Investment risk: an amplification tool for social movement campaigns globally and locally

The global social movement that has arisen in response to the threat of carbon-induced climate change is a very complex and amorphous movement that operates simultaneously at a global as well as at an intensely local level. Whilst acknowledging the global complexity and significance of the social movements that have coalesced around the issue of climate change, the purpose of this paper will be to examine emerging corporate campaigning models that have been employed in global campaigns and to examine ways in which these techniques can be effectively deployed in local grass roots campaigns. The specific context of this study is the movement opposed to coal seam gas exploration and mining in Australia, concentrating on a specific case study of the community opposition that has so far effectively delayed the operations of coal seam gas companies in the Northern Rivers region of NSW. Keyword

Effect of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor and angiotensin receptor blocker initiation on organ support-free days in patients hospitalized with COVID-19

IMPORTANCE Overactivation of the renin-angiotensin system (RAS) may contribute to poor clinical outcomes in patients with COVID-19. Objective To determine whether angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor or angiotensin receptor blocker (ARB) initiation improves outcomes in patients hospitalized for COVID-19. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS In an ongoing, adaptive platform randomized clinical trial, 721 critically ill and 58 non–critically ill hospitalized adults were randomized to receive an RAS inhibitor or control between March 16, 2021, and February 25, 2022, at 69 sites in 7 countries (final follow-up on June 1, 2022). INTERVENTIONS Patients were randomized to receive open-label initiation of an ACE inhibitor (n = 257), ARB (n = 248), ARB in combination with DMX-200 (a chemokine receptor-2 inhibitor; n = 10), or no RAS inhibitor (control; n = 264) for up to 10 days. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES The primary outcome was organ support–free days, a composite of hospital survival and days alive without cardiovascular or respiratory organ support through 21 days. The primary analysis was a bayesian cumulative logistic model. Odds ratios (ORs) greater than 1 represent improved outcomes. RESULTS On February 25, 2022, enrollment was discontinued due to safety concerns. Among 679 critically ill patients with available primary outcome data, the median age was 56 years and 239 participants (35.2%) were women. Median (IQR) organ support–free days among critically ill patients was 10 (–1 to 16) in the ACE inhibitor group (n = 231), 8 (–1 to 17) in the ARB group (n = 217), and 12 (0 to 17) in the control group (n = 231) (median adjusted odds ratios of 0.77 [95% bayesian credible interval, 0.58-1.06] for improvement for ACE inhibitor and 0.76 [95% credible interval, 0.56-1.05] for ARB compared with control). The posterior probabilities that ACE inhibitors and ARBs worsened organ support–free days compared with control were 94.9% and 95.4%, respectively. Hospital survival occurred in 166 of 231 critically ill participants (71.9%) in the ACE inhibitor group, 152 of 217 (70.0%) in the ARB group, and 182 of 231 (78.8%) in the control group (posterior probabilities that ACE inhibitor and ARB worsened hospital survival compared with control were 95.3% and 98.1%, respectively). CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE In this trial, among critically ill adults with COVID-19, initiation of an ACE inhibitor or ARB did not improve, and likely worsened, clinical outcomes. TRIAL REGISTRATION ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT0273570

Teaching constitutional law to Fiji students, the separation of law and the rule of what?

In this paper the author reflects upon the challenges of teaching, and more importantly the challenges that students face attempting to learn about, constitutional law within the context of recent political upheavals in Fiji. Whilst on one level, the upheavals provide a topical and even captivating context for what is often seen as a dry area of study, there are a number of more disturbing resonances that emerge, particularly in relation to the cognitive journeys that students experience. Potential fears about academic freedom, and the apparent collapse of the very doctrines being studied, produce a variety of responses from students that reveal anxiety, confusion, resignation and, at times, a realism that is almost as disturbing as it is insightful into the real relationship between law, politics and raw power. This paper is mostly an action research-based paper that explores student responses and the teacher’s own experiences in trying to adapt to this rapidly changing environment. Despite the challenges, the experience is also invigorating because it exposes students and teacher alike to a journey to the fragile edges of the positivist view of constitutionalism and into a very personal and tactile post-structural experience

Threshold concepts in legal education

This paper, which is drawn from the author’s MEd research, examines the idea of ‘threshold concepts’ in relation to legal education. The notion of threshold concepts relates to major concepts that involve a transformation of a student’s worldview and that need to be acquired in order to succeed in studying in a particular discipline. This emerging theory has particular relevance for tertiary teachers in all disciplines in the South Pacific region as the nature of this region means that higher education often has a considerable transformative aspect

The Forest Protest Protocol : an outbreak of participatory democracy : an historic agreement between police and environmental protesters in NSW

Through the Forest Protest Protocol, the North East Forest Alliance (NEFA) gains a promise of fairer and more certain outcomes in terms of on-the-ground policing - the NSW Police Service gains relief from persistent problems faced in policing forest protests