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Serious Doubt (serious + doubt)
Selected AbstractsLaw, ethics and pandemic preparedness: the importance of cross-jurisdictional and cross-cultural perspectivesAUSTRALIAN AND NEW ZEALAND JOURNAL OF PUBLIC HEALTH, Issue 2 2010Belinda Bennett Abstract Objective: To explore social equity, health planning, regulatory and ethical dilemmas in responding to a pandemic influenza (H5N1) outbreak, and the adequacy of protocols and standards such as the International Health Regulations (2005). Approach: This paper analyses the role of legal and ethical considerations for pandemic preparedness, including an exploration of the relevance of cross-jurisdictional and cross-cultural perspectives in assessing the validity of goals for harmonisation of laws and policies both within and between nations. Australian and international experience is reviewed in various areas, including distribution of vaccines during a pandemic, the distribution of authority between national and local levels of government, and global and regional equity issues for poorer countries. Conclusion: This paper finds that questions such as those of distributional justice (resource allocation) and regulatory frameworks raise important issues about the cultural and ethical acceptability of planning measures. Serious doubt is cast on a ,one size fits all' approach to international planning for managing a pandemic. It is concluded that a more nuanced approach than that contained in international guidelines may be required if an effective response is to be constructed internationally. Implications: The paper commends the wisdom of reliance on ,soft law', international guidance that leaves plenty of room for each nation to construct its response in conformity with its own cultural and value requirements. [source] Measurement mischief: A critique of Reynolds, Nicolson and Hambly (2003)DYSLEXIA, Issue 3 2003Chris Singleton Abstract Reynolds, Nicolson and Hambly (2003) report an intervention study of the effects of exercise-based training on literacy development, using literacy measures from the Dyslexia Screening Test (DST), the NFER-Nelson Group Reading Test, and the Standard Assessment Tasks (SATs). Investigation of the nature and psychometric characteristics of these measures casts serious doubt on their appropriateness in a study of this nature. Consideration of the findings obtained using these measures does not support the authors' conclusion that reading was improved by the intervention. The study by Reynolds et al. does not demonstrate that exercise-based treatment improves literacy skills and the use of its purported findings as evidence that exercise-based treatment would be beneficial for children with literacy difficulties is scientifically untenable. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Multifunctional host defense peptides: antiparasitic activitiesFEBS JOURNAL, Issue 22 2009Amram Mor Whereas significant knowledge is accumulating on the antibacterial and antifungal properties of host defense peptides (HDPs) and their synthetic mimics, much less is known of their activities against parasites. A variety of in vitro and in vivo antiparasitic assays suggest that these notorious antimicrobial compounds could represent a powerful tool for the development of novel drugs to fight parasites in the vertebrate host or to complement current therapeutic strategies, albeit the fact that HDPs essentially act by nonspecific mechanisms casts serious doubt on their ability to exert sufficient selectivity to be considered ideal candidates for drug development. This minireview summarizes recent efforts to assess the antiparasitic properties of HDPs and their synthetic derivatives, focusing on two of the most used models ,Plasmodium and Leishmania species , for antiparasitic assays against the different development stages. [source] THE AMBIGUITY OF THE EMBRYO: ETHICAL INCONSISTENCY IN THE HUMAN EMBRYONIC STEM CELL DEBATEMETAPHILOSOPHY, Issue 2-3 2007KATRIEN DEVOLDER Abstract: We argue in this essay that (1) the embryo is an irredeemably ambiguous entity and its ambiguity casts serious doubt on the arguments claiming its full protection or, at least, protection against its use as a means for stem cell research, (2) those who claim the embryo should be protected as "one of us" are committed to a position even they do not uphold in their practices, (3) views that defend the protection of the embryo in virtue of its potentiality to become a person fail, and (4) the embryo does not have any rights or interests to be protected. Given that many are willing to treat the embryo as a means in other practices, and that human embryonic stem cell (hESC) research holds great potential to benefit many people, one cannot but conclude that hESC research is permissible and, because of its immense promise for alleviating human suffering, even obligatory. [source] Bias and backwardation in natural gas futures pricesTHE JOURNAL OF FUTURES MARKETS, Issue 3 2005Nahid Movassagh This paper tests the fair-game efficient-markets hypothesis for the natural gas futures prices over the period 1990 through 2003. We find evidence consistent with the Keynesian notion of normal backwardation. Regressing the future spot prices on the lagged futures prices and using the Stock-Watson (1993) procedure to correct for the correlation between the error terms and the futures prices, we find that natural gas futures are biased predictors of the corresponding future spot prices for contracts ranging from 3 to 12 months. These results cast a serious doubt on the commonly held view that natural gas futures sell at a premium over the expected future spot prices, and that this bias is due to the systematic risk of the futures price movements represented by a negative "beta." We also find evidence for the Samuelson effect. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Jrl Fut Mark 25:281,308, 2005 [source] POST-COLONIZATION INTERACTION BETWEEN VANUATU AND FIJI RECONSIDERED: THE RE-ANALYSIS OF OBSIDIAN FROM LAKEBA ISLAND, FIJI*ARCHAEOMETRY, Issue 1 2010C. REEPMEYER PIXE,PIGME analysis of 19 obsidian artefacts from Lakeba Island in east Fiji identified contact with northern Vanuatu in the post-colonization period (c. 2500,1000 bp) of Fiji. The Lakeba obsidian is the only physical evidence for interaction across the 850 km water gap separating the archipelagos of Vanuatu and Fiji in the first millennium ad. New research on the Vanuatu obsidian sources with laser ablation , inductively coupled plasma , mass spectrometry (LA,ICP,MS) casts serious doubt on the validity of a long-distance inter-archipelago connection in the post-Lapita era. This paper presents the re-analysis of 18 obsidian artefacts from Lakeba using LA,ICP,MS and radiogenic isotope results that demonstrate that the Lakeba obsidian is not from Vanuatu, and it most likely derives from the Fiji,Tonga region. Geochemical evidence for long-distance interaction and migration between the West and Central Pacific in the post-Lapita era has yet to be identified. [source] Continuity and Change: Some Observations on the Landscape of Agricultural Labourers in North Bihar, IndiaJOURNAL OF AGRARIAN CHANGE, Issue 4 2004PRAVEEN JHA This paper is an attempt to catalogue and analyse the changes over two decades in the world of agricultural labourers in a backward region in India. It is primarily based on a series of field visits to two villages in Purnia district, located in the north-eastern part of Bihar. Changes in the living conditions of labourers are obviously connected to developments in the rural economy of the region and there are important linkages with developments elsewhere, including changes in the overall macro-economic policy regime. An attempt is made to trace these. Agricultural wage workers in the surveyed region are extremely poor by any reckoning, although a few of them have made some progress through state-sponsored programmes and migration. These developments have also contributed significantly to altering the relations of dominance and subordination, thus creating greater elbow-room for labourers. However, it is important not to overstate these small gains and there are serious doubts as to whether they can be sustained. It appears that some of the material correlates of labourers' well-being in the surveyed region are being affected adversely by the currently ascendant neoliberal policy regime. There are no signs of the emergence of mechanisms that might imply sustained significant improvements in the very fragile life and work conditions of these labourers. [source] EUROPE IN CRISIS: A QUESTION OF BELIEF OR UNBELIEF?MODERN THEOLOGY, Issue 2 2007PERSPECTIVES FROM THE VATICAN For Joseph Ratzinger, elected Pope Benedict XVI in 2005, modernity has transformed Europe into a continent without God. As a result, Europe's self-understanding is flawed. This outcome puts serious doubts on the Church's resolution, expressed in Gaudium et spes, to dialogue with the modern world. Moreover, the present pope was among the first to warn both church and society against the erosion of modernity. Also more recently, e.g. in his Values in a Time of Upheaval, he argued that only a Europe firmly rooted in Christian faith can survive the nihilism and moral crisis with which it is confronted. As a creative minority Christians should help Europe win back the best of its heritage and use it to the service of all humanity. In this contribution Boeve presents the evolution and primary features of Joseph Ratzinger's thought in this regard and concludes with a number of critical observations. [source] | ||||||||||