bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
A remarkable new genus of Protosmylinae (Neuroptera: Osmylidae) from late Eocene Florissant, Colorado
Authors: MAKARKIN VLADIMIR N.
Published: May 2017

Pseudosmylidia relicta gen. et sp. nov. (Neuroptera: Osmylidae) is described from the late Eocene of Florissant (U.S.A., Colorado). It is assigned to the subfamily Protosmylinae based on the presence of two venational features characteristic of the subfamily: most crossveins in the radial to intramedial spaces of the forewing are arranged in four gradate series, and CuP is short and simple or forked only once in the hind wing. This genus is remarkable by CuP in the forewing bearing few pectinate branches. This is the only genus of extant and Cenozoic fossil Osmylidae in which this plesiomorphic condition is retained.
Closed-Form Analytic Solution of Cloud Dissipation for a Mixed-Layer Model
Authors: Akyurek Bengu Ozge , Kleissl Jan
Published: May 2017

Stratocumulus clouds play an important role in climate cooling and are hard to predict using global climate and weather forecast models. Thus, previous studies in the literature use observations and numerical simulation tools, such as large-eddy simulation (LES), to solve the governing equations for the evolution of stratocumulus clouds. In contrast to the previous works, this work provides an analytic closed-form solution to the cloud thickness evolution of stratocumulus clouds in a mixed-layer model framework. With a focus on application over coastal lands, the diurnal cycle of cloud thickness and whether or not clouds dissipate are of particular interest. An analytic solution enables the sensitivity analysis of implicitly interdependent variables and extrema analysis of cloud variables that are hard to achieve using numerical solutions. In this work, the sensitivity of inversion height, cloud-base height, and cloud thickness with respect to initial and boundary conditions, such as Bowen ratio, subsidence, surface temperature, and initial inversion height, are studied. A critical initial cloud thickness value that can be dissipated pre- and postsunrise is provided. Furthermore, an extrema analysis is provided to obtain the minima and maxima of the inversion height and cloud thickness within 24 h. The proposed solution is validated against LES results under the same initial and boundary conditions.
Turbulent Mixing in a Deep Fracture Zone on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge
Authors: Clément Louis , Thurnherr Andreas M. , St. Laurent Louis C.
Published: May 2017

Midocean ridge fracture zones channel bottom waters in the eastern Brazil Basin in regions of intensified deep mixing. The mechanisms responsible for the deep turbulent mixing inside the numerous midocean fracture zones, whether affected by the local or the nonlocal canyon topography, are still subject to debate. To discriminate those mechanisms and to discern the canyon mean flow, two moorings sampled a deep canyon over and away from a sill/contraction. A 2-layer exchange flow, accelerated at the sill, transports 0.04–0.10-Sv (1 Sv ≡ 106 m3 s−1) up canyon in the deep layer. At the sill, the dissipation rate of turbulent kinetic energy ε increases as measured from microstructure profilers and as inferred from a parameterization of vertical kinetic energy. Cross-sill density and microstructure transects reveal an overflow potentially hydraulically controlled and modulated by fortnightly tides. During spring to neap tides, ε varies from O(10−9) to O(10−10) W kg−1 below 3500 m around the 2-layer interface. The detection of temperature overturns during tidal flow reversal, which almost fully opposes the deep up-canyon mean flow, confirms the canyon middepth enhancement of ε. The internal tide energy flux, particularly enhanced at the sill, compares with the lower-layer energy loss across the sill. Throughout the canyon away from the sill, near-inertial waves with downward-propagating energy dominate the internal wave field. The present study underlines the intricate pattern of the deep turbulent mixing affected by the mean flow, internal tides, and near-inertial waves.
Human CD62Ldim neutrophils identified as a separate subset by proteome profiling and in vivo pulse-chase labeling
Authors: Tak Tamar , Wijten Patrick , Heeres Marjolein , Pickkers Peter , Scholten Arjen , Heck Albert J. R. , Vrisekoop Nienke , Leenen Luke P. , Borghans José A. M. , Tesselaar Kiki , Koenderman Leo
Published: May 2017

During acute inflammation, 3 neutrophil subsets are found in the blood: neutrophils with a conventional segmented nucleus, neutrophils with a banded nucleus, and T-cell–suppressing CD62Ldim neutrophils with a high number of nuclear lobes. In this study, we compared the in vivo kinetics and proteomes of banded, mature, and hypersegmented neutrophils to determine whether these cell types represent truly different neutrophil subsets or reflect changes induced by lipopolysaccharide (LPS) activation. Using in vivo pulse-chase labeling of neutrophil DNA with 6,6-2H2-glucose, we found that 2H-labeled banded neutrophils appeared much earlier in blood than labeled CD62Ldim and segmented neutrophils, which shared similar label kinetics. Comparison of the proteomes by cluster analysis revealed that CD62Ldim neutrophils were clearly separate from conventional segmented neutrophils despite having similar kinetics in peripheral blood. Interestingly, the conventional segmented cells were more related at a proteome level to banded cells despite a 2-day difference in maturation time. The differences between CD62Ldim and mature neutrophils are unlikely to have been a direct result of LPS-induced activation, because of the extremely low transcriptional capacity of CD62Ldim neutrophils and the fact that neutrophils do not directly respond to the low dose of LPS used in the study (2 ng/kg body weight). Therefore, we propose CD62Ldim neutrophils are a truly separate neutrophil subset that is recruited to the bloodstream in response to acute inflammation. This trial was registered at www.clinicaltrials.gov as #NCT01766414.
Inhibiting the osteocyte-specific protein sclerostin increases bone mass and fracture resistance in multiple myeloma
Authors: McDonald Michelle M. , Reagan Michaela R. , Youlten Scott E. , Mohanty Sindhu T. , Seckinger Anja , Terry Rachael L. , Pettitt Jessica A. , Simic Marija K. , Cheng Tegan L. , Morse Alyson , Le Lawrence M. T. , Abi-Hanna David , Kramer Ina , Falank Carolyne , Fairfield Heather , Ghobrial Irene M. , Baldock Paul A. , Little David G. , Kneissel Michaela , Vanderkerken Karin , Bassett J. H. Duncan , Williams Graham R. , Oyajobi Babatunde O. , Hose Dirk , Phan Tri G. , Croucher Peter I.
Published: May 2017

Key Points

Anti-sclerostin treatment increases bone mass and fracture resistance in MM Anti-sclerostin in combination with zoledronic acid is superior to zoledronic acid alone in increasing fracture resistance.
Energy metabolic pathways control the fate and function of myeloid immune cells
Authors: Al-Khami Amir A , Rodriguez Paulo C , Ochoa Augusto C
Published: May 2017

The past decade has seen a significant interest in investigating the intracellular metabolism of cells of the immune system. This has increased the realization that immune cells endure metabolic reprogramming upon responding to pathogen-derived or inflammatory signals. More importantly, not only does this metabolic switch provide for the bioenergetic and biosynthetic demands but also it, in a highly specific manner, determines the cellular fate and function. In this review, we discuss the metabolic aspects that regulate the differentiation and function of myeloid cells, pivotal for both innate and adaptive immunity. The manipulation of these pathways can alter the function of these cells and therefore, could provide novel therapeutic approaches in cancer and other chronic inflammatory conditions.
Frontline Science: Eosinophil-deficient MBP-1 and EPX double-knockout mice link pulmonary remodeling and airway dysfunction with type 2 inflammation
Authors: Ochkur Sergei I , Doyle Alfred D , Jacobsen Elizabeth A , LeSuer William E , Li Wen , Protheroe Cheryl A , Zellner Katie R , Colbert Dana , Shen HuaHao H , Irvin Charlie G , Lee James J , Lee Nancy A
Published: May 2017

Eosinophils and the release of cationic granule proteins have long been implicated in the development of the type 2–induced pathologies linked with respiratory inflammation. Paradoxically, the ablation of the two genes encoding the most abundant of these granule proteins, major basic protein-1 (MBP-1) and eosinophil peroxidase (EPX), results in a near collapse of eosinophilopoiesis. The specificity of this lineage ablation and the magnitude of the induced eosinopenia provide a unique opportunity to clarify the importance of eosinophils in acute and chronic inflammatory settings, as well as to identify potential mechanism(s) of action linked with pulmonary eosinophils in those settings. Specifically, we examined these issues by assessing the induced immune responses and pathologies occurring in MBP-1−/−/EPX−/− mice after 1) ovalbumin sensitization/provocation in an acute allergen-challenge protocol, and 2) crossing MBP-1−/−/EPX−/− mice with a double-transgenic model of chronic type 2 inflammation (i.e., I5/hE2). Acute allergen challenge and constitutive cytokine/chemokine expression each induced the accumulation of pulmonary eosinophils in wild-type controls that was abolished in the absence of MBP-1 and EPX (i.e., MBP-1−/−/EPX−/− mice). The expression of MBP-1 and EPX was also required for induced lung expression of IL-4/IL-13 in each setting and, in turn, the induced pulmonary remodeling events and lung dysfunction. In summary, MBP-1−/−/EPX−/− mice provide yet another definitive example of the immunoregulatory role of pulmonary eosinophils. These results highlight the utility of this unique strain of eosinophil-deficient mice as part of in vivo model studies investigating the roles of eosinophils in health and disease settings.
Crosstalk from cAMP to ERK1/2 emerges during postnatal maturation of nociceptive neurons and is maintained during aging
Authors: Isensee Joerg , Schild Cosimo , Schwede Frank , Hucho Tim
Published: May 2017

Maturation of nociceptive neurons depends on changes in transcription factors, ion channels and neuropeptides. Mature nociceptors initiate pain in part by drastically reducing the activation threshold via intracellular sensitization signaling. Whether sensitization signaling also changes during development and aging remains so far unknown. Using a novel automated microscopy approach, we quantified changes in intracellular signaling protein expression and in their signaling dynamics, as well as changes in intracellular signaling cascade wiring, in sensory neurons from newborn to senescent (24 months of age) rats. We found that nociceptive subgroups defined by the signaling components protein kinase A (PKA)-RIIβ (also known as PRKAR2B) and CaMKIIα (also known as CAMK2A) developed at around postnatal day 10, the time of nociceptor maturation. The integrative nociceptor marker, PKA-RIIβ, allowed subgroup segregation earlier than could be achieved by assessing the classical markers TRPV1 and Nav1.8 (also known as SCN10A). Signaling kinetics remained constant over lifetime despite in part strong changes in the expression levels. Strikingly, we found a mechanism important for neuronal memory – i.e. the crosstalk from cAMP and PKA to ERK1 and ERK2 (ERK1/2, also known as MAPK3 and MAPK1, respectively) – to emerge postnatally. Thus, maturation of nociceptors is closely accompanied by altered expression, activation and connectivity of signaling pathways known to be central for pain sensitization and neuronal memory formation.
A dual phenotype of MDA-MB-468 cancer cells reveals mutual regulation of tensin3 and adhesion plasticity
Authors: Veß Astrid , Blache Ulrich , Leitner Laura , Kurz Angela R. M. , Ehrenpfordt Anja , Sixt Michael , Posern Guido
Published: May 2017

A change regarding the extent of adhesion − hereafter referred to as adhesion plasticity − between adhesive and less-adhesive states of mammalian cells is important for their behavior. To investigate adhesion plasticity, we have selected a stable isogenic subpopulation of human MDA-MB-468 breast carcinoma cells growing in suspension. These suspension cells are unable to re-adhere to various matrices or to contract three-dimensional collagen lattices. By using transcriptome analysis, we identified the focal adhesion protein tensin3 (Tns3) as a determinant of adhesion plasticity. Tns3 is strongly reduced at mRNA and protein levels in suspension cells. Furthermore, by transiently challenging breast cancer cells to grow under non-adherent conditions markedly reduces Tns3 protein expression, which is regained upon re-adhesion. Stable knockdown of Tns3 in parental MDA-MB-468 cells results in defective adhesion, spreading and migration. Tns3-knockdown cells display impaired structure and dynamics of focal adhesion complexes as determined by immunostaining. Restoration of Tns3 protein expression in suspension cells partially rescues adhesion and focal contact composition. Our work identifies Tns3 as a crucial focal adhesion component regulated by, and functionally contributing to, the switch between adhesive and non-adhesive states in MDA-MB-468 cancer cells.
The nuclear export factor CRM1 controls juxta-nuclear microtubule-dependent virus transport
Authors: Wang I-Hsuan , Burckhardt Christoph J. , Yakimovich Artur , Morf Matthias K. , Greber Urs F.
Published: May 2017

Transport of large cargo through the cytoplasm requires motor proteins and polarized filaments. Viruses that replicate in the nucleus of post-mitotic cells use microtubules and the dynein–dynactin motor to traffic to the nuclear membrane and deliver their genome through nuclear pore complexes (NPCs) into the nucleus. How virus particles (virions) or cellular cargo are transferred from microtubules to the NPC is unknown. Here, we analyzed trafficking of incoming cytoplasmic adenoviruses by single-particle tracking and super-resolution microscopy. We provide evidence for a regulatory role of CRM1 (chromosome-region-maintenance-1; also known as XPO1, exportin-1) in juxta-nuclear microtubule-dependent adenovirus transport. Leptomycin B (LMB) abolishes nuclear targeting of adenovirus. It binds to CRM1, precludes CRM1–cargo binding and blocks signal-dependent nuclear export. LMB-inhibited CRM1 did not compete with adenovirus for binding to the nucleoporin Nup214 at the NPC. Instead, CRM1 inhibition selectively enhanced virion association with microtubules, and boosted virion motions on microtubules less than ∼2 µm from the nuclear membrane. The data show that the nucleus provides positional information for incoming virions to detach from microtubules, engage a slower microtubule-independent motility to the NPC and enhance infection.
Insulin-like growth factor signaling regulates developmental trajectory associated with diapause in embryos of the annual killifish Austrofundulus limnaeus
Authors: Woll S. Cody , Podrabsky Jason E.
Published: May 2017

Annual killifishes exhibit a number of unique life history characters including the occurrence of embryonic diapause, unique cell movements associated with dispersion and subsequent reaggregation of the embryonic blastomeres, and a short post-embryonic life span. Insulin-like growth factor (IGF) signaling is known to play a role in the regulation of metabolic dormancy in a number of animals but has not been explored in annual killifishes. The abundance of IGF proteins during development, and the developmental effects of blocking IGF signaling by pharmacological inhibition of the insulin-like growth factor I receptor (IGF1R) were explored in embryos of the annual killifish Austrofundulus limnaeus. Blocking of IGF signaling in embryos that would normally escape entrance into diapause resulted in a phenotype that was remarkably similar to embryos entering diapause. IGF-I protein abundance spikes during early development in embryos that will not enter diapause. In contrast, IGF-I levels remain low during early development in embryos that will enter diapause II. IGF-II protein levels are packaged at higher levels in escape-bound embryos compared to diapause-bound embryos. However, IGF-II levels quickly decrease and remain low during early development and only increase substantially during late development in both developmental trajectories. Developmental patterns of IGF-I and IGF-II protein abundance under conditions that would either induce or bypass entrance into diapause are consistent with a role for IGF signaling in the regulation of developmental trajectory and entrance into diapause in this species. We propose that IGF signaling may be a unifying regulatory pathway that explains the larger suite of characters that are associated with the complex life history of annual killifishes.
Labrid cleaner fishes show kinematic convergence as juveniles despite variation in morphology
Authors: Baliga Vikram B. , Bernstein Ze'ev J. , Sundaram Shivani , Mehta Rita S.
Published: May 2017

Cleaning, a dietary strategy in which ectoparasites or mucous are removed and consumed off other taxa, is performed facultatively or obligately in a variety of species. We explored whether species in the Labridae (wrasses, parrotfishes) of varying ecological specialization employ similar mechanisms of prey capture. In investigating feeding on attached prey among juveniles of 19 species of wrasses, we found that patterns of biting in wrasses are influenced by the interaction between the maxilla and a feature of the premaxilla which we term the maxillary crest. Premaxillary motion during biting appears to be guided by the relative size of the crest. In many cases, this results in a ‘premaxillary bite’ wherein the premaxillae rapidly move anteroventrally to meet the lower jaws and deliver a protruded bite. Cleaners in the Labrichthyini tribe, however, exhibited reduced or absent maxillary crests. This coincided with a distinct kinematic pattern of prey capture in these labrichthyine cleaners, coupled with some of the fastest and lowest-excursion jaw movements. Although evidence of kinematic specialization can be found in these labrichthyines (most notably in the obligate cleaners in Labroides), we found that facultative cleaners from other lineages similarly evolved reductions in excursions and timing. Convergence in feeding kinematics are thus apparent despite varying degrees of cleaning specialization and underlying morphological features.
Resonance frequencies of honeybee (Apis mellifera) wings
Authors: Clark Christopher J. , Mountcastle Andrew M. , Mistick Emily , Elias Damian O.
Published: May 2017

During flight, insect wings bend and twist under the influence of aerodynamic and inertial forces. We tested whether wing resonance of honeybees (Apis mellifera) matches the wingbeat frequency, against the 'stiff element' hypothesis that the wing's first longitudinal mode exceeds the wingbeat frequency. Six bees were immobilized with their right wing pair outspread, and stimulated with a shaker while the normal modes were recorded with a Scanning Doppler Laser Vibrometer. The lowest normal mode of the wings was the first longitudinal bending mode, and at 602±145 Hz, greater than the wingbeat frequency of 234 Hz±13.9 Hz. Higher order normal modes of the wing tended to incorporate nodal lines in the chordwise direction of the trailing edge, suggesting that their mode shape did not strongly resemble wing deformation during flapping flight. These results support the stiff element hypothesis for Apis mellifera.
Increasing the illumination slowly over several weeks protects against light damage in the eyes of the crustacean Mysis relicta
Authors: Viljanen Martta L. M. , Nevala Noora E. , Calais-Granö Cecilia L. , Lindström K. Magnus W. , Donner Kristian
Published: May 2017

The eyes of two glacial-relict populations of opossum shrimp Mysis relicta inhabiting the different photic environments of a deep, dark-brown freshwater lake and a variably lit bay of the Baltic Sea differ in their susceptibility to functional depression from strong light exposures. The lake population is much more vulnerable than the sea population. We hypothesized that the difference reflects physiological adaptation mechanisms operating on long time scales rather than genetically fixed differences between the populations. To test this, we studied how acclimation to ultra-slowly increased illumination (on time scales of several weeks to months) affected the resilience of the eyes to bright-light exposures. Light responses of whole eyes were measured by electroretinography, the visual-pigment content of single rhabdoms by microspectrophotometry, and the structural integrity of photoreceptor cells by electron microscopy (EM). Slow acclimation mitigated and even abolished the depression of photoresponsiveness caused by strong light exposures, making a dramatic difference especially in the lake animals. Still, acclimation in the sea animals was faster, and the EM studies suggested intrinsic differences in the dynamics of microvillar membrane cycling. In conclusion, we report a novel form of physiological adaptation to general light levels, effective on the time scale of seasonal changes. It explains part but not all of the differences in light tolerance between the lake and sea populations.
Polystyrene-Cross-Linking Ortho-Substituted Triphenylphosphines: Synthesis, Coordination Properties, and Application to Pd-Catalyzed Cross-Coupling of Aryl Chlorides
Authors: Iwai Tomohiro , Asano Kiichi , Harada Tomoya , Sawamura Masaya
Published: May 2017

Polystyrene-cross-linking triphenylphosphines having methyl groups as ortho substituents were synthesized. Coordination of the polymer-bound tri(o-tolyl)phosphine-type ligand toward a Pd(II) complex was investigated by 31P CP/MAS NMR spectroscopies. Effects of the ortho-methyl-substituent were evaluated in the Pd-catalyzed cross-coupling of aryl chlorides.
Funded hours are just not viable
Authors: McArthur Ken
Published: May 2017

Across every county, providers and their local authorities are struggling to come to grips with being able to offer 30 ‘free’ hours at the rates set by the government. In York, settings are really struggling.
Helping out the forgotten children
Authors: Hulusi Pem
Published: May 2017

Holiday hunger has been hitting the headlines as the number of families living in poverty continues to grow, now a leading food company has launched a number of clubs across the UK to tackle the issue.
Faecal incontinence, anxiety and depression in inflammatory bowel disease
Authors: Keogh Aine , Burke Maura
Published: May 2017

It is estimated that 24% of those diagnosed with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) will experience faecal incontinence, which is 1.5 times greater than the general population. While higher levels of anxiety and depression are associated with faecal incontinence generally, IBD patients are more likely to report higher levels of these than the general population. A quantitative survey examined the relationship between faecal incontinence and levels of anxiety and depression in 117 IBD patients. The results revealed statistically significant differences between the levels of anxiety (p<0.001) and depression (p=0.005) reported in patients who had recent experience of incontinence and those who did not. The study also raised concerns that incontinence is often concealed by patients and unidentified by health professions.
From Childhood into Adolescence
Authors: Bates David
Published: May 2017

This chapter chronicles the events of the Battle of Val-ès-Dunes in 1047. With significant assistance from the French king, Henry I, this battle put William in a position to rule Normandy much more authoritatively than before. Edward the Confessor's election as king of the English in 1041–2 created circumstances that were in due course to shape the whole of William's life and the histories of peoples and nations. However, rather than take Val-ès-Dunes as a simple end of either a process or of a period in William's life, this chapter goes further, by discussing the profound interpretative problems of assessing the significance of the years between 1035 to 1047, both in terms of the development of William's personality and of the ways in which it can be seen as a preparation for the conquest of England.
The Shaping of Things to Come
Authors: Bates David
Published: May 2017

This chapter discusses the events following the aftermath of the Battle of Val-ès-Dunes. Prestigiously married to Matilda, daughter of Count Baldwin V of Flanders, he became involved in discussions with Edward the Confessor that were later to be at the heart of the justification for the invasion of England in 1066. In addition, William had participated in the establishment of good relations with a series of reforming popes and had also gained his first military victory over a ruler of a great northern French territorial principality. Yet, for all that was to follow from these developments, the event that had the greatest immediate political impact was Count Geoffrey Martel's takeover of the county of Maine in 1051. Probably as a result, by 1053 William was facing the likelihood of the breakdown of good relations with King Henry I and the possibility of fighting a war against him and Geoffrey.
On to the Attack
Authors: Bates David
Published: May 2017

This chapter reveals a remarkable change in political circumstances in northern France and the cultivation of close relations with Pope Alexander II, who would play a major part throughout all the decisive events of the conquests of Maine and England. The years between 1060 and 1066 were presumably for William the period when possibilities that may have been long contemplated became capable of realization. His rule within Normandy became demonstrably more expansive in ways that drew attention to his prestige, piety, and achievements. It is quite possible that William was consciously setting out the case to become a king of the English. There are apparently quiet episodes in this period, yet the broad picture continues to be one of ruthlessness that went significantly beyond contemporary norms.
Victory Transformed
Authors: Bates David
Published: May 2017

This chapter details William's achievements during the period following his coronation as he fought against the first of the English revolts. At the same time the chapter describes his methods for outmanoeuvring his opponents, the ethics of which have continued to inspire debate. In particular, the chapter considers his military achievements during the last months of the year 1069 and the first months of 1070, as well as his continuing attention to Normandy despite living cross-Channel lives. Out of his achievements and the ideology of continuity a peaceful and prosperous kingdom and a cross-Channel empire emerged. It was also a vehicle enabling William to claim to occupy the moral high ground, abstractions that could be used to justify the coercive enforcement of rule.
From Crisis to Triumph
Authors: Bates David
Published: May 2017

This chapter discusses the events surrounding the last of William's conquests and the consolidation of his empire. Notably, this period characterised profound changes in England, as well as a pervasive sense of illegitimacy to his rule as the balance of power shifted. By late 1073, William had established a position in England and across the British Isles that replicated that of the strongest of his pre-1066 predecessors and he had regained control over Maine. The subsequent period until early 1075 is probably the longest period of sustained peace that he experienced between 1066 and his death and is arguably the high-water mark of his whole career.
Cross-Channel Rule
Authors: Bates David
Published: May 2017

This chapter describes William's activities between the years 1074 and 1080, which was a time of significant developments in the infrastructure and practice of rule in England, as also, to an extent, they were in Normandy. The year 1077 and the final months of 1080 have much of the same aura of magisterial display about them as the year 1074 had had, with 1077 being notable for several spectacular church dedications, including those of the abbey church of Saint-Etienne of Caen and Bayeux cathedral. War, or more often the threat of war, might well have been a frequent presence during this period, but most of the confrontations that occurred were conducted in terms of a kind of point-scoring stasis, with no enemy or potential enemy of William having the resources to do anything likely to bring about major change.
Political Consolidation and Personal Loss
Authors: Bates David
Published: May 2017

This chapter details the achievements and shortcomings of the latter phase of William's rule. The period from the last months of 1080 until Matilda's death in 1083 was to be a time of familial and political consolidation on both sides of the Channel. These achievements notwithstanding, some new cracks appeared and there was a lot of underlying uncertainty — such as William's quarrel with and imprisonment of his half-brother Odo; the speculations surrounding the succession to Normandy, Maine, and England; as well as his flagging political relationships. Finally, the chapter illustrates how Matilda's death in particular had made a difference in William, and which thereafter signalled his decline.
The Final Years
Authors: Bates David
Published: May 2017

This chapter examines the final years of William's life. During this time, William had to continue to juggle cross-Channel priorities as he had done ever since 1066. Another military intervention in Maine became necessary in either 1084 or 1085. In the autumn of 1085 he went to England to confront an expected invasion from Denmark, and although the invasion did not materialize, it was potentially more dangerous than the previous ones. The year spent in England in 1085–6 also involved the ‘deep speech’ at Gloucester at Christmas 1085 and the subsequent survey that produced what later ages have called Domesday Book, processes in which William was a centrally active participant. Relations with his eldest son broke down again during this period. And having crossed to France in the autumn of 1086, William was taken ill in the summer of 1087 while leading a campaign into the French Vexin.
Death and Legacy
Authors: Bates David
Published: May 2017

This chapter studies the death and legacies of William the Conqueror. It first describes William's final illness, death, and burial, and the events that happened in the aftermath of his death, particularly the issue of royal succession. The chapter then traces further developments in Normandy and England following his rule, and the notable changes that had occurred within these territories as a result of his rule. Finally, the chapter turns to an assessment of the significance of William's career overall, contextualising his life and achievements within a multicultural world in which there were multiple diversities and many common factors, where William the Conqueror's life remains only part of a much larger story.
Epilogue
Authors: Bates David
Published: May 2017

This concluding chapter reflects on the life and character of William the Conqueror from a modern perspective, examining the lessons and implications which can be derived from his role in history. It also discusses the challenges faced by those attempting to interpret and put together William's biography from extant historical sources. Furthermore, William's life, the chapter argues, is ultimately a parable on the eternal moral conundrum of the legitimacy of violence used to achieve what its perpetrators believe to be a justifiable end. His contemporaries knew this — and as this chapter shows — the issues that lingered in his lifetime still remain with us to this day.
What Was Stalinism?
Authors: Baberowski Jörg
Published: May 2017

This book examines the violent excesses of Stalinism and the culture that made them possible. It considers how the omnipresence of terror that marked Joseph Stalin's regime is to be understood and looks at the source of violence with which Stalin ruled the Soviet Union, as well as the sort of havoc that this violence wreaked. It argues that Stalinism's acts of violence were not the product of texts or ideas. They developed in historical spaces that made their epidemic spread possible. The book also discusses the concept of totalitarian dictatorship and some legitimate criticisms of the theory of totalitarianism in the context of Soviet historiography, along with the limitations of revisionist historical accounts of Stalinism. Finally, it rejects the notion that modernity had something to do with the monstrous violence fomented by the National Socialists and communists in the first half of the twentieth century.
Imperial Spaces of Violence
Authors: Baberowski Jörg
Published: May 2017

This chapter shows that Joseph Stalin's reign of violence in the 1930s was born out of a culture of war and was itself a civil war being fought with different means. It first considers the preconditions that led to the Russian Revolution of 1917 and the rise to power of the Bolsheviks, who cultivated a style of violence that remained alien to the liberals and the educated. It then looks at the civil wars that erupted among the Bolsheviks, the counterrevolutionaries, independence movements, and non-Bolshevik socialists. It shows how civil war and terror not only wreaked havoc and psychological devastation; it also resulted in Russia losing its intellectual and political elite. Those who survived the excesses fled to seek their fortunes elsewhere. The new Russia became a land of terror where no one was safe from the state-sponsored violence.
Pyrrhic Victories
Authors: Baberowski Jörg
Published: May 2017

This chapter examines the aftermath of the Bolsheviks' victory over both the Whites, or counterrevolutionaries, and all rival socialists. The Bolsheviks broke the military resistance of the Whites, crushed the unrest and strikes of the peasants, and even restored the multiethnic empire, which, in the early months of revolution, had largely fallen apart. In spring 1921, when the Red Army marched into Georgia, the Civil War was officially over. For the Bolsheviks, however, military victory was not the end but rather the beginning of a mission, not simply to shake the world but to transform it. Although weapons may have decided the war in favor of the revolutionaries they had not settled the question of power. This chapter considers Vladimir Lenin's New Economic Policy (NEP) that would implement economic reforms, the Bolsheviks' failure to carry power into villages, and the dictatorship's lack of support from the proletariat. It also describes the nationalization of the Russian empire and Joseph Stalin's rise to power.
Subjugation
Authors: Baberowski Jörg
Published: May 2017

This chapter describes Stalinism as a dictatorship of subjugation. It argues that Stalinism was a war against its own people that respected no boundaries, whose violence arose not from ideas but from situations and their possibilities. It shows how the atmosphere of total arbitrariness and uncertainty ruling the Soviet Union at this time allowed Joseph Stalin to live out his fantasies of total power and sate his lust for violence. The Bolsheviks' crusade against old Russia opened the floodgates of unabated violence. In the chaos created by the campaigns of the Cultural Revolution, by the collectivization of agriculture, and by the rapid industrialization every violent act could be justified by invoking higher purposes and ideals. This chapter examines Stalin's war against religion and the peasants as well as the birth of the Gulag.
Wars
Authors: Baberowski Jörg
Published: May 2017

This chapter looks at Stalinism during the Great Patriotic War. It first discusses Joseph Stalin's changing approaches to terror following the end of his policy of exterminatory violence. This shift is well illustrated by two incidents, one in September 1939 when Nikita Khrushchev traveled with Marshal Timoshenko to the town of Vynnyky. This episode shows that the Stalinist terror was also an instrument of ethnic cleansing with which the Stalinist regime did its best. The other incident was in 1941, when Germany invaded the Soviet Union. The front-line soldiers of the Red Army were trapped in a cycle of violence from which there was no escape. This chapter considers how the Great Patriotic War allowed Stalinism to develop to its full potential. The Soviet Union had become a world power, and yet it could offer its subjects nothing but misery and slavery. Only the death of Stalin on March 5, 1953 put an end to Stalinism and with it, despotism.
Stalin’s Heirs
Authors: Baberowski Jörg
Published: May 2017

This chapter examines the changes that were made in Russia after Joseph Stalin's death. Within weeks of Stalin's death, the charges against the “murderer doctors” had been dropped, the use of torture had been outlawed, and the punitive authority of the security apparatus had been limited. Furthermore, the last remaining victims of the “Mingrelian Affair” were released from prison, and Solomon Mikhoels, the assassinated chairman of the Jewish Antifascist Committee, was rehabilitated posthumously. Despotism, the hallmark of Stalinism, would disappear from daily life, and fear and dread would no longer be the ruling standard. Nikita Khrushchev became the new party leader, Georgi Malenkov was made prime minister, Vyacheslav Molotov was allowed to return to his former post as foreign minister, and Stalin's executioner Lavrenty Beria assumed control of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the state security apparatus. Throughout the years of de-Stalinization, it remained the great exception for any of the crimes against defenseless individuals to be prosecuted.
Introduction
Authors: Heinzen James
Published: May 2017

This introductory chapter establishes the book’s area of interest as the culture of bribery, corruption, and black markets that took root in the Soviet Union during the important years between World War II and Stalin’s death in 1953. This study will challenge the view that there was a sharp break between the Stalin era and the “stagnation” era of Brezhnev and his immediate successors (1964–1985), which has commonly been thought of as brazenly venal, with its graft, abetted by political sclerosis and bureaucratization at all levels. Those who seek to understand the roots of the corruption that infected the Soviet Union during the Brezhnev years should look earlier, to the postwar Stalin period.
The Landscape of Bribery and Corruption in the Shadows of Stalinism
Authors: Heinzen James
Published: May 2017

The first chapter argues that a critical turning point in the development of the patterns of bribery that typified the later Soviet era was World War II and its aftermath. The extraordinary disruption of the war and the immediate postwar years made surreptitious contacts between Soviet people and local officials more likely. The dislocation of populations; poverty; epic shortages of housing, food, and transportation; new pressures on the legal system; arbitrary state administration, and breakdowns in distribution all created conditions that were conducive to officials’ profiting from their offices. Bribery lubricated the official and unofficial economies alike in ways that helped the system function. This chapter contains a survey of tsarist and early Soviet practices of bribery, including podnoshenie and kormlenie, which persisted into the Soviet period.
“Greetings from Sunny Georgia!”
Authors: Heinzen James
Published: May 2017

The fourth chapter closely examines the case of a Georgian judge on the USSR Supreme Court, Levan K. Chichua, who was arrested for accepting bribes in 1949. Chichua’s story sheds light on contested notions of gift giving, bribery, and social reciprocity. The idea of the “cultural broker” as a key figure in the Soviet courts is also introduced here. Cultural brokers were individuals who had familiarity with both the Soviet legal system and local traditions and practices, and who prospered by moving back and forth between them, negotiating deals while bridging cultural gaps.
“A Grave Evil and Danger”
Authors: Heinzen James
Published: May 2017

As chapter 5 shows, beginning in mid-1943 and accelerating in the following years, concern was building among law enforcement and party authorities that bribery was becoming more prevalent. A postwar “campaign” expressed the goal of eradicating this scourge from the Soviet landscape. Why was the bribe such a source of disquiet? Authorities expressed anxiety that its existence could erode the legitimacy of institutions and, ultimately, of the regime itself, in the eyes of the population. An antibribery drive was launched in 1946, and periodically (if briefly) re-energized over the next six years; the main, but not exclusive, target was corruption in the courts and in the branches of the state prosecutors’ office. This “campaign,” however, was seriously flawed in practice, not least of all because it was waged in complete secrecy. Why were authorities so slow to pursue bribery, and to allow public discussion of the problem? An analysis of the contentious internal conversations surrounding the postwar “struggle against bribery” provides insight into official attitudes toward the crime, and hesitation by central party officials and the legal agencies to press forward enthusiastically with measures to control it.
Informers and the State
Authors: Heinzen James
Published: May 2017

As chapter 6 shows, in the years between the start of World War II and the death of Stalin, the Soviet regime relied on a network of secret informants in its efforts to halt what the regime considered to be a veritable epidemic of crimes against state property and the socialist economy. Alongside regular police work, the use of a vast informant network was the primary tool for uncovering the corrupt activities of Soviet officials. What were its strengths and weaknesses? Why did some people refuse to inform?
Conclusion
Authors: Heinzen James
Published: May 2017

This chapter reviews the meaning of the bribe in the late-Stalin era of the Soviet Union, focusing on how both the givers and receivers of bribes learned to use the bribe as a flexible tool for manoeuvring inside a disorganized economy and rigid bureaucratic system. Bribery emerged from a set of practices and attitudes that, in many cases, could serve certain practical functions, from distributing scarce goods and services, to establishing personalized relationships among state functionaries and citizens, to cutting through red tape.
Introduction
Authors: Olyan Saul M.
Published: May 2017

What is friendship? At first blush, the answer seems obvious: Friendship is a voluntary association between people who enjoy one another’s company and care, at least to some degree, about one another’s welfare. But this definition, which would probably elicit few objections from most present-day Europeans and North Americans, does not address a number of contested issues in contemporary Western friendship. For example, is it possible for men and women to be friends? Must friends be peers in every respect, or is there room for age differences, or inequality of income, social status, or power? Can parents and children be friends? Might sexual relations play a role in friendship? Does friendship necessarily involve emotional intimacy? Are there contrasting male and female, gay and straight, working-class and middle-class friendship patterns? Each of these questions would very likely stimulate debate among the people I know, and the answers would probably depend on some combination of the generation, gender, sexual orientation, class, and cultural background of the respondent. Apart from agreeing that friends associate voluntarily, like one another, and take an interest in one another’s well-being, there might not be much consensus among my friends, neighbors, colleagues, students, and family members about the contested aspects of friendship that I have mentioned. Were we to go beyond speculation about the views of the people I encounter in my life, and conduct research on the beliefs about friendship held by a larger population of contemporary North Americans or other Westerners, I would expect to find even less agreement about what constitutes friendship. In short, friendship as we know it in contemporary Europe and North America is shaped by a variety of socio-cultural influences and ...
Friendship in Ben Sira
Authors: Olyan Saul M.
Published: May 2017

Configurations of friendship in the second century BCE wisdom book Ben Sira are considered and compared to the representation of friendship in earlier biblical texts. In addition, the possibility of Greek influence on Ben Sira’s ideas about friendship is explored.
Chamber of Her Who Conceived Me (ḥeder hôrātî)
Authors: Chapman Cynthia R.
Published: May 2017

Spatially, the term “house of the mother” (bêt ’ēm) is found in a parallelistic line with the phrase “the chamber of her who conceived me” (Song 3:4) and is described as a place one can run to, return to, and take one’s lover into. Biblical narratives associate the “house of the mother” and tents and chambers of mothers with sleeping, sex, conception, and childbirth. If a mother and her children received recognition and legitimacy from the male head of household, their bêt ’ēm formed a spatial subunit nested within the house of the father. If a mother and her children were not recognized and legitimized by the father or were cast out by a primary wife, their maternal house became a satellite house in relationship to the house of the father; they were physically separated from the house of the father. Sons born into these low-status, satellite houses of the mother had no ascribed status in the house of their father and had to fight for any property and inheritance rights.
No, Son of My Womb (ma-bar-biṭnî)
Authors: Chapman Cynthia R.
Published: May 2017

Biblical Hebrew understands a mother to contribute to the physical, ethnic, and character makeup of her child from the time spent in the womb and at the breast to the time spent under her active tutelage. A mother’s womb served as the basis for a lifelong bond between mother and child and between siblings who came forth from the same womb. This womb-based connection between mother and child or between uterine siblings could be expressed through the word raḥămîm, meaning a womb-centered allegiance that involved lifelong mutual protection. The formation of the child was imagined as a two-staged, maternally focused process encapsulated in the Hebrew word pair “breast and womb.” Biblical authors imagined a child’s physical and emotional development to begin at conception, continue during the time in the womb, and find completion through breastfeeding.
The One Who Opens the Womb (peṭer reḥem)
Authors: Chapman Cynthia R.
Published: May 2017

When a biblical narrative records a woman’s wish to “be built up” through having a son, it signifies her need for security, economic maintenance, and honor within the house of her husband. Being built up also brought a woman prestige among the community of women in her husband’s village. A woman’s womb-opening son, her peṭer reḥem, inaugurated her uterine family, her own generated “house” within her husband’s house. Mothers celebrated womb-opening sons with praise and laughter, they marked them with auspicious names, and they ritually redeemed them at the temple. The special status of womb-opening sons becomes evident as they are pitted against each other during struggles for succession in elite and royal households. A mother brought her house into existence through birthing a son; she created a full maternal alliance when she birthed multiple sons; and she ascended to the status of senior mother in the paternal house when her womb-opening son defeated the sons of other wives and succeeded his father.