Zig-Zag Stitching and the Seamless Web: Thoughts on Reproduction and the Law*

Whenever I read law relating to women and motherhood, I find myself sickened

Realities of Religio-Legalism: Religious Courts and Women\u27s Rights in Canada, The United Kingdom, and the United States

Religio-legalism – the enforcement of religious law by specifically-religious courts that are tolerated or endorsed by civil government – has long operated against women’s interests in liberty and equality. In the 21st century, religious tribunals – Protestant, Catholic, Jewish, and Muslim – operate throughout the world. Almost all are male-dominated, patriarchal, and sex-discriminatory. Harms to women produced by Muslim or sharia courts have come into focus in recent years, but present realities of religio-legalism operating through Christian and Jewish – as well as Muslim – religious courts in Western nations have been under-examined. This essay by Ashe and Helie documents controversies concerning sharia-courts that have arisen in Canada and in the United Kingdom during the past decade and also looks at concurrent developments relating to sharia and to other-than-Muslim religious courts in the US. Religious courts – Christian, Jewish, and Muslim – have in common that they assert original or exclusive jurisdiction over certain matters. In calls for “official recognition” of sharia courts, proponents have advanced a religious-equality argument, claiming that denial of that status to Muslim tribunals would violate the governmental obligation to avoid discrimination among religions. At the same time, sharia-related controversy has raised sharply the question about the implications for women’s liberty and equality rights that are produced by governmental accommodations of the religious-equality and religious-liberty interests asserted by all religious entities enjoying governmental recognition. While recognizing the legitimacy and weight of the complaint against inequitable treatment of religions, we argue here that whenever governmental action to “resolve” sharia-related conflict adopts the avoidance of discrimination among religions as its single goal and therefore expands its “official recognition” to include additional religious courts, it will have the effect of enlarging religions’ power and at the same time exacerbating harms to women. Referencing feminist writings that have documented the global spread of religious fundamentalisms from the 1990s to the present and that have exposed capitulations of liberalism to those fundamentalisms, we call for reconceptualization of the law-religion-women nexus. We urge recognition that governmental goals of equitable treatment of religions and protection of women’s rights will together be served not by expansions of governmental engagements with religion, but by retrenchment from religio-legalism. Thus, we urge, in policy and in law, clear prioritization of the protection of women’s rights and concurrent retreat from the formal recognition of all religious courts and of civil-law enforcement of the orders of any such bodies

Multiculturalist Liberalism and Harms to Women: Lookin Through The Issue of The Veil

Hélie & Ashe law review writing raises and responds to a reformulated and broadened version of Susan Okin’s 1999 inquiry, Is Multiculturalism Bad for Women? It identifies social and political developments, as well as legal and theoretical developments, that have occurred in the 21st century and that demand that reformulation. Not limiting itself (as did Okin’s question) to interrogating the relationship between women’s equality interests and interests in “religious freedom” advanced by minority-religious groups, Hélie & Ashe is the broader inquiry, critical for liberal theory of the 21st century which has been greatly affected by the “ethos of multiculturalism,” – How should civil government treat any culture- or religion-based claims of rights that clash with the norm of women’s equality? Section I includes an introduction to this question as well as a Timeline manifesting the recent global history of controversy about veiling, which is the phenomenon through which Hélie & Ashe approach their inquiry. In Section II Hélie & Ashe review several recent contributions to theory about veiling and its meanings for women and for religions, including, most notably, contributions by: Martha Nussbaum, Joan Wallach Scott, Leila Ahmed, Marnia Lazreg, Nadia Geerts, and Karima Bennoune. In Section III, the authors identify what they see as strengths and limitations of each of these contributors, and build upon these writings with their own urging that liberalism re-commit to the values of women’s equality, anti-racism, and (also and necessarily) secularism in order to escape the confusions and inadequacies in which it has become entangled by the influence of multiculturalist theory

Older Adults’ Outdoor Walking and the Built Environment: Does Income Matter?

Background Our aim was to examine the association between Street Smart Walk Score® and self-reported outdoor walking among older Canadians, and to determine whether socioeconomic status modifies this association. Methods We linked objective walkability data with cross-sectional survey data from the Canadian Community Health Survey Healthy-Aging 2008–2009 Cycle for a sample of 1309 British Columbians aged ≥ 65 years. We examined associations between Street Smart Walk Score and meeting physical activity guidelines (≥150 min of moderate to vigorous activity/week) through self-reported outdoor walking using multivariable logistic regression, and tested for significant interactions with household income. Results A ten point higher Street Smart Walk Score was associated with a 17 % higher odds of meeting physical activity guidelines through walking outside (95 % CI: 1.07,1.27). In addition, older adults living in neighbourhoods categorised as Walker’s Paradise were over three times more likely to meet guidelines than those living in Car-dependent/Very car dependent neighbourhoods. We found no evidence that household income moderated the effect of Walk Score on walking outside. Conclusions Neighbourhood design may be one avenue whereby physical activity levels of older people can be enhanced through outdoor walking, with benefit across socioeconomic strata

Nuclear magnetic resonance study of the molecular structure of 4-methylarsabenzene and 4-methylstibabenzene partially oriented in a nematic solvent

The molecular structure of 4-methylarsabenzene (I) and 4-methylstibabenzene (II) partially oriented in a nematic solvent is studied by NMR. Good agreement between the ring proton structure of I and that of arsabenzene from electron diffraction and microwave spectroscopy is obtained. For II, the NMR study rules out structures with large C---C bond alternation, and favors a model in which C[alpha]---C[beta] is slightly longer than C[beta]---C[gamma].Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/23702/1/0000673.pd

Grip strength measurements at two different wrist extension positions in chronic lateral epicondylitis-comparison of involved vs. uninvolved side in athletes and non athletes: a case-control study

Abstract Background Lateral epicondylitis is a common sports injury of the elbow caused due to altered muscle activation during repetitive wrist extension in many athletic and non-athletic endeavours. The amount of muscle activity and timing of contraction eventually is directly dependent upon joint position during the activity. The purpose of our study was to compare the grip strength in athletes with lateral epicondylalgia in two different wrist extension positions and compare them between involved and uninvolved sides of athletes and non-athletes. Methods An assessor-blinded case-control study of eight athletes and twenty-two non-athletes was done. The grip strength was measured using JAMAR® hand dynamometer in kilograms-force at 15 degrees (slightly extended) and 35 degrees (moderately extended) wrist extension positions (maintained by wrist splints) on both involved and uninvolved sides of athletes and non-athletes with unilateral lateral epicondylitis of atleast 3 months duration. Their pain was to be elicited with local tenderness and two of three tests being positive- Cozen's, Mill's manoeuvre, resisted middle finger extension tests. For comparisons of grip strength, Wilcoxon signed rank test was used for within-group comparison (between 15 and 35 degrees wrist extension positions) and Mann-Whitney U test was used for between-group (athletes vs. non-athletes) comparisons at 95% confidence interval and were done using SPSS 11.5 for Windows. Results Statistically significant greater grip strength was found in 15 degrees (27.75 ± 4.2 kgms in athletes; 16.45 ± 4.2 kgms in non-athletes) wrist extension than at 35 degrees (25.25 ± 3.53 kgm in athletes and 14.18 ± 3.53 kgm in non-athletes). The athletes had greater grip strength than non-athletes in each of test positions (11.3 kgm at 15 degrees and 11.07 kgm at 35 degrees) measured. There was also a significant difference between involved and uninvolved sides' grip strength at both wrist positions (4.44 ± .95 kgm at 15 degrees and 4.44 ± .86 kgm in 35 degrees) which was significant (p Conclusion The grip strength was greater in 15 degrees wrist extension position and this position could then be used in athletes with lateral epicondylalgia for grip strength assessment and designing wrist splint in this population.</p

Improvement on social representation of climate change through a knowledge-based MOOC in spanish

Climate Change is the most important threat to our society and all species on Earth. Large alterations in the climate are affecting every aspect of our society and in order to limit this impact we must decarbonize the economy before 2050. Although science presents solid evidence on the magnitude of the problem and outlines precisely the consequences, people do not act accordingly and do not consider this issue a priority for their survival. The reason behind this paradox might be a non-appropriate Social Representation of Climate Change in society as the Social Representation conditions and forms the response of the society. In this paper, we extend previous investigations of how this Social Representation is formed in order to find ways to improve it through a Massive Online Open Course on the Science of Climate Change. Using a validated questionnaire, we investigated the knowledge dimension of the Social Representation of Climate Change in a group of students of a MOOC on Climate Change. A pre- and posttest revealed general improvements in all the categories that were considered in this study. A detailed analysis showed different degrees of improvement for different groups, providing new insights in the efficiency of knowledge-based online courses. Well designed Massive Online Open Courses, based on scientific evidence, targeted to the general public might improve the Social Representation of Climate Change, which may in turn trigger awareness and an effective mobilization to address this important and urgent topicThis research was funded by the project 2017/00287/001 of the Fundación Biodiversidad del Ministerio de Agricultura, Pesca, Alimentación y Medio Ambiente (España)S

Natural and Experimental Infection of Caenorhabditis Nematodes by Novel Viruses Related to Nodaviruses

Novel viruses have been discovered in wild Caenorahbditis nematode isolates and can now be used to explore host antiviral pathways, nematode ecology, and host-pathogen co-evolution