Women: In Power and Politics

https://digitalcommons.chapman.edu/feminist_zines/1046/thumbnail.jp

Money, Sovereignty and the modern Greek state

AbstractInspired by the examples of the American and French revolutions, the Greek people rose up against the Ottoman Empire in 1821. They endured years of war and suffering to win their own sovereign state.This is a story that every Greek knows. It is perhaps not surprising, then, that in the recent financial crisis, when the Troika of the IMF, the European Commission and the European Central Bank, dictated terms to Greece, protestors marched in Athens.When calls came from Berlin for a commissioner to supervise the country’s finances, Minister Evangelos Venizelos said the proposal ignored “some key historical lessons” 1. Calls for Greece to leave the European Monetary Union - the euro - were met with indignation.Mr Venizelos did not elaborate on the relevant “key historical lessons”, but Greece has seen financial crises and foreign interventions before. Its sovereignty has been compromised before. Greece has even been previously expelled from a monetary union.That these things have happened before is not a reason to be unconcerned about the present crisis, but it always better to see events in perspective and be open to the possibility that something might be learnt from history

Excitonic Photoluminescence in Semiconductor Quantum Wells: Plasma versus Excitons

Time-resolved photoluminescence spectra after nonresonant excitation show a distinct 1s resonance, independent of the existence of bound excitons. A microscopic analysis identifies excitonic and electron-hole plasma contributions. For low temperatures and low densities the excitonic emission is extremely sensitive to even minute optically active exciton populations making it possible to extract a phase diagram for incoherent excitonic populations.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figure

Plasma exchange in chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyradiculoneuropathy

Eleven consecutive patients with progressive chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyradiculoneuropathy (CIDP) underwent plasma exchange. Eight patients were previously unresponsive to prednisone, two were started on prednisone with plasma exchange, and one did not receive corticosteroids. Electrodiagnostic studies revealed evidence of an acquired demyelinating polyradiculoneuropathy with varying degrees of axonal degeneration. Neurologic impairment was monitored using conventional functional status index. Five patients demonstrated substantial clinical improvement, beginning 2 days to 3 weeks after initiating plasma exchange. Two additional patients improved following a second course of plasma exchange, and four patients demonstrated minimal or no change. Comparison of responding and onresponding patients showed no differences related to the presence or absence of antecedent illness, duration of disease, duration of maximum weakness, or severity of impairment prior to plasma exchange. Responders had significantly prolonged F-response and motor distal latencies compared to nonresponders. Results in this unselected, consecutive patient trial suggest a temporal relationship between plasma exchange and clinical improvement in some patients with progressive CIDP.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/50135/1/880080409_ftp.pd

Does smoking reduction in midlife reduce mortality risk? Results of 2 long-term prospective cohort studies of men and women in Scotland

A long-term cohort study of working men in Israel found that smokers who reduced their cigarette consumption had lower subsequent mortality rates than those who did not. We conducted comparable analyses in 2 populations of smokers in Scotland. The Collaborative Study included 1,524 men and women aged 40–65 years in a working population who were screened twice, in 1970–1973 and 1977. The Renfrew/Paisley Study included 3,730 men and women aged 45–64 years in a general population who were screened twice, in 1972–1976 and 1977–1979. Both groups were followed up through 2010. Subjects were categorized by smoking intensity at each screening as smoking 0, 1–10, 11–20, or ≥21 cigarettes per day. At the second screening, subjects were categorized as having increased, maintained, or reduced their smoking intensity or as having quit smoking between the first and second screenings. There was no evidence of lower mortality in all reducers compared with maintainers. Multivariate adjusted hazard ratios of mortality were 0.91 (95% confidence interval (CI): 0.75, 1.10) in the Collaborative Study and 1.08 (95% CI: 0.97, 1.20) in the Renfrew/Paisley Study. There was clear evidence of lower mortality among quitters in both the Collaborative Study (hazard ratio = 0.66, 95% CI: 0.56, 0.78) and the Renfrew/Paisley Study (hazard ratio = 0.75, 95% CI: 0.67, 0.84). In the Collaborative Study only, we observed lower mortality similar to that of quitters among heavy smokers (≥21 cigarettes/day) who reduced their smoking intensity. These inconclusive results support the view that reducing cigarette consumption should not be promoted as a means of reducing mortality, although it may have a valuable role as a step toward smoking cessation

Ambient Fine Particulate Matter Exposure and Myocardial Ischemia in the Environmental Epidemiology of Arrhythmogenesis in the Women’s Health Initiative (EEAWHI) Study

BackgroundAmbient particulate matter (PM) air pollution is associated with coronary heart disease, but the pathways underlying the association remain to be elucidated.MethodsWe studied the association between PM and ischemia among 57,908 Women’s Health Initiative clinical trial participants from 1999–2003. We used the Minnesota Code criteria to identify ST-segment and T-wave abnormalities, and estimated T amplitude (microvolt) from resting, standard 12-lead electrocardiogram (ECG). We used U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s monitor data to estimate concentrations of PM < 2.5 μm (PM2.5) at geocoded participant addresses over 6 days before the ECGs (lag0 through lag5). We excluded 2,379 women with ECG QRS duration ≥ 120 msec.ResultsOverall, 6% of the remaining 55,529 women (52–90 years of age; 83% non-Hispanic white) had ST abnormalities and 16% had T abnormalities. Lead-specific T amplitude was normally distributed (range of means from −14 to 349 μV). PM2.5 (mean ± SD) averaged over lag0–2 was 14 ± 7 μg/m3. In logistic and linear regression models adjusted for demographic, clinical, temporal, and climatic factors, a 10-μg/m3 increase in lag0–2 PM2.5 was associated with a 4% [95% confidence interval (CI), −3%, to 10%] increase in the odds of ST abnormality and a 5% (95% CI, 0% to 9%) increase in the odds of T abnormality. We observed corresponding decreases in T amplitude in all exam sites and leads except lead V1, reaching a minimum of −2 μV (95% CI, −5 to 0 μV) in lead V3.ConclusionsShort-term PM2.5 exposure is associated with ECG evidence of myocardial ischemia among postmenopausal women. The principal manifestations include subclinical but potentially arrhythmogenic ST–T abnormalities and decreases in T amplitude

The association of remotely-sensed outdoor temperature with blood pressure levels in REGARDS: a cross-sectional study of a large, national cohort of African-American and white participants

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Evidence is mounting regarding the clinically significant effect of temperature on blood pressure.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>In this cross-sectional study the authors obtained minimum and maximum temperatures and their respective previous week variances at the geographic locations of the self-reported residences of 26,018 participants from a national cohort of blacks and whites, aged 45+. Linear regression of data from 20,623 participants was used in final multivariable models to determine if these temperature measures were associated with levels of systolic or diastolic blood pressure, and whether these relations were modified by stroke-risk region, race, education, income, sex hypertensive medication status, or age.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>After adjustment for confounders, same-day maximum temperatures 20°F lower had significant associations with 1.4 mmHg (95% CI: 1.0, 1.9) higher systolic and 0.5 mmHg (95% CI: 0.3, 0.8) higher diastolic blood pressures. Same-day minimum temperatures 20°F lower had a significant association with 0.7 mmHg (95% CI: 0.3, 1.0) higher systolic blood pressures but no significant association with diastolic blood pressure differences. Maximum and minimum previous-week temperature variabilities showed significant but weak relationships with blood pressures. Parameter estimates showed effect modification of negligible magnitude.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>This study found significant associations between outdoor temperature and blood pressure levels, which remained after adjustment for various confounders including season. This relationship showed negligible effect modification.</p

Effects of inhomogeneous broadening on reflection spectra of Bragg multiple quantum well structures with a defect

The reflection spectrum of a multiple quantum well structure with an inserted defect well is considered. The defect is characterized by the exciton frequency different from that of the host's wells. It is shown that for relatively short structures, the defect produces significant modifications of the reflection spectrum, which can be useful for optoelectronic applications. Inhomogeneous broadening is shown to affect the spectrum in a non-trivial way, which cannot be described by the standard linear dispersion theory. A method of measuring parameters of both homogeneous and inhomogeneous broadenings of the defect well from a single CW reflection spectrum is suggested.Comment: 27 pages, 6 eps figures; RevTe

Large-signal coherent control of normal modes in quantum-well semiconductor microcavity

We demonstrate coherent control of the cavity-polariton modes of a quantum-well semiconductor microcavity in a two-color scheme. The cavity enhancement of the excitonic nonlinearity gives rise to a large signal; modulating the relative phase of the excitation pulses between zero and π produces a differential reflectivity (ΔR/R)(ΔR/R) of up to 20%. The maximum nonlinear signal is obtained for cocircular pump and probe polarization. Excitation-induced dephasing is responsible for the incoherent nonlinear response, and limits the contrast ratio of the optical switching. © 2001 American Institute of Physics.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/71163/2/APPLAB-78-25-3941-1.pd