bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Unemployment Insurance in Interwar Belgium
Authors: Vanthemsche Guy
Published: December 2008

In 1900, a special type of unemployment insurance was set up in Belgium: the so-called “Ghent system”, which had some influence on the development of unemployment insurance in many European countries. This particular system was characterized by the important role played by the trade-union unemployment societies. The public authorities (in Belgium, from 1920 onwards, the central government next to the towns and provinces) encouraged the affiliation of the labourers to these societies by granting different sorts of financial support to the unemployed society members and to the societies themselves. During the crisis of the 1930s, this led to an important growth of Belgian trade-union membership. On the other hand, the quantitative growth of the labour movement due to this particular organization of unemployment insurance, led to many negative sideeffects for the trade unions (administrative chaos, financial problems, loss of combativity). Moreover, the employers' organizations strongly opposed this system of unemployment insurance, because they thought it reinforced the labour movement's power in society (strengthening of union membership, influence on wage formation, obstruction of deflation policy). This article examines the heated debates waged in the labour movement itself and between this actor, the employers' organizations and the government, to solve the many important problems posed by this type of social insurance. The Belgian pre-Second World War debate concerning unemployment insurance was of great importance for the shaping of the Welfare State in Belgium, which took its present-day form in 1944.
Suggestions and Debates
Authors: Price Richard
Published: December 2008

Just over ten years ago the future of labour history in Britain seemed assured. A self-confident, burgeoning field, it lay at the centre of the most innovative contributions to British historiography in the post-war era, and could claim as its own some of the most impressive historians of the time. Since the founding of the Society for the Study of Labour History in 1960, the field had moved from the periphery of historical concerns to occupy a central position in the spectrum of history writing.
Which Side Are They On?
Authors: Leier Mark
Published: December 2008

The debate over the labour bureaucracy has changed considerably since Robert Michels first argued that oligarchy was inevitable whenever humans organized. Recent work has tended to play down the notion of the labour bureaucracy as a body distinct from, and often in opposition to, the rank and file. Indeed, in the pages of this journal, Jonathan Zeitlin has maintained that “no clear line can be drawn between trade union officials and the ‘rank and file’”. Carrying this argument to its logical conclusion Zeitlin has urged that the “‘rank and filist’ paradigm is fundamentally unsatisfactory and should be abandoned rather than further refined”. Though others would not push the revisionist argument this far, the general tendency has been to agree that the earlier generalizations were over-blown and that it is difficult to distinguish between bureaucrats and members. Many of Zeitlin's earlier opponents now appear to be nearly indistinguishable from him, and few argue that the interests of the labour leadership differ in any important degree from those of the rank and file. I believe, however, that the reports of the demise of the labour bureaucrat have been somewhat exaggerated. This paper will argue that though the argument needs to be re-formulated, the paradigm of the labour bureaucracy remains a useful one. Such a reformulation must shift the focus from differences of ideology separating the leaders from the members and instead must turn to an analysis of the power relationship between the two. This paper will trace the recent twists and turns in the debate and will suggest ways in which it is possible to view the labour bureaucracy as a distinct layer of the union movement.
A Season for violence
Authors: Beck E.M. , Tolnay Stewart E.
Published: December 2008

In this paper we explore the hypothesis that monthly variation in white mob violence against blacks in the American South was affected by seasonal variation in the demand for labor in southern agriculture. Using monthly data on black lynchings that occurred between 1882 and 1930 we find that mob violence was more frequent during times of stronger labor demand than during slack periods. While the manifest function of lynchings might well have been to rid the white community of offending blacks who violated the moral order, we suggest that the latent function was to tighten the reins of control over the black population, especially during times when whites most needed black labor to work fields of cotton or tobacco.
Women's Subversive Individualism in Barcelona during the 1930s
Authors: seidman Michael
Published: December 2008

A focus on politically uncommitted working-class women alters the traditional historiographical emphasis on collective militancy in the Spanish Revolution. A large number of females acted ambivalently towards the cause, and revolutionaries were forced to confront women's individualism. In the search for the collective identities of class and gender, this individualism has been ignored. Instead of neglecting or condemning the personal, historians should try to understand how an exploration of the varieties of subversive individualism – resistance to workplace discipline, opportunism, and petty fraud – can expand the boundaries of social history and help to contribute to a theory of the state.
The British Social Democratic Federation 1880–1885
Authors: Bevir Mark
Published: December 2008

A number of Bronterre O'Brien's disciples were the leading lights of London clubs that provided the silent majority to the Social Democratic Federation (S.D.F.). Even after the O'Brienites came to accept the need for collective ownership of the means of production, their political strategy remained that of O'Brien. An understanding of the role played by the O'Brienites helps to explain various problems in the history of the S.D.F. such as why most members remained with Hyndman rather than follow Morris into the Socialist League and why the S.D.F. adopted an ambiguous attitude to trade unions and to palliatives.
The Power of Shop Culture
Authors: Olssen Erik , Brecher Jeremy
Published: December 2008

This paper investigates the history of the labour process in New Zealand's state-owned railway workshops and questions the idea that large-scale industry inevitably destroyed whatever agency skilled workers had enjoyed. It also shows that relations of production vary with the political and cultural contexts. Craft control of the labour process survived in New Zealand's state-owned railway workshops and the union played only a minor role. Jop control was more important in achieving bureaucratic instead of autocratic control over such matters as hiring and firing; the retention of apprentice-based crafts; the institutionalization of seniority; and in resisting both de-skilling and the “premium bonus”. The strength and vitality of shop culture, based on craft control of the labour process, also survived and modified the Government's vigorous attempt to introduce “scientific management”. In brief the article concludes that productive processes do not inevitably determine social relations of production, that capitalism has been neither homogeneous nor uniform, and that mechanization never inevitably results in de-skilling.
Insight correlates in child- and adolescent-onset first episodes of psychosis: results from the CAFEPS study
Authors: Parellada M. , Fraguas D. , Bombín I. , Otero S. , Castro-Fornieles J. , Baeza I. , Gonzalez-Pinto A. , Graell M. , Soutullo C. , Paya B. , Arango C.
Published: December 2008

Background

The correlates of insight in early-onset psychosis have received little previous attention.

Method

We studied clinical correlates of insight in a sample of 110 adolescent recent-onset psychosis patients (mean age 15.53 years; psychotic symptoms present for <6 months). Insight was measured with the Scale to Assess Unawareness of Mental Disorder (SUMD) at baseline, 6 months and 12 months follow-up.

Results

Insight improved over the early phases of the illness, in parallel with psychopathological improvement. Poor insight at baseline and 6 months correlated with poor functioning at 6 and 12 months respectively. Schizophrenia patients had poorer insight than patients with bipolar disorder at 6 and 12 months but not at baseline. Logistic and linear regressions were used to predict 12-month diagnoses and functioning based on insight measurements. Baseline awareness of illness was a significant predictor for diagnosis [odds ratio (OR) 1.4, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.05–1.97]. Treatment compliance at 6 months did not correlate with baseline SUMD subscores, but correlated with insight into having a disorder (Spearman's ρ=0.21,p=0.039), its consequences (Spearman's ρ=0.28,p=0.006) and the need for treatment (Spearman's ρ=0.26,p=0.012) at 6 months. The ‘attribution of symptoms’ dimension of insight is poorly correlated with other insight dimensions and with other clinical variables.

Conclusions

Poor insight correlates with symptom severity and global functioning but also has some trait value for schizophrenia, which is apparent once acute psychotic symptomatology is not prominent. A multi-dimensional approach to the assessment of insight is necessary, as different dimensions are influenced by different factors.
Harmonic G-structures
Authors: GONZÁLEZ–DÁVILA J. C. , CABRERA F. MARTÍN
Published: December 2008

For closed and connected subgroups G of SO(n), we study the energy functional on the space of G-structures of a (compact) Riemannian manifold (M, 〈⋅, ⋅〉), where G-structures are considered as sections of the quotient bundle (M)/G. We deduce the corresponding first and second variation formulae and the characterising conditions for critical points by means of tools closely related to the study of G-structures. In this direction, we show the rôle in the energy functional played by the intrinsic torsion of the G-structure. Moreover, we analyse the particular case G=U(n) for 2n-dimensional manifolds. This leads to the study of harmonic almost Hermitian manifolds and harmonic maps from M into (M)/U(n).
Existence and stability of static shells for the Vlasov–Poisson system with a fixed central point mass
Authors: SCHULZE ACHIM
Published: December 2008

We consider the Vlasov–Poisson system with spherical symmetry and an exterior potential which is induced by a point mass in the center. This system can be used as a simple model for a newtonian galaxy surrounding a black hole. For this system, we establish a global existence result for classical solutions with shell-like initial data, i.e. the support of the density is bounded away from the point mass singularity. We also prove existence and stability of stationary solutions which describe static shells, where we use a variational approach which was established by Y. Guo and G. Rein.
Geometry of projection-generic space curves
Authors: WALL C. T. C.
Published: December 2008

In earlier work I defined a class of curves, forming a dense open set in the space of maps from S1 to P3, such that the family of projections of a curve in this class is stable under perturbations of C: we call the curves in the class projection-generic. The definition makes sense also in the complex case. The partition of projective space according to the singularities of the corresponding projection of C is a stratification. Its local structure outside C is the same as that of the versal unfoldings of the singularities presented.

To study points on C we introduce the blow-up BC of P3 along C, and a family of plane curves, parametrised by z ∈ BC; we saw in the earlier work that this is a flat family.

Here we show that near most z ∈ BC, the family gives a family of parametrised germs which versally unfolds the singularities occurring. Otherwise we find that the double point number δ of Γz drops by 1 for z ∉ EC. We establish a theory of versality for unfoldings of A or D singularities such that δ drops by at most 1, and show that in the remaining cases, we have an unfolding which is versal in this sense.

This implies normal forms for the stratification of BC; further work allows us to derive local normal forms for strata of the stratification of P3.
Negative and Positive Claims of Conscience
Authors: WICCLAIR MARK R.
Published: December 2008

Discussions of appeals to conscience by healthcare professionals typically focus on situations in which they object to providing a legal and professionally permitted service, such as abortion, sterilization, prescribing or dispensing emergency contraception, and organ retrieval pursuant to donation after cardiac death. “Negative claims of conscience” will designate such appeals to conscience. When healthcare professionals advance a negative claim of conscience, they do so to secure an exemption from ethical, professional, institutional, and/or legal obligations or requirements to provide a healthcare service.
Bioethics and Social Studies of Medicine: Overlapping Concerns
Authors: TURNER LEIGH
Published: December 2008

Polemicists and disciplinary puritans commonly make a sharp distinction between the normative, “prescriptive,” philosophical work of bioethicists and the empirical, “descriptive” work of anthropologists and sociologists studying medicine, healthcare, and illness. Though few contemporary medical anthropologists and sociologists of health and illness subscribe to positivism, the legacy of positivist thought persists in some areas of the social sciences. It is still quite common for social scientists to insist that their work does not contain explicit normative analysis, offers no practical recommendations for social reform or policy making, and simply interprets social worlds.
Why Can't We All Just Get Along? A Comment on Turner's Plea to Social Scientists and Bioethicists
Authors: DE VRIES RAYMOND
Published: December 2008

Okay, Professor Turner is not Rodney King. He is not responding to bioethicists and social scientists running amuck, setting automobiles aflame, and pelting each other with rocks and broken bottles. He does not come right out and ask, “Why can't we all just get along?” But in its academic way, Turner's essay is an effort to negotiate a truce in the interdisciplinary squabbles that plague bioethics, a plea to move bioethics beyond the “misleading” and “unhelpful” “demarcation of disciplinary goals” that leads to “dichotomous thinking” and “polemical accusations.”
Race-Based Medicine and Justice as Recognition: Exploring the Phenomenon of BiDil
Authors: YU JOON-HO , GOERING SARA , FULLERTON STEPHANIE M.
Published: December 2008

In the United States, health disparities have been framed by categories of race. Racial health disparities have been documented for cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes, HIV/AIDS, and numerous other diseases and measures of health status. Although such disparities can be read as symptoms of disparities in healthcare access, pervasive social and economic inequities, and discrimination, some have suggested that the disparities might be due, at least in part, to biological differences based on race. Or, to be more precise, if race itself has no determined biological meaning, race may nonetheless be a proxy that collects a group of individuals who share certain physiological or genotypic features that affect health.
The Artificial Womb: A Pilot Study Considering People's Views on the Artificial Womb and Ectogenesis in Israel
Authors: SIMONSTEIN FRIDA , MASHIACH–EIZENBERG MICHAL
Published: December 2008

“Dissecting Bioethics,” edited by Tuija Takala and Matti Häyry, welcomes contributions on the conceptual and theoretical dimensions of bioethics. The section is dedicated to the idea that words defined by bioethicists and others should not be allowed to imprison people's actual concerns, emotions, and thoughts. Papers that expose the many meanings of a concept, describe the different readings of a moral doctrine, or provide an alternative angle to seemingly self-evident issues are therefore particularly appreciated. The themes covered in the section so far include dignity, naturalness, public interest, community, disability, autonomy, parity of reasoning, symbolic appeals, and toleration. All submitted papers are peer reviewed. To submit a paper or to discuss a suitable topic, contact Tuija Takala at tuija.takala@helsinki.fi.
Smoke and Mirrors: One Case for Ethical Obligations of the Physician as Public Role Model
Authors: APPEL JACOB M.
Published: December 2008

As a result of workplace clean air regulations and strict guidelines imposed by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations in 1993, most hospitals in the United States are now virtually smoke free. Although evidence suggests that these restrictions both cause smoking employees to consume fewer cigarettes per day and induce some employees to quit smoking entirely, the policies have also driven many healthcare providers—including physicians—onto the public sidewalks for their cigarette breaks. Patients entering many hospitals pass white-coated medical students and residents puffing away at the curbside.
The sexuality clinic in the breast center: sex as a survivorship issue
Authors: Dizon D. S. , Thompson D. , Duffy C. , Wiggins D.
Published: December 2008

Breast cancer and its treatments can cause sexual dysfunction in up to 90% of women with the disease. Front line care providers often do not have the time or training to focus on this quality of life issue and the private nature of the topic can prevent women from pursuing help. By setting up a clinic specifically devoted to sexuality issues, breast cancer treatment centers can provide a place to address these issues and help patients deal with the after-effects of their treatment. As breast cancer survivor rates and disease-free intervals increase, the demand for a service that supports women returning to as near-normal a life as possible will only grow.
Pauperismus und Assoziation
Authors: Stein Hans
Published: December 2008

The present study with pauperism, its causes, its prevention and its significance for the social evolution on the West-European continent, endeavours to provide for one of the gaps which social history, seen as a science of the social dynamics prevailing in history, brings to light. The Rhine-territory here is presented as an exceptionally suggestive illustration.

This investigation shows that both the social associations which the age of pauperism called up in defence against the distress of the masses, and the revolutionary tendencies are a determinant factor in the birth of the modem type of workman, as well as in the origin of the great West-European labour-organisations of the second half of the nineteenth century (trade-unions, cooperations and parties). The shaping of the Farmers'- and the Artisans'-Movement, particularly in Germany, is decisively influenced by them. This evolution of social associations means for the ruling classes the first attempt at neutralising the inner social tensions of the system of industrial capitalism.

Thus the age of pauperism and associations is a period of preparation, of great social-historical importance, without insight into which the later social evolution — upon which our times are based — can be understood and explained in but a very imperfect manner. The investigation of this period again shows the necessity of regarding social history as in independant part of the discipline of the discipline of the social sciences.
M. A. Bakunin in der „Dresdner Zeitung”
Authors: Nikolajewsky B.
Published: December 2008

On going deeper into the life-history of Bakunin, it becomes evident that his first stay abroad (1840—1851) had been decisive for the whole of his spiritual development. Of quite special importance are his activities during the revolutionary epoch of 1848/49; this period of his life has hitherto not been considered with the attention it deserves. Bakunin's contributions to the “Dresdner Zeitung” in the months of March to May 1849 have not been explored at all up to the present.

The “Dresdner Zeitung was the organ of the Dresden Democrats. It appeared regularly from the 1st Oktober 1848 until the 6th August 1850. From being a fairly moderate paper, it gradually became more radical in 1848/49.

Decisive for the volte-face of the paper was the action of Bakunin who was staying in Dresden during the months March/May 1849 and who influenced Ludwig Wittig, one of the editors, to a considerable extent. A radical democrat with socialistic tendencies, already in early March, Wittig developed further and further to the left in the course of the stormy year of 1848. His impressions when in Vienna, where he had been sent by the Saxon democrats in 1848 in order to try arid effectuate the connections with the Vienna movement made him specially receptive for the final conclusions, which Bakunin drew from the events.
William Benbow's Grand National Holiday and Congress of the Productive Classes with an Introduction
Authors: Rüter A. J. C.
Published: December 2008

The exceptional interest of Benbow's pamphlet Grand National Holiday and Congress of the Productive Classes has already been stressed by Beer1), Crook2) and Dolléans3) who quote extensive passages.

What they communicate, however, does not seem to make a complete reprint of this pamphlet superfluous. Benbow's writings derive their importance not only from their showing us one of the most striking facets of the so many-sided social thinking in the England of the beginning of the nineteenth century, but also, and not least, from their being the first written theory about the general strike. These two considerations justify a reproduction of a pamphlet which is difficult of access to those interested, and certainly so outside England4).
Leon N. Tolstoï et A. I. Hertzen
Authors: Izioumov A.
Published: December 2008

On his second journey abroad Leo N. Tolstoi took the opportunity of making the acquaintance of Alexander Hertzen. He spent two or three weeks in London and saw him very much.

Literature, however, has very few data about their meeting, and thus the letters published here, more or less fill this gap. They had been preserved in that part of Hertzen' archives which his children in the beginning of the year 1880 gave to Professor M. Dragomanow for publication. Together with the latter's other papers, they are now to be found in the Russian Historical Archives in Prague.

The letters are of the greatest importance to Tolstoi's biographers, and definitely allow of the exact time being fixed when Tolstoi decided to write a novel entitled; Die Dekabristen, which however, has remained unfinished.

This happened in the late autumn of the year 1860 in Florence, where Tolstoi met Prince S. G. Volkonksy who may be regarded as the prototype of Peter Labasov out of the first version of “Die Dekabristen”.

Although Hertzen was very keen on Tolstoi's writing this book, he himself unintentionally side-tracked him from the Dekabrists by introducing him to Proudhon. The latter at this time was engaged on his book Der Krieg und der Frieden. Immediately after meeting Proudhon, Tolstoi put aside “Die Dekabristen” and-started his War and Peace.

The published letters, moreover, give an explanation of Tolstoi's standpoint towards the mainfesto of 19th February 1861, announcing the liberation of the peasants.
Karl Friedrich Köppen der Intimste Berliner Freund Marxens
Authors: Hirsch Helmut
Published: December 2008

Karl Friedrich Köppen was born on the 28th of April, 1808, at Niedergörne, the son of a clergyman. After having attended the Latin School (“Gymnasium”) at Stendal and the Latin Convent school (“Klostergymnasium”) of Magdeburg, he took up the study of divinity in Berlin in the year 1827, but eventually became a teacher. In 1833 he was appointed at a Berlin school. Four years later he wrote a “Literary Introduction into Nordic Mythology” which has retained its value to the present day and the anti-clerical tendency of which revealed him as one of those radical diciples of Hegel who grouped themelves around A Ruge's “Hallische Jahrbücher” Their aim was: “Away from the Christian state and from State-Christendom'” In the “Doktorklub”, the Berlin center of these Young-Hegelians, Köppen mixed with Bruno Bauer and Karl Marx. Under the influence of Marx, the pen of this most prolific of contributors, to the “Jahrbücher” quickly increaed in sharpness. A jubilant publication of 1840, dedicated to his “friend K. H. Marx of Trier”, entitled “Frederick the Great and his adversaries”, proved a publicistic masterpiece which supplied Marx with suggestionss and gained Köppen the recognition of Engels. This publication focussed its secret hopes in the ascent to the throne by Frederick William IV; the Reaction, however, which set in soon after the change of government, crushed the buds of Young-Hegelian idealism.
Les occupations d'usines en France de mai et juin 1936
Authors: Schwarz Salomon
Published: December 2008

The great strike movement in France in the summer of 1936, which took its peculiar form of action in a series of stay-in strikes, can only be explained by the general state of mind of the French working-class in the spring of 1936. France had found itself for the last two years in a state of growing social and political fermentation. The danger of the militant social and political reaction, which manifested itself particularly clearly in February 1934, had roused the socially and politically progressive elements in France and enabled the reconciliation of the two great labour parties. It also surmounted the discord in the trade-unions and led to the formation of the “Popular Front”, which gained a glorious victory at the elections of deputies on April 26th and May 3rd 1936. In the course of this development of events the social consciousness of the working-class was strengthened. The feeling no longer to have to accept meekly the privations they had had to suffer during the years of depression, and no longer to stand deprived of their rights by their employers, gradually grew stronger. The beginning of 1936 marked a tremendous growth of the membership in the trade-unions and everywhere in the working-class there was a state of ferment. Characteristic of this development is, above all, the fact that in the beginning of the movement of 1936 the material claims, the claims for raising wages, often played a less prominent part and fell back behind the aspiration for mitigation of the social inferiority of the working-class, that is to say, the actual acknowledgement of the workman's right to join a trade-union, the realization of the system of collective contracts, the admittance of representatives of the workers in the different industries.
Glanes Saint-Simoniennes
Authors: Bourgin Georges
Published: December 2008

Monsieur George Bourgin discovered in the National Archives in Paris several manuscripts shedding light on the life and doctrines of Saint-Simon. One is a petition addressed by Saint-Simon to the Chamber of Deputies under the Restauration. Here the great utopist exposes a political system most suitable for his country and gives a survey of the means how to increase France's wealth, how to start a really national education-campaign, and how to guide the French morale in the path of positive peace. The other texts consist of letters, probably addressed to Decazes, in which he endeavours to obtain his assistance in favour of the young school of Saint-Simon.
Karl Marx und der Polizeispitzel Bangya
Authors: Rosdolskyj R.
Published: December 2008

The author of this article on the activities of the Hungarian refugee and spy Johann Bangya based himself on archival sources hitherto unused. As early as 1845/46 Banya had already occasionally served the Austrian Government in some confidential capacity. A spy in the grand style, however, he became after the collapse of the Hungarian fight for independence of 1848/49. He succeeded in establishing himself among the London circles of emigrants, and it was he who put the authorities on the track of the „Kommunistenbund” in Germany. The arrest of the emissary Nothjung and the Cologne Communist Trial, moreover, may be traced back to him as well. Bangya managed to get into close contact with Marx and he smuggled the former's polemic pamphlet Die grossen Männer des Exils into the hands of the police. Marx subsequently accused him of theft of this manuscript and denounced him as a spy in the New York Criminal-Zeitung of May the 3rd, 1853.
Die Haushaltstatistik der Wiener Arbeiterkammer 1925—1934
Authors: Kautsky Benedikt
Published: December 2008

The Vienna Labour-Chamber has for ten years examined the budgets of 60—70 families of workers, employees, unemployed and small annuitants. This decade comprises both the gradual recovery of Austria's economic position from the crisis caused by the war and the inflation, and part of the crisis which began in 1929.

In 1925, out of 42 heads of households 2 were unemployed, in 1928, out of 62 none, in 1934 on the other hand 19 out of 69. The average sum of annual expenses in 1925 amounted to 3.703, in 1929 to 5.105, and in 1934 to 3.208 schillings per family; the income of the heads of households in 1934 amounted to only 62.2 % of that of 1926. Efforts on the part of other members of the family to make up for the decrease in the income of the head of the household by taking up work proved unsuccessful.

The housing conditions show an improvement till the year 1930, which is expressed in a diminuation of overcrowding; from then onwards the conditions remain rather stable with a slight tendency towards deterioration. Rents, which show a considerable rise whilst still remaining fairly low owing to the Act for the protection of Lessees, account in 1925 for 2.62 %, and in 1934 for 7.26 % of the total expenditure.

Partly as a result of the small expenditure on rent, the percentage of the household expenses spent on food is very considerable. In 1925 it amounts to 59.73 %, in 1931 (the minimum year) to 48.17 % and in 1934 to 50.64 %. The biggest item of the expenditure for food is meat, the consumption of which is more or less directly affected by the business cycle, whereas the consumption of bread and flour is hardly influenced at all. The consumption of fats shows great fluctuations in its composition; the principal constituent, however, remains always lard.
La lutte du Gouvernement français contre la Première Internationale
Authors: Bourgin Georges
Published: December 2008

The author of this article points out that up to the present there exists no critical study of the relation between the First International and the Commune. This he deems very regrettable, as ever since the year 1871 a connection has been established between the two movements.

So did also the French Government, for when it had destroyed the Commune, it brought an action against the First International. To this end, Jules Favre ordered the French ambassadors to undertake the necessary steps with the governments to which they were accredited. The dispatches published in this article, which were the replies to Favre's circulars—also reproduced here—, reveal that these steps carried no direct results. For a greater knowledge, however, of facts and of the notions prevalent with the governments of various European countries, they are of considerable historical interest. Thiers, moreover, introduced a bill into the Assemblée Nationale to the effect of making punishable whoever was connected with the International. The Assemblée appointed a commission to examine this bill; the records of this commission are also to be found in the above article. An explanatory text, finally, links up the various documents published.
Effects of the 16 February 1980 solar eclipse on the composition of the low‐latitude ionosphere as seen by Atmosphere Explorer E
Authors: West K. H. , Goldsmith G. , Campbell D. , Zandstra S.
Published: December 2008

Solar eclipses are known to locally disrupt the transport, production, and loss mechanisms in the ionosphere. Ion composition, ion temperature, and neutral temperature data from the Atmosphere Explorer E spacecraft are examined for the total solar eclipse of 16 February 1980. The spacecraft transited twice across the dayside face of the Earth during the course of the eclipse, allowing for examination of eclipse effects to be made over a wide longitude and local time range and for examination of posteclipse recovery of the ionosphere. One orbit from 14 February, occurring over a longitude and local time range similar to that of the first eclipse orbit, is used as control data. The eclipse had a significant effect on the concentrations of both O+ and N+, which both dropped. The concentration of H+ seems to show an eclipse effect, but the concentrations are too low to draw definite conclusions. Signatures of charge exchange between H+ and neutral oxygen are seen in the data from the second eclipse orbit. The ion temperature drops by as much as 60 K. The neutral atmosphere shows no change in temperature during the course of the eclipse. The second eclipse orbit occurred closer to the path of the eclipse than did the first orbit, and the perturbations caused by the eclipse are greater in the second orbit. The control and second eclipse orbit data are compared to results from the International Reference Ionosphere 2000 model. The model results show good qualitative agreement with the ion concentration data.
Evaluation of a hemi‐spherical wideband antenna array for breast cancer imaging
Authors: Klemm M. , Craddock I. J. , Preece A. , Leendertz J. , Benjamin R.
Published: December 2008

Using similar techniques to ground penetrating radars, microwave detection of breast tumors is a potential nonionizing and noninvasive alternative to traditional body‐imaging techniques. In order to develop an imaging system, the team at Bristol have been working on a number of antenna array prototypes, based around a stacked‐patch element, starting with simple pairs of elements and progressing to fully populated planar arrays. As the system commences human subject trials, a curved breast phantom has been developed along with an approximately hemi‐spherical conformal array. This contribution will present details of the conformal array design and initial results from this unique experimental imaging system as applied to an anatomically shaped breast phantom.
Regional frequency analysis of precipitation using large‐scale atmospheric variables
Authors: Satyanarayana P. , Srinivas V. V.
Published: December 2008

Effective estimates of the magnitude and frequency of precipitation are necessary for hydrological designs. However, often the available data at target site are inadequate to arrive at reliable estimates. Practicing hydrometeorologists overcome this impediment by pooling information at target site with that from other locations depicting similar characteristics of precipitation. To facilitate pooling of information, hydrometeorologists use regionalization approaches for partitioning sites in the study region into groups having similar precipitation characteristics. The conventional approaches to regionalization are based on statistics computed from observed precipitation, rather than attributes affecting hydrometeorology in a region. Therefore independent validation of the delineated regions for homogeneity in precipitation was not possible. To address this issue, a new approach is proposed. Large‐scale atmospheric variables affecting the precipitation in study region and location attributes are suggested as features for regionalization by K‐means cluster analysis. This allows independent validation of the identified regions for homogeneity using statistics computed from the observed precipitation. The summer monsoon rainfall (SMR) regions that are currently in use by India Meteorological Department (IMD) are shown to be heterogeneous. Subsequently the effectiveness of the proposed approach to regionalization is illustrated through application to India for delineating new SMR regions. Frequency distributions are identified to fit rainfall in the regions using L‐moment–based goodness‐of‐fit test. Error in rainfall quantile estimates for the new regions is found to be significantly less than that estimated for the IMD SMR regions. The results show that the proposed approach to regional frequency analysis of precipitation is promising.
Negligible convergence and lithospheric tearing along the Caribbean–South American plate boundary at 64°W
Authors: Clark S. A. , Levander A. , Magnani M. B. , Zelt C. A.
Published: December 2008

Prior studies of the Caribbean–South American plate boundary have suffered from poor constraint on the structure of the crust and uppermost mantle. We use a recent wide‐angle velocity model from the Broadband Ocean‐Land Investigation of Venezuela and the Antilles arc Region project to constrain new seismic reflection data and previously published line drawing interpretations of the Caribbean–South American plate boundary at 64°W. Though commonly characterized as obliquely convergent, we determine that convergence is negligible in our study area. Previous estimates of Miocene to present north‐south shortening onshore eastern Venezuela have commonly been 115 km or higher, but we constrain shortening to ∼35 km onshore, with an additional ∼30 km offshore. With such minor convergence, we conclude that uplift and basin subsidence in eastern Venezuela does not derive from typical collisional orogeny. Instead, the largely vertical tectonics likely result from mantle dynamics associated with an eastward propagating, near‐vertical tear in the lithosphere along the former passive margin.
Spatiotemporal changes in the genetic diversity of a bloom-forming Microcystis aeruginosa (cyanobacteria) population
Authors: Briand Enora , Escoffier Nicolas , Straub Cécile , Sabart Marion , Quiblier Catherine , Humbert Jean-François
Published: December 2008

The variations in microcystin concentrations during cyanobacterial blooms in freshwater ecosystems appear to depend on numerous factors, which have still not been fully identified. To contribute to clarify the situation, we have developed a spatial sampling approach to determine the dynamics and genetic diversity of a bloom-forming population of Microcystis aeruginosa in a large French reservoir, and the variations in the proportions of microcystin-producing genotypes. We demonstrated that marked changes occurred in the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) genotype composition of the M. aeruginosa population during the development of the bloom. These changes led progressively to the selection of one dominant ITS genotype throughout the entire reservoir when the cell number reached its maximum. At the same time, we identified a decrease in the proportion of the mcyB+ genotype, and a significant negative correlation between this proportion and that of the dominant ITS genotype during the bloom. Thus, it appeared that favorable conditions for Microcystis cell growth led to the selection, within the Microcystis population, of a non-microcystin-producing genotype, whereas potentially microcystin-producing genotypes were dominant in this population before and after the bloom, when environmental conditions were less favorable for growth.
AutoVis: Automatic Visualization
Authors: Wills Graham , Wilkinson Leland
Published: December 2008

AutoVis is a data viewer that responds to content–text, relational tables, hierarchies, streams, images–and displays the information appropriately (that is, as an expert would). Its design rests on the grammar of graphics, scagnostics and a modeler based on the logic of statistical analysis. We distinguish an automatic visualization system (AVS) from an automated visualization system. The former automatically makes decisions about what is to be visualized. The latter is a programming system for automating the production of charts, graphs and visualizations. An AVS is designed to provide a first glance at data before modeling and analysis are done. AVS is designed to protect researchers from ignoring missing data, outliers, miscodes and other anomalies that can violate statistical assumptions or otherwise jeopardize the validity of models. The design of this system incorporates several unique features: (1) a spare interface–analysts simply drag a data source into an empty window, (2) a graphics generator that requires no user definitions to produce graphs, (3) a statistical analyzer that protects users from false conclusions, and (4) a pattern recognizer that responds to the aspects (density, shape, trend, and so on) that professional statisticians notice when investigating data sets.
Photoionization of isooctane in intense laser fields. II. The effect of irradiance on electron dynamics
Authors: Healy Andrew T. , Lipsky Sanford , Blank David A.
Published: December 2008

Thin path length jets (60 μm) of liquid isooctane have been photoionized with 36–70 fs pulses of 3.1 eV photons. Decay of the transient absorption (TA) at 1200 nm (assigned as predominantly due to absorption by the electron) has been examined over a time interval from 0.5 to 40 ps and over an irradiance range from 7 to 407 TW/cm2. This range of irradiance covers a region that encompasses the closing of the three photon and four photon liquid ionization channels (at ∼15 and 110 TW/cm2, respectively) [J. Chem. Phys. 127, 214820 (2007)]. The temporal behavior of the TA is observed to cycle with irradiance. At the closing of both channels, the temporal behavior of the TA is the same and can be fitted to the model of an electron diffusively recombining with its geminate cation. In irradiance regions prior and subsequent to these channel closings, a similar diffusive fit of the TA is possible but with parameters changed to accommodate an experimental decay, which is much more rapid in the first few picoseconds. Possible origins for this periodic behavior are examined using the nonperturbative strong field approximation of Riess [Phys. Rev. A 22, 1786 (1980)].
Direct observation of the absorption bands of the first electronic transition in liquid H2O and D2O by attenuated total reflectance far-UV spectroscopy
Authors: Ikehata Akifumi , Higashi Noboru , Ozaki Yukihiro
Published: December 2008

Absorption bands of the first electronic transition (X̃A11→ÃB11) of water (H2O) and heavy water (D2O) in the liquid state have been directly observed by using a uniquely designed attenuated total reflectance far-ultraviolet (ATR-FUV) spectrometer. Since the ATR geometry reduces the absorbance, the FUV spectra can be obtained over the entire X̃A11→ÃB11 absorption band, including the band maxima. Systematic measurements of the FUV spectra of H2O and D2O with heating from 10to70°C and the analysis of Kramers–Kronig transformation reveal that the first electronic transition band redshifted on heating. This result is in good agreement with the redshift that has been frequently observed in the low-energy band tail of the X̃A11→ÃB11 absorption band.
Intense laser-driven relativistic electron beams in a two-layer target
Authors: Zhou C. T. , He X. T.
Published: December 2008

An intense short-pulse laser irradiates solid targets to produce relativistic electrons by depositing the light energy at the relativistic critical density. These fast electrons propagating through a coaxial two-layer plasma target can generate tens of million-Gauss interface magnetic fields at the material interfaces. The present hybrid fluid-particle-in-cell simulations clearly show that the strong interface magnetic field can completely change the direction of the beam electron, and considerably reduce the divergence of the energetic beam electrons. The microscopic turbulent magnetic fields can furthermore result in the complex beam-electron behavior. Since the beam electrons deposit their energy through the return current and heat the plasma, the beam concentration in the high-Z plasma layer therefore leads to more uniform heating in the inner layer of the target.
One-dimensional simulations of reversed field pinch discharges
Authors: Martines E. , Spagnolo S.
Published: December 2008

A simple one-dimensional time-dependent model for simulating the magnetic field profiles in a reversed field pinch (RFP) plasma is presented. The model, which is derived from basic MHD equations with the addition of a phenomenological dynamo electric field, is able, through the tuning of a few free parameters, to simulate the time evolution of RFP discharges in a large range of operating conditions, successfully reproducing quantities such as the average toroidal field, the loop voltage and the on-axis safety factor. The application to several experimental conditions obtained on the RFX-mod machine [P. Sonato et al., Fusion Eng. Des. 66, 161 (2003)], including oscillating poloidal current drive (OPCD) is shown and the simulation outcome is discussed.
Analytical and numerical studies of sequence dependence of passage times for translocation of heterobiopolymers through nanopores
Authors: Abdolvahab R. H. , Roshani Farinaz , Nourmohammad Armita , Sahimi Muhammad , Tabar M. Reza Rahimi
Published: December 2008

We consider chaperone-assisted translocation of biopolymers with two distinct monomers or bases A and B, with the size of the chaperones being λσ, where σ is a monomer’s size. The probability that A and B are neighbors in the biopolymer is PAB. A master equation is used, together with the detailed-balanced condition, in order to derive analytical results for the statistics of the first-passage times of the biopolymer as a function of PAB, λ, and the biopolymer’s configuration. Monte Carlo simulations have also been carried out in order to compute the same quantities for biopolymers with 100–900 monomers and several λ. The results indicate nontrivial dependence of the variance of the translocation times on the biopolymer’s composition. It is also shown that measurements of the first two moments of the biopolymer’s first-passage time distribution provide information on its length and ordering. Moreover, the probability density function Q(t) of the first-passage times is almost Gaussian for small chaperone size λ, but becomes non-Gaussian as λ increases. At large times, Q(t) decays exponentially.
The role of curvature and stretching on the existence of fast dynamo plasma in Riemannian space
Authors: Garcia de Andrade L. C.
Published: December 2008

Vishik’s anti-dynamo theorem is applied to a nonstretched twisted magnetic flux tube in Riemannian space. Marginal or slow dynamos along curved (folded), torsioned (twisted), and nonstretching flux tubes plasma flows are obtained. Riemannian curvature of the twisted magnetic flux tube is computed in terms of the Frenet curvature in the thin tube limit. It is shown that, for nonstretched filaments, fast dynamo action in the diffusive case cannot be obtained, in agreement with Vishik’s argument that fast dynamos cannot be obtained in nonstretched flows. Instead of a fast dynamo, a nonuniform stretching slow dynamo is obtained. An example is given, which generalizes plasma dynamo laminar flows, recently presented by Wang et al. [Phys Plasmas 9, 1491 (2002)], in the case of low magnetic Reynolds number Rem⩾210. Curved and twisting Riemannian heliotrons, where nondynamo modes are found even when stretching is present, shows that the simple presence of stretching is not enough for the existence of dynamo action. In this paper, folding plays the role of Riemannian curvature and can be used to cancel magnetic fields, not enhancing the dynamo action. Nondynamo modes are found for certain values of torsion, or Frenet curvature (folding) in the spirit of the anti-dynamo theorem. It is also shown that curvature and stretching are fundamental for the existence of fast dynamos in plasmas.