bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Disorders of biopterin metabolism
Authors: Longo Nicola 
Published: February 2009

SummaryDefects in the metabolism or regeneration of tetrahydrobiopterin (BH4) were initially discovered in patients with hyperphenylalaninaemia who had progressive neurological deterioration despite optimal metabolic control (malignant hyperphenylalaninaemia). BH4 is an essential cofactor not only for phenylalanine hydroxylase, but also for tyrosine and two tryptophan hydroxylases, three nitric oxide synthases, and glyceryl‐ether monooxygenase. Defective activity of tyrosine and tryptophan hydroxylases explains the neurological deterioration in patients with BH4 deficiency with progressive mental and physical retardation, central hypotonia and peripheral spasticity, seizures and microcephaly. Five separate genetic conditions affect BH4 synthesis or regeneration: deficiency of GTP cyclohydrolase I, 6‐pyruvoyl tetrahydropterin synthase, sepiapterin reductase, dihydropteridine reductase (DHPR) and pterin‐4α‐carbinolamine dehydratase. Only the latter of these conditions is relatively benign and is associated with transient hyperphenylalaninaemia. All these conditions can be identified in newborns by an elevated phenylalanine, with the exception of sepiapterin reductase and the dominant form of GTP cyclohydrolase I deficiency that results in biopterin deficiency/insufficiency only in the brain. Diagnosis relies on the measurement of pterin metabolites in urine, dihydropteridine reductase in blood spots, neurotransmitters and pterins in the CSF and on the demonstration of reduced enzyme activity (red blood cells or fibroblasts) or causative mutations in the relative genes. The outcome of BH4 deficiency is no longer malignant if therapy is promptly initiated to reduce plasma phenylalanine levels and replace missing neurotransmitters. This is accomplished by a special diet and/or BH4 supplements and administration of l‐dopa, carbidopa, 5‐hydroxytryptophan, and, in certain cases, a MAO‐B inhibitor. Patients with DHPR deficiency also require folinic acid supplements, since DHPR may help in maintaining folate in the tetrahydro form. Several patients with BH4 deficiency treated since the newborn period have reached adult age with good outcome.
Can Population‐Based Carrier Screening Be Left to the Community?
Authors: Raz Aviad E. 
Published: February 2009

AbstractAs more genes and mutations are identified in diseases for which particular populations are at increased risk, it is becoming more important to address the social interface between communities and carrier screening. While disproportionately targeted in genetic research, the Orthodox Jewish community often shies away, due to social and religious constraints, from genetic testing and counseling offered by the public health system. The solution is provided by Dor Yeshorim—a program which has become for many a prototype for the successful merging of modern reprogenetic screening and traditional communities. My commentary focuses on the gaps between the rationale and practice of Dor Yeshorim, and the implications of these gaps regarding the trade‐off involved in leaving carrier screening to the community. I conclude with a set of questions raised by the implications of the unintended consequences of community genetics.
The Carotid Artery Plaque Size and Echogenicity are Related to Different Cardiovascular Risk Factors in the Elderly
Authors: Andersson Jessika , Sundström Johan , Kurland Lisa , Gustavsson Thomas , Hulthe Johannes , Elmgren Anders , Zilmer Kersti , Zilmer Mihkel , Lind Lars 
Published: February 2009

AbstractCarotid plaques can be characterised by ultrasound by size and echogenicity. Both size and echogenicity are predictors of cardiovascular events. The aim of this study was to examine whether traditional risk factors and markers of inflammation and oxidation were associated with plaque size and echogenicity. Computerised analysis of carotid plaque size and echogenicity (grey scale median, GSM) were performed by ultrasound in a population‐based health survey in 1,016 subjects aged 70 years (PIVUS study). Information on cardiovascular risk factors was collected, together with markers of inflammation and oxidation. Increased Framingham risk score, systolic blood pressure, higher BMI and decreased HDL, lower glutathione levels were related to echolucent plaques. Previous or present smoking was common with significantly more pack‐years related to the echorich plaques. Plaque size was associated with increased Framingham risk score, systolic blood pressure, blood glucose levels, smoking, ApoB/A1 ratio, OxLDL, TNF alpha, HOMA insulin resistance, leucocyte count, decreased BCD‐LDL and low levels of l‐selectin. Low HDL, increased BMI and decreased glutathione levels were associated with the echolucency of carotid plaques, implying metabolic factors to play a role for plaque composition. Markers of inflammation were related to plaque size alone, implying inflammation to be predominantly associated with the amount of atherosclerosis. These results suggest that plaque size and echogenicity are influenced by different risk factors.
Critical Theory, Historical Materialism, and the Ostensible End of Marxism: The Poverty of Theory Revisited
Authors: Palmer Bryan D. 
Published: February 2009

SummaryThis essay notes the extent to which poststructuralism/postmodernism have generally espoused hostility to historical materialism, surveys some representative examples of historical writing that have gravitated toward the new critical theory in opposition to Marxism, and closes with a discussion of the ironic evolution of a poststructurally inclined, anti-Marxist historiography. Counter to the prevailing ideological consensus that Marxism has been brought to its interpretive knees by a series of analytic challenges and the political collapse of the world's ostensibly “socialist” states, this essay argues that historical materialism has lost neither its power to interpret the past nor its relevance to the contemporary intellectual terrain.
Popular Bases of the International Labor Movement in the United States and Britain, 1939–1949
Authors: Silverman Victor 
Published: February 2009

SummaryThis paper examines the working class in the United States and Britain in order to find a new perspective on the origins and break-up of the World Federation of Trade Unions. While most previous works have focused on the roles of institutions and leaders, this research uncovers the important role played by the thoughts, actions, and inactions of average workers in international affairs. American and British workers, as key constituents of two of the most important organizations making up the WFTU, were not passive observers of world events. Rather, they were critical not only of how the world union movement functioned, but also of the process which came to be termed the Cold War.
“Three Days Down the Pit and Three Days Play”: Underemployment in the East Midland Coalfields between the Wars
Authors: Griffin Colin P. 
Published: February 2009

SummaryConflicting interpretations of economic and social conditions in inter-war Britain are a staple diet of the historiography of the period. Can it be best characterized as one of social deprivation and economic decay or of social and economic improvement? The level of unemployment and its effects on those who experienced it is a critical element in the debate and this study will contribute to it in a number of ways. It will, through a case study of the East Midland coalfields, emphasize that underemployment (or short-time working) has been comparatively neglected in accounts of unemployment and the “real” incidence of the latter therefore underestimated. Moreover, the effects of underemployment were no less real in terms of depressing living standards than more permanent forms of unemployment. The traditional view of the relatively prosperous underemployed East Midlands' miner compared to his fully employed Durham or South Wales counterpart is, therefore, no longer tenable, The view, popularized recently by Benjamin and Kochin, that this form of unemployment was voluntary in nature will also be questioned as will the generalization that miners' trade unions preferred wage maintenance to maximising employment levels in their industrial relations strategies. Trade union officers gave a high priority to achieving an employment situation which combined work spreading and the receipt of statutory unemployment benefit by their members. The partial failure of these endeavours to mitigate the full impact of short-time working on miners' income is further evidence of the need to qualify the “optimistic” interpretation of living standards in inter-war Britain.
The Transforming Impact of Collective Action: Belgium, 1886
Authors: Deneckere Gita 
Published: February 2009

SummaryThis article illuminates the transforming impact of collective action in the light of the industrial jacquerie of 1886 in Belgium. This important episode of popular struggle fuelled a dialectical process of change which was marked by a fundamental shift in both social policy and in repertoires of collective action. In 1886 workers still drew on an old repertoire of collective action. Their struggle had such a disruptive force that it forced the state to intervene in labour conflicts. The conservative political élite responded with conciliatory gestures that foreshadowed a legislative programme of social reform. In the changed political climate the position of progressive wings in the two conservative parties was enhanced as the growing strength of the labour movement became more apparent. The industrial jacquerie functioned as a catalyst in the transition from old to new repertoires of collective action. In the aftermath of the revolt, mass collective action quickly, and extensively, came under the control of the Parti Ouvrier Belge (POB).
The Rhetoric of Community and the Business of Pleasure: the San Sebastián Waiters' Strike of 1920
Authors: Walton John K. , Smith Jenny 
Published: February 2009

SummaryHealth and pleasure resorts constitute a distinctive, numerous and important kind of industrial town. But they, and the service industries which are central to their economies, have hardly been studied from a social conflict and industrial relations perspective. This paper opens out this theme by analysing a strike in the catering trades in San Sebastián, at the time Spain's largest and most prestigious seaside resort, at the height of the holiday season in August. The course of the strike is charted in its economic and political context, and the reasons for its outbreak, and for an ensuing attempt to escalate it into a local general strike, are analysed. Particular attention is paid to the status in the labour market of the camareros or hotel, restaurant and café waiters who withdrew their labour, and to reactions to the strike among local media who were deeply conscious of the importance to San Sebastián's staple industry of sustaining a carefully-constructed image of tranquillity and security. Comparisons are made with British resort experiences in the turbulent years between 1916 and 1921, and further work on this theme is urged, especially for this important period.
“Freedom and Friendship to Ireland”: Ribbonism in Early Nineteenth-Century Liverpool
Authors: Belchem John 
Published: February 2009

SummaryThe paper examines the role of “nationalist” secret societies among the rapidly growing Irish community in Britain in the 1830s and 1840s. The main port of entry, Liverpool occupied a pivotal role as the two main “Ribbon” societies developed secret networks to provide migrant members with political sanctuary and a range of “tramping” benefits. Through its welfare provision, offered irrespective of skill or trade, Ribbonism engendered a sense of identity wider than that of the familial and regional affiliations through which chain migration typically operated. A proactive influence among immigrant Irish Catholic workers, Ribbonism helped to construct a national or ethnic awareness, initiating the process by which ethnic-sectarian formations came to dominate popular politics in nineteenth-century Liverpool, the nation's second city. This ethnic associational culture was at least as functional, popular and inclusive as the class-based movements and party structures privileged in conventional British historiography.
Guild or Union? A Case Study of Rural Dutch Weavers, 1682–1750
Authors: Mastboom Joyce M. 
Published: February 2009

SummaryThis article discusses the defensive actions taken by a group of weavers in the rural eastern Netherlands in response to changing economic conditions; in particular, how they successfully re-established their weavers' guild to protect them against aggressive local merchants who were out to lower payments for woven cloth. A guild, by organizing many individuals into a group, could wield much more power than separate weavers on their own. But that was not all. Local weavers were aware that economic circumstances had changed, and that a new charter would have to be adapted so that it addressed the problems they faced. Hence, the charter they drafted provided for a guild that had the outward appearance of the old form of craft organization. However, in addition to the usual regulations it contains clauses that are more reminiscent of a trade union than a guild. The result was an organization that the weavers could use effectively to fend off their growing dependence on and subordination to merchants.
Russian “Official Antisemitism” Reconsidered: Socio-Economic Aspects of Tsarist Jewish Policy, 1881–1905
Authors: Gutwein Daniel 
Published: February 2009

SummaryThe respective Jewish policies of Tsarist ministers Witte and Plehve are re-examined through the perspective of their opposing socio-economic policies. The two ministers' rivalry over Jewish policy is considered not to be a reflection of “antisemitic” or “pro-Jewish” sympathies, as that would leave major elements of these policies unexplained; rather, analysis shows it to be a means in their struggle to gain supremacy for their own respective policies regarding the nature and pace of Russia's industrialization. The Russian policy-makers perceived the Jews not only as a religious group; they saw them as a non-monolithic economic entity, and differentiated among the various strata of Jewish society in accordance with the respective influence of each stratum's economic activities on Russian society and economy. Accordingly, the two ministers formulated opposing differential Jewish policies to fit their respective all-Russian socio-economic policies.
Labor and the Political Leadership of New Deal America
Authors: Montgomery David 
Published: February 2009

SummaryThis essay examines the relationship between popular initiatives and government decision-makers during the 1930s. The economic crisis and the reawakening of labor militancy before 1935 elevated men and women, who had been formed by the workers' movement of the 1910s and 1920s, to prominent roles in the making of national industrial policies. Quite different was the reshaping of social insurance and work relief measures. Although those policies represented a governmental response to the distress and protests of the working class, the workers themselves had little influence on their formulation or administration. Through industrial struggles, the Committee for Industrial Organization (CIO) mobilized a new cadre, trained by youthful encounters with urban ethnic life, expanding secondary schooling and subordination to modern corporate management, in an unsuccessful quest for economic planning and universal social insurance through the agency of a reformed Democratic Party.
“Citizens of this Great Republic”: Politics and the West Virginia Miners, 1900–1922
Authors: Fagge Roger 
Published: February 2009

SummaryThe West Virginia Miners engaged in remarkable inter-ethnic rebellions in the early twentieth century, against the “feudal” conditions in the Mountain State's coalfields. This paper challenges the view that these actions were backed by an equally radical and class-conscious language based on Americanism. It shows how due to various barriers, ranging from ethnic differences to electoral interference, political involvement on the part of the miners was sporadic and unsuccessful, and they were unable to form a common, coherent political identity. Instead they articulated a broad and ultimately ambiguous appeal to “American” rights and values, which focused on the exceptionalism of West Virginia, and took the interpretation of Americanism to be self-evident.
Stalin's Antiworker “Workerism”, 1924–1931
Authors: Graziosi Andrea 
Published: February 2009

SummaryThis article sketches the background of the development of the “workerist myth” in the Soviet Union in the period 1924–1931. From 1924 onward workers were subjected to mounting pressure to increase productivity and tighten discipline, against the background of the great debate on how to transform the Soviet Union from an agrarian country into a country with a powerful industrial sector as rapidly as possible. Between 1928 and 1929 a vigorous antiworker campaign was launched in the Soviet Press, which in just a few months in the winter of 1929–1930 was transformed into a workerist campaign, glorifying the exemplary shock workers as “enthusiastic builders of socialism”. This myth was used on the domestic as well as on the external front, and meant the ascent to power of the Stalinist elite and the definitive breakthrough of a “national socialism”. It also marked the end of trade unionism as such.
Kropotkin's Theory of Mutual Aid in Historical Context
Authors: Kinna Ruth 
Published: February 2009

SummaryThis paper examines the relationship between science and anarchism in Kropotkin's theory of mutual aid and analyses it in the light of his concerns about the rise of social democracy and individualism. Tracing the development of the theory from the 1890s to Kropotkin's death in 1921, it affirms the centrality of mutual aid in his work but argues, contrary to existing readings, that the theory can be seen as an attempt to inspire the revival of the anarchist movement. It concludes that there is an unresolved tension in Kropotkin's work arising from the imbalance between the idea of a “natural anarchist tendency” and anarchist propaganda.
“Commons-Stealers”, “Land-Grabbers” and “Jerry-Builders”: Space, Popular Radicalism and the Politics of Public Access in London, 1848–1880
Authors: Taylor Antony 
Published: February 2009

SummaryThis article places the campaign for rights of public access in London in context. It provides a structural analysis of the importance of public space in metropolitan radicalism, and in so doing explores prevailing assumptions about the different uses of such space in a provincial and metropolitan setting. Its chief focus is upon opposition to restrictions on rights of public meeting in Hyde Park in 1855 and 1866–1867, but it also charts later radical opposition to the enclosures of common-land on the boundaries of London and at Epping Forest in Essex. In particular it engages with recent debates on the demise of Chartism and the political composition of liberalism in an attempt to explain the persistence of an independent tradition of mass participatory political radicalism in the capital. It also seeks explanations for the weakness of conventional liberalism in London in the issues raised by the open spaces movement itself.
The Competition of Slave and Free Labor in Artisanal Production: Buenos Aires, 1770–1815
Authors: Johnson Lyman L. 
Published: February 2009

SummaryBetween 1770 and 1815 the population of Buenos Aires nearly doubled. Despite this impressive growth, the city and its hinterland suffered from a chronic labor shortage. Efforts to expand artisanal production were undermined by the resultant high wage levels. Similar problems affected the countryside where slaves and the forced labor of Indians and convicts failed to meet harvest needs. This paper examines the competition among these forms of labor. Economic, social and cultural factors that helped determine the allocation of labor types are also analyzed. Finally, since scores of slaves and Indian laborers gained freedom and entered the labor market each year, the economic and cultural factors that facilitated this movement are examined.
Workers, the Intelligentsia and Marxist Parties: St Petersburg, 1895–1917 and Shanghai, 1921–1927
Authors: Smith Steve A. 
Published: February 2009

SummaryThe article investigates relations between workers and intellectuals in the pre-revolutionary Bolshevik Party in St Petersburg and the Chinese Communist Party in Shanghai. It commences with a background examination of the social position and traditions of the intelligentsia in each country and the emergence of a stratum of so-called “conscious” workers. The position of workers in each party is then analysed, especially with respect to leadership, and the nature of tensions between workers and intellectuals explored. The investigation demonstrates that workers acquiesced in their subordination to a greater degree in Shanghai than in St Petersburg, and this and other differences are traced back to historical and cultural context. In conclusion, the implications of contextual differences are explored in order to suggest why the intelligentsia in the People's Republic of China (PRC) attracted greater odium from the party-state than its counterpart in the Soviet Union.
“Calm, with a Grave and Serious Temperament, rather Male”: French Marxism, Gender and Feminism, 1882–1905
Authors: Stuart Robert 
Published: February 2009

SummaryThis article argues that historians have underestimated the importance and complexity of Marxists' engagement with feminism during the introduction of their doctrine into the French socialist movement before the First World War. It examines the ideological discourse of the Parti Ouvrier Français, the embodiment of Marxism in France from 1882 to 1905, in order to reveal the ambiguities and contradictions of the French Marxists' approach to the “woman question” – seeking to explicate the puzzling coincidence in the movement's rhetoric of a firmly feminist commitment to women's rights with an equally intransigent hostility to organized feminism.
Conflict Within the ICFTU: Anti-Communism and Anti-Colonialism in the 1950s
Authors: Carew Anthony 
Published: February 2009

SummaryFormed as an anti-communist labour international, the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) nevertheless experienced internal conflict over the appropriate approach to communism. The different perspectives of the two largest affiliates, the British TUC and the American AFL-CIO, caused disharmony and ultimately near organizational paralysis until it forced a change of leadership. Caught between these rival positions, the ICFTU secretariat's relations with the AFL-CIO were initially the most strained, but as the International extended its activity in Africa, in a bid to outflank communist organization among labour, relations with the TUC also deteriorated over the correct stance on nationalism and colonialism.
Putting Radicalism to the Test: German Social Democracy and the 1905 Suffrage Demonstrations in Dresden
Authors: Nonn Christoph 
Published: February 2009

SummaryThroughout the long debate on whether the workers' movement of Imperial Germany was predominantly radical or reformist in nature, little attention has been paid to attitudes at the grass-roots level. It is argued here that during the years of 1905–1906, when all Europe was witnessing turmoil and an intensification of social conflict, the German Social Democratic leadership deliberately put the radicalism of the masses to the test. The Dresden suffrage demonstrations of December 1905 were the first to end in violent clashes between participants and police. However, contrary to what has been written to date on this incident and those similar to it, the great majority of the demonstrators were not militant. But they did exhibit a remarkable readiness to engage in civil disobedience, which the Social Democrats could use to press the party's political aims.