Late 1980s Research Articles

From Displacement to Marginalization: Tonga-Goba Wartime Experiences in the Mid-Zambezi Valley, 1976–1979

In the 1970s, the Zimbabwe People’s Revolutionary Army (ZIPRA) opened its bases in the mid-Zambezi Valley, at Paradise and Mayovhe, under Chief Mola’s territory. This move by ZIPRA was motivated by a variety of reasons. The most important fact was that the Tonga-Goba people of this region were ready to support the war because they wanted to regain control of the riverscape from which they were displaced by the colonial state during the late 1950s when the Kariba dam was constructed. This paper examines how the colonial displacements of the Tonga-Goba people, their marginalization as well as the colonial regime’s “broken promise” all shaped their participation in the Zimbabwe War of Liberation in the 1970s. To explore this history of war from below, our study builds largely from the local Tonga-Goba narratives.

Use of Beta-Blockers as a First-Line Treatment for Primary Hypertension

Background: Even though beta-blockers had been used as a first-line therapy for hypertension, since the late 1960s, the Eighth Joint National Committee, JNC 8, decided to recommend them no longer. This decision was based on relatively weak evidence from previous studies, which found that first-line beta-blockers were less effective in reducing stroke and heart failure, the main outcomes of hypertension. Despite the general perception, the most common events caused by hypertension are death and MI, not stroke or heart failure. Therefore, this study aimed to clarify beta-blocker efficacy by incorporating the data from all relevant beta-blocker trials, using the composite outcome of major cardiovascular events. Method: A search was conducted on MEDLINE, PubMed, Embase, and the Cochrane Library, restricted to published, peer-reviewed, human, meta-analysis, and controlled clinical trials. The term words used were “beta-blockers or adrenergic beta antagonists”, “hypertension”, and “death or coronary heart disease or stroke or congestive heart failure or myocardial infarction”. For this research, we selected six randomized controlled trials, and three meta-analyses were also chosen. Results: The results showed that beta-blockers were as effective as other first-line medications in younger hypertensive patients. On the other hand, in the patients aged above 60, the results were mixed. Beta-blockers were more effective than diuretics, but inferior to angiotensin receptor blockers. Also, beta-blockers were as safe and effective as angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors in reducing coronary heart disease, myocardial infarction, heart failure, and sudden death. However, beta-blockers were inferior to calcium channel blockers in reducing strokes. Conclusions: Beta-blockers were found to be the most effective in many aspects except for strokes. Further studies are needed to assess beta-blockers’ effectiveness in treating primary hypertension.

India's role in the odyssey of medical training in South Africa.

Apartheid had a devastating impact on medical education in South Africa. Until the development of the University of Natal Medical School in 1951, there were minimal opportunities for blacks (collectively Africans, Indians and so-called coloureds) to undertake undergraduate and postgraduate medical training in South Africa. At the height of apartheid (1968-1977), whites who had constituted 17% of the population, accounted for up to 87% of all medical graduates. The African majority, constituting 70% of the population had less than 5% of all medical graduates in South Africa. The global isolation of South Africa from the late 1940s further impacted negatively on the medical training for blacks in South Africa. During apartheid, the Government of India provided full scholarships to the marginalized in South Africa to study medicine in India. This initiative, coming at a time when India was grappling with its post-colonial challenges, was a remarkable yet seldom appreciated gesture.

History of the Yale Peabody Museum Invertebrate Paleontology Collection

While the Yale Peabody Museum itself did not exist as an entity until 1866, the collections that are its core have been on campus much longer. Yale College had a cabinet of natural wonders including zoological oddities (a taxidermied two-headed calf), anthropological material (wooden shoes from France and China), and other interesting items (including a bottle of water from the Ganges River) (Narendra 1979) dating back to the American Revolution and the late 1700s. This “Cabinet of Yale College” had been housed in multiple places around campus prior to the construction of the Peabody Museum. Some of the earliest collections came from exchanges between Benjamin Silliman (Anonymous 2024b) and Gideon Mantell (Anonymous 2024c), two well-known scientists of the early 1800s. It was not until 1876, when the first Peabody Museum building opened, that the museum had its own space Suppl. material 1. The appointment of paleontologist Charles Beecher (Anonymous 2024a) in 1888 gave the invertebrate paleontology collection its first dedicated staff member. Under Beecher the collections continued to grow with multiple accessions from Syria, Lebanon, and Palestine. By the late 1860s, fossils from the American West were being shipped back to Yale by train. Dinosaurs described by O. C. Marsh (Anonymous 2024d) are the most well-known (particularly Brontosaurus, Triceratops, and Stegosaurus), but the invertebrate paleontology division received extensive collections of Western Interior Seaway specimens from the central portion of the United States. Charles Schuchert took over the division in 1904, bringing with him an extensive collection of brachiopods, which he continued to expand over his lifetime. Graduate student dissertation collections significantly added to the growth of the museum's holdings throughout the twentieth century. Significant additions in the last quarter century include the Samuel J. Ciurca (Anonymous 2024e) eurypterid collection, an Early Ordovician Fezouata Formation Lagerstätte collection, the CLIMAP (Climate: Long range Investigation, Mapping, And Prediction (Anonymous 2024f)) collection of Foraminifera slides and vials, and an incredibly diverse collection of Green River Formation insects (all of the catalogued specimens in these collections can be found on our search portal. Many fossils are on display in the newly renovated Yale Peabody Museum, which reopened in April of 2024 (Suppl. material 1).

Demythologising the Given: Schlick, Cornelius, and Adorno Contra Husserl

After the attempt at collaboration between the Frankfurt School and the Vienna Circle failed in the late 1930s, Adorno stood at the forefront of critical theory’s polemics against ‘positivism’. Given these later polemical exchanges, some of the tendencies common to both movements have remained overlooked. Among these is their opposition to the phenomenological tradition. This paper focusses on certain features common to Schlick’s and Adorno’s critical responses to Husserl. The Machians, including Adorno’s supervisor Hans Cornelius, were targeted by Husserl’s onslaught against psychologism in 1900. The young Schlick’s Machian background had motivated his contribution to the Psychologismusstreit, in the context of which he launched a series of objections against Husserl’s ‘independence theory of truth’. Adorno’s later doctoral dissertation under Cornelius was also motivated by the effort to defend his master against Husserl’s objections. Schlick’s criticisms intensified in later works, where Husserl’s epistemology of intuition is seen as yet another instance of the widespread confusion between knowledge and acquaintance. Schlick’s warnings against Husserl’s turn towards the irrationalist fashions of his day find their echo in Adorno’s ‘Metakritik’. Apart from their broad agreement in how they understand Husserl’s positioning within his context, Schlick and Adorno also develop a similar criticism of Husserl’s account of intuition as failing in its aspiration to discover unmediated givenness, which it confuses with mediated conceptual knowledge. Unfortunately, while Adorno explicitly acknowledges Schlick’s critique of Husserl, he also misconstrues it as a scientistic rejection of metaphysical nonsense, thus failing to acknowledge the proximity to his approach.

Non-Invasive Prenatal Screening from a Genetic Counseling Prospective: Pre and Post-Genetic Counseling Regarding Rare Chromosomal Abnormalities and Incidental Finding.

Arising in the late 1990s, when a promising role in prenatal diagnostics was first delineated for circulating fetal DNA, non-invasive prenatal tests (NIPTs) have been increasingly used with more frequency and popularity. These exams have been used as a prenatal screening tests for genetic diseases. Initially, they were developed for the investigation of the main fetal chromosomal aneuploidies, but lately they have also been used to rule out genomic microrearrangements and monogenic conditions. However, along with great opportunities and potential, the tests can show inconclusive or unexpected results. Several studies have shown that the current pre-test counseling is often insufficient, and more oriented at providing pieces of information about the identifiable diseases rather than providing extensive information on all possible scenarios which may affect both the fetus and the pregnant mother, especially in the case of an invasive test for the pregnant mother. We have gathered from the literature on NIPT the main pitfalls, imperfections, and particular cases associated with this innovative diagnostic procedure. In view of further improvements in the methods that can limit the inconclusive or unexpected results, this paper aims to reinforce the importance of more accurate pre-test counseling with comprehensive information about the above-mentioned questions, as well as ultrasound use and also the creation of an international consensus statement concerning these topics.

Diagnostic reasoning and cognitive error in emergency medicine: Implications for teaching and learning.

Accurate diagnosis in emergency medicine (EM) is high stakes and challenging. Research into physicians' clinical reasoning has been ongoing since the late 1970s. The dual-process theory has established itself as a valid model, including in EM. It is based on the distinction between two information-processing systems. System 1 rapidly generates one or more diagnostic hypotheses almost instantaneously, driven by experiential knowledge, while System 2 proceeds more slowly and analytically, applying formal rules to arrive at a final diagnosis. We reviewed the literature on dual-process theory in the fields of cognitive science, medical education and emergency medicine. The literature reflects two prominent interpretations regarding the relationship between the fast and slow phases and these interpretations carry very different implications for the training of clinical learners. One interpretation, prominent in the EM community, presents it as a "check-and-balance" framework in which most diagnostic error is caused by cognitive biases originating within System 1. As a result, EM residents are frequently advised to deploy analytical (System 2) strategies to correct such biases. However, such teaching approaches are not supported by research into the nature of diagnostic reasoning. An alternative interpretation assumes a harmonious relationship between Systems 1 and 2 in which both fast and slow processes are driven by underlying knowledge that conditions performance and the occurrence of errors. Educational strategies corresponding to this alternative have not been explored in the EM literature. In this paper, we offer proposals for improving the teaching and learning of diagnostic reasoning by EM residents.

Детское население Дивногорска 1960-х – 1990-х гг.[1

The article examines the processes of formation and development of the child population in the young small town of Divnogorsk (Krasnoyarsk Territory) during the 1960s and 1990s, based on data from population censuses conducted. The authors compare changes in average age, number, and proportion of children between Divnogorsk and Krasnoyarsk as well as the urban population as a whole, taking into account the fact that Divnogorsk arose in a sparsely populated area near Krasnoyarsk in the late 1950s, grew, and developed primarily as an industrial city. The formation of Divnogorsk’s child population occurred in three stages. The first is primary, with a high proportion of younger children in the population. The second is transitional, with a stable distribution of children by age groups and a significant percentage of pre-adolescent populations. And the final one is the third, at which point the children’s population in Divnogorsk ceases to differ qualitatively from that of other cities in terms of its characteristics.

Operationalism, Science and Technology

Bridgman’s operationalism incurred serious difficulties, and this fact induced many authors to dismiss operationalism per se. Developed beginning in the late 1960s, Agazzi’s operationalism escaped these difficulties from the beginning, but the persistence in it of a traditional primacy attributed to theory over experiment led him to pose an opposition between science and technique that was inconsistent with the general operationalist framework of his philosophy of science. Later, Agazzi sought to make his operationalism more coherent by moving toward a closer relationship between science and technology, that is, toward an intermediate solution which sees them as interacting with one another. However, in order to coherently defend an intermediate solution, it is not enough to find a certain set of properties that would be peculiar to science but not to technique, or vice versa. Rather, it is necessary to specify two distinct (but also complementary) points of view, from which science and technique can appear, at the same time but without contradiction, both as conceptually distinct and as indistinguishable as historical-empirical realities: in one sense, science is irreducible from technology, but in the other sense, they coincide completely.

Three Interpretation Paths on Understanding Political Relations between Southeast Asian Kingdoms and China from the Mandala System’s Perspective

In the late 1960s, some scholars started using the constituent elements of the mandala system, the traditional interstate relations model in Southeast Asia, to explore the official relationship between China and Southeast Asian Kingdoms and gradually formed three interpretation paths. The first is to use the mandala in the geopolitical sense to locate bilateral political relations. The second is about how the political culture with the universal monarch as the core enables Southeast Asia monarchs to join the tribute system. The third focuses on the different understanding of tribute in Southeast Asian countries. They supplement or revise the traditional view that the tributary relationship between ancient China and Southeast Asian Kingdoms was political. However, these three interpretation paths have their limitations. The review shows that scholars ignore the universal kingship of Southeast Asian Kingdoms’ discourse system to China. The unilateral policy design and understanding could not convincingly interpret the unique political relationship formed by bilateral interaction. Therefore, the universal kingship claimed by the Chinese emperors and Southeast Asian Kingdoms monarchs must be examined. It should study how the centers of the mandala system smoothly transited between claiming universal kingship and pursuing equality in real politics. It also explores what diplomatic strategies could maintain the subjectivity of the monarchs of Chinese dynasties and Southeast Asian Kingdoms.

A case report of benzodiazepine withdrawal delirium due to accidental discontinuation of benzodiazepines in cancer perioperative period.

Benzodiazepines are known for their possible risk of delirium, especially when administered to older adults or during the perioperative period. However, the risk of sudden discontinuation of benzodiazepines and subsequent withdrawal delirium seems to be underappreciated and not properly recognized in cancer treatment, even among healthcare workers. A man in his late 70s was diagnosed with rectal cancer and had a history of taking etizolam and alprazolam for over 15 years. After hospitalization for cancer, these benzodiazepines were discontinued abruptly 2 days before the surgery, due to concerns about benzodiazepine-related delirium. After half a day, severe benzodiazepine withdrawal symptoms, such as disorientation, agitation, tachycardia, diaphoresis, and muscle twitching, appeared. The patient was diagnosed with delirium associated with benzodiazepine withdrawal, and his symptoms subsided soon after re-administration of benzodiazepines. Despite development of mild postoperative delirium, the operation was performed safely. The rapid and abrupt discontinuation of benzodiazepines before cancer surgery could impose a high risk of benzodiazepine withdrawal delirium in patients, which makes the management of psychiatric symptoms in the perioperative period more complex and difficult. We believe that it is necessary to highlight the risks of withdrawal delirium and abrupt benzodiazepine discontinuation in cancer treatment. Moreover, re-education on this topic is essential for healthcare workers.

To the issue of identifying multi-temporal complexes in urban cultural layer (based on excavations of Sophia-Uspensky Cathedral, Tobolsk Kremlin)

The paper describes archaeological complexes identified among materials of the excavations inside Sophia-Uspensky Cathedral in Tobolsk Kremlin. The archaeological works were imposed on the cape. The cape hosted the town, the Kremlin and, later, the residency of the highly placed clergyman. History of these processes is kept as records. It helps compare the processes with archaeological materials and distinguish multi-temporal complexes among them. The excavations revealed traces of an ancient settlement. The settlement dated back to the early Iron Age – early Middle Ages and had existed long before the town was established. The research apparently identifies the cultural layer dated the late 1500s – middle 1600s. This layer refers to the activities of the first Russian settlers in Siberia. The same period applies to discovered burials of the Orthodox Christian cemetery by the wooden Church of Our Savior. The researchers especially highlight layerings and objects from the construction of brick Sophia-Uspensky Cathedral (late 1600s). They reflect the beginning of stone construction in Siberia. In the excavations, the researchers discovered several brick tombs. These tombs were made for burying highly placed clergymen known by their names. The findings and multi-temporal complexes allow to describe main phases of Troitsky cape development. They also show how the status of this territory changed. The archaeological materials are a valuable source of information about the material culture, funeral rites, stone architecture of both the town and the whole vast Siberian region.

Hybrid Coffee (<i>Coffea arabica</i> L) Plantlet Production via Indirect Somatic Embryogenesis in Ethiopia: Current Statue and Future Direction

Traditional hybrid coffee propagation methods using seed or vegetative cuttings has tremendous limitations. Seed propagation is associated with hand pollination which is time consuming and need large number of skilled labor. On the other hand, vegetative cuttings ensure uniformity, but; cuttings generate relatively low multiplication rates as they can only be obtained from orthotropic branches. Multiplication by tissue culture techniques could provide a best alternative to these traditional methods of coffee propagation as it allowed the production of relatively uniform plantlets on a large scale in a shorter period in any climatic condition. Among tissue culture techniques, indirect somatic embryogenesis of hybrid coffee plays substantial role in rapid industrial scale multiplication of high valued varities. Research on somatic embryogenesis of <i>C. arabica</i> hybrid has been conducted since the late 70s with the objectives to substitute the conventional vegetative propagation of selected varieties. In Ethiopia, in vitro propagation of hybrid coffee is recent phenomenon and research on indirect somatic embryogenesis is already well underway by different research groups. Here, we discussed the current status of coffee research on somatic embryogenesis in general and specifically, we provide recommendations for future research for the establishment of mass propagation protocol for F1 hybrids varities in Ethiopia that utilized wild endogenous lines.

The distribution of privately held business assets in the United States

Although privately held businesses are central to the economy and society, little is known about how their assets are distributed among the population. To better understand rising and persistent wealth inequalities, this paper describes the household distribution of private business assets in the United States and examines how it has changed over time. Using data from the 1989–2019 Survey of Consumer Finances, we show that the relative number of business owners has remained stagnant at low levels and that assets in privately held firms have become increasingly concentrated. In 2019, the top 1 % of households controlled nearly 80 % of the equity in private businesses, up from about 70 % in the late 1980s. Moreover, we find that these trends appear to be quite general and do not merely reflect dynamics among elites or in specific sectors of the economy. We discuss implications for the organization of the US economy, wealth inequality, and public policy.

Neo-Institutional Analyses of Criminal Legal Organizations and Policies

Since emerging in the late 1970s and early 1980s, neo-institutional theory has been a popular framework for understanding law, legal institutions, and policies on the books and in action. Neo-institutional theory has been particularly useful for explaining diverse criminal justice phenomena, from changes in penal law and policy statements to on-the-ground practices across police departments, courts, carceral facilities, and community corrections. This review describes how scholars of the criminal legal system have used neo-institutional theory and where there is room for further utilization. Additionally, it discusses how and why neo-institutional theory is particularly useful for sociolegal scholars, and not only those studying criminal legal organizations and policies.

Twyla Tharp’s Making Television Dance (1977) and the Technologized Dancing Body

This article looks at the technologized dancing body on television, particularly in videodance. It asks and begins to answer the question: What were emerging technologies of the late twentieth century able to do with, to, or for the dancing body that was not possible previously, and which built the foundation for the ways today’s digital technologies interface with the dancing body? In beginning to answer this question, the article closely examines Twyla Tharp's Making Television Dance (1977) and argues that Tharp's piece condenses and summarizes the experiments of videodance during the late twentieth century, highlighting its foundational shift from using technology to exclusively do things to the body or extract things from it, to instead using the body to interface with and demonstrate the capabilities of a new technology—​triggering the machine’s capabilities using the body’s cues. In other words, videodance reframes the body as a (technologized) tool. Ultimately, this article reveals that late 1960s and 1970s videodance was a transitional interstice between two more enduring forms of screendance: celluloid dance film and digital dance data.

My Early Years of Yeast Mitochondrial Genetics.

There have been massive technological advances in molecular biology and genetics over the past five decades. I have personally experienced these advances and here I reflect on those origins, from my perspective, studying yeast mitochondrial genetics leading up to deciphering the functions of the mitochondrial genome. The yeast contributions commenced in the middle of the last century with pure genetics, correlating mutants with phenotypes, in order to discover genes, just like the early explorations to discover new lands. The quest was to explore the mitochondrial genome and find its genes and their products. It was most fortunate that DNA sequencing technologies became available in the late 1970s, and laboratories were restructured enormously to keep pace with the emerging technologies. There were considerable costs in equipping laboratories, purchasing ultracentrifuges and restriction endonucleases, and undertaking DNA sequencing; additionally, workers required special safety gear.

Drivers of summer Arctic sea-ice extent at interannual time scale in CMIP6 large ensembles revealed by information flow

Arctic sea-ice extent has strongly decreased since the beginning of satellite observations in the late 1970s. While several drivers are known to be implicated, their respective contribution is not fully understood. Here, we apply the Liang-Kleeman information flow method to five different large ensembles from the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6 (CMIP6) over the 1970-2060 period to investigate the extent to which fluctuations in winter sea-ice volume, air temperature and ocean heat transport drive changes in subsequent summer Arctic sea-ice extent. This allows us to go beyond classical correlation analyses. Results show that air temperature is the most important controlling factor of summer sea-ice extent at interannual time scale, and that winter sea-ice volume and Atlantic Ocean heat transport play a secondary role. If we replace air temperature by net shortwave and downward longwave radiations, we find that the sum of influences from both radiations is almost similar to the air temperature influence, with the longwave radiation being dominant in driving changes in summer sea-ice extent. Finally, we find that the influence of air temperature is more prominent during periods of large sea-ice reduction and that this temperature influence has overall increased since 1970.

On Pipelines and Precarity: Competing Narratives on the Roles and Functions of Postdocs in South African Higher Education

It is broadly understood that postdoctoral research fellows (hereafter postdocs) play a significant role in higher education’s research outputs, teaching and learning, and the rating and ranking of an institution. Largely shaped by the neoliberal turn(s) in higher education from the late 1970s and 1980s, postdocs have become an indispensable yet precarious labour force that higher education institutions have come to rely on. In the South African context, research on postdoc fellowships is relatively new, with limited scholarship focusing on the narratives and voices of these marginalised scholars. In this article, I purposively recruited and interviewed 23 former and current postdocs in three research-intensive universities in South Africa as well as a university vice dean of research, and a former senior official of the Department of Higher Education and Training. I also consulted and analysed various South African higher education policy documents and ministerial articulations regarding postdocs in the country. Through the use of in-depth semi-structured interviews, two competing narratives emerged from the data—that is, the deeply rooted and entrenched idea of the postdoc system as a pipeline for novice researchers to transition into established scholars, and the idea of the postdocs as precarious scholars whose academic labour is insecure, unstable, and exploited in the university. I conclude the article with some broad systemic implications on the role and function of postdocs in South African higher education, and the need for more research to understand these marginalised scholars.

Iran's Neighborhood Policy: Parameters, Objectives, and Obstacles

AbstractIn April 2024, Iran launched its first‐ever military strikes on Israeli soil. While the United States and its allies see Tehran as potentially stoking the Gaza war and spreading the conflict across the region, the Islamic Republic has actually drawn its neighbors closer and enjoys friendlier relations with them today than at nearly any point in its 45‐year history. This rapprochement had been pursued informally by successive Iranian administrations since the late 1980s. However, it was formally adopted as the “good‐neighbor policy” by President Ebrahim Raisi, who served from 2021 until his death in a May 2024 helicopter crash. Raisi's successor, Masoud Pezeshkian, has both the desire to continue the policy and a favorable regional environment within which to do so. Despite serious challenges, Iran has improved engagement with longtime rivals like Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and the UAE. Even cross‐border clashes with the Taliban in Afghanistan have been downplayed in favor of dialogue. Neighborly policies are impermanent. A number of structural and political obstacles could change Iran's calculations, but the approach is likely to continue for the foreseeable future.