Early Belgian Colonial Efforts: The Long And Fateful Shadow Of Leopold I

The continuing debate over the causes, effects and future implications of European colonialism and imperialism is perhaps best viewed through a transatlantic lens. The various phases of imperialism from 1415 through 1914 provide ample time and examples of this continuous cultural interchange. The last of these interchanges, forced or otherwise, is that of the New Imperialism of 1860-1914. Discussions of later globalization and economic/cultural imperialism are not covered. That discussion is a different subject perhaps requiring different tools of analysis, especially economic. The impact of this last period reverberates through the current world discussion on rights, obligations, morality and law, especially natural law. The basic question is: are there truths that merit, no demand, their transmission by force or otherwise? Expressed more philosophically, is man the measure of all things? Was there something the West had or represented that needed to be spread by word or by sword? Are there universal concepts, or to use the Platonic euphemism, virtues that are inherent to all men so that there is a need or quoting Jefferson a duty , to respond and spread them throughout the world? Or, quoting Lenin, is imperialism merely the highest stage of capitalism and this New Imperialism a mere economic and political exercise in power and arrogance? There can never be a definitive analysis of imperialism which will yield a final answer to these questions. Continued historical inquiry does enhance both knowledge and understanding. This is a study of Belgium and its first king Leopold I in the years 1830-1855, a period before the New Imperialism. Why then is it of any value as a tool of analysis of the New Imperialism, decades before it took place? Because Belgium, its king, government and sense of nationhood were new. Yet, within a few years of its creation in 1830 its king at least viewed the world through the eyes of an imperialist. Its very newness and relative openness of its government allows the historian to poke around, so to speak. This is especially so in view of the later overwhelmingly successful imperialism of its second king Leopold II in the Congo Free State. This is an inquiry into four examples of early Belgian colonial efforts in the Republic of Texas, Guatemala, Brazil and the Rio Nunez River in present day Guinea. The method employed is that of a historical inquiry into the event and then an analysis of the effort by the political, economic, social and scientific causes of the New Imperialism in a search of analogies and differences. It is not as much a new study of the historical events themselves but an attempt to discern an overall or macro-historical view of Belgian, and by extension, European imperialistic motivation

Banca y crisis económica en España, 1930-1935: Un nuevo enfoque

Editada en la Universidad Carlos IIILa historia económica de la Segunda Repúlica española ha recibido un gran empuje en los últimos años, gracias a la publicación de numerosos trabajos, cuyos resultados, sin embargo, han sido contradictorios. En este trabajo se pretende hacer una aproximación al comportamiento de la banca privada española entre 1930 y 1935 desde las nueras teorías económicas del racionamiento del crédito. Las conclusiones tienden a apoyar una explicación de oferta para la caída del volumen de crédito que tuvo lugar.The economic history of the Spanish Second Republic has received a big impulse in the last years, but new research is still required. In the ptesent work we approach the behaviour of the Spanish banking system between 1930 and 1935 on the basis of the new theoríes on credit rationing. The conclusions support a supply side interpretación of the fall in the avalaible amount of creditPublicad

Some Recent French Books

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Some Recent French Books

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Toward a new Telco role in future content distribution services

International audienceas Content Distribution Services become at the center of network use, OTTs strengthen their dominance over the internet. On the other hand, operators like Telcos see their role shrinking to "dumb pipes" providers. This paper introduces a new Telco role in future content distribution services. In particular, it focuses on the "value" that Telco, as a network operator, can bring to CDN providers and Content providers. Value is assessed with respect to both users' trends and content ecosystem evolution. After our review, we reached two conclusions. Many of Telco assets are likely to be of interest for other content players. An open and efficient control infrastructure is the key for reaching an enhanced business position of the Telco

Retention of Physician Assistants within a Specialty after Completion of a Postgraduate Training Program

Background: The advantages of a specialized training program have led to over 84 postgraduate training programs for Physician Assistants (PAs) covering over 25 specialties. Employee lateral mobility is more prevalent within the PA profession, which allows PA providers to switch between medical specialties. The versatility of PAs promotes higher turnover rates compared to physician counterparts. These high turnover rates can result in increased institutional burden. Postgraduate PA programs provide pre-employment exposure to more in-depth medical training, enabling a well-rounded knowledge base of the PA’s roles and responsibilities, minimizing turnover rates. Purpose: The goal of this survey study is to identify PA graduates’ perceptions of their retention rate, job satisfaction within a given specialty, factors influencing a PA’s decision to change their specialty, and specialty preparation provided by postgraduate training programs and specific educational training. Methods: A mixed method design was utilized to survey both program directors and graduates of PA postgraduate training programs. Results: Of the 398 postgraduate program graduates, 196 (49%) accepted a job within the institution where they trained. Across all postgraduate training programs, 87% of graduates have not changed their specialty since program completion. Ninety-six percent of respondents felt their postgraduate training gave them an accurate preview of employment in their specialty of interest, and all postgraduates would recommend a postgraduate training program to a new PA graduate

Whole brain radiotherapy with radiosensitizer for brain metastases

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Purpose</p> <p>To study the efficacy of whole brain radiotherapy (WBRT) with radiosensitizer in comparison with WBRT alone for patients with brain metastases in terms of overall survival, disease progression, response to treatment and adverse effects of treatment.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials (RCT) was performed in order to compare WBRT with radiosensitizer for brain metastases and WBRT alone. The MEDLINE, EMBASE, LILACS, and Cochrane Library databases, in addition to Trial registers, bibliographic databases, and recent issues of relevant journals were researched. Significant reports were reviewed by two reviewers independently.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>A total of 8 RCTs, yielding 2317 patients were analyzed. Pooled results from this 8 RCTs of WBRT with radiosensitizer have not shown a meaningful improvement on overall survival compared to WBRT alone OR = 1.03 (95% CI0.84–1.25, p = 0.77). Also, there was no difference in local brain tumor response OR = 0.8(95% CI 0.5 – 1.03) and brain tumor progression (OR = 1.11, 95% CI 0.9 – 1.3) when the two arms were compared.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Our data show that WBRT with the following radiosentizers (ionidamine, metronidazole, misonodazole, motexafin gadolinium, BUdr, efaproxiral, thalidomide), have not improved significatively the overall survival, local control and tumor response compared to WBRT alone for brain metastases. However, 2 of them, motexafin- gadolinium and efaproxiral have been shown in recent publications (lung and breast) to have positive action in lung and breast carcinoma brain metastases in association with WBRT.</p

(19) F NMR in vivo spectroscopy reflects the effectiveness of perfusion - enhancing vascular modifiers for improving gemcitabine chemotheraypy

Laboratory of Biomedical Magnetic Resonance and Laboratory of Medicinal Chemistry and Radiopharmacy, Université Catholique de Louvain, UCL, Brussels, Belgium. Nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy of fluorine-19 ((19)F NMR) has proven useful for evaluating kinetics of fluorinated chemotherapy drugs in tumors in vivo. This work investigated how three perfusion-enhancing vascular modifiers (BQ123, thalidomide, and Botulinum neurotoxin type A [BoNT-A]) would affect the chemotherapeutic efficacy of gemcitabine, a fluorinated drug widely used in human cancer treatment. Murine tumor growth experiments demonstrated that only BoNT-A showed a strong trend to enhance tumor growth inhibition by gemcitabine (1.7 days growth delay, P = 0.052, Student t-test). In accord with these results, (19)F NMR experiments showed that only BoNT-A increased significantly the uptake of gemcitabine in tumors (50% increase, P = 0.0008, Student t-test). Further experiments on gemcitabine kinetics (NMR vs time) and distribution ((19)F MRI) confirmed the uptake-enhancing properties of BoNT-A. The results of this study demonstrate that (19)F NMR can monitor modulation of the pharmacokinetics of fluorinated chemotherapy drugs in tumors. The results also show that (19)F NMR data can give a strong indication of the effectiveness of perfusion-enhancing vascular modifiers for improving gemcitabine chemotherapy in murine tumors. (19)F NMR is a promising tool for preclinical evaluation of such vascular modifiers and may ultimately be used in the clinic to monitor how these modifiers affect chemotherapy. 2007 Wiley-Liss, Inc PMID: 18050344 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE

La stabilisation des changes

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