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Putin's Imperial Aspirations: How Russian Nationalism Drives Foreign Policy and Military Strategy
No full textVladimir Putin became prime minister in 1999 and has been in federal office as either prime minister or president ever since. His control over Russian politics has cemented his position and furthered his influence over the culture. In this respect, Putin’s nationalist views affect how he enacts foreign and domestic policy. This research examines the relationship between nationalism and Russian foreign policy and military strategy. An inductive analysis of Putin's primary sources characterized the nationalist and foreign policy themes into a set of nationalist institutional orders. These patterns showed four antagonistic approaches to foreign policy with other countries and international institutions: duplicitous cooperation, subversion, aggressive rhetoric, and overt aggression. These approaches advance Putin’s historical views of Russian Imperial and Soviet boundaries, emphasizing the reunification of people of Russian ethnicity. Putin also views Russia as the successor to Imperial and Soviet status as one part of the bipolar world order established during the Cold War
Evaluating Third Generation Valve System Performance and Pacemaker Implantation Variability After Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement
No full textAbstract
Background: The choice of transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) prosthesis
is crucial in optimizing short- and long-term outcomes.
Objective: To conduct a meta-analysis comparing outcomes of 3rd generation balloon-
expandable valves (BEV) vs. self-expanding valves (SEV).
Methods: Electronic databases were searched from inception to June 2023 for studies
comparing 3rd generation BEV vs. SEV. Primary outcome was all-cause mortality.
Secondary outcomes included clinical and hemodynamic end points. Random effects
models were used to calculate pooled odds ratios (ORs) or weighted mean differences
(WMDs).
Results: The meta-analysis included 16 studies and 10,174 patients (BEV: 5,753 and
SEV: 4,421). There were no significant differences in 1-year all-cause mortality (OR
1.15, 95% CI 0.89-1.48) between 3rd generation BEV vs. SEV. TAVR with 3rd generation
BEV was associated with a significantly lower risk of TIA/stroke (OR 0.62, 95% CI 0.44-
0.87), permanent pacemaker implantation (PPI, OR 0.55, 95% CI 0.44-0.70), and
≥moderate paravalvular leak (PVL, OR 0.43, 95% CI 0.25-0.75), and higher risk of
≥moderate patient-prosthesis mismatch (PPM, OR 3.76, 95% CI 2.33-6.05), higher
mean gradient (WMD 4.35, 95% CI 3.63 to 5.08), and smaller effective orifice area
(EOA, WMD -0.30, 95% CI -0.37 to -0.23), compared with SEV.
Conclusion: In this meta-analysis, TAVR with 3rd generation BEV vs. SEV was
associated with similar all-cause mortality, lower risk of TIA/stroke, PPI, and ≥moderate
PVL, but higher risk of ≥moderate PPM, higher mean gradient, and smaller EOA. Large,
adequately powered randomized trials are needed to evaluate long-term outcomes of
TAVR with latest generations of BEV vs. SEV.
Abstract
Background: Permanent pacemaker implantation (PPI) remains the most common
complication after transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR).
Methods: We analyzed data from the 2019 Nationwide Readmissions Database to
identify 34,830 patients who underwent TAVR across 398 hospitals. The primary
outcome of interest was new PPI in-hospital or within 30 days post-discharge. Mixed
effects logistic regression models were used to examine hospital-level variation in rates
and timing (in-hospital vs. post-discharge) of new PPI after TAVR.
Results: The overall PPI rate was 9.9% (84.5% in-hospital and 15.5% post-discharge).
The median (IQR) hospital-level PPI rate was 8.7% (5.4% to 12.9%) with wide variation
across hospitals (range: 0% to 54.5%). Similarly, there was substantial hospital-level
variation in the timing of PPI. The median (IQR) proportion of post-discharge PPI at the
hospital level was 13.3% (0% to 25.0%), ranging from 0% to 100%. After adjusting for
patient-level covariates, there was significant hospital variation in PPI rates (median
OR: 1.49; 95% CI: 1.41-1.58) and timing (median OR: 1.54; 95% CI: 1.26-1.82), which
persisted even after addition of hospital-level covariates to the model.
Conclusions: Approximately 1 in 10 patients underwent PPI after TAVR, and 15% of
PPI were performed post-discharge. There is substantial hospital-level variation in rates
and timing of PPI after TAVR, which is not entirely explained by differences in patient
and hospital characteristics. Future studies are needed to understand the reasons
underlying hospital variation in PPI, and to identify evidence-based practices and
processes of care associated with decreased risk of PPI post-TAVR
Art for Kmart: A Very Long Opera House
No full textThe production of an opera is as much an act of world building as an act of music. The operatic interior expands outward, carried by its audience and practitioners into a blended universe consisting of opera's constructed worlds and daily life. In the earliest era of opera, Baroque houses used flat scenography with forced perspective conveying the infinite. Technological systems and the operatic form evolved in tandem, resulting in the complex fly systems and acoustical engineering now associated with the opera house.
Opera has struggled to adapt to the 21st century; perceived as an inaccessible art form, experimental models are slowly emerging, but new opera has not found easy footing in the US. Simultaneously, economic precarity has further removed rural regions of the US from cultural capitals, eroding the relationship of the arts with everyday life.
This thesis imagines a future for opera in the United States where a new vision for the art form affirms community life through an intimate relationship with a quotidian typology. To house the new opera, the thesis converts an empty Kmart in rural Ohio, building drama through procession and reinventing the experience of opera. By exploring the unending flatness of the midwestern fieldscape, the project discovers the latent potential of the big box to host horizontally infinite artistic spectacle in the spirit of Versailles
チリにおける新しい右派政党「共和党」の出現と台頭(論稿)
Get PDFチリでは、2019 年に設立された新しい右派政党「共和党」が国政の場で台頭しつつある。本稿は、なぜ共和党が出現し、台頭したのか、その背景を考察することを目的とする。チリでは人々が経済社会的には格差を容認せず、また社会文化的にはリベラルな価値観をもつようになり、政治の側もそれに対応するように右派連合は中道左派連合へと接近する形で政策を変容させてきた。そうした変化に対する反動としてカストが設立したのが共和党である。一方で、共和党の台頭は、反動というよりも、治安というチリの近年の課題が関係している。共和党は旧来の右派と同様の主張を打ち出しつつも、治安維持という意味合いで法の支配を強調する。人々のあいだでも治安に対する問題意識は高まっており、共和党の台頭を促している。今後も治安という課題や従来から蔓延する政治不信が続くかぎり、チリの人々にとって共和党は選択肢となりうると考えられる。PJa/33/Ra2articl
2023年グアテマラ大統領選挙と新政権が直面する問題(現地調査報告)
Get PDF政治腐敗・汚職対策が有権者の主要な関心事であった2023年のグアテマラ選挙では、腐敗政治撲滅のための改革を訴えたアレバロ候補がサプライズと受け止められるなかで勝利した。しかし、その選挙期間中、アレバロと所属するセミージャ党に対しては司法から露骨な干渉が行われ、軍政以降の近年では最も見苦しい選挙となった。それだけではなく、選挙後もアレバロ支持者やグアテマラの民主主義を憂いた市民団体などによる行政府・司法府に対する抗議活動により内政が混乱している。本稿では今回の大統領選挙を概観し、その背景と新政権が直面する問題について考察する。PJa/33/Ra2articl
