bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Perceived Racial Discrimination and Adoption of Health Behaviors in Hypertensive Black Americans: The CAATCH Trial
Authors: Forsyth Jessica M. , Schoenthaler Antoinette , Ogedegbe Gbenga , Ravenell Joseph
Published: February 2014

Background . Few studies examine psychosocial factors influencing the adoption of healthy behaviors among hypertensive patients. The effect of discrimination on health behaviors remains untested. Purpose . To examine the influence of discrimination on adoption of healthy behaviors among low-income Black hypertensive patients. Methods . Black patients (N = 930) in community-based primary care practices enrolled in the CAATCH trial. Mixed effects regressions examined associations between perceived discrimination and change in medication adherence, diet, and physical activity from baseline to 12 months, controlling for intervention, gender, age, income, and education. Results . Patients were low-income, high-school-educated, with a mean age of 57 years. Greater discrimination was associated with worse diet and lower medication adherence at baseline. Discrimination was associated with greater improvement in healthy eating behaviors over the course of the 12-month trial. Conclusions . Prior exposure to discrimination was associated with unhealthy behaviors at baseline, but did not negatively influence the adoption of health behaviors over time.
The Socio-demographic Characteristics and Patterns of Help-Seeking among Patients with Schizophrenia in South-east Nigeria
Authors: Odinka Paul C. , Oche Martins , Ndukuba Appolos C. , Muomah Rosemary C. , Osika Michael U. , Bakare Muideen O. , Agomoh Ahamefule O. , Uwakwe Richard
Published: February 2014

A large proportion of psychiatric patients in Nigeria seek help from other sources which ultimately lead to treatment delay. Treatment delay could have deleterious effects on treatment outcome especially for people with schizophrenia. The study aimed to determine the socio-demographic characteristics associated with treatment delay in people with schizophrenia. This was a cross-sectional study of 367 patients with schizophrenia presenting for the first time at a psychiatric hospital. About 76% of them had visited traditional/faith healers as a first treatment option. Long distance and use of traditional healers as first treatment option were associated with treatment delay. There is need for effective community psychiatry service delivery with emphasis on those strategies that can educate, influence, and mobilize communities concerning the aetiology, prevention, early detection, and treatment of mental illness.
Access to Mental Health Services Among Patients at Health Centers and Factors Associated with Unmet Needs
Authors: Jones Emily , Lebrun-Harris Lydie A. , Sripipatana Alek , Ngo-Metzger Quyen
Published: February 2014

Cross-sectional 2009 Health Center Patient Survey data describe the mental health status of health center patients, utilization of mental health services, and factors associated with unmet need for mental health treatment. One in five health center patients accessed mental health services in the past year, and over half of the patients who received counseling received this treatment at a health center. Patients who were unable to access mental health care cited affordability as a concern. Unmet need for mental health treatment was reported by one in three patients. Multivariate analysis found that the odds of reporting unmet need were higher for patients who lacked a usual source of care and patients with serious mental illness.
Applying the Definition of Torture to the Acts of Non-State Actors: The Case of Trafficking in Human Beings
Authors: McGregor Lorna
Published: February 2014

The question of whether the prohibition of torture and other ill-treatment extends to the acts of non-state actors continues to reflect a contentious issue in international human rights law. Through one of the most recent and under-analyzed manifestations of the debate, this article explores the extent to which the prohibition applies to trafficking in human beings. In doing so, it provides an analysis of the inherent limitations of the prohibition as applied to the acts of non-state actors, as well as suggesting possibilities for extension of the scope of the prohibition through the principle of due diligence. By defining the parameters in this way, this article submits that victims will receive more concrete protection, as opposed to assertions that trafficking constitutes torture on the basis of the severity of the act and attraction to the special stigma of the label alone.
Battle for Sex?: Protecting Sexual(ity) Rights in Africa
Authors: Kuwali Dan
Published: February 2014

Most African states see permission of unconventional sexuality and recognition of same-sex marriages as “deviant” in relation to the traditional sex roles of women and men. States have invoked justifications such as “cultural sovereignty,” “protection of public morals,” “religious sanctity,” and “traditional values” as a rationalization for criminalizing queer sexuality. However, religious leadership, not the state, has the responsibility to guide the morality of individuals. Everyone should enjoy equal rights irrespective of their sexuality, including sexual orientation and sexual identity. The realization of the rights of “all people born free and equal in dignity” will require criminalizing homophobia, not homosexuality.
Giving an Inch Only to Lose a Mile: Muslim States, Liberalism, and Human Rights in the United Nations
Authors: Kayaoglu Turan
Published: February 2014

Buoyed by the liberal values dominant at the United Nations, secular groups have effectively imposed the parameters of liberal discourse on religious actors in human rights debates. The adoption of liberal discourse by religious groups makes them vulnerable. The Organization of Islamic Cooperation’s campaign at the United Nations surrounding the anti-defamation of religions illustrates this. The Organization of Islamic Cooperation and leading Muslim states adopted liberal language that empowers liberal, secular groups, as these groups hold the prerogative of defining the parameters of the liberal discourse and, thus, the parameters of acceptable religious discourse at the United Nations.
South Africa and the United Nations Human Rights Council
Authors: Jordaan Eduard
Published: February 2014

This article assesses South Africa’s foreign policy commitment to human rights by studying the country’s role in the United Nations Human Rights Council, which began its work in 2006. South Africa’s behavior is evaluated in terms of its participation in four aspects of the Council’s work: the institution-building phase that took place during the body’s first year, country-specific human rights issues, thematic human rights problems, and the Universal Periodic Review. It is concluded that South Africa has become a defender of unpalatable regimes and an obstacle to the international promotion of human rights.
Road to Impunity: The Absence of Transitional Justice Programs in Spain
Authors: Escudero Rafael
Published: February 2014

This article analyzes the ongoing process of recovering Spain’s historical memory and building a transitional justice agenda to end the impunity of crimes against humanity committed during the Francoist dictatorship. Over thirty years after the transition to democracy, based on an agreement to silence and forget, a social movement that challenges the narrative of successful democratization has interrupted Spain’s political landscape. Victim associations, relatives, and citizens who support the recovery of historical memory have generated a debate about how to deal with the dictatorial past. In 2007, the Spanish Parliament passed the Historical Memory Act to recognize and enhance victims’ rights. However, victims and victim associations criticized the Act severely due to the absence of mechanisms that guarantee the implementation of a transitional justice agenda, including a failure to investigate the past or create a truth commission. In the wake of a 2012 Spanish Supreme Court decision, which asserts that it is legally impossible to conduct a judicial investigation into the crimes committed during the Francoist dictatorship, it appears that Spain is now further than ever from achieving this goal.
Breaking the Totalitarian Ice: The Initiative Group for the Defense of Human Rights in the USSR
Authors: Horvath Robert
Published: February 2014

This article examines the impact of the Initiative Group for the Defense of Human Rights in the USSR, the first Soviet human rights NGO. It argues that this group, which functioned for over six years as the principal public platform of Soviet dissidents, made an important contribution both to the subversion of totalitarianism and to the rise of the Soviet rights-defense movement. The Initiative Group overcame a longstanding taboo on the creation of public structures and spearheaded the resistance to the KGB’s most serious crackdown on the movement. It also shaped the methods and the ethics of Soviet rights-defenders. Although its members suffered severe repression, they deserve recognition for their contribution to the global human rights boom of the late 1970s.
Global Anti-Sex Trafficking: State Variance in Implementation of Protectionist Policies
Authors: Amahazion FikreJesus
Published: February 2014

Sex trafficking—a global issue involving a plethora of factors—has elicited persistent calls for its eradication. The early 2000s saw the international community establish a set of strategies to combat trafficking centered on protectionist, preventative, and prosecutorial methods. While the prosecutorial and preventative policies have been utilized most by states, protectionist measures for victims have been lacking. These discrepancies—which present human rights implications for victims—give rise to questions of why states may or may not implement protectionist policies. I propose that states’ effective implementation of protectionist policies is influenced not only by their respect for human rights, but also by their capability to actually carry out policy. With a novel dataset covering 166 countries over the 2000–2009 period, and using Seo-Young Cho et al.’s Protection-Score Index as the dependent variable, a range of factors potentially influencing states’ implementation of protectionist policy is assessed. Results show that states’ implementation of protectionist policies is highly influenced by a state’s world culture ties and its governance effectiveness, as well as other state-level political mechanisms. Of note, other factors considered important within previous studies, including female parliamentary participation and economic-based measures, such as GDP per capita or levels of global trade, are insignificant and illustrate little influence.
The Clash of Cultures, the Tension Within Liberalism, and the Proper Limits of Tolerance
Authors: Farer Tom
Published: February 2014

Modern welfare liberalism is an evangelical faith, an identity with its own values, practices, and collective memory of battles won and lost. Because one of those values is tolerance and because the human rights to which liberalism gives political expression include the rights of cultural minorities, it is also a formula for peaceful coexistence among faiths, including its own. Paradoxically, the formula is under greater stress in Europe, where liberalism is virtually a state religion, than in the United States where important elements of liberal policy face powerful opponents. The stress seems more a function of economic stagnation than a clash between a minority’s patriarchal traditions and the legacy inhabitants’ easy-going post-modern hedonism.
Afars, Issas . . . and Djiboutians: Toward a History of Denominations
Authors: Imbert-Vier Simon
Published: February 2014

This article analyzes the ethnic denominations around the Gulf of Tadjoura. By using travel narratives from the nineteenth century and colonial archives from the twentieth, it provides a history of these denominations, their construction and evolution, and the representations they carry. In the nineteenth century, denominations proposed by African informers were used by European travelers to describe the political and social situation in the area as they understood it. Later, the colonial administration wanted to identify groups and individuals in order to manage the inhabitants and secure its domination over the country. We show how this practice was an impossible task because of the identity lability of individuals and groups and the impossibility of defining accurate limits between them, either physical or symbolic. Nonetheless, these constructions have been used until now to legitimate access to the State and country’s resources.
Spies, Secrets, and a Story Waiting to Be (Re)Told: Memories of the 1924 Revolution and the Racialization of Sudanese History
Authors: Vezzadini Elena
Published: February 2014

This article attempts to trace a geography of the memory of the 1924 Revolution in colonial Sudan. It springs from a glaring paradox: though the 1924 Revolution is one of the best documented episodes of colonial history, it has not affected collective memory in the same way other episodes from the country’s modern history have. Eyewitness accounts were first produced in the 1930s and have continued to be published up to the present day; for some of the central episodes of 1924, there are as many versions as there are narrators. The purpose of this article is to investigate the facets of these memories and those who have produced them. It explores two characteristics central to the geography of memory of 1924: on the one hand, the idea that in spite of the number of accounts about the revolution, this event is not fully known, shrouded as it is in mystery, filled with unspoken truths. On the other hand, it is believed that certain people in 1924 “said too much” and became spies, and that this is one of the main reasons why the revolution failed. Finally, the article will tie this peculiar memory configuration into the social trauma that was one of the consequences of the Revolution of 1924, along with the unspoken social divisions that followed it.
Wolaita Memories of Gärmame Nəway Governorship (1958−1959): Radical Reforms and Political Consciousness
Authors: Guidi Pierre
Published: February 2014

Wolaita is a peripheral region in southwestern Ethiopia that came under Ethiopian state control in 1894. The central government implemented a policy of violent political control, harsh economic extraction, and cultural marginalization over the vanquished population. During a very short stay as governor between 1958 and 1959, Gärmame Nəway—the famous leader of the attempted coup d’état against Haylä Səllase in 1960—implemented a set of legal, social, and educational reforms very popular among the Wolaita: elections of village representatives and judges, distribution of land to poor peasants, and hundreds of literacy centers up to the most remote areas. Accused of agitating the public, he was transferred by the emperor. His work was dismantled after his departure, but this experience remained in the collective memory. Today, some 50 years later, Gärmame Nəway is highly regarded by Wolaita farmers and intellectuals. Using a story fashioned as a folktale reported today in Wolaita where Gärmame Nəway set up a stratagem to uncover the wrongdoings of local chiefs and judges, this article aims to investigate Wolaita memory of his governorship. To what extent has this experience echoed with the social and political consciousness of the dominated Wolaita? What meaning do they give to it related to their own history and identity? How did it contribute to influence later political struggles?
Christian Patriot or Oromo Traitor?: The Ethiopian State in the Memories of Ras Gobäna Dače
Authors: Yates Brian J.
Published: February 2014

In this article, Yates explores the memories of a key Oromo figure, ras Gobäna Dače, to argue for their use in past and contemporary versions of the modern Ethiopian state. Yates uses theoretical frameworks on memory by Gary Alan Fine, Allesandro Portelli and John Lonsdale to situate various memories on Gobäna. The source base includes folklore, oral interviews and late nineteenth century manuscripts that center on Gobäna. Yates uses the memories of three key moments in this Oromo life: his birth, his conquests of Oromo lands, and his death, and argues that memories of these moments are inextricably linked to notions of the Ethiopian state. For many oppressed Oromo, Ethiopia is a state where the Oromo cannot, do not and will not have a role and cast Gobäna as a cautionary tale for all Oromo who desire to work for Ethiopia. For the ruling elites, Ethiopia is a place for solely civilized Christian state construction, and Gobäna remains a shadowy figure in this discourse and when he is mentioned it is his Christianity that is emphasized and not his ethnicity. Ras Gobäna, an Oromo state architect, cannot be used in either version of Ethiopia’s history, which remain separate and in competition.
Are “Griefs of More Value than Triumphs”?: Power Relations, Nation-Building, and the Different Histories of Women’s Wartime Contributions in Postwar South Sudan
Authors: Pinaud Clémence
Published: February 2014

In this article, the author examines the roles of women during the second civil war of South Sudan (1983–2005) and how their contribution to the liberation struggle led by the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) is advertised by the new state in the postwar era. Pinaud analyzes the reasons behind the promotion of the women’s battalion’s history in the postwar era by the state, in contrast with its disregard for camp followers. Highlighting the different categories and socio-ethnic origins of female actors in the war, she subscribes to the idea developed by other authors that advertised myths and official state history are the products of an ideological selection operated by the group dominating the state. This article illustrates how, by silencing the history of the camp followers (particularly in the Equatorian region), the state effectively censors the wartime experiences of an entire segment of the population. The state fails to engage a negotiation of beliefs, which is formative of a collective memory that shapes a group’s sense of shared experience and identity. The article thus brings new material to reflect on the social and political dynamics behind the formation of state history, collective memory and nationhood in South Sudan, a relatively new stream of research.
Producing History From Elisions, Fragments, and Silences: Public Testimony, the Asiatic Poll-Tax Campaign, and the Isaaq Somali Population of Kenya
Authors: Weitzberg Keren
Published: February 2014

In the late 1930s, members of the Kenyan branch of the Isaaq Somali diaspora began a campaign for Asiatic status in an effort to gain greater privileges within the colonial racial order. After national independence, this aspect of their history became politically problematic. To situate themselves within the Kenyan nationalist narrative and combat forms of xenophobia that broadly paint Somalis as foreign and alien, members of the Isaaq community have recently suppressed public memories of the Asiatic campaign. This article examines this elision within public testimony and considers the differences between silences in the oral and archival records.
Compromising with Ethiopianness After 1991: The Ethiopian Festival of the Millennium (September 2007–September 2008)
Authors: Bach Jean-Nicolas
Published: February 2014

This article argues that imperial marks and symbols were central to the nation-building strategy of the leaders of the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) before the outbreak of the 1998–2000 war against Eritrea and even before 1991. It thus presents the Ethio-Eritrean war, often perceived as a radical turning point concerning EPRDF’s nation-building policy, in a different light. The study also highlights how two often opposed conceptions of the Ethiopian nation—i.e., Pan-Ethiopian and “multinational”—have actually been presented as compatible by EPRDF leaders in the last decades. It argues that these two conceptions do not appear exclusive of each other, and their equilibrium is more clearly manifested since the National Festival of the Millennium, celebrated from September 2007 to September 2008 to mark Ethiopia’s entry into the third Millennium. The official narrations of Ethiopian statehood and nationhood expressed at this occasion confirmed the consistency of the new leaders’ interpretation of what Ethiopia “was” and “shall be,” but simultaneously show how current and concrete contingencies—here the post-1998–2000 war context and the turmoil of the 2005 general elections—force these same state/nation-builders to adjust their discourses.
Scotland's 'naturall elixirs' and 'sacred liquors': Explaining the Medicinal Power of Mineral Waters
Authors: Jillings Karen
Published: February 2014

This article discusses the early contribution by Scottish physicians to the literature on hydrotherapy, a genre of medical writing which emerged in the later sixteenth century. In so doing, it analyses the early modern belief in the healing properties of three sources of mineral waters in Scotland, a topic which addresses the themes of this Special Issue in two ways: firstly, the origin of the waters' powers was emphatically interpreted as divine, albeit natural rather than miraculous; and, secondly, these powers were believed to be manifested through occult qualities which were accepted as being beyond human comprehension.
Valentina Visconti, Charles VI, and the Politics of Witchcraft
Authors: Adams Tracy
Published: February 2014

Just as modern politicians invoke science to support agendas, medieval political actors politicised magic. The 1396 expulsion from the French royal court of Valentina Visconti, sister-in-law of mad King Charles VI, for casting spells on the hapless monarch, offers insight into one such case. Faction leaders, discrediting each other through accusations of witchcraft, used Valentina as their scapegoat, even as her dealings on behalf of her family brought her into conflict with Queen Isabeau of Bavaria. And yet, political as the accusations were, many genuinely believed the King's mysterious affliction to be caused by sorcery. The story thus shows how complex such situations were.
'The misery of the poor girls …': Exploring a Case of Collective Bewitchment in Lier, 1602-03
Authors: Vanderheyden Vrajabhūmi
Published: February 2014

In 1602-03 eight girls at a boarding school in Lier fell ill with a strange disease, thereby paving the way for accusations of witchcraft. The voluminous records of the resulting witch trial document the events in question as well as people's reactions to them. A careful reading of the source materials suggests that the evolution of the crisis from a single, unremarkable fainting spell to a spectacular and stereotypical case of collective convulsions resulted from the mutual interactions between the behaviour of the afflicted girls and the interpretation process and remedying actions it elicited .
Material Magic: The Deliberate Concealment of Footwear and Other Clothing
Authors: Randles Sarah
Published: February 2014

The deliberate concealment of clothing and footwear within the fabric of buildings has been broadly recognised as evidence of belief in the power of magic. Despite numerous examples of such concealments from across Europe and in areas of European migration, from the Middle Ages and later, there has yet to be discovered any direct documentation of this practice, an absence which poses methodological problems for historians attempting to understand it. This article examines the probable medieval origins of this phenomenon and poses some additional theoretical approaches towards explaining it.
The Rationality of Renaissance Magic
Authors: Dawes Gregory W.
Published: February 2014

Belief in magic is widespread both in history and in contemporary cultures. Can such belief be regarded as rational? If so, in what way? An examination of the magic of Renaissance Europe enables us to distinguish three ways in which a belief can be rational. It can be (a) rationally defensible , given a particular set of background beliefs, (b) formed by some reliable means, or (c) the result of procedures that are collectively rational . Distinguishing these different forms of rationality not only helps us to understand magical thought; it also assists in the controversial task of distinguishing magic from science.
The effect of mechanization level and harvesting system on the thinning cost of Mediterranean softwood plantations
Authors: Spinelli Raffaele , Lombardini Carolina , Magagnotti Natascia
Published: February 2014

The study compared motor-manual cut-to-length (CTL) harvesting, motor-manual whole-tree (WT) harvesting, mechanized CTL harvesting and mechanized WT harvesting as applied to the production of energy chips from the second thinning of Mediterranean pine plantations in flat terrain. Mechanization increased productivity between 6 and 20 times, depending on process step. It also allowed reducing thinning cost by a factor 4. Shifting from CTL to WT harvesting resulted in a reduction of harvesting cost between 40 and 50%. Fuel consumption was between 40 and 100% higher for CTL harvesting than for WT harvesting. Mechanization entailed a reduction of fuel consumption between 10 and 40%. Stand damage was generally low, between 1.5 and 6%. Mechanized CTL harvesting resulted in the lowest incidence of wounding, and the difference between mechanized CTL and manual WT harvesting was statistically significant. Soil compaction was absent or very small, depending on treatment. Mechanized thinning may produce larger increases of soil bulk density, compared to motor-manual thinning, but the difference is small, although significant. CTL harvesting leaves a larger amount of biomass on the soil, which relieves possible concerns about soil nutrient depletion. On the other hand, heavy residue loads may increase fire risk especially in sensitive Mediterranean environments.
Materials and Components for Low Temperature Solid Oxide Fuel Cells – an Overview
Authors: Radhika D. , Nesaraj A. S.
Published: February 2014

This article summarizes the recent advancements made in the area of materials and components for low temperature solid oxide fuel cells (LT-SOFCs). LT-SOFC is a new trend in SOFC technology since high temperature SOFC puts very high demands on the materials and too expensive to match marketability. The current status of the electrolyte and electrode materials used in SOFCs, their specific features and the need for utilizing them for LT-SOFC are presented precisely in this review article. The section on electrolytes gives an overview of zirconia, lanthanum gallate and ceria based materials. Also, this review article explains the application of different anode, cathode and interconnect materials used for SOFC systems. SOFC can result in better performance with the application of liquid fuels such methanol and ethanol. As a whole, this review article discusses the novel materials suitable for operation of SOFC systems especially for low temperature operation.
Biogas Filter Based on Local Natural Zeolite Materials
Authors: Krido Wahono Satriyo , Anggo Rizal Wahyu
Published: February 2014

UPT BPPTK LIPI has created a biogas filter tool to improve the purity of methane in the biogas. The device shaped cylindrical tube containing absorbent materials which based on local natural zeolite of Indonesia. The absorbent has been activated and modified with other materials. This absorbtion material has multi-adsorption capacity for almost impurities gas of biogas. The biogas  filter increase methane content of biogas for 5-20%. The biogas filter improve the biogas’s performance such as increasing methane contents, increasing heating value, reduction of odors, reduction of corrosion potential, increasing the efficiency and stability of the generator.
Trade Liberalization and Culture
Authors: Suranovic Steven , Winthrop Robert
Published: February 2014

This paper addresses the effect of international trade on cultural outcomes from both economic and anthropological perspectives. Definitions of culture are informed by anthropology and then incorporated into a standard economic trade models in two distinct ways. In the “cultural affinity from work” model, workers receive a non-pecuniary cultural benefit from work in a particular industry. In the “cultural externality” model, consumers of a product receive utility from other consumer’s consumption of a domestic good. We show that resistance to change due to cultural concerns can reduce the national benefits from trade liberalization. Complete movements to free trade will have a positive national welfare impact in the cultural affinity case, whereas it may lower national welfare in the cultural externality case. We also show that a loss of cultural benefits is more likely to occur when culture is an externality.
6-Pentyl-α-pyrone as an anti-sapstain compound produced by Trichoderma gamsii KUC1747 inhibits the germination of ophiostomatoid fungi
Authors: Hong Joo-Hyun , Lee Jaejung , Min Mihee , Ryu Seung-mok , Lee Dongho , Kim Gyu-Hyeok , Kim Jae-Jin
Published: February 2014

The capability of Trichoderma gamsii to biologically control sapstain fungi has been investigated. Six ophiostomatoids, including Ophiostoma floccosum, O. piceae, O. piliferum, O. ips, Grosmannia koreana, and G. piceaperda, were inhibited by the extracts of T. gamsii. Of the various cultivation periods, 7 days of T. gamsii cultivation produced antifungal compounds most efficiently. The crude extracts of T. gamsii inhibited O. ips, G. koreana, and G. piceaperda by over 99%. The crude extracts of T. gamsii were isolated, and the compounds were purified by thin layer chromatography (TLC), open column chromatography, ultra-performance liquid chromatography combined with quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (UPLC-QToF-MS) and NMR spectroscopy. The active fractions were separated based on the degree of T. gamsii antifungal activity. The compound 6-pentyl-α-pyrone (6PAP) was evaluated as a biological control agent for sapstain fungi.
Chasing Down the Mundane: The Near East with Social Historical Interest
Authors: Fleming Daniel E.
Published: February 2014

Although the “new social history” of the 1960s and 1970s quickly bequeathed its universal ambitions to a “new cultural history” in the 1980s, the attraction of the social historical category for study of the ancient Near East remains its potential to transform how we see the entire landscape of each past setting, still evoking E. P. Thompson’s history “from the bottom up.” Cuneiform writing offers a wealth of materials from the transactions of everyday life, in spite of the fact that the scribal profession served the centers of power and families of means, and a social historical perspective allows even documents from administrative archives to be viewed from below as well as from the rulers’ vantage. The potential for examining ancient society from below, in all its variety and lack of order, is illustrated in the archives of Late Bronze Age Emar in northwestern Syria. It is to be hoped that specialists in the ancient Near East will join a larger conversation among historians about how to approach the movement of societies through time.
Plyometric Long Jump Training With Progressive Loading Improves Kinetic and Kinematic Swimming Start Parameters
Authors: Rebutini Vanessa Z. , Pereira Gleber , Bohrer Roberta C.D. , Ugrinowitsch Carlos , Rodacki André L.F.
Published: February 2014

Rebutini, VZ, Pereira, G, Bohrer, RCD, Ugrinowitsch, C, and Rodacki, ALF. Plyometric long jump training with progressive loading improves kinetic and kinematic swimming start parameters. J Strength Cond Res 30(9): 2392–2398, 2016—This study was aimed to determine the effects of a plyometric long jump training program on torque around the lower limb joints and kinetic and kinematics parameters during the swimming jump start. Ten swimmers performed 3 identical assessment sessions, measuring hip and knee muscle extensors during maximal voluntary isometric contraction and kinetic and kinematics parameters during the swimming jump start, at 3 instants: INI (2 weeks before the training program, control period), PRE (2 weeks after INI measurements), and POST (24–48 hours after 9 weeks of training). There were no significant changes from INI to PRE measurements. However, the peak torque and rate of torque development increased significantly from PRE to POST measurements for both hip (47 and 108%) and knee (24 and 41%) joints. There were significant improvements to the horizontal force (7%), impulse (9%), and angle of resultant force (19%). In addition, there were significant improvements to the center of mass displacement (5%), horizontal takeoff velocity (16%), horizontal velocity at water entrance (22%), and peak angle velocity for the knee (15%) and hip joints (16%). Therefore, the plyometric long jump training protocol was effective to enhance torque around the lower limb joints and to control the resultant vector direction, to increase the swimming jump start performance. These findings suggest that coaches should use long jump training instead of vertical jump training to improve swimming start performance.
Pneumococcal disease prevention from early infancy to the elderly
Authors: Mészner Zsófia
Published: February 2014

The real disease burden due to Streptococcus pneumoniae infections are underrecognised worldwide both by the lay public and by the medical community in general. In infants and children pneumococcal otitis media is the most common reason for antimicrobial treatment, while the far less frequent, though potentially life threatening pneumococcal pleuropneumonia, sepsis and pneumococcal meningitis are high risk conditions even if the causative pneumococcus is not multiresistant. Asplenic patients, patients with chronic underlying conditions, and/or those receiving immunosuppressive therapy are at risk of serious pneumococcal disease regardless of age. Morbidity and mortality due to pneumococcal pneumonia is most common in the elderly, and has not changed during the last decades in spite of all efforts in improving therapy and care. Presently the majority of the pneumococcal infections are preventable by active immunization. In this work the author briefly outlines the results of the pneumococcal prevention programs worldwide and in Hungary using presently available 10-valent, 13-valent protein conjugate and 23-valent polysaccharide pneumococcal vaccines. Also, the author describes the recently approved indications of the 13-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine such as its use in all age groups, discusses future challenges of these prevention programs. Orv. Hetil., 2014, 155(7), 243–247.
The role of ramipril in the therapy of diabetic nephropathy
Authors: Dézsi Csaba András
Published: February 2014

In the past two decades the number of diabetic patients has increased dramatically. According to the data of the International Diabetes Federation published in 2012, more than 371 million people suffer from diabetes mellitus, which is responsible for the death of 4.8 million people yearly. Diabetic nephropathy is the most frequent cause of terminal renal failure. The first stage of its development is microalbuminuria. Without an efficient treatment 20–40% of the patients with microalbuminuria suffering from type 2 diabetes mellitus develop chronic renal failure, but only 20% of them become uremic because most of them die beforehand mainly due to cardiovascular disease. The renin-angiotensin-system, which is one of the most important elements of the regulation of blood pressure and water-salt metabolism, plays an important role in the development of diabetic nephropathy. Drugs affecting the function of this system are of great significance in the treatment of hypertension. The author rewiews the results of several important studies and animal experiments to demonstrate the role of ramipril in the therapy of diabetic nephropathy. The author concludes that ramipril is one of the angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors with the highest number of evidence based beneficial results. Apart from its blood pressure decreasing effect, ramipril protects target organs and it proved to be effective in the treatment of diabetic nephropathy according to most international multicenter clinical trials. Orv. Hetil., 2014, 155(7), 263–269.
Timely commencement of insulin in type 2 diabetes: benefits and risks
Authors: Winkler Gábor
Published: February 2014

The introduction of insulin in type 2 diabetes is often too late, though the immediate as well as late consequences of inadequate metabolic control are well known. That is the reason, why a special attention is given in recent therapeutic guidelines for the importance of early, at least timely insulinisation. This review article summarizes the advantages (mitigation of the beta-cell dysfunction, long lasting good metabolic control) and potential risks (hypoglycemia, weight gain, possible deteriorating patient complience) of early or timely insulin therapy. It is pointed out that the introduction of insulin is effective and safe therapeutic option during the whole course of type 2 diabetes, the use of different regimes is suitable to reach and maintain the individual glycemic target and, with a structured patient education, it does not disturb the quality of life and the compliance of patients. Orv. Hetil., 2014, 155(7), 255–261.
Types and management of perforations occurring during endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography
Authors: Völgyi Zoltán , Szenes Mária , Gasztonyi Beáta
Published: February 2014

The authors discuss the incidence of perforation related to endoscopic retrograde cholangio-pancreatography, which is relatively uncommon (0.3–1%) among other types of complications. Perforations can be classified into three types based on their forms and locations. Having reviewed the literature the authors conclude that the most common type is periampullary perforation and the less frequent one is peritoneal perforation. The former usually heals after conservative treatment, while the latter needs an operation. The authors emphasize the important prognostic role of timely diagnosis and surgical treatment if alarming signs (peritoneal, septic) are present. Known predisposing factors, when the procedure needs more careful attention, are also summarized (postoperative status, needle knife papillectomy, intramural contrast media, long lasting examination). After reviewing their own cases, the authors establish that the incidence of perforation in their own centre was four per thousand (10/2400), out of which nine were periampullar and one peritoneal type. In 6 cases operation was necessary, and there was no mortality. The authors conclude that individually tailored therapy can largely reduce the 30–40% mortality rate reported in earlier studies. Orv. Hetil., 2014, 155(7), 248–254.
Franz Liszt: A Bicentennial Tribute
Authors: Walker Alan
Published: February 2014

An inaugural address delivered at the International Liszt Congress ”Liszt and the Arts“ held in Budapest, November 17–20, 2011.
Liszt und die bildende Kunst — systematische Überlegungen
Authors: Redepenning Dorothea
Published: February 2014

The question how visual art absorbs music has been the subject of much investigation. The reverse question, namely how music absorbs visual art, has until now received little attention. Franz Liszt was perhaps the first to be inspired by visual art in his compositions. The starting point was his encounter with the art of Italy (Sposalizio and Il penseroso in book II of Années de pèlerinage), later followed symphonic poems (Hunnenschlacht based on Kaulbach and Von der Wiege bis zum Grabe probably based on Zichy); his Totentanz for piano and orchestra was inspired by Orcagna and Holbein. In Liszt it is a matter of the poetic content of music and the unification of the arts, where in principle music can be connected not just to literature, but to all branches of the arts. Linked with literature, it reflects the forms and structures of literature. The question is, therefore, whether all this is valid for visual art as well. Does Liszt just compose a ”story,“ or does he also take over the structures of art? And what influence did these works have on later composers?
Des Harmonies poétiques et religieuses de Lamartine à celles de Franz Liszt
Authors: Gut Serge
Published: February 2014

The connections between Lamartine’s collection of poetry Harmonies poétiques et religieuses and the piano cycle with the same title by Liszt are very complex — sometimes even enigmatic. However, because of the great progress made in recent years regarding the genesis of Liszt’s cycle spanning over twenty years it is now possible to provide some clarification on the influences exerted by Lamartine’s poems on the corresponding pieces by Liszt. Each piece of Liszt’s three successive piano cycles is examined in terms of the influence due to Lamartine’s collection.
Revising Hamlet: the Symphonic Poem in the Theatre
Authors: Cormac Joanne
Published: February 2014

Hamlet, the last of Liszt’s Weimar symphonic poems, stands out from the others in the sheer detail of its references to the text of Shakespeare’s play. This paper considers how Liszt revised the symphonic poems in order to tighten the relationship between music and drama against the context of his encounter with a renowned and innovative Shakespearian actor, Bogumil Dawison. It demonstrates that the revisions made to Hamlet concerned incorporating extra ’scenes’ from the play using techniques associated with incidental music. Liszt also added programmatic instructions directly related to Dawison’s portrayal. All of this allows us to reconsider the position of Hamlet within the symphonic poems, as a forerunner to the highly programmatic Two Episodes from Lenau’s Faust and the melodramas that Liszt would compose immediately afterwards.
« Qu’est-ce que l’Art? Nouvel essai esthétique » Liszt et l’essai esthétique inédit de Carolyne zu Sayn-Wittgenstein
Authors: Dufetel Nicolas
Published: February 2014

Carolyne zu Sayn-Wittgenstein’s unpublished Nouvel essai esthétique was certainly written in the 1860s in Rome. Dedicated to Adélaïde-Louise d’Eckmühl, marquise de Blocqueville, it is composed of 4 chapters presenting both general issues on art and religion, and detailed presentation of nine arts. Among them, the chapter on music contains many ideas strongly connected to Liszt’s writings, e.g. influence of Fétis and Hegel, idea of progress, historicism, harmony, catholic music, symphonic music, opera, writings about music, piano, etc. The present article is a first attempt to establish connections between the Lisztian topics and the catholic-historicist aesthetics of the princess Sayn- Wittgenstein, which can be seen as a privileged source for the Neudeutsche Schule.
Berlioz and Liszt ”in the Locker Room“
Authors: Bloom Peter
Published: February 2014

The closest of friends in the early eighteen-thirties, Berlioz and Liszt shared artistic aspirations (especially around the latter’s reworkings of the former’s Symphonie fantastique and its sequel, Le Retour à la vie) and personal adventures (especially around the former’s irrational passion for the Irish actress Harriet Smithson and the latter’s efforts at counsel and consolation). These matters are discussed in the context of Berlioz’s private (and I believe insensitive) announcement, in a letter to Liszt sent four days after the marriage, that his new wife had been a virgin.
Liszt and Bad Taste
Authors: Taruskin Richard
Published: February 2014

Everyone will probably agree that no great musician has been as frequently accused of bad taste as Liszt. And everyone will probably also agree that these accusations have had no effect on his stature as a great musician, even among the accusers. So what is bad taste, then, if it is so easily separable from artistic stature? It is a concept that has been poorly historicized or contextualized, if at all. This paper is an attempt to start the process, using Liszt as bellwether.
Quantitative Model for Clusters of String-like Cooperative Motion in a Coarse-Grained Glass-Forming Polymer Melt
Authors: Pazmiño Betancourt Beatriz A , Douglas Jack F. , Starr Francis W.
Published: February 2014

We apply a living polymerization theory to describe cooperative string-like particle rearrangement clusters observed in simulations of a coarse-grained polymer melt. The theory quantitatively describes the interrelation between the average string length L, configurational entropy Sconf, and the order parameter for string assembly Φ without free parameters. Combining this theory with the Adam-Gibbs (AG) model allows us to predict the relaxation time τ in a lower temperature T range than accessible by current simulations. In particular, the combined theories suggest a return to Arrhenius behavior near Tg and a low T residual entropy, thus avoiding a Kauzmann ‘entropy crisis’.
Feasibility of spoof surface plasmon waveguide enabled ultrathin room temperature THz GaN quantum cascade laser
Authors: Sun Greg , Khurgin Jacob B. , Tsai Din Ping
Published: February 2014

We propose and study the feasibility of a THz GaN/AlGaN quantum cascade laser (QCL) consisting of only five periods with confinement provided by a spoof surface plasmon (SSP) waveguide for room temperature operation. The QCL design takes advantages of the large optical phonon energy and the ultrafast phonon scattering in GaN that allow for engineering favorable laser state lifetimes, and the SSP waveguide provides the optical confinement for the ultrathin QCL. Our analysis has shown that the waveguide loss is sufficiently low for the QCL to reach its threshold at the injection current density around 6 kA/cm2 at room temperature.
Excitation and detection of coherent optical phonon modes in epitaxial cubic Ge2Sb2Te5thin films of different crystallographic orientation
Authors: Al-Saigh R. , Shalini A. , Srivastava G. P. , Hicken R. J. , Calarco R.
Published: February 2014

Optical pump-probe studies of cubic crystalline Ge2Sb2Te5/GaSb(001) have previously shown that the amplitude of a coherent optical phonon (COP) with frequency of 3.4 THz observed in the anisotropic reflectance (AR) signal exhibits a four-fold dependence upon the polarization of the probe beam. The appearance of the mode in the AR signal but not the reflectance (R) signal, and the dependence upon probe polarization, both suggest a three-dimensional mode character. Confirmation that this mode indeed has three-dimensional character, similar to the Raman inactive T2 mode in the pristine rock salt structure, is highly important in understanding the structure of the crystalline phase of Ge2Sb2Te5 that has important applications within data storage technology. A phonon of the same frequency has been observed in an epitaxial Ge2Sb2Te5/InAs(111) structure, suggesting that this phonon is indeed characteristic of epitaxial cubic GST. A theory, which considers the symmetry of the Raman tensor for a particular phonon mode, is used to predict the dependence of R and AR signal amplitude upon pump and probe polarization for the T2 mode of a (111) facet of the putative rock-salt structure.
Solute-Vacancy Interactions in Nickel
Authors: Tucker Julie D.
Published: February 2014

Solute trapping of vacancies in a Ni host lattice is a first step to understanding how solute additions may effect ordering phase transformation in Ni-based alloys. Minor additions of solutes (<3 wt.%) may not have an appreciable effect on the thermodynamics of phase stability but strong binding between the vacancy and solute may significantly alter the kinetics of phase transformations. In this work vacancy-solute binding energies are calculated for multiple elements (Cr, Fe, Mn, Si, Ti, Nb, Ta, Cu, Al, Mo) in a pure Ni face-centered cubic lattice. These elements are common in corrosion-resistant Ni-based alloys. Binding enthalpies for the first four nearest-neighbor vacancy-solute pairs are reported for all elements. The results of this study show that Si, Ti, Nb and Ta bind to vacancies in the first nearest-neighbor position. Alloys containing these solute additions may experience delayed phase transformation due to vacancy trapping that slows diffusion.