cardiovascular death as people without such disorders. Methods - We calculated standardized mortality ratios in a 7-year open cohort study including all residents of Norway aged 20-79 with schizophrenia and/or substance use disorders diagnosed in specialized care (i). We used multivariate logistic (ii) and log-binomial regression (iii) to study uptake of CVD-related health care services in residents aged 18 and above. Results - We found a four-fold (schizophrenia only) to seven-fold (substance use disorder with or without schizophrenia) increased mortality compared to the general population, implicating that five out of six persons with schizophrenia and/or substance use disorder died prematurely. We also found that people with schizophrenia and women with bipolar disorder were more likely to die from undiagnosed cardiovascular disease. They also had lower prevalence of specialized cardiovascular examinations and invasive cardiovascular treatment prior to cardiovascular death, compared to individuals without schizophrenia or bipolar disorder. We found no difference in uptake of invasive cardiovascular treatment in those diagnosed with cardiovascular disease prior to death. Conclusion - The large mortality gap between persons with severe mental illness and the general population highlights the need of securing proper access to specialized somatic care, and a more effective prevention of deaths from unnatural causes in this group

El deseo lésbico y la política de los medios: la adaptación televisiva de Tipping the Velvet de Sarah Waters

The subversive potential and transformative strength of the neo-Victorian genre is explored and consolidated by writers such as Sarah Waters. In her debut novel Tipping the Velvet (1998) the author makes explicit what was virtually impossible to express in Victorian times, but also what is still struggling for socio-cultural recognition. However, can the TV adaptation of Waters’s lesbian Bildungsroman be said to achieve the same? This article explores the adaptation of the novel, broadcast on British television in 2002, and discusses whether or not its re-presentation of female same-sex erotics discredits the issue of lesbianism. Gracias a Sarah Waters, entre otras, la crítica especializada ha reconocido la capacidad subversiva y transformadora del fenómeno conocido como Neo-Victorianism. En la novela Tipping the Velvet (1998) la autora hace explícito lo que era imposible expresar en la época victoriana, pero también lo que todavía no ha encontrado total reconocimiento desde el punto de vista social y culturalmente. Sin embargo, ¿se puede afirmar que la adaptación televisiva de la novela resulta asimismo subversiva? Este artículo analiza la adaptación emitida en la televisión británica en 2002 y cuestiona si la representación del erotismo lésbico subraya la normalización de la figura lesbiana