Drivers of populism - A four-country comparison of party communication in the run-up to the 2014 European Parliament elections

The aim of this paper is to analyze what different types of populist communication styles emerged during the 2014 EP election campaign and under which conditions political parties selected specific populist communication styles. To do this, a comparative quantitative content analysis of press releases in the run-up of the latest EP elections has been conducted for parties in France, Germany, Austria and Greece. The paper presents a definition of populism based on the contemporary academic discourse, which focuses on the transnational nature of the European political field. It is shown that populist party communication is more pronounced on the fringes of the political spectrum and in countries struggling with severe macroeconomic difficulties. Contrary to intuitive expectations, the perceived populist rhetoric of exclusivity in the context of the European sovereign debt crisis, which is identified as a central feature of right-wing populism, barely takes place within populist party communication.

Shakespeare, the Middle Ages and the Luck of the British: Medievalism and National Identity in The Hollow Crown (2012)

Images of the medieval past have long been fertile soil for the identity politics of subsequent periods. Rather than “authentically” reproducing the Middle Ages, medievalism therefore usually tells us more about the concerns and ideological climate of its own time and place of origin. To dramatise the nascent nation, Shakespeare resorts to medievalism in his history plays. Centuries later, the BBC-produced television mini-serial The Hollow Crown – adapting Shakespeare’s second histories tetralogy – revamps this negotiation of national identity for the “Cultural Olympiad” in the run-up to the 2012 London Olympics. In this context of celebratory introspection, The Hollow Crown weaves a genealogical narrative consisting of the increasingly “glorious” medieval history depicted and “national” Shakespearean heritage in order to valorise 21st-century “Britishness”. Encouraging a reading of the histories as medieval history, the films construct an ostensibly inclusive, liberal-minded national identity grounded in this history. Moreover, medieval kingship is represented in distinctly sentimentalising and humanising terms, fostering emotional identification especially with the no longer ambivalent Hal/Henry V and making him an apt model for present-day British grandeur. However, the fact that the films in return marginalise female, Scottish, Irish and Welsh characters gives rise to doubts as to whether this vision of Shakespeare’s Middle Ages really is, as the producers claimed, “for everybody”.

“Crye Fredome”? Medievalism and Twenty-First-Century Scottish National Identity

It is a well-documented fact that the Middle Ages have had a long history of instrumentalisation by nationalisms. 19th-century Eu¬rope in particular witnessed an origins craze during the process of nation-building. In the post-Shoah, post-modern West, on the other hand, we might expect this kind of medievalist master nar¬rative to have been consigned to the dustbin of history. And yet, as nationalism surges again in Europe, negotiations of national identi¬ties in medieval dress seem to have become fashionable once more. In order to come to terms with the fragmented and often contradictory presence of the Middle Ages in these discourses of national identity, I propose we consider medievalism a utilitarian product of the cultural memory. Rather than representing any ‘real’ Middle Ages, then, medievalism tailors available knowledge of the medieval past to the diverse social needs and ideologies of the present. This paper looks at a selection of Scottish examples of present-day medievalism in an attempt to investigate, in particular, the place of the medieval Wars of Scottish Independence in contemporary negotiations of ‘Scottishness’. Both the relationships envisioned between self and other and the role played by ‘the land’ in these cultural, social and political instances of national introspection offer starting points for critical inquiry. Moreover, the analysis of a scholarly intervention in the run-up to the 2014 Scottish independence referendum indicates an intriguing dialogue of academic and non-academic voices in the context of Scottish medievalist cultural memory. We thus find a wide array of uses of the Scottish Middle Ages, some of which feed into the burgeoning nationalism of recent years, while others offer more pensive and ambivalent answers to the question of what it means to be Scottish in the 21st century.

Run-Time Evolution through Explicit Meta-Objects

Software must be constantly adapted due to evolving domain knowledge and unanticipated requirements changes. To adapt a system at run-time we need to reflect on its structure and its behavior. Object-oriented languages introduced reflection to deal with this issue, however, no reflective approach up to now has tried to provide a unified solution to both structural and behavioral reflection. This paper describes Albedo, a unified approach to structural and behavioral reflection. Albedo is a model of fined-grained unanticipated dynamic structural and behavioral adaptation. Instead of providing reflective capabilities as an external mechanism we integrate them deeply in the environment. We show how explicit meta-objects allow us to provide a range of reflective features and thereby evolve both application models and environments at run-time.

Inappropriate interventions during the long-term follow-up of patients with an implantable defibrillator

QUESTIONS UNDER STUDY: In patients with an implantable defibrillator (ICD), inappropriate ICD interventions alter the quality of life, may cause hospitalisations and limit cost-effectiveness. The aim of the study was to determine the incidence and causes of inappropriate ICD interventions, and to identify patients at risk. METHODS: For this observational longitudinal study, consecutive patients undergoing ICD implantation at the University Hospital of Berne were included in a registry. All stored electrograms of episodes triggering ICD interventions were systematically reviewed and analysed to determine whether ICD interventions were appropriate or inappropriate. Inappropriate ICD interventions were classified according to their cause, and risk factors were sought. RESULTS: 214 consecutive patients were followed during a median time of 2.7 years (3.7 years IQR, 698 patient years). 81 inappropriate ICD interventions occurred in 58 patients (27%). Factors triggering inappropriate ICD interventions included atrial fibrillation and flutter (n = 35, 44%), sinus tachycardia (n = 26, 32%), lead fracture (n = 12), recurrent self-terminating ventricular tachycardia (n = 5), double-counting due to T-wave oversensing (n = 3). The only identifiable risk factor for inappropriate ICD interventions was sustained ventricular tachycardia as index arrhythmia. CONCLUSIONS: An important proportion of ICD patients suffer inappropriate ICD interventions that are most commonly due to supraventricular arrhythmias. Patients with ventricular tachycardia prior to ICD implantation are at higher risk of inappropriate ICD interventions. Interventions aiming at decreasing the risk of inappropriate ICD interventions should be considered in these patients.

Extraction of the s-wave pi N scattering lengths from data on pionic atoms

For many years a combined analysis of pionic hydrogen and deuterium atoms has been known as a good tool to extract information on the isovector and especially on the isoscalar s-wave pN scattering length. However, given the smallness of the isoscalar scattering length, the analysis becomes useful only if the pion–deuteron scattering length is controlled theoretically to a high accuracy comparable to the experimental precision. To achieve the required few-percent accuracy one needs theoretical control over all isospin-conserving three-body pNN !pNN operators up to one order before the contribution of the dominant unknown (N†N)2pp contact term. This term appears at next-to-next-to-leading order in Weinberg counting. In addition, one needs to include isospin-violating effects in both two-body (pN) and three-body (pNN) operators. In this talk we discuss the results of the recent analysis where these isospin-conserving and -violating effects have been carefully taken into account. Based on this analysis, we present the up-to-date values of the s-wave pN scattering lengths.

Pulsed versus continuous wave CO2 laser excisions of 100 oral fibrous hyperplasias: a randomized controlled clinical and histopathological study

BACKGROUND In experimental animal studies, pulsing the CO2 laser beam has been shown to reduce the thermal damage zone of excised oral mucosal tissue. However, there is still controversy over whether this is borne out under clinical conditions. OBJECTIVE To compare the outcome following excisional biopsies of fibrous hyperplasias using a pulsed (cf) versus a continuous wave (cw) CO2 laser mode regarding the thermal damage zone, duration of surgeries, intra- and postoperative complications, postoperative pain sensation, scarring and/or relapse during the initial 6 months. MATERIALS AND METHODS One hundred Swiss-resident patients with a fibrous hyperplasia in their buccal mucosa were randomly assigned to the cw mode (5 W) or the cf mode (140 Hz, 400 microseconds, 33 mJ, 4.62 W) group. All excisions were performed by one single oral surgeon. Postoperative pain (2 weeks) was recorded by visual analogue scale (VAS; ranging from 0 to 100). Intake of analgesics and postoperative complications were recorded in a standardized study form. The maximum width of the collateral thermal damage zone was measured (µm) in excision specimens by one pathologist. Intraoral photographs at 6-month follow-up examinations were evaluated regarding scarring (yes/no). RESULTS Median duration of the excision was 65 seconds in the cw and 81 seconds in the cf group (P = 0.13). Intraoperative bleeding occurred in 16.3% of the patients in the cw and 17.7% of the cf group. The median value of the thermal damage zone was 161(±228) μm in the cw and 152(± 105) μm in the cf group (P = 0.68). The reported postoperative complications included swelling in 19% and minor bleeding in 6% without significant differences between the two laser modes. When comparing each day separately or the combined mean VAS scores of both groups between Days 1-3, 1-7, and 1-15, there were no significant differences. However, more patients of the cw group (25%) took analgesics than patients of the cf group (9.8%) resulting in a borderline significance (P = 0.04). Scarring at the excision site was found in 50.6% of 77 patients after 6 months, and more scars were identified in cases treated with the cf mode (P = 0.03). CONCLUSIONS Excision of fibrous hyperplasias performed with a CO2 laser demonstrated a good clinical outcome and long-term predictability with a low risk of recurrence regardless of the laser mode (cf or cw) used. Scarring after 6 months was only seen in 50.6% of the cases and was slightly more frequent in the cf mode group. Based on the findings of the present study, a safety border of 1 mm appears sufficient for both laser modes especially when performing a biopsy of a suspicious soft tissue lesion to ensure a proper histopathological examination.

Optimization of extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy delivery rates achieves excellent outcomes in ureteral stones. Results of a prospective, randomized trial

PURPOSE Management of ureteral stones remains controversial. To determine whether optimizing extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy (ESWL) delivery rates improves treatment of solitary ureteral stones, we compared outcomes of two SW delivery rates in a prospective, randomized trial. MATERIALS AND METHODS From July 2010 to October 2012, 254 consecutive patients were randomized to undergo ESWL at SW delivery rates of either 60 pulses (n=130) or 90 pulses (n=124) per min. The primary endpoint was stone-free rate at 3-month follow-up. Secondary endpoints included stone disintegration, treatment time, complications, and the rate of secondary treatments. Descriptive statistics were used to compare endpoints between the two groups. Adjusted odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals were calculated to assess predictors of success. RESULTS The stone-free rate at 3 months was significantly higher in patients who underwent ESWL at a SW delivery rate of 90 pulses per min than in those receiving 60 pulses (91% vs. 80%, p=0.01). Patients with proximal and mid-ureter stones, but not those with distal ureter stones, accounted for the observed difference (100% vs. 83%; p=0.005; 96% vs. 73%, p=0.03; and 81% vs. 80%, p=0.9, respectively). Treatment time, complications, and the rate of secondary treatments were comparable between the two groups. In multivariable analysis, SW delivery rate of 90 pulses per min, proximal stone location, stone density, stone size and the absence of an indwelling JJ stent were independent predictors of success. CONCLUSIONS Optimization of ESWL delivery rates can achieve excellent results for ureteral stones.