Building Comprehensive Controls on Small Arms Manufacturing, Transfer and End-use.

yesSmall arms and light weapons can enter the illicit market at many stages in their lifecycle. From manufacture, to sale/export, to import, and then to final end use, States must establish and enforce stringent and comprehensive licensing and monitoring systems to ensure that small arms and light weapons (SALW) remain under legal control. The UN Conference on the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All Its Aspects and ensuing follow-up process provide States with important opportunities to analyse and compare how existing systems governing the manufacture and trade in SALW are working. They further provide the context in which best practice can be agreed and implemented internationally, and for the discussion of how future trends and developments in SALW manufacture and transfer can be more effectively brought within State control. To this end, this briefing paper covers two separate but closely related issues. The first section of the report will analyse existing State and regional controls on SALW manufacture and examine how international measures, including the UN Conference, can reinforce such controls. In this regard, the growth of licensed production and co-production agreements is highlighted, together with implications for the development of adequate regulations. The second section examines those systems that are currently in place for the authorisation of SALW transfers and for the certification and monitoring of their ultimate end-use. Recommendations for best practice and implications for the UN Conference process are also discussed

Introduction to this special issue on HCI and games

Games have been part of human–computer interaction (HCI) research since the first CHI conference in 1982. At that gathering, Tom Malone, then at Xerox PARC, presented insights from the study of computer games to motivate a set of design principles for “enjoyable” user interfaces (Malone, 1982). Over the ensuing years, games-related HCI research has steadily grown as a subarea of CHI (e.g. Keeker, Pagulayan, Sykes, & Lazzaro, 2004; Pausch, Gold, Skelly, & Thiel, 1994), with more rapid acceleration in the last 10 years. A recent metareview (Carter, Downs, Nansen, Harrop, & Gibbs, 2014) analyzed game- and play-related content at CHI between 2003 and 2013, finding that the overall percentage of the CHI proceedings related to play and games rose from 2.5% to a peak of 9.5% in 2012. In the last few years, venues for game-related HCI work have expanded as well. From 2011 to 2013, two of this special issue’s editors (Bernhaupt & Isbister, 2013) formed a Games and Entertainment Special Community devoted to game-related HCI research at CHI, leading to the permanent addition to CHI venues of a Student Game Design Competition. And in 2014, a new ACM-sponsored conference was created as a specialized peer-reviewed venue for the intersection of HCI and Games—CHI-Play. Game-related research is clearly a valued, integral, and growing segment of HCI research

Strengthening Âhkamêyimo among Indigenous youth: The social determinants of health, justice, and resilience in Canada’s north

The wellbeing of Indigenous youth living in Canada’s northern communities continues to lag behind the rest of the Canadian population. To a large extent, these health inequities are perpetuated by processes of colonisation that significantly impact the social determinants of health in Canada’s Indigenous north. The purpose of this article is to review the history of colonisation and its impacts on the wellbeing of Indigenous youth in Canada’s north, as well as processes of resilience that have helped Indigenous youth live healthy lives despite social challenges. Academic articles published between 2000 and 2016 outlining resilience from Indigenous perspectives are reviewed in the contexts of Canada’s Indigenous north. Analysis focuses on what insights about resilience emerge from Indigenous communities, particularly as they related to the health inequities of circumpolar regions. The concept of Âhkamêyimo is discussed and how systems of Indigenous knowledge offer important insights into resilience in general, and can be utilised in health promotion, education, and prevention programs targeting Indigenous youth in northern Canada. We conclude that attention should be turned toward issues of social justice and health equity that are desperately needed in order to create healthy environments whereby Indigenous youth within northern Canadian communities can be assisted to flourish

Red cell and platelet transfusions in neonates: a population based study

Objectives: Reports of neonatal transfusion practices have focused predominantly on premature neonates admitted to neonatal intensive care units (NICU), however little is known about transfusion among other neonates. This study aimed to describe the use of blood products among all neonates. Design: Linked population-based birth and hospital discharge data from New South Wales (NSW), Australia was used to determine rates of blood product transfusion in the first 28 days of life. The study included all livebirths ≥23 weeks’ gestation in NSW between 2001 and 2011. Results: Between 2001-2011, 5326 of 989,491 live born neonates received a blood product transfusion (5.4 per 1000 births). Transfusion rates were 4.8 per 1000 for red cells, 1.3 per 1000 for platelets and 0.3 per 1000 for exchange transfusion. High transfusion rates were seen in neonates with prior in-utero transfusion (631/1000), congenital anomaly requiring surgery (440/1000) or haemolytic disorder (106/1000). Among transfused infants, 7% received transfusions in a hospital without a NICU. Of those transfused, 64% were born ≤32 weeks gestation (n=3384, 255/1000 births), with 96% of these receiving red cells. 36% were born >32 weeks gestation (n= 1942, 1.98/1000 births), with 76% receiving red cells and 38% receiving platelets. Conclusions: In this population based study, high transfusion rates were seen in neonates with haemolytic disorders or requiring surgery, as well as in those born preterm. Thirty-six percent of neonates who received blood products were born >32 weeks gestation and 7% were transfused in hospitals without a NICU.NHMRC, AR

Lyapunov Exponent Pairing for a Thermostatted Hard-Sphere Gas under Shear in the Thermodynamic Limit

We demonstrate why for a sheared gas of hard spheres, described by the SLLOD equations with an iso-kinetic Gaussian thermostat in between collisions, deviations of the conjugate pairing rule for the Lyapunov spectrum are to be expected, employing a previous result that for a large number of particles $N$, the iso-kinetic Gaussian thermostat is equivalent to a constant friction thermostat, up to $1/\sqrt{N}$ fluctuations. We also show that these deviations are at most of the order of the fourth power in the shear rate.Comment: 4 pages, to appear in Rapid Comm., Phys. Rev.

Funnel-web spider bite: a systematic review of recorded clinical cases

The document attached has been archived with permission from the editor of the Medical Journal of Australia (09 January 2008). An external link to the publisher’s copy is included.Objective: To investigate species-specific envenoming rates and spectrum of severity of funnel-web spider bites, and the efficacy and adverse effects of funnel-web spider antivenom. Data sources: Cases were identified from a prospective study of spider bite presenting to four major hospitals and three state poisons information centres (1999–2003); museum records of spider specimens since 1926; NSW Poisons Information Centre database; MEDLINE and EMBASE search; clinical toxinology textbooks; the media; and the manufacturer’s reports of antivenom use. Data extraction: Patient age and sex, geographical location, month, expert identification of the spider, clinical effects and management; envenoming was classified as severe, mild–moderate or minor/local effects. Data synthesis: 198 potential funnel-web spider bites were identified: 138 were definite (spider expertly identified to species or genus), and 77 produced severe envenoming. All species-identified severe cases were attributed to one of six species restricted to NSW and southern Queensland. Rates of severe envenoming were: Hadronyche cerberea (75%), H. formidabilis (63%), Atrax robustus (17%), Hadronyche sp. 14 (17%), H. infensa (14%) and H. versuta (11%). Antivenom was used in 75 patients, including 22 children (median dose, 3 ampoules; range, 1–17), with a complete response in 97% of expertly identified cases. Three adverse reactions were reported, all in adults: two early allergic reactions (one mild and one with severe systemic effects requiring adrenaline), and one case of serum sickness. Conclusions: Severe funnel-web spider envenoming is confined to NSW and southern Queensland; tree-dwelling funnel webs (H. cerberea and H. formidabilis) have the highest envenoming rates. Funnel-web spider antivenom appears effective and safe; severe allergic reactions are uncommon.Geoffrey K Isbister, Michael R Gray, Corrine R Balit, Robert J Raven, Barrie J Stokes, Kate Porges, Alan S Tankel, Elizabeth Turner, Julian White and Malcolm McD Fishe

The Future of Human-Food Interaction

There is an increasing interest in food within the HCI discipline, with many interactive prototypes emerging that augment, extend and challenge the various ways people engage with food, ranging from growing plants, cooking ingredients, serving dishes and eating together. Grounding theory is also emerging that in particular draws from embodied interactions, highlighting the need to consider not only instrumental, but also experiential factors specific to human-food interactions. Considering this, we are provided with an opportunity to extend human-food interactions through knowledge gained from designing novel systems emerging through technical advances. This workshop aims to explore the possibility of bringing practitioners, researchers and theorists together to discuss the future of human-food interaction with a particular highlight on the design of experiential aspects of human-food interactions beyond the instrumental. This workshop extends prior community building efforts in this area and hence explicitly invites submissions concerning the empirically-informed knowledge of how technologies can enrich eating experiences. In doing so, people will benefit not only from new technologies around food, but also incorporate the many rich benefits that are associated with eating, especially when eating with others

The Interpersonal Skills of Community-Engaged Scholarship: Insights From Collaborators Working at the University of Saskatchewan’s Community Engagement Office

Perhaps more clearly than other research approaches, community-based research or engaged scholarship involves both technical skills of research expertise and scientific rigor as well as interpersonal skills of relationship building, effective communication, and moral ways of being. In an academic age concerned with scientific precision, cognitive skills, quantification, and reliable measurements, the interpersonal skills required for research—and particularly community-based research and engaged scholarship—demand growing importance and resources in contemporary discourse and practice. Focused around the University of Saskatchewan’s Community Engagement Office located in the inner city of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, the authors draw on over 50 years of collective experience to offer critical reflections on the notion of interpersonal skills in community-engaged scholarship that manifest particularly in place-based contexts of Indigenous community partnerships. Overall, we argue that discourse and practice involving community-engaged scholarship must pay attention to the notion of interpersonal skills in various aspects and across multiple dimensions and disciplines. This approach is crucial to ensure that research is done effectively and ethically, that good quality data are produced from such research, that subtle, systematic forms of micro-aggression and oppression are minimized, and that community voices and knowledge have a meaningful and significant place in scholarship activities

The human health effects of exposure to polybrominated biphenyls

Polybrominated biphenyls (PBB) were inadvertently introduced into the food chain in Michigan in 1973. Fifty-one people with known exposure to PBB were studied. Twenty-three farmers with disabling health complaints, and 28 chemical workers involved in the PBB manufacturing process were systematically evaluated to determine if these highrisk groups suffered adverse effects from their known exposure to PBB. The farmers had a high frequency of constitutional symptoms, hepatomegaly and skin rashes, findings not commonly noted in the chemical workers. Biochemical and hematologic testing revealed few abnormalities, and electromyograms, nerve conduction velocities, endocrine studies, and lymphocyte transformation studies provided no objective findings that correlated with subjective complaints. There was no relationship between PBB levels and physical or laboratory abnormalities. Present evidence suggests that people exposed to PBB have few objective findings at this time, and reactive depression may be responsible for the high prevalence of constitutional symptoms.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/24421/1/0000692.pd

Patient blood management bundles to facilitate implementation

More than 30% of the world's population are anemic with serious economic consequences including reduced work capacity and other obstacles to national welfare and development. Red blood cell transfusion is the mainstay to correct anemia, but it is also 1 of the top 5 overused procedures. Patient blood management (PBM) is a proactive, patient-centered, and multidisciplinary approach to manage anemia, optimize hemostasis, minimize iatrogenic blood loss, and harness tolerance to anemia. Although the World Health Organization has endorsed PBM in 2010, many hospitals still seek guidance with the implementation of PBM in clinical routine. Given the use of proven change management principles, we propose simple, cost-effective measures enabling any hospital to reduce both anemia and red blood cell transfusions in surgical and medical patients. This article provides comprehensive bundles of PBM components encompassing 107 different PBM measures, divided into 6 bundle blocks acting as a working template to develop institutions' individual PBM practices for hospitals beginning a program or trying to improve an already existing program. A stepwise selection of the most feasible measures will facilitate the implementation of PBM. In this manner, PBM represents a new quality and safety standard