Whose Policy Matters? Elite Disagreement on Illegal Fishing Problems

Neo-realism predicted the state will choose a certain balancing strategy accordingly to the given strategic environment and the relative power of respective states. Since Southeast Asia recognized as informal and norm-based regionalism, state balancing strategy will maximize the regional organization as a means to restraining member state's behavior and managing basic interaction within states. However, neo-realism unable to explain why states would not adopting the expected balancing strategy despite already obtained necessary international pressure and relative power. This condition occurred in Indonesia’s foreign policy toward ASEAN, especially on combating illegal fishing disputes. Ever since the foundation of the regional group, Indonesia has applied the ASEAN-led mechanism as a means to the dispute. However, the regional distribution of power and Jakarta’s relative power do not change but Indonesia’s balancing strategy does. To explain such conditions, this research will employ neo-classical realism to examine why Indonesia not adopting an institutional balancing strategy. Neoclassical-realist argued that it is the intervening variable that determined the state’s balancing strategy. This research will analyze Indonesia’s intervening variable using Randall Scwheller’s elite consensus framework and found out the shift of Indonesia's balancing strategy occurred due to elite dissensus on how perceiving ASEAN as a regional group

Helicobacter pylori Infection and Predictors Risk Factors among Patients undergoing Gastro-duodenal Fibroscopy in Yaoundé, Cameroon

Background: Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection affects more than half people worldwide particularly in African countries such as Cameroon. This study aimed to investigate the prevalence of H. pylori infection and predictors risk factors among patients undergoing gastro-duodenal fibroscopy at the Centre Medical, la Cathédrale of Yaoundé. Methods: A facility-based descriptive cross-sectional study involving 147 patients was conducted from October 2015 to April 2016. A structured questionnaire was used to collect information on socio-demographic factors and predictors of H. pylori infection. Gastric biopsies specimens were collected from the antrum and corpus using an Olympus GIF – Q30 fully immersible gastroscope respectively. The biopsies were screened for the presence of H. pylori by targeting the glmM gene using polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS v. 20 with p-value<0.05 considered statistically significant. Results: The mean age was 47.19 ±16.64 years and female were more represented with 88/147 (59.8%) versus (vs.) 59/147(40.1%) for male. The overall prevalence of H. pylori infection was 50/147 (34.01%; 95% CI: 26.41% - 42.28%). The prevalence of H. pylori infection was 22/59 (37.29%) in male vs. 28/88 (31.82%) in female and this prevalence increased with age and peaked among 30-50 years. Bivariate logistic regression analysis identified that, the regional group, particularly the Centre region (OR 2.55, p= 0.007) and West region (OR 2.67, p=0.005), the level of education (OR 1.18, p=0.001), source of income (OR 0.95, p=0.004), and alcohol consumption (OR 1.41, p=0.0001) were predictors risk factors of H. pylori infection. Conclusions: Our findings indicate a relatively high prevalence of H. pylori infection in Yaoundé. Factors such as regional group, level of education, source of income, and alcohol consumption predisposed the subjects to H. pylori infection.

The tradition of pottery painting in the Upper Silesian-Lesser Polish regional group of the Lusatian culture in the Early Iron Age. The example of the cemetery at Dobrzeń Mały, Opole district.

The idea of covering pottery with polychrome ornaments adopted from the Greek art of the Late Geometric period spread to almost every corner of Early Iron Age Europe, including some areas in present-day Poland. Painted pottery was manufactured in Middle Silesia and southern Greater Poland. Finds of painted vessels are recorded also in Upper Silesia, and a smaller number still, in Lesser Poland. The presented paper addresses painted pottery identified with the Upper Silesian-Lesser Polish regional group of the Lusatian culture from settlement and funerary contexts (cremation and bi-ritual cemeteries). A closer look is taken at the previously unpublished finds of polychrome vessels from the cemetery at Dobrzeń Mały investigated during the 1970s. Their collection is now displayed and preserved in the Museum of Opole Silesia in Opole.

EFFICIENCY INCREASE IN THE ENERGY SAVING PROGRAM IN RUSSIA

Цель статьи - представить разработанную автором методику ранжирования регионов России по уровню общего вклада в реализацию комплекса мер в энергосбережение и повышение энергетической эффективности экономики России. Автором проведено эмпирическое исследование промежуточных результатов реализации мер по повышению энергетической эффективности в России за период 2010-2019 гг. Выполнено исследование направления и динамики изменения потребления электроэнергии за исследуемый период на уровне федеральных округов и регионов России. Научная новизна заключается в выполнении ранжирования регионов, либо территориальных образований по уровню общего вклада каждого региона на основе разработанных показателей. Такое ранжирование выполнено и относительно роста спроса и общего вклада регионов в электропотребление на уровне общего экономического пространства. На основе полученных результатов автором проведена группировка регионов с целью предоставления рекомендаций для каждой региональной группы, направленных на повышение энергетической эффективности в масштабах экономики России. The article is devoted to the description of the methodology developed by the author for ranking Russian regions according to the level of total contribution to the implementation of a set of measures in energy conservation and increasing the energy efficiency of the Russian economy. The author conducts an empirical study of the intermediate results of the implementation of measures to increase energy efficiency in Russia for the period 2010-2019. The study analyzes the direction and dynamics of changes in electricity consumption for the period under study at the level of federal districts and regions of Russia. On the basis of the ranking results obtained, the author has grouped the regions with recommendations for each regional group according to the need to improve energy efficiency on the scale of the Russian economy.

THE RUSSIAN POPULATION OF BASHKORTOSTAN: DEMOGRAPHIC AND ETHNO-LINGUISTIC PROCESSES IN THE SECOND HALF OF THE XIX — EARLY XXI CENTURIES

The article analyzes the regional group of Russian Bashkiria in the system of demographic and ethno-linguistic processes developing in a multinational environment during the XX century. Russian Russian ethnic group's "urban" character has evolved at various stages of historical development over the past century, and a comparative analysis of the basic social characteristics of the Russian population has been conducted in comparison with non- Russian peoples, mainly Bashkirs and Tatars. The process of significant influence of large-scale urbanization on the development of various areas of bilingualism and ethno-linguistic assimilation is considered.

The Trends and Efficacy of Operation in the Treatment of Hepatocellular Carcinoma

BackgroundOperation for the treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is limited. Recently, the possibility was advanced that operation (including surgery, transplantation, and ablation et, al) could be applied in HCC patients more widely. To address this issue, the trend in the use of operation and surgery for the treatment of HCC with time was analyzed. Additionally, whether patients gain a better survival benefit from surgery than other treatments was also evaluated.MethodsData from SEER registries were used to analyze the trends in the use operation and surgery for HCC and the survival benefits of these procedures. The study included patients between the ages of 35 and 84 years diagnosed as HCC between 2004 and 2015 (n=64019). Propensity score matching (PSM) analysis was used to reduce selection bias.Results From 2004 to 2015, the rate of operation for HCC decreased in the localized group (P<0.001), the regional and distant group (P<0.001). Surgery rate in the localized, regional, and distant group also declined (P=0.016, P=0.009, and P=0.018, respectively). Non-operation rate increased in the localized, regional, and distant group (all P<0.001). The median overall survival (mOS) of patients in the localized, regional group who underwent surgery was longer than that of patients with non-surgery operation and non-operation. Similar survival results were obtained in the analysis of patients with single tumor larger than 5 cm and 2-3 tumors larger than 3 cm. ConclusionAlthough surgery rate declined from 2004 to 2015 in all HCC patients, it might be used more widely in patients with localized and regional tumors. And the treatment of surgery in patients with single tumor larger than 5 cm or patients with 2-3 tumors larger than 3 cm was worth trying.

Density Peaks Clustering by Zero-Pointed Samples of Regional Group Borders

Density peaks clustering algorithm (DPC) has attracted the attention of many scholars because of its multiple advantages, including efficiently determining cluster centers, a lower number of parameters, no iterations, and no border noise. However, DPC does not provide a reliable and specific selection method of threshold (cutoff distance) and an automatic selection strategy of cluster centers. In this paper, we propose density peaks clustering by zero-pointed samples (DPC-ZPSs) of regional group borders. DPC-ZPS finds the subclusters and the cluster borders by zero-pointed samples (ZPSs). And then, subclusters are merged into individuals by comparing the density of edge samples. By iteration of the merger, the suitable dc and cluster centers are ensured. Finally, we compared state-of-the-art methods with our proposal in public datasets. Experiments show that our algorithm automatically determines cutoff distance and centers accurately.