Suchergebnisse

The aim of the present study was to investigate the efficacy of colorectal cancer (CRC) screening with a three-tier fecal occult blood test (FOBT) in the Chinese population. The study was performed between 1987 and 2008 at the Beijing Military General Hospital, in a cohort of army service males and females aged >50 years. Between 1987 and 2005, a three-tier screening program, comprising guaiac-based FOBTs (gFOBTs), followed by immunochemical FOBTs for positive guaiac test samples and then colonoscopy for positive immunochemical test subjects, was performed annually. The cohort was followed up until 2008. The cohort included 5,104 subjects, of which, 3,863 subjects participated in screening (screening group) and 1,241 did not (non-screening group). The two groups did not differ in age, gender or other major risk factors for colon cancer. Overall, 36 CRCs occurred in the screening group and 21 in the non-screening group. Compared with the non-screening group, the relative risk for the incidence and mortality of CRC was 0.51 [95% confidence interval (CI), 0.30–0.87] and 0.36 (95% CI, 0.18–0.71), respectively, in the screening group. The general sensitivity of this three-tier FOBT was 80.6% (95% CI, 65.3–91.1). Thus, annual screening using the three-tier FOBT program may reduce the CRC incidence and mortality rate.

After the 2020 war (the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War), the South Caucasus region entered a period of the collapse of the fragile regional security system architecture shaped while maintaining the status quo, and the serious transformation of the security environment in the region. This is stipulated by several factors ensuing, among other things, from the geopolitical and geostrategic processes taking place in other regions, in particular, the Russia – Ukraine conflict and the aggravation of relations between Russia and the West. Because of these processes, the West's urge to weaken Russia has increased both in political (limiting Russia's zone of influence, including in traditionally "pro–Russian" regions, such as the South Caucasus and Central Asia) and economical aspects, limiting Russia's role as a supplier of hydrocarbon energy carriers and the East-West transit corridor. This has led to a significant decrease in the level of Russia's limiting influence in the South Caucasus, and the emergence of serious opportunities to reinvigorate their policy in this region both for Turkey, and extra-regional global actors, such as the United States, the European Union, China and India. Each of those pursues its own geo­strategic and geo-economic interests here, and throughout the process is acting in their own traditional manner, which has been developed in the system of implementing their national foreign policy.

According to the analysis carried out, if the activity of the United States' and the European Union's policies in the South Caucasus depends on the factors of geopolitical rivalry between the West and Russia, then the activation of China's and India's policies largely comes from the activation of the processes of unblocking regional communications, resulting in the occurrence of an alternative to the northern (Russian) corridor, the use of which in greatly restricted due to the Russia – Ukraine conflict. In addition, it becomes imperative for Armenia, in the process of transforming the security environment in the South Caucasus, to indemnify for the decrease in the efficiency of deterrents conditioned solely by the geopolitical presence of the Russian Federation, without changing the foreign policy.

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The F/A-22 Raptor and Joint Strike Fighter (JSF)--two of the Department of Defense's (DOD) major tactical aircraft fighter programs--are intended to replace aging tactical fighter aircraft with highly advanced, stealthy aircraft. The two programs combined have a potential future investment of more than $240 billion. This testimony highlights key concerns in the F/A-22 and JSF programs and discusses the implications on DOD's overall investment strategy for modernizing its tactical fixed-wing aircraft. Last month, GAO issued comprehensive reports on the numerous setbacks these programs have experienced since they were initiated and their effect on the F/A- 22 and JSF business cases."

October 7, 2023, saw the Israeli-Palestinian conflict step up on a new stage of combat operations. Consequently, with local, regional and global actors elucidating or clarifying their position on current military actions that hold the potential to escalate into a regional and large-scale war, importance is attached to the consideration of doctrines, concepts and theories that have become ideologies in the aspect of ensuring Israel's own security, and its perceptions of regional security as a whole.

In this sense, the article discusses the "Periphery Doctrine" ("Strategy of periphery countries"), and the essence of the "Theory of Fragmenta­tion", stages of their transformation and Israel's security perceptions stipulating those transformations.

The aforementioned doctrine and the theory are considered within the context of Israel's strategic security principles and its perceptions of the Near and Middle East as somewhat a heterogeneous cultural domain.

Тhe axis drawn due to the Israeli-developed "New Doctrine of Periphery", sometimes called the "Reverse periphery doctrine", is also comprehensively analyzed, representing Israel's desire to impose a blockade on the real periphery countries – Iran and Turkey – or to contain them. The article attaches particular interest to the consideration and comparative analysis of the differences between the classical Periphery Doctrine and the "New" one (not only in the sense of the number and motives of actors, the goals facing the new alliance or cooperation, methods of achieving them, but also within the framework of the fact of attaching special importance to their economic component along with common threats uniting all parties).

The analysis allows us to sum up that Israel's first, or "classical" doctrine "on concluding an alliance with periphery countries", and the theory of fragmentation as a whole, were successful. Besides, owing to this strategy, the thesis on reconciliation with Israel and establishment of diplomatic relations with it was put on the agenda of the Arab States.

In its turn, Israel's "New Periphery Doctrine" is still at the formation stage. However, to some extent it comes from Israeli perceptions of not only military threats, but also economic and energy security.

Frontmatter -- Contents -- List of Illustrations -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction to the Third Edition -- Preface to the Second Edition -- Introduction to the First Edition -- 1. The Boy Who Became a Muni Bird -- 2. To You They Are Birds, to Me They Are Voices in the Forest -- 3. Weeping That Moves Women to Song -- 4. The Poetics of Loss and Abandonment -- 5. Song That Moves Men to Tears -- 6. In the Form of a Bird: Kaluli Aesthetics -- Postscript, 1989 -- Appendix: Kaluli Folk Ornithology -- Glossary of Kaluli Terms -- References -- Index -- Additional Resources