Kongeriget Danmark i 1332 - et fallitbo

Denmark 1332 - A Bankrupt RealmIn the history of Denmark the years 1332-1340 were an interregnum. After Christopher II died in 1332 there was no King of Denmark until 1340, when his son Valdemar Atterdag acceded to the throne. At Christopher’s death the entire Danish realm had been mortgaged to domestic and foreign creditors, and he had no realistic chance of paying them off. To all appearances the realm would be dissolved, and its various parts would be incorporated in neighbouring kingdoms and principalities. That is not what happened. Valdemar IV succeeded in reuniting the realm, but it took him more than twenty years to do it.Pawning parts of the Danish realm was a frequent occurrence in the High and Late Middle Ages, but the situation in the 1330s was unique. Never before or after did the phenomenon reach a point that threatened the very existence of the realm, and Danish historians, who have ever since felt it as a national humiliation, have proffered a series of explanations to account for how it came about.The earliest explanations from the middle of the fourteenth up to the eighteenth century strongly emphasize Christopher’s personal responsibility: weak character and a sinful life plunged the realm into disaster. In the first half of the eighteenth century the blame was extended to a broader circle, and it was recognized that in Count Gerhard III of Holstein, the king faced as his most bitter opponent an adversary who far outmatched him in political wits. In the middle of the nineteenth century the source of the problem is placed further back in time to Christopher’s brother and predecessor, King Eric VI Menved, whose costly wars had thrown the country into debt.Another explanation, which with various modifications is still considered valid today, arose around the beginning of the twentieth century. It contends that Eric VI’s and Christopher II’s severe taxation of the Danish yeomanry undermined itself by driving the freehold peasants to seek the protection of the nobility: In ceding their property rights in return for tenure their land was safeguarded under the nobility’s exemption from royal taxes. The drop in tax revenues thus resulted in a collapse of the king’s finances, leading to the disastrous pawning policy and ultimately to the breakdown of royal power.Very few Danish historians have deviated from this explanatory framework, although it has been suggested that the background for mortgaging the realm was more political than financial, i.e., rather than an attempt to raise liquid assets it should be seen primarily a means to procure political support from persons for whom landed property meant more than money.The present study argues that there is no documentation for a royal financial crisis. Even if ordinary taxes were in decline, this was offset by the collection of extraordinary taxes. Moreover, the Danish kings’ credit was good, and their ability to contract loans far from exhausted. The collapse cannot be attributed to a state-finance crisis; it must have been due to a political crisis. The pawning away of the realm must be seen as a political instrument, not as a desperate attempt to raise money to rescue a bankrupt monarchy. In seeking an explanation of the hopeless situation of the realm just before and during the interregnum the focus thus returns to the personal character traits of the kings as politicians and the politics of the times.Translated by Michael Wolf

Indicadores do uso sustentável de pesticidas: Onde está a dificuldade?

As políticas agrícolas adoptadas na União Europeia e em Portugal têm integrado preocupações ambientais e de saúde pública. A necessidade de avaliar os seus efeitos incorporou a intenção de estabelecer indicadores ambientais nos instrumentos legislativos em vigor para os monitorizar. Em Portugal, diversas entidades têm procurado monitorizar estes efeitos, nomeadamente o uso dos pesticidas, como a Agência Portuguesa do Ambiente (Sistema de Indicadores de Desenvolvimento Sustentável) ou o Instituto de Financiamento da Agricultura e Pescas (Sistema Integrado de Gestão e Controlo). Nos indicadores disponibilizados nada se refere relativamente ao consumo de pesticidas nem a qualquer outro indicador ambiental, como qualidade do solo ou biodiversidade. Todavia, a partir dos registos ao nível do agricultor (cadernos de campo, etc.), recenseamentos e inquéritos, e actividades de investigação e experimentação, poder-se-ia criar um mecanismo simples e expedito que permitisse monitorizar o uso de pesticidas e seus efeitos no ambiente. Será assim tão difícil?...Agroenvironmental policies adopted in the European Union and in Portugal consider environment and human health a major issue. The evaluation of policy effects based on a framework of environmental indicators is referred on multiple legislative documents. In Portugal, several public and private organisms, tried to monitor the agricultural impacts, namely, those related to pesticide use. There isn’t available information related to pesticide consume (the available indicators are based on sales), or to any other environment effect due to pesticide use, as soil quality or biodiversity loss, that would allow an effective assess of impacts caused by agricultural activities. However, farmers, technical and certification organizations, research teams, public services collect systematically information that will be of major help for the establishment of a national indicators framework, that might assess the impacts of pesticide use and risks. Is it so difficult

Sprint start kinetics of amputee and non-amputee sprinters

The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between the forces applied to the starting blocks and the start performances (SPs) of amputee sprinters (ASs) and non-amputee sprinters (NASs). SPs of 154 male and female NASs (100-m personal records [PRs], 9.58–14.00 s) and 7 male ASs (3 unilateral above knee, 3 unilateral below knee, 1 bilateral below knee; 100 m PRs, 11.70–12.70 s) with running specific prostheses (RSPs) were analysed during full-effort sprint starts using instrumented starting blocks that measured the applied forces in 3D. Using the NAS dataset and a combination of factor analysis and multiple regression techniques, we explored the relationship between force characteristics and SP (quantified by normalized average horizontal block power). Start kinetics were subsequently compared between ASs and NASs who were matched based on their absolute 100 m PR and their 100 m PR relative to the world record in their starting class. In NASs, 86% of the variance in SP was shared with five latent factors on which measured parameters related to force application to the rear and front blocks and the respective push-off directions in the sagittal plane of motion were loaded. Mediolateral force application had little influence on SP. The SP of ASs was significantly reduced compared to that of NASs matched on the basis of relative 100-m PR (−33.8%; d = 2.11, p < 0.001), while a non-significant performance reduction was observed when absolute 100-m PRs were used (−17.7%; d = 0.79, p = 0.09). These results are at least partially explained by the fact that force application to the rear block was clearly impaired in the affected legs of ASs

Baculovirus Capsid Display Potentiates OVA Cytotoxic and Innate Immune Responses

Baculoviruses (BV) are DNA viruses that are pathogenic for insects. Although BV infect a range of mammalian cell types, they do not replicate in these cells. Indeed, the potential effects of these insect viruses on the immune responses of mammals are only just beginning to be studied. We show in this paper that a recombinant Autographa californica multiple nuclear polyhedrosis virus carrying a fragment of ovalbumin (OVA) on the VP39 capsid protein (BV-OVA) has the capacity to act as an adjuvant and vector of antigens in mice, thereby promoting specific CD4 and cytotoxic T cell responses against OVA. BV also induced in vivo maturation of dendritic cells and the production of inflammatory cytokines, thus promoting innate and adaptive immune responses. The OVA-specific response induced by BV-OVA was strong enough to reject a challenge with OVA-expressing melanoma cells (MO5 cells) and effectively prolonged survival of MO5 bearing mice. All these findings, together with the absence of pre-existing immunity to BV in humans and the lack of viral gene expression in mammalian cells, make BV a candidate for vaccination