Soslovie and the “Foreign” Clergies of Imperial Russia

AbstractThis essay addresses a significant imperial dimension of the soslovie question by analyzing the estate status of the religious servitors of Russia’s non-Orthodox faiths (the “foreign confessions”). Its goal is to ascertain the extent to which one may discern a clerical estate (dukhovnoe sostoianie) for the foreign confessions, the standards by which individuals were recognized as belonging to non-Orthodox clergies, and the rights and privileges to which these religious servitors were entitled. Drawing on a distinction offered by Vasilii Kliuchevskii between “estate rights” (soslovnye prava) and “service rights” (dolzhnostnye prava), the author argues that Christian servitors, beginning with the Orthodox clergy, gradually acquired estate rights, while non-Christian servitors were generally able to acquire only service rights. The reasons for this outcome should be sought in a combination of practical and ideological concerns having to do with the state’s limited knowledge about non-Orthodox servitors, its commitments to the privileging of (Orthodox) Christianity in Russia’s social order, and broader shifts in the state’s soslovie policies.RésuméPar son analyse du statut social des serviteurs religieux des confessions non-orthodoxes de Russie (« les confessions étrangères »), cet essai aborde une dimension impériale significative de la question des ordres (sosloviia). Le but est d’établir dans quelle mesure on peut mettre en évidence l’existence d’un ordre clérical pour les confessions étrangères, distinguer les critères selon lesquels les individus étaient reconnus comme relevant de clergés non-orthodoxes et pointer les droits et privilèges auxquels ces serviteurs religieux pouvaient prétendre. En reprenant la distinction, avancée par Vasilij Ključevskij, entre « droits inhérents à un ordre (soslovnye prava) » et « droits inhérents à une fonction (dolžnostnye prava) », l’auteur démontre que les serviteurs chrétiens, à commencer par le clergé orthodoxe, avaient progressivement acquis des droits inhérents à leur ordre, tandis que les serviteurs non-chrétiens n’avaient généralement pu acquérir que les seuls droits propres à leur fonction. Cet état de fait résulterait de la combinaison d’intérêts pratiques et idéologiques, associés à la connaissance limitée de l’État sur les serviteurs non-orthodoxes, aux engagements de celui-ci à privilégier la chrétienté (orthodoxe) dans l’ordre social de la Russie, et aux modifications de sa politique visant les soslovija

Adalimumab for Treating Moderate-to-Severe Hidradenitis Suppurativa: An Evidence Review Group Perspective of a NICE Single Technology Appraisal

As part of its single technology appraisal (STA) process, the UK National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) invited the manufacturer of adalimumab (AbbVie) to submit evidence on the clinical effectiveness and cost effectiveness of adalimumab for the treatment of moderate-to-severe hidradenitis suppurativa (HS). The appraisal assessed adalimumab as monotherapy in adult patients with an inadequate response to conventional systemic HS therapy. The School of Health and Related Research Technology Appraisal Group was commissioned to act as the independent Evidence Review Group (ERG). The ERG produced a critical review of the evidence for the clinical effectiveness and cost effectiveness of the technology based on the company’s submission to NICE. The evidence was mainly derived from three randomised controlled trials comparing adalimumab with placebo in adults with moderate-to-severe HS. The clinical-effectiveness review found that significantly more patients achieved a clinical response in the adalimumab groups than in the control groups but that the treatment effect varied between trials and there was uncertainty regarding its impact on a range of other relevant outcomes as well as long-term efficacy. The company’s submitted Markov model assessed the incremental cost effectiveness of adalimumab versus standard care for the treatment of HS from the perspective of the UK NHS and Personal Social Services (PSS) over a lifetime horizon. The original submitted model, including a patient access scheme (PAS), suggested that the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) for adalimumab versus standard care was expected to be £16,162 per quality-adjusted life-year (QALY) gained. Following a critique of the model, the ERG’s preferred base case, which corrected programming errors and structural problems surrounding discontinuation rules and incorporated a lower unit cost for HS surgery, resulted in a probabilistic ICER of £29,725 per QALY gained. Based on additional analyses undertaken by the company and the ERG following the publication of the appraisal consultation document (ACD), the Appraisal Committee concluded that the maximum possible ICER for adalimumab compared with supportive care was between £28,500 and £33,200 per QALY gained but was likely to be lower. The Appraisal Committee recommended adalimumab (with the PAS) for the treatment of active moderate-to-severe HS in adults whose disease has not responded to conventional systemic therapy

Performance of the CMS Cathode Strip Chambers with Cosmic Rays

The Cathode Strip Chambers (CSCs) constitute the primary muon tracking device in the CMS endcaps. Their performance has been evaluated using data taken during a cosmic ray run in fall 2008. Measured noise levels are low, with the number of noisy channels well below 1%. Coordinate resolution was measured for all types of chambers, and fall in the range 47 microns to 243 microns. The efficiencies for local charged track triggers, for hit and for segments reconstruction were measured, and are above 99%. The timing resolution per layer is approximately 5 ns

Aligning the CMS Muon Chambers with the Muon Alignment System during an Extended Cosmic Ray Run

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