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"Beginning in 2013, the Central African Republic has been engulfed in a civil war pitting successive governments against a substantial number of armed groups who also compete against each other for control over territory, population and resources. Some of these groups are claiming to be defenders of religious groups in the country, with the Séléka militias fighting for the Muslim communities and the anti-Balaka groups claiming Christian roots and inclinations. Other religiously inspired armed groups such as the Lord's Resistance Army are also present in the country. The following study is an attempt to understand how the "religious" label can be applied to such armed groups and whether it can influence their behavior, thus bringing into light a valuable, albeit lesser known example on how AGs and religion are connected in contemporary Africa.

Keywords: armed groups, religion, Central African Republic, violence, civil war
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Bien que le continent africain reste caractérisé par la jeunesse de sa population, il va connaître en quelques décennies seulement une très forte augmentation des effectifs de personnes âgées. Compte tenu de la situation globalement préoccupante des aînés africains en matière d'accès à des biens et services de santé en adéquation avec leurs besoins, la rapide gérontocroissance annoncée interroge la capacité des systèmes de santé à s'adapter à cette nouvelle donne. Tout en rappelant plusieurs éléments clés de l'hétérogénéité démographique du continent, cet article met en relief l'importance et la pluralité des enjeux reliant vieillissement et santé en Afrique. Il souligne également que la pandémie de Covid-19 et ses multiples et lourdes conséquences, notamment sur le plan socio-économique, complexifient grandement tout objectif de réduction de la vulnérabilité des aînés et des futurs aînés africains.

Minority nurses are underrepresented in leadership roles in the Canadian healthcare system. The purpose of this study was to explore MNs' perceptions and experiences with regards to career development and MNs in leadership positions. Twelve nurses, four Caucasian and eight from the Caribbean and Africa in a tertiary care setting were recruited through purposive sampling. Face-to-face semi-structured interviews were conducted, transcribed, coded, and analyzed using critical ethnography. Findings revealed lack of social support, of equal opportunities, of recognition and of trust. Despite negative experiences, minority nurses recognized the value of their work experience at the hospital where they were employed. Committing to a diverse workforce in leadership roles can ultimately have an effect on patient care. Minority nurses' leadership is needed to provide role models and to ensure the delivery of competent care to diverse populations.

The high number and percentage of Indonesia's adolescent population cannot be separated from the problems related to adolescent reproductive health, especially the lack of knowledge about reproductive health among Indonesia's adolescents in. This study aims to analyze the spatial distribution of knowledge on adolescent reproductive health in Indonesia. This study is a quantitative study using secondary data of 2017 IDHS data. Adolescent reproductive health knowledge is measured in a composite index by taking into account the five indicators, including knowledge of signs of puberty, fertile period and risk of pregnancy, anemia, HIV/ AIDS, and other sexually transmitted infections. This study used a comparative spatial analysis. The results confirmed that there were differences in the spatial distribution of the adolescents' knowledge level related to reproductive health in each province based on the adolescents' characteristics, including sex, age, and education level.

The whole world is holding its breath and has fallen into a kind of paralysis of shock: the Corona pandemic is affecting the lives of every single person on Earth. Many have fallen ill, many have died, almost everyone is in lockdown. But everyday processes must continue, under special conditions, yet they must continue to function. Among them is the supply of medicines to the population. Here the question arises as to whether a higher level of medication safety, especially in a situation with an extremely stressed external environment, can be provided by blistering. In this context, it is relevant what exactly blistering means, which advantages and disadvantages are associated with it, for which reasons blistering is used and whether more safety for medication can be achieved through it. This is the subject of the following remarks.

The article presents the results of the study of osteological material from the early Iron Age hillfort Anashkino (Upper Dvina region, Pskov oblast, Russia). We present here a series of new facts, elaborating our ideas about the economic life, customs and traditions of the local population in this epoch. In total, 20647 determinate bones had been examined from the Anashkino hillfort from the VIII—I century BC cultural layers in 1999—2017. The osteological material is relatively well preserved. Freshwater fish played a significant role in the diet of people in the early Iron Age. In total, 407 individuals of eighteen species mammals were identified at Anashkino. Our analysis showed that the ratio of the live weight of wild and domestic mammals in the diet was approximately equal, and the butchering of animals took place directly at the settlement.

The recent growth of the secular population in the United States has implications for American politics. However, our understanding of these implications has been hindered by oversimplified concepts and measures that equate secularism with non-religion. We separate the two concepts, distinguishing "non-religiosity," or the absence of religion, from "secularism," or a positive embrace of secular beliefs and identities. Using original national-sample cross-sectional and panel surveys, we introduce new measures of secularism, evaluate their properties, and assess their connection to political attitudes and behavior. We find a clear distinction between secularism and non-religiosity in the American public and show that secularism is more closely related than non-religiosity to political attitudes, identifications, and engagement. In fact, while secularism is related to changes over time in political orientations, non-religiosity is not.

This research aimed to achieve two sequential objectives: (1) to provide conceptual support for the idea of organizational commitment toward employees (the employer's commitment), showing differences in concepts such as perceived organizational support, high commitment work systems, human resource (HR) philosophy, and psychological contracts, and (2) to develop a scale to measure employer's commitment. To define the construct, we extrapolated the three-component model (TCM) dimensions (affective, continuance, and normative) from the individual to the organizational levels. To develop the new scale, we first used the Delphi method to determine the items in the questionnaire. Second, to verify the validity and reliability of the new scale, data collected from two sample populations (financial and hospitality sectors) were examined. The results suggest that the three dimensions of TCM in the final construct are independent and autonomous. JEL CLASSIFICATION: M12

The action of the women of Rio de Janeiro's favelas to avoid, prevent, counter, and denounce police violence, both infrapolitically and in the public transcript, are associated with the rise of a political consciousness that is gendered and racialized in the context of the genocide of Brazil's black population. Their resistance, rooted in "Amefricanidade" and the lingering coloniality of gender, is best described as characterized by an intersectional consciousness of injustice.A ação das mulheres das favelas do Rio de Janeiro para impedir, prevenir, combater e denunciar a violência policial, tanto na infrapolítica quanto na esfera pública, está relacionada ao surgimento de uma consciência política de gênero e também a racialização em um contexto de genocídio da população negra no Brasil. Sua resistência, arraigada na "Amefricanidade" e na persistente colonialidade de gênero, é mais bem descrita e categorizada como consciência interseccional de injustiça.

Tele-mental health, or the provision of remote counseling services, has been available for decades. This qualitative study uses the framework of affordances, derived from Gibson, to examine what social work practitioners working on direct to consumer tele-mental health (DTCTMH) platforms are discovering about the features, benefits, and constraints of virtual therapy. An interpretive phenomenological approach was employed to document the lived experiences of social workers who practice in this manner. According to the practitioners interviewed, for a subset of individuals seeking treatment, DTCTMH can offer meaningful interpersonal interaction that confers benefit. Key affordances include accessibility, anonymity, meaningful work, autonomy, lifelong learning, and access by new populations. Practitioners simultaneously acknowledge the ethical complexities and structural challenges of DTCTMH practice. The article concludes with suggestions for future research, policy, and practice.

AbstractThis paper proposes a theoretical analysis and an empirical investigation on simultaneous choices of an enrolment and discipline field, comparing science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) to non‐STEM fields, to enlighten economic variables influencing students. The cross‐country analysis of 35 countries in the period 2013–2016 tries to disentangle factors shifting students from one choice to another and why countries differ in directing students toward specific disciplines. The results show that expenditures in R&D convince more students to choose STEM disciplines, whereas population density and the expected years of schooling have a negative impact on the percentage of STEM enrolments. As a whole, it appears that STEM enrolments are chosen for investment motives, whereas non‐STEM enrolments are less guided by economic factors and more dependent on a consumption effect.

The subterranean higher termite Globitermes sulphureus (Blattodea: Termitidae), is a peridomestic forager and regarded as a significant pest in Southeast Asia. In this study, the populations of G. sulphureus from the USM main campus area were investigated based on partial sequences of the mitochondrial COII gene. The genetic diversity was determined using DnaSP v5 software while the phylogenetic relationship was defined using Neighbor-joining (NJ) and maximum likelihood (ML) methods using Molecular Evolutionary Genetics Analysis (MEGA 7) software. A total of 2 haplotypes were detected among the 5 sample sequences that differed by two variable sites. In addition, both phylogenetic trees gave similar topology and supporting the results from haplotype diversity. Based on the haplotype diversity and molecular phylogeny, it is proposed that geographic isolation and lack of human activities have contributed to the neutral genetic diversity of G. sulphureus.

AbstractThroughout history, most positions of political power have been held by men, and despite numerous laws and regulations aimed at increasing gender equality in society and politics, the majority of democratic assemblies remain predominantly composed of men. What makes this gender composition persistent over time? Using data from Swedish population registers from 1982 to 2014 and demographic statistics from 1749 to 1859, I study how historical social norms shape the present-day gender balance in local politics. The results show that where family formation was more traditional in the past, there are fewer women in local politics today. The analysis also shows that family formation is a likely mechanism for the transmission of social norms across generations. The findings contribute to our understanding of the historical persistence of social structures and the reasons why gender balance in politics is not easily achieved.

The work is devoted to the study of the influence of changes in the transparencyof monetary policy on the effect of exchange rate pass-through in consumer prices. Based on econometric modeling of cross-country panel data, it is shown that an increase in the transparency of communication between the central bank and the population leads to a decrease in the elasticity of domestic prices with respect to the exchange rate in countries that target inflation and adhere to other monetary policy regimes. The effect is observed for both developed and developing economies; it is stronger in the second case. The obtained result can be interpreted as an argument in favor of the advisability of the Bank of Russia transition from a verbal description of its future actions to the publication of a quantitative forecast of the interest rate trajectory.

The language policy of the states directly depends on the degree of prevalence of the multiculturalism and multilingualism on its territory. A balanced approach to language policy is a guarantee of stability in the country. The article provides a comparative analysis of the national and linguistic composition of the population in the European Union, Russia, Romania and Moldova. For a century and a half, the approach to assessing multiculturalism has changed. Initially, it was a fundamental idea for the formation of philosophical and social humanism, now it is a feature in postmigrant communities. National minorities are divided into "old" (settled) and "new" (migrants) ones. Multiculturalism is accompanied by multilingualism (polylingualism, multilingualism). It provides for the use by an individual, a group of people of several languages, each of which is selected in accordance with a specific communicative situation.