Core Membership Research Articles

Colectiva Feminista en Construcción

Abstract Colectiva Feminista en Construcción (La Cole) is a Black feminist political organization that emerged in 2014 in San Juan, Puerto Rico. This article discusses the ways La Cole’s public discourse around sexism, racism, and homophobia in the archipelago is articulated through the collective’s presence at marches, demonstrations, and on social media. While core membership is small, La Cole has been able to convene collaborators and supporters to organize against the imposition of neoliberal economic and public policies that negatively impact the most dispossessed populations in Puerto Rico, namely Black, poor, queer, and trans women. La Cole has constructed a transnational intersectional feminist pedagogy as a means of political education both within the organization itself and more broadly in Puerto Rico’s public sphere. The organization’s pedagogical strategies include the rewriting of Christmas songs and plenas, an Afro Puerto Rican musical genre, and their Radical Feminist School, a political education space open to nonmembers. Through these pedagogical interventions La Cole simultaneously calls attention to the ways state and structural gender-based violence and femicides, housing precarity, and austerity measures affect the most marginalized sectors of the archipelago while carving out their identity as a decolonial Black feminist political organization.

Patient and Public Involvement in Research Evaluating Integrated Care for People Experiencing Homelessness: Findings From the PHOENIx Community Pharmacy Pilot Randomised-Controlled Trial.

There is a paucity of research on and a limited understanding of patient and public involvement (PPI) in the context of research in homelessness and, in particular, direct involvement of people with lived and living experience of homelessness (PEH) as expert advisors. We aim to report on outcomes and reflections from lived experience advisory panel (LEAP) meetings and PPI activities, held throughout the study lifecycle of a pilot randomised-controlled trial (RCT) focused on evaluating integrated health and practical support for PEH. Community Pharmacy Homeless Outreach Engagement Non-medical Independent prescribing Rx (PHOENIx Community Pharmacy RCT) is an integrated health and social care intervention for people experiencing homelessness who present to community pharmacy. Intervention includes weekly support from a pharmacist prescriber and a third sector support worker for up to 6 months. PPI activities undertaken throughout the study were documented, including outcomes of LEAP meetings. Outcome reporting followed Guidance for Reporting Involvement of Patients and the Public 2 Short Form (GRIPP2-SF). In total, 17 members were recruited into the LEAP; six meetings (three in two study sites) were held. PPI input was also received through representation from homelessness third sector organisation staff as study co-applicants and core membership in the trial steering committee. Together, the PPI activities helped shape the study proposal, design of study materials, data analysis and dissemination materials. LEAP panel members offered valuable input via their experience and expertise into the delivery and refinement of interventions. Although longitudinal input was received from some LEAP members, ensuring repeat attendance in the pre-planned meetings was challenging. People who face social exclusion and marginalisation can provide highly valuable input as equal partners in co-design and delivery of interventions seeking to improve their health and well-being. Fluid membership and flexible methods of seeking and incorporating advice can offer pragmatic approaches to minimising barriers to continued involvement in research. This study reports findings and learning relevant to involvement of people with lived and living experience of homelessness as advisors in a research study. It is important for researchers to offer fluid memberships and use diverse methods to receive input from lived experience members, as traditional PPI methodology may be insufficient to ensure inclusivity. Staff and volunteers from third sector organisations were important PPI partners who bring their experience based on frontline service provision, often as the first port of call for people experiencing severe and multiple disadvantage. ISRCTN88146807.

Shadowed set approximations of L-fuzzy sets

Pedrycz shadowed sets are three-way approximations of fuzzy sets by transforming the infinite levels of fuzzy set membership grades in the unit interval [0,1] into three levels. The three levels represent qualitatively the sets of the white, grey, and black members of a shadowed set. In this paper, we generalize the notion of shadowed sets to the case of L-fuzzy sets by making three new contributions. First, we consider two representations of a shadowed set. One is a three-valued L-fuzzy set and the other is three pairwise disjoint sets. Second, we introduce two methods for constructing a shadowed set. One divides a finite lattice based on the notion of a pair of a set of designated core membership grades and a set of designated null membership grades. The other uses a pair of threshold sets, which generalizes the method that uses a pair of thresholds. We study formal properties of the two methods and show that they are equivalent. Finally, based on a distance function on a lattice, we present a simple method to build the sets of designated core and null membership grades.

Enhancing seafood traceability: tracking the origin of seabass and seabream from the tuscan coast area by the analysis of the gill bacterial communities

BackgroundThe seafood consumption and trade have increased over the years, and along its expected expansion pose major challenges to the seafood industry and government institutions. In particular, the global trade in fish products and the consequent consumption are linked to reliable authentication, necessary to guarantee lawful trade and healthy consumption. Alterations or errors in this process can lead to commercial fraud and/or health threats. Consequently, the development of new investigative tools became crucial in ensuring unwanted scenarios. Here we used NGS techniques through targeted metagenomics approach on the V3-V4 region of the 16S rRNA genes to characterize the gill bacterial communities in wild-caught seabream (Sparus aurata) and seabass (Dicentrarchus labrax) within different fisheries areas of the “Costa degli Etruschi’’ area in the Tuscan coast. Our challenge involved the possibility of discriminating between the microbiota of both fish species collected from three different fishing sites very close to each other (all within 100 km) in important areas from a commercial and tourist point of view.ResultsOur results showed a significant difference in the assembly of gill bacterial communities in terms of diversity (alpha and beta diversity) of both seabass and seabream in accordance with the three fishing areas. These differences were represented by a unique site -related bacterial signature, more evident in seabream compared to the seabass. Accordingly, the core membership of seabream specimens within the three different sites was minimal compared to the seabass which showed a greater number of sequence variants shared among the different fishing sites. Therefore, the LRT analysis highlighted the possibility of obtaining specific fish bacterial signatures associated with each site; it is noteworthy that specific taxa showed a unique association with the fishing site regardless of the fish species. This study demonstrates the effectiveness of target-metagenomic sequencing of gills in discriminating bacterial signatures of specimens collected from fishing areas located at a limited distance to each other.ConclusionsThis study provides new information relating the structure of the gill microbiota of seabass and seabream in a fishing area with a crucial commercial and tourist interest, namely “Costa degli Etruschi”. This study demonstrated that microbiome-based approaches can represent an important tool for validating the seafood origins with a central applicative perspective in the seafood traceability system.

From the RPAA to the RDCA – communitarian regionalism as a consistent theme

ABSTRACT The Regional Planning Association of America (RPAA) comprised a core group of experts on urbanism, design, economics, housing, and planning throughout its ten years of advocacy and implementation from 1923 to 1933. A lesser-known subsequent organization, the Regional Development Council of America (RDCA), was founded twenty-five years later in 1948 in recognition of the 50th anniversary of Howard’s To-morrow. Primed for a postwar development surge, the RDCA’s ambitious agenda ranged from federal planning to urban renewal to community building for ‘productive defense’. This study applies a comparative analysis of archival materials, including review of efforts to sustain the RPAA mission during the bridging period when neither organization was active. While the RDCA only functioned for four years, the core membership consistently advocated for the regional city as the solution to a wide range of postwar challenges at the federal, state, and local levels. In doing so, their strategies addressed the increased professionalization and institutionalization of planning. At the same time, their sustained focus on communitarian regionalism diverged from the growing emphasis on economic development through expansionism that came to dominate the field.

The stable gain splitting rule for sequencing situations

We study sequencing situations with a fixed initial order, linear cost functions, and extended possibilities for profitable rearrangements by coalitions to obtain associated relaxed sequencing games. We introduce an allocation rule that is guaranteed to result in a core-element for all relaxed sequencing games. This tackles the core nonemptiness issue constructively, whereas thus far nonconstructive approaches are available only. Subsequently, we provide several characterizations of this rule. The first characterization considers a property on the robustness against specific merges of players combined with a property that requires core membership for the basic sequencing game only, i.e., the game constructed without extended possibilities for rearrangements by coalitions. The second characterization resembles the original characterization of the Equal Gain Splitting rule, the only difference being an alternative switch property. Our final main result states that our rule can be obtained by the players via neighbour switches with nonnegative, position independent, gain splits.

The salivary microbiome shows a high prevalence of core bacterial members yet variability across human populations

Human saliva contains diverse bacterial communities, reflecting health status, dietary patterns and contributing to variability in the sensory perception of food. Many descriptions of the diversity of the salivary microbiome have focused on the changes induced by certain diseased states, but the commonalities and differences within healthy saliva have not been fully described. Here, we define and explore the core membership of the human salivary microbial community by collecting and re-analysing raw 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing data from 47 studies with 2206 saliva samples. We found 68 core bacterial taxa that were consistently detected. Differences induced by various host intrinsic and behaviour factors, including gender, age, geographic location, tobacco usage and alcohol consumption were evident. The core of the salivary microbiome was verified by collecting and analysing saliva in an independent study. These results suggest that the methods used can effectively define a core microbial community in human saliva. The core salivary microbiome demonstrated both stability and variability among populations. Geographic location was identified as the host factor that is most associated with the structure of salivary microbiota. The independent analysis confirmed the prevalence of the 68 core OTUs we defined from the global data and provides information about how bacterial taxa in saliva varies across human populations.

Schoolyard Biodiversity Determines Short-Term Recovery of Disturbed Skin Microbiota in Children

Creating biodiverse urban habitat has been proposed, with growing empirical support, as an intervention for increasing human microbial diversity and reducing associated diseases. However, ecological understanding of urban biodiversity interventions on human skin microbiota remains limited. Here, we experimentally test the hypotheses that disturbed skin microbiota recover better in outdoor schoolyard environments and that greater biodiversity provides a greater response. Repeating the experiment three times, we disturbed skin microbiota of fifty-seven healthy 10-to-11-year-old students with a skin swab (i.e., cleaning), then exposed them to one school environment—either a ‘classroom’ (n = 20), ‘sports field’ (n = 14), or biodiverse ‘forest’ (n = 23)—for 45 min. Another skin swab followed the exposure to compare ‘before’ and ‘after’ microbial communities. After 45 min, the disturbance immediately followed by outdoor exposure, especially the ‘forest’, had an enriching and diversifying effect on skin microbiota, while ‘classroom’ exposure homogenised inter-personal variability. Each effect compounded over consecutive days indicating longer-term exposure outcomes. The experimental disturbance also reduced the core skin microbiota, and only outdoor environments were able to replenish lost species richness to core membership (n species > 50% prevalent). Overall, we find that environmental setting, especially including biodiversity, is important in human microbiota recovery periods and that the outdoors provide resilience to skin communities. This work also has implications for the inclusion of short periods of outside or forest exposure in school scheduling. Future investigations of the health impacts of permanent urban biodiversity interventions are needed.

Hospital-based multidisciplinary lung cancer care in Australia: a survey of the landscape in 2021

IntroductionLung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in Australia and has the highest cancer burden. Numerous reports describe variations in lung cancer care and outcomes across Australia. There...

Multidisciplinary team management of tracheostomy procedures in neurocritical care patients: our experience over 17 years in a quaternary centre.

Tracheostomy in the neurocritical care population is associated with poorer outcomes. This study hypothesised that a multidisciplinary approach to tracheostomy care can improve outcomes. This study was a prospective longitudinal study of all tracheostomised patients in the neurocritical care units of a quaternary centre over 17 years. All patients were managed by a tracheostomy team with a constant core membership of an intensive care consultant, speech and language therapist, and physiotherapist with consultant ENT input. A total of 51 per cent of patients were decannulated in hospital at an average of 48 (neuromedical) and 57.6 (neurosurgical) days. Of the 42 per cent of patients transferred to another facility with a tracheostomy tube in situ, 37.5 per cent were at an advanced stage of tracheostomy weaning. Complication rates were low at 4.8 per cent with no tracheostomy associated mortalities. A multidisciplinary approach can enable good outcomes in the neurocritical care population. Consistency of care spanning the step-down from critical to ward-level care is crucial to improving outcomes.

Scientific Associations as Communities of Practice for Fostering Collaborative Knowledge Building: Case Study of IAKM

Knowledge building is a social process that is driven by the willingness of people to share their expertise and create new knowledge. Scientific Communities of Practice (CoPs) are communities of professors and researchers whose aim is to foster scientific knowledge generation. In the KM literature, research concerning this kind of CoPs has been substantially neglected so far. The present research analyses the case study of the International Association for Knowledge Management (IAKM) seen as a scientific CoP where members are mostly academics with research interests in developing and promoting knowledge management. Based on a collection of quantitative and qualitative data about member collaborations and scientific production, the study investigates the structure of interactions and the collaborative processes of IAKM members and the specific mechanisms of knowledge building within this CoP, seen as a paradigmatic example of scientific community. Members were asked to respond to a survey regarding their collaborative activities carried out with other IAKM members in the period of 2011 – 2020. The descriptive analysis revealed the kind of collaborations, the distribution of interactions across the community, and the dynamic patterns over time. A follow-up social network analysis was used to provide deeper insight into the community structure and dynamics. The research found that a CoP can really be useful for progress in a scientific field because it can provide a platform for trust and mutual acquaintance that reduces barriers to collaboration and knowledge building across different universities, professional roles, countries, and cultures, which is increasingly important for the progress of science. Most importantly, IAKM exhibited a cohesive and active core membership with pivotal roles played by a number of active members, which contributed significantly to the growth of the Association and, in general, to the advancements in the field of KM through collaborative knowledge building.

Composition, Quoracy and Cost of Specialist Skin Cancer Multidisciplinary Team Meetings in the United Kingdom

Multidisciplinary team (MDT) meetings are an integral component of skin cancer service provision, enabling the implementation of evidence-based decisions and standardised patient outcomes. We sought to evaluate the composition, quoracy and cost of Specialist Skin Cancer Multidisciplinary Teams (SSMDTs) in the United Kingdom (UK) to establish the functionality and financial impact of these meetings. Cross-sectional design with a national freedom of information request made to 65 NHS trusts in the UK hosting an SSMDT. Detailed information with regard to attendance frequency and core membership from attendance registers was requested. Quoracy was measured against the 2006 National Institute for Health and Care Excellence Cancer Services standard 'Improving outcomes for people with skin tumours including melanoma'. We costed the SSMDT utilising the running time, core membership salaries derived from national pay scales and overhead values provided by trusts. Out of 58 respondents (89% response rate), only 15 SSMDTs (26%) were quorate by membership. Forty SSMDTs (69%) were quorate by meeting frequency. The main reasons for membership noncompliance was lack of clinical oncology presence. There was a large variation in the cost per patient (µ=£132.68, range: £31.67-£313.10). There was no geographical variation in quoracy or cost between England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

A Comparative Analysis of the Social and Demographic Factors in Ghanaian Political Party Affiliations

ABSTRACT Since 1992, political power in Ghana alternates between the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP). Yet beyond extrapolations from previous election results not much is known about the socio-demographic characteristics of the core membership of these two political parties. Using data from the Ghana Opinion Poll study conducted by the Centre for Policy Research and the Fredrich Ebert Stiftung, Ghana in April 2018, this study employed a multinomial logistic regression model to understand the social and demographic features around which support for the political parties in Ghana coalesced. We found that age of the respondent, education, employment, region of residence, ethnicity and religion are significant predictors of partisan affiliation. Notwithstanding the NDC’s electoral success over the years, we observe a process of political realignment that favours the NPP across most of the demographic variables analysed. The study has implications for the mobilisation and recruitment strategies of both political parties.

Persistent microbiome members in the common bean rhizosphere: an integrated analysis of space, time, and plant genotype

The full potential of managing microbial communities to support plant health is yet-unrealized, in part because it remains difficult to ascertain which members are most important for the plant. However, microbes that consistently associate with a plant species across varied field conditions and over plant development likely engage with the host or host environment. Here, we applied abundance-occupancy concepts from macroecology to quantify the core membership of bacterial/archaeal and fungal communities in the rhizosphere of the common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris). Our study investigated the microbiome membership that persisted over multiple dimensions important for plant agriculture, including major U.S. growing regions (Michigan, Nebraska, Colorado, and Washington), plant development, annual plantings, and divergent genotypes, and also included re-analysis of public data from beans grown in Colombia. We found 48 core bacterial taxa that were consistently detected in all samples, inclusive of all datasets and dimensions. This suggests reliable enrichment of these taxa to the plant environment and time-independence of their association with the plant. More generally, the breadth of ecologically important dimensions included in this work (space, time, host genotype, and management) provides an example of how to systematically identify the most stably-associated microbiome members, and can be applied to other hosts or systems.

The Fate of the Catholic Church of St. Louis of the French in Soviet Moscow: the Perspective of an American Assumptionist

From 1938 to 1992, the Church of St. Louis of the French was the only legally operating Roman Catholic parish church in Moscow. The peculiarity of the parish was that its core membership and its “executive bodies” comprised foreign nationals and representatives of the diplomatic corps, primarily of France and the United States. In the second half of the 1940s, amid rising tensions with the West, the Soviet authorities subjected the community of St. Louis and its clergy to their control. Today, it is possible to detail the circumstances of this case not only thanks to the Russian archival materials but also to the document published below, a copy of a memorandum by Fr. Leopold Braun, A. A., an American priest who administered the Church of St. Louis in 1934—1945. The document, originally forwarded to the US State Department in February 1954, was found in the Archives of the North American Province of the Assumptionists in the Provincial House in Boston, MA. In this document, Fr. Braun describes the history of the church in the Soviet period, focusing on the confrontation between its clergy and parishioners, on the one hand, and the Soviet authorities, on the other. He also suggests that the US Government intervene in the situation and return control of the church to Catholics of all nationalities, including those who do not have Soviet citizenship. The basis for such interference, from the point of view of Fr. L. Braun, was the Roosevelt — Litvinov agreements of 1933, which contained guarantees of religious freedoms for American citizens in the USSR.

Core and Differentially Abundant Bacterial Taxa in the Rhizosphere of Field Grown Brassica napus Genotypes: Implications for Canola Breeding.

Modifying the rhizosphere microbiome through targeted plant breeding is key to harnessing positive plant–microbial interrelationships in cropping agroecosystems. Here, we examine the composition of rhizosphere bacterial communities of diverse Brassica napus genotypes to identify: (1) taxa that preferentially associate with genotypes, (2) core bacterial microbiota associated with B. napus, (3) heritable alpha diversity measures at flowering and whole growing season, and (4) correlation between microbial and plant genetic distance among canola genotypes at different growth stages. Our aim is to identify and describe signature microbiota with potential positive benefits that could be integrated in B. napus breeding and management strategies. Rhizosphere soils of 16 diverse genotypes sampled weekly over a 10-week period at single location as well as at three time points at two additional locations were analyzed using 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing. The B. napus rhizosphere microbiome was characterized by diverse bacterial communities with 32 named bacterial phyla. The most abundant phyla were Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria, and Acidobacteria. Overall microbial and plant genetic distances were highly correlated (R = 0.65). Alpha diversity heritability estimates were between 0.16 and 0.41 when evaluated across growth stage and between 0.24 and 0.59 at flowering. Compared with a reference B. napus genotype, a total of 81 genera were significantly more abundant and 71 were significantly less abundant in at least one B. napus genotype out of the total 558 bacterial genera. Most differentially abundant genera were Proteobacteria and Actinobacteria followed by Bacteroidetes and Firmicutes. Here, we also show that B. napus genotypes select an overall core bacterial microbiome with growth-stage-related patterns as to how taxa joined the core membership. In addition, we report that sets of B. napus core taxa were consistent across our three sites and 2 years. Both differential abundance and core analysis implicate numerous bacteria that have been reported to have beneficial effects on plant growth including disease suppression, antifungal properties, and plant growth promotion. Using a multi-site year, temporally intensive field sampling approach, we showed that small plant genetic differences cause predictable changes in canola microbiome and are potential target for direct and indirect selection within breeding programs.

Lit Trends: 3 Online Book Clubs with a Global Perspective

Notebook lit trends 3 Online Book Clubs with a Global Perspective by Elizabeth Rae Stevens ONE OF LIFE’S GREAT pleasures is sharing a favorite book with a community of bright, engaging friends, wine in hand and the fireplace crackling. In a perfect world, the host of your local book club is charming, the introverts are cozy and the extroverts gregarious, the conversation is brilliant and never lags, and the serving board groans under the weight of everyone’s best-loved dishes. Time, however, is not always on our side, and acknowledging that the perfect is all too often the enemy of the good, we submit for your consideration the online book club. In these digital spaces, there’s no need to clear your calendar because you can dip into the conversation at your own pace. There is more time to consider your response to a thought-provoking insight, and those who feel shy of public speaking can take their time crafting exactly what they want to say—or just read along and keep out of the limelight. The internet is vast, and sometimes it’s hard to find a signal in the static. With that in mind, we’ve tuned in to some vibrant, active, and smart online book clubs where the participants are bringing insight and a sense of community to their digital spaces. We’ve also taken care to bring you a variety of levels of social engagement , whether you’re looking to make close friends or just supplement your reading. BBC WORLD BOOK CLUB Our first pick is perfect for our most introverted or busiest readers, or perhaps just those of you wary of online forums. The BBC World Book Club invites readers to submit questions for a podcast that features the world’s great authors discussing their best-known novels, such as Héctor Abad’s Oblivion, Toni Morrison’s Beloved, and Chigozie Obioma’s The Fishermen . With a substantial archive and no forum, you’re free to scroll back to learn more about a longtime favorite or find an extra incentive to work through the evergrowing pile on your nightstand. ASYMPTOTE BOOK CLUB For a little something in the middle, we recommend the Asymptote Book Club. Partnering with top independent book publishers, Asymptote’s subscription service delivers a new book to your doorstep every month. Recent titles include The Barefoot Woman, by Scholastique Mukasonga ,LikeaSwordWound,byAhmetAltan, and Moving Parts, by Prabda Yoon. The online discussion space is professionally moderated to keep the conversation focused, and for subscribers in major world cities, there is the chance of attending in-person events featuring authors and speakers from around the globe. AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 BOOKS If you’re looking for something more intimate , Goodreads is one of the most active communities for avid readers. The discussion boards are classically laid out and simple to follow, with side conversations in separate threads you can jump in and out of for a more social experience. Around the World in 80 Books is the most popular of the Goodreads book clubs devoted to world literature and books in translation with nearly twenty thousand members, but like many long-running book clubs, the core membership is much smaller. This makes for a cozy and more personal setting to really sink your teeth into the books and make real connections with fellow readers. Elizabeth Rae Stevens is an undergraduate student at the University of Oklahoma and an intern for World Literature Today. Her self-published novel Idyllwilde is available on Amazon, and her pop culture podcasts are available at CommonRoomRadio.com. 8 WLT SPRING 2020 PHOTO: AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 BOOKS Read an excerpt from Belsinger’s “Wishful Thinking” on page 70. Belgium-based illustrator Zoe Belsinger is among the artists and authors in our special section on graphic nonfiction. Features WORLDLIT.ORG 9 ILLUSTRATIONS BY ZOE BELSINGER ...

SISTEM PENUNJANG KEPUTUSAN PEMILIHAN PENGURUS INTI DAN ANGGOTA BARU MENGGUNAKAN METODE SIMPLE ADDITIVE WEIGHTING (SAW) BERBASIS WEBSITE (STUDI KASUS: HIMPUNAN MAHASISWA TEKNIK INFORMATIKA UNIVERSITAS PALANGKA RAYA)

Informatics Engineering of Palangka Raya University have an organization that called Himpunan Mahasiswa Teknik Informatika (HMTI). Problems that are often encountered in a set one of them is in taking the best choice for candidates for core management and membership in each new management period. Another obstacle faced is in making decisions not using methods that can handle these problems with many criteria. The number of considerations certainly has the hope of obtaining good human resources for the set, it's just that sometimes it becomes a difficulty for the old management to take the best choice for the right successor candidate and in accordance with the position and division in the set so that a container is needed to bridge these activities so that they can run well and effectively. 
 The methodology used in the development is by simple additive weighting method and Waterfall According to Sommerville. simple additive weighting method has 4 steps that is determine the criteria, determine the suitability assessment, make a decision matrix based on criteria (Ci) then normalize the matrix, then summarize the multiplication of the R atomized matrix with the increase vector, get the large value chosen as the best (Ai) as a solution.From the test results it can be concluded that the decision support system website for the selection of core managers and new members using the simple additive weighting method at the Collection Informatics Engineering Students of Palangka Raya University is going well

Legitimacy in Criminal Governance: Managing a Drug Empire from Behind Bars

States, rebels, and mafias all provide governance beyond their core membership; increasingly, so do prison gangs. US gangs leverage control over prison life to govern street-level drug markets. Brazil’s Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC) gang goes further, orchestrating paralyzing attacks on urban targets, while imposing a social order throughout slums that sharply reduces homicides. We analyze hundreds of seized PCC documents detailing its drug business and internal disciplinary system. Descriptively, we find vast, consignment-based trafficking operations whose profits fund collective benefits for members’ families; elaborate bureaucratic procedures and recordkeeping; and overwhelmingly nonviolent punishments for debt-nonpayment and misconduct. These features, we argue, reflect a deliberate strategy of creating rational-bureaucratic legitimacy in criminal governance. The PCC’s collectivist norms, fair procedures, and meticulous “criminal criminal records” facilitate community stigmatization of infractors, giving mild sanctions punitive heft and inducing widespread voluntary compliance without excessive coercion. This has aided the PCC’s rapid expansion across Brazil.

Религиозные ориентации студенческой молодежи провинциального центра (на примере Барнаула): от теории к практике

The religious situation of modern Russia, as researchers show, is characterized by two trends. On the one hand, in comparison with the end of the 20th century, one may observe the numerical growth of the population referring itself to any religious tradition. On the other hand, researchers have noted sharp opposition of religious consciousness and cult behavior among the believing population. As a result of this dissonance one can observe the fact, that from 75% of the respondents identifying themselves as Orthodox, only 8-9% subordinate the way of life to requirements of religious dogma. In practice, not only scientific researches, but also remarks of representatives of church, say that the core membership of permanent members of church is the share of women. Mostly middle-aged and elderly. The objective of this research is the studying of the relation to religion of the student's youth of the city of Barnaul. The present research is based on materials of a prospecting sociological research. The main hypothesis of this research is the provision that the studied group of the studying youth is mostly low religious and a poorly churched persons. The authors analyze the practice of studying the problem of churching in Russian science.