We, the People Mishkova, Diana
2009, 20090101, 2009-01-10
eBook
Analyzes the processes of nation-building in nineteenth and early-twentieth-century south-eastern Europe. A product of transnational comparative teamwork, this collection represents a coordinated ...interpretation based on ten varied academic cultures and traditions.
"This book represents the first attempt to analyze historical and cultural developments in late medieval and early modern southeastern Europe as a set of mutually intertwined regional histories, ...burdened by the strong dichotomy between the almighty center--Constantinople--and the periphery that is rarely visible in both contemporary sources and modern scholarship. This mosaic of original studies is devoted to various regions of the Byzantine Balkans and their historical, artistic, and ideological idiosyncrasies, mirroring the complex character and composite and fragmented structure of this vast region. The focal points of the book are the two captures of Constantinople in 1204 and 1453, and the contributors analyze the significance of these catastrophic events on the political destiny of medieval Balkan societies, the mechanisms of adapting to the new political order, and the ever-present interconnectedness of a lower, regional elite across southeastern Europe that had remained strong even after the Ottoman conquest"--Provided by publisher. This volume offers new perspectives on the history of the Byzantine Balkans and beyond-regions that lived for centuries under the long shadow of Constantinople-as well as unique insights into the complex world of late medieval and early modern southeastern Europe during a period of catastrophe.
Balkan endemic nephropathy (BEN) is a unique, chronic renal disease frequently associated with upper urothelial cancer (UUC). It only affects residents of specific farming villages located along ...tributaries of the Danube River in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Serbia, Bulgaria, and Romania where it is estimated that ~100,000 individuals are at risk of BEN, while ~25,000 have the disease. This review summarises current findings on the aetiology of BEN. Over the last 50 years, several hypotheses on the cause of BEN have been formulated, including mycotoxins, heavy metals, viruses, and trace-element insufficiencies. However, recent molecular epidemiological studies provide a strong case that chronic dietary exposure to aristolochic acid (AA) a principal component of
Aristolochia clematitis
which grows as a weed in the wheat fields of the endemic regions is the cause of BEN and associated UUC. One of the still enigmatic features of BEN that need to be resolved is why the prevalence of BEN is only 3–7 %. This suggests that individual genetic susceptibilities to AA exist in humans. In fact dietary ingestion of AA along with individual genetic susceptibility provides a scenario that plausibly can explain all the peculiarities of BEN such as geographical distribution and high risk of urothelial cancer. For the countries harbouring BEN implementing public health measures to avoid AA exposure is of the utmost importance because this seems to be the best way to eradicate this once mysterious disease to which the residents of BEN villages have been completely and utterly at mercy for so long.
Drawing upon previously unpublished commercial ledgers and correspondence, this study offers a collective social biography of three generations of Balkan merchants. Personal accounts humanize ...multiethnic networks that navigated multiple social systems - supporting and opposing various aspects of nationalist ideologies.
Gastronomy for Tourism Developmentprovides readers with insight into the political reasons all countries in the region pay little attention to the common gastronomic heritage. It challenges the ...issues faced by those within the industry, addressing the potential for the region to become a sustainable and attractive European food destination.
The term "aristolochic acid nephropathy" (AAN) is used to include any form of toxic interstitial nephropathy that is caused either by ingestion of plants containing aristolochic acids (AA) as part of ...traditional phytotherapies (formerly known as "Chinese herbs nephropathy"), or by the environmental contaminants in food (Balkan endemic nephropathy). It is frequently associated with urothelial malignancies. Although products containing AA have been banned in most of countries, AAN cases remain regularly reported all over the world. Moreover, AAN incidence is probably highly underestimated given the presence of AA in traditional herbal remedies worldwide and the weak awareness of the disease. During these two past decades, animal models for AAN have been developed to investigate underlying molecular and cellular mechanisms involved in AAN pathogenesis. Indeed, a more-in-depth understanding of these processes is essential to develop therapeutic strategies aimed to reduce the global and underestimated burden of this disease. In this regard, our purpose was to build a broad overview of what is currently known about AAN. To achieve this goal, we aimed to summarize the latest data available about underlying pathophysiological mechanisms leading to AAN development with a particular emphasis on the imbalance between vasoactive factors as well as a focus on the vascular events often not considered in AAN.
Endemic (Balkan) nephropathy is a chronic tubulointerstitial disease frequently accompanied by urothelial cell carcinomas of the upper urinary tract. This disorder has recently been linked to ...exposure to aristolochic acid, a powerful nephrotoxin and human carcinogen. Following metabolic activation, aristolochic acid reacts with genomic DNA to form aristolactam-DNA adducts that generate a unique TP53 mutational spectrum in the urothelium. The aristolactam-DNA adducts are concentrated in the renal cortex, thus serving as biomarkers of internal exposure to aristolochic acid. Here, we present molecular epidemiologic evidence relating carcinomas of the upper urinary tract to dietary exposure to aristolochic acid. DNA was extracted from the renal cortex and urothelial tumor tissue of 67 patients that underwent nephroureterectomy for carcinomas of the upper urinary tract and resided in regions of known endemic nephropathy. Ten patients from nonendemic regions with carcinomas of the upper urinary tract served as controls. Aristolactam-DNA adducts were quantified by 32P-postlabeling, the adduct was confirmed by mass spectrometry, and TP53 mutations in tumor tissues were identified by chip sequencing. Adducts were present in 70% of the endemic cohort and in 94% of patients with specific A:T to T:A mutations in TP53. In contrast, neither aristolactam-DNA adducts nor specific mutations were detected in tissues of patients residing in nonendemic regions. Thus, in genetically susceptible individuals, dietary exposure to aristolochic acid is causally related to endemic nephropathy and carcinomas of the upper urinary tract.
This book analyzes the causes and long-term social and economic effects of overseas emigration from Southeastern Europe in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The author argues that such ...emigration has repeatedly attracted the attention of policymakers who exploit it for state development goals.
War and Nationalism presents thorough up-to-date scholarship on the often misunderstood and neglected Balkan Wars of 1912 to 1913, which contributed to the outbreak of World War I. The essays contain ...critical inquiries into the diverse and interconnected processes of social, economic, and political exchange that escalated into conflict. The wars represented a pivotal moment that had a long-lasting impact on the regional state system and fundamentally transformed the beleaguered Ottoman Empire in the process.
This interdisciplinary volume stands as a critique of the standard discourse regarding the Balkan Wars and effectively questions many of the assumptions of prevailing modern nation-state histories, which have long privileged the ethno-religious dimensions present in the Balkans. The authors go to great lengths in demonstrating the fluidity of social, geographical, and cultural boundaries before 1912 and call into question the “nationalist watershed” notion that was artificially imposed by manipulative historiography and political machinations following the end of fighting in 1913.
War and Nationalism will be of interest to scholars looking to enrich their own understanding of an overshadowed historical event and will serve as a valuable contribution to courses on Ottoman and European history.
Experimenting with Democracy Tom Gallagher, Geoffrey Pridham / Tom Gallagher, Geoffrey Pridham
2000, 20121012, 2012, 2012-10-12
eBook
The chronic instability in the Balkan States of South East Europe has prevented the end of the Cold War becoming an era of genuine peace in Europe. Against a background of competing nationalisms, ...economic decline, the resilience of authoritarianism, it is easy to forget that there have been experiments with democracy have taken place since 1990 with relative success. Now, for the first time, the region is genuinely engaging with open politics; its outcome will determine whether the Balkans can cease being a byword for instability, and an area whose shock-waves have disturbed the peace of Europe on many occasions. Democratisation in the Balkans explores the obstacles impeding the consolidation of democracy, and even preventing a state like Serbia from going very far down the democratic road. Social scientists with expert knowledge of each of the Balkan states, and their political and economic systems, examine why progress in building free institutions has been slow compared to that of Central Europe, the Iberian peninsula and Latin America.
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