BACKGROUND Maternal calcium intake and vitamin D status may affect fetal bone development. OBJECTIVE This study was designed to examine relations between maternal calcium intake, 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] status, and fetal bone growth across pregnancy. DESIGN This was a prospective longitudinal design. Maternal 25(OH)D, parathyroid hormone, and 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D [1,25(OH)(2)D] wer...

The authors investigated the association between maternal psychological and fetal neurobehavioral functioning. Data were provided by 52 maternal-fetal pairs at 24, 30, and 36 weeks gestation. The relations between maternal measures and fetal heart rate, variability, and motor activity were statistically modeled. Fetuses of women who were more affectively intense, appraised their lives as more s...

background: in most cancer cases, the treatment choice for a pregnant patient is radiotherapy. in these patients, the abdomen is usually not exposed therefore fetus exposure is due to peripheral dose (pd). the purpose of this study was to estimate the fetal dose (the maximum pd in each pregnancy stage) for modalities available and to fabricate and evaluate a generally applicable fetal shield. m...

The concept of alliance or preferably ‘alignment’, as I shall explain below – is central to the conduct of international politics, and thus the discipline of International Relations (IR). Duffield et al. (2008: 291) identify that ‘Alliances are one of the most significant phenomena in security studies and world politics more generally’, while Modelski (1963: 773) considers them ‘one of a dozen ...

In this article I locate some of the fundamental problems of self-determination within the context of an evolving international society. First, I argue that one particular manifestation of self-determination, that of national self-determination, is both a solution to the enduring problem of territorial legitimation in international relations as well as the source of subsequent challenges to ter...

Historically, issues of gender, race and the environment have received little attention in mainstream International Relations (IR) scholarship. Great strides have been made, however, in interrogating the inadequacies of the field in these areas and, similarly, in demonstrating the necessity of expanded definitions of security and violence in IR. Despite these strides, mainstream environmental s...

The state plays a central position in theoretical debates in International Relations (IR). Both Realists and Liberals see the state as the central actor in the international system and thereby follow a Western understanding of the state as the holder of the monopoly of force. In the IRsub discipline of security studies new categories such as weak state, quasi state or state failure have created...

The authors used an event-contingent daily recording strategy, the Rochester Interaction Record (RIR), to examine the motivational dynamics of interpersonal relations. Using hierarchical linear modeling, the authors demonstrated that social interactions were more pleasant when participants felt autonomous, competent, and related. Autonomy, competence, and relatedness consistently predicted inte...

Recent rhetoric surrounding the contemporary aid relationship between donors and African states is couched in terms of a high level consensus between western and African political leaderships, a central pillar of which is adherence to liberal principles of governance and economic management. The paper argues that an analysis of the nature of this consensus and its prospects requires that we nee...