Ceasefire Violations: Why They Occur and How They Relate to Strategic Decision-Making Processes

Almost all ceasefires experience violations, yet we know little about how such violations relate to the military and political aspirations of conflict parties. This article builds on ceasefire and bargaining literature to understand why ceasefire violations occur and how they relate to strategic decision-making processes. Building on these theoretical insights, it proposes a typology of four main types of ceasefire violations: strategic violations serve to strengthen the military advantage of a conflict party, retaliatory violations seek to ensure ceasefire compliance, spoiling violations aim to undermine the efforts of leaders, and localized violations are delinked from strategic decision-making processes. A case study of a major ceasefire violation in the Bangsamoro peace process illustrates how we may use informal Bayesian reasoning to empirically distinguish between these different types of violations. Treating ceasefire violations as part of wider military and political processes enables us to better understand the causal conditions under which ceasefire violations occur and identify strategic interests of different actors to carry out these violations. This helps explain the varied responses to ceasefire violations and sharpens our understanding of how to address them

Verhalten von Kupfer, Zink und Cadmium in einem stark belasteten Kalkboden

Near a brass foundry, the soil is severely polluted by the heavy metals cadmium, copper, and zinc which have been emitted for more than 80 years. Lime and clay present in the soil result in high pH and high adsorption capacity, leading to a small mobility of the metals. Therefore, the heavy-metal pollution is localized in the upper 25 cm of the soil. The enrichment of the metals in the topsoil substantially decreases biological decomposition rate and breakdown of the litter. The fertility of the soil is disturbed and the meagre vegetation on the site is strongly polluted.The three metals differ in their binding forms and their mobility. Cadmium is particularly adsorbed in the diffuse layer of the cation exchanger or associated with carbonates, which results in a relatively high plant availability. On the other hand, the exchangeable amounts of copper and zinc are small. Main binding forms of these metals are association with carbonates or iron oxides and especially in the case of copper the complexation by humic substances. In the soil solution, hydrated ions are the main species of cadmium and zinc, whereas copper is almost exclusively complexed by dissolved organic matter (DOC). As hydrated ions are preferentially taken up by plants, the availability of cadmium and zinc is greater than that of copper

How to Use Data Science in Economics -- a Classroom Game Based on Cartel Detection

We present a classroom game that integrates economics and data-science competencies. In the first two parts of the game, participants assume the roles of firms in a procurement market, where they must either adopt competitive behaviors or have the option to engage in collusion. Success in these parts hinges on their comprehension of market dynamics. In the third part of the game, participants transition to the role of competition-authority members. Drawing from recent literature on machine-learning-based cartel detection, they analyze the bids for patterns indicative of collusive (cartel) behavior. In this part of the game, success depends on data-science skills. We offer a detailed discussion on implementing the game, emphasizing considerations for accommodating diverging levels of preexisting knowledge in data science

Medical ethnobotany of the Yucatec Maya: Healers' consensus as a quantitative criterion

Medical Ethnobotany of the Yucatec Maya: Healers' Consensus as a Quantitative Criterion. Economic Botany 53(2):144-160, 1999. There is an urgent need to obtain information on the relative importance of a taxon used medicinally as compared to others within the same culture. This was achieved through a documentation of the current indigenous medical uses of 320 species in three Yucatec Maya communities during 18 months of fieldwork. The 1549 individual reports documented were divided into nine groups, which classify indigenous uses. The frequency of usage of the individual plants reported was employed in the analysis of the ethnobotanical importance of the respective taxa. Species cited more frequently in a group of indigenous uses are regarded to be of greater ethnobotanical importance than those cited only by a few informants. In order to obtain information on possible biological, pharmacological and toxicological effects of some particularly important species, the scientific literature on these taxa was evaluated systematically. The study is the basis for phytochemical and pharmacological evaluations of the traditional use

Zapotec and Mixe use of Tropical Habitats for securing medicinal plants in MéXico

Medicinal plants are essential in the medical systems of the Mixe and Zapotec. In this study ethno-ecological strategies, employed by the two neighboring Indian groups in Mexico, for obtaining medicinal plants are analyzed. The indigenous classification of the environment is notably different from the Western one and distinguishes six dissimilar principal "zones” or land use types. Most ethnomedically important species are cultivated in the "house garden” or gathered in the community or its immediate surroundings. The house garden, for example, contributes 31.8% and 26.2% of all medical taxa for the Mixe and Zapotec, respectively. These ethnobotanical data on the indigenous uses indicate that anthropogenic types of vegetation yield the largest percentage of medicinal tax

Subcellular immunocytochemical analysis detects the highest concentrations of glutathione in mitochondria and not in plastids

The tripeptide glutathione is a major antioxidant and redox buffer with multiple roles in plant metabolism. Glutathione biosynthesis is restricted to the cytosol and the plastids and the product is distributed to the various organelles by unknown mechanisms. In the present study immunogold cytochemistry based on anti-glutathione antisera and transmission electron microscopy was used to determine the relative concentration of glutathione in different organelles of Arabidopsis thaliana leaf and root cells. Glutathione-specific labelling was detected in all cellular compartments except the apoplast and the vacuole. The highest glutathione content was surprisingly not found in plastids, which have been described before as a major site of glutathione accumulation, but in mitochondria which lack the capacity for glutathione biosynthesis. Mitochondria of both leaf and root cells contained 7-fold and 4-fold, respectively, higher glutathione levels than plastids while the density of glutathione labelling in the cytosol, nuclei, and peroxisomes was intermediate. The accuracy of the glutathione labelling is supported by two observations. First, pre-adsorption of the anti-glutathione antisera with glutathione reduced the density of the gold particles in all organelles to background levels. Second, the overall glutathione-labelling density was reduced by about 90% in leaves of the glutathione-deficient Arabidopsis mutant pad2-1 and increased in transgenic plants with enhanced glutathione accumulation. Hence, there was a strong correlation between immunocytochemical and biochemical data of glutathione accumulation. Interestingly, the glutathione labelling of mitochondria in pad2-1 remained very similar to wild-type plants thus suggesting that the high mitochondrial glutathione content is maintained in a situation of permanent glutathione-deficiency at the expense of other glutathione pools. High and constant levels of glutathione in mitochondria appear to be particularly important in cell survival strategies and it is predicted that mitochondria must have highly competitive mitochondrial glutathione uptake systems. The present results underline the suggestion that subcellular glutathione concentrations are not controlled by a global mechanism but are controlled on an individual basis and it is therefore not possible to conclude from global biochemical glutathione analysis on the status of the various organellar pool

Medicinal Flora of the Popoluca, Mexico: A botanical systematical perspective

We studied the medicinal plants used by the Popoluca of the Sierra de Santa Marta (eastern Mexico). Using Moerman's method of regression analysis we determined which ethnomedically used taxa are over-represented in the Popolucan pharmacopoeia (e.g., Asteraceae) and which are underrepresented (e.g., Orchidaceae). Moerman et al. (1999) found high correlation between the holarctic pharmacopoeias and assumed that apart from the relatedness of the northern floras a "global pattern of human knowledge" may account for this finding. Although the Popoluca dwell in a habitat dominated by a neotropical flora but intermixed with important holarctic elements, they include considerably fewer neotropical taxa in their pharmacopoeia as one would expect if the historical transmitted knowledge were influencing their selection. This finding confirms the theory stated by Moerman et al. However, the Popoluca include some neotropical taxa in their pharmacopoeia and thus a moderate correlation exists between the Popolucan pharmacopoeia and the neotropical pharmacopoeia analysed by Moerman et al. We therefore conclude that apart from historically transmitted knowledge about specific taxa the "global pattern of human knowledge” addressed by Moerman et al. is largely based on "common selection criteria.

Subcellular immunocytochemical analysis detects the highest concentrations of glutathione in mitochondria and not in plastids

The tripeptide glutathione is a major antioxidant and redox buffer with multiple roles in plant metabolism. Glutathione biosynthesis is restricted to the cytosol and the plastids and the product is distributed to the various organelles by unknown mechanisms. In the present study immunogold cytochemistry based on anti-glutathione antisera and transmission electron microscopy was used to determine the relative concentration of glutathione in different organelles of Arabidopsis thaliana leaf and root cells. Glutathione-specific labelling was detected in all cellular compartments except the apoplast and the vacuole. The highest glutathione content was surprisingly not found in plastids, which have been described before as a major site of glutathione accumulation, but in mitochondria which lack the capacity for glutathione biosynthesis. Mitochondria of both leaf and root cells contained 7-fold and 4-fold, respectively, higher glutathione levels than plastids while the density of glutathione labelling in the cytosol, nuclei, and peroxisomes was intermediate. The accuracy of the glutathione labelling is supported by two observations. First, pre-adsorption of the anti-glutathione antisera with glutathione reduced the density of the gold particles in all organelles to background levels. Second, the overall glutathione-labelling density was reduced by about 90% in leaves of the glutathione-deficient Arabidopsis mutant pad2- 1 and increased in transgenic plants with enhanced glutathione accumulation. Hence, there was a strong correlation between immunocytochemical and biochemical data of glutathione accumulation. Interestingly, the glutathione labelling of mitochondria in pad2-1 remained very similar to wild-type plants thus suggesting that the high mitochondrial glutathione content is maintained in a situation of permanent glutathione-deficiency at the expense of other glutathione pools. High and constant levels of glutathione in mitochondria appear to be particularly important in cell survival strategies and it is predicted that mitochondria must have highly competitive mitochondrial glutathione uptake systems. The present results underline the suggestion that subcellular glutathione concentrations are not controlled by a global mechanism but are controlled on an individual basis and it is therefore not possible to conclude from global biochemical glutathione analysis on the status of the various organellar pools