The Impact of Public Holidays on Insurgent Attacks: The Case of Thailand

This paper analyzes Malay-Muslim insurgents’ attacks in the three southern provinces of Thailand between the years of 2010–2021 and identifies the role of public holidays on the level of violence. The existing literature suggests terrorists consider holidays during attack planning. However, there is a lack of agreement on the effect direction. Some studies have found that holidays are a force for peace while others have found they can act as trigger for more violence. Applying environmental criminology to the timing of terrorist attacks, we argue that the type of the holiday matters. Therefore, we analyze public (secular), Islamic, and Buddhist holidays separately. We show that Islamic holidays witness increased violence while Buddhist and public holidays see reductions. We discuss that Islamic holidays increase the Malay-Muslim insurgents’ motivation to attack by assigning to those dates a higher symbolic value. On the other hand, on Buddhist and public holidays, insurgents may hesitate to attack to avoid the adverse effects of losing public support and triggering a backlash. The results demonstrate the necessity to analyze the temporal dynamics of terrorist attacks

Factors affecting efficient in vitro micropropagation of Muscari muscarimi Medikus using twin bulb scale

AbstractEndemic Muscari muscarimi Medikus is the most fragrant plant among Muscari species and has a high ornamental potential. The natural populations of M. muscarimi, are severely affected by increased environmental pollution and urbanization. There is a need to develop a micropropagation method that should serve effectively for commercial propagation and conservation. Therefore, the study targeted to set up a strategy for efficient in vitro bulblet regeneration system of M. muscarimi using twin scale bulb explants on 1.0×MS medium containing 4.44, 8.88, 17.76μM BAP (6-Benzylaminopurine) plus 2.685, 5.37, 10.74μM NAA (α-Naphthalene acetic acid). Maximum number of 19 daughter axillary bulblets and 16 daughter adventitious bulblets per twin bulb scale explant was regenerated on 1.0×MS medium containing 17.76μM BAP plus 10.74μM NAA and 17.76μM BAP plus 2.685μM NAA respectively. The daughter bulblets regenerated on twin bulb scales on 8 out of 9 regeneration treatment could be easily rooted on 1.0×MS medium containing 4.9μM IBA (Indole-3-butyric acid). The daughter bulblets regenerated on 9th treatment (1.0×MS medium containing 17.76μM BAP plus 10.74μM NAA) were transferred to 1.0×MS medium containing 30g/l sucrose to break negative carry over effect of this dose of BAP–NAA, where they grew 2–3 roots of variable length. Daughter bulblet diameter was increased by culturing them on 1.0×MS medium containing 4.44μM BAP plus 5.37μM NAA. The results verified that both age and the source of explants had significant effect on regeneration. In another set of experiments, twin scales were obtained from in vitro regenerated daughter bulblets, although they induced bulblets, yet their bulblet regeneration percentage, mean number of bulblets per explant and their diameter were significantly reduced. In vitro regenerated bulblets were acclimatized in growth chamber under ambient conditions of temperature and humidity on peat moss, where they flowered. The study provides important information about selection of suitable micropropagation medium, strategies to improve bulblet diameter and rooting of M. muscarimi which offers a scope for commercial propagation

The heterogeneity of tourists' reactions to terrorism

In this thesis, I argue that tourists’ reactions to terrorism depend on how much terrorism they are exposed to in their home countries. I propose that if a country is more likely to suffer from terrorist threats, then its citizens will be more likely to ignore terrorism risk in their potential destinations, and they will not change their travel plans. To test this prediction, I conduct linear regression analysis on how tourist arrivals change according to different characteristics of 168 destination and 178 origin countries between 1995 and 2014. I provide support for my hypothesis by showing that if terrorism in both destination and origin countries together increase, the negative effect of terrorism on tourism decreases. Furthermore, I find that tourists from richer countries are more sensitive to terrorist attacks and terrorism creates more damage for tourism sector when it is surrounded by civil war. The main insight of this research is that tourists of different nationalities are not homogenous in terms of their reactions to terrorism

Search for dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks in √s = 13 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for weakly interacting massive particle dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks is presented. Final states containing third-generation quarks and miss- ing transverse momentum are considered. The analysis uses 36.1 fb−1 of proton–proton collision data recorded by the ATLAS experiment at √s = 13 TeV in 2015 and 2016. No significant excess of events above the estimated backgrounds is observed. The results are in- terpreted in the framework of simplified models of spin-0 dark-matter mediators. For colour- neutral spin-0 mediators produced in association with top quarks and decaying into a pair of dark-matter particles, mediator masses below 50 GeV are excluded assuming a dark-matter candidate mass of 1 GeV and unitary couplings. For scalar and pseudoscalar mediators produced in association with bottom quarks, the search sets limits on the production cross- section of 300 times the predicted rate for mediators with masses between 10 and 50 GeV and assuming a dark-matter mass of 1 GeV and unitary coupling. Constraints on colour- charged scalar simplified models are also presented. Assuming a dark-matter particle mass of 35 GeV, mediator particles with mass below 1.1 TeV are excluded for couplings yielding a dark-matter relic density consistent with measurements