Book Reviews

Reviews of the following books: The Massachusetts Historical Society: A Bicentennial History, 1791-1991 by Louis Leonard Tucker; Interpreting Early American History Essays by Jack P. Greene; Molly Spotted Elk: A Penobscot in Paris by Bunny McBride; The Artist\u27s Mount Desert: American Painters on the Maine Coast by John Wilmerding; Politics of Conscience: A Biography of Margaret Chase Smith by Patricia Ward Wallace; Maine, A Peopled Landscape: Salt Documentary Photography, 1978 to 1995 edited by Hugh French, with essays by C. Stewart Doty, James C. Curtis and R. Todd Hoffman; Always Rachel: The Letters of Rachel Carson and Dorothy Freeman, 1952-1964 by Martha Free.man; Sarah Orne Jewett: Her World and Her Work by Paula Blanchar

Corporate governance and employees in South Africa.

Focusing on employees as stakeholders, we analyse corporate governance initiatives in South Africa encouraging and requiring companies to look beyond their shareholders' interests. Successive non-binding codes and the provisions of the recent Companies Act 2008 promoting this have been lauded by many commentators. The 2008 Act provides certain opportunities for employees and their representatives to exercise influence at the margins. We nevertheless question how far current corporate governance initiatives are adequate to promote employee interests. On the basis of three case studies of how companies have responded to employees as stakeholders, we conclude that in fact more stringent regulation is required

Fanconi anemia and vaginal squamous cell carcinoma

Fanconi Anemia (FA) is an autosomal recessive disease characterized by chromosome instability, cellular hypersensitivity to DNA cross-linking agents, and increased predisposition to malignancies. We describe here a 28 year-old female with FA and vaginal squamous cell carcinoma treated by radiation therapy alone. The patient developed arm phlebitis, pulmonary fungal infection, and severe rectal bleeding, followed by hypocalcaemia, hypokalemia, vaginal bacterial and fungal infection, with subsequent leg and arm phlebitis, perineal abscess, and sepsis. The patient died 12 weeks later

An Australian Aboriginal birth cohort: a unique resource for a life course study of an Indigenous population. A study protocol

BACKGROUND: The global rise of Type 2 diabetes and its complications has drawn attention to the burden of non-communicable diseases on populations undergoing epidemiological transition. The life course approach of a birth cohort has the potential to increase our understanding of the development of these chronic diseases. In 1987 we sought to establish an Australian Indigenous birth cohort to be used as a resource for descriptive and analytical studies with particular attention on non-communicable diseases. The focus of this report is the methodology of recruiting and following-up an Aboriginal birth cohort of mobile subjects belonging to diverse cultural and language groups living in a large sparsely populated area in the Top End of the Northern Territory of Australia. METHODS: A prospective longitudinal study of Aboriginal singletons born at the Royal Darwin Hospital 1987–1990, with second wave cross-sectional follow-up examination of subjects 1998–2001 in over 70 different locations. A multiphase protocol was used to locate and collect data on 686 subjects with different approaches for urban and rural children. Manual chart audits, faxes to remote communities, death registries and a full time subject locator with past experience of Aboriginal communities were all used. DISCUSSION: The successful recruitment of 686 Indigenous subjects followed up 14 years later with vital status determined for 95% of subjects and examination of 86% shows an Indigenous birth cohort can be established in an environment with geographic, cultural and climatic challenges. The high rates of recruitment and follow up indicate there were effective strategies of follow-up in a supportive population

Estimating the malaria risk of African mosquito movement by air travel

BACKGROUND: The expansion of global travel has resulted in the importation of African Anopheles mosquitoes, giving rise to cases of local malaria transmission. Here, cases of 'airport malaria' are used to quantify, using a combination of global climate and air traffic volume, where and when are the greatest risks of a Plasmodium falciparum-carrying mosquito being importated by air. This prioritises areas at risk of further airport malaria and possible importation or reemergence of the disease. METHODS: Monthly data on climate at the World's major airports were combined with air traffic information and African malaria seasonality maps to identify, month-by-month, those existing and future air routes at greatest risk of African malaria-carrying mosquito importation and temporary establishment. RESULTS: The location and timing of recorded airport malaria cases proved predictable using a combination of climate and air traffic data. Extending the analysis beyond the current air network architecture enabled identification of the airports and months with greatest climatic similarity to P. falciparum endemic regions of Africa within their principal transmission seasons, and therefore at risk should new aviation routes become operational. CONCLUSION: With the growth of long haul air travel from Africa, the identification of the seasonality and routes of mosquito importation is important in guiding effective aircraft disinsection and vector control. The recent and continued addition of air routes from Africa to more climatically similar regions than Europe will increase movement risks. The approach outlined here is capable of identifying when and where these risks are greatest