Categories Of Individuals Research Articles

Asylum as a General Principle of International Law

Asylum, understood as ‘the protection that a State grants on its territory or in some other place under the control of certain of its organs to a person who comes to seek it’, is a wellknown institution in international law and its historical roots in state practice are well established. Asylum is different from refugee status, as the former constitutes the institution for protection while the latter refers to one of the categories of individuals –among others- who benefit from such protection and the content of that protection. This article explores the nature of asylum as a general principle of international law. It first examines the relationship between asylum and refugee status to place the discussion in context. It then outlines the current debate on asylum and, in particular, the nature of asylum as a right of individuals. The article explores the normative nature of asylum through its historical practice, paying particular attention to the practice of states as reflected in their constitutional traditions. This constitutional focus responds to the normative character of constitutions. As asylum features in a significant number of constitutional texts across the world, the value of this institution as one of the underlying principles in legal orders worldwide is clear and, as such, it informs international law itself. The article shows that the long historical tradition of asylum as an expression of sovereignty has now been coupled with a right of individuals to be granted asylum of constitutional rank, which in turn is recognised by international human rights instruments of regional scope. This, and its continuous historical presence across civilizations and over time, suggests that asylum constitutes a general principle of international law that is legally binding when it comes to the interpretation of the nature and scope of states’ obligations towards individuals seeking protection. 1. In TR od u CTI on Asylum, understood as ‘the protection that a State grants on its territory or in some other place under the control of certain of its organs to a person who comes to seek it’, 1

Accumulation and Persistence of Welfare Problems over Time

This paper uses longitudinal Swedish data and investigates the accumulation and persistence of welfare problems over time. The data set was compiled in a first wave in 1979, a second wave in 1986–1987, a third wave in 1994–1995, and a fourth wave in 2002–2003 (N = 7,967). First, the results demonstrate that all welfare problems have a tendency to become persistent. For example, the probability of suffering from the lack of a close friend in the fourth wave was 57.1 % if the individual suffered from this welfare problem in the third wave. Second, economic problems constituted the welfare problem with the most associations with other welfare problems. Third, the accumulation of welfare problems significantly differed between different categories of individuals. For example, the accumulation of welfare problems was higher in men compared with women, immigrants compared with native Swedes, single individuals compared with individuals in couples, and poorly educated individuals compared with highly educated individuals. Finally, longitudinal analyses indicated individuals in certain categories have experienced cumulative disadvantages in welfare even during periods when individuals in other categories have experienced a positive trend in welfare. One such example is single parents during the period between 1979 and 1986–1987.

Within-group vocal differentiation of individuals in the cooperatively breeding apostlebird

The ability of animals to discriminate between individuals or groups of individuals (e.g., kin or nonkin) is an important component of many hypotheses proposed to explain the evolution of cooperation and benefits of group living. Previous studies in mammalian systems have demonstrated the use of vocal cues in individual recognition and discrimination. However, there are few such studies in birds. Previous avian studies have largely examined discrimination between different categories of individuals (e.g., mate vs. nonmate, offspring vs. non-offspring) while discrimination between individuals of the same category remain largely unexplored. Previous work has demonstrated that the contact calls of free-living apostlebirds (Struthidea cinerea) are individually distinct. Here, we demonstrate that apostlebirds can differentiate between the calls of other individuals of the same social group using vocal cues alone. These findings are biologically relevant as apostlebirds live in complex fission–fusion societies where social groups vary in size, sex ratio, number of breeders, and composition of related and unrelated members.

Age and sex-selective predation moderate the overall impact of predators.

Currently, there is no general agreement about the extent to which predators impact prey population dynamics and it is often poorly predicted by predation rates and species abundances. This could, in part be caused by variation in the type of selective predation occurring. Notably, if predation is selective on categories of individuals that contribute little to future generations, it may moderate the impact of predation on prey population dynamics. However, despite its prevalence, selective predation has seldom been studied in this context. Using recoveries of ringed tawny owls (Strix aluco) predated by 'superpredators', northern goshawks (Accipiter gentilis) as they colonized the area, we investigated the extent to which predation was sex and age-selective. Predation of juvenile owls was disproportionately high. Amongst adults, predation was strongly biased towards females and predation risk appeared to increase with age. This implies age-selective predation may shape the decline in survival with age, observed in tawny owls. To determine whether selective predation can modulate the overall impact of predation, age-based population matrix models were used to simulate the impact of five different patterns of age-selective predation, including the pattern actually observed in the study site. The overall impact on owl population size varied by up to 50%, depending on the pattern of selective predation. The simulation of the observed pattern of predation had a relatively small impact on population size, close to the least harmful scenario, predation on juveniles only. The actual changes in owl population size and structure observed during goshawk colonization were also analysed. Owl population size and immigration were unrelated to goshawk abundance. However, goshawk abundance appeared to interact with owl food availability to have a delayed effect on recruitment into the population. This study provides strong evidence to suggest that predation of other predators is both age and sex-selective and that selective predation of individuals with a low reproductive value may mitigate the overall impact of predators on prey population dynamics. Consequently, our results highlight how accounting for the type of selective predation occurring is likely to improve future predictions of the overall impact of predation.

Psychopathological symptoms of patients with heroin addiction entering opioid agonist or therapeutic community treatment.

BackgroundThe relationship between substance use disorders and psychiatric pathology is still an open question. The main aim of the present study was to verify whether the five psychopathological dimensions identified through the SCL-90 tool in a previous study carried out on patients with heroin addiction entering an outpatient opioid agonist treatment (OAT) were also observable in those entering a residential treatment community (TC). Further aims were to look at differences in the psychopathological profiles of patients entering a TC versus an OAT treatment and at the correlation between gender and the observed psychopathology.MethodsA confirmatory factor analysis was performed on the results of SCL-90 filled by 1,195 patients with heroin dependence entering TC treatment. It replicates the extraction method previously used on 1,055 OAT patients with heroin addiction by using a principal component factor analysis (PCA). The association between the kind of treatment received (TC or OAT), gender, and the psychopathological dimensions was assessed through logistic regression and general linear model (GLM) analysis.ResultsThe PCA carried out on the SCL-90 results of patients entering a TC yielded a five-factor solution, confirming the same dimensions observed in patients entering an OAT: ‘worthlessness and being trapped’, ‘somatization’, ‘sensitivity-psychoticism’, ‘panic anxiety’, and ‘violence-suicide’. The logistic regression analysis showed a statistically significant association between ‘somatization’ and ‘violence-suicide’ severity score and OAT. GLM analysis showed that psychopathological factorial scores for ‘worthlessness-being trapped’, ‘somatic symptoms’, and ‘panic anxiety’ dimensions were more severe in OAT vs TC male patients and in TC vs OAT female ones. ‘Violence suicide’ followed the same severity pattern for males, but did not differ in TC vs OAT females, while ‘sensitivity-psychoticism’ did not differ in OAT vs TC patients. The five dimensions did not differ in OAT males vs females.ConclusionsOur research appears to confirm the existence of a specific aggregation of psychological/psychiatric features within the category of individuals with heroin addiction. It also shows a correlation between the dominant psychopathological subgroup and the assignment to TC versus OAT. Further research is needed to clarify the differences between the five psychopathological subgroups and their determinants.

What is Context?

The notion of context should not be understood as descriptive but as analytical, in the sense that the package of features characterizing a context is dependent on the question the sociologist wants to solve. Also, the features evoked in a context should be empirically observable. This excludes introducing unobservable dispositional features in the context: a principle Weber, Durkheim and many of their modern followers endorse. The fathers of sociology have practiced since long contextual analysis in this sense. Examples drawn from their work illustrate the powerfulness of their explanation of numerous macroscopic puzzles. They illustrate how to solve the micro-macro link question. They suggest that the solution of this question is dependent on the nature of the macroscopic facts to be explained. The paper discusses the question indirectly through the accumulation of examples illustrating the powerfulness of contextual analysis. A major point of the article is also that social action includes always beliefs. Except in the cases where explaining the beliefs raises no question, it is a challenging point for social analysts. Rational Choice Theory is efficient in the cases where beliefs raise no question. If they do, Rational Choice Theory is doomed to introduce controversial notions as frame or bias that do not correspond to any observable reality. Because of its instrumental view on rationality, Rational Choice Theory is also unable to explain the goals different categories of individuals follow, while contextual analysis can, thanks to its broader conception of rationality.

Demographic heterogeneity among individuals can explain the discrepancy between capture–mark–recapture and waterfowl count results

Demographic heterogeneity has long been considered within wildlife populations, but only the modern development of capture–mark–recapture methods allows this to be easily tested and quantified. It is now possible to rapidly assess whether the modeling of heterogeneous populations, in which categories of individuals differ in survival rate, performs better than traditional approaches, in which all individuals are considered equivalent within a sex and age class. Using long-term banding data for 4,703 adult female Green-winged Teal (Anas crecca) from the Camargue, southern France, we show that a heterogeneous model outperformed a homogeneous model. Individuals from the high survival category had a ∼60% annual survival rate, whereas birds in the second category had a survival rate reduced by a factor of 0.76–0.80, depending on the model (i.e. <50%). We could not demonstrate that individuals within the high survival category were larger or heavier. The link between survival rate and potential differences in individual morphometrics or individual behavioral strategies thus remains to be established. Previous studies in which a Green-winged Teal population was modeled as homogeneous suggested it should decline (population growth rate <1), which we also found when using demographic parameters obtained from a homogeneous model. This finding contradicts waterfowl surveys that show a long-term population increase in this flyway. Modeling the population as heterogeneous led to growth rates of 1.03–1.05 (a 3–5% annual increase), numbers consistent with the growth rate inferred from duck counts and that also partly explain how species such as Green-winged Teal can increase in numbers despite large hunting harvest, sustaining harvest to some extent.

An overview of the role of society and risk in xenotransplantation

Over time, the notion of public has evolved. While the concept of public was initially conceived of as a single undifferentiated entity, the common understanding is now that a variety of differentiated, multifaceted and multiple public(s) can be constructed for different purposes. This is equally true in xenotransplantation; the literature shows how different kind of publics can be introduced as relevant. The paper explores the notion of public and the contemporary participatory procedures as participatory rights for citizens in decisions concerning technoscience and society. Its perspective, thus, is normative; namely, it aims at understanding how the political role of citizens is changing in democratic societies where matters of innovation are concerned. It is focused on xenotransplantation whose connections with public discourse and practices are quite paradigmatic among new emerging biomedical technologies, due to its peculiar risks. The paper reviews the historical background of risk communication and public involvement in science-based decision-making and provides an overview of the current roles and meanings of deliberative procedures in xenotransplantation. After a short discussion of the history of the social implementation of xenotransplantation, the construction of the different publics dealing with this biomedical technology is briefly analysed. Publics have been firstly conceived of as objects of research, which has looked at them to quantify people's positive and negative attitudes towards xenotransplantation. Further developments have led to the notion of the public as composed of citizens, empowered as subjects of decisions. In both Canadian and Australian consultations, citizens were engaged in a complex learning process aimed at committing them to a decision. Despite the fact both public consultations represented important forms of experimental democracy, they were still focused on seeking consensus and assessing compliance from citizens. New Zealand is the most recent example of public consultation in xenotransplantation. Likewise, several public consultations have recently been launched by the European Commission on Advanced Therapies. Unlike in the Canadian and Australian cases, the latter initiatives aimed to reach only certain parts of the population, and the overall consultations were prepared to seek approval. Several categories of individuals may be interesting and interested publics in xenotransplantation. This is a field in which the importance of the potential risks that xenotransplants pose to society has been widely discussed. The point is that publics should not only be educated about the risk but should be given an opportunity to participate actively in the decision about whether and under what conditions they are exposed to the risk. Likewise, the boundaries between surveys, consultations and collection of advice may be blurred in actual practices. The hope remains that all different instruments either to collect or disseminate knowledge, and to explore new tools of governance may help connect science and policy to society in deeper and more complex ways. The next step points to a different meaning of public participation. It is shifting from participation as mere consensus and risk acceptance, to public engagement as a form of shared responsibility for risk control and regulatory decision-making.

All signals are not equal: acoustic signalling of individuality, sex and breeding status in a cooperative breeder

Repeated interactions between individuals in socially living animals select for the evolution of signals that convey information identifying individuals or categories of individuals, which may enable the discrimination of familiar versus unfamiliar individuals. Such information may help animals maximize their inclusive fitness by adjusting their own behaviour, allowing them to avoid conflict, preferentially direct help and/or ignore unreliable individuals. Acoustic signals in birds provide the potential to encode individual-specific information. We examined the degree to which individual identity, sex, breeding status, group membership and genetic relatedness were related to variability in six different call types, which occurred across a variety of different behavioural contexts in the apostlebird, Struthidea cinerea, a socially living and cooperatively breeding Australian passerine. We demonstrated that not all calls reflected the same extent of information. Of the six call types, call variation was related to individual identity in three call types, breeding status in two call types and sex and group relatedness in one call type. Finally, variation in two call types was not related to any of the measured variables. Our results suggest that some, but not all, acoustic signals in apostlebirds may be selected for individual distinctiveness between individuals and categories of individuals (male versus female, breeder versus nonbreeder), and these signals may be important in determining levels of cooperation and interaction between individuals in this cooperatively breeding society.

Understanding the sources of normative influence on behavior: The example of tobacco

Despite extensive research on social norms, the sources of norm formation are not well understood. Social exposure to a behavior (defined as the composite of ways through which people see that behavior in their social, physical, and symbolic environments) can serve as a source of normative influence. Using tobacco as a case study, we propose that research should move beyond categories of individuals as sources of norms and focus on a broader range of sources of normative influences. An understanding of social exposure as a source for norms may be important to better understand and intervene in environments to promote public health. We make policy recommendations arising from the explication of social exposure and propose directions for future research.

Movement patterns in a partial migrant: a multi-event capture-recapture approach.

Partial migration is a pervasive albeit poorly studied phenomenon by which some individuals of a population migrate while others are residents. It has tremendous consequences on seasonal variations of population size/structure and therefore management. Using a multi-event capture-mark-recapture/recovery (CMR) approach, we assessed seasonal site occupancy, survival and site fidelity of a partially migratory diving duck, the Common pochard (Aythya ferina), in an area potentially including both local breeders and winter visitors. The modelling exercise indeed discriminated two different categories of individuals. First, locally breeding females which had a probability of being present in our study area during winter of 0.41. Females of this category were found to be more faithful to their breeding site than males (breeding site fidelity probabilities of 1 and 0.11, respectively). The second category of birds were winter visitors, which included adults of both sexes, whose probability of being present in the study area during the breeding season was nil, and young of both sexes with a 0.11 probability of being present in the area during the breeding season. All wintering individuals, among which there was virtually no locally breeding male, displayed a high fidelity to our study area from one winter to the next (0.41–0.43). Estimated annual survival rates differed according to age (adults 0.69, young 0.56). For both age classes mortality was higher during late winter/early spring than during summer/early winter. Our study is among the first to show how and under which conditions the multi-event approach can be employed for investigating complex movement patterns encountered in partial migrants, providing a convenient tool for overcoming state uncertainty. It also shows why studying patterns of probability of individual presence/movements in partial migrants is a key towards understanding seasonal variations in numbers.

Merits and potential downsides of the 2013 ACC/AHA cholesterol management guidelines

New guidelines from the American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association on cholesterol management introduced substantial changes from the previous Adult Treatment Panel III guidelines and generated an immediate storm of controversy upon their release in November 2013. Four categories of individuals that can benefit from statin therapy, including three high-risk groups, have been identified. The fourth category of primary prevention has proven to be the most contentious, with criticism centering on the algorithm used to estimate ten-year risk for atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease and the optimal threshold for statin therapy. Although the risk assessment algorithm can be further refined, it represents an improvement from the previous calculator since it better captures risk in women and African Americans. However, the elimination of lipid targets in the new guidelines discounts a wealth of clinical trial and epidemiological evidence indicating that, with regards to low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, “lower is better.” Recommendations regarding the use of nonstatin drugs, while appropriate, could potentially be revised in the future. In general, the new guidelines stress the necessity of addressing the multiple factors that contribute to cardiovascular risk, and they provide a valuable opportunity for physicians to address the importance of lifestyle modifications to lower a patient's overall risk.

(Trans)Gender Role Expectations and Child Care in Samoa

ABSTRACTSamoan transgendered males are known as fa'afafine. Although Samoan women are characterized as the primary child care providers, fa'afafine report elevated willingness to invest in nieces and nephews compared to men and women. We hypothesized that Samoans hold unique transgender role expectations such that fa'afafine are expected to invest more toward nieces and nephews compared to others. Participants (N = 214) included Samoan men (30.23 years ±8.19), women (30.00 years ±10.93), and fa'afafine (30.25 years ±7.45). For a variety of child care activities, participants nominated men, women, fa'afafine, or all three of these categories of individuals as responsible for investing toward nieces and nephews. Participants also reported how frequently their family members asked them to perform these activities for nieces and nephews. Responsibility for performing these activities was typically designated for women; men and women viewed fa'afafine as least responsible. Men's, but not fa'afafine's, family members asked them to allocate investment toward nieces and nephews more frequently. These findings are not consistent with the transgender role expectation hypothesis. Discussion details how the findings contribute to the literature on child care in Samoa. Alternate hypotheses for explaining why fa'afafine report elevated willingness to invest in nieces and nephews are considered.

HHS Rule: Clinicians Do Not Have to Report Patients to Background Check System

The proposed regulations should not inhibit those who need mental health care from seeking it.

Friends, Family and Fools: Cosigners and Repayment Performance in Microcredit

We investigate the effect of kinship between borrowers and cosigners on repayment performance in microcredit, by using data coming from a leading Italian microfinance provider for the period 2009-2012. Estimates on a pool of 2,350 loans show that the presence of closely related cosigners tends to reduce loan defaults. We account for the presence of a cosigner with an instrumental variable built on the exogenous rule imposed by the lender that requires personal guarantees for loans exceeding € 5,000. We also attempt to disentangle the contribution of cosigners’ eventual financial support from the psychological pressure they may exert on debtors in order to foster repayment, while providing evidence backing both these possibilities. The positive relation we find between the borrowers’ repayment performance and the strength of their family ties with cosigners may therefore be the expression of two key components. On the one hand, family kinship may lead to stronger solidarity. On the other, close relatives are likely to exert more effective psychological pressure on the borrower than other categories of individuals.

(Re)constructing economic citizenship in a welfare state – intersections of gender and class

Purpose – The purpose of the paper is to discuss and illustrate how contemporary market discourses rearticulate socio-political relationships and identities, including the rights, duties, and opportunities of individuals and categories of individuals as citizens. More specifically, the purpose is to analyze how “economic citizenship” is articulated and negotiated in the intersection of (Nordic) welfare state ideals and shareholder-oriented market discourses. The paper further elaborates on how different identity markers, especially gender and class, intersect in these articulations and contribute to exclusionary practices. Design/methodology/approach – The paper approaches the articulation of economic citizenship through an empirical study that focusses on business media representations and online discussions of a major factory shutdown in Finland. Drawing from discourse theory and the notions of representational intersectionality and translocational positionality, the paper analyzes how gender and class intersect in the construction of economic citizenship in the business media. Findings – The study illustrates how financialist market discourses render citizenship intelligible in exceedingly economic terms, overriding social and political dimensions of citizenship. The business media construct hierarchies of economic citizens where two categories of actors claim full economic citizenship: the transnational corporation and the transnational investor. Within these categories, particular systems of privilege intersect in similar ways, rendering them masculine and upper middleclass. Whether interpreted as hegemonic or counter-hegemonic, the financialist discourses rearticulate the social hierarchies and moral landscape in Finnish society. Originality/value – The paper contributes to critical/feminist management studies by elaborating on the role of the business media as an important site of political identity work, positioning, and moral regulation, where neoliberal ideas, based upon and reproducing masculine and elitist systems of privilege, appear as normalized and self-evidently valued.

Analysis of Social Network Users' Online Behavior from the Perspective of Psychology

The present study focused on individuals' behavior on Facebook, the most popular social network service worldwide, and reviewed relevant research from the perspective of psychology about the motivations driving individuals to use Facebook, the categories of individuals' behavior on Facebook, the antecedents and outcomes of individuals' use of Facebook. Subsequent research should pay attention to the multiple methods of measuring individuals' behavior on Facebook, the representative sampling, the interaction between online and offline social network, the predictive effects of specific trait variables and the dynamic function of Facebook.

Is the representation about social groups distinct from that of other concepts? A neuropsychological study

Is the representation about social groups distinct from that of other concepts? A neuropsychological study

Colour ringing programme of the lesser spotted eagle (Aquila pomarina) population in Slovakia and its new results in the period 2009–2012

Abstract In the years 2009-2012 a total of 316 individuals were marked in a colour ringing programme of the population ofA. pomarina in Slovakia. From this a total of 39 inds. were ringed with yellow readable plastic rings with a two-place alphanumeric code (all young in a nest) and 277 inds. (273 young and 4 adult inds.) with light-blue rings. For the entire period of the programme of marking the A. pomarina population in Slovakia in the years 2000-2012 a total of 952 inds. were ringed, 933 of which were young birds in nest and 19 adult individuals. In the period 2009-2012 48 records were obtained from observations of 35 individuals of different age categories (31 individuals from one to 11 years old, three of unknown age and one young individual about one month after fledging the nest). The age categories of immature individuals were determined, and six were found to be one-year-old individuals (12.5%) in the second calendar year of life after their first return from wintering grounds, six were two-year-old eagles (12.5%) and five were three-year-old eagles (10.4%) which spent breeding periods in Europe at a relatively small distance from their place of hatching. Adult individuals were found to be in their current breeding grounds at distances of 8-249 km from their hatching place. In the period 2000-2012 three individuals were recorded 3× and four individuals 2×. The results confirm breeding site fidelity in adults, but also the fidelity of immature individuals to their hatching place, and the return of one-year-old individuals from their wintering grounds to the vicinity of their hatching place immediately in the first year of life (that is, in the second calendar year).

Bayesian disease classification using copy number data.

DNA copy number variations (CNVs) have been shown to be associated with cancer development and progression. The detection of these CNVs has the potential to impact the basic knowledge and treatment of many types of cancers, and can play a role in the discovery and development of molecular-based personalized cancer therapies. One of the most common types of high-resolution chromosomal microarrays is array-based comparative genomic hybridization (aCGH) methods that assay DNA CNVs across the whole genomic landscape in a single experiment. In this article we propose methods to use aCGH profiles to predict disease states. We employ a Bayesian classification model and treat disease states as outcome, and aCGH profiles as covariates in order to identify significant regions of the genome associated with disease subclasses. We propose a principled two-stage method where we first make inferences on the underlying copy number states associated with the aCGH emissions based on hidden Markov model (HMM) formulations to account for serial dependencies in neighboring probes. Subsequently, we infer associations with disease outcomes, conditional on the copy number states, using Bayesian linear variable selection procedures. The selected probes and their effects are parameters that are useful for predicting the disease categories of any additional individuals on the basis of their aCGH profiles. Using simulated datasets, we investigate the method’s accuracy in detecting disease category. Our methodology is motivated by and applied to a breast cancer dataset consisting of aCGH profiles assayed on patients from multiple disease subtypes.