Violence and Political Institutions in the Basque Country

A credible analysis or proposal to solve the problem of the treatment of violence in divided societies has to based in a good understanding of the micro-foundations of the political mobilization in these societies. Much of the engineering models seem to have been based on rather strong simplifications of the electoral behaviour of the citizens. This paper aims to contribute to the understanding of the underlying political competition in divided societies with a neo-downsian model of party competition that is based on the interpretation of Tsebelis (1991) of the consociationalism.

Characteristics of victims of violence admitted to a specialized medico-legal unit in Switzerland.

To improve care and services to victims of interpersonal violence, a medico-legal consultation unit was set up at the Lausanne University Hospital, Switzerland in 2006. Adult victims of violence are referred to the consultation by the emergency department. Patients are received by forensic nurses for support, forensic examination and community orientation. A descriptive study of medical reports filled for the 2006 population was conducted in 2007 with the aim to explore characteristics of this specific population and to better orient prevention. Among the 422 patients in 2006, 57% were men and 43% women, with a median age of 31 years old. Violent episodes took place in a public place for 90% of male victims and at home for 70% of female victims. The perpetrators were mostly unknown to male victims (62% of all men victims) and mostly known (usually the partner or a former partner) to female victims (90% of all women victims). For 80% of the women and 47% of the men, the violent event which brought them to the consultation, was not the first one. Because 90% of all patients under study were victimized by men., not only is it necessary to target prevention program to match the potential victims, prevention messages must also focus on potential offenders, especially on young men.

Violence, deuil, politique (violence, mourning, politics) (trad. de l'anglais E.U.)

Cet article soutient l'idée que le travail du deuil peut être riche de possibilités pour repenser la communauté et les relations internationales, et que la " guerre préventive " ainsi que la déréalisation de la perte concourent à miner les liens humains fondamentaux. L'expérience du deuil est à même de révéler les modes sur lesquels le self est fait de relations intériorisées, si bien que lorsque nous perdons des êtres, nous perdons et altérons une part de nous-mêmes. Faire le deuil pourrait déboucher sur une option : la non-violence. A soutenir l'insoutenable quand nous perdons quelqu'un, nous pouvons devenir capables d'une plus grande sollicitude envers les pertes subies par les autres, et en particulier, les pertes causées par notre propre recours à la violence. La distinction entre des vies " qui valent la peine d'être pleurées " et d'autres " qui ne valent pas une larme " est révélatrice de la distribution géopolitique différentielle de la mélancolie, ainsi que des cadres raciaux et ethniques qui font et défont l'humain en sa possibilité d'être pleuré. Voici qui laisse entrevoir une manière de faire le lien entre un concept psychanalytique de la formation du sujet, concept pétri de politique, et une politique soucieuse de tout ce qu'il y a d'inacceptable à mourir sous les frappes militaires. La théorie féministe est centrale à cette conception, dans la mesure où elle met tout particulièrement l'accent sur un sujet incarné, vulnérable à la violence, qui ne peut émerger que dans le contexte d'une dépendance physique fondamentale.

Characteristics and effectiveness of diabetes self-management educational programs targeted to racial/ethnic minority groups: a systematic review, meta-analysis and meta-regression.

BACKGROUND It is not clear to what extent educational programs aimed at promoting diabetes self-management in ethnic minority groups are effective. The aim of this work was to systematically review the effectiveness of educational programs to promote the self-management of racial/ethnic minority groups with type 2 diabetes, and to identify programs' characteristics associated with greater success. METHODS We undertook a systematic literature review. Specific searches were designed and implemented for Medline, EMBASE, CINAHL, ISI Web of Knowledge, Scirus, Current Contents and nine additional sources (from inception to October 2012). We included experimental and quasi-experimental studies assessing the impact of educational programs targeted to racial/ethnic minority groups with type 2 diabetes. We only included interventions conducted in countries members of the OECD. Two reviewers independently screened citations. Structured forms were used to extract information on intervention characteristics, effectiveness, and cost-effectiveness. When possible, we conducted random-effects meta-analyses using standardized mean differences to obtain aggregate estimates of effect size with 95% confidence intervals. Two reviewers independently extracted all the information and critically appraised the studies. RESULTS We identified thirty-seven studies reporting on thirty-nine educational programs. Most of them were conducted in the US, with African American or Latino participants. Most programs obtained some benefits over standard care in improving diabetes knowledge, self-management behaviors and clinical outcomes. A meta-analysis of 20 randomized controlled trials (3,094 patients) indicated that the programs produced a reduction in glycated hemoglobin of -0.31% (95% CI -0.48% to -0.14%). Diabetes knowledge and self-management measures were too heterogeneous to pool. Meta-regressions showed larger reduction in glycated hemoglobin in individual and face to face delivered interventions, as well as in those involving peer educators, including cognitive reframing techniques, and a lower number of teaching methods. The long-term effects remain unknown and cost-effectiveness was rarely estimated. CONCLUSIONS Diabetes self-management educational programs targeted to racial/ethnic minority groups can produce a positive effect on diabetes knowledge and on self-management behavior, ultimately improving glycemic control. Future programs should take into account the key characteristics identified in this review.