Social Capital in Central and Eastern Europe. A Critical Assessment and Literature Review

Ever since the 1990s, social capital has attracted attention from social science researchers. With its focus on the importance of intangible resources such as trust, social capital appeared to supplement existing theories of social and economic change. For its early proponents such as Bourdieu, Coleman and more famously, Putnam, social capital could be understood as a critical component in social reproduction, educational achievement and administrative efficiency. Social capital seems especially relevant in Central and Eastern Europe and the countries of the former Soviet Union. Not only does it direct attention to informal networks as ways of getting things done, it also explores how strong ties of personal trust co-exist with low levels of general trust and how this can affect economic and political reform. In terms of its actual policy implications, the conclusions of social capital research have not always been clear and it may be fair to say that expectations have been scaled down since the World Bank declared that social capital to be the missing link. This study offers a critical review of over seventy studies that have applied social capital to developments in Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. The author draws from a variety of social science disciplines as well as including several reports from international organisations. The review investigates five principal fields in which social capital has been used to date and to provides a series of suggestions as to how such research can help encourage institutional and policy innovation.

Diasporas musulmanes balkaniques dans l'Union Européenne

Ce dossier, consacré aux musulmans d'origine balkanique vivant au sein de l'Union européenne, est composé de six articles. Ceux de Dimitris Antoniou, Jeanne Hersant, Kristina Grünenberg et Fabrizio Speziale ont d'abord été présentés en novembre 2003, lors d'un colloque sur Les musulmans balkaniques et l'islam en Europe de l'Ouest, co-organisé par l'Association française d'études sur les Balkans (AFEBalk) et le laboratoire Migrinter du CNRS (UMR 6588, Poitiers). Une première version de l'artic..

Diasporas musulmanes balkaniques dans l'Union Européenne

Ce dossier, consacré aux musulmans d'origine balkanique vivant au sein de l'Union européenne, est composé de six articles. Ceux de Dimitris Antoniou, Jeanne Hersant, Kristina Grünenberg et Fabrizio Speziale ont d'abord été présentés en novembre 2003, lors d'un colloque sur Les musulmans balkaniques et l'islam en Europe de l'Ouest, co-organisé par l'Association française d'études sur les Balkans (AFEBalk) et le laboratoire Migrinter du CNRS (UMR 6588, Poitiers). Une première version de l'artic..

The Bulgarian version of the Juvenile Arthritis Multidimensional Assessment Report (JAMAR)

The Juvenile Arthritis Multidimensional Assessment Report (JAMAR) is a new parent/patient reported outcome measure that enables a thorough assessment of the disease status in children with juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA). We report the results of the cross-cultural adaptation and validation of the parent and patient versions of the JAMAR in the Bulgarian language. The reading comprehension of the questionnaire was tested in 10 JIA parents and patients. Each participating centre was asked to collect demographic, clinical data, and the JAMAR in 100 consecutive JIA patients or all consecutive patients seen in a 6-month period and to administer the JAMAR to 100 healthy children and their parents. The statistical validation phase explored descriptive statistics and the psychometric issues of the JAMAR: the 3 Likert assumptions, floor/ceiling effects, internal consistency, Cronbach\u2019s alpha, interscale correlations, test\u2013retest reliability, and construct validity (convergent and discriminant validity). A total of 183 JIA patients (12% systemic, 53.6% oligoarticular, 23.5% RF negative polyarthritis, 10.9% other categories) and 100 healthy children were enrolled in two centres. The JAMAR components discriminated well healthy subjects from JIA patients. Notably, there is no significant difference between the healthy subjects and their affected peers in the school-related problems variable. All JAMAR components revealed good psychometric performances. In conclusion, the Bulgarian version of the JAMAR is a valid tool for the assessment of children with JIA and is suitable for use both in routine clinical practice and clinical research

La notion de ‘réseaux sociaux’ en migration

International audienceFréquemment convoquée dans le champ de la sociologie des migrations depuis la fin des années soixante-dix, la notion de " réseau " est devenue un mot-clé dans de nombreuses recherches sur les nouvelles formes migratoires, et plus particulièrement sur les modes de production des migrants, qualifiés d' " économie ethnique ". Après plus d'une vingtaine d'années de recherche, la notion de " réseau " reste décrite comme " un vague ensemble d'approches " (1) et relève bien plus d'un usage métaphorique qu'analytique. Le présent article explore la notion de réseau social et son usage dans des travaux qui portent sur les modes d'organisation des migrants. Il tente de cerner ses apports mais aussi ses limites. Sur le plan théorique, la promotion de la notion de réseau dans les années cinquante a été le fait d'anthropologues anglais pour développer une théorie explicative du social satisfaisante. Raymond Firth (2) distin-guera structures sociales et organisations sociales, ces dernières relevant de processus où les actions et les relations opèrent en vue d'at-teindre des buts. L'emploi du terme " réseau social " est attribué à John A. Barnes (3) , qui dans une étude sur un village de pêcheurs norvégiens tente de rendre compte des liens d'amitié et de connaissance que les habi-tants ont pour partie construits. La structure sociale observée peut se lire sur fond de relations interpersonnelles qui se nouent dans des sphères d'activité plutôt qu'en termes de rôles et de statuts des membres d'un groupe. Elizabeth Bott (4) appliquera ce concept à l'étude des rôles conjugaux dans des familles londoniennes. Elle montre qu'en contexte urbain les relations entre amis, parents et voisins constituent des structures intermédiaires, organisées, entre l'individu et les institutions. Elle introduit les concepts de " réseau serré " (" close-knit network ") et de " réseau lâche " (" loose-knit network "), montrant ainsi que plus le réseau est serré plus il opère une pression normative sur ses membres. Mais ce n'est qu'à partir des années soixante que des chercheurs donnent un nouveau champ d'application au concept de " réseau social " , à partir d'études sur les phénomènes d'acculturation et de changement liés à par Marie-Antoinette Hily, William Berthomière, chargés de recherche à Migrinter, Poitiers (UMR Miti-CNRS), et Dimitrina Mihaylova, chercheuse associée à l'université d'Oxford (Compas

The Phytochemical Profiling, In Vitro Antioxidant, and Hepatoprotective Activity of <i>Prenanthes purpurea</i> L. and Caffeoylquinic Acids in Diclofenac-Induced Hepatotoxicity on HEP-G2 Cells

Oxidative stress is a common phenomenon of many liver disorders; it both affects patient survival and directly influences the applicability, effectiveness, and toxicity of drugs. In the pursuit of reliable natural remedies for hepatoprotection, this study reports on the complete phytochemical characterization, antioxidant, and hepatoprotective activities of the Prenanthes purpurea methanol-aqueous extract in an in vitro model of diclofenac-induced liver injury (DILI). An ultra high-performance liquid chromatography–high-resolution mass spectrometry analysis (UHPLC-HRMS) was conducted, delineating more than 100 secondary metabolites for the first time in the species, including a series of phenolic acid-hexosides, acylquinic, acylhydroxyquinic and acyltartaric acids, and flavonoids. Quinic acid, chlorogenic, 3,5-dicaffeoylquinic and 5-feruloylhydroxyquinic acid, caffeoyltartaric and cichoric acids, eryodictiol-O-hexuronide, and luteolin O-hexuronide dominated the phytochemical profile and most likely contributed to the observed hepatoprotective activity of the studied P. purpurea leaf extract. The potency and molecular basis of cellular protection were investigated in parallel with pure caffeoylquinic acids in a series of pretreatment experiments that verified the antiapoptotic and antioxidant properties of the natural products

Design, Synthesis, In Silico Studies and In Vitro Evaluation of New Indole- and/or Donepezil-like Hybrids as Multitarget-Directed Agents for Alzheimer’s Disease

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is considered a complex neurodegenerative condition which warrants the development of multitargeted drugs to tackle the key pathogenetic mechanisms of the disease. In this study, two novel series of melatonin- and donepezil-based hybrid molecules with hydrazone (3a–r) or sulfonyl hydrazone (5a–l) fragments were designed, synthesized, and evaluated as multifunctional ligands against AD-related neurodegenerative mechanisms. Two lead compounds (3c and 3d) exhibited a well-balanced multifunctional profile, demonstrating intriguing acetylcholinesterase (AChE) inhibition, promising antioxidant activity assessed by DPPH, ABTS, and FRAP methods, as well as the inhibition of lipid peroxidation in the linoleic acid system. Compound 3n, possessing two indole scaffolds, showed the highest activity against butyrylcholinesterase (BChE) and a high selectivity index (SI = 47.34), as well as a pronounced protective effect in H2O2-induced oxidative stress in SH-SY5Y cells. Moreover, compounds 3c, 3d, and 3n showed low neurotoxicity against malignant neuroblastoma cell lines of human (SH-SY5Y) and murine (Neuro-2a) origin, as well as normal murine fibroblast cells (CCL-1) that indicate the in vitro biocompatibility of the experimental compounds. Furthermore, compounds 3c, 3d, and 3n were capable of penetrating the blood–brain barrier (BBB) in the experimental PAMPA-BBB study. The molecular docking showed that compound 3c could act as a ligand to both MT1 and MT2 receptors, as well as to AchE and BchE enzymes. Taken together, those results outline compounds 3c, 3d, and 3n as promising prototypes in the search of innovative compounds for the treatment of AD-associated neurodegeneration with oxidative stress. This study demonstrates that hydrazone derivatives with melatonin and donepezil are appropriate for further development of new AChE/BChE inhibitory agents