The people of Myanmar were struck by three major human rights
disasters during the country's period of democratization from 2003
to 2012: the 2007 Saffron Revolution, the aftermath of Cyclone
Nargis ...in 2008, and the 2012 Rakhine riots, which would evolve into
the ongoing Rohingya crisis. These events saw Myanmar's government
categorically labeled as an offender of human rights, and three
powerful Southeast Asian member states-Indonesia, Thailand, and
Malaysia-responded to the violations in very different ways. In
each case, their responses to the crises were explicitly shaped by
norm conflict, which may be understood as a tension between
international and domestic norms. Their reactions were compelled by
a need to address conflicting domestic and international
expectations for norm compliance regarding human rights protection
and non-interference in internal affairs.
In Norms in Conflict: Southeast Asia's Response to
Human Rights Violations in Myanmar, Anchalee Rüland makes
sense of state action that occurs when a governing body is faced
with a circumstance that is at once in line with and contrary to
its own governing policies. She defines five different types of
response strategies to situations of norm conflict and examines the
enabling factors that lead to each strategy. Domestic norms are
known to evolve as a country's values change over time yet Rüland
argues that the old and new norms may also coexist; knowledge of
the underlying political context is crucial for those seeking a
solid understanding of state behavior. Norms in Conflict
challenges the conventional understanding of the logic of
consequences in determining state behavior, advancing
constructivist theory and establishing a provocative new
conversation in international relations discourse.
Stalemate reveals the history
and contemporary politics of the United Wa State Army (UWSA),
Asia's strongest insurgent army on Myanmar's border with
China. This ethnographic tale recounts how a ...highland
group, often dismissed as rebels or narcotraffickers, maintains a
relational autonomy between two powerful lowland states. The Wa
polity engages rather than evades these surrounding states, yet
struggles to fit into their registers of sovereignty and
statehood.
Andrew Ong examines political culture among Wa elites and
people, UWSA external relations, and capital flows with neighboring
China, showing how Wa autonomy is enacted through careful
navigation of complex borderland geopolitics and the shadow
economy. He analyzes the seeming stalemate between the Myanmar
state and the UWSA as one of tactical dissonance-adopting
simultaneous postures of authority and subordination and creating
disruptions and connections. Stalemate illuminates how
seemingly ambiguous and disorderly practices of political
signaling, economic regulation, and military governance produce
relative stability, challenging our assumptions about state-like
processes at the peripheries.
Clinical trials of the PET amyloid imaging agent F-18-flutemetamol have used visual assessment to classify PET scans as negative or positive for brain amyloid. However, quantification provides ...additional information about regional and global tracer uptake and may have utility for image assessment over time and across different centers. Using postmortem brain neuritic plaque density data as a truth standard to derive a standardized uptake value ratio (SUVR) threshold, we assessed a fully automated quantification method comparing visual and quantitative scan categorizations. We also compared the histopathology-derived SUVR threshold with one derived from healthy controls. Methods: Data from 345 consenting subjects enrolled in 8 prior clinical trials of F-18-flutemetamol injection were used. We grouped subjects into 3 cohorts: an autopsy cohort (n = 68) comprising terminally ill patients with postmortem confirmation of brain amyloid status; a test cohort (n = 172) comprising 33 patients with clinically probable Alzheimer disease, 80 patients with mild cognitive impairment, and 59 healthy volunteers; and a healthy cohort of 105 volunteers, used to define a reference range for SUVR. Visual image categorizations for comparison were from a previous study. A fully automated PET-only quantification method was used to compute regional neocortical SUVRs that were combined into a single composite SUVR. An SUVR threshold for classifying scans as positive or negative was derived by ranking the PET scans from the autopsy cohort based on their composite SUVR and comparing data with the standard of truth based on postmortem brain amyloid status for subjects in the autopsy cohort. The derived threshold was used to categorize the 172 scans in the test cohort as negative or positive, and results were compared with categorization using visual assessment. Different reference and composite region definitions were assessed. Threshold levels were also compared with corresponding thresholds derived from the healthy group. Results: Automated quantification (using pons as the reference region) demonstrated 91% sensitivity and 88% specificity and gave 3 false-positive and 4 false-negative scans. All 3 false-positive cases were either borderline-normal by standard of truth or had moderate to heavy cortical diffuse plaque burden. In the test cohort, the concordance between quantitative and visual read categorization ranged from 97.1% to 99.4% depending on the selection of reference and composite regions. The threshold derived from the healthy group was close to the histopathology-derived threshold. Conclusion: Categorization of F-18-flutemetamol amyloid imaging data using an automated PET-only quantification method showed good agreement with histopathologic classification of neuritic plaque density and a strong concordance with visual read results.
We present an improved panel database of national household surveys between 1988 and 2008. In 2008, the global Gini index is around 70.5%, having declined by approximately 2 Gini points. China ...graduated from the bottom ranks, changing a twin-peaked global income distribution to a single-peaked one and creating an important global “median” class. 90% of the fastest growing country-deciles are from Asia, while almost 90% of the worst performers are from mature economies. Another “winner” was the global top 1%. Hence the global growth incidence curve has a distinct supine S shape, with gains highest around the median and top.
This study focuses on the validation and applicability of a recently modified semi-empirical technique (MSET) to integrate site effects. The improvement of MSET by considering site effects has been ...verified by the data of the 1988 Indo-Burma earthquake (
M
w
7.2), which happened in the North Eastern Region (NER) in India. This technique is also used to model a future scenario earthquake (
M
w
8.2) in the NER. The required site effects are estimated using Nakamura’s horizontal-to-vertical (
H
/
V
) ratio technique for 89 waveform records. The obtained site effects are further used to modify an existing semi-empirical technique. To validate this modification, the strong-motion records of the 1988 Indo-Burma earthquake are simulated for bedrock and surface conditions. Afterwards, the root mean square error (RMSE) of these records is compared with surface records obtained by 14 seismic stations. The records simulated at the surface are well validated well with observed ones as compared to the records simulated at bedrock and hence confirm the reliability of the MSET. The improved performance of the MSET after incorporation of site effects validates the approach of the present work and will prove to be significant for simulation of earthquake surface conditions in any region. Further, this improved MSET is used to simulate strong-motion records of a future scenario earthquake (
M
w
8.2) with the same epicentral location. The iso-acceleration maps are prepared from simulated records for both cases (
M
w
7.2 and 8.2), which provide peak ground acceleration (PGA) values of more than 500 and 1000, respectively, for near-field regions. The obtained results are of significant interest for seismic hazard assessment of NE India.
Since the mid-1980s, a dramatic opening in Mexico’s political and electoral processes, combined with the growth of a new civic culture, has created unprecedented opportunities for women and other ...previously repressed or ignored groups to participate in the political life of the nation. In this book, Victoria Rodríguez offers the first comprehensive analysis of how Mexican women have taken advantage of new opportunities to participate in the political process through elected and appointed office, nongovernmental organizations, and grassroots activism. Drawing on scores of interviews with politically active women conducted since 1994, Rodríguez looks at Mexican women’s political participation from a variety of angles. She analyzes the factors that have increased women’s political activity: from the women’s movement, to the economic crises of the 1980s and 1990s, to increasing democratization, to the victory of Vicente Fox in the 2000 presidential election. She maps out the pathways that women have used to gain access to public life and also the roadblocks that continue to limit women’s participation in politics, especially at higher levels of government. And she offers hopeful, yet realistic predictions for women’s future participation in the political life of Mexico.
GRUPOS VULNERÁVEIS E MINORIAS Eliziane Fardin de Vargas; Mônia Clarissa Hennig Leal
Revista de Estudos Institucionais,
09/2023, Letnik:
9, Številka:
3
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
o estudo pretende identificar se a Constituição Federal de 1988 e a jurisprudência do Supremo Tribunal Federal — quando trata do direito de igualdade e não discriminação — estabelecem uma distinção ...terminológica entre “minorias” e “grupos vulneráveis”, identificando quais grupos são enquadrados como minoritários e vulneráveis conforme a jurisprudência do mais alto tribunal brasileiro. Para tanto, utilizou-se do método de abordagem dedutivo e do método de procedimento analítico, objetivando, de início, elucidar a respeito da importância de uma nítida distinção terminológica entre “minorias” e “grupos vulneráveis”, a fim de prestar uma adequada proteção a esses grupos. Em seguida, analisar como se constrói e é incorporada na Constituição Federal de 1988 a noção de especial proteção de “grupos vulneráveis”, buscando identificar se em seu texto há uma distinção terminológica e metodológica entre “minorias” e “grupos vulneráveis”. E, por fim, pretendeu-se averiguar se é possível identificar nas construções jurisprudenciais do STF uma distinção terminológica entre os conceitos de “minorias” e “grupos vulneráveis”, bem como, a partir da análise jurisprudencial desenvolvida, identificar quais os grupos que o STF enquadra dentro de cada conceito.
Tropospheric ozone is known to adversely affect crops and other vegetation. Most studies have focussed on the effects of elevated ozone levels vs. present ambient. We investigated the effect of ...present ambient surface ozone (O3) concentrations vs. preindustrial on a range of agronomically important response variables in field-grown wheat, using results from 33 experiments (representing 9 countries, 3 continents, 17 cultivars plus one set of 4 cultivars) having both charcoal filtered (CF) and non-filtered (NF) air treatments. Average filtration efficiency was 62%, reducing the O3 concentration from 35.6±10.6SDppb in NF to 13.7±8.8SDppb in CF. Average CF concentrations were in the range of levels believed to represent pre-industrial conditions, while NF concentrations were 7% lower than in the ambient air at plant height on the experimental sites. NF had significant (p<0.05) negative effects compared to CF on grain yield (−8.4%), grain mass (−3.7%), harvest index (−2.4%), total above-ground biomass (−5.4%), starch concentration (−3.0%), starch yield (−10.9%), and protein yield (−6.2%). No significant effect was found for grain number and protein concentration. There was a significant relationship between the effect of filtration on grain yield and the difference in O3 concentration between NF and CF treatments. The average yield loss per ppb O3 removed was 0.38% and did not systematically vary with year of experiment (ranging from 1982 to 2010) or with the average O3 level in the experiments. Although there are many differences among the field experiments included in this meta-analysis (e.g. genotype, degree of O3 pollution of the site and year, nutrient and soil condition, filtration efficiency), our study clearly shows that there is a consistent and significant effect of present ambient O3 exposure on a range of important response variables in wheat, the most strongly affected being starch yield.
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•The effects of current vs. preindustrial ozone on wheat were investigated.•Compared to preindustrial levels, current ozone negatively affected wheat growth, yield and quality.•The effect on yield was related to the amount of ozone removed by filtration.•The effect on yield was not related to the age of the cultivar.
The Republic of Korea is regarded as a shining example of democracy in East Asia. Despite this significant achievement, Korea's democracy in practice has been plagued by political gridlock, severe ...factional infighting, a lack of social capital and cooperation between civil society and political institutions, and leadership behavior that calls to mind its authoritarian past. Although the country is now a secure electoral democracy, its journey toward democratic consolidation is far from complete. In this volume, some of the best scholars on Korean politics explore and assess the complex interplay of the facilitating and inhibiting factors that have influenced and reshaped Korea's democratic consolidation process at all levels of state and society, as well as the prospects for consolidation in the coming years.
“The book is a significant contribution to understanding the important yet shifting patterns of relationship between the monarchy and military in Thailand. It is widely known that the ...monarchy-military union has played crucial roles in politics throughout modern Thai history. This book: A Soldier King: Monarchy and Military in the Thailand of Rama X offers a comprehensive account and sound analysis about the newly formed monarchy-military network, demonstrating clearly how the new king tightens his grip since late 2016 as well as his different style from his late father King Bhumibol.” -- Charnvit Kasetsiri, Thammasat University, Bangkok
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