bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Nation as Object: Race, Blood, and Biopolitics in Interwar Romania
Authors: Turda Marius
Published: April 2010

In this article, Marius Turda discusses Romanian anthropological and serological research during the interwar period. At the time, the physical contours of the nation captured the attention of specialists and lay commentators alike, from skeptical believers in the historical destiny of the nation to those obsessed with national essence. In this context, anthropology and serology provided scientific legitimacy to the assumption that there was a racial nucleus within the Romanian nation that the natural and social environment could not obliterate; it was this racial nucleus that anthropology and serology identified as “Romanian.” This biologization of national belonging indicates that the origins of eugenic programs of biopolitical rejuvenation are to be sought in the attempt to achieve a new national body amid alleged domestic spiritual decline and unfavorable international conditions. Ultimately, the need for the rejuvenation of the ethnic community was based on the “palingenetic myth” of national renewal, comprising both the idea of spiritual metamorphosis and its fulfillment in a new ethnic ontology.
The Impossibility of Shrugging One's Shoulders: O'Harists, O'Hara, and Post-1989 Polish Poetry
Authors: Niżyńska Joanna
Published: April 2010

In this article, Joanna Niżyńska explores the modes used by poets of the bruLion generation (whose debuts coincided with the end of communism) to import Frank O'Hara's poetics into Polish literature and the significance of their doing so. By employing Harold Bloom's concepts of the “anxiety of influence,” “kenosis,” and “daemonization,” Niżyńska analyzes the intergenerational impulses manifested in O'Harism in relation to the Romantic paradigm in Poland's poetic tradition. Niżyńska claims that in turning to O'Hara, such poets as Marcin Świetlicki, Jacek Podsiadło, and Miłosz Biedrzycki engaged in dialectically related modes of revisionary reading of both domestic and foreign traditions. O'Harism is interpreted as a sign of a multifaceted cultural morphogenesis that was simultaneously an act of compensation for Romantic “Polish complexes,” a self-exploration of a new poetic generation in the face of a new political and cultural reality, and a misreading of a foreign source.
The Unofficial Field of Late Soviet Culture
Authors: Komaromi Ann
Published: April 2010

This article proposes a new interdisciplinary model for investigating unofficial culture and dissident social activity in the post-Stalin period. Although binary oppositions like art versus politics and unofficial versus official are recognized today to be ideologically implicated and critically outmoded, Ann Komaromi argues that they have a certain usefulness when reconceived as structural components of an autonomous unofficial field. This critical model is developed with polemical reference to Pierre Bourdieu's theory of the field of culture. The late Soviet opposition between art and politics is explored through Andrei Siniavskii's struggle with editors over the 1965 edition of Boris Pasternak's poetry and via the organization of the famous 5 December 1965 “Meeting of Openness” coordinated by Aleksandr Esenin-Vol'pin. The critical model proposed emphasizes the material history of conceptions of autonomy fundamental to the field, profiling dynamic binaries and permeable boundaries as sites of critical interest.
The Detention of Civilians in Armed Conflict
Authors: Goodman Ryan
Published: April 2010

In the armed conflict between the United States and Al Qaeda, the legality of the government's detention scheme has been mired in confusion. The lack of clarity is especially acute with respect to the substantive criteria for defining who may be detained. A crucial determinant of the lawfulness of the scheme is whether international humanitarianlaw (IHL) permits the preventive detention of civilians, or particular groups of civilians. In addressing that issue, leading lawmakers, litigators, and adjudicators have misconstrued or misappropriated aspects of the IHL regime. Indeed, the confusion surrounding the current and future direction of U.S.detention policy stems in significant part from those misconceptions or misuses of the law.
Proverb Familiarity in the United States: Cross-Regional Comparisons of the Paremiological Minimum
Authors: Haas Heather A.
Published: April 2010

Despite recent calls for establishing a paremiological minimum for the United States, there has been little systematic empirical attention devoted to the issue of proverb familiarity in this country or to the possibility that geographic differences might preclude establishing a single paremiological minimum that would be equally representative of proverb familiarity in diverse regions around the country. This article reviews the call for establishing a paremiological minimum for the United States and the relevant efforts to date. The article then summarizes the results of a study of proverb familiarity among college students in four different regions of the United States, presenting results from both a proverb familiarity rating task and a proverb generation task. These data make it possible to determine the relative familiarity of several hundred proverbs and to assess the possibility that familiarity with these proverbs varies across regions. The success of this approach is evidence that this type of nomothetic and quantitative analysis of folkloric material can be a useful complement to performance-oriented research. For example, the results suggest some limits to the verisimilitude of people’s intuitions as to the currency and familiarity of proverbial texts, as proverbs often listed as "common" were sometimes shown to be relatively unfamiliar (at least to contemporary college students). Further, although statistical analyses of the data did reveal that there may be some difference in absolute levels of familiarity across regions, it was also clear that the relative familiarity of various proverbs nonetheless shows strong stability from one region to another. In general, then, the data presented here provide clear evidence that proverbs familiar in one region of the United States can generally be expected to be familiar in other regions as well; this finding suggests that a truly national paremiological minimum may well be achievable.
Gallo Pinto: Tradition, Memory, and Identity in Costa Rican Foodways
Authors: Preston-Werner Theresa
Published: April 2010

This article traces the social history of "gallo pinto" (rice and beans) in Costa Rica in order to unpack the meaning of this innocuous marker of southern Costa Rican identity. Southern Costa Ricans describe pinto as a traditional food, yet they reject its possible origin in Afro-Costa Rican culture. While Costa Ricans’ use of tradition, as word and concept, marks and thereby validates contemporary praxis, the concept simultaneously erases the African cultural heritage of a country that imagines itself as white. This case study demonstrates how multiple lines of evidence (personal interviews, journalistic and academic articles, literature, and institutionally sanctioned histories) can highlight the cleavage between local memory and history, and illuminate larger cultural issues.
Telling Treasure Tales: Commemoration and Consciousness in Dominica
Authors: Rose Deidre
Published: April 2010

This article examines popular narratives of buried treasure collected in the Commonwealth of Dominica between August 1996 and May 2000. I will analyze these narratives in terms of what they might signify for their tellers, as members of Dominican society and possibly as the descendants of the Kalinago warriors who reclaimed treasures from Spanish ships passing near the island. A unifying theme of this article is that, whatever the "truth" of these stories, they function to create a sense of continuity through time, and create or reinscribe specific social and historical relations. They enable participants in the narrative to insert themselves and their ancestors into a popular version of Dominican history, one that extends to the precolonial era and focuses on Carib resistance to Spanish domination.
Humor, Unlaughter, and Boundary Maintenance
Authors: Smith Moira
Published: April 2010

Some joke performances are meant to elicit differential responses-laughter from some, and unlaughter from salient others-and so serve as powerful methods for heightening group boundaries. This article illustrates this thesis by analyzing audience responses to practical jokes and to the Muhammad cartoons that aroused worldwide controversy in 2006. To further make this case, I will delineate a theory of the audience for humor. Such a theory has heretofore been largely missing from both folklore and humor scholarship; instead, the lion’s share of scholarly attention has gone to the performers, with the audience’s role taken for granted. In boundary-heightening humor, the audience response is the subject of special attention, and it is interpreted in terms of contemporary notions about the importance of having a sense of humor and especially of being able to laugh at oneself.
Constituting Folklore: A Case for Critical Folklore Studies
Authors: Gencarella Stephen Olbrys
Published: April 2010

This article argues for the development of a critical folklore studies through an interweaving of folklore and rhetorical theory. Following paths set by Roger Abrahams, Kenneth Burke, and Antonio Gramsci decades ago, and drawing upon more recent contributions by Ernesto Laclau and rhetorical critics, it considers folklore as a constitutive rhetoric, the act of which establishes a "folk"--and their adversaries-as a political category. Identifying three articulations of critical folklore studies, it calls upon folklorists to intervene against (rather than strictly analyze) oppressive power formations through the production of overt criticism and related counterhegemonic practices.
Representation and Power in International Organization: the Operational Constitution and its Critics
Authors: Cogan Jacob Katz
Published: April 2010

In 2005, when James Wolfensohn announced that he would not seek a third term as president of the World Bank, few doubted that another United States national, the choice of the U.S. president, would take his place. Each of the previous eight presidents of the bank had been an American, dating back to the international financial institution's establishment in 1946,and despite private and public grousing by some over the Bush administration's eventual choice of Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz as Wolfensohn's successor, the appointment was never truly in jeopardy. When the bank's executive directors met to elect a new president, the vote was a foregone conclusion—not because the United States holds a majority of votes itself (it does not), but because a longstanding informal agreement between the United States and the bank's western European stakeholders prescribed that outcome.
The International Law Commission Adopts Draft Articles on Transboundary Aquifers
Authors: McCaffrey Stephen C.
Published: April 2010

At its 2008 session the United Nations International Law Commission (ILC) completed work on a set of nineteen draft articles on the law of transboundary aquifers and transmitted the draft to the General Assembly. The ILC recommended that the Assembly take note of the draft articles and at a later stage consider the elaboration of a convention based upon them.
Borat the Trickster: Folklore and the Media, Folklore in the Media
Authors: Kononenko Natalie , Kukharenko Svitlana
Published: April 2010

Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (2006) elicits extreme and contradictory audience responses. Some filmgoers find it amusing and clever, while others consider it repulsive, even obscene. Analyzing the film's hero as a traditional and archetypical trickster figure, a master of contradictions, a violator of boundaries, can help explain audience reaction. But while traditional folklore tricksters act in a fantasy world, Sacha Baron Cohen entered the lives of real people in trickster (dis) guise. For theater audiences removed from the interactions that created Borat, this film might serve the function of traditional trickster narratives, even as those appearing in the film feel exploited. By using real people and real situations, Baron Cohen has also precluded a follow-up or sequel: folkloric tricksters adapt with time, but a person immediately recognizable as a Hollywood figure cannot reassume trickster (dis)guise.
Buying into Brand Borat: Kazakhstan's Cautious Embrace of Its Unwanted “Son”
Authors: Saunders Robert A.
Published: April 2010

Since 1991, the Eurasian republic of Kazakhstan has endeavored to build a recognizable and credible national brand as a resource-rich, multicultural, and stable outpost in an otherwise troubled region of the globe. It is therefore not surprising that Sacha Baron Cohen, the creator of die fictitious Kazakhstani reporter “Borat Sagdiyev,” touched a raw nerve with his parody of the country and its people as bigoted and backward. While the Borat satire is both grotesque and spurious, the success of the motion picture Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan has provided Kazakhstan with a precipitous increase in its global profile. Using the analytical tool of “nation branding,“ Robert A. Saunders discusses the challenges and opportunities the Borat film presented to the government of Kazakhstan. After some false starts, Kazakhstan has entered into a querulous but symbiotic relationship with Borat's creator to promote its own efforts to build a brand state and hone its national image in the west.
Borat: Putting the Id Back in Identity Politics
Authors: Condee Nancy
Published: April 2010

This forum has attracted six richly varied responses to Larry Charles's film Borat. That Slavic Review would bring together, among others, a political scientist, an anthropologist, a historian, and two ethnographers (if I discern their fields correctly) to discuss a Hollywood film attests both to the journal's vitality and to the film's skill in marshalling interesting questions. In light of the range of issues raised here, my comments attempt, with inconsistent success, to restrict themselves to the questions broached in the preceding essays, rather than supplying an altogether new line of argument.
Russian Hybrids: Identity in the Translingual Writings of Andreï Makine, Wladimir Kaminer, and Gary Shteyngart
Authors: Wanner Adrian
Published: April 2010

Authors writing in a language other than their native tongue have become a common phenomenon in an era of increased international mobility. This article is devoted to three Russian-born émigré writers—Andreï Makine (b. 1957), Wladimir Kaminer (b. 1967), and Gary Shteyngart (b. 1972)—all of whom have achieved literary stardom with books written in French, German, and English, respectively. Although each of the three authors has a distinctive style and ideological position, in his own way each projects a “Russian” persona to the western public. Using the notion of cultural hybridity, Adrian Wanner explores the various strategies these authors have adopted in fashioning an identity for themselves that is tailored to meet the demands of the reading public in their respective host nations while exploiting the cachet of the Russian “brand name” in today's global literary economy.
Revisionism in Retrospect: A Personal View
Authors: Fitzpatrick Sheila
Published: April 2010

This is a participant's account of the movement in Soviet history during the 1970s and 1980s known as “revisionism,” which Sheila Fitzpatrick understands as an iconoclastic challenge by social historians to the dominance in Sovietology of political scientists and the totalitarian model. Particular attention is paid to the debates on the nature of Stalinism, which in the context of the Cold War became highly politicized and bitterly polemical, as well as to internal arguments: for example, between Marxists and non-Marxists and between first- and second-generation revisionists. Revisionists’ early interest in questions of social support and later focus on resistance is discussed. The essay offers an assessment of the intellectual and historiographical contribution of revisionism, including an appreciation of contingency, a new approach to power and the interplay of government and society, new standards of historical professionalism, and an emphasis on archives and primary sources. Finally, a line of continuity between revisionism and its 1990s challenger, “post-revisionism,” is suggested. Comments are provided by Robert V Daniels, J. Arch Getty, Elena A. Osokina, and Jochen Hellbeck.
Comment: Revisionism Avant la Lettre
Authors: Daniels Robert V.
Published: April 2010

I guess I was a revisionist before anyone had ever heard the term used in its contemporary sense. When I embarked on Soviet studies, revisionism meant the democratic and gradualist revision of Marxism by Eduard Bernstein and his followers. That, of course, was heresy in the eyes of Marxist-Leninists, and “revisionism” became a familiar swearword in the Soviet lexicon.

My own unwitting revisionism in the new sense of deviation from the Soviet studies mainstream really began with my participation in Michael Karpovich's seminar in Russian history in 1947. In my paper, “The Russian Proletariat as a Revolutionary Force in 1917,” I highlighted the Bolsheviks and the fabzavkomy, because that was where the published sources were.
Comment: Codes and Confessions
Authors: Getty J. Arch
Published: April 2010

Sheila Fitzpatrick has provided a useful history of our field in recent times, and she has done so in a gracious and personally revealing way. She is perhaps the most prolific and influential member of the field, and her observations cannot help but be tasty food for thought, especially as they come to us without the bitterness and defensive spite to which she might be entitled.

Here I would like to reflect on some of the reasons why I think the controversy became so angry, why it went beyond the bounds of normal academic dispute. And bitter it was. In addition to vilification in print, our universities received unsolicited tenure letters suggesting that we were incompetent and dangerous. Editors published angry unsolicited book reviews submitted by our critics. One editor continued to solicit readers' reports on an article I submitted until he finally got a negative one. With five reports, four to one in favor of publishing, he nevertheless rejected the piece. Sometimes you just cannot win.
A “Polyphony of Voices“? Czech Popular Opinion and the Slánský Affair
Authors: McDermott Kevin
Published: April 2010

The trial of Rudolf Slánský and his thirteen codefendants in Prague in November 1952 represented the culmination of Stalinist political terror in postwar central and eastern Europe. Ever since, it has attracted much scholarly attention focusing largely on the origins, processes, and outcomes of the trial. In this article, Kevin McDermott examines a crucial, but almost totally unresearched aspect of the affair: Czech popular reactions to Slánský's arrest and trial. Using documents from the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia and secret police reports from the Ministry of Interior archives, McDermott demonstrates that popular opinion was extremely diverse, ranging from strident and selective support of the official version of the court proceedings; to passive compliance and resigned accommodation; to apathy, guarded dissent, and overt opposition. Two findings are particularly noteworthy: first, virulent antisemitic sentiment was endemic; and second, many workers, rankand- file party members, and even lower-level functionaries were highly critical of the country's communist leaders. In conclusion, McDermott proposes that the archival record reveals the relatively broad diffusion of antisemitism in Czech society, the limits of the “Stalinization” process in the Czechoslovak party, and the failure of Stalinist terror to intimidate the population into submission and eradicate independent thinking.
Casualties of Conflict: Crimean Tatars during the Crimean War
Authors: Kozelsky Mara
Published: April 2010

During the Crimean War, Crimean Tatars were charged en masse with collaborating with the Allies. At the war's conclusion, nearly 200,000 Tatars left the peninsula to relocate in the Ottoman empire. Mara Kozelsky contributes to an understanding of this critical episode in the Crimean War by examining secret surveillance documents, a collection that records complex state attitudes toward Tatars from the Allied landing on the Crimean coast to the Treaty of Paris. These documents reveal that intelligence operations provided no evidence of a collective Tatar guilt and instead testified to the diversity of pressures on state policies toward subject populations on the front lines of battie. Shifting wartime conditions, religious tensions, and repeated crises at the front highlighted unresolved debates about religion and loyalty to the state. Some officials recommended deporting the Tatars, others encouraged their migration, and still others advocated on the Tatars’ behalf.
Pictures at an Exhibition: Science, Patriotism, and Civil Society in Imperial Russia
Authors: Bradley Joseph
Published: April 2010

Organized by a Moscow learned society, the Polytechnical Exposition of 1872 helped mobilize resources for popularizing science that connected tsarist officialdom, the Moscow municipal government and business community, university scientists, and other private associations. Although the relationship between the autocratic government and society is often portrayed in terms of conflict, partnership was more typically the rule, especially in the effort to build a native science infrastructure. The grand exhibitions of science and industry of the nineteenth century were sites of modernity that displayed visions of progress, created a public culture, and fashioned national identity. Moscow's Polytechnical Exposition juxtaposed the modern and the foreign with the traditional and the Russian in order to demonstrate that Russia could have modern science and technology without abandoning its traditional culture. Paradoxically, to assert its place in European civilization in an age of nationalism and imperialism, Russia had to assert its Russianness—its cultural distinctiveness, patriotism, and imperial pride. With its emphasis on change and progress, as well as on traditional Russian culture, the exposition fostered a Russian public aware of its place in a changing world, of its place in history, of its identity as a nation.
Reclaiming Democracy: The Strategic Uses of Foreign and International Law by National Courts
Authors: Benvenisti Eyal
Published: April 2010

Not so long ago the overwhelming majority of courts in democratic countries shared a reluctance to refer to foreign and international law. Their policy was to avoid any application of foreign sources of law that would clash with the position of their domestic governments. Many jurists find recourse to foreign and international law inappropriate. But even the supporters of reference to external sources of law hold this unexplored assumption that reliance on foreign and international law inevitably comes into tension with the value of national sovereignty. Hence, the scholarly debate is framed along the lines of the well-known broader debate on “the countermajoritarian difficulty.” This article questions this assumption of tension. It argues that for courts in most democratic countries—even if not for U.S. courts at present—referring to foreign and international law has become an effective instrument for empoweringthe domestic democratic processes by shielding them from external economic, political, and even legal pressures. Citing international law therefore actually bolsters domestic democratic processes and reclaims national sovereignty from the diverse forces of globalization. Stated differently, most national courts, seeking to maintain the vitality of their national political institutions and to safeguard their own domestic status vis-a-vis the political branches, cannot afford to ignore foreign and international law.
Parity and the Association With Diabetes in Older Women
Authors: Fowler-Brown Angela G. , de Boer Ian H. , Catov Janet M. , Carnethon Mercedes R. , Kamineni Aruna , Kuller Lewis H. , Siscovick David S. , Mukamal Kenneth J.
Published: April 2010

OBJECTIVE

To examine the relationship of parity with diabetes and markers of glucose homeostasis in older women.

RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS

We used data from the female participants in the Cardiovascular Health Study, a longitudinal cohort of adults aged ≥65 years. These data included an assessment of parity (baseline) and fasting serum levels of glucose, insulin, and medication use (baseline and follow-up). We estimated both the cross-sectional relationship of parity with baseline diabetes and the relationship of parity with incident diabetes.

RESULTS

In unadjusted analyses, women with grand multiparity (≥5 live births) had a higher prevalence of diabetes at baseline compared with those with fewer births and with nulliparous women (25 vs. 12 vs. 15%; P < 0.001). In regression models controlling for age and race, grand multiparity was associated with increased prevalence of diabetes (prevalence ratio 1.57 [95% CI 1.20–2.06]); with addition of demographic and clinical factors to the model, the association was attenuated (1.33 [1.00–1.77]). In final models that included body anthropometrics, the association was no longer significant (1.21 [0.86–1.49]). In those without diabetes at baseline, parity was not associated with incident diabetes or with fasting glucose; however, there was a modest association of parity with fasting insulin and homeostasis assessment model of insulin resistance.

CONCLUSIONS

Grand multiparity is associated with diabetes in elderly women in cross-sectional analyses. This relationship seems to be confounded and/or mediated by variation in body weight and sociodemographic factors by parity status. In older nondiabetic women, higher parity does not pose an ongoing risk of developing diabetes.
Social Inclusion: Policies and Practices in Nepal
Authors: Gurung Om
Published: April 2010

Social inclusion is one of the most vibrant issues raised strongly by indigenous peoples, women, Madhesi, Dalits and other marginalized communities in Nepal. At present, this issue has been a political agenda among political leaders, a subject of academic discourse among intellectuals and a field of development priority among development practitioners. Given the fact that the present state is exclusionary, non-participatory and non-representative and discriminates against indigenous peoples, women, Madhesis, Dalits and other marginalized communities on the basis of caste, ethnicity, language, religion, sex, class and geographical territory, these marginalized peoples and communities are demanding for a inclusive state through its restructuring along the line of federalism on the basis of national regional autonomy. For this purpose the election of constituent assembly has served as a legitimate and democratic process in present day Nepal.DOI: 10.3126/opsa.v11i0.3027 Occasional Papers in Sociology and Anthropology Vol.11 2009 1-15
Socio-Cultural Subjectivities of Landlessness in Nepal: A Case Study of Sarki People from Naubise VDC of Dhading District
Authors: Rai Jailab
Published: April 2010

This study deals with the socio-cultural subjectivities of landlessness with a focus on the Sarki people in the central hills of Nepal who are among the extremely marginalized groups of people in terms of the access and ownership to land resources. It reviews the process of landlessness among the Sarki people and examines the social, economic and cultural process of the landlessness of Sarki people in the historical perspective. The paper is primarily based on a review of existing literature on the land resource distribution and management in Nepal supplemented by information obtained from a field study carried out during September to November 2007 at Naubise of Dhading district. The study has used both quantitative and qualitative information obtained from the field.   DOI: 10.3126/opsa.v11i0.3028 Occasional Papers in Sociology and Anthropology Vol.11 2009 16-37
Ethnography of Jhapali Rajbanshis
Authors: Shresta Keshav Kumar
Published: April 2010

Nepal, despite being small in size, is a country with geographical and cultural diversities. The social system or structure of Nepal is based on the unity in diversity that integrates various caste, ethnic, religious, linguistic, and cultural groups. According to 2001 census, 102 types of caste/indigenous ethnic groups dwell in Nepal and 92 mother languages are spoken (C.B.S, 2002 :28-33). A comprehensive study about all the caste and indigenous ethnic groups dwelling in Nepal has not been conducted yet from the sociological and anthropological perspectives. Even today some minority ethnic groups are about to be extinct. Some even do not have the knowledge of their own cultural history. Such ethnic groups have begun to give up their ancestral cultures/traditions and adopt the customs of other castes/social groups and forget their own cultural history.    DOI: 10.3126/opsa.v11i0.3029 Occasional Papers in Sociology and Anthropology Vol.11 2009 38-47
Migration and its Implications on the Local Initiative of Management of Water Resource for Irrigation: Some Anthropological Observations from Western Terai
Authors: Uprety Laya Prasad
Published: April 2010

This paper has been written with two-fold objectives as follows: (i) to analyze the trends and causes of in-migration in a traditional Tharu community of western Terai that triggered the intensification of the local culture of water resource management for irrigation in the expanded command areas, and (ii) to analyze the implications of in-migration on the local initiative of management of irrigation systems.   DOI: 10.3126/opsa.v11i0.3030 Occasional Papers in Sociology and Anthropology Vol.11 2009 48-66
Magars and their Indigenous Knowledge Systems and Practices in Tanahu District of Nepal
Authors: Magar Shyamu Thapa
Published: April 2010

This paper aims at analyzing the gender aspect of IKSs practiced by both males and females as distinct knowledge legacies in the regime of forest products and local herbs. The rationale for this analysis is that women's knowledge and men's knowledge encompasses gender specific roles as prescribed by the society and supervisory functions for the conservation of particular biodiversity domains and cultural dynamics. DOI: 10.3126/opsa.v11i0.3031 Occasional Papers in Sociology and Anthropology Vol.11 2009 67-83
Dependency and Underdevelopment: The Nepalese Context
Authors: Luitel Samira
Published: April 2010

The World Bank report (1991) mentioned that "Nepal is one of the world's poorest countries. It ranks 115th in per capita GNP out of 120 countries. With respect to life expectancy, it ranks 103rd out of 118 reporting countries. It is one of the constellations of countries characterized by rapid population increase, low or negative per capita GDP growth and a slow transition out of a subsistence agricultural economy. It exhibits many of the characteristics of similar sub-Saharan African economies, including a limited productive land base, a land-locked location, and a very low level of exports."   DOI: 10.3126/opsa.v11i0.3037 Occasional Papers in Sociology and Anthropology Vol.11 2009 202-220
Do All Patients Require Radiotherapy after Breast-Conserving Surgery?
Authors: Skandarajah Anita R. , Mann G. Bruce
Published: April 2010

Radiotherapy following breast conservation is routine in the treatment of breast cancer. This creates a large demand for radiotherapy services with implicit cost effects and potential morbidity to patients. Radiotherapy is administered to decrease local recurrence, but is radiotherapy required for all breast cancers? A literature search using the Medline and Ovid databases was conducted between 1965 and 2010 using the terms ‘role of radiotherapy’, ‘early breast cancer’, and omission of radiotherapy’. Papers with clinical trials published in English in adult humans were included. Fourteen randomized controlled trials were included. Local recurrence rates range from 0.8–35% in patients in whom radiotherapy was omitted. Low risk characteristics include older age, small tumor size, no lymphovascular invasion and low to moderate grade. At present, there is no clearly defined low risk group of patients in whom radiotherapy can be omitted.
Developing Medical Geology in Uruguay: A Review
Authors: Mañay Nelly
Published: April 2010

Several disciplines like Environmental Toxicology, Epidemiology, Public Health and Geology have been the basis of the development of Medical Geology in Uruguay during the last decade. The knowledge and performance in environmental and health issues have been improved by joining similar aims research teams and experts from different institutions to face environmental problems dealing with the population’s exposure to metals and metalloids and their health impacts. Some of the Uruguayan Medical Geology examples are reviewed focusing on their multidisciplinary approach: Lead pollution and exposed children, selenium in critically ill patients, copper deficiency in cattle and arsenic risk assessment in ground water. Future actions are also presented.
The Case for Visual Analytics of Arsenic Concentrations in Foods
Authors: Johnson Matilda O. , Cohly Hari H.P. , Isokpehi Raphael D. , Awofolu Omotayo R.
Published: April 2010

Arsenic is a naturally occurring toxic metal and its presence in food could be a potential risk to the health of both humans and animals. Prolonged ingestion of arsenic contaminated water may result in manifestations of toxicity in all systems of the body. Visual Analytics is a multidisciplinary field that is defined as the science of analytical reasoning facilitated by interactive visual interfaces. The concentrations of arsenic vary in foods making it impractical and impossible to provide regulatory limit for each food. This review article presents a case for the use of visual analytics approaches to provide comparative assessment of arsenic in various foods. The topics covered include (i) metabolism of arsenic in the human body; (ii) arsenic concentrations in various foods; (ii) factors affecting arsenic uptake in plants; (ii) introduction to visual analytics; and (iv) benefits of visual analytics for comparative assessment of arsenic concentration in foods. Visual analytics can provide an information superstructure of arsenic in various foods to permit insightful comparative risk assessment of the diverse and continually expanding data on arsenic in food groups in the context of country of study or origin, year of study, method of analysis and arsenic species.
Development of Biomedical Polymer-Silicate Nanocomposites: A Materials Science Perspective
Authors: Wu Chia-Jung , Gaharwar Akhilesh K. , Schexnailder Patrick J. , Schmidt Gudrun
Published: April 2010

Biomedical polymer-silicate nanocomposites have potential to become critically important to the development of biomedical applications, ranging from diagnostic and therapeutic devices, tissue regeneration and drug delivery matrixes to various bio-technologies that are inspired by biology but have only indirect biomedical relation. The fundamental understanding of polymer-nanoparticle interactions is absolutely necessary to control structure-property relationships of materials that need to work within the chemical, physical and biological constraints required by an application. This review summarizes the most recent published strategies to design and develop polymer-silicate nanocomposites (including clay based silicate nanoparticles and bioactive glass nanoparticles) for a variety of biomedical applications. Emerging trends in bio-technological and biomedical nanocomposites are highlighted and potential new fields of applications are examined.
Generating One Biometric Feature from Another: Faces from Fingerprints
Authors: Ozkaya Necla , Sagiroglu Seref
Published: April 2010

This study presents a new approach based on artificial neural networks for generating one biometric feature (faces) from another (only fingerprints). An automatic and intelligent system was designed and developed to analyze the relationships among fingerprints and faces and also to model and to improve the existence of the relationships. The new proposed system is the first study that generates all parts of the face including eyebrows, eyes, nose, mouth, ears and face border from only fingerprints. It is also unique and different from similar studies recently presented in the literature with some superior features. The parameter settings of the system were achieved with the help of Taguchi experimental design technique. The performance and accuracy of the system have been evaluated with 10-fold cross validation technique using qualitative evaluation metrics in addition to the expanded quantitative evaluation metrics. Consequently, the results were presented on the basis of the combination of these objective and subjective metrics for illustrating the qualitative properties of the proposed methods as well as a quantitative evaluation of their performances. Experimental results have shown that one biometric feature can be determined from another. These results have once more indicated that there is a strong relationship between fingerprints and faces.
Retraction: Reddy, K.R.N.; Abbas, H.K.; Abel, C.A.; Shier, W.T.; Salleh, B. Mycotoxin Contamination of Beverages: Occurrence of Patulin in Apple Juice and Ochratoxin A in Coffee, Beer and Wine and Their Control Methods. Toxins 2010, 2, 229-261.
Authors: Lang Florian , Lin Shu-Kun
Published: April 2010

It has been brought to our attention by a member of our Editorial Board that substantial portions of this review article have been copied verbatim from earlier publications without credit. After comparing the present paper and the other sources we have determined that indeed this manuscript clearly violates our policy on originality of all material submitted for publication and the generally accepted ethics of scientific publication. Consequently, the Editorial Team and Publisher have determined that it should be retracted. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.
Malignant Melanoma of Upper Aerodigestive Tract
Authors: Sobin L. H. , Gospodarowicz M.K. , Wittekind Ch.
Published: April 2010

The TNM system is used to describe and classify cancer stages and progression based on the assessment of three components:

T

The extent of the primary tumour

N

The absence or presence and extent of regional lymph node metastasis

M

The absence or presence of distant metastasis.

TNM classification for the above site is described under the following headings:

Rules for classification with the procedures for assessing T, N, and M categories; additional methods may be used when they enhance the accuracy of appraisal before treatment

Anatomical sites and subsites where appropriate

Definition of the regional lymph nodes

TNM Clinical classification

pTNM Pathological classification

G Histopathological grading

Stage grouping

Summary
Merkel Cell Carcinoma of Skin
Authors: Sobin L. H. , Gospodarowicz M.K. , Wittekind Ch.
Published: April 2010

The TNM system is used to describe and classify cancer stages and progression based on the assessment of three components:

T

The extent of the primary tumour

N

The absence or presence and extent of regional lymph node metastasis

M

The absence or presence of distant metastasis.

TNM classification for the above site is described under the following headings:

Rules for classification with the procedures for assessing T, N, and M categories; additional methods may be used when they enhance the accuracy of appraisal before treatment

Anatomical sites and subsites where appropriate

Definition of the regional lymph nodes

TNM Clinical classification

pTNM Pathological classification

G Histopathological grading

Stage grouping

Summary
Adrenal Cortex Tumours
Authors: Sobin L. H. , Gospodarowicz M.K. , Wittekind Ch.
Published: April 2010

A new classification of adrenal cortical carcinoma is introduced in TNM‐7. It is the one that had been proposed in the TNM Supplement earlier.
Sequential Monte Carlo methods for multi‐aircraft trajectory prediction in air traffic management
Authors: Lymperopoulos I. , Lygeros J.
Published: April 2010

Accurate prediction of aircraft trajectories is an important part of decision support and automated tools in air traffic management. We demonstrate that by combining information from multiple aircraft at different locations and time instants, one can provide improved trajectory prediction (TP) accuracy. To perform multi‐aircraft TP, we have at our disposal abundant data. We show how this multi‐aircraft sensor fusion problem can be formulated as a high‐dimensional state estimation problem. The high dimensionality of the problem and nonlinearities in aircraft dynamics and control prohibit the use of common filtering methods. We demonstrate the inefficiency of several sequential Monte Carlo algorithms on feasibility studies involving multiple aircraft. We then develop a novel particle filtering algorithm to exploit the structure of the problem and solve it in realistic scale situations. In all studies we assume that aircraft fly level (possibly at different altitudes) with known, constant, aircraft‐dependent airspeeds and estimate the wind forecast errors based only on ground radar measurements. Current work concentrates on extending the algorithms to non‐level flights, the joint estimation of wind forecast errors and the airspeed and mass of the different aircraft and the simultaneous fusion of airborne and ground radar measurements. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Highly Enantioselective Michael Addition Reactions of 3‐Substituted Benzofuran‐2(3H)‐ones to Chalcones Catalyzed by a Chiral Alkyl‐Substituted Thiourea
Authors: Li Xin , Xi Zhiguo , Luo Sanzhong , Cheng Jin‐Pei
Published: April 2010

A highly enantioselective Michael addition of 3‐substituted benzofuran‐2(3H)‐ones to chalcones catalyzed by a chiral bifunctional thiourea was developed. Several chiral 3,3′‐substituted benzofuran‐2(3H)‐ones derivatives, bearing adjacent quaternary‐tertiary stereocenters, were efficiently synthesized with excellent enantioselectivities.
An ethical hierarchy for decision making during medical emergencies
Authors: Lyden Patrick D. , Meyer Brett C. , Hemmen Thomas M. , Rapp Karen S.
Published: April 2010

Evidence from well‐designed clinical trials may guide clinicians, reduce regional variation, and lead to improved outcomes. Many physicians choose to ignore evidence‐based practice guidelines. Using unproven therapies outside of a randomized trial slows recruitment in clinical trials that could yield information on clinical and economic efficacy. Using acute stroke therapy as an illustration, we present an ethical hierarchy for therapeutic decision making during medical emergencies. First, physicians should offer standard care. If no standard care option exists, the physician should consider enrollment in a randomized clinical trial. If no trial is appropriate, the physician should consider a nonrandomized registry, or consensus‐based guidelines. Finally, only after considering the first 3 options, the physician should use best judgment based on previous personal experience and any published case series or anecdotes. Given the paucity of quality randomized clinical trial data for most medical decisions, the “best judgment” option will be used most frequently. Nevertheless, such a hierarchy is needed because of the limited time during medical emergencies for consideration of general principles of clinical decision making. There should be general agreement in advance as to the hierarchy to follow in selecting treatment for critically ill patients. Were more clinicians to follow this hierarchy, and choose to participate in clinical trials, the generation of new knowledge would accelerate, yielding rigorous data supporting or refuting the efficacy and safety of new interventions more quickly, thus benefiting far more patients over time. ANN NEUROL 2010;67:434‐440
Optimization of cotton crosslinking with polycarboxylic acids and nano TiO2using central composite design
Authors: Nazari A. , Montazer M. , Rashidi A. , Yazdanshenas M. , Moghadam M. B.
Published: April 2010

The cotton crosslinking with butane tetra carboxylic acid (BTCA) and citric acid (CA) in the presence of sodium hypophosphite (SHP) and nano TiO2(NTO) under different curing conditions were optimized using a statistical model. The central composite design (CCD) was used for variables based on Design of Expert software. The appropriate model to create optimum crease recovery angle was obtained for each condition. The X‐ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) were also employed to indicate the NTO particles on the fabric surface with the size of nano particles and their crystallinity. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2010
Semibatch emulsion copolymerization of butyl acrylate and glycidyl methacrylate: Effect of operating variables
Authors: Bakhshi H. , Bouhendi H. , Zohuriaan‐Mehr M. J. , Kabiri K.
Published: April 2010

Semibatch emulsion copolymerization was carried out to prepare poly(butyl acrylate‐co‐glycidyl methacrylate) latexes at 75°C, using potassium persulfate as an initiator, sodium dodecylbenzene sulfonate as an emulsifier and sodium bicarbonate as a buffer. The reaction was conducted in three stages; a further stage (called the steady stage, 2 h) was added to the traditionally stages (i.e., feed and seed stages) to improve considerably the monomer conversion. The monomer conversion and particle size distribution were studied by gravimetric and laser light scattering methods, respectively. The effects of variables such as agitation speed, emulsifier concentration, initiator concentration, feeding rate and comonomers ratio were fully investigated based on the monomer conversion‐time profiles and the particle size distribution to find the optimized copolymerization conditions. Increasing the agitation speed had a negative effect on the monomer conversion, but reduced coagulation of polymer particles. Monomer conversion could be improved by increasing the initiator or emulsifier contents. Feeding rate increased the polymer particle size sharply; however, it showed no significant effect on conversion. The final conversions were as high as 97–99% and they were recognized to be independent of the comonomers ratios employed. Morphological studies by scanning electron microscopy showed nano‐sized isolated particles which were partially aggregated. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2010
Thermal and swelling studies of hydrophobically modified polyacrylamide hydrogels
Authors: Abraham Anu Anna , Sen Akhil Kumar
Published: April 2010

Hydrophobically modified polyacrylamide hydrogels were prepared by polymerizing acrylamide, using n‐butyl acrylate and 2‐ethyl hexyl acrylate as comonomers and dimethyl formamide as a solvent. We report here for the first time that the Alfred Q‐e reactivity ratios are matching with the experimental value (elemental analysis result) for the terpolymer hydrogel systems. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) thermograms of the hydrogel samples revealed two endothermic transitions, one near 0°C, corresponding to the melting transition of ice and another above ambient temperature. This high temperature transition is due to the rearrangement of water molecules engaged in hydrophobic hydration surrounding the hydrophobic groups (alkyl side chains). This depends on the type of hydrophobic groups and the gel compositions. Swelling and deswelling studies of the gels were performed using various solvents such as water and isopropyl alcohol. An abnormally high swelling and deswelling behavior was observed in the homopolymer gels and the gels with low amount of hydrophobic comonomers. This could be attributed to the more intramolecular cross‐linked structure formed during synthesis in organic solvent. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2010