The State\u27s Role in the Regulation and Provision of Legal Services in South Africa and the United States: Supporting, Nudging, or Interfering?

An independent legal profession is said to be “the bulwark of a free and democratic society.” It is also said that a high measure of independence of mind and action by legal actors is necessary for the maintenance of the rule of law. However, too often, there is the allegation (within the sociological literature in particular) that the legal profession has used the concepts of independence and the rule of law as a shield or cuirass rather than as a sword. The image of lawyers representing unpopular clients fearlessly and advocating on behalf of unpopular causes, so as to uphold legal rights, is replaced with images of lawyers using these self-same concepts to preserve the status quo, favor those with high social status and pursue self-regulation for self-interest rather than for any so-called public interest. It is against this contested terrain that this Article looks at, from a comparative perspective, regulatory efforts in both the United States and South Africa in untraditional and controversial ways to address what these countries perceive as societal failings

Photometric redshift galaxies as tracers of the filamentary network

Galaxy filaments are the dominant feature in the overall structure of the cosmic web. The study of the filamentary web is an important aspect in understanding galaxy evolution and the evolution of matter in the Universe. A map of the filamentary structure is an adequate probe of the web. We propose that photometric redshift galaxies are significantly positively associated with the filamentary structure detected from the spatial distribution of spectroscopic redshift galaxies. The catalogues of spectroscopic and photometric galaxies are seen as point-process realisations in a sphere, and the catalogue of filamentary spines is proposed to be a realisation of a random set in a sphere. The positive association between these sets was studied using a bivariate $J-$function, which is a summary statistics studying clustering. A quotient $D$ was built to estimate the distance distribution of the filamentary spine to galaxies in comparison to the distance distribution of the filamentary spine to random points in $3-$dimensional Euclidean space. This measure gives a physical distance scale to the distances between filamentary spines and the studied sets of galaxies. The bivariate $J-$function shows a statistically significant clustering effect in between filamentary spines and photometric redshift galaxies. The quotient $D$ confirms the previous result that smaller distances exist with higher probability between the photometric galaxies and filaments. The trend of smaller distances between the objects grows stronger at higher redshift. Additionally, the quotient $D$ for photometric galaxies gives a rough estimate for the filamentary spine width of about $1$~Mpc. Photometric redshift galaxies are positively associated with filamentary spines detected from the spatial distribution of spectroscopic galaxies.Comment: Accepted to Astronomy & Astrophysics. 13 pages and 9 figure

The effect of phosphodiesterase-5 inhibitors on cerebral blood flow in humans: A systematic review.

Agents that augment cerebral blood flow (CBF) could be potential treatments for vascular cognitive impairment. Phosphodiesterase-5 inhibitors are vasodilating drugs established in the treatment of erectile dysfunction (ED) and pulmonary hypertension. We reviewed published data on the effects of phosphodiesterase-5 inhibitors on CBF in adult humans. A systematic review according to PRISMA guidelines was performed. Embase, Medline and Cochrane Library Trials databases were searched. Sixteen studies with 353 participants in total were retrieved. Studies included healthy volunteers and patients with migraine, ED, type 2 diabetes, stroke, pulmonary hypertension, Becker muscular dystrophy and subarachnoid haemorrhage. Most studies used middle cerebral artery flow velocity to estimate CBF. Few studies employed direct measurements of tissue perfusion. Resting CBF velocity was unaffected by phosphodiesterase-5 inhibitors, but cerebrovascular regulation was improved in ED, pulmonary hypertension, diabetes, Becker's and a group of healthy volunteers. This evidence suggests that phosphodiesterase-5 inhibitors improve responsiveness of the cerebral vasculature, particularly in disease states associated with an impaired endothelial dilatory response. This supports the potential therapeutic use of phosphodiesterase-5 inhibitors in vascular cognitive impairment where CBF is reduced. Further studies with better resolution of deep CBF are warranted. The review is registered on the PROSPERO database (registration number CRD42016029668)

'Here's to you, Mrs Robinson' : peculiarities and paragraph 29 in determining the treatment of domestic partnerships

There is always need of persons not only to discover new truths, and point out when what were once truths are true no longer, but also to commence new practices, and set the example of more enlightened conduct. The law is one of the important architects of social norms. At times, it can be a tool to solve problems, eradicate inequalities, and advance the rights of the disadvantaged. At other times, the law is an anchor and a constraint upon social and ideological advances. With regards to equality and non-traditional partnerships, it seems that law falls into this latter category

The law of divorce and dissolution of life partnerships in South Africa

From text: Jackie Heaton’s latest contribution to the family law domain is formidable – 777 pages of carefully crafted opinions and discussions of the law affecting divorce and dissolution of life partnerships. Given the range, diversity and depth of issues in this area, it is no wonder that she calls on those being among the best in their field to assist her in writing up the book. The book consists of five parts

Telesaadete representatsioon lasteaialaste hulgas

The Representation of TV Programme among Kindergarten Children“ Keywords: preschool children and television, representation, TV harm, TV opportunities, pre-school children Children are growing up in increasingly media- and technology-rich environment. Recent studies have shown that while the popularity of new media is growing, television remains the most dominant medium among pre-schoolers (Vandewater et al., 2007: e1006; Kaiser Family Foundation 2010). According to the Estonian parents the same trend seems to be the case in Estonia as well: television is the most used medium among pre-school children, being used by 96 percent of the children (Sampo, 2010). Despite the fact that television has become almost universal at homes and television occupies excessive amount of children`s free time, there has been done too few empirical researches considering the representation on TV programme among children. Especially the younger audience is not enough studied. Relying on previous indicators the aim of this thesis was to examine pre-school children`s relations with television and the representation of TV programme among preschoolers. Semi-structured interviews were carried out with 18 children aged 4-7. Half of them were from a big city Tallinn and half of them form a small town Kuressaare. To understand and interpret the results better the children`s teachers were also interviewed. In addition to that, a focus group interview with 23 Estonian kindergarten teachers was carried out to analyse their opinions and experiences regarding children`s television use. The results indicate that television plays significant part in children’ s everyday life and kids not only watch children’ s programmes but also programmes that are targeted to adults. However, children prefer children`s programme over adult`s programme. The main threats of television that came out of the interviews with children were: 1) interrupted sleep and bad dreams 2) fears of some characters (monsters, witches) and incidents (shooting, fire, scenes of war) 3) taking after negative and violent characters 4) children watch sometimes too serious and hard content for children to interpret 5) physical impacts on eyes and body. From the positive sides the results indicate that: 1) children can learn vocabulary from TV shows 2) educational programmes broaden children`s mind 3) children get ideas for play and art activities from TV programmes 4) teachers can use educational videos for educating the children. Kids themselves see only few positive effects of television and they tend to see television as harmful medium. Only the smallest children think that television is good for them because of entertainment. Children aged 5-7 consider television as bad for them, because it can harm their eyes and cause bad dreams. Teachers observed both positive and negative features of children television viewing, but they do not categorize television as either positive or negative medium. Instead, they indicate that television plays both positive and negative roles in children’s lives depending on how much and what children watch. They suggest that children need to learn to use television as they learn every other skill in their young lives. Therefore studies that try to understand children`s media use are crucial as they provide scientific research foundation that parents, educators and child health professionals can use to guide children`s media use.http://tartu.ester.ee/record=b2571067~S1*es

'Fetal "rights"? The need for a unified approach to the fetus in the context of feticide'

The issues of fetal protection, fetal rights and the status of unborn life have been debated on a variety of levels in a variety of disciplines over the past centuries. One needs only think of John Milton who asked the “hard” question: “For man to tell how human life began / Is hard: for who himself beginning knew?” (Paradise lost (1667) Bk 8 251–252). While the issue of fetal rights most often arises in abortion debates, the issue of fetal rights in the context of feticide has received scant attention in South Africa. (For a thought-provoking general discussion of fetal rights, see Du Plessis “Jurisprudential reflections on the status of unborn life” 1990 TSAR 44; Van Niekerk (ed) The status of prenatal life (1991) and Kahn (ed) The sanctity of human life (1983).) This note seeks to initiate a discussion on the current legal position in South Africa in respect of feticide