Claiming sovereignty in the oil crisis: "Project Independence" and global interdependence in the United States, 1973/74

Understanding sovereignty as a claim and not a property, the article scrutinizes how the US government under Nixon countered the challenge that emerged from the oil embargo and oil price increases in 1973/74. Using a distinction made by Stephen D. Krasner,it holds that the embargo challenged US international sovereignty by establishing the limits of its interdependence sovereignty, which was supposed to undermine its domestic sovereignty. The article examines how the Nixon administration tried to both maintain and demonstrate its sovereignty by institutional reorganization,the development of state energy expertise, direct communication with the public, and diplomatic negotiations with both producing and fellow consuming countries. Thus, it looks at the politics of sovereignty under the conditions of a highly interdependent globalized economy, modern mass communication, and the rising importance of expert knowledge in political decision-making

Reacting to anticipations: energy crises and energy policy in the 1970s ; an introduction

Changes in the energy sector cannot be sufficiently described as reactions to past and present energy problems. Rather, politicians and companies alike always react to the anticipation of future challenges. Sharing this assumption, the articles in this HSR Special Issue reexamine the energy crises of the 1970s. Their assessments broaden the temporal and spatial scope of analysis and integrate various energy resources into the picture, while examining how to situate the first and second oil crises within the 1970s and the contemporary history of the industrialized world as a whole

The production of human security in premodern and contemporary history

"Since the end of the Cold War, Human Security has become an important approach in international politics, law, and political science. In contrast to the so-called 'Westphalian System' that knows only states as subjects and objects of security, human security aims at the security of individual human beings if failed or failing states do not protect them nor provide for their basic needs. Thereby, such heterogeneous forms of security as security from war, food security, energy security or security from crime and traffic accidents become common problems of international politics. Developing this new concept of security, UN documents as well as some experts suggest that the extended concept of security is a recurrence of the premodern concept of security that prevailed before the clear-cut distinction between domestic and international politics and the evolution of the system of states. This introduction discusses contributions on the premodern and contemporary history of (human) security and tries to assess the heuristic potential of the concept for historical research." (author's abstract)"Seit dem Ende des Kalten Krieges wurde Human Security ein wichtiger Ansatz der internationalen Politik, des Völkerrechts und der Politikwissenschaft. Statt, wie im sogenannten 'Westfälischen System' seit dem 17. Jh., nur Staaten und Regierungen als Akteure und Adressaten von internationaler Sicherheitspolitik zu akzeptieren, zielt Human Security auf die Sicherheitsbedürfnisse der einzelnen Menschen, um gegebenenfalls das Versagen von failing oder failed states hinsichtlich des Schutzes und der Versorgung ihrer Bürger ausgleichen zu können. Auf diese Weise werden so unterschiedliche Formen der Sicherheit wie zum Beispiel Sicherheit vor Kriegsauswirkungen, Nahrungssicherheit, Energiesicherheit, Sicherheit vor Kriminalität oder im Straßenverkehr zu gemeinsamen Problemen der internationalen Politik. In den UN-Dokumenten und in manchen Ausführungen von Wissenschaftlern, die das neue Sicherheitskonzept diskutieren, erscheint dieser weite Sicherheitsbegriff als eine Wiederaufnahme des vormodernen Begriffs von Sicherheit aus der Zeit vor der klaren Ausdifferenzierung von Innen- und Außenpolitik sowie der Ausbildung des Staatensystems. Die Einleitung diskutiert Beiträge zur vormodernen und zur Zeitgeschichte von (Human) Security und versucht das heuristische Potential des Begriffs für die historische Forschung auszuloten." (Autorenreferat

Zeitgeschichte neurodivers? Standpunktepistemologie und (geschichts-)wissenschaftliche Kommunikation

In der akademischen wie der breiteren Öffentlichkeit ist der Begriff der Diversität gegenwärtig nahezu universal anschlussfähig. Der Gründungsdirektor des Göttinger Max-Planck-Instituts zur Erforschung multireligiöser und multiethnischer Gesellschaften Steven Vertovec stimmt gar Loretta Lees zu, die schon 2003 bemerkte, mit Diversität verhalte es sich wie mit Mutterschaft oder Apfelkuchen: Man könne nur mit größeren Schwierigkeiten dagegen sein. In den letzten dreißig Jahren ist Diversität zunächst in den USA und dann auch in Westeuropa sowohl als sozialwissenschaftliche Analysekategorie wie auch als gesellschaftliche Selbstbeschreibung und zur Aushandlung von Teilhabeansprüchen immer bedeutsamer geworden. Diversität ist das normative Leitbild staatlicher und internationaler Antidiskriminierungsprogramme, die, wie etwa das Allgemeine Gleichbehandlungsgesetz von 2006 in der Bundesrepublik, "Benachteiligungen aus Gründen der Rasse oder wegen der ethnischen Herkunft, des Geschlechts, der Religion oder Weltanschauung, einer Behinderung, des Alters oder der sexuellen Identität […] verhindern oder […] beseitigen" sollen (§ 1). Das öffentliche Bekenntnis zu Diversität ist inzwischen eine Selbstverständlichkeit in Unternehmen und Organisationen, die oft Strategien des Diversitätsmanagements entwickeln. Der Ursprung dieser gesellschaftlichen Diversitätsbejahung liegt in der US-amerikanischen Bürgerrechtsbewegung der 1960er-Jahre, der zweiten Frauenbewegung, aber auch der Gay-, Lesbian- und Transgender-Bewegung sowie der Behindertenrechtsbewegung, die vor allem seit den 1970er-Jahren in den USA und in Westeuropa für die Anerkennung ihrer marginalisierten und diskriminierten Subjektpositionen stritten

Redetermination of cyclo-tetra­kis­(μ-5,10,15,20-tetra-4-pyridyl­porphyrinato)tetra­zinc(II) dimethyl­formamide octa­solvate trihydrate at 100 K

The structure of the title compound, [Zn4(C40H24N8)4]·8C3H7NO·3H2O, has been redetermined at 100 K. The redetermination is of significantly higher precision and gives further insight into the disorder of pyridyl groups and solvent mol­ecules. The mol­ecules of (5,10,15,20-tetra-4-pyridyl­porphyrinato)zinc(II) (ZnTPyP) form homomolecular cyclic tetra­mers by coordination of a peripheral pyridyl group to the central Zn atom of an adjacent symmetry-related mol­ecule. The tetra­mer so formed exhibits mol­ecular S 4 symmetry and is located about a crystallographic fourfold rotoinversion axis. Severely disordered dimethyl­formamide and water mol­ecules are present in the crystal, the contributions of which were omitted from refinement. Inter­molecular C—H⋯N hydrogen bonding is observed

Investigating the Bivalve Tree of Life -- an exemplar-based approach combining molecular and novel morphological characters.

To re-evaluate the relationships of the major bivalve lineages, we amassed detailed morpho-anatomical, ultrastructural and molecular sequence data for a targeted selection of exemplar bivalves spanning the phylogenetic diversity of the class. We included molecular data for 103 bivalve species (up to five markers) and also analysed a subset of taxa with four additional nuclear protein-encoding genes. Novel as well as historically employed morphological characters were explored, and we systematically disassembled widely used descriptors such as gill and stomach ‘types’. Phylogenetic analyses, conducted using parsimony direct optimisation and probabilistic methods on static alignments (maximum likelihood and Bayesian inference) of the molecular data, both alone and in combination with morphological characters, offer a robust test of bivalve relationships. A calibrated phylogeny also provided insights into the tempo of bivalve evolution. Finally, an analysis of the informativeness of morphological characters showed that sperm ultrastructure characters are among the best morphological features to diagnose bivalve clades, followed by characters of the shell, including its microstructure. Our study found support for monophyly of most broadly recognised higher bivalve taxa, although support was not uniform for Protobranchia. However, monophyly of the bivalves with protobranchiate gills was the best-supported hypothesis with incremental morphological and/or molecular sequence data. Autobranchia, Pteriomorphia, Heteroconchia, Palaeoheterodonta, Archiheterodonta, Euheterodonta, Anomalodesmata and Imparidentia new clade ( = Euheterodonta excluding Anomalodesmata) were recovered across analyses, irrespective of data treatment or analytical framework. Another clade supported by our analyses but not formally recognised in the literature includes Palaeoheterodonta and Archiheterodonta, which emerged under multiple analytical conditions. The origin and diversification of each of these major clades is Cambrian or Ordovician, except for Archiheterodonta, which diverged from Palaeoheterodonta during the Cambrian, but diversified during the Mesozoic. Although the radiation of some lineages was shifted towards the Palaeozoic (Pteriomorphia, Anomalodesmata), or presented a gap between origin and diversification (Archiheterodonta, Unionida), Imparidentia showed steady diversification through the Palaeozoic and Mesozoic. Finally, a classification system with six major monophyletic lineages is proposed to comprise modern Bivalvia: Protobranchia, Pteriomorphia, Palaeoheterodonta, Archiheterodonta, Anomalodesmata and Imparidentia

Incidence of tuberous sclerosis and age at first diagnosis: new data and emerging trends from a national, prospective surveillance study

Background: Tuberous Sclerosis Complex (TSC) is a rare multisystem disorder. In 2012 diagnostic criteria for TSC were revised. However, data on the incidence of TSC are limited. Methods: Prospective, national surveillance study in Germany over a 2-year-period (03/2015-02/2017) using current revised criteria for TSC. Patients up to the age of 18 years with a new diagnosis of definite or possible TSC (clinical and/or genetic) were included. The aims of this study were 1) to generate up-to-date data on the incidence of definite or possible TSC, 2) to assess age at first diagnosis, and 3) to compare these data with previous epidemiologic data. Results: In total, 86 patients met inclusion criteria (definite or possible TSC) with a median age at diagnosis of 6 months (range: 5 months before birth -197 months of age). Among patients identified with features of TSC, 73.3% met criteria for definite diagnosis (median age: 7 months) and 26.7% met criteria for a possible diagnosis (median age: 3 months). 55.8% of patients were male. When excluding prenatally diagnosed patients, median age at diagnosis was 11 months with a range of 0 to 197 months. The 3 most common clinical features at diagnosis of TSC were central nervous system involvement in 73.3% patients (of these 95.2% experienced seizures), cutaneous involvement in 58.1% patients (with the most common lesion being hypomelanotic macules in 92%) and cardiac rhabdomyoma in half of the patients. Cardiac rhabdomyoma were detected by prenatal ultrasonography in 22.1% of patients. The presence of cardiac rhabdomyoma was associated with cardiac arrhythmias in 25.6% (about 13% of all diagnosed patients) in our cohort. The overall prevalence of seizure disorders was 69.8%. The annual incidence rate of TSC is estimated at a minimum of 1:17.785 live births. However correcting for underreporting, the estimated incidence rate of definite or possible TSC is approximately 1:6.760-1:13.520 live births in Germany. Conclusions: This is the first study that assessed prospectively the incidence rate of TSC in children and adolescents using the updated diagnostic criteria of 2012. This prospective surveillance study demonstrates a low age at first diagnosis (median:6 months), likely due to antenatal detection of cardiac rhabdomyoma. Early diagnosis bears the potential for implementing effective therapies at an earlier stage

A First Search for coincident Gravitational Waves and High Energy Neutrinos using LIGO, Virgo and ANTARES data from 2007

We present the results of the first search for gravitational wave bursts associated with high energy neutrinos. Together, these messengers could reveal new, hidden sources that are not observed by conventional photon astronomy, particularly at high energy. Our search uses neutrinos detected by the underwater neutrino telescope ANTARES in its 5 line configuration during the period January - September 2007, which coincided with the fifth and first science runs of LIGO and Virgo, respectively. The LIGO-Virgo data were analysed for candidate gravitational-wave signals coincident in time and direction with the neutrino events. No significant coincident events were observed. We place limits on the density of joint high energy neutrino - gravitational wave emission events in the local universe, and compare them with densities of merger and core-collapse events.Comment: 19 pages, 8 figures, science summary page at http://www.ligo.org/science/Publication-S5LV_ANTARES/index.php. Public access area to figures, tables at https://dcc.ligo.org/cgi-bin/DocDB/ShowDocument?docid=p120000