Compensation for victims of sexual violence in South Africa : a human rights approach to remedial criminal compensation provisions

Includes abstract.Includes bibliographical references.The author questioned why state attorneys, prosecutors and magistrates/judges in South Africa rarely review the compensation concerns of sexual violence complainants and witnesses in criminal sentencing matters, and in quasi-criminal civil forfeiture proceedings, as is frequently done for other classes of complainants (namely, commercial crime complainants and victims of violent crime in general). A conclusion was reached, after conducting extensive research for this thesis, that offender and state compensation processes were sparingly utilized in cases of sexual violence, in part, due to institutional biases that resulted in discrimination. The above finding was substantiated by way of twenty-seven (27) interviews with criminal justice role-players, eight (8) court file case studies and forty-seven (47) victim surveys. The above subject matter is important because failures by criminal justice state role-players to review the compensation concerns of sexual violence victims, on account of biases, causes real harm to these vulnerable complainants. For example, research in this thesis confirmed that state and offender compensation can assist sexual violence complainants with their cultural obligations, court appearances and post-assault health expenses and to pre-empt compensation reviews on account of biases disrupts victims' post assault recoveries. Further, compensation can assist sexual violence complainants with security related expenses, including relocation costs, so as to avoid repeated victimization

Whatever It Takes: How and When Supervisor Bottom-Line Mentality Motivates Employee Contributions in the Workplace

Given that many organizations are competitive and finance centered, organizational leaders may lead with a primary focus on bottom-line attainment, such that they are perceived by their subordinates as having a bottom-line mentality (BLM) that entails pursuing bottom-line outcomes above all else. Yet, the field is limited in understanding why such a leadership approach affects employees’ positive and negative contributions in the workplace. Drawing on social exchange theory, we theorize that supervisors high in BLM can influence employees’ felt obligation toward the bottom line, which in turn can influence employees’ task performance and unethical pro-organizational behavior (UPB). We also examine employee ambition as a moderator of this process. Using three-wave, multisource data collected from the financial services industry, our results revealed that high-BLM supervisors elevate employee task performance as well as UPB by motivating employees’ felt obligation toward the bottom line. Furthermore, we found that employee ambition served as a first-stage moderator, such that the mediated relationships were stronger when employee ambition was high as opposed to low. Our findings break away from the dominant dysfunctional view of BLM and provide a more balanced view of this mentality

NMR Studies of Solvent-Free Ceramic Composite Polymer Electrolytes—A Brief Review

Polyether-based polymer electrolytes containing ceramic inorganic oxide fillers often exhibit improved mechanical and ion transport properties compared to their filler-free counterparts. The nature of local scale interactions that give rise to these enhanced properties is explored by nuclear magnetic resonance measurements

Urinary excretion of RAS, BMP, and WNT pathway components in diabetic kidney disease.

Abstract The renin-angiotensin system (RAS), bone morphogenetic protein (BMP), and WNT pathways are involved in pathogenesis of diabetic kidney disease (DKD). This study characterized assays for urinary angiotensinogen (AGT), gremlin-1, and matrix metalloproteinase 7 (MMP-7), components of the RAS, BMP, and WNT pathways and examined their excretion in DKD. We measured urine AGT, gremlin-1, and MMP-7 in individuals with type 1 diabetes and prevalent DKD (n = 20) or longstanding (n = 61) or new-onset (n = 10) type 1 diabetes without DKD. These urine proteins were also quantified in type 2 DKD (n = 11) before and after treatment with candesartan. The utilized immunoassays had comparable inter- and intra-assay and intraindividual variation to assays used for urine albumin. Median (IQR) urine AGT concentrations were 226.0 (82.1, 550.3) and 13.0 (7.8, 20.0) μg/g creatinine in type 1 diabetes with and without DKD, respectively (P < 0.001). Median (IQR) urine gremlin-1 concentrations were 48.6 (14.2, 254.1) and 3.6 (1.7, 5.5) μg/g, respectively (P < 0.001). Median (IQR) urine MMP-7 concentrations were 6.0 (3.8, 10.5) and 1.0 (0.4, 2.9) μg/g creatinine, respectively (P < 0.001). Treatment with candesartan was associated with a reduction in median (IQR) urine AGT/creatinine from 23.5 (1.6, 105.1) to 2.0 (1.4, 13.7) μg/g, which did not reach statistical significance. Urine gremlin-1 and MMP-7 excretion did not decrease with candesartan. In conclusion, DKD is characterized by markedly elevated urine AGT, MMP-7, and gremlin-1. AGT decreased in response to RAS inhibition, suggesting that this marker reflects therapeutic response. Urinary components of the RAS, BMP, and WNT pathways may identify risk of DKD and aid development of novel therapeutics

Mixed-Meal Tolerance Test Versus Glucagon Stimulation Test for the Assessment of β-Cell Function in Therapeutic Trials in Type 1 Diabetes

OBJECTIVE—β-Cell function in type 1 diabetes clinical trials is commonly measured by C-peptide response to a secretagogue in either a mixed-meal tolerance test (MMTT) or a glucagon stimulation test (GST). The Type 1 Diabetes TrialNet Research Group and the European C-peptide Trial (ECPT) Study Group conducted parallel randomized studies to compare the sensitivity, reproducibility, and tolerability of these procedures

Dorsal Raphe Dopamine Neurons Modulate Arousal and Promote Wakefulness by Salient Stimuli

Ventral midbrain dopamine (DA) is unambiguously involved in motivation and behavioral arousal, yet the contributions of other DA populations to these processes are poorly understood. Here, we demonstrate that the dorsal raphe nucleus DA neurons are critical modulators of behavioral arousal and sleep-wake patterning. Using simultaneous fiber photometry and polysomnography, we observed time-delineated dorsal raphe nucleus dopaminergic (DRNDA) activity upon exposure to arousal-evoking salient cues, irrespective of their hedonic valence. We also observed broader fluctuations of DRNDA activity across sleep-wake cycles with highest activity during wakefulness. Both endogenous DRNDA activity and optogenetically driven DRNDA activity were associated with waking from sleep, with DA signal strength predictive of wake duration. Conversely, chemogenetic inhibition opposed wakefulness and promoted NREM sleep, even in the face of salient stimuli. Therefore, the DRNDA population is a critical contributor to wake-promoting pathways and is capable of modulating sleep-wake states according to the outside environment, wherein the perception of salient stimuli prompts vigilance and arousal