Russia's Systemic Transformations since Perestroika: From Totalitarianism to Authoritarianism to Democracy—to Fascism?

All the post-Communist states of the former Soviet empire have experienced significant change in the last twenty years, but Russia's systemic transformations since Mikhail Gorbachev's perestroika may be most dramatic....Russia passed from totalitarianism to several years of both authoritarianism and democracy—only to abandon democracy completely and embark on a transition to what is arguably fascism. In using this term, I am suggesting both the magnitude of Russia's change in recent years and the direction in which it has changed. No less important, I am also suggesting that the terms scholars have developed for Russia— such as patrimonial or tsarist—are inadequate, primarily because they fail to place Russia on a spectrum of comparative political-system types. This paper therefore examines fascism as a system type within a typology of political systems. It also suggests why Vladimir Putin's Russia has enough of the defining characteristics of fascism to qualify as fascistoid—that is, as moving toward fascism—and why Russia alone moved along so exceptionally turbulent a systemic path. Finally, the paper examines whether a fascistoid or fascist Russia is likely to be stable

« Round-About» : une architecture de traitement d'images pour la mesure en temps réel de paramètres physiques

L'architecture Round-About est dédiée à la mesure par traitements d'images de paramètres physiques. Elle a été conçue pour s'adapter au déséquilibre existant entre le volume de données d'entrée (images) et celui des résultats (mesures). Pour cela, les deux flots associés à ces données d'entrée et de sortie ont été séparés. De plus, une topologie différente leur est appliquée, le flot de commandes étant associé à celui des données de sortie. La modularité du système permet d'adapter la configuration matérielle aux performances nécessaires à l'application. Cette modularité est illustrée dans cet article par la description de deux implantations, respectivement sur des cibles de type DSP et FPGA, permettant une mesure de vitesse en temps réel allant d'une fréquence vidéo standard de 25 images/s à 100 images/s

Low temperature decreases bone mass in mice: Implications for humans

ObjectivesHumans exhibit significant ecogeographic variation in bone size and shape. However, it is unclear how significantly environmental temperature influences cortical and trabecular bone, making it difficult to recognize adaptation versus acclimatization in past populations. There is some evidence that cold‐induced bone loss results from sympathetic nervous system activation and can be reduced by nonshivering thermogenesis (NST) via uncoupling protein (UCP1) in brown adipose tissue (BAT). Here we test two hypotheses: (1) low temperature induces impaired cortical and trabecular bone acquisition and (2) UCP1, a marker of NST in BAT, increases in proportion to degree of low‐temperature exposure.MethodsWe housed wildtype C57BL/6J male mice in pairs at 26 °C (thermoneutrality), 22 °C (standard), and 20 °C (cool) from 3 weeks to 6 or 12 weeks of age with access to food and water ad libitum (N = 8/group).ResultsCool housed mice ate more but had lower body fat at 20 °C versus 26 °C. Mice at 20 °C had markedly lower distal femur trabecular bone volume fraction, thickness, and connectivity density and lower midshaft femur cortical bone area fraction versus mice at 26 °C (p < .05 for all). UCP1 expression in BAT was inversely related to temperature.DiscussionThese results support the hypothesis that low temperature was detrimental to bone mass acquisition. Nonshivering thermogenesis in brown adipose tissue increased in proportion to low‐temperature exposure but was insufficient to prevent bone loss. These data show that chronic exposure to low temperature impairs bone architecture, suggesting climate may contribute to phenotypic variation in humans and other hominins.Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/146428/1/ajpa23684.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/146428/2/ajpa23684_am.pd

Do we know more about hypertension in Poland after the May Measurement Month 2017?-Europe

Elevated blood pressure (BP) is a worldwide burden, leading to over 10 million deaths yearly. May Measurement Month (MMM) is a global initiative organized by the International Society of Hypertension aimed at raising awareness of hypertension and the need for BP screening. An opportunistic cross-sectional survey of volunteers aged ≥18 was carried out in May 2017. BP measurement, the definition of hypertension and statistical analysis followed the globally approved MMM17 Study Protocol. In Poland 5834 (98.9%, Caucasian) individuals were screened. After multiple imputation, 2601 (35.3%) had hypertension. Of individuals not receiving anti-hypertensive medication, 976 (20.6%) were hypertensive. Of individuals receiving anti-hypertensive medication, 532 (49.1%) had uncontrolled BP. In the crude screened group, 81.4% declared to not receive any anti-hypertensive treatment, while the remaining 18.6% were on such medications. In overweight and obese patients both systolic and diastolic BP were significantly higher than in normal weight and underweight subjects. In addition, BP measured on Sundays was significantly lower than on Mondays. MMM17 was one of the largest recent BP screening campaigns in Poland. We found that over 1/3 of participants were hypertensive. Almost half of the treated subjects had uncontrolled BP. These results suggest that opportunistic screening can identify substantial numbers with raised BP

Streptozotocin, Type I Diabetes Severity and Bone

As many as 50% of adults with type I (T1) diabetes exhibit bone loss and are at increased risk for fractures. Therapeutic development to prevent bone loss and/or restore lost bone in T1 diabetic patients requires knowledge of the molecular mechanisms accounting for the bone pathology. Because cell culture models alone cannot fully address the systemic/metabolic complexity of T1 diabetes, animal models are critical. A variety of models exist including spontaneous and pharmacologically induced T1 diabetic rodents. In this paper, we discuss the streptozotocin (STZ)-induced T1 diabetic mouse model and examine dose-dependent effects on disease severity and bone. Five daily injections of either 40 or 60 mg/kg STZ induce bone pathologies similar to spontaneously diabetic mouse and rat models and to human T1 diabetic bone pathology. Specifically, bone volume, mineral apposition rate, and osteocalcin serum and tibia messenger RNA levels are decreased. In contrast, bone marrow adiposity and aP2 expression are increased with either dose. However, high-dose STZ caused a more rapid elevation of blood glucose levels and a greater magnitude of change in body mass, fat pad mass, and bone gene expression (osteocalcin, aP2). An increase in cathepsin K and in the ratio of RANKL/OPG was noted in high-dose STZ mice, suggesting the possibility that severe diabetes could increase osteoclast activity, something not seen with lower doses. This may contribute to some of the disparity between existing studies regarding the role of osteoclasts in diabetic bone pathology. Examination of kidney and liver toxicity indicate that the high STZ dose causes some liver inflammation. In summary, the multiple low-dose STZ mouse model exhibits a similar bone phenotype to spontaneous models, has low toxicity, and serves as a useful tool for examining mechanisms of T1 diabetic bone loss

Do All Lives Have the Same Value? Support for International Military Interventions as a Function of Political System and Public Opinion of the Target States

This research examined the support for international military interventions as a function of the political system and the public opinion of the target country. In two experiments, we informed participants about a possible military intervention by the international community towards a sovereign country whose government planned to use military force against a secessionist region. They were then asked whether they would support this intervention whilst being reminded that it would cause civilian deaths. The democratic or nondemocratic political system of the target country was experimentally manipulated, and the population support for its belligerent government policy was either assessed (Experiment 1) or manipulated (Experiment 2). Results showed greater support for the intervention when the target country was nondemocratic, as compared to the democratic and the control conditions, but only when its population supported the belligerent government policy. Support for the external intervention was low when the target country was democratic, irrespective of national public opinion. These findings provide support for the democracy-as-value hypothesis applied to international military interventions, and suggest that civilian deaths (collateral damage) are more acceptable when nondemocratic populations support their government's belligerent policy

The mitochondrial protein Sideroflexin 3 (SFXN3) influences neurodegeneration pathways in vivo

Synapses are a primary pathological target in neurodegenerative diseases. Identifying therapeutic targets at the synapse could delay progression of numerous conditions. The mitochondrial protein SFXN3 is a neuronally-enriched protein expressed in synaptic terminals and regulated by key synaptic proteins, including α-synuclein. We first show that SFXN3 uses the carrier import pathway to insert into the inner mitochondrial membrane. Using high-resolution proteomics on Sfxn3-KO mice synapses, we then demonstrate that SFXN3 influences proteins and pathways associated with neurodegeneration and cell death (including CSPα and Caspase-3), as well as neurological conditions (including Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease). Over-expression of SFXN3 orthologues in Drosophila models of Parkinson’s Disease significantly reduced dopaminergic neuron loss. In contrast, the loss of SFXN3 was insufficient to trigger neurodegeneration in mice, indicating an anti- rather than pro-neurodegeneration role for SFXN3. Taken together, these results suggest a potential role for SFXN3 in the regulation of neurodegeneration pathways

Stochastic Reaction-diffusion Equations Driven by Jump Processes

We establish the existence of weak martingale solutions to a class of second order parabolic stochastic partial differential equations. The equations are driven by multiplicative jump type noise, with a non-Lipschitz multiplicative functional. The drift in the equations contains a dissipative nonlinearity of polynomial growth.Comment: See journal reference for teh final published versio