Review of The Changing Image of the City: Planning for Downtown Omaha, 1945-1973

The title of this book is a fine indicator of its essential theme, for this is the story of how the prevailing images of Omaha determined the objectives of city planning. From 1945 to 1973, Omaha\u27s economy changed fundamentally, and this reality eventually changed how local decision- makers perceived their community. These new perceptions finally brought a new orientation in planning for the heart of the city

Review of \u3ci\u3eNo More Free Markets or Free Beer: The Progressive Era in Nebraska, 1900-1924\u3c/i\u3e By Burton W. Folsom Jr.

In 1920 German Catholic voters in Saint Helena, Cedar County, cast seventy percent of their ballots for Marie Weekes, the Nonpartisan League candidate for Congress and a supporter of prohibition. What had driven beer-loving, anti-woman suffrage German-Americans to vote for the female candidate of an agrarian radical organization? Such major changes in Nebraska\u27s political life are the subject of this book. As its title suggests, Burton Folsom emphasizes the triumph of governmental socio-economic intervention over the principles of laissez faire. In a well-balanced, highly readable narrative, he analyzes the values of]. Sterling Morton, William Jennings Bryan, and George W. Norris-the key builders of Nebraska\u27s political heritage-to explain the conflicting perspectives that animated the state\u27s political life in the early twentieth century. Using voting returns from selected German Lutheran, German Catholic, Bohemian, Polish, and Scandinavian-stock precincts, Folsom traces the ethnic response to major political figures and issues. With background information from the late nineteenth century, he shows the familiar opposition of ethnic voters to woman suffrage and, with the exception of Swedish Nebraskans, to prohibition. Indeed, ethnic opposition to prohibition and suffrage buttressed others\u27 loyalty to that party until World War I. In the meantime, Scandinavian voters took a reformist tack toward progressive Republicanism. The war brought political reorientation in Nebraska. Although Bohemian-stock voters, contemplating an independent Czechoslovakia, continued to cast Democratic ballots, the repressive home-front actions of the Democratic administrations of Governor Keith Neville and President Woodrow Wilson repelled German-Americans. Even so, Folsom\u27s tabular data show sharp voting differences between German Lutherans in northeastern and south central Nebraska between 1920 and 1924. He suggests that agrarian unrest partly explains why German Lutherans in the northeast cast a more progressive vote than did those in the south central part of the state, though a more thorough discussion would be helpful. His treatment of the highly contrasting responses of Bohemian and Swedish-stock voters in 1920 to Nonpartisan League gubernatorial candidate Arthur Wray, however, splendidly illustrates the linkage of culture and politics. As Folsom says, Nebraska was a farm state, and for practical reasons his voting data are overwhelmingly rural. Although opportunities remain for primary research and synthesis on progressivism in Lincoln, Omaha, and smaller urban centers, this short book complements the works of Frederick Luebke and Robert Cherny on ethnicity and Nebraska politics. Folsom effectively integrates Nebraska\u27s diverse political traditions with the ethno-religious response to progressivism. His extensive tabular data are easy to follow, and the use of footnotes rather than endnotes is refreshing

Review of The Changing Image of the City: Planning for Downtown Omaha, 1945-1973

The title of this book is a fine indicator of its essential theme, for this is the story of how the prevailing images of Omaha determined the objectives of city planning. From 1945 to 1973, Omaha\u27s economy changed fundamentally, and this reality eventually changed how local decision- makers perceived their community. These new perceptions finally brought a new orientation in planning for the heart of the cit

The midwestern press and American neutrality: Study of the editorial attitudes of three Omaha newspapers toward the European War 1914-1917

On Sunday morning, June 28, 1914 an obscure Serbian student named Gavrio Prinzip in the almost equally obscure city of Sarajebo in the Hapsburg province of Bosia fired the shots which ended the lives of the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne. Archduke Francis Ferdinand and his wife, the Duchess of Hohenburg. Thus a chain of events was sent in motion which a few weeks later plunged most of Europe and parts of every other continent in the world into the greatest war yet recorded in human annals. Of all the powerful nations of the world, only the United Staes manged to avoid, for any length of time, participation in this conflict

Omaha\u27s Missouri Valley History Conference, 1958-2009: An Intellectual History

The history conference, the profession’s agora, is an overlooked phenomenon in the sociology of knowledge and epistemology. Following the Royal Historical Society, New England antiquarian societies, and the American Historical Association, hundreds of state and county historical societies sprouted up across the nation throughout the nineteenth century. By the end of the twentieth century, annual history conferences were both regional (including the Southern, Northern Great Plains, and Western) and thematic (including conferences on religion, colonial America, and railroads). This phenomena includes the Missouri Valley History Conference (MVHC). This article examines the MVHC, which is still ongoing, from its launch in 1958 to 2009. During this period of time the conference, which has always been based in Omaha, has included about 4,600 scholarly papers and 125 luncheon and banquet addresses delivered by experienced and aspiring scholars. Thousands of CVs mention participating as a MVHC paper presenter, moderator, discussant, or attendee, and the first footnote of many published papers – including six journal articles or book chapters from your author – acknowledge the MVHC

A new yellow-flowered Chiloschista (Orchidaceae: Aeridinae) from Thailand

A new species of Chiloschista Lindl. from western Thailand is described and illustrated with a line drawing and photographs. It is compared with the sympatric C. parishii Seidenf., from which it differs in having larger flowers, which are 11–12 mm across versus 8–10 mm across for C. parishii. The new species also distinctly differs in having widely spreading rostellum lobes and a viscidium that is as broad as the length of the stipe, as opposed to downward directed rostellum lobes and a viscidium that is distinctly narrower than the length of the stipe for C. parishii. The same distinguishing features separate the new species from the similarly colored C. trudelii Seidenf., which has inward-directed rostellum lobes and a viscidium that is distinctly narrower than the length of the stipe

Suture-method versus Through-the-needle Catheters for Continuous Popliteal-sciatic Nerve Blocks: A Randomized Clinical Trial.

BACKGROUND:The basic perineural catheter design has changed minimally since inception, with the catheter introduced through or over a straight needle. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration recently cleared a novel perineural catheter design comprising a catheter attached to the back of a suture-shaped needle that is inserted, advanced along the arc of its curvature pulling the catheter past the target nerve, and then exited through the skin in a second location. The authors hypothesized that analgesia would be noninferior using the new versus traditional catheter design in the first two days after painful foot/ankle surgery with a primary outcome of average pain measured with the Numeric Rating Scale. METHODS:Subjects undergoing painful foot or ankle surgery with a continuous supraparaneural popliteal-sciatic nerve block 5 cm proximal to the bifurcation were randomized to either a suture-type or through-the-needle catheter and subsequent 3-day 0.2% ropivacaine infusion (basal 6 ml/h, bolus 4 ml, lockout 30 min). Subjects received daily follow-up for the first four days after surgery, including assessment for evidence of malfunction or dislodgement of the catheters. RESULTS:During the first two postoperative days the mean ± SD average pain scores were lower in subjects with the suture-catheter (n = 35) compared with the through-the-needle (n = 35) group (2.7 ± 2.4 vs. 3.4 ± 2.4) and found to be statistically noninferior (95% CI, -1.9 to 0.6; P < 0.001). No suture-style catheter was completely dislodged (0%), whereas the tips of three (9%) traditional catheters were found outside of the skin before purposeful removal on postoperative day 3 (P = 0.239). CONCLUSIONS:Suture-type perineural catheters provided noninferior analgesia compared with traditional catheters for continuous popliteal-sciatic blocks after painful foot and ankle surgery. The new catheter design appears to be a viable alternative to traditional designs used for the past seven decades

Horizon 2020 Societal Challenge 2 \u201cFood Security, Sustainable Agriculture and Forestry, Marine, Maritime and Inland Water Research, and the Bioeconomy\u201d Advisory Group Recommendations Programming Period 2018-2020

The Horizon 2020 Societal Challenge 2 Programme was created to develop and implement an EU research and innovation policy for more sustainable and resource efficient agriculture, forestry, inland water and marine systems that supply European society with sufficient food, feed, biomass, and other raw materials, as well as ecosystems services, and support thriving rural and coastal livelihoods. The European Commission has established Societal Challenge Advisory Groups to provide consistent and consolidated advice - by way of opinions, recommendations and reports - on relevant research objectives and scientific, technological and innovation priorities for its strategic and annual work programmes. Our Societal Challenge 2 Advisory Group includes a wide range of members with remarkably rich and diverse backgrounds and affiliations, including researchers, academics, former policymakers - stakeholders covering the whole spectrum of relevant research and innovation domains. Our Advisory Group has met twice formally since our establishment in February 2016, and has used other opportunities for extensive discussion and engagement on the issues surrounding this Societal Challenge. We see Societal Challenge 2 as not only extremely important as a challenge in itself, but also strongly linked with other Societal Challenges such as health, demographic change and wellbeing, climate action, environment, resource efficiency and raw materials, and inclusive, innovative and reflective societies in a changing world. And as the agriculture, forestry, fisheries and food sectors comprise a very large number of smaller businesses \u2013 themselves serving large scale processing and retail business sectors \u2013 there are strong links between our contribution and the input of groups advising on innovation in small and medium-sized enterprises, international cooperation, nanotechnologies, advanced materials and advanced manufacturing and processing. Our Advisory Group\u2018s first task has been to prepare this report to answer five specific questions posed by the Commission and provide input into the strategic programming cycle of the Work Programme for 2018-2020. We have identified some overriding strategic priorities, and backed those with the results of a more detailed analysis of the gaps that need to be addressed. And we highlight the cross-cutting nature of this programme and the importance of an integrated approach to maximise the overall impact of the current Horizon 2020 programme. We hope that the insights in this report may also assist in the identification and prioritisation of research needs and strengthen the Commission\u2018s strategic and impact-oriented approach in future years

Review of \u3ci\u3eGilbert Hitchcock of Nebraska: Wilson\u27s Floor Leader in the Fight for the Versailles Treaty\u3c/i\u3e By Thomas W. Ryley

As acting Senate minority leader in 1919- 1920, Gilbert M. Hitchcock worked for ratification of the Versailles Treaty, but the famous battle between President Woodrow Wilson and Senator Henry Cabot Lodge left him in the shadows. Thomas Ryley has attempted to explain Hitchcock\u27s role in the Versailles drama. Most of the first half of this book treats Hitchcock\u27s life prior to 1919. Son of a Republican US Senator, Democrat Gilbert Hitchcock founded the Omaha World-Herald and served three terms in the House of Representatives and two in the Senate. As a Senator, Hitchcock was sometimes at odds with the Wilson Administration. He sought to propel American policy on the European War toward a more genuinely neutral stand, and after the US entered the conflict he criticized the Administration\u27s war management. By war\u27s end, however, he was the senior Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, acting leader of his party in the upper chamber, and a strong backer of Wilson\u27s peace program. Ryley devotes three of his eight chapters to Hitchcock\u27s role in the fortunes of the Versailles Treaty. Although he makes heavy use of the New York Times, published letters, memoirs, and secondary literature, Hitchcock\u27s meager manuscript collection was a serious impediment to his research. Still, better use of the Congressional Record, Senate hearings, and the World-Herald might have helped pull Hitchcock out of the shadows. The author rarely quotes Hitchcock, and the reader gains little feeling for the Senator\u27s passion for his cause or for his public interaction with his colleagues. Ryley might have benefitted as well from the use of theses and dissertations on Hitchcock cited in Nebraska bibliographies. Likewise, in discussing the controversy over Ireland\u27s future, Ryley errs in saying that Senators Thomas Walsh (Montana) and James Phelan (California) lacked any substantial Irish-American constituencies .... Ryley makes some notable conclusions about Hitchcock\u27s failure in the Versailles episode, however. The Senator\u27s past independence had antagonized the President, and Hitchcock probably became too enamored with keeping his recently-gained leadership position to deal firmly with Wilson. In the summer of 1919, he did not capitalize on an opportunity to convince the President to work with moderate Senate Republicans. Ryley does not believe, however, that Hitchcock could have achieved Senate ratification by defying the President to vote for the reservation-laden treaty in March of 1920. The final chapter traces Hitchcock\u27s career from 1920 to his death in 1934. Whatever its limitations, this book highlights the career of an important Plains internationalist