Suchergebnisse

AbstractThe conflict environment is among the most important aspects, if not the most important, in determining peace operation success. Most notably, the conflict environment sets the parameters for the peace operation and determines many of the tasks that need to be performed. In this article, we identify and discuss the key features of the conflict environment from the perspective of policymakers and planners, with special attention paid to those elements that will most dramatically impact peace operations. We divide the set of environmental factors into three broad categories: characteristics of the conflict, local governance, and the local population. Within each of the categories, we discuss the key variables, general indicators, malleability of the conditions to actions by the peacekeepers, and the likely impact of the factors – separately and as interactive influences – on operational outcomes. Some challenges posed by assessment issues are entertained before concluding with a discussion of modeling considerations.

AbstractWe examine the heritability of psychological resilience among US adults aged 25 to 74 years. Using monozygotic and same sex dizygotic twin pairs from the National Survey of Mid-Life Development in the United States (MIDUS) we show that positive affect is equally heritable among men (h2= .60) and women (h2= .59). We then estimate the heritability of positive affect after controlling for an exhaustive list of social and inter-personal stressors, and we operationalize the residual for positive affect as resilience. According to this specification, the heritability of resilience is higher among men (h2= .52) compared to women (h2= .38). We show that self-acceptance is one of the most important aspects of psychological functioning that accounts for the heritability of resilience among both men and women. However, compared to women, men appear to derive additional benefits from environmental mastery that may enable otherwise sex-neutral resilient tendencies to manifest.

Coastal areas are facing with environmental and resources sustainable development. One of them is how livelihood improvement of the community who -living inside or around the coastal rosource areas. Especially, in locality where most of local people life depending strongly upon coastal environment and resources.The sharing rights - benefits between government and community (co-managmement) in reasonable utilisation and protection of coastal resources is consider as an useful tool for local level. Among, include aspects relating to local livelihood improvement.Based on studied results of livelihood improvement in high-quality fish sauce development in Cu Lao Cham islands, Quang Nam province, comanagement application in local level is primarily achieved in theory and also in practice.The paper presents the concepts of comanagement, livelihood and sustainable livelihood, as well as presents local livelihood proceed in case of high-quality fish sauce livelihood for Cu Lao Cham community which contribute to the coastal environment protection and resources reasonable utilisation in the marine protected area.

The inspiration or provocation for this paper came from the animal welfare theorists and environmental philosophers who have questioned the justification of our - real and symbolic - practice of eating meat, and from there challenged our meat-eating and generally devouring culture. The author is attempting to examine this motif - a motif of eating, swallowing devouring - its manifestation, display, findings or far-reaching thematisation that have been taking place more or less in passing in the texts of some pivotal thinkers of modern and contemporary philosophical tradition (Rousseau, Hegel, Nietzsche, Freud, Adorno, Lyotard, Derrida). It is suggested that grasping the procedure of devouring, perceived from the perspective of its imperceptible and in time almost ceremonial outgrowing into self-understandable gesture of a theory - and not only theory - is at least instructive and inspirational actual moment of consciousness for the entire (Western) thought, in other words, an aspect of its critical reconstruction and deconstruction.

In this paper, I explore the intersections between feminism and thinking about (nonhuman) animals. My premise is that animals matter to our politics, not only for themselves, but also for how we think about our own world. I consider three aspects of such intersecting: first, considering animals is important in terms of global environmental concerns because oppression of animals is linked profoundly to how we treat nature in general. Second, although animals seldom enter feminist thought, I argue that how animals are figured matters a great deal to feminism, not least because how we think about them is so mired in problematic dualities of nature/culture and body/mind. Third, I emphasise relationships and relationality—in this case, between humans and our nonhuman kin. This offers, I believe, not only a better way of understanding how embedded in our society are many animals, but also a route to a more inclusive ethics and politics.

Aim To explore the factors related to the outcome of self‐injurious behaviour (SIB) in children with pervasive developmental disorders (PDD).Method Children with PDD were assessed on individual and environmental variables at time 1 and 3 years later. A questionnaire about the presence or absence of SIB was also administered at both times in order to examine the early course of SIB.Results Our findings suggest an association between a negative outcome and several aspects of the children's behaviour. Children with a negative outcome differed from the others in having greater speech impairment, more cognitive and adaptive deficits, and more severe signs of autism. When these variables were entered into a multivariate model for predicting the outcome of SIB, only speech deficits (ORa3.5, CI 95% 1.13–13.4) and autism severity (ORa1.1, CI 95% 1.03–1.18) were significant risk factors.Discussion The importance of these findings for improving our understanding of SIB is discussed.

▪ Abstract  African society is quite distinct in both its relationship to the rest of the world and its history. Africa seems beset by a myriad of crises, from famines, to civil wars, to economic meltdowns. In addition to these crises, profound population and social change has occurred. These changes are having extraordinary socioeconomic, political, and cultural consequences. Africa's demographic regimes have also been profoundly affected by the HIV/AIDS epidemic, urbanization processes, and environmental change. This review focuses on how African population growth and urbanization are clashing with constraints unique to the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. We provide an empirical profile describing population growth and constraints to this growth and the improvement in the quality of life in Africa. We suggest that more attention needs to be placed on the structural aspects of population dynamics. Although this review makes some reference to North Africa, the focus is sub-Saharan Africa.

Describes concepts for a method of organising logistics systems termed "virtual logistics". With virtual logistics, the physical and information aspects of logistics operations are treated independently from each other. In such operations, ownership and control of resources is effected through Internet (or intranet) applications rather than direct physical control and resources can, thereby, be owned and utilised remotely. Goes on to describe the means through which virtual logistics systems can be realised, and it also provides examples of where virtual logistics concepts are already being employed. The article concludes by suggesting the most likely initial implementations of virtual logistics and suggests that, in the long term, the application of such concepts could allow for the efficiency of many logistics operations to be greatly increased and for lead times to be significantly reduced. It is also suggested that there could be distinct environmental benefits due to better coordinated goods flows, particularly in city centres.

Increasingly, the health care community and public policymakers are recognizing the role of economic and psychosocial factors in disability in addition to their traditional attention to environmental, physical, and somatic influences on health and illness. In particular, current discussions of health rorm include serious consideration of the integration of workers' compensation and health plan benefits. This article synthesizes what is known regarding one important aspect of health policy: the effects on disability behavior of changes in workers' compensation benefits. The best available literature reveals that an increase of 10 percent in workers' compensation benefits is related to a I to 11 percent increase in the frequency of workers' compensation claims and a 2 to 11 percent increase in duration per claim. The article examines the sensitivity of these parameter estimates to differences in research design and proposes an idealized study methodology that, the authors hope, would improve the precision of estimates of the incentive effects of workers' compensation payments.

Negotiated agreements often depend on the willingness of bargainers to change their positions. This willingness is shown to depend in large part on certain aspects of the negotiating situation. Reported here are the results of simulation experiments (with environmental scientists & midcareer diplomats [N not given]) that demonstrate increased flexibility when the negotiations are held in private at remote locations. Talks under such conditions had a stronger impact on bargaining behavior than did suggestions made by a mediator. Bargainers were also responsive to the timing of their opponent's moves: more agreements occurred when their opponents demonstrated early firmness followed by later flexibility. The variables explored in the experiments were also used to diagnose outcomes by historical & contemporary cases. Correspondences found between the diagnosed & actual outcomes provide support for the relevance of these variables as influences on the flexibility of international negotiators. 1 Table, 2 Figures. Adapted from the source document.

The treatise can be considered as one of the first and most important writings of the ancient ethnology. Its most out-standing character consists in an interrelated analysis of the influence both of natural environment and of the politi-cal and social conditions on pathology and on the different ways of life. If the natural and climatic aspects of the human habitat play a basic role in determining the health conditions as well as the psychic characters of different populations, it is also true that the political institutions can counteract on these environmental factors. In particular, freedom and de-mocracy may improve the moral and intellectual attitudes of men, while dispotic forms of power make them unwilling to fight and to exercise autonomous judgement. The psychological and intellectual superiority of the Greeks should be traced back to their democratic institutions, that could apply to other people as well. Key words: Greek medicine - Rules - Nature - De Aere

AbstractThe emergence of two‐tier welfare in Africa has been defined by two interconnected developments. Firstly, a growing understanding that 'African famine' is a complex and deep‐seated problem, a problem which, in many cases, combines political, environmental‐economic and conflict factors. Secondly, in response to this situation a world historic internationalization of public welfare has occurred. Whilst some of the financial aspects of this intervention, in the shape of World Bank, International Monetary Fund and bilateral programmes, have received attention, the simultaneous spread of donor/non‐government organization relief‐based safety nets has been relatively neglected. During the 1990s, however, policy debate will increasingly centre upon the adequacy or appropriateness of the latter in relation to the modalities of the African crisis. This paper, by first sketching the nature of this crisis, seeks to contribute to this debate by drawing attention to the contradictions and limitations within the emerging safety net system.