Sudan and the Unbearable Lightness of Islamism: From Revolution to Rentier Authoritarianism

The regime ruling Sudan since 1989 represents a pioneering experiment in the field of Islamist politics, being the first case in which a movement affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood managed to conquer power and hold on to it for a considerable time. During the late 1990s, internal and external pressures threatened the survival of the regime, leading the ruling class to abandon its ambition to represent a model of revolutionary Islamic governance. Oil exports provided a catalyst for this pragmatic shift, intensifying patronage-based relations at the expense of ideological affiliation. Seen from a political economy perspective, the Sudanese experience proves the flexibility of Islamism as an ideology, but also its failure as a political practice to constitute a real alternative to the authoritarian dynamics that are widespread in the MENA region.     

Philosophical Archaeology

In the perspective of the philosophical archaeology proposed, here, the arkhé towards which archaeology regresses must not be understood in any way as an element that can be situated in chronology (not even one with a large grid, of the sort used in prehistory); it is, rather, a force that operates in history—much in the same way in which Indoeuropean words express a system of connections among historically accessible languages, in which the child in psychoanalysis expresses an active force in the psychic life of the adult, in which the big bang, which is supposed to have originated the universe, continues to send towards us its fossil radiation. But the arkhé is not a datum or a substance. It is much rather a field of bipolar historical currents within the tension of anthropogenesis and history, between point of emergence and becoming, between arch-past and present. And as such—that is to say, to the extent to which it is something that it is necessarily supposed to have factually happened, and which yet cannot be hypostatized in any chronologically identifiable event—it is solely capable of guaranteeing the intelligibility of historical phenomena, of ‘saving’ them archaeologically within a future perfect, yet not grasping its (in any case unverifiable) origin, but rather its history, at once finite and untotalizable.     

Immediate anaphylactic death following antibiotics injection: splenic eosinophilia easily revealed by pagoda red stain

The comparison of 4 cases of immediate anaphylactic death following the intramuscular injection of antibiotics (different types of penicillin or cephalosporins) with 4 cases of immediate non-anaphylactic death (induced by different causes) recognized splenic eosinophilia, as the main feature for the differential diagnosis, in agreement with isolated previous studies. The use of a stain (pagoda red) little known and seldom employed in Pathology and in Forensic Medicine, showed the concomitant massive presence (immunohistochemically confirmed) of mast cells and degranulated mast cells, the latter mainly located in splenic sinuses. The whole of our findings led us to consider the spleen as the possible shock organ in man. Waiting for further judgment on our hypothesis, we seized the opportunity to remark the employment of the pagoda red stain when the contemporary demonstration of eosinophils, mast cells and degranulated mast cells is required.     

‘Provincializing’ critical theory: Islam,Sikhism and international relations theory

This article will attempt to ‘provincialize’ or ‘decentre’ critical theory by looking at the development of critical discourses from within the Islamic and Sikh religious traditions. Although important theological, philosophical and historical differences exist between the two communities, Islamic and Sikh narratives share a rejection of the subordination of the religious to the political and thus potentially challenge the Westphalian order. However, in the case of the Sikh Qaum, no clear distinction between ‘nation’ and ‘religion’ is possible given the strong attachment to a territorially defined ancestral homeland. This article suggests that both critical Islamic and Sikh discourses, particularly those emanating from the diaspora, are potentially compatible with the ‘discourse ethics’ of critical theory. This is, however, conditional on the recognition of the universality of their beliefs, a position incompatible with the ‘thin’ cosmopolitanism of critical theory.     

Bypassing a Centralized State: The Case of the Greek Subnational Mobilization in the European Union

For over 25 years successive administrative reforms have taken place in Greece, with a view to modernizing the subnational institutions. The European pressures come across as an influential factor inducing the process of change. But what has been the subnational responsiveness related to the rationalization initiatives? The aim of this paper is to investigate the Greek subnational authorities’ mobilization in the European arena, providing evidence of their bypassing the central state from a multi-level governance perspective. Building on the division between ‘financial' and ‘regulatory' mobilization, empirical data are drawn from the EU's environmental policy financial mechanism and the subnational representation and networking in Brussels. The figures show that only a few Greek subnational authorities financially mobilize; the vast majority show inertia. Moreover, their regulatory mobilization is hardly evident. It is argued that although the EU offers substantial incentives for mobilizing, domestic institutional capacity also accounts for much variation.     

GABA Receptors,Alcohol Dependence and Criminal Behavior

The aim of this study was to analyze the connection between alcohol dependence and criminal behavior by an integrated genetic–environmental approach. The research, structured as a case–control study, examined 186 alcohol‐dependent males; group 1 (N = 47 convicted subjects) was compared with group 2 (N = 139 no previous criminal records). Genetic results were innovative, highlighting differences in genotype distribution (p = 0.0067) in group 1 for single‐nucleotide polymorphism rs 3780428, located in the intronic region of subunit 2 of the GABA B receptor gene (GABBR2). Some environmental factors (e.g., grade repetition) were associated with criminal behavior; others (e.g., attendance at Alcoholics Anonymous) were inversely related to convictions. The concomitant presence of the genetic and environmental factors found to be associated with the condition of alcohol‐dependent inmate showed a 4‐fold increase in the risk of antisocial behavior. The results need to be replicated on a larger population to develop new preventive and therapeutic proposals.     

Assessment of the Capacity to Express Informed Consent for Organ Donation in Patients with Schizophrenia

Abstract: In Italy, the “silent‐consent” principle of donor’s willingness regulates organ donation for postmortem transplantation, but civil incompetence excludes it. We investigated decisional capacity for organ donation for transplantation of 30 controls and 30 nonincompetent patients with schizophrenia as related to clinical symptoms, cognition, and functioning. Assessments were carried out through the Competence for Donation Assessment Scale (CDAS), Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS), Scale for the Assessment of Positive Symptoms (SAPS), Scale for the Assessment of Negative Symptoms, Life Skills Profile (LSP), Raven’s Colored Progressive Matrices (RCPM), Wisconsin Card Sorting Test, Rey RI, Rey RD, and Visual Search. Patients and controls differed on the CDAS Understanding and Choice Expression areas. Patients showed significant inverse bivariate correlations between CDAS Understanding and scores on total BPRS, LSP self‐care scale, and RCPM cognitive test. Our results show that decisional capacity for participating in research does not predict decisional capacity for postmortem organ donation in patients with schizophrenic or schizoaffective psychosis; hence, before judging consent for donation, patients must be provided with enhanced information to better understand this delicate issue.     

Histopathological findings in 851 autopsies of drug addicts, with toxicologic and virologic correlations

This investigation was carried out on 851 consecutive judicial autopsies of drug addicts who died mostly of heroin overdose from 1977 to 1996. Research of anti-HIV/HBV/HCV antibodies was performed, and histologic sections were retrospectively reviewed. More than 65% were HBV/HCV-positive and about 17% HIV-positive; females were HIV-positive more often than males. Intracranial microhemorrhages were frequently found; cerebral infectious diseases were rare. Inflammatory heart lesions, myocardial fibrosis, and acute ischemia were common. Interstitial nephritis (found in about 8%) was more frequent in females, in older patients, and in those carrying HIV infection; glomerular sclerosis was detected in about 12%. Acute bronchitis and/or pneumonia was demonstrated in 12%, without significant association with HIV infection; pulmonary hemorrhages, foreign body granulomas, and food aspiration were also commonly seen; hyperplasia of pulmonary perivascular lymphatic tissue was rather characteristic. Liver was carrying steatosis in 66.3% and/or hepatitis in 64.5%; acute hepatitis was more frequent in females, chronic hepatitis in older subjects and in those proven positive for hepatotropic viruses; cirrhosis occurred more often in older patients, in those carrying virus infection, and in consumers of nonnarcotics drugs such as ethanol. No pathologic finding was clearly related to drug abuse; therefore, during autopsy, drug addiction can be suspected, but anamnestic and circumstantial data are needed to lead pathologists to request toxicologic analysis to ascertain the cause of death. The present investigation emphasizes that, in addition to the risk of death by overdose, the high incidence of acute and chronic diseases could seriously undermine the health status of heroin and/or other drug consumers.