bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Cholesterol Feeding Increases C-Reactive Protein and Serum Amyloid A Levels in Lean Insulin-Sensitive Subjects
Authors: Tannock Lisa R. , O’Brien Kevin D. , Knopp Robert H. , Retzlaff Barbara , Fish Brian , Wener Mark H. , Kahn Steven E. , Chait Alan
Published: June 2005

Background—

Inflammatory markers associated with elevated cardiovascular risk are increased by cholesterol feeding in animal models. However, whether dietary cholesterol increases inflammatory marker levels in humans is not known.

Methods and Results—

C-reactive protein (CRP), serum amyloid A (SAA), and lipoprotein levels were compared in 201 healthy subjects on an American Heart Association–National Cholesterol Education Program step 1 diet at baseline and after addition of 4 eggs per day for 4 weeks. Subjects were classified a priori into 3 groups based on their body mass index (BMI) and insulin sensitivity index (S
I
): lean insulin sensitive (LIS), mean±SEM BMI, 23.2±0.3 kg/m
2
, and S
I
, 6.7±0.3×10
−4
min
−1
/(μU/mL), n=66; lean insulin resistant (LIR), BMI, 24.5±0.2 kg/m
2
and S
I
, 2.9±0.1×10
−4
min
−1
/(μU/mL), n=76; or obese insulin resistant (OIR), BMI, 31.4±0.5 kg/m
2
and S
I
, 2.1±0.1×10
−4
min
−1
/(μU/mL), n=59. Insulin resistance and obesity each were associated with increased baseline levels of both CRP (
P
for trend, <0.001) and SAA (
P
for trend=0.015). Egg feeding was associated with significant increases in both CRP and SAA in the LIS group (both
P
<0.01) but not in the LIR or OIR groups. Egg feeding also was associated with a significant increase in non-HDL cholesterol (
P
<0.001) in LIS subjects; however, there was no correlation between the change in non-HDL cholesterol or changes in either CRP or SAA in this group.

Conclusions—

A high-cholesterol diet leads to significant increases in both inflammatory markers and non-HDL cholesterol levels in insulin-sensitive individuals but not in lean or obese insulin-resistant subjects.
Calcineurin–Nuclear Factor of Activated T Cells Pathway–Dependent Cardiac Remodeling in Mice Deficient in Guanylyl Cyclase A, a Receptor for Atrial and Brain Natriuretic Peptides
Authors: Tokudome Takeshi , Horio Takeshi , Kishimoto Ichiro , Soeki Takeshi , Mori Kenji , Kawano Yuhei , Kohno Masakazu , Garbers David L. , Nakao Kazuwa , Kangawa Kenji
Published: June 2005

Background—

Although disruption of guanylyl cyclase (GC) A, a natriuretic peptide receptor, induces cardiac hypertrophy and fibrosis, the molecular mechanism underlying these effects are not well understood. In this study, we examined the role of calcineurin, a calcium-dependent phosphatase, in cardiac remodeling in GCA-knockout (GCA-KO) mice.

Methods and Results—

At 14 weeks of age, calcineurin activity, nuclear translocation of nuclear factor of activated T cells c3 (NFATc3), and modulatory calcineurin-interacting protein 1 (MCIP1) gene expressions were increased in the hearts of GCA-KO mice compared with wild-type (WT) mice. Blockade of calcineurin activation by FK506 (6 mg/kg body weight administered subcutaneously once a day from 10 to 14 weeks of age) significantly decreased the heart-to-body weight ratio, cardiomyocyte size, and collagen volume fraction in GCA-KO mice, whereas FK506 did not affect these parameters in WT mice. Overexpression of atrial and brain natriuretic peptides, collagen, and fibronectin mRNAs in GCA-KO mice was also attenuated by FK506. Electrophoretic mobility shift assays demonstrated that GATA4 DNA-binding activity was increased in GCA-KO mice, and this increase was inhibited by calcineurin blockade. In neonatal cultured cardiac myocytes, inhibition of GCA by HS142-1 (100 μg/mL) increased basal and phenylephrine (10
−
6
mol/L)-stimulated calcineurin activity, nuclear translocation of NFATc3, and MCIP1 mRNA expression. In contrast, activation of GCA by atrial natriuretic peptide (10
−
6
mol/L) inhibited phenylephrine (10
−
6
mol/L)-stimulated nuclear translocation of NFATc3.

Conclusions—

These results suggest that activation of cardiac GCA by locally secreted natriuretic peptides protects the heart from excessive cardiac remodeling by inhibiting the calcineurin-NFAT pathway.
Novel Molecular Mechanism Involving α
1D
(Cav1.3) L-Type Calcium Channel in Autoimmune-Associated Sinus Bradycardia
Authors: Qu Yongxia , Baroudi Ghayath , Yue Yuankun , Boutjdir Mohamed
Published: June 2005

Background—

Congenital heart block (CHB) is an autoimmune disease that affects fetuses/infants born to mothers with anti-Ro/La antibodies (positive IgG). Although the hallmark of CHB is complete atrioventricular block, sinus bradycardia has been reported recently in animal models of CHB. Interestingly, knockout of the neuroendocrine α
1D
Ca channel in mice results in significant sinus bradycardia and atrioventricular block, a phenotype reminiscent to that seen in CHB. Here, we tested the hypothesis that the α
1D
Ca channel is a novel target for positive IgG.

Methods and Results—

Reverse transcription–polymerase chain reaction, confocal indirect immunostaining, and Western blot data established the expression of the α
1D
Ca channel in the human fetal heart. The effect of positive IgG on α
1D
Ca current (
I
Ca-L
) was characterized in heterologous expression systems (tsA201 cells and Xenopus oocytes) because of the unavailability of α
1D
-specific modulators. α
1D
I
Ca-L
activated at negative potentials (between −60 and −50 mV). Positive IgG inhibited α
1D
I
Ca-L
in both expression systems. This inhibition was rescued by a Ca channel activator, Bay K8644. No effect on α
1D
I
Ca-L
was observed with negative IgG and denatured positive IgG. Western blot data showed that positive IgG binds directly to α
1D
Ca channel protein.

Conclusions—

The data are the first to demonstrate (1) expression of the α
1D
Ca channel in human fetal heart, (2) inhibition of α
1D
I
Ca-L
by positive IgG, and (3) direct cross-reactivity of positive IgG with the α
1D
Ca channel protein. Given that α
1D
I
Ca-L
activates at voltages within the pacemaker’s diastolic depolarization, inhibition of α
1D
I
Ca-L
in part may account for autoimmune-associated sinus bradycardia. In addition, Bay K8644 rescue of α
1D
I
Ca-L
inhibition opens new directions in the development of pharmacotherapeutic approaches in the management of CHB.
Admission Glucose and Mortality in Elderly Patients Hospitalized With Acute Myocardial Infarction
Authors: Kosiborod Mikhail , Rathore Saif S. , Inzucchi Silvio E. , Masoudi Frederick A. , Wang Yongfei , Havranek Edward P. , Krumholz Harlan M.
Published: June 2005

Background—

The relationship between admission glucose levels and outcomes in older diabetic and nondiabetic patients with acute myocardial infarction is not well defined.

Methods and Results—

We evaluated a national sample of elderly patients (n=141 680) hospitalized with acute myocardial infarction from 1994 to 1996. Admission glucose was analyzed as a categorical (≤110, >110 to 140, >140 to 170, >170 to 240, >240 mg/dL) and continuous variable for its association with mortality in patients with and without recognized diabetes. A substantial proportion of hyperglycemic patients (eg, 26% of those with glucose >240 mg/dL) did not have recognized diabetes. Fewer hyperglycemic patients without known diabetes received insulin during hospitalization than diabetics with similar glucose levels (eg, glucose >240 mg/dL, 22% versus 73%;
P
<0.001). Higher glucose levels were associated with greater risk of 30-day mortality in patients without known diabetes (for glucose range from ≤110 to >240 mg/dL, 10% to 39%) compared with diabetics (range, 16% to 24%;
P
for interaction <0.001). After multivariable adjustment, higher glucose levels continued to be associated with a graded increase in 30-day mortality in patients without known diabetes (referent, glucose ≤110 mg/dL; range from glucose >110 to 140 mg/dL: hazard ratio [HR], 1.17; 95% CI, 1.11 to 1.24; to glucose >240 mg/dL: HR, 1.87; 95% CI, 1.75 to 2.00). In contrast, among diabetic patients, greater mortality risk was observed only in those with glucose >240 mg/dL (HR, 1.32; 95% CI, 1.17 to 1.50 versus glucose ≤110 mg/dL;
P
for interaction <0.001). One-year mortality results were similar.

Conclusions—

Elevated glucose is common, rarely treated, and associated with increased mortality risk in elderly acute myocardial infarction patients, particularly those without recognized diabetes.
Aldosterone Synthase Inhibitor Ameliorates Angiotensin II–Induced Organ Damage
Authors: Fiebeler Anette , Nussberger Jürg , Shagdarsuren Erdenechimeg , Rong Song , Hilfenhaus Georg , Al-Saadi Nidal , Dechend Ralf , Wellner Maren , Meiners Silke , Maser-Gluth Christiane , Jeng Arco Y. , Webb Randy L. , Luft Friedrich C. , Muller Dominik N.
Published: June 2005

Background—

Aldosterone and angiotensin (Ang) II both may cause organ damage. Circulating aldosterone is produced in the adrenals; however, local cardiac synthesis has been reported. Aldosterone concentrations depend on the activity of aldosterone synthase (CYP11B2). We tested the hypothesis that reducing aldosterone by inhibiting CYP11B2 or by adrenalectomy (ADX) may ameliorate organ damage. Furthermore, we investigated how much local cardiac aldosterone originates from the adrenal gland.

Methods and Results—

We investigated the effect of the CYP11B2 inhibitor FAD286, losartan, and the consequences of ADX in transgenic rats overexpressing both the human renin and angiotensinogen genes (dTGR). dTGR-ADX received dexamethasone and 1% salt. Dexamethasone-treated dTGR-salt served as a control group in the ADX protocol. Untreated dTGR developed hypertension and cardiac and renal damage and had a 40% mortality rate (5/13) at 7 weeks. FAD286 reduced mortality to 10% (1/10) and ameliorated cardiac hypertrophy, albuminuria, cell infiltration, and matrix deposition in the heart and kidney. FAD286 had no effect on blood pressure at weeks 5 and 6 but slightly reduced blood pressure at week7 (177±6 mm Hg in dTGR+FAD286 and 200±5 mm Hg in dTGR). Losartan normalized blood pressure during the entire study. Circulating and cardiac aldosterone levels were reduced in FAD286 or losartan-treated dTGR. ADX combined with dexamethasone and salt treatment decreased circulating and cardiac aldosterone to barely detectable levels. At week 7, ADX-dTGR-dexamethasone-salt had a 22% mortality rate compared with 73% in dTGR-dexamethasone-salt. Both groups were similarly hypertensive (190±9 and 187±4 mm Hg). In contrast, cardiac hypertrophy index, albuminuria, cell infiltration, and matrix deposition were significantly reduced after ADX (
P
<0.05).

Conclusions—

Aldosterone plays a key role in the pathogenesis of Ang II–induced organ damage. Both FAD286 and ADX reduced circulating and cardiac aldosterone levels. The present results show that aldosterone produced in the adrenals is the main source of cardiac aldosterone.
Islamic Legal Theory Curriculum: Are the Classics Taught Today?
Authors: Cardinal Monique
Published: June 2005

During the past century, legal education has been redefined in the Arab-Muslim world as a result of the adoption of European codes, procedures and courts. Although Islamic law has been largely excluded from the curriculum of modern law schools, Islamic legal theory (usūl al-fiqh) has been retained, albeit on a highly reduced scale, and taught through modern textbooks designed by professors of the new law faculties. This article traces the genealogy of the modern usūlī textbook in an attempt to explain how the Shari a faculties of contemporary Arab universities have come to privilege the modern textbook over the classical treatise to teach Islamic legal theory. I compare the curriculum and course material of the Shari a faculties of five universities: al-Zaytūna, al-Qarawiyyīn, al-Azhar, Damascus University and Jordan University. In all, this study examines forty-two modern textbooks of Islamic legal theory. A survey of the contexts in which the first modern textbooks were taught reveals, in part, how the modern textbook of Islamic legal theory differs from its classical counterpart.
Armenian European Relationship in India, 1500–1800: No Armenian Foundation for European Empire?
Authors: Bhattacharya Bhaswati
Published: June 2005

Historical evidence points to the existence of Armenians in India in small numbers at least since the sixteenth century. Beginning with the Portuguese in that century, Europeans entered the spheres of Euro-Asian and intra-Asian trade in an increasing volume. Armenian contact with India received a boost following the settlement of a large number of Armenians in New Julfa that coincided with the coming of the European companies in India. The arrival of the Europeans opened up various possibilities for the Armenians. Consequently, Armenian trade, based to a great extent on various forms of community-based network and partnership, was not 'exclusive' in nature. In their social life too Armenians formed part of the pluralistic Christian community in India. Les données historiques suggèrent l'existence en Inde d'un petit nombre d'Arméniens depuis le XVIe siècle. A partir de l'arrivée des Portugais à cette époque, les Européens ont développé les échanges avec l'Asie et en ont pénétré de plus en plus le commerce intérieur. Les contacts des Arméniens avec l'Inde ont connu une rapide expansion à la suite de l'établissement d'un nombre important d'entre eux à New Julfa, dans la mouvance de l'arrivée des compagnies européennes qui leur offraient des possibilités variées. De ce fait, le commerce arménien, largement fondé sur diverses formes de réseaux et de partenariats internes à leur communauté, n'était pas de nature « exclusive » . Dans leur vie sociale, aussi, les Arméniens étaient partie prenante de la communauté chrétienne indienne, pluraliste.
The History and Prehistory of Pearling in the Persian Gulf
Authors: Carter Robert
Published: June 2005

The paper presents an analysis and synthesis of historical and archaeological data on pearl fishing in the Persian Gulf. The history of pearling in the region is reviewed, from the earliest possible references to the mid 20th century. Economic data from the 18th–20th centuries CE is analysed in detail, to de fine the economic course of the pearling industry during that time, and assess the impact on human settlement in the region. The archaeological data for pearl fishing are then examined, from the 6th millennium BCE onwards, and compared to the historical evidence. The results of archaeological survey in the Abu Dhabi islands region are then taken as a case study, and changes in settlement patterns are related to the historical trajectory of the pearling industry. It is observed that the regional economy became overwhelmingly dependent on the pearl trade in recent centuries, and was increasingly subject to the demands of the global market. Cette étude présente une analyse et une synthèse des données historiques et archéologiques sur la pêche des perles dans le Golfe arabo-persique. L'histoire de la pêche des perles dans la région est passée en revue, depuis les plus anciennes références connues qui remontent au milieu du 20e siècle. Les données économiques du 18e au 20e siècle sont analysées en détail pour dé finir l'évolution de l'industrie perlière pendant cette période et évaluer son incidence sur le peuplement de la région. Les données archéologiques sur la pêche des perles, examinées depuis le 6ème millénaire avant J.-C., ont été comparées aux données historiques. Les résultats des reconnaissances archéologiques dans les îles de la région d'Abu Dhabi sont alors présentées comme étude de cas et les modi fications de con figuration de l'habitat sont reliées à l'évolution historique de l'industrie perlière. On remarque que l'économie de cette région est devenue presque entièrement dépendante du commerce des perles dans les siècles récents, et qu'elle était de plus en plus assujettie à la demande du marché mondial.
Reflections on State-Making and History-Making in South India, 1500-1800
Authors: Subrahmanyam Sanjay
Published: June 2005

This paper is concerned with early modern southern India, and in particular, the areas ruled over by Vijayanagara, the Nayakas of Senji and the Nawwabs of Arcot. Its primary intention is to point out that states as diverse as these produced important narratives that served as points of self-definition. Positivist historians have often struggled to understand what to do with these texts, asking in effect whether they are “truths” or “lies,” and often rejecting them wholsesale for the ostensibly more “reliable” stone and copper-plate based inscriptions.The paper argues against the divide in south Indian history between “textualists,” who read narrative texts, and “epigraphers,” who prefer the “hard” evidence of inscriptions, and contends that any general historical analysis must of necessity be based on a reading of both forms of materials. In this context, the paper develops the argument for the emergence of a certain historical self-consciousness in early modern south India, both in the Perso-Islamic and the vernacular traditions, and in their interface. It would naturally be tempting to see matters in terms of a succession of expressive forms, each one successfully and finally displacing its predecessors, but it is proposed that the realities one encounters are rather more complex than this model would suggest.
Social Hierarchy and Merchant Philanthropy as Perceived in Several Late-Ming and Early-Qing Texts
Authors: Handlin Smith Joanna
Published: June 2005

Following the fall of the Ming dynasty in 1644, literati questioned the social hierarchy, acknowledged merchants as philanthropists, and revised their understanding of gifts and donations. Using several texts (by Tang Zhen and Wei Xi, in particular), this paper proposes that early-Qing literati reconceptualized some of the goals of philanthropy. Where late-Ming philanthropy aimed (among other things) to spread moral instruction and affirm the superior status of scholar-officials, the early-Qing Wei Xi condoned merchant use of philanthropy to build social connections. Thus, the high moralizing of late-Ming philanthropy gave way to perceptions that the recipients of aid were directly obligated to their benefactors. The weakening of the moral purpose of philanthropy and the intensification of donor-beneficiary relations sparked a trend to routinize philanthropy (through forced donations and quasi-taxation), thereby diminishing the room for and significance of individual initiative.
Decadal Changes in the South Indian Ocean Thermocline
Authors: McDonagh Elaine L. , Bryden Harry L. , King Brian A. , Sanders Richard J. , Cunningham Stuart A. , Marsh Robert
Published: June 2005

A significant change in properties of the thermocline is observed across the whole Indian Ocean 32°S section between 1987 and 2002. This change represents a reversal of the pre-1987 freshening and decreasing oxygen concentrations of the upper thermocline that had been interpreted as a fingerprint of anthropogenic climate change. The thermocline at the western end of the section (40°–70°E) is occupied by a single variety of mode water with a potential temperature of around 13°C. The thermocline at the eastern end of the 32°S section is occupied by mode waters with a range of properties cooling from ∼11°C at 80°E to ∼9°C near the Australian coast. The change in θ–S properties between 1987 and 2002 is zonally coherent east of 80°E, with a maximum change on isopycnals at 11.6°C. Ages derived from helium–tritium data imply that the mode waters at all longitudes take about the same time to reach 32°S from their respective ventilation sites. Dissolved oxygen concentration changes imply that all of the mode water reached the section ∼20% faster in 2002 than in 1987.
Terrestrial Carbon Cycle Dynamics under Recent and Future Climate Change
Authors: Matthews H. Damon , Weaver Andrew J. , Meissner Katrin J.
Published: June 2005

The behavior of the terrestrial carbon cycle under historical and future climate change is examined using the University of Victoria Earth System Climate Model, now coupled to a dynamic terrestrial vegetation and global carbon cycle model. When forced by historical emissions of CO2 from fossil fuels and land-use change, the coupled climate–carbon cycle model accurately reproduces historical atmospheric CO2 trends, as well as terrestrial and oceanic uptake for the past two decades. Under six twenty-first-century CO2 emissions scenarios, both terrestrial and oceanic carbon sinks continue to increase, though terrestrial uptake slows in the latter half of the century. Climate–carbon cycle feedbacks are isolated by comparing a coupled model run with a run where climate and the carbon cycle are uncoupled. The modeled positive feedback between the carbon cycle and climate is found to be relatively small, resulting in an increase in simulated CO2 of 60 ppmv at the year 2100. Including non-CO2 greenhouse gas forcing and increasing the model’s climate sensitivity increase the effect of this feedback to 140 ppmv. The UVic model does not, however, simulate a switch from a terrestrial carbon sink to a source during the twenty-first century, as earlier studies have suggested. This can be explained by a lack of substantial reductions in simulated vegetation productivity due to climate changes.
Quantifying Uncertainty in Projections of Regional Climate Change: A Bayesian Approach to the Analysis of Multimodel Ensembles
Authors: Tebaldi Claudia , Smith Richard L. , Nychka Doug , Mearns Linda O.
Published: June 2005

A Bayesian statistical model is proposed that combines information from a multimodel ensemble of atmosphere–ocean general circulation models (AOGCMs) and observations to determine probability distributions of future temperature change on a regional scale. The posterior distributions derived from the statistical assumptions incorporate the criteria of bias and convergence in the relative weights implicitly assigned to the ensemble members. This approach can be considered an extension and elaboration of the reliability ensemble averaging method. For illustration, the authors consider the output of mean surface temperature from nine AOGCMs, run under the A2 emission scenario from the Synthesis Report on Emission Scenarios (SRES), for boreal winter and summer, aggregated over 22 land regions and into two 30-yr averages representative of current and future climate conditions. The shapes of the final probability density functions of temperature change vary widely, from unimodal curves for regions where model results agree (or outlying projections are discounted) to multimodal curves where models that cannot be discounted on the basis of bias give diverging projections. Besides the basic statistical model, the authors consider including correlation between present and future temperature responses, and test alternative forms of probability distributions for the model error terms. It is suggested that a probabilistic approach, particularly in the form of a Bayesian model, is a useful platform from which to synthesize the information from an ensemble of simulations. The probability distributions of temperature change reveal features such as multimodality and long tails that could not otherwise be easily discerned. Furthermore, the Bayesian model can serve as an interdisciplinary tool through which climate modelers, climatologists, and statisticians can work more closely. For example, climate modelers, through their expert judgment, could contribute to the formulations of prior distributions in the statistical model.
The Temple and the Antonia
Authors: Murphy-O’connor Jerome
Published: June 2005

Ezekiel 47:1 does not describe a physical reality, and so cannot be used to localize the Solomonic temple over the Gihon Spring. The channels leading from the spring were not designed to force water vertically to the surface of the ridge. The Haram es-Sharif was never the Antonia fortress; it was the site of the Jewish temple.
Sixty Years of Showing the World to America
Authors: Kim Hun Shik , Smith C. Zoe
Published: June 2005

News photographs of international events serve Americans as a visual medium for understanding other cultures and countries. However, a content analysis of 60 years of Pulitzer Prize-winning photographs (1942-2002) reveals that the major visual themes of the prize-winning photographs depicting international news events are predominantly about war and coups. On the other hand, the Pulitzer Prize-winning photographs taken in the US reveal more diverse themes and subjects, although they, too, tend to concentrate on bad news, like crime and terrorism, social problems, racism and poverty. Based on the content analysis and personal interviews with the judges, it is believed that the Prize’s most important determinants of international news photography appear to be violence and conflict with a consideration of the photographers’ demonstration of courage producing the pictures.
Chinese Newspapers and Market Theories of Web Journalism
Authors: Massey Brian L. , Luo Wei
Published: June 2005

This article tests market-based theories of online journalism on the web editions of printed-page Chinese newspapers. It focuses on differentiation, defined as the extent to which a newspaper gives its online readers internet-specific features with news content. The findings suggest a relationship between print circulation and the technical complexity that a newspaper builds or not into its online news content. They also are consistent with the notion of a global, perhaps capitalist-driven, template for web newspaper journalism. General theoretic rules for web journalism are proposed.
E.H. Carr vs. Idealism: The Battle Rages On
Authors: Mearsheimer John J.
Published: June 2005

This article is an almost verbatim version of the E.H. Carr Memorial Lecture delivered at Aberystwyth on 14 October 2004. I argue that Carr’s central claims in The Twenty Years’ Crisis are still relevant today. He maintained in that classic realist work that states are the main actors in world politics and that they are deeply committed to pursuing power at each other’s expense. He also argued that British intellectual life in his day was dominated by idealists who largely ignored power politics. Despite the great changes that have taken place in the world since 1939, when The Twenty Years’ Crisis was published, states still dominate the international system and they still pay careful attention to the balance of power. Furthermore, idealists now dominate international relations scholarship in Britain, more so than they did in the late 1930s. Indeed, it is hard to find a realist theorist in the contemporary British academy, a situation that would almost surely shock Carr were he alive today. This powerful bias against realism, I argue, is intellectually foolhardy and hurts not only students but the idealist scholars who so dislike realism.
The Westphalian Model, Sovereignty and Law in Fin-de-siècle German International Theory
Authors: Stirk Peter
Published: June 2005

This article considers the Westphalian model and its supposed origins in nineteenth-and early twentieth-century positivist thought. It shows how three German theorists, Georg Jellinek, Heinrich Triepel and Max Huber, subscribed to a weak version of the Westphalian model that allows for a multilateral international community based on law but not the strong version associated with absolute sovereignty and the exclusion of international community. It further shows how their ideas, especially their rejection of private property and contract law analogies, and their treatment of sovereignty, are of continuing relevance. It also serves as a correction to the all too frequent portrayal of German thought at this time in terms of hyper-nationalism and proto-Darwinian approaches to the international order.
Corporate Social Responsibility -The Failing Discipline and Why it Matters for International Relations
Authors: Blowfield Michael
Published: June 2005

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is failing at the very time it is emerging as a new discipline. This has implications not only for CSR itself, but also other disciplines wanting to understand the role of the private sector in the global political economy. This article highlights some of the evidence for this failure, but more significantly shows how it is rooted in an orthodoxy that the discipline has created but is unable to examine. As a result, CSR treats as ideationally and historically neutral particular concepts and practices that define what business’s relationship with wider society can mean. The article uses the perspectives of different social science disciplines to reveal the structural dimensions to CSR and some of their consequences. It proposes an alternative analytical framework for use by CSR and as an entry point for international relations and other disciplines wanting to understand the ways in which business shapes and responds to globalisation and influences the possibilities of contemporary society and governance.
September 11 and the Middle East Failure of US ‘Soft Power’: Globalisation contra Americanisation in the ‘New’ US Century
Authors: Aysha Emad El-Din
Published: June 2005

September 11 has shed doubt over the United States’ ‘soft power’: the country’s cultural-ideological appeal. In the context of globalisation it was supposed that the US government did not need to exert any effort to broadcast the country’s values and appeal. Globalisation skews the ideological-informational playing field to US advantage: globalisation is Americanisation. In reality globalisation actually reduces the US grip on global information flows and image-making. Moreover, the US response to September 11 created even more problems in this regard, thanks to US neglect of the problems of poverty and underdevelopment that helped create the terrorist backlash. The US government has also continued to neglect cultural diplomacy, believing it can win a war against an aspect of globalisation -transnational terror -and re-impose a world split into zones of peace and zones of turmoil.
Roundtable: Humanitarian Intervention After 9/11
Authors: Farer Tom J. , Archibugi Daniele , Brown Chris , Crawford Neta C. , Weiss Thomas G. , Wheeler Nicholas J.
Published: June 2005

Tom Farer opens the roundtable by outlining a five-part test for legitimate humanitarian intervention and questioning the utility of the term ‘cosmopolitan’ in this context. Five responses are offered. Daniele Archibugi highlights the problem of legitimate authority for intervention and offers a separate four-stage process which he believes contributes to institutionalizing cosmopolitanism. Chris Brown questions the value of creating a set of criteria to help policymakers balance the competing moral intuitions surrounding humanitarian intervention. Neta Crawford problematizes the threshold for interventions and argues for a reappraisal of transitional administrations and the idea of global interconnectedness generally. Thomas Weiss defends cosmopolitan force and cautions that the real problem is not to be found in the lack of guidelines but instead in the lack of political will to motivate humanitarian interventions, though he warns against the increasing use of cosmopolitan arguments as a cover for pre-emptive warfare. After examining the role of motives and the ‘spike test’ in Farer’s criteria, Nicholas Wheeler emphasizes the central legitimating role of the UN Security Council in humanitarian intervention. The roundtable concludes with a set of responses by Farer to these arguments. His theme is that the chronic violation of human rights requires a reconception of the national interest and international systems of cooperation; this goal is something that 9/11 might have inadvertently encouraged by bringing together humanitarianism and national security more explicitly than hitherto.
‘Roman Dmowski Understood’: Ethnic Cleansing as Permanent Revolution
Authors: Curp T. David
Published: June 2005

Poland’s postwar political consensus rested upon a mutual understanding between the communists led by Władysław Gomułka and the extreme nationalists, who represented the legacy of Roman Dmowski in Polish political life. First and foremost this involved the physical and cultural exclusion of Germans and the rewriting of key elements in Polish history so that the ethnic cleansing of Germans was depicted as the culmination of hundreds of years of mutual struggle and antipathy. This in turn fed the anti-Semitism that became a feature of Polish political life in the 1950s and 1960s. As relations with Germany improved, Poles could begin to look at this episode in their history with more honesty.
From Africa to Auschwitz: How German South West Africa Incubated Ideas and Methods Adopted and Developed by the Nazis in Eastern Europe
Authors: Madley Benjamin
Published: June 2005

The German terms Lebensraum and Konzentrationslager, both widely known because of their use by the Nazis, were not coined by the Hitler regime. These terms were minted many years earlier in reference to German South West Africa, now Namibia, during the first decade of the twentieth century, when Germans colonized the land and committed genocide against the local Herero and Nama peoples. Later use of these borrowed words suggests an important question: did Wilhelmine colonization and genocide in Namibia influence Nazi plans to conquer and settle Eastern Europe, enslave and murder millions of Slavs and exterminate Gypsies and Jews? This article argues that the German experience in Namibia was a crucial precursor to Nazi colonialism and genocide and that personal connections, literature, and public debates served as conduits for communicating colonialist and genocidal ideas and methods from the colony to Germany.
Seeing the Albanians through Serbian Eyes: The Inventors of the Tradition of Intolerance and Their Critics, 1804-1939
Authors: Stefanović Djordje
Published: June 2005

The rise of the modern national states in the post-Ottoman Balkans was accompanied by coercive assimilation, deportation, and even extermination of ethnic minorities, especially the local Muslims. In the formative periods of the Serbian state and Royal Yugoslavia, ethnic Albanians were repeatedly subjected to most exclusionary and discriminatory policies. While these actions of the Serbian élite were guided by the geopolitical security pressures and the coercive utopia of homogeneous nation-state, Serbian policy makers were also influenced by a strong intellectual tradition of intolerance towards Muslim Albanians. While some members of the Serbian élite were planning and implementing repression and expulsion of Albanians, others were calling for tolerance and inclusion of Albanians in a wider Balkan union. The analysis of Serbian policies towards Albanians in the Balkan context enables us to reformulate and extend Miroslav Hroch’s influential theory of minority nationalisms.
What Is the EU?
Authors: Böröcz József , Sarkar Mahua
Published: June 2005

This interpretive article relies on insights from three critical literatures -world-systems analysis, postcolonial studies and, to the extent of an extended simile, the economic sociology of flexible global production -to propose a geo-political understanding of what the European Union (EU) is. The authors begin by interrogating the tendency within much of the current research and commentary on the EU to treat it as a state of sorts. They then outline some mechanisms -pertaining to its internal and external linkage structures -that have enabled the EU to perform successfully in a geo-political context where most of the main actors are states. Finally, drawing on critical insights from the sociology of subcontracted production and distributed organization, the authors suggest ways in which the EU, in its current form, might be thought of beyond the constraints of the current theoretical language of statehood.
United Nations’ Dedications
Authors: Drori Gili S.
Published: June 2005

World culture, while a core issue for comparative sociology and an influential institution worldwide, is an illusive notion: it is difficult to imagine what norms, values and symbols unite us the world over. Still, some international organizational sites offer a glimpse into world culture; one such site is that of the United Nations’ dedication work. Since 1949, the United Nations has expressed commitment to some 125 issues by making formal dedications of decades, years, weeks and days as celebrations, commemorations and focal points for work on the promotion of certain issues; through this work the UN declares these issues to be important for us to promote, protect and cherish. This article (1) traces the bureaucratic history of this UN work and (2) lists the issues that are marked as worthy of international appreciation. In so doing, the article (1) traces the institutionalization of this international cultural site and (2) draws a picture of world culture since 1949.
Constructing Globalized Ethnicity
Authors: Plüss Caroline
Published: June 2005

This article explores the relationship between the ethnic identities of migrants from India in Hong Kong and their attempts to attain economic and social goals. It argues that Indians did not just adopt the characteristics of the British and Chinese majorities who controlled important access to resources. Rather, Indians sought to negotiate their positions in networks with majorities through constructing ethnic identities as cultural capital combining characteristics rooted in several regions. This allowed them to advertise knowledge, skills and connections that other members of Hong Kong society did not necessarily share. Constructions of transregional identities are examined with the examples of Parsis, Jain diamond merchants and Sikh policemen. Distinguishing between essential and relational conceptualizations of ethnic identities yields four different scenarios of how ethnic identities were constructed in the context of globalization, taking into account power relations between majorities and minorities. They are: high essential-high relational; high essential-medium relational; high essential-low relational; and medium essential-medium relational formulations.
The New Class and Democratic Social Relations in South Korea
Authors: Chung Chulhee
Published: June 2005

This research examines ‘the new class’, a social group posited to have emerged in South Korea that seeks to transform social relations from authoritarian to democratic in various social organizations. The new class is defined, following Wright’s classification, as specialists within the new middle class. This study tests the hypothesis that the new class more than any other class supports democracy in social relations. The author proposes that such support has two sources -workplace antagonism between specialists and those in managerial supervisory positions, and the relatively high self-direction of the class. Using data from the World Values Survey, analyses show that groups within the new class vary in support of specific aspects of democratic social relations in particular contexts. Results also show that the petite bourgeoisie is a significant actor in these micro-politics, and that among various dimensions of democracy in social relations, age affects only feminist attitudes.
Between Death and Life: Trauma, Divine Love and the Witness of Mary Magdalene
Authors: Rambo Shelly
Published: June 2005

In this article, I explore the witness of Mary Magdalene for its potential to contribute to discussions of survival and healing taking place in discourses of trauma. Through a reading of the Johannine text and an examination of Hans Urs von Balthasar’s depiction of Mary’s witness in Heart of the World, I claim that the obstructions of Mary’s witness are constitutive of what it means to witness between cross and resurrection. Through her ‘unseeing’, she testifies to the unique configuration of divine love between death and life. Mary’s witness not only provides an entrance into thinking about the experience of ‘middleness’ in trauma, it opens up a rich pneumatology in the wake of the cross.
Moral Mistakes, Virtue and Sin: The Case of Othello
Authors: Porter Jean
Published: June 2005

The view that one’s moral status is dependent on the stance of the will alone is an attractive view, deeply entrenched in Christian ethics. Yet it cannot account for pervasive intuitions about some kinds of moral mistakes, in particular those which arise at the point of choice. An agent’s moral beliefs are connected to his or her moral personality in a way that beliefs about matters of fact are not. This does not mean that a moral mistake never excuses the agent from subjective guilt, but it does mean that we cannot assume that this is always the case. This paper attempts to develop these suggestions through reflection on Othello, whose eponymous hero acts out of a combination of factual and moral errors which are intertwined with his character in revealing ways.
A Transcendental Hangover: Lévinas, Heidegger and the Ethics of Alterity
Authors: Hemming Laurence Paul
Published: June 2005

This paper examines two claims currently made of Heidegger and Lévinas: (1) that Heidegger, work and man, had no adequate ethics; and (2) that Lévinas draws attention to this both in his own work and in the ground for ethics that he sought to give through the assertion of an explicitly Platonic ethics of transcendence to the ‘Good beyond Being’. The paper takes as a statement of Lévinas ethics his text ‘Alterity and Transcendence’ and shows, by relating what he says to Plato, Aristotle and Heidegger, that Lévinas’s ethics are themselves shaped by a commitment to intersubjectivity which fails to achieve a genuine orientation to the ‘other’ of contemporary discourse, and that results only in the self-positing of the subject. Finally it examines Heidegger’s own discussions of alterity, ethics and being-with-one-another to show how Heidegger’s work does in fact point to what an ethical discourse of the other is seeking to achieve.
Hijacking the Fairy Tale: Genre Blurring and Allegorical Breaching in Management Literature
Authors: Monin Nanette , Monin John
Published: June 2005

Our paper argues that genre is more than the packaging of a message: it is integral to both the story told and the reader’s response. Drawing on formalist and behaviourist approaches, we suggest that the fairy tale, a traditional and universally familiar narrative genre, lives on in organizational storying; and we re-read The One Minute Manager as a fairy tale. We note that eighteen of the thirty-one functions of the fairy tale fabula distinguished in Propp’s morphology are elements of the tale; that the thirteen discarded functions, the tale not told, all relate to the theme of villainy; and that genre initiates an intertextual play of meaning. We conclude that although fairy tales may be invaluable sources of folk-knowledge, this familiar mode of storied knowledge-making may lull the reader into acquiescence with a one-dimensional experience. On the other hand, creative approaches to the narrative genres of management theory should be applauded: genre-breaching, which defamiliarizes the familiar, enables new insights.
Thinking Differently about Knowledge-Intensive Firms: Insights from Early Medieval Irish Monasticism
Authors: McGrath Paul
Published: June 2005

This paper sets out to explore the organization and management practices within early medieval Irish monastic communities. Focusing on the inter-related themes of monastic structures, strategy, control, identity and community, the paper examines the peculiar parallels between these ancient religious communities and contemporary knowledge-intensive firms. The paper then goes on to highlight the key contributions of this medieval monastic perspective for the understanding and study of contemporary knowledge-intensive firms.
Writing Responsibly: Narrative Fiction and Organization Studies
Authors: Rhodes Carl , Brown Andrew D.
Published: June 2005

In this paper, we reflect on the use of fictional source material and fictional formats in organization studies in order to explore issues of responsibility in the writing of research. We start by examining how research using fictional narrative methods has worked to radically destabilize distinctions between what is real and what is fictional. In relation to this, we ask the question: if a research account can be regarded as fiction, what are the implications of this insight for the responsibilities of authors? Opposing the view that using fiction necessarily leads to an ‘anything goes’ relativism, we argue that a recognition of the fictionality of research texts implies a heightened sense of researcher-author responsibility. We see our main contribution as extending existing discussions of reflexivity in research into a consideration of issues of ethics and responsibility as it relates to the textuality of research writing. To do so, we draw on Derrida’s theorization of responsibility and undecidability as a way of problematizing and discussing the ethics of research in relation to its textuality. We argue that the explicit borrowing from fictional genres evinces the essentially ‘written’ and fictional status of research papers, and highlights the ethical dimensions associated with decisions related to representational strategies and authorial subjectivity.
Organization, Decoration
Authors: Cox Julie Wolfram , Minahan Stella
Published: June 2005

While organizational decoration has been of interest to those who study organizational artefacts, we suggest four ways in which decoration is worthy of fuller attention in organizational studies. First, decoration, ornament and embellishment are not only what we see, but also what we do as managers, consultants, writers and designers of both physical and project spaces. Second, and drawing on the art/craft debate, we note that decoration occupies contested and even liminal aesthetic position and that ‘decorative art’ lies betwixt and between fine art and craft. Neither fully accepted nor fully marginalized, decoration is ‘only applied’ and embodies shifting tensions between form and function. Third, we review the particular negotiations of these tensions at the Bauhaus, a controversial and highly influential aesthetic organization in early 20th century Germany. Fourth, we suggest that decoration, like disorganization, provides a source of complication for organizational studies that are neither pure nor parsimonious.
What is Enterprise Partnership?
Authors: Teague Paul
Published: June 2005

This paper develops analytical arguments to highlight three distinctive attributes of enterprise partnership. First of all, the literature on the theory of the firm is used to suggest that enterprise partnership represents a credible alternative to the dominant ‘leadership model’ of organizational change. Second, it highlights the organizational features of enterprise partnerships that transcend particular national or economic settings and suggests that these allow partnerships to be interpreted as a procedural consensus between management and employees to develop pathways to advance fairness and performance at work. Third, it suggests that the diffusion of enterprise partnership requires the support of extra-firm institutional frameworks. The paper is both a literature review and theory-building exercise.
The Individualization of Consumption
Authors: Bottery Michael
Published: June 2005

This article, through an investigation of the development of the concept of the ‘consumer’, argues that recent thinking on consumerism is likely to radically change the metaphors and processes of much business management, and that these changes are likely to feed through into further calls for a restructuring of concepts and practices in the public sector arena. It will describe the history of the concept of consumerism, and critically examine its new conceptualization. It will suggest that the adoption of the concept, and of related management practices, heavily damages public sector and welfare state agendas by limiting the lexicon used to describe the benefits of education. It will further argue that if public sector and welfare state agendas are to be regenerated, a re-conceptualization of the rights and responsibilities of professionals within the public sector needs to be made.