Conscientious objection to same-sex marriages : beyond the limits of toleration

When civil servants conscientiously refuse to register same-sex marriages, a clash arises between freedom of religion and same-sex equality. The scholarly world is divided on the optimal way to tackle this human rights clash. States, however, are not. Courts and legislators in the US, the UK and the Netherlands—among others—have decisively and unequivocally sided with same-sex equality. This article contributes to the debate by presenting an alternative to existing scholarly analyses, which the author finds wanting. The primary aim is to offer a coherent account of the relevant practice in the UK and the Netherlands. The article’s core argument is that this practice is best understood in terms of the limits of toleration in liberal States. The author argues, in particular, that the UK courts and Dutch legislators have drawn those limits at the point where civil servants cause same-sex couples expressive harm

On the Design of Solar Gravity Driven Planetocentric Transfers Using Artificial Neural Networks

The sun's gravity can be used to efficiently transfer between different planetocentric orbits. Such transfers cannot be designed in a two-body dynamical system, nor do analytical methods exist to identify such transfers. This dissertation presents a method to efficiently identify transfers between a specified departure and target orbit. This method is applied to a well known problem: transfers from inclined low-earth orbits to the geostationary orbit. Motivated by the large observed control authority of the sun for geocentric transfers, a new mission architecture is defined. This architecture allows the injection of multiple spacecraft around Mars in different target orbits, enabled by solar gravity driven orbital transfers. The efficient design of applications for a wide variety of departure and target orbits, requires an understanding of a large area of the phase space. This dissertation showcases how an artificial neural network architecture can accurately predict the solar gravity driven transfers, for a significantly large section of the phase space. The developed architecture is then used to efficiently identify transfers for several different applications. Multiple revolution transfers with maneuvers at intermediate periareions are identified that arrive at Phobos or Deimos. Furthermore, transfers are designed that transfer to both Phobos and Deimos in a single trajectory. In addition to addressing solar perturbed planetocentric transfers, this dissertation shows how the developed artificial neural network framework can be applied to a different problem, with different dynamics. As an example, the dissertation develops an artificial neural network architecture that can predict heteroclinic connections in the Earth-Moon circular restricted three-body problem

Treatment and control: a qualitative study of older mentally ill offenders' perceptions on their detention and care trajectory

The life of older mentally ill offenders (OMIOs) is often characterized by successive periods of detention in correctional facilities, admissions to psychiatric services, and unsuccessful attempts to live independently. Through in-depth interviews, eight personal stories from OMIOs under supervision of the commission of social defence in Ghent (Belgium) were analyzed in the phenomenological research tradition. The results of the study reveal that OMIOs had more positive and less negative experiences in prison settings when compared with other institutional care settings. Independent living, unsurprisingly, is favored the most. This may be due to the fact that the latter option fosters personal competence, feelings of being useful, personal choices, and contact with the outside world. Even in later lifetime, a combined approach of risk assessment with improvement of well-being remains valuable to stimulate offender rehabilitation. Therefore, more research into concepts that could be used to support OMIOs needs further consideration

Treatment perspectives on interned mentally ill offenders in a Forensic Psychiatric Center (FPC): a Delphi study on experts' opinions

The study aims to map the treatment perspectives of international experts on treating mentally ill offenders (MIO) in a forensic psychiatric centre (FPC) using the Delphi method. The four-round Delphi study reveals high conformity on the proposed treatment-related issues. However, some points of divergence remain. Three controversies underpinning these disagreements are discussed. The first regards the treatment and control debate, the second concerns the dual role of assessment in forensic mental health care and the third describes potential entry conditions for treatment in a FPC. Further research is needed to scientifically underpin the above mentioned debates. In this regard, the study suggests a close collaboration between practitioners and researchers