The Apollo 8 Genesis Reading and Religion in the Space Age

Between January 1969 and the summer of 1975, NASA received over eight million letters and petition signatures supporting the right of American astronauts to free religious expression in space. Prompted by Madalyn Murray O'Hair's complaints about the reading of Genesis during the flight of Apollo 8, the petition campaign points to the complex ambivalent relationship between religious Americans and their nation's space program. The Genesis reading had provided reassurance that the program, with its secular motivations, its instrumental culture, and its designs upon God's very heavens, was not hostile to faith. But what if NASA now yielded to O'Hair? The petitions flowed in the eschatological anxiety that the sacred space of the skies might be cleared of Christian speech

The Origin and Development of Prison Fellowship International: Pluralism, Ecumenism and American Leadership in the Evangelical World 1974–2006

Established in 1979 by Watergate felon Charles Colson, Prison Fellowship International (PFI) is now one of the largest para-church organizations in world evangelicalism. This article explains PFI's origins with reference to the existence of a transnational evangelical network, the compatibility of PFI's mission with the emergent theme of evangelical social concern, and a general crisis of penology across a number of Western countries. It explores the creative tension between Colson's empire-building instincts and the desire of PFI affiliates to influence the direction of the organization, revealing the transactional manner in which American evangelicals exercised global leadership in the late twentieth century

The views of the child: Article 12 and the development of children's rights in Scotland

Article 12 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child calls for state parties to 'assure to the child who is capable of forming his or her own views the right to express those views freely in all matters affecting the child, the views of the child being given due weight in accordance with the age and maturity of the child'. This paper will discuss the rights of children to express their views in the context of the Scottish legislative system

Beyond the new horizon : trends and issues in residential child care

High profile scandals of abuse and poor outcomes of children in residential child care have contributed to a government focus on improving the quality of services. There has also been a significant effort to promote the rights of children and young people. In Scotland, there have been a number of national developments which include national bodies to regulate social care services, the social care workforce and to co-ordinate the training of residential child care staff; legislation to enhance the protection of children; and the creation of the role of Children's Commissioner to promote children's rights. As well as these national measures, it is important to place the developmental and emotional needs of children and young people in residential care at the centre of quality services

Recent developments in child protection policy and practice in Scotland and the UK

This paper describes the developments in child protection policy and practice following the deaths of Kennedy McFarlane and Victoria Climbie. It outlines child protection statistics in Scotland and the findings of the Child Protection Review. It discusses the Children's Charter and the Framework for Standards in Child Protection. It also briefly discusses developments in England; Directors of Children's Services, Local Safeguarding Children's Boards, Information Database, and Children's Commissioner

Novel screening methods for the detection of Yersinia enterocolitica in infected blood used for transfusion : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Microbiology at Massey University

Between 1991-1996, 8 patients experienced rare life-threatening reactions that followed the transfusion of blood infected with Yersinia enterocolitica. The first reported case occurred in 1991 and was followed by seven others that directly caused or contributed to the death of 5 of 8 patients. Y. enterocolitica is a food and water borne infection of the gastrointestinal tract which in adults is often asymptomatic. An unknown number of those infected experience a period of self-limiting bacteraemia. The large volume of blood collected during donation phlebotomy may contain small numbers of bacteria that can increase in number during blood bank storage, producing potentially lethal levels of bacteria and toxin. Currently there are no reliable methods available to distinguish blood donations that present the greatest risk from those that present little risk. This thesis, reports on the evaluation of two techniques to prevent the transfusion of blood infected with Y. enterocolitica. The first, a molecular method, was used to amplify bacterial DNA in blood by Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR). A 425 bp product was amplified from DNA extractions of infected blood. Results showed that the technical complexities of the methodology, together with poor sensitivity and the need for large-scale donation sampling make PCR as applied for this purpose unattractive. An Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay was developed to detect current/recent infection with Y. enterocolitica in healthy blood donors. Polystyrene beads were coated with bacterial proteins to detect IgA antibody to Y. enterocolitica in human serum. The sera from donors of confirmed unit infections, paired sera from culture-proven Y. enterocolitica gastrointestinal tract infection and sera from volunteer blood donors were tested. Results showed that the sera of six bacteraemic blood donors tested contained elevated levels of IgA antibody. High rates of positivity (26/27), were detected in sera from culture-confirmed GIT infection and a rate of 4.04% seropositivity was found among 495 blood donors enrolled in a clinical trial. Results showed a strong correlation between IgA seropositivity, and recipient risk associated with the transfusion of blood heavily infected with Y. enterocolitica. The work demonstrated how the use of a simple screening test for recent infection, could be used to exclude high risk donations and improve the safety of blood transfusion in New Zealand