bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Regulation of Proinflammatory Th17 Responses during Trypanosoma cruzi Infection by IL-12 Family Cytokines
Authors: Cobb Dustin , Smeltz Ronald B.
Published: March 2012

Previously, we reported that the transcription factor T-bet (Tbx21) regulates Th17 responses to Trypanosoma cruzi infection in an IFN-γ–independent manner. In an effort to further understand this regulation, we examined the development and plasticity of Th17 cells during T. cruzi infection. Th17 cells recovered from infected Tbx21−/− mice were amenable to the inhibitory effects of T-bet, as ectopic expression of T-bet reduced IL-17 expression. We subsequently addressed the role of IL-12 family cytokines IL-12 and IL-27 and report that IL-12p35−/− mice infected with T. cruzi exhibited a significant increase in Th17 cells and Th17-associated inflammation. Ex vivo culture of these cells with IL-12 led to a dramatic reduction in IL-17 production and concomitant increase in IFN-γ. Importantly, the ability of IL-12 to suppress IL-17 was independent of IFN-γ. Surprisingly, and contrary to results reported for other pathogens, IL-27 had no inhibitory effect on Th17 development, as Ebi-3−/− mice failed to show any increase in their T. cruzi-specific Th17 response. Furthermore, IL-27 could not compensate or synergize with IL-12 to suppress IL-17 production ex vivo. Thus, we have established that IL-12, not IL-27, is critical for regulating Th17 responses to T. cruzi.
Role of γδ T Cells in α-Galactosylceramide–Mediated Immunity
Authors: Paget Christophe , Chow Melvyn T. , Duret Helene , Mattarollo Stephen R. , Smyth Mark J.
Published: March 2012

Attempts to harness mouse type I NKT cells in different therapeutic settings including cancer, infection, and autoimmunity have proven fruitful using the CD1d-binding glycolipid α-galactosylceramide (α-GalCer). In these different models, the effects of α-GalCer mainly relied on the establishment of a type I NKT cell-dependent immune cascade involving dendritic cell, NK cell, B cell, or conventional CD4+ and CD8+ T cell activation/regulation as well as immunomodulatory cytokine production. In this study, we showed that γδ T cells, another population of innate-like T lymphocytes, displayed a phenotype of activated cells (cytokine production and cytotoxic properties) and were required to achieve an optimal α-GalCer–induced immune response. Using gene-targeted mice and recombinant cytokines, a critical need for IL-12 and IL-18 has been shown in the α-GalCer–induced IFN-γ production by γδ T cells. Moreover, this cytokine production occurred downstream of type I NKT cell response, suggesting their bystander effect on γδ T cells. In line with this, γδ T cells failed to directly recognize the CD1d/α-GalCer complex. We also provided evidence that γδ T cells increase their cytotoxic properties after α-GalCer injection, resulting in an increase in killing of tumor cell targets. Moreover, using cancer models, we demonstrated that γδ T cells were required for an optimal α-GalCer–mediated anti-tumor activity. Finally, we reported that immunization of wild-type mice with α-GalCer enhanced the adaptive immune response elicited by OVA, and this effect was strongly mediated by γδ T cells. We conclude that γδ T cells amplify the innate and acquired response to α-GalCer, with possibly important outcomes for the therapeutic effects of this compound.
Educating young people through Christian youth worship: Reclaiming space for learning in liturgical contexts
Authors: Sonnenberg Ronelle , Barnard Marcel
Published: March 2012

This article dealt with the relationship between education and youth worship in Protestant contexts in the Netherlands. Consequently, it dealt with the relation between Liturgical and Educational Studies. Our interest in the research project on youth worship in Protestant contexts centred on the question: How do young people, in a late-modern context, participate in youth worship? In our qualitative research, it appeared that ‘learning’ is a key word with regard to youth worship. This article discussed the questions: How are youth worship and ‘learning faith’ related? And, what are the qualities of learning faith in youth worship? Empirical results of the research in local youth worship services and national youth worship events were presented. These results concentrated on the dialogical dimension in youth worship gatherings and gave indications about the contents of what adolescents learn in youth worship gatherings. This ‘what’ referred, amongst other aspects, to the important content of ‘rules and freedom’. Respondents often valued and appropriated youth worship along the line of ‘(do not) have to’, with regard to a Christian life style, their relation with God, ethics, and doctrines. Moreover, themes in youth worship gatherings often focused on a specific Christian lifestyle, on its boundaries and its spaces. Some reflections with regard to the question ‘Why is learning faith a dominant element in youth worship?’ were given. The conclusions that the cognitive element is important in youth worship and that the explicit aspect of learning is a main approach in youth worship were discussed in relation to J. Astley’s (1984) theoretical notion that the language of worship is ‘performing non-cognitive’.
The Era of Direct-Acting Antivirals: The Evolving Role of Interferon and Ribavirin for the Treatment of chronic Hepatitis C
Authors: Gaetano John N. , Desai Archita P. , Reau Nancy
Published: March 2012

The burden of disease related to chronic hepatitis C (CHC) continues to increase annually. While our experience with treating CHC began less than 30 years, steady progress has been made in the ability to successfully treat patients, reducing morbidity and mortality. Until recently, the main players in therapy of CHC were interferon and ribavirin. Unfortunately, response to this therapy is successful only in a selected group of patients, leaving a sizeable portion of patients with CHC untreated or with ineffective retreatment options after having failed prior therapy. An in depth understanding of the hepatitis C virus has ushered in the dawn of a new era of therapy for CHC. Two drugs, telaprevir and boceprevir, have recently been approved by the Food and Drug Administration. Many others hold great promise and are in the early phases of drug development. Here, we will review the history of hepatitis C therapy, mechanism of action drugs approved for or in development, current data on clinical safety and efficacy of these agents as well as the role of patient preference in CHC therapy. We will conclude with current recommendations for the treatment of patients with CHC and the evolving role of interferon and ribavirin.
Strong projective limit of Banach Lie algebroids
Authors: Cabau Patrick
Published: March 2012

We define the notion of strong projective limit of Banach Lie algebroids. We study the associated structures of Fréchet bundles and the compatibility with the different morphisms. This kind of structures seems to be a convenient framework for various situations.
Rate of decay to 0 of the solutions to a nonlinear parabolic equation
Authors: Ben Arbi Imen
Published: March 2012

We study the decay rate to

0

as

t\rightarrow + \infty

of the solution of the equation

\psi_t-\Delta\psi + | \psi |^{p-1} \psi=0

with Neumann boundary conditions in a bounded smooth open connected domain of

\mathbb{R}^{n}

where

p>1

. We show that either

\psi(t,\cdot)

converges to

0

exponentially fast or

\psi(t,\cdot)

decreases like

t^{-\frac{1}{(p-1)}}

.
Smooth maps to the plane and Pontryagin classes. Part I: Local aspects
Authors: Reis Rui , Weiss Michael S.
Published: March 2012

We classify the most common local forms of smooth maps from a smooth manifold L to the plane. The word
local
can refer to locations in the source L, but also to locations in the target. The first point of view leads us to a classification of certain germs of maps, which we review here although it is very well known. The second point of view leads us to a classification of certain
multigerms
of maps.
Periodic solutions for a third-order differential equation without asymptotic behavior on the potential
Authors: de Araujo Anderson L.A.
Published: March 2012

We consider the third-order differential equation

u^{'''} +au'' + g(u')+cu=p(t)

, where

g \colon \mathbb{R} \rightarrow \mathbb{R}

is a continuous function. We prove the existence of

\omega

-periodic solution for this equation, using coincidence degree theories.
Liquid-liquid phase separation and morphology of internally mixed dicarboxylic acids/ammonium sulfate/water particles
Authors: Song M. , Marcolli C. , Krieger U. K. , Zuend A. , Peter T.
Published: March 2012

Abstract. Knowledge of the physical state and morphology of internally mixed organic/inorganic aerosol particles is still largely uncertain. To obtain more detailed information on liquid-liquid phase separation (LLPS) and morphology of the particles, we investigated complex mixtures of atmospherically relevant dicarboxylic acids containing 5, 6, and 7 carbon atoms (C5, C6 and C7) having oxygen-to-carbon atomic ratios (O:C) of 0.80, 0.67, and 0.57, respectively, mixed with ammonium sulfate (AS). With micrometer-sized particles of C5/AS/H2O, C6/AS/H2O and C7/AS/H2O as model systems deposited on a hydrophobically coated substrate, laboratory experiments were conducted for various organic-to-inorganic dry mass ratios (OIR) using optical microscopy and Raman spectroscopy. When exposed to cycles of relative humidity (RH), each system showed significantly different phase transitions. While the C5/AS/H2O particles showed no LLPS with OIR = 2:1, 1:1 and 1:4 down to 20% RH, the C6/AS/H2O and C7/AS/H2O particles exhibit LLPS upon drying at RH 50 to 85% and ~90%, respectively, via spinodal decomposition, growth of a second phase from the particle surface or nucleation-and-growth mechanisms depending on the OIR. This suggests that LLPS commonly occurs within the range of O:C < 0.7 in tropospheric organic/inorganic aerosols. To support the comparison and interpretation of the experimentally observed phase transitions, thermodynamic equilibrium calculations were performed with the AIOMFAC model. For the C7/AS/H2O and C6/AS/H2O systems, the calculated phase diagrams agree well with the observations while for the C5/AS/H2O system LLPS is predicted by the model at RH below 60% and higher AS concentration, but was not observed in the experiments. Both core-shell structures and partially engulfed structures were observed for the investigated particles, suggesting that such morphologies might also exist in tropospheric aerosols.
Retrieval of sulphur dioxide from the infrared atmospheric sounding interferometer (IASI)
Authors: Clarisse L. , Hurtmans D. , Clerbaux C. , Hadji-Lazaro J. , Ngadi Y. , Coheur P.-F.
Published: March 2012

Abstract. Thermal infrared sounding of sulphur dioxide (SO2) from space has gained appreciation as a valuable complement to ultraviolet sounding. There are several strong absorption bands of SO2 in the infrared, and atmospheric sounders, such as AIRS (Atmospheric Infrared Sounder), TES (Tropospheric Emission Spectrometer) and IASI (Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer) have the ability to globally monitor SO2 abundances. Most of the observed SO2 is found in volcanic plumes. In this paper we outline a novel algorithm for the sounding of SO2 above ~5 km altitude using high resolution infrared sounders and apply it to measurements of IASI. The main features of the algorithm are a wide applicable total column range (over 4 orders of magnitude, from 0.5 to 5000 dobson units), a low theoretical uncertainty (3–5%) and near real time applicability. We make an error analysis and demonstrate the algorithm on the recent eruptions of Sarychev, Kasatochi, Grimsvötn, Puyehue-Cordón Caulle and Nabro.
How do variations in the temporal distribution of rainfall events affect ecosystem fluxes in seasonally water-limited Northern Hemisphere shrublands and forests?
Authors: Ross I. , Misson L. , Rambal S. , Arneth A. , Scott R. L. , Carrara A. , Cescatti A. , Genesio L.
Published: March 2012

Abstract. Rainfall regimes became more extreme over the course of the 20th century, characterised by fewer and larger rainfall events. Such changes are expected to continue throughout the current century. The effect of changes in the temporal distribution of rainfall on ecosystem carbon fluxes is poorly understood, with most available information coming from experimental studies of grassland ecosystems. Here, continuous measurements of ecosystem carbon fluxes and precipitation from the worldwide FLUXNET network of eddy-covariance sites are exploited to investigate the effects of differences in rainfall distribution on the carbon balance of seasonally water-limited shrubland and forest sites. Once the strong dependence of ecosystem fluxes on total annual rainfall amount is accounted for, results show that sites with rainfall distributions characterised by fewer and larger rainfall events have significantly lower gross primary productivity, slightly lower ecosystem respiration and consequently a smaller net ecosystem productivity.
Numerical simulation of the impact of Anatolian and Caucasus Mountains on the precipitation distribution over the Black Sea
Authors: Ghafarian P. , Azadi M. , Meshkatee A. H. , Farahani M. M.
Published: March 2012

Abstract. An attempt is made to examine the role of Anatolian and Caucasus mountain ranges in the precipitation distribution over the Black Sea region and to clarify the dynamical and physical mechanisms responsible for precipitation distribution over the region. Existence of a complex topography in the southern and eastern part of the Black Sea region makes it an important region for cyclogenesis. In this study the effect of Anatolian and Caucasus Mountains on the precipitating synoptic systems forming over the Black Sea are investigated. To this end, the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model at 15-km horizontal grid spacing has been used to evaluate the lifetime of a low pressure system that was accompanied with heavy precipitation on 14 March 2009 over the coastal region of the Black Sea. Two experiments were conducted. In the control experiment (CTL), the topographical features of the region were retained. In the sensitivity experiment (EXP), the Anatolian and Caucasus mountain ranges were removed. It is found that in the EXP, some fields including vertical motion, relative vorticity, humidity, geopotential height in low level, cloud water content and precipitation distribution in the region undergo significant changes. As such, in the EXP, the vorticity, and the cut-off low system over the Black Sea intensified. It is also seen that, under favorable conditions for precipitation occurrence, the precipitation intensity in the south and east coasts of the Black Sea decreased and the region of maximum precipitation shifted toward the "Sea of Azov" region, in the direction of the surface southerly winds.
Kinematic first-order calving law implies potential for abrupt ice-shelf retreat
Authors: Levermann A. , Albrecht T. , Winkelmann R. , Martin M. A. , Haseloff M. , Joughin I.
Published: March 2012

Abstract. Recently observed large-scale disintegration of Antarctic ice shelves has moved their fronts closer towards grounded ice. In response, ice-sheet discharge into the ocean has accelerated, contributing to global sea-level rise and emphasizing the importance of calving-front dynamics. The position of the ice front strongly influences the stress field within the entire sheet-shelf-system and thereby the mass flow across the grounding line. While theories for an advance of the ice-front are readily available, no general rule exists for its retreat, making it difficult to incorporate the retreat in predictive models. Here we extract the first-order large-scale kinematic contribution to calving which is consistent with large-scale observation. We emphasize that the proposed equation does not constitute a comprehensive calving law but represents the first-order kinematic contribution which can and should be complemented by higher order contributions as well as the influence of potentially heterogeneous material properties of the ice. When applied as a calving law, the equation naturally incorporates the stabilizing effect of pinning points and inhibits ice shelf growth outside of embayments. It depends only on local ice properties which are, however, determined by the full topography of the ice shelf. In numerical simulations the parameterization reproduces multiple stable fronts as observed for the Larsen A and B Ice Shelves including abrupt transitions between them which may be caused by localized ice weaknesses. We also find multiple stable states of the Ross Ice Shelf at the gateway of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet with back stresses onto the sheet reduced by up to 90 % compared to the present state.
The gross face and virtual fame: Semiotic mediation in Japanese virtual communication
Authors: Nozawa Shunsuke
Published: March 2012

This article examines an emerging art of self–fashioning and sociality in Japanese–language virtual communication. Through an ethnographic exploration I argue that crucial to the structure and experience of Japanese virtual communication are acts of opacity. People in the Japanese virtual mobilize elaborate techniques of material camouflage and anonymity to effectively conceal their body and obscure their identity. They are normatively faceless. I offer this ethnography to suggest that these acts of obfuscation, the presentation of the self–in–disguise in everyday life, force us to reorganize our own modernist epistemological framework. Treating acts of opacity in the Japanese virtual not as a question of presence, secrecy, and truth but instead as themselves a complex social project, this article aims to parse out competing ideologies of communication in the contemporary culture of media. I will address these ideologies as they inform a set of interconnected categories such as anonymity, privacy, and personhood, which are themselves deeply couched in modernist epistemological terms.
Various Confocal Scan Features of Cysts and Trophozoites in Cases with Acanthamoeba Keratitis
Authors: Kanavi Mozhgan Rezaei , Naghshgar Nima , Javadi Mohammad Ali , Hashemi Marzieh Sadat
Published: March 2012

Purpose

To describe the various confocal scan features of cysts and trophozoites in patients with Acanthamoeba keratitis and to specify the associated findings.

Methods

In a retrospective study of cases between June 2005 and June 2010, we reviewed all the recorded confocal scan images of patients given a high index in regards to clinical suspicion of Acanthamoeba keratitis, in order to specify the various morphometric and morphologic features of Acanthamoeba cysts and trophozoites and to characterize the associated findings in such cases.

Results

Confocal scan images of 170 eyes from 170 patients were reviewed. Bilayered, target-shaped, coffee-bean and rod-shaped appearances of the cysts were observed in 100%, 82.9%, 36.4%, and 17.5% of cases, respectively. Single file arrangement of the cysts was noticed in 22 cases. The mean size of the cysts was 18.9 μm (range 10-39.6). In all cases, trophozoites were observed as pear-shaped or irregularly wedge-shaped structures, some surrounded by a brilliant halo and some exhibiting fine pseudopodia-like extensions, with mean size of 30.2 μm (range 19.2-55.6). Keratoneuritis and the anterior stromal honeycomb pattern were seen in 28.2% and 5.9% of cases, respectively.

Conclusions

To our knowledge, this is the largest case-series study on confocal scan features of Acanthamoeba cysts and trophozoites in cases with clinical diagnosis of Acanthamoeba keratitis specifying the morphologic and morphometric criteria of this infectious organism and the associated findings.
Can Jews Be Radical Theologians?
Authors: Kavka Martin
Published: March 2012

In its first half, this essay recapitulates the history of the relationship between Christian radical theology (sometimes called “God-is-dead theology”) and Judaism from the 1960s onward, in order to hypothesize that this relationship has not yet become a productive dialogue, since Jewish philosophical theology has understood itself to be fundamentally opposed to the Hegelian elements on which Christian radical theology depends. If God is immanent in history, as God was for Hegel, wouldn't a Jewish radical theology be obscene after the Holocaust? Taking up a productive line of inquiry in the work of the author's teacher, the late Edith Wyschogrod, the second half of the essay claims that a non-obscene Jewish radical theology is possible once it centers around law as a site of kenosis, in which the authority of God as lawgiver becomes subordinate to the development of the freedom of the members of the community. Classical rabbinic texts about the so-called “Yavneh reforms” are analyzed in support of this claim.
A Descent Dai-Liao Conjugate Gradient Method Based on a Modified Secant Equation and Its Global Convergence
Authors: Livieris Ioannis E. , Pintelas Panagiotis
Published: March 2012

We propose a conjugate gradient method which is based on the
study of the Dai-Liao conjugate gradient method. An important property of our proposed
method is that it ensures sufficient descent independent of the accuracy of the line search.
Moreover, it achieves a high-order accuracy in approximating the second-order curvature
information of the objective function by utilizing the modified secant condition proposed
by Babaie-Kafaki et al. (2010). Under mild
conditions, we establish that the proposed method is globally convergent for general functions
provided that the line search satisfies the Wolfe conditions. Numerical experiments
are also presented.
Analysis of Polarized Membrane Traffic in Hepatocytes and Hepatic Cell Lines
Authors: In Julie G. , Ihrke Gudrun , Tuma Pamela L.
Published: March 2012

The protocols described in this unit were developed to monitor membrane traffic in cultured cell monolayers that display hepatic polarity. In general, the assays are designed to visualize and/or quantitate membrane trafficking by monitoring the fates of antibodies bound to specific membrane proteins. We first describe how to infect cells with recombinant adenovirus, the preferred method for introducing exogenous genes into hepatic cells. We next provide a morphological assay to monitor basolateral to apical transcytosis. In a supporting protocol, we describe how to visualize apical recycling and/or retention. In an additional supporting protocol, we provide a semi‐quantitative method to measure the relative extents of apical delivery. Finally, we describe quantitative assays to measure basolateral internalization and recycling. The methods presented in this unit provide a relatively simple, yet powerful approach to examining hepatic membrane traffic. Curr. Protoc. Cell Biol. 54:15.17.1‐15.17.19. © 2012 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Neural Differentiation of P19 Carcinoma Cells and Primary Neurospheres: Cell Morphology, Proliferation, Viability, and Functionality
Authors: Negraes Priscilla D. , Schwindt Telma T. , Trujillo Cleber A. , Ulrich Henning
Published: March 2012

This unit describes the culture and induction of in vitro models of neural differentiation and strategies to evaluate the participation of extrinsic and intrinsic factors in modulation of this process. Protocols focus on large‐scale expansion of pluripotent P19 murine embryonic carcinoma cells and their induction to neural differentiation in the presence of retinoic acid, closely resembling conditions of early neuroectodermal differentiation. Procedures are also described for obtaining rat neural precursor cells (NPCs) or neurospheres and for differentiating them in the absence of growth factors. Experimental strategies are reported using P19 cells and NPCs as in vitro models for studying the actions of extrinsic and intrinsic factors on morphology, proliferation, viability, neural phenotype determination, and progress of differentiation, as well as the functionality of ion channels and metabotropic receptors in inducing calcium fluxes at different developmental stages. The methods described here may be useful for optimizing in vitro protocols for stem cell differentiation into defined neural populations, as well as for studying mechanisms that underlie neurogenesis and gliogenesis. Curr. Protoc. Stem Cell Biol. 20:2D.9.1‐2D.9.22. © 2012 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Accumulation, Flexible
Authors: Huang Chung‐Hsien
Published: March 2012

Since the beginning of the 1980s, we have witnessed a restructuring of economic processes. The old hegemonic Fordist accumulation regime seems to take pains to cross over what Piore and Sabel (1984) have termed the second industrial divide by various sorts of strategies, such as “outsourcing” and/or “downsizing.” It has progressively given way to a new regime of flexible specialization, which is defined as: “a strategy of permanent innovation to increase change, rather than effort to control it. This strategy is based on flexible – multiuse – equipment, skilled workers, and the creation, through politics, of an industrial community that restricts the forms of competition to those favoring innovation” (Piore & Sabel 1984: 123). According to Piore and Sabel, the volatility of markets during the 1970s and 1980s compelled firms to experiment with more flexible forms of organization, allowing rapid changes in production. Thus, allegedly a new model of flexible specialization has emerged: small batch production in interlinked, specialized small firms; flexible in organization, work process and output; and tending to concentrate spatially in industrial districts. Vertical disintegration and the independent development of small and mediumsized enterprises (SMEs), encouraged by new technologies, are therefore shaping an organizational model founded on SMEs.
Alterity
Authors: Ålund Aleksandra
Published: March 2012

Globalization is, in a cultural as well as an economic sense, a key term for understanding today's population movements in terms of international migration and the meaning of citizenship for people who, through migration, connect different parts of the world.
Americanization
Authors: Campbell Neil
Published: March 2012

Americanization has a number of different meanings, but broadly speaking it defines the transmission of American ideas, customs, values, images, social patterns, language, industry, and capital around the world. Initially it was usedwithinthe United States in the nineteenth century to define internal dynamic processes by which new immigrant populations were assimilated into the nation through an active reception of agreed values.
A
narchy
Authors: Tormey Simon
Published: March 2012

“Anarchy” describes the absence of governmental order, or the state. The term is popularly used with a negative connotation, to describe a condition of lawlessness, chaos, or uncertainty. In the context of discussions about globalization, anarchy is used as a description of the global system, the “anarchical society” as Hedley Bull (1995) notably put it. Anarchy is also used with a more positive connotation to denote a political project (“anarchy”) or ideology (“anarchism”) where the state has been superseded by cooperative forms of life, rendering police or military enforced sanctions unnecessary. Anarchism in this sense has seen a revival in the wake of the Zapatista uprising of 1994, the Seattle protests in 1999, and the radicalization of the environmental movement over the past two decades.
Anti‐Bribery Convention
Authors: Warner Carolyn M.
Published: March 2012

In 1997, the Organisation for Economic Co‐operation and Development (OECD) established an Anti‐Bribery Convention, which, at the time of writing, 38 countries have ratified. It obliges countries to establish criminal legal penalties for the bribery of foreign public officials, and to investigate and prosecute such acts without regard to national, economic, or political interest. The signatories also agree to participate in a monitoring program, in which teams from the OECD's working group on bribery conduct periodic reviews, which are then published. The Convention has no legal force over the signatory states; the only penalty the OECD can inflict is public shaming of a state, as the United Kingdom has recently experienced. States are also obliged to make bribery an extraditable offense in any extradition treaties the signatories have between themselves. The Convention includes related stipulations that states criminalize the laundering of funds for or from bribery, establish penalties for related accounting fraud, and develop mechanisms for assisting other OECD countries, if requested, in their investigative and prosecution efforts. It has had some impact, in that states that used not to make bribery of overseas public officials a legal offense now do, and a few have pursued prosecutions under these new laws. Its impact is also felt in the trend it created towards other international institutions adopting anti‐bribery or anti‐corruption conventions, however toothless. The United Nations established an Anti‐Corruption Convention that most states have ratified; the European Union (EU) has a convention against bribing EU officials and/or officials of EU member states. All conventions rely on the signatory states to implement and enforce the provisions of the agreement; many may not find it in their interest to do so consistently or at all.
Anti‐War Movement
Authors: Reitan Ruth
Published: March 2012

Anti‐war, or peace, movements are extremely diverse collective actors or social processes, varying in philosophical orientation, political and social aims, organizational structure, and societal and political level — local, national, and increasingly transnational — at which they operate. While post — World War II era anti‐war movements may be broadly divided into pacifism, anti‐militarism, anti‐colonialism, and anti‐nuclearism, scholars have identified at least eight traditions ebbing and flowing throughout the twentieth century, including religious pacifism, liberal internationalism, anti‐conscriptionism, anti‐militarism and socialist resistance to war, communist internationalism, women's or feminist anti‐militarism, radical pacifism, and anti‐nuclearism. The latter tendency — bridging as it does to the environmental movement — can be seen as part of a new tradition, ecological or environmental pacifism, which is manifested in transnational social movement organizations like Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth International.
Association of Southeast Asian Nations
Authors: Yamamoto Satomi
Published: March 2012

ASEAN is an acronym for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, a geopolitical and economic organization of ten Southeast Asian countries. In 1967, the Association of Southeast Asia (ASA), an economic and political alliance of the Philippines, Malaysia, and Thailand, reorganized itself as ASEAN by inviting Indonesia and Singapore as new members. The five founding countries signed the Bangkok Declaration with the aim of accelerating economic growth, social progress, and cultural development in Southeast Asia. In 1984, Brunei Darussalam, the sixth Member State, joined ASEAN, and the remaining four member states, Viet Nam, Lao PDR, Myanmar, and Cambodia, joined in 1995, 1997, and 1999.
A
tlantic Charter
Authors: Roosevelt Franklin D. , Churchill Winston S.
Published: March 2012

The President of the United States of America and the Prime Minister, Mr. Churchill, representing His Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom, being met together, deem it right to make known certain common principles in the national policies of their respective countries on which they base their hopes for a better future for the world.
Citizenship
Authors: Münch Richard
Published: March 2012

According to T.H. Marshall (1964), the United Kingdom has become the model of the development of citizenship from the citizens' sharing of civil rights in the eighteenth century to their sharing of political rights in the nineteenth century and right through to their sharing of social rights in the twentieth century (Turner 1993; Münch 2001). In the later part of the twentieth century, cultural rights, that is, rights of living one's identity rooted in a particular cultural tradition, have moved to the center of struggles on the definition of citizenship (Kymlicka 1993; Koopmans et al. 2005). What is particularly characteristic of citizenship is its creation of solidarity between citizens sharing rights independent of their origin and independent of their membership in primordial groups. The bonds of citizenship reach beyond primordial group boundaries. Going far beyond the historical model of the United Kingdom, the United States – being the society of immigrants par excellence – has become the model of a pluralistic and dynamic community of citizens with continuing material struggles for inclusion into citizenship and symbolic struggles on its meaning (Parsons 1971; Cohen & Arato 1992; Isin & Turner 2002; Alexander 2006.
Clean Clothes Campaign
Authors: Ross Robert J.S.
Published: March 2012

Established in 1989, the Clean Clothes Campaign (CCC) describes itself as “an alliance of organizations in 12 European countries to support garment workers in their efforts to create substantive, sustainable improvements in working conditions” (Clean Clothes Campaign 2009). The CCC is the premier anti‐sweatshop consumer‐oriented group in the “global North,” that is, the high‐income countries. Each national campaign is autonomous and decisions are taken by consensus, but the “international secretariat” in Amsterdam coordinates much of the international work. The CCC is notable for high‐quality research, persistence, focus on high‐profile sporting events (e.g., Olympics, World Cup football) and its ability to mobilize European activists around letter‐writing and petitions and “e‐activist” campaigns for “urgent appeals” on particular struggles. The CCC's work is targeted almost exclusively at Asian exporters – perhaps because most garments in Europe arrive from Asia. They also work with labor organizations in Africa, Eastern Europe and Turkey.
Clearing House Interbank Payment System
Authors: Kahn Charles M. , Roberds William
Published: March 2012

The Clearing House Interbank Payment System (CHIPS) is the privately owned large‐value payment system in the United States. It is operated by the Clearing House (formerly the New York Clearing House Association), a special‐purpose company in turn owned by large commercial banks. Founded in 1970, CHIPS quickly became the standard institution for settling the dollar side of foreign exchange transactions. This role continues today, although since 2002 this function has increasingly been taken on by CLS Bank. In 2009 the value of payments through CHIPS was $364 trillion (down from $509 trillion in the peak year of 2008). In contrast, FedWire, the other US large‐value payment system, run by the Federal Reserve System, had payments transactions of $755 trillion and $631 trillion respectively in 2008 and 2009 (Committee on Payment and Settlement Systems 2010).
Climate Change: Urban Impacts and Responses
Authors: Carmin Joann
Published: March 2012

Urban areas contribute to anthropogenic warming and at the same time are sites where the impacts of climate change are expected to have significant impacts. With ongoing trends in urbanization, particularly in the global South, the percentage of the global population living in cities is increasing. Population density, along with investments in urban infrastructure and buildings, means that climate impacts pose a significant threat to economic stability and human well‐being. While cities in all parts of the world will experience the impacts of climate change, those in developing countries are expected to bear an unequal share of the burden. Developed countries are making the greatest contributions to climate change through the consumption of fossil fuels and release of greenhouse gases. However, projections suggest that the impacts of emissions will be felt most profoundly in countries in the global South which have the lowest material, financial, and social resources to cope.
Colonization
Authors: Schuerkens Ulrike
Published: March 2012

The word colonization is derived from the Latin wordcolonus(inhabitant), which means the settlement of people and the establishment of settler colonies. It is a political phenomenon. The colonial state keeps the subordinated society and its population in a legally inferior position. But colonization has also been linked to important social, cultural, and economic influences of European or Western powers over Asia, Latin America, and Africa.
Commoditization
Authors: Langman Lauren
Published: March 2012

The commodity and commodification were as central for classical and neoclassical economics as well as the Marxist critique of political economy (see
Commodification in perpetuity
). In more recent years the business communities, have developed a very special form of commodification, namely commoditization, which has two meanings. When the processes that produce a given commodity are so similar across different brands, often because of the global diffusion of the intellectual capital needed to produce the commodity, as time goes on, there is less and less to differentiate the properties of one particular brand from another. As a result, many people buy on the basis of price alone. Thus for example the gasoline, toothpaste, generic drugs or microchips provided by one company are almost indistinguishable from those provided by another company. One of the best examples of this kind of commoditization has been the personal computer, in which the computing power has increased while the costs of production have declined. Moreover, most of the subcomponents, motherboards, CPUs, hard drives and screens are produced by a small number of companies. While computer geeks may debate the performance and value of one brand and model versus the other, for most consumers today, most of these differences are invisible.
Communities
Authors: Wedam Elfriede
Published: March 2012

Community is often understood as things people have in common or that bind them together; it also connotes a sense of belonging. In some of the earliest community studies researchers conflated common bonds with an attachment to place and harmonious social relationships therein, leaving the concept open to considerable debunking. Steven Brint (2001: 8) proposes instead a generic definition that avoids a problematic normative stance and treats community as a variable, rather than essential, aspect of group experience. While variable, these group relationships are nonetheless based principally on “affect, loyalty, common values, and/or personal concern.” Gerard Delanty (2010) offers an alternative view of community that is based less on values and more on styles of social organization and modes of belonging. Globalization has fragmented some forms of community while making possible others. Community is a flexible and resilient concept that exists in traditional and post‐traditional forms.
Comparative Advantage
Authors: Kick Edward L. , McKinney Laura A.
Published: March 2012

Comparative advantage is accepted as an economic law. This is true even though as articulated, it has been widely criticized. The esteem of the law may best be described by famed economist Paul Samualson who, when asked to name one proposition in all of the social sciences which is both true and non‐trivial, replied “comparative advantage.”
Conflict: global anti‐Jewish violence
Authors: Smith Robert B.
Published: March 2012

Jewish communities continuously experience violence against their people and their property – synagogues, cemeteries, businesses, and homes. This anti‐Jewish violence has become globalized: during periods of severe conflict between Israel and the Palestinians it peaks worldwide. This globalized violence is a major social problem. It not only inflicts pain on Jewish people; it also desensitizes the perpetrators, making them less humane and thus more likely to target non‐Jews as well as Jewish people. Moreover, the apathetic response of non‐Jewish communities toward this violence weakens societal cohesion, which undermines the ability of the larger society to respond effectively to this violence and the threat of terrorist attacks.
Confucianism
Authors: Sun Anna
Published: March 2012

Is Confucianism a religion? The religious nature of Confucianism is an issue that has been hotly debated in recent years, among Chinese scholars as well as scholars in the West, yet this contentious disagreement is by no mean a new phenomenon. Throughout history, there have been several rounds of major controversies over the religious nature of Confucianism, and the most current debate could be seen as a recurrence of the same cyclical development. The following focuses on the global nature of these controversies, and shows how the conception of Confucianism as a religion has been shaped greatly by theological, political, and intellectual forces from abroad. Indeed, the past, present, and future of Confucianism has as much to do with the continuation of Confucian tradition in China as with the ongoing encounters and negations between Confucianism and the world outside of the “middle kingdom,” the ancient name of China.
Connectivity
Authors: Axford Barrie
Published: March 2012

Applied to the social world, connectivity means links between actors and between actors and various media. The medium of connection could be trade or movements of capital, human media in the shape of travelers, or digital technologies that enable instantaneous connection and interaction, beggaring the constraints of place and time. But any form of exchange or communication between actors is also a form of connectivity. That said, much of the academic literature on connectivity from cultural and communication studies, as well as some research on globalization, focuses on communicative connectivity. This focus embraces communication between agents who are co‐present in the same physical space and various types of mediated communication that permit interactions not reliant on co‐presence (Giddens 1990).
Creolization
Authors: Knörr Jacqueline
Published: March 2012

Discourses on the etymology and meaning of the term “creole” and its correlates “creolization” and “creoleness” vary according to the social, historical, and cultural context and in relation to which group is engaging with these terms (Stewart 2007). The criteria that are applied to denote a phenomenon or a person as creole range from origin and phenotype (“race”) to social and cultural features. They are as dependent upon worldviews as are the etymologies of the ethnonyms of various creole groups and the criteria and reasons brought forth to demonstrate creole identity. Using recent examples of various etymologies for the term “creole,” Chaudenson 2001 revealed the basic ideologies they are based on and explains that — in contrast to the “old” etymology, which traces the term back to the Spanishcrioulo— they do not hold up to scientific scrutiny (pp. 1—3). These ambivalent and contradictory discourses on the relevant terminology, ethnonyms, and etymologies are carried out in the public sphere as well as in various academic disciplines. They indicate the social relevance of creole identity, particularly in postcolonial societies where the ambivalence associated with it is largely due to the attending colonial history as part of which creolization took place. In order to reveal and tap the full heuristic potential of the creole terminology, it must be liberated from its normative baggage — not least by situating its etymology in social and historical context.
Crime
Authors: Karstedt Susanne
Published: March 2012

Crime without doubt represents the “other” or “dark” side of globalization (Urry 2002; Abraham & van Schendel 2005). The ever‐increasing list oftransnational crimesincludes terrorism; drugs and arms trafficking; smuggling and trafficking of women and children for sexual exploitation and prostitution, of immigrants, antiquities, and endangered species; corruption and state crimes; cyber crime and theft of intellectual property (Nelken 2004). Others have addedinternational crimesagainst humanity and coordinated racial violence, andcrimes of globalization(Friedrichs 2007: 10) to this list. A recent report issued by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC 2010) rates transnational organized crime as a most serious threat affecting all member states and “one of the world's most sophisticated and profitable businesses” (UNODC 2010: ii). Illegal transactions thus mirror the “bright side” of globalization with its enormous opportunities for exchange, trade, communication, and business. As illegal entrepreneurs take advantage of these opportunities, organized and transnational crime has been expected to overtake growth in the legal global economy. Global crime equally thrives on the “inability of the criminal law to globalize” (Nelken 2004: 381) and to generate global and transnational instruments of crime control and criminal justice. Criminal justice systems are entrenched in the nation‐state and operate locally rather than across borders, and consequently the UNODC report states that “purely national responses are inadequate” (UNODC 2010: ii).
Critical Regionalism
Authors: Campbell Neil
Published: March 2012

Critical regionalism originates in architectural theory to describe the relationship between the universal and the local in architectural styles. It asserts the need to be critical of the local and regional to avoid a tendency toward naïve inwardness and nostalgia, while at the same time being critical of an overly prescriptive “universalism” that sweeps away the significant contributions of the local and the regional in favor of standardization.
Cultural Imperialism
Authors: Tomlinson John
Published: March 2012

The term cultural imperialism refers most broadly to the exercise of domination in cultural relationships in which the values, practices, and meanings of a powerful foreign culture are imposed upon one or more native cultures. In this broad sense cultural imperialism could be used to describe examples of the enforced adoption of the cultural habits and customs of actual imperial occupying powers from antiquity down to nineteenth and twentieth century European colonialism. In practice, however, the term is nearly always applied to relations between sovereign nation‐states from the mid twentieth century onwards. There is, however, a significant connection between the context of colonial occupation and these contemporary relations, insofar as the term has commonly (though not exclusively) been used to criticize the continuing exercise of Western cultural power in the context of postcolonialism.
Developing countries
Authors: Kiely Ray
Published: March 2012

Much of the argument about the relationship between globalization and development is based on a misunderstanding of the nature of globalization. Some tend to regard globalization as simply being an opportunity for developing countries, to be embraced in order to promote growth and reduce poverty (Giddens 2000; World Bank 2002). This is not only associated with the neoliberalism of the 1980s, but also the supposedly post‐neoliberal, post‐Washington consensus and third way of the 1990s and beyond. The argument made is that developing countries should carry out reforms which make themselves more open economies, such as trade and investment liberalization, which involve concrete policies of tariff reductions, removal of import controls, the reduction of subsidies, and non‐discrimination against foreign capital. Some also draw on earlier arguments that the liberalization of finance will allow developing countries to attract large amounts of the world's savings, as capital will flow from capital‐rich to capital‐poor areas (McKinnon 1973; Shaw 1973).