bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Interactive and individual effects of dietary non-digestible carbohydrates and oils on DNA damage, SCFA and bacteria in the large bowel of rats
Authors: Conlon Michael A. , Bird Anthony R.
Published: September 2008

Dietary non-digestible carbohydrates (NDC) play an important role in large-bowel health and one form of NDC, resistant starch (RS), can promote low levels of DNA damage and other markers of colonic health. The objective of the present study was to determine whether the ability of dietary RS or other NDC to influence colonic health, particularly DNA damage, is dependent on the type of dietary oil. We compared the effects of diets containing 10 % of NDC from cellulose, wheat bran, high-amylose maize starch (HAS, a rich source of RS type 2) or a retrograded HAS (RHAS, a rich source of RS type 3) on DNA damage, SCFA production and bacterial changes in the large bowel of rats. Each carbohydrate source was combined with 10 % fish oil (FO) or Sunola™ oil (SO; rich in oleic acid). There was a significant interaction between NDC and oil treatments on single-strand DNA breaks in colonocytes isolated from the colon. The damage in rats consuming RHAS was greater for FO consumption than for SO consumption. There was a significant interaction between NDC and oils on caecum weights and treatment effects of NDC and oils were observed for the weights and lengths of other gut tissues. Significant differences were found in colonic SCFA pools and caecal numbers of lactobacilli, bifidobacteria, Escherichia coli and Bacteroides fragilis with the various NDC and oil treatments. The present results demonstrate that the effects of NDC and oils, particularly on colonic DNA damage, can depend on how they are combined within the diet.
Dietary fat and risk of renal cell carcinoma in the USA: a case–control study
Authors: Brock Kaye E. , Gridley Gloria , Chiu Brian C.-H. , Ershow Abby G. , Lynch Charles F. , Cantor Kenneth P.
Published: September 2008

An increased risk of renal cell carcinoma (RCC) has been linked with obesity. However, there is limited information about the contribution of dietary fat and fat-related food groups to RCC risk. A population-based case–control study of 406 cases and 2434 controls aged 40–85 years was conducted in Iowa (1986–89). For 323 cases and 1820 controls from the present study, information on dietary intake from foods high in fat nutrients and other lifestyle factors was obtained using a mailed questionnaire. Cancer risks were estimated by OR and 95 % CI, adjusting for age, sex, smoking, obesity, hypertension, physical activity, alcohol and vegetable intake and tea and coffee consumption. In all nutrient analyses, energy density estimates were used. Dietary nutrient intake of animal fat, saturated fat, oleic acid and cholesterol was associated with an elevated risk of RCC (OR = 1·9, 95 % CI 1·3, 2·9, Ptrend < 0·001; OR = 2·6, 95 % CI 1·6, 4·0, Ptrend < 0·001; OR = 1·9, 95 % CI 1·2, 2·9, Ptrend = 0·01; OR = 1·9, 95 % CI 1·3, 2·8, Ptrend = 0·006, respectively, for the top quartile compared with the bottom quartile of intake). Increased risks were also associated with high-fat spreads, red and cured meats and dairy products (OR = 2·0, 95 % CI 1·4, 3·0, Ptrend = 0·001; OR = 1·7, 95 % CI 1·0, 2·2, Ptrend = 0·01; OR = 1·8, 95 % CI 1·2, 2·7, Ptrend = 0·02; OR = 1·6, 95 % CI 1·1, 2·3, Ptrend = 0·02, respectively). In both the food groups and nutrients, there was a significant dose–response with increased intake. Our data also indicated that the association of RCC with high-fat spreads may be stronger among individuals with hypertension. These findings deserve further investigation in prospective studies.
Governance Modes and Interests: Higher Education and Innovation Policy in Austria
Authors: KRITZINGER SYLVIA , PÜLZL HELGA
Published: September 2008

Governance has become one of the central concepts in political science, but what is absent is the question: Which modes of governance produce which policy output? This paper develops a classification scheme for modes of governance in all dimensions of public policy and then applies it empirically in four Austrian case studies concerning higher education and innovation. We extend the scholarly discussion on governance to the factor interests and argue that this analytical factor needs to be taken into account in future research in order to understand the modes of governance in policy processes.
‘The Sword of Avenging Justice’: Politics in Sutherland after the Third Reform Act
Authors: TINDLEY ANNIE
Published: September 2008

There has been much historical debate over the role of aristocratic landed families in local and national politics throughout the nineteenth century, and the impact of the First, Second and Third Reform Acts on that role. Additionally, the period from 1881 in the Scottish Highlands was one of acute political and ideological crisis, as the debate over the reform of the Land Laws took a violent turn, and Highland landowners were forced to address the demands of their small tenants. This article addresses these debates, taking as its case-study the ducal house of Sutherland. The Leveson-Gower family owned almost the whole county of Sutherland and until 1884 dominated political life in the region. This article examines the gradual breakdown of that political power, in line with a more general decline in financial and territorial influence, both in terms of the personal role of the Fourth and Fifth Dukes of Sutherland, and the broader impact of the estate management on the mechanics and expectations of politics in the county.
‘Somewhere Quite Different’: The Seventies Generation of Organic Activists and their Context
Authors: CONFORD PHILIP
Published: September 2008

This paper takes as its starting-point different perspectives on the organic movement's history since the 1940s. It identifies the polarised views of those who see a linear continuity in its development and of others who claim that a new generation of ‘counter-urbanites’ in the 1970s introduced an entirely distinct element. Drawing on recorded interviews with several of the leading figures in the seventies generation, the article argues that this generation was not as independent of its forebears as some of its members have claimed. It also throws light on the experiences of those who were inspired by the ‘self-sufficiency’ philosophy of John Seymour. The Steinerian Bio-Dynamic movement is identified as an important thread of continuity, as is the role played by two long-lived organic farmers, Dinah Williams and Mary Langman. While the seventies generation indeed affected the organic movement's direction from the 1970s onward, particularly through the Organic Growers Association, the case for a complete disjunction between different phases of organic history remains inadequate.
The Return to Diversity in Eastern Europe
Authors: Hohensee Jens
Published: September 2008

The events of 1989, the annus mirabilis, have led to a great demand for new research and a re-thinking of the history of Eastern Europe. Those sources which were kept from us for years are now available, at least in part. As part of this process political scientists and historians of Eastern Europe are now concerned to fill in the gaps in our knowledge and provide the answers to urgent questions. A consequence of this situation has been a veritable flood of publications, of which eight have been chosen for review here. With two exceptions these studies have deepened our understanding of the issues involved. There are clear differences between the historians on the one hand and the political scientists on the other in terms of their starting-point and the questions they ask. Whereas the historians deal descriptively with the origins, trends and structures of the last centuries and place the revolutions of 1989/90 in their historical context, the political scientists proceed analytically and place greater emphasis on social, ethnic and economic factors. This dichotomy is demonstrated in the different problematics of the books under review.
‘Working Towards the Führer.’ Reflections on the Nature of the Hitler Dictatorship
Authors: Kershaw Ian
Published: September 2008

The renewed emphasis, already visible in the mid-1980s, on the intertwined fates of the Soviet Union and Germany, especially in the Stalin and Hitler eras, has become greatly intensified in the wake of the upheavals in Eastern Europe. The sharpened focus on the atrocities of Stalinism has prompted attempts to relativise Nazi barbarism – seen as wicked, but on the whole less wicked, than that of Stalinism (and by implication of communism in general).1 The brutal Stalinist modernising experiment is used to remove any normative links with humanising, civilising, emancipatory or democratising development from modernisation concepts and thereby to claim that Hitler's regime, too, was – and intentionally so – a ‘modernising dictatorship’.2 Implicit in all this is a reversion, despite the many refinements and criticisms of the concept since the 1960s, to essentially traditional views on ‘totalitarianism’ and to views of Stalin and Hitler as ‘totalitarian dictators’.
Popular Discontent and Political Activism in the GDR
Authors: Fulbrook Mary
Published: September 2008

The German Democratic Republic was long noted for its apparent stability, efficiency and political quiescence, in contrast to the more turbulent domestic histories of neighbouring Poland and Czechoslovakia. In established narratives of East German history, the sole evidence of mass popular unrest before the autumn of 1989 was the June Uprising of 1953. After this, with a few isolated exceptions, East Germans simply kept their heads down. ‘Dissent’ was for the most part an activity associated with a few intellectuals–Harich, Havemann, Bahro–until the growth of oppositional movements associated with unofficial peace initiatives and environmentalist groups in the 1980s1. To all outward appearances, this sketch was correct. What now requires reconsideration, however, are the underlying reasons for these appearances, and the evaluation – indeed, the very characterisation – of patterns of popular political dissent in the GDR.
Recollections of A. J. P. Taylor
Authors: Thomas William
Published: September 2008

I was first taught by A. J. P. Taylor in the Hilary Term of my second year (1957–8) at Magdalen, for what was called English History III, the period from 1685 to 1939. I was not an expert on modern English history, but I had been taught the outlines well at school, and that background together with work on a prize essay the previous long vacation meant that I had a closer knowledge of the period than most undergraduates possess before starting tutorials on it officially, and because Alan Taylor started in 1760 I was soon on familiar ground, and even able to see that I knew more about some episodes than he did.
‘…but what to do about the Germans?’ Nuclear Diplomacy and the Role of NATO as an Instrument of Peaceful Change
Authors: Schmidt Gustav
Published: September 2008

Indeed, much of the tension in relations between Paris and Washington, Paris and Bonn, and Bonn and London is that none of Germany's former enemies and present allies want to be left behind when the moment comes to make a new European order with the Russians. The Germans do not wish to be left out either…. The basis of the problem…is what to do about the Germans….
Restitution and Democracy in Germany after Two World Wars
Authors: Hughes Michael L.
Published: September 2008

As Central and East Europeans (including Germans) strive to build new democracies on the ruins of old dictatorships, they seek to establish democratic values as well as democratic institutions. They know that democratic institutions alone were not able to save democracy in Germany's Weimar Republic, which had also risen out of the collapse of an authoritarian regime. West Germans, though, later built a viable democracy, the Federal Republic, from even more devastated and authoritarian remnants. To help explain such differing outcomes, historians have posited changes in political values, arguing that West Germans developed a democratic political culture to replace the authoritarian values many Germans had held earlier. As illuminating as such arguments could be, historians have had great difficulty finding evidence on just what political values Germans, especially common citizens, have in fact held at various times.
The Development of NATO's Nuclear Strategy
Authors: Heuser Beatrice
Published: September 2008

With the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact and the collapse of the Soviet Union, we have come to a turning point, perhaps the most important turning point, in the short but complex history of nuclear strategy. The Cold War is now history, albeit the sort of history that we will be living with for a long time yet. It is therefore time to review the policies and strategies of the Cold War in a historical perspective. In this essay, it is NATO's nuclear strategy during the Cold War that will be the subject of such a review.2
Stresemann and Locarno
Authors: Wright Jonathan
Published: September 2008

The significance of the Locarno treaties remains one of the central issues of the interwar period. Did they mark, as Austen Chamberlain claimed, ‘the real dividing line between the years of war and the years of peace’ or were they, at best, a truce masking the incompatible ambitions of France and Germany and, at worst, a first act of appeasement by which France and Britain obtained security for the Rhineland at the expense of Poland and Czechoslovakia? A different approach is offered by economic history: from this perspective the significant events are seen as the defeat of the French occupation of the Ruhr and the acceptance of the Dawes Plan in July 1924. France had to abandon its attempt to break the power of German industry and had to accept the British and American view that European peace required German economic recovery. The Locarno treaties may be seen simply as the best arrangements that France could make for its security following this decisive defeat.
Anarchism and Illegality in Barcelona, 1931–7
Authors: Ealham Christopher
Published: September 2008

A century ago Friedrich Engels reflected that if a European league for barricade-building was established, Barcelona would emerge in top position. The same deep rebellious traditions of the Catalan capital prompted the English hispanophile Gerald Brenan to describe Barcelona as ‘the most revolutionary city in Europe’. The 1930s confirmed this reputation: during the years assessed in this article barricades were thrown up in the working-class districts of Barcelona on at least eight different occasions. What is interesting, however, is that although the local authorities and business groups were understandably perturbed by the threat of social mobilisation, the proven capacity of the security forces to contain the challenge of the barricades meant that the danger of urban insurrection was not the greatest continuing worry of the ‘law-and-order’ lobby. Instead, the dominant concern of the self-proclaimed ‘lovers of order’ in Barcelona was the wave of armed illegality (atracaments) which rocked the city throughout the 1930s.1
French and German Family Policy 1945–60
Authors: Niehuss Merith
Published: September 2008

A country's family policy reflects, either directly or indirectly, the attitude of government, parliament and society to the family as an institution. The way in which a government deals with families, whether it gives them financial support, and why and how it does so, reveals the objectives of its family policy, and also ultimately its population policy.
The Fascist Regime, its Foreign Policy and its Wars: An ‘Anti-Anti-Fascist’ Orthodoxy?
Authors: Knox MacGregor
Published: September 2008

The de-legitimisation of the Italian political system that culminated in the upheavals of the late 1980s has permitted a very public re-examination of the meaning and significance of both the Fascist regime and the Resistance to it. Although debates between historians had already begun over these issues, they have been thrust into the media spotlight now that the political consensus surrounding their interpretation has collapsed. The following two articles examine both the content and conduct of these debates, and consider the extent to which they have contributed to a reassessment of the history of these periods. Naturally the opinions expressed in these articles are solely those of the authors themselves: Contemporary European History would welcome further comments and contributions concerning this rethinking of the contemporary Italian experience.
‘A Fearful Concatenation of Circumstances’: the Anglo–Soviet Rapprochement, 1934–6
Authors: Carley Michael Jabara
Published: September 2008

On 17 January 1936 Winston S. Churchill, the back-benchbête noireof the Conservative Party, wrote to his wife Clemmie from Marrakesh, where he was on holiday, about the frightful international situation. Japan had ruptured the conference on naval aramaments, and Nazi Germany was rearming at break-neck speed. The ‘two predatory military dictatorships’, it seemed to Churchill, were now working together. ‘No wonder’, he said, ‘the Russian bear is quaking for his skin and seeking protectors among the capitalist powers he deserted in the war and sought to destroy at the close of it. What – to quote a famous phrase – “What a fearful concatenation of circumstances”.’2
Is France Racist?
Authors: Mayer Nonna
Published: September 2008

Is France racist, as Michel Wieviorka has suggested in a recent book?1And if so, why? Is France more or less racist than her European neighbours, and is the degree of racism increasing or decreasing? These questions are being hotly debated in the wake of the electoral successes of the National Front, which is seen as a ‘racist’ party by three-quarters of French people old enough to vote.2
François Mitterrand: ‘Speech in Defence of the Indefensible’ in the ‘Year of Farewells’
Authors: Rioux Jean-Pierre , Morris Rosemary
Published: September 2008

It can scarcely be said that François Mitterrand lacked reasons for despondency between September 1994 and May 1995: the oppression of imminent retirement, the ravages of illness, the loss of his dearest friends; the tide of scandals mounting towards the presidency; the disastrous Socialist performance in both the legislative elections of 1993 and the European elections of 1994; the political, intellectual and emotional collapse of the brand of left-wing magnanimity which he had made his own and which had borne him to power; the ingratitude of public opinion, anxious for change. Most of the books devoted to the last months of his ‘reign’ fail to go beyond a fairly mechanical rendering of a feeling of anti-climax. Something of an exception is L'Année des adieux (‘Year of Farewells’),1 a bitter-sweet chronicle of life in the President's entourage by Laura Adler, an adviser to the Elysée; but her comradely offering does little to stem the tide of hostile, regretful or frankly accusatory offerings. It is no coincidence that Jean Montaldo's Mitterrand et les 40 voleurs (‘Mitterrand and the Forty Thieves’),2 has become a long-term best-seller: Montaldo, a former police officer, mercilessly exposes the nexus of scandal and intrigue in the presidential entourage. Or that Thierry Pfister's novel Le Nègre (‘The Negro)3 uses a thinly disguised cast of characters to make a violent attack on the betrayal of socialist ideas, with a bitterness felt also in Daniel Rondeau's Mitterrand et nous (‘Mitterrand and Ourselves’),4 referring to the post-1968 generation which the author claims to represent. Or, again, that it should be the President's most consistently vitriolic radio critic, Philippe Alexandre, who in a tardy attack of pseudo-remorse has undertaken a Plaidoyer impossible pour un vieux président abandonné par les siens (‘Speech in defence of the indefensible, on behalf of an ageing president deserted by his followers’).5 All in all, a display of authorial individuality and ardour, as writers scramble to accomplish the finally rather banal task of presenting the departing President with History's bill for board and lodging.
A Study in Ambivalence: Austria and European Integration 1945–95
Authors: Gehler Michael , Kaiser Wolfram
Published: September 2008

During the Cold War era the smaller states in Western Europe were confronted with numerous external pressures. These included most of all the need for closer economic co-operation within Western Europe to sustain the process of post-war economic and political reconstruction and the impact on Europe of the confrontation between the new superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union. The responses of the smaller states to these external pressures varied considerably between two poles: on the one hand, a policy of active integration, with common policies and the transfer of at least some degree of national sovereignty to common institutions, and, on the other, a policy of neutrality, either chosen freely or initially forced upon, to retain as much decision-making autonomy as possible, while safeguarding core economic interests through intergovernmental co-operation. The choice of strategy depended not only on the character and degree of the external political pressures, but also on the respective historical preconditions and on what domestic and external aims the smaller states hoped to achieve with their policies.
Commitment to NATO and Domestic Politics: the Italian Case and Some Comparative
Authors: Nuti Leopoldo
Published: September 2008

This article tries to outline the relevance of NATO for domestic Italian politics by looking both at some of the important foreign policy decisions that the Italian government took in relation to the Alliance, and at the role that NATO may have had as an active player in Italian politics.
British Political Strategy in the Face of the Military Rising of 1936 in Spain
Authors: Moradiellos Enrique
Published: September 2008

The military coup of July 1936 against the Republican government of Spain, which rapidly developed into civil war, required an urgent response from the authorities of the United Kingdom. This was as much on account of its effects on British interests in Spain as due to its repercussions on the unstable situation in Europe. During the nearly three years of war, the Conservative-dominated Cabinet adhered to the Non-Intervention pact signed by all European governments in August 1936, which prescribed an arms embargo towards the combatants without a parallel recognition of their rights as belligerents. This peculiar neutrality, which combined respect for the legal status of the recognized government withde factoequal status for the rebels, was defended by British officialdom on the grounds of the over-riding need to restrict the war and avoid its escalation into a general European conflict. The argument served to deflect accusations of hidden antagonism towards the Republic and to justify the continuation of this policy of neutrality despite the support of Italy and Germany for the insurgent forces, so tolerating in practice the sabotage of the policy of non-intervention by the fascist powers. In the face of these official explanations, which have been accepted at face value by many historians, this article will attempt to show that British non-intervention had its origins in antirevolutionary pre-occupations rather than in strictly diplomatic considerations. Furthermore, it will be argued that during the first six months of the war it adhered consistently to a political strategy based on the expectation that the war would be short lived.
Possessed: Imre Lakatos' Road to 1956
Authors: Congdon Lee
Published: September 2008

Of those Hungarian intellectuals who fled abroad after the 1956 revolution, the maverick philosopher Imre Lakatos achieved the greatest prominence. In 1959, nearly three years after he reached England's shores and two years before he completed his doctorate at Cambridge, he began a brilliant teaching career at the London School of Economics and Political Science. ‘A lecture by Lakatos was always an occasion’, his colleague John Watkins has recalled, ‘the room crowded, the atmosphere electric, and from time to time a gale of laughter.’1
Ulbricht and the Intellectuals
Authors: Connelly John
Published: September 2008

Khrushchev's secret speech of February 1956 threw the moral and political world of East Central Europe's intellectuals into turmoil. One of the most secure belief systems ever devised was suddenly revealed to be the ideological justification for crimes of a massive scale. Several generations of Communists groped for orientation, and radical change seemed inevitable. East Germany's intellectuals were no exception in their expectations and desires for change. Students of the GDR have always understood 1956 as one of formidable intellectual challenge to the Ulbricht regime, and the opening of SED and Stasi archives has strengthened this view, revealing an unrest that pervaded the ranks of students, writers, teachers, and much of the Party cadre.
The Gendarme Mission in Albania, 1925–38: A Move on the English Chess Board?
Authors: Martin Simon
Published: September 2008

Emerging from the Balkan wars and the London Conference of Ambassadors of 1913, the nation state of Albania frustrated the expansionist ambitions of Serbia and Greece which had planned to partition the area. Early indications suggested Albania would be, potentially, one of the most destabilising regions of the Balkans. This was primarily due to its geographical position vis à vis the Adriatic coast, and to the manner in which the Great Powers deemed Albanian independence an issue of international concern. For Britain, the proximity of the important military base of Malta and the existence of oil in Albania were further reasons why Italian domination had to be checked, and it is of little surprise that Albania quickly became the focus of attention for jealous and covetous eyes.
Fostering ‘the bank that rules Europe’: the Bank of England, the Allied Banking Commission, and the Bank deutscher Länder, 1948–51
Authors: Dickhaus Monika
Published: September 2008

Without a doubt the Bundesbank, the German central bank, enjoys a formidable reputation in the United Kingdom. It is seen as a most important and powerful institution, as an independent, well-functioning and sometimes even stubborn player in the realm of German, European and international monetary affairs. Therefore it is not difficult to find British newspaper headlines dealing with it. Above all, in times of monetary upheaval, the Bundesbank is understood to be an institution which ‘allows a flicker of hope’ and on which markets ‘keep a nervous eye’. Probably even more telling is the fact that some years ago a book was published in the UK which presents the German central bank in its title as ‘the bank that rules Europe’ and which maintains that ‘the Bundesbank took the place of the Wehrmacht as the most known and most feared German institution’.
Economic and Monetary Union and the Social Divide in France
Authors: Moss Bernard H.
Published: September 2008

Monetary policy since the Second World War has always been a politically and socially sensitive issue in France. It reflected the peculiar strength of the French Communist Party (PCF) in the unions and working class. Postwar governments relied upon monetary inflation, devaluation and administered credit to sustain growth and guarantee social peace. With the exception of the period following General de Gaulle's seizure of power in 1958, there was little choice for governments faced with weak, divided and conflicting unions, a volatile work force, and a united left threatening radical change. Where German governments responded to union challenges and the oil shock of 1974 with deflation, the French expanded the money supply. The divergence of French policy from German after 1968 made European economic and monetary union impossible.
New light on musical aspects of the troubadour revival in Spain
Authors: Knighton Tess
Published: September 2008

The revival of the poetic art of the troubadours in eastern Spain from the latter part of the fourteenth century has been well documented. At this time, and through most of the fifteenth century, poet-courtiers at the royal courts of Aragon and Castile drew inspiration from the troubadours of the earlier centuries, many of whom had been active in the Spanish kingdoms. The historiographical tradition for this literary phenomenon begins with Gerónimo Zurita, the great chronicler of the Aragonese kings. In his Annies de la Corona de Aragón (1562–8), he discusses this renewed interest in the ‘Gay Science’ at the Aragonese royal court of Joan I (1387–96), and relates how letters came to prevail over arms at that time as the primary concern of the courtier:
The Office of St Adalbert:Carte de visiteof a late medieval Dutch abbey
Authors: Zijlstra A. Marcel. J.
Published: September 2008

Two recently discovered manuscripts have shed new light on chant cultivation at Egmond Abbey during the late Middle Ages. Together with the only previously known chant source from the abbey, these enable us to reconstruct the hitherto unknown Office of its patron saint, Adalbert (25th of June). Palaeographic details, moreover, provide new insights into the significance of Egmond as a centre of chant cultivation.
Liturgical chant bibliography 4
Authors: Jeffery Peter
Published: September 2008

Anyone who pays attention to the popular news media will have read or heard a lot lately about the rapidly expanding international network of computer networks known as the Internet. Though the Internet was originally developed by the universities to support international research cooperation and the exchange of scholarly information, the hardware and software have become so cheap and easily available that many commercial firms, non-educational organizations and individuals are now connected to the Internet also. The most explosive growth has been in the multimedia portion of the Internet, known as the World Wide Web, which is able to transmit computerized image, video and sound files as well as text. The lack of any central authority that can regulate or moderate the content of Internet communications has forced governments and citizens to become increasingly embroiled in issues of free speech, fair trade and community responsibility – yet despite the empty chatter, political grandstanding, sales hype and pornography, the Internet remains an unparalleled and unprecedented medium of valuable information, much of which would otherwise be unavailable to many, or available only with extensive travel, inconvenience or expense. The quantity of such information increases daily, and it includes much that is helpful to serious students of medieval music and chant.
Ternary-letters in twelfth-century Lambach
Authors: Davis Lisa Fagin
Published: September 2008

In the twelfth century, the scriptorium of the Benedictine abbey in Lambach, Austria, was a flourishing centre of manuscript production. Surviving manuscripts of many genres testify to the quality and breadth of the artistic output of the monastery during this period. For a long time, no examples of chant manuscripts were known; recently, however, a number of fragmentary chant manuscripts have been identified, and more recently still a noted Missal preserved at Melk has been attributed to Lambach. The study of the fragments has led to the discovery of an innovative method of indicating mode and final at the monastery, using the tonary-letter system attributed to the St Gall monk Hartker.
Bakhtin and the discourse of late medieval music theory
Authors: Fast Susan
Published: September 2008

In his lucid discussion of genre in medieval treatises on music, Lawrence Gushee states that: The main part of Gushee's discussion is taken up with documents written up to the thirteenth century; for that reason he pays only a brief visit to treatises written thereafter, recognizing, however, a generic category in ‘works of the later thirteenth and fourteenth centuries which can be classed together merely by virtue of their size and synthetic character’. Among these he counts the treatises of Jacques de Liège, Walter Odington, Engelbert of Admont, Marchettus of Padua and Jerome of Moravia. One could add a few others to this list, such as the Tractatus de musica of Magister Lambertus and the work largely derived from that one, the Quatuor principalia musicae. These are ‘synthetic’, to use Gushee's word, in that they attempt a comprehensive treatment of their subject – they cover both theoretical and practical aspects of pitch and rhythm, and usually begin with a mythic/historic overview of music and a classification scheme that situates it within the sphere of other disciplines.
Liturgical chant bibliography 5
Authors: Jeffery Peter
Published: September 2008

Though so much medieval chant is anonymous – anonymity may even have been valued as expressing humility – recent articles have focused on some of the individuals who are known to have created texts and melodies for the liturgy. V. Frangeskou is one of two authors to have looked at texts by Gregory of Nazianzen, known as Gregory the Theologian, a fourth-century patriarch of Constantinople whose writings were the source of many Greek chant texts. Two other articles look at the sixth-century kontakion-poet Romanos, specifically his ‘Lament of the Mother of God’ and his apparent indebtedness to an apocryphal Gospel.
Et pui conmencha a canter: refrains, motets and melody in the thirteenth-century narrativeRenart le nouvel
Authors: Peraino Judith A.
Published: September 2008

In many surviving thirteenth-century romances, short segments of lyric poetry, called ‘refrains’ by present-day scholars, interrupt the narrative with the implication of song. In the romanceRenart le nouvel, attributed to Jacquemart Giélée (fl. 1290), refrains take their place among a wide variety of literary registers and forms.Renart le nouvelis a late derivative of a long and international tradition of adapting, elaborating and making reference to the stories from theRoman de Renart. TheRoman de Renartrefers to a collection of approximately fifteen Old French verse narratives, written between 1174 and 1205, that recount the exploits of the cunning fox Renart and various other anthropomorphized members of the animal kingdom.
Plainchant in nineteenth-century England: a review of some major publications of the period
Authors: Zon Bennett
Published: September 2008

The history of plainchant in the nineteenth century is dominated by the various attempts at scholarly restoration both in Britain and abroad. Up to the middle part of the century these efforts were concentrated in France, although demands for revival were being voiced in Italy by Pietro Alfieri, and in Germany by Franz Xaver Witt, amongst others. The first scholarly attempt at the restoration of plainchant was made in 1846 as a result of Jean-Louis-Félix Danjou's discovery of the eleventh-century tonary of St Bénigne de Dijon. Like the Rosetta stone, it enabled scholars to decipher the meaning of symbols which had previously eluded them. In this case the manuscript is notated with both neumes and alphabetic script, so that for the first time the melodic ductus of ancient neumes could be interpreted with certainty. This manuscript became the source for the Rheims-Cambrai Graduale Romanum complectens missas, printed in Paris in 1851, later to be published under the auspices of Cardinal Sterckx of Mechelen and edited by Duval and Bogaerts. Despite the quality of the Mechlin Graduale, it did not fail to cause immense controversy. Louis Vitet, for example, ‘was astonished that a group of four notes in the Paris gradual of 1826 should be replaced in the Rheims-Cambrai edition with a melisma of 48 notes’. Other efforts at revival were equally plagued by controversy. Lambillotte's facsimile edition of St Gall 359, published, in 1851, proved to be ‘completely unreliable’, and the 1857 Parisian Graduale romanum upon which it is based ‘contained truncated melodies’.
Traces of a Jewish-Christian community at S. Cecilia in Trastevere
Authors: Connolly Thomas H
Published: September 2008

Heading the list of horizons unexplored when my study of the cult of St Cecilia appeared in 1995 was a strong suspicion that music's mysterious patroness sprang from a Jewish milieu, and that traces of Jewish influence persisted in her cult well into the Middle Ages. But the evidence was cloudy, and no discussion of my suspicion found its way into the book beyond the bare statement that Cecilia may have belonged to an early Jewish-Christian community.1Now that the evidence is clearer, and the suspicion better founded, it is time to set forth that evidence. I do so here, and at the outset point to my brief corollary suggesting that if indeed Jewish-Christian influence persisted in Rome rather longer than is generally supposed, then we need to think in a new way about the origins of Western chant. Rather than thinking simply about transfer from Synagogue to Church, we should ponder what might have happened within communities that were in some sense churches and synagogues at the same time.
Recordings: recent releases of plainchant
Authors: Weber Jerome F.
Published: September 2008

The series of chant programmes that Fr Hubert Dopf has recorded with the Vienna Hofburgkapelle on Philips has progressed slowly until now. My discography listed 411140 and 416808, and 432089–2 followed in this review (1992, no. 20). Now all at once, five new titles have been announced, although only two have arrived (nos. 1 and 2 in the list at the end of this article). These adopt a new plan in following the course of the liturgical year. In this plan, the programme of chants of the Holy Spirit on the third disc is defined as belonging to Pentecost, while Advent and Christmas herewith will be followed by Easter, Ascension and Marian feasts. The new scheme resulted in new versions of much of the content of the second disc of the set. The interpretation is semiological, even using the revised melodies that have been edited by the Associazione Internazionale Studi di Canto Gregoriano (AISCGre).
Components of Random Forests
Authors: Łuczak Tomasz , Pittel Boris
Published: September 2008

A forest ℱ(n, M) chosen uniformly from the family of all labelled unrooted forests with n vertices and M edges is studied. We show that, like the Érdős-Rényi random graph G(n, M), the random forest exhibits three modes of asymptotic behaviour: subcritical, nearcritical and supercritical, with the phase transition at the point M = n/2. For each of the phases, we determine the limit distribution of the size of the k-th largest component of ℱ(n, M). The similarity to the random graph is far from being complete. For instance, in the supercritical phase, the giant tree in ℱ(n, M) grows roughly two times slower than the largest component of G(n, M) and the second largest tree in ℱ(n, M) is of the order n⅔ for every M = n/2 +s, provided that s3n−2 → ∞ and s = o(n), while its counterpart in G(n, M) is of the order n2s−2 log(s3n−2) ≪ n⅔.
Three Thresholds for a Liar
Authors: Spencer Joel , Winkler Peter
Published: September 2008

Motivated by the problem of making correct computations from partly false information, we study a corruption of the classic game “Twenty Questions” in which the player who answers the yes-or-no questions is permitted to lie up to a fixed fraction r of the time. The other player is allowed q arbitrary questions with which to try to determine, with certainty, which of n objects his opponent has in mind; he “wins” if he can always do so, and “wins quickly” if he can do so using only O(log n) questions.

It turns out that there is a threshold value for r below which the querier can win quickly, and above which he cannot win at all. However, the threshold value varies according to the precise rules of the game. Our “three thresholds theorem” says that when the answerer is forbidden at any point to have answered more than a fraction r of the questions incorrectly, then the threshold value is r = ½; when the requirement is merely that the total number of lies cannot exceed rq, the threshold is ⅓; and finally if the answerer gets to see all the questions before answering, the threshold drops to ¼.
Equality of the Bond Percolation Critical Exponents for Two Pairs of Dual Lattices
Authors: Wierman John C.
Published: September 2008

The substitution method is used to show that the percolative behaviour of the triangular and hexagonal lattices bond percolation models are similar near their critical probabilities. As a consequence, if the limits defining the critical exponents β and γ exist, these lattices have the same values of β and γ. Similarly, the method also shows equality of the β and γ values for bond percolation models on the bowtie lattice and its dual.
Improved Upper Bounds Concerning the Erdős-Ko-Rado Theorem
Authors: Calderbank A. R. , Frankl P.
Published: September 2008

A family ℱ of k-element sets of an n-set is called t-intersecting if any two of its members overlap in at least t-elements. The Erdős-Ko-Rado Theorem gives a best possible upper bound for such a family if n ≥ n0(k, t). One of the most exciting open cases is when t = 2, n = 2k. The present paper gives an essential improvement on the upper bound for this case. The proofs use linear algebra and yield more general results.
Analysis of Top To Random Shuffles
Authors: Diaconis Persi , Fill James Allen , Pitman Jim
Published: September 2008

A deck of n cards is shuffled by repeatedly taking off the top m cards and inserting them in random positions. We give a closed form expression for the distribution after any number of steps. This is used to give the asymptotics of the approach to stationarity: for m fixed and n large, it takes shuffles to get close to random. The formulae lead to new subalgebras in the group algebra of the symmetric group.
On a Correlation Inequality of Farr
Authors: McDiarmid Colin
Published: September 2008

Suppose that each vertex of a graph independently chooses a colour uniformly from the set {1, …, k}; and let Si be the random set of vertices coloured i. Farr shows that the probability that each set Si is stable (so that the colouring is proper) is at most the product of the k probabilities that the sets Si separately are stable. We give here a simple proof of an extension of this result.
Point Selections and Weak ε-Nets for Convex Hulls
Authors: Alon Noga , Bárány Imre , Füredi Zoltán , Kleitman Daniel J.
Published: September 2008

One of our results: let X be a finite set on the plane, 0 < ε < 1, then there exists a set F (a weak ε-net) of size at most 7/ε2 such that every convex set containing at least ε|X| elements of X intersects F. Note that the size of F is independent of the size of X.
Cycles in a Uniform Graph Process
Authors: Jaworski Jerzy , Łuczak Tomasz
Published: September 2008

We study the asymptotic properties of a “uniform” random graph process in which the minimum degree of U(n, M) grows at least as fast as ⌊M/n⌋. We show that if M — n → → ∞, almost surely U(n, M) consists of one giant component and some number of small unicyclic components. We go on to study the distribution of cycles in unicyclic components as they emerge at the beginning of the process and disappear when captured by the giant one.
The Strongly Connected Components of 1-in, 1-out
Authors: Reed B. , McDiarmid Colin
Published: September 2008

We consider a random digraph Din, out(n) on vertices 1, …, n, where, for each vertex v, we choose at random one of the n possible arcs with head v and one of the n possible arcs with tail v. We show that the expected size of the largest component of Din, out is .
Plane Cubic Graphs with Prescribed Face Areas
Authors: Thomassen Carsten
Published: September 2008

If G is a plane, cubic graph, then G has a drawing such that each edge is a straight line segment and each bounded face has any prescribed area. The special case where all areas are the same proves a conjecture of G. Ringel, who gave an example of a plane triangulation that cannot be drawn in this way.
Some Dual Problems of Geometric Probability in the Plane
Authors: Gates John
Published: September 2008

A definition is adopted for convexity of a set of directed lines in the plane. Following this, the duals of a number of standard problems of geometric probability are formulated. Problems considered in detail are the duals of Sylvester's problem, chord length distributions and Ambartzumian's combinatorial geometry. The paper suggests some questions for further work.
Optimally Reliable Graphs for Both Vertex and Edge Failures
Authors: Smith D. H.
Published: September 2008

We consider networks in which both the nodes and the links may fail. We represent the network by an undirected graph G. Vertices of the graph fail with probability p and edges of the graph fail with probability q, where all failures are assumed independent. We shall be concerned with minimising the probability P(G) that G is disconnected for graphs with given numbers of vertices and edges. We show how to construct these optimal graphs in many cases when p and q are ‘small’.
Upper Bounds for the Connective Constant of Self-Avoiding Walks
Authors: Alm Sven Erick
Published: September 2008

We present a method for obtaining upper bounds for the connective constant of self-avoiding walks. The method works for a large class of lattices, including all that have been studied in connection with self-avoiding walks. The bound is obtained as the largest eigenvalue of a certain matrix. Numerical application of the method has given improved bounds for all lattices studied, e.g. μ < 2.696 for the square lattice, μ < 4.278 for the triangular lattice and μ < 4.756 for the simple cubic lattice.
Threshold Functions for H-factors
Authors: Alon Noga , Yuster Raphael
Published: September 2008

Let H be a graph on h vertices, and G be a graph on n vertices. An H-factor of G is a spanning subgraph of G consisting of n/h vertex disjoint copies of H. The fractional arboricity of H is , where the maximum is taken over all subgraphs (V′, E′) of H with |V′| > 1. Let δ(H) denote the minimum degree of a vertex of H. It is shown that if δ(H) < a(H), then n−1/a(H) is a sharp threshold function for the property that the random graph G(n, p) contains an H-factor. That is, there are two positive constants c and C so that for p(n) = cn−1/a(H) almost surely G(n, p(n)) does not have an H-factor, whereas for p(n) = Cn−1/a(H), almost surely G(n, p(n)) contains an H-factor (provided h divides n). A special case of this answers a problem of Erdős.
The Distribution of Heights of Binary Trees and Other Simple Trees
Authors: Flajolet Philippe , Gao Zhicheng , Odlyzko Andrew , Richmond Bruce
Published: September 2008

The number, , of rooted plane binary trees of height ≤ h with n internal nodes is shown to satisfy

uniformly for δ−1(log n)−1/2 ≤ β ≤ δ(log n)1/2, where and δ is a positive constant. An asymptotic formula for is derived for h = cn, where 0 < c < 1. Bounds for are also derived for large and small heights. The methods apply to any simple family of trees, and the general asymptotic results are stated.
Potential Theory on Distance-Regular Graphs
Authors: Biggs Norman L.
Published: September 2008

A graph may be regarded as an electrical network in which each edge has unit resistance. We obtain explicit formulae for the effective resistance of the network when a current enters at one vertex and leaves at another in the distance-regular case. A well-known link with random walks motivates a conjecture about the maximum effective resistance. Arguments are given that point to the truth of the conjecture for all known distance-regular graphs.
Factorization in Fq[x] and Brownian Motion
Authors: Hansen Jennie C.
Published: September 2008

We consider the set of polynomials of degree n over a finite field and put the uniform probability measure on this set. Any such polynomial factors uniquely into a product of its irreducible factors. To each polynomial we associate a step function on the interval [0,1] such that the size of each jump corresponds to the number of factors of a certain degree in the factorization of the random polynomial. We normalize these random functions and show that the resulting random process converges weakly to Brownian motion as n → ∞. This result complements earlier work by the author on the order statistics of the degree sequence of the factors of a random polynomial.