bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
THE INFLUENCE OF SELECTED FACTORS ON AXIAL FORCE AND FRICTION TORQUE IN A THRUST BEARING LUBRICATED WITH MAGNETORHEOLOGICAL FLUID
Authors: HORAK Wojciech , SALWIŃSKI Józef , SZCZĘCH Marcin
Published: September 2018

Magnetic fluids belong to the class of materials in which rheological properties can be controlled by magnetic fields. Magnetic fluids are suspensions of ferromagnetic particles in a carrier fluid, and the magnetic field can change their internal structure. This phenomenon is fully reversible, almost instantaneously. The test results of a hydrostatic bearing lubricated by magnetic fluid are shown in the publication [L. 7]. It has been shown that the use of MR fluids as a lubricant allows high stiffness of the bearing to be obtained regardless of the height of the bearing gap. The publication [L. 8] presents the results of a thrust bearing lubricated by magnetic fluid with no external feed pump. The load capacity of the bearing was achieved by a self-sealing effect. This effect is associated with the ability to hold a magnetic fluid in a predetermined position through the magnetic field. This is caused by the appropriate geometry of the bearing surface. This effect retains the flow of the magnetic fluid out of the bearing gap as a result of the occurrence of a magnetic barrier, which counteracts the movement of the magnetic fluid. This barrier is a result of a local increase or decrease in magnetic induction similar to magnetic fluid seals. Another phenomenon highlighted in [L. 9, 10, 11] is the generation in the magnetic fluid of additional pressure due to the interaction of the magnetic field gradient. The result is an additional buoyancy force. When selecting a magnetic fluid for application in the thrust bearing, a number of factors should be taken into account. In addition to the parameters describing the typical lubricant, such as lubricity, corrosion properties, and work at high temperatures, the magnetic fluid used in the friction zone should allow a wide range of the rheological properties to be obtained due to changes in the magnetic field intensity. It is also important that the magnetic fluids have the ability to generate the appropriate value of the normal force due to the magnetic field.
THE ANALYSIS OF WEAR OF THE LAYERS CONTAINING WC/W2C IN ABRASIVE SOIL
Authors: NAPIÓRKOWSKI Jerzy , LIGIER Krzysztof
Published: September 2018

The paper presents the results of research involving the resistance of hardfacing materials containing WC/W2C carbides to abrasive wear. The tested hardfacing materials were made using PJ5D and El-Tung FeA rods. The WC/W2C carbide contents of the examined materials amounted to 90% and 60%. These materials are meant to be used in mining tools subject to intense abrasive wear. In spite of its higher WC/W2C carbide content, the intensity of wear of the hardfacing material made using the PJ5D rod was higher than that of the hardfacing material made using the El-Tung FeA rod. Wear resistance tests were conducted by means of the “spinning bowl” method, using real (natural) soil masses. Light and heavy soil masses were used.
THE IRON BORIDE WEAR-RESISTANT LAYERS ON CONSTRUCTIONAL C45 STEEL, MODIFIED BY CHROMIUM AND THE LASER PROCESS
Authors: PERTEK-OWSIANNA Aleksandra
Published: September 2018

The paper presents the influence of diffusional boronizing, borochromizing processes, and laser modification on microstructure, microhardness, and frictional wear resistance of C45 constructional steel. The borochromizing process consists of two stages: first the boronizing was applied, and then chromizing was carried out as a second step. The boronizing was performed at 900°C for 4h, and then chromizing at 1020°C for 7h using the gas-contact method in powder containing amorphous boron and ferrochrome. Then, the boronized and borochromized layer was modified by remelting it using a TRUMPH CO2 2600W-power laser. The microstructure after diffusional boronizing and borochromizing consists of needle-like iron borides with a thickness of 80 μm and 100 μm and with a microhardness of 1400 HV0.1–1850 HV0.1. Three zones are formed after laser modification: the remelted zone MZ (eutectic mixture of borides and martensite) with a thickness of 100–120 μm, a martensitic heat affected zone (HAZ), and the core. The microhardness in the remelted zone is approx. 1200 HV0.1, as a result of which there appears a milder hardness gradient between the surface and the core. It was found that the frictional wear resistance of the boride layers modified by chromium and laser is higher than that of the layers after diffusional boronizing.
THE ANTIWEAR AND EXTREME-PRESSURE PROPERTIES, AND VISCOSITY-TEMPERATURE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE LUBRICANTS CONTAINING VEGETABLE OIL AND AW/EP ADDITIVES
Authors: ROGOŚ Elżbieta , URBAŃSKI Andrzej
Published: September 2018

The lubricating and rheological properties of compositions based on vegetable oil mixtures and selected additives were examined. The additives were dedicated both to vegetable oils as well as to petroleum products. The additives varied in chemical structure and the content of active elements. It was concluded that the nature of particular additives as well as their concentration in the composition significantly altered the initial lubricating and rheological properties of the base oil. The differences were diverse and highly dependent on the composition. The most beneficial effects were obtained when the additives containing phosphorus and nitrogen were added to the base oil.
CHANGES IN THE LUBRICATING PROPERTIES OF LUBRICANTS DUE TO THERMAL LOADS DURING TRIBOLOGICAL TEST
Authors: DRABIK Jolanta
Published: September 2018

The paper presents the results of research on the relationships of temperature, friction coefficient, and wear in the different conditions of tribological tests conducted with the use of ball-disc contact lubricated with compositions of vegetable oils and additives. The influence of tribological test conditions on the oxidative resistance of investigated lubricants was evaluated with the use of Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC). Based the research results, the effectiveness of oils, with additives as inhibitors, and their abilities to work in friction contacts subjected to thermal loads were analysed and evaluated.
THE INFLUENCE OF DIFFERENT VEGETABLE DISPERSION PHASES ON THE ROLLING CONTACT FATIGUE OF BIODEGRADABLE LUBRICATING GREASES
Authors: KOZDRACH Rafał
Published: September 2018

The paper discusses the influence of the vegetable dispersion phase on the rolling contact fatigue of bearings lubricated with ecological lubricating compositions. Four vegetable oils were used for the production of lubricating greases: rapeseed, sunflower, soybean, and castor. For comparison purposes, the synthetic and mineral oils were used as well. The rolling contact fatigue (pitting) of bearings lubricated with particular compositions were investigated and evaluated for each base oil. The tribological tests were carried out using T-03 four-ball machine under high load conditions. Based on the obtained results, it may be concluded that vegetable oils, such as rapeseed, sunflower and castor, as the base of lubricating grease positively affected the rolling contact fatigue of tribosystems lubricated with the above-mentioned compositions in comparison to the control lubricated with greases based on mineral or synthetic oil. There is no favourable change in rolling contact fatigue of tribosystems lubricated with greases based on soybean oil.
A STUDY OF STATIC FRICTION IN RECIPROCATING MOVEMENT OF SLIDING PAIR STEEL-EXPANDED GRAPHITE
Authors: REWOLIŃSKA Aleksandra , KOWALEWSKI Piotr , PERZ Karolina , PACZKOWSKA Marta
Published: September 2018

The paper presents the results of coefficient of static and kinetic friction depending on the load. During the study, the sample in the form of a pin with expanded graphite, mounted in a holder, was forcibly pressed the Fn to the steel countersample. The device on which the tests were carried out research allows sliding friction in reciprocating motion. It has been found that there is a noticeable difference between the coefficient of static friction and kinetic for both fixed and different pressures. In the field of applied pressure, there were no significant their impact on the coefficient of friction; applied force was not sufficiently high which may have contributed to this state. The study had a distinctive character.
A MATHEMATICAL MODEL OF THE HYPORHEIC ZONE FLUIDIZATION
Authors: Marciniak Marek , KACZMAREK Mariusz , Szczucińska Anna Maria
Published: September 2018

In the hyporheic zone, exchange of surface water and groundwater takes place. During the groundwater drainage and the increase in hydraulic gradient, this zone can be fluidized. The paper presents a mathematical model of hyporheic zone fluidization. It has been obtained from a balance of forces related to the water filtration through the hyporheic zone. The mathematical model makes it possible to predict the occurrence of fluidization depending on the increase in water table position. A series of laboratory tests were carried out, which confirmed the predictions according to the model. The hydrological and hydrogeological influences of hyporheic zone fluidization were also analyzed, namely: the decline of diurnal water level fluctuations in headwaters and the variable rate of decline of water level after rainfall flood.
Adipose-derived stem cells for tissue engineering and therapy of non-healing wounds
Authors: Schumacher Adriana , Cichorek Mirosława , Pikuła Michał
Published: September 2018

Chronic wounds seem to be a big problem for the medicinal, social and commercial area,
especially for elder patients or people with cancer, metabolic or autoimmune diseases. In this
respect, in the modern regenerative medicine there are intensive studies on methodologies
that stimulate healing of chronic wounds (diabetic foots, ulcers, burns).
In tissue engineering new solutions in wound healing are based on cellular therapies which
consisting of growth factors and various types of scaffolds. In this way, there are created skin
substitutes which are composed of cellular auto/allografts (stem cells and differentiated cells)
and most commonly biodegradable scaffolds; they aim is not only to fill the tissue but also to
stimulate wound healing.
In this article we demonstrate the current knowledge about biological properties of Adipose-
-derived Stem Cells (ASCs), methods of their isolation and potential for use in therapies for
non-healing wounds. Adipose tissue seems to be an attractive and abundant stem cells source
with therapeutic applicability in diverse phase of the repair and regeneration of the chronically
damaged tissues. Additionally, it is believed that secreted by ASCs growth factors, cytokines
and exosomes are decisive in the clinical effects. In this review, we also present the current
clinical trials using stem cells derived from adipose tissue.
Increasingly, the use of cell therapy in wound healing treatment draws attention to the safety,
reproducibility and quality of stem cells. Researches go on and therapy approaches are possible
but the detailed knowledge of the ASCs biology must be thoroughly investigated before these
cells would be widely used in the clinical trials.
Fascin expression in malignant epithelial tumors
Authors: Lewkowicz Dorota , Swatek Jarosław , Wronecki Lech , Szumiło Justyna
Published: September 2018

Fascin is a protein responsible for the aggregation of actin and the organization of actin filaments into cortical structures that play a key role in the mechanism of interactions between cells, adhesion and, above all, cell migration. The results of many studies suggest that fascin contributes to the progression of some malignancies because it facilitates infiltration and the formation of metastases.
A review of the literature from 2003 to 2016 concerning the immunohistochemical expression of fascin in the most frequent epithelial malignancies, such as lung, colorectal, gastric, esophageal, breast and ovarian carcinomas, was performed. Less numerous reports on the expression of this protein in carcinomas of the small bowel, biliary tract, hepatocellular carcinoma, carcinomas of the pancreas, thyroid, urinary tract, squamous cell carcinomas of the head and neck, and uterine endometrioid carcinoma, were also taken into account.
The results of these studies are not entirely consistent, but they generally suggest a relationship
between the increased fascin expression in many malignant tumors and the indicators
of poorer prognosis, such as higher grade and stage of primary tumor, and involvement of of
regional lymph nodes. The expression of fascin in neoplastic tissue is often associated with
a lower 5-year survival rate, a shorter recurrence-free survival time, and a shorter overall
survival time, suggesting that the expression of this protein in malignant neoplasms may
have an unfavorable prognostic significance.
Facts and speculations on the infectious nature of Alzheimer’s disease
Authors: Bilińska Katarzyna , Jakubowska Patrycja , Woźniak Agnieszka , Butowt Rafał
Published: September 2018

For over 30 years, a large volume of data has been collected indicating the possibility of an infectious form of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Using various AD animal models and patients’ brain extracts it has been demonstrated that amyloid Aβ (Aβ) can be an infectious agent. The similarities of Aβ and PrPsc prion protein (PrPsc) have been an important indicator of a potentially infective nature of AD. Nonetheless, the majority of epidemiological data have not yet supported the hypothesis of the infectious nature of this disease. It must be emphasized that AD is a very complex disease which is most likely unique to humans. The strong evidence on the infectivity and propagation of Aβ in animal models is accompanied by the uncertainty of whether the observed symptoms can be recapitulated in humans. Therefore, using currently available AD models it may not be feasible to collect data of sufficient quality clearly and unambiguously demonstrating the infectivity of the disease. We postulate that in order to gather stronger evidence for AD infectivity in humans, new experimental strategies must be considered. This approach should also lead to better understanding of the peripheral routes of Aβ infection. The aim of this review is to present the current state of knowledge and existing doubts in this important area of neurobiology and medicine. In the light of available data, AD infectivity has still not been proven, yet it should be seriously considered. The confirmation that some forms of AD are infectious may result in significant scientific, medical and social consequences.
Direitos Humanos, religião e política por um despertar do anseio ético
Authors: Gomes Matheus Souza
Published: September 2018

Chama a atenção desde meados da década de 1980 a crescente presença de representantes religiosos - especialmente os de denominações evangélicas - no meio político brasileiro. Tal fato instigou diversos autores brasileiros a pensarem na questão dos “fenômenos” de laicização e secularização em nosso contexto. Não focaremos aqui na complexidade em torno destas categorias, mas destacaremos o modo como elas se relacionam com o “avanço” da religião sobre o espaço público no Brasil. Além disto, analisaremos o desdobramento dessa relação conflituosa no que diz respeito à questão dos Direitos Humanos. Por fim, apresentaremos um possível caminho que as “religiões brasileiras” podem tomar para o avanço dos direitos das minorias no país, a partir das noções de moral e virtude dinamogência propostas por Durkheim. Palavras-chave: Direitos Humanos. Religião. Política. Espaço público. Dinamogênese. Moral.
Explicar e compreender: a querela em torno do procedimento epistemológico próprio da Ciência da Religião
Authors: Campos Fabiano Victor
Published: September 2018

Este artigo visa abordar a questão da polaridade dicotômica entre explicação e compreensão como um problema subjacente às reflexões epistemológicas que perpassam a Ciência da Religião. Analisando as origens históricas do debate entre explicação e compreensão enquanto respectivos procedimentos epistemológicos próprios das Ciências da Natureza e das Ciências Humanas, o autor procura mostrar de que modo a Ciência da Religião frequentemente se posicionou em face dessa querela epistemológica, bem como as consequências de sua opção ante esse problema, no que tange aos próprios resultados de suas pesquisas e no que concerne à sua própria autocompreensão enquanto área do saber. Entende que as preocupações, de caráter propriamente epistemológico, dos cientistas da religião, ou seja, seus esforços metateóricos para que a Ciência da Religião consolide cada vez mais a sua reputação científica, impõem a necessidade de não eludir a tarefa de enfrentar essa problemática. Por essa razão, apresenta, enfim, as contribuições da Fenomenologia Hermenêutica de Paul Ricoeur para dirimir a polaridade dicotômica entre explicação e compreensão no interior da Ciência da Religião.
Epistemic Authority, Sovereignty, and Selective Conscientious Objection
Authors: Betz Adam Thomas ,   Department of Philosophy, Florida State University
Published: September 2018

This paper discusses some of the practical difficulties confronting Jeff McMahan’s proposal of a jus ad bellum court of experts for deciding the justice of war, and recommends two revisions. First, following the earlier proposals of Vitoria, Suarez, and Grotius, leaders could have a say in appointing judges to the ad bellum court; second, the court could be an organ of the International Criminal Court. Though significant practical challenges remain, these revisions make McMahan’s proposal fairer to democratic governments, and give the court a better chance for successful implementation in the prevailing Westphalian system of state sovereignty.
Introduction: Archives and Information in the Early Modern World
Authors: Walsham Alexandra , Peters Kate , Corens Liesbeth
Published: September 2018

The introduction to the volume explores the evolution and effect of the scholarly trends that have brought the study of archives and record-keeping to the forefront in both historical and archival circles in recent decades. It discusses key questions of definition that continue to obscure and bedevil our comprehension of how archival and information cultures functioned in the early modern era. It also provides an overview of the salient themes emerging from this collection of chapters and identifies some avenues for investigation in this field in the future. It calls for greater collaboration and cross-fertilisation to breach the lingering disciplinary divide between historians and archival scientists.
Jean-Baptiste Colbert, Accounting, and the Genesis of the State Archive in Early Modern France
Authors: Soll Jacob
Published: September 2018

This study shows how, between 1661 and 1683, the culture of double-entry, mercantile accounting was central to Jean-Baptiste Colbert’s massive project of royal archive building in ancient régime France. Scholars have tended to see state archives as the products of learned and legal culture. The case of Colbert demonstrates that mercantile culture and commerce also made an essential contribution to archival development in the early modern period, as well as laying the foundation for state sponsored learning, science, industry, art, building, and administration. It illustrates how economic interest and financial management drove archive formation and organisation in the early modern era, correcting the dominant emphasis on techniques derived from scholarship.
The Early Modern Secretary and the Early Modern Archive
Authors: Hunt Arnold
Published: September 2018

It was the secretary who handled the delivery of incoming letters, drafted and copied outgoing correspondence, filed papers for retention and, quite literally, held the keys to his master's secrets. This chapter reviews the current state of scholarship on the early modern secretary and asks what we can learn from the material traces that these invisible technicians left on the documents that passed through their hands. Secretaries sought to differentiate themselves from mere clerks by developing a more sophisticated range of techniques for the handling and retrieval of written documents, and the rise of the secretary as a distinct profession was therefore accompanied by the emergence of a new technology of the archive.
Knowledge, Oblivion, and Concealment in Early Modern Spain: The Ambiguous Agenda of the Archive of Simancas
Authors: Brendecke Arndt
Published: September 2018

As early as 1540, Spain established a central archive within the walls of the castle of Simancas. This archive would seem an ideal case of early and systematic accumulation of documents. A closer look, however, shows that the archive of Simancas had little impact on political decision-making in practice. This chapter argues that this should not be mistaken as simply a lack of efficiency: Simancas served conflicting purposes from its very beginning. It was used to organise knowledge, but at the same time pursued hidden agendas of oblivion and concealment. To shed light on these contradictions, the article discusses the archive’s peripheral location in Spain’s topography of knowledge; it explains the reasons of its rather limited functionality in terms of providing politically useful knowledge and concludes by discussing opposing functions of Simancas such as obstructing the circulation of papers.
‘Friction in the Archives’: Access and the Politics of Record-Keeping in Revolutionary England
Authors: Peters Kate
Published: September 2018

This chapter traces the legal and political frameworks that underpinned rights of access to archives in the decades preceding the outbreak of civil war in 1642, showing that there were two different cultures of access: one determined by the rights of subjects to consult legal court records; the other shaped by the culture of secrecy associated with the records of crown estates and royal prerogative. Over the course of the civil war, a new language of access emerged. The assertion of parliamentary sovereignty and the dislocating experiences of civil war mobilisation led to a radical, perhaps unprecedented, articulation of the rights of the people to control and access the information that defined their material rights and status. Ultimately this chapter argues that this new, if short lived, articulation of public right of access to records is important not only for the history of record-keeping, but also reveals much about the political and material interests that were at stake in the English revolution.
Archiving the Archive: Scribal and Material Culture in 17th-Century Zurich
Authors: Henny Sundar
Published: September 2018

This contribution is an exercise in amalgamation: it seeks to blur the distinctions between archival and scribal culture, between form and content, and between the history of the book and history of material culture. Three leading figures of 17th-century Zurich—a clergyman and two magistrates—are spotlighted as they take respective measures to secure their memory. Although these measures and the corresponding archival situations differ quite significantly, it becomes obvious that in all of these cases materiality played a crucial role in the process of conservation. Written remains were referred to as relics, treasures, and monuments. To reduce those non-governmental collections to a cult of autographs, however, would miss the point. Copying also flourished and was thought of as a necessity as well as an act of asceticism. The argument is that ‘information’, narrowly understood, does not convey what early modern archives were all about.
Death, Distance, and Bureaucracy: An Archival Story
Authors: Sellers-García Sylvia
Published: September 2018

This chapter in two parts considers several legal cases from Spanish America. It argues that geographic distance shaped the pace of proceedings and created bureaucratic distances critical to case outcomes. Geographic distance also shaped document trajectories, influencing how they would be stored and where they would come to rest. Archivists, both in the colonial period and since then, are the vital mediators of these many forms of distance. They were vital to the creation of document content, they determined which documents survived, and they make choices today that influence location and access. The cases being examined are from Guatemala and Mexico; they are drawn from both inquisition files and the secular criminal courts; they take place between 1698 and 1718. All the cases focus on the crimes and perceived transgressions of non-white women: witchcraft, murder, and adultery.
The Transnational Archive of the Sinosphere: The Early Modern East Asian Information Order
Authors: Paramore Kiri
Published: September 2018

This chapter argues for the existence of an intellectually Confucian-centred, Classical Chinese language delivered archive of knowledge across early modern East Asia. I argue that this broad, transferable, and often commercially delivered Sinosphere archive supported the creation of state-led information orders in early modern East Asia. This argument resonates with recent work in South Asian and Global History demonstrating the role of regional early modern information orders in facilitating global flows of knowledge. I focus particularly on the transregional nature of the literary, pedagogical, and book culture that underlay the information order of early modern East Asia, and the state’s prime role in its development in early modern Japan. The article thus employs the concept of archivality to analyse early modern information systems, demonstrating patterns of trans-regional knowledge development in East Asia which resonate with other early modern global examples.
Civilians Writing the War: Metaphor, Proximity, Action
Authors: Cole Sarah
Published: September 2018

This essay investigates what happens if we listen to the civilian, rather than solely to the combatant, in thinking about war writing, and take seriously the complexities and dilemmas that the position of civilian entails for the writer. It is the essay’s working premise that the status of the civilian is an immensely important one for the moral and imaginative life of the twentieth century. The essay reads in detail three short passages, taken from three majestic civilian texts of the war: one each from H. G. Wells’s 1916 Mr. Britling Sees It Through; Virginia Woolf’s 1922 Jacob’s Room; and Mary Borden’s 1929 The Forbidden Zone (a dazzling collection of short pieces from her time as a nurse during the war). Ultimately, what these readings show is that the particular qualities of the civilian situation in relation to the war, in which a dialectic of distance and proximity is the key feature, produce exceptionally complex, dynamic, moving forms of figuration, in which the problem of figuration itself becomes critical.
The Zeppelin in the Sky of the Mind
Authors: Froula Christine
Published: September 2018

While First World War historians often emphasize civilians’ experience of ‘war at a distance’, the military dirigible floated over the divide between civilian and soldier, brought aerial warfare to Britain’s island fortress, and inaugurated a mode of modern warfare that defies spatial and temporal containment. This essay foregrounds the zeppelin’s psychic impact on the civilian imaginary from 1914 through the Spanish Civil War to the Blitz, tracing its conceptual and aesthetic representation in diaries, letters, novels, essays, and plays by Virginia Woolf, H. G. Wells, George Bernard Shaw, Katherine Mansfield, D. H. Lawrence, Evelyn Waugh, Muriel Rukeyser, Julian Bell and others. These writings document an unending European-civil-imperial-global war in which aerial technologies at once enlarge human powers almost beyond imagining and dwarf them to the point of negation. Inspiring both wonder and the new terror of total war, the zeppelin created a permanent change in civilians’ psychic weather and remains an inescapable presence in the sky of the mind.
Maternal Cosmopoetics
Authors: Higonnet Margaret R.
Published: September 2018

Käthe Kollwitz’s 1922–3 cycle War addresses themes of maternal sacrifice and nationalist mobilization that also figure in women’s poetry. Her anti-war protest in Sacrifice depicts a mother who raises her infant, echoing Jacques Louis David’s defiant mother in his Sabine Women. Likewise Anna Akhmatova’s blasphemous ‘Prayer’ offers to sacrifice her child and poetry to halt the war, and poems by Berta Lask and Claire Studer Goll condemn women’s own silence for the mobilization of their dead sons. Kollwitz’s cosmopoetic theme of maternal solidarity in The Mothers binds figures visually, just as dialogue in Lask weaves a sisterhood of protest. The woodcut Volunteers places her son Peter with his blinded, suicidal friends led by Death; similarly, Ricarda Huch’s poems of 1917 expose hollow wartime exhortations to heroic combat that blind and destroy young men. Kollwitz’s post-war poster Never Again War complements Gertrud Kolmar’s protest against war commemorations as the tawdry dazzle of nationalist remobilization.
Entangled Emotions
Authors: Das Santanu
Published: September 2018

Undivided India contributed to the First World War more than one million men who served in places as diverse as France, Mesopotamia and East Africa and forged a remarkable range of encounters across the lines of race, religion and nationality. This essay investigates the fraught inner histories of these encounters – their affective, experiential and representational structures – through a range of archival, historical and literary material, as produced by Indian combatant and civilian writers, including Mulk Raj Anand and Rabindranath Tagore. Focusing on three kinds of encounters – behind the battlefield of the Western Front, in a hospital in Mesopotamia, and a series of wartime lectures delivered in the United States – it reflects on the role of the ‘literary’ in such cross-cultural encounters and their representations, and how such moments and processes at once expand our understandings of a more ‘global’ war and put pressure on conventional understandings of ideas of ‘modernity’ and ‘cosmopolitanism’.
Introduction
Authors: Hutcheson Derek S.
Published: September 2018

The chapter introduces the book Parliamentary Elections in Russia. It begins by outlining briefly the context of Russian politics since the collapse of the Soviet Union, and the literature about its transition. It examines the role of Russia’s parliament – the Federal Assembly – and in particular, the powers of the State Duma. It ends by mapping the content and structure of the remaining eight chapters of the book.
The framework of Russian elections
Authors: Hutcheson Derek S.
Published: September 2018

The electoral law in Russia has been more than simply the rulebook for the game; it has become part of the elections game. The chapter examines the major and minor electoral reforms throughout the 1993–2016 period that fundamentally altered the incentive structures in the Russian political system. It outlines the ever more complex requirements that have advantaged those with greater resources and created Kremlin dominance over the electoral process. The first part of the chapter outlines these changes in detail, while the second part examines their significance and the circumstances under which they were implemented. In the final part, the role of electoral reform in a wider programme of institutional change is examined, particularly affecting the centre–periphery relations. It argues that institutional reform and political expediency were used to turn the federal and regional structures into a vertically-structured electoral ‘machine’.
The party system
Authors: Hutcheson Derek S.
Published: September 2018

It is contended in this chapter that Russia’s post-Soviet party system has gone through three phases – fragmentation (1993–c.2002), consolidation (2002–2009) and cartelisation (c.2009 onwards). The Yeltsin era witnessed the prevalence of many independent candidates and the proliferation of minor parties without any societal or institutional roots. One of Putin’s key aims on coming to power was to change that. Since the mid-2000s, the political system has been dominated by United Russia, the ‘party of power’ set up with Putin’s sponsorship. It has served as a partisan front for the executive, at the same time as acting as a ‘clearing house’ for the resolution of intra-elite conflict and resource distribution. Alongside it, three other parliamentary parties survived by acting alongside UR in a cartel-like arrangement. These four parties have continued to dominate the party system even after recent liberalisation of the rules on party registration. Many of the numerous new parties established before the 2016 election fizzled out and proved largely insignificant.
On the campaign trail
Authors: Hutcheson Derek S.
Published: September 2018

This chapter examines the way parties present themselves – and are presented – to Russia’s electorate during election campaigns. In the first part of the chapter, examination is made of the approaches that the main parties take to campaign strategy and political marketing. There was a gradual professionalisation of the electoral process in the 1990s and early 2000s, with amateur candidates and campaigners gradually being replaced by professional political consultants. The use made of product-, sales- and market-oriented approaches is examined. The second part of the chapter analyses how election campaigns are covered in the media, using content analysis of television and other media coverage. Finally, public attitudes to election campaigning and media usage are assessed, with the aid of post-election surveys from each of the post-Soviet State Duma elections.
Mobilising the vote
Authors: Hutcheson Derek S.
Published: September 2018

This chapter focuses on mobilisation and turnout in Russia’s parliamentary elections. Through the use of electoral data, and focus group and survey results, it examines how voters balance cost, benefit, civic duty, and systemic disenchantment in a calculus of whether to vote. The first part of the chapter looks at the efforts of the authorities to mobilise voters using ‘administrative resources’, while the remainder of the chapter looks at how voters respond to these. Examination is made of the bases of turnout; patterns of and explanations for abstention; and the profiles of non-voters compared with those who cast a ballot. Many of those who do so vote out of a general sense of civic duty, rather than because they feel any sense of efficacy; and cynicism about the process has steadily been growing throughout the past few years.
Voting in parliamentary elections
Authors: Hutcheson Derek S.
Published: September 2018

This chapter examines Russians’ voting behaviour over the seven State Duma elections so far. It begins from a spatial perspective, by examining the changing geographical bases of support for the parties over time. Thereafter, it takes a more sociological viewpoint, examining the profile of the typical Russian voter, and each party’s electorate, using survey and focus group data. Over time, some sense of party affiliation has started to build up amongst the voters of the established parties. Finally, it looks at the extent to which Russians have been able to register their discontent with the system through the medium of elections – in particular, prior to 2003, by voting ‘against all’ candidates or parties.
How legitimate are Russia’s parliamentary elections?
Authors: Hutcheson Derek S.
Published: September 2018

How legitimate is the electoral process in post-Soviet Russia, and to what extent do reported electoral statistics reflect the actual will of the voters? It is not contended that we should regard all Russian election results with suspicion, nor that electoral malfeasance is unique to the country. Nonetheless, misgivings about the electoral process are voiced often enough that we cannot ignore them. The chapter provides an assessment of the legitimacy of the Russian electoral process through two perspectives. The first part examines the evidence of falsified results and major electoral rights violations in Russian elections, via observer reports, statistical analysis and analysis of official complaints. The second and third parts look at the question of external validity. Regardless of the actual evidence of electoral fraud, to what extent does the international community, and the Russian electorate, perceive the electoral process to be legitimate? Using survey and focus group materials, these questions – and the trends in public opinion over time – are examined.
Conclusions
Authors: Hutcheson Derek S.
Published: September 2018

This is the concluding chapter of Parliamentary Elections in Russia. It draws together the themes of the previous eight chapters, examining the evolution of the Russian political system, the campaigns for election to the State Duma between 1993 and 2016 and the party landscape of modern-day Russia. It concludes that the current stability in the Russian political system may be temporary and depends to a large extent on the continued popularity and legitimacy of Vladimir Putin. It discusses possible trajectories for future party system development in Putin’s fourth term.
A Model of Attribute Conditioning
Authors: Unkelbach Christian , Förderer Sabine
Published: September 2018

We present a model of attribute conditioning, the phenomenon that people’s assessment of stimuli’s specific attributes (e.g., a person’s characteristics) changes due to pairings with other stimuli possessing these specific attributes (e.g., another "athletic" person). These changes in attribute assessments go beyond evaluation changes due to these pairings (i.e., evaluative conditioning effects). We provide a short historical overview of the phenomenon and the available data. Then we present a potential mental model of the effect: We assume attribute conditioning to be a form of stimulus-stimulus learning. CS-US pairings establish an enduring referential link between CS and US. We present an associative as well as a distributed memory variant of this referential link. Based on this model, we provide the answers to the specific questions that guide the present special issue. Finally, we discuss the relation of evaluative and attribute conditioning.
Use of a helical composite free flap for alar defect reconstruction with a supermicrosurgical technique
Authors: Jeong Hyung Hwa , Choi Dong Hoon , Hong Joon Pio , Suh Hyun Suk
Published: September 2018

The highly contoured nature of the nose and the abundant free margin makes it especially difficult to reconstruct. In this report, we describe the use of a new helical rim free flap technique for the reconstruction of full-thickness nasal alar defects via supermicrosurgery. Briefly, after a wide excision with a margin of 0.7 cm, an alar defect with a size of 1×1×0.5cm was obtained, which included the full thickness of the skin, mucosa, and lower lateral cartilage. Vessel dissection was performed in a straightforward manner, starting from the incision margin for flap harvest, without any further dissection for reach the greater trunk of the superficial temporal artery. The flap was inset in order to match the contour of the contralateral ala. We closed the donor site via rotation and advancement. No donor site morbidity was observed, despite the presence of a small scar that could easily be covered with hair. The alar contour was satisfactory, and the patient was satisfied with the results. The supermicrosurgical technique did not require further dissection to identify the vessels for anastomosis, leading to better cosmetic outcomes and a reduced operating time.
La dimensión transestatal de la seguridad: el papel de la movilización social contra la proliferación de la delincuencia armada en el Cono Sur
Authors: Derghoukassian Khatchik
Published: September 2018

Based upon the definition of security community and its application to the Common Market of the South, Mercosur, the author examines the subregion's capacity for responding to current threats to its security, emerging primarily from dynamics that transcend the state and musí thus be counteracted by collective efforts involving both the state and civil society.The article explores the historical record of Mercosur with the goal of illustrating that integration processes are not exempt from security problems; in fact, the subregión is threatened by arms proliferation and common violence. As a result, civil society has adopted a diverse series of actions that constitute an important example of collective action and that,as in the case of the threats mentioned, may become transnationalized, successfully reproducing themselves in other parts of the región.
Percepciones y dimensiones de la crisis humanitaria y de derechos humanos en Colombia
Authors: Ceballos Marcela , Suárez Harvey
Published: September 2018

This document analyzes several aspects of the humanitarian crisis in Colombia, including the perceptions of threat held by distinct governments regarding the humanitarian crisis and the armed conflict, the significance of concepts such as humanitarian crisis and human rights crisis, and internal armed conflict, and its acknowledgment by intergovernmental and state institutions. In addition, several regional manifestations of the humanitarian crisis, linked to conjunctural aspects of the crisis, are discussed, with emphasis on forced displacement in Colombia’s border regions.
Los estudios sobre conflicto armado y paz: un campo en evolución permanente
Authors: Nasi Carlo , Rettberg Angelika
Published: September 2018

The pervasive effect of armed conflicts on affected societies has kept scholars busy around the world. Since the end of the Cold War in particular, the number of explanatory efforts attributing armed conflict not only to the bipolar confrontation among the world’s super powers but to complex internal and external political, economic, and social dynamics of conflict-ridden countries has increased. In Colombia, decades of armed conflict have nurtured a prolific academic production. This article identifies some of the main lines of research on the topic of armed conflicts and peace studies. It suggests that with the passage of time, the literature has gained in complexity, diversity, and sophistication, displaying a notorious capacity to adapt and transform in the face of new conceptual and empirical challenges.
Élites, intelectuales y tecnocracia. Calidoscopio contemporáneo y fenómeno latinoamericano actual
Authors: Estrada Álvarez Jairo , Puello-Socarrás José Francisco
Published: September 2018

This paper to provides a state of art discussion of general elite theory by developing a taxonomy of the academic literature on this topic, based upon theoretical and historical criteria, and by discussing recent analytical tendencies in Latin America concerning the problem of intellectuals and technocrats. This field of study offers alternative research tools and important analytical keys for understanding current transformations in the exercise of political power, its legitimizing tools and the consequences of today’s capitalist model for distinct forms of social regulation.
Teoría de elección racional: estructura conceptual y evolución reciente
Authors: Abitbol Pablo , Botero Felipe
Published: September 2018

This article hopes to facilitate dialogue within political studies by presenting a general description of the conceptual structure of Rational Choice Theory, RCT. The main goal is to present precisely and concretely the basic precepts of RCT both on its original formulation and on the adjustments that have been adopted in reply to internal and external critiques. Thus, it presents a brief discussion about how the acknowledgement of the theory’s limitations has guided some aspects of its recent evolution. The article concludes with some brief reflections on the usefulness of RCT in political science, not aimed at discussing the applicability of RCT in the social sciences, a discussion beyond the scope of the paper, but to initiate a discussion about how RCT constitutes itself as a theoretical framework that facilitates dialogue within the discipline.
Urban Resistance to Neoliberal Democracy in Latin America
Authors: Eckstein Susan
Published: September 2018

Redemocratization across Latin America restored labor and political rights denied under the military governments in the 1960s through the 1980s. Increased subjugation to global market forces, less fettered by institutional barriers under neoliberalism than under import substitution has, however, weakened, de facto while not de jure, the ability of laborers to deploy their restored rights to improve conditions at work. The article describes how and explains why protests against perceived economic injustices under the circumstances have shifted in cities across the region from the point of production to the point of consumption, and within the arena of consumption from pro-active claims for affordable housing to defensive protests against state-backed increases in the cost of food and urban services and to solidarity movements in rich countries that threaten businesses that exploit Latin American workers with consumer boycotts.
Participatory Government and the Challenge of Inclusion: The Case of Local Government Structures in Post Apartheid South Africa
Authors: Mathekga Ralph
Published: September 2018

Local government structures are believed to be the essence of participatory democracy. It is through local government that citizens come into direct contact with their elected government, as power flows from national to local government. It is against this backdrop that the new local government structures were adopted in South Africa: as a measure to extend democracy to the larger citizenry. However, local government structures have not been able to live up to expectations, as they are generally characterized by sluggishness in terms of service delivery; failure to attract community participation; and, lately—towards the run-up of March 1 2006 local elections—mass protests and uprisings against these problems. The problem has been explained in terms of lack of capacity and technical know-how. This paper aims to go beyond such explanations, and argues that the local government “mayhem” has to do with structural limitations when it comes to drawing citizens’ participation. Thus, in addition to lack of capacity, there is a problem of exclusion which undermines local government.
Las elecciones uruguayas de 2004: la izquierda como la única oposición creíble
Authors: Queirolo Rosario
Published: September 2018

This paper argues that the success of the leftist Encuentro Progresista-Frente Amplio in the 2004 Uruguayan election is the result of being the only untainted and credible opposition in the party system. After many governments in charge of the Partido Colorado and Partido Nacional, the EP-FA was the only party that cannot be held responsible for the country’s bad economic situation because it was never in charge of the national government. Using data from a 2004 national preelectoral survey, the paper shows that attitudes towards risk and economic assessments of the country’s situation influence voting behavior in Uruguay. Risk acceptant individuals who evaluate negatively the country’s economic performance have a higher probability to vote for the EP-FA than risk averse voters with a positive assessment of the country’s economy. The evidence from the Uruguayan case suggests that the increase of leftist parties in other Latin American countries could be explained in the same way.