bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Risk Stratification by 24-Hour Ambulatory Blood Pressure and Estimated Glomerular Filtration Rate in 5322 Subjects From 11 Populations
Authors: Boggia José , Thijs Lutgarde , Li Yan , Hansen Tine W. , Kikuya Masahiro , Björklund-Bodegård Kristina , Ohkubo Takayoshi , Jeppesen Jørgen , Torp-Pedersen Christian , Dolan Eamon , Kuznetsova Tatiana , Stolarz-Skrzypek Katarzyna , Tikhonoff Valérie , Malyutina Sofia , Casiglia Edoardo , Nikitin Yuri , Lind Lars , Schwedt Emma , Sandoya Edgardo , Kawecka-Jaszcz Kalina , Filipovský Jan , Imai Yutaka , Wang Jiguang , Ibsen Hans , O’Brien Eoin , Staessen Jan A.
Published: November 2012

No previous study addressed whether in the general population estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR [Chronic Kidney Disease Epidemiology Collaboration formula]) adds to the prediction of cardiovascular outcome over and beyond ambulatory blood pressure. We recorded health outcomes in 5322 subjects (median age, 51.8 years; 43.1% women) randomly recruited from 11 populations, who had baseline measurements of 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure (ABP
24
) and eGFR. We computed hazard ratios using multivariable-adjusted Cox regression. Median follow-up was 9.3 years. In fully adjusted models, which included both ABP
24
and eGFR, ABP
24
predicted (
P
≤0.008) both total (513 deaths) and cardiovascular (206) mortality; eGFR only predicted cardiovascular mortality (
P
=0.012). Furthermore, ABP
24
predicted (
P
≤0.0056) fatal combined with nonfatal events as a result of all cardiovascular causes (555 events), cardiac disease (335 events), or stroke (218 events), whereas eGFR only predicted the composite cardiovascular end point and stroke (
P
≤0.035). The interaction terms between ABP
24
and eGFR were all nonsignificant (
P
≥0.082). For cardiovascular mortality, the composite cardiovascular end point, and stroke, ABP
24
added 0.35%, 1.17%, and 1.00% to the risk already explained by cohort, sex, age, body mass index, smoking and drinking, previous cardiovascular disease, diabetes mellitus, and antihypertensive drug treatment. Adding eGFR explained an additional 0.13%, 0.09%, and 0.14%, respectively. Sensitivity analyses stratified for ethnicity, sex, and the presence of hypertension or chronic kidney disease (eGFR <60 mL/min per 1.73 m
2
) were confirmatory. In conclusion, in the general population, eGFR predicts fewer end points than ABP
24
. Relative to ABP
24
, eGFR is as an additive, not a multiplicative, risk factor and refines risk stratification 2- to 14-fold less.
Ocular Pathologies and the Evil Eye in the Early Roman Principate
Authors: Nuño Antón Alvar
Published: November 2012

Abstract

Ocular pathologies are a natural phenomenon that can be detected empirically. All over the world, such phenomena are often interpreted as an index of inherent personal capacity for causing harm. The Graeco-Roman world was no exception. During the early Roman Principate, the literary representation of such malformations was clearly influenced by two genres that had been developed in the Greek world during the Hellenistic period. The first was the paradoxographic or mirabilia tradition, a literary genre that in the aftermath of Alexander’s conquests inventoried supposed natural and anthropological wonders, reports that were subsequently brought up to date and adapted by Roman authors such as Cicero and Varro. The second was physiognomics, the systematization, mainly by the Peripatetics but also by some Hippocratic authors, of the popular idea that ethical character can be read from somatic signs. This paper understands Pliny the Elder’s accounts of peoples and families able to cast the evil eye, objectified in the possession of a double pupil, as a significant aspect of his socio-moral account of the effects of world-empire upon Rome. In transposing the theme to his figure of the procuress Dipsas almost a century earlier, Ovid created a synecdoche for moral disorder at Rome itself shortly before the two Augustan laws of 18 b.c.e. regulating sexual conduct. In short, if we are to progress in our understanding of Roman socio-moral instrumentalization of ocular malformation in relation to the evil eye, we must pay careful attention to the contexts and strategies of our texts.
Metropolitan Clerks and Venality in Qing China: The Great 1830 Forgery Case
Authors: Kaske Elisabeth
Published: November 2012

This study of a forgery case in the Board of Revenue shows how the huge increase in the legal sale of offices and titles in early nineteenth-century China overstretched the bureaucratic structures that managed it and exposed the weakness of official control over subaltern clerical personnel. The case allows a glimpse into the mostly hidden world of metropolitan clerks and the operation of a little known department in the Board of Revenue, the Contribution Office. It also demonstrates how the illegal sale of fake official ranks allowed the clerks to participate in the legal purchase of offices and thus to free themselves from the predicament of their clerical position. While legal venality contributed to general corruption in the Qing bureaucracy, it also leveled to a certain extent the differences between a professional yet suppressed class of bureaucrats and their amateurish yet socially esteemed scholar-literati superiors.
Paul’s New Family in Thessalonica
Authors: Burke Trevor J.
Published: November 2012

Abstract

The ongoing debate about the structure of the earliest Christian communities—an issue of Christian origins—continues to divide Pauline interpreters. While some (e.g. E. Schüssler Fiorenza) are of the view that Paul’s communities were “egalitarian” at the outset only to become more rigid and organized with the passing of time, others ( J.H. Elliott) argue that Paul’s churches were more structured from their earliest inception. Still others have had a change of mind on this issue. In all of this, Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians has not been given due consideration. Against the social context of the period, Paul’s relationships—predominantly described in familial terms—with this community is explored. Paul’s parental (nursing-mother, 2:7; father, 2:11) relations towards his convert-children (2:7, 11) show his preference of situating himself above them. Moreover, the Thessalonians’ relations to one another as siblings, often understood as imbued with egalitarianism, also demonstrate a similar degree of differentiation (1 Thess 5:12-15) within the community—some siblings are given to lead, to be respected and to admonish the rest. It is concluded that rather than viewing the community at Thessalonica as egalitarian in composition there is evidence here, in what is regarded by many to be Paul’s earliest extant letter that some degree of structure was in place at the very beginning.
Heterogeneity, Participation and Democratic Quality in Latin America: A Comparison between Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru
Authors: Stoiber Michael , Knodt Michèle , Heinelt Marie-Sophie
Published: November 2012

Abstract

Societal and economic heterogeneity are regarded as a challenge to the functioning of democracies. We integrate this problem as context variables into a model of evaluating the quality of democracy. The context determines the optimal composition of participation structures. This demand has to be confronted with the given structure and its effectiveness.

We discuss the problem of effective participation for Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru, which share similar problems regarding economic inequality and societal heterogeneity. Our main aim is to analyze how different institutional settings are enabling citizens, particularly minorities, in the decision making process and how these elements affect democratic stability and the quality of democracy.

We deduce the demand for differentiated participation structures from the societal and institutional context and qualitatively compare the effectiveness of the given participation structures. We analyze how the deficits in the institutional arrangements and their effectiveness affect the democratic quality and the democratic stability of the systems. We find that overlapping societal and socio-economic heterogeneity can be considered as especially threatening to democratic consolidation and stability.
The Limits and Contradictions of Agricultural Technology in Latin America: Lessons from Mexico and Argentina
Authors: Reveles Irma Lorena Acosta
Published: November 2012

Abstract

Based on a collective research project designed to analyze the links between scientific and technological production, development and democracy in Latin America, this paper deals with the performance of the agrarian economy under conditions of scant internally generated technology. We begin by acknowledging that this resource has historically been imported. We frame the objective of analysis in terms of assessing its economic and social implications through an empirical approach to the process of technological diffusion. Two representative experiences of the agricultural structure are examined in the region, namely, peasant productive units in Mexico and capitalist enterprises on the Argentine plains. For the former, we look at the post-war era, examining the content of the technological package contained in the green revolution and its repercussions. In the latter case, we look at present-day agro-business and analyze the propagation of the transgenic soybean known as “Roundup Ready” in the pampas region. In both cases, we consider the positive and negative characteristics within the productive and macroeconomic order, including impact on employment, environment, and social welfare.
Commonwealth, Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri, Cambridge, MA.: Belknap-Harvard, 2009
Authors: Read Jason
Published: November 2012

Abstract

Commonwealthis the third book co-authored by Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri. As with the previous two books,EmpireandMultitude, the task of this book is to both critique the present order and provide the concepts for a radical transformation of that order. This review examines how this third, and final book in the series, changes the argument of the other two, specifically examining the rôle that the concept of the common plays in restructuring the idea of critique, politics, and political economy.
The Necessity of Art, Ernst Fischer, with an Introduction by John Berger, London: Verso, 2010
Authors: Petts Jeffrey
Published: November 2012

Abstract

In The Necessity of Art Ernst Fischer develops a Marxist aesthetics in the humanist tradition, arguing art’s necessity as both a vehicle of social criticism and as an essential element of humanity. These twin themes place Fischer’s work, then, at the centre of issues in Marxist aesthetics that have traditionally proved contentious: firstly, about the function of art, both under capitalism and universally; and about the relationship – causal or otherwise – between economic conditions and art. Fischer’s aesthetics overemphasises the humanising possibilities of great works of art to the neglect of an everyday aesthetics that argues the possibilities for aesthetic lives based on good work under communism. But he provides a theoretic start to effectively countering structuralist Marxism, and he was in his lifetime – as John Berger’s Introduction movingly conveys – a powerful opponent of the bureaucratisation of art under Zhdanov’s Socialist-Realist creed.
On Marxism’s Field of Operation: Badiou and the Critique of Political Economy
Authors: Walker Gavin
Published: November 2012

Abstract

Alain Badiou’s theoretical work maintains an ambiguous relation to Marx’s critique of political economy. In seemingly refusing the Marxian analytical strategy of displacement and referral across the fields of politics and economy, Badiou is frequently seen to be lacking a rigorous theoretical grasp of capitalism itself. In turn, this is often seen as a consequence of his understanding of political subjectivity. But the origins of this ‘lack’ of analysis of the social relation called ‘capital’ in his work can also be investigated by means of a detour into the economic writings of theUnion des communistes de France marxiste-léniniste, the political organisation in which Badiou played a leading rôle throughout the 1970s in particular. By excavating this theoretical work of the 1970s, we can identify more precisely the historical and political reasons behind Badiou’s ambiguous relation to Marx and specifically to Marx’s systematic grasp of the logic of capital. This excavation will consequently lead us to a reflection on the limits and openings in Badiou’s thought for the Marxian critique of political economy.
Une version ismaélienne de ḥadīṯs imamites. Nouvelles perspectives sur le traité II du Kitāb al-Kašf attribué à Ğaʿfar b. Manṣūr al-Yaman (Xe s.)
Authors: Gillon Fârès
Published: November 2012

Résumé

Le Kitāb al-Kašf, attribué à Ğaʿfar b. Manṣūr al-Yaman (Xe s.), est un recueil de six traités ismaéliens anciens. L’examen du deuxième de ces six traités montre qu’il est constitué pour l’essentiel de deux ḥadīṯs attestés dans les sources duodécimaines, bien que cela ne soit pas précisé par l’auteur ou l’éditeur du Kitāb al-Kašf. Selon les cas, la comparaison entre les versions ismaélienne et imamite des ḥadīṯs éclaircit le texte du Kitāb al-Kašf, souvent difficile et obscur, ou laisse soupçonner une transmission parallèle à celle dont les recueils duodécimains se font l’écho.
Muʿtazilite Aspects of Faḫr al-Dīn al-Rāzī’s Thought1
Authors: Jaffer Tariq
Published: November 2012

Abstract

This paper examines Faḫr al-Dīn al-Rāzī’s methodology in kalām and tafsīr by investigating al-Rāzī’s method of taʾwīl. It situates al-Rāzī’s methodology with respect to the Muʿtazila and falsafa, two trends that greatly influenced al-Rāzī. It proposes that al-Rāzī, who is generally considered the leading Sunnī theologian and exegete after the death of al-Ġazālī, adopted methods and ideas from the Muʿtazila and that he effectively synthesized these with Avicennian philosophy to forge an orginal methodology.
Neutralität Eine sachliche Lektüre von Gottfried Kellers Romeo und Julia auf dem Dorfe
Authors: Fetscher Justus
Published: November 2012

Gottfried Keller's “A Village Romeo and Juliet” contains an astonishing number of neuter terms that are of key importance to this novella. This observation is in line with Keller's predilection for miniaturized worlds and diminutives, played out in this narrative through two basic traits: the reduction of the Shakespearean tragedy to a novella that is a “village story” and the nicknames given to its female protagonist (“Vreeli”, “Vrenchen”). Around one pole of neutrality the story assembles a cluster of terms that convey things in an abstract, generalized manner. Other neutral nouns make deeply personal concerns (love, destiny) look as if they were governed by some overriding, a-personal force. In this vein, the text tends to de-personalize human actions by expressing them in the grammatical form of nominalized infinitives. Inconspicuous idiomatic phrases seem to hide, as in the Freudian Id, the menacing power of the drives. Precisely by revealing that the narrative's sphere is constructed of neutral elementary particles, the text transforms and transubstantiates what it represents into the neutrality of the script. It does so solely, it seems, to make palpable that this literature is charged with the sensuality of the genders.
Procedural Developments at the International Court of Justice
Authors: Bordin Fernando Lusa
Published: November 2012

Abstract

The present column covers procedural developments at the International Court of Justice in the period beginning on 1 July 2011 and ending on 31 March 2012. These include: the consideration by the Court of the indispensable parties doctrine and judicial propriety in the Application of Interim Accord case; questions arising as to the extent of the Court’s incidental jurisdiction in the Jurisdictional Immunities case and as to the extent of its discretion to choose which provisional measures to indicate in the context of interpretation proceedings in the Temple case; the notion of an “interest of a legal nature” as discussed by the Court in connection with Greece’s application to intervene as a non-party in the Jurisdictional Immunities case; and the Court’s discussion of the principle of equality of the parties in the criticism it made of the procedure for review of judgments of administrative tribunals in the IFAD advisory opinion.
Reshaping Informed Consent in the Biobanking Context
Authors: Macilotti Matteo
Published: November 2012

Abstract

In my article, I discuss the role of informed consent in the context of biobanking. I argue that the basic issue in understanding the role of the consent is one of identifying the interests at stake and determining which of these interests we intend to promote. The definition of the informational content represents only a consequential step. For this purpose, I analyse the legal status of human biological materials from three different perspectives: “material”, “informational” and “relational”. Informed consent produces different effects on each of these perspectives. From the material perspective, consent can influence the allocation of property rights over human tissue; from the informational point of view, consent is the legal instrument that permits control over personal data; while from the “relational” perspective, it is possible through consent to ensure that the person’s personal beliefs are respected. The crucial point is that the legal effects that informed consent has on the three perspectives overlap. Therefore, in order to understand the role of informed consent holistically, in this article I analyse how these perspectives relate to each other. This analysis shows that the relationship between the perspectives can vary depending on the interests that we intend to promote. If we intend to promote the freedom of research, then the material dimension can prevail, whilst if we focus our attention on the interests of individuals then the informational and the relational dimensions will prevail. The challenge is to find a good balance between these two extremes.
Direct Public Access to EU Courts: Upholding Public International Law via the Aarhus Convention Compliance Committee
Authors: Marsden Simon
Published: November 2012

This article examines the opportunities for individuals and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to obtain access to justice in the European Union (EU) via international law. In the context of the first part of a concluded case before the Aarhus Convention Compliance Committee (ACCC), it reviews the EU rules that restrict standing and examines whether the preliminary reference procedure from Member State courts provides an effective alternative to direct access to EU courts. Based on the general findings and recommendations, and analysis of the relationship between international and EU law, it is argued that there remains a need for greater EU compliance with the Convention, with the implication that EU primary as well as secondary law may need to be reformed if public international law obligations are to be fully met.
From Avatar to Reality: Development, Environment and the Representation of Cameroonian Pygmies
Authors: Germond-Duret Celine
Published: November 2012

This article discusses the challenges facing indigenous peoples when external interventions are conducted in their territories. Using a discourse analysis approach, it shows how indigenous peoples are constructed by groups pursuing diverging interests. Focusing on the case of Cameroonian Pygmies, three discourses are studied: the conservationist, the development and the pro-indigenous peoples discourses. The result of the analysis shows how indigenous peoples are represented and which values and norms stand out in discourses. It highlights how the construction of one’s own reality can advantage or disadvantage groups of peoples: Pygmies represent a threat to the environment for environmentalists, they are poor for development actors, and they are above all mistreated for those defending their rights. The underlying theme is the transition to ‘modernity’, its inevitability or imposition, as well as the resistance and adaptation of indigenous peoples to external influences.
Freedom of Language: A Universal Human Right to Be Recognised
Authors: Andrássy György
Published: November 2012

Human rights as legal rights originate from human rights as pre-existing moral rights; however, as pre-existing human rights are unwritten and invisible, it is uncertain whether all of these rights have been recognised and defined properly. This article advances the thought that if there are any human rights at all and if the civil and political rights recognised and defined by the United Nations represent these pre-existing human rights, then there must be at least one more such right, the right of all to freedom of language and, therefore, the United Nations ought to recognise and define this right too.
Developing services for a public health approach to child maltreatment
Authors: Gilbert Ruth , Woodman Jenny , Logan Stuart
Published: November 2012

Calls for a public health approach to child maltreatment – a strategy that aims primarily to reduce risk factors for maltreatment - have been based on four main arguments. (O’Donnellet al. 2008; Reading et al. 2009; Barlow and Calam, 2011) The right of children to be protected from harm in the first place. The frequency of child maltreatment, which, if all occurrences were notified, would overwhelm child protection systems. The inaccuracy of identification systems, which miss the large majority of maltreated children. And fourth, the effectiveness and cost effectiveness of intervening to prevent child maltreatment comparing with intervention once child maltreatment has occurred. We review the evidence to support these arguments and trace the development of UK policy and health services towards a public health approach.
How Karunamayudu (1978) Became an Evangelistic Tool: Implications for Understanding Evangelicals and Media
Authors: Friesen Dwight H.
Published: November 2012

Abstract

It has not been uncommon in the history of Jesus in film for commercial movies of Jesus’ life to be conscripted for Christian evangelism around the world. Cecil B. DeMille’s The King of Kings (1927), John Krish and Peter Sykes’ Jesus (1979), better known today as The Jesus Film, and Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ (2004) are but three notable examples. Each of those movies, however, was first produced in America for American audiences. In the case of Karunamayudu (1978), a Telugu commercial movie of Jesus’ life, the target audience was South Indian viewers raised on a steady diet of mythological and social films and immersed in a pluralistic religious environment unlike any Western society at the time. In this essay I explain how and why this film, with its unique production history, was co-opted by evangelicals for Christian witness in India.
Iranian Religious Films and Inter-religious Understanding
Authors: Speelman Gé M.
Published: November 2012

Abstract

The article deals with two recent Iranian films, al-Masih (Teh Messiah) by Nader Talebzadeh and Maryam al-Muqaddasah (Holy Mary) by Shahriar Bahrani. Both movies are about religious characters shared by Islam and Christianity: Zechariah, Mary and Jesus. The article explores the way the filmmakers have made use of both Islamic and non-Islamic sources to tell their story, and it analyses the stylistic and narrative means they have employed. Are these films contributing to the mutual religious understanding of Christians and Muslims? If so, how? And if not, why not?
By the Power of Her Word: Absence, Memory, and Speech in the Song of Songs and a Hindu Mystical Text
Authors: Clooney Francis X.
Published: November 2012

Abstract

Religious pluralism today surely poses an ongoing theological challenge, requiring us to think through the significance of the many religions of the world for Christians. But facing the challenge is more urgently the work of the imagination. Even the best theological solutions fall short if they block or ignore the deeper, required work of interreligious learning that occurs in the careful study of the poetry, dramas, and other literary productions of the various traditions. Using as a guide Hans Urs von Balthasar’s great trilogy — aesthetics, dramatics, and theologic — this essay is an exercise in reading together the Biblical Song of Songs along with the medieval Hindu Holy Word of Mouth (Tiruvaymoli) with special attention of the scenes of absence, wherein the human lover waits for the divine beloved to return. From both we learn that in waiting, there is anguish, but in anguish arise powerful memories about, and speech evocative of, the beloved. Each text is read also with attention to medieval religious interpretations. Practicing this dynamic across religious boundaries is an imaginative interreligious exercise that first causes a crisis for theology — where is the beloved? who are those other lovers and beloveds? what to do with the flood of new images and scenes? — yet then a new source for a Christian theology that redeems and deepens Christian particularity after and through, not despite, interreligious learning.
Fragmented Selves, Fragments of the New Story: Panikkar and Dalit Christology
Authors: Sebastian J. Jayakiran
Published: November 2012

Abstract

The question regarding the interconnection between the writings of those considered to have focused on a ‘Brahmanical’ way of doing Indian-Christian theology and those who have taken seriously the reality of the marginalization of the vast majority of Indian-Christians who come from the Dalit background and contributed to the emergence of Dalit theology is an important one. In his voluminous writings, has Panikkar overlooked or ignored the pathos of Dalits and failed to acknowledge the contribution of Dalit experience to the theological enterprise? This article is an attempt to read both Panikkar and Dalit theologians and ask as to whether at least some recognition of convergence is at all possible.
The Archbishop Speaks, But Who Is Listening? The Dilemmas of Public Theology Today
Authors: Graham Elaine
Published: November 2012

The occasion of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, acting as guest editor of the leftist journal the New Statesman attracted much media comment. Most of this focused on Williams’ criticisms of the right-of-centre coalition government’s advocacy of the ‘Big Society’, intended to shift the balance of welfare provision away from the State towards the community and voluntary sector. A closer examination of Williams’ intervention into the debate reveals it to be part of a tradition of public theology in which Christian teaching informs fundamental principles underpinning the nature of political participation and societal values. In this incident of a church leader and the media, therefore, we have an opportunity to explore in greater depth a continuing debate about the place of religion in what many are calling a ‘post-secular’ society, in which the phenomena of secularization and religious revival co-exist in novel and often contradictory ways.
UN MEDICO ALLA CORTE DI CARLO EMANUELE III: VITALIANO DONATI E IL SUO VIAGGIO IN LEVANTE (1759-1762)1
Authors: SCALVA GIUSE
Published: November 2012

title SUMMARY /title Vitaliano Donati, physician and naturalist, born in Padua in 1717, around the mid-eighteenth century played a significant role among the leading Italian philosophers, performing in Italy and in the Balkans some important naturalistic research that set the basis for the geographical map, the new theory of Carl Linn. In 1751, King Charles Emmanuel of Savoy called him to the chair of Botany in Turin University. During the permanence of Vitaliano Donati in the Kingdom of Sardinia he continued his important activities in botany, mineralogy and geology and made relevant observations about climate, earthquakes, and mining-sites in Piedmont always having the aim of increasing the knowledge of local resources and their potential for exploitation. In 1759 the king entrusted Vitaliano Donati with the direction of a scientific and commercial mission in Egypt and in the East Indies. This voyage had a double purpose: to collect samples for a Museum and for the Botany Garden, and to observe in those countries the processes of mineral extraction, of agricultural cultivation and of livestock breeding. The travel started in Venice in June 1759, and among critical events and diplomatic plots, continued to the Middle East and Egypt, from where it continued until wriving at the Indian Ocean. But this adventure ended in February 1762 when Donati died on a Turkish boat not far away the Indian coast near Mangalore. This article, which trace the complete transcription of the correspondence concerning the voyage, also reports the text of the "instructive memory", issued by the king to Vitaliano Donati, and summarises the scientific and political scopes of this unfortunate enterprise.
ISTITUZIONI E FONTI
Authors: BERETTA FRANCESCO
Published: November 2012

title SUMMARY /title The recent opening of the Archives of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the heir of the archives of the Roman Holy Office, has permitted the discovery of certain documents concerning Galileo Galilei, including a letter relating to the trial of 1633. In addition to a transcription of the new document, we also situate it in context through a series of considerations, and demonstrate its utility in analysing the development and the logic of the course of the trial. In particular, the document sheds light on the important role in the instruction of the case played by the commissioner of the Inquisition, the Dominican inquisitor and military architect Vincenzo Maculano da Firenzuola, belonging to the patronage network of the Barberini and a key figure of the Roman Holy Office in that period.
HENRI MICHEL, A GENTLEMAN-SCHOLAR
Authors: VAN CLEEMPOEL KOENRAAD
Published: November 2012

title SUMMARY /title Henri Michel (1885-1981), collector and connoisseur maintained an extensive international correspondence concerning scientific instruments. His archive includes letters to and from all the leading specialists between c. 1933 and c. 1975. It is therefore an important source for a period that coincides with the formation of several major collections and the publication of important reference works. The archive of this pioneer student of instruments includes over 500 letters, four notebooks and a set of photographic plates.
NOVA MEDIA
Authors: LINO LUCIA ALVES , DA COSTA ALEXANDRE MAGNO , TOLMASQUIM ALFREDO TIOMNO
Published: November 2012

title RIASSUNTO /title In questo articolo viene presentata la Bibliografia Brasiliana di Storia della Scienza. Il database, che raccoglie una grande quantit di pubblicazioni, anche recenti, concernenti la storia della scienza, della tecnologia e della medicina, stato concepito non soltanto come strumento di aiuto bibliografico, ma intende offrire un contributo per una pi ampia conoscenza delle attivit di ricerca in questo settore in Brasile. Una prima base di 1200 voci gi disponibile per la consultazione in rete.
GALILEO AND OPTICAL ABERRATIONS
Authors: ZIK YAAKOV
Published: November 2012

title RIASSUNTO /title Un sistema di formazione dell'immagine complesso non solo perch costituito da elementi come tubi, lenti e diaframmi, ma anche perch ciascuno di questi elementi vi collocato per una funzione specifica. L'ingrandimento non il principale fattore per valutare le prestazioni del telescopio a rifrazione. Nella costruzione del telescopio rientrano troppe variabili non lineari come l'ampiezza di campo, la qualit delle lenti, l'assorbimento della luce, le correzioni per le varie aberrazioni, e la dispersione della luce lungo il sistema ottico. evidente che un telescopio astronomico in grado di produrre un'immagine sufficientemente ingrandita di un astro luminoso non poteva essere costruito arbitrariamente. Sotto questa luce interessante vedere come, mentre perfezionava il suo telescopio, Galileo descrisse, analizz e risolse gli effetti indesiderati prodotti dalle varie aberrazioni ottiche.
PER UN ARCHIVIO DELLA CORRISPONDENZA DEGLI SCIENZIATI ITALIANI
Authors: LUGLI MARIO UMBERTO , DEGANI FRANCA CATTELANI
Published: November 2012

title SUMMARY /title We transcribe five letters of Geminiano Montanari to Gian Domenico Cassini, the first four written from Bologna (in 1669, 1670 and 1678), the fifth from Venice (1681). Here, several subjects are discussed, among which: objections raised by someone of Bologna against the S. Petronio sundial built by Cassini and also against Montanari's behaviour towards the same Cassini, the dissatisfaction of Montanari and his wish to go to Paris, the painting of a portrait of himself to be sent this town, the quarrel with Rossetti and Montanari's admission of the rotation of the earth around the sun.
IL DIFFICILE RICUPERO DELL'ANSCHAULICHKEIT DI GOETHE NELL'OPERA DI HELMHOLTZ
Authors: D'AGOSTINO SALVO
Published: November 2012

title ABSTRACT /title Thedifficult recoveryof Goethe's Anschaulichkeitinthe work ofHelmholtz - In the 1830s, Goethe's theory of light and colours represented a meeting point for the movement of ideas in the German romantic philosophy known as Naturphilosophie, fiercely opposed to Newtonian and mathematical science. In the middle of the nineteenth century, the great scientist Hermann von Helmholtz, as an official representative of German science, took a position on Goethe's ideas. Hemholtz initially reacted to Goethe's viewpoints, and especially to his optical theory, but his attitude changed in the conclusive years of his life, and he expressed a partial adhesion to the Goethian view of the relationship between the perceptual and the conceptual levels of scientific knowledge. The author argues that Helmholtz's adhesion was supported by his acceptance of Kirchhof's descriptive and phenomenological approach to mechanics.
THE NEW ASTRONOMICAL ELDORADO: THE FRENCH UNDERSTANDING OF AMERICAN ASTROPHYSICS, 1900-1920
Authors: SAINT-MARTIN ARNAUD
Published: November 2012

title ABSTRACT /title At the beginning of the twentieth century, as international competition in astronomy increased, French astronomers were having serious doubts about their international supremacy. Now challenged by the development of interdisciplinary specialties such as astrophysics or geophysics, celestial mechanics had traditionally conferred most of its prestigious status to French astronomy. Considering they were unable to make important contributions on the international scene, a marginal community of French astrophysicists publicly lamented their lack of instrumental resources or the inadequacy of existing ones, as well as poor institutional support. In this paper, I examine the way in which leading French astrophysicists looked at American astronomy. Leading expeditions to the U.S. in the first two decades of century, they wrote reports about the organization of U.S. observatories and shared a fascination for Californian ones. In particular, all believed that George Hale's Mount Wilson Observatory was the only place in the world where astrophysics could really develop: a new "astronomical Eldorado" (as Pulkovo and Greenwich had been before). Back home, they sought to import the U.S. research system to transform the French astronomical community as a whole. The invocation of American astrophysics was a pretext for local issues: a prism that coloured national claims.
A MARINE QUADRANT BY BERNARDO FACINI
Authors: BEDINI SILVIO A.
Published: November 2012

title RIASSUNTO /title L'articolo presenta un particolare quadrante nautico firmato dal veneziano Bernardo Facini, acquistato, da non molto tempo, dal Museo di Storia della Scienza.
L'OROLOGIO DEI PIANETI DI LORENZO DELLA VOLPAIA
Authors: BRUSA GIUSEPPE
Published: November 2012

 SUMMARY
Lorenzo della Volpaia ranks among the most important clockmakers of the early Renaissance. He made in Florence two planetary clocks of revolutionary design, the first in 1484, the second, which was his masterpiece, in 1510. Both have disappeared. The notebooks of two sons and of a grandson of Lorenzo contain a wealth of data and information about his masterpiece. They have made possible the faithful and working reconstruction of the movement and of all the astronomical components of the original clock.
LE LOCALIZZAZIONI CEREBRALI DI DAVID FERRIER, FRA INDAGINI SPERIMENTALI E APPLICAZIONI ALLA CLINICA
Authors: MORABITO CARMELA
Published: November 2012

title SUMMARY /title This article starts with the description of a medical case: the removal of a brain tumor carried out in 1886 in London at the National Hospital for the Paralysed and Epileptic. This medical case is recorded in the Casebooks that today can be found in the archive of the hospital. Firstly, there is the description of the patient's state of health and of the intracranical surgery performed by Victor Horsley who referred himself to David Ferrier's cortical maps. Secondly, there is the reconstruction of the theoretical path that led Ferrier, in the 1870s, to prove on an experimental basis the existence of different localised cerebral functions in specific cortical areas. These cerebral localizations are then compared with the model that, at the beginning of the century, contained their first theoretical seed: the Organology of Franz Joseph Gall.
PER UN ARCHIVIO DELLA CORRISPONDENZA DEGLI SCIENZIATI ITALIANI
Authors: PALLADINO FRANCO , CARBONE LUCIANO , NASTASI PIETRO
Published: November 2012

title SUMMARY /title We present here the Torelli-Cesaro, Landau-Cesaro and Cipolla-Cesaro correspondence, in addition to other relevant material discovered in the Fondo Ernesto Cesaro. We then analyse some of the questions which arise from a study of this correspondence, such as those relating to Cesaro's invitation to Naples, Torelli's to Palermo, to teaching and mathematical culture in Palermo and so on.
PER UNA STORIA DELLE SCIENZE DELL'INFANZIA: LE FONTI DELL'ISTITUTO DEGLI INNOCENTI DI FIRENZE*
Authors: GUARNIERI PATRIZIA
Published: November 2012

title SUMMARY /title This text is the description of an investigation. At the same time it is an interpretative essay and detailed description of still unexplored archival material, currently being catalogued. It also describes photographs, scientific instruments and books, all belonging to one of the oldest and most important institutions for childhood. The focus is on the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, a decisive and yet too little studied period at the origins of pediatrics. During this period the Istituto degli Innocenti experienced an extraordinary transformation from being a place of charity to being a centre for maternity and infant care in the modern sense, where pioneering activities took place relating to scientific research, sanitary care, medical experimentation and training, as well as to specialised nursing, prevention and divulgation.
TOWARDS AN INTERNATIONAL BIBLIOGRAPHICAL DATABASE IN THE HISTORY OF SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY AND MEDICINE
Authors: HOME RODERICK W.
Published: November 2012

title SUMMARY /title This article describes the bibliographical databases relating to the history of science, technology and medicine currently available on-line, and discusses various projects for improvement which emerged from a workshop held in Lige in September 1995.
A DIFFICULT LEGACY: GALILEO AND THE GALILEAN COLLECTION BETWEEN MYTH AND HISTORY *
Authors: BUCCIANTINI MASSIMO
Published: November 2012

title RIASSUNTO /title Scopo principale di questo saggio e quello di mettere a fuoco il significato politico e culturale che il progressivo costituirsi della Collezione Galileiana venne assumendo nella battaglia a favore della riabilitazione di Galileo come scienziato e filosofo copernicano. All'indomani della morte il progetto di costituzione e di arricchimento della Collezione Galileiana si venne subito a fondere in un unico grande progetto di riscatto e riabilitazione dello scienziato eretico, per poi, nei secoli successivi, saldarsi ai tanti miti di Galileo che scandirono la vita civile e culturale del nostro paese, giungendo, alla fine dell"800, alla costruzione di quel 'monumento' perenne della cultura italiana rappresentanto dalla pubblicazione dell'Edizione Nazionale curata da Antonio Favaro.
THE VERTICAL STACKFREED. MECHANICAL EVIDENCE AND EARLY EYE-WITNESSES
Authors: LEOPOLD JOHN H. , BRUSA GIUSEPPE
Published: November 2012

title RIASSUNTO /title Vengono qui descritti due orologi Italiani del Rinascimento in cui utilizzato un rarissimo congegno equalizzatore della forza della molla motrice, il cosiddetto 'stackfreed verticale', fratello maggiore del ben noto stackfreed orizzontale, comune negli orologi da persona tedeschi dopo il 1540 circa. L'invenzione di entrambi risale al XV secolo. Sorprendentemente chiara e concorde la documentazione, che qui viene messa in luce, di eminenti testimoni oculari quali Leonardo da Vinci, Girolamo Cardano e Taqi al Din a proposito di questo poco noto ma significativo sviluppo.
STORIE DI FOLGORI: IL DIBATTITO ITALIANO SUI CONDUTTORI ELETTRICI NEL SETTECENTO
Authors: CASATI STEFANO
Published: November 2012

title SUMMARY /title In the second half of the Eighteenth century a heated debate on the use of the lightning conductor took place in Europe. Franklin's ingenious discovery did not gain general approval among the European philosophers and raised fears and doubts in most part of the public opinion. In Italy the use of the lightning conductor gained large acceptance although it also aroused criticism and controversies that required the intervention of famous scientists, such as G. Toaldo. M. Landriani, and F. Fontana. Thanks to their efforts and dedication the idea that science could master a powerful and destructive natural phenomenon such as lightning was finally accepted. The cultural struggle for the use of the electric bars not only contributed to the achievement of a scientific innovation, but also to a change of mentality.
THE RECEPTION OF ELECTRIC THEORIES DURING THE DAWN OF NEOHELLENIC SCIENTIFIC THOUGHT
Authors: VLAHAKIS GEORGE N.
Published: November 2012

title RIASSUNTO /title Questo lavoro analizza il graduale sviluppo degli studi elettrologici in Grecia durante il XVIII secolo. Bench le ricerche sui fenomeni elettrici non avessero lo stesso grado di dignit di quelle sulla meccanica, documentabile come nei loro confronti ci sia stato un crescente interesse in ambito scientifico. L'articolo espone le diverse interpretazioni sulla natura dell'elettricit proposte dagli studiosi greci, cercando di metterne in evidenza il carattere marcatamente sperimentale, carattere ben riscontrabile anche nei testi del primo periodo del Rinascimento neoellenico (ovvero fino al 1800). Diversamente in altri ambiti di ricerca, come la meccanica, l'ottica e lo studio dei fenomeni termici, furono sviluppate trattazioni sia teoriche che sperimentali.
MACCHINE PER STUDIARE
Authors: MISITI MASSIMO
Published: November 2012

title SUMMARY /title This paper presents some models of the instruments built in the institute of Cosimo Ridolfi in Meleto and currently existing at the Istituto Tecnico G. Salvemini of Florence.
ISTITUZIONI E FONTI ADATTAR LA VOLGAR LINGUA AI FILOSOFICI DISCORSI. UNA INEDITA ORAZIONE DI NICCOL AGGIUNTI CONTRO ARISTOTELE E PER L'USO DELLA LINGUA ITALIANA NELLE DISSERTAZIONI SCIENTIFICHE
Authors: CAMEROTA MICHELE
Published: November 2012

title SUMMARY /title The manuscript Palatino 1137 in the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale in Florence contains an unknown text of Niccolo Aggiunti, disciple of Galileo and successor of Castelli to the chair of mathematics at the university of Pisa. The document develops a strong criticism of Aristotle's undisputed authority in philosophy, and, at the same time, advocates the use of the vernacular in scientific dissertations, holding that the Italian language is a more powerful and direct means of expression than scholastic Latin. Aggiunti's linguistic arguments seem closely related to the views of Sperone Speroni (1500-1588), whose linguistic perspective was very influential in late Renaissance Italy. The following work present the transcription of Aggiunti's text, preceded by a preface that attempts to reconstruct the intellectual context in which the document was formulated.
THE ABSENT STAR
Authors: STRANO GIORGIO
Published: November 2012

title RIASSUNTO /title Identificazione dell'entrata n. 482 del catalogo stellare di Claudio Tolomeo (II sec. d.C.) e circostanza che l'ha fin oggi impedita.
LA FISICA DELLA MUSICA
Authors: BENSA ELISA , ZANARINI GIANNI
Published: November 2012

title SUMMARY /title The scientific revolution of XVII century concerned also the domain of music theory, deeply investigating the nature of musical sounds and the physics of their production. Also the classical explanations of musical consonance were questioned, looking for its hidden causes through physics experiments and mathematical models. The passionating history of musical acoustics from Galileo to the end of XVIII century is revisited, with a particular emphasis on consonance theories.
Revealing All? The Troubled Times of South Africa’s Diplomacy
Authors: Vale Peter
Published: November 2012

Summary

This article reviews a trilogy of memoirs written by diplomats who served South Africa’s apartheid government. It explores the ‘communication’ versus ‘representative’ function of diplomacy and sets this in the context of a pariah state, as apartheid South Africa once was. It suggests that all diplomats who served under apartheid were complicit in that system. The article also looks towards the role that the idea of the international setting played in the formation of a southern African state system. This is viewed again the backdrop of Britain’s fading empire. This explains how South African diplomacy was cast in the imperial mode. The porousness of southern Africa’s borders is used to explain how diplomacy was used to reproduce states.
Preserving Tradition that is Necessary to Exercising Essential Rights: Some Reflections on the ICJ Decision on Navigational Rights on the San Juan River
Authors: Stirling-Zanda Simonetta
Published: November 2012

Abstract

In 2009 the ICJ delivered a decision on the interpretation of the 1858 Treaty of Limits between Costa Rica and Nicaragua. While the main issue concerned commercial navigation on the San Juan River, a small part of the Court’s decision dealt with private navigational rights that benefit the few riparian inhabitants of the Costa Rican bank. On the basis of humanitarian concerns, the Court decided that the treaty implicitly guarantees also private navigational rights, originating in a tradition predating the Treaty of Limits, and necessary nowadays to access schools and medical practices. The article takes the Court’s interpretation as the starting point for a reflection on the importance of human rights law in the preservation of communal traditions that cannot rely on international rules protecting groups according to their identity.
Chasing the European Court of Justice: On Some (Political) Attempts to Hijack the European Integration Process
Authors: Martinico Giuseppe
Published: November 2012

Abstract

This article gives some examples of State interference in the interpretative activity of the Court of Justice of the European Union (ECJ), looking at the 1990s, at the more recent past and, finally, at the clauses introduced by the Lisbon Treaty, which represents the latest link in the “semi-permanent Treaty revision process” (de Witte). The article is divided into three parts: the first part will introduce the peculiarities of the ECJ’s interpretative activity, briefly recalling the debate on the specificity of the interpretation of EU law. The second part will be devoted to some recent and less recent attempts to hijack of the acquis communautaire (“the past”), while the third part will focus on the recent novelties introduced by the Lisbon Treaty and on the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU (EUCFR) and its explanations (“the future”). Finally, some concluding remarks will be presented at the end of the article.