bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Determination of 1,2-dichlorotetrafluoroethane (CFC-114) Concentration in the Atmosphere
Authors: Chen Limin , Makide Yoshihiro , Tominaga Takeshi
Published: April 2006

Atmospheric concentration of 1,2-dichlorotetrafluoroethane (CFC-114) was determined accurately by the complete separation of its isomer 1,1-dichlorotetrafluoroethane (CFC-114a). The trends of atmospheric CFC-114 concentrations since 1986 were observed in Hokkaido, Japan (40–45 °N), and Syowa Station, Antarctica (69 °S). The atmospheric CFC-114 concentration in the mid-latitude Northern Hemisphere increased by 0.75 pptv / year over the period 1986–1990, and 0.6 pptv / year over 1990–1993. Vertical distribution of CFC-114 was also obtained up to mid-stratosphere.
Anomalous Behavior of Triplet-Excited Zinc(II) Tetraphenylporphyrin Moieties Compartmentalized in the Hydrophobic Cluster of Pendant Cyclododecyl Groups in an Amphiphilic Polyelectrolyte
Authors: Morishima Yotaro , Saegusa Kazunori , Kamachi Mikiharu
Published: April 2006

A small quantity of zinc(II) tetraphenylporphyrin (ZnTPP) moieites were covalently incorporated into an amphiphilic copolymer of sodium 2-acrylamido-2-methylpropanesulfonate and N-cyclododecylmethacrylamide. The ZnTPP moieties were compartmentalized in the hydrophobic cluster of the cyclododecyl pendants in the polymer in aqueous solution, and showed a unusual blue-shifted phosphorescence due to a high energy triplet-excited (T1) state. The lifetime of the high energy T1 state was extraordinarily long: ca. 56 ms at 20 °C in aqueous solution.
Synthesis of Pyridine Bases over Ion-exchanged Pentasil Zeolite
Authors: Sato Hiroshi , Shimizu Shinkichi , Abe Nobuyuki , Hirose Ken-ichi
Published: April 2006

The catalytic activity of pentasil zeolite for the synthesis of pyridine bases from aldehydes and ammonia was found to depend upon the Si/Al ratio and the metal cation. The best choices are 30 to 120 of Si/Al ratios and metal cations such as Tl(I), Pb(II), Co(II) and Zn(II).
Detection and Characterization of Biological Compounds in Human Sweat Adsorbed on Alumina by Inelastic Electron Tunneling Spectroscopy
Authors: Higo Morihide , Kamata Satsuo
Published: April 2006

Vibrational spectra of compounds in sweat adsorbed on alumina have been measured by inelastic electron tunneling spectroscopy. Analysis of the tunneling spectra showed that lactic acid and fatty acids are selectively detected from separated aqueous and benzene solutions, respectively.
The Stabilization of Dioxomolybdenum(VI) Dithiolene Complex by the Electron Withdrawing Substituent on the Dithiolene Ligand: Comparison of Reactivities of Monooxomolybdenum(IV) Complex with R2S2C2 (R = –CN and –COOMe) Ligands as Models of Molybdenum Oxidoreductases
Authors: Oku Hiroyuki , Ueyama Norikazu , Nakamura Akira , Kai Yasushi , Kanehisa Nobuko
Published: April 2006

In the reaction between Me3NO and [MoIVO(mnt)2]2− (mnt = 1,2-Dicyanoethylene-1,2-dithiolate) in DMF, the oxidized complex, [MoVIO2(mnt)2]2− was isolated. On the contrary, in the case of the reaction of [MoIVO(S2C2(COOMe)2)2]2−, the formation of the corresponding (MoVIO2)2+ complex was observed in the UV/vis spectra. Our model study suggest that the electron withdrawing effect by the substituent on dithiolene ligand modulates the reactivity of Mo=O group in the (MoVIO2)2+ state.
Ytterbium Metal Mediated Desulfurization and Coupling Reaction of Diaryl Thioketones
Authors: Makioka Yoshikazu , Uebori Shin-ya , Tsuno Masumi , Taniguchi Yuki , Takaki Ken , Fujiwara Yuzo
Published: April 2006

Diaryl thioketones are selectively reduced with ytterbium metal to diarylmethanethiols, diarylmethanes or tetraarylethylenes, via thiometallacycle intermediates which undergo electrophilic coupling at thiocarbonyl carbon and sulfur.
Three-center Selenium Interaction in Electrochemical Oxidation of a Linear Trisselenide, 2,6-Bis(phenylselenomethyl)phenyl Phenyl Selenide, and Se-Monooxygenation from Hydrolysis of Its Sulfuric Acid Solution
Authors: Fujihara Hisashi , Higuchi Yasuhiro , Mima Hisatomo , Furukawa Naomichi
Published: April 2006

The cyclic voltammogram of a new trisselenide, 2,6-bis(phenylselenomethyl)phenyl phenyl selenide (1), showed the reversible electrochemical oxidation with low oxidation potential which is attributed to the three-center selenium participation. The monoselenoxide of 1 was formed in the hydrolysis of concd H2SO4 solution of 1, while the MCPBA oxidation of 1 gave a mixture of the corresponding mono- and bis-selenoxides.
Stereoselective Construction of Tetrahydrofuran by Tin (IV) Chloride Promoted [3+2] Cycloaddition of Allylsilane to α-Keto Ester
Authors: Akiyama Takahiko , Ishikawa Keiichiro , Ozaki Shoichiro
Published: April 2006

SnCl4 promoted [3+2] cycloaddition reactions of allylsilane to α-keto esters afforded tri- and tetrasubstituted tetrahydrofurans with excellent stereoselectivity via 1,2-silyl migration in good yields.
Facile Isomerization of Trimethylsilyl Ketene Acetals to α-Trimethylsilyl Esters Catalyzed by Lanthanoid Trifluoromethanesulfonates
Authors: Makioka Yoshikazu , Taniguchi Yuki , Takaki Ken , Fujiwara Yuzo
Published: April 2006

Migration of trimethylsilyl group from oxygen to α-carbon in silyl ketene acetals is effectively catalyzed by lanthanoid triflates under mild conditions. Scope and limitation of this rearrangement are presented.
Photocatalytic Activities for Carbon Dioxide Reduction of TiO2 Microcrystals Prepared in SiO2 Matrices Using a Sol–Gel Method
Authors: Inoue Hiroshi , Matsuyama Takehiko , Liu Bi-Jin , Sakata Takao , Mori Hirotaro , Yoneyama Hiroshi
Published: April 2006

The size of TiO2 microcrystals embedded in SiO2 matrices, which were prepared using a mixed sol of TiO2 and SiO2 in ethanol, decreased with a decrease of the mole ratio of TiO2 to SiO2 in the sol. The prepared TiO2 microcrystals showed activities for photoreduction of CO2 to formate, methane and ethylene, and the quantum efficiencies for the production of these were increased with decreasing the size of the TiO2 microcrystals.
Formation and Reaction of Azomethine Ylide by the Reaction of Cu(acac)2- ketocarbenoids with 1,1-Diphenylmethanimine
Authors: Ibata Toshikazu , Singh Girija Shankar
Published: April 2006

The reaction of α-diazocarbonyl compounds with 1,1-diphenylmethanimine in the presence of Cu(acac)2 afforded the corresponding N-substituted imines in general together with pyrrolidine and 1,4,6-dioxazocine derivatives (in the reaction of α diazo-4-chloroacetophenone) and 1,1-diphenyl-2-(4-nitrobenzoyl) ethylene (in the reaction of α-diazo-4-nitroacetophenone) through azomethine ylides.
Bioactive Polyacetylenes from the Marine Sponge Petrosia sp.
Authors: Ochi Masamitsu , Ariki Saori , Tatsukawa Akira , Kotsuki Hiyoshizo , Fukuyama Yoshiyasu , Shibata Kozo
Published: April 2006

Four new bioactive polyacetylenes have been isolated from the marine sponge Petrosia sp. Their structures including absolute stereochemistry have been elucidated by spectral and chemical methods.
Chemoenzymatic Enantioselective Synthesis of Amidinomycin
Authors: Chênevert Robert , Lavoie Michèle , Courchesne Gabriel , Martin Richard
Published: April 2006

We report the first asymmetric synthesis of amidinomycin, an antiviral antibiotic metabolite. Amidinomycin of high enantiomeric purity (ee 91%) was prepared from norbornylene in 8 steps. The key step is an enzymatic discrimination of enantiotopic groups in meso cis-1,3-dicarbomethoxycyclopentane or in meso cis-cyclopentane-1,3- dicarboxylic acid anhydride.
Comprehensive Detection of Disorders of Purine and Pyrimidine Metabolism by HPLC with Electrospray Ionization Tandem Mass Spectrometry
Authors: Hartmann Susen , Okun Jürgen G , Schmidt Christiane , Langhans Claus-Dieter , Garbade Sven F , Burgard Peter , Haas Dorothea , Sass Jörn Oliver , Nyhan William L , Hoffmann Georg F
Published: April 2006

Background: Clinical presentation and disease severity in disorders of purine and pyrimidine metabolism vary considerably. We present a method that allows comprehensive, sensitive, and specific diagnosis of the entire spectrum of abnormalities in purine and pyrimidine metabolism in 1 analytical run.

Methods: We used reversed-phase HPLC electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry to investigate 24 metabolites of purine and pyrimidine metabolism in urine samples from healthy persons and from patients with confirmed diagnoses of inherited metabolic disorders. Urine samples were filtered and diluted to a creatinine concentration of 0.5 mmol/L. Stable-isotope–labeled internal standards were used for quantification. The metabolites were analyzed by multiple-reaction monitoring in positive and negative ionization modes.

Results: Total time of analysis was 20 min. Recovery (n = 8) of a compound after addition of a known concentration was 85%–133%. The mean intraday variation (n = 10) was 12%. The interday variation (n = 7) was ≤17%. Age-related reference intervals were established for each compound. Analysis of patient urine samples revealed major differences in tandem mass spectrometry profiles compared with those of control samples. Twelve deficiencies were reliably detected: hypoxanthine guanine phosphoribosyl transferase, xanthine dehydrogenase, purine nucleoside phosphorylase, adenylosuccinate lyase, uridine monophosphate synthase, adenosine deaminase, adenine phosphoribosyl transferase, molybdenum cofactor, thymidine phosphorylase, dihydropyrimidine dehydrogenase, dihydropyrimidinase, and β-ureidopropionase.

Conclusion: This method enables reliable detection of 13 defects in purine and pyrimidine metabolism in a single analytical run.
This Is Not a Dance
Authors: CHIEN IRENE
Published: April 2006

ABSTRACT While dance has been theorized as consummately embodied, digitality has been charged with rendering flesh-bound “meatware” obsolete. This essay explores the body propelled into motion by the “dance simulation” video game Dance Dance Revolution, to show how racial and sexual identifications shape the encounter between human body and digital technology.
Tissue-specific pattern of variant transcripts of the human gonadotropin-releasing hormone receptor gene
Authors: Kottler ML , Bergametti F , Carre MC , Morice S , Decoret E , Lagarde JP , Starzec A , Counis R
Published: April 2006

The expression pattern of the GnRH receptor was investigated in a variety of normal and neoplastic human tissues by RT-PCR-Southern blotting. In addition to the full-length cDNA (sb1), we identified two other transcripts: the first (sb2) was characterized by a 128 bp deletion as previously described; the second was an unexpected finding composed of a shorter cDNA (sb3), the sequence of which revealed a 220 bp deletion corresponding in size to exon 2. These three transcripts were found in normal pituitary and pituitary adenomas, and in granulosa tumors, but not in testis, where sb2 was lacking. Only sb1 was expressed in normal, fibrocystic and malignant breast tissue. No transcript with a full-length region was found in endometrium, intestine or lymphocytes. This is the first report that shows that splicing of the gonadotropin-releasing hormone receptor gene is tissue dependent. We also determined the intron-exon nucleotide sequence of the gene and identified an MaeIII polymorphic site in exon 1 created by a silent C453T transition found in 10% of unrelated French whites.
IGF-I production by adult rat hepatocytes is stimulated by transforming growth factor-alpha and transforming growth factor-beta1
Authors: Voci A , Arvigo M , Massajoli M , Garrone S , Bottazzi C , Demori I , Gallo G
Published: April 2006

Previously, we have observed that epidermal growth factor (EGF), a potent mitogen for cultured hepatocytes, stimulates the production of IGF-I and IGF-binding proteins (IGFBPs) by cultured hepatocytes from adult rats. This study was undertaken to investigate the possibility that other growth factors of hepatic origin could specifically be involved in the regulation of IGF-I and IGFBP expression. The effects of transforming growth factor-alpha (TGF-alpha), through EGF receptors to induce a mitogenic response, and transforming growth factor-beta1 (TGF-beta1), produced by non-parenchymal liver cells and able to inhibit hepatocyte proliferation in vivo and in culture, have been studied in cultured adult rat hepatocytes. Our results demonstrate that TGF-alpha and TGF-beta1 significantly stimulate IGF-I and IGFBP secretion by cultured hepatocytes but no change in the abundance of IGF-I and IGFBP mRNAs was observed with respect to controls. Cycloheximide is able to inhibit both basal and TGF-stimulated release of IGF-I and a similar effect was elicited by octreotide, the somatostatin analog, known to directly affect hepatic IGF-I gene expression. Our findings show the role of the liver in the secretion of IGF-I and IGFBPs, not only under endocrine and nutritional control but also under autocrine and paracrine control.
17beta-estradiol induces protein thiol/disulfide oxidoreductases and protects cultured bovine aortic endothelial cells from oxidative stress
Authors: Ejima K , Nanri H , Araki M , Uchida K , Kashimura M , Ikeda M
Published: April 2006

OBJECTIVE: To examine whether or not estrogens induced the expression of protein thiol/disulfide oxidoreductases such as protein disulfide isomerase (PDI), thioredoxin (Trx), Trx reductase, and glutaredoxin (Grx) in vascular endothelial cells. METHODS: The regenerative effects of the protein thiol/disulfide oxidoreductases, PDI, Trx and Grx, on oxidatively damaged proteins were assayed using H2O2-inactivated glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) as a reporter enzyme. The induction of protein thiol/disulfide oxidoreductases and the accumulation of protein adducts generated by lipid peroxidation were examined by Western blotting in estrogen-treated bovine aortic endothelial cells (BAECs). RESULTS: Reduced PDI, Trx and Grx regenerated the H2O2-inactivated GAPDH in vitro. The levels of these protein disulfide oxidoreductases in BAECs were increased by pretreatment with 0.01-10 micromol/l 17beta-estradiol, the largest increase (about fourfold of the control) being found for PDI. Other sex hormones such as progesterone and testosterone did not affect the contents of these oxidoreductases in BAECs. 4-Hydroxy-2-nonenal (HNE)-protein adducts, which are generated by lipid peroxidation, were accumulated in BAECs exposed to paraquat, whereas the pretreatment of BAECs with 17beta-estradiol suppressed their accumulation. CONCLUSIONS: The estrogen-mediated induction of the protein thiol/disulfide oxidoreductases such as PDI, Trx, Trx reductase and Grx suggested a possible involvement of these oxidoreductases in the antioxidant protection of estrogen observed in the vascular system.
DNA methylation affects cell proliferation, cortisol secretion and steroidogenic gene expression in human adrenocortical NCI-H295R cells
Authors: Liu J , Li X-D , Vaheri A , Voutilainen R
Published: April 2006

Aberrant DNA methylation may be involved in human adrenocortical tumorigenesis, which is often accompanied by abnormal hormone production. In this study, we aimed to clarify the effects of DNA methylation on steroidogenesis using the human adrenocortical NCI-H295R cell line as a model. Treatment with the DNA methylation inhibitor 5-aza-2′-deoxycytidine (Azad; 10 μM for 7 days) decreased the proliferation rate to approximately 20% and the cell number to 60% of the control, with a simultaneous increase in the expression of the cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor p57KIP2 gene. In addition, Azad treatment increased cortisol secretion dose and time dependently, whereas dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate secretion was not affected. Azad treatment decreased basal and (Bu)2cAMP-induced expression of low- and high-density lipoprotein receptor, steroidogenic acute regulatory protein (StAR), cholesterol side-chain cleavage enzyme, steroid 17α-hydroxylase/17,20-lyase and steroid 21-hydroxylase mRNA, as well as the StAR protein level. In contrast, Azad treatment increased the basal expression of steroid 11β-hydroxylase and 3β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase/Δ5-Δ4-isomerase genes, although it inhibited the (Bu)2cAMP-induced expression of these two genes. The expression of steroidogenic factor-1 (SF-1) and DAX-1 (dosage-sensitive sex reversal-adrenal hypoplasia congenita critical region on the X-chromosome 1) genes (both harboring putative CpG islands in their promoters) and the methylation degree of the HpaII recognition site(s) in the SF-1 gene promoter region were reduced by Azad treatment. The immunostaining pattern of the methyl-CpG-binding protein MeCP2 was also modified by Azad treatment. These results suggest that DNA methylation may be implicated in the regulation of cell proliferation and steroidogenesis in human adrenocortical cells.
Cerebral and gonadal aromatase expressions are differently affected during sex differentiation of Pleurodeles waltl
Authors: Kuntz Sandra , Chesnel Amand , Flament Stéphane , Chardard Dominique
Published: April 2006

In vertebrates, sex is determined essentially by two means, genetic factors located on sex chromosomes and epigenetic factors such as temperature experienced by the individual during development. Steroids, especially estrogens, are clearly involved in gonadal differentiation in non-mammalian vertebrates. In this regard, the expression of the estrogen-producing enzyme, aromatase, has been shown to be temperature-sensitive in species where temperature can reverse sex differentiation, especially in our model, the amphibian Pleurodeles waltl. We investigated here the regulation of aromatase expression in the brain during sex differentiation in Pleurodeles. We first isolated a brain isoform of aromatase mRNA which differs in its 5′ untranslated region from the isoform previously isolated from adult gonads. In adult Pleurodeles, the brain isoform is mainly expressed in brain tissue while the other isoform is gonad specific. Thus, regulation of aromatase expression in P. waltl could occur by alternative splicing of non-coding exon 1 as previously described in mammals. We then investigated aromatase expression in the brain of male and female larvae and found no differences with regard to sex. Measures of aromatase activity in the brain also showed no differences between sexes at larval stages whereas activity markedly increases in the ovary concomitant with the start of gonadal differentiation. These results support the hypothesis that aromatase could be a target of a temperature-sensitive sex-reversing effect in the gonads but not in the brain.
Chromosomal localization of three somatostatin genes in zebrafish. Evidence that the [Pro2]-somatostatin-14 isoform and cortistatin are encoded by orthologous genes
Authors: Tostivint Hervé , Joly Lucille , Lihrmann Isabelle , Ekker Marc , Vaudry Hubert
Published: April 2006

There is now evidence for the existence of two somatostatin genes in most vertebrate species, and even three somatostatin genes in teleosts. To help clarify the evolutionary relationships between the different somatostatin isoforms currently known, we characterized the somatostatin loci in a teleost species, the zebrafish Danio rerio, and compared them with the corresponding regions in the human and pufferfish genomes. The occurrence of three somatostatin genes, termed SS1, SS2 and SSII, has been previously demonstrated in the zebrafish. Radiation hybrid mapping assigned these three genes to linkage groups 15, 23 and 2, respectively. Conserved synteny of the zebrafish SS2 gene and the human cortistatin gene was revealed by comparative genomic analysis, indicating that mammalian cortistatin is orthologous to the SS2 variant of non-mammalian species. In contrast, using a similar approach, it was not possible to identify the evolutionary relationships between the atypical SSII gene of zebrafish and the other teleost SSII genes.
High glucose decreases intracellular glutathione concentrations and upregulates inducible nitric oxide synthase gene expression in intestinal epithelial cells
Authors: Powell Lesley A , Warpeha Katherine M , Xu Weiming , Walker Brian , Trimble Elisabeth R
Published: April 2006

Diabetes is associated with oxidative stress and increased concentrations of inflammatory cytokines. The aim of the study was to assess the effects of inflammatory cytokines and oxidative stress associated with increased glucose concentrations on inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) promoter activity in intestinal epithelial cells. High-glucose (25 mmol/l) conditions reduced glutathione (GSH) concentrations in the human intestinal epithelial cell line, DLD-1. Addition of the antioxidant, α-lipoic acid, resulted in the restoration of GSH concentrations to normal. Upregulation of basal iNOS promoter activity was observed when cells were incubated in high glucose alone. This effect was significantly reduced by the addition of the antioxidant, α-lipoic acid, and completely blocked with inhibition of nuclear factor kappa B (NFκB) activity. Stimulation of cytokines (interleukin-1 beta, tumour necrosis factor-alpha, interferon-gamma) induced iNOS promoter activity in all conditions and this was accompanied by an increase in nitric oxide (NO) production. Inhibition of NFκB activity decreased, but did not completely inhibit, cytokine-induced iNOS promoter activity and subsequent production of NO. In conclusion, iNOS promoter activity induced by high concentrations of glucose is mediated in part through intracellular GSH and NFκB.
The Size, Composition, and Dynamics of the Russian State Bureaucracy in the 1990s
Authors: Brym Robert J. , Gimpelson Vladimir
Published: April 2006

In this paper Robert J. Brym and Vladimir Gimpelson analyze changes in the size and social composition of the Russian state bureaucracy in the 1990s based on official data. Although the Russian state bureaucracy grew somewhat at the regional level in the 1990s, it actually shrank at the federal level. Comparing the Russian state bureaucracy to the Weberian ideal type of bureaucratic efficiency, the authors also demonstrate the existence of strong gender and age segregation, with women and young people concentrated at lower levels and men and older people concentrated at higher levels. Furthermore, because many public officials were formally educated in the pre-perestroika era, they are poorly adapted to the needs of a modern state. Finally, circulation of new personnel through the bureaucracy, or bureaucratic “renewal,” is slow and occurs mainly at low-status levels. Circulation of personnel at high-status levels is practically nonexistent. Consequentiy, young recruits have little incentive to remain in state service and older officials confront little competition from either below or outside the state bureaucracy. Much of the inefficiency of the Russian state bureaucracy stems from these realities.
Was the Soviet System Reformable?
Authors: Cohen Stephen F.
Published: April 2006

Stephen F. Cohen presents a critical analysis of the prevailing view that Mikhail Gorbachev's six-year attempt to transform the Soviet Union along democratic and market lines proved that the system was, as most specialists had always believed, unreformable. Ideological, conceptual, and historical assumptions underlying the nonreformability thesis are reexamined and found wanting, as are the ways in which generalizations about “the system” and “reform” are usually formulated. Cohen then asks how each of the system's basic components—the official ideology, the Communist Party and its dictatorship, the nationwide network of Soviets, the monopolistic state economy, and the union of republics—actually responded to Gorbachev's policies. Citing developments from 1985 to 1991, Cohen argues that all of those components, and thus the system itself, turned out to be remarkably reformable. If so, he concludes, most explanations of the end of the Soviet Union, which rely in one way or another on the unreformability thesis, are also open to serious question.

Five distinguished scholars respond to Cohen's article.
The Soviet Union: Reform of the System or Systemic Transformation?
Authors: Brown Archie
Published: April 2006

Archie Brown emphasizes the need to make a clear distinction between the transformation of the Soviet system and the end of the Soviet state and also holds that “reform” of the system does not do justice to the extent of the change in the polity. In contradistinction to Cohen, he argues that to regard the pre-perestroika system as “communist” rather than “socialist” brings out more clearly the extent of the transformation, whereby a communist system had been abandoned by 1989–90 even though the Soviet Union did not come to an end until December 1991. Brown also draws on recent evidence showing the large element of contingency involved in the dramatic changes of 1985–1991, including the opposition to Gorbachev's acquisition of power which, had it been successful, would have led to very different policies being pursued in the second half of the 1980s.
The Reform of the Soviet System and the Demise of the Soviet State
Authors: Kramer Mark
Published: April 2006

Mark Kramer agrees with Cohen’s general argument and welcomes Cohen's rebuttal of the “retrospective determinism” that is so common in the literature on the subject, but he raises questions about the way Cohen defines and assesses the “Soviet system.” Kramer argues that it is important to distinguish between the Soviet system and the Soviet state and that the demise of the former did not have to be accompanied by the end of the latter. He also expresses concern that Cohen's article implies, if only inadvertently, that the Soviet system could not have survived unless it had been drastically reformed.
Alternative Pasts, Future Alternatives?
Authors: Derluguian Georgi M.
Published: April 2006

Georgi Derluguian writes that Cohen’s exposition of the alternatives facing Gorbachev as reformer misses key elements that would give his analysis a firm disciplinary foundation: the social mechanisms involved in formulating and spreading competing discourses, the structural coalescence of potentially contentious groups and their actual mobilizing, the institutionalization of political gains, elite and oppositional brokerage, geopolitical configuration, and shifts in economic flows. He calls for a more rigorous analysis that would incorporate these elements, and he illustrates his method by sketching a number of key nodal points in the history of the USSR that would allow scholars to examine counterfactual, alternative pasts.
Regulating Old Believer Marriage: Ritual, Legality, and Conversion in Nicholas Fs Russia
Authors: Paert Irina
Published: April 2006

In this article, Irina Paert reexamines the relationship between Old Believers and officialdom. She focuses on the impact the criminalization of Old Believer marriages had on dissenting communities in Nicholas I's Russia (1825-55). Although Paert emphasizes the difference between Old Believer and official approaches to marriage, she also draws attention to endemic conflicts and contradictions within the local and central governments regarding the implementation of policies, and she identifies a variety of grass-root responses to these problems. In addition to ecclesiological disagreements between different branches of Old Belief, conflicts existed within specific congregations, which were divided along class and gender lines. Paert thus raises new questions about the boundaries separating the official culture from that of religious dissent, and Orthodox from Old Believer communities, and she questions the persistent representation of the Old Believer community as a “counter-society.”
How the Soviet Man Was (Un)Made
Authors: Kaganovsky Lilya
Published: April 2006

Drawing on contemporary critical theory as well as postmodern post-Soviet literature and film, Lilya Kaganovsky discusses the ways Stalinist socialist realist fiction, and in particular, Nikolai Ostrovskii's How the Steel WasTempered, articulates the “dominant fiction” of Stalinism: that is, the relationship between heroism, male subjectivity, power, and bodily integrity. Positing two models of exemplary masculinity (the healthy and virile Stalinist subject on the one hand, and the wounded, mutilated, blind, and paralyzed, but nonetheless, celebrated male subject on the other) this essay seeks to understand what purpose bodily mutilation serves in Stalinist texts. By examining Pavka Korchagin's insatiable desire to keep returning to the “ranks” of the party despite the toll each return takes on his body, Kaganovsky points to the mechanisms of power and pleasure at work in socialist realist texts that, in turn, reflect the cultural fantasy of Stalinism— the (un)making of the New Soviet Man.
The Material Existence of Soviet Samizdat
Authors: Komaromi Ann
Published: April 2006

In this article Ann Komaromi examines Soviet samizdat based on recendy available materials and fresh critical approaches. Komaromi juxtaposes traditional mythologizing narratives about samizdat and the exposure of such mythology within samizdat and post-samizdat culture. Drawing on recent publications and archival investigations, Komaromi surveys the history of samizdat, its use, reception and resonance. The material form of the samizdat text proves key to understanding samizdat as the lifeblood of a community of Soviet dissenters. That material form, viewed critically through a lens shaped by poststructural concepts, provokes the sense of play between ideal signified and compromised signifier as samizdat's subversive essence. This samizdat text supports both anti-authoritarian playfulness and serious reflection on the threats to the author and the project of culture. Soviet and post-Soviet writers find in the samizdat text an ambivalent marker of their specifically Soviet identity beyond geographical and temporal boundaries of the Soviet empire.
Islam
Authors: Gladney Dru C.
Published: April 2006

The study of islam in china has been strongly influenced by what Lila Abu-Lughod (1989:269) termed “zones of theory” in the general Western scholarship of Islam, in which studies of the Middle Eastern “core” have been privileged over Islam on the so-called periphery. Muslims in China, relegated to the distant margins of both Sinological and Islamic scholarship, have rarely received much academic attention. This summary attempts a brief overview of past scholarship on Islam in China and recent contributions to the field. It is concerned primarily with Islam among the people known as the “Hui,” as they are the “Muslim Chinese” proper, whereas the other nine Muslim nationalities identified by the Prc government do not speak Chinese as their native languages and belong more properly to Central Asian studies. The 1990 census revealed that there are a total of 17.6 million members of the ten mainly Muslim nationalities, with the Hui numbering 8.4 million. Like the U.S. census, religion is not a category on the Chinese census, so this figure includes some members of these nationalities who may not believe in or practice the Islamic religion, as well as excluding Han and other minority nationalities who might believe in Islam. Though some Muslims, especially Uygur, complain of underreporting of their populations, this is a fairly good initial estimate of the number of Muslims in China, indicating an increase of 1.2 million over the 1982 figure, a 13 percent increase (Gladney 1991:20).
Introduction
Authors: Lee Tahirih V.
Published: April 2006

In The Early Twentieth Century, Shanghai Promised Opportunities that attracted people from all over China and, indeed, from around the world. To all who arrived—the wealthy banker from Ningbo looking to multiply the family fortune, the young British diplomat fresh from a desk job at the Foreign Office, the unwilling daughter from Suzhou sold into prostitution, the shop apprentice whose family connections brought another kind of indentured service, or the Chinese and foreign sailors “shanghaied” into service on one of the thousands of shipping vessels docked every year in Shanghai's harbor—Shanghai offered both great risks and real opportunities.
China Unincorporated: Company Law and Business Enterprise in Twentieth-Century China
Authors: Kirby William C.
Published: April 2006

On April 22, 1903, the qing court ordered zai-zhen, a Manchu prince; Yuan Shikai, the most powerful Chinese Governor-General of the realm; and Dr. Wu Tingfang, the former Chinese minister to the United States, to compile a commercial code. The edict charging them with this responsibility noted that “of the many government functions, the most important is to facilitate commerce and help industries” (Li 1974a:210). On January 21, 1904, the newly created Ministry of Commerce (Shangbu) issued China's first Company Law (Gongsilü)

The Company Law was the first modern law drafted by the Imperial Law Codification Commission, whose work was part of the Qing government's reformist “new policies” in the wake of China's recent humiliations at the hands of Japan and the Western powers. In giving highest priority to enacting a law governing the organization of commercial companies, the Qing government had several interlocking objectives.
Presidential Address: Five Voices From Southeast Asia's Past
Authors: Wyatt David K.
Published: April 2006

In 1962 the association for asian studies met, as this year, in Boston, at its fourteenth annual meeting, when the Association was addressed by its President that year, Lauriston Sharp. In his search for “some of the continuities and discontinuities of human experience in Southeast Asia,” Sharp proposed that “we should first work back from the present and up the little streams, the short runs of Southeast Asian history and prehistory” (Sharp 1962:5). Following Sharp's metaphor of time as the river, we can find that the rocks and rivulets, the surges and pools and mighty dams of a very minor river in the northern part of what is now called Thailand have much to tell us of the rich and complex past of Southeast Asia. We are concerned here with a small and, most would argue, inconsequential river; but any river at its spate is capable of raising and pushing along the largest boulders. I would hope that this particular river might serve to wash clean and highlight anew the ground that Sharp so eloquently covered so many years ago.
Ancient Inner Asian Nomads: Their Economic Basis and Its Significance in Chinese History
Authors: Di Cosmo Nicola
Published: April 2006

Such non-chinese people as the rong, di, and hu are often portrayed in the traditional historiography of ancient China as greedy, aggressive, and acquisitive (Sinor 1978; Honey 1990). Chinese writings of the Zhou dynasty (c. 1050–256b.c.) contain many instances of unflattering statements aimed at foreign peoples: theZuo zhuancompares the Rong and Di to wolves (ZZ, 1:209); theZhan guo cesays the state of Qin shares the same attributes as the Rong and Di—the heart of a tiger or wolf, greed, and cruelty (ZGC, 11:869; cf. Crump 1970:436). Foreign peoples were often considered “have-nots” with an insatiable lust for Chinese goods, mainly silk, grains, and, later, tea. This stereotype, which developed in the historical sources along with the process of crystallization of the Chinese ethnocultural identity and codification of the written and oral traditions, was regarded as sufficient to account for otherwise complex social and political phenomena. In the course of time, with the historical development of powerful nomadic states confronting China militarily and politically, the attributes of “greedy” and “ravenous” stuck essentially to those people who “moved in search of grass and water”: the pastoral nomads.
A Place in the Nation: Yangzhou and theIdle TalkControversy of 1934
Authors: Finnane Antonia
Published: April 2006

Whether china has changed or remained the same is a question of remarkable longevity in the field of Chinese studies. It is sustained in part by the continuity of certain terms of reference within Chinese culture, from late imperial to contemporary times, together with the maintenance of certain institutions. W. F. J. Jenner has recently identified some of these: the bureaucracy, walls, “dad, mum and the kids,” “severe punishment,” among others (Jenner 1992). In Jenner's analysis, the fact of China being ineluctably Chinese is readily translated into the fact that it has failed the challenge of modernization. The same equation has been made by others: Peyrefitte's “l'empire immobile,” Mabbett's “mirage of modernity,” and Pye's nationalism without modernization all bespeak an understanding of China as not only imprisoned by its past but also, to draw on older views again, as stagnant, mummified, or decaying (Peyrefitte 1993; Mabbett 1985; Pye 1993).
“Same Banana”: Hazing and Honor at the Philippine Military Academy
Authors: McCoy Alfred W.
Published: April 2006

On june 15, 1936, 120 fresh cadets assembled at Manila's Tutuban Station to board a train for the Philippine Military Academy (PMA), recently established in the mountain city of Baguio. At the end of the line, the cadets changed to Benguet Auto Line buses for the 4,000-foot climb up the zig-zag road to Baguio. As the buses pulled into the campus, some forty upperclassmen, all transfers from the superseded Constabulary Academy, were waiting to greet the new arrivals with a ritual called “hazing.” Even fifty years later, these cadets would recall their reception as traumatic (J. Mendoza 1986, 16).
The Invention and Reinvention of “Japanese Culture”
Authors: Morris-Suzuki Tessa
Published: April 2006

A specter is haunting europe and, indeed, the rest of the world: not, of course the specter of Communism, but of that other big C—Culture. At the 1991 Conference of the International Association of Historians of Asia, Prof. Ying-Shih Yu of Princeton University argued in his keynote address that the most important current trend in historical studies was the recognition of “culture as a relatively autonomous force in history” (Yu 1991, 21). For too long, he suggested, historians have looked at the past through a narrow window shaped by the values of the west, and particularly by the all-powerful western notion of history as the pursuit of “scientific truth.” To break through this constricting frame we need to recognize “that the history of every society or people deserves to be studied not only as a part of world history but also on account of its intrinsic values” (Yu 1991, 26); we need, in other words, to accept Watanabe Hiroshi's notion that every society or region may be “‘particular’ in its own way like an individual” (quoted in Yu 1991, 23).
Reconstructing China's National Identity: A Southern Alternative to Mao-Era Anti-Imperialist Nationalism
Authors: Friedman Edward
Published: April 2006

By the 1990sit was a commonplace that Mao-era anti-imperialist nationalism in China was dead. The anti-imperialist perspective had pitted an exploitative foreign imperialism against a courageous Chinese people (Hu 1955). This nationalist understanding of Chinese history was encapsulated in the Great Leap Forward-era film on the Opium War,Lin Zexu, which drew a contrast between patriotic Sanliyuan villagers and traitorous ruling groups in the capital city. If the brave peasants would join with all patriotic Chinese and not fear to die, then, under correct leadership, the foreign capitalists who got rich in making Chinese poor by forcing opium into China would be thrown out. But ruling reactionaries, afraid of popular mobilization, preferred to sell out to the imperialists. As with patriots who had led exploited peasants throughout Chinese history, Mao's Communists would save the nation by providing the correct leadership that would mobilize patriotic Chinese, push imperialists out of China, and thus permit an independent China to prosper with dignity.
The Seventeenth-Century European Advance into Asia—A Review Article
Authors: Witek John W.
Published: April 2006

In his perceptive essays entitledOn History, Fernand Braudel declared that “there is no problem which does not become increasingly complex when actively investigated, growing in scope and depth, endlessly opening up new vistas of work to be done” (University of Chicago Press, 1980, p. 15). These observations are reflected in this masterful study of Donald Lach and Edwin Van Kley as they depict the intricacies of Asian civilization from India to Japan during the seventeenth century. This is a significant contribution to the overall multivolume project that seeks to delineate Europe's formation of the images of Asia from the fifteenth through the eighteenth centuries by examining the literature published at that time. That the more than two thousand pages under review are not the completion, but the next to last step of a work still in progress and so “growing in scope and depth,” assuredly increases the reader's appreciation for this vast enterprise.
The Interpretation of Thunder
Authors: Hammond Charles E.
Published: April 2006

The treatment of thunder and lightningin traditional Chinese writings demonstrates that many modern intellectuals have exaggerated the Neo-Confucian tendencies toward rational explanations and careful classification. The Chinese literati from traditional through modern times accepted as a self-evident fact the notion that thunder rather than lightning was the destructive force in thunderstorms. Moreover, captivated by popular beliefs that linked thunder with divine powers (Hammond 1992), few Chinese scholars were prepared to take the truly modern step of suggesting that thunder and lightning might be examples of natural forces acting randomly. This misunderstanding was compounded by the literati's indifference toward empirical investigation, which meant that they were unable to question the mistaken assumptions underlying this belief.
Agricultural Change and Ethnic Succession in Southeast Asian States: A Case for Regional Anthropology
Authors: O'Connor Richard A.
Published: April 2006

In the first millennium A.D. mainland Southeast Asia's first great states arise, but then in the span of a few centuries these Indianized realms collapse and their Pyu, Mon, Khmer, and Cham peoples decline. In their place Burmese, Tai, and Vietnamese states arise and go on to rule the mainland as their peoples come to dominate the second millennium. Case by case these shifts appear to be ethnic and political successions wherein the strong displace the weak, but seen together regionally the similarities suggest an agricultural change whereby an irrigated wet rice specialization from upland valleys displaced gardening and farming complexes native to the lowlands.
Russia and the West: A Comparison and Contrast
Authors: Roberts Henry L.
Published: April 2006

Comparisons of Russia with the “West” have been a staple of historians and of contemporary observers for a very long time, and no end is in sight. A recent appraisal of Soviet developments in the decade after the death of Stalin was devoted in part to a consideration of the prospects for “a gradual convergence of the social and/or political systems of the West and the Soviet Union.” The variety of the contributors’ responses—“ very likely,” “necessarily uncertain,” “unlikely any meaningful convergence,” “highly improbable,” “depends on what is meant by ‘gradual’ “—suggests an ample range of disagreement, both in expectations for the future and in the characterization of the contrasts underlying these expectations.
Chaadaev's Evaluation of Peter the Great
Authors: McNally Raymond T.
Published: April 2006

The question “Did Peter the Great exert a beneficial or a harmful influence upon the development of Russian history and culture?” is one that has provoked debate ever since that monarch ruled Russia in the first quarter of the eighteenth century. The varied answers to that question set up the general battle lines between Westernizers and Slavophiles during the first half of the nineteenth century. One of Russia's most critical intellectuals in that period, Peter Iakovlevich Chaadaev, answered the question in several ways. His answers provide a key to a peculiar kind of ideological westernization in Russian intellectual history. The discovery of hitherto unpublished source materials that fill an important gap in the documentation of Chaadaev's views on Peter the Great led to the writing of this article.
The Struggle Over the Dissolution of the Croatian Military Border, 1850-1871
Authors: Rothenberg Gunther E.
Published: April 2006

Historians have differed in their evaluation of the nationality problem in the Habsburg Empire, but they have generally agreed that the Military Border maintained along the southern boundaries of Hungary and Croatia constituted a traditional element of dynastic strength. “There arose,” Oscar Jászi wrote, “a proverbial Habsburg patriotism, perhaps the only real one which the Habsburgs were capable of fomenting in their realm.“ The dissolution of the Military Border in Croatia-Slavonia, which took place soon after the celebrated Ausgleich of 1867, has been considered a serious blow to the military posture and the stability of the monarchy. Yet such appraisals need a critical reassessment. After the middle of the nineteenth century, South Slav national tendencies profoundly altered; and the Border became a blunted and much less “reliable” instrument of imperial policy.
The Soviet Income Revolution
Authors: Yanowitch Murray
Published: April 2006

A number of studies of income distribution have suggested that income inequality in the United States showed some tendency to decline during the 1930's and the war years. Although the extent and timing of the decline may be in dispute among specialists in this area, and some recent studies suggest that no significant changes in income shares have occurred since 1944, the American Income Revolution has nonetheless been widely accepted and acclaimed. All the more reason, it would seem, that studies of changes in income inequality in Soviet Russia should prove of great interest. If income inequality has been reduced in the world's major capitalist economy, what has been happening to income distribution in the Soviet Union?
Moscow-Cairo Crisis, 1959
Authors: Smolansky Oles M.
Published: April 2006

The Palestine war of 1947-48, which resulted in the defeat of the combined armies of several Arab states and led to the establishment of the state of Israel, set in motion a process of political, economic, and social change in the Arab East the end of which is not yet in sight. This fermentation brought with it frequent outbursts of passion and violence—witness the chronic instability of Syrian politics, the Egyptian revolution (1952), upheavals in Lebanon (1958), Iraq (1958 and 1963), Yemen (1962), and numerous abortive attempts to overthrow Jordan's King Hussein. Nourishing the fermentation and gripping the entire area was a fever of intense nationalism that held the Western powers responsible for the emergence of Israel and demanded immediate and unconditional termination of Western interference in Arab affairs.
Reply
Authors: Dvornik Francis
Published: April 2006

There are few events in history which had such a profound influence on the cultural development of so many nations as had the Byzantine mission to Moravia. Although the mission failed in the country for which it had been destined, the work of the two Greek brothers, aided by a few disciples, produced unexpected fruit among the Bulgarians, Serbians, Croats, and Eastern Slavs, and became the basis of the oldest Christian Slavic culture. This shows us the excellence of the first literary achievements in Moravia and testifies to the geniality of the inventor of the Slavic alphabet, and to Constantine’s extraordinary philological talent. A mediocre work could not have survived the Moravian catastrophe and the many upheavals in the early history of the southern and eastern Slavs.