Understanding price developments and consumer price indices in south-eastern Europe

The primary goal of monetary policy in most economies of the world is to achieve and maintain price stability. This paper evaluates price developments and consumer price indices in south-eastern European countries, i.e. countries that have either recently joined the EU or are candidate or potential candidate countries. It is motivated by the fact that, in transition countries, inflation has generally been higher and more volatile than in advanced economies. The analysis reveals that the subindex housing/energy appears to be the main driving force behind overall inflation in the region. In most of the countries under review, administered prices prove to be an important factor in consumer price developments, with their weights increasing over time. Inflation volatility in south-eastern Europe is significantly higher than in the euro area. While this is partly due to a higher level of inflation, it also reflects a more pronounced share for the most volatile sub-indices as well as the marked impact of administered prices on the overall price index, a phenomenon which has also been seen in the central and eastern European countries. While in most south-eastern European countries no HICP has been calculated yet, there is little evidence suggesting that the future use of the HICP will result in a systematic change in inflation patterns in the respective countries. However, as deviations have been observed in a few countries for certain periods, without further information on the structure of the respective national CPI and the HICP such differences cannot be fully excluded. JEL Classification: E21, O52, O57, P22.South-eastern Europe, inflation developments, inflation volatility, consumer price indices, HICP, administered prices.

Loss of neurons from laminas I-III of the spinal dorsal horn is not required for development of tactile allodynia in the spared nerve injury model of neuropathic pain

It has been proposed that death of inhibitory interneurons in the dorsal horn contributes to the neuropathic pain that follows partial nerve injury. In this study, we have used two approaches to test whether there is neuronal death in the dorsal horn in the spared nerve injury (SNI) model. We performed a stereological analysis of the packing density of neurons in laminas I-III 4 weeks after operation and found no reduction on the ipsilateral side compared with that seen on the contralateral side or in sham-operated or naive rats. In addition, we used two markers of apoptosis, terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated biotinylated UTP nick end labeling (TUNEL) staining and immunocytochemical detection of cleaved (activated) caspase-3. Neither of these methods demonstrated apoptotic neurons in the dorsal spinal cord 1 week after operation. Although TUNEL-positive cells were present throughout the gray and white matter at this stage, they were virtually all labeled with antibody against ionized calcium-binding adapter molecule 1, a marker for microglia. All animals that underwent SNI showed clear signs of tactile allodynia affecting the ipsilateral hindpaw. These results suggest that a significant loss of neurons from the dorsal horn is not necessary for the development of tactile allodynia in the SNI model

Development of anlytical techniques for hydrocarbons in mineral aggregates quarterly status report no. 4, jul. - sep. 1964

Chemical analysis of rock and meteorite samples for hydrocarbon conten

Directional thermal-radiative properties of conical cavities

Monte Carlo technique for finding directional thermal-radiative reflectance, absorptance, and emittance of right circular conical cavity with diffusely reflecting internal surfac

\u3cem\u3ePREVIEW;\u3c/em\u3e Goguen v. NYP Holdings, Inc.: \u3cem\u3eConflicts of Law in Multistate Defamation Cases\u3c/em\u3e

PREVIEW; Goguen v. NYP Holdings, Inc.: Conflicts of Law in Multistate Defamation Case

JOINVILLE: HAGIOGRAFSKA PRIČA O SEBI I PRIČA O DRUGOM

The article deals with a Mediaeval hagiographic text dating from 1309, Joinville\u27s work Histoire de Saint Louis. The text is a hagiography or sacred biography, a legal testimony that served in the canonisation process of Louis IX, but, at the same time, also the chronicle of a crusader expedition, that is, the story of a journey which was both an expedition and a pilgrimage. Finally, the text is also an autobiography, since Joinville also inserted elements from his own life in the discourse about the saint. The article elaborates the frameworks of hagiography in relation to historiography and the conception and formation of the Other (the non-Christian) in the context of the late Western Middle Ages.Hagiografija reflektira temeljnu ambivalentnost svetosti: ona nam govori o nekoj svetoj osobi, no ona ne rekonstruira kontinuitet njezine ljudske sudbine, opisani su tek trenuci njezina života. Tako povijesna stvarnost njezina postojanja nije uništena, nego razdijeljena na fragmente, od kojih svaki dobiva novu vrijednost – onu modela – koji će biti složeni poput mozaika prema zakonima hagiografskog žanra. Kao što je to ustvrdila E. B. Vitz, svaki životopis sveca je istodobno, no u razmjerima koji se razlikuju od slučaja do slučaja, diskurs pohvale, uvjeravanja i dokaza. U posljednjim stoljećima srednjeg vijeka "pohvalni" aspekt često prelazi u drugi plan jer autori manje inzistiraju na priči o čudima njihova junaka, no zato se u tekstu naglašava uvjeravanje: potrebno je uvjeriti slušatelja, ili sve češće – čitatelja, da djeluje, da se ponaša prema modelu sveca i da prema njemu modificira svoje ponašanje. Dokazi također dobivaju na važnosti jer su u procesu kanonizacije "zagovaratelji" nekog kandidata morali uvjeriti eklezijastičke autoritete da njihov junak posjeduje sve atribute i zasluge koje zahtijeva Crkva da bi potvrdila svetost. U 12. i 13. stoljeću pojavljuje se novi tip hagiografskih tekstova: naglasak je stavljen na egzemplarnost sveca, dakle na sve ono što bi moglo potaknuti čitatelja ili slušatelja da ga pokuša oponašati. U sklopu promjena koje je donijelo 13. stoljeće pojavljuju se i individualni glasovi, kakav je bio Joinvilleov, koji nam pripovijeda o svom prijatelju i svecu Louisu IX., ne zaboravljajući pritom ni priču o vlastitom životu, ali se koristeći i Drugim kako bi jasnije ocrtao identitet srednjovjekovnoga kršćanskog kralja-sveca

Mudskippers (Gobiidae: Oxudercinae): ecology and evolution along the water edge, and possible use as a biomonitor of tropical intertidal areas

Mudskippers (Gobiidae: Oxudercinae) are highly amphibious and closely related tropical gobies. Systematic, anatomical and physiological studies suggest that they increasingly adapted to semiterrestrial life throughout their evolution. Their physiological adaptations match ecological definitions based on environmental conditions of their habitats. Observations also suggest that synecological factors may be key selective agents. In this respect, recent palaeoecological and palaeontological findings suggest that mudskippers may help to understand some of the factors and processes that defined the scenario of the Devonian vertebrate eco-evolutionary transition. Mudskippers are also proposed as a biomonitor of the health and integrity of highly endangered mangrove and tropical tidal flat ecosystems, as suggested by their differential distribution along the intertidal zone. This also identifies them as possible flag species

Coinage Metal Chalcogenide Clusters with N-Heterocyclic Carbene Ancillary Ligands

This thesis describes the synthesis and characterization of homo- and heterometallic group 11 – group 16 clusters with N-heterocyclic carbene (NHC) ligands. The clusters were prepared from reactive group 11 trimethylsilylchalcogenolate reagents (NHC-M-ESiMe3; M = Cu, Au; E = S, Se, Te) by silane deprotection reactions with phosphine- or phosphite-solubilized group 11 acetates (R3P-M-OAc; M = Cu, Ag, Au). Clusters were characterized by combustion analysis and spectroscopic methods in solution and the solid state. The clusters were phosphorescent at low temperatures with emission energies that depend on the metal/chalcogen composition, ancillary NHC ligand, cluster geometry and nuclearity, and local environment. Lower energy photoluminescence is associated with higher atomic number chalcogenide ligands and correlates with the M→S metal-to-ligand charge transfer energy, for which M = Ag \u3e Cu \u3e Au. Quantum yield of emission is increased in a cluster of high nuclearity and connectivity because of increased molecular rigidity and thermally activated delayed fluorescence. Quantum chemical calculations point to a common mode of emission from all clusters, originating from a charge transfer process from metal-chalcogenide core to the NHC ancillary ligands

Kulturalni kodovi straha: žanr, rod, (muško) ludilo

This paper focuses on a specific type of archival material from the first psychiatric institution in Croatia, the Stenjevec Royal National Institute for the Insane in Zagreb, today the Vrapče University Psychiatric Hospital, dating from the period from its foundation in 1879 until 1900. More specifically, it focuses on patient narratives featuring fantastical beings, i.e., narrations about their life relying on the genre of belief legends. Based on this material, which is considered to be an important albeit atypical folkloristic corpus, the paper analyzes and interprets the status and functions of the genre of belief legends (more specifically, the memorate) in daily life narratives, personal stories and in coding affects (primarily fear). The role of belief legends is examined not only from the perspective of oral tradition and literature, but also in terms of their social and psychological position, and through the lens of psychiatric discourse of the time, which recognizes such narratives merely as symptoms of madness, translating and coding them as the language of abnormality and psychopathology.U tekstu je fokus na specifičnoj arhivskoj građi prve psihijatrijske institucije, Kraljevskog zemaljskog zavoda za umobolne Stenjevec u Zagrebu, današnje Klinike za psihijatriju Vrapče, iz njezina prvoga razdoblja od otvaranja 1879. do 1900. godine, točnije na naracijama pacijenata u kojima se pojavljuju fantastična bića, odnosno koji se u pripovijedanju o vlastitu životu oslanjaju na žanr predaje. Na temelju te građe, koju autorica prepoznaje kao važan, iako netipičan folkloristički korpus, analizira se i interpretira status i funkcije žanra predaja, to jest memorata, u pripovijedanjima o svakodnevnome životu, osobnim pripovijestima te kodiranju afekata, ponajprije straha, ne samo u usmenoj tradiciji i književnosti nego i u njihovoj društvenoj te psihološkoj dimenziji, ali i u psihijatrijskome diskursu koji takve naracije prepoznaje tek kao simptome ludila, odnosno prevodi ih i kodira kao jezik nenormalnosti i psihopatologije

Blanchot\u27s Impossible Kafka

In his article Blanchot\u27s Impossible Kafka Antoine J. Polgar challenges Maurice Blanchot\u27s theory of the impossibility and futility of writing as applied to Kafka\u27s struggles with the demands of writing and life. Polgar questions Blanchot\u27s claims on the basis of close readings of the texts of Kafka\u27s texts and explores traces of correspondence between the life and the texts yet unmentioned in Kafka scholarship. Referring to Blanchot\u27s focus on survival as a metaphor for writing in a meta-commentary on the writer\u27s facticity and the contingency to which literary creation is consigned, Polgar comments on the intense bio-critical interest — which the scholar is cautioned against and often ignores — in Kafka\u27s lived experience. According to Polgar, if the disaster is the truth outside literature, Blanchot\u27s theory that the impossibility of writing defines a philosophy of writing is a thought lacking in equivalence