Shining light on an unspeakable crime: necrophilia and the need for legal reform

© 2023 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY), https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This article explores the current legal frameworks surrounding necrophilia in the United Kingdom. More specifically, it draws upon Aggrawal's [(2009). A new classification of necrophilia. Journal of Forensic and Legal Medicine, 16(6), 316–320] typologies of necrophilia, arguing that a multifaceted definition of necrophilia is required in order to properly legislate against it. The recent case of David Fuller is incorporated into discussions, and efforts towards legal reform are examined accordingly. The article makes recommendations of how future research can progress discussions in this acutely underresearched area of criminology and law.Peer reviewe

Life on Pause: An Analysis of UK Fertility Patients’ Coping Mechanisms After the Cancellation of Fertility Treatment Due to COVID-19

© The Author(s). This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits any use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).In March 2020, fertility clinics across the UK began cancelling all assisted reproductive technology (ART) treatment, with the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) stopping all ART treatment from going ahead beyond the 15th April 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This article examines the coping mechanisms adopted by fertility patients during this time, focussing on the emotional support received from online fertility forums and fertility clinics during the indeterminate wait for treatment to resume. The study draws upon an online survey which assessed the mental health and wellbeing of 124 female fertility patients whose ART treatment was cancelled due to the Coronavirus pandemic. The findings indicate a potential for improved communication between fertility clinics and patients in order to reduce psychological stress and isolation during the postponement of ART treatment, alongside better utilisation of online platforms as mechanisms for support. This article adds to the growing body of knowledge concerned with the implications of denying reproductive rights to the infertility community during a global pandemic. It also contributes to sociological discussions on the support mechanisms available to those navigating infertility and the wider social management of uncertainty.Peer reviewe

The rise of the paedophile hunters: to what extent are cyber-vigilante groups a productive form of policing, retribution and justice?

© 2022 The Author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY), https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/There are an increasing number of cyber-vigilante groups in the United Kingdom who use the Internet as a tool for regulation and retributive justice. The policing of child sexual predators by citizen groups outside of law enforcement, commonly termed ‘paedophile hunters’, has evoked a range of responses among media commentators and the general public. This article explores public perceptions of vigilante justice in the United Kingdom via an online survey to assess the extent to which they are considered retributive. It focusses on the moral justice imposed by such groups and interrogates the relationship between retribution and doxing (the ‘naming and shaming’ tactics which are commonly actioned by paedophile hunting groups). The findings highlight three dominant responses to cyber-vigilantism: (1) public support for cyber-vigilantism; (2) doxing as a human rights issue; and (3) a lack of faith in the criminal justice system. This article is consequently concerned with the merits and drawbacks of retributive justice when led at a community level and critically examines perceptions of this form of citizen-policing.Peer reviewe

Lads’ Mags and the Postfeminist Masquerade: The Aftermath of an Era of Inequality

© 2022 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial License (http:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).This Viewpoint considers the rise of lads’ mags and wider lad culture between 1996-2006 as a historically illuminating period that marked a shift in societal perceptions of gender equality and contributed towards a hostile perception of feminism. Themes of pornification, hypersexualisation and postfeminsim are explored within the context of recent debates on the representation of gender and sexuality in British popular culture. The key issue emerging from this analysis is that there has been a rebranding of sexism through a postfeminist discourse, referred to in this paper as the ‘postfeminist masquerade’, which has resulted in a wider politicisation of feminism concerned with representations of the female body. This politicisation has eroded debates on gender representation into a reductive binary, the ‘exploitative-liberating dichotomy’, and has consequently delimited contemporary engagements with feminism. Lads’ mags and wider lad culture are thus analysed as having perpetuated this binary and serve as a historical symbol of how the state of gender relations have been subjected to contestation amongst feminist activists, media commentators and academics since the turn of the twenty-first century.Peer reviewe

The market of sport supplement in the digital era: A netnographic analysis of perceived risks, side-effects and other safety issues

© 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of International Society for the Study of Emerging Drugs. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ )Background: The market of sport supplements is expanding worldwide. Such phenomenon is often supported by captivating marketing strategies and social media advertising providing unscientifically founded claims, thus raising safety concerns. The aim of our study is to provide a comprehensive analysis of the online market, patterns of use, perceived risks and other safety issues on supplement use as reported in online fitness communities. Methods: A mixed method approach was employed. An automatized web-based monitoring tool (Brand24®) was used to track the most popular supplements and related discussions according to the number of interactions between users and shares; the number and category of websites; the social media reach; and the most popular hashtags. Results were assessed through a netnographic qualitative analysis of online fitness fora, to identify motivations of intake, self-reported side effects andthe overall safety perception reliability of supplements information online. Results: A social media reach of over four million individuals, inclusive of 18595 posts, emerged from our search. The most cited supplements were “Whey Protein”, “Branched Chain Amino-Acid”, “Creatine”, “Multivitamin supplements” and “Nitric Oxide boosters”. Supplements were mainly taken for muscle gain (23%), increase energy (17%), and weight loss (8%). Although the web narrative on supplementation was overall positive, a wide range of side effects were reported by 19% of fitness fora users. These included acne (9%), water retention (9%), stomach pain (9%), rashes (7%), erectile dysfunctions (7%) and weight gain (5%). Concerns about contamination (47%), counterfeit content (17%) and the presence of hidden ingredients (11%) were also recorded. Conclusions: In a poorly regulated context, where unsolicited social media posts have replaced the typical advice provided by professionals, efforts should be made to ensure the reliability of the provided information to avoid the insurgence of unwanted adverse effects and safeguard public health.Peer reviewe

Caldag-Gefi Down-Regulation in the Striatum as a Neuroprotective Change in Huntington's Disease.

Huntingtin protein (Htt) is ubiquitously expressed, yet Huntington’s disease (HD), a fatal neurologic disorder produced by expansion of an Htt polyglutamine tract, is characterized by neurodegeneration that occurs primarily in the striatum and cerebral cortex. Such discrepancies between sites of expression and pathology occur in multiple neurodegenerative disorders associated with expanded polyglutamine tracts. One possible reason is that disease-modifying factors are tissue-specific. Here we show that the striatum-enriched protein, CalDAG-GEFI, is severely down-regulated in the striatum of mouse HD models and is down-regulated in HD individuals. In the R6/2 transgenic mouse model of HD, striatal neurons with the largest aggregates of mutant Htt have the lowest levels of CalDAG-GEFI. In a brain-slice explant model of HD, knock-down of CalDAG-GEFI expression rescues striatal neurons from pathology induced by transfection of polyglutamine-expanded Htt exon 1. These findings suggest that the striking down-regulation of CalDAG-GEFI in HD could be a protective mechanism that mitigates Htt-induced degeneration.Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (U.S.) (R01-HD28341)National Institute of Mental Health (U.S.) (F32-MH065815)Wellcome Trust (London, England)Cure Huntington’s Disease Initiative, Inc.MGH/MIT Morris Udall Center of Excellence in Parkinson Disease Research (P50-NS038372

Toward reliable ensemble Kalman filter estimates of CO 2 fluxes

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/95036/1/jgrd18220.pd

Adverse maternal, fetal, and newborn outcomes among pregnant women with SARS-CoV-2 infection: an individual participant data meta-analysis.

INTRODUCTION Despite a growing body of research on the risks of SARS-CoV-2 infection during pregnancy, there is continued controversy given heterogeneity in the quality and design of published studies. METHODS We screened ongoing studies in our sequential, prospective meta-analysis. We pooled individual participant data to estimate the absolute and relative risk (RR) of adverse outcomes among pregnant women with SARS-CoV-2 infection, compared with confirmed negative pregnancies. We evaluated the risk of bias using a modified Newcastle-Ottawa Scale. RESULTS We screened 137 studies and included 12 studies in 12 countries involving 13 136 pregnant women.Pregnant women with SARS-CoV-2 infection-as compared with uninfected pregnant women-were at significantly increased risk of maternal mortality (10 studies; n=1490; RR 7.68, 95% CI 1.70 to 34.61); admission to intensive care unit (8 studies; n=6660; RR 3.81, 95% CI 2.03 to 7.17); receiving mechanical ventilation (7 studies; n=4887; RR 15.23, 95% CI 4.32 to 53.71); receiving any critical care (7 studies; n=4735; RR 5.48, 95% CI 2.57 to 11.72); and being diagnosed with pneumonia (6 studies; n=4573; RR 23.46, 95% CI 3.03 to 181.39) and thromboembolic disease (8 studies; n=5146; RR 5.50, 95% CI 1.12 to 27.12).Neonates born to women with SARS-CoV-2 infection were more likely to be admitted to a neonatal care unit after birth (7 studies; n=7637; RR 1.86, 95% CI 1.12 to 3.08); be born preterm (7 studies; n=6233; RR 1.71, 95% CI 1.28 to 2.29) or moderately preterm (7 studies; n=6071; RR 2.92, 95% CI 1.88 to 4.54); and to be born low birth weight (12 studies; n=11 930; RR 1.19, 95% CI 1.02 to 1.40). Infection was not linked to stillbirth. Studies were generally at low or moderate risk of bias. CONCLUSIONS This analysis indicates that SARS-CoV-2 infection at any time during pregnancy increases the risk of maternal death, severe maternal morbidities and neonatal morbidity, but not stillbirth or intrauterine growth restriction. As more data become available, we will update these findings per the published protocol

Assessment of CMIP6 performance and projected temperature and precipitation changes over South America

We evaluate the performance of a large ensemble of Global Climate Models (GCMs) from the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6 (CMIP6) over South America for a recent past reference period and examine their projections of twenty-first century precipitation and temperature changes. The future changes are computed for two time slices (2040–2059 and 2080–2099) relative to the reference period (1995–2014) under four Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs, SSP1–2.6, SSP2–4.5, SSP3–7.0 and SSP5–8.5). The CMIP6 GCMs successfully capture the main climate characteristics across South America. However, they exhibit varying skill in the spatiotemporal distribution of precipitation and temperature at the sub-regional scale, particularly over high latitudes and altitudes. Future precipitation exhibits a decrease over the east of the northern Andes in tropical South America and the southern Andes in Chile and Amazonia, and an increase over southeastern South America and the northern Andes—a result generally consistent with earlier CMIP (3 and 5) projections. However, most of these changes remain within the range of variability of the reference period. In contrast, temperature increases are robust in terms of magnitude even under the SSP1–2.6. Future changes mostly progress monotonically from the weakest to the strongest forcing scenario, and from the mid-century to late-century projection period. There is an increase in the seasonality of the intra-annual precipitation distribution, as the wetter part of the year contributes relatively more to the annual total. Furthermore, an increasingly heavy-tailed precipitation distribution and a rightward shifted temperature distribution provide strong indications of a more intense hydrological cycle as greenhouse gas emissions increase. The relative distance of an individual GCM from the ensemble mean does not substantially vary across different scenarios. We found no clear systematic linkage between model spread about the mean in the reference period and the magnitude of simulated sub-regional climate change in the future period. Overall, these results could be useful for regional climate change impact assessments across South America

Reproductive rights where conditions apply: an analysis of discriminatory practice in funding criteria against would-be parents seeking funded fertility treatment in England

© 2023 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).Access to in vitro fertilisation (IVF) funding in England is limited by a range of local criteria set out historically by Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) (now superseded by Integrated Care Boards (ICBs)). Many of these criteria discriminate on the grounds of sexual orientation, relationship status and existing family structure. Contrary to increasing rates of IVF treatment across the UK, NHS funding for IVF treatment has decreased, in some cases rapidly, across most areas of England. This article reviews the eligibility criteria previously developed by CCGs and critically examines three major discrepancies in entitlement to funding: (i) the postcode lottery; (ii) restrictions placed upon lesbians and single women; and (iii) existing family structures as less deserving of funding. Inconsistencies in IVF funding are framed within broader discussions of discrimination and inequality within fertility funding. Recommendations for social and political change are made, alongside areas for future research engagement.Peer reviewe