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The Vaigat Iceberg-Microbial Oil Degradation and Archaeological Heritage Investigation (VIMOA) project records the results of archaeological survey of five sites in Greenland that are threatened by extreme weather conditions related to climate change. The project demonstrates the advantages of collaboration between archaeologists and natural scientists, and provides a repository of data to help preserve the archaeological record.

This edited volume comes with an all-encompassing title, Borderlands in World History, but it is definitely not a world history of borderlands that the editors have compiled. The book is an edited ...

Faced with creating a grand strategy for American foreign policy in the post–Cold War world, the Clinton Administration launched the strategy of ‘Democratic Enlargement.’ This analysis makes two contributions to the existing literature on the topic. First, it investigates the role of Wilsonianism and the ‘Democratic Peace Thesis’ in the discourse of the strategy of ‘Democratic Enlargement’ based on public speeches with a focus on the relationship between democracy and security. Second, it utilises securitisation theory to analyse how Clinton’s Administration used the linkage of democracy and security to legitimise humanitarian interventions in Haiti and Kosovo. By addressing ‘Democratic Enlargement’ in security terms, the Administration securitised democracy promotion and, thereby, created a discourse that helped legitimise a gradual move towards a more militaristic foreign policy during Clinton’s presidency. This discourse offered arguments later utilised by the George W. Bush Administration.

Abstract In 1976, 2 major molecular imaging events coincidentally took place: Clinical Nuclear Medicine was first published in June, and in August researchers at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania created the first images in humans with F-FDG. FDG was initially developed as part of an evolution set in motion by fundamental research studies with positron-emitting tracers in the 1950s by Michel Ter-Pegossian and coworkers at the Washington University. Today, Clinical Nuclear Medicine is a valued scientific contributor to the molecular imaging community, and FDG PET is considered the backbone of this evolving and exciting discipline.

Yoko Tawada's recent writings about the disasters in Japan of 2011 engage with the translatability of catastrophes. How can one translate disasters in ways that prevent “othering” and “isolating” them? How can one interpret disasters as products of cultural translation and knowledge exchange? Tawada's texts frame disasters as islands, as closed areas, which obstruct communication. As a result of translation and the islands' historical and geopolitical interconnections, Tawada's “disaster islands” remain, however, only partly isolated. They are constantly disturbed by outsiders' attempts to observe, to understand; by appeals for aid; and by the surrounding waters that link the island with the world. This article unfolds Tawada's poetic model for translating disasters and its epistemological dimensions in relation to futurity, theology, and geopolitics.

ObjectiveThe Epi-IBD cohort is a prospective population-based inception cohort of unselected patients with inflammatory bowel disease from 29 European centres covering a background population of almost 10 million people. The aim of this study was to assess the 5-year outcome and disease course of patients with Crohn’s disease (CD).DesignPatients were followed up prospectively from the time of diagnosis, including collection of their clinical data, demographics, disease activity, medical therapy, surgery, cancers and deaths. Associations between outcomes and multiple covariates were analysed by Cox regression analysis.ResultsIn total, 488 patients were included in the study. During follow-up, 107 (22%) patients received surgery, while 176 (36%) patients were hospitalised because of CD. A total of 49 (14%) patients diagnosed with non-stricturing, non-penetrating disease progressed to either stricturing and/or penetrating disease. These rates did not differ between patients from Western and Eastern Europe. However, significant geographic differences were noted regarding treatment: more patients in Western Europe received biological therapy (33%) and immunomodulators (66%) than did those in Eastern Europe (14% and 54%, respectively, P<0.01), while more Eastern European patients received 5-aminosalicylates (90% vs 56%, P<0.05). Treatment with immunomodulators reduced the risk of surgery (HR: 0.4, 95% CI 0.2 to 0.6) and hospitalisation (HR: 0.3, 95% CI 0.2 to 0.5).ConclusionDespite patients being treated early and frequently with immunomodulators and biological therapy in Western Europe, 5-year outcomes including surgery and phenotype progression in this cohort were comparable across Western and Eastern Europe. Differences in treatment strategies between Western and Eastern European centres did not affect the disease course. Treatment with immunomodulators reduced the risk of surgery and hospitalisation.

Mercury and lead were present in European medieval society in very different ways. Mercury was rare and occurred only as point sources such as medicine, the colour pigment cinnabar and in the process of gilding. Lead was ubiquitous in the urban societies and present even in the rural ones; the main source was lead glazed kitchenware. We have investigated the distribution of both elements in the bones of rural and urban populations in Northern Germany and Southern Denmark. 283 individuals from six different medieval cemeteries have been studied. The individuals have been examined anthropologically to determine sex and age at death, while samples of the cortical and trabecular bone tissues from the femur have been analysed chemically. Prior to chemical analyses the samples were thoroughly decontaminated. The samples were measured for mercury, lead and calcium. From the data of the rural populations we have established limits for the background exposure levels: 80 and 300 ng g -1 for mercury and 5 and 7 μg g -1 for lead in cortical and trabecular bone tissue respectively. On average 21% of the population was exposed to Hg above background, but the frequency of high Hg exposure varied from cemetery to cemetery. Lead exposure reached even out into the rural communities where ca. 35% of the population was exposed above background. No correlation was seen between Hg and the proposed social status indicator Pb. Based on measurements of calcium we propose for the first time a criterion for rejecting the analysis of a skeletal sample due to contamination.

Ottosen’s article examines the process and impact of secularization and religious reforms in Bavaria across three decades of revolution and upheaval. It traces the origins of the reforms as well as how they were implemented, and questions the extent to which they can be attributed to the impact of the French Revolution. In doing so, the article questions whether the Revolution marked a point of departure for Bavarian reformers or rather provided a context in which Bavarian reform ideas that predated it could be successfully implemented. Moreover, the article assesses the relationship between spiritual and political, legal and social considerations on the part of the Bavarian government in implementing the reforms, as well as how secularization and religious reform were experienced by the common people.