100 research outputs found
Environmental changes and violent conflict
This letter reviews the scientific literature on whether and how environmental changes affect the risk of violent conflict. The available evidence from qualitative case studies indicates that environmental stress can contribute to violent conflict in some specific cases. Results from quantitative large-N studies, however, strongly suggest that we should be careful in drawing general conclusions. Those large-N studies that we regard as the most sophisticated ones obtain results that are not robust to alternative model specifications and, thus, have been debated. This suggests that environmental changes may, under specific circumstances, increase the risk of violent conflict, but not necessarily in a systematic way and unconditionally. Hence there is, to date, no scientific consensus on the impact of environmental changes on violent conflict. This letter also highlights the most important challenges for further research on the subject. One of the key issues is that the effects of environmental changes on violent conflict are likely to be contingent on a set of economic and political conditions that determine adaptation capacity. In the authors' view, the most important indirect effects are likely to lead from environmental changes via economic performance and migration to violent conflict. © 2012 IOP Publishing Ltd
Conflict and Livelihood Decisions in the Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh
__Abstract__
We analyse rural household livelihood and child school enrolment
decisions
in the post-conflict setting of the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) region of
Bangladesh. What makes this paper innovative is the use of current subjective perceptions
regarding the possibility of violence in the future and past actual experiences
of violence in explaining household economic decision-making. Preferences
are endogenous in line with behavioural economics. Regression results show that
heightened subjective perceptions of future violence and past actual experiences
of conflict influence current consumption and child enrolment and could encourage
risky mixed crop cultivation. The trauma emanating from past experiences
combined with current high perceptions of risk of violence may induce bolder
and riskier behaviour in line with prospect theories of risk. Furthermore, a postconflic
Effective-Range Expansion of the Neutron-Deuteron Scattering Studied by a Quark-Model Nonlocal Gaussian Potential
The S-wave effective range parameters of the neutron-deuteron (nd) scattering
are derived in the Faddeev formalism, using a nonlocal Gaussian potential based
on the quark-model baryon-baryon interaction fss2. The spin-doublet low-energy
eigenphase shift is sufficiently attractive to reproduce predictions by the
AV18 plus Urbana three-nucleon force, yielding the observed value of the
doublet scattering length and the correct differential cross sections below the
deuteron breakup threshold. This conclusion is consistent with the previous
result for the triton binding energy, which is nearly reproduced by fss2
without reinforcing it with the three-nucleon force.Comment: 21 pages, 6 figures and 6 tables, submitted to Prog. Theor. Phy
Evaluation of shear bond strength of two resin-based composites and glass ionomer cement to pure tricalcium silicate-based cement (BiodentineÂź)
RD-Connect: An Integrated Platform Connecting Databases, Registries, Biobanks and Clinical Bioinformatics for Rare Disease Research
Membrane structural perturbations caused by anesthetics and nonimmobilizers: a molecular dynamics investigation.
The structural perturbations of the fully hydrated dimyristoyl-phosphatidylcholine bilayer induced by the presence of hexafluoroethane C(2F6), a "nonimmobilizer," have been examined by molecular dynamics simulations and compared with the effects produced by halothane CF3CHBrCl, an "anesthetic," on a similar bilayer (DPPC) (Koubi et al., Biophys. J. 2000. 78:800). We find that the overall structure of the lipid bilayer and the zwitterionic head-group dipole orientation undergo only a slight modification compared with the pure lipid bilayer, with virtually no change in the potential across the interface. This is in contrast to the anesthetic case in which the presence of the molecule led to a large perturbation of the electrostatic potential across to the membrane interface. Similarly, the analysis of the structural and dynamical properties of the lipid core are unchanged in the presence of the nonimmobilizer although there is a substantial increase in the microscopic viscosity for the system containing the anesthetic. These contrasting perturbations of the lipid membrane caused by those quite similarly sized molecules may explain the difference in their physiological effects as anesthetics and nonimmobilizers, respectively
âStayingâ as climate change adaptation strategy: a proposed research agenda
This paper brings work on mobility and âstayingâ together with theoretical ideas of resilience to consider responses to climate change. To date, the majority of work that has explored the impacts of climate change on human populations has taken a migration-centred perspective, with an emphasis on mobility as a key response in crises, including extreme climatic events and civil conflict. However, evidence suggests that people may alternatively â and pro-actively â adopt a different approach involving âstayingâ as a climate change adaptation strategy. This is important as recent evolutionary approaches to resilience have highlighted how resilience is an on-going process of adaptation which emphasises the temporal, fluid and open-ended aspects of individualsâ experiences and practices in shaping everyday lives. In turn, this means that individualsâ experiences and practices can lead to different strategies of staying (as well as moving) in the face of climate change. Consequently, the paper highlights four key areas where more research is required in order to explore the links between climate change, âstayingâ and resilience. These include the importance of historical context in disentangling and contextualising the âmulticausalâ nature of individualsâ mobility decisions; translocal networks in shaping mobility or immobility; the influence of equity, diversity and gendered social expectations on staying; and the importance of governance responses in facilitating resilience, adaptation and subsequent decisions by individuals to stay or move
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