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Intro -- Acknowledgments -- Praise for A Brief History of Now -- Contents -- List of Illustrations -- List of Tables -- 1 Introduction: Setting the Frame -- Now -- Economic Globalization -- World Hegemony -- Democracy -- Socioeconomic Inequality Within and Between Societies -- Technological Innovations -- Climate Change -- Now and then: Trajectories in Global History -- 2 We Were All Brits (1851-1914) -- Hegemony, What Is It? -- Industrial Revolution -- Which Pyramid? -- The Industrial "Gradualution" -- Democratic Revolution -- The Synergic Revolutions -- Non-Identical Twins -- An Experiment with Synergy -- Another Set of Twins: Free Tradeand Comparative Advantage -- Two Sets of Twins on a World Tour: At Home in Western Europe -- Two Sets of Twins on a World Tour: Playing "Catch-22" with Gunpowder Empires -- Two Sets of Twins on a World Tour and the American Divergence -- Two Sets of Twins on a World Tour: The Scramble for Africa -- First Globalization and Britannization -- Spoiling the Hegemonic Party: The Exceptional Outliers -- All Aboard! Welcome to the Global Train -- 3 Until the "Big Brexit" (1914-1945) -- A Globally Convoluted Interplay -- Contested Hegemony, Head-On -- A Bigger Brother -- A Strange Couple -- A Global Communist Revolution -- Surprising Success -- By Reaction Against -- Directly Guided -- By Imitation -- Failure, the Mother of Improvisation -- The Carousel of Revolution -- The Other Carousel: Reaction -- A World Safe for Democracy -- It's the Economy, Stupid! -- A Game Changer -- Second Round -- So Long to the Global Train! -- 4 When We Became Americans (1946-1973) -- The World Series -- Hegemony and Empire: Great Britain -- Hegemony and Empire: The United States -- Two Centuries at Odds-And Counting -- A Fourfold Big Stick -- A Huge Carrot Named the U.S. Economy -- An Alluring Dream Named the American Dream.

Although masks (face coverings) are a prime tool in fighting airborne pathogens, during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States the use of masks encountered resistance based on existing patterns of cultural division. We argue that mask wearing must be understood basis on existing cultural frames assessed at both the individual level and the state level. We relied on prominent frameworks in cultural psychology: individualism-collectivism as well as independent and interdependent self-construals, the tightness-looseness framework, U.S. honor cultures, and political orientation as predictors. Using multilevel modeling, in a sample of 633 respondents from 45 U.S. states we investigated mask-wearing behavior, masks' perceived utility, implications for well-being, and the social meaning attributed to masks. Conservatism was linked to lower mask wearing, and consistently unfavorable perceptions of mask wearing. Collective interdependence predicted favorable perceptions of masks, as did state-level differences in collectivism; both constructs were linked with viewing mask wearing to be normative. Independent self-construal predicted a greater intent to wear masks, even though masks were also evaluated less favorably. Mediation analyses revealed that a single mediator, the perceived utility of mask wearing, was implicated in translating the effects of different cultural predictors into behavior. Additional findings highlighted that in tightener (vs. looser) states masks wearing was conceived of as a civic duty, whereas in U.S. honor states mask were seen as spoiling one's public image. Our discussion focuses on the cultural and political context of mask wearing, argues that different communities in the U.S. respond to its symbolic and social meaning, and suggest strategies to increase mask wearing among those who are otherwise reluctant to do so.

State building has become a 21st-century mantra, imperative for world peace and global prosperity. The intellectual foundation of the idea rests on a definition offered by sociologist Max Weber a century ago: a state is an entity that successfully claims the monopoly over the legitimate use of force within a given territory. When states are absent, many presume the result to be a grim anarchy, with rebels, criminals, bandits, and terrorists throttling economic development and spoiling political conciliation. The breakdown of states spawns refugee outflows, civil wars, and mass killings that destabilize entire regions. The task for the international community, therefore, is to enhance state effectiveness, eliminate armed rivals, and make room for normal politics to take root. This essay contends, however, that this approach is frequently misguided. States often cooperate with mercenaries, warlords, strongmen, religious or tribal leaders, mafias, or others who retain private armed retinues. The relationships with armed nonstate actors (ANSAs) are not contrary to political order; rather, they are fundamentally constitutive of that order. Furthermore, in many circumstances, strong states are unlikely to replace ANSAs. Instead of seeking to eliminate or marginalize ANSAs, the international community must learn to accommodate non-state actors and engage those groups that have already established themselves on the ground. This may mean accepting forms of non-state governance that are merely good enough.5 ANSAs rarely provide a political order as robust or conducive to human flourishing as strong, capable states would. Still, engaging nonstate actors is often better than waiting in vain for a strong state to arrive. ; Published (Publication status) ; "Fall 2019"

Textual Analysis by Augmented Replacement Instructions (TABARI) provides an automated method for coding large amounts of text. Using TABARI to code lead sentences of news stories, the KEDS/Penn State Event Data project has produced event data for several regions. The wide range of events and actors, TABARI's ability to filter duplicate events and the number of events coded allow users to analyze patterns in conflict and cooperation between state and nonstate actors over time. We evaluate whether coding full stories provides more detailed information on the actors referenced in the lead sentences. Additional actor information would allow researchers interested in the interactions between violent nonstate actors to test hypotheses regarding group cohesiveness and splintering, spoiling behavior, commitment problems between factions and many other issues critical to management of an insurgency. We downloaded Reuters news stories relevant to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict and used TABARI to code the lead sentences. We then analyzed the full text of the coded stories to determine the level of actor detail available. Our findings highlight the dynamic relationship among nonstate and state actors during the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, and we find that, contrary to expectations, hand coding full news stories does not lead to significant improvements in the accuracy or depth of actor information compared with machine coding by TABARI using lead sentences. These findings should bolster the confidence of researchers using TABARI coded data, with the caveat that TABARI's ability to distinguish between actors is dependent upon the detail available in the actor dictionaries.

Intro -- Shifts of Power: Modern Chinese Thought and Society -- Copyright -- Contents -- Series Editors' Foreword -- Preface to the Revised Edition -- Original Preface -- About this Book -- Acknowledgements -- 1 The Worship of the New: A Shift of Power in Modern Chinese Thought under the Impact of the Western Tide -- The Thought War: Who Changed Whose Ways of Thinking -- From Western Learning as Function to Chinese Learning Can't be Essence -- The Worship of the New -- 2 The Abolition of the Examination System and the Disintegration of the Four-Class Society: Modern Social Change in the Eyes of an Inland Member of the Gentry -- The Inner Chapters: Rural Society before and after the Abolition of the Examination System and the End of the Plowing-Studying Route -- The Outer Chapters: Historical Revelations from the Mind of a Modern Inland Gentry Member -- 3 The Impact of the Abolition of the Examination System on Rural Society -- Its Influence on Village Education -- The Urban-Rural Divide and Rural Elite Flight to the Cities -- Additional Thoughts -- 4 Shifts of Social Power in Modern China: The Marginalization of Intellectuals and the Rise of Marginal Intellectuals -- The Social Transition from Scholars to Intellectuals -- The Marginalization of the Intellectuals -- The Rise of Marginal Intellectuals -- 5 The Worries and Responsibilities of Educated Chinese in the Age of Transition -- A Brief Introduction to the Age of Transition -- Definitions of Studying and the Educated -- The Fade Away of the Classics in Modern Times -- Shifts and Movements in the Self-Positioning of Educated Chinese -- Who Will Step Forward to Carry the Burden of the Nation?: Reflections on Liang Qichao -- The Scenery-Spoiling Dogs Plow the Field -- 6 The Monolithicization of Chinese Tradition: The Development of Anti-Traditional Trends in the Late Qing and Early Republic

Ob unter dem Diktum, Vollbeschäftigung sei - auf welchem Wege auch immer - mög- lich, oder unter der gegenteiligen Ansage, gesellschafts- und insbesondere sozialpo- litisch müsse man sich auf die Bedingung systemischer Beschäftigungslücken ein- stellen, in der politischen Öffentlichkeit bespricht man die fehlende Erwerbsarbeit – und bemerkt dabei in Art einer kollektiver Hypnose nicht, dass sich die bestehende Erwerbsarbeit dramatisch verändert und mit ihr die von ihr geprägten sozialen Be- ziehungen und Zusammenhänge. Auch die theologische Sozialethik kann sich der öffentlichen Dethematisierung der Erwerbsarbeit zumeist nicht erwehren und hat – mehr noch – Anteil daran. Was die Sozialethik dabei »verpasst«, wird vor allem dann auffällig, wenn sie sich soziologisch aufklären lässt, was mit »Erwerbsarbeit« bezeich- net wird, dass Erwerbsarbeit eben nicht eine besondere Arbeit neben anderen Arbei- ten, sondern ein gesellschaftliches Verhältnis mit systemischen Auswirkungen auf alle anderen Verhältnisse und i.d.S,. auf die Gesellschaft im Ganzen ist. Dann wird sie die verfestigte Massenarbeitslosigkeit nicht mehr nur als Lücke zwischen Angebot und Nachfrage auf den Arbeitsmärkten, sondern als eine brisante Verwerfung einer auf Erwerbsarbeit gründenden Gesellschaft einholen können. Zudem wird sie den säku- laren Wandel der Erwerbsarbeit reflektieren - und dabei entdecken, dass Erwerbs- arbeit gesellschaftlich zunehmend mehr und dabei zuviel bedeutet, dass diese Über- bewertung der Erwerbsarbeit nicht nur zu langfristig unerträglichen Arbeitsbeding- ungen führt, sondern zunehmend gutes Leben außerhalb der Erwerbsarbeit und die Zivilität der von dieser überwerteten Erwerbsarbeit geprägten Gesellschaften beein- trächtigt. Public debates - no matter wether they are centered on full employment or on the lack of it – tend tofocus on missing labour rather than investigating the ongoing change at the workplace. This holds also true for social ethics. However, this approach goes amiss, since it treats employed labour as just another way to work when it is a pivotal social relationship affecting society as a whole. If this is taken into consideration, long-term mass unemployment can not solely be seen as a gap between supply and demand on the labour-markets, but has to be understood as a serious crisis of a society based on paid labour. A closer look at labour will reveal, moreover, that labour tends to be over- estimated – with serious consequences: This overestimation may lead – in the long run – to unbearable working conditions, while spoiling civil society and the good life beyond the workplace.

The article deals with the names of mythological creatures in the Komi-Permyak language. We identified and analyzed almost 300 names of mythological beings gathered from various sources such as field notes, archival materials, articles, and publications. The vocabulary analyzed in the article is not homogenous. We divided it into groups in accordance with the source language; words formed in the Komi-Permyak language were further classified into subgroups according to the motivation. Substantial part of the lexis comes from the Russian language. These borrowed words are used to denominate creatures that have analogues in Russian folklore (домовöй, баннöй бес, водянöй, дошлöй, лешöй, нечистöй, колдун/ковдун, колдуння/ковдуння, суседко/суседку). In some cases, semantic changes are observed, new meanings are acquired. The second group of the lexis is comprised of the names of Komi-Permyak origin with the following meanings: "place of habitat" (ва олiсь 'dweller of the water', джоджулiсь 'dweller of the underground', баня чуд 'banya spirit', кузнеча чуд 'spirit of a smithy', öшымöс чуд 'spirit living in a well', вöрись 'spirit of the forest', вöрись дядь / вöрдядь 'forest uncle'); "appearance" (кузь дядя 'tall uncle', ыджыт дядя 'big tall uncle', ыджыт морт 'big tall man', чочком морт 'white man', кöспель 'having dry ears'), "time of appearing before others" (луншöрика/вуншöрика 'midday spirit of fields and meadows', лун/вун 'day', шöр 'mid'); "action" (ворожитчись 'diviner', лечитчись 'healer', 'witch doctor', шопкись 'whispering', тöдiсь 'knowing', тшыкöтчись/тшыкöтiсь 'spoiling'). The third group of words includes non-derivatives or/and names with 'obscure' etymology (абач 'domestic goblin', боболь 'spirit for frightening the children', калян 'demon', куль 'devil, evil spirit'). The presence of this group is largely due to the de-etymologization process in the modern language. These being the key points, we observe heterogeneity of the names of Komi-Permyak mythological beings, reflecting the history of interactions between Russian and Komi-Permyak people.

The main objective of this paper aims the distribution of finite resources under the imperatives of collectivist institutions and a governance based on the precepts of socializing the means of society. In the first instance theoretical formulas will be used that propose methodologies for governing the common goods from the ostromian perspective (Ostrom, 2007) and alternatives for overcoming the dilemmas of collective action starting from basic concepts (Hardin, 1968), respectively forms of government that can overcomes the excesses of users of common goods that inexorably lead to the spoiling and depletion of existing resources. Complementary to this preliminary discussion necessary for further operationalization I will use the theoretical model that explains, as an extension, the typology and functionality of natural resources and according to this link between combined theoretical models I will determine what type of asset each institutional form proposed for governing assets mentioned above.The final section will be dedicated to determining which type of institutional alternative, for the governance of common resources, is joined by the socialist ideological approach when talking about the collectivization of agriculture and the institutional form that agricultural associations must take, respectively in which typology could allocate the goods, following the de facto analysis of the agricultural collectivist type organization for the socialist period, in the same way of working – identifying institutional arrangements, typology of goods, in order to identify possible inconsistencies between the normative, declarative ideological model and its implementation in real social space.The study starts from the socialist ideological assumptions regarding the governance of agricultural households and tries to test whether the factual representation of agricultural cooperatives in Romania and implicitly in the general ideological project overlaps and fulfills the theoretical aspirations regarding the collectivization of agriculture. For these it will be considered to formulate research questions and consult the extensive bibliography in the field of agricultural groups proposed by the socialist frame of reference.

This dissertation studies local autonomy levels of leading global/world cities (GWC) in major developing economies. Four cities in three countries are selected: Shanghai and Guangzhou, China; Mumbai, India; Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. These countries are either of significant size or occupy unique positions in the world's shifting economic landscape. They embarked on economic liberalization and started to actively integrate into global economy at least since the early 1990s, when the observation starts. During this period, their national economies integrated into global economy to different extents, strengthening their comprehensive national power while shifting the world's economic center of gravity. In this process, the four cities not only acted as leading GWCs critical to their national economies, but also as important nodes in the world GWC network, articulating their national economy with world economy. Against similar domestic and international backgrounds, however, the four cities' local autonomy level have changed very differently through more than two decades. This research investigates causes for this puzzle. GWCs need territorial states to fully function, while territorial states (especially less-developed ones) tend to use GWCs as a tool for attracting investment, accumulate resources, and strengthen national power. This is the mutuality between the territorial state and the GWC. On the other hand, as a GWC becomes more global, it faces conditions and generates demands quite different from ordinary cities. The territorial state also needs to ensure a balanced development across the country, rather than spoiling certain cities. This generates contradictions between the two parties. The level of local autonomy is a settlement on power allocation between the central (territorial state) and the local (GWCs) levels of government. Whether a GWC gets more or less local autonomy is determined by whether mutuality or contradiction between the territorial state and the GWC prevails. Three sets of relations are ...

В последние десятилетия XIX в. на страницах российских журналов с необычайной силой разгорелось обсуждение вопроса о новой песне. Трансформации в крестьянском песенном репертуаре в основном трактовались интеллигенцией как «порча» и «искажение» народной песни, а природа этих изменений виделась во внешних влияниях, исходящих от городской среды - «мещанском», «фабричном», «солдатском» и т. д. Все новое в крестьянской песне оценивалось как иносоциальное и, следовательно, чуждое патриархальному укладу и традиционной поэзии деревни. По отношению к фольклорной песне актуализировались такие противопоставленные категории, как «истинно народная» и «искусственная», а сам народ представлялся растерявшимся в условиях стремительно модернизирующегося быта, доверчиво перенимающим соблазны чужой (городской) песенной культуры и ради них отказывающимся от своей исконной крестьянской песни. Социальные индексы, присвоенные новым песням в ходе этой дискуссии, стереотипные характеристики и оценки оказались очень устойчивыми и сопровождали некоторые виды песенного фольклора (прежде всего романс и балладу литературного происхождения) на протяжении всего XX в. ; During the last decades of 19th century an extremely hot discussion around the modern song unfolded on the pages of Russian scientific journals. The intellectuals interpreted transformations in peasants song repertoire as spoiling and distortion. The character of these changes was seen in external influences (factory, military, etc.), coming from urban environment. New peasants songs were considered as asocial and, therefore, alien to the patriarchal way of life and to the traditional rural poetry. Such opposition as truly folk and artificial (fake) were actualized, while the folk itself was considered to be lost within fast-paced modernization of life, trustfully adopting alien song traditions and for their sake abandoning its own ones. Social indexes, assigned to modern songs during that discussion, stereotypic characteristics and marks turned out to be very stable and accompanied several types of song folklore (first of all, love songs and ballads of literary origin) during the whole 20th century.

This study identifies and compares the methods of recruitment used by three prime jihadist organizations through their online magazines. The successful recruitment efforts and growth as a threat by the Islamic State of Iraq and Sh?m (ISIS), Al-Qaeda, and Al-Shabaab are attributed, in part, to the widespread popularity and accessibility of Dabiq and Rumiyah (published by ISIS), Inspire (published by Al-Qaeda), and Gaidi Mtaani (published by Al-Shabaab). In order to best examine the techniques of persuasion and propaganda to recruit new followers, the theoretical approach of compliance-gaining theory and methodological approach of a narrative analysis are applied. The author analyzed a total of twelve magazine issues to compare how the four magazines use (1) imagery, (2) attrition, (3) intimidation, (4) propaganda, (5) spoiling, (6) outbidding, (7) incitement, and (8) recruitment. To validate each of these themes, the study applies an open-coding instrument to select each label based on specific dimensions. These findings reveal how the same purpose to achieve the Caliphate can be chosen on a similar path by these three different jihadist organizations. This path may take different turns at certain spots, but ultimately the road is based on the same historical context to justify the recruitment process. Overall, this study provides fresh descriptive insights on jihadist organizations' recruitment methods to gain new followers toward the achievement of the Caliphate (i.e., the global Islamic state). The sample reveals that the online jihadist magazines integrate all analyzed themes to portray their messages. The findings show certain issues implement specific themes more than others. Across the sample, the use of persuasion justified and encouraged violence. Persuasion is found in prideful examples of successful terrorist attacks and aftermath scenes of destruction. The distinct difference between the four online jihadist magazines is the persuasion of recruitment. ; 2018-05-01 ; M.A. ; Sciences, Communication ; Masters ; This record was generated from author submitted information.

Urban solutions in Vilnius were mostly of a practical rather than aestethical character. After World War II architects of urban design, whose activity used to change substantly historically settled cities, became more active. In Lithuania the conception of heritage developed gradually lagging behind dominating European tendencies; therefore, Vilnius city has been strongly influenced by individual creative works. The most obvious materialized conception of that kind is the idea of "architectural hills". Currently this conception is widely criticized, and at the same time new restraints protecting the old town are set. These restraints often contradict the development of the city, which is inevitable bearing in mind the status of Vilnius city (the capital) and the size of administrated territory. Due to objective reasons political decisions and the activity of energetic private investors have a strong influence on the development of the city. In the chain an investor–administrator–professional there exists uneven proportion of participation thus spoiling the final result. The paper presents the main contradiction between the city development and heritage supporters and ways of solving it. Vilniaus miestas – tarp metaforos ir pragmatikos Santrauka Vilniuje urbanistiniai sprendimai daugiausia buvo praktinio, o ne estetinio pobūdžio. Po Antrojo pasaulinio karo suaktyvėjo architektai ir urbanistai, kurių veikla iš esmės keisdavo istoriškai susiklosčiusį miestą. Paminklosaugos (paveldo) samprata Lietuvoje kito lėtai, labai atsilikdama nuo Europoje vyraujančių tendencijų, todėl Vilniaus mieste yra aiškios autorinių darbų pasekmės. Pati ryškiausia tokia realizuota koncepcija – "architektūrinių kalvų" idėja. Šiuo metu ši koncepcija yra labai kritikuojama. Kartu kuriami nauji Senamiestį saugojantys apribojimai. Šie apribojimai dažnai prieštarauja miesto plėtrai, kuri yra neišvengiama, turint omenyje Vilniaus miesto statusą (sostinė) ir administruojamos teritorijos dydį. Dėl objektyvių priežasčių didelę įtaką miesto plėtrai turi politiniai sprendimai, taip pat aktyvi privačių investuotojų veikla. Grandinėje investuotojas – administratorius – profesionalas egzistuoja netolygios dalyvavimo proporcijos, todėl nukenčia galutinis rezultatas. Nurodomi pagrindinių prieštaravimų tarp miesto plėtros ir paveldo išsaugojimo šalininkų sprendimo būdai. Reišminiai žodžiai: plėtra, saugoma teritorija, vizualinės apsaugos zona, autorinė koncepcija, reglamentas. First Published Online: 22 May 2013

The dilemma of spontaneity versus formalization is more or less valid for all societies. Freedom as the availability of alternative courses of action has been a precious cultural and moral value in history. The functional requisites of societies, related to communication, production, distribution, defense, replacement of members, and social control (Lenski, Lenski, 1974:28) have provided a more or less convincing justification for the limitation of freedom. Specialization, hierarchy, rules, procedures, impersonality and cult of competence, all these bureaucratic characteristics have been treated for centuries as remedia for laziness, irresponsibility, and parochialism. The progress of formalization has historically contributed to the strengthening of authority, as a legitimized power which brings about compliance of people to behave according to the will of those who occupy crucial positions. However, rigidification of such structures has several negative side effects: dissolution of several important and useful human bonds, ineffectiveness against external change, internal struggle between various groups to preserve and enlarge their areas of discretion (Crozier 1963), keeping too much to the rules, over-adherence to organizational means (and not ends), spoiling of superiors by the power enjoyed by them, superiors spending too much of their time and effort in controlling subordinates, etc. Strict separation of office and incumbent, in the sense that the official does not possess his office, has been historically beneficial for the material well being of societies, but it also has limited the personal involvement of office occupants. In the bureaucracies people who occupy crucial positions tend to develop vested interests within the scope of their jurisdiction. The constituent parts of bureaucracies resist actions which do not serve their own purposes (the problem of recalcitrance), and people in control of these parts become the prime beneficiaries (Blau, Scott 1962) of them. The 'rules of the game' that apply to the bureaucratic organizations as human artefacts quite often prevent them from achieving a dynamic equilibrium, namely to react to forces of change in an adaptive manner. Those organizations easily transform themselves from goal-seeking entities into the security-seeking mechanisms. Following Etzioni (1965) it is possible to say that they follow a 'survival model' instead of an 'efficiency model'.

At the end of the 20th century, the territory of the countries that came into existence with the dissolution of former Yugoslavia became the grounds on which conflict of interest between global superpowers started to take place, particularly that between the USA and Russia. The manner in which the two rivaling giants attempt to secure their interests in the region differs immensely. On the one hand, the USA secured its involvement in the region by establishing itself as a mediator in ending the wars in the 90s (BiH, Kosovo) and this grip got even stronger with the help of the so-called Euro- Atlantic integrations and inclusion of the newly formed Balkan countries into NATO (Slovenia, Croatia, Albania). On the other hand, Putin's Russia pulls leverage through energetic projects in Serbia, Montenegro and BiH. The most obvious culmination of the Russo-American diplomatic conflict in the region occurred in Montenegro, which escaped the sphere of Russian influence following a series of affairs involving Russian secret agencies, much to the benefit of the USA. After the incident Russia started exert its corruptive influence and set boogey-traps for "Western" initiatives aimed at political stabilization at the region. This spoiling influence (BiH, Kosovo, Macedonia) has as its agenda the strengthening of Russian geopolitical influence in Europe, destabilized through the Ukranian crisis and the annexation of Crimea. ; Prostor na kojem se nalaze države nastale raspadom bivše Jugoslavije postao je krajem 20. stoljeća područjem sukoba velikih sila, posebice između SAD-a i Rusije. No, strategije kojima su dvije velike sile nastojale osigurati svoj utjecaj u regiji znatno se razlikuju. Dok su SAD svoj položaj osigurale zahvaljujući važnoj ulozi u okončanju rata u BiH i na Kosovu, te ga učvrstile koristeći euroatlantske integracije što je rezultiralo uključivanjem novonastalih država (Slovenija, Hrvatska, Albanija) u NATO, Rusija je dolaskom Putina na vlast kao svoju polugu utjecaja u regiji počela koristiti projekte u energetici, zauzevši s njima čvrsto uporište u Srbiji, Crnoj Gori te BiH. Eskalacija rusko-američkih tenzija u regiji kulminirala je u Crnoj Gori, čiji je bijeg iz sfere ruskog utjecaja, popraćen nizom špijunskih afera zajamčio veliku diplomatsku pobjedu interesima SAD-a. Nakon ovoga međunarodnog incidenta Rusija je regiju počela doživljavati kao poligon za ostvarivanje svojeg remetilačkog utjecaja, kojim minira "zapadne" inicijative za stabilizacijom prostora, (BiH, Kosovo i Makedonija) s ciljem osnaživanja ruskog geopolitičkog utjecaja u Europi, poljuljanog ukrajinskom krizom i aneksijom Krima.

Bacteria found in diverse ecosystems grow in a community of aggregated cells that favors their survival and colonization. Different extracellular polymeric substances are used to entrap this multispecies community forming a biofilm, which can be associated to biotic and abiotic surfaces. This widespread and successful way of bacterial life, however, can lead to negative effects for human activity since many pathogen and spoiling bacteria form biofilms which are not easy to eradicate. Therefore, the search for novel anti-biofilm bio-active molecules is a very active research area for which simple, reliable, and fast screening methods are demanded. In this work we have successfully validated an impedance-based method, initially developed for the study of adherent eukaryotic cells, to monitor the formation of singlespecies biofilms of three model bacteria in real time. The xCelligence real time cell analyzer (RTCA) equipment uses specific microtiter E-plates coated with gold-microelectrodes that detect the attachment of adherent cells, thus modifying the impedance signal. In the current study, this technology allowed the distinction between biofilm-producers and non-producers of Staphylococcus aureus and Staphylococcus epidermidis, as well as the formation of Streptococcus mutans biofilms only when sucrose was present in the culture medium. Besides, different impedance values permitted discrimination among the biofilm-producing strains tested regardless of the nature of the polymeric biofilm matrix. Finally, we have continuously monitored the inhibition of staphylococcal biofilm formation by the bacteriophage phi-IPLA7 and the bacteriophage-encoded endolysin LysH5, as well as the removal of a preformed biofilm by this last antimicrobial treatment. Results observed with the impedance-based method showed high correlation with those obtained with standard approaches, such as crystal violet staining and bacteria enumeration, as well as with those obtained upon other abiotic surfaces (polystyrene and stainless steel). Therefore, this RTCA technology opens new opportunities in the biofilm research arena and its application could be further explored for other bacterial genera as well as for different bio-active molecules. ; This work was financed by the FEDER European Union funds through the projects AGL2015-64901-R and AGL201565673-R from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad MINECO) and through the grants EQUIP11 and GRUPIN14-139 (Program of Science, Technology and Innovation, Principado de Asturias). DG and CH-C hold FPI-scholarships of MINECO. ; Peer Reviewed