The Evolution of the Circassians’ Oaths in the Context of Changing Religious Views in 1800-1855

The paper examines the evolution of the Circassians’ oaths in the period of 1800-1855 in the context of changing religious views. The research materials are represented with the archival documents of the State archive of the Krasnodar Krai (Krasnodar, Russian Federation) and with the sources of personal origin belonging to emissaries and agents who have investigated the situation or resided on the territory of Circassia for some time. The methodological basis of the paper includes the principles of historicism and objectivity which are traditional for research of this kind, as well as analytical, probabilistic-statistical, typological and comparative methods. Using these methods has allowed us to compare the oath texts and to identify their peculiar features. Besides, on the basis of various facts obtained in the process of documents’ processing, the method of historicism has let revealing the relevant phenomena and processes associated with the change of religious rules in Circassia in 1800-1855. We conclude that during the civil war in Circassia in 1785 the system of religious rules was changed, and the Koran got the equal right along with the Bible, the Psalms of David and the Book of Evangelists. After 15 years, in 1800, the Circassians swore on these four books in their oaths. However, in 1842, there was no mention of the Christian books in the oath texts. In our opinion, this fact proves the conducted activity aimed at discrediting the Christian and pagan beliefs of the population and the victorious spread of Islam in the region. Nevertheless, the Circassian aristocracy, who left Circassia and moved to the Russian territory, retained the references to the ancient Christian books in their oaths

Heavy and Special Weapons across the Territory of Black Sea Coastline during the Caucasian War

The article discusses the heavy and special weapons of the Russian army during the Caucasian war across the territory of Black Sea coastline. By heavy equipment is meant all kinds of artillery systems which were used in the fortresses at that time. The particular importance is given to the special weapons, which include the minefields (mines and fougasses). It is proved that the mines on the galvanic elements were used not only in the navy but also for the needs of the ground forces. The authors came to the conclusion that the technical superiority of the Russian army became one of the main reasons for defeat of the highlanders in the war

The eventization of leisure and the strange death of alternative Leeds

The communicative potential of city spaces as leisure spaces is a central assumption of political activism and the creation of alternative, counter-cultural and subcultural scenes. However, such potential for city spaces is limited by the gentrification, privatization and eventization of city centres in the wake of wider societal and cultural struggles over leisure, work and identity formation. In this paper, we present research on alternative scenes in the city of Leeds to argue that the eventization of the city centre has led to a marginalization and of alternative scenes on the fringes of the city. Such marginalization has not caused the death of alternative Leeds or political activism associated with those scenes—but it has changed the leisure spaces (physical, political and social) in which alternative scenes contest the mainstream

Growth-inhibitory and cell cycle-arresting properties of the rice bran constituent tricin in human-derived breast cancer cells in vitro and in nude mice in vivo

Tricin, a flavone found in rice bran, inhibits the growth of human-derived malignant MDA-MB-468 breast tumour cells at submicromolar concentrations. As part of the exploration of tricin as a potential cancer chemopreventive agent, we investigated the duration and cell cycle specificity of growth inhibition elicited by tricin in vitro and the effect of tricin on the development of MDA-MB-468 tumours grown in immune-compromised MF-1 mice in vivo. Preincubation of MDA-MB-468 cells with tricin (1-40 microM) for 72 h compromised cell growth after tricin removal, and such irreversibility was not observed in human breast-derived nonmalignant HBL-100 cells. Tricin (>/=5 microM) arrested MDA-MB-468 cells in the G2/M phase of the cell cycle without inducing apoptosis as adjudged by annexin V staining. In nude mice consumption of tricin with the diet (0.2%, w w(-1)) from 1 week prior to MDA-MB-468 cell implantation failed to impede tumour development. Steady-state levels of tricin in plasma, breast tumour tissue and intestinal mucosa, as measured by HPLC, were 0.13 microM and 0.11 and 63 nmol g(-1), respectively. Cells were exposed to tricin (0.11, 1.1 or 11 microM) in vitro for 72 h and then implanted into mice. The volume of tumours in animals bearing cells pre-exposed to 11 microM tricin was less than a third of that in mice with control cells, while tumours from cells incubated with 0.1 or 1.1 microM tricin were indistinguishable from controls. These results suggest that the potent breast tumour cell growth-inhibitory activity of tricin in vitro does not directly translate into activity in the nude mouse bearing the MDA MB-468 tumour. While the results do not support the notion that tricin is a promising candidate for breast cancer chemoprevention, its high levels in the gastrointestinal tract after dietary intake render exploration of its ability to prevent colorectal carcinogenesis propitious

Ethical issues in autologous stem cell transplantation (ASCT) in advanced breast cancer: A systematic literature review

BACKGROUND: An effectiveness assessment on ASCT in locally advanced and metastatic breast cancer identified serious ethical issues associated with this intervention. Our objective was to systematically review these aspects by means of a literature analysis. METHODS: We chose the reflexive Socratic approach as the review method using Hofmann's question list, conducted a comprehensive literature search in biomedical, psychological and ethics bibliographic databases and screened the resulting hits in a 2-step selection process. Relevant arguments were assembled from the included articles, and were assessed and assigned to the question list. Hofmann's questions were addressed by synthesizing these arguments. RESULTS: Of the identified 879 documents 102 included arguments related to one or more questions from Hofmann's question list. The most important ethical issues were the implementation of ASCT in clinical practice on the basis of phase-II trials in the 1990s and the publication of falsified data in the first randomized controlled trials (Bezwoda fraud), which caused significant negative effects on recruiting patients for further clinical trials and the doctor-patient relationship. Recent meta-analyses report a marginal effect in prolonging disease-free survival, accompanied by severe harms, including death. ASCT in breast cancer remains a stigmatized technology. Reported health-related-quality-of-life data are often at high risk of bias in favor of the survivors. Furthermore little attention has been paid to those patients who were dying. CONCLUSIONS: The questions were addressed in different degrees of completeness. All arguments were assignable to the questions. The central ethical dimensions of ASCT could be discussed by reviewing the published literature

Empirical Legal Studies Before 1940: A Bibliographic Essay

The modern empirical legal studies movement has well-known antecedents in the law and society and law and economics traditions of the latter half of the 20th century. Less well known is the body of empirical research on legal phenomena from the period prior to World War II. This paper is an extensive bibliographic essay that surveys the English language empirical legal research from approximately 1940 and earlier. The essay is arranged around the themes in the research: criminal justice, civil justice (general studies of civil litigation, auto accident litigation and compensation, divorce, small claims, jurisdiction and procedure, civil juries), debt and bankruptcy, banking, appellate courts, legal needs, legal profession (including legal education), and judicial staffing and selection. Accompanying the essay is an extensive bibliography of research articles, books, and reports