bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The efficacy and safety of long-term Helicobacter species quadruple therapy in asymptomatic cats with naturally acquired infection
Authors: Khoshnegah Javad , Jamshidi Shahram , Mohammadi Marjan , Sasani Farhang
Published: December 2010

Owing to rising drug-resistant Helicobacter species infections in people and animals, currently therapies are losing their efficacy; therefore, regimens efficacious in the presence of drug resistance are needed. This study assessed the efficacy and safety of a 14-day quadruple Helicobacter species therapy in cats with naturally acquired infection. Thirteen asymptomatic adult stray cats with Helicobacter species infection (identified by analysis of gastric biopsies using polymerase chain reaction and Helicobacter-specific primers) received omeprazole 0.7 mg/kgq 8 h plus amoxicillin 20 mg/kgq 12 h, metronidazole 20 mg/kgq 12 h and clarithromycin 7.5 mg/kgq 12 h, for 14 days. Second molecular analysis of gastric biopsies revealed persistence of Helicobacter species DNA in four cats that were negative on quantitative urease testing, cytology and histopathology. Our results suggest that antibiotic regimens that are effective against Helicobacter pylori in people cannot eradicate Helicobacter species in cats with naturally acquired infection, although transient suppression may occur.
Neuropharmacology in Pediatric Brain Injury: A Review
Authors: Pangilinan Percival H. , Giacoletti‐Argento Angela , Shellhaas Renee , Hurvitz Edward A. , Hornyak Joseph Edward
Published: December 2010

In this review, the current evidence is examined regarding neuropharmacologic treatment for children and adolescents (under the age of 18 years) who sustained a traumatic brain injury (TBI). Although the focus is on the pediatric TBI population, there is a paucity of empirical data related to the role of medication with children and adolescents after brain injury. Therefore, findings from the adult TBI literature are incorporated where appropriate so as to identify potential agents that warrant further examination in pediatric populations. This review addresses specific sequelae of TBI from the earliest stages of neurologic recovery to long‐term comorbidities, including disorders of impaired consciousness, post‐TBI agitation, cognitive decline, and post‐TBI depression. The evidence regarding the role of medication in neuroprotection and neurorecovery in this population is also explored. Medication classes reviewed include excitatory amino acids, antagonists to the N‐methyl‐D‐aspartate receptor, dopamine agonists, benzodiazepines, β‐blockers, anticonvulsants, and antidepressants. It is hoped that this review will guide future research, and ideas as to how this may be accomplished within a pediatric population are suggested.
A Retrospective Clinical Analysis of Moderate to Severe Athletic Concussions
Authors: Cantu Robert C. , Guskiewicz Kevin , Register‐Mihalik Johna K.
Published: December 2010

Objective

To investigate differences in clinical outcomes on the basis of gender and age after a moderate or severe concussion in a cohort of physically active subjects examined by a single clinician.

Design

A descriptive, cross‐sectional, retrospective chart review of consecutive patients.

Setting

Outpatient assessments by a single clinician with expertise in sports concussion.

Patients

Physically active subjects seen for evaluation after a concussion experienced while participating in sports (N = 194; 215 concussions; age mean ± standard deviation = 19.19 ± 8.53 years) were included.

Interventions (Independent Variables)

Intergroup differences and associations were examined by gender, age group (<18 years and 18+ years), and concussion grade for all outcome measures.

Main Outcome Measurements

Separate χ2 tests were used to assess associations between gender, age group, and symptom duration group (≤7 days, 8‐90 days, >90 days), the presence of depression, the presence of loss of consciousness, altered school or work, and concussion grade. Separate independent samples t‐tests was used to examine differences in symptom reporting and time to recovery.

Results

No association was observed between gender and any measured characteristics (P > .05). Subjects 18 years or older took longer to recover (315.77 days), compared with younger subjects (91.31 days) (t213 = −2.01, P = .049). Older subjects also reported more concussions than did younger ones, 4.33 and 2.37, respectively (t213 = −3.77, P < .001).

Conclusions

All concussions included in this study were moderate to severe in nature as defined by the Revised Cantu Grading Scale. Contrary to existing literature regarding gender differences in concussion of a lesser severity, no gender differences were observed in this sample. Age differences were observed, with the population of subjects who were 18 years and older experiencing a greater number and duration of concussion symptoms than the younger group. Developing evidence‐based return‐to‐play progressions and rehabilitation strategies in this population is the next frontier for concussion researchers.
Intensive Electrical Stimulation Attenuates Femoral Bone Loss in Acute Spinal Cord Injury
Authors: Groah Suzanne L. , Lichy Alison M. , Libin Alexander V. , Ljungberg Inger
Published: December 2010

Objective

To determine whether intensive electrical stimulation (ES) can reduce femoral bone mineral density (BMD) loss in acute spinal cord injury (SCI).

Design

Randomized controlled trial.

Setting

Inpatient rehabilitation hospital.

Participants

Twenty‐six subjects with C4 to T12 American Spinal Injury Association Impairment Scale A or B SCI less than 12 weeks postinjury.

Methods

The control group received usual rehabilitative care and the intervention group received usual care plus 1 hour of ES over the quadriceps 5 days per week for 6 weeks.

Main Outcome Measurements

Outcome measurements were collected at baseline, postintervention (interim), and 3 months postinjury (follow‐up), and included dual energy x‐ray absorptiometry, serum osteocalcin (OC), and urinary N‐telopeptide (NTx).

Results

In the control group, there was increasing BMD loss with distance from the spine (lumbar −1.88%, hip −12.25%, distal femur −15.15%, proximal tibia −17.40%). This trend was attenuated over the distal femur in the ES group (lumbar −1.29%, hip −14.45%, distal femur −7.40%, proximal tibia −12.31%). NTx increased over the 3 assessments in controls ([mean ± standard deviation] 115.00 ± 34.10, 154.86 ± 70.41, and 171.33 ± 75.8 nmol/mmol creatinine) compared with the ES group (160.56 ± 140.06, 216.71 ± 128.40, and 154.67 ± 69.12 nmol/mmol creatinine)—all of which were elevated compared with the reference range, and the differences between the 2 groups were not significant. Osteocalcin levels markedly decreased in the control group (12.90 ± 7.30, 24.00 ± 4.29, and 6.40 ± 7.28 μg/L) to subnormal levels, and remained stable and in the normal range in the ES group (13.80 ± 7.64, 11.86 ± 6.77, and 14.80 ± 12.91 μg/L), although differences between the groups were not significant.

Conclusions

Lower extremity BMD loss increases with distance from the spine. An intensive lower extremity ES program may attenuate BMD loss locally after acute motor complete SCI, although it is unknown whether these benefits are maintained in the long term.
Central Versus Lower Body Obesity Distribution and the Association With Lower Limb Physical Function and Disability
Authors: Foster Norah A. , Segal Neil A. , Clearfield Jacob S. , Lewis Cora E. , Keysor Julie , Nevitt Michael C. , Torner James C.
Published: December 2010

Objective

To determine whether fat distribution in obese adults is significantly associated with decreased function and increased disability.

Design

Cross‐sectional epidemiologic analysis.

Setting

Multicenter, community‐based study.

Participants

Multicenter Osteoarthritis Study participants included adults ages 50–79 years at high risk of developing or already possessing knee osteoarthritis. A total of 549 men and 892 women from the Multicenter Osteoarthritis Study who had a body mass index ≥30 kg/m2 and who underwent dual energy x‐ray absorptiometry (DEXA) scans were included in these analyses. Exclusion criteria included bilateral knee replacements, cancer, or other rheumatologic disease.

Methods

Body fat distribution was determined using baseline DEXA scan data. A ratio of abdominal fat in grams compared with lower limb fat in grams (trunk:lower limb fat ratio) was calculated. Participants were divided into quartiles of trunk:lower limb fat ratio, with highest and lowest quartiles representing central and lower body obesity, respectively. Backward elimination linear regression models stratified by gender were used to analyze statistical differences in function and disability between central and lower body obesity groups.

Main Outcome Measures

Lower limb physical function measures included 20‐meter walk time, chair stand time, and peak knee flexion and extension strength. Disability was assessed using the Late Life Function and Disability Index.

Results

Trunk:lower limb fat ratio was not significantly associated with physical function or disability in women or men (P value .167–.972). Total percent body fat (standardized β = –0.1533 and –0.1970 in men and women, respectively) was a better predictor of disability when compared with trunk:lower limb fat ratio (standardized β = 0.0309 and 0.0072).

Conclusions

Although fat distribution patterns may affect clinical outcomes in other areas, lower limb physical function and disability do not appear to be significantly influenced by the distribution of fat in obese older adults with, or at risk for, knee osteoarthritis. These data do not support differential treatment of functional limitations based on fat distribution.
THE IDEAL STRUCTURE OF SEMIGROUPS OF TRANSFORMATIONS WITH RESTRICTED RANGE
Authors: MENDES-GONÇALVES SUZANA , SULLIVAN R. P.
Published: December 2010

Let Y be a fixed nonempty subset of a set X and let T(X,Y ) denote the semigroup of all total transformations from X into Y. In 1975, Symons described the automorphisms of T(X,Y ). Three decades later, Nenthein, Youngkhong and Kemprasit determined its regular elements, and more recently Sanwong, Singha and Sullivan characterized all maximal and minimal congruences on T(X,Y ). In 2008, Sanwong and Sommanee determined the largest regular subsemigroup of T(X,Y ) when |Y |≠1 and Y ≠ X; and using this, they described the Green’s relations on T(X,Y ) . Here, we use their work to describe the ideal structure of T(X,Y ) . We also correct the proof of the corresponding result for a linear analogue of T(X,Y ) .
The impact of the catechol-O-methyltransferase genotype on the acute responsiveness of vascular reactivity to a green tea extract
Authors: Miller Rosalind J. , Jackson Kim G. , Dadd Tony , Mayes Andrew E. , Louise Brown A. , Minihane Anne M.
Published: December 2010

The beneficial effects of green tea catechins, such as the proposed improvement in endothelial function, may be influenced by phase II metabolism during and after absorption. The methylation enzyme, catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT), has a missense mutation rs4680 (G to A), proposed to result in a 40 % reduction in enzyme activity. In the present pilot study, twenty subjects (ten of each homozygous COMT genotype) were recruited. Green tea extract capsules (836 mg green tea catechins) were given in a fasted state, and a high-carbohydrate breakfast was given after 60 min. Blood samples and vascular function measurements were taken at regular intervals. The change in digital volume pulse stiffness index (SI) from baseline was shown to be different between genotype groups at 120 and 240 min, with a lower SI in the GG individuals (P ≤ 0·044). The change in blood pressure from baseline also differed between genotype groups, with a greater increase in systolic (P = 0·023) and diastolic (P = 0·034) blood pressure at 120 min in the GG group. The AA group was shown to have a greater increase in insulin concentrations at 120 min (P = 0·019) and 180 min (P = 0·008) compared with baseline, despite similar glucose profiles. No genotypic differences were found in vascular reactivity measured using laser Doppler iontophoresis, total nitrite, lipids, plasma total antioxidant capacity or inflammatory markers after ingestion of the green tea extract. In conclusion, SI and insulin response to the glucose load differed between the COMT genotype groups, and this may be suggestive of a green tea extract and genotype interaction.
The pterosaurian remains from the Grünbach Formation (Campanian, Gosau Group) of Austria: a reappraisal of ‘Ornithocheirus buenzeli’
Authors: BUFFETAUT ERIC , ŐSI ATTILA , PRONDVAI EDINA
Published: December 2010

The fragmentary pterosaur material from the Campanian Grünbach Formation (Gosau Group) of Muthmannsdorf (Austria), previously identified asOrnithocheirus buenzeliBunzel, 1871, is revised. A lower jaw fragment shows a helical type of articulation, which is known in several families of pterosaurs, and cannot be identified with great accuracy. The proximal part of a humerus shows distinctive features that allow it to be referred to as a member of the family Azhdarchidae, which is widespread in the Late Cretaceous Period of Europe.Ornithocheirus buenzeliis considered anomen dubium. The pterosaur material from the Grünbach Formation cannot be used as evidence for the presence of ornithocheirids in the Late Cretaceous of Europe.
ALGEBRAIC CYCLES ON COMPACT QUATERNIONIC SHIMURA FOURFOLDS AND POLES OF L-FUNCTIONS
Authors: VIRDOL CRISTIAN
Published: December 2010

In this article we prove Tate conjecture for a large class of compact quaternionic Shimura fourfolds.
III. Concession or Cure: the Sociological Premises of the First Reform Act
Authors: Moore D. C.
Published: December 2010

Traditionally, the first English Reform Act has been conceived within the context of two discreet but overlapping models. Both separately and together these models have performed two important functions. They have provided a means of defining the nature and dynamics of the Act itself by relating certain of its crucial provisions to certain aspects of the pre-reform constituency structure. They have also provided a means of relating the Act as a whole—and as thus defined—to the general course of British history in the nineteenth century, to the general problems of explaining how Britain was transformed from an aristocracy to a democracy, from a rural and agri-cultural society to an urban and industrial one, from a Gemeinschaft to a Gesellschaft.
II. The Establishment of ‘Europe’ as a Political Expression
Authors: Schmidt H. D.
Published: December 2010

Political and historical studies are still severely handicapped by the absence of an historical dictionary of political terms and slogans. Without such a dictionary the investigation of significant political expressions is still very difficult and time-consuming, while the process of critical political self-understanding and education lacks a vital tool. The great philological dictionaries of the European languages are of little help in this field of political semantics, because they have been the work of scholars whose main interest was philology and literature. International links, historical perspective, and political sensitivity can be found in no dictionary of the English, French, or German language. Littré's French dictionary notes that Europe is the name of a number of heavenly bodies and plays a part in Greek mythology. The Oxford English Dictionary, on the other hand, treats Europe as a proper name and omits it altogether. Without the benefit of competent lexicographical guidance the intensive historical study of the idea of Europe, which has been carried out for the last twenty years, has failed to discover the time and circumstances which led to the adoption of Europe as a symbol of political interest. The main fault of past historical investigations lies in a concentration on literary works and famous men of letters and a neglect of political literature, pamphlets, and diplomatic documents. Political expressions are the offspring of national and international conflicts. They become stereotyped symbols of loyalty or enmity and one criterion of their establishment in political life is the frequency of their use—and abuse—by one recognizable political group. When and how did this first happen to Europe?
II. In Pursuit of Heresy: Spanish Diplomats versus Spanish Heretics in France and England during the Wars of Religion
Authors: Hauben Paul J.
Published: December 2010

Recently several works have illuminated the important role played by diplomats in the course of the religious wars of the latter half of the sixteenth century. We propose to shed some additional light on this general subject by studying the often curious activities of some Spanish envoys to France and England with respect to Spanish Protestants who had taken refuge in those lands. Through a careful scrutiny of related but seemingly minor matters we can frequently learn more about major ones.
IV. The Civil List in Eighteenth-Century British Politics: Parliamentary Supremacy versus the Independence of the Crown
Authors: Reitan E. A.
Published: December 2010

In the constitutional evolution of eighteenth-century Britain a major problem was the resolution of the tensions which arose between the executive powers vested in the Crown and the legislative supremacy of Parliament. Although the seventeenth-century conflicts of Crown and Parliament had settled the question of ultimate supremacy in favour of Parliament, eighteenth-century politics, by common consent, were confined to the level where a balance of power could be seen to operate, in which king, Lords, and Commons exercised agreed functions and powers and where the ultimate weapon—parliamentary supremacy—need not be used. The independence of the Crown—however it may have operated in practice—was a cardinal doctrine of the ‘mixed and balanced’ constitution. Although this doctrine was usually invoked to support the right of the king to choose his own ministers, it gave an important constitutional role to the Civil List, for by supplying the Crown with a financial provision not subject to parliamentary control the Civil List served the pur-pose of supporting the independence and the ‘influence’ of the Crown. The uncontrolled expenditure of the Civil List, with its large number of attractive places, pensions, and other benefits, was an important part of that ‘influence’ which some considered necessary for the effective exercise of executive power and which others decried as a threat to the independence of Parliament. The disputes and jealousies created by the Civil List developed in the reigns of George I and George II and came to a climax in the reign of George III. The result was an alteration of the constitutional foundation of the Civil List which further weakened the doctrine of the independence of the Crown and which marked an important step in the evolution of parliamentary government.
VI. The Strategic Background to the Anglo-Russian Entente of August 1907
Authors: Williams Beryl J.
Published: December 2010

In July 1905 Lord Kitchener, the Indian chief of General Staff, wrote at the krequest of the viceroy a memorandum entitled A note on the Military policy of India, which was in due course sent to England for consideration by the home government. Its plea was for a consistent policy with regard to the North-West Frontier. At the moment, Kitchener complained, this was ‘apt to change with every ministry and almost with every minister, while each incoming Viceroy probably develops a policy of his own’. The main danger facing India was uncompromisingly described as ‘the menacing advance of Russia towards our frontiers’.
I. The Committee-Men in the Long Parliament, August 1642–December 1643
Authors: Glow Lotte
Published: December 2010

It has been said that the Civil War was won by committees. Recent writers on this subject have begun to show how parliamentary policy and its execution was forged in the committee chambers rather than on the crowded floor of the House of Commons. This article is concerned with the personnel of these committees, in particular with those men who were not famous for their political activities and attitudes. Obviously, a core of leaders was needed in order to direct the business of the committees, to give continuity to their proceedings and to ensure that their work was in accord with the policy of the Commons. But the political ‘parties’ were relatively small, and with all the enthusiasm in the world their members could not attend personally to all aspects of government, civil and military. This study is concerned with the men who had no known political views but who contributed a great deal of time and effort to the running of parliamentary affairs. Because of their relative obscurity in the House it will be useful to ask why they were chosen to serve on certain committees, how their background and activity compared with that of their more ‘political’ colleagues, and how they reacted to situations where they were required to take a political stand. Above all, it will be possible to judge whether these men formed a coherent group rather than a random collection of individuals. These men owed their positions to their administrative skill rather than to their political affiliations. As administrators they were responsible to the legislature, and during a time of intensified state intervention, they became analogous to a non-political civil service, ready to execute the policy decisions of the party leaders.
II. The ‘London Evening-Post’ and the Jew Bill of 1753
Authors: Cranfield G. A.
Published: December 2010

Over the so-called ‘Jew Bill’; of 1753, the Opposition press was to wage one of the most extraordinary propaganda campaigns in English history. The Bill itself was a comparatively minor measure introduced by the Pelham ministry t o relieve at least some of the disabilities under which the Jews then laboured. Although there was probably no country in Europe in which the Jews received better treatment, and Jewish merchants and financiers had attained positions of very considerable wealth and influence in England, a number of irksome restrictions remained. This was particularly the case in the matter of naturalization, which gave to aliens the rights of natural-born Englishmen, such as the right to own land and ships, and to trade with the colonies. The Jewish Naturalization Bill–to give it its proper title—was designed to remove this disability, by providing that individual Jews who had been resident i n Great Britain or Ireland for three years might be naturalized by Act of Parliament without taking the Sacrament. It was a very modest measure. It certainly did not confer on all Jews in the country the rights of British citizens, and would, in fact, have applied only to a very small number of extremely wealthy Jews, for a private Act of Parliament was a very expensive proceeding indeed. Nor did it relieve Jews of religious disabilities. Yet this Bill was to produce a quite remarkable clamour on the part of the Opposition press, in which it was to be denounced as a blasphemous attack upon Christianity, and the unfortunate Jews were to be accused of every imaginable vice and enormity. There were few political issues in the early eighteenth century to arouse the emotions of Englishmen: but the ‘Jew Bill’; was certainly one of them.
III. A Great Electioneer and his Motives: The Fourth Duke of Newcastle
Authors: Golby John
Published: December 2010

Despite intensive research into the history of parliamentary electioneering, especially in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, several questions, particularly concerning the electioneer himself, remain partly unanswered. Although the extent of patronage in various constituencies and the actual electioneering techniques used have been closely studied it has been more difficult to answer such questions as why certain men participated in electioneering and why they were prepared to spend so much money on it. There has been a tendency to describe these men, and to estimate their motives, in a rather stereotyped and oversimplified way. It has been the characteristic of these stereotyped generalizations to account for the activities of the electioneer in terms of purely material motives: he ‘electioneered’, it is suggested, because he was trying to promote the interests of a certain political group; or because he wanted political office; or because he wanted a peerage; or because he wanted to ensure a handsome share of patronage or income for himself and his dependants. No doubt some electioneers were swayed, even exclusively, by motives of this kind. But such motivation sounds suspicious in its brutal simplicity; if we had more individual studies of this type of politician, we might find that many of the famous electioneers were prompted just as strongly by motives of a less directly material kind, which reflected their personal characters, their personal problems in life, and even their personal idealism.
I. Shakespeare's Politics
Authors: Morris Christopher
Published: December 2010

In the year 1582 William Camden the antiquary was about to venture into a remote country beyond the mountains, called Lancashire, ‘which’, he wrote, ‘I go unto (God speed me well) after a sort somewhat against my will…but I will proceed, in hope that God's assistance, which hitherto hath been favour-able unto me, will not now fail me'. Such qualms might well assail any professional historian who plans an expedition into Shakespeare country; for the trail is marked by his predecessors’ whitening bones and, in one case, by bones which the vultures have not finished picking clean.
IV. Expectations of the New County Councils, and their Realization
Authors: Dunbabin J. P. D.
Published: December 2010

I have tried in another article to consider the preparation of the Local Government Act of 1888 as illustrative of the politics of the time. I shall here discuss the prognostications made of the new English County Councils, the extent to which these were realized at the first council elections, and the way in which the new bodies settled down, in the hope of shedding some light on the social and political feelings of, and the forces prevalent in, the countryside. My treatment of these themes will necessarily be rather selective, an attempt to illustrate the broad general currents of thought, as far as possible in the words in which they were expressed.
V. Smuts and the Decision of the Liberal Government to grant Responsible Government to the Transvaal, January and February 1906
Authors: Hyam Ronald
Published: December 2010

On 31 March 1905 the Unionist Government issued Letters Patent granting to the Transvaal a representative constitution, known almost at once, and to history, as the Lyttelton Constitution. This constitution never came into force; it was abrogated in February 1906 by the new Liberal Government, who decided, at a dramatic Cabinet meeting on 8 February, to grant responsible government instead. Until the opening of the government and private archives within the last few years, the accounts of the part played by the Liberal prime minister, Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, at this Cabinet, and of the encounter between him and General J. C. Smuts, who had come to England on a mission to persuade the Liberal Government to grant responsible government, have necessarily been largely based on hearsay. Something approaching a ‘mythology’ has therefore tended to surround these events; this ‘mythology’ views the Smuts' mission as ‘the climax in the drama of the South African settlement’; it assumes Smuts ‘convinced’ Campbell-Bannerman immediate responsible government should be granted, and that the prime minister then persuaded the Cabinet. This paper is an attempt to carry a stage further the ‘de-mythologizing’ begun by recent historians with partial access to the relevant papers.
V. The Policy of Isolation
Authors: Howard Christopher
Published: December 2010

That Britain's attitude towards foreign powers for a considerable part of the nineteenth century and at the beginning of the twentieth was governed by a so-called ‘policy of isolation’, often, although not invariably, linked with the epithet ‘splendid’, was long accepted by many historians. Indeed, it would be easy to compile a list of distinguished writers, in whose works these words are to be found. There has, however, been some disagreement both as to when the alleged policy originated and as to when it came to an end. Moreover, in recent years the very existence of the ‘policy of isolation’ has been called in question. The late Dame Lillian Penson dismissed it as a ‘legend’.
VI. France and the Making of the Entente Cordiale
Authors: Andrew Christopher
Published: December 2010

The significance of the Entente Cordiale has often been disguised both by its own emotive title and by the subsequent development of Anglo-French relations. Vincent Auriol claimed on its fiftieth anniversary that ‘the convention of 8 April 1904 embodied the agreement of our two peoples on the necessity of safeguarding the spiritual values of which we were the common trustees’. Eden's interpretation on the same occasion was more prosaic and more accurate. ‘At the time when it was concluded’, he told the Commons, ‘the Entente Cordiale did not represent some great surge of public opinion on either side of the Channel. It was in fact an instrument of political policy at the time, calculated to attempt to remove the differences which had long complicated Anglo-French relations in Egypt and Morocco.’ The solution to these differences which was suggested to the English government by the French foreign minister, Théophile Delcassé, in July 1903, and which formed the basis of the agreement signed nine months later, was the barter of Egypt for Morocco. In all that has been written on the Entente Cordiale neither the origin of this barter nor the steps by which it became the foundation for the diplomatic reconciliation of France and England have ever been explained.
IV. Big-Business Pressure Groups and Bismarck's Turn to Protectionism, 1873–79
Authors: Böhme Helmut
Published: December 2010

Although the first decade of the German Empire has long been a central topic of historical research, the question with which this essay is concerned—Bismarck's relationship to the pressure groups at this time—cannot be answered satisfactorily on the basis of the material known hitherto. This is due to the fact that until very recently historians have concentrated on the diplomatic-political occurrences. Bismarck's eastern policy, the Livadia affair, the ‘war-in-sight crisis’, the Berlin Congress, and the change from the Three Emperors' Alliance to the ‘Eternal’ Treaty with the Danube monarchy—these are the events always used to demonstrate Bismarck's ‘genius’ in the field of foreign policy. On the problem of the ‘Kulturkampf’ much less effort has been expended. Here Bismarck's outstanding political skill was not as apparent as it was in his judgement of international relations. Moreover, this question was bound up from the very beginning with a strong ideological bias which only slightly weakened after World War II for the first time. Even less attention has been paid to the problems of domestic and social policy and economic developments have been almost totally neglected. It is true that these items have recently obtained new historical relevance from the new socio-political point of view, but up to the present day they have not been clarified. The chief general contributions of this kind have been published by non-German historians (e.g. Rosenberg, Lambi, and Pflanze) in the United States or in Canada. These studies, however, give inadequate answers to specific questions, as do the detailed essays of Karl-Erich Born and Wolfgang Zorn with their systematizing way of reflexion. They do not deal with our formulation of the question: the relationship between economic development and political events in a comparatively short period. Nevertheless, the essays of Born and Zorn will serve as a starting-point for our own investigation. Born in particular realizes the urgent need for more detailed research in the social and economic sphere, and pleads for a ‘supplementary’ approach (Ergänzungsgeschichte). He states that

the history of the aristocracy during the industrial age has to be completed by studies dealing with the history of the trade unions; by dissertations on the history of industrial branches, commercial centres, and companies; and last but not least by works on the disintegration of the old bourgeoisie. Then we shall be able to extend the political history of the German Empire, which is largely clarified, to a comprehensive view of a German historical epoch by adding the social and economic history of the late nineteeth century.
VI. Lord Bryce and the First World War
Authors: Robbins Keith G.
Published: December 2010

James Bryce considered that 1914 would be a satisfying year. He had just been created a viscount and, at the age of seventy-six, could look back on a career of distinction in university life, politics and diplomacy. He could continue to write books and indulge in correspondence with his friends. In fact, the books were not written and his correspondence became very practical. The tension in Europe in the summer of 1914 caused many people to ask him for advice on the best course of action. What, in particular, were Liberals to do? Some M.P.s were talking of peace demonstrations to keep Britain out of European war, but Bryce hesitated. On the evening of 31 July, the matter was discussed with J. A. Spender who noted that ‘… Bryce … strongly advised not to join this demonstration. He agreed that violation of Belgium would be casus belli.’ When Belgium was violated, Bryce was committed to the war but his commitment was reluctant, hesitant and with foreboding. The consequences of his decision are the subject of this article.
II. The Grand Alliance in 1698
Authors: Francis A. D.
Published: December 2010

Although after the peace of Ryswick it was generally expected that the sea powers would renew the Grand Alliance, by April 1698 King William had already concluded that he was free to embark on the Partition negotiations without infringing any obligation towards the emperor. At his audience on 13 June the imperial ambassador Count Leopold von Auersberg still brought up the question of the allied undertaking to lend a fleet to convey the Archduke Charles and a German army to Catalonia, but fortunately the emperor himself had freed the king from this outstanding obligation by telling the king of Spain that he would be unable to provide for an expeditionary force, until he had made peace with the Turks. So although Auersberg put several awkward questions they could all be answered by general and rather non-committal assurances.
III. Jeremy Bentham and the Nineteenth-Century Revolution in Government
Authors: Hume L. J.
Published: December 2010

Within the last twenty years, historians' views about the significance of ‘Benthamism’ for the development of British government in the nineteenth century have fluctuated pretty widely. In 1948 J. B. Brebner set decisively in motion a movement away from the interpretation, stated in classic but curiously ambivalent form by A. V. Dicey, which made Bentham the philosopher and advocate of an allegedly dominant policy of laissez faire or ‘individualism’. Brebner attacked both legs of Dicey's argument, contending that in the years 1825–70 (which Dicey had identified as the period of individualism) the scale and variety of State intervention were extensive, and that the State intervention of the time ‘in practically all of its many forms was basically Benthamite—Benthamite in the sense of conforming closely to that forbidding, detailed blueprint for a collectivist state, the Constitutional Code’. More recently, some specialists in nineteenth-century administrative history have accepted, and have in some directions extended, one side of Brebner's thesis, but have cast doubt on the other side. Thus, reinforcing Brebner's interpretation of Victorian policy-making, David Roberts has located ‘the origins of the welfare state’ in the period 1832–54, and Oliver MacDonagh has argued that in ‘the middle quarters of the nineteenth-century…(contrary to all expectation and desire) the collectivist system of the present day began to take its shape’. But in developing their themes Roberts and MacDonagh have tended to attach little importance to what Dicey called ‘opinion’—consciously formulated and coherently worked-out beliefs or programmes—and to stress instead the pragmatic responses of politicians and administrators to problems and events.
V. The Seine and the Rhône. Two French By-Elections in 1873
Authors: Bury J. P. T.
Published: December 2010

It is well known that the nomination of a Radical candidate in the by-election held in April 1873 in the department of the Seine split the Republican ranks and that his victory contributed to the fall of Thiers, the President of the Third French Republic. This contest, in which the comparatively obscure Désiré Barodet, a former primary school teacher and latterly mayor of Lyon, defeated the Comte Charles de Rémusat, friend of Thiers and minister for Foreign Affairs, was one of the most exciting in the history of the Third Republic; indeed Paris witnessed no such tumultuous election again until the candidature of General Boulanger in 1889. It was important for its consequences and for the passions it aroused. But it is also of interest for reasons which are less well known, and which are considered or reconsidered here. Quite apart from the fact that it was only one, albeit by far the most dramatic, of eight by-elections which took place on 27 April, it cannot be separated from the subsequent election of Arthur Ranc at Lyon on 11 May. These two elections brought into the limelight two interesting and influential figures in the early history of the Third Republic; they also vividly illustrated the methods and influence of the leader of the Radical Republicans, Léon Gambetta.
Parasitological survey of the edible cockle Cerastoderma edule (Bivalvia) on the south coast of Ireland
Authors: Fermer Jan , Culloty Sarah C. , Kelly Thomas C. , O'Riordan Ruth M.
Published: December 2010

The edible cockle Cerastoderma edule is one of the most common soft sediment bivalves in Europe and of commercial relevance in some areas of its range. Information on the parasite fauna of cockles is available from several North Sea and Atlantic shore locations. However, little is known from the British Isles in this context. This study provides an inventory of the macroparasites of C. edule sampled from fourteen localities along the south coast of Ireland. Altogether, we identified ten taxa of macroparasites belonging to three major groups. The majority of them were digenean trematodes using cockles as second intermediate host. Infection rates and levels were comparatively low, with the exception of the gymnophallid Meiogymnophallus minutus, which was found to be prevalent at all sampling sites and often very abundant. Whilst parasite species composition in Irish cockles was similar to the one found in conspecifics from northern Europe, it showed distinct differences from the macroparasite fauna reported from C. edule collected in southern Europe and northern Africa.
Temporal trends in mortality and effects of by-catch on common bottlenose dolphins,Tursiops truncatus, in southern Brazil
Authors: Fruet Pedro F. , Kinas Paul G. , da Silva Kleber G. , Di Tullio Juliana C. , Monteiro Daniele S. , Rosa Luciano Dalla , Estima Sérgio C. , Secchi Eduardo R.
Published: December 2010

The mortality of the bottlenose dolphin,Tursiops truncatus, on the southern portion of Rio Grande do Sul State coast was investigated based on 914 beach surveys conducted between 1969 and 2006. A total of 188 stranded bottlenose dolphins were recorded during this period, indicating a 1.8M:1F sex-ratio of those animals sexed (N = 79). Mortality was low in calves, high in juveniles and sub-adults and slightly lower than in adults. The overall mortality was clearly seasonal overlapping with higher fishing efforts in the Patos Lagoon Estuary and adjacent coastal areas, where most individuals washed ashore. Analysis of a continuous 14-year long subset (1993–2006) of the data indicated relatively low levels of mortality between 1995 and 2000 and a marked increase between 2002 and 2005 followed by an apparent drop in 2006. By-catch was responsible for at least 43% of the recorded mortality between 2002 and 2006. Juvenile males were more susceptible to incidental catches. Among females, by-catch of adults represented 75%. Results of a potential biological removal analysis suggest that current levels of fishing-related mortality are unsustainable for the small resident population of bottlenose dolphins that inhabits the Patos Lagoon Estuary, and that this population may be declining.
Influenza A virus transmission: contributing factors and clinical implications
Authors: Belser Jessica A. , Maines Taronna R. , Tumpey Terrence M. , Katz Jacqueline M.
Published: December 2010

Efficient human-to-human transmission is a necessary property for the generation of a pandemic influenza virus. To date, only influenza A viruses within the H1–H3 subtypes have achieved this capacity. However, sporadic cases of severe disease in individuals following infection with avian influenza A viruses over the past decade, and the emergence of a pandemic H1N1 swine-origin virus in 2009, underscore the need to better understand how influenza viruses acquire the ability to transmit efficiently. In this review, we discuss the biological constraints and molecular features known to affect virus transmissibility to and among humans. Factors influencing the behaviour of aerosols in the environment are described, and the mammalian models used to study virus transmission are presented. Recent progress in understanding the molecular determinants that confer efficient transmission has identified crucial roles for the haemagglutinin and polymerase proteins; nevertheless, influenza virus transmission remains a polygenic trait that is not completely understood. The clinical implications of this research, including methods currently under investigation to mitigate influenza virus human-to-human transmission, are discussed. A better understanding of the viral determinants necessary for efficient transmission will allow us to identify avian influenza viruses with pandemic potential.
Heart Rate Variability, Emotions, and Music
Authors: Riganello F. , Candelieri A. , Quintieri M. , Dolce G.
Published: December 2010

The purpose of the study was to identify significant changes in heart rate variability (an emerging descriptor of emotional conditions; HRV) concomitant to complex auditory stimuli with emotional value (music). In healthy controls, traumatic brain injured (TBI) patients, and subjects in the vegetative state (VS) the heart beat was continuously recorded while the subjects were passively listening to each of four music samples of different authorship. The heart rate (parametric and nonparametric) frequency spectra were computed and the spectra descriptors were processed by data-mining procedures. Data-mining sorted the nu_lf (normalized parameter unit of the spectrum low frequency range) as the significant descriptor by which the healthy controls, TBI patients, and VS subjects’ HRV responses to music could be clustered in classes matching those defined by the controls and TBI patients’ subjective reports. These findings promote the potential for HRV to reflect complex emotional stimuli and suggest that residual emotional reactions continue to occur in VS. HRV descriptors and data-mining appear applicable in brain function research in the absence of consciousness.
Complexity Measures of Brain Electrophysiological Activity
Authors: Klonowski Włodzimierz , Stepien Pawel , Stepien Robert
Published: December 2010

Over 20 years ago, Watt and Hameroff (1987 ) suggested that consciousness may be described as a manifestation of deterministic chaos in the brain/mind. To analyze EEG-signal complexity, we used Higuchi’s fractal dimension in time domain and symbolic analysis methods. Our results of analysis of EEG-signals under anesthesia, during physiological sleep, and during epileptic seizures lead to a conclusion similar to that of Watt and Hameroff: Brain activity, measured by complexity of the EEG-signal, diminishes (becomes less chaotic) when consciousness is being “switched off”. So, consciousness may be described as a manifestation of deterministic chaos in the brain/mind.
Dynamics of Consciousness
Authors: Arecchi F. T.
Published: December 2010

The cognitive problem is how a given sensorial input elicits a decision. Since the neuron dynamics are affected by deterministic chaos, information is lost over the course of time. Control of chaos reduces such a loss rate by adding extra degrees of freedom. This addition is a change of code; such a recoding occurs on two time scales, namely, (A) the cognitive one (lasting up to 3 s), within which the brain reaches a collective state associated with a perception, and (B) the linguistic one (beyond 3 s), whereby memory retrieves different (A) units and compares them. In (A) the neurons are mutually coupled in large networks; collective synchronization of neuron arrays elicit decisions. In (B), different (A) slots are compared after retrieval. This requires a subject to be conscious of him/herself as well as that the pieces of the stream be correlated. While in (A) the neuron synchronization is described in dynamic terms, in (B) the slot comparison is formalized by an inverse Bayes rule. Distinction of (A), where coherent perceptions are built, from (B), where we formulate attributions of truth, recovers the fundamental philosophical difference between apprehension and judgment.
Infrasonic tremor wavefield of the Pu`u `Ō`ō crater complex and lava tube system, Hawaii, in April 2007
Authors: Matoza Robin S. , Fee David , Garcés Milton A.
Published: December 2010

Long‐lived effusive volcanism at the Pu`u `Ō`ō crater complex, Kilauea Volcano, Hawaii produces persistent infrasonic tremor that has been recorded almost continuously for months to years. Previous studies showed that this infrasonic tremor wavefield can be recorded at a range of >10 km. However, the low signal power of this tremor relative to ambient noise levels results in significant propagation effects on signal detectability at this range. In April 2007, we supplemented a broadband infrasound array at ∼12.5 km from Pu`u `Ō`ō (MENE) with a similar array at ∼2.4 km from the source (KIPU). The additional closer‐range data enable further evaluation of tropospheric propagation effects and provide higher signal‐to‐noise ratios for studying volcanic source processes. The infrasonic tremor source appears to consist of at least two separate physical processes. We suggest that bubble cloud oscillation in a roiling magma conduit beneath the crater complex may produce a broadband component of the tremor. Low‐frequency sound sourced in a shallow magma conduit may radiate infrasound efficiently into the atmosphere due to the anomalous transparency of the magma‐air interface. We further propose that more sharply peaked tones with complex temporal evolution may result from oscillatory interactions of a low‐velocity gas jet with solid vent boundaries in a process analogous to the hole tone or whistler nozzle. The infrasonic tremor arrives with a median azimuth of ∼67° at KIPU. Additional infrasonic signals and audible sounds originating from the extended lava tube system to the south of the crater complex (median azimuth ∼77°) coincided with turbulent degassing activity at a new lava tube skylight. Our observations indicate that acoustic studies may aid in understanding persistent continuous degassing and unsteady flow dynamics at Kilauea Volcano.