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In Quebec, geopolitics has not given rise, as a research field, to lively epistemological debates as was the case in France and elsewhere. At the crossroads of the French and Anglo‐Saxon schools of thought, Quebec's geopolitics developed progressively, with a few pioneers in the 1960s, to become an integral part of the geography discipline in the 1980s, driven by geopolitical issues related to the issue of Quebec within Canada. From the 2000s onwards, geopolitics diversified and became more international, becoming a commonly accepted sub‐field of research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agribusiness has unleashed new territorial dynamics on the Brazil and Paraguay border. Derived from Brazilian public policies influenced by geopolitical objectives, the spillover of agribusiness into Paraguayan territory has created productive, commercial, and logistical networks that have intensified the porosity of this border. In light of this, criminal groups have used these networks to carry out cross-border crimes. Among these illicit acts, the illegal flow of pesticides and agrochemical inputs stands out, since they use the road network to transport and distribute these products to the thriving agribusiness segment, despite the asymmetry between sanitary and legal parameters between Brazil and Paraguay. Through a qualitative analysis of quantitative data and interviews with agents responsible for security in the Brazilian Border Strip, we identified the characteristics of this cross-border illicit flow and built a scenario for the period after the construction of the RILA, which will make the river border of the state of Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil, with the department of Alto Paraguay, Paraguay, between the cities of Porto Murtinho and Carmelo Peralta, more porous and therefore more vulnerable to these crimes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We take into account the problem of identifying the repeated structure in a given pword v◊ of length l. We show that a pword v◊ is a cover of a pword u◊ if every letter of u◊ lies within an occurrence of v◊ in u◊ and v◊ is a border of u◊. Here, we examine string issues that are concerned with identifying recurring patterns in a given total word x. The total word's period p, a common regularity, captures x's repetition, since x is a prefix of a string created by concatenating p. We think about a challenge developed by expanding the scope of this repetitiveness idea by permitting overlaps between the segments that are repeated. We focus on a key issue in string processing: the compact representation of a word by its most frequent factors. The frequency cover, or the longest repeating factor, is a useful and simple form of quasi-periodicity in words that is proposed in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Border management has, on the one hand, grown beyond the conceptual limit that is the terminological definition of borders as lines separating countries to also factor in their development as areas. On the other, it should aim to strengthen state sovereignty and improve the welfare of its citizens. These often lead to the dichotomy between security and prosperity in border management approaches. Regionalism is an approach used to create regional integration across national borders, but this concept is strongly influenced by the interests of states on each side of the border. Therefore, this research explores if spatial interaction between border communities is controlled by the regionalism concept introduced by the state or, instead, grows organically as part of regionalization due to livelihoods that require border crossings. It used a case study of Sebatik Island in the Indonesia-Malaysia border area. The qualitative research design applied exploratory principles on the spatial interaction pattern formed between border communities and then synthesized the identified units of information on transboundary activities while considering government-issued policies on border management. Results showed that regionalism was only minimally implemented in managing the border area. It means that border landscapes in Indonesia are organically formed on the micro-scale even though the perspective of regionalism has long been adopted at the regional level, i.e., ASEAN. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: A steady decline in the number of cases of malaria was observed in the 2000s in French Guiana. This enabled regional health policies to shift their public health goal from control to elimination. To include inhabitants in this strategy, the main objective of this study was to describe knowledge about malaria, and related attitudes and practices in persons living in the French Guiana border. Methods: We conducted a survey in people over 15 years old living in the twelve neighbourhoods of Saint-Georges de l'Oyapock with the highest malaria incidence. It comprised a 147-item questionnaire which collected data on socio-demographic characteristics and included a Knowledge Attitude and Practices survey on malaria. Knowledge-related data were studied using exploratory statistical methods to derive summary variables. A binary variable assessing level of knowledge was proposed and then assessed using exploratory approaches. Results: The mean age of the 844 participants was 37.2 years [15.8], the male/female sex ratio was 0.8. In terms of nationality, 485 (57.5%) participants were Brazilian and 352 (41.7%) French. One third (305, 36.1%) spoke Brazilian Portuguese as their native language, 295 (34.9%) the Amerindian language Palikur, 36 (4.3%) French. The symptoms of malaria and prevention means were poorly known by 213 (25.2%) and 378 (44.8%) respondents, respectively. A quarter (206, 24.4%) did not know that malaria can be fatal. Overall, 251 people (29.7%) had an overall poor level of knowledge about malaria. Being under 25 years old, living in a native Amerindian neighbourhood, having an Amerindian mother tongue language, having risk behaviours related to gold mining were significantly associated with a poor level of knowledge. Conclusions: This study is the first to describe the poor level of knowledge about malaria in populations living in the malaria endemic border area along the Oyapock river in French Guiana. Results will allow to reinforce, to diversify and to culturally adapt prevention messages and health promotion to increase their effectiveness with a view to quickly reaching the goal of malaria elimination through empowerment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Critical scholarship can be a way of enacting insurrections against entrenched and enduring dogmatisms of the nation-state and its inalienable right to systematically deploy violence against selective Others. This article focuses upon the violent bordering practices of the nation-statist system, their connexion to the bordering of knowledges, and their impact upon specific kinds of bodies at the border, which together enforce a systemic vulnerability that is tied to legacies of colonialism, slavery, and capitalism. In the first part, I reflect upon the violence of bordering practices in the nation-statist system, foregrounding how those who predominantly receive this violence in the form of death and debility are the racialized Others. I put forth four specific implications of these violent bordering practices: they enable a cascade of interlinked dehumanizations of people within the nation-state borders; they occlude from view how any nation-state is not homogeneous over time in terms of what one might see as national culture; they allow economic processes to be perceived as scientific and abstract rather than as embedded in the realms of contested political jurisdictions; and they render and sustain the nation-state itself as a racialized construct that both produces and profits from class inequality in contemporary capitalism. In the second part, I argue for the need to perceive the link between violent bordering practices and bordered knowledges, highlighting and synthesizing insights from across disciplines that can aid in asking counter-hegemonic questions. In conclusion, and as part of necessary anti-national scholarly enquiry, I call for a multidimensional and sustained critical stance towards the nation-states' rights to enforce borders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Born of the fratricidal Korean War (1950-1953), Korea's Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) endures as the oldest continuous frontline of the Cold War. It is also a sealed heritage site, replete with accumulated emotions, trauma, and tension. Given the strict restrictions to access, until recently the DMZ has remained largely imaginary to the public, yet it has been attracting growing interest. The appeal of the Paju DMZ is that it provides the only public window through which the North can be glimpsed from the South. First opened to international visitors in the 1970s through a so-called "security DMZ tour" it was from 2000 increasingly promoted to both domestic and international visitors under the new name "peace and security DMZ tour." Tracing the tour route in Paju, this study examines the formation of the Cold War heritage-scape to understand the role of border heritage in Korea today. We pay particular attention to the heritagization of the Paju DMZ from 1953 to the present. This study also assesses the degree to which the heritage-scape of the Paju DMZ contributes to the representation of peace and reconciliation that the tour aims to convey. We argue that Korea's border heritage acts as a bellwether for the broader inter-Korean relationship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Over the past decade, implementation of multiple malaria control strategies in most countries has largely contributed to advance the global malaria elimination agenda. Nevertheless, in some regions, seasonal epidemics may adversely affect the health of local populations. In South Africa, Plasmodium falciparum malaria is still present, with the Vhembe District experiencing an incidence rate of 3.79 cases/1000 person-years in 2018, particularly in the Limpopo River Valley, bordering Zimbabwe. To elucidate the complexity of the mechanisms involved in local regular malaria outbreaks, a community-based survey was implemented in 2020 that focused on the relationship between housing conditions and malaria risky behaviours. Methods: The community-based cross-sectional survey was conducted among the population of three study sites in the Vhembe District, which were selected based on malaria incidence rate, social and health characteristics of inhabitants. The household survey used a random sampling strategy, where data were collected through face-to-face questionnaires and field notes; to described the housing conditions (housing questionnaire), and focus on individual behaviours of household members. Statistical analyses were performed combining hierarchical classifications and logistic regressions. Results: In this study, 398 households were described, covering a population of 1681 inhabitants of all ages, and 439 adults who participated in community-based survey. The analysis of situations at risk of malaria showed that the influence of contextual factors, particularly those defined by the type of habitat, was significant. Housing conditions and poor living environments were factors of malaria exposure and history, regardless of site of investigation, individual preventive behaviours and personal characteristics of inhabitants. Multivariate models showed that, considering all personal characteristics or behaviours of inhabitants, housing conditions such as overcrowding pressures were significantly associated with individual malaria risk. Conclusions: The results showed the overwhelming weight of social and contextual factors on risk situations. Considering the Fundamental Causes Theory, malaria control policies based on health behaviour prevention, should reinforce access to care or promoting health education actions. Overarching economic development interventions in targeted geographical areas and populations have to be implemented, so that malaria control and elimination strategies can be efficiently and effectively managed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Adolescents experience a host of sexual and reproductive health (SRH) challenges, with detrimental SRH and socio-economic consequences. These include early sexual debut, sexually transmitted infections including HIV/AIDS, teenage pregnancy, and early childbearing. Parent-adolescent communication about SRH has significant potential to reduce adolescents' risky sexual behaviors. However, communication between parents and adolescents is limited. This study explored the facilitators and barriers to parent-adolescent communication about sexual and reproductive health. Methods: We conducted a qualitative study in the border districts of Busia and Tororo in Eastern Uganda. Data collection entailed 8 Focus Group Discussions comprising of parents, adolescents (10–17 years), and 25 key informants. Interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed, and translated into English. Thematic analysis was conducted with the aid of NVIVO 12 software. Results: Participants acknowledged the key role parents play in communicating SRH matters; however, only a few parents engage in such discussions. Facilitators of parent-adolescent communication were: having a good parent-child relationship which makes parents approachable and motivates children to discuss issues openly, a closer bond between mothers and children which is partly attributed to gender roles and expectations eases communication, and having parents with high education making them more knowledgeable and confident when discussing SRH issues with children. However, the discussions are limited by cultural norms that treat parent-child conversations on SRH as a taboo, parents' lack of knowledge, and parents busy work schedules made them unavailable to address pertinent SRH issues. Conclusion: Parents' ability to communicate with their children is hindered by cultural barriers, busy work schedules, and a lack of knowledge. Engaging all stakeholders including parents to deconstruct sociocultural norms around adolescent SRH, developing the capacity of parents to confidently initiate and convey accurate SRH information, initiation of SRH discussions at early ages, and integrating parent-adolescent communication into parenting interventions, are potential strategies to improve SRH communication between parents and adolescents in high-risk settings such as borders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article deals with the border effect phenomenon affecting the mobility of inhabitants in border regions. It aims to identify the determinants of the border effect in transport at the municipal level, considering the distance from the border, the populations and the characteristics of the closest bordering country. The survey in the Czech Republic eventually involved 675 representatives of municipalities who answered questions on inter-municipal mobility. The results confirmed that the most substantial handicap was population size, with small populations corresponding to the limited use of public transport when travelling beyond a given border. The results confirmed that the characteristics of the state or region that shares the border must be considered when assessing border regions. Therefore, the solution to the problems of individual border regions cannot be viewed with a single instrument. It is necessary to consider substantial differences resulting from the economic level of neighbouring countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Critical scholarship can be a way of enacting insurrections against entrenched and enduring dogmatisms of the nation-state and its inalienable right to systematically deploy violence against selective Others. This article focuses upon the violent bordering practices of the nation-statist system, their connexion to the bordering of knowledges, and their impact upon specific kinds of bodies at the border, which together enforce a systemic vulnerability that is tied to legacies of colonialism, slavery, and capitalism. In the first part, I reflect upon the violence of bordering practices in the nation-statist system, foregrounding how those who predominantly receive this violence in the form of death and debility are the racialized Others. I put forth four specific implications of these violent bordering practices: they enable a cascade of interlinked dehumanizations of people within the nation-state borders; they occlude from view how any nation-state is not homogeneous over time in terms of what one might see as national culture; they allow economic processes to be perceived as scientific and abstract rather than as embedded in the realms of contested political jurisdictions; and they render and sustain the nation-state itself as a racialized construct that both produces and profits from class inequality in contemporary capitalism. In the second part, I argue for the need to perceive the link between violent bordering practices and bordered knowledges, highlighting and synthesizing insights from across disciplines that can aid in asking counter-hegemonic questions. In conclusion, and as part of necessary anti-national scholarly enquiry, I call for a multidimensional and sustained critical stance towards the nation-states' rights to enforce borders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The language of one community has always been a form of individualization in relation to another community. It has always been a form of creating a consciousness of community belonging, of solidarity of individuals with the group. It is no wonder, therefore, that it has been used by certain states or political regimes to create and support identity disputes inside or outside a state, inside or outside communities. Language was then a political tool used by some states to create new forms of ethno-national identity that would justify membership/claiming territories or individualizing a population in relation to the main ethno-linguistic group. The purpose of this study is to identify and establish relationships between linguistic individualization and the political act or the political interest of the difference of opinions promotion of „ new" linguistic realities to justify or challenge certain state borders or ethno-national constructions. The space under analysis is that of Eastern and Balkan Europe, in particular that of the Republic of Moldova and Northern Macedonia. Methodologically, the focus of our analysis lies primarily on the identity boundaries generated by the specific ethno-religious, linguistic or cultural, but also by the nature of the mental specific to the area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The intensification of cross-border interactions, the progress achieved in the process of European integration and the expansion of the EU to the east raises the issue of cross-border cooperation in a political-geopolitical context. The issue of cross-border cooperation in general goes beyond geographical, economic and legal approaches. If we intend to treat the phenomenon from a specific point of view, we will find ambiguities and uncertainties regarding the role and functioning of some institutions in the process of cross-border cooperation and partnerships. Therefore, the full analysis of the cross-border cooperation process cannot be done only if we also evaluate the effects produced by the institutions in the local governance sector and their political dimension. The study aims to realize an inventory of the general trends and evolutions from the past century, regarding the perception of the Romania-Hungarian, but also focuses on the border cooperation activities which had an impact on transnational institution building amongst the local governance apparatus in Bihor County in the process of cross-border cooperation in the development period 2014-2020. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the Hungarian and international geographical and sociological literature, the stages of urban development are dealt with extremely widely, so the authors refrain from describing them in detail. The relationship between crime and urban development stages is tangential in previous studies. The researchers mention a positive or negative change in the crime rate for each stage but do not go further. They do not undertake to deal with specific criminal values, the structure, or potential solutions for crime prevention. This study examines the stages of urban development from the perspective of changes in crime. Among the four stages of urban development, the study deals with suburbanization, deurbanisation, and urbanization. In doing so, it shows what main crimes are characteristic of each developmental stage. The authors also mention a new urban development phase that characterizes some European cities. These settlements are mainly located in Central Europe. As a result of the new type of forced industrialization, tens of thousands of new workers are arriving in some settlements. Some of them are foreign workers, which also has a criminogenic effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Anopheles maculatus, Anopheles minimus and Anopheles dirus are the major vectors of malaria transmission in the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS). The malaria burden in this region has decreased significantly in recent years as all GMS countries progress towards malaria elimination. It is necessary to investigate the Anopheles diversity and abundance status and assess the Plasmodium infection rates to understand the malaria transmission potential of these vector species in GMS countries to guide the development of up-to-date vector control strategies and interventions. Methods: A survey of mosquitoes was conducted in Stung Treng, Sainyabuli and Phongsaly Provinces on the Cambodia-Laos, Thailand-Laos and China-Laos borders, respectively. Mosquito collection was done by overnight trapping at sentinel sites in each province. After morphological identification, the 18S rRNA-based nested-PCR was performed to detect malaria parasites in the captured Anopheles mosquitoes. Results: A total of 18 965 mosquitoes comprising of 35 species of 2 subgenera (Subgenus Anopheles and Subgenus Cellia) and 4 tribes (Tribes Culicini, Aedini, Armigerini and Mansoniini) were captured. Tribe Culicini accounted for 85.66% of captures, followed by Subgenus Anopheles (8.15%). Anopheles sinensis dominated the Subgenus Anopheles by 99.81%. Plasmodium-infection was found in 25 out of the 1 683 individual or pooled samples of Anopheles. Among the 25 positive samples, 19, 5 and 1 were collected from Loum, Pangkhom and Siem Pang village, respectively. Eight Anopheles species were found infected with Plasmodium, i.e., An. sinensis, Anopheles kochi, Anopheles vagus, An. minimus, Anopheles annularis, Anopheles philippinensis, Anopheles tessellatus and An. dirus. The infection rates of Plasmodium falciparum, Plasmodium vivax and mixture of Plasmodium parasite species were 0.12% (2/1 683), 1.31% (22/1 683) and 0.06% (1/1 683), respectively. Conclusions: Overall, this survey re-confirmed that multiple Anopheles species carry malaria parasites in the international border areas of the GMS countries. Anopheles sinensis dominated the Anopheles collections and as carriers of malaria parasites, therefore may play a significant role in malaria transmission. More extensive investigations of malaria vectors are required to reveal the detailed vector biology, ecology, behaviour, and genetics in GMS regions in order to assist with the planning and implementation of improved malaria control strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Border areas are a real challenge for tourism development. Usually associated with the periphery from a socio-economic point of view, these areas often have natural potential and attractive landscapes that have been little transformed by human activity and numerous historical and cultural tourist attractions. Although these areas have considerable tourism potential, this is not sufficient for the sustainable development of tourism and the exploitation of this potential is strongly influenced by the degree of permeability of the border. This is the case of the Romanian-Serbian border, which overlaps the most spectacular sector of the Danube – the Iron Gates Gorge. The main aim of this article is to analyse the role of tourism in the development of border areas and how it functions in a particular territorial context: the Danube Gorge located at the border between Romania and Serbia. The Romanian-Serbian border currently functions as an external border of the European Union in a favourable historical and political context, given the tradition of good neighbourliness between the two entities, the states located on either side of the Danube. However, the communist period altered the prospects for tourism development in this region through a very drastic and controlled border regime, even though the area benefited from major investment projects, such as the dam and hydroelectric power station at Porțile de Fier, built in the 1970s in cooperation with the former Yugoslavia. An analysis of the statistical data on tourism development shows that tourist traffic is on the increase, although there is a contradiction between the upward trend in tourist flows and the backwardness of large-scale tourist infrastructure, with the dominant type of accommodation being small, flexible, and rural accommodation that does not require large investments. The results presented in this article can be summarised in the general conclusion that the development of tourism in the Danube Gorge–Iron Gates remains dependent on the political factor and the border regime, even though the region has a remarkable tourism potential. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

the delivery of last mile, or known What home delivery, is the delivery that is made in the last stage of the supply chain, where according to literature this is the process logistic plus expensive, less efficient and to which more attention is given in terms logistic Already what should be deliver the product correct, in the place Right in the moment correct, for this is that they exist companies specialized in deliveries, express calls, courier companies or home delivery companies for the local context of the city San José de Cúcuta, the investigation was framed in a border context, where the methodology is based in the quantitative descriptive since the variables chosen in the Present study were quantified and characterized to address and know the context that is lived about delivery in the city. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background & objectives: The tribal population in India is considered as one of the vulnerable groups with respect to their achievements in health and other developmental issues. In this context, this mapping review attempted to understand the health profile of the Tharu tribal community residing in the northern State of Uttar Pradesh, India through literature mining. Tharu tribe is one of the indigenous groups living in the Terai plain on the Indo-Nepal border. In 1967, this tribe was documented as a Scheduled Tribe by the Government of India. The present review aimed to map the health-seeking behaviour of the Tharu population and review other factors pertaining to their health such as socioeconomic, developmental, employment, education, etc. Methods: Online data search was carried out on PubMed and Google Scholar using search terms ‘Tharu’ AND ‘India’. In addition, official reports avaibale in public domain and grey literature was also searched. Results: Twenty seven studies including reviews, articles, books/book chapters were evaluated along with 13 reports (including reports from government organizations and grey literature) were retrieved and analyzed. Of the 27 published reports, 16 were found relevant to Tharu tribe in India. A total of 29 (16 articles + 13 reports ) were included in this review. Interpretation & Conclusions: This mapping review higheights the health seeking behaviour of the Tharu tribe in India that can help inform future interventions to improve the health status of the Tharu tribe as well as other aspects of their development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Changthang region is a part of the high altitude Tibetan plateau. In eastern Ladakh, the Changthang stretches approximately 1,600 kilometers east into Tibet. The region is rich in wildlife and home to vast species of flora and fauna and scenic lakes attracting mainly international tourists and recently saw a huge inflow of mass domestic tourism. The Changthang region shot to limelight in India recently due to the yearlong border standoff in the Galwan valley and Pangong Lake. However, the region is located on a historically important trade route for travelers, pilgrims and traders on their way to Tibet. This centuries old trade route came to an end by 1950's with the Chinese occupation of Tibet and the subsequent India-China war in 1962. The paper presents a critical analysis of the potential revival of the centuries old trade route for pilgrim tourism and trade fostering cross-border cooperation between India and China. The paper considers the possibility of re-opening the Kailash-Mansarover route through the Leh-Demchok route which will in turn contribute to the sustainable development of the Changthang region. The study encapsulates the potential of developing cross-border tourism which could bring numerous benefits to the border regions of the Changthang in India and China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The traffic in international animal products can become a public health hazard when legal import sanitary procedures are not followed. In Brazil, due to its extensive border area, the importation of animal products is a common practice in many areas, especially in Rio Grande do Sul, a state that borders Argentina and Uruguay. The objective of this study was to evaluate the presence of veterinary drug residues (antibiotics and antiparasitics) in animal products consumed in Rio Grande do Sul. The presence of residues of veterinary antibiotics and antiparasitics was assessed in 189 meat (beef, pork, and chicken), processed dairy, and meat product samples bought in Argentina (n = 90) and Uruguay (n = 99). Residues of these veterinary drugs were detected in 50 (26.45%) of the samples; 28 samples (14.81%) had antibiotic residues, and 22 samples (11.64%) had antiparasitic residues. Of the 50 positive samples, 40% (15 from Argentina and 5 from Uruguay) had residues above the maximum residue limits (MRLs). Of these 20 samples, 12 had antiparasitic residues above the MRLs (11 beef samples had ivermectin and 1 pork sample had ivermectin and doramectin) and 8 had antibiotic residues above the MRLs (2 pork and 2 sausage samples had doxycycline, 2 cheese samples had doxycycline and chlortetracycline, 1 poultry meat sample had chloramphenicol, and 1 cheese sample had monensin). Because of the potential toxic effects on humans and the potential for pathogens to develop antibiotic resistance, the presence of these residues above the MRLs is a potential risk to public health. The negative impact of consumption of imported animal products can be reduced by implementation of an effective surveillance system and educational campaigns for the general population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the past two decades, everyday politics of infrastructure have garnered rich scholarly attention. A polysemous infrastructure that permeates everyday life, roads for long have emerged as effective sites of state craft. Employing the case of a road leading to the Sino-Indian border area of Tawang, this article argues that roads are critical to the project of border-making and management. Drawing from my road journeys to Tawang, I discuss the ways in which roads are strategised by the state to govern its border citizens. Often, visual proximity of roads casts the impression of the state which is near to its people. However, this article foregrounds that even through their conspicuous absence and disrepair, roads register the palpable presence of the state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses twentieth-century Slovenian literature in Italy, especially the provinces of Udine and Gorizia. Due to the complex developments of the twentieth century (i.e., wars, demarcation lines, borders, linguistic, ethnic, and other divisions, and an earthquake), every area of Slovenian literature in Italy (i.e., the provinces of Trieste, Gorizia, and Udine) was afflicted in its own way by suffering and disappointment. Taking into account the historical realities facilitates understanding the literary works themselves because every area of Slovenian literature in Italy has helped shape literary discourse in a different way. In addition, the message conveyed by this part of Slovenian literary discourse can be even better understood by considering contemporary Friulian and Italian works in this ar ea. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mutual relations between the Bosnian Kingdom and the Serbian Despotate can be observed in the period between 1402, when Prince Stefan Lazarević received the title of despot from John VII Palaeologus, until the Ottoman conquest of the Despotate in 1459. The most significant conflicts between Bosnian rulers and nobles with Serbian despots were fought over the rich Srebrenica silver mine. This town, with the fortress of Srebrenik, was located in the Middle Podrinje region, near the river Drina, which in this area represented the border between the two countries. The stronger economic rise of Srebrenica was followed during the 14th century when it gradually developed and became one of the most important mines in Southeast Europe. The seeds of the conflict around Srebrenica were sown by the Hungarian King Sigismund of Luxembourg. The Hungarian king first managed to get Srebrenica for himself, and then in the period 1411–1413, he handed it over to his vassal, despot Stefan. From this time until the end of the existence of the Serbian Despotate in 1459, Srebrenica changed its owner several times. Bosnian kings, nobles, and Serbian despots took part in the conflicts around Srebrenica, and in certain periods specific agreements were established regarding the ownership of this place, which brought in large revenues. A solid number of sources about Srebrenica have been preserved in the State Archives in Dubrovnik due to the fact that the Ragusan merchants and craftsmen saw great economic potential in this place and established a large colony. The interests of the Ragusan authorities were moving in the direction of obtaining timely information from this place, and they often sent delegations to conduct diplomatic negotiations with the local authorities regarding the status of their citizens in this place. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article analyzes the portrayal of the Kolpa as a border river in the leading Slovenian liberal newspaper Slovenski narod from 1868 to 1918. A border river is understood both in terms of the political concept of a border river and in terms of a natural border in a landscape. The differences between these two concepts can occur over long historical periods and can change significantly (e.g. due to floods, changes in the riverbed and the loss or acquisition of the status of a border river). In the period examined, the Kolpa formed an internal border between the Hungarian and Austrian parts of the Habsburg Monarchy. In addition, since the Late Middle Ages it has been a political border between Carniola and Croatia. The article analyzes the following aspects: a) the Kolpa as a border and a political concept, b) the management of the Kolpa (construction and maintenance of bridges, traffic bans, and restrictions), c) the Kolpa as a dangerous river, and d) border disputes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The title of this article refers to Gilles Deleuze's work titled The Fold: Leibnitz and the Baroque and supposes a link, which could be established between the Baroque as a type of art, imagery, and a philosophical concept, as it was described by Deleuze, on the one hand, and the culture, its inner structure, and mechanisms (workings), as they were defined by Juri Lotman in his conception of the semiosphere, on the other. The article shows that the main concepts introduced by Leibniz and Deleuze find their counterparts in the semiotic space described by Lotman. Starting with the concept of a monad that both thinkers are concerned with, following conceptual pairs could be identified in their systems: a border - a fold, meaning-making - folding, semiosphere - total art, Deleuzian principle of cone - the hierarchy of monads in the semiosphere of Lotman. In the article, when placed side by side, both systems reveal their proximity as well as new aspects. The analysis leads to a conclusion that Lotman, who started his career as a strict structuralist, in the end, became a post-structural thinker revealing in his works the folded (Baroque) boundary between these two intellectual trends. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents the results of a socially engaged research project based on 30 in-depth interviews with NGO workers and activists who became involved in the humanitarian crisis at the Polish-Belarusian border and engaged in subversive humanitarianism. The aim is to analyze the discourse about migrants constructed by people who provided different types of support during the crisis. The theoretical part presents a brief overview of the crisis and describes hybridized humanitarian actions that were taken. It also offers a discussion of two opposite discourses about migration in Poland. One is based on securitization and is created by the state, and the other relates to compassionate solidarity with migrants and is constructed by civil society. The results of the study indicate that the representation of migrants created by NGO workers and activists engaged in subversive humanitarianism to some extent reproduces the pro-immigrant narrative of compassion to date. What is more, the study shows that activists' discourse is more individualized and emotional, while the narratives of NGO workers are more professionalized and institutional in nature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – This study seeks to identify the behavior of buying pirated and counterfeit products in the border towns of Santana do Livramento/RS and Rivera/UY. Design/methodology/approach – In order to achieve the proposed objective, a quantitative, descriptive research was undertaken using the survey method. The study sample comprised 562 observations, 274 of respondents from the city of Santana do Livramento/RS and 288 from residents of the city of Rivera/UY. Findings – The main results show that there are not many differences in the opinions of buyers and Uruguayan respondents in relation to the consumption of pirated and counterfeit products, and issues related to price and belonging to a social group do not seem to be the main motivations for the family of types of products. Research limitations/implications – The study was limited with regard to the sample, which did not have a probabilistic nature. Thus, it is suggested that new studies that seek to represent the population, and that are carried out in other borders of countries, in order to understand the way in which cultures can interact and spread habits among them. Practical implications – As practical implications, the need to develop marketing objectives with the intention of minimizing the interest and purchase of counterfeit and pirated products is highlighted. Social implications – Regarding the social implications, the potential effects of the purchase and consumption of counterfeit products for individuals are highlighted, since such behavior can reflect negative aspects both for the physical health of consumers and for the economy of the losing country. millions in taxes. Originality/value – The originality of the study lies in the fact that it strengthens the findings on the subject in academics, in addition to bringing a comparison of consumer professionals of two nationalities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to define the way Egyptians perceived the boundaries of their land and reassesses the impact of Egyptian colonialism during the Ramesside period (c. 1292–1069 BCE). During this era, expansive wars, diplomatic action and land administration/governance reforms led Egypt to control a large part of modern Israel, Palestine, Lebanon and Syria. To refer to this period, historians often use the terms Egyptian "empire" and Egyptian "imperialism", extending terminology coined in the 19th century to describe modern cases of political dominance to Late Bronze Age Egypt. Furthermore, traditional scholarship also presents Egypt's borders in such a way that Egypt appears as a solid territory with fixed borders, despite evidence pointing to a different model of geographical division. Seeking to explore whether the use of modern terms on ancient Egypt may be an anachronism, this paper reviews the scholarship on (a) Egyptian records documenting conquests and (b) contextual archaeological evidence from the southern Near East itself. This review highlights differences between modern and ancient conceptions of land domination. Finally, Egyptian border-related terms are used in a strictly local symbolic cultural context but not in the one of international diplomacy. As for Egypt's boundary, it was mostly formed as a buffer zone rather than a borderline. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Barrier Index is presented in this contribution. The index shows the extent to which spatial units of different sizes are closed off by barriers, influencing society by the different "thickness" and "thinness" of boundaries. The article defines the Index and compares land units with barriers in various details. The calculations were made for spatial units from the scale of parcels to one-hectare areas in selected types of regions, selected geographic regions, and border barriers in selected countries. The Index is useful for crossscale analysis and for identifying the underlying causes and relationships within different cultural, social, and geographical contexts. The example of spatially persistent family structures was used to highlight the underpinning influencing factors that connect the building of barriers at different scales. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Great Lakes region has, in the recent past, been awash with numerous border conflicts/or threats to conflict among the member states. Whereas various studies have endeavored to explain the emergence of such conflicts, many of them lay the blame on colonial cartographical errors and territorial hegemony that developed after independence. This article furthers the debate by examining why, in the recent past, there have been conflict/disputes on shared waters between Uganda and its neighbors. Escalating maritime border conflicts in the Great Lakes Region have been mainly due to the increasing need for both control and exploitation of key economic resources, leading to the struggle for control of these areas. The strategic importance of lakes such as Victoria, Albert and Edward will continue to make them sources of conflict among countries in the Great Lakes Region, as long as a proper resource-management mechanism under international protocol is not put in place. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay foregrounds the processes and ramifications of sand's extraction, displacement, and reassembly as critical material and political junctures to unfold the cross-strait geo-political impasse between the "two Chinas." These processes, termed "geological afterlives of sand," brought the gulf of waters between Xiamen and Kinmen to the fore. In this fluid space where border is ideologically fraught, sand has become a critical bordering entity that enables the encounter between geology and cross-strait politics. By focusing on sand's mobile and malleable agency in rearranging geo-political order in this region, this essay draws on cartographic technology and documentary depiction of sand's multifaceted metamorphoses to present and negotiate what it means for human and nonhuman actors to live through sand's afterlives of displacement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The film La jaula de oro (The Golden Dream, 2013), by Mexican-Spanish director Diego Quemada-Diez, begins in a landfill in Guatemala City and ends with one of its main characters, Juan, gathering waste in a meat processing plant, somewhere in the northern United States. Having crossed two borders, survived riding La Bestia across Mexico, and lost Sara, Chauk and Samuel on the way, Juan's transnational journey comes full circle to end pretty much where it started: at the very bottom of the consumption cycle. A strength of La jaula is its ability to make visible that main condition of undocumented migrant bodies: their disposability, the banality of their disappearance and/or death. In this paper I take this line of thought further and explore the ways in which, through its documentary-like style and neorealistic use of non-professional actors and real locations, Quemada-Diez's storytelling develops what I will call a poetics of austerity. On one hand, the film tells a story about four teenagers whose lives have been made redundant by the effects of neoliberal austerity recipes --states' disengagement from social investment and wealth redistribution--; on the other hand, its austere style counters excess by relying on the moving image and conspicuously avoiding dialogue or other non-visual ways of creating meaning--such as non-diegetic music, for instance. Weaved together, these two approaches make up a revealing poetics, capable of baring the structural verticality hidden in globalization's DNA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this essay, I undertake an analysis of Luis Alberto Urrea's non-fiction book By the Lake of Sleeping Children (1996), which portrays a community of trash pickers and orphans in Tijuana at a moment in which the effects of NAFTA and an increasingly militarized approach to policing the US-Mexico border were taking shape. My engagement with the text combines close reading with concepts from both ecocriticism and biopolitics in order to tease out the way in which Urrea's vignettes trouble received notions of progress, freedom, and containment. By considering the book's deployment of two descriptive techniques for rendering the garbage dump and other spaces--one, a technique I call "time-lapse description" and the other, the insistent use of lists--I propose that the border zone that Urrea depicts is a space from which to think through the troubling and mutually-imbricated environmental, political, and economic crises that are paradoxically exceptional and exemplary of the current order of things. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"Border Environments" is deeply informed by a rich body of recent studies, which has not only exposed the overlaps between geopolitics, biopolitics, and ecopolitics of migration but also laid open the concept of borders themselves as sites in which political economy and political ecology collide, intersect, and shape each other. Over the course of a global pandemic that simultaneously upended all notions of border control and continues to have a devastatingly disproportionate effect on migrant populations and border communities not just in the Americas but across the world, "Border Environments" coalesced into a multidisciplinary, multilocational, and multidimensional investigation of the space, place, and concept conspicuously and persistently absent from existing macrostructural analyses of climate change and migration: the border itself. Each contributor engages in rich, site-specific explorations of borders as interfaces; the scope of their work extends far beyond the southern border of the United States. Iconologies, narratives, aesthetic forms and performative practices examined in this issue put the heterogenous landscapes of Latin America in generative dialogue with other distant and proximate, intra- and inter-national border environments: the Marcellus Shale that connects New York and Pennsylvania, the Gangetic delta straddling India and Bangladesh, the sandy straits of the South China Sea. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The research intends to investigate Iran-Pakistan economic and political links since 1947 and the issues/differences that affected the relations between them. Both Pakistan Iran have a long standing historical, cultural and religious ties. Persian literature and language have had a great impact on Sub-Continent's cultural and educational milieu. During the reign of Mohammad Reza Shah, the relations between Pakistan and Iran were friendly but after the Islamic revolution of 1979 Pakistan tilted towards Saudi Arabia for its own interests. The ideological dimensions of foreign policy of both the countries also marred the friendly relations. Iran has some apprehensions that border violations and subversions carried out inside Iran are with the connivance of US. The paper has mainly adopted qualitative methods. The study recommends that Pakistan can increase trade and diplomatic relations with Iran to take advantage of resource rich country. The minor differences between the two countries can also be tackled through trade and diplomacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transcription initiation has long been considered a primary regulatory step in gene expression. Recent work, however, shows that downstream events, such as transcription elongation, can also play important roles. 1–3 A well-characterized example from animals is promoter-proximal pausing, where transcriptionally engaged Pol II accumulates 30–50 bp downstream of the transcription start site (TSS) and is thought to enable rapid gene activation. 2 Plants do not make widespread use of promoter-proximal pausing; however, in a phenomenon known as 3′ pausing, a significant increase in Pol II is observed near the transcript end site (TES) of many genes. 4–6 Previous work has shown that 3′ pausing is promoted by the BORDER (BDR) family of negative transcription elongation factors. Here we show that BDR proteins play key roles in gene repression. Consistent with BDR proteins acting to slow or pause elongating Pol II, BDR-repressed genes are characterized by high levels of Pol II occupancy, yet low levels of mRNA. The BDR proteins physically interact with FPA, 7 one of approximately two dozen genes collectively referred to as the autonomous floral-promotion pathway, 8 which are necessary for the repression of the flowering time gene FLOWERING LOCUS C (FLC). 9–11 In early-flowering strains, FLC expression is repressed by repressive histone modifications, such as histone H3 lysine 27 trimethylation (H3K27me3), thereby allowing the plants to flower early. These results suggest that the repression of transcription elongation by BDR proteins may allow for the temporary pausing of transcription or facilitate the long-term repression of genes by repressive histone modifications. • BDR proteins repress expression of the floral repressor, FLC • BDR proteins physically interact with the autonomous pathway protein FPA • BDR-repressed genes have high levels of Pol II occupancy, despite low mRNA levels • Gene repression by BDR may involve the inhibition of transcription elongation Yu et al. show that genes repressed by the BDR family of negative transcription elongation factors have high levels of Pol II occupancy, despite relatively low steady-state RNA levels. In this way, BDR proteins may allow for the later resumption of transcription or facilitate the long-term repression of genes by repressive histone modifications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]