			Home About us Contact

Particular Vulnerability (particular + vulnerability)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Medical Sciences	40%

Selected Abstracts

A health inequalities perspective on violence against women

HEALTH & SOCIAL CARE IN THE COMMUNITY, Issue 2 2007
Cathy Humphreys PhD BSocWk
Abstract The present paper argues that the physical and mental health consequences of gender-based violence constitute a major public health problem in the UK and a source of significant health inequality. The concept of violence against women is explored alongside brief examples of the mental and physical health impact of this violence. While the impact on women's health is relatively uncontested, the extent to which social divisions such as poverty, class and minority ethnic status create specific vulnerabilities to violence are more controversial. A widely held view within the movement to support survivors within the UK has been that violence against women cuts across class and ethnicity, and is found in all communities and classes. A more nuanced discussion of the way in which poverty and ethnic background may create particular vulnerabilities is explored. Disentangling cause and consequence, and also the barriers to help-seeking for minority ethnic women are discussed. The role of social workers in addressing the way in which violence against women is both ubiquitous but marginal in their caseloads is discussed, and appropriate interventions to respond to health inequality issues are proposed. [source]

Oxyntic lesions may be provoked in the rat both by the process of acid secretion and also by gastric acidity

ALIMENTARY PHARMACOLOGY & THERAPEUTICS, Issue 1 2000
Waldum
Background: Gastric ischaemia appears to be a common pathogenetic factor for stress ulcers. These ulcers occur predominantly in the oxyntic mucosa, suggesting that the acid secretory process or its stimulation is involved in the pathogenesis. Methods: We examined separately the role of the acid secretory process and gastric luminal acidity in the pathogenesis of gastric lesions using the isolated vascularly perfused acid-secreting rat stomach. Results: Pentagastrin-stimulated acid secretion induced submucosal bleeding in the oxyntic mucosa whether accompanied by perfusion of the gastric lumen with saline or a phosphate buffer at pH 7.0. On the other hand, acidity, whether endogenous or introduced by luminal perfusion, induced erosions in both the oxyntic and antral mucosa. Conclusion: It is concluded that the acid secretory process itself contributes to the particular vulnerability of the oxyntic mucosa to ischaemia. Histamine released upon stimulation of gastric acid secretion or shortage of energy due to the requirements for acid secretion may both contribute to this vulnerability. Furthermore, these findings suggest that inhibition of gastric acid secretion should be superior to antacids in preventing stress ulcers. [source]

Hungarian Nonviolent Resistance against Austria and Its Place in the History of Nonviolence

PEACE & CHANGE, Issue 4 2007
Tamás Csapody
The Hungarian nonviolent resistance campaign against the Austrian absolutist rule in the 1850s and 1860s has been credited with being the "first mass or corporate form of non-violent resistance," yet it has received little scholarly attention in the nonviolence literature. In its usual portrayal, the movement is epitomized as a forerunner of Gandhi's later mass satyagraha campaigns, and its leader Ferenc Deák as a prototype Mahatma. In reality, the campaign was far more complex and less organized. However, it did demonstrate that even such campaigns can lead to the achievement of the aimed for goals when outside events and deeper internal economic and social drivers come together to unite the oppressed and weaken the position of the oppressor. As recent major studies of nonviolent struggle have shown, the Hungarian example illustrates what can be achieved when the oppressed withdraw their consent to be ruled and undermine state power by targeting areas of particular vulnerability of their oppressor. [source]

Reproductive adaptations to a large-brained fetus open a vulnerability to anovulation similar to polycystic ovary syndrome

AMERICAN JOURNAL OF HUMAN BIOLOGY, Issue 3 2003
Deborah K. Barnett
During the ovarian or menstrual cycle, prior to ovulation, many female primates exhibit a relatively prolonged follicular phase and terminate the postovulatory luteal phase with menstrual bleeding. The prolonged follicular phase is a trait that distinguishes primate from nonprimate species. It enables extended estrogen-induced proliferation and growth of the uterine endometrium prior to progesterone-induced maturation during the luteal phase to accommodate a potential pregnancy with a rapidly invading placenta. Progressive development of both an extended duration of estrogen-induced, preimplantation endometrial proliferation and a rapidly invading placenta across the Primate order may well have been necessary to accommodate differentiation and growth of an increasingly large fetal brain. Prolongation of the follicular phase in primates has also led to the isolation of the final stages of follicle selection (growth deviation of the dominant follicle from its contemporaries) solely within the follicular phase and thus outside the protection of luteal phase progesterone inhibition of pituitary luteinizing hormone (LH) secretion. Such primate reproductive characteristics put the latter stages of ovarian follicle selection at risk of exposure to excessive pituitary secretion of LH. Excessive secretion of LH during follicle selection could result not only in impaired follicle development, excessive ovarian androgen secretion, and ovulation failure, but also in excessive estrogenic stimulation of the uterine endometrium without intervening menstrual periods. Such reproductive abnormalities are all found in a single, prevalent infertility syndrome afflicting women in their reproductive years: polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). We propose that successful female reproductive adaptations to accommodate the growth demands of large-brained primate fetuses have facilitated a particular vulnerability of higher primates to hypergonadotropic disruption of ovulatory function, as found in PCOS. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 15:296,319, 2003. © 2003 Wiley-Liss. [source]

Annotation: Understanding the development of psychopathy

THE JOURNAL OF CHILD PSYCHOLOGY AND PSYCHIATRY AND ALLIED DISCIPLINES, Issue 8 2004
Essi Viding
Background:, Psychopaths are not only antisocial, but also have a callous and unemotional personality profile. This article selectively reviews evidence that psychopathic personality traits are an important factor in understanding and predicting the development of persistent antisocial conduct. Cognitive neuroscience research and more tentative genetic work on psychopathy will be discussed, especially as they relate to possible developmental trajectories to psychopathy. Results:, A personality-based approach has been successful in clarifying the conceptual boundaries of psychopathy and delineating a group of antisocial individuals with a distinct profile of offending and clear neurocognitive markers indicating problems in processing distress in others and punishment directed to oneself. These markers are also present in children with psychopathic tendencies, suggesting that psychopathy may be a developmental disorder. The neurocognitive profile relates to the callous and unemotional personality traits at the core of psychopathy and may index particular vulnerability to persistent antisocial conduct. Preliminary twin studies suggest that personality traits at the core of psychopathy are much more highly heritable than other personality traits. There are as yet no molecular genetic studies of psychopathy. Conclusions:, It is argued that an interdisciplinary approach that integrates cognitive neuroscience and genetics will enhance understanding of the development of psychopathy. [source]