Suchergebnisse

The article is devoted to the study of a folklore cliche zmiya skorpiya 'a serpent and a scorpion' in the Russian North handwritten charms tradition. It was discovered that the source of the cliche is the Gospel of Luke's quote (Luke 10:19), which was included in the oral charms of the Southern Russian, Eastern Belarusian and Eastern Ukrainian regions, as well as in the Russian North handwritten herdsman charms, most likely through liturgical texts. In herdsman charms this cliche fits organically the list of wild animals from which a charm was supposed to protect the livestock while grazing it in the forest. This allowed the cliche to stay in these charms for a long time – from the 18th and up to the beginning of the 20th century. Unlike the tradition of the south of Russia and the adjacent Ukrainian and Belarusian territories, zmiya skorpiya cliche was practically not varied in the Russian North, since it turned out to be in demand by the handwritten tradition. These herdsman charms were read during the ritual, more often the herd was bypassed with them. The charms also were stored, inherited, bought, sold and copied, and they were almost not subjected to natural variation during oral existence, which led to their conservation and gradual distortion as they were repeatedly copied and as the tradition was destroyed. The cliche was also recorded in love, healing and military charms, but it did not develop in them due to the absence of motives associated with snakes in these charms. In addition, it was included in a number of handwritten prayers, which were widely distributed primarily in the Russian North (such as the Archangel Michael's Prayer against the Snake, the St. Tryphon's Incantation, etc.).

Purpose
Uncontrollable brain drain (employees' turnover) has been found to hamper humanitarian and sustainable objectives of socially oriented organizations. Hence, this study aims to explore the roles of gender and organizational-level factors on the rate of employees' turnover in microfinance institutions (MFIs).


Design/methodology/approach
The study used an unbalanced panel data of 235 MFIs spanning the period 2010–2019. Based on the availability of the required data set on the World Bank catalogue (in collaboration with Microfinance Information Exchange-MIX Market), this study covers four South Asian countries, namely, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Then, the authors analyzed the data using the conventional panel data regression techniques (e.g. fixed effects model and random effects model).


Findings
The regression results revealed that women leaders (board members) could significantly reduce the employee turnover rate of MFIs. Although the efficiency wage hypothesis is supported in this study, it depends on the profit orientation of the MFIs. This study also confirmed that financial sustainability and donations have helped MFIs to reduce their employees' turnover, which reiterates the image and brand value effect of MFIs. Moreover, the overall gender development and legal status (e.g. Bank and Non-Bank Financial Institutions) have also been found to have an effect on employees' turnover based on the sub-sample analysis.


Originality/value
To the best of the authors' knowledge, the study is among the first to investigate the impact of gender and institutional characteristics on employees' turnover based on a large and recent panel dataset from selected South Asian countries.

Southern Ocean marine ecosystems are highly vulnerable to climate-driven change, the impacts of which must be factored into conservation and management. The Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) is aware of the urgent need to develop climate-responsive options within its ecosystem approach to management. However, limited capacity as well as political differences have meant that little progress has been made. Strengthening scientific information flow to inform CCAMLR's decision-making on climate change may help to remove some of these barriers. On this basis, this study encourages the utilisation of outputs from the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The IPCC's 2019 Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate (SROCC) constitutes the most rigorous and up-to-date assessment of how oceans and the cryosphere are changing, how they are projected to change, and the consequences of those changes, together with a range of response options. To assist CCAMLR to focus on what is most useful from this extensive global report, SROCC findings that have specific relevance to the management of Southern Ocean ecosystems are extracted and summarised here. These findings are translated into recommendations to CCAMLR, emphasising the need to reduce and manage the risks that climate change presents to harvested species and the wider ecosystem of which they are part. Improved linkages between IPCC, CCAMLR and other relevant bodies may help overcome existing impediments to progress, enabling climate change to become fully integrated into CCAMLR's policy and decision-making.

SIMPLE SUMMARY: The giant anteater (Myrmecophaga tridactyla) is a vulnerable species that lives in South America, extinct in several countries. In the past year, different governmental and non-governmental programs were created for the giant anteater's conservation. However, little is known regarding the reproductive aspects of this species. Thus, to the best of our knowledge, this is the first description of a morphological and ultrastructural analysis of the prostate gland. ABSTRACT: The giant anteater (Myrmecophaga tridactyla) is a vulnerable species from Central and South America, and is considered possibly extinct in Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Uruguay. Due to the species' conservation and reproductive importance, this research aimed to characterize the morphology, histochemical, immunohistochemical, and ultrastructural feature of the giant anteater prostate gland. For this, we collected 11 giant anteater prostate glands and performed macroscopic, morphological, histochemical, immunohistochemical, and ultrastructural analysis. Nine prostate glands from an adult subject and two from young subjects were studied. Grossly, the adult giant anteater prostate gland is divided in two distinct zones; the central zones (composed mainly of ducts) and the peripheral zones (of acini formed by secretory cells). The secretory cells showed positive periodic acid–Schiff staining. Furthermore, the immunohistochemical characterization revealed a similar human prostate pattern, with p63 staining basal cells, uroplakin III (UPIII) superficial cells of prostatic urethra, androgen receptor (AR) expressing nucleus of secretory and stromal cells, and prostatic specific antigen (PSA) staining prostatic epithelial cells. Overall, our research provided an in-depth morphological description of the giant anteater's prostate gland, providing valuable information for futures studies focused on giant anteater conservation.

AbstractInternational institutions are important regulators of the trade–environment relationship. Many of them deploy trade measures for environmental purposes, with mixed results. The Basel Convention is one case where trade restrictions have not succeeded in curbing movements of hazardous waste or protecting vulnerable countries from waste dumping. Current literature emphasizes North–South conflict under the Basel Convention as a main reason for these shortcomings. This paper returns to the fundamental question as to why countries engage in this trade. It contends that hazardous wastes are not only characterized by their environmental impacts, but are also distinct in the ways they are generated, distributed, and managed. I argue that global economic integration has commodified these wastes, and countries are increasingly diverging on their views of hazardous materials. This paper draws from the under‐utilized Basel Convention Database and other sources to piece together a holistic picture of the global hazardous waste movements. It identifies three types of countries with distinct trade orientations: industrialized countries trading the largest amounts of hazardous wastes and with considerable specialization; newly industrializing countries as influential players in hazardous waste generation and management; and least developed countries, which oppose waste trade yet suffer from waste dumping. As globalization deepens, management of hazardous wastes may require extensive trade of hazardous materials between countries of varying capabilities and interests. Contrary to its current trade minimization approach based on a crude North–South dichotomy, the Basel Convention may benefit from an approach that motivates capable countries to import wastes and one that builds capacity for intended waste importers.

AbstractCaesarean section delivery rates in India have doubled from 9% in 2005–06 to 17% in 2015–16, increasing the clinical and economic burden on the health care system. This study applied multilevel models to assess the role of household- and community-level factors in Caesarean section (CS) deliveries among low-risk women in India using data from Round 4 of the National Family Health Survey (NFHS-4) conducted in 2015–16. The sample size was 59,318 low-risk women who had their last birth in an institution during the 5 years preceding the survey. These women were nested in 57,279 households, which were nested in 22,183 communities, which were further nested in 640 districts in India. Around 21% of the low-risk women and 24% of all women who had delivered in an institution had undergone CS. The CS rates among low-risk women were extremely high in private institutions (40%) and in southern India (43%). The explanatory variables age, education of women, household wealth and number of antenatal visits were significantly positively associated, while women's parity was negatively associated, with CS delivery among low-risk women. The multilevel analysis suggested that the likelihood of a low-risk woman opting for CS was influenced by a similar decision of another woman from the same household (37%) and/or community (18%). Furthermore, women with low-risk pregnancies from higher educated communities were less likely (OR 0.92) to undergo CS. There is therefore a need for a community-level awareness programme on the risks and benefits of low-risk CS and vaginal delivery, particularly in the southern region of India.

The South Korean government has recently focused on environmental protection efforts to improve water quality which has been degraded by nonpoint sources of water pollution from runoff. In order to take care of environmental issues, many physically-based models have been used. However, the physically-based models take a large amount of work to carry out site simulations, and there is a need to find faster and more efficient approaches. For an alternative approach for sediment management using the physically-based models, the machine learning-based models were used for estimating sediment trapping efficiency of vegetative filter strips. The seven nonlinear regression algorithms of machine learning models (e.g., decision tree, multilayer perceptron, k-nearest neighbors, support vector machine, random forest, AdaBoost and gradient boosting) were applied to select the model which best estimates the sediment trapping efficiency of vegetative filter strips. The sediment trapping efficiencies calculated by the machine learning models showed similar results as those of vegetative filter strip modeling system (VFSMOD-W) model. As a result of the accuracy evaluation among the seven machine learning models, the multilayer perceptron model-derived the best fit with VFSMOD-W model. It is expected that the sediment trapping efficiency of the vegetative filter strips in various cases in agricultural fields in South Korea can be predicted easier, faster and accurately by the machine learning models developed in this study. Machine learning models can be used to evaluate sediment trapping efficiency without complicated physically-based model design and high computational cost. Therefore, decision makers can maximize the quality of their outputs by minimizing their efforts in the decision-making process.

Urban planning as a networked field of governance can be an essential contributor for de-colonising planning education and shaping pathways to urban equality. Educating planners with the capabilities to address complex socio-economic, environmental and political processes that drive inequality requires critical engagement with multiple knowledges and urban praxes in their learning processes. However, previous research on cities of the global South has identified severe quantitative deficits, outdated pedagogies, and qualitative shortfalls in current planning education. Moreover, the political economy and pedagogic practices adopted in higher education programmes often reproduce Western-centric political imaginations of planning, which in turn reproduce urban inequality. Many educational institutions across the global South, for example, continue teaching colonial agendas and fail to recognise everyday planning practices in the way cities are built and managed. This article contributes to a better understanding of the relation between planning education and urban inequalities by critically exploring the distribution of regional and global higher education networks and their role in de-colonising planning. The analysis is based on a literature review, quantitative and qualitative data from planning and planning education networks, as well as interviews with key players within them. The article scrutinises the geography of these networks to bring to the fore issues of language, colonial legacies and the dominance of capital cities, which, among others, currently work against more plural epistemologies and praxes. Based on a better understanding of the networked field of urban planning in higher education and ongoing efforts to open up new political imaginations and methodologies, the article suggests emerging room for manoeuvre to foster planner's capabilities to shape urban equality at scale.

Lack of investment in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs) in systems capturing continuous information regarding care of the acutely unwell patient is hindering global efforts to address inequalities, both at facility and national level. Furthermore, this of lack of data is disempowering frontline staff and those seeking to support them, from progressing setting-relevant research and quality improvement. In contrast to high-income country (HIC) settings, where electronic surveillance has boosted the capability of governments, clinicians and researchers to engage in service-wide healthcare evaluation, healthcare information in resource-limited settings remains almost exclusively paper based. In this practice paper, we describe the efforts of a collaboration of clinicians, administrators, researchers and healthcare informaticians working in South Asia, in addressing the inequality in access to patient information in acute care. Harnessing a clinician-led collaborative approach to design and evaluation, we have implemented a national acute care information platform in Sri Lanka that is tailored to priorities of frontline staff. Iterative adaptation has ensured the platform has the flexibility to integrate with legacy paper systems, support junior team members in advocating for acutely unwell patients and has made information captured accessible to diverse stakeholders to improve service delivery. The same platform is now empowering clinicians to participate in international research and drive forwards improvements in care. During this journey, we have also gained insights on how to overcome well-described barriers to implementation of digital information tools in LMIC. We anticipate that this north–south collaborative approach to addressing the challenges of health system implementation in acute care may provide learning and inspiration to other partnerships seeking to engage in similar work.

Content: Sustainable tannery effluent treatment system in achieving required discharge standards including Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) is one of the major challenges faced by the World Leather Industry. Conventional treatment system reduces Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD), Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD), Suspended Solids (SS), heavy metals etc. and not the TDS and salinity. To achieve the TDS level, the tanneries in South India were forced to adopt Zero Liquid Discharge (ZLD) system by incorporating Reverse Osmosis (RO) system and Multiple Effect Evaporator (MEE). Though recovery of water is beneficial to certain extend in adopting ZLD system, the major challenges are high energy consumption, huge operation & maintenance cost and no safe disposal method for large quantity of mixed/contaminated salt generated from MEE. In view of the challenges faced in adoption of ZLD system, sustainable major technological developments have been made to control more than 50% of TDS in the effluent by adopting cleaner tanning process, segregation of saline streams, treatment and recovery of chromium and salt for reuse by the member units. The balance composited waste stream with low TDS is further treated and taken for mixing/dilution with treated domestic sewage to achieve all discharge standards including TDS. This development is being implemented in many tannery clusters in India such as Pallavaram in South India and Jajmau, Unnao, Banthar, etc. in North India. The Common Effluent Treatment Plants (CETPs) are being upgraded with financial support from Govt. of India and respective State Governments. Take-Away: Improved Chrome Recovery System for Reuse, Recovery of Salt from Saline Stream and Reuse, Sustainable TDS Management

The South China Sea arbitration was an unusual case involving many intricate legal and factual issues. The proceedings were both procedurally and substantively complex. In addition, the arbitration was marred from the beginning by China's refusal to participate in the proceedings. Nevertheless, an arbitral tribunal was constituted in accordance with Annex vii to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. Once constituted, the Tribunal was able to conduct the proceedings expeditiously while assuring procedural fairness to both parties. The arbitral proceedings, which lasted three and half years since its initiation by the Philippines in January 2013, eventually produced two voluminous Awards. Both Awards were decided unanimously. The Awards marked an important milestone in terms of clarifying various provisions of the Convention. In particular, the Tribunal clarified the relationship between the Convention and prior historic rights that are at variance with its Convention. The Tribunal also undertook an unprecedented task in determining how Art. 121 (3) of the Convention should be interpreted and applied. The Tribunal took a broad and proactive approach towards the scope of the marine environment as well as that of the obligation of States to protect the marine environment. The Awards, however, are not free of controversy. Questions can be raised as to several aspects of the Awards. The Awards would have implications that go far beyond the immediate dispute. For the dispute between the Philippines and China, it remains to be seen whether the Awards, by addressing some of the most contentious legal issues, would help the Parties to find a constructive solution to their dispute in the South China Sea.

The paper analyses the characteristics and evolution of cooperation between
NATO and the countries which are neither situated in the Euro-Atlantic area
nor are they involved in the Alliance?s multilateral programmes. The author
focuses on the contribution of Japan, Australia, New Zealand and South Korea
to the ISAF mission in Afghanistan, and how this operation has gradually
built their cooperation with the NATO. Those countries had initially been
defined in NATO?s official documents as the contact countries, only to be
subsequently named in 2008 as they are known today - the partners across the
globe, or simply global partners. Mongolia, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq
now are the global partners of NATO as well. The departing point of
discussion in this paper is the thesis that the ISAF mission may be
considered as the cradle of the Alliance?s new concept of global
partnership. The author sorts all NATO?s global partners in two main
categories: the ?real? and ?fictitious?. The real global partners are
countries that really contribute to the NATO?s missions, such as Japan,
Australia, New Zealand, South Korea and Mongolia. The fictitious global
partners are those states that are actually the test area for NATO missions
- Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as Pakistan, which has acquired the status
of a partner due to its vital strategic position to the realisation of the
Alliance?s mission in Afghanistan. The author concludes that the ?real?
global partners are not viable for membership to NATO at this moment, but in
the case of the strained relations between the United States and China the
option of full membership cannot be excluded.

AbstractAs our nation and our neighborhoods increasingly diversify, we should understand how to sustain integrated communities that are equally beneficial for all residents. Though our policies encourage diversity as a theoretical social good, we actually know little about what happens on the ground in multiethnic neighborhoods. We conduct a comparative case study of the only two Boston neighborhoods to have maintained at least 10% representation of four racial and ethnic groups over the past two decades. Using survey data and ethnographic field observations, we examine residents' experiences in these two consistently multiethnic, yet very different, neighborhoods. We find that neighborhood socioeconomic and racial inequality and disadvantage matter for residents' access to neighborhood resources and constraints, and their perceptions of sense of community. Notably, in the highly unequal South End, Whites and homeowners have greater access to amenities and have higher perceptions of sense of community in comparison to racial and ethnic minorities and renters. Socioeconomic disadvantage matters in Fields Corner, as evidenced by lower overall perceptions of sense of community and greater exposure to safety concerns among all groups in this neighborhood compared to residents of the South End. In the end, we argue that having multiple groups simply sharing neighborhood space over a stable period is not enough to overcome the social problems associated with residential segregation and isolation. In order to support equitable neighborhood integration amid the changing face of diversity, we should take cues from "diverse by direction" neighborhood models that include active organization and coalition building among dissimilar racial and ethnic groups.

В настоящее время политические отношения между Японией и рядом стран Восточной Азии продолжают оставаться весьма напряженными, несмотря на некоторые позитивные сдвиги в этих отношениях в 2015 начале 2016 г. Символом продолжающихся взаимной неприязни и глубокой конфронтации Японии и Китая явилось заявление премьер-министра Абэ Синдзо по случаю 70-летия окончания Второй мировой войны. Указанная конфронтация усиливается территориальным противостоянием Токио и Пекина в Восточно-Китайском море. В политике Японии в отношении как Южной, так и Северной Кореи, существует ряд трудноразрешимых проблем, ослабляющих позиции Японии в Северо-Восточной Азии. В Юго-Восточной Азии также нарастает конфликтность японо-китайских отношений. Абэ С. вынужден проводить политику балансирования между Западом и Москвой в надежде решить территориальный спор в отношениях с Россией. ; Currently, political relations between Japan and a number of East Asian countries remain strained, despite some positive developments in this relationship in 2015 or early 2016. The statement of Prime Minister Abe Shinzo on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II was a symbol of the ongoing mutual hostility and deep confrontation between Japan and China. The stated confrontation is intensified by the territorial conflict between Tokyo and Beijing in the East China Sea. In the policy of Japan in respect of both South and North Korea, there are a number of intractable problems that weaken Japan's position in North-East Asia. In South-East Asia the conflict in Japan-China relations is also growing. Abe is forced to pursue a policy of balancing between West and Moscow, hoping to resolve the territorial dispute in the relationship with Russia.

More than one billion people under the age of eighteen live in territories affected by armed conflict. Despite this, scholars and practitioners often lack a comprehensive knowledge of how children both struggle within and shape conflict zones. Children and Global Conflict provides this understanding with a view to enhancing the prospects of conflict resolution and peace building. This book presents key ideas and issues relating to children's experiences of war, international relations and international law. The authors explore the political, conceptual and moral debates around children in these contexts and offer examples and solutions based on case studies of child soldiers from Vietnam, child forced migrants in Australia, young peace builders in post-conflict zones, youth in the international justice system, and child advocates across South Asia and the Middle East. ; Over one billion people under the age of eighteen live in territories affected by armed conflict. Despite this, scholars and practitioners often lack a comprehensive knowledge of how children both struggle within and shape conflict zones. Children and Global Conflict provides this understanding with a view to enhancing the prospects of conflict resolution and peacebuilding. This book presents key ideas and issues relating to children's experiences of war, international relations and international law. The authors explore the political, conceptual and moral debates around children in these contexts and offer examples and solutions based on case studies of child soldiers from Vietnam, child forced migrants in Australia, young peace-builders in post-conflict zones, youth in the international justice system, and child advocates across South Asia and the Middle East.