Die Genese der iranischen Revolution und die Rolle Ayatollah Chomeinis

Die Arbeit versucht mit Mitteln der Leadership-Analyse hinter den Mythos Ayatollah Chomeini zu blicken und den Ursachen für seine starke Wirkung auf die iranische Bevölkerung und die emotionale Bindung zwischen seinen Anhängern und ihm als Führungspersönlichkeit auf den Grund zu gehen. Diese Analyse wird in die politischen und sozialen Rahmenbedingungen im historischen Kontext sowie in eine eingehende Betrachtung der religiösen Traditionen und Mythen der Schiiten des Iran eingebettet. Die Arbeit gliedert sich in vier wesentliche Abschnitte: Zunächst wird das Konzept von „political leadership“ als Forschungsansatz vorgestellt. Dabei werden nach einem kurzen Überblick über die Entstehung der Leadership-Forschung vor allem jene Ansätze näher präsentiert, die eine Verknüpfung innerpsychischer Vorstellungen mit soziologisch-politischen Zusammenhängen versuchen. Im zweiten Teil wird versucht, den historisch-religiösen Hintergrund der iranischen Gesellschaft und traditionelle Elemente der iranischen Volksfrömmigkeit zu beleuchten. Der dritte Teil versucht durch eine Kombination der Schilderung der politischen Entwicklung Ayatollah Chomeinis und der iranischen politischen, sozialen und wirtschaftlichen Geschichte des Zwanzigsten Jahrhunderts Hintergründe und Ursachen für die Entstehung der Leadership Ayatollah Chomeinis zu liefern. Diese Analyse wird im vierten Teil vertieft und vor allem im Hinblick auf die Bindung zwischen Leader und Followers in den theoretischen Rahmen von James V. Downton und James MacGregor Burns gestellt. Dabei kommt die Arbeit zu dem Schluß, daß Ayatollah Chomeini einem „revolutionary leader“ im Sinne von „transforming leadership“, wie sie von Burns definiert wird, entspricht: Sein Streben nach einem islamischen Staat unter der Führung islamischer Rechtsgelehrter (‚velayat-e faqih’), trifft sich mit den Hoffnungen und Erwartungen der Gläubigen, die sich nach der kulturellen Entwurzelung nach einer Restituierung traditioneller Werte des Islam sehnen.The thesis tries to look behind the scenes of the myth of Ayatollah Chomeini (Khomeini) applying the methods of leadership analysis and to figure out the causes of the man’s strong impact on the Iranian population as well as the emotional relationship between his followers and Chomeini as their leader. The analysis is both embedded in the political and social environment in a historical context and into a close consideration of the Shiite religious traditions and myths in Iran. The first of four parts is presenting the concept of ‚political leadership’. After a short overview of the development of leadership-research the author concentrates on leadership-approaches that attempt to connect psychological considerations with a socio-political context. The second part is revealing the historical and religious background of the Iranian society. The political development of Ayatollah Chomeini and the Iranian political, social and economic history of the twentieth century constitute the background and the fundament of Chomeini’s leadership in the third part of the work. Finally the analysis is deepened and concerning the attachment between leader and followers related to the theoretical framework of James V. Downton and James MacGregor Burns. Thus the thesis concludes that Ayatollah Chomeini corresponds to a ‚revolutionary leader’ in the sense of ‚transforming leadership’ following Burns’ definition: Chomeini’s pursuit of an Islamic state led by religious jurists (‚velayat-e faqih’) meets the aspirations and expectations of the believers that after decades of cultural alienation long for a restitution of traditional Islamic values

Ehen zwischen Muslimen und Nicht-Muslimen in Österreich

Die Bedeutung muslimisch-nichtmuslimischer Ehen und Familien für die österreichische Gesellschaft wurde bisher kaum untersucht. Aus einer umfangreichen Analyse der vorhandenen statistischen Daten versucht der Autor die Gesamtzahl der muslimisch-nichtmuslimischen Ehen in Österreich zu schätzen und legt im Anschluss die rechtlichen Rahmenbedingungen für die Eheschließung zwischen MuslimInnen und NichtmuslimInnen bzw. ChristInnen sowohl in der österreichischen Rechtsordnung als auch aus dem Blickwinkel des islamischen Familienrechts dar. Ausgehend von der häufig gegebenen Überschneidung zwischen bikonfessionellen und binationalen Eheschließungen wird die Problematik des neuen österreichischen Fremdenrechts (Niederlassungs- und Aufenthaltsgesetz 2005) für die betroffenen Paare und der Zusammenhang zwischen dem jüngsten Rückgang muslimisch-nichtmuslimischer Eheschließungen und der Verschärfung der rechtlichen Bestimmungen dargestellt. Im Anschluss erläutert der Autor, wie die islamischen und christlichen Glaubensgemeinschaften muslimisch-nichtmuslimische Ehen beurteilen und versucht, die gesellschaftliche Rolle dieser Ehen und deren dialogförderndes Potential vor dem Hintergrund des aktuellen, teilweise sehr negativ verzerrten Islambildes zu analysieren.This article focusses on the significance of muslim-nonmuslim couples and families (interfaith families) in Austria. The study starts with an analysis of statistical data and tries to estimate the overall amount of muslim-nonmuslim couples. In the following section the author gives a review of the legal framework in Austrian and islamic marriage law. Based on the frequent overlapping of binational marriages and marriages between muslim and nonmuslim partners the author exemplifies critical items in the recent Austrian regulations on residence for foreign nationals (Niederlassungs- und Aufenthaltsgesetz 2005) concerning the affected couples and reveals the connection between the recent decline of muslim-nonmuslim marriages and the aggravation of legal requirements for binational marriages. Subsequently the study explains who both christian and islamic authorities judge muslim-christian or muslim-nonmuslim marriages and finally tries to analyse the role of these couples and families in the Austrian society and their potential to support an open dialogue against the background of the actual negatively biased image of islam in Austria

Überlegungen zur Aufstellungssystematik und Reklassifikation an der Fachbereichsbibliothek Afrikawissenschaften und Orientalistik

Der praktische Einsatz der Dewey-Dezimalklassifikation (DDC) für die inhaltliche Erschließung sowie als Aufstellungssystematik in wissenschaftlichen Bibliotheken des deutschen Sprachraums hat wenig Tradition und wurde bisher von der Literatur kaum aufgearbeitet. Nach einer Darstellung der Rahmenbedingungen und der Problemlage in der Fachbereichsbibliothek Afrikanistik/Orientalistik der Universität Wien, gibt der Autor einen Überblick über die Erfahrungen mit und die Einschätzung von DDC in vergleichbaren wissenschaftlichen Bibliotheken vor allem im deutschen und englischen Sprachraum, definiert Kriterien für eine neue Systematik und klärt inwieweit diese mit dem Einsatz von DDC erfüllbar sind. Ausgehend von den quantitativen und räumlichen Rahmenbedingungen und der Segmentierung des Bestandes im Hinblick auf die Erfordernisse der Reklassifikation, sowie auf der Basis eigener Erfahrungen und Plausibilitätsprüfungen schätzt der Autor anhand von drei Varianten den nötigen Personal- und Zeitaufwand für den Einsatz von DDC im Rahmen eines Reklassifizierungsprojektes. Abschließend enthält die vorliegende Arbeit praktische Erfahrungen im Umgang mit der DDC am Beispiel des Themenbereiches „Islamwissenschaft“, durch die auf einige Besonderheiten und Probleme bei der Verwendung von DDC für die Reklassifizierung hingewiesen wird.The thesis deals with the use of Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC) for reclassification and shelving in scientific libraries in the German-speaking area. The study starts with identifying the basic parameters and problems of the department library of African and Oriental Studies of University of Vienna. In the following section the author gives a review of experiences and estimations of DDC in comparable scientific libraries mainly in German-speaking and English-speaking countries, defines criteria for a new classification system and tries to clarify to what extent the use of DDC meets these criteria. Considering the spatial and quantitative conditions of the library and the segmentation of its stock with regard to the requirements of reclassification as well as his own experience the author estimates the necessary manpower and time requirements for implementing DDC on the basis of three different alternatives, which partly include the use of DDC as shelving system. Finally the thesis comprises practical experiences with the use of DDC in the field of Oriental and Islam Studies that reveal certain specialties and problems

A Concurrent Tuple Set Architecture for Call Level Interfaces

Call Level Interfaces (CLI) are low level API aimed at providing services to connect two main components in database applications: client applications and relational databases. Among their functionalities, the ability to manage data retrieved from databases is emphasized. The retrieved data is kept in local memory structures that may be permanently connected to the host database. Client applications, beyond the ability to read their contents, may also execute Insert, Update and Delete actions over the local memory structures, following specific protocols. These protocols are row (tuple) oriented and, while being executed, cannot be preempted to start another protocol. This restriction leads to several difficulties when applications need to deal with several tuples at a time. The most paradigmatic case is the impossibility to cope with concurrent environments where several threads need to access to the same local memory structure instance, each one pointing to a different tuple and executing its particular protocol. To overcome the aforementioned fragility, a Concurrent Tuple Set Architecture (CTSA) is proposed to manage local memory structures. A performance assessment of a Java component based on JDBC (CLI) is also carried out and compared with a common approach. The main outcome of this research is the evidence that in concurrent environments, components relying on the CTSA may significantly improve the overall performance when compared with solutions based on standard JDBC API.(undefined

Generational Association Studies of Dopaminergic Genes in Reward Deficiency Syndrome (RDS) Subjects: Selecting Appropriate Phenotypes for Reward Dependence Behaviors

Abnormal behaviors involving dopaminergic gene polymorphisms often reflect an insufficiency of usual feelings of satisfaction, or Reward Deficiency Syndrome (RDS). RDS results from a dysfunction in the “brain reward cascade,” a complex interaction among neurotransmitters (primarily dopaminergic and opioidergic). Individuals with a family history of alcoholism or other addictions may be born with a deficiency in the ability to produce or use these neurotransmitters. Exposure to prolonged periods of stress and alcohol or other substances also can lead to a corruption of the brain reward cascade function. We evaluated the potential association of four variants of dopaminergic candidate genes in RDS (dopamine D1 receptor gene [DRD1]; dopamine D2 receptor gene [DRD2]; dopamine transporter gene [DAT1]; dopamine beta-hydroxylase gene [DBH]). Methodology: We genotyped an experimental group of 55 subjects derived from up to five generations of two independent multiple-affected families compared to rigorously screened control subjects (e.g., N = 30 super controls for DRD2 gene polymorphisms). Data related to RDS behaviors were collected on these subjects plus 13 deceased family members. Results: Among the genotyped family members, the DRD2 Taq1 and the DAT1 10/10 alleles were significantly (at least p < 0.015) more often found in the RDS families vs. controls. The TaqA1 allele occurred in 100% of Family A individuals (N = 32) and 47.8% of Family B subjects (11 of 23). No significant differences were found between the experimental and control positive rates for the other variants. Conclusions: Although our sample size was limited, and linkage analysis is necessary, the results support the putative role of dopaminergic polymorphisms in RDS behaviors. This study shows the importance of a nonspecific RDS phenotype and informs an understanding of how evaluating single subset behaviors of RDS may lead to spurious results. Utilization of a nonspecific “reward” phenotype may be a paradigm shift in future association and linkage studies involving dopaminergic polymorphisms and other neurotransmitter gene candidates

Mapping 123 million neonatal, infant and child deaths between 2000 and 2017

Since 2000, many countries have achieved considerable success in improving child survival, but localized progress remains unclear. To inform efforts towards United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 3.2—to end preventable child deaths by 2030—we need consistently estimated data at the subnational level regarding child mortality rates and trends. Here we quantified, for the period 2000–2017, the subnational variation in mortality rates and number of deaths of neonates, infants and children under 5 years of age within 99 low- and middle-income countries using a geostatistical survival model. We estimated that 32% of children under 5 in these countries lived in districts that had attained rates of 25 or fewer child deaths per 1,000 live births by 2017, and that 58% of child deaths between 2000 and 2017 in these countries could have been averted in the absence of geographical inequality. This study enables the identification of high-mortality clusters, patterns of progress and geographical inequalities to inform appropriate investments and implementations that will help to improve the health of all populations

Alcohol use and burden for 195 countries and territories, 1990-2016 : a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2016

Background Alcohol use is a leading risk factor for death and disability, but its overall association with health remains complex given the possible protective effects of moderate alcohol consumption on some conditions. With our comprehensive approach to health accounting within the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study 2016, we generated improved estimates of alcohol use and alcohol-attributable deaths and disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) for 195 locations from 1990 to 2016, for both sexes and for 5-year age groups between the ages of 15 years and 95 years and older. Methods Using 694 data sources of individual and population-level alcohol consumption, along with 592 prospective and retrospective studies on the risk of alcohol use, we produced estimates of the prevalence of current drinking, abstention, the distribution of alcohol consumption among current drinkers in standard drinks daily (defined as 10 g of pure ethyl alcohol), and alcohol-attributable deaths and DALYs. We made several methodological improvements compared with previous estimates: first, we adjusted alcohol sales estimates to take into account tourist and unrecorded consumption; second, we did a new meta-analysis of relative risks for 23 health outcomes associated with alcohol use; and third, we developed a new method to quantify the level of alcohol consumption that minimises the overall risk to individual health. Findings Globally, alcohol use was the seventh leading risk factor for both deaths and DALYs in 2016, accounting for 2.2% (95% uncertainty interval [UI] 1.5-3.0) of age-standardised female deaths and 6.8% (5.8-8.0) of age-standardised male deaths. Among the population aged 15-49 years, alcohol use was the leading risk factor globally in 2016, with 3.8% (95% UI 3.2-4-3) of female deaths and 12.2% (10.8-13-6) of male deaths attributable to alcohol use. For the population aged 15-49 years, female attributable DALYs were 2.3% (95% UI 2.0-2.6) and male attributable DALYs were 8.9% (7.8-9.9). The three leading causes of attributable deaths in this age group were tuberculosis (1.4% [95% UI 1. 0-1. 7] of total deaths), road injuries (1.2% [0.7-1.9]), and self-harm (1.1% [0.6-1.5]). For populations aged 50 years and older, cancers accounted for a large proportion of total alcohol-attributable deaths in 2016, constituting 27.1% (95% UI 21.2-33.3) of total alcohol-attributable female deaths and 18.9% (15.3-22.6) of male deaths. The level of alcohol consumption that minimised harm across health outcomes was zero (95% UI 0.0-0.8) standard drinks per week. Interpretation Alcohol use is a leading risk factor for global disease burden and causes substantial health loss. We found that the risk of all-cause mortality, and of cancers specifically, rises with increasing levels of consumption, and the level of consumption that minimises health loss is zero. These results suggest that alcohol control policies might need to be revised worldwide, refocusing on efforts to lower overall population-level consumption.Peer reviewe

Erratum: Global, regional, and national comparative risk assessment of 84 behavioural, environmental and occupational, and metabolic risks or clusters of risks for 195 countries and territories, 1990–2017: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2017

Interpretation: By quantifying levels and trends in exposures to risk factors and the resulting disease burden, this assessment offers insight into where past policy and programme efforts might have been successful and highlights current priorities for public health action. Decreases in behavioural, environmental, and occupational risks have largely offset the effects of population growth and ageing, in relation to trends in absolute burden. Conversely, the combination of increasing metabolic risks and population ageing will probably continue to drive the increasing trends in non-communicable diseases at the global level, which presents both a public health challenge and opportunity. We see considerable spatiotemporal heterogeneity in levels of risk exposure and risk-attributable burden. Although levels of development underlie some of this heterogeneity, O/E ratios show risks for which countries are overperforming or underperforming relative to their level of development. As such, these ratios provide a benchmarking tool to help to focus local decision making. Our findings reinforce the importance of both risk exposure monitoring and epidemiological research to assess causal connections between risks and health outcomes, and they highlight the usefulness of the GBD study in synthesising data to draw comprehensive and robust conclusions that help to inform good policy and strategic health planning

Measuring performance on the Healthcare Access and Quality Index for 195 countries and territories and selected subnational locations: A systematic analysis from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2016

Background: A key component of achieving universal health coverage is ensuring that all populations have access to quality health care. Examining where gains have occurred or progress has faltered across and within countries is crucial to guiding decisions and strategies for future improvement. We used the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study 2016 (GBD 2016) to assess personal health-care access and quality with the Healthcare Access and Quality (HAQ) Index for 195 countries and territories, as well as subnational locations in seven countries, from 1990 to 2016. Methods Drawing from established methods and updated estimates from GBD 2016, we used 32 causes from which death should not occur in the presence of effective care to approximate personal health-care access and quality by location and over time. To better isolate potential effects of personal health-care access and quality from underlying risk factor patterns, we risk-standardised cause-specific deaths due to non-cancers by location-year, replacing the local joint exposure of environmental and behavioural risks with the global level of exposure. Supported by the expansion of cancer registry data in GBD 2016, we used mortality-to-incidence ratios for cancers instead of risk-standardised death rates to provide a stronger signal of the effects of personal health care and access on cancer survival. We transformed each cause to a scale of 0-100, with 0 as the first percentile (worst) observed between 1990 and 2016, and 100 as the 99th percentile (best); we set these thresholds at the country level, and then applied them to subnational locations. We applied a principal components analysis to construct the HAQ Index using all scaled cause values, providing an overall score of 0-100 of personal health-care access and quality by location over time. We then compared HAQ Index levels and trends by quintiles on the Socio-demographic Index (SDI), a summary measure of overall development. As derived from the broader GBD study and other data sources, we examined relationships between national HAQ Index scores and potential correlates of performance, such as total health spending per capita. Findings In 2016, HAQ Index performance spanned from a high of 97\ub71 (95% UI 95\ub78-98\ub71) in Iceland, followed by 96\ub76 (94\ub79-97\ub79) in Norway and 96\ub71 (94\ub75-97\ub73) in the Netherlands, to values as low as 18\ub76 (13\ub71-24\ub74) in the Central African Republic, 19\ub70 (14\ub73-23\ub77) in Somalia, and 23\ub74 (20\ub72-26\ub78) in Guinea-Bissau. The pace of progress achieved between 1990 and 2016 varied, with markedly faster improvements occurring between 2000 and 2016 for many countries in sub-Saharan Africa and southeast Asia, whereas several countries in Latin America and elsewhere saw progress stagnate after experiencing considerable advances in the HAQ Index between 1990 and 2000. Striking subnational disparities emerged in personal health-care access and quality, with China and India having particularly large gaps between locations with the highest and lowest scores in 2016. In China, performance ranged from 91\ub75 (89\ub71-93\ub76) in Beijing to 48\ub70 (43\ub74-53\ub72) in Tibet (a 43\ub75-point difference), while India saw a 30\ub78-point disparity, from 64\ub78 (59\ub76-68\ub78) in Goa to 34\ub70 (30\ub73-38\ub71) in Assam. Japan recorded the smallest range in subnational HAQ performance in 2016 (a 4\ub78-point difference), whereas differences between subnational locations with the highest and lowest HAQ Index values were more than two times as high for the USA and three times as high for England. State-level gaps in the HAQ Index in Mexico somewhat narrowed from 1990 to 2016 (from a 20\ub79-point to 17\ub70-point difference), whereas in Brazil, disparities slightly increased across states during this time (a 17\ub72-point to 20\ub74-point difference). Performance on the HAQ Index showed strong linkages to overall development, with high and high-middle SDI countries generally having higher scores and faster gains for non-communicable diseases. Nonetheless, countries across the development spectrum saw substantial gains in some key health service areas from 2000 to 2016, most notably vaccine-preventable diseases. Overall, national performance on the HAQ Index was positively associated with higher levels of total health spending per capita, as well as health systems inputs, but these relationships were quite heterogeneous, particularly among low-to-middle SDI countries. Interpretation GBD 2016 provides a more detailed understanding of past success and current challenges in improving personal health-care access and quality worldwide. Despite substantial gains since 2000, many low-SDI and middle- SDI countries face considerable challenges unless heightened policy action and investments focus on advancing access to and quality of health care across key health services, especially non-communicable diseases. Stagnating or minimal improvements experienced by several low-middle to high-middle SDI countries could reflect the complexities of re-orienting both primary and secondary health-care services beyond the more limited foci of the Millennium Development Goals. Alongside initiatives to strengthen public health programmes, the pursuit of universal health coverage hinges upon improving both access and quality worldwide, and thus requires adopting a more comprehensive view-and subsequent provision-of quality health care for all populations