bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Clinical Testing in Diabetic Peripheral Neuropathy
Authors: Feldman Eva L. , Stevens Martin J.
Published: February 2016

Diabetic polyneuropathy is a complex disease of progressive nerve fiber loss. Initial screening and diagnosis in clinical practice usually depend on assessment of subjective complaints. A need exists for objective, simple, and reproducible assessment tools that can be readily used in clinical practice. The importance of early diagnosis is highlighted by the recent North American Diabetes Control and Complications Trial where intensive insulin therapy reduced the risk of developing diabetic neuropathy by 61%. At the University of Michigan, we have developed an outpatient neuropathy program. Patients are given a questionnaire and a brief screening examination, designated the Neuropathy Screening Instrument. Diabetic neuropathy is confirmed and staged in patients with a positive Neuropathy Screening Instrument, by a quantitative neurologic examination and nerve conduction studies, designated the Diabetic Neuropathy Score. The Michigan program has been compared with well-established instruments and has been found to be sensitive and reproducible for screening and diagnosis. We believe the program provides a valuable tool for the clinician in the practice setting and should allow diagnosis and intervention earlier in the course of diabetic neuropathy.
End-Stage Complications of Diabetic Neuropathy: Foot Ulceration
Authors: Boulton Andrew J.M.
Published: February 2016

Diabetic polyneuropathy is a major complication of diabetes mellitus that frequently leads to foot ulceration. Because of economic impact of foot ulceration and subsequent amputation, major initiatives are under way in the United States and the United Kingdom to reduce their incidence by up to 50%. Although diabetic ulcers may have an ischemic and neuropathic component, the majority are neuropathic. Results from studies have shown a strong association between the neuropathy and the subsequent development of foot ulcers. However, other predisposing factors such as high foot pressures, inappropriate footwear, and other extrinsic pressure usually must be present, together with neuropathy, to cause foot ulcers. Therefore, the challenge to the physician is to identify the patient at risk and intervene so as to educate and prevent the occurrence of foot ulcers.
Cognitive Side Effects of Antiepileptic Drugs
Authors: Meador Kimford J.
Published: February 2016

All of the established antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) can produce cognitive side effects, which are increased with polypharmacy and with increasing dosage and anticonvulsant blood levels. However, cognitive side effects are usually modest for AED monotherapy with anticonvulsant blood levels within the standard therapeutic ranges. Further, these effects are offset in part by reduced seizure activity. Controversy exists regarding possible differential cognitive effects of AEDs. A large portion of the literature examining the comparative cognitive effects of AEDs is limited by inadequate study designs. When these design flaws are considered, there is no convincing evidence of clinically significant differences in cognitive side effects of AEDs except possibly for bromide, phenobarbital and benzodiazepines. The role of cognitive side effects should be kept in proper perspective when choosing AED therapy. The cognitive side effects of anticonvulsant drugs may be overt but many times are rather subtle. It is important though to be able to recognize these effects and to put them into perspective as to how they affect our patients.
Autosomal Recessive, Fatal Infantile Hypertonic Muscular Dystrophy Among Canadian Natives
Authors: Lacson A.G. , Seshia S.S. , Sarnat H.B. , Anderson J. , DeGroot W.R. , Chudley A. , Adams C. , Darwish H.Z. , Lowry R.B. , Kuhn S. , Lowry N.J. , Ang L.C. , Gibbings E. , Trevenen C.L. , Johnson E.S. , Hoogstraten J.
Published: February 2016

We describe eleven mid-western Canadian aboriginal infants with a unique, progressive muscle disorder. All except one had muscle biopsy and/or autopsy. The infants were normal newborns who rapidly developed rigidity of all skeletal muscles, with early, respiratory insufficiency. Death occurred before 18 months of age. Electromyography showed increased insertion activity and profuse fibrillation potentials; motor unit potentials and interference pattern are normal until late in the course. Pathologic features include progressive, granular to powdery Z-band transformation, myofibrillar loss, and muscle regeneration. SDS-gel electrophoresis of one muscle sample revealed increased 54kDa and reduced 80kDa protein fractions. This disease differs from other conditions with Z-band alterations because of continuous muscle activity and relentless clinical progression. The clinical features, elevated serum creatine kinase, electromyographic and muscle biopsy findings suggest a dystrophic process. The recognition of this condition as an autosomal recessive disorder allows appropriate genetic counselling.
Cortical Excitability in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis: A Clue to Pathogenesis
Authors: Eisen Andrew , Pant Bhanu , Stewart Heather
Published: February 2016

Motor evoked potentials (MEPs) were recorded from selected non-wasted, non-denervated hand muscles in 40 patients with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) with both upper and lower motor neuron signs. In most the compound muscle action potential (CMAP) of the target muscle was normal. Compared to the control group, cortical threshold in ALS varied considerably and there was a significant (r2= 0.702) inverse, exponential, correlation between cortical threshold and MEP/CMAP ratio. There was a linear correlation between threshold and disease duration (r2= 0.66) so that early in the disease threshold was normal and later the motor cortex could not be stimulated. It is suggested that early in ALS normal threshold reflects glutamate-induced hyper-excitability of the corticomotoneuron. The findings lend support to the hypothesis that ALS is primarily a disease of the corticomotoneuron.
Focal Cerebral Ischemia in Rats: Effect of Hemodilution with α-α Cross-Linked Hemoglobin on Brain Injury and Edema
Authors: Cole Daniel J. , Schell Randall M. , Drummond John C. , Pryzbelski Robert J. , Marcantonio Suzzane
Published: February 2016

The effect of hemodilution, with α-α cross-linked hemoglobin (DCLHb), on brain injury and edema was assessed after temporary middle cerebral artery occlusion in rats. Injury was analyzed with 2,3,5-triphenyltetrazolium chloride (TTC) stain and edema by microgravimety. Part A: DCLHb was given to maintain one of the following hematocrits (Hct) and normotension: 1) 45/Hct, 2) 30/Hct, 3) 16/Hct, or 4) 9/Hct. Brain injury (% of ischemic hemisphere, mean ± SD) was less in the 30/Hct group (31 ±4) versus the 45/Hct group (42 ± 5); and in the 16/Hct (20 ± 3) and 9/Hct (19 ± 4) groups versus the 45/Hct and 30/Hct groups. Edema was less in the hemodiluted groups versus the 45/Hct group. Part B: DCLHb was given to maintain one of the following hematocrits and hyper (HTN) − or normotension (Norm): 1) 45/Norm, 2) 30/Norm, 3) 30/HTN, 4) 16/Norm, or 5) 16/HTN. In hematocrit matched groups hypertension decreased brain injury (30/HTN − 24 ± 2 < 30/Norm − 34 ± 4; and 16/HTN − 17 ± 3 < 16/Norm − 24 ± 4). Edema was not effected by hypertension. These results suggest that hemodilution with DCLHb decreases focal ischemic injury, and is most effective when given in a manner that induces hypertension.
Significance of Parkinsonian Manifestations in Essential Tremor
Authors: Rajput A.H. , Rozdilsky B. , Ang L. , Rajput Alex
Published: February 2016

Parkinsonian features, notably resting tremor may be seen in some essential tremor patients but the significance of those is unknown. The reported risk of parkinsonism in essential tremor patients varies from being unchanged to 35 times higher than expected. We studied 9 patients with essential tremor who had autopsies. In 6 of the 9 (66%) resting tremor was noted and in 3 (33%) cases fully developed parkinsonism was noted. The parkinsonism was consequent to neuroleptic usage in 2 and to basal ganglia status lacunaris and cribrosus in one case but no consistent abnormalities were noted in 3 essential tremor only and 3 essential tremor plus resting tremor cases. We conclude that resting tremor is an age-related natural evolution in some essential tremor patients. We recommend that the additional diagnosis of parkinsonism in the essential tremor be made only when resting tremor, bradykinesia and rigidity are all evident. The risk of ideopathic Parkinson's disease in essential tremor cases is similar to the general population.
Substance P-like Immunoreactivity and Analgesic Effects of Vibratory Stimulation on Patients Suffering From Chronic Pain
Authors: Guieu Régis , Tardy-Gervet Marie-Françoise , Giraud Pierre
Published: February 2016

By applying vibratory stimulation to patients suffering from pain, it is possible to set up an inhibitory control on the pain pathways which is based on the activation of large-sized afferent fibres. The exact mechanisms responsible for these analgesic effects still remain to be determined, however. For this purpose, we investigated in the present study whether or not the analgesic effects were accompanied by a decrease in the CSF substance P-like immunoreactivity levels (SPLI) of seven patients suffering from chronic pain, who were fitted with a ventriculo-peri-toneal drain. The SPLI levels were determined before and after 30-min vibratory stimulation sessions. The results show that the SPLI levels decreased as the result of the vibration, but this decrease seems to be too slight to account for the pain relief obtained.
Excessive Fragmentary Myoclonus: Time of Night and Sleep Stage Distributions
Authors: Lins Otavio , Castonguay Michelle , Dunham Wayne , Nevsimalova Sonya , Broughton Roger
Published: February 2016

Excessive fragmentary myoclonus during sleep consists of high amounts of brief twitch-like movements occurring asynchronously and asymmetrically in different body areas and has been reported to occur in association with a number of sleep disorders. It was analyzed using a new technique of quantification, the fragmentary myoclonus index (FMI). The FMI exhibited high rates in all stages of sleep but with a somewhat lower frequency in slow wave sleep explaining, as well, a significantly lower rate in the first hour after sleep onset compared to later hours. There was no evidence for greater sleep fragmentation or lighter sleep compared to a matched patient group in whom it had not been noted.
Paroxysmal Dyskinesia Associated with Hypoglycemia
Authors: Schmidt Brian J. , Pillay Neelan
Published: February 2016

The association of movement disorders with hypoglycemia has been rarely noted in the past. We recently observed 2 patients with documented hypoglycemia and paroxysmal dyskinesias. One patient had evidence of an insulin-secreting tumor. The other patient had insulin-dependent diabetes, and also experienced recurrent episodes of hypoglycemic hemiparesis. Classical adrenergic symptoms of hypoglycemia were absent in both patients. Our observations support the concept that the development of neuroglycopenic symptoms cannot be predicted from blood glucose measurements alone, but must depend on other factors controlling the availability or metabolism of glucose in the brain.
Intrathecal Baclofen – The Importance of Catheter Position
Authors: Hugenholtz Herman , Nelson Robert F. , Dehoux Eric
Published: February 2016

In a patient receiving intrathecal baclofen injections for intractable trunk and leg spasms, positioning the subarachnoid catheter tip just caudal to the spinal segments innervating the spastic muscles enhanced the spasmolytic effect of bolus injections of intrathecal baclofen on the affected muscles. Such selective positioning of subarachnoid catheters may facilitate segmental spasmolysis with lower intrathecal doses of baclofen and provide an important alternative to relying only on ascending CSF concentration gradients of baclofen from chronic lumbar intrathecal infusion.
Pathogenesis of Mesial Temporal Sclerosis
Authors: Elizabeth Pringle C. , Warren T. Blume , David G. Munoz , Stan Leung L.
Published: February 2016

A relationship between epilepsy and damage to mesial temporal structures has long been recognized. Recent advances have clarified somewhat the issue of whether the pathological changes seen in mesial temporal sclerosis represent the cause or the effect of seizures. This paper reviews mesial temporal sclerosis from an historical perspective and summarizes recent developments in the fields of excitotoxicity, selective vulnerability, and synaptic reorganization as they pertain to the pathogenesis of mesial temporal sclerosis.
Tremorgenic Encephalopathy: A Role of Mycotoxins in the Production of CNS Disease in Humans?
Authors: Gordon K.E. , Masotti R.E. , Waddell W.R.
Published: February 2016

We describe a young man who, shortly after exposure to moldy silage, developed a neurological syndrome consisting of dementia and a remarkable tremor which was precipitated by movement. All symptoms resolved within one week. Despite investigation, no definitive diagnosis was reached. We propose that this patient's illness may have resulted from inhalation exposure to a tremorgenic mycotoxin.
Consequences of Peripheral Nerve Demyelination: Basic and Clinical Aspects
Authors: Jun Kimura
Published: February 2016

The essential function of a nerve fiber centers on the transmission of impulses. Slowing of conduction velocities merely delays conveyance of information but failure of conduction abolishes the function. Rate-dependent block may falsify input by disturbing the neural coding. The diagnosis of conduction block is complicated by phase cancellation and many other physiologic and technical factors, which may mimic the condition. The conduction block may be reversed by increasing action current with such agents as 4-aminopirizine as well as by reducing the threshold for excitation with a sodium - potassium pump inhibitor such as digitalis. Although their mechanisms of action are poorly understood, imunogloblin and imunosuppressive agents are also effective in some clinical entities like multifocal motor neuropathy with persistent conduction block.
Early and Late Complications Following Dynamic Stereotactic Radiosurgery and Fractionated Stereotactic Radiotherapy
Authors: Michal R. McKenzie , Luis Sohami , Jean-Louis Caron , Andre Oliver , Jean-Guy Villemure , Ervin B. Podgorsak
Published: February 2016

Between December 1986 and June 1990, 112 patients (116 lesions), underwent treatment with dynamic stereotactic radiosurgery at McGill University. Of the treated lesions, 59 were arteriovenous malformations and 53 were a variety of other neoplastic or non-neoplastic conditions. In 86 lesions, the treatment was delivered in a single fraction and the treatment of the remaining 30 lesions was fractionated. Complications attributed to treatment developed in seven of the 112 patients (6.3%). No relationship was found between complications and prescribed dose, fractionation, collimator diameter, type and anatomical region of the lesion that was treated, or previous irradiation. Although extensive clinical experience will be necessary to determine optimal total doses, the potential role of fractionated treatment, and the tolerance of critical structures to radiosurgery, the relatively low incidence of complications in our series allows us to conclude that radiosurgery is well tolerated by the vast majority of patients.
Hemiballism-hemichorea Induced by Subcortical Ischemia
Authors: Toshiya Fukhi , YuKihiro Hasegawa , Shinya Seriyama , Toru Takeuchi , Koujiro Sugita , Hiroshi Taukagoshi
Published: February 2016

Four patients presented with hemiballism-hemichorea as a clinical manifestation of white matter ischemia. These patients illustrate “positive” motor phenomena rather than limb weakness as a consequence of cerebral ischemia. In each patient, the involuntary movements disappeared following worsening of paresis. Subcortical white matter infarction in three patients and hemodynamic hypo-perfusion in the cerebral hemisphere contralateral to dyskinetic movements were possible causes. Neuroradiologically, none had pathological changes in the vicinity of the subthalamic nucleus. We presume from these observations that ischemia of the subcortical white matter, without involvement of the basal ganglia or the subthalamic nucleus, may cause hemiballism-hemichorea
William M. Lougheed and the Development of Vascular Neurosurgery at the Toronto General Hospital
Authors: Max Findlay J.
Published: February 2016

Dr. Bill Lougheed was able to navigate residents through even the most complex neurosurgical procedures with complete and often heroic patience, always ensuring for the patient his usual expert technical result but still leaving intact the resident’s sense of pride and achievement, the feeling that he, the resident, “had done it”. A gifted technical surgeon, a thoughtful and inventive neurosurgeon, Dr. Lougheed was above all else one of Canada’s great teachers of operative neurosurgery. Canada’s pioneer microneurosurgeon, Dr. Lougheed brought the Toronto General Hospital to the very forefront of the emerging field of vascular neurosurgery.
Denis Naldrett White, M.A., M.D., F.A.C.R, F.R.C.P.C. (1916-1993)
Authors: Henry B. Dinsdale
Published: February 2016

Denis Naldrett White was born in Bristol. He completed his premedical and medical education at Cambridge. This was followed by graduate training at the London Hospital with Russell Brain, Hospital for Sick Children, National Hospital for Nervous Diseases and the Institute of Psychiatry, University of London, where he completed a senior registrar post in 1948. That same year he was recruited by Dr. Ford Connell, Head of the Department of Medicine, to Queen’s University.
Structural and Molecular Compartmentation in the Cerebellum
Authors: Richard Hawkes , Steven Blyth , Vijay Chockkan , David Tano , Zhongqi Ji , Christa Mascher
Published: February 2016

Most descriptions treat the cerebellum as a uniform structure, and the possibility of important regional heterogeneities in either chemistry or physiology is rarely considered. However, it is now clear that such an assumption is inappropriate. Instead, there is substantial evidence that the cerebellum is composed of hundreds of distinct modules, each with a precise pattern of inputs and outputs, and expressing a range of molecular signatures. By screening a monoclonal antibody library against cerebellar polypeptides we have identified antigens – zebrins – that reveal some of the cerebellum’s covert heterogeneity. This article reviews some of these findings, relates them to the patterns of afferent connectivity, and considers some possible mechanisms through which the modular organization may arise.
Cerebellar Dysfunction of Movement and Perception
Authors: Diener H.C. , Hore J. , Ivry R. , Dichgans J.
Published: February 2016

This review describes some characteristics of patients with cerebellar lesions, including limb movements, changes in motor planning and disturbances in time-dependent perception. The delay in movement initiation can be explained by a delay in onset of movement-related discharge of neurons in motor cortex. Disorders of movement termination (hypermetria) are accompanied by asymmetric velocity profiles and by prolonged agonist and delayed antagonist EMG activity necessary to brake the movement. During complex movements in three-dimensional space, the cerebellum contributes to timing between single components of a movement, scales the size of muscular action, and coordinates the sequence of agonists and antagonists. The basic structure of motor programs is not generated exclusively within the cerebellum and patients with cerebellar lesions can use precuing information to improve their motor performance. Time-dependent perception in the auditory and visual domains are disturbed in patients with cerebellar lesions.
A Proposal for Classification of Neurocysticercosis
Authors: Carpio Arturo , Placencia Marcelo , Santillán Franklin , Escobar Alfonso
Published: February 2016

The complicated pathophysiological and immunological changes in the central nervous system of patients with neurocysticercosis produce a variety of signs and symptoms, which complicate the clinical and surgical management of this disease. A complete and objective classification is needed, to improve the medical approach as a whole. We studied 336 patients, in whom we classified neurocysticerosis according to criteria of viability and location of the parasite in the CNS: active form (37.2%) when the cysticercus is alive, transitional form (32.8%) when it is in the degenerative phase, and inactive form (30%) when the parasite is dead. This classification establishes the correlation between the different forms of neurocysticerosis and its clinical manifestations, and can be used for planning therapeutic strategies.
Gilles de la Tourette Syndrome – Review Article
Authors: Suchowersky O.
Published: February 2016

Gilles de la Tourette syndrome is a neurological disorder characterized by the presence of motor and vocal tics. Other associated features include complex motor and vocal tics, obsessive compulsive behavior and attention-deficit disorder. Although initially thought to be a rare condition, it now appears that the gene for Tourette syndrome may be present in as many as one in a thousand people, and is transmitted as an autosomal dominant trait. However, many individuals carrying the gene may exhibit only minimal symptoms. Neuropathophysiology of Tourette syndrome is unknown but investigations have suggested that the cause may be an abnormality either in the dopaminergic or endorphin receptor system within the basal ganglia. Treatment of Tourette syndrome involves education and counseling of the patient and family. Medications such as neuroleptics, serotonin-reuptake inhibitors, and stimulants are available to treat the manifestations of Tourette syndrome and need to be individualized for each patient.
Acute Transverse Myelitis: A Retrospective Study Using Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Authors: Scott Thomas , Weikers Norbert , Hospodar Mark , Wapenski Joseph
Published: February 2016

The prognostic value of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in the syndrome of acute transverse myelitis had not been evaluated. After retrospective study of 14 cases, we found that MRI is valuable for both diagnosis and prognosis in this illness. The criteria for the diagnosis of acute transverse myelitis consisted of acute onset (over less than 3 weeks) of symmetrical motor and sensory dysfunction referable to a distinct spinal cord level, with sphincter dysfunction. Patients with abnormal MRIs of the spinal cord had significantly worse outcomes than patients with normal MRIs.
Introduction to the Guideline, and General Principles of Acute Migraine Management
Authors: Worthington Irene , Pringsheim Tamara , Gawel Marek J. , Gladstone Jonathan , Cooper Paul , Dilli Esma , Aube Michel , Leroux Elizabeth , Becker Werner J. ,   on behalf of the Canadian Headache Society Acute Migraine Treatment Guideline Development Group
Published: February 2016

Objectives:

To provide an overview of the objectives and target population of the guideline, and to review the general principles of acute pharmacological migraine therapy.

Methods:

A general literature review and several consensus groups were used to formulate an expert consensus for the general use of acute migraine medications.

Results:

The objective of the guideline is to assist the physician in choosing an appropriate acute migraine medication for an individual with migraine, and thereby to reduce migraine-related disability. The target population includes adults with episodic migraine (patients with migraine headache < 15 days/month). This guideline is intended primarily for physicians who treat patients with migraine. Other health professionals may also find this guideline helpful. Acute migraine therapy should be considered for the great majority of patients with migraine. A specific acute medication is chosen based on evidence for efficacy, tolerability, migraine attack severity, patient preference, and on the presence of co-existing disorders. General principles of acute migraine therapy include that the response of a patient to any given medication cannot be predicted with certainty, and that treatment early in the attack is generally more effective than treatment later once the migraine attack is fully developed. A suitable treatment approach (stratified or stepped approaches) and drug formulation (injection, tablet, wafer, powdered formulation, or nasal spray) should be chosen based on patient clinical features. Excessively frequent use of acute medications (medication overuse) should be avoided. Two or more acute medications can be combined if necessary.

Conclusions:

This guideline provides evidence-based advice on the use of acute medications for migraine, and should provide useful guidance for acute migraine therapy to both health professionals and patients.
Targeted Review: Medications for Acute Migraine Treatment
Authors: Worthington Irene , Pringsheim Tamara , Gawel Marek J. , Gladstone Jonathan , Cooper Paul , Dilli Esma , Aube Michel , Leroux Elizabeth , Becker Werner J. ,   on behalf of the Canadian Headache Society Acute Migraine Treatment Guideline Development Group
Published: February 2016

Objective:

To assess the evidence base for drugs used for acute treatment of episodic migraine (headache on < 14 days a month) in Canada.

Methods:

A detailed search strategy was employed to find relevant published clinical trials of drugs used in Canada for the acute treatment of migraine in adults. Primarily meta-analyses and systematic reviews were included. Where these were not available for a drug or were out of date, individual clinical trial reports were utilized. Only double-blind randomized clinical trials with placebo or active drug controls were included in the analysis. Recommendations and levels of evidence were graded according to the principles of the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) Working Group, using a consensus group.

Results:

Eighteen acute migraine medications and two adjunctive medications were evaluated. Twelve acute medications received a strong recommendation with supporting high quality evidence for use in acute migraine therapy (almotriptan, eletriptan, frovatriptan, naratriptan, rizatriptan, sumatriptan, zolmitriptan, ASA, ibuprofen, naproxen sodium, diclofenac potassium, and acetaminophen). Four acute medications received a weak recommendation for use with low or moderate quality evidence (dihydroergotamine, ergotamine, codeine-containing combination analgesics, and tramadol-containing combination analgesics). Three of these medications were NOT recommended for routine use (ergotamine, and codeine- and tramadol-containing medications), and strong recommendations were made to avoid use of butorphanol and butalbital-containing medications. Both metoclopramide and domperidone received a strong recommendation for use with acute migraine attack medications where necessary.

Conclusion:

Our targeted review formulated recommendations for the available acute medications for migraine treatment according to the GRADE method. This should be helpful for practitioners who prescribe medications for acute migraine treatment.
Guideline Summary for Primary Care Physicians
Authors: Becker Werner J. , Worthington Irene ,   on behalf of the Canadian Headache Society Acute Migraine Treatment Guideline Development Group
Published: February 2016

Many of the recommendations in this guideline are summarized here to provide a compact source of information for the primary care physician. More detailed discussion can be found in the main guideline document. Tables 2, 11A and 11B in Section 3 of the main guideline document list all the acute treatment strategies, and the medications used in each one. Table 9 in Section 3 summarizes medications dosages and side effects. Recommendations related to the efficacy of individual drugs are based on a comprehensive targeted review. Expert consensus statements regarding other aspects of acute migraine treatment are based on a general literature review and expert opinion. All patients for whom acute migraine medications are being prescribed should be educated regarding the common migraine triggers and the important lifestyle factors that may potentially influence their migraine disorder.
Post Second World War Immigration from Balkan Countries to Turkey
Authors: Kirişçi Kemal
Published: February 2016

One of the important consequences of the end of the Cold War has been the growing impact that ethnicity has had on the domestic politics of countries as well as international politics. An area that has been deeply affected by ethnopohtics is the Balkans. The collapse of communism and the disintegration of Yugoslavia have led to tremendous instability and ethnic strife in the Balkans. Turkey's domestic politics as well as its foreign policy have been deeply affected by these developments. One reason for this can be attributed to the fact that in Turkey there are large numbers of people of Balkan descent.

As the frontiers of the Ottoman Empire in the Balkans began to contract, large numbers of people who identified themselves with the Empire steadily migrated to Thrace and Anatolia. They were mostly the descendants of Turks who had settled in various parts of the Balkans during the past centuries (Karpat 1985, ch.4). Although there are no exact figures, one source puts the size of this migration between late 1870s and early 1920s at as high as 1,445,000 (Eren 1993, p. 298). In spite of this massive migration many Turkish and Muslim communities were left behind in various parts of the Balkans after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. The modern Turkish State has continued to allow members of these communities to migrate and settle in Turkey.
Byzantines and Italians in Fifteenth-Century Constantinople: Commercial Cooperation and Conflict
Authors: Necipoğlu Nevra
Published: February 2016

During the final centuries of Byzantine rule, the city of Constantinople, unable to recover completely from the effects of the Fourth Crusade (1204) and continuously challenged from two directions by the western world and the Ottomans, could no longer live up to its former glory and reputation as the magnificent capital of a powerful empire. Yet, surprisingly, the critical circumstances of the late Byzantine period that negatively affected almost every aspect of life in the city did not affect its commercial function to the same extent. Hence, despite persistent political, social, economic, and demographic problems during the last fifty years preceding the Ottoman conquest, Constantinople still continued to function as a lively commercial center where Byzantine merchants operated side by side with foreigners, including Italians, Catalans, Ragusans, Ottomans, and others. But the most active group of foreign merchants operating in Constantinople were the Italians, particularly the Venetians and the Genoese, who had established more or less autonomous trade colonies in the city and enjoyed commercial privileges (most importantly exemptions from customs duties) since the eleventh-twelfth centuries. Amplified and made more extensive during the Palaiologan period (1261-1453), these privileges pushed the native merchants of the Byzantine capital into a clearly disadvantaged position vis-à-vis their foreign competitors.
Homemaker or professional? Girls' schools designed by Ernst Egli and Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky in Ankara, 1930-1938
Authors: Kılınç Kıvanç
Published: February 2016

During the early years of the Turkish Republic, modern architecture became an active tool in the representation of the bourgeois ideal of domesticity. The most significant component of the new Turkish family was the image of the “republican woman” as a nationally-constructed icon. By comparatively examining Ernst Egli's İsmet Paşa Girls' Institute (1930) and Ankara Girls' High School (1936) with Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky's unbuilt annex project for the latter (1938) this paper argues that girls' technical schools and girls' high schools contributed to the making of this much idealized image in considerably different ways. Such diversity enabled the governing elite in Turkey to make a class-based and spatially constructed categorization of women as economic actors: enlightened housewives specialized in one of the so-called “female arts” and upper-class professional women who would participate in public life. It is further argued that this categorization allowed Schütte-Lihotzky, in her design for the unbuilt high school annex in Ankara, to rework the broader “redomestication” issue which marked her earlier career in Weimar Germany.
“Organism and Triangle”: A Short History of Labor Law in Turkey (1920-1950)
Authors: Çalışkan Koray
Published: February 2016

The first labor code of the Turkish Republic was enacted in 1936 and became effective in 1937. The most significant feature of this code was the time taken by the Turkish Grand National Assembly (TGNA) to legislate it. Negotiations began in 1925 with discussions of the Service Code draft bill. In the course of fifteen years TGNA discussed five draft bills and in 1936 a final draft was accepted. Between then and 1950, when the Republican People's Party (RPP) lost the election to the Democrat Party (DP), the scope of the labor code was extended without any alteration in its ideological content.
Islamic Solutions to the Kurdish Problem: Late Rendezvous or Illegitimate Shortcut?
Authors: Houston Chris
Published: February 2016

In a recent book detailing the massive war migration in the South-East of Turkey, Kemal Öztürk questions: “Has an Islamic position been made clear on the Kurdish problem, which for the last ten years has assumed the highest place on the national agenda?” and goes on to ask: “In the fifteen reports suggesting solutions to the Kurdish problem is there one representing muslims?” He concludes by saying, “Unfortunately the answer to both questions must be ‘no’” (Öztürk 1996, p. 104). Öztürk's comments are interesting for three reasons: first, is his assumption that a distinct Islamic stance is possible regarding the Kurdish problem. Second is his deploring of the fact that such a position has not been enunciated. And third is the rather disingenuous claim that the lack of a clear response in the name of Islam is synonymous with no position at all by the religious camia (community), as if the ‘de facto’ positions of muslims, i.e. their actual practice, could be dismissed quite so unproblematically.
“Feeling Tells Better Than Language”: Emotional Expression and Gender Hierarchy in the Sermons of Fethullah Gülen Hocaefendİ
Authors: Özyürek Esra G.
Published: February 2016

Over the past two years, the televised sermons of Fethullah Hocaefendi have thrust him into the public limelight, lending his name celebrity status as a prominent religious-cum-political figure. His long standing influence as the leader of one of the most powerful Islamic communities in contemporary Turkey,Nur Cemaati, is now common public knowledge. Currently, this group owns one of the largest mass circulating newspapers (Zaman), a TV channel (Samanyolu) and a vast network of hundreds of educational institutions extending all the way from Turkey to Central Asia. The teachings of Fethullah Gülen Hoca are widely disseminated through books as well as cassette recordings of his sermons, readily available for sale on counters of commercial bookstores. For the “secularized” public however, Fethullah Hoca's renown extends beyond his religious-cum-political prominence. He is famous for the fact that he weeps ecstatically during his sermons, contrary to what is expected of a man in Turkey today.
Peripheral Port-Cities and Politics on the Eve of the Great War
Authors: Keyder Çağlar
Published: February 2016

Est-ce donc vers le passé qu'il regardait, plutôt que vers l'avenir? Il n'est pas facile de trancher. Après tout, l'avenir est fait de nos nostalgies, de quoi d'autre?

Cet âge où les hommes de toutes origines vivaient côte à côte dans les Echelles du Levant et mélangeaient leurs langues, est-ce une réminiscence d'autrefois? est-ce une préfiguration de l'avenir? Ceux qui demeurent attachés à ce rêve sont-ils des passéistes ou bien des visionnaires? Je serais incapable de répondre. Mais c'est en cela que mon père croyait. En un monde couleur sépia oû un Turc et un Arménien pouvaient encore être frères.

Maalouf 1996, p. 49
Athens, Constantinople, “Istambol”: Urban Paradigms and Nineteenth-Century Greek National Identity
Authors: Fleming K. E.
Published: February 2016

Your nostalgia has created

A nonexistent country, with laws

Alien to earth and man.

George Seferis,The Return of the Exile(Keeley and Sherrard, 1981, pp. 224-25)

The history of Greece's first century as an independent nation-state is in many ways a history of the interplay among urban space, nationalism, and identity. It is also a history of nostalgia: Western European nostalgia for one specific past, Greek nostalgia for another, and the tension between the two.
Cezayir-i Garp: Bringing Algeria back into Ottoman History
Authors: Shuval Tal
Published: February 2016

Little is known even now of the history of Algeria under the Turks; it is a period which has not aroused much interest.

- M. Colombe

In this study I propose to outline the political history of Cezayir-i Garp, the Ottoman province of Algeria, during the seventeenth century, while at the same time noting the correspondence between this history and the various developments at the center of the Ottoman Empire as well as in some of the provinces. This similarity suggests that Ottoman rule in Algeria was influenced by the same factors that affected the rest of the Empire. The pattern of development of the province's Ottoman elite, and the nature of this elite's behavior, reinforce its position within the imperial framework, even in periods when it was considered to be on a divergent path. My argument is that the history of the Ottoman province of Algeria was an integral part of an imperial pattern and structure forged by complex and dynamic relations between the imperial capital and its provinces.
Landlords, Refugees, and Nomads: Struggles for Land around Late-Nineteenth-Century Ayvalik
Authors: Terzibaşoğlu Yücel
Published: February 2016

Throughout the Ottoman Empire, land was always the major source of revenue and surplus and thus inevitably a major source of contention. Myriad property-rights disputes were recorded in the registers of the localkadıcourts and archives of the various ministries in Istanbul. Conflicts over the agricultural surplus revealed in such documentation demonstrate, for instance, that peasants in the sixteenth century not only contested taxes imposed on them but also opposed the illegal transfer of land titles by thesipahis(İnalcık 1997, p. 72). By the middle of the sixteenth century, the practice of selling state-ownedmirilands–which by legal definition could not be bought or sold–had become widespread, sometimes even confirmed by the rulings of the localkadıcourts. The stamp ofşeriyyeimplicit in thekadı's ruling meant in effect that the land subject to sale was taken out of themiriland regime and placed in the legal category of freeholdmülklands (İnalcık 1997, p. 112).
Group-Differentiated Rights and the Liberal Democratic State: Rethinking the Headscarf Controversy in Turkey
Authors: Arat Yeşim
Published: February 2016

The development of liberalism with both the courage and the capacity to engage itself with a different world, one in which its principles are neither well understood nor widely held, in which indeed it is, in most places, a minority creed, alien and suspect, is not only possible, it is necessary.

-Clifford Geertz. 2000.Available Light.Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, p. 258.

Over the past two decades, the debate over multiculturalism challenged the justice of neutral, “difference blind” rules in liberal democracies. Allegedly neutral institutions were shown to be implicitly biased toward the priorities, experiences, or interests of the dominant groups in the society. Criticism of difference-blind rules and claims for justice to minority groups defined the relationship between government and opposition in many contexts. Arguments for special rights to protect minorities, women, or ethnocultural groups gained legitimacy (Young 1990, Jones 1990, Phillips 1991, Taylor 1994, Kymlicka 1995, Kymlicka and Norman 2000).
Ottoman Mersin: The Making of an Eastern Mediterranean Port-town
Authors: Toksöz Meltem
Published: February 2016

In a report prepared by a German geologist in 1917, Çukurova was designated as the most important region of cotton agriculture in Ottoman Anatolia. At the turn of the 21st century, the corporations of two families from Çukurova, Sabancı and Karamehmet, ranked among the largest 65 of the world. No other region of the former Ottoman Empire produced such wealth. This paper traces its generation back to nineteenth century processes of capital accumulation through the development of the port-town of Mersin.
“Social Development” as a Governmental Strategy in the Southeastern Anatolia Project
Authors: Özok-Gündoğan Nilay
Published: February 2016

This paper examines the “social development” practices carried out within the framework of the Southeast Anatolia Project (Güneydoğu Anadolu Projesior GAP) in Turkey in the 1990s. In its initial phase, GAP was a state-run regional development project in southeast Anatolia which consisted of massive infrastructural investments. But beginning in the late 1980s, and especially in the 1990s, the scope of GAP expanded to include a set of social projects. The emergence and transformation of the notion of social development within GAP constitute the major focus of this study.
The Lost Lullaby and Other Stories about Being an Armenian in Turkey
Authors: Bilal Melissa
Published: February 2016

Nınçir mangig im sirasun, Oror yem asum, Baydzar lusinn e meğm hayum, Ko ororotsum.

By analyzing the transmission of Armenian lullabies within the changing contexts of identity and cultural politics in Turkey, this paper addresses displacement and loss as two interrelated experiences shaping the sense of being an Armenian in Turkey. I criticize the liberal multiculturalist perspective that represents cultures in a way that cuts the link between the past and the present, by dissociating different cultures from the history of their presence in Anatolia and the destruction of that presence. I argue that in such a context where cultures are detached from lived experiences and memory, it becomes impossible to share the stories of violence and pain in the public sphere; hence, the loss itself becomes the experience of being Armenian. Finally, I try to explain how today young generations of Armenians in İstanbul, in their search for an Armenian identity, have developed a certain way of belonging to the space and culture, a way of belonging that is very much shaped by the experience of loss.
Emerging Spaces of Neoliberalism: A Gated Town and a Public Housing Project in İstanbul
Authors: Bartu Candan Ayfer , Kolluoğlu Biray
Published: February 2016

İstanbul has undergone a neoliberal restructuring over the past two decades. In this paper, we focus on two urban spaces that we argue to have emerged as part of this process—namely Göktürk, a gated town, and Bezirganbahçe, a public housing project. We examine these spaces as showcases of new forms of urban wealth and poverty in İstanbul, demonstrating the workings of the neoliberalization process and the forms of urbanity that emerge within this context. These are the two margins of the city whose relationship with the center is becoming increasingly tenuous in qualitatively different yet parallel forms. In Göktürk's segregated compounds, where urban governance is increasingly privatized, non-relationality with the city, seclusion into the domestic sphere and the family, urban fear and the need for security, and social and spatial isolation become the markers of a new urbanity. In Bezirganbahçe, involuntary isolation and insulation, and non-relationality with the city imposed through the reproduction of poverty create a new form of urban marginality marked by social exclusion and ethnic tensions. The new forms of wealth and poverty displayed in these two urban spaces, accompanied by the social and spatial segregation of these social groups, compel us to think about future forms of urbanity and politics in İstanbul.
Power or Leisure? Remarks on the Architecture of the European Summer Embassies on the Bosphorus Shore
Authors: Girardelli Paolo
Published: February 2016

This study is part of a larger project on theLandscapes of the Eastern Question, contextualizing the architecture of diplomacy in İstanbul as a symbolic and material refraction of changing power balances and representational strategies. In Beyoğlu, where most of the main diplomatic residences were located, the embassies were originally Ottoman woodenkonakstructures, but, in time, the increasing influence of Russia, Great Britain and France fostered their monumentalization and the adoption of European academic classicism. By contrast, the summer embassies on the European shore of the Bosphorus remained largely local in terms of technology, image, materials, and spatial layout until the end of the Ottoman Empire. The paper argues that, for many diplomats, a stately winter residence representing national identity, along with a summer house in the spirit of the local traditions, would be used as a communicative and performative resource in the drama of European-Ottoman relations. It also evaluates foreign settlement on the northern shore of the Bosphorus as conforming to a strategy of surveillance and control in keeping with the strategic relevance and contested status of the straits.
Eastern in the West, Western in the East: Deliberate and Ambivalent Facets of the Identity of Early Republican Turkey Abroad
Authors: Zelef M. Haluk
Published: February 2016

This paper represents an attempt to reflect on the Turkish identity in the formation period of the Republic, from its constitution in 1923 until 1939. The discussion is focused around two buildings that were constructed in 1939, both of which were built abroad to represent the new state; the Embassy of Turkey in Tehran and the Turkish pavilion at the New York World’s Fair. These buildings were both featured in the same issue of the architectural magazine Mimar, and offer a fruitful starting point for delving into historical and theoretical issues in identity discourse. That said, the paper goes beyond merely analyzing the different formal vocabularies and personalities of the different architects and patrons involved in commissioning these structures. Rather than addressing only the different cultural and architectural responses to the contemporary national identity debate, the paper will also consider the question of whether the host countries and the addressees of these rather symbolic buildings also had a role in their design and evaluation stages. In other words, the study aims to understand how representation in a location in the “West” or in the “East” affects the identity of a nation characterized by its duality of “West” and “East.”