bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Metabolic Syndrome Exacerbates Pulmonary Hypertension due to Left Heart Disease
Authors: Ranchoux Benoît , Nadeau Valérie , Bourgeois Alice , Provencher Steeve , Tremblay Éve , Omura Junichi , Coté Nancy , Abu-Alhayja’a Rami , Dumais Valérie , Nachbar Renato T. , Tastet Lionel , Dahou Abdellaziz , Breuils-Bonnet Sandra , Marette André , Pibarot Philippe , Dupuis Jocelyn , Paulin Roxane , Boucherat Olivier , Archer Stephen L. , Bonnet Sébastien , Potus François
Published: June 2019

Rationale:

Pulmonary hypertension (PH) due to left heart disease (LHD), or group 2 PH, is the most prevalent form of PH worldwide. PH due to LHD is often associated with metabolic syndrome (MetS). In 12% to 13% of cases, patients with PH due to LHD display vascular remodeling of pulmonary arteries (PAs) associated with poor prognosis. Unfortunately, the underlying mechanisms remain unknown; PH-targeted therapies for this group are nonexistent, and the development of a new preclinical model is crucial. Among the numerous pathways dysregulated in MetS, inflammation plays also a critical role in both PH and vascular remodeling.

Objective:

We hypothesized that MetS and inflammation may trigger the development of vascular remodeling in group 2 PH.

Methods and Results:

Using supracoronary aortic banding, we induced diastolic dysfunction in rats. Then we induced MetS by a combination of high-fat diet and olanzapine treatment. We used metformin treatment and anti–IL-6 (interleukin-6) antibodies to inhibit the IL-6 pathway. Compared with sham conditions, only supracoronary aortic banding+MetS rats developed precapillary PH, as measured by both echocardiography and right/left heart catheterization. PH in supracoronary aortic banding+MetS was associated with macrophage accumulation and increased IL-6 production in lung. PH was also associated with STAT3 (signal transducer and activator of transcription 3) activation and increased proliferation of PA smooth muscle cells, which contributes to remodeling of distal PA. We reported macrophage accumulation, increased IL-6 levels, and STAT3 activation in the lung of group 2 PH patients. In vitro, IL-6 activates STAT3 and induces human PA smooth muscle cell proliferation. Metformin treatment decreased inflammation, IL-6 levels, STAT3 activation, and human PA smooth muscle cell proliferation. In vivo, in the supracoronary aortic banding+MetS animals, reducing IL-6, either by anti–IL-6 antibody or metformin treatment, reversed pulmonary vascular remodeling and improve PH due to LHD.

Conclusions:

We developed a new preclinical model of group 2 PH by combining MetS with LHD. We showed that MetS exacerbates group 2 PH. We provided evidence for the importance of the IL-6–STAT3 pathway in our experimental model of group 2 PH and human patients.
Gene Therapy for Catecholaminergic Polymorphic Ventricular Tachycardia by Inhibition of Ca
2+
/Calmodulin-Dependent Kinase II
Authors: Bezzerides Vassilios J. , Caballero Ana , Wang Suya , Ai Yulan , Hylind Robyn J. , Lu Fujian , Heims-Waldron Danielle A. , Chambers Kristina D. , Zhang Donghui , Abrams Dominic J. , Pu William T.
Published: June 2019

Background:

Catecholaminergic polymorphic ventricular tachycardia (CPVT), an inherited cardiac arrhythmia characterized by adrenergically triggered arrhythmias, is inadequately treated by current standard of care. Ca
2+
/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II (CaMKII), an adrenergically activated kinase that contributes to arrhythmogenesis in heart disease models, is a candidate therapeutic target in CPVT. However, translation of CaMKII inhibition has been limited by the need for selective CaMKII inhibition in cardiomyocytes. Here, we tested the hypothesis that CaMKII inhibition with a cardiomyocyte-targeted gene therapy strategy would suppress arrhythmia in CPVT mouse models.

Methods:

We developed AAV9-GFP-AIP, an adeno-associated viral vector in which a potent CaMKII inhibitory peptide, autocamtide-2–related inhibitory peptide [AIP], is fused to green fluorescent protein (GFP) and expressed from a cardiomyocyte selective promoter. The vector was delivered systemically. Arrhythmia burden was evaluated with invasive electrophysiology testing in adult mice. AIP was also tested on induced pluripotent stem cells derived from patients with CPVT with different disease-causing mutations to determine the effectiveness of our proposed therapy on human induced pluripotent stem cell–derived cardiomyocytes and different pathogenic genotypes.

Results:

AAV9-GFP-AIP was robustly expressed in the heart without significant expression in extracardiac tissues, including the brain. Administration of AAV9-GFP-AIP to neonatal mice with a known CPVT mutation (
RYR2

R176Q
/+

) effectively suppressed ventricular arrhythmias induced by either β-adrenergic stimulation or programmed ventricular pacing, without significant proarrhythmic effect. Intravascular delivery of AAV9-GFP-AIP to adolescent mice transduced ≈50% of cardiomyocytes and was effective in suppressing arrhythmia in CPVT mice. Induced pluripotent stem cell–derived cardiomyocytes derived from 2 different patients with CPVT with different pathogenic mutations demonstrated increased frequency of abnormal calcium release events, which was suppressed by a cell-permeable form of AIP.

Conclusions:

This proof-of-concept study showed that AAV-mediated delivery of a CaMKII peptide inhibitor to the heart was effective in suppressing arrhythmias in a murine model of CPVT. CaMKII inhibition also reversed the arrhythmia phenotype in human CPVT induced pluripotent stem cell–derived cardiomyocyte models with different pathogenic mutations.
Caveolin-1 Regulates Atherogenesis by Attenuating Low-Density Lipoprotein Transcytosis and Vascular Inflammation Independently of Endothelial Nitric Oxide Synthase Activation
Authors: Ramírez Cristina M. , Zhang Xinbo , Bandyopadhyay Chirosree , Rotllan Noemi , Sugiyama Michael G. , Aryal Binod , Liu Xinran , He Shun , Kraehling Jan R. , Ulrich Victoria , Lin Chin Sheng , Velazquez Heino , Lasunción Miguel A. , Li Guangxin , Suárez Yajaira , Tellides George , Swirski Filip K. , Lee Warren L. , Schwartz Martin A. , Sessa William C. , Fernández-Hernando Carlos
Published: June 2019

Background:

Atherosclerosis is driven by synergistic interactions between pathological, biomechanical, inflammatory, and lipid metabolic factors. Our previous studies demonstrated that absence of caveolin-1 (Cav1)/caveolae in hyperlipidemic mice strongly inhibits atherosclerosis, which was attributed to activation of endothelial nitric oxide (NO) synthase (eNOS) and increased production of NO and reduced inflammation and low-density lipoprotein trafficking. However, the contribution of eNOS activation and NO production in the athero-protection of Cav1 and the exact mechanisms by which Cav1/caveolae control the pathogenesis of diet-induced atherosclerosis are still not clear.

Methods:

Triple-knockout mouse lacking expression of
eNOS
,
Cav1
, and
Ldlr
were generated to explore the role of NO production in Cav1-dependent athero-protective function. The effects of Cav1 on lipid trafficking, extracellular matrix remodeling, and vascular inflammation were studied both in vitro and in vivo with a mouse model of diet-induced atherosclerosis. The expression of Cav1 and distribution of caveolae regulated by flow were analyzed by immunofluorescence staining and transmission electron microscopy.

Results:

We found that absence of Cav1 significantly suppressed atherogenesis in

Ldlr
−/−
eNOS

−/−
mice, demonstrating that athero-suppression is independent of increased NO production. Instead, we find that the absence of Cav1/caveolae inhibited low-density lipoprotein transport across the endothelium and proatherogenic fibronectin deposition and disturbed flow-mediated endothelial cell inflammation. Consistent with the idea that Cav1/caveolae may play a role in early flow-dependent inflammatory priming, distinct patterns of Cav1 expression and caveolae distribution were observed in athero-prone and athero-resistant areas of the aortic arch even in wild-type mice.

Conclusions:

These findings support a role for Cav1/caveolae as a central regulator of atherosclerosis that links biomechanical, metabolic, and inflammatory pathways independently of endothelial eNOS activation and NO production.
Impartiality and Independence of Arbitrators in International Arbitration: Issue Conflicts as Grounds for Disqualification with Special Regard to ICSID Arbitrations
Authors: Alonso Pablo Agustín
Published: June 2019

The grounds for disqualification of arbitrators provided by most arbitration rules refer to the relationships of arbitrators with the parties or the subject matter of the dispute – i.e., issue conflicts. However, some of those rules used to be vague or unclear, which resulted in incomplete arbitrators’ disclosures, unfunded challenge requests and awards that lacked homogeneity. Following a case-study research method, the paper focuses on the ICSID investor-State dispute settlement mechanism. It analyses and compares the ICSID Convention and Arbitration Rules, the UNCITRAL Arbitration Rules and the IBA Guidelines on Conflicts of Interest in light of challenge awards. The paper stresses the relevance of arbitrators’ disclosure duty and the importance of clearly defining the scope and content of ‘impartiality’ and ‘independence’ as a guidance for parties and deciding authorities when raising or deciding upon a challenge request. In particular, the study aims to show how international investment arbitrations deal with issue conflicts as grounds for disqualification, by analyzing their main causes: multiple appointments of arbitrators, similar legal issues to be decided and permission to serve both as counsel and arbitrator.
Taking the Paris Agreement Forward: Continuous Strategic Decision-making on Climate Action by the Meeting of the Parties
Authors: Minnerop Petra
Published: June 2019

There is a new cloth on the table that provides the setting for global climate action. The 2015 Paris Climate Agreement represents the future legal framework designed to facilitate global efforts to combat climate change in the long-term. This article looks at the fabric of this framework through the lens of the law-making procedure. The lawmaking procedure that brought the Paris Agreement into life and will sustain it, marks a departure from the traditional framework convention-cum-protocol approach and changes it into a ‘framework convention-cum-decisions’ model. While the Kyoto Protocol was prescriptive in setting individual emission targets for developed countries, the Paris Agreement sets forth an evolutionary multilateral treaty and enables Parties to steer collective and individual efforts towards a worldwide temperature goal through continuous, strategic decision-making. The article demonstrates that the Agreement becomes operational only in the context of the decisions that were adopted by the Conference of Parties with the Agreement and in the context of further decisions that need to be adopted by the ‘Conference of Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Paris Agreement’. Many of the skeletal provisions and mechanisms of the Paris Agreement need to be fleshed out and operated through further decisions. New functions and competences conferred on the ‘Conference of Parties serving as the Meeting of the Parties’ change the role that this meeting of the Parties has, making it the driver for the development of the law on combating climate change. This international lawmaking is reinforced through the integration of Parties’ decisions within legal orders of Parties, the European Union legal order will be used as an example of one legal order acting as a transmission belt. The article contends that this strategic decision-making affects the legal certainty of international climate action and contravenes the balance between legislative approval of an international agreement and the prerogative of national governments for strategic decisions.
History (?) in the Damascus Document
Authors: Fraade Steven D.
Published: June 2019

While the Damascus Document, like other writings found among the Dead Sea Scrolls, has been mined for historical information, with which to reconstruct the history of the Yaḥad, including the process and conditions of its formation and development over time, the present study is interested in discerning the text’s own understanding of the place in history occupied by its community of auditors and learners. Particular attention will be given to the text’s recurring reference to its beginnings (“first ones”) and ends (“last ones”) and to its sense of living in a truncated time-between. Through the close reading of two hortatory sections of the text, the question of how the Yaḥad’s collective social memory informs its self-understanding and practices as it faces both backward and forward in time.
Sulla and the Invention of Roman Athens
Authors: Kuin Inger N.I.
Published: June 2019

In 86 BC Sulla sacked Athens. The siege left deep marks in the cityscape and in the literary sources. This article traces a diachronic development in the ancient reception of the sack of Athens in Greek literature, from the first century BC through the second century AD. In earlier authors the siege is presented primarily in a military context, while in later authors the emphasis shifts onto Sulla’s destruction of cultural capital. His treatment of Athens comes to be understood as irrational and excessive. I argue that this latter depiction is an anchoring device that roots the new perception of the city during the Empire in the Republican past. In the first two centuries AD Athens increasingly came to be seen as the symbol of Greek culture. Plutarch and Pausanias react to this growing Athenocentrism by retrojecting an image of Athens as cultural symbol onto the first century BC.
Homelessness, Human Insecurities, and the Government Agenda in Malaysia
Authors: Rusenko Rayna M.
Published: June 2019

Over the past two decades, street homelessness has become an increasingly pronounced part of urban landscapes in Northeast and Southeast Asian countries. Numerous metropolises, such as Bangkok, Seoul and Tokyo, have become the testing grounds for new government initiatives designed to address the needs of persons experiencing homelessness. Kuala Lumpur is no exception in either regard. This case study uses qualitative and quantitative methods to explore the workings of Anjung Singgah, a transitional shelter established in 2011 by a Malaysian federal ministry and handed over to a government-linked charitable organisation for administration. The study highlights difficulties faced by shelter clients in transcending homelessness, including those imposed by the facility itself. It also explores how the non-governmental, quasi-charitable structure of the project, which implicitly frames homelessness as a problem of individual choice and responsibility, hinders recognition of broader issues of individual and collective human security by Anjung Singgah and the government. This study highlights the importance of policy and government mechanisms in addressing homelessness. Analyses draw heavily from client perspectives.
Capital in Transition
Authors: Dong Xuan
Published: June 2019

Migrant children are an unintended consequence of the widened rural-urban gap in China. In Dengfeng, a county-level city in central China, many of the 70,000 full-time martial arts students were rural-to-urban migrant children ‘floating’ with their parents from one place to another. Drawing on 12 months of ethnographic fieldwork, this paper explores why these migrant children ‘migrated’ to martial arts schools for educational purposes and how they and their parents seek to establish a new value system within which different forms of capital can be accumulated, disseminated, and transformed as society expects. This paper argues that the (imaginary) transition between and flow of economic, cultural, social, and symbolic capital construct a path to an aspirational future used by both these martial arts students and their parents.
From Heaven to Earth: Interpretations and Conceptualizations of Human Dignity in Iran
Authors: Kianpour Masoud
Published: June 2019

The purpose of this study is to understand how human dignity is experienced by new generations of Iranian university students, in comparison with the interpretations of theological and religious authorities of the Islamic Republic of Iran. The research uses a qualitative approach to collect data in Isfahan and research sample includes 19 university and eight seminary students. The results indicate that there is contrast between official declarations of human dignity and personal accounts of experiencing it. This dichotomy is described in terms of idealized dignity vs. criticized reality. Also, university students associate human dignity with human rights, and see the necessity of a variety of rights that men and women alike should be generally able to enjoy in a specific society, in order to elevate human dignity. Seminary students, however, look at dignity from within religion and believe that it is the duty of the Muslim individual to work out one’s way toward dignity. In other words, university students look for general moral notions such as freedom, love, and equality to objectify human dignity, whereas seminary students look at human dignity as a religious concept, a God-given gift, whose actualization depends on the believer’s endeavor to obtain it.
The Search for Meaning: Tafsīr, Hermeneutics, and Theories of Reading
Authors: Burge S.R.
Published: June 2019

This article explores the process of exegesis in light of post-modern literary theories, particularly those regarding hermeneutics and reading. The article considers exegetes in their role as both a reader of the Qurʾān and as the author of an exegesis. Both of these actions, reading and writing, have an impact on the way in which the tafsīr is produced. As a reader, an exegete responds to the text of the Qurʾān in a way which confirms and conforms to his own theology and worldview. As a writer, an exegete attempts to convince his (or her) readers of the validity of his (or her) own views and interpretations of the text. However, the aims and objectives that an exegete has for a work also have an impact on the way the tafsīr is actually shaped. (Post)modern views of reading and writing can explain how a single text can generate such a wide range of interpretations in Qurʾānic exegetical works.
Fears, Hopes, and Dreams: The Talismanic Shirts of Murād iii
Authors: Felek Özgen
Published: June 2019

There is much evidence that Ottoman Turks were interested in talismans and magic. However, this area has not yet been studied in depth. A few recent studies present information about material artifacts, but without deep analysis of the use of talismans and magic among Ottoman Sufis. The present study examines talismanic shirts prepared for the Ottoman sultans, in particular the shirts of Murād iii (r. 982/1574-1003/1595), who was a devout disciple of a Ḫalwatī master, Šuǧāʿ Dede. After a brief introduction to talismanic shirts prepared for Ottoman sultans, I analyze the motifs, symbols, and divine words on the talismanic shirts produced for Murād iii. I also explore what insights can be gained when his shirts are read together with his dream letters that he sent to his spiritual master. Intertextual reading of significant symbols on Sulṭān Murād’s shirts, when taken in conjunction with his letters, demonstrates that his shirts are infused with a more complex meaning than is evident at first glance.
Reading the Stars at the Ottoman Court: Bāyezīd ii (r. 886/1481-918/1512) and His Celestial Interests
Authors: Şen Ahmet Tunç
Published: June 2019

This study seeks to determine the extent of the patronage of the science of the stars (ʿilm al-nuǧūm) at the court of the eighth Ottoman sultan Bāyezīd ii (r. 886/1481-918/1512). Throughout the medieval and early modern Islamicate world munaǧǧims (astronomer-astrologers) offered rulers their expertise in calculating heavenly configurations and interpreting them with a view to predicting future events; here the Ottoman polity is no exception. In the case of Bāyezīd ii, however, the sheer number of munaǧǧims employed and texts and instruments commissioned by or dedicated to the sultan unequivocally singles him out and makes it possible to further argue that his deliberate attempt to personally study and cultivate the science of the stars was inextricably related to the broader political, ideological, and cultural agendas at the time. The first part of the article provides statistical evidence on the exceptional nature of Bāyezīd’s patronization of the science of the stars based upon a number of archival documents, taqwīms (annual almanac-prognostications) and related texts presented to the sultan. Here a number of key munaǧǧims active at his court will also be introduced. The second part focuses upon Bāyezīd’s own learned interests and intellectual aspirations, and examine the celestial inquiries of the sultan in light of a few curious archival reports, textual evidence from surviving manuscripts, and testimonies of his contemporaries.
Galvanisation of the Right to Development within the Shared Constitutional Space in India
Authors: Singh Dharmendra Kumar
Published: June 2019

This article accentuates the concept of the right to development (rtd) and focuses on the various facets of rtd as developed by the Supreme Court of India in its multiple pronouncements since the advent of the last decade of the 20th century. The apex court, through a conjoint reading of various aspects provided in the Constitution’s Preamble, Fundamental Rights, Directive Principles and Fundamental Duties with the Declaration on rtd has interpreted various cases that have opened new horizons of curative developmental jurisprudence in India. The main aim of this study is to capture the various trends and directions of discourse on rtd and explore the constitutional space for rtd in India. This article also evaluates the impact that Declaration of rtd has had on the Supreme Court of India and to what extent has the Supreme Court of India galvanised rtd to provide remedies to millions of Indians. The article emphasises the holistic view taken by the Supreme Court in matters of private rights versus the developmental rights of millions. Another significant aspect of rtd that has been emphasised in this article is the conflict between human rights of the marginalised group with the burgeoning rtd. The discourse on economic growth and rtd within the constitutional space will remain in the heart of politicians, social scientists and the populace in the coming years.
Combatting Money Laundering: A Study under Emirati and International Law
Authors: Alkrisheh Mohammad Amin , Jaffal Zeyad Mohammad
Published: June 2019

Money laundering is one of the most serious economic crimes. It is linked to all criminal activities, generates substantial illegal profits, and has always posed a serious threat to national and international economies. Most countries employ multiple approaches to fight this crime. The UAE has implemented several laws to tackle money laundering. In this regard, the UAE issued Federal Law No. 4 of 2002 on Anti-money Laundering. This article defines the concept of money laundering and explores its economic effects in the UAE. It also identifies the approaches taken against this crime at national and international levels. It concludes with recommendations for further research.
Missiology and Deep Incarnation
Authors: Niemandt Cornelius Johannes Petrus
Published: June 2019

Much as the concept of missio Dei has shaped missiological thinking and the theology of mission, the growing interest in God’s incarnation and embodiment may play a very formative role in missiological reflection in the future, and is already evident in the World Council of Churches’ mission affirmation Together Towards Life: Mission and Evangelism in Changing Landscapes (ttl; 2013).

In this research, “deep incarnation” has been introduced as an important concept in the theology of mission, in terms of the recent work by a number of leading theologians under the title Incarnation – On the Scope and Depth of Christology (Gregersen 2015). “Deep incarnation” has been summarized as the coming-into-flesh of God’s eternal Logos. In the process of incarnation, God the creator and the world of the flesh are conjoined in such depth that God links up with all vulnerable creatures. In Christ, God enters into the biological tissue of creation in order to share the fate of biological existence. In the incarnate One, God becomes Jesus, and in him God becomes human, sharing the life conditions of the least in creation. The most high and the very lowest are united in the process of incarnation.

This research emphasizes the importance of the concept of “deep incarnation” for theology of mission, and how it may inform missiology, with brief reference to ttl and how the major themes of “deep incarnation” (such as an orientation towards life in the broadest sense, the importance of suffering and marginality, the nature of unity and community) are already present in ttl.

Missio Dei 这样的概念已经塑造了宣教神学。日渐对上帝道成肉身的兴趣， 可能会令此概念扮演一个相等的角色，这在普世协会的宣教声明‘一起生活’ (2013) 中也明显可见。在这篇研究里，‘深度道成肉身’是指向基督论的范围和深度 (2015) 来说的。它被总结为上帝永恒的道成为人的样子，上帝创造主与血肉之躯深深地连接在一起，也与所有易损坏的被造连接在一起。在基督里，上帝进入被造的生物组织，并且分担生物存在的命运。在道成肉身中，上帝成为耶稣，并且在他里面上帝成为人，分担被造最卑微的生活状况。本文研讨这概念的创造可能性，如何影响宣教及其他应受到关注的课题。

El concepto de missio Dei ha moldeado la teología de la misión. El creciente interés en la encarnación de Dios puede desempeñar un papel igualmente formativo, y es evidente en la misión del Consejo Mundial de Iglesias que se titula “Juntos por la vida” (2013). En la presente investigación, la terminología “encarnación profunda” se presenta de acuerdo al libro Incarnation: on the scope and depth of Christology (2015). Se explica como el Logos eterno de Dios hecho carne. Dios el creador y el mundo de la carne están unidos con tal profundidad que Dios se conecta con todas las criaturas vulnerables. En Cristo, Dios entra en el tejido biológico de la creación y comparte el destino de la existencia biológica. Como El encarnado, Dios es Jesús, y en Él Dios se hace humano compartiendo las condiciones de vida de los más pequeños de la creación. Se presta atención a las posibilidades creativas de este concepto, de cómo puede impactar a la misionología y a sus temas principales.

This article is in English.
Persecution and Social Resilience: The Case of the Ethiopian Pentecostals
Authors: Eshete Tibebe
Published: June 2019

Persecution has long constituted part of the spiritual repertoire of evangelical Christians in Ethiopia. Ever since its introduction by Western missionaries, the new Christian faith has provided an alternative model to the one that pre-existed it in the form of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church (eoc). The new dimension of Christianity that is anchored in the doctrine of personal salvation and sanctification provided a somewhat different template of what it means to be a Christian by choice rather than belonging to a preset culture. This was antithetical to the conventional mode of culturally and historically situated Christianity, which strongly lays emphasis on adherence to certain prescribed rituals like fasting, the observances of saintly days, and devotions to saints. Its introduction by foreigners is often contrasted with an indigenous faith tradition which is considered to have a long history dating back to the apostolic times. The tendency of evangelical Christians to disassociate themselves from the local culture, as emblematic of holiness and separation from the world, viewed from the other optic, lent it the label mete, literally “imported” or “of foreign extraction”. The state support the established church had garnered for a long time, plus its massive influences, also accorded the eoc a privileged position to exercise a dominant role in the social, political, and cultural life of the country.

This article explores the theme of persecution of Evangelical Christians in light of the above framework. It crucially examines the persecution of Pentecostals prior to the Ethiopian Revolution of 1974 and afterwards. Two reasons justify my choice. First, it lends the article a clear focus and secondly, Pentecostalism has been one of the potent vehicles for the expansion of evangelical Christianity in Ethiopia. I argue that the pre-revolutionary persecution stems from the fact that the Pentecostals presented some kind of spiritual shock waves to the familiar terrains of Christianity and that the main reason for their persecutions during the revolution was the fact that they countered hegemonic narratives that presented themselves in the form of Marxism, which became the doctrine of the state under the banner of “scientific socialism.”
A Critical Analysis of the Disjuncture between the Constitutional and Legislative Limits on the Right to Access to Information in Uganda
Authors: Ashukem Jean-Claude N.
Published: June 2019

This article critically analyses the disjuncture between the constitutional and legislative limits to the right to access to information in Uganda in order to determine its legal implication on the effectiveness of the exercise of the right to access to information in the country. It also demonstrates the role of Ugandan courts in interpreting the limitation of the right. In so doing, the article critically reviews Ugandan jurisprudence decided after the enactment of the access to information legislation in 2005, to evince how and the extent to which Ugandan courts have been able to grapple with the interpretation and the enforcement of the limitation of the right. Given these limitative differences, the article concludes that it is in the best interest of the Ugandan legislature to harmonise these differential limitations in order to permit ordinary citizen to effectively exercise their right, without which the exercise of the right will be a myth. It could also enable the courts to effectively interpret and enforce the limitation of the right when the context prevails.
Debate Strategies in Early Modern Dialogue
Authors: Heitsch Dorothea
Published: June 2019

In Jean Bodin’s Colloquium Heptaplomeres seven interlocutors come together in the house of Paulus Coronaeus in Venice. They represent seven different faiths and world views: Catholicism, Lutheranism, Calvinism, Judaism, Islam, Deism or Naturalism, and a syncretic faith tied to philosophical skepticism. The meeting’s participants all debate religion and even whether such debate should be allowed. Bodin develops the character of Octavius Fagnola, the former Catholic converted to Islam, according to a wealth of sources including an Islamic debate tradition that is known as munāẓara. The role of Octavius has important implications for the meaning of Bodin’s work as well as for Renaissance dialogue in general.
Skull shape differentiation of black and white olms (Proteus anguinus anguinus and Proteus a. parkelj): an exploratory analysis with micro-CT scanning
Authors: Ivanović Ana , Aljančič Gregor , Arntzen Jan W.
Published: June 2019

We performed an exploratory analysis of the morphology of the cranium in the white olm (Proteus anguinus anguinus) and the black olm (P. a. parkelj) with micro-CT scanning and geometric morphometrics. The mudpuppy (Necturus maculosus) was used as an outgroup. The black olm falls outside the white olm morphospace by a markedly wider skull, shorter vomers which are positioned further apart and by laterally positioned squamosals and quadrates relative to the palate (the shape of the buccal cavity). On account of its robust skull with more developed premaxillae a shorter otico-occipital region, the black olm is positioned closer to Necturus than are the studied specimens of the white olm. The elongated skull of the white olm, with an anteriorly positioned jaw articulation point, could be regarded as an adaptation for improved feeding success, possibly compensating for lack of vision. As yet, the alternative explanations on the evolution of troglomorphism in Proteus are an extensive convergence in white olms versus the reverse evolution towards less troglomorphic character states in the black olm. To further understand the evolutionary trajectories within Proteus we highlight the following hypotheses for future testing: i) morphological differentiation is smaller within than between genetically differentiated white olm lineages, and ii) ontogenetic shape changes are congruent with the shape changes between lineages. We anticipate that the morphological detail and analytical power that come with the techniques we here employed will assist us in this task.
Anti-predator behaviour of Sahamalaza sportive lemurs, Lepilemur sahamalazensis, at diurnal sleeping sites
Authors: Seiler Melanie , Schwitzer Christoph , Holderied Marc
Published: June 2019

In response to predation pressure by raptors, snakes, and carnivores, primates employ anti-predator behaviours such as avoiding areas of high predation risk, cryptic behaviour and camouflage, vigilance and group formation (including mixedspecies associations), and eavesdropping on other species’ alarm calls. After detecting a predator, primates can produce alarm calls, show predator-specific escape strategies or even mob the predator. It remains unclear how solitary nocturnal primates respond to diurnal predation pressure while they sleep or rest. The aim of this study was to investigate the diurnal anti-predator behaviour of the nocturnal and solitary Sahamalaza sportive lemur, Lepilemur sahamalazensis, which regularly rests in exposed locations. We observed the responses of 32 Sahamalaza sportive lemurs to playbacks of territorial calls of an aerial predator (Madagascar harrier hawk), mating calls of a terrestrial predator (fossa), and the contact calls of a medium-sized bird (crested coua) as a control, at different diurnal sleeping sites. Lemurs never showed a flight response after replays of predator or control calls, but regularly froze after harrier hawk calls. Lemurs scanned the sky immediately after playback of harrier hawk calls, and the ground or trees after fossa calls. Lemur vigilance increased significantly after both predator calls. After crested coua calls the animals became significantly less vigilant, suggesting that contact calls of this bird serve as indicators of predator absence. We found no response differences between different types of sleeping sites. Our results show that resting Sahamalaza sportive lemurs recognise predator vocalisations as indicators of increased predation risk, discern vocalizations of different predators, and employ anti-predator behaviours specific for different predator classes. Their behavioural responses while resting or sleeping are comparable to those of active primates, and their response rate of 80% shows that this solitary and nocturnal primate is constantly aware of its environment.
Morphological and genetic differentiation of Bufo toads: two cryptic species in Western Europe (Anura, Bufonidae)
Authors: Arntzen Jan W. , McAtear Jacob , Recuero Ernesto , Ziermann Janine M. , Ohler Annemarie , van Alphen Jacques , Martínez-Solano Iñigo
Published: June 2019

The Common toad Bufo bufo sensu lato is a widespread, morphologically conserved taxon. Recent studies have uncovered deep genetic differentiation between population groups, highlighting the need to revise the current taxonomy of the group and recognize additional species. Here we investigate patterns of variation in molecular (a mitochondrial DNA restriction enzyme assay and sequence data for two nuclear DNA fragments totalling 979 bp) and 17 morphological variables in Northern France where two of these groups meet (B. bufo sensu stricto and B. spinosus), in order to delineate their contact zone and uncover characters that would allow discrimination of the two taxa. Mitochondrial DNA data show an abrupt transition from areas where B. bufo is present to those inhabited by B. spinosus, with a narrow area of overlap east of the city of Caen. Morphometric characters, particularly those related to the positioning of the parotoid glands and metatarsal tubercle shape and size, proved useful in discriminating between species (AUC ≥ 0.97, kappa ≥ 0.79). We then used the differentiating character states to allocate over 300 museum specimens from Western Europe to either species with consistent results, including comparable values of AUC and kappa of the identification models, indicating that models could successfully be applied across datasets. We summarize available evidence relevant to the delineation of the distribution of B. bufo and B. spinosus in France and discuss the characters differentiating both species in an evolutionary context. In view of the observed morphological and genetic differentiation and the absence of unequivocal evidence for widespread hybridization we support the view that B. bufo and B. spinosus are best considered different species. Finally, we propose that ‘parotoids in parallel position’ and a thin and smooth skin are derived character states for B. bufo over the northern part of its range.
Together but Apart: Balkan Historians, the Global South, and unesco’s History of Humanity, 1978–1989
Authors: Iacob Bogdan C.
Published: June 2019

The article analyzes the involvement of Southeast European historians in unesco’s History of Humanity: Scientific and Cultural Development, the second attempt of the organization at drafting a world history. It is a case study of a successful epistemic internationalization of regional and national narratives from the Balkans on a global stage. It is argued that this story is premised on the activity of the International Association of Southeast European Studies (aiesee—created in 1963 with unesco sponsorship), which functioned as the preexistent international milieu of conceptual, institutional, and personnel alignments. However, regional academic cooperation was dependent on the political context in the Balkans since the end of the seventies. Individual regimes employed scholars as experts representing these countries in this unesco project. In addition, the analysis also emphasizes the similarities and cross-fertilizations between Global South and Southeast European historians’ self-affirmations in the context of shifting narratives about humanity, cultures, and civilizations within unesco. However, while the “Third World” wanted to shatter Eurocentrism as the South challenged the North, the Southeast wished to affirm its Europeanness by breaking the Western and Soviet perceived monopoly on Europe-talk. Balkan historians’ anti-hegemonic association with Global South peers targeted de-marginalization within the confines of Europe. The article underlines that a full account of local narratives and phenomena should be examined in the context of the intersecting stories of the Cold War, decolonization, and globalization.
The Religious Life of the Industrial Working Class in the Czech Lands?
Authors: Štofaník Jakub
Published: June 2019

The article focuses on the role of religion among working-class inhabitants of two industrial towns in the Czech lands, Ostrava and Kladno, during the first half of twentieth century. It analyses the enormous conversion movement, the position of new actors of religious life, and the religious behavior of workers. Looking at the history of the late nineteenth and first half of the twentieth century, the study understands religion as one of the constituent factors of society and its historic change. Traditional, new, and nonconformist religious actors appear as active agents in the private and public life of industrial towns. They mobilized workers, young people, and women, and they produced the major arena in which social, cultural, and church history come together.
WHY BOTHER ABOUT HISTORICAL REGIONS?: DEBATES OVER CENTRAL EUROPE IN HUNGARY, POLAND AND ROMANIA
Authors: JANOWSKI MACIEJ , IORDACHI CONSTANTIN , TRENCSÉNYI BALÁZS
Published: June 2019

Abstract: The article analyzes the ways in which the concept of Central Europe and related regional classifications were instrumentalized in historical research in Hungary, Poland and Romania. While Hungarian and Polish historians employed the discourse of Central Europe as a central means to contextualize and often relativize established national historical narratives, their geographical frameworks of comparison were nevertheless fairly divergent, the Hungarian one relating to the former Habsburg and Austro-Hungarian lands while the Polish one revolving around the tradition of the Polish-Lithuanian commonwealth. Romanian historians approached the issue from the perspective of local history, debating two alternative regional frameworks: the Old Kingdom, treated as part of the Byzantine and Ottoman legacies, and Transylvania, Bukovina and the Banat that were shaped by the Habsburg project of modernity. In the Romanian context the debate on Central Europe reached its peak at a time when it lost relevance in the Polish and Hungarian contexts. While conceding to recent critiques on the constructed and often exclusivist nature of symbolic geographical categories, the authors maintain the heuristic value of regional frameworks of interpretation as models of historical explanation transcending the nation-state at sub-national or trans-national level.
An Early Childhood Illness of Ivan the Terrible
Authors: Soldat Cornelia
Published: June 2019

This essay analyzes the correspondence between Grand Prince Vasilii III and his wife Elena (née Glinskaia). Only Vasilii III’s part of this correspondence, consisting of five letters, has been preserved. All five letters reveal the grand prince’s great concern for his family’s health; and in particular, the letters describe an early childhood disease of the grand prince’s eldest son Ivan, the future Ivan IV (the Terrible). In an earlier analysis (in 1993) of the grand prince’s description of this illness found in these letters, Edward Keenan argued that the young boy likely suffered from tuberculosis or scrofula. In this essay, I reexamine the grand prince’s description of his son’s illness and argue against a pathologization of Ivan’s whole life based only on second-hand descriptions of a childhood illness by his father. From the letters themselves, as well as from contemporary physicians’ descriptions, there can be no certainty that the illness was ever anything more than an early childhood disease that passed, with no effect upon the later life of Tsar Ivan IV.
«Первое послание Ивана Грозного Андрею Курбскому» и политическая борьба в России в середине XVII века
Authors: Ляпин Денис А.
Published: June 2019

Эта статья посвящена «Первому посланию Ивана Грозного Андрею Курбскому» в контексте политической борьбы в России в середине XVII в. В это время происходили важные политические дискуссии о пределах царской власти, некоторые аристократы хотели ограничить влияние монарха, но простой народ был против этого. 2 июня 1648 г. в Москве начались народные волнения против правительства в поддержку сильной власти царя. 10 июня мятежники подали царю Алексею Михайловичу челобитную. В этом документе они излагали свои взгляды на высшую власть и использовали текстовые и идейные заимствования из пространной редакции «Первого послания Ивана Грозного».
Maritime Law Enforcement in New Zealand
Authors: Scott Karen N.
Published: June 2019

An overview of maritime enforcement in New Zealand waters as part of a broader project on maritime enforcement in the Asia Pacific region.
Setting the Scene for an Environmental History of Late Antiquity
Authors: Izdebski Adam
Published: June 2019

Environmental history is a well-established discipline that until recently focused mainly on the modern era and was dominated by historians. Numerous scholars agree today that this needs to change: a focus on Late Antiquity can help this happen. To make it possible, we should concentrate our efforts on three parallel projects. First, make late antique studies more interdisciplinary, i.e. joining the efforts of historians, archaeologists and natural scientists. Second, look at Late Antiquity and the early Middle Ages as a source of case studies that are relevant to the central themes of environmental history. Third, use environmental history as a new framework that has the potential to modify our vision of the 1st millennium AD, by getting us closer to the actual experience of the people who lived this past.
From Shanghai to Iug-2 … and What Now? Traces of (Re-)Claiming Bishkek from Multitemporal Fieldwork in Kyrgyzstan
Authors: Schröder Philipp
Published: June 2019

This article examines practices of (re-)claiming in Bishkek through the prism of “multitemporal fieldwork.” Focusing on the young male residents of a Soviet-era neighborhood, I trace their ways of performing belonging in a rapidly changing urban environment. Most significantly, these men’s coming of age has been accompanied by a gradual detachment from their exclusive focus on a neighborhood community that locally used to be known as Shanghai. Already during our first encounter in 2007, the primary territorial orientation for these residents’ social identification and integration had shifted: it then addressed the larger unit of the whole city, where the claim of “being an urbanite” was made by referring to the neighborhood’s administrative name, Iug-2. My most recent observations document not only how “married life” further disconnected these young men from the 2013 neighborhood realities, but also that a multitemporal perspective allows to (re-)contextualize various claims on Bishkek diachronically.
“Swords, ropes, poison, fire”: The Dark Materials of Spenser’s Objectification of Despair-Assisted Suicide, with Notes on Skelton and Shakespeare
Authors: Nohrnberg James
Published: June 2019

In the Despair episode in Spenser’s Faerie Queene
i.ix, the provocative material means for self-slaughter are emblematically doubled with the psychological inducements, particularly on the models of predecessor texts in Skelton’s Magnyfycence and the Cordela story in The Mirrour for Magistrates. The pairing of means and causes is part of a tradition. So also is the despair of a Christian believer over his own sinfulness, in the face of God’s law, as voiced by a conspiratorial evil conscience, leading to a sinful “unbelief and despair of God” (Luther) and likewise unbelief in salvation—and to an unconquerable self-accusation, which doubles the sinner with tormentors, or a diabolic Accuser, and tempts him or her to cut his/her losses, relieve his/her pain, sorrows, and world-weariness, and take his/her life. Other suicidal types in The Faerie Queene and elsewhere, who are not theologically confirmed in their wanhope or assisted by it to their end, such as Phedon or Malbecco, can nonetheless illuminate the projections, temptations, demons, and motions of the Christian despair-er, and his or her adversity, depression, distress, impatience, furor, world-weariness, melancholia, and driven-ness. The despair-er’s condition, as found in Kierkegaard’s Sickness unto Death, can be further illustrated, diagnosed, and ministered to, by means of a variety of early modern and medieval moralizing and homiletic texts. And while the death of Shakespeare’s Cordelia by hanging conforms to Spenser’s account (
fq

ii.x.32), her suicidal despair is only a slander bruited by the character Edmund. Rather, it is her would-be rescuer Lear who is the picture of misery and despair.
Tales of Dreaming Men
Authors: Horta Paulo Lemos
Published: June 2019

From the nineteenth century to the present, scholars and writers have perceived strong parallels between the 1001 Nights and early modern European literary works. The 1001 Nights tale of “The Sleeper and the Waker,” has been seen as a source for the frame of Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew (1595). Other scholars are skeptical of the ease with which such analogues are postulated from the vantage point of Weltliteratur, and frequently point to the missing links in speculative chains of transmission. This article examines a variant tale of “The Sleeper and the Waker,” found in a Tunisian manuscript of A Hundred and One Nights, to show that divergences between Shakespeare’s Christopher Sly and Abu al-Hasan in “The Sleeper and the Waker” reflect distinctive characteristics of the 1001 Nights story collection. Such manuscript discoveries allow scholars to probe the parallels between these tales and the literatures of early modern Europe.