Enforcing the rights and freedoms of disabled people: the role of transnational law (Part I)

In Part I of this article we examined the actual and potential application of global international law (GIL) to the development of rights and freedoms for people with disabilities. We concluded that there is currently no binding and accessible GIL instrument that specifically relates to this group. Instead, an emphasis was placed upon those instruments that have a generic application to human rights and a clear potential application to the protection of disability rights primarily through their provisions relating to non-discrimination. Moreover, we stressed that the instruments of GIL also have the potential to provide an indirect benefit to disabled people as tools of influence and persuasion in the development of non-discrimination and affirmative action empowerment programmes at both a national and international level. In Part II, we apply a similar analysis to the opportunities offered by European international law (EIL).</p

Fork-decompositions of matroids

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On matroids of branch-width three

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Minimal energy control of a nanoelectromechanical memory element

The Pontryagin minimal energy control approach has been applied to minimise the switching energy in a nanoelectromechanical memory system and to characterise global stability of the oscillatory states of the bistable memory element. A comparison of two previously experimentally determined pulse-type control signals with Pontryagin control function has been performed, and the superiority of the Pontryagin approach with regard to power consumption has been demonstrated. An analysis of global stability shows how values of minimal energy can be utilized in order to specify equally stable states

Cognitive learning outcomes in a cardiac nursing course: A pilot study

This study measured the cognitive learning outcomes of registered nurses who completed a short cardiac nursing course. This course was held in a metropolitan teaching hospital during four weeks in September, 1989. The author grouped the twenty participants into one of two groups according to prior acute cardiac nursing experience; (1) those who had less than six months post-basic cardiac nursing experience; and (2) those who had six months or more post-basic cardiac nursing experience. A pre-course test and post-course test was given to the participants to measure the dependent variable, that is, cognitive knowledge. Using as case-comparative design, the results of both groups were then compared to determine what effect prior experience, the independent variable, had on the learning outcomes. That is, which group benefits more from a course? The study’s main purpose was to contribute to the dearth of literature on assessment of cognitive learning outcomes in nursing courses. An adaptation of Stake’s Countenance Model of Evaluation (1973) was used which provided a means to propose and test relationships between the variables via three hypotheses. The Gestalt cognitive discovery view of learning formed the theoretical rationale for the study and results were discussed in light of this view. This study found that whilst prior relevant experience has significant effect on the scores gained by the experienced nurses, the most significant results was the gain scores of the non-experienced nurses whose scores from pre-test to post-test rose by almost two standard deviations. The gain scores of the experienced nurses rose be only one standard deviation. These results indicate that cognitive learning had taken place and that both groups of nurses benefit from such a course. As even a rise of one standard deviation is very significant