Civilianizing Civil Conflict: Civilian Defense Militias and the Logic of Violence in Intra-State Conflict

This article examines how civilian defense militias shape violence during civil war. We define civilian defense forces as a sedentary and defensive form of pro-government militia that incumbents often use to harness the participation of civilians during a counterinsurgency campaign. We argue that civilian defense forces reduce the problem of insurgent identification. This leads to a reduction in state violence against civilians. However, we also claim that these actors undermine civilian support for insurgents, which leads to an increase in rebel violence against civilians and overall intensification of conflict. A statistical analysis of government and rebel violence against civilians from 1981 to 2005, and a qualitative assessment of a civilian defense force operating in Iraq from 2005 to 2009, offer strong support for our theoretical claims. These findings provide further insight into pro-government militias and their effects on violence. They also have wider ethical implications for the use of civilian collaborators during civil war.

The role of knowledge in the contraceptive behaviour of sexually active young people in state care

Aim: To analyse the role of sex-focused knowledge in the contraceptive behaviour of sexually active young people in state care.

Methods: The sample consisted of 19 care leavers (young people previously in state care) aged 18-22 years, 16 females and 3 males. In-depth interviewing was the method of data collection, and a qualitative strategy resembling modified analytical induction was used to analyse data.

Findings: Findings indicated that a lack of information was not the sole, or even the primary reason for engaging in unsafe sexual practices. Other factors such as ambivalence to becoming pregnant also featured in participants’ accounts. Several participants conveyed a relatively weak sense of agency about consistently using contraception. A small number of participants expressed a strong determination to avoid pregnancy, and these appeared to have a level of anxiety about becoming pregnant that motivated them to engage with knowledge about contraception and its use.

Conclusion: Lack of sex-focused information is just one aspect of a myriad of complex factors, including socioeconomic disadvantage and/or emotional deprivation, that influences contraceptive behaviour.

Statue of Hon. John C. Calhoun erected in Statuary Hall of the Capitol at Washington ; proceedings in Statuary Hall and in the Senate and the House of Representatives on the occasion of the unveiling, reception, and acceptance of the statue from the State of South Carolina / compiled under the direction of the Joint Committee on printing

This publication is the proceedings of the unveiling ceremony for the statue of John C. Calhoun in the Statuary Hall in Washington D.C.

Speech of Mr. C. G. Memminger, on the question of rechartering the bank of the state of South Carolina: delivered in the House of Representatives, December 9, 1848

This speech by Mr. Memminger offers resolutions on the issue of rechartering the bank of the state of South Carolina. The issues presented are the Bank of the State is founded on an erroneous policy, unwise for a state to engage in banking, not practical to recharter the Bank of the State and a special committee of each house should be appointed to advise how to carry out these resolutions at the next session.

Memorial of citizens of Chesterfield, Marlborough, and Darlington, assembled at Cheraw in South Carolina, against a further increase of duties on imported articles, February 4, 1828 : referred to the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union

This document contains a memorial, which was written by the citizens of Chesterfield, Marlborough, and Darlington, assembled in the town of Cheraw, on July 25, the 25, 1827 in the state of South Carolina who were engaged in agriculture and commerce and presented it to oppose the tariff increase. It was presented to the Congress of the United States.

Ecotoxicological aspects related to the presence of pharmaceuticals in the aquatic environment

Pharmaceuticals are biologically active and persistent substances which have been recognized as a continuing threat to environmental stability. Chronic ecotoxicity data as well as information on the current distribution levels in different environmental compartments continue to be sparse and are focused on those therapeutic classes that are more frequently prescribed and consumed. Nevertheless, they indicate the negative impact that these chemical contaminants may have on living organisms, ecosystems and ultimately, public health. This article reviews the different contamination sources as well as fate and both acute and chronic effects on non-target organisms. An extensive review of existing data in the form of tables, encompassing many therapeutic classes is presented.

The state of environmental performance evaluation in the public sector: the case of the Portuguese defence sector

Journal of Cleaner Production, nº 17, p. 36-52

Antiepileptika bei Frauen im gebärfähigen Alter und in der Schwangerschaft : Vergleich der Fachinformationen in Deutschland und der Schweiz mit dem aktuellen Wissensstand [Antiepileptics in women of childbearing age and during pregnancy : Comparison of specialized information with the current state of knowledge in Germany and Switzerland].

BACKGROUND: Healthcare professionals regularly read the summary of product characteristics (SmPC) as one of the various sources of information on the risks of drug use in women of childbearing age and during pregnancy. The aim of this article is to present an overview of the teratogenic potential of various antiepileptic drugs and to compare these data with the information provided by the SmPCs. METHODS: A literature search on the teratogenic risks of 19 antiepileptic agents was conducted and the results were compared with the information on the use in women of childbearing age and during pregnancy provided by the SmPCs of 38 commercial products available in Switzerland and Germany. RESULTS: The teratogenic risk is discussed in all available SmPCs. Quantification of the risk for birth defects and the numbers of documented pregnancies are mostly missing. Reproductive safety information in SmPCs showed poor concordance with risk levels reported in the literature. Recommendations concerning the need to monitor plasma levels and possibly perform dose adjustments during pregnancy to prevent treatment failure were missing in five Swiss and two German SmPCs. DISCUSSION: The information regarding use in women of childbearing age and during pregnancy provided by the SmPCs is heterogeneous and poorly reflects the current state of knowledge. Regular updates of SmPCs are warranted in order for these documents to be of reliable use for health care professionals.

Thermoaclimatory variations in the microenvironment of hemoglobin in the rainbow trout, Salmo gairdneri and the carp, Cyprinus carpio

Several inorganic substances (e.g., C£ , Mg , Ca , H ) are potent negative modulators of hemoglobin-oxygen affinity. To evaluate the possibility that potentially adaptive changes in the red cell ionic environment of hemoglobin may take place during acclimation of fishes to increased environmental temperature, hematological status (hemoglobin, hematocrit, red cell numbers, mean erythrocytic volume and hemoglobin content), plasma + + 2+ 2+ and packed red cell electrolyte levels (Na , K , Ca , Mg , C£ ) were evaluated in summer and winter populations of the stenothermal rainbow trout, Salmo gairdneri, following acclimation to 2°, 10°, 18°C, and in a spring population of eurythermal carp, Cyprinus carpio, held at 2°, 16° and 30°C. From these data cell ion concentrations and ion:hemoglobin ratios were estimated. In view of the role of red cell carbonic anhydrase in the reductions of blood C02 tensions and the recruitment of Na and C£~ lost by fishes, a preliminary investigation of thermoacclimatory changes in the activity of this system in rainbow trout erythrocytes was conducted. Few changes in hematological status were encountered following acclimation. There was, however, some evidence of weight-specific differential hematological response in carp. This lead to markedly greater increases in hemoglobin, hematocrit and red cell numbers in smaller rather than in larger specimens at higher temperatures; variations which were 2+ well correlated with changes in plasma Ca . Plasma composition in summer trout was not altered by acclimation. In winter trout plasma Na and K increased at higher temperatures. Carp were characterized by increases in plasma calcium, and reductions in sodium and magnesium under these conditions. Several significant seasonal differences in plasma ion levels were observed in the trout. (n) In trout, only erythrocytic K and K :Hb were altered by acclimation, rising at higher temperatures. In carp Na , Na :Hb, C£~ and C£~:Hb in- 2+ 2+ creased with temperature, while Mg and Mg :Hb declined. Changes in overall ionic composition in carp red cells were consistent with increases in H content. In both species significant reciprocal variations in C£~ 2+ - + and Mg were found. In mammalian systems increases in C£ and H reduce hemoglobin-oxygen affinity by interaction with hemoglobin. Reduction in 2+ 2+ Mg maximizes organophosphate modulator availability by decreasing ATP»Mg complex formation. Thus, the changes observed may be of adaptive value in reducing hemoglobin-oxygen affinity, and facilitating oxygen release to cells at higher temperatures. Trout appear to maintain a high chloridelow magnesium state over the entire thermal tolerance zone. Carp, however, achieved this state only at higher temperatures. In both species mean erythrocytic volume was decreased at higher temperatures and this may facilitate branchial oxygen loading. Since mean erythrocytic volume was inversely related to red cell ion content, it is hypothesized that reductions in cell volume are achieved by export of some unidentified solute or solutes. Variations in the carbonic anhydrase activity that could be attributed to the thermoacclimatory process were quite modest. On the other hand, assays performed at the temperature of acclimation showed a large temperature effect where under in vivo conditions of temperature fish acclimated to higher temperatures might be expected to have higher activities. Furthermore, since hematocrit increased with temperature in these fish, while carbonic anhydrase is present only in the erythrocyte, the whole blood levels of this enzyme are expected to increase and further augment the temperature effect. This, in turn, could aid in the reduction of C02 (111) tension and increase the production of H and HC0~~ used in the active uptake of Na and C£ at higher temperatures.

Massachusetts militia claims : letter from the Secretary of War, transmitting, in pursuance of a resolution of the House of Representatives of the 15th Dec., 1826, a report upon the subject of the claims of the State of Masachusetts for certain services rendered during the late war.--

20th Congress, 2nd session. House Doc. no.3.

Proceedings of the Convention of the State of New York ; held at the Capitol in the City of Albany, on the seventeenth and eighteenth days of September, 1812

Signed by Jacob Morris, President, and William Henderson, Secretary.

A review of the case of Alexander McLeod: recently determined in the Supreme Court of Judicature of the state of New York (1841)

Alexander McLeod, a British subject, was tried for the murder of Amos Durfee and as an accomplice in the burning of the steamer Caroline, in the Niagara River, during the Canadian rebellion in 1837-1838.