Women's Security After War: Protection and Punishment in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo

Does violence against women increase in the aftermath of war? If so, why? Scholars and policy-makers have begun to ask questions about violence against women in the post-conflict space, yet complexities in measurement and a focus on outcomes (rather than mechanisms) leave essential questions unanswered. This dissertation refines and scopes these questions to learn about whether, how, and why the social context that supports violence against women changes as a result of war. The central argument of this dissertation is that armed conflict fosters protective masculine norms that, in turn, affect how communities socially sanction or punish local crimes, including violence against women. Drawing insights from feminist theory, economics, social psychology and political science, the theory of protective masculine norms describes a process by which the gendered nature of protection and exigencies of community security lead communities to choose more severe punishment for public crimes deemed to threaten their communities. Protection tradeoffs, however, also lead people to choose less severe punishment for other "private" crimes. I derive and examine the observable implications of this theory in the context of eastern DR Congo, a place where there are high levels of violence against women that has also been exposed to high levels of insecurity associated with armed violence in the distant and recent past. Chapter 1 lays the framework for the dissertation; describing the social nature of violence against women, processes of norm change, the research approach, and the derivation of protective masculine norms theory. Then, because protective masculine norms are broadly shared across societies, Chapter 2 investigates the nature of war, law, and punishment processes in eastern DR Congo to understand how the theory and findings travel to other contexts. Chapter 3 motivates the theory of protective masculine norms by providing the empirical foundation for differentiating between forms of violence against women and placing them in a framework with other crimes. Contrary to prominent theories about empowerment, backlash and violent masculinities; armed conflict fails to affect preferences for punishing rape and domestic violence in a unidirectional way. Armed conflict increases how severely people prefer to punish rape and stealing, but decreases how severely people prefer to punish domestic violence. The qualitative evidence underscores the relevance of disaggregating crimes against women in terms of public community threats and private crimes. Chapter 4 explicates the theory of protective masculine norms, grounding it in the literature and in the case. I examine the quantitative and descriptive evidence related to alternative hypotheses that may account for armed conflict's effects: exposure to wartime crimes, security structures and demographic change. Finding little support for alternative theories, I describe the design of and results from qualitative work probing central propositions within protective masculine norms theory: Protection is gendered, people have shared memories of conflict incidents, this affects their subsequent behaviors, and internal crimes are related to perceived provision of protection. Since sanctioning is a public act subject to group dynamics and norms, Chapter 5 examines the implications of protective masculine norms and the findings about preference change for how groups choose to punish crimes. Armed conflict may affect how groups choose to punish crimes by changing individual-level preferences, by changing group dynamics, neither, or both. I find that armed conflict affects group preferences primarly through individual-level preference change, underscoring the relevance of preference change for social sanctioning in the aftermath of war. The data also show that group dynamics make people's preferences more extreme, suggesting the importance of norms to shaping preferences - a central tenet of the theory. Chapter 6 discusses the emerging research agenda of protective masculine norms and its contributions. Questions remain about levels of violence against women after war. But, already protective masculine norms has begun to unify a formerly disparate set of findings emerging about armed conflict, domestic violence, and social and legal change

Genomic analysis and relatedness of P2-like phages of the Burkholderia cepacia complex

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The <it>Burkholderia cepacia </it>complex (BCC) is comprised of at least seventeen Gram-negative species that cause infections in cystic fibrosis patients. Because BCC bacteria are broadly antibiotic resistant, phage therapy is currently being investigated as a possible alternative treatment for these infections. The purpose of our study was to sequence and characterize three novel BCC-specific phages: KS5 (vB_BceM-KS5 or vB_BmuZ-ATCC 17616), KS14 (vB_BceM-KS14) and KL3 (vB_BamM-KL3 or vB_BceZ-CEP511).</p> <p>Results</p> <p>KS5, KS14 and KL3 are myoviruses with the A1 morphotype. The genomes of these phages are between 32317 and 40555 base pairs in length and are predicted to encode between 44 and 52 proteins. These phages have over 50% of their proteins in common with enterobacteria phage P2 and so can be classified as members of the <it>Peduovirinae </it>subfamily and the "P2-like viruses" genus. The BCC phage proteins similar to those encoded by P2 are predominantly structural components involved in virion morphogenesis. As prophages, KS5 and KL3 integrate into an AMP nucleosidase gene and a threonine tRNA gene, respectively. Unlike other P2-like viruses, the KS14 prophage is maintained as a plasmid. The P2 <it>E+E' </it>translational frameshift site is conserved among these three phages and so they are predicted to use frameshifting for expression of two of their tail proteins. The <it>lysBC </it>genes of KS14 and KL3 are similar to those of P2, but in KS5 the organization of these genes suggests that they may have been acquired via horizontal transfer from a phage similar to λ. KS5 contains two sequence elements that are unique among these three phages: an IS<it>Bmu</it>2-like insertion sequence and a reverse transcriptase gene. KL3 encodes an EcoRII-C endonuclease/methylase pair and Vsr endonuclease that are predicted to function during the lytic cycle to cleave non-self DNA, protect the phage genome and repair methylation-induced mutations.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>KS5, KS14 and KL3 are the first BCC-specific phages to be identified as P2-like. As KS14 has previously been shown to be active against <it>Burkholderia cenocepacia in vivo</it>, genomic characterization of these phages is a crucial first step in the development of these and similar phages for clinical use against the BCC.</p

Designing Military Cockpits to Support a Broad Range of Personnel Body Sizes

The Joint Primary Aircraft Training System (JPATS) body size cases provide aircraft designers access to representative Airmen anthropometric dimensions based on a database of air force personnel. To ensure new aircraft can support a broad range of pilot body sizes, designers can reference JPATS case numbers to assure adequate access to specific controls and clearances for ejection. JPATS cases 1 and 7 were added in response to the Air Force’s goal to accommodate 95% of males and females. However, given that someone at the 90th percentile height may not have 90th percentile arm length, a far smaller percentage of accommodation than originally projected is actually achieved. This paper presents a discussion of the limitations of JPATS cases and past evaluation methods, and provides recommendations for methods to utilize during the design process to ensure next generation cockpits can accommodate a broader range of body sizes

Wartime Sexual Violence, Social Stigmatization and Humanitarian Aid : Survey Evidence from eastern Democratic Republic of Congo

Sexual violence by armed groups is common in civil wars. Qualitative studies have shown that victims and their families experience social stigmatization. Stigmatization is viewed as a central mechanism to social exclusion and disintegration impeding post-conflict social, political, and economic recovery. We provide new theory on the social conditions under which rape-related stigma intensifies and decreases. Drawing on an original population-based survey in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, we find that victims and their families experience higher levels of stigma compared to unaffected families and these effects are dependent on community attitudes and norms. Furthermore, we find that humanitarian support interventions designed to address the social nature of stigma can reduce stigma. Our article significantly expands prior knowledge on a central mechanism in post-conflict recovery by providing a refined theory on wartime rape-related stigma and the role of humanitarian aid in mitigating negative effects based on representative data.publishe

Follow-up care for breast cancer survivors

Breast cancer survivorship guidelines recommend at least annual follow-up visits, yet the degree to which this occurs in clinical practice is uncertain. Claims data from a US commercial insurance database (OptumLabs) were used to identify women treated with curative intent surgery for newly diagnosed breast cancer between 2006 and 2014. In 25&nbsp;035 women, median follow-up was 3 years. In the second year after surgery, 9.6% of the patients did not visit a primary care provider, an oncologist, or a surgeon (guideline-nonadherent). The guideline-nonadherent proportion increased from 7.8% in women diagnosed in 2006 to 12.2% in those diagnosed in 2014 (two-sided Wald P &lt; .001). During years 2-6, guideline-nonadherence was also associated with older age, nonwhite race, no radiation, no chemotherapy, no endocrine therapy, and increasing time after surgery. There is a substantial and increasing rate of inadequate follow-up among breast cancer survivors. This has the potential to impair outcomes

Phenotypic Landscape of Schizophrenia-Associated Genes Defines Candidates and Their Shared Functions

Genomic studies have identified hundreds of candidate genes near loci associated with risk for schizophrenia. To define candidates and their functions, we mutated zebrafish orthologs of 132 human schizophrenia-associated genes. We created a phenotype atlas consisting of whole-brain activity maps, brain structural differences, and profiles of behavioral abnormalities. Phenotypes were diverse but specific, including altered forebrain development and decreased prepulse inhibition. Exploration of these datasets identified promising candidates in more than 10 gene-rich regions, including the magnesium transporter cnnm2 and the translational repressor gigyf2, and revealed shared anatomical sites of activity differences, including the pallium, hypothalamus, and tectum. Single-cell RNA sequencing uncovered an essential role for the understudied transcription factor znf536 in the development of forebrain neurons implicated in social behavior and stress. This phenotypic landscape of schizophrenia-associated genes prioritizes more than 30 candidates for further study and provides hypotheses to bridge the divide between genetic association and biological mechanism