Indian Bioethics: the Issue of Female Foeticide and Infanticide. A Sikh Perspective

A specific bioethical problem which India encounters today, in the era of prenatal diagnostics, is the problem of the foeticide or infanticide of female children. This problem has also been discussed at various international bioethical conferences as it was the case in February 2003 at the 8th International Bioethical Roundtable (TRT8) in the Japanese Science City of Tsukuba, and in March 2002 in Leiden (Netherlands) at the Asian Genomics – Cultural Values and Bioethical Practice conference. This paper presents some of the key theses resulting from the discussion at the above conferences, and also warns of the serious problem of the misuse of modern medical technology and diagnostics, which should primarily be used for a timely detection of various genetically conditioned diseases or disorders of the course of the intra-uterus life of the baby, rather than, as it is the case in India, to enable the (de)termination of the foetus according to sex. That is, the Indian society is dominated by men, and male children are highly valued, whereas female children are exceptionally discriminated against. This dicrimination is manifested through female children not being provided adequate nutrition or medical care, along with pronounced emotional deprivation. The most recent and, in the same time, worst form of discrimination is exactly female foeticide or infanticide, which – this should be specifically mentioned – is most often carried out in the Indian state Tamil Nadu

Rotating sample magnetometer for cryogenic temperatures and high magnetic fields

We report on the design and implementation of a rotating sample magnetometer (RSM) operating in the variable temperature insert of a cryostat equipped with a high-field magnet. The limited space and the cryogenic temperatures impose the most critical design parameters: the small bore size of the magnet requires a very compact pick-up coil system and the low temperatures demand a very careful design of the bearings. Despite these difficulties the RSM achieves excellent resolution at high magnetic field sweep rates, exceeding that of a typical vibrating sample magnetometer by about a factor of ten. In addition the gas-flow cryostat and the high-field superconducting magnet provide a temperature and magnetic field range unprecedented for this type of magnetometer.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figure

A framework for the definition of metrics for actor-dependency models

Actor-dependency models are a formalism aimed at providing intentional descriptions of processes as a network of dependency relationships among actors. This kind of models is currently widely used in the early phase of requirements engineering as well as in other contexts such as organizational analysis and business process reengineering. In this paper, we are interested in the definition of a framework for the formulation of metrics over these models. These metrics are used to analyse the models with respect to some properties that are interesting for the system being modelled, such as security, efficiency or accuracy. The metrics are defined in terms of the actors and dependencies of the model. We distinguish three different kinds of metrics that are formally defined, and then we apply the framework at two different layers of a meeting scheduler system.Postprint (published version

Gilgamesh, i miti e 'l'eterno ritorno': intervista con Paola Capriolo, Milan, September 2003

Since my 1996 interview, recorded in the pages of this journal, Paola Capriolo has continued to be an exceptionally prolific author. Five more novels have appeared since then (bringing her total to ten), in addition to four translations of German texts, and several short stories, not forgetting her regular reviews for the Corriere della sera. My questions at that time focused on the principal themes and motifs recurring in her fiction, such as obsession, solitude, anxiety, music, mirrors, and the prison-like environments. I also addressed issues of responsibility and gender, the fact that her protagonists have no ‘past’ and sometimes no name, the role of the narrator, and the role of the reader. Deriving partly from her fondness for Mann and Rilke, the theme that dominated Capriolo’s writing up to 1996 was the connection – or more accurately, the distinction – between life and art. It found expression in the characters’ search for artistic perfection in music, sculpture, painting, philosophy, or literature, or in an ideal seen as something fixed and eternal. And so Eulalia worshipped the perfect mirror man (‘La grande Eulalia’), Mur and Stiler the female statue (‘La donna di pietra’, Un uomo di carattere), Walter the exotic stranger (Il nocchiero), and Vulpius and Scarpia the perfect gesture or act (La spettatrice, Vissi d’amore). Adele and the prisoner sought the perfect performance (‘Il gigante’, ‘Lettere a Luisa’), Cara and Vulpius repetition and fixity (Il doppio regno, La spettatrice), and Stiler control and order (Un uomo di carattere). To what extent do the post-1996 novels reflect the same concerns

VIVA– A NEW RED CLOVER (Trifolium pratense L.) CULTIVAR

Sorta crvene djeteline Viva stvorena je na Poljoprivrednom institutu Osijek nakon pet ciklusa fenotipske rekurentne selekcije. Viva je srednje rana diploidna sorta, tolerantna na niske temperature, polijeganje i ekonomski najznačajnije bolesti. Ova sorta posjeduje visok genetski potencijal za prinos i kvalitetu krme, a odlikuje se brzom regeneracijom biljaka nakon košnje. Visoku agronomsku vrijednost ove sorte potvrdili su i službeni rezultati ispitivanja gospodarski važnih svojstava Povjerenstva za priznavanje sorti Republike Hrvatske. S obzirom na sve navedeno očekuje se da će sorta Viva potvrditi visoku proizvodnu vrijednost i u širokoj proizvodnji, doprinijeti popularizaciji i širenju ove krmne kulture u našoj zemlji te unaprijediti daljnji oplemenjivački program crvene djeteline na Poljoprivrednom institutu Osijek.Viva red clover cultivar was developed at the Agricultural Institute Osijek after five cycles of phenotypic recurrent selection. Viva is a medium-early flowering diploid cultivar, tolerant to low temperatures, lodging and economically important diseases. This cultivar has a high genetic potential for forage yield and quality, and is characterized by rapid regeneration after cutting. The official test results of the economically important traits of the Commission for Varieties Recognition of Republic of Croatia have confirmed high agronomic value of this cultivar. In accordance with this, it is expected confirmation of the high production values in wide production, contribution to the popularization and propagation of this fodder crop in our country and improvement of further breeding program of red clover at the Agricultural Institute Osijek

‘I don't think I can catch it’: women, confidence and responsibility in football coach education

Whilst women’s participation in sport continues to increase, their presence remains ideologically challenging given the significance of sport for the construction of gendered identities. As a hegmonically masculine institution, leadership roles across sport remain male-dominated and the entry of women into positions of authority (such as coaching) routinely contested. But in powerful male-typed sports, like football, women’s participation remains particularly challenging. Consequently, constructions of gender inequity in coaching were explored at a regional division of the English Football Association through unstructured interviews and coaching course observation. Using critical discourse analysis we identified the consistent re/production of women as unconfident in their own skills and abilities, and the framing of women themselves as responsible for the gendered inequities in football coaching. Women were thereby strategically positioned as deservedly on the periphery of the football category,whilst the organization was positioned as progressive and liberal

Polyesteramides with mixtures of poly(tetramethylene oxide) and 1,5 pentanediol

Segmented polyesteramides have been synthesized from N,N¿-bis(p-carbomethoxybenzoy)butanediamine as crystalline segments and mixtures of poly(tetramethylene oxide) (mol. wt. 1000) and 1,5-pentanediol as soft segments. The polymerization was carried out in the melt at 250°C for 1 h while vacuum was applied. The melting behaviour of the copolymers was studied by differential scanning calorimetry. The mechanical properties were investigated on injection moulded bars, using dynamic mechanical analysis. It was found that the copolymers with more than 50% molar ratio pentanediol showed two glass transition temperatures and two melting temperatures. The glass transition temperatures were not affected by the composition. The melting temperatures increased with pentanediol content. The pentanediol seems in part to be present as adjacent re-entry groups. The under-cooling for these copolymers was very small, which means that these segmented copolymers crystallize very fast