Ethnic origin of the victim as an aggravating factor in sentencing sexual offenders

This article examines R v Jamal Muhammed Raheem Ul Nasir, a Court of Appeal case where leave to appeal against a seven-year custodial sentence for sexual offences against children was refused. The appellant argued that his sentence length was excessive because the judge viewed the female victims’ ethnic and religious origin as an aggravating factor. In light of a number of charities’ condemning the judgment, this article evaluates whether the Court of Appeal made the correct decision, particularly in the wider context of sentencing principles. It also considers whether causing shame to a victim and her family can be regarded as an aggravating factor when sentencing sexual offences, and discusses the circumstances where the victim’s ethnic origin should be taken into account

Calcified amorphous tumor: A rare cause of central retinal artery occlusion.

PurposeWe report the case of a central retinal artery occlusion secondary to presumed embolus from a calcified amorphous tumor of the heart, a very rare non-neoplastic cardiac mass.ObservationsA 60-year-old female presented with acute unilateral vision loss of the left eye. Examination revealed hand motion visual acuity of the left eye and a left relative afferent pupillary defect. Fundoscopy showed whitening of the macula with a cherry red spot, consistent with a central retinal artery occlusion. Initial workup was unremarkable, including hypercoagulability labs, magnetic resonance imaging of the brain, and magnetic resonance angiography of the head and neck. Transthoracic echocardiogram (TTE) showed calcification of the mitral valve but no masses. Subsequently, transesophageal echocardiogram (TEE) was performed, which revealed a mobile calcified amorphous tumor of the heart.ConclusionsCalcified amorphous tumor of the heart is a very rare cardiac mass that may cause retinal artery occlusion. TEE is a more sensitive imaging modality to assess for potential cardio-embolic sources if TTE is unrevealing

Eudaimonic Pathways of Activating Compassion Reduce Vulnerabilities to Paranoia

This study aimed to identify if compassion benefits paranoia and, if so what type of compassion. Following a series of different compassionate exercises in 104 participants it was found that mindfulness approaches were the most significant in reducing paranoia suggesting a new approach for psychological problems characterised by paranoia

Comment on "Exclusion of time in the theorem of Bell" by K. Hess and W. Philipp

A recent Letter by Hess and Philipp claims that Bell's theorem neglects the possibility of time-like dependence in local hidden variables, hence is not conclusive. Moreover the authors claim that they have constructed, in an earlier paper, a local realistic model of the EPR correlations. However, they themselves have neglected the experimenter's freedom to choose settings, while on the other hand, Bell's theorem can be formulated to cope with time-like dependence. This in itself proves that their toy model cannot satisfy local realism, but we also indicate where their proof of its local realistic nature fails.Comment: Latex needs epl.cl

Feasibility study of an explosive gun

Feasibility of high performance, explosively driven device, and calculations for deformable piston light gas gu

Interactions of Satellite Galaxies in Cosmological Dark Matter Halos

We present a statistical analysis of the interactions between satellite galaxies in cosmological dark matter halos taken from fully self-consistent high-resolution simulations of galaxy clusters. We show that the number distribution of satellite encounters has a tail that extends to as many as 3-4 encounters per orbit. On average 30% of the substructure population had at least one encounter (per orbit) with another satellite galaxy. However, this result depends on the age of the dark matter host halo with a clear trend for more interactions in younger systems. We also report a correlation between the number of encounters and the distance of the satellites to the centre of the cluster: satellite galaxies closer to the centre experience more interactions. However, this can be simply explained by the radial distribution of the substructure population and merely reflects the fact that the density of satellites is higher in those regions. In order to find substructure galaxies we applied (and present) a new technique based upon the N-body code MLAPM. This new halo finder MHF (MLAPM's-Halo-Finder) acts with exactly the same accuracy as the N-body code itself and is therefore free of any bias and spurious mismatch between simulation data and halo finding precision related to numerical effects.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, accepted by PASA (refereed contribution to the 5th Galactic Chemodynamics workshop, July 2003

Nursing Students’ Perception of the Stigma of Mental Illness

Background: Mental health disorders are highly prevalent in the U.S. Nursing students’ perceptions regarding the stigma of mental illness will impact the quality of care delivered and the patients’ outcomes. Method: Data was collected from 64 sophomore students. Five open ended questions were distributed to the students during the first class. All the surveys were collected by a volunteer student and were placed in the instructor’s mailbox in a sealed envelope. Results: The results revealed three categories: students ‘perceptions of the causes of mental illness stigmatization, their own perception of mental illness, and their perception on how to break the cycle of stigmatization of mental illness. Conclusion: Nursing students provided insightful perceptions regarding the causes of the stigma and possible interventions. Collaborative efforts to break the stigma of mental illness include: education, acceptance, increasing awareness, and better portrayal in the media

From Silence to Voice: A collaborative international partnership to develop a digital resource for use in clinical and education settings about sexual violence from perspectives of students, educators and survivors.

Gender based violence (GBV) – which includes sexual violence - is a significant global public health and societal problem, recognised as a global human rights issue by the World Health Organisation (WHO, 2017). Global estimates indicate that 1 in 3 women experience physical/sexual violence in their lifetime (WHO, 2017). GBV/SV exerts a detrimental impact not only on the lives and health of women, but also those who witness abuse and has been identified as a large scale problem in South Africa with recorded estimates that a woman is raped every seventeen seconds. The impact of GBV/SV on the physical and psychological wellbeing of those who experience abuse is wide ranging. It includes the immediate physical effects for example, physical injury as well as longer term chronic ill health as a result, acute and enduring psychological trauma, mental ill-health, alongside secondary physiological health issues such as gynaecological and sexual health (Feder et al. 2011). It is well evidenced however that healthcare professionals across the spectrum do not respond effectively often due to a lack of knowledge or professional confidence and their own values and assumptions surrounding GBV/SV (McGarry et al. 2015). Education is pivotal, and a proven means to tackle a growing global problem. This includes pre-qualifying healthcare students who are often not exposed to education about GBV/SV within their current curricula. Working with our project partners and key stakeholders in South Africa during 2019, including women who have experienced GBV/SV, the aim of this research was to engage stakeholders in the co-production of a digital e-learning resource to use across multiple healthcare disciplines on GBV/SV. Our aim is to describe the process of an international collaboration, provide the context using survey data and present the digital resource and the evaluations conducted on the application and use within education and clinical settings. References: Feder G, Davies R, Baird K, Dunne D, Eldridge S, Griffiths C, Gregory A, Howell A, Johnson, M., Ramsay J, Garcia-Moreno, C., Armin, A. (2016) The sustainable development goals, violence and women’s and children’s health (WHO) http://www.who.int/bulletin/volumes/94/5/16-172205/en/ (accessed 7.7.18) McGarry J., Baker C., Wilson C., Felton A., Banerjee A, (2015). Preparation for safeguarding in UK pre-registration graduate nurse education. Journal of Adult Protection. 17(6), 371-379 World Health Organisation (2017) Violence against women http://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/violence-against-women (accessed 7.7.18