bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Book of Enoch and the Qumran Scrolls
Authors: VanderKam James C.
Published: January 2011

The work that is today called the Book of Enoch or 1 Enoch is actually a collection of ancient booklets written at different times by several authors, almost all of them composed in the Aramaic language. They all share the trait that Enoch is the speaker and/or protagonist. Though a book of Enoch was known and fairly widely used in antiquity, most of the text was lost to Western readers until copies of the Ethiopic translation of the book were brought from Abyssinia to Europe beginning in the late eighteenth century CE. This article describes the components, the textual evidence, and influential themes in 1 Enoch. It also considers the place of the book in Second Temple Judaism and evaluates the Enochic–Essene hypothesis.
Assessing the Text‐Critical Theories of the
Hebrew Bible after Qumran
Authors: Hendel Ronald S.
Published: January 2011

The biblical texts from Qumran are the oldest manuscripts of the Hebrew Bible, dating from the mid-third century BCE through the first century CE. Prior to the discovery of the Qumran texts, evidence for the early history of the biblical text consisted of three major versions – the Masoretic text (MT), the Septuagint (LXX), and the Samaritan Pentateuch (SP) – each with an unbroken chain of transmission to the present day. This article assesses the major text-critical theories of the Hebrew Bible after Qumran. First, it surveys the textual situation at Qumran and the relationships among the Qumran texts and the major versions (MT, LXX, and SP), using, as a perspicuous example, the texts of Exodus. Then, the article addresses the adequacy of the text-critical theories, testing their strengths and weaknesses against this evidence. The major protagonists in the theoretical discussion are Frank M. Cross, Shemaryahu Talmon, Emanuel Tov, and Eugene Ulrich.
Authoritative Scriptures and the Dead Sea
Scrolls
Authors: Lim Timothy H.
Published: January 2011

The approach advocated in this article is the understanding of canon as authoritative literature that is binding for the Qumran community. The distinctive features of this approach are: authority is related to a community; the pesherite is central to the understanding of authoritative literature; there is a vaguely bipartite canon where the ‘Torah of Moses’ referred to the Pentateuch; authoritative literature included the biblical lemmata cited and the pesherite interpretation; Jubilees, Enoch, and the Temple Scroll were not considered part of the Torah of Moses; the rules of the community were considered canonical and authoritative; and other books, such as the Psalms of Joshua and ‘the book of meditation’, may also have been considered authoritative.
Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek in the Qumran
Scrolls
Authors: Joosten Jan
Published: January 2011

From a linguist's point of view, the Qumran community was situated in the eye of a storm. In the late Second Temple period, Judaea was multilingual and culturally torn. Hebrew was favoured by Jewish nationalism and religious tradition and Aramaic had been the main language of public life, yet Greek had taken a central place in administration and politics. Under the Romans, Latin was added into the mix. Language use was never neutral in this society. At least three different languages are in fact represented in the Qumran library: Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek. The Hebrew and Aramaic texts discovered in Qumran are extremely precious to linguists, as they are to students of other disciplines. At the same time they raise a large number of questions. This article outlines some of the fruits of research on Qumran Hebrew and Qumran Aramaic, as well as some of the issues that remain debated.
Apocalypticism and Messianism
Authors: Knibb Michael A.
Published: January 2011

The beliefs of the movement that lies behind the scrolls were influenced by the eschatological ideas of the early Enochic writings and by the Book of Daniel, and although the movement does not seem to have produced many apocalypses, eschatology and messianism formed a significant part of its thought-world. But the movement was concerned above all with the proper observance of the Torah. It seems likely that the development of dualism and to some extent of eschatology was a way of coping with the fact that their interpretation of the Torah was not accepted by the leaders. The discussion also holds that the eschatological and messianic beliefs of the Dead Sea Scrolls represent a development of traditions already contained in the Hebrew Bible and form part of the spectrum of beliefs that were common to Jews of the period.
Wisdom Literature and Thought in the Dead Sea Scrolls
Authors: Lange Armin
Published: January 2011

The wisdom texts from Qumran are almost all non-Essene in origin, and date mostly to the third and second centuries BCE. They provide new insights into how Jewish wisdom thought developed in this period, but are far removed from the early proverb collections that are still perceived as characteristic of Jewish wisdom literature. The sapiential texts among the Dead Sea Scrolls show that in ancient Judaism, Job and Qohelet are exceptional responses to the cognitive crises of wisdom caused by the problem of theodicy. A more common answer was Torah wisdom, which claimed that God had revealed the sapiential order of the universe on Mt Sinai in the shape of the Torah. Texts such as Musar le Mevin and the Book of Mysteries declared the sapiential order of the universe a mystery, which was accessible only by specially trained sages.
Monotheism, Principal Angels, and the Background of
Christology
Authors: Hurtado L. W.
Published: January 2011

In recent decades, there has been an intensively renewed interest in the origins and development of ‘Christology’, religious practices as well as ideas/beliefs, and earliest ‘devotion’. Scholars have explored in what ways Jesus-devotion may have drawn upon Jewish tradition and how it may have represented something innovative. In particular, there are questions about the means by which early believers, shaped by Jewish tradition, with its concern for the uniqueness of God, may have accommodated devotion to Jesus as in some way bearing divine significance. The Qumran texts comprise a major and unique cache of material giving access to Second Temple Jewish religious tradition, and are, thus, integral in all of this investigation. This article describes ancient Jewish monotheism, principal angels, and the origins of ‘High’ Christology.
Shared Exegetical Traditions between the Scrolls and the New Testament
Authors: Brooke George J.
Published: January 2011

This article describes and discusses some aspects of biblical interpretation in the Dead Sea Scrolls and the New Testament, aspects that in some way seem to suggest common concerns, whether in terms of content, of form, or of method. It looks at the topic of exegetical traditions that are shared between the compositions preserved in the scrolls found in the eleven caves at and near Qumran and those to be found in the books of the New Testament. Amongst the key issues that need to be kept in mind are: the variety of the witnesses to the Jewish scriptures in the late Second Temple period, whether in Hebrew or in Greek; the rich variety of types of exegesis that extend far beyond eschatologically motivated prophetic fulfilment in both sets of literature; and the range of exegetical methods in both corpora.
Halakhah between the Dead Sea Scrolls and Rabbinic
Literature
Authors: Shemesh Aharon
Published: January 2011

It is difficult to overestimate the importance of the Dead Sea Scrolls for knowledge of halakhah in late antiquity. Because of this finding, there is now original first-hand information on halakhah as practised by a specific Jewish group during the Second Temple period. Previously, the only other extant collections of halakhic material were the corpora of mishnah and midrash. While these incorporate some first-century material, they were redacted in the third or fourth centuries, thus postdating the scrolls by at least 200 years. This article portrays these two bodies of literature. It examines their structure and content, depicts their fundamental assumptions with regard to the origins and authority of halakhah, and explores the relationships between them. The article uses the ‘Essene hypothesis’ and refers to the laws and religious customs found in the scrolls as representing the halakhah practised by the Essenes.
The Contribution of the Qumran Scrolls to the Study
of Ancient Jewish Liturgy
Authors: Falk Daniel K.
Published: January 2011

Prayer as a service to God by the people is one of the most far reaching of religious practices, forming a central part of the religious practice of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam; yet there is still much uncertainty about how this developed within Judaism and why. Scrolls from Qumran provide the most important corpus of evidence to shed light on the critical period during the days of the Second Temple. This article presents a case study for prayer in ancient Judaism. It is organized around the types of questions being asked: questions of definition and classification, textual questions, historical questions, questions concerning context, and questions of ideology and theology. There is a good deal of overlap between these categories, but they are be treated separately for heuristic purposes.
Introduction
Authors: Loughlin John , Hendriks Frank , Lidström Anders
Published: January 2011

From 1945 to 1975, the ‘nationalization’ of governance gathered a pace through the centralization and bureaucratization of public policy programmes which left the national and regional authorities as primarily agents with the function of delivering welfare services on behalf of the central governments. Although local authorities could become powerful in this scenario, in reality, their political autonomy was diminished. Furthermore, during this period democracy was accepted primarily as representative democracy, and other forms such as direct and participatory democracy as undesirable. During the 1960s however, there was a growing interest in other forms of democracy. This and the crises of the nation-state in the 1970s and 1980s catalyzed important changes in the theory and practice of democracy in Europe. Neo-liberalism reforms were introduced to the economic policies as well as in the territorial governance of the nations. It shifted the ‘principal-agent’ model of governance in European nations to decentralized governance. In this book, twenty-nine country cases are examined through their state traditions and models of democracy to understand subnational democracy in Europe. State traditions determine the conditions within which democracy, at both national and subnational levels, is understood and practiced in each nation. And models of democracy determine each of the nation's democratic practices through the following typology of democracy: pendulum democracy, consensus democracy, voter democracy, and participatory democracy.
The United Kingdom: Is there Really an Anglo
Model?
Authors: John Peter , Copus Colin
Published: January 2011

Like many aspects of government and politics in the UK, it is a challenge to find one defining moment that shaped the local government systems. This lack of plan reflects the gradual decline of the local government after their heyday in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Part of the problem of the gradual decline of the local governments is the absence of a key event and clear foundation that established this institution. The closest to a defining moment was the Municipal Corporations Act of 1835, which democratized the medieval system of the government of towns and cities. While this consolidated the decision-making framework which required the whole council to be responsible for policy making and democratized existing corporations and new corporations, the Act however did not introduce a uniform system of elected local government. Rather, it reflected the lack of codification of local government in the UK which has continued to exist until the present time. This article discusses the system of local government in the UK. It explores the themes of centralization in the overall government system of the UK and how it affects the local government system of the nation. Created centuries ago and deemed significant, the local government however has struggled to maintain an effective and legitimate force in British politics and policy-making. In spite of reform efforts, such as the establishment of the Greater London Authority and the mayor for London, local government nevertheless continues to see its decline and its minimized role within the peripheries of British political life. It has continued to witness its weak visibility, representation, and influence in the centre-fold of the British government.
Belgium: A Tale of Regional Divergence?
Authors: Wayenberg Ellen , De Rynck Filip , Steyvers Kristof , Pilet Jean‐Benoît
Published: January 2011

Under the surface of great unity, Belgium suffered from three cleavages that have divided the small nation. This article discusses the three cleavages that have influenced and affected the political make-up of Belgian. The first two have an indirect effect on subnational democracy as they are an expression of the structural relationship between the state, civil society, and the market. The third cleavage has a more direct bearing on democracy beyond the nation-state. The first cleavage is the rise of liberals opposing rural Catholic domination of society. A logic of subsidiarity was formed which developed a system of pillarization (verzuiling) which segmented society. The second cleavage is economic, as the mass labour force stood against a capitalist regime. With the development of the labour movement and the spread of voting rights, capitalism became more state-regulated. This led to corporatism where private organizations were given privileged status and often monopolized substantial aspects of public goods and service delivery. The last cleavage is the conflicts between two linguistic communities. This conflict affected the nature of the subnational democracy of Belgium. The combined effects of the three cleavages: pillarization, corporatism, and regionalization, made Belgium local governments and local leaders amongst the weakest in Europe. While tendencies of divergence are prevalent in the Belgian context, convergence is still a possibility: the regions integrated Belgian heritage into their political systems. The most crucial is the strong political localism which led to a complex intergovernmental and party-political lobbying and to blurred responsibilities which hollow out local democracy. In general, local democracy has been the victim of such systematic features.
The Netherlands: Subnational Democracy and the
Reinvention of Tradition
Authors: Hendriks Frank , Schaap Linze
Published: January 2011

Cities and towns played a key role in the history of state formation in the Netherlands. From the Spanish Habsburgs to the Burgundians, the Netherlands have attempted to achieve centralization and concentration of the powerful with little success. However in 1848, J. R. Thorbecke was commissioned by the king to draft a new constitution. This led to the formation of a Thorbeckean system which focused on a decentralized unitary state that still exists today. Its unitary nature is not based on a centralized government structure, but on agreement among the three active components of the state: central government, provinces, and local authorities. The Thorbeckean system is an association of mutually restricting bodies designed to work freely. This concept of government has influenced the political and governmental structure of the Netherlands. This article discusses the Dutch government system, its efforts of reforming subnational democracy and reinventing interactive policy-making, and local politics. Of its efforts to reform the democracy at the local and regional level, the most significant move of the Dutch government is the reinvention of interactive policy-making or network governance and co-production. This move towards interactive policy-making is a reinvention of tradition rather than reinvention of the government. While the move is a retrace of a tradition, the Dutch government nevertheless have added new elements as well.
Luxembourg: The Challenge of Inclusive Democracy in a
‘Local State’
Authors: Dumont Patrick , Kies Raphaël , Poirier Philippe
Published: January 2011

This article focuses on the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg and the organization, delimitation, and democracy within the subnational government or municipality. Luxembourg is a unitary state with a single tier of subnational government. The structure of the unitary state of the Grand Duchy combines the features of a centralized unitary state of the French tradition with the consensual political system of Belgium and the Netherlands. Many of the elements of its institutional framework are inherited from former occupations. German and French influences are evident in the territorial division, in its financial means of autonomy, and in relations of the local authorities and the central state. The interdependencies between the national and local level is also influenced by the relatively small size of the nation. Within this context, the central government of the Grand Duchy exerts a strong hold over local affairs. However, the politics at the national level and territorial reform plans are also affected by the massive presence of local office holders in parliament. Although reforms and new schemes of cooperation between municipalities and the state have been introduced, these measures have not loosened the grip of the central state on subnational authorities.
Austria: From Consensus to Competition and
Participation?
Authors: Fallend Franz
Published: January 2011

Austria is a democratic republic wherein constitutionally, state power is federalized into nine provinces and 357 municipalities which are organized as self-governing bodies. However, in reality, major political parties and their predecessors have dominated Austrian politics. As a result, neither federalism nor local government have been fully developed. This article discusses the political structure of Austria. It focuses on the democracy of the nation which is marked by highly congruent structures and processes at all territorial levels. All the territorial levels are marked by parliamentary system dominated by the national state; consensus policy-making within the elite; elite-centred politics; and underdeveloped participatory democracy. All of this holds true despite changes in globalization and in national state requirements for a new differentiation. At the turn of the century, a new differentiation emerged wherein an agreement-based model of administration shifted towards a conflict- and competition-oriented based model. This shift caused municipalities to move away from the inherited and inflexible corporatism and towards a more open and flexible network structure. Although these new instruments have opened avenues for citizens, the Austrian people have used such instruments only reluctantly. At the same time political elites have also strived to maintain their grip on their dominating role in politics. Despite criticisms on the undemocratic nature and liability of internal blocking, the Proporz governments are still institutionalized in five provinces and the new regional development organizations which have been created to catalyze economic impulses have only coordinating and consultative functions. This suggests time will have to pass before changes will penetrate the deeply imbedded state traditions of Austria.
Switzerland: Subsidiarity, Power‐Sharing,
and Direct Democracy
Authors: Ladner Andreas
Published: January 2011

This article discusses the Swiss political system which is marked by symmetric federalism. In Switzerland, subnational democracy is accorded with the same value and importance as national democracy. Following the principle of subsidiarity, cantons and municipalities have a high level of autonomy. They create their own political institutions, they control their finances, they provide public facilities and services, and they possess competence to fix the tax rate on income and property. In terms of politics, the subnational level is marked by power-sharing, multi-party executives, and far-reaching means of direct democracy.
Norway: The Decline of Subnational
Democracy?
Authors: Baldersheim Harald , Rose Lawrence E.
Published: January 2011

The narrative of Norway is often narrated as series of national liberations culminating recently in deliverance from Nazi occupation. Another strand of the story is that of progressive social equalization resulting in the present welfare state and one of the most egalitarian societies in Europe. These stories have engendered a ‘freedom, equality, and peace’ syndrome in Norway which is a source of tension in central-local relations as well as in internal relations. Fear of losing control has resulted in a lack of constitutional protection for local self-government and two ‘No’ outcomes in referendums on Norwegian EU membership. This article discusses Norway and its assumed declining subnational democracy. Norway is a decentralized welfare state which belongs to the Scandinavian state tradition with distinctly cooperative central-local relations. Whereas local government is legally free to engage in tasks that are not explicitly granted to other public bodies or prohibited by law, in practice most important local functions are seen as joint responsibilities shared by the local and central government. Although decentralization and the transfer of functions were dominant in the early 1990s, these changed in the recent years as the state required the transfer of several functions of the local government to the state. There is also a parallel trend of more active central government intervention in local affairs. This indicated the diminishing tolerance of variation in levels and manners of local governance and local service provision.
Italy: The Subnational Dimension to Strengthening Democracy Since the 1990s
Authors: Piattoni Simona , Brunazzo Marco
Published: January 2011

This article discusses Italy and its efforts to strengthen democracy in a nation marked with bargained pluralism. Italy was founded in 1860. From its inception, it has been informed by the Napoleonic tradition of centre-periphery relations. With the Napoleonic tradition as a framework, Italy has had a strong and technocratic central apparatus which controlled the territory through its deconcentrated offices placed at the provincial level, with self-government circumscribed to the municipal level. The municipalities were both the traditional locus of self-government and the terminals of the central government, on whose behalf they carried out a number of security and public health tasks. In the elite states of Italy, the Napoleonic tradition was adopted because it was already familiar to them. The remaining municipalities adhered to the German type because of the contention that it would aid in curbing the centripetal forces that were still at work underneath the surface of the unitary rhetoric. In the 1980s, a debate was introduced in Italy on the need for institutional reforms that would lead to the stability and effectiveness of the local governments. At the beginning of the 1990s, the Italian political class officially embraced the need to reform the subnational level of government to permit the creation of an authentic system of political preference formation. In this article, the electoral and territorial reforms, which formed part of the single reformist effort to modernize Italian democracy, are discussed. Included as well are the reforms made in centre-periphery relations to achieve long-coveted political goals.
Poland: Europeanization of Subnational
Governments
Authors: Swianiewicz Paweł
Published: January 2011

The traditions of Polish democracy date back to the First Republic. However, eventually Poland suffered collapse due to the relative weakness of the Polish central authorities. Furthermore, the partition of Poland among Russia, Prussia, and Austrian Habsburg Empire in the nineteenth century created a challenge for the unification of the country after it gained its independence in 1918. All of these factors contributed to a fear of radical decentralization and strong regional autonomy. This article discusses the Europeanization of the subnational governments of Poland. In the accession of Poland to the European Union in 2004, the democratic and decentralization processes of the country moved forward. While the accession of Poland into the EU seemed like it had little to do with the subnational government, its accession fundamentally changed the environment with which local and regional governments operated including the balance of political power in all the tiers of the Polish government. Europeanization of the Polish subnational governments led to changes in the internal politics of Poland, the balance of power-play among the tiers in the government, and the efficient and effective mobilization of state funds.
The Czech Republic: Local Government in the Years
after the Reform
Authors: Illner Michal
Published: January 2011

From 1620 to 1918, the Czech Kingdom was under Austrian rule and later the Austro-Hungarian monarchy. As such, it shared some of the features of the constitutional system of the Austrian and Austro-Hungarian monarchy. During the second half of the nineteenth century, Czech political representation demanded federalization from the monarchy. The failure to fulfil Czech ambitions led to the alienation of Czech society. In 1918, after the First World War, the new Czechoslovakia was established on the ruins of the old monarchy. The country became a parliamentary democracy, and this promulgated a controversial notion of a ‘Czechoslovak nation’ which neglected to consider the ethnic diversity of the population and which caused inter-ethnic tensions. Communist ruling dominated the nation from 1948 to 1989; and in 1989, communist rule collapsed which allowed for reforms. This article discusses the Czech Republic and the reforms that followed after the eradication of communist rule. During the fourteen years after the collapse of the communist regime, democratizing and decentralizing reforms were introduced. These series of reforms introduced a new system of subnational government on the municipal and local levels. The main aims of the reform were fulfilled in 2003, and since then, the new system has been settling down. Problems and challenges have been emerging but none of them necessitated a fundamental revision of the system.
Hungary: Remarkable Successes and Costly Failures: An
Evaluation of Subnational Democracy
Authors: Soós Gábor , Kákai László
Published: January 2011

This article focuses on Hungary, a unitary state with a local government system founded close to the Germanic state tradition and infused with some Napoleonic elements. Various forms of local and regional autonomy existed in the history of Hungary, however they were destroyed in the communist period. In the new political system of Hungary, the fundamental elements were based on considerations and interactions of participants. The outcome was not determined by any of the state traditions but rather by the cultural kit available to actors and limited by the path dependency of existing institutions, the self-interest of the old and new elites, the symbolically and economically powerful external influence, and the public mood. External pressure more than the state tradition has shaped the political system of Hungary. The local democratization yielded a mixed outcome. On the one hand, local governments were able to successfully replace the old system of communist councils, and became the basis of the functioning system of public administration and legal autonomy. However, the subnational system now has to overcome four challenges, all of which have roots in the various aspects of democratization: the democratic deficit; the highly fragmented local government system with a high cost of local administration and services; the lack of consensus on the powerful meso-governmental level; and the weakness of the societal autonomies.
Slovakia: Local Government: Establishing Democracy at
the Grassroots
Authors: Čapková Soňa
Published: January 2011

The Slovak Republic or Slovakia came into being after the dissolution of the Czechoslovak Federation which split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Since gaining the status of an independent republic, Slovakia has adopted a parliamentary democracy system. And it has been regarded as one of the fastest reformers in the world, introducing ambitious reforms in all aspects of political and social strata. This article discusses the formation of Slovak subnational governments. In the 1990s, the decentralization of the Slovak government was introduced. This move of delegating public administration and of restoring autonomy in the local and municipal governments was faced with different dynamic changes. The principal aim of the public administration reform wherein the state power was distributed territorially and functionally between the state, the regional level, and the municipalities was spurred by the desire to establish an efficient and effective government close to the people. The decentralization of Slovakia provided local governments with additional flexibility in the policy processes. This flexibility proved to be instrumental in the facilitation of coordination with other policies, adaptation to local conditions, and participation in decision-making. Decentralization has allowed the local governments to improve quality of life for the citizens, influence changes in the law, improve the quality of government-provided goods and services, and enhance the representation of the interests of the people. In sum, subnational governments in the Slovakian context represented a substantial force in improving the quality of government in Slovakia.
Estonia: Challenges and Lessons of the Development
of Local Autonomy
Authors: Sootla Georg , Kattai Kersten
Published: January 2011

This article focuses on the development of local autonomy in Estonia. Estonia emerged as a result of the collapse of the Russian empire in 1918. The emergence of Estonian democracy was guided by the values of national liberation. After the defeat of Soviet Russia, independence was reasserted through the Tartu Treaty. In 1920, the first constitution of Estonia was drafted and a liberal version of parliamentary republic was established. However, the imbalance of the party system in the parliamentary system of Estonia caused instability in the executive of the Estonian government. In the 1930s, the Great Depression reached Estonia and caused political crisis which eroded the democratic regime. In 1934 Estonia through the Päts regime introduced a new constitution that established an authoritarian and corporatist regime. Estonia lost its independence in 1940 after its annexation to the Soviet Union. However, under Soviet Union rule, Estonia slowly began to gain a strong position in the 1960s onwards when the Soviet central administration began to collapse. And in 1991, Estonia ratified its own constitution after its independence from the Soviet Union. This new constitution departed from the principle of the legal consistency of the Russian empire and with the constitution enforced by the authoritarian regime in 1937. This new constitution allowed democratic elections and established democratic self-government institutions. After twenty years of reforms, the Estonian local and regional government today is still in a state of transition. For this reason, current configurations of local governance as well as intergovernmental relations could change drastically in the future. Although there are serious conceptual and political disagreements about the concrete direction of institutional design, there is a general consent that qualitative changes in local governance are inevitable in Estonia.
Lithuania: Brave Enough to Implement Daring Democratic
Reforms?
Authors: Vaiciuniene Jolanta , Nefas Saulius
Published: January 2011

This article discusses the transition of Lithuania after its freedom from annexation to the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). The tradition of local democracy and parliamentarism in Lithuania developed during the Middle Ages. However, this formation was interrupted by two occupations. When the country sought to re-established its independence, first at the beginning and then at the end of the twentieth century, the achievements of the neighbouring countries were followed by Lithuania hence no specific Lithuanian model emerged. The system of democracy at the central government level is founded on a semi-presidential management model, although there are several claims that is has a dominating role of the parliament. In practice, power is divided, which is crucial in a democratic state. While Lithuania has a decentralized law on self-government at the local level, this is restricted and controlled by a central government unable to develop local self-government and by local politicians who cling to their deemed valuable links with the central government hence unable to resist when their powers of self-government become weakened. And while Lithuania is in the process of developing into a modern democratic state, the nation is still on its way to maturity where more challenges and difficulties will arise.
European Subnational Democracy: Comparative
Reflections and Conclusions
Authors: Hendriks Frank , Loughlin John , Lidström Anders
Published: January 2011

This concluding article gives an overview of the main contents of this book. This book, it states, has surveyed a wide range of European countries, the members of the European Union as well as Switzerland and Norway as all these democratic countries present a rich and varied experience of democracy. The primary intellectual quest of this book has been to explore the meaning of democracy itself. The article further goes on to explore the idea of subnational democracy in Europe.
Antigenic modules in the N-terminal S1 region of the transmissible gastroenteritis virus spike protein
Authors: Reguera Juan , Ordoño Desiderio , Santiago César , Enjuanes Luis , Casasnovas José M.
Published: January 2011

The N-terminal S1 region of the transmissible gastroenteritis virus (TGEV) spike (S) glycoprotein contains four antigenic sites (C, B, D and A, from the N- to the C-terminal end) and is engaged in host-cell receptor recognition. The most N-terminal portion of the S1 region, which comprises antigenic sites C and B, is needed for the enteric tropism of TGEV, whereas the major antigenic site A at the C-terminal moiety is required for both respiratory and enteric cell tropism, and is engaged in recognition of the aminopeptidase N (APN) receptor. This study determined the kinetics for binding of a soluble S1 protein to the APN protein. Moreover, the S1 region of the TGEV S protein was dissected, with the aim of identifying discrete modules displaying unique antigenic sites and receptor-binding functions. Following protease treatments and mammalian cell expression methods, four modules or domains (D1–D4) were defined at the S1 region. Papain treatment identified an N-terminal domain (D1) resistant to proteolysis, whereas receptor binding defined a soluble and functional APN receptor-binding domain (D3). This domain was recognized by neutralizing antibodies belonging to the antigenic site A and therefore could be used as an immunogen for the prevention of viral infection. The organization of the four modules in the S1 region of the TGEV S glycoprotein is discussed.
IL-28B predicts response to chronic hepatitis C therapy – fine-mapping and replication study in Asian populations
Authors: Ochi Hidenori , Maekawa Toshiro , Abe Hiromi , Hayashida Yasufumi , Nakano Rikita , Imamura Michio , Hiraga Nobuhiko , Kawakami Yoshiiku , Aimitsu Shiomi , Kao Jia-Horng , Kubo Michiaki , Tsunoda Tatsuhiko , Kumada Hiromitsu , Nakamura Yusuke , Hayes C. Nelson , Chayama Kazuaki
Published: January 2011

Type I interferon (IFN) is used for the treatment of chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. Despite advances in antiviral therapy, a large proportion of patients remain infected following current therapies. Through a genome-wide scan, we found two variants (rs8099917 and rs12979860) in the IL-28B locus that affect the outcome of PEG-IFN and ribavirin combination therapy, consistent with recent studies (P = 6.52×10-8; odds ratio 2.46 and P = 8.63×10-8, odds ratio 2.40, respectively). Significant associations were also observed in the case of IFN monotherapy for HCV genotypes 1b and 2a. With rs8099917, HCV genotype 1b patients had a significantly lower frequency of the favourable genotype (86.6 %) compared with healthy controls (91.7 %), and HCV genotype 2a patients had an intermediate frequency (89.9 %). Similar results were found for rs12979860. Fine-mapping analysis revealed that rs8099917 had the strongest association with treatment outcome and 14 others, including four novel single nucleotide polymorphisms, had comparable associations. Haplotype analysis revealed that none of the haplotypes showed stronger association than any single marker. Early non-responders who could not achieve 2 log viral decline during the first 12 weeks of treatment had higher odds ratios for these two variants. The favourable allele of rs8099917 is also associated with initial viral decline at 2 and 4 weeks following the start of therapy. Multivariate analysis of PEG-IFN and ribavirin-treated patients showed that rs8099917 genotype, viral load, fibrosis and age were significant predictors of response to therapy. Common variation at the IL-28B locus is predictive of various IFN-based therapies for HCV independent of regimen or HCV genotype.
Community structure of soft sediment pool fishes in Moreton Bay, Australia
Authors: Chargulaf C. A. , Townsend K. A. , Tibbetts I. R.
Published: January 2011

A survey of soft sediment tide pools was conducted to assess the occupation and assemblage of fishes on three different intertidal shores in Moreton Bay, Australia, between January and December 2009. Tide‐pool volume ranged from 0· 30 to 29· 75 l and varied significantly between months and sites. A total of 1364 individuals representing 15 species and nine families of fishes were observed. At Dunwich, fish assemblages were dominated by the sand goby Favonigobius lentiginosus (89%) and whiting, Sillago spp. (10%). At Manly, the gobies Favonigobius exquisitus (37%), Pseudogobius sp. (31%) and the blenny Omobranchus punctatus (19%) dominated the shores while at Godwin Beach, F. lentiginosus (15%), F. exquisitus (45%) and Sillago spp. (25%) were the most abundant species. The mean ±s.e. density of fishes ranged from 0· 29 ± 0· 13 to 5· 04 ± 1· 74 fishes l−1 and abundance of fish correlated with pool volume. Juveniles (75%) dominated assemblages suggesting that soft sediment pools may act as nurseries. The persistent and recurrent fish assemblages found in soft sediment tide pools in Moreton Bay suggest that these shores are behaving more like a tropical than a temperate climate shore, as there was no significant difference of fish abundances between seasons.
Expression of aldehyde dehydrogenase 1 (ALDH1) in endometrioid adenocarcinoma and its clinical implications
Authors: Rahadiani Nur , Ikeda Jun‐ichiro , Mamat Suhana , Matsuzaki Shinya , Ueda Yutaka , Umehara Reina , Tian Tian , Wang Yi , Enomoto Takayuki , Kimura Tadashi , Aozasa Katsuyuki , Morii Eiichi
Published: January 2011

Aldehyde dehydrogenase 1 (ALDH1) is expressed in stem/progenitor cells, including cancer‐initiating cells (CIC) of various organs. In the present study, ALDH1 expression was immunohistochemically examined in uterine endometrioid adenocarcinoma. The ALDH1 was expressed in a small portion of tumor cells, and these ALDH1‐expressing cells were less mature than ALDH1‐non‐expressing cells. The ALDH1‐expressing (ALDH1‐hi) cells were more tumorigenic, resistant to anti‐cancer agents and more invasive than ALDH1‐lo cells. Culture of the sorted ALDH1‐hi cells yielded both ALDH1‐hi and ALDH1‐lo cells, whereas ALDH1‐lo cells yielded ALDH‐lo cells alone. Clinically, a high‐level of ALDH1 expression in tumor cells was correlated with T category, lymphatic invasion, recurrence and prognosis of patients. Patients with high ALDH1 expression showed poorer prognoses than those with low expression (P = 0.015 for disease‐free survival [DFS] and P = 0.010 for overall survival [OS]), and high ALDH1 expression was an independent factor for poor prognosis. Aldehyde dehydrogenase 1 is a candidate for CIC marker for uterine endometrioid adenocarcinoma. (Cancer Sci 2011; 102: 903–908)
A novel tumor‐associated antigen, cell division cycle 45‐like can induce cytotoxic T‐lymphocytes reactive to tumor cells
Authors: Tomita Yusuke , Imai Katsunori , Senju Satoru , Irie Atsushi , Inoue Mitsuhiro , Hayashida Yuki , Shiraishi Kenji , Mori Takeshi , Daigo Yataro , Tsunoda Takuya , Ito Takaaki , Nomori Hiroaki , Nakamura Yusuke , Kohrogi Hirotsugu , Nishimura Yasuharu
Published: January 2011

The present study attempted to identify a useful tumor‐associated antigen (TAA) for lung cancer immunotherapy and potential immunogenic peptides derived from the TAA. We focused on cell division cycle 45‐like (CDC45L), which has a critical role in the initiation and elongation steps of DNA replication, as a novel candidate TAA for immunotherapy based on a genome‐wide cDNA microarray analysis of lung cancer. The CDC45L was overexpressed in the majority of lung cancer tissues, but not in the adjacent non‐cancerous tissues or in many normal adult tissues. We examined thein vitroandin vivoanti‐tumor effects of cytotoxic T‐lymphocytes (CTL) specific to CDC45L‐derived peptides induced from HLA‐A24 (A*24:02)‐positive donors. We identified three CDC45L‐derived peptides that could reproducibly induce CDC45L‐specific and HLA‐A24‐restricted CTL from both healthy donors and lung cancer patients. The CTL could effectively lyse lung cancer cells that endogenously expressed both CDC45L and HLA‐A24. In addition, we found that CDC45L556KFLDALISL564was eminent in that it induced not only HLA‐A24 but also HLA‐A2 (A*02:01)‐restricted antigen specific CTL. Furthermore, the adoptive transfer of the CDC45L‐specific CTL inhibited the growth of human cancer cells engrafted into immunocompromised mice. These results suggest that these three CDC45L‐derived peptides are highly immunogenic epitopes and CDC45L is a novel TAA that might be a useful target for lung cancer immunotherapy. (Cancer Sci2011; 102: 697–705)
Alcohol's harm to others: reduced wellbeing and health status for those with heavy drinkers in their lives
Authors: Casswell Sally , You Ru Quan , Huckle Taisia
Published: January 2011

Aims  The impact of alcohol on those other than the drinker is an under‐researched area with important policy implications. This study is a first step in investigating relationships between exposure to heavy drinkers in respondent's lives with measures of health status and wellbeing.

Design setting and participants  A cross‐sectional general population survey was carried out among 3068 New Zealand residents aged 12–80 years (response rate 64%) using an in‐house computer‐assisted telephone interviewing system.

Measurements  Respondents' estimates of health status (European Quality of Life–5 Dimensions) and subjective wellbeing (Personal Wellbeing Index) were measured along with self‐reports of heavy drinkers in their lives, demographic variables and own drinking.

Findings  More than one in four of the sample had experienced someone they considered to be a heavy drinker in their environment in the past 12 months. An index of exposure to heavy drinkers, reflecting numbers of heavy drinkers and cohabitation, predicted lower health status and personal wellbeing while controlling for demographic variables and respondent's own drinking

Conclusions  Cross‐sectional data from a general population sample suggest that there is a relationship between exposure to heavy drinkers and reduced personal wellbeing and poorer health status. Exposure to heavy drinkers may have negative impacts for others.
Employment‐based abstinence reinforcement as a maintenance intervention for the treatment of cocaine dependence: post‐intervention outcomes
Authors: DeFulio Anthony , Silverman Kenneth
Published: January 2011

Aims  Due to the chronicity of cocaine dependence, practical and effective maintenance interventions are needed to sustain long‐term abstinence. We sought to assess the effects of long‐term employment‐based reinforcement of cocaine abstinence after discontinuation of the intervention.

Design  Participants who initiated sustained opiate and cocaine abstinence during a 6‐month abstinence reinforcement and training program worked as data entry operators and were randomly assigned to a group that could work independently of drug use (control, n = 24), or an abstinence‐contingent employment (n = 27) group that was required to provide cocaine‐ and opiate‐negative urine samples to work and maintain maximum rate of pay.

Setting  A non‐profit data entry business.

Participants  Unemployed welfare recipients who persistently used cocaine while in methadone treatment.

Measurements  Urine samples and self‐reports were collected every 6 months for 30 months.

Findings  During the employment year, abstinence‐contingent employment participants provided significantly more cocaine‐negative samples than controls (82.7% and 54.2%; P = 0.01, OR = 4.61). During the follow‐up year, the groups had similar rates of cocaine‐negative samples (44.2% and 50.0%; P = 0.93) and human immunodeficiency virus risk behaviors. Participants' social, employment, economic and legal conditions were similar in the two groups across all phases of the study.

Conclusions  Employment‐based reinforcement effectively maintains long‐term cocaine abstinence, but many patients relapse to use when the abstinence contingency is discontinued, even after a year of abstinence‐contingent employment. Relapse could be prevented in many patients by leaving employment‐based abstinence reinforcement in place indefinitely, which could be facilitated by integrating it into typical workplaces.
The aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AHR) transcription factor regulates megakaryocytic polyploidization
Authors: Lindsey Stephan , Papoutsakis Eleftherios T.
Published: January 2011

We propose that the aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AHR) is a novel transcriptional regulator of megakaryopoietic polyploidization. Functional evidence was obtained that AHR impacts in vivo megakaryocytic differentiation and maturation; compared to wild‐type mice, AHR‐null mice had lower platelet counts, fewer numbers of newly synthesized platelets, increased bleeding times and lower‐ploidy megakaryocytes (Mks). AHR mRNA increased 3·6‐fold during ex vivo megakaryocytic differentiation, but reduced or remained constant during parallel isogenic granulocytic or erythroid differentiation. We interrogated the role of AHR in megakaryopoiesis using a validated Mk model of megakaryopoiesis, the human megakaryoblastic leukaemia CHRF cell line. Upon CHRF Mk differentiation, AHR mRNA and protein levels increased, AHR protein shifted from the cytoplasm to the nucleus and AHR binding to its consensus DNA binding sequence increased. Protein and mRNA levels of the AHR transcriptional target HES1 also increased. Mk differentiation of CHRF cells where AHR or HES1 was knocked‐down using RNAi resulted in lower ploidy distributions and cells that were incapable of reaching ploidy classes ≥16n. AHR knockdown also resulted in increased DNA synthesis of lower ploidy cells, without impacting apoptosis. Together, these data support a role for AHR in Mk polyploidization and in vivo platelet function, and warrant further detailed investigations.