Historians and their duties

We need to specify what ethical responsibility historians, as historians, owe, and to whom. We should distinguish between natural duties and (non-natural) obligations, and recognize that historians' ethical responsibility is of the latter kind. We can discover this responsibility by using the concept of “accountability”. Historical knowledge is central. Historians' central ethical responsibility is that they ought to tell the objective truth. This is not a duty shared with everybody, for the right to truth varies with the audience. Being a historian is essentially a matter of searching for historical knowledge as part of an obligation voluntarily undertaken to give truth to those who have a right to it. On a democratic understanding, people need and are entitled to an objective understanding of the historical processes in which they live. Factual knowledge and judgments of value are both required, whatever philosophical view we might have of the possibility of a principled distinction between them. Historians owe historical truth not only to the living but to the dead. Historians should judge when that is called for, but they should not distort historical facts. The rejection of postmodernism's moralism does not free historians from moral duties. Historians and moral philosophers alike are able to make dispassionate moral judgments, but those who feel untrained should be educated in moral understanding. We must ensure the moral and social responsibility of historical knowledge. As philosophers of history, we need a rational reconstruction of moral judgments in history to help with this.

Gender implications of UK welfare reform and government equality duties: evidence from qualitative studies

The UK coalition government is bound by equality duties to have regard to the impact of its policies on various groups, including women. This article investigates how far this legislative commitment is influencing debates about current welfare reforms, especially plans for ‘universal credit’ (a new means-tested benefit).
The authors draw on findings from recent studies of within-household distribution from a gender perspective, including in particular their own qualitative research involving separate semi-structured interviews with men and women in 30 low/moderate-income couples in Britain. A major aim of this research was to facilitate more nuanced analysis of the effects of welfare reforms in terms of gender roles and relationships within the household.
This article therefore explores how far these findings, together with key principles for assessing the gender impact of welfare reforms, can be used to assess ‘universal credit’, and to what extent they influenced the UK government’s proposals and analysis.

Understanding and negotiating identity: Children from cross-community families in public care in Northern Ireland.

In Northern Ireland, most research on the impact upon children of living through the 'troubles' and in a divided society has assumed that children are from either the Catholic or Protestant community. There has been very little researchwith children from cross-community families who have one parent from a Catholic background and one from a Protestant background. it is know, however, that these children are over-represented in the public care system in Northern Ireland. The study reported in this paper addresses this gap in knowledge by exploring the experiences and views of children from cross-community families who are in public care in northern Ireland. The study has key messages for the development of services for looked after children from cross-community families, if these are to be delivered in accordance with legislative duties in Northern Ireland and in an anti-sectarian manner.

Mental Health Social Work and the Troubles in Northern Ireland: A Study of Practitioner Experiences

• Summary: During the last decade increasing attention has been paid to the impact of the Troubles1 on social work in Northern Ireland. In this paper, the authors describe the first survey used to test some of the assumptions which exist in the literature. An 87-item questionnaire was applied to a range of social work staff currently working in, or associated with, mental health settings. One hundred and one questionnaires were returned: it is estimated that this represented over 70 per cent of mental health social workers in Northern Ireland. • Findings: The design of the questionnaire elicited both qualitative and quantitative data. The findings reveal a workforce with complex religious and national identities and many of the respondents have experienced relatively high levels of Troubles-related incidents whilst carrying out their duties in a variety of organizational and geographical settings. High proportions of respondents received minimal agency support and training to equip them to deal with Troubles-related problems faced by them during this period. • Applications: The authors conclude that the profession and employing agencies should pay greater attention to past and present effects of the Troubles on social work practice and develop appropriate strategies for supporting, training and resourcing staff in this neglected area.

A Firm Perspective of Anti-dumping and Countervailing Duty Cases in the United States

The role played by firms in the prosecution of anti-dumping and countervailing duty cases in the United States is understudied. This article provides greater understanding of the challenges faced by firms during the process of prosecuting anti-dumping and countervailing duty cases in the United States. This is achieved by applying a theoretical model of corporate political activity to data collected through interviews with 24 trade attorneys in Washington, D.C., practising in the area of antidumping and countervailing duty law. Anti-dumping and countervailing duty cases are found to require significant resource commitments from firms in the participating industries, as well as requiring individual firms to make a number of strategic decisions. The value of an affirmative decision and imposition of duties to the domestic and foreign industry is found to be more nuanced than previous studies have suggested. Non-duty effects of AD and CVD cases are also confirmed. Finally a clearer understanding of the role of individual firms in anti-dumping and countervailing duty cases is shown to have the potential to improve how industry influence is taken account of in future research.

High MMP-9 activity characterizes pleural tuberculosis correlating with granuloma formation

Tuberculosis (TB) pleural disease is complicated by extensive tissue destruction. Matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-1 and -9 are implicated in immunopathology of pulmonary and central nervous system TB. There are few data on MMP activity in TB pleurisy. The present study investigated MMP-1, -2 and -9 and their specific inhibitors (tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase (TIMP)-1 and -2) in tuberculous effusions, and correlated these with clinical and histopathological features. Clinical data, routine blood tests, and pleural fluid/biopsy material were obtained from 89 patients presenting with pleural effusions in a TB-endemic area. MMP-1, -2 and -9 were measured by zymography or western blot, and TIMP-1 and -2 by ELISA. Pleural biopsies were examined microscopically, cultured for acid–alcohol fast bacilli and immunostained for MMP-9. Tuberculous pleural effusions contained the highest concentrations of MMP-9 compared with malignant effusions or heart failure transudates. MMP-9 concentrations were highest in effusions from patients with granulomatous biopsies: median (interquartile range) 108 (61–218) pg·mL-1 versus 43 (12–83) pg·mL-1 in those with nongranulomatous pleural biopsies. MMP-1 and -2 were not upregulated in tuberculous pleural fluid. The ratio of MMP-9:TIMP-1 was significantly higher in TB effusions. Tuberculous pleurisy is characterised by a specific pattern of matrix metalloproteinase-9 upregulation, correlating with the presence of granulomas and suggesting a specific role for matrix metalloproteinase-9 in inflammatory responses in tuberculous pleural disease.

Personal Injury Liability in Sport: Emerging Trends

Violent play during the course of a game or sport is not a new phenomenon; accompanying legal proceedings are. This article considers personal injury liability for injuries inflicted by a participant upon an opponent during a sporting pursuit. The jurisdictional focus is on England and Wales. The sporting emphasis of the article is on competitive, body contact games. The legal emphasis is on the tort of negligence. Analogous to the law of criminal assault, breach of "implied sporting consent" or the volenti of the claimant will be seen as central in application, as assessed through a number of objective criteria, including the skill level of the injuring party and whether that defendant was acting in "reckless disregard" of the claimant's safety. These criteria or evidential guidelines, which emerge from a careful doctrinal analysis of the relevant case law, are seen as crucial to the examination of the appropriate degree of care in negligence within the prevailing circumstances of sport. The article also searches for some theoretical coherency within the case law, premising it on Fletcher's idea of reciprocal risk-taking. In addition, the underlying policy-related issue of sport's social utility is discussed, as are practical matters relating to vicarious liability, insurance and the measure of damages for "lost sporting opportunity". Moreover, it will be shown that personal injury claims relating to sports participant liability now extend to a consideration of the duties of coaches, referees, sports governing bodies and schools. Finally, this article is set against the backdrop of an apparently spiralling "compensation culture" and the concomitant threat that that "blame culture" poses for the future promotion, operation and administration of sport.

Placing political economy: organising opposition to free trade before the abolition of the Corn Laws

The unfurling of global capitalism – and its attendant effects – has long been fertile intellectual terrain for geographers. But whilst studies of the processes and mechanisms of globalisation undoubtedly assume a talismanic importance in the discipline, geographers, with few exceptions, have left examinations of early economic liberalism to historians. One such critically important episode in the evolution of the liberal economic project was the repeal of the so-called 'Corn Laws' in 1846. Whilst the precise impact of the Manchester-based Anti-Corn Law League (ACLL) continues to be a matter of conjecture, Eric Sheppard has asserted that their particular take on political economy managed to assume a 'truth-like status' and worldwide universality. But the ACLL's campaign represents only one, albeit decisive, stage in the long intellectual and practical struggle between 'protectionists' and the disciples of free trade. Studies of the non-'Manchester' components have tended to focus squarely upon national politics. This paper examines a pivotal attempt in 1838 by Lord Melbourne's Government to experiment with the effective elimination of import duties on fresh fruit. Unlike most agricultural commodities, table fruit was produced in a tightly defined area, thus allowing the Government's experiment to play out, in theory, without national political fallout. Whilst the Government's clandestine actions left little time for a concerted opposition to develop, Kentish fruit growers soon organised. A formidable lobby was forged that drew wide local support yet also evolved beyond the original 'epistemic community'. Whilst the coalition failed in their efforts to reintroduce protective duties, their actions allow us to see how protectionist ideologies and policies were vivified through practices at many different spatial scales and to better understand the complex spatiality of protectionist takes on political economy. Their campaign also changed – at least in the short term – the course of British mercantile policy.

STAT3, p38 MAP Kinase and NF-{kappa}B Drive Unopposed Monocyte-dependent Fibroblast MMP-1 Secretion in Tuberculosis.

Tissue destruction characterizes infection with Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb). Type I collagen provides the lung's tensile strength, is extremely resistant to degradation, but is cleaved by matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-1. Fibroblasts potentially secrete quantitatively more MMP-1 than other lung cells. We investigated mechanisms regulating Mtb-induced collagenolytic activity in fibroblasts in vitro and in patients. Lung fibroblasts were stimulated with conditioned media from Mtb-infected monocytes (CoMTb). CoMTb induced sustained increased MMP-1 (74 versus 16 ng/ml) and decreased tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase (TIMP)-1 (8.6 versus 22.3 ng/ml) protein secretion. CoMTb induced a 2.7-fold increase in MMP-1 promoter activation and a 2.5-fold reduction in TIMP-1 promoter activation at 24 hours (P = 0.01). Consistent with this, TIMP-1 did not co-localize with fibroblasts in patient granulomas. MMP-1 up-regulation and TIMP-1 down-regulation were p38 (but not extracellular signal–regulated kinase or c-Jun N-terminal kinase) mitogen-activated protein kinase–dependent. STAT3 phosphorylation was detected in fibroblasts in vitro and in tuberculous granulomas.STAT3 inhibition reduced fibroblast MMP-1 secretion by 60% (P = 0.046). Deletion of the MMP-1 promoter NF-B–binding site abrogated promoter induction in response to CoMTb. TNF-, IL-1ß, or Oncostatin M inhibition in CoMTb decreased MMP-1 secretion by 65, 63, and 25%, respectively. This cytokine cocktail activated the same signaling pathways in fibroblasts and induced MMP-1 secretion similar to that induced by CoMTb. This study demonstrates in a cellular model and in patients with tuberculosis that in addition to p38 and NF-B, STAT3 has a key role in driving fibroblast-dependent unopposed MMP-1 production that may be key in tissue destruction in patients.

A scalable packet sorting circuit for high-speed WFQ packet scheduling

A novel implementation of a tag sorting circuit for a weighted fair queueing (WFQ) enabled Internet Protocol (IP) packet scheduler is presented. The design consists of a search tree, matching circuitry, and a custom memory layout. It is implemented using 130-nm silicon technology and supports quality of service (QoS) on networks at line speeds of 40 Gb/s, enabling next generation IP services to be deployed.

Fully hardware based WFQ architecture for high-speed QoS packet scheduling

A full hardware implementation of a Weighted Fair Queuing (WFQ) packet scheduler is proposed. The circuit architecture presented has been implemented using Altera Stratix II FPGA technology, utilizing RLDII and QDRII memory components. The circuit can provide fine granularity Quality of Service (QoS) support at a line throughput rate of 12.8Gb/s in its current implementation. The authors suggest that, due to the flexible and scalable modular circuit design approach used, the current circuit architecture can be targeted for a full ASIC implementation to deliver 50 Gb/s throughput. The circuit itself comprises three main components; a WFQ algorithm computation circuit, a tag/time-stamp sort and retrieval circuit, and a high throughput shared buffer. The circuit targets the support of emerging wireline and wireless network nodes that focus on Service Level Agreements (SLA's) and Quality of Experience.

Domestic Violence and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights: Jessica Lenahan (Gonzales) v United States

On 21 July 2011 the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights issued its much awaited decision in the case of Jessica Lenahan (Gonzales) v United States. In a landmark decision the Commission found the United States of America to be in violation of the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man 1948 due to the failure of the state to protect a victim of domestic violence and her children. This paper analyses the Lenahan decision and its significance for the United States. In particular, the substantial influence of the case law of the European Court of Human Rights on the Commission’s reasoning is examined.

Procurement and the Public Sector Equality Duty: Lessons for the Implementation of the Equality Act 2010 from Northern Ireland?

The use of public sector equality duties that require public authorities to do more than simply not discriminate and that in addition require such authorities in exercising their functions to actively promote equality has increasingly been considered as relevant for procurement. This article examines the Northern Ireland experience regarding the application of a public sector equality duty to procurement and addresses whether, and if so to what extent, this experience provides any useful lessons for the operation of the ‘equality duty’ in the recently enacted British Equality Act 2010.