An eDNA-Based Assessment of the Impact of a 207,000-Liter Gasoline Spill on Local Populations of Eastern Hellbenders (Cryptobranchus alleganiensis alleganiensis), an Imperiled Giant Salamander

This paper illustrates the language policy implemented by the African Union (AU). It highlights the impact of language choices within AU institutions on local populations. Sixty years after the independence of most African countries and despite the fact that over two thousand languages are spoken in this continent, language policy is still highly Eurocentric. Moreover, the exclusive use of these few ex colonial languages, not known by the vast majority of the population, has social and linguistic repercussions on Africans who are unable to participate in the political life of their respective countries. AU has made some interesting proposals for the promotion and diffusion of local African languages, but much remains to be done.

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When do ties bind? Foreign fighters, social embeddedness, and violence against civilians

Journal of Peace Research ◽

10.1177/0022343318804594 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 56 (2) ◽

pp. 279-294 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Pauline Moore

Keyword(s):

Civil Wars ◽

Empirical Support ◽

Local Populations ◽

Rebel Groups ◽

Conflict Zone ◽

Violence Against Civilians ◽

Foreign Fighters ◽

The Impact ◽

Negative Connotation

How do foreign fighters affect civilian victimization in the civil wars they join? Scholars of civil war have gone to great lengths to explain why states and insurgent groups victimize civilians, but they have not explicitly examined the impact of foreign combatants. Furthermore, while contemporary conventional wisdom attaches an overwhelmingly negative connotation to foreign fighters, history shows that the behavior of those who travel to fight in wars far from home varies significantly, especially when it comes to interacting with local populations. To address this variation, I demonstrate how differences in the embeddedness of foreign fighter populations combine with incentives that foreign fighters face to remain in the conflict zone over the long term to shape tendencies towards civilian victimization. My findings from an analysis of insurgent groups from 1990 to 2011 suggest that, overall, foreign fighters lead to escalations in violence against civilians. When comparing across groups that recruit foreign fighters, however, levels of violence differ depending on foreign fighter populations’ coethnicity to the rebel groups they join, and the distances they travel to reach a conflict zone. Specifically, the presence of coethnic foreign fighters leads to fewer escalations in violence, relative to the recruitment of non-coethnic individuals from non-neighboring states. The study provides empirical support to the claim that degrees of embeddedness across foreign fighter populations are important indicators of when and where their presence is likely to pose significant dangers to local populations.

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Pulling Together the Threads

Critical Social Work ◽

10.22329/csw.v20i1.5961 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 20 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Jeanette Schmid ◽

Marina Morgenshtern

Keyword(s):

Social Work ◽

Social Work Education ◽

Ways Of Knowing ◽

Local Conditions ◽

Local Populations ◽

Social Work Practitioners ◽

Emergent Literature ◽

Work Education ◽

The Impact ◽

Distinguishing Features

Dominant social work approaches are increasingly problematized. In many contexts mainstreamed social work practices and knowledges are inappropriate and eclipse alternative ways of knowing, being, and doing. Moreover, dominant approaches, promoted through professional imperialism, may be harmful, perpetuating colonial perspectives, ignoring structural conditions, underlining social control, and advancing decontextualized individualism. In order to become relevant to local populations, social work must build on traditional helping strategies and use contextualized worldviews/knowledge(s) to shift focus to parochial concerns. The authors explore alternative social work paradigms, paying attention to Indigenized, Indigenous, culturally authentic, local, developmental and decolonized models. The authors then conceptualize contextualized social work. This synthesized approach allows for the centering of Indigenous/local knowledge(s), an engagement with the impact of colonization and oppression, and responsiveness to local conditions. The authors consider specifically contextualized social work education, noting emergent literature regarding practice exists, but less so in the area of education. The distinguishing features of such education are highlighted, and policy supports identified. It is recommended that contextualized social work education be promoted to ensure future social work practitioners are able to work in a meaningful, relevant and respectful manner in all contexts.

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The Distribution of Red Kangaroos in Relation to Range Regeneration.

The Rangeland Journal ◽

10.1071/rj9930003 ◽

1993 ◽

Vol 15 (1) ◽

pp. 3 ◽

Cited By ~ 10

Author(s):

GL Norbury ◽

DC Norbury

Keyword(s):

Western Australia ◽

Local Area ◽

Arid Areas ◽

Radio Tracking ◽

Control Programs ◽

Local Populations ◽

Native Shrubs ◽

The Impact ◽

Widespread View ◽

Semi Arid

Pastoralists frequently claim that attempts at range regeneration in arid and semi-arid areas are thwarted by kangaroos. This paper examines the possibility that the impact of kangaroo grazing is exacerbated by an influx of kangaroos onto regeneration sites. The amount of kangaroo dung in a 7500 ha paddock in arid Western Australia increased six-fold over a 15-month period following the removal of sheep. A similar influx was apparent in another destocked paddock that provided unusually high offtake of kangaroos by a commercial shooter. The amount of kangaroo dung remained relatively stable in a control paddock that was stocked. Some areas subject to cultivation and reseeding with native shrubs also showed increased amounts of kangaroo dung, indicating relatively intense kangaroo grazing. Radio-tracking of 46 kangaroos showed them to be mostly sedentary, suggesting that 'invading' kangaroos emerge from the local area. This conclusion is contrary to the widespread view that kangaroos migrate from distant locations. Thus, kangaroo control programs on sensitive areas are likely to be long-lasting because incursions are predominantly from local populations.

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Land investments in Tanzania: assessing the role of state brokers

The Journal of Modern African Studies ◽

10.1017/s0022278x18000289 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 56 (3) ◽

pp. 371-394 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Joanny Bélair

Keyword(s):

Vulnerable Populations ◽

Land Acquisition ◽

State Agencies ◽

Local Populations ◽

Monitoring Process ◽

New Strategy ◽

Negative Effect ◽

The Impact ◽

Infrastructural Power

AbstractFocusing on one of the most targeted areas for land investments in Tanzania (Rufiji district), this article compares the involvement of two Tanzanian state agencies in land acquisition, in the context of the central government's new strategy on productive investors. Given the fragmented and contentious authority of many African states, I investigate the impact of state intermediaries on the relationships between investors and local populations and consider bureaucrats as a group of actors to analyse flows of power within the state. I make two main points. First, the central state's weak infrastructural power and resulting lack of local knowledge, and, conversely, local bureaucrats’ possession of these valuable resources, reverses the flow of power from local to central. Second, a central monitoring process might have a negative effect. Instead of protecting vulnerable populations, it fosters institutional innovations that protect local bureaucrats’ opportunities for accumulation with investors, to the detriment of local populations.

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Patch isolation and periodic environmental disturbances have idiosyncratic effects on local and regional population variabilities in meta-food chains

Theoretical Ecology ◽

10.1007/s12080-021-00510-0 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Markus Stark ◽

Moritz Bach ◽

Christian Guill

Keyword(s):

Population Dynamics ◽

Food Chain ◽

Local Population ◽

Metapopulation Dynamics ◽

Environmental Disturbances ◽

Patch Isolation ◽

Local Populations ◽

Dynamic Landscapes ◽

The Impact ◽

Periodic Changes

AbstractWhile habitat loss is a known key driver of biodiversity decline, the impact of other landscape properties, such as patch isolation, is far less clear. When patch isolation is low, species may benefit from a broader range of foraging opportunities, but are at the same time adversely affected by higher predation pressure from mobile predators. Although previous approaches have successfully linked such effects to biodiversity, their impact on local and metapopulation dynamics has largely been ignored. Since population dynamics may also be affected by environmental disturbances that temporally change the degree of patch isolation, such as periodic changes in habitat availability, accurate assessment of its link with isolation is highly challenging. To analyze the effect of patch isolation on the population dynamics on different spatial scales, we simulate a three-species meta-food chain on complex networks of habitat patches and assess the average variability of local populations and metapopulations, as well as the level of synchronization among patches. To evaluate the impact of periodic environmental disturbances, we contrast simulations of static landscapes with simulations of dynamic landscapes in which 30 percent of the patches periodically become unavailable as habitat. We find that increasing mean patch isolation often leads to more asynchronous population dynamics, depending on the parameterization of the food chain. However, local population variability also increases due to indirect effects of increased dispersal mortality at high mean patch isolation, consequently destabilizing metapopulation dynamics and increasing extinction risk. In dynamic landscapes, periodic changes of patch availability on a timescale much slower than ecological interactions often fully synchronize the dynamics. Further, these changes not only increase the variability of local populations and metapopulations, but also mostly overrule the effects of mean patch isolation. This may explain the often small and inconclusive impact of mean patch isolation in natural ecosystems.

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Analysis on the Trend of AIDS Incidence in Zhejiang, China Based on the Age-Period-Cohort Model from 2004 to 2018

10.21203/rs.3.rs-90848/v1 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Zhenzhen Lu ◽

Weidong Ji ◽

Yi Yin ◽

Xinye Jin ◽

Lu Wang ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Incidence Rate ◽

Age Groups ◽

Cohort Effect ◽

Incidence Rates ◽

Upward Trend ◽

Local Populations ◽

Control Information ◽

And Control ◽

The Impact ◽

Homosexual Transmission

Abstract Background: To predict the trend of acquired immune deficiency syndrome(AIDS) in specific age groups and to determine the objective population for AIDS screening, we explored the three transmission routes (homosexual transmission, heterosexual transmission, drug injection and others) and characterized each patients group using the Age-Period-Cohort(APC) model based on the whole, local and immigrant populations in Zhejiang, China.Methods: The data recruited in this paper was obtained from the national "Comprehensive AIDS Prevention and Control Information System - Antiviral Therapy Management" database and the Chinese Disease Prevention and Control Information System and the Statistical Yearbook of Zhejiang, China. An APC model was used to estimate the impact of age, period and cohort on the incidence rate of AIDS, and to predict the AIDS incidence rate in specific age groups based on sexes and transmission routes.Results: The AIDS incidence rate peaked in males between 20 and 35 years old; the incidence rate of males was higher than that of females due to the impact of period; obvious cohort effect was observed among the immigrants. In the whole and local populations, the incidence rates of males in all age groups and females in both the 35-year-old group and the whole age group were predicted to increase sharply in five years. In the immigrant population, the AIDS incidence rates of males and females in all age groups were expected to increase significantly in five years; influenced by age, the incidence of AIDS through homosexual transmission peaked between 20 and 35 years old in the whole and local populations; under the influence of period, the incidence of AIDS via homosexual transmission in the whole and local populations increased and remained stable after 2015, and the incidence of AIDS transmitted by homosexual and heterosexual routes in the immigrants also showed an increasing trend. As a result of the cohort effect, the incidence of AIDS transmitted through homosexual route among the whole and local populations peaked in 1990; the incidence of AIDS in all age groups through different transmission routes would show an upward trend over the next five years.Conclusions: The results elucidate that there are sex differences in AIDS incidence rate, and the incidence of AIDS through various transmission routes in all groups is predicted to exhibit an upward trend in the five years to come. Effective intervention strategies should be developed and implemented by the public health departments in Zhejiang to control the epidemic of AIDS.

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Social Mobilization and the Russification of Soviet Nationalities

American Political Science Review ◽

10.2307/1959741 ◽

1974 ◽

Vol 68 (1) ◽

pp. 45-66 ◽

Cited By ~ 29

Author(s):

Brian Silver

Keyword(s):

Regression Analysis ◽

Ethnic Identity ◽

Ethnic Groups ◽

Social Mobilization ◽

Identity Change ◽

Traditional Religion ◽

Local Populations ◽

The Impact

This paper examines certain major demographic bases of ethnic identity change among the mass populations of the non-Russian nationalities of the USSR. Ethnic identity is defined here as an individual's affective attachment to certain core symbols of his nationality group: the group name and its historic language. The hypotheses tested concern the impact of social mobilization, contact with Russians, and traditional religion on ethnic identity change. The levels of Russification of 46 indigenous nationalities whose official national homelands have Autonomous Oblast status or higher are examined on the basis of 1959 Soviet census materials. By use of regression analysis it is shown that: (a) social mobilization is strongly conducive to the Russification of non-Russian nationalities residing in their official areas; (b) exposure to Russians is conducive to the Russification of both mobilized and unmobilized local populations, but the Russification effect of exposure to Russians is much smaller for the unmobilized than for the mobilized populations; (c) even where exposure to Russians is extensive and enduring, both socially mobilized and unmobilized Muslim ethnic groups are much less likely to be Russified than non-Muslims; it is proposed that a Muslim ethnic ideology mediates between the dynamic demographic influences on Russification and the actual manifestation of Russification.

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The Impact of Foreign Salafi -Jihadists on Islamic Developments in Chechnya and Dagestan

Journal of International Analytics ◽

10.46272/2587-8476-2021-12-4-28-49 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 12 (4) ◽

pp. 28-49

Author(s):

D. Sagramoso ◽

A. Yarlykapov

Keyword(s):

Islamic State ◽

North Caucasus ◽

Local Populations ◽

The Past ◽

The North ◽

The Impact

This article intends to revisit the role of foreign fi ghters in the Chechen war and its aftermath, looking particularly at their impact on Islamic developments in Chechnya and Dagestan during the 1990s–2010s. The article challenges the argument, which is predominant in the literature, that foreign jihadists were primarily responsible for transforming the Chechen insurgency from a secular movement into a religious one. Instead, it argues that Islamist tendencies and Salafi circles were present in the North Caucasus before the outbreak of the First Chechen war. Secondly, this article contends that local Salafi jamaats, in conjunction with foreign jihadist fi ghters, provided the mobilization structures and the ideological framing for the radicalization of the Chechen/ North Caucasus rebel movement. By examining the Salafi -jihadist discourse of both foreign and local Salafi s operating in Chechnya and Dagestan in the 1990s and 2000s, the article shows how foreign Salafi s infl uenced and helped shape the ideological framing of local Salafi politicians and rebel jihadist groups. Yet, this article also shows that many of these Salafi -jihadist projects failed to gain broader societal support. They did not resonate with the local populations in Chechnya and Dagestan in the 1990s–2000s. A fi nal section of this article looks at events in the past decade, particularly at developments since the emergence of ISIS in Syria and Iraq. In this context, the article explains why many young Muslims in Dagestan became themselves foreign fi ghters and travelled to Syria/Iraq to fi ght for and live in the Islamic State. It concludes that Salafi projects, although not indigenous to the region, prospered as a result of the interaction between local Salafi s and foreign jihadist fi ghters and recruiters.

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