bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Levels of Soluble Adhesion Molecules in Diabetic and Nondiabetic Patients with Combined Hyperlipoproteinemia and the Effect of Ciprofibrate Therapy
Authors: Okapcova J. , Gabor D.
Published: April 2006

Cell adhesion molecules are thought to play a role in atherosclerosis. Several clinical trials have shown that fibrate treatment leads to a reduction in coronary events, although the mechanisms are not fully understood. Soluble vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 (sVCAM-1), soluble intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (sICAM-1) and soluble E-selectin plasma concentrations were measured in 10 obese dyslipidemic men (group A), in 10 obese dyslipidemic type 2 diabetic men without coronary artery disease (CAD) (group B), and in 10 dyslipidemic type 2 diabetic men with angiographically documented CAD (group C) before and after 12 weeks of treatment with ciprofibrate. Compared with nondiabetic dyslipidemic men, diabetic patients with CAD or without documented CAD had significantly increased levels of sVCAM-1 (512 ±39 versus 750 ±139 ng/mL; p<0.0001 and 566 ±78 ng/mL; p<0.01, respectively) and sE-selectin (54.8 ±6.9 versus 65.9 ±8.8 ng/mL; p<0.001 and 62.6 ±9.4 ng/mL; p=0.056, respectively). The levels of sICAM-1 were similar in all 3 groups. Multivariate analyses showed that the higher sCAM levels in patients occurred independently of lipoprotein levels. Waist circumference as a marker of abdominal adiposity was the only independent predictor of elevated concentrations of all 3 cell adhesion molecules in multivariate analyses. sE-selectin was associated with HbA1C levels (p<0.01) in diabetic men at baseline. After 12 weeks of ciprofibrate therapy, sVCAM-1 levels were reduced by 13.5 ±2.1%, sICAM-1 levels by 11.8 ±2.2%, and sE-selectin levels by 17.1 ±3.5% (p<0.01 for all) with the greatest sE-selectin reduction in the diabetic subgroups (p<0.001). There was no correlation between the lowering of soluble adhesion molecules and the magnitude of lipid-lowering effect. An increased level of circulating adhesion molecules may be a mechanism by which dyslipidemia and/or diabetes mellitus promotes atherogenesis, and treatment with ciprofibrate may alter vascular cell activation.
Prediction of Infarct-Related Coronary Artery of Patients with Acute Inferior Myocardial Infarction by a Predischarge Exercise Test Index
Authors: Bolca Osman , Eren Mehmet , Akdemir Osman , Yıldırım Aydın , Dagdeviren Bahadır , Tezel Tuna
Published: April 2006

The predictive accuracy of electrocardiographic markers in identifying the infarct-related artery of myocardial infarctions has been a subject of extensive investigation. The present study was designed to test whether the index L II/L III ratio adapted to exercise electrocardiograms could be utilized as a marker to distinguish right coronary and left circumflex arteries as culprit coronaries in acute inferior myocardial infarctions. For this purpose, 82 patients with a positive-symptom-limited and/or submaximal treadmill exercise test with modified Bruce protocol after an acute inferior myocardial infarction were studied. Those patients with ST segment elevation during the stress test were included in the study. ST segment index was defined as the ratio of exercise-induced ST elevation amplitude in L II/L III. Patients were classified as having an index >1 (n=24) and <1 (n=58), and the findings were compared with the findings on coronary angiography. The groups were comparable with respect to age, gender, peak exercise level, and double products achieved. Circumflex artery was the infarct-related one in the majority (21/24; 88%) of patients with an index >1, whereas most (51/58; 88%) patients with an index <1 had the culprit lesion in their right coronary artery (p<0.001). The ratio of exercise-induced ST elevations in leads L II and L III has a significantly high ability to discriminate the infarct-related coronary artery in patients with uncomplicated inferior myocardial infarction. Considering the prognostic importance of the type of coronary involvement, this index could be a part of predischarge evaluation in this patient group.
Bacteremia Caused by Late-Infected Pacemaker Lead
Authors: Kinoshita Osamu , Amano Jun , Takano Tamaki , Kitahara Hiroto , Itou Kenichi , Uchikawa Shin-ichirou , Yazaki Yoshikazu , Imamura Hiroshi , Hongo Minoru , Kubo Keishi
Published: April 2006

A 73-year-old man with bradycardia and atrial fibrillation underwent implantation of a transvenous pacemaker system on the left anterior chest wall in 1995. Six years later, he was admitted for bacteremia from coagulase-negative Staphylococcus. Repeated treatment employing antibiotic therapy was ineffective. The infected electrode was removed under cardiopulmonary bypass. His electrode had become firmly encased with fibrous tissue within the right ventricle and atrium. It was removed under direct vision during complete cardiac arrest. The postoperative course was uneventful and there has been no recurrence after 1 year.
Using Analysis of Gini (ANOGI) for Detecting Whether Two Subsamples Represent the Same Universe
Authors: Frick Joachim R. , Goebel Jan , Schechtman Edna , Wagner Gert G. , Yitzhaki Shlomo
Published: April 2006

A wildly discussed shortcoming of panel surveys is a potential bias arising from selective attrition. Based on data of the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP), the authors analyze potential artifacts (level, structure, income inequality) by comparing results for two independently drawn panel subsamples started in 1984 and 2000. They apply ANOGI (analysis of Gini) techniques, the equivalent of ANOVA performed with the Gini coefficient. They rearrange, reinterpret, and use the decomposition in the comparison of subpopulations from which the different samples were drawn. Taking into account indicators for income, significant differences between these two samples with respect to income inequality are found in the first year, which start to fade away in Wave 2 and disappear in Wave 3. The authors find credible indication for these differences to be driven by changes in response behavior of short-term panel members rather than by attrition among members of the longer running sample.
Describing Occupational Segregation in Sparse and Incomplete Arrays
Authors: Grusky David B. , Levanon Asaf
Published: April 2006

The study of sex segregation is increasingly based on log-multiplicative and related models that allow analysts to characterize the amount and structure of segregation independently of (a) the mix of occupations in the economy and (b) the relative size of the male and female labor forces. Although these models are elegant and powerful, methodological complications can arise when the segregation arrays are sparse and small occupations frequently show up as perfectly segregated (i.e., all male or all female). The authors develop a general approach that makes it possible to analyze such sparse arrays with log-multiplicative and related models.
Demystifying risk management
Authors: Cheliotis Leonidas K.
Published: April 2006

This article explores the factors considered by the Greek prison authorities in administering the home leave scheme. It is shown that the administration of the programme is significantly guided by exogenous factors like media pressure, mounting demand for rationality and accountability and populist considerations on the part of the superior officers at the Ministry of Justice, subsequently reflected upon personal concerns like the possible adverse consequences for decision-makers were they to exhibit ‘unwarranted leniency’. Support is lent to the arguments: that the scheme is used primarily as a means of maintaining institutional control; that the selection of participants onto the programme is largely decoupled from their needs, but rather depends mostly on their risk profile, which, however, is not determined by means of any sophisticated actuarial technique; and that the various categories of risk are greatly associated with race/ethnicity-linked knowledges or assumptions. Notwithstanding the constraints of action imposed upon decision-makers, it is concluded that rehabilitative impulses have not been completely supplanted by disciplinary and actuarial considerations, and that criminal justice agents still play a considerable, albeit attenuated, part in forming penal currents in prison. No clear indication of bias towards non-Greek prisoners was found in processing licence applications.
Role of a 5′-enhancer in the transcriptional regulation of the human endothelial cell protein C receptor gene
Authors: Mollica Luigina R. , Crawley James T. B. , Liu Ke , Rance James B. , Cockerill Peter N. , Follows George A. , Landry Josette-Renee , Wells Dominic J. , Lane David A.
Published: April 2006

The endothelial cell protein C receptor (EPCR) is expressed by endothelial cells of large blood vessels and by hematopoietic stem cells. DNaseI hypersensitive (DH) site mapping across 38 kb of the human EPCR gene (hEPCR) locus identified 3 potential regulatory elements. By itself, the DH region spanning the proximal promoter (PP) was unable to direct cell-specific transcription in transgenic mice. A second DH element, located upstream of PP and termed –5.5HS was hypersensitive only in endothelial cells (ECs) and immature hematopoietic cell lines. Transgenes expressing LacZ under the control of –5.5HS coupled to either PP or the SV40 promoter were able to direct β-galactosidase activity to the endothelium of large vessels during embryogenesis and adulthood. The –5.5HS exhibited enhancer activity that was conferred by the interplay of transcription factors interacting with conserved Ets and composite GATA/Tal1 motifs. The third DH element, located in intron 2, was primarily hypersensitive in EPCR-negative cells, and capable of initiating antisense transcription, suggesting a role in hEPCR silencing. This study identifies critical elements required for the tissue specificity of hEPCR and suggests a mechanism for endothelial and hematopoietic stem cell–specific transcriptional regulation that reflects the common origin of these cell types.
High donor FOXP3-positive regulatory T-cell (Treg) content is associated with a low risk of GVHD following HLA-matched allogeneic SCT
Authors: Rezvani Katayoun , Mielke Stephan , Ahmadzadeh Mojgan , Kilical Yasemin , Savani Bipin N. , Zeilah Josette , Keyvanfar Keyvan , Montero Aldemar , Hensel Nancy , Kurlander Roger , Barrett A. John
Published: April 2006

Regulatory T cells (Tregs) that constitutively express FOXP3 are instrumental to the maintenance of tolerance and may suppress graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) in humans. To determine whether regulatory T cells in allogeneic stem cell transplants (SCTs) ameliorate GVHD after transplantation, we quantitated the coexpression of FOXP3 on CD4+ T cells in 32 donor SCTs infused into HLA-matched siblings and examined GVHD incidence in respective recipients. High CD4+FOXP3+ T-cell count in the donor was associated with a reduced risk of GVHD. We monitored Tregs during immune reconstitution in 21 patients with leukemia undergoing a T-cell–depleted allogeneic SCT. Early after SCT, there was a significant expansion in the CD4+FOXP3+ T-cell compartment. A low CD4+FOXP3+ T-cell count early after SCT (day 30) was associated with an increased risk of GVHD, and the ratio of CD4+FOXP3+ T cells to CD4+CD25+FOXP3– T cells was significantly reduced in patients with GVHD, suggesting diminished control of effector T cells. Our findings suggest that graft Treg content may predict for risk of GVHD after SCT. Determining the Treg levels in the donor and manipulating Tregs early after transplantation may provide a new approach to controlling GVHD.
Predicting deleterious nsSNPs: an analysis of sequence and structural attributes
Authors: Dobson Richard J , Munroe Patricia B , Caulfield Mark J , Saqi Mansoor AS
Published: April 2006

Background

There has been an explosion in the number of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) within public databases. In this study we focused on non-synonymous protein coding single nucleotide polymorphisms (nsSNPs), some associated with disease and others which are thought to be neutral. We describe the distribution of both types of nsSNPs using structural and sequence based features and assess the relative value of these attributes as predictors of function using machine learning methods. We also address the common problem of balance within machine learning methods and show the effect of imbalance on nsSNP function prediction. We show that nsSNP function prediction can be significantly improved by 100% undersampling of the majority class. The learnt rules were then applied to make predictions of function on all nsSNPs within Ensembl.

Results

The measure of prediction success is greatly affected by the level of imbalance in the training dataset. We found the balanced dataset that included all attributes produced the best prediction. The performance as measured by the Matthews correlation coefficient (MCC) varied between 0.49 and 0.25 depending on the imbalance. As previously observed, the degree of sequence conservation at the nsSNP position is the single most useful attribute. In addition to conservation, structural predictions made using a balanced dataset can be of value.

Conclusion

The predictions for all nsSNPs within Ensembl, based on a balanced dataset using all attributes, are available as a DAS annotation. Instructions for adding the track to Ensembl are at http://www.brightstudy.ac.uk/das_help.html
Arterial blood pressure monitoring in overweight critically ill patients: invasive or noninvasive?
Authors: Araghi Ali , Bander Joseph J , Guzman Jorge A
Published: April 2006

Introduction

Blood pressure measurements frequently guide management in critical care. Direct readings, commonly from a major artery, are considered to be the gold standard. Because arterial cannulation is associated with risks, alternative noninvasive blood pressure (NIBP) measurements are routinely used. However, the accuracy of NIBP determinations in overweight patients in the outpatient setting is variable, and little is known about critically ill patients. This prospective, observational study was performed to compare direct intra-arterial blood pressure (IABP) with NIBP measurements obtained using auscultatory and oscillometric methods in overweight patients admitted to our medical intensive care unit.

Method

Adult critically ill patients with a body mass index (BMI) of 25 kg/m2 or greater and a functional arterial line (assessed using the rapid flush test) were enrolled in the study. IABP measurements were compared with those obtained noninvasively. A calibrated aneroid manometer (auscultatory technique) with arm cuffs compatible with arm sizes and a NIBP monitor (oscillometric technique) were used for NIBP measurements. Agreement between methods was assessed using Bland-Altman analysis.

Results

Fifty-four patients (23 males) with a mean (± standard error) age of 57 ± 3 years were studied. The mean BMI was 34.0 ± 1.4 kg/m2. Mean arm circumference was 32 ± 0.6 cm. IABP readings were obtained from the radial artery in all patients. Only eight patients were receiving vasoactive medications. Mean overall biases for the auscultatory and oscillometric techniques were 4.1 ± 1.9 and -8.0 ± 1.7 mmHg, respectively (P < 0.0001), with wide limits of agreement. The overestimation of blood pressure using the auscultatory technique was more important in patients with a BMI of 30 kg/m2 or greater. In hypertensive patients both NIBP methods underestimated blood pressure as determined using direct IABP measurement.

Conclusion

Oscillometric blood pressure measurements underestimated IABP readings regardless of patient BMI. Auscultatory measurements were also inaccurate, tending to underestimate systolic blood pressure and overestimate mean arterial and diastolic blood pressure. NIBP can be inaccurate among overweight critically ill patients and lead to erroneous interpretations of blood pressure.
Analysis of Sequence Variations in the LDL Receptor Gene in Spain: General Gene Screening or Search for Specific Alterations?
Authors: Blesa Sebastian , Garcia-Garcia Ana Barbara , Martinez-Hervas Sergio , Mansego Maria Luisa , Gonzalez-Albert Veronica , Ascaso Juan Francisco , Carmena Rafael , Real Jose Tomas , Chaves Felipe Javier
Published: April 2006

Background: Familial hypercholesterolemia (FH) is a frequent form of autosomal-dominant hypercholesterolemia that predisposes to premature coronary atherosclerosis. FH is caused by sequence variations in the gene coding for the LDL receptor (LDLR). This gene has a wide spectrum of sequence variations, and genetic diagnosis can be performed by 2 strategies.

Methods: Point variations and large rearrangements were screened along all the LDLR gene (promoter, exons, and flanking intron sequences).

Results: We screened a sample of 129 FH probands from the Valencian Community, Spain, and identified 54 different LDLR sequence variations. The most frequent (10% of cases) was 111insA, and 60% of the variants had a frequency as low as 1%. A previously described method for detection of known sequence variations in the Spanish population by DNA array analysis allowed the identification of only ∼50% of patients with a variant LDLR gene and ∼40% of the screened samples.

Conclusion: Our results indicate that the adequate procedure to identify LDLR sequence variations in outbreed populations should include screening of the entire gene.
Rhetoric and Poetics in Quintilian: a Consideration of the Apostrophe
Authors: d'Espèrey Sylvie Franchet
Published: April 2006

Abstract This article considers the difficulties faced by Quintilian in classifying and understanding apostrophe. He treats it as both a figure of thought, with examples from oratory, and a figure of speech, with examples from Virgilin which the narrator addresses characters of the poem. By inserting the otherwise unobtrusive narrator into the narrative, the effect of the Virgilian examples is to collapse the distinction between narration and narrative. Since Quintilian does not have this means of linguistic analysis at his disposal, he defines apostrophe as a figure of speech by bringing it into relation with other figures that also produce an effect of rupture at the level of narration, and he uses other oppositions that offer an imperfect treatment of the problem.
Donatello's Gattamelata and its Humanist Audience
Authors: Bergstein Mary
Published: April 2006

Two small nude horsemen located in the armorial decoration of Donatello'sGattamelatayield new insights about the use of Greek sources in Renaissance art. Here it is speculated that Donatello was informed by a drawing or carved gemstone provided by Ciriaco d'Ancona that represented riders in the Panathenaic frieze on the Parthenon. Donatello may have included the figures as a learned reference to delight a circle of intellectuals in Padua, including Ciriaco and Francesco Barbaro, who wrote dedicatory texts for the monument. It is subsequently argued that Leon Battista Alberti's treatiseDe equo animante(ca. 1444-47) and Donatello'sGattamelataappear to have been mutually influential.
Marriage, Sexual Pleasure, and Learned Brides in the Wedding Orations of Fifteenth-Century Italy
Authors: D'Elia Anthony F.
Published: April 2006

In the fifteenth century, Guarino Guarini, Ludovico Carbone, Francesco Filelfo, and other humanists composed and delivered Latin orations at courtly weddings in Ferrara, Naples, and Milan. In these epithalatmia, which are mostly unpublished, orators adapt a classically inspired conception of marriage to Italian court culture. They defend physical beauty and sexual pleasure, praise learned brides, and assert the importance of mutual affection, revealing a complex picture of ideal gender relations in courts. Against the ancient and Christian anti-marriage ascetic traditions, humanists offer biblical, philosophical, political, economic, and hedonistic arguments in defense of marriage.
Giordano Bruno: Neoplatonism and the Wheel of Memory in the De Umbris Idearum
Authors: Farinella Alessandro G.
Published: April 2006

Bruno's attempt to integrate the principles of Ficino's Neoplatonic metaphysics to the Thomisticsubalternatio scientiarumled him to incorporate new techniques into his art of memory. His use of the wheel of memory in Deumbris idearumproduced various philosophical perspectives. Nevertheless, the theoretical basis of Bruno's philosophical system was his effort to address mathematics in a qualitative way. Analysis of Bruno's sources leads to an understanding of how he reconstructed and used them.
Political Views in the Preaching of Giovanni Dominici in Renaissance Florence, 1400-1406
Authors: Debby Nirit Ben-Aryeh
Published: April 2006

The Dominican friar Giovanni Dominici (1356-1419) was an influential, charismatic, and popular preacher, and an important figure in the political world of Renaissance Florence, but neglected in modern scholarship. This study offers a thorough summary of Dominici's political views as well as a biographical portrait, a bibliographical survey, and a discussion of Dominici's preaching style. The article draws on a large, unpublished collection of Dominici's sermons from the Biblioteca Riccardiana, dating from 1400 to 1406. Dominici emerges as an ambivalent participant in Florentine politics, advocating some of its civic values such as the active life and patriotism, while fiercely criticizing humanist ideals such as the use of rhetoric in politics and the rise of the professional politician
The Geneva Convention of 1906
Authors: Davis George B.
Published: April 2006

The members of the congress of Vienna who, for the most part, directed the international politics of Europe for the first half of the nineteenth century, have never been accounted as exponents of liberal thought, or as the advocates of liberal policies. But it must be said in behalf of their narrow and, at times, reactionary statesmanship, that it kept the peace in western Europe during the period intervening between the battle of Waterloo, which terminated the military and political activity of the first Napoleon, and the appearance of his nephew in the rôle of a military commander in the Italian campaign of 1859. For the first time in recorded history it was given to the harassed inhabitants of the Rhine provinces to see a full half century of peace, and to enjoy so much as fifty years of fortunate and uninterrupted immunity from the hardships and sacrifices of war.
The Origin of the Congo Free State, Considered from the Standpoint of International Law
Authors: Reeves Jesse S.
Published: April 2006

The partition of Africa, which the present generation has seen accomplished, has yielded a generous by-product in international law. Protectorates, spheres of influence, hinterlands, the position of savage and semicivilized tribes, nominal and effective possession, territorial leases — these are but a few of the topics to which the political apportionment of the Dark Continent has drawn attention and exacted serious consideration. For more than twenty years the position of one of the largest holders of African territory, the Congo Free State, has aroused much discussion. With the serious accusations against Congolese administration press, pulpit, and platform have made the English-speaking peoples familiar. How far these have been proyed it is not a part of the present paper to decide. It is enough for our purpose to say that charges of maladministration have been made in the official publications of more than one country, and that protests based upon them have been presented to those responsible for the direction of the State’s affairs. No doubt the criticisms of the past few years have tended to hasten the annexation of the Congo, before which Belgium had previously faltered. Leaving aside the details of the annexation, important as they are from another point of view, the change means the substitution of a responsible government for the Congo in place of the former absolute control by a king-sovereign, who for some years had been able, thanks to the mutual jealousies of the powers, to govern as he chose, whatever might have been the limitations upon his activities which treaties had sought to impose. The coercive power of ultranational public opinion, upon which in the last analysis international law depends, has been plainly evident in the case of the Congo State. Public sentiment, transcending national boundaries, has demanded a responsible government for the Congo. It has accomplished practically all that the concerted action of the powers might have sought to do.
The Concept of Legality in International Arbitration
Authors: Reinsch Paul S.
Published: April 2006

The movement for the creation of a definite and permanent organ for the authoritative declaration of international law in controversies between states involves in it a transition from the concept of moral to that of legal obligation. The cardinal element in the concept of legality, that which distinguishes moral duty from legal obligation, is that in the latter case the duty is not enforced only through a general sentiment of right, but through a definite organization. An obligation may be said to be legal when in its determination and enforcement, definitely constituted organs are active. The obligation of a moral, ethical, or social duty, which is backed only by the general sentiment of the community, may be felt just as strongly by individuals as the legal obligation which is determined by a definitely appointed body of men. Yet this very definiteness of organization serves to impart greater strength, or at least rigidity, to the legal principles.
A Comparative Study of the South African Constitution
Authors: Woolsey Lester H.
Published: April 2006

The self-governing colonies of the British Empire are not, it is true, states within the meaning of international law, for Great Britain has, among other things, the legal right to conclude with other nations treaties which affect her colonies. It is, moreover, too much to say that the self-governing colonies will become members of the family of nations. Still it is a fact that England has in recent years granted them more or less participation in the negotiation of treaties affecting their welfare; and in a recent treaty of general arbitration Great Britain expressly reserves “the right before concluding a special agreement in any matter affecting the interest of a self-governing Dominion of the British Empire, to obtain the concurrence therein of the Government of that Dominion.” Consequently these colonies possess a certain standing in international relations which can not be overlooked, and which justifies some comparative study of their fundamental laws. The object of this paper is, therefore, to give a general sketch of the constitution of South Africa, recently approved by the English Parliament, in the light of the earlier constitutions similarly granted to Canada and Australia.
Notes on Rivers and Navigation in International Law
Authors: Hyde Chaeles Cheney
Published: April 2006

When the entire course of a river passes through the territory of but a single state, it is generally agreed that a right of exclusive control is possessed by the territorial sovereign which may, therefore, bar the navigation of the stream by foreign nations. Any privileges of transit enjoyed by their vessels are always understood to be subject to the consent of the local state. Thus, with respect to such rivers as the Mississippi and the Hudson, foreign countries enjoy no right of navigation.
Would Immunity from Capture, During War, of Non-Offending Private Property Upon the High Seas Be in the Interest of Civilization?
Authors: Stockton C. H.
Published: April 2006

This subject is a timely one from the fact that we are on the eve of the meeting of the second international conference at The Hague, the first conference in 1899 having voted that —

The conference expresses the wish that the proposal which contemplates the declaration of the inviolability of private property in naval warfare may be referred to a subsequent conference for consideration.

The present programme for this coming conference includes this question of the immunity of private property as one agreed upon for discussion.

Before entering into a discussion of the subject, it may be well to make a résumé of the historical status of the question up to the present time so far as the United States, Great Britain, and other civilized countries are concerned.
The History of International Relations During Antiquity and the Middle Ages
Authors: Hershey Amos S.
Published: April 2006

The history of international law is essentially a history of the law governing the members of the international community of states in their relations with one another. Inasmuch as the observance of well-established customs of the law of nations implies the existence of an international community of states based upon a general recognition of the fundamental principles of territorial sovereignty and legal equality of independent states, such a law (in the strict and full sense of this term) could not possibly have been developed prior to the rise of the modern European state system, at the close of the Middle Ages or during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries of our era. Nevertheless, we are by no means without evidence of the observance in intercommunity intercourse of certain rules and customs, even during antiquity and the Middle Ages, mainly with a religious sanction. This was especially the case in Greece, where there were developed rules and customs of intermunicipal law which, in many respects, bear a truly remarkable resemblance to our modern system of international jurisprudence.
The Cretan Question
Authors: Ion Theodore P.
Published: April 2006

The island of Minos, which at one time is supposed to have had the great honor of giving hospitality to Zeus or Jupiter during his infancy, thereby linking its name with that of celestial beings, seems to have been predestined by the Mœræ or Fates to be the perennial apple of discord between the descendants of 'Europa' the wife of the Supreme Olympian God.
The History of the Department of State
Authors: Hunt Gaillard
Published: April 2006

Perhaps the most important of the occasional duties of the Department of State is that which involves its agency in recording the result of the quadrennial elections held in the several States for the office of President and Vice-President of the United States. Section 1 of Article II of the Constitution provided that the electors should meet in the several States, and, having voted for a President and Vice-President, should make a list of the persons voted for, which they must sign and certify to and transmit sealed to the seat of government directed to the President of the Senate.
The Chinese Nationality Law, 1909
Authors: Chutung Tsai
Published: April 2006

The Chinese nationality law recently passed is of considerable interest as illustrating the tendency of China to fall in line with modern countries in respect to law-making, and her attempt to remedy by her independent legislation a phase of the anomalous situation growing out of her seventy years' intercourse with the outer world. The law aims at two points, (1) to define the status of nationality and (2) to minimize the abuse of the lax naturalization laws of some foreign countries as applied in their colonies near China.
War and the Law of Nations in the Twentieth Century
Authors: Renault Louis
Published: April 2006

Gentlemen: The address that I am to make, in response to the gracious invitation of our eminent President, on this too burning and too present subject, will be a very simple and a very modest endeavor. Do not expect a doctrinal study, an exposition, or a critical appreciation of the conduct of the belligerents in the struggle that is being so desperately waged on both sides. The time has not yet come to pass reasoned judgment upon the acts which have been committed by certain belligerents and which are of such a nature as to humiliate us as men and to distress us as Frenchmen. I am speaking here in the name of the Institute as a whole. In addition, the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences, which is particularly well qualified in such matters by reason of the nature of its studies, has expressly commissioned me, as one of its members, to lay before you its protest against these abominable acts. Can it be possible that mankind, whom we have considered civilized through the efforts of many centuries, has come to such a pass? I do not wish to say anything of a polemical nature, which is not in keeping in this place and at this time. I wish to confine myself to statements of a purely legal character. The brevity of the exposition may incline you to excuse its dryness.
The Ninth International Red Cross Conference
Authors: Korff Baron S. A.
Published: April 2006

The Ninth International Red Cross Conference met at Washington on the 7th of May, 1912. During the ten days that the conference sat (7th-17th), very much work was accomplished; at the same time the foreign delegates were given an excellent opportunity of seeing the beautiful American capital and of enjoying the renowned American hospitality; every evening was given up to some entertainment and many of the afternoons also. Conspicuous by its charm and beauty was the reception of the President and Mrs. Taft on the lawn of the White House. The social events culminated in a large banquet given on the 16th by the American Red Cross. Next day the delegates took leave of their hospitable hosts.
Notes on Rivers as Boundaries
Authors: Hyde Charles Cheney
Published: April 2006

In the middle ages rivers which separated alien peoples or tribes were looked upon as neutral barriers rather than areas susceptible of nice division and capable of ownership. There gradually arose, however, a sense of the necessity for the assertion of control over such waters; but there was confusion of thought as to the nature and extent of that control. Rivers served as natural arteries of commerce as well as natural boundaries. The matter of navigation was of as great moment as that of territorial limits. For that reason, early writers announced the principle of co-dominion, which assigned to the opposite riparian proprietors rights of sovereignty over the entire stream. Men found it difficult to reconcile the claim of exclusive sovereignty asserted by one state over any portion of the stream, with the claim of another to exercise rights of navigation therein. No doubt the latter claim had a marked effect upon the scope of the former. Nevertheless, rights of navigation were not decisive of the problem whether a line of division might be drawn through the waters of a river in recognition of exclusive sovereign rights of the states on either side thereof. It came to be understood that such a line could be drawn. In accordance with the views of Grotius and Vattel, nations were agreed that it should pass through the middle of the stream. This method of division proved, however, to be unsatisfactory in the case of navigable rivers; for, in disregarding the course of the principal channel, it was likewise heedless of the equities of the state that happened to be the more remote therefrom. Nor did it adapt itself to gradual changes which such channel might undergo. As a result, at the beginning of the nineteenth century, riparian states began to conclude treaties which proposed a different method of division and which has since become the accepted mode of indicating the frontier.
The Anglo-German Tension and a Solution
Authors: Chadwick F. E.
Published: April 2006

An English writer in the Nineteenth Century and
After, for April last, after naming twelve wars since
1850, great in political effect and, with two exceptions, great also in
bloodshed, says:

If all these wars, and others which I have not stopped to name,
were insufficient to convince our Radicals that their whole theory
of international affairs was false, then the events that next
followed might at last have brought the proof. In the South African
war Britain had over two hundred and fifty thousand troops in the
field, while the British Navy alone stood between our otherwise
unguarded shores and a Europe burning to intervene — a feat which,
in like circumstances, it is now no longer adequate to perform.
Meantime, .in a silence inspired with a terrible energy, had
proceeded the renaissance of the Japanese — a renaissance not of
Jetters, but of arms, until, in 1904–5, by sea and by land she
showed to mankind a new portent, the victory of an Asiatic race over
one of the mightiest empires of the West. Later still than all this,
even within the last few months, a vast upheaval, fraught with
infinite meaning for the whole world, has occurred in China; while
even at the present time a war is proceeding between Italy and
Turkey, and rumours of possible co-operation with the former Power
on the part of Russia are rife in the world.

As if all this were not enough evidence of the impermanence of
all political conditions, Western mankind is also threatened with an
earthquake from beneath in comparison with which the fury of the
French Revolution itself might pale its ineffectual fires. The “Red
Peril” already throws its lurid glare across the page of coming
history, and intestine struggles on a scale unprecedented in human
annals are already looming on the horizon of nearly all civilized
peoples.
The History of the Department of State
Authors: Hunt Gaillard
Published: April 2006

We considered in a former number of the Journal the chief publications
of the Department. The President’s annual message to Congress usually
contains a statement of our relations with foreign Powers, and this serves
as the annual report of the Secretary of State. A regular annual report to
the President or Congress is required from the heads of other departments
but not from him. When Richard Olney was Secretary, however, he made a
report dated December, 1896, entitled “Report of the Secretary of State” for
that year. It was intended to be the first annual report, but the example
was not followed.

The management of foreign affairs being the most important of the
regular duties of the Department, the supervision of the diplomatic and
consular service are its chief duties. The general rules which govern the
foreign service are found in the works on international law and particularly
in the American digests; but two special publications have been issued by
the Department of State for the guidance of its agents abroad — the
Diplomatic Instructions and the Consular Regulations.
The Theory of the Independence and Equality of States
Authors: Brown Philip Marshall
Published: April 2006

International law in common with other sciences is compelled to lay down certain major premises or postulates. These are variously termed the “fundamental,” “primordial,” “inherent,” or “absolute rights” of the state. Thus Hall says:

The ultimate foundation of international law is an assumption that states possess rights and are subject to duties corresponding to the facts of their postulated nature. In virtue of this assumption it is held that since states exist, and are independent beings, possessing property, they have the right to do whatever is necessary for the purpose of continuing and developing their existence, of giving effect to and preserving their independence, and of holding and acquiring property, subject to the qualification that they are bound correlatively to respect these rights in others. It is also considered that their moral nature imposes upon them the duties of good faith, of concession of redress for wrongs, of regard for the personal dignity of their fellows, and to a certain extent of sociability.
International Aspects of the Titanic Case
Authors: Kuhn Arthur K.
Published: April 2006

The appalling loss of life and property resulting from the sinking of the Titanic served to direct public attention both here and abroad not only to the laws which should provide the safeguards of navigation, but also to the incidence of liability for accidents upon the high seas. The former subject has been dealt with in an interesting paper published in this Journal. We here propose to discuss the application to foreign ships, of the United States rule of the limitation of the shipowner’s liability, the foreign law upon the subject and the significance of the international movement for reform through identic legislation in many countries.
Exemption from Panama Tolls
Authors: Wambaugh Eugene
Published: April 2006

“A trust for mankind” is what President Cleveland in a message termed such an enterprise as the Panama Canal. The question just now is whether such a trust is administered properly by giving to vessels engaged in the coasting trade of the United States a total exemption from tolls. It should be noticed that the question is not whether exemption may be given to war ships and other ships of the government, but whether it may be given to the ships of private owners. It should be noticed also that the question is not whether there may be a subsidy, —in other words, not whether the tolls of such vessels may properly be paid out of the national treasury — in which case the burden would be bome by all residents of the United States through the internal revenue, the tariff, and other taxes, and the benefit would be enjoyed initially by the treasury of the Panama Canal and eventually by all persons whom the canal may serve. No, the question is whether, in the words of the Panama Canal Act of 1912, “no tolls shall be levied upon vessels engaged in the coastwise trade of the United States,” — with the almost inevitable result that the tolls exacted from other vessels will thus be made heavier than they otherwise would be.
Representation in Public International Organs
Authors: Myers Denys P.
Published: April 2006

The recommendation included in the Final Act of the Second Hague Conference provides for a preparatory committee to elaborate a program and adds: “This committee should further be entrusted with the task of proposing a system of organization and procedure for the Conference itself.”
Jus Gentium and International Law
Authors: Sherman Gordon E.
Published: April 2006

At the present moment, when the very existence of international law as a practical element in the conduct of human affairs is doubted or derided by many and when such precepts as are claimed to be fundamental in that law itself are daily set at nought by belligerents in the world conflict, it has been thought that a brief outline of the earliest conceptions characterizing international jurisprudence will prove neither, useless nor unwelcome.

The term “International Law” has, in the usage of our day, quite superseded the earlier expression “law of nations,” long since adopted as a translation of the Latin phrase jus gentium. The expression “International Law,” however, so familiar to us, properly denotes a wholly variant conception. In modern days it is used by the celebrated D’Aguesseau and occurs in Volume II of his works, page 337 in the edition of 1773; it is shortly afterward employed by Bentham in his “Principles of Morals and Legislation” (XVII, 326, n. 1), and has since his time come into general use. D’Aguesseau’s expression (droit entre les gens) is doubtless, in its turn, an adaptation from Zouche, Professor of Civil Law at Oxford, who uses, about 1650, the term jus inter gentes in harmony with the thought of Grotius as expressed in the opening paragraph of the Prolegomena to his De Jure Belli Ac Pacis, where Grotius explains at the outset the intended subject of his great treatise, — at jus illud quod inter populos plures aut populorum rectores intercedit, sire ab ipsa natura profectum, aut divinis constitutum legibus, sine moribus et pacto tacito introductum, attigerunt pauci, universim ac certo ordine tractavit hactenus nemo; cum tamen id fieri intersit humani generis.
Treatment of Enemy Aliens
Authors: Garner James W.
Published: April 2006

The English Custodian. The outbreak of the war found in nearly every belligerent country vast amounts of property, both real and personal, owned by persons of enemy nationality or domicile. Likewise, enemy persons were the owners or shareholders in many business and industrial enterprises, corporations, partnerships, etc. With a view to preventing such property from being used or such business from being conducted in a manner prejudicial to the national defense or for the benefit of the enemy, the governments of all the belligerent countries very early adopted measures for placing enemy-owned property and enemy business enterprises under the control or supervision of the public authorities.
American “Good Offices” in Asia
Authors: Dennett Tyler
Published: April 2006

The first article of the American treaty with China, June 18, 1858, reads:

There shall be, as there have always been, peace and friendship between the United States of America and the Ta Tsing Empire, and between their peoples, respectively. They shall not insult or oppress each other for any trifling cause, so as to produce an estrangement between them; and if any other nation should act unjustly or oppressively, the United States will exert their good offices, on being informed of the case, to bring about an amicable arrangement of the question, thus showing their friendly feelings.
American Diplomacy and the Financing of China
Authors: Finch George A.
Published: April 2006

In his last annual message President Taft thus described the diplomacy of his administration: “ The diplomacy of the present administration has sought to respond to modern ideas of commercial intercourse. This policy has been characterized as substituting dollars for bullets… It is an effort frankly directed to the increase of American trade upon the axiomatic principle that the Government of the United States shall extend all proper support to every legitimate and beneficial American enterprise abroad.”
Outline of a Plan for the Maintenance of International Peace, Based Upon the Progressive Development of Accepted Methods
Authors: Finch George A.
Published: April 2006

International arbitration is the oldest and most favored method of settling disputes between nations when diplomacy fails. The Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907 for the Peaceful Settlement of International Disputes both declare that “In questions of a legal nature, and especially in the interpretation or application of international conventions, arbitration is recognized by the Contracting Powers as the most effective, and at the same time the most equitable, means of settling disputes which diplomacy has failed to settle.”.
The Prussian Theory of the State
Authors: Willoughby W. W.
Published: April 2006

Since the outbreak of the Great War in the summer of 1914 the conviction has deepened that whatever may have been the conflict of interests between the nations of Europe due to their efforts to maintain or increase their political influence and territorial extent, this calamitous struggle would not have been precipitated, and certainly England and the United States would not have felt forced to become parties to it, had there not existed in Germany a controlling political philosophy which marked her off from other States and made her a menace to the rest of humanity. It is true that the proximate cause that brought Great Britain into the war was the invasion of Belgium by the German army, which jeopardized her own security from invasion; and it is equally true that it was the disregard by Germany of our own commercial rights as a neutral nation that was the immediate cause of our own declaration of war. But back of these proximate or immediate causes was a real efficient cause which impelled both Great Britain and the United States to enter the contest and to pledge to its successful prosecution their entire manhood and material resources.