The Need to Act: Incest as a Crime Given Low Priority—A View with India as an Example

Background: Incest is a form of sexual activity that occurs within family or kinship systems. It is prohibited by religion and law in most countries as well as by social mores or taboos. Data from various parts of the world indicate, however, that it appears to be a relatively common event, although there is reason to believe that the actual frequency is unknown. Most available data focus upon children as victims, although we note that incest also occurs between adult family members. Methods: A systematic review was performed using PRISMA guidelines. With a focus upon India, the search tools of Academic Search Complete, Google Scholar and PUBMED were used to identify articles that legally defined incest; frequency; barriers to disclosure; the dynamics of incest and social norms. Results: The available data were very limited, making a systematic review unachievable within the narrow confines of incest. Conclusions: The literature is sparse. This led to a discussion of definitional issues; barriers to disclosure; and challenges with measuring the problem of incest and the impact of social norms. Questions of law and efforts at reform were also considered. The article considers what steps might be appropriate.

Thematic object pairs produce stronger and faster perceptual grouping than taxonomic pairs

While objects are fundamental units of vision that convey meaning, how different types of semantic knowledge affect perception is not fully understood. In contrast, the concept literature divides semantic information into taxonomic and thematic types. Taxonomic relationships reflect categorization by similarities (e.g., dog – wolf); thematic groups are based on complementary relationships shared within a common event (e.g., swimsuit – goggles; pool). A critical difference between these two information types is that thematic relationships are learned from the experienced co-occurrence of objects whereas taxonomic relationships are learned abstractly. In two studies, we test the hypothesis that visual processing of thematically related objects is more rapid because they serve as mutual visual primes and form a perceptual unit. The results demonstrate that learned co-occurrence not only shapes semantic knowledge, but also affects low level visual processing, revealing a link between how information is acquired (e.g., experienced vs. unobserved) and how it modulates perception.

The Corpus of Ptolemaic Inscriptions

The chapter discusses the content and significance of approximately fifty inscribed metrical texts, most of them funerary epigrams, which come from dispersed sites in the Delta and the Nile Valley. Most are in elegiac couplets or other mixtures of hexameters and pentameters; two are in iambics. They are a mix of dedications and epitaphs; epitaphs preponderate. There are also four long hymns to Isis from the Fayum. The Paneion or sanctuary to Pan in the Thebaid (modern Resedieh) provides some dedicatory thank-offerings, mostly short, but one long and elaborate. Of the thirty-six epitaphs, a depressing total of five are for young women who died in childbirth, a common theme in epitaphs and a common event in life. The second half of the chapter consists of a discussion of three of the longer poems, comprising four epigrams, chosen for their historical and/or literary interest.

Timberland transaction costs and due diligence: a literature review and assessment of research needs

In the last three decades, purchases and sales of large timberland estates have become a common event worldwide. Timberland investments generally entail the purchase of land containing (or suitable for growing) merchantable timber in order to obtain future cash flows and an appreciation in the value of the entire estate. This review documents many of the critical steps involved in a comprehensive due diligence of investable timberland estates, and illustrates the sources and components of the transaction costs involved. Detailed insights into the processes involved in assessing potential timberland transactions and how market participants conduct these transactions are presented. These are followed by the discussion of implications of these findings for investment decisions and the assessment of pertinent research needs. This review attempts to create a framework to discuss and investigate the relevant costs of the due diligence process. Since almost no forestry due diligence literature was discovered, future research may then build upon this framework.

Ritual, Spectacle, and Menace

On the surface, comparative projects may seem frivolous, particularly those whose comparata are separated by millennia; this is especially true if one is attaching meaning simply to common event-sequences across time. However, for exploring the perceptual dynamics behind ancient reports of ritualized violence whose contexts and intended effects are somewhat elusive, a contemporary comparison may prove insightful. This should be true for rituals whose intent is menace, such as oath-making rituals and curses. Although we undoubtedly are missing much in the way of context and intended effects for ancient oath-making rituals, a close examination of one Islamic State (IS) “message” video of 2014 may enable us to envision some common perceptual dynamics. This short essay proposes to evaluate the persuasive effects of an ancient ritual in the light of a contemporary, by pondering embodied and visual modes of perception.

A Brief Analysis of Telemetry-Related Events

Successful telemetry monitoring relies on timely clinician response to potentially life-threatening cardiac rhythm abnormalities. Breakdowns in the processes and procedures associated with telemetry monitoring, as well as improperly functioning telemetry monitoring equipment, may lead to events that compromise patient safety. An analysis of reports submitted to the Pennsylvania Patient Safety Reporting System (PA-PSRS) from January 2014 through December 2018 identified 558 events specifically involving interruptions or failures associated with telemetry monitoring equipment or with the healthcare providers responsible for setting up and maintaining proper functioning of that equipment. The analysis highlighted a steady increase in the quantity of event reports associated with telemetry monitoring submitted to PA-PSRS. User errors accounted for nearly half (47.1%, 263 of 558) of events in the analysis. The most common event subtypes included: errors involving batteries in telemetry monitoring equipment (14.0%); errors in which patients were not connected to telemetry monitoring equipment as ordered (12.9%); errors involving broken, damaged, or malfunctioning telemetry monitoring equipment (10.9%); and errors in which patients were connected to the wrong telemetry monitoring equipment (9.0%).