Conflicts involve powerful experiences. The residue of these experiences is captured by the concept and language of emotion. Indiscriminate killing creates fear; targeted violence produces anger and ...a desire for vengeance; political status reversals spawn resentment; cultural prejudices sustain ethnic contempt. These emotions can become resources for political entrepreneurs. A broad range of Western interventions are based on a view of human nature as narrowly rational. Correspondingly, intervention policy generally aims to alter material incentives ('sticks and carrots') to influence behavior. In response, poorer and weaker actors who wish to block or change this Western implemented 'game' use emotions as resources. This book examines the strategic use of emotion in the conflicts and interventions occurring in the Western Balkans over a twenty-year period. The book concentrates on the conflicts among Albanian and Slavic populations (Kosovo, Montenegro, Macedonia, South Serbia), along with some comparisons to Bosnia.
Hyper-methylation of CpG dinucleotides in the promoter region of inhibitor of cyclin-dependent kinase 4A (
) has been reported in 60%–80% of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). As
promoter ...hypermethylation event occurs early in HCC progression, the quantification of
promoter methylation in blood sample may represent a useful biomarker for non-invasive diagnosis and prediction of response to therapy.
We examined
promoter methylation using circulating cell-free DNA (ccfDNA) in a total of 109 serum specimens, including 66 HCC and 43 benign chronic liver diseases. Methylation of the individual seven CpG sites was examined using pyrosequencing.
Our results showed that there were significantly higher levels of methylated
in HCC specimens than controls and that the seven CpG sites had different levels of methylation and might exist in different PCR amplicons. The area under receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was 0.82, with 65.3% sensitivity and 87.2% specificity at 5% (LOD), 39.0% sensitivity and 96.5% specificity at 7% LOD, and 20.3% sensitivity and 98.8% specificity at 10% LOD, respectively.
Our results support additional studies incorporating
methylation testing of ccfDNA to further validate the diagnostic, predictive, and prognostic characteristics of this biomarker in HCC patients. The knowledge of the existence of epi-alleles should help improve assay design to maximize detection.
Resistance and Rebellion: Lessons from Eastern Europe explains how ordinary people become involved in resistance and rebellion against powerful regimes. The book shows how a sequence of casual forces ...- social norms, focal points, rational calculation - operate to drive individuals into roles of passive resistance and, at a second stage, into participation in community-based rebellion organization. By linking the operation of these mechanisms to observable social structures, the work generates predictions about which types of community and society are most likely to form and sustain resistance and rebellion. The empirical material centres around Lithuanian anti-Soviet resistance in both the 1940s and the 1987–1991 period. Using the Lithuanian experience as a baseline, comparisons with several other Eastern European countries demonstrate the breadth and depth of the theory. The book contributes to both the general literature on political violence and protest, as well as the theoretical literature on collective action.
A randomized trial enrolled 7554 patients with atrial fibrillation who were at increased risk of stroke but not candidates for vitamin K antagonists. Participants were assigned to aspirin or aspirin ...plus clopidogrel. At a median of 3.6 years, the risk of major vascular events decreased significantly with clopidogrel, primarily because of reduced risk of stroke. The risk of major bleeding increased significantly with clopidogrel.
At a median of 3.6 years, the risk of major vascular events decreased significantly with clopidogrel, primarily because of reduced risk of stroke. The risk of major bleeding increased significantly with clopidogrel.
Atrial fibrillation is a common cardiac arrhythmia that increases the risk of stroke by a factor of five.
1
Adjusted-dose vitamin K antagonists and antiplatelet agents reduce the risk of stroke by 64% and 22%, respectively.
2
As compared with aspirin, vitamin K antagonists reduce the risk of stroke by 38% but more than double the risk of intracranial hemorrhage and increase the risk of major extracranial hemorrhage by 70%. They do not reduce mortality from any cause or from vascular causes.
2
,
3
On the basis of these data, vitamin K antagonists are recommended for patients at higher risk for stroke, and . . .
Genetics and biology may influence the age of onset of anorexia nervosa (AN). The aims of this study were to determine whether common genetic variation contributes to age of onset of AN and to ...investigate the genetic associations between age of onset of AN and age at menarche.
A secondary analysis of the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium genome-wide association study (GWAS) of AN was performed, which included 9335 cases and 31,981 screened controls, all from European ancestries. We conducted GWASs of age of onset, early-onset AN (<13 years), and typical-onset AN, and genetic correlation, genetic risk score, and Mendelian randomization analyses.
Two loci were genome-wide significant in the typical-onset AN GWAS. Heritability estimates (single nucleotide polymorphism–h2) were 0.01–0.04 for age of onset, 0.16–0.25 for early-onset AN, and 0.17–0.25 for typical-onset AN. Early- and typical-onset AN showed distinct genetic correlation patterns with putative risk factors for AN. Specifically, early-onset AN was significantly genetically correlated with younger age at menarche, and typical-onset AN was significantly negatively genetically correlated with anthropometric traits. Genetic risk scores for age of onset and early-onset AN estimated from independent GWASs significantly predicted age of onset. Mendelian randomization analysis suggested a causal link between younger age at menarche and early-onset AN.
Our results provide evidence consistent with a common variant genetic basis for age of onset and implicate biological pathways regulating menarche and reproduction.
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A Novel Bioresorbable Polymer Paclitaxel-Eluting Stent for the Treatment of Single and Multivessel Coronary Disease: Primary Results of the COSTAR II Study Mitchell W. Krucoff, Dean J. Kereiakes, ...John L. Petersen, Roxana Mehran, Vic Hasselblad, Alexandra J. Lansky, Peter J. Fitzgerald, Jyotsna Garg, Mark A. Turco, Charles A. Simonton, III, Stefan Verheye, Christophe L. Dubois, Roger Gammon, Wayne B. Batchelor, Charles D. O'Shaughnessy, James B. Hermiller, Jr, Joachim Schofer, Maurice Buchbinder, William Wijns, for the COSTAR II Investigators Group A total of 1,675 patients undergoing single- and multivessel percutaneous coronary intervention were randomly assigned 3:2 to CoStar (Conor MedSystems, Menlo Park, California) versus Taxus (Boston Scientific, Maple Grove, Minnesota) drug-eluting stents (DES). The primary per-patient clinical end point of adjudicated death, myocardial infarction (MI), and clinically driven target vessel revascularization (TVR) at 8 months and the protocol per-vessel angiographic in-segment late loss at 9 months were significantly worse with CoStar. This finding was consistent across pre-specified subgroups. Differences were primarily attributable to CoStar's lower efficacy in suppressing TVR rates, not in MI or adjudicated death rates. The CoStar paclitaxel DES was inferior to the Taxus DES.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
Intervention Games Petersen, Roger D.
Western Intervention in the Balkans,
09/2011
Book Chapter
For the past fifteen years, Western foreign policy rhetoric and philosophy have been dominated by the ideas of classical liberalism. In this worldview, two ideas stand out. First, there is the notion ...of universal progress. Humanity is making its way toward an ever better end state; in the words of President Bush, “freedom is on the march.”A second key concept is the “social contract.” This idea is central to the present chapter. The primary goal of Western intervention is to design a social contract among the parties in conflict. In turn, the creation and implementation of these social contracts resembles the structure of certain rational choice “games.” These games consist of a few basic elements: specification of actors, their preferences, and their possible actions. The Western approach to intervention, I argue, is to construct the “game” and its component parts with a narrow view of rationality. Opponents of the game, on the other hand, often use the emotions specified in the last chapter as resources to alter the game and its basic elements. In this competition, the strategic use of emotion and the Western intervention game are inextricably linked.
Waiting for the West Petersen, Roger D.
Western Intervention in the Balkans,
09/2011
Book Chapter
Period one: the strategy of building a parallel societyIn December of 1989, a small group of Albanian intellectuals formed the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) in Pristina, which became the leading ...political force for Kosovo's Albanian population. The party was led by Ibrahim Rugova, a literature professor who had studied in France. To establish legitimacy for these alternative governance structures, underground elections for a Presidency (Rugova garnered 99.55 percent of the votes) and a Kosovo Parliament (the LDK won 96 of 143 seats) were held. The Kosovo Parliament declared independence in October 1991. Outside of Albania, no other country recognized Kosovo as a state. The Milosevic regime had taken control of Kosovo's political institutions and dismantled local Albanian governance. The question for the LDK and Kosovo's Albanian leadership was what to do next.They had several choices. An incomplete list might contain the following:
They could acquiesce to Serbian rule for the time being and wait for better opportunities in the future.They could try to reenter Serbian politics and side with anti-Milosevic parties in an effort to reform the system from within.They could continue to boycott elections but participate in day-to-day activities relating to education, health care, and the economy.They could not only boycott elections, but also create an entirely parallel social and political system in hopes of having it recognized as a legitimate government from the outside.They could escalate nonviolent resistance through more direct belligerent acts of protest and civil disobedience.They could start a series of violent provocations.They could attempt violent rebellion.
Bosnia Petersen, Roger D.
Western Intervention in the Balkans,
09/2011
Book Chapter
QuestionsThe Bosnian case presents several puzzles. First, why was this conflict so bloody during the war? The most reliable source, Mirsad Tokaca's “Human Losses in Bosnia-Herzegovina 1991–1995,” ...better known as “The Bosnian Book of the Dead,” documents at least 97,000 deaths, with hundreds of thousands displaced. Much of the violence was indiscriminate and targeted against civilians. Tokaca's figures indicate that 40 percent of the victims were civilians and that 83 percent of civilian victims were Bosniaks, compared to 10 percent Serbs and 5 percent Croats.Second, why has more progress not been made toward the creation of a functioning, centralized state fifteen years after the signing of the Dayton Accord? What accounts for progress on some issues but not others? As outlined in the seventh chapter, the Western-brokered Dayton Accord ended the war and set up a bifurcated consociational political system. Fifteen years after the Dayton Accord was signed, Bosnia (BiH) limps along as a functioning state, but one, by all accounts, with many dysfunctional elements. By definition, states need to accomplish basic missions – establish a monopoly over violence, regulate taxation, control borders, establish property rights, field an army, maintain a judicial system. By 2010, Bosnia had managed to accomplish only some of these fundamental missions. The nature of progress toward a functional state raises some puzzles. For instance, why was Bosnia able to eventually field an army, but not to effectively centralize the police force? Why did the EU carrot not lead to more progress? As the High Representative to Bosnia, Valentin Inzko, stated in a speech to the European Parliament in January 2010, “In the last four years Bosnia has been in a political stalemate…not a single reform has been adopted that would give the state increased competences needed for active participation in the EU accession process.”
Emotions as Resources Petersen, Roger D.
Western Intervention in the Balkans,
09/2011
Book Chapter
Protracted conflict, especially when it is violent, produces powerful experiences, often connected to forces such as stigma and prejudice, the human tendency to think in terms of group hierarchy, and ...natural reactions to violence, victimization, and humiliation. Emotions are the residues of such experiences.Variation in the success and failure of interventions is often related to the way that actors use, or ignore, these emotions. Western interventions are usually based on a straightforward application of “sticks and carrots.” Intervention is a matter of organizing a “game,” usually an iterated prisoners’ dilemma (discussed in more detail later), in which players are bribed and/or constrained to make desired choices. But not everyone wishes to play the game as it is set out. Emotions become a very powerful resource that can be used to change the actors or the rules. Like weapons and money, emotions can be a strategic tool.Before the use of emotions is discussed, it is necessary to define what they are and how they work. This chapter proceeds in two sections.The first section defines emotions and their effects more generally. Although the theory of emotion underlying this book builds on fundamental concepts from the field of psychology, these concepts need modification to address the phenomena most central to political conflict. This section explains those modifications.
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