Reducing Child Protection Error in Social Work: Towards an Holistic-Rational Perspective

Social work in the United Kingdom remains embroiled in concerns about child protection error. The serious injury or death of vulnerable children continues to evince much consternation in the public and private spheres. Governmental responses to these concerns invariably draw on technocratic solutions involving more procedures, case management systems, information technology and bureaucratic regulation. Such solutions flow from an implicit use of instrumental rationality based on a ‘means-end’ logic. While bringing an important perspective to the problem of child protection error, instrumental rationality has been overused limiting discretion and other modes of rational inquiry. This paper argues that the social work profession should apply an enlarged form of rationality comprising not only the instrumental-rational mode but also the critical-rational, affective-rational and communicative-rational forms. It is suggested that this combined, conceptual arsenal of rational inquiry leads to a gestalt which has been termed the holistic-rational perspective. It is also argued that embracing a more rounded perspective such as this might offer greater opportunities for reducing child protection error.

Measurements of immune responses for establishing correlates of vaccine protection against HIV

Well-defined correlates of protective immunity are an essential component of rational vaccine development. Despite years of basic science and three HIV vaccine efficacy trials, correlates of immunological protection from HIV infection remain undefined. In December 2010, a meeting of scientists engaged in basic and translational work toward developing HIV-1 vaccines was convened. The goal of this meeting was to discuss current opportunities and optimal approaches for defining correlates of protection, both for ongoing and future HIV-1 vaccine candidates; specific efforts were made to engage young scientists. We discuss here the highlights from the meeting regarding the progress made and the way forward for a protective HIV-1 vaccine.

The performance of a cathodic protection system in reinforced concrete structure: Monitoring and Service Life Modelling

The use of cathodic protection in reinforced concrete is becoming increasingly common with such systems being installed on a number of structures throughout the United Kingdom and Ireland. However the prescribed design lives (or service life) of each cathodic protection system vary widely. The aim of this project was to assess the effectiveness of a sacrificial anode cathodic protection system and to predict its design life through a series of laboratory based experiments. The experimental plan involved casting a number of slabs which represented a common road bridge structure. The corrosion of the steel within the experimental slabs was then accelerated prior to installation of a cathodic protection system. During the experiment corrosion potential of the steel reinforcement was monitored using half-cell measurement. Additionally the current flow between the cathodic protection system and the steel reinforcement was recorded to assess the degree of protection. A combination of theoretical calculations and experimental results were then collated to determine the design life of this cathodic protection system. It can be concluded that this sacrificial anode based cathodic protection system was effective in halting the corrosion of steel reinforcement in the concrete slabs studied. Both the corrosion current and half-cell potentials indicated a change in passivity for the steel reinforcement once sacrificial anodes were introduced. The corrosion current was observed to be sensitive to the changes to the exposure environment. Based on the experimental variables studied the design life of this sacrificial anode can be taken as 26 to 30 years.

CCAAT/enhancer binding protein α predicts poorer prognosis and prevents energy starvation-induced cell death in hepatocellular carcinoma

CCAAT enhancer binding protein α (C/EBPα) plays an essential role in cellular differentiation, growth, and energy metabolism. Here, we investigate the correlation between C/EBPα and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patient outcomes and how C/EBPα protects cells against energy starvation. Expression of C/EBPα protein was increased in the majority of HCCs examined (191 pairs) compared with adjacent nontumor liver tissues in HCC tissue microarrays. Its upregulation was correlated significantly with poorer overall patient survival in both Kaplan-Meier survival (P = 0.017) and multivariate Cox regression (P = 0.028) analyses. Stable C/EBPα-silenced cells failed to establish xenograft tumors in nude mice due to extensive necrosis, consistent with increased necrosis in human C/EBPα-deficient HCC nodules. Expression of C/EBPα protected HCC cells in vitro from glucose and glutamine starvation-induced cell death through autophagy-involved lipid catabolism. Firstly, C/EBPα promoted lipid catabolism during starvation, while inhibition of fatty acid beta-oxidation significantly sensitized cell death. Secondly, autophagy was activated in C/EBPα-expressing cells, and the inhibition of autophagy by ATG7 knockdown or chloroquine treatment attenuated lipid catabolism and subsequently sensitized cell death. Finally, we identified TMEM166 as a key player in C/EBPα-mediated autophagy induction and protection against starvation.

CONCLUSION: The C/EBPα gene is important in that it links HCC carcinogenesis to autophagy-mediated lipid metabolism and resistance to energy starvation; its expression in HCC predicts poorer patient prognosis.

In utero exposure to cigarette chemicals induces sex-specific disruption of one-carbon metabolism and DNA methylation in the human fetal liver

Background: Maternal smoking is one of the most important modifiable risk factors for low birthweight, which is strongly associated with increased cardiometabolic disease risk in adulthood. Maternal smoking reduces the levels of the methyl donor vitamin B12 and is associated with altered DNA methylation at birth. Altered DNA methylation may be an important mechanism underlying increased disease susceptibility; however, the extent to which this can be induced in the developing fetus is unknown.

Methods: In this retrospective study, we measured concentrations of cobalt, vitamin B12, and mRNA transcripts encoding key enzymes in the 1-carbon cycle in 55 fetal human livers obtained from 11 to 21 weeks of gestation elective terminations and matched for gestation and maternal smoking. DNA methylation was measured at critical regions known to be susceptible to the in utero environment. Homocysteine concentrations were analyzed in plasma from 60 fetuses.

Results: In addition to identifying baseline sex differences, we found that maternal smoking was associated with sex-specific alterations of fetal liver vitamin B12, plasma homocysteine and expression of enzymes in the 1-carbon cycle in fetal liver. In the majority of the measured parameters which showed a sex difference, maternal smoking reduced the magnitude of that difference. Maternal smoking also altered DNA methylation at the imprinted gene IGF2 and the glucocorticoid receptor (GR/NR3C1).

Conclusions: Our unique data strengthen studies linking in utero exposures to altered DNA methylation by showing, for the first time, that such changes are present in fetal life and in a key metabolic target tissue, human fetal liver. Furthermore, these data propose a novel mechanism by which such changes are induced, namely through alterations in methyl donor availability and changes in 1-carbon metabolism.

Time for Reform? Refugees, Asylum-seekers and Protection Under International Human Rights Law

The aim is to explore the protection that international human rights law offers to refugees, asylum-seekers, and the forcibly displaced. The ambition of the global rights framework is to guarantee a defined range of rights to all human beings, and thus move the basis for normative entitlement from exclusive reliance on national membership to a common humanity. This comprehensive and international perspective remains formally tied to states - acting individually or collectively - in terms of creation and implementation. The norms must find an entry point into the empirical world, and there must be clarity on responsibilities for practical delivery. It should remain unsurprising that the expectations raised by the normative reach of the law are frequently dashed in the complex and difficult human world of instrumental politics, power, and conflict. The intention here is to outline the international human rights law context, and indicate the value and limitations for the protection of refugees and asylum-seekers. A question is then raised about possible reform.

The International Protection of Refugees and Asylum Seekers: the Role of Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights

This book presents a comprehensive assessment of regional responses to the crisis in the asylum/refugee system and critically examines how different regions tackle the problem. The chapters consider the fundamental challenges which undermine an effective asylum process as well as regional difficulties with the various circumstances surrounding asylum seekers. With contributions on Africa, Europe, Latin America, South Asia and the Middle East, and the Pacific, the collection strives to appreciate what informs each region’s approach to the asylum process and asks if there are issues common to every region and if regions can learn from one another. The book seeks an understanding of the existing legal regime for the protection of asylum seekers and how regional institutions such as human rights commissions and regional courts enforce and adjudicate the law.

Characterisation of a novel panel of polymorphic microsatellite loci for the liver fluke, Fasciola hepatica, using a next generation sequencing approach

The liver fluke, Fasciola hepatica is an economically important pathogen of sheep and cattle and has been described by the WHO as a re-emerging zoonosis. Control is heavily reliant on the use of drugs, particularly triclabendazole and as a result resistance has now emerged. The population structure of F. hepatica is not well known, yet it can impact on host-parasite interactions and parasite control with drugs, particularly regarding the spread of triclabendazole resistance. We have identified 2448 potential microsatellites from 83Mb of F. hepatica genome sequence using msatfinder. Thirty-five loci were developed and optimised for microsatellite PCR, resulting in a panel of 15 polymorphic loci, with a range of three to 15 alleles. This panel was validated on genomic DNA from 46 adult F. hepatica; 38 liver flukes sourced from a Northwest abattoir, UK and 8 liver flukes from an established isolate (Shrewsbury; Ridgeway Research). Evidence for null alleles was found at four loci (Fh_1, Fh_8, Fh_13 and Fh_14), which showed markedly higher levels of homozygosity than the remaining 11 loci. Of the 38 liver flukes isolated from cattle livers (n=10) at the abattoir, 37 genotypes were identified. Using a multiplex approach all 15 loci could be amplified from several life cycle stages that typically yield low amounts of DNA, including metacercariae, the infective life cycle stage present on pasture, highlighting the utility of this multiplex microsatellite panel. This study reports the largest panel of microsatellite markers available to date for population studies of F. hepatica and the first multiplex panel of microsatellite markers that can be used for several life cycle stages.

Privacy Region Protection for H.264/AVC with Enhanced Scrambling Effect and a Low Bitrate Overhead

While video surveillance systems have become ubiquitous in our daily lives, they have introduced concerns over privacy invasion. Recent research to address these privacy issues includes a focus on privacy region protection, whereby existing video scrambling techniques are applied to specific regions of interest (ROI) in a video while the background is left unchanged. Most previous work in this area has only focussed on encrypting the sign bits of nonzero coefficients in the privacy region, which produces a relatively weak scrambling effect. In this paper, to enhance the scrambling effect for privacy protection, it is proposed to encrypt the intra prediction modes (IPM) in addition to the sign bits of nonzero coefficients (SNC) within the privacy region. A major issue with utilising encryption of IPM is that drift error is introduced outside the region of interest. Therefore, a re-encoding method, which is integrated with the encryption of IPM, is also proposed to remove drift error. Compared with a previous technique that uses encryption of IPM, the proposed re-encoding method offers savings in the bitrate overhead while completely removing the drift error. Experimental results and analysis based on H.264/AVC were carried out to verify the effectiveness of the proposed methods. In addition, a spiral binary mask mechanism is proposed that can reduce the bitrate overhead incurred by flagging the position of the privacy region. A definition of the syntax structure for the spiral binary mask is given. As a result of the proposed techniques, the privacy regions in a video sequence can be effectively protected by the enhanced scrambling effect with no drift error and a lower bitrate overhead.

Applying the recovery approach to the interface between mental health and child protection services

There are a range of theoretical approaches which may inform the interface between child protection and adult mental health services. These theoretical perspectives tend to be focused on either child protection or mental health with no agreed integrating framework. The interface continues to be identified, in research, case management reviews and inquiry reports, as complex and problematic. This paper proposes that more positive, integrated approaches to service user engagement, risk assessment and management may lead to better outcomes in working with families experiencing parental mental health problems and child protection concerns. It is proposed that the recovery approach, increasingly used in mental health services, can inform the processes of engagement, assessment and intervention at the mental health and child protection interface. The article provides a critical overview of the recovery approach and compares it with approaches typifying interventions in child protection work to date. Relevant research and inquiries are also examined as a context for how to more effectively respond to cases where there are issues around parental mental health problems and child protection. The article concludes with case material to illustrate the potential application of the recovery approach to the interface between mental health and child protection services.

Interpretation of Section 17 Employment Protection Act in the light of ECJ case law and under consideration of the cases pending before the Federal Labour Court

This article analyses the relevance of the ECJ ruling in Junk for German labour law.

Pro-active protection against racialist discrimination in employment law - lessons from South Africa?

This study investigates the potential of the prohibition of indirect race discrimination to be used for law reform, and to uncover discriminatory practices. It reflects on the history and contents of the concept, and focuses in particular on its application in the Republic of South Africa