The use of magical plants by curanderos in the Ecuador highlands

Although the use of plants for treating supernaturally caused illnesses (e.g., soul loss, evil wind, witchcraft) has been documented in the Ecuador highlands, so-called magical plants have received much less focused attention than plants used for treating naturalistic disorders. Drawing on interviews done in 2002 and 2003 with 116 curanderos residing in the Ecuador highlands, this paper examines the characteristics of plants identified as magical, how they are used, and how the study of magical plants provides insights into the mindscape of residents of the highlands

The Impact of Covid-19 on the Women, Peace and Security Agenda.

• Women appear to be disproportionately affected by Covid-19 • Pushback on global commitment to gender equality • Gender equality and human development are correlated: focussing on gender equality will have a catalytic effect on the SDGs • The increasing strain on peace operations is likely to have a negative effect on the WPS agenda

Female Peacekeepers and Operational Effectiveness in UN Peace Operations.

More women are needed in UN peace operations, both on the grounds of equality and performance. March 2020 survey data and empirical evidence from the Effectiveness of Peace Operations Network (EPON) highlight the importance of greater gender parity in UN peace operations for missions to successfully achieve their mandated tasks, stressing also the impact of context-specific obstacles and how the absence of enabling and supportive systems means that neither male nor female peacekeepers can perform at their best. Survey findings also point to the risk that the women, peace and security (WPS) agenda – including gender equality in peacekeeping operations – may be treated as a second-tier concern if set against other pressing issues. In the midst of the current COVID-19 pandemic and an evolving global recession– this risk is intensified. A continued political and financial commitment to increasing numbers is a prerequisite for achieving greater gender parity and equality. However, in terms of discourse, we need to move beyond having to prove the added value of female participation, which places an extra burden on those concerned

Unity in Goals, Diversity in Means - and the discourse on female peacekeepers in UN peace operations.

Gender parity at all levels in the UN, as a means towards gender equality, is a two-decades old commitment, reflecting core values as old as the UN itself. Despite this, progress on increasing the number of female peacekeepers has been slow and uneven, particularly in uniformed roles – but also in peace processes. This is due to a number of reasons, but in particular a lack of political will, financing and accountability, and resistance to gender equality. We argue that a paradigm shift is needed, both on performance diversity grounds but also on normative equality grounds. To implement already agreed upon benchmarks and resolutions, the UN and its member states need to focus more on the operational value of diversity in fulfilling the tasks at hand, both for national security forces and in peace operations. Gender should be considered a central component in this required diversity. In the current situation where we witness a pushback on support to women’s rights; ensuring diversity should not only be considered a key priority, but also a national and international security imperative

Digitaal partnergeweld : typologie, impact en de rol van politie

Digitale media kunnen ingezet worden voor het plegen van geweld in de verschillende fasen van een partnerrelatie, zoals de datingfase, het onderhouden van de relatie maar ook tijdens en na het beëindigen van de relatie. In de context van digitaal partnergeweld kunnen beelden en misbruik van beelden een belangrijke rol spelen. In deze bijdrage bieden we een overzicht van de vormen van digitaal partnergeweld die kunnen voorkomen in verschillende fasen van de relatie en de stand van kennis op dit gebied. Ook bespreken we de impact die dit heeft op het slachtoffer, welke copingmechanismen ze kunnen inzetten, waaronder het inschakelen van het persoonlijke sociale netwerk en eventuele professionele hulp. De rol van de politie en andere stakeholders wordt eveneens toegelicht

Unravelling the kinetics of burial remagnetizations

Burial diagenesis is one of the main mechanisms claimed for explaining pervasive remagnetizations in sedimentary basins and orogenic wedges worldwide. It involves authigenic formation (e.g. chemical remagnetization) of magnetic minerals in response to enhanced temperature conditions at deep basinal positions. Key questions about the kinetics of this process in natural cases remain unsolved because most of the best-documented cases occurred during long-lasting magnetic superchrons. The Western Pyrenees display a dual polarity record of a burial remagnetization affecting the deepest part of the Eocene Jaca turbiditic basin and its underlying units. A preliminary study of 49 sites distributed along three cross sections reveals that postfolding (remagnetized) ChRM directions are found within the lowermost part of the studied sedimentary pile, which is affected by cleavage, in such a way that ChRM unblocking temperatures increase as a function of depth. Noteworthy, this remagnetization is associated with hysteresis data typical for chemical remagnetizations (samples falling mainly within the SP+SD+MD mixing line in the Day plot), and displays up to five different polarity zones that are consistent along strike in the three studied cross sections. Prefolding ChRM directions are found, in contrast, in the overlying sequence above the cleavage domain. We intend to carry out a detailed, multidisciplinary study of this remagnetization in the framework of the recently funded UKRIA4D project, that will integrate: A) a full characterization of the remagnetization front combining paleomagnetic and rock-magnetic data; B) characterization of the burial conditions based on SEM and TEM observations of mineral assemblages and temperature estimates from RAMAN spectroscopy on carbonaceous material; and C) magneto-biostratigraphic dating of the 7 km-thick overlying sedimentary sequence. Integration of these data will allow establishment of the burial conditions that led to the observed remagnetization, on which, at least, a qualitative kinetic model for burial remagnetizations will be developed