Conditions for involving persons who are not able to consent in biomedical research under article 17 of the Oviedo Convention. Too permissive or too prohibitive?

The Oviedo Convention, one of the most significant documents concerning bioethics, represents the first legally binding text on international biomedical law and ethics.However, in literature, it has been characterised as a poor document, unable to face most bioethical issuesand to adequately illustrate the human rights philosophical pattern in favour of which it has been issued.One of the Convention’s most controversial articles,Article 17 regarding the protection of persons unable to consent to research, was met with great opposition and it was finally accepted with suspicion.The permissive character of the article was a major reason for the opposition.This work intends to explain why Article 17 is too permissive. It is argued that the conditions for involving incapacitated persons in biomedical research, specified by Article 17, are only seemingly prohibitive. In a closer examination and compared to equivalent articles of International Treaties, these conditions can mostly be characterised as too permissive and consequently, less protective. This is justified by considering the Article’s inadequacy to address ethical challenges in respect to key notions such as the consent capacity, surrogate decision-making, risk-benefits balance, advance directives, participation in research in emergency circumstances and the research participants’ assent. It is argued that the article’s approach is too simplistic and free to interpretation. As such it unsafely facilitates the participation of incapacitated individuals in biomedical research, while the individuals’ opportunity for participation remains depended on their representatives and the interpretation of Article 17 instead of reflecting the principle of respect for autonomy. Also,the omission ofadditional conditions that could enhance maximally autonomous decisions, limits the value of informed consent in favour of the facilitation of the process concerning the selection of participants. Consequently, it becomes evident that Article 17 incorporates features that confirm its permissive character.

Legislative theater and modern slavery:exploring a hyperlocal approach to combatting human trafficking

Since 2018, Act for Change (AfC), a Ghanaian applied theater company, has been using Boalian theater techniques to address issues of modern slavery and human trafficking in their community. Here, using the framework of Boal’s Legislative Theater, we discuss the ways in which AfC has developed Boal’s work, innovating it within a specific context to find new and powerful ways of using performance to engage with intractable issues of modern slavery and human trafficking. Focussing on the specific dynamics of a single community, this article explores how employing a ‘hyperlocal’ approach in James Town, Accra, enables a focus on the local stories that highlight how modern slavery and human trafficking operate. More specifically, while using a Marxist-Freiran framework and by engaging with Augusto Boal’s concepts of Legislative and Forum Theater, this article focuses on how performance methodologies can engage with complex international issues by developing intra-local dialogue and partnerships at the local level. The goal here is not to argue that community action can act as a replacement for statutory instruments or state-led initiatives, but that they are a potentially significant and under-developed complementary tool in the fight against modern slavery, as they place the community and the survivor at the center of change. By taking this approach, we aim to reflect on how theories of legislative theater can aid the development of a hyperlocal methodology and how the project in James Town exemplifies modern legislative theater practice

Museus e Educação Histórica numa realidade contemporânea em transição

Continuous change in all spheres of our life seems to affect the ways in which people as individuals and collectivities approach, perceive and understand present and past realities. Both museums and Historical Education can no longer rely on certainties acquired through past experience, observations, studies and research, since new questions come to the fore. It is imperative to explore this changing reality in different sectors of life in order to understand museums and Historical Educations location and role in this new transitional environment. The way we used to think of and understand museums and Historical Education and, for that matter, teaching, learning and research, needs to be reconsidered, re-analyzed and re-theorized, taking seriously into account the co-existence of both new and traditional assumptions, conceptions and pre-conceptions, ideas, processes and realities. The paper discusses the implications of the broad use of electronic technology in relation to history learning, especially within the museum environment, and notions of transitional space and transitional processes related to the virtual character of contemporary perceptions and representations of reality and historical sources. The discussion is especially based on observations related to the general broad public use of History, and especially of oral history, in the public sphere.Mudanças contínuas em todas as esferas de nossas vidas parecem afetar a maneira como as pessoas enquanto indivíduos ou coletividades acessam, percebem e compreendem as realidades do presente e do passado. Diante de novas questões que se colocam, os museus e Educação Histórica não podem mais contar com a certeza adquirida pela experiência passada, pelas observações, estudos e pesquisas. É imperativo explorar esta realidade em mudança nos diferentes setores da vida, para que seja possível entender o papel dos museus e de outros locais da Educação Histórica nesse novo ambiente em transição. A maneira pela qual nós pensávamos e entendíamos a relação entre os museus e a Educação Histórica e, por esse motivo, ensinar, aprender e pesquisar História, devem ser reconsiderados, re-analisados e re-teorizados, levando-se em consideração a co-existência de ambos, suposições novas e tradicionais, conceitos e pré-conceitos, idéias, processos e realidades. Este trabalho discute as implicações do amplo uso da tecnologia eletrônica em relação ao aprendizado da História, especialmente no ambiente do museu, e noções do espaço em transição e processos de transição relacionados ao caráter virtual das percepções contemporâneas e representações da realidade e das fontes históricas. A discussão é baseada, principalmente, em observações relacionadas ao extenso uso público geral da História, especialmente da história oral, na esfera pública

Herschel imaging and spectroscopy of the nebula around the luminous blue variable star WRAY 15-751

We have obtained far-infrared Herschel PACS imaging and spectroscopic observations of the nebular environment of the luminous blue variable WRAY 15-751. These images clearly show that the main, dusty nebula is a shell of radius 0.5 pc and width 0.35 pc extending outside the H-alpha nebula. They also reveal a second, bigger and fainter dust nebula, observed for the first time. Both nebulae lie in an empty cavity, likely the remnant of the O-star wind bubble formed when the star was on the main sequence. The kinematic ages of the nebulae are about 20000 and 80000 years and each nebula contains about 0.05 Msun of dust. Modeling of the inner nebula indicates a Fe-rich dust. The far-infrared spectrum of the main nebula revealed forbidden emission lines coming from ionized and neutral gas. Our study shows that the main nebula consists of a shell of ionized gas surrounded by a thin photodissociation region illuminated by an "average" early-B star. The derived abundance ratios N/O=1.0+/-0.4 and C/O=0.4+/-0.2 indicate a mild N/O enrichment. We estimate that the inner shell contains 1.7+/-0.6 Msun of gas. Assuming a similar dust-to-gas ratio for the outer nebula, the total mass ejected by WRAY 15-751 amounts to 4+/-2 Msun. The measured abundances, masses and kinematic ages of the nebulae were used to constrain the evolution of the star and the epoch at which the nebulae were ejected. Our results point to an ejection of the nebulae during the RSG evolutionary phase of an ~ 40 Msun star. The presence of multiple shells around the star suggests that the mass-loss was not a continuous ejection but rather a series of episodes of extreme mass-loss. Our measurements are compatible with the recent evolutionary tracks computed for an 40 Msun star with little rotation. They support the O-BSG-RSG-YSG-LBV filiation and the idea that high-luminosity and low-luminosity LBVs follow different evolutionary paths.Comment: 19 pages, 13 figures, accepted for publication in A&

Pupils' historical thinking within a museum environment.

SIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre-DSC:DXN017753 / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo

The Herschel view of the nebula around the luminous blue variable star AG Carinae

Far-infrared Herschel PACS imaging and spectroscopic observations of the nebula around the luminous blue variable (LBV) star AG Car have been obtained along with optical imaging in the Halpha+[NII] filter. In the infrared light, the nebula appears as a clumpy ring shell that extends up to 1.2 pc with an inner radius of 0.4 pc. It coincides with the Halpha nebula, but extends further out. Dust modeling of the nebula was performed and indicates the presence of large grains. The dust mass is estimated to be ~ 0.2 Msun. The infrared spectrum of the nebula consists of forbidden emission lines over a dust continuum. Apart from ionized gas, these lines also indicate the existence of neutral gas in a photodissociation region that surrounds the ionized region. The abundance ratios point towards enrichment by processed material. The total mass of the nebula ejected from the central star amounts to ~ 15 Msun, assuming a dust-to-gas ratio typical of LBVs. The abundances and the mass-loss rate were used to constrain the evolutionary path of the central star and the epoch at which the nebula was ejected, with the help of available evolutionary models. This suggests an ejection during a cool LBV phase for a star of ~ 55 Msun with little rotation.Comment: accepted for publication in A&