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Rebel governance? A literature review of Boko Haram and the Islamic State in West Africa Province
No full textThe literature on rebel governance has fundamentally challenged the idea that ‘governance’ is the sole prerogative of ‘government’. Despite important advances over the past decade, studies have largely addressed rebel governance from an ‘institutionalist’ approach. This review seeks to go beyond an ‘institutionalist’ approach, by understanding ‘governance’ as the ‘whole set of practices and norms that govern daily life in a specific territory’. Drawing on a thorough review of literature on Boko Haram and the Islamic State in West Africa Province (ISWAP), this working paper analyses five under-examined independent variables that shape rebel governance in Nigeria’s north-east and Niger: illegitimate state practices, community resilience, and cohesion, external counterinsurgency actions, ‘big men’, and ideology
Simulated poaching affects global connectivity and efficiency in social networks of African savanna elephants-An exemplar of how human disturbance impacts group-living species
No full textSelective harvest, such as poaching, impacts group-living animals directly through mortality of individuals with desirable traits, and indirectly by altering the structure of their social networks. Understanding the relationship between disturbance-induced, structural network changes and group performance in wild animals remains an outstanding problem. To address this problem, we evaluated the immediate effect of disturbance on group sociality in African savanna elephants—an example, group-living species threatened by poaching. Drawing on static association data from ten free-ranging groups, we constructed one empirically based, population-wide network and 100 virtual networks; performed a series of experiments ‘poaching’ the oldest, socially central or random individuals; and quantified the immediate change in the theoretical indices of network connectivity and efficiency of social diffusion. Although the social networks never broke down, targeted elimination of the socially central conspecifics, regardless of age, decreased network connectivity and efficiency. These findings hint at the need to further study resilience by modeling network reorganization and interaction-mediated socioecological learning, empirical data permitting. The main contribution of our work is in quantifying connectivity together with global efficiency in multiple social networks that feature the sociodemographic diversity likely found in wild elephant populations. The basic design of our simulation makes it adaptable for hypothesis testing about the consequences of anthropogenic disturbance or lethal management on social interactions in a variety of group-living species with limited, real-world data
Government Reactions, Citizens’ Responses, and COVID-19 around the World
No full textWe analyze the relationship between different dimensions of the quality of the political system and the outcome of the COVID-19 pandemic. Data are retrieved from open-access databases for 98 countries. We apply a multivariable regression model to identify the relationship between various factors likely to affect the number of COVID-19 deaths, in addition to different dimensions of the quality of the political system. We find that the high quality of the electoral process in a country is associated with more COVID-19 deaths, while good political culture is associated with fewer deaths. As expected, we also find that trust in government and experiences with pandemics in the past is negatively related to COVID-19 deaths. Finally, a high GDP per capita is significantly associated with more COVID-19 deaths. Our findings illustrate that rapid, effective, and comprehensive government measures can protect society from the spread of a virus, but citizen compliance is also essential to policy success
THE FRANCO-PRUSSIAN WAR OF 1870-1871 And HOW IT CHANGED EUROPE’s BALANCE OF POWER
No full textDen Fransk-Prøyssiske krigen, som varte fra 1870 til 1871, er en konflikt som i stor grad forsvinner i bakgrunnen til fordel for de større og mer kjente krigene opp igjennom verdenshistorien. Eksempler på slike kriger er Napoleons krigene, Andre Verdenskrig og Første Verdenskrig. Men legge merke til Første Verdenskrig, hvorfor brøt den ut og hvorfor endte Frankrike og Det tyske keiserriket på hver sin side under Første Verdenskrig? Jeg tror at den Fransk-Prøyssiske krigen var med på å legge til rette for utbruddet av Første Verdenskrig, samt den politiske retningen i Europa. I tillegg til å undersøke det diplomatiske skiftet som fant sted på slutten av 1800-tallet, vil denne oppgaven prøve å besvare hvorvidt den Fransk-Prøyssiske krigen påvirket Europas maktbalanse og la til rette for utbruddet av Første Verdenskrig
Rusavhengighet og fysisk aktivitet
No full textFormålet med denne oppgaven er å undersøke om fysisk aktivitet kan være et verktøy i rusavhengiges bedringsprosess. Oppgaven er en litteraturstudie som belyser funn fra fire vitenskapelige forskningsartikler. Artiklene ble innhentet ved å gjøre systematiske søk i relevante databaser. Den gjensidige påvirkningen mellom individ og samfunn står sentralt i oppgaven. Rusavhengighet er en kompleks sykdom som påvirkes av en rekke biologiske, psykologiske og sosiale forhold. Avhengigheten kan medføre store konsekvenser for individets helse og velvære, livsstil og relasjoner. Sykdommen er også en kilde til smerte og lidelse for familier og nære pårørende, og har store samfunnsmessige konsekvenser. Viktige funn i forskningsartiklene peker på at fysisk aktivitet er en arena for mestringsopplevelser, fellesskap og tilhørighet. Fysisk aktivitet kan være en form for terapi som gir indre ro og et pusterom i bedringsprosessen. Deltakerne opplever økt velvære ved at psykisk smerte dempes og suget etter rus avtar. Funnene tyder på fysisk aktivitet kan være et betydningsfullt verktøy i bedringsprosesser, men utfordringer knyttet til interesser, motivasjon og utvikling av nye avhengighetsmønstre bør tas i betraktning
Gender differences in nightmare and bad dream frequency and emotional changes after dreaming
No full textThe aim of this study was to examine the relation between nightmares, bad dreams, and emotional changes after dreaming through the research question “Are there gender differences in nightmare/bad dream frequency and emotional change after dreaming?”. Frequent nightmares can inflict several negative effects on emotions and emotional regulation abilities which can lead to the development of different psychopathologies. Women is seemingly at a higher risk of experiencing these effects because of higher nightmare frequencies, higher emotional impact from dreams, and poorer emotional regulation abilities. 87 participants responded to an electronic survey every day over a 4-week period, the survey addressed different factors which can influence or be influenced by dreaming. The results demonstrate no significant gender difference in nightmare frequency. However, gender differences in emotional change after dreaming was found. Both genders experiences negative emotional change after nightmares and bad dreams, while only women reported significant positive emotional change. Meanwhile, no gender differences in mean amount of emotional change were discovered. Without accounting for gender differences there was only a relation to negative emotional change. To conclude, the present results demonstrate that there were no gender differences in nightmare/ bad dream frequency, but there were gender differences in emotional change after dreaming. Future studies should take inspiration from the current study and include measures for both positive and negative emotional change. However, the measure for emotional change was not ideal therefore more comprehensive measures should be implemented in future studies
Associations between alcohol consumption and frequency of nightmares and bad dreams
No full textThe present study aims to investigate whether alcohol consumption is associated with the higher frequencies of nightmares and bad dreams. There exists an insufficient number of studies investigating the association between these elements, although it is a huge need due to the notion that both alcohol use and occurrence of nightmares may incur mental disorder and may lead to distress and reduced well-being among individuals across the world. 87 participants were included in the study where they were supposed to fill out an electronic questionnaire about their dreams every day for four weeks. Non-significant negative weak correlations were found. Nor did alcohol consumption obtain a significant predictive ability on frequency of nightmares and bad dreams. The hypothesis of a positive correlation between alcohol consumption and frequency of nightmares and bad dreams could not be supported by the results. Methodological limitations were discussed in conjunction with implications for future research. The need to further examine the relationship exists, in addition to considering other potential explanatory factors which can contribute to a holistic understanding of the phenomena. Contribution with health promotion work and preventive measures can occur through extended knowledge on how these elements work together
Specifying micro level non verbal behaviour and exploring the influence of personality on perception of nonverbal behaviour.
No full textNonverbal communication has mostly been studied as a holistic phenomenon. This thesis investigates if nonverbal behaviour can be broken down into three channels of micro level nonverbal behaviour, namely facial expressions, body movements and tone of voice. A series of videos were coded and analysed for these three channels of nonverbal behaviour. Results indicate that the channels can indeed be separated with a slight exception for facial expressions overlapping with tone of voice. The effect of these channels on higher level traits of dominance, expressiveness and overall impression of positivity are discussed. Additionally a discussion about personality and nonverbal behaviour is introduced via an exploratory randomised online survey investigating the potential effects of personality on perception of nonverbal behaviour. Participants completed a brief personality inventory, then watched one of four videos with either neutral nonverbal behaviour, positive facial expressions, positive body movement or positive tone of voice. Participants then rated the presenter in the video on positive and negative affect. Analysis of the results indicate marginal support for openness and agreeableness as having a moderating effect. Future directions for research on personality and nonverbal behaviour are discussed