Terrorism Financing and State Responses A Comparative Perspective

A rash of terrorist attacks in the 1990s, all designed to cause mass casualties—the February 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, the March 1995 sarin gas attack in the Tokyo subway, the April 1995 bombing of the Federal building in Oklahoma City— seemed to signal the arrival on the scene of a new and more deadly kind of terrorism. This was confirmed six years later in the September 11 attacks in New York, Philadelphia and Washington, DC

Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited. CHALLENGES TO DEMOCRACY IN LATIN AMERICA: THE CASE OF

This thesis examines the actions of democratically elected leaders perceived to create threats to democracy. These leaders are often political outsiders who come to power after established politicians and the “traditional ” way of conducting democratic politics have been discredited. Once in power, some of their actions are seen as nonconforming with established democratic norms. This thesis investigates the areas where setbacks and major threats to democracy have occurred in Venezuela and how the international community might respond most effectively to such threats. This thesis advances four definitions of democracy drawn from the relevant literature, delegative, liberal, and substantive. It then examines the actions of the government on the different dimensions of democracy set forth by those definitions, elections, human rights and civil liberties, checks and balances, and militarism. Although the Chavez regime conforms to the minimal conditions of an electoral democracy, it is shown to fall short of accepted standards of liberal democracy. It also falls short of the vision of participative democracy advanced by President Chavez himself. This thesi

Global Survey of Outcomes of Neurocritical Care Patients: Analysis of the PRINCE Study Part 2

BACKGROUND: Neurocritical care is devoted to the care of critically ill patients with acute neurological or neurosurgical emergencies. There is limited information regarding epidemiological data, disease characteristics, variability of clinical care, and in-hospital mortality of neurocritically ill patients worldwide. We addressed these issues in the Point PRevalence In Neurocritical CarE (PRINCE) study, a prospective, cross-sectional, observational study. METHODS: We recruited patients from various intensive care units (ICUs) admitted on a pre-specified date, and the investigators recorded specific clinical care activities they performed on the subjects during their first 7 days of admission or discharge (whichever came first) from their ICUs and at hospital discharge. In this manuscript, we analyzed the final data set of the study that included patient admission characteristics, disease type and severity, ICU resources, ICU and hospital length of stay, and in-hospital mortality. We present descriptive statistics to summarize data from the case report form. We tested differences between geographically grouped data using parametric and nonparametric testing as appropriate. We used a multivariable logistic regression model to evaluate factors associated with in-hospital mortality. RESULTS: We analyzed data from 1545 patients admitted to 147 participating sites from 31 countries of which most were from North America (69%, N = 1063). Globally, there was variability in patient characteristics, admission diagnosis, ICU treatment team and resource allocation, and in-hospital mortality. Seventy-three percent of the participating centers were academic, and the most common admitting diagnosis was subarachnoid hemorrhage (13%). The majority of patients were male (59%), a half of whom had at least two comorbidities, and median Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) of 13. Factors associated with in-hospital mortality included age (OR 1.03; 95% CI, 1.02 to 1.04); lower GCS (OR 1.20; 95% CI, 1.14 to 1.16 for every point reduction in GCS); pupillary reactivity (OR 1.8; 95% CI, 1.09 to 3.23 for bilateral unreactive pupils); admission source (emergency room versus direct admission [OR 2.2; 95% CI, 1.3 to 3.75]; admission from a general ward versus direct admission [OR 5.85; 95% CI, 2.75 to 12.45; and admission from another ICU versus direct admission [OR 3.34; 95% CI, 1.27 to 8.8]); and the absence of a dedicated neurocritical care unit (NCCU) (OR 1.7; 95% CI, 1.04 to 2.47). CONCLUSION: PRINCE is the first study to evaluate care patterns of neurocritical patients worldwide. The data suggest that there is a wide variability in clinical care resources and patient characteristics. Neurological severity of illness and the absence of a dedicated NCCU are independent predictors of in-patient mortality.status: publishe