Wartime sexual violence: women’s human rights and questions of masculinity

This article examines wartime sexual violence, one of the most recurring wartime human rights abuses. It asserts that our theorisations need further development, particularly in regard to the way that masculinities and the intersections with constructions of ethnicity feature in wartime sexual violence. The article also argues that although women and girls are the predominant victims of sexual violence and men and boys the predominant agents, we must also be able to account for the presence of male victims and female agents. This, however, engenders a problem; much of the women’s human rights discourse and existing international mechanisms for addressing wartime sexual violence tend to reify the male-perpetrator/female-victim paradigm. This is a problem which feminist human rights theorists and activists need to address

Reducing bias and quantifying uncertainty in watershed flux estimates: the R package loadflex

Many ecological insights into the function of rivers and watersheds emerge from quantifying the flux of solutes or suspended materials in rivers. Numerous methods for flux estimation have been described, and each has its strengths and weaknesses. Currently, the largest practical challenges in flux estimation are to select among these methods and to implement or apply whichever method is chosen. To ease this process of method selection and application, we have written an R software package called loadflex that implements several of the most popular methods for flux estimation, including regressions, interpolations, and the special case of interpolation known as the period-weighted approach. Our package also implements a lesser-known and empirically promising approach called the “composite method,” to which we have added an algorithm for estimating prediction uncertainty. Here we describe the structure and key features of loadflex, with a special emphasis on the rationale and details of our composite method implementation. We then demonstrate the use of loadflex by fitting four different models to nitrate data from the Lamprey River in southeastern New Hampshire, where two large floods in 2006–2007 are hypothesized to have driven a long-term shift in nitrate concentrations and fluxes from the watershed. The models each give believable estimates, and yet they yield different answers for whether and how the floods altered nitrate loads. In general, the best modeling approach for each new dataset will depend on the specific site and solute of interest, and researchers need to make an informed choice among the many possible models. Our package addresses this need by making it simple to apply and compare multiple load estimation models, ultimately allowing researchers to estimate riverine concentrations and fluxes with greater ease and accuracy

Systematic review and meta-analysis of the sero-epidemiological association between Epstein Barr virus and multiple sclerosis

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

How Will Tobacco Farmers Respond to the Quota Buyout? Findings from a Survey of North Carolina Tobacco Farmers

The tobacco quota buyout is expected to have significant impacts on U.S. tobacco markets, farmers, tobacco-dependent communities, and public health. Using data from four surveys of a panel of North Carolina tobacco farmers conducted between 1997 and 2004, we investigate changing farmer attitudes towards and intentions following a quota buyout.Crop Production/Industries,

Socioeconomic disadvantage in childhood as a predictor of excessive gestational weight gain and obesity in midlife adulthood.

BackgroundLower childhood socioeconomic position is associated with greater risk of adult obesity among women, but not men. Pregnancy-related weight changes may contribute to this gender difference. The objectives of this study were to determine the associations between: 1. childhood socioeconomic disadvantage and midlife obesity; 2. excessive gestational weight gain (GWG) and midlife obesity; and 3. childhood socioeconomic disadvantage and excessive GWG, among a representative sample of childbearing women.MethodsWe constructed marginal structural models for seven measures of childhood socioeconomic position for 4780 parous women in the United States, using National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (1979-2010) data. Institute of Medicine definitions were used for excessive GWG; body mass index ≥30 at age 40 defined midlife obesity. Analyses were separated by race/ethnicity. Additionally, we estimated controlled direct effects of childhood socioeconomic disadvantage on midlife obesity under a condition of never gaining excessively in pregnancy.ResultsLow parental education, but not other measures of childhood disadvantage, was associated with greater midlife obesity among non-black non-Hispanic women. Among black and Hispanic mothers, childhood socioeconomic disadvantage was not consistently associated with midlife obesity. Excessive GWG was associated with greater midlife obesity in all racial/ethnic groups. Childhood socioeconomic disadvantage was not statistically significantly associated with excessive GWG in any group. Controlled direct effects were not consistently weaker than total effects.ConclusionsChildhood socioeconomic disadvantage was associated with adult obesity, but not with excessive gestational weight gain, and only for certain disadvantage measures among non-black non-Hispanic mothers. Prevention of excessive GWG may benefit all groups through reducing obesity, but excessive GWG does not appear to serve as a mediator between childhood socioeconomic position and adult obesity in women

Tobacco Farmer Interest and Success in Income Diversification

As farm income from tobacco production has declined in recent years, there has been increasing interest in identifying alternative sources of income for tobacco farmers in the southern United States The recent termination of the tobacco quota program has accelerated the exit of tobacco farmers and has heightened concern regarding the availability of substitutes for tobacco production. In this study, we examine factors influencing tobacco farmers’ attempts to identify profitable alternatives to tobacco, their off-farm employment behavior, and changes in acres of tobacco cultivated using survey data collected from a panel of North Carolina tobacco farmers combined with market datadiversification, farm programs, farmer survey, quota buyout, tobacco, Crop Production/Industries, Farm Management, Financial Economics, C33, Q12, Q18,

The bldC developmental locus of Streptomyces coelicolor encodes a member of a family of small DNA-binding proteins related to the DNA-binding domains of the MerR family.

The bldC locus, required for formation of aerial hyphae in Streptomyces coelicolor, was localized by map-based cloning to the overlap between cosmids D17 and D25 of a minimal ordered library. Subcloning and sequencing showed that bldC encodes a member of a previously unrecognized family of small (58- to 78-residue) DNA-binding proteins, related to the DNA-binding domains of the MerR family of transcriptional activators. BldC family members are found in a wide range of gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria. Constructed {Delta}bldC mutants were defective in differentiation and antibiotic production. They failed to form an aerial mycelium on minimal medium and showed severe delays in aerial mycelium formation on rich medium. In addition, they failed to produce the polyketide antibiotic actinorhodin, and bldC was shown to be required for normal and sustained transcription of the pathway-specific activator gene actII-orf4. Although {Delta}bldC mutants produced the tripyrrole antibiotic undecylprodigiosin, transcripts of the pathway-specific activator gene (redD) were reduced to almost undetectable levels after 48 h in the bldC mutant, in contrast to the bldC+ parent strain in which redD transcription continued during aerial mycelium formation and sporulation. This suggests that bldC may be required for maintenance of redD transcription during differentiation. bldC is expressed from a single promoter. S1 nuclease protection assays and immunoblotting showed that bldC is constitutively expressed and that transcription of bldC does not depend on any of the other known bld genes. The bldC18 mutation that originally defined the locus causes a Y49C substitution that results in instability of the protein

Tobacco Farmer Interest and Success in Diversification

As U.S. farm income from tobacco production has declined in recent years, there has been increased interest in developing alternative sources of farm revenue to replace lost tobacco income, particularly in tobacco-dependent communities of the southeastern United States. The recent end of the tobacco quota program is expected to accelerate the exit of tobacco farmers and has heightened concern regarding the availability of profitable substitutes for tobacco. In this study, we examine the impact of farm, household, and market characteristics on tobacco farmer interest and success in on-farm and off-farm income diversification. Using survey data collected from a panel of North Carolina tobacco farmers in 1997, 1999, 2001, and 2004 combined with market data collected from secondary sources, we evaluate the influence of farmer preferences, resource endowments, market incentives, risk, and biophysical factors on tobacco farmers' attitudes regarding diversification into non-tobacco products, the extent to which they reallocated resources towards non-tobacco products, and their success in identifying profitable alternatives to tobacco production. Our research contributes empirical findings to the public dialogue concerning the ability of tobacco farmers and tobacco-dependent communities to adjust to structural changes taking place in the tobacco market.Tobacco, farm diversification, household model, quota buyout., Farm Management,