Wartime sexual violence: women’s human rights and questions of masculinity

This article examines wartime sexual violence, one of the most recurring wartime human rights abuses. It asserts that our theorisations need further development, particularly in regard to the way that masculinities and the intersections with constructions of ethnicity feature in wartime sexual violence. The article also argues that although women and girls are the predominant victims of sexual violence and men and boys the predominant agents, we must also be able to account for the presence of male victims and female agents. This, however, engenders a problem; much of the women’s human rights discourse and existing international mechanisms for addressing wartime sexual violence tend to reify the male-perpetrator/female-victim paradigm. This is a problem which feminist human rights theorists and activists need to address

Governing urban wetlands for green growth in the Western Region Megapolis of Sri Lanka

The Western Region Megapolis (WRM) of Sri Lanka, the conurbation associated with Greater Colombo and covering the entire Western Province, is the thriving economic center of the country. According to the State of Sri Lankan Cities 2018 report (GoSL 2018), the city accounts for 40% of Sri Lanka’s gross domestic product (GDP), 30% of its population and is the nation’s administrative center. The WRM is also endowed with wetlands of international importance. This includes the Bellanwila-Attidiya marshes: a 370-ha freshwater marsh in southern Colombo rich in biodiversity (Box 1); the Colombo Flood Detention Area: a 400-ha network of marshes and canals that traverse the DISCUSSION BRIEF An aerial view of the city of Colombo in Sri Lanka with its network of wetlands supporting urban dwellers - A hub for green growth. Photo: Martin Seemungal city; and the Muthurajawela marsh: a 2,500-ha saltwater marsh in northern Colombo, which is the largest saline peat bog in Sri Lanka (IUCN and CEA 2006). The aim of this brief is to support the efforts of the Government of Sri Lanka to leverage the WRM wetlands to foster green growth. Green growth promotes economic development alongside environmental sustainability, and is gaining traction as a model to achieve sustainable urban development globally (Hammer et al. 2011). According to OECD (2013: 9), governments promote green growth “to create jobs and attract firms and investment, while improving local environmental quality and addressing global environmental challenges, particularly climate change.

On Galois-Division Multiple Access Systems: Figures of Merit and Performance Evaluation

A new approach to multiple access based on finite field transforms is investigated. These schemes, termed Galois-Division Multiple Access (GDMA), offer compact bandwidth requirements. A new digital transform, the Finite Field Hartley Transform (FFHT) requires to deal with fields of characteristic p, p \neq 2. A binary-to-p-ary (p \neq 2) mapping based on the opportunistic secondary channel is introduced. This allows the use of GDMA in conjunction with available digital systems. The performance of GDMA is also evaluated.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures. In: XIX Simposio Brasileiro de Telecomunicacoes, 2001, Fortaleza, CE, Brazi

Demographic change in the northern forest

This brief examines the population redistribution in the Northern Forest, which includes thirty-four counties scattered across northern and central Maine, New Hampshire, New York, and Vermont. Authors Ken Johnson, Susan Stewart, and Miranda Mockrin report that the population of the Northern Forest grew modestly between 2000 and 2010, and the population gains were greatest in recreational areas and least in manufacturing areas. Racial and ethnic diversity is also growing in the Northern Forest, and the population is getting older due to aging in place among current residents and net outmigration among younger populations

On the Evaluation of the Mechanical Behaviour of Structural Glass Elements

Glass can be considered to be a high-technology engineering material with a multifunctional potential for structural applications. However, the conventional approach to the use of glass is often based only on its properties of transparency and isolation. It is thus highly appropriate and necessary to study the mechanical behaviour of this material and to develop adequate methods and models leading to its characterisation. It is evident that the great potential of growth for structural glass applications is an important opportunity of development for the glass industry and the building/construction sectors. The work presented in this paper is a reflection of this conclusion. The authors shortly present the state-of-the-art on the application of glass as a structural element in building and construction, and refer to other potential fields of application and available glass materials. The experimental procedures and methods adopted in three-point bending tests performed on 500 × 100 [mm2] float, laminated and tempered glass specimens with thicknesses between 4 and 19 mm are thoroughly described. The authors evaluated the mechanical strength and stiffness of glass for structural applications. This work contributes to a deeper knowledge of the properties of this material