Soviet conspiracy theories and political culture in Ukraine: Understanding Viktor Yanukovych and the Party of Regions

Conspiracy theories in Ukraine draw on inherited Soviet political culture and political technology imported from Russia where such ideas had gained ascendancy under President Vladimir Putin. Eastern Ukrainian and Russian elites believed that the US was behind the 2000 Serbian Bulldozer, 2003 Georgian Rose and 2004 Orange democratic revolutions. The Kuchmagate crisis, impending succession crisis, 2004 presidential elections and Orange Revolution – all of which took up most of Leonid Kuchma’s second term in office – were the first significant domestic threats to Ukraine’s new, post-communist ruling elites and in response Ukraine’s elites revived Soviet style theories of conspiracies and ideological tirades against the US and Ukrainian nationalism. Opposition candidate Viktor Yushchenko became the focal point against which the conspiracies and tirades were launched because his support base lay in ‘nationalist’ Western Ukraine and he has a Ukrainian-American spouse. The revival of Soviet style conspiracy theories has become important since Viktor Yanukovyc’s election as Ukrainian president in 2010 because this political culture permeates his administration, government and Party of Regions determining their worldview and influencing their domestic and foreign policies.     

Income inequality,development and electoral turnout – New evidence on a burgeoning debate

In this article, we comprehensively analyze the macro-level link between income inequality and electoral turnout. First, we re-examine prior studies which affirm that higher inequality puts a drain on electoral turnout in wealthy industrialized Western countries. Second, we evaluate whether there is an association between the two concepts in a larger, more representative sample of democratic elections around the world. Third, we analyze if income inequality has a different influence on participation in the Western and non-Western countries. Controlling for nine theoretically informed covariates, we assess these claims in a multilevel framework with evidence from more than 550 democratic elections between 1970 and 2010. We find little evidence that electoral turnout is affected by income inequality. Our results also indicate that this “null” effect does not differ between the Western- and the non-Western world. However, we do find evidence that mandatory voting laws and more decisive elections boost turnout considerably.     

严复对中国近现代教育的贡献和启示

严复在我国近现代教育史上开创了教育救国的道路,最早制定了德、智、体全面育人的方针,在文化上他突破"中体西用"的模式,主张从体用一致上全面学习西方的长处,达到救国图强的目的。严复是北京大学首任校长,在艰难条件下对维护北大生存和开创学科改革有过重大贡献。严复的教育思想和行为品格,对我国当代教育也有诸多启发。     

海西路面治安问题与管理创新

路面治安是指街头或路面的治安状况,主要体现是发生在街头或路面与社会治安有关的刑事犯罪案件和治安案件。近5年来,海西路面刑事犯罪案件和治安案件呈上升趋势,并出现发生时空的集中性、涉案人员的地缘性和团伙性、作案手段的多样性等特点。当前路面治安管理中还存在群众自防意识差、防范力量未能形成合力、硬件设施利用率不高、视频监控装置存有缺陷等问题,需要在组织机制、执行机制、权责模式、监督机制和管理模式加以创新管理,实行"多警合一",开展"网格化巡逻",实现"综合执法",平衡"激励与问责",加强"人技联防"。     

西部民族地区毒品犯罪之宗教防治功能

西部民族地区毒品犯罪防治具有特殊性,其中宗教因素能够发挥其防治毒品犯罪的社会控制功能。宗教对有关毒品违法犯罪问题持有否定性态度,这对西部民族地区防治毒品犯罪宣传教育等工作具有重要作用,并且对法律规范起到一定的补充作用。     

Baltic Studies in North America: A Survey of Academic Dissertations 1911–2006

ABSTRACT

The article argues for an extended delineation of increasing Western cultural hegemony in the reconstituted Baltic states. An initial idiom of postcolonial studies is revisited in order to complement their dominant scope in the Baltics, focused primarily on a retrospective cultural study of Baltic/Soviet relationships. The argument elaborates on the urgency of the expanding research agenda regarding the Baltic/European research framework. By pointing out the frequent occurrence of the superiority or inferiority value scale in cross-cultural references sampled from press releases of the Art Museum of Estonia, the article concludes that mainstream cultural self-reflection in Estonia is nowadays subjected to the supremacy of the imagined West European viewpoint.     

Efficacy of Several Candidate Protein Biomarkers in the Differentiation of Vaginal from Buccal Epithelial Cells*

Abstract: Currently, there is no accurate method to differentiate vaginal epithelial cells from buccal epithelial cells in biological samples typically encountered in forensic casework. This study tested the expression of a selection of candidate proteins in buccal and vaginal epithelial cells. We investigated six candidate biomarkers, such as loricrin, vimentin, stratifin, cytokeratin 4, cytokeratin 13, small proline‐rich protein 2, and involucrin, using Western blot analysis on whole protein extracts and immunohistochemistry (IHC) on intact cells in an attempt to identify cell‐specific markers that would differentiate these cells by microscopy. Involucrin, loricrin, and stratifin showed differential expression during Western blot analysis and were carried through to IHC. Although proteins unique to vaginal epithelial cells and buccal epithelial cells were not identified from among the proteins tested, the increased expression levels of two proteins, loricrin and stratifin in vaginal cells, when compared to buccal cells, do provide encouraging results in the search for epithelial cell‐specific markers.     

中世纪刑法对现代西方刑法思想的人文指归

提起中世纪西方刑法学,"刑法文明史中的漫漫长夜","蒙昧、残酷、专制"等负面评价遮掩了其应有的光辉。其实,在陷于四分五裂的战争时期的欧洲,强调抑制原欲、注重心灵赎罪、提倡群体理性的教会刑法思想具有特殊意义的人文性与进步性。它以强大的宗教力量使得欧洲刑法观念呈现出空前整齐、划一的状态;这种历经千年积淀而成的刑法文化,维持并传承了欧洲统一的价值观念与信仰体系,对近、现代西方刑法思想的发展起着重要的提挈与引导作用。     

Origins of British Marxist Literary Theory

The present paper aims to make an objective assessment ofthe achievements made by the earliest British Marxist theorists and critics in the 1930s. It begins with an inquiry into the cultural and social roots for the lack of a profound Marxist intellectual tradition in Britain which was greatly responsible for the late emergence of British Marxist literary criticism. Then it is followed by an introductory analysis of the representative critical works from the hands of three famous Marxist critics of the period: Christopher Caudwell, Ralph Fox and Alick West. In the due course, it reveals their critical insights and theoretical originalities often neglected by some prominent critics and scholars of present day and points out their intellectual defects due to the limits of the time.     

从先秦到两汉中国复仇伦理的转变

复仇行为的基础是西周以来的忠孝伦理观,复父之仇与复君之仇被认为是孝与忠的体现,因此受到表彰。先秦到两汉之际,中国的复仇伦理发生了重大的变化,开始由绝对主义向相对主义转变,国家本位代替了家族本位,强调忠高于孝,严禁向君主复仇。出现这种转变,是因为统一中央集权的建立,国家法制的逐渐完备,以及两汉经学争鸣的结果。