Eco-Regions: How to link organic farming with territorial development

Organic farming in Austria has seen a rapid development as all over Europe. In some alpine regions over 50% of the farms have converted to organic. Thus the idea of forming “Eco-Regions” (“Bioregionen” in German), transforming organic farming values from a farm level to a regional scale, emerged. The paper presents the results of an action research based project to develop a model for the formation of Eco-Regions and to monitor the success in cross-sectoral networking. Besides a number of prerequisites also bottlenecks for the formation become apparent. The paper describes the model and the implementation in two distinct regions

The Integration of Victim Lawyers into the Adversarial Criminal Trial

Various common law jurisdictions now allow for the representation of the victim in court in order to further integrate the victim into the criminal justice system. In certain common law jurisdictions, victim lawyers may now represent the interests of the victim during various parts of the criminal trial process, including pre-trial hearings and during sentencing. Such reforms have proven controversial and debate abounds as to the extent such lawyers may jeopardise the state’s control of the prosecution process or otherwise jeopardise a defendant’s right to a fair trial. While it is commonly agreed that various parts of the criminal trial process, including applications for bail, may significantly impact upon the victim and their family, the extent to which the victim ought to contribute to decision-making processes or contest substantive principles of law remains uncertain. This paper examines the extent to which victim lawyers may be usefully integrated into common law proceedings through a comparative analysis of the rise of victim lawyers in the United States and England. Possibilities for the integration of victim lawyers in Australia will be considered in the critical context of the ambit of the adversarial trial and the rights of the accused to a fair trial process.Sydney Institute of Criminology; School of Social Sciences at the University of Western Sydne

Menopause Female Reproductive Senescence from the Viewpoint of Evolutionary Anthropology

Female reproductive senescence is characterized by the so‐called menopausal transition taking place between the ages of 40 and 60 years. The major event of menopausal transition is menopause itself, which is biomedically defined as the cessation of menstrual function and the irreversible termination of female reproductive capability. Recent human females experience a postreproductive period from about 30 years. Such a long postreproductive period is absolutely uncommon among animals. Consequently, human menopause is still an evolutionary puzzle and several theories to explain the evolutionary basis of menopause have been presented. Menopausal transition, however, is also seen as a period of increased somatic and psychic symptoms which make this phase of life quite uncomfortable for affected women. In the present study, menopause and climacteric complaints are discussed from the viewpoint of evolutionary anthropology

Differential Reproductive Success and Body Size in !Kung San People from Northern Namibia

The associations patterns between reproductive success, measured by the total number of offspring, number of living offspring and number of dead offspring, and parental body size, estimated by stature, body weight and Body mass index, were tested in 65 female and 103 male members of a !Kung San population ageing between 25 and 40 years (x = 30.2 yr.) from northern Namibia. In both sexes a significant interaction between fertility patterns and body dimensions was found. Nevertheless, the association patterns differed markedly between the two sexes. While in males tallness and an improved weight status was associated significantly with a higher number of surviving offspring, smaller and lighter females had significantly more surviving children. In males a directional selection towards increased stature and better weight status is in accordance with the well known secular trend of acceleration. In females first of all the postpartum changes in body composition and body weight, resulting from exhausting infant feeding practices seem to support the maternal depletion hypothesis

Teenage Pregnancies: A Worldwide Social and Medical Problem

Teenage pregnancies and teenage motherhood are a cause for concern worldwide. From a historical point of view, teenage pregnancies are nothing new. For much of human history, it was absolutely common that girls married during their late adolescence and experienced first birth during their second decade of life. This kind of reproductive behavior was socially desired and considered as normal. Nowadays, however, the prevention of teenage pregnancies and teenage motherhood is a priority for public health in nearly all developed and increasingly in developing countries. For a long time, teenage pregnancies were associated with severe medical problems; however, most of data supporting this viewpoint have been collected some decades ago and reflect mainly the situation of per se socially disadvantaged teenage mothers. According to more recent studies, teenage pregnancies are not per se risky ones. A clear risk group are extremely young teenage mothers (younger than 15 years) who are confronted with various medical risks, such as preeclampsia, preterm labor, and small for gestational age newborns but also marked social disadvantage, such as poverty, unemployment, low educational level, and single parenting. In the present study, the prevalence and outcome of teenage pregnancies in Austria are focused on

Der Beitrag des Biolandbaus zu einer territorialen Entwicklung

The ongoing changes from an agricultural to a rural society force farmers to redefine their positions – regarding social as well as economic aspects. Organic agriculture provides a value system which is well accepted by non-agricultural rural stakeholders and can therefore be a potential starting point for territorial sustainable development. In Austria the approach of eco-regions (Bioregionen) provides such an approach. The paper gives some preliminary results on the preconditions necessary for the estab-lishment of such an approach building on the results of an ongoing national project

Menarcheal Onset Is Associated with Body Composition Parameters but Not with Socioeconomic Status

In the present study the menarcheal status (pre-or postmenarcheal), body composition, weight status, and socioeconomic parameters such as type of school and parental educational level as of 1752 female adolescents ageing between 12 and 18 years (x=14.6) from rural areas of Eastern Austria were documented. Furthermore the association patterns between body composition, socioeconomic parameters and menarcheal status were analyzed. It turned out, that body composition parameters such as BMI, lean body mass and absolute and relative fat mass were significantly associated with menarcheal status. Postmenarcheal girls were taller and exhibited a higher weight status, a higher absolute and relative amount of fat mass and a higher amount of lean body mass than their premenarcheal counterparts of the same age. In contrast to the significant association between body composition and menarcheal status, no significant impact of educational level on menarcheal status, indicating socioeconomic status could be documented

Intergenerational Contacts Influence Health Related Quality of Life (HRQL) and Subjective Well Being among Austrian Elderly

Over the last century population ageing is a well described phenomenon all over the world. The dramatic absolute and relative increase in the population component of the elderly and the very old has influenced not only population structure but also the relationships within families, in particular between older parents and their adult children. The aim of the present study was to examine the impact of intergenerational contact frequency on health related quality of life among 62 men and 98 women ranging in age between 60 and 94 years. All participants of the study were healthy and lived independently in their private homes. Data concerning subjective well being and health related quality of life were collected by personal interviews based on structured questionnaires. Health related quality of life was tested by means of the WHOQOL-BREF. The main finding of this study is that the frequency of intergenerational contacts has a significant impact on health related quality of life. Contact frequency with grandchildren per month correlated significantly (p<0.01) with all five domains of the WHOQOL-BREF. Contact frequency with sons and daughters per month correlated significantly (p<0.05) with the social and the global domain. According to Kruskall-Wallis tests and regression analyses with increasing intergenerational contacts health related quality of life increased significantly (p<0.01). According to these results a close and frequent contact to offspring is an important source for quality of life during old age

Maternal Obesity Affects Newborn Somatometrics and Vital Parameters in a Gender Typical Manner – Evidence for the Male Disadvantage Hypothesis?

According to the male disadvantage hypothesis male foetuses react more sensitive to maternal stress factors during gestation. In the present study the gender typical impact of maternal prepregnancy overweight and obesity as well as ges- tational weight gain on newborn somatometrics was tested on basis of births records of 7565 births, which took place in Vienna Austria. Maternal weight status was determined at the beginning of pregnancy according to the WHO recommen- dations. Newborns were measured immediately after birth. With increasing maternal prepregnancy weight status and increasing gestational weight gain birth weight, birth length and head circumference increased too. Among male new- borns however the increase was lower than among female ones. With increasing maternal weight status the prevalence of macrosome newborns increased significantly. Among girls however this increase was significantly higher. Male foetuses seem to react more sensitive to a higher maternal weight status in comparison to girls. These results can be interpreted in sense of the so called male disadvantage hypothesis

Use of the Oral Contraceptive Pill by Austrian Adolescents with Emphasis on the Age of Onset, Side Effects, Compliance and Lifestyle

The present study investigated the use of the oral contraceptive pill in 880 Austrian high school girls. All participants filled in a questionnaire on lifestyle and menarche. Furthermore, subjects on the pill were asked about their preparation, age at first use, reasons why they take it, side effects and oral contraceptive compliance. All 139 subjects on the pill used low dose monophasic preparations. The girls started the pill at a mean age of 16.0 0.9 years for contraceptive and therapeutic reasons. The most commonly noted side effects were weight gain, an increase in breast size, fatigue and depression. The results also indicate that most users comply sufficiently. Regarding lifestyle, it can be stated that there is a correlation between the use of the pill and smoking, the frequency of consuming alcoholic drinks and being physically active