Politico-economic causes of the anschluss

Thesis (M.A.)--Boston University, 1950When World War I ended in 1918, Austria-Hungary, a dual-monarchy embracing a heterogeneous assortment of peoples, found itself in the process of breaking up. Hungarian Magyars and Austrian Germans had dominated, under the empire, a conglomerate miscellany of people ranging from Poles and Czechs to Ruthenians and Croats. These peoples seized the dual-monarchy's reverses in World War I as an opportunity to establish their independence. Three entirely new states were carved out of the old domain, and large portions went to four other nations. One of the new states was Austria itself, core of the former empire and seat of its onetime capital, Vienna. The new Austria constituted herself a republic and set off on what was to be a turbulent twenty years of independence. The Treaty of Saint Germain gave Austria only one-seventh of the land of the old dual monarchy, and, for some time, it seemed that Austria could not exist, economically, under these circumstances. It was as if Austria's head had been cut off from her body, leaving the body with regenerative powers and the ability to grow new heads, but with no way for the old, giant head to develop new members. Gradually this condition was alleviated, and, through two League loans and strenuous efforts on the part of the Austrians themselves, the economic condition of the country became, in some ways, more healthy than it had ever been before. Meanwhile, amidst the anarchy following the war and the economic disruptions appearing in the war's wake, the Austrians turned to Anschluss-union with Germany as a cure for all their ills. This step, however, was forbidden by the Treaty of Saint Germain, but Anschluss agitation continued throughout the interwar period. Thus, while Austria regained her economic health, she never achieved a robust political life. Austria was torn between the right and the left, the forces of the right being those of the Christian Socialist party and the left, those of the Social Democrats. Both parties espoused policies which predisposed Austria for Anschluss as it finally came--in the form of Hitlerian invasion in 1938. The Socialists fought for Anschluss itself, fomenting Austrian pan-Germanism and keeping alive an issue which was to attract many Austrians to the Nazi party. The Christian Socialists resorted to faqcist methods of government , less severe but similar to those of Germany. Although the two parties cooperated in the postwar crisis of 1919 and 1920 and although the suppressed Socialist leadership affirmed its willingness to defend Austria against Germany shortly before the 1938 Anschluss, the parties did not, seemingly could not, cooperate between 1920 and 1938. Conflict between them became so bitter that in 1934 it finally erupted in civil war, and the Socialists were effaced from Austrian political life. Thus, Austria faced Germany irrevocably divided and fatally unprepared, spiritually, to combat the Nazi menace. In addition to the intransigence of the parties, Austria's interwar life was also rent with unhealthy political and social manifestations--anti-Semitism, militarism, fascism. Anti-Semitism in Austria was in many ways as virulent as in Germany itself, and, while Austria had no territorial ambitions she was nevertheless militaristic--witness her eight interwar paramilitary organizations which engaged in bloody weekend romps. When Germany marched in on March 11, 1938, Austria already had a fascist government, a milder one, it is true, than the tight dictatorship in Germany, but nevertheless one not responsible in any way to the Austrian electorate. Austrians as a whole were pan-German, as the continuing interwar popularity of Anschluss exhibited and as did the Teutonic consciousness of many who did not espouse Anschluss and who hated Nazism. It is true of course that even had Austria been politically and socially sound, she would have been unable, ultimately, to defend herself against Hitler. Her final doom came with the rise of an aggressive Nazi Germany and with the failure of the West--which had demanded her abstinence from Anschluss at Saint Germain and made it a condition of League loans--to defend Austrian independence in 1938. Hitler's Anschluss, then, was inevitable. It came to a people who had unwittingly prepared for it and who, when it came, no longer wanted it

Learning from a Funders' Collaborative: The Human Services Strategic Restructuring Pilot Project

In 2009, Eighteen funders in Northeast Ohio joined together in the Human Services Strategic Restructuring Pilot Project (the Collaborative) to examine how to support nonprofit organizations in strategic restructuring. This the final report on that project

Generation Y: Unchartered Territory

Businesses continue to be challenged with workforce diversity and how to best manage the differences that exist in race, religion, gender, disability, sexual orientation, color, etc.  The general theme is that managers should focus on minimizing tension that exists resulting from generational differences.  Unfortunately, there is more agreement and discussion as to how generations are different than there is on how to manage these differences.&nbsp

A search for the first massive galaxy clusters

We have obtained deep, multi-band imaging observations around three of the most distant known quasars at redshifts z>6. Standard accretion theory predicts that the supermassive black holes present in these quasars were formed at a very early epoch. If a correlation between black hole mass and dark matter halo mass is present at these early times, then these rare supermassive black holes will be located inside the most massive dark matter halos. These are therefore ideal locations to search for the first clusters of galaxies. We use the Lyman-break technique to identify star-forming galaxies at high redshifts. Our observations show no overdensity of star-forming galaxies in the fields of these quasars. The lack of (dust-free) luminous starburst companions indicates that the quasars may be the only massive galaxies in their vicinity undergoing a period of intense activity.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures, contributed paper to Proceedings of the Conference "Growing Black Holes" held in Garching, Germany, June 21-25, 2004, edited by A. Merloni, S. Nayakshin and R. Sunyaev, Springer-Verlag series of "ESO Astrophysics Symposia

Plasmodium falciparum spermidine synthase inhibition results in unique perturbation-specific effects observed on transcript, protein and metabolite levels

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p><it>Plasmodium falciparum</it>, the causative agent of severe human malaria, has evolved to become resistant to previously successful antimalarial chemotherapies, most notably chloroquine and the antifolates. The prevalence of resistant strains has necessitated the discovery and development of new chemical entities with novel modes-of-action. Although much effort has been invested in the creation of analogues based on existing drugs and the screening of chemical and natural compound libraries, a crucial shortcoming in current Plasmodial drug discovery efforts remains the lack of an extensive set of novel, validated drug targets. A requirement of these targets (or the pathways in which they function) is that they prove essential for parasite survival. The polyamine biosynthetic pathway, responsible for the metabolism of highly abundant amines crucial for parasite growth, proliferation and differentiation, is currently under investigation as an antimalarial target. Chemotherapeutic strategies targeting this pathway have been successfully utilized for the treatment of Trypanosomes causing West African sleeping sickness. In order to further evaluate polyamine depletion as possible antimalarial intervention, the consequences of inhibiting <it>P. falciparum </it>spermidine synthase (PfSpdSyn) were examined on a morphological, transcriptomic, proteomic and metabolic level.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Morphological analysis of <it>P. falciparum </it>3D7 following application of the PfSpdSyn inhibitor cyclohexylamine confirmed that parasite development was completely arrested at the early trophozoite stage. This is in contrast to untreated parasites which progressed to late trophozoites at comparable time points. Global gene expression analyses confirmed a transcriptional arrest in the parasite. Several of the differentially expressed genes mapped to the polyamine biosynthetic and associated metabolic pathways. Differential expression of corresponding parasite proteins involved in polyamine biosynthesis was also observed. Most notably, uridine phosphorylase, adenosine deaminase, lysine decarboxylase (LDC) and S-adenosylmethionine synthetase were differentially expressed at the transcript and/or protein level. Several genes in associated metabolic pathways (purine metabolism and various methyltransferases) were also affected. The specific nature of the perturbation was additionally reflected by changes in polyamine metabolite levels.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>This study details the malaria parasite's response to PfSpdSyn inhibition on the transcriptomic, proteomic and metabolic levels. The results corroborate and significantly expand previous functional genomics studies relating to polyamine depletion in this parasite. Moreover, they confirm the role of transcriptional regulation in <it>P. falciparum</it>, particularly in this pathway. The findings promote this essential pathway as a target for antimalarial chemotherapeutic intervention strategies.</p

Four quasars above redshift 6 discovered by the Canada-France High-z Quasar Survey

The Canada-France High-z Quasar Survey (CFHQS) is an optical survey designed to locate quasars during the epoch of reionization. In this paper we present the discovery of the first four CFHQS quasars at redshift greater than 6, including the most distant known quasar, CFHQS J2329-0301 at z=6.43. We describe the observational method used to identify the quasars and present optical, infrared, and millimeter photometry and optical and near-infrared spectroscopy. We investigate the dust properties of these quasars finding an unusual dust extinction curve for one quasar and a high far-infrared luminosity due to dust emission for another. The mean millimeter continuum flux for CFHQS quasars is substantially lower than that for SDSS quasars at the same redshift, likely due to a correlation with quasar UV luminosity. For two quasars with sufficiently high signal-to-noise optical spectra, we use the spectra to investigate the ionization state of hydrogen at z>5. For CFHQS J1509-1749 at z=6.12, we find significant evolution (beyond a simple extrapolation of lower redshift data) in the Gunn-Peterson optical depth at z>5.4. The line-of-sight to this quasar has one of the highest known optical depths at z~5.8. An analysis of the sizes of the highly-ionized near-zones in the spectra of two quasars at z=6.12 and z=6.43 suggest the IGM surrounding these quasars was substantially ionized before these quasars turned on. Together, these observations point towards an extended reionization process, but we caution that cosmic variance is still a major limitation in z>6 quasar observations.Comment: 15 pages, 9 figures, AJ, in press, minor changes to previous versio

Integrating health care in Australia : a qualitative evaluation

With aging populations, a growing prevalence of chronic illnesses, higher expectations for quality care and rising costs within limited health budgets, integration of healthcare is seen as a solution to these challenges. Integrated healthcare aims to overcome barriers between primary and secondary care and other disconnected patient services to improve access, continuity and quality of care. Many people in Australia are admitted to hospital for chronic illnesses that could be prevented or managed in the community. Western Sydney has high rates of diabetes, heart and respiratory diseases and the NSW State Ministry of Health has implemented key strategies through the Western Sydney Integrated Care Program (WSICP) to enhance primary care and the outcomes and experiences of patients with these illnesses. We aimed to investigate the WSICP’s effectiveness through a qualitative evaluation focused on the 10 WSICP strategies. The combined WSICP strategies improved patient and carer experience of healthcare and capacity of GPs to provide care in the community. Information sharing required longer-term investment and support, though benefits were evident by the end of our research