The "secularization" and ethnicization of migration discourse: the Ingrian Finnish Right to Return in Finnish politics

Finland’s Right to Return policy for Ingrian Finns (1990–2010) presented Russian and Estonian citizens who qualified as having Finnish ancestry the legal means to resettle in Finland. The policy was initially driven by Finnish President Mauno Koivisto, who spoke publicly of his belief that the Ingrian Finnish minority in Russia was Finnish because it was Lutheran rather than Orthodox. However, Finnish politicians increasingly abandoned the view of a common Lutheran identity between Ingrian Finns and Finland, and shifted the discussion to language, ancestry and historical memory, which were used to both endorse and disendorse Ingrian Finns’ Finnishness. We argue that the disappearance of religion from the Right to Return discourse was a strategic – if not necessarily conscious – choice that emphasized the more primordial aspects of Finnish identity (and the Ingrian Finns’ lack of those), which in turn enabled stricter restrictions and, ultimately, the discontinuation of the policy

Law Libraries and Laboratories: The Legacies of Langdell and His Metaphor

Law Librarians and others have often referred to Harvard Law School Dean C.C. Langdell’s statements that the law library is the lawyer’s laboratory. Professor Danner examines the context of what Langdell through his other writings, the educational environment at Harvard in the late nineteenth century, and the changing perceptions of university libraries generally. He then considers how the “laboratory metaphor” has been applied by librarians and legal scholars during the twentieth century and into the twenty-first. The article closes with thoughts on Langdell’s legacy for law librarians and the usefulness of the laboratory metaphor

High field x-ray diffraction study on a magnetic-field-induced valence transition in YbInCu4

We report the first high-field x-ray diffraction experiment using synchrotron x-rays and pulsed magnetic fields exceeding 30 T. Lattice deformation due to a magnetic-field-induced valence transition in YbInCu4 is studied. It has been found that the Bragg reflection profile at 32 K changes significantly at around 27 T due to the structural transition. In the vicinity of the transition field the low-field and the high-field phases are observed simultaneously as the two distinct Bragg reflection peaks: This is a direct evidence of the fact that the field-induced valence state transition is the first order phase transition. The field-dependence of the low-field-phase Bragg peak intensity is found to be scaled with the magnetization.Comment: 5 pages, 6 figures, submitted to J. Phys. Soc. Jp

Quantifying cancer progression with conjunctive Bayesian networks

Motivation: Cancer is an evolutionary process characterized by accumulating mutations. However, the precise timing and the order of genetic alterations that drive tumor progression remain enigmatic

Computational Cancer Biology: An Evolutionary Perspective

ISSN:1553-734XISSN:1553-735

Knowledge and perceptions of diabetes in a semi-urban Omani population

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Diabetes mellitus is a major public health problem in the Sultanate of Oman. This study aimed to evaluate the knowledge and perception of diabetes in a sample of the Omani general population, and the associations between the elements of knowledge and perception, and socio-demographic factors.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The study was carried out in two semi-urban localities. A total of 563 adult residents were interviewed, using a questionnaire specifically designed for the present study. In addition to demographic information, the questionnaire contained questions on knowledge related to diabetes definition, symptoms, risk factors, complications and preventative measures, as well as risk perception for diabetes.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Knowledge of diabetes was suboptimal. The percentages of correct responses to questions on diabetes definition, classical symptoms, and complications were 46.5%, 57.0%, and 55.1%, respectively. Only 29.5%, 20.8% and 16.9% identified obesity, physical inactivity and a positive family history, respectively, as risk factors for diabetes. A higher level of education, a higher household income, and the presence of a family history of diabetes were found to be positively associated with more knowledge.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>This study demonstrated that there is lack of awareness of major risk factors for diabetes mellitus. Level of education is the most significant predictor of knowledge regarding risk factors, complications and the prevention of diabetes. Given that the prevalence of diabetes has increased drastically in Oman over the last decade, health promotion seems essential, along with other means to prevent and control this emerging health problem.</p

Molecular Hydrogen Excitation around Active Galactic Nuclei

We report R~3000 VLT ISAAC K-band spectroscopy of the nuclei (i.e. central 100-300pc) of 9 galaxies hosting an active galactic nucleus. For 5 of these we also present spectra of the circumnuclear region out to 1kpc. We have measured a number of H_2 lines in the v=1-0, 2-1, and 3-2 vibrational transitions, as well as the Br_gamma and HeI recombination lines, and the NaI stellar absorption. Although only 3 of the galaxies are classified as Seyfert 1s in the literature, broad Br_gamma (FWHM 1000kms) is seen in 7 of the objects. The v=1-0 emission appears thermalised at T~1000K. However, the v=2-1 and 3-2 emission show evidence of being radiatively excited by far-UV photons. The PDR models that fit the data best are, as for the ultraluminous infrared galaxies in Davies et al. (2003), those for which the H_2 emission arises in dense clouds illuminated by intense FUV radiation. The NaI stellar absorption is clearly seen in 6 of the nuclear spectra, indicating the presence of a significant population of late type stars. It is possible that these stars are a result of the same episode of star formation that gave rise to the stars heating the PDRs. It seems unlikely that the AGN is the dominant source of excitation for the near infrared H_2 emission: in two nuclei H_2 was not detected at all, and in general we find no evidence of suppression of the 2-1S(3) line, which may occur in X-ray irradiated gas. Our data do not reveal any significant difference between the nuclear and circumnuclear line ratios, suggesting that the physical conditions of the dominant excitation mechanism are similar both near the AGN and in the larger scale environment around it, and that star formation is an important process even in the central 100pc acround AGN.Comment: accepted for publication in ApJ (32 pages, 12 figures