Structural Integrity of Stone Blocks From Charles Bridge in Prague

The Charles Bridge is the oldest, still-standing gothic bridge that crosses the Vltava River in Prague and up to now has belonged among the most sought-after historical monuments in the Czech Republic. The bridge has been repeatedly damaged due to floods and has been repaired several times. In the reconstructions, damaged sandstone blocks were substituted in facing. This experimental study focused on nonlinear ultrasonic spectroscopy for testing stone blocks that were extracted from the historical bridge structure. The objective of these experiments was verifying whether the methods can be applied to evaluating the internal structure of blocks, which are built-in in the structure in situ. Intact-structure blocks, blocks that had been repaired in the past, and damaged-structure blocks were measured. Two methods of nonlinear ultrasonic spectroscopy were applied—the method with single harmonic ultrasonic signal and with two harmonic ultrasonic signals. Measurement results of both applied methods proved resulting parameters correlation with block structure integrity quality.     

Do EU funds crowd out other public expenditures? Evidence on the additionality principle from the detailed Czech municipalities’ data

European Union (EU) funds flowing into budgets of public sector organizations of its member states should be additional to their nationally funded expenditures. To investigate this additionality principle systematically, we develop a new empirical method. Our main hypothesis is that some of the EU-funded projects are crowding out national public expenditures. Not being able to reject the hypothesis would be consistent with violating the additionality principle. To test the hypothesis, we examine how EU funding translates into actual spending of relatively comparable municipalities of the Czech Republic. We innovatively match the municipal authorities’ budgetary data on EU-funded expenditure projects with their other, nationally funded, expenditures. We find no systemic crowding out of national public expenditures by EU funds at the level of operational programmes in the Czech municipalities’ data, which is consistent with no evidence of violating the additionality principle. Nonetheless, going down to the municipal level enables us to show how the results can pinpoint individual cases of EU fund’s potential mismanagement in Czech municipalities. Overall, we provide the first evaluation of the additionality principle at the level of individual recipients of EU funds and in doing so we develop a methodological approach potentially applicable to other fund recipients.     

On the origin of the term ependyma

The term ependyma is considered as a translation of the expression integumentum ventriculorum cerebri or Überzug der Hirnhöhlen [the lining of the brain ventricles] in German used by the Wenzel brothers (1812). The first documented usage of this term is found in the work of the German anatomist Karl Ernst Bock from the year 1839, but nobody has ever claimed authorship of the word. Formulations such as “so-called” are used in connection with the term, avoiding any reference to a specific originator. The term first started being used in anatomical literature written in German. In its subsequent history, various interpretations of the meaning of the term have emerged, and certain attempts have also been made to change its formal aspect.     

Body mass estimation in skeletal samples using the hybrid approach: the effect of population-specific variations and sexual dimorphism

Body mass is estimated from skeletal records with low accuracy, and it is expected that population-specific equations derived by a hybrid approach may help to reduce the error in body mass estimates. We used 204 individuals from five Central European Early Medieval sites to test the effect of population-specific femoral head breadth equations on the accuracy of body mass estimates. The baseline for living body mass was computed using the biiliac breadth and stature. We also analyzed the agreement of five general femoral head techniques that are used in body mass estimation (Elliott et al. (Archaeol Anthropol Sci 1–20, 2015b; Grine et al. (Am J Phys Anthropol 97:151–185, 1995); McHenry (Am J Phys Anthropol 87:407–431, 1992); Ruff et al. (Am J Phys Anthropol 148:601–617, 2012); Ruff et al. (Am J Phys Anthropol 86:397, 1991)). Our results support previous findings showing that body mass is predicted with lower accuracy than stature, even when population-specific equations are derived. However, the population-specific approach increases the agreement with the body mass estimated from the biiliac breadth and stature, particularly when sex-specific equations are used. Thus, our results advocate for the employment of sex-specific equations when possible and show that the possibility of deriving equation for each sex separately is the main advantage of the population-specific approach. The best agreement among the body mass techniques in the Central European Early Medieval samples was observed using the femoral head equations reported by Ruff et al. (Am J Phys Anthropol 148:601–617, 2012) and McHenry (Am J Phys Anthropol 87:407–431, 1992), whereas other studied equations provided lower agreement. The particularly low performance obtained using the technique reported by Elliott et al. (2015b) questioned the use of their equations to estimate body masses.     

On the origin of the term decussatio pyramidum

There is no consensus regarding the origin of the term decussatio pyramidum. Various anatomists of the past are honored by modern scholars, for example, Vieussens, Reil, and Collins. However, contralateral effects of brain lesions were already mentioned in Hippocratic treatises. Aretaeus of Cappadocia assumed that the anatomical reason for this phenomenon is the interchange of the nerves and called it chiasmos. This opinion was discussed in modern times and the anatomists used the term decussatio nervorum. The authorship of the first demonstration of decussatio pyramidum is given to Mistichelli (1709) and Petit (1710), but neither the term decussatio nor any of its vernacular forms are present in their work. A milestone in the history of the term is the Mémoire of Gall and Spurzheim presented to the Institut de France in 1808. In the French printed form of the Mémoire (1809), the word combination décussation des pyramides was used for the first time in anatomical literature.     

‘Third-class’ Slovak Roma and inclusion: Bricoleurs vs social engineers

This article addresses social inclusion/integration with reference to peripheral Slovak Roma. Based on ethnographic data, it argues that even in communities of so-called ‘unadaptables’, integration has progressed considerably, but not necessarily along the lines envisioned by the agencies which are propelling ‘Roma inclusion’ as a pan-European project. The article considers early motherhood, juvenile prostitution and unconventional municipal politicians as examples of bottom-up inclusion efforts that don’t threaten traditional notions of cultural and political autonomy.