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.
Vitamin K antagonists reduce the risk of stroke in patients with atrial fibrillation but are considered unsuitable in many patients, who usually receive aspirin instead. We investigated the ...hypothesis that the addition of clopidogrel to aspirin would reduce the risk of vascular events in patients with atrial fibrillation.
A total of 7554 patients with atrial fibrillation who had an increased risk of stroke and for whom vitamin K-antagonist therapy was unsuitable were randomly assigned to receive clopidogrel (75 mg) or placebo, once daily, in addition to aspirin. The primary outcome was the composite of stroke, myocardial infarction, non-central nervous system systemic embolism, or death from vascular causes.
At a median of 3.6 years of follow-up, major vascular events had occurred in 832 patients receiving clopidogrel (6.8% per year) and in 924 patients receiving placebo (7.6% per year) (relative risk with clopidogrel, 0.89; 95% confidence interval CI, 0.81 to 0.98; P=0.01). The difference was primarily due to a reduction in the rate of stroke with clopidogrel. Stroke occurred in 296 patients receiving clopidogrel (2.4% per year) and 408 patients receiving placebo (3.3% per year) (relative risk, 0.72; 95% CI, 0.62 to 0.83; P<0.001). Myocardial infarction occurred in 90 patients receiving clopidogrel (0.7% per year) and in 115 receiving placebo (0.9% per year) (relative risk, 0.78; 95% CI, 0.59 to 1.03; P=0.08). Major bleeding occurred in 251 patients receiving clopidogrel (2.0% per year) and in 162 patients receiving placebo (1.3% per year) (relative risk, 1.57; 95% CI, 1.29 to 1.92; P<0.001).
In patients with atrial fibrillation for whom vitamin K-antagonist therapy was unsuitable, the addition of clopidogrel to aspirin reduced the risk of major vascular events, especially stroke, and increased the risk of major hemorrhage. (ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT00249873.)
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.
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.
Chapter 4 outlined intervention games and identified a common sequencing of games. First, the intervener ends the chaos represented by the N-person assurance game. In further steps, the intervener ...transforms a prisoners’ dilemma through manipulation of rewards and punishments and moves players to a stable era of mutual cooperation. As of June 1999, the UN, with a dominant Western influence, began playing these games in Kosovo. They did not get off to a smooth start. Then things got worse. The present chapter explains why, step by step.The n-person assurance game and hatred (r9)In the beginning stage, the incoming regime attempts to establish itself as the legitimate authority by persuading individuals to move away from nonstate self-defense groups and into compliance with the new state and state-sanctioned organizations. To review the fourth chapter, the incoming intervention government must assure individuals that it is indeed the legitimate authority and that it will be able to provide security to those who cooperate with it. If individuals perceive the incoming regime as stable, they will raise their estimates of the value of cooperation. In effect, a “tipping point” is lowered and, if individuals see other members of their reference group crossing over into cooperation with the intervener, they will also decide to move from defection to cooperation.
By the early years of the twenty-first century, the United States and Western Europe (collectively referred to as “the West” in this book) were deeply involved in interventions across almost every ...region of the Western Balkans. They were carrying out the Dayton Agreement and its special annexes in Bosnia, conducting an occupation of Kosovo, supervising the Ohrid Accord in Macedonia, brokering an agreement in South Serbia, temporarily keeping Serbia and Montenegro together with the Belgrade Agreement, and assisting with other accords in Montenegro. Despite major differences in the scope and nature of these interventions, they had a common approach based in Western rationality. The West had developed an intervention style with features similar to the “games” in academic game theory. That game style approach is the subject of Chapter 3. The purpose of this chapter is to describe the evolution of Western–Balkan interactions that led to that approach.First, a brief historical background of the former Yugoslavia, necessary for understanding crucial aspects of Western intervention, is provided. The empirical sections of the book will supply more detailed background for each specific case. Second, the period from 1990 to 2005 is treated in three stages, each marking significant transformations in the West's approach to the region.
IntroductionThe previous chapter addressed the structure of the “games” set up by Western interveners. Although these games take different forms, they rest on some common assumptions about actors, ...preferences, and strategies. First, there should be a stable set of recognized players. Second, these players should put interests, in the form of material and political gains, before revenge or forms of identity politics. Third, the contestants in this game should choose only among a limited range of strategies determined by the intervener.Opponents of intervention games believe that they can strategically use emotions to alter each of these three fundamental game elements. This chapter will address how opponents use emotions as resources to alter (1) preferences, (2) actors, and (3) strategies. In a fourth section, the chapter will discuss how the distribution of emotions can also serve as a constraint on action as well as a resource.
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