bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Preparation And Analysis Of The Urinary Sediment
Authors: Fogazzi Giovanni B , Ponticelli Claudio , Ritz Eberhard
Published: November 2023

We ask the patient to deliver the second urine of the morning, which is usually concentrated and acidic and without the lysis of the elements which can occur in overnight urine for the prolonged permanence in the bladder [2, 3], We also ask the patient to avoid strenuous physical activity, e.g. jogging, in the hours preceding urine collection. This activity, in fact, can cause urinary changes including haematuria and cylindruria [4], It is preferable to examine the patient while she or he is not undergoing excessive diuresis, since in diluted urine several types of elements are reduced in number because of lysis. It is also undesirable to examine highly alkaline urine, because this favours the lysis of leukocytes [5] and casts [6], as well as the precipitation of phosphates. These can mask other urinary elements.
The Urinary Sediment Of The Normal Subject
Authors: Fogazzi Giovanni B , Ponticelli Claudio , Ritz Eberhard
Published: November 2023

Since the time of Thomas Addis (see «Historical Introduction« for details), many studies have been carried out on the urine sediment of normal subjects. All studies showed that erythrocytes, leukocytes, renal tubular epithelial cells and casts could be present.
Initial assessment
Authors: Currie David G , Ritchie Ewan , Stott Stephen
Published: November 2023

In the case of the severely injured patient, and particularly the multiply injured patient, the first priority is to carry out a rapid assessment of the airway, breathing, and circulation, and to initiate resuscitation. However, of the very large number of patients seen every year in A and E departments following head injuries the great majority do not require admission, and a majority of those who do are conscious and have no neurological deficit.
Scalp and skull injuries
Authors: Currie David G , Ritchie Ewan , Stott Stephen
Published: November 2023

The scalp injury both draws attention to the fact that the patient has had a head injury and may itself be of serious significance. Failure to recognize that the patient has had a head injury may mean that, in the event of deterioration, the possibility of intracranial haemorrhage is not considered.
Domestic violence: a health-care issue
Authors: Crisp Debbie , Stanko Betsy
Published: November 2023

Despite the increase in the amount of research and other work from the past twenty five years, which has served to problematize violence within intimate relationships, the nature, frequency and extent of this type of abuse remain under debate. The term domestic violence is itself currently without a universally agreed definition, but is instead used generically to define a number of factors involved in serial abusive rela tionships. The intimacy of the parties involved, the nature of the abuse, and the wide range of its impact combine to make ‘domestic violence’ an important social problem.
The effects of assault on health care professionals
Authors: Mezey Gillian
Published: November 2023

Health professionals work with members of the public at all times of the day and night, a factor that makes them vulnerable to violent assault and victimization. Attacks on health-care professionals may be committed by other staff, patients, or members of the public. They may be a consequence of the assailant’s mental disorder or altered level of arousal due to drug or alcohol intoxication. They may be commit ted with or without intent or prior planning on the part of the assailant. The defini tion of violence includes relatively minor acts, such as verbal abuse, intimidation, harassment, and threats, which cause damage because of their potential to escalate and impact on staff morale and confidence, as well as more serious physical or sexual assaults. In the most extreme cases, it may result in serious injury or even the death of the health professional.
Renal Function and Management of Renal Disease
Authors: Makanjuola A David , Scoble John E
Published: November 2023

The kidney inspires awe in all those to attempt to understand its functions. The concepts of its actions are simple. Blood is passed through a filter which has some specific size and charge characteristics.
Autosomal Dominant Polycystic Kidney Disease
Authors: Saggar-Malik Anand K , Somlo Stefan
Published: November 2023

Autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD) typically presents in the third or fourth decade with haematuria, loin (flank) pain or hypertension. It is characterized by the progressive development and enlargement of bilateral renal cysts and often leads to end-stage renal disease (ESRD) by late middle age. It is well recognized now that ADPKD is a multisystem disorder with many extra-renal changes and complications.
Tuberous Sclerosis Complex
Authors: Weber Astrid P , Mueller Robert F
Published: November 2023

Tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC) is a neurocutaneous syndrome characterized by the development of hamartomatous lesions in numerous organ systems. It was first described by Bourneville in 1880 who described the association between mental retardation and fits with post-mortem findings of tuber-like growths and areas of sclerosis (Bourneville 1880).
Neurofibromatosis
Authors: Huson Susan M , Canham Natalie
Published: November 2023

The neurofibromatoses are a group of dominantly inherited genetic disorders defined by the presence/absence of specific types of skin pigmentation, tumours of the nervous system and ophthalmalogical features. Although historically eponymous or descriptive terminology was used, the NIH Consensus Conference (1988) recommended a numerical classification which is now internationally recognized.
Statistical considerations in analysing health care resource utilization and cost data
Authors: Heyse Joseph F , Cook John R , Carides George W
Published: November 2023

Much attention has recently focused on statistical methods for assessing uncertainty in health economic evaluations. Uncertainty in the estimate of programme costs and effects arises from two primary sources. The first is uncertainty in assumptions about the form of the underlying economic model, including assumptions about key model parameters, such as the time horizon and discount rate. In other situations, economic models use point estimates for parameters relating to patient outcomes or cost. O’Brien et al.(1994) call this first type of evaluation a deterministic analysis and recommended that uncertainty be assessed by using a comprehensive sensitivity analysis. Briggs et al.(1994) discussed the different forms of sensitivity analysis that can be applied. These may include simple reporting of the results over a suitable range of parameters, analysis of extremes, or a threshold analysis. Probabilistic sensitivity analyses are also used in some studies.
Macrophages as antigen-presenting cells: relationship to dendritic cells and use in vaccination studies
Authors: Paglia P , Colombo M P
Published: November 2023

Pioneering studies have demonstrated that only a very small proportion of an injected antigen (<1%) is involved in an immune response, the rest being rapidly degraded and excreted (Nossal, 1995). This suggests that antigen presentation is a rate-limiting step in an immune response and therefore needs to be handled in a highly specialized manner. A wide spectrum of cells can present antigens (Table 3.1) depending on how and where the antigen first encounters cells of the immune system and on the nature of the antigen itself. Antigen-presenting cells (APCs) have evolved in subtypes that have specialized features regarding the mechanism of antigen uptake, processing and transport to lymphoid organs, and interaction with lymphocytes. Many cells have the ability to capture pathogens and harmful cells and to process them somehow.
Macrophage–virus interactions
Authors: Zink W , Ryan L , Gendelman H E
Published: November 2023

Mononuclear phagocytes (MPs) (blood monocytes, tissue macrophages, connective tissue histiocytes, dendritic cells in lymph nodes and spleen, Langerhans cells of skin. Kupffer cells of liver and microglial cells of brain) comprise one of the principle elements in the clearance and inactivation of microbial pathogens including viruses. Paradoxically, these cells also represent a major target cell and infectious reservoir for a number of persistent viral infections. Alterations in MP function resulting from viral infection may lead to a number of pathological outcomes. Ultimately, the interaction between the virus and MPs is the net result of a complex series of intracellular events and can lead to the destruction or persistence of the pathogen and/or the precipitation of disease through alterations in immune responses.
Background and early development: discussion summary
Authors: Olesen Jes
Published: November 2023

It was pointed out that the development of sumatriptan not only meant much more effective treatment to migraine patients with fewer side-effects, but actually marked a complete change for the whole field of migraine research. The advent of a specific drug, which had a poor brain penetration and therefore presumably an extracerebral site of action, made it clear to the medical community that migraine is a neurobiological disorder. The fact that the drug has no psychotropic effect further underlines that psychological factors at the most can be aggravating but are not essential for the onset of migraine attacks. This phenonomal achievement was due to the intuition and ingenuity of Professor Patrick Humphrey.
Pharmacological analysis of the contractile effects of eletriptan and sumatriptan on human isolated blood vessels
Authors: Broek Rémon W M van den , MaassenVanDenBrink Antoinette , Vries René de , Avezaat Cees J , Saxena Pramod R
Published: November 2023

The high efficacy profile of the 5-HT1B/1D agonist sumatriptan as well as some shortcomings (low oral bioavailability, high headache recurrence, and chest symptoms) has prompted the development of several second-generation triptans, including eletriptan. Eletriptan displays a higher affinity than sumatriptan for the 5-HT1B (pKi: 8.00 and 7.37, respectively) and 5-HT1D (pKi: 8.94 and 8.04, respectively) receptor. It is now generally accepted that the therapeutic action of the triptans is mainly due to constriction of dilated intraand extracranial blood vessels. However, albeit less profound, the triptans also have the ability to contract non-cranial blood vessels, such as the coronary artery, which may lead to cardiovascular adverse events in predisposed individuals.
Pharmacology of the triptans: discussion summary
Authors: Humphrey Patrick P A
Published: November 2023

The differential metabolism of the triptans was of specific interest with regard to potential clinical–drug interactions arising from differing routes of metabolism of particular triptans. It was agreed that where clinical contraindications are necessitated these have been largely taken care of by current FDA labelling requirements. However, one issue that came to a head in the discussion was the role of the P-GP pump, to which eletriptan (but not currently available triptans) specifcally binds. This was not just in terms of excluding eletriptan from the brain, but also in terms of the potential involvement with other homologous drug-binding sites, such as CYP3A4. It was said that in the clinical trial programme, coincident treatment with combined CYP3A4/P-GP inhibitors and eletriptan did not lead to an increase in adverse events reported. .
Antimigraine actions of the triptans: central nervous system effects are most important
Authors: Goadsby Peter J
Published: November 2023

Every time a patient with migraine has headache relief with a triptan, a fascinating cascade of pathophysiological and therapeutic interactions takes place. Over the last decade a body of data has accumulated which addresses the question of how triptans, serotonin 5-HT1B/1D agonists, work. Here I will review the evidence arising from a debate held at this meeting for the proposal that a central action is most important for the therapeutic effect of triptans. This subject has, in part, been previously debated considering the generic question of a neural versus vascular effect of triptans.
Do we really understand how the triptans work?
Authors: Olesen Jes
Published: November 2023

The triptans were first developed because of their vasoconstrictor properties, which were relatively selective for the cranial arteries. Not long after their introduction it was, however, suggested that the ability of triptans to counteract neurogenic inflammation in the dura might in fact be a more important mechanism of action. Subsequently it was hypothesized that the stabilizing effect of triptans on peripheral sensory nerve ending was equally important at the proximal end of the first sensory neuron and that prejunctional-polarization in the nucleus caudalis of the trigeminal nucleus might be an important mechanism of action.
Regulation of capsaicin-evoked CGRP release from rat dural sensory neurons in vitro
Authors: Feniuk W , Jarvie E , Humphrey Patrick P A
Published: November 2023

The release of calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) from the peripheral terminals of the trigeminal ganglion has been implicated as one of the underlying mechanisms involved in migraine pathogenesis. Furthermore, experimental studies in rats have provided indirect evidence that triptans can inhibit the release of sensory neuropeptides, such as substance P and CGRP, from the perivascular terminals of the trigeminal nerve. Such studies include demonstartion of the inhibition of neurogenic vasodilation of dural blood vessels and the inhibition of neurogenic and capsaicin-evoked plasma protein extravasation.
Arterial distensibility in ergotamine and sumatriptan abuse
Authors: Evers Stefan , Barenbrock Michael , Husstedt Ingo W
Published: November 2023

Arterial compliance plays an important role in cardioand cerebrovascular haemodynamics by damping down the Fluctuation in arterial pressure and blood low generated by the intermittent cardiac output. Stiffness of large arteries impairs the buffering function of the arterial system leading to a disproportionate increase in systolic pressure and increase in pulse pressure at any given value of mean arterial pressure. Furthermore, the impaired buffering function contributes to the afterload imposed on the heart leading to left ventricular hypertrophy.
Antimigraine actions of the triptans: discussion summary
Authors: Hargreaves Richard
Published: November 2023

The triptans that are currently available are agonists at 5-HT1B/1D/1F receptors and are highly effective acute antimigraine drugs. It has been hypothesized that they have three key sites of antimigraine action. First, as proposed by Harold Wolff, they are vasoconstrictor and act at 5-HT1B receptors to reverse the vasodilation that is thought to occur in pain-producing meningeal blood vessels. Second, probably through an action at 5-HT1D receptors, the triptans can act on the peripheral and central terminals to inhibit the trigeminal nerves. In the periphery the triptans can inhibit neurogenic proinlammatory neuropeptide release from perivascular trigeminal nerves, and centrally they can reduce pain signal transmission in the trigeminal nucleus caudalis and in so doing could prevent trigeminal ‘wind up’ and sensitization.
Parathyroid gland function in patients with renal failure
Authors: Goodman William G
Published: November 2023

Parathyroid gland function is abnormal in most patients with renal failure. Several factors account for this disturbance including abnormalities in the regulation of parathyroid hormone (PTH) release from the parathyroid cell, alterations in prepro-PTH gene transcription and PTH synthesis, disturbances in the control of parathyroid cell proliferation, and changes in the intracellular processing and peripheral metabolism of PTH. Excess PTH secretion usually results. Most patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) have biochemical evidence of secondary hyperparathyroidism, and serum PTH levels are elevated, often markedly so. Although some individuals with ESRD have normal or only moderately increased serum PTH levels, certain components of parathyroid gland function in such patients are qualitatively similar to those documented in patients with overt secondary hyperparathyroidism. Thus, excess PTH secretion by the parathyroids is a hallmark of chronic renal failure.
Adynamic bone disease in uremia
Authors: Fournier Albert , Morinière Philippe , Oprisiu Roxana , Tataru Adriana Albu , Said Said , Brazier Michel , Marié Annick , Solal Martine Esther Cohen , Ghazali Abderahman
Published: November 2023

For the sake of clarity it must first be stressed that the definition of adynamic (or aplastic) bone disease (ABD) and that of osteoporosis are based on criteria of different nature. Adynamic bone disease is a histopathological pattern which has been individualized among the various types of renal osteodystrophy by Sherrard et al. in hypercalcemic uremic patients because it did not coincide with formerly individualized entities, namely osteitis fibrosa, osteomalacia, and mixed lesions. In spite of hypercalcemia, osteoclastic bone resorption was not increased as in osteitis fibrosa, and in contrast to osteomalacia osteoid volume and thickness were not increased. Actually only osteoid surface may be increased in ABD. As in osteomalacia, however, osteoblastic surfaces were scarce or absent, explaining the low bone formation rate (BFR).
Disease and Mental Illness
Authors: Downie R S
Published: November 2023

IT is remarkable how little medicine has changed. The classifications, case reports, and general accounts of disease in Hippocrates ( fifth century BC) and other Greek physicians are all recognizably medicine in the modern sense. Another ancient medical belief is that we can to some extent control our own health by our mode of life. Sometimes this belief can take a dangerous form, as noted by Susan Sontag; illnesses can quite wrongly be seen as expressions of our personalities or even our moral natures. On the other hand, some great creative minds have triumphed despite or even because of their afflictions.
Alcohol consumption trends and patterns of drinking
Authors: Babor Thomas , Caetano Raul , Casswell Sally , Edwards Griffith , Giesbrecht Norman , Graham Kathryn , Grube Joel , Gruenewald Paul , Hill Linda , Holder Harold , Homel Ross , Österberg Esa , Rehm Jürgen , Room Robin , Rossow Ingeborg
Published: November 2023

This chapter describes alcohol consumption trends and patterns of drinking in a global perspective. The typical frequency of drinking and the amount of alcohol consumed per occasion vary enormously, not only among world regions and countries, but also over time and between different population groups. As will be shown in this chapter, variations in these ‘patterns’ of drinking affect rates of alcohol-related problems, and have implications for the choice of alcohol policy measures.
The global burden of alcohol consumption
Authors: Babor Thomas , Caetano Raul , Casswell Sally , Edwards Griffith , Giesbrecht Norman , Graham Kathryn , Grube Joel , Gruenewald Paul , Hill Linda , Holder Harold , Homel Ross , Österberg Esa , Rehm Jürgen , Room Robin , Rossow Ingeborg
Published: November 2023

This chapter describes the enormous range of alcohol-related consequences within two broad categories: alcohol’s contribution to the burden of illness carried by individuals and societies, and alcohol’s harmful effect on the social fabric of families, communities, and nations. It also discusses the beneficial effects of alcohol, and considers their implications for estimating the burden of illness.
Historical evolution of the concept of vascular dementia
Authors: Román Gustavo C
Published: November 2023

The clinical picture of progressive cognitive decline accompanied by hemiparesis, sometimes with recovery or ‘partial resolution’ of a motor deficit, most likely corresponds to instances of vascular dementia. In Thomas Willis’ terms, the degree of intellectual loss post-apoplexy could range from ‘dullness of mind and forgetfulness’ (the current equivalent of vascular cognitive impairment) down to ‘stupidity and foolishness’ (or belated vascular dementia).
Prevalence and incidence patterns of vascular dementia
Authors: Rocca Walter A , Knopman David S
Published: November 2023

Vascular dementia (VaD) is a complex disease, emerging from a variety of distinct cerebrovascular pathologies with varied clinical presentation (Román et al. 1993). The most common mechanisms underlying VaD are multiple large-vessel infarcts, a single strategically placed infarct (angular gyrus, thalamus, basal forebrain, posterior cerebral artery or anterior cerebral artery territories), multiple basal ganglia and white matter lacunes, or extensive periventricular white-matter lesions (Román et al. 1993).
Anatomical imaging
Authors: Erkinjuntti Timo , Pohjasvaara Tarja
Published: November 2023

In this chapter we focus on vascular risk factors, brain changes, and cognition; radiological correlates of vascular dementia; brain imaging and current clinical criteria; subtypes of vascular dementia; subcortical vascular dementia; Alzheimer’s disease with CVD; vascular cognitive impairment; and conclude with suggestions for further research.
Cerebral blood flow and metabolism in vascular dementia
Authors: Ward Nicholas S , Brown Martin M
Published: November 2023

Fifty years ago, it was assumed that cognitive decline associated with aging was the result of atherosclerosis. Over the last few decades it became increasingly recognized that gradual deterioration of cognitive function is commonly caused by Alzheimer’s disease (AD), even in the elderly.
Vascular disorders and Alzheimer’s disease
Authors: Skoog Ingmar , Gustafson Deborah
Published: November 2023

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is regarded to be the most common form of dementia in old age. It is a primary degenerative dementia, with an insidious onset and a slowly progressive loss of mental abilities.
The prevention and control of periodontal disease
Authors: Jenkins Bill , Heasman Peter
Published: November 2023

Periodontal disease, once established, is often time-consuming and costly to treat, while untreated or unsuccessfully treated periodontal disease is a significant cause of tooth loss. Approximately 10–15% of the populations of industrialized countries are affected by generalized severe chronic periodontitis, and evidence suggests that it may often have its onset during adolescence and early adulthood. Furthermore, gingivitis, which always precedes periodontitis, is widely prevalent in children. Preventive strategies which are targeted at children, adolescents, and young adults may, therefore, reduce the need for protracted and expensive treatment of established disease.
Prevention of malocclusion
Authors: Gordon Peter
Published: November 2023

Malocclusion of the teeth is not really a disease in the way that dental caries and periodontitis are, it is more a reflection of the natural variation that occurs in any biological system. True prevention of malocclusion is difficult to envisage, as there is a strong genetic component in the make-up of most malocclusions (Mills 1978). Preventive measures may be effective in dealing with environmental factors, but are unlikely to influence the outcome in cases where the genetic background is one of the more important determining factors.
Premenstrual syndrome
Authors: Blake Fiona
Published: November 2023

From earliest times men have written about women’s changing moods and behaviour and attributed them to their female anatomy and their menstrual cycle. In the twentieth century, Frank (1931) coined the term premenstrual tension (PMT). He perceived a link between symptoms in the latter half of the menstrual cycle and the fluctuations of the reproductive hormones. From the 1950s, Dalton has campaigned for the better recognition and treatment of such symptoms and widened the concept, calling it premenstrual syndrome (PMS). Since then, PMS has received much publicity, in both the lay and medical press. There is still much debate about the syndrome’s definition, aetiology and treatment, but following considerable research and debate, there is now a better understanding of PMS and a range of ways of managing the problem. It is a complex and fascinating topic that raises many questions about the interactions between hormones and physiological changes and life events and stress.
Management of urinary incontinence in women
Authors: Thakar Ranee , Stanton Stuart , Kane Judy
Published: November 2023

Urinary incontinence is defined by the International Continence Society as an involuntary loss of urine that is objectively demonstrable and a social and hygiene problem (Abrams et al. 1988). It not only causes considerable personal suffering for the individual affected but is also of immense economic importance to the Health Service costing the nation approximately 424 million pounds per annum (The Continence Foundation, 2000). Women do not report urinary incontinence due to shame, embarrassment and ignorance regarding treatment options. Norton et al. (1988) found more than 25% of women with urinary incontinence delayed seeking help for 5 or more years, half of these due to embarrassment, despite significant impact on their lives.
Promoting the health of women in primary care
Authors: Nicholson Sandra , Carter Yvonne
Published: November 2023

A definition of women’s health depends not only on the attitudes of healthcare professionals but also on the perception and health beliefs of the women themselves. Healthy women are both physically and mentally well. This chapter is concerned with promoting the health of women in the UK, but the world-wide context of women’s health, with for example unacceptably high maternal mortality rates and overt discrimination of women in developing countries, cannot be ignored and where appropriate is referred to. Indeed, all women have the right to ‘the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health’ (Beijing Platform for Action 1995).
The Kingdoms Of The Southern English
Authors: Stenton F M
Published: November 2023

The most important fact in the history of the earliest English kingdoms is the clear distinction which was maintained for more than two centuries between the peoples established respectively north and south of the Humber. It is reflected in the language of many formal documents written by men for whom the titles of kings and the names of peoples represented at least an approximation to political facts. As early as the year 672 the different English peoples beyond the Humber are collectively described in a solemn record as Nordanhymbrorum gens-the nation of the Northumbrians. No formal document ever speaks of the Southumbrians, but the Anglian, Saxon, and Jutish peoples who lived between the Humber and the Channel are often brought together in early charters as the Sutangli, or southern English.
The English Church From Theodore To Boniface
Authors: Stenton F M
Published: November 2023

The five years following the council of Whit by form the most critical period in the history of the Anglo-Saxon church. Its ultimate unity had been made possible by King Oswiu’s decision. But the men who were to realize this ideal were as yet untried in responsible positions, and for the moment the mere continuance of organized Christianity in England was uncertain. At the very time of the council England, like much of western Europe, was being swept by a pestilence, which removed many leaders of the clergy, depopulated whole monasteries, and produced a widespread reversion to heathenism. The East Saxons, whose bishop Cedddied in the plague, relapsed in a general panic. Individual bishops likeJaruman of Mercia laboured outside their own dioceses to prevent apostasy, and although few monastic communities seem to have escaped the plague, most of them survived it. But the whole organization of the church in England was rapidly disintegrating in these years; it was becoming difficult to maintain an ordered succession of bishops, and the see of Canterbury itself was vacant.
The Burning of Louvain
Authors: Kramer Alan
Published: November 2023

In 1914 Louvain was a wealthy university town, with a rich architectural heritage of the late medieval and early modern periods. St Peter’s church, the City Hall, and the University Library were examples of Brabant Gothic. The university, founded in 1425, had been the intellectual centre of the Low Countries; after having been closed in the eighteenth century it was refounded in 1834 as a Catholic university. Its library was not the most significant in Europe: Oxford, Paris, and several other university and ducal libraries had greater collections.
On Nuns and Nunneries
Authors: Evangelisti Silvia
Published: November 2023

One day in April 1575, the citizens of Florence witnessed a great ceremony: seven young novices made their solemn profession of vows in the convent of San Giovannino of the military order of the Knights of Malta. A large female community located along Via San Gallo, not far from the Duomo, San Giovannino mainly hosted the daughters of the aristocracy, some of whom came from the ruling Medici family. The seven girls walked into the church in pairs while singers and musicians performed the traditional ‘Come Thou Brides of Christ ’, and then headed toward the altar of the church where they received the black veil and habit before the father superior of the convent. Great numbers of patrician men and women, as well as the girls’ families and the local clergy, participated in these splendid celebrations, orchestrated by the nuns as memorable occasions which maximized their public visibility and presence in the city.
Cloistered Spaces
Authors: Evangelisti Silvia
Published: November 2023

Stendhal ’s novel The Abbess of Castro tells the story of two young aristocrats, Héle`ne and Jules, in sixteenth-century Naples. After falling in love and encountering the disapproval of their families, they are separated from each other and Héle`ne is obliged to enter a convent and become a nun. In a desperate attempt to see his beloved again, Jules goes to the convent of the Visitation now her new home in the nearby city of Castro: The day after, just before dawn, he entered the walls of the small city of Castro; even before entering the city, Jules saw the convent of the Visitation, a vast building circumscribed by black walls, and very similar to an army quarter. He ran into the church; it was marvellous.
Voices from the Cloister
Authors: Evangelisti Silvia
Published: November 2023

‘No institution in Europe has ever won for the lady the freedom of development that she enjoyed in the convent . . . The impulse toward leadership which kept the men in the world sent women out of it. ’1 Writing at the beginning of the twentieth century, the American historian Emily James Putnam described in these powerful terms the impact of convents on the history of women. Removed from society, convents acted as catalysts for female freedom and individual development. No other institution could be compared to them. They were unique. Putnam ‘s forthright view may have drawn on her own personal, professional experience. A distinguished scholar, she worked in some of the most prestigious academic institutions in her country, including Barnard College, and the New School for Social Research.
Open Communities for Women
Authors: Evangelisti Silvia
Published: November 2023

As we have seen, the contemplative model of religious life according to which women prayed and performed their spiritual duties withdrawn from the world was enthusiastically promoted by the Church and exported to the colonies. However it was not the only model available to female religious. From the late Middle Ages onwards women practised a range of diVerent forms of religious life, including the more Xexible option of joining a community but taking simple vows only rather than the solemn vows taken by nuns. These simple vows were reversible and allowed women to maintain their secular status in the world. Although they often joined a religious order, dressed and prayed like nuns, and embraced chastity and poverty, these women practised a socially oriented form of commitment, fostering an active spirituality in direct contact with the world, rather than pure contemplation.
Ethnic Conflict
Authors: Wolff Stefan
Published: November 2023

Why is it that Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland have been in perpetual conflict for thirty years when they can live and prosper together elsewhere? Why was there a bloody civil war in Bosnia and Herzegovina when Croats, Serbs, and Muslims had lived peacefully side-by-side for decades? Why did nobody see and act upon the early warning signs of genocide in Rwanda that eventually killed close to a million people in a matter of weeks? What is it that makes Kashmir potentially worth a nuclear war between India and Pakistan? In recent years hardly a day has gone by when ethnic conflict in some part of the world has not made headline news. The violence involved in these conflicts continues to destabilize entire regions, hamper social and economic development, and cause unimaginable human suffering. And the extensive media coverage of these conflicts all too often raises important questions that it signally fails to answer. This book aims to fill this gap. Drawing on the author’s long experience of studying such conflicts around the world and his involvement in attempts to resolve them, it provides an illuminating and accessible introduction to the origins, dynamics, and management of ethnic conflict. In doing so, it helps explain the fundamental question underlying all these conflicts: why do nationalism and ethnicity still have such terrible power to turn neighbour against neighbour?
Introduction
Authors: Wolff Stefan
Published: November 2023

On 18 April 2005, the BBC reported several pieces of good news. Voters in the Turkish Republic of northern Cyprus had voted for Mehmet Ali Talat, the (non-recognized) country’s Prime Minister and a strong supporter of reunification with the south, in presidential elections. Talat had campaigned on a platform of reconciliation and rapprochement with the Greek-dominated part of the island and promised to initiate fresh talks with Greek Cypriot leaders.
Paris, June 1940
Authors: Diamond Hanna
Published: November 2023

On 14 June 1940 Nazi tanks rolled into the French capital which had been deserted by the vast majority of its inhabitants. The previous day, the gates of the Gare d’ Austerlitz swung shut for the last time as the final train south left. In the preceding two weeks, this station, like the city of Paris, had witnessed some of the most extraordinary scenes in its history. Suddenly, government ministries were left deserted as administrative officials and other staff left for the Tours area, anxious not to fall into German hands. Witnessing this departure made Parisians finally realize that the arrival of the Nazis in their city was imminent, leaving only one option if they did not want to and themselves under occupation: escape. In their panic to leave Paris, the train was their first thought and mainline stations were inundated. It immediately became clear that the railways could not cope with this unexpected demand for evacuation and the services struggled to keep up.
The Ravages of War
Authors: Gratzer Walter
Published: November 2023

On an autumn day in 1919 Dr Harriette Chick from the Lister Institute in London, and her colleague, Dr Elsie Dalyell, arrived by train in Vienna, and were greeted by Professor Clemens von Pirquet of Vienna University. The Great War was over, the Habsburg monarchy had fallen, and the City of Dreams was dilapidated, its population in the grip of famine and disease. Harriette Chick was no stranger to Vienna. Daughter of a lace merchant, she had graduated from University College London, and gone on to advanced study in her chosen field of bacteriology at the universities of Munich and more especially Vienna, which was then, and remained for another three decades, one of the world’s pre-eminent centres of medical science.
The Poor, the Rich, the Healthy, and the Sick
Authors: Gratzer Walter
Published: November 2023

The progress of science and the concerns of the Victorian social reformers stimulated an increasingly close scrutiny of the methods by which staple foods were prepared and the purity of the products that went into them. The quality of bread was an enduring preoccupation. In England the weights of loaves were standardized and their price regulated as early as 1266 by a body called the Assize of Bread. Bread at this time was most often baked with rye or wheat wholemeal flour, produced by grinding up the entire grain. By the 17th century a preference had developed for a more or less white bread, made with wheat flour from which a large part of the husks, or bran, had been separated.
‘A Thousand Little Guantanamos’: Western States and Measures to Prevent The Arrival of Refugees
Authors: Gibney Matthew J
Published: November 2023

In the last lines of his ‘Emigrant’s Lament’, Bertholt Brecht contrasts two perspectives on experience of the refugee. In the first, the view of the person forced from his country, to be a refugee is to be ‘lost’. The refugee is forced to eke out an existence in a place where the social and political markers that enable orientation in the world are alien and difficult to decode. In the second, the perspective of the receiving country, the refugee is an interloper, someone from whom any request is ‘impertinent’, or to employ a word closer to the one Brecht uses in the original German, ‘shameless’.
The Repositioning of Citizenship and Alienage: Emergent Subjects and Spaces for Politics
Authors: Sassen Saskia
Published: November 2023

Most of the scholarship on citizenship has claimed a necessary connection to the national state. The transformations afoot today raise questions about this proposition in so far as they significantly alter those conditions which in the past fed that articulation between citizenship and the national state. The context for this possible alteration is defined by two major, partly interconnected conditions. One is the change in the position and institutional features of national states since the 1980s resulting from various forms of globalization. These range from economic privatization and deregulation to the increased prominence of the international human rights regime. The second is the emergence of multiple actors, groups, and communities partly strengthened by these transformations in the state and increasingly unwilling automatically to identify with a nation as represented by the state.
Petunias, one-eyed ducks, and roly-poly mice
Authors: Horne Jim
Published: November 2023

All living organisms, including bacteria and plants, have a regular, daily period of rest and inactivity, but whether this can be seen as sleep is another matter. Plants cease their photosynthesis at night, not simply because of the dark but because, like all other living organisms, they have their own daily internal ‘biological clock’, called a circadian rhythm (from the Latin circa about, diem day). Sanservia , the ‘sensitive plant’, closes its leaves when touched and also closes them at night. Nevertheless, if it is kept in the dark continuously, the leaves will persist in opening during normal daylight hours.
By the brain, for the brain
Authors: Horne Jim
Published: November 2023

What is going on in the mind of my cat, sitting on the windowsill for the last half an hour, attentively watching the birds on the lawn, or in the mind of my dog lying there in its basket with ears pricked up and following my every move? Probably, uncharitable thoughts towards birds in the case of the cat and fun and games for the dog. Or, to be more serious, let us call it ‘quiet readiness’. It is a characteristic of a fairly advanced brain, which both these animals do have. Even when sitting relaxed like this, their brains are alert, busy, and ready for action. Intently watching something happen, especially if the scene is changing from moment to moment, and a quick response is required, puts quite a demand on the brain, whether it be that of a dog, cat, or human.
Odd behaviour
Authors: Horne Jim
Published: November 2023

Randy Gardner showed little sign of abnormal or psychotic behaviour, and nor did Patrick and Gilbert’s participants or for that matter most other people in sleep deprivation experiments. This is an important point because it has been claimed that sleep loss produces models of madness, or ‘artificial psychoses’, that can be used to study psychiatric illnesses. So it has been reasoned (by others) that we could learn more about these illnesses by studying normally healthy, but sleep-deprived, people. This idea largely arose through a misunder- standing of various odd behaviours seen during sleep deprivation studies, and an unwarranted interest in the rare individual who does show apparently psychotic tendencies. In these cases it is usually dis- covered (too late) that the individual had some sort of psychological problem to begin with, and one might wonder why any well-balanced individual would want to volunteer for some of these arduous studies in the first place, even though they are well looked after and can pull out at any time. One sleep deprivation study actually used hospitalised patients with schizophrenia and, to the apparent surprise of the investigators, the deprivation caused a psychotic flare-up.
Cinema of the mind
Authors: Horne Jim
Published: November 2023

Whereas the mental activity of rapid eye movement (REM) sleep is intense, visual, and florid, more tranquil thoughts and imagery do occur during the rest of sleep, which sleep researchers refer to as ‘thinking’ or ‘mentation’. Sometimes, however, what appears to be real dreaming can be found in non-REM sleep. Other interesting visual states exist in and around sleep for some people, who have the ability to conjure up visual scenes during drowsiness and light sleep. This reverie is called ‘hypnagogic’ imagery when it occurs around sleep onset and ‘hypnopompic’ imagery during morning awakening.
Things that go bump in the night
Authors: Horne Jim
Published: November 2023

During our study of people’s sleep at home, described in Chapter 12, the participants were asked to note down what caused them to wake up at night, if they happened to do so. Just over 6,400 reports were logged, which works out to about once a night per person. Estimates, next morning, of how long the awakenings lasted were mostly between five and ten minutes. The number and duration did not differ much between the sexes, or with increasing age, but there were important differences in the causes, as shown shortly. For 70 per cent of the awakenings the reports were that it was easy to get back to sleep afterwards, whereas for 23 per cent it was ‘with difficulty’, and for the remaining 7 per cent ‘very difficult’, where ‘worry’ was the main reason. Overall, the most common explanations tended to be ‘don’t know’ or ‘woke up thinking about something’.
chapter XI
Authors: Burnaby Frederick
Published: November 2023

“WELL, how is the animal’s back?” I inquired of Radford, when he awoke me the next morning.

“I can’t make it out, sir. I took the saddle off, and our horse ain’t touched at all. Osman came in when I was a looking at him. He laughed and said ‘Eyi’ (good), and I said

‘Eyi’ too. But, sir, it is a wonder to me that the horse ain’t got an awful back.”

“How are you getting on with your Turkish?” I inquired. “Capital, sir; I often have a talk with Osman, though I

can’t say as how we understand each other much. The fellow, he knows more about horses than I thought he did; one lives and learns, even from Turks.”

We were escorted out of Istanos* by the Mudir and his two sons, lads of from twelve to fifteen, who had got up at daybreak to speed the Frank on his way. The Armenian priest also came to the door. In spite of the early hour, a great many inhabitants had assembled on the house-tops to have a look at the Englishman and his party.
Belshazzar’s Feast, 1929–31
Authors: Kennedy Michael
Published: November 2023

Belshazzar’sFeastbegan as a BBC commission sometime in the second half of 1929. The corporation was emerging as a major and influential patron of music. In 1929 alone fifty works received first performances, or first performances in Britain, under BBC auspices, and plans were going ahead for the formation of the corporation’s own symphony orchestra. Adrian Boult was brought from Birmingham, where he had been conductor of the city’s orchestra since 1924, to be Director of Music. Walton had decided that his next composition would be choral. Again it was a friend’s success that spurred him to try to emulate and outdo it.
Unfinished Symphony, 1933–4
Authors: Kennedy Michael
Published: November 2023

When Walton returned to London in the spring of 1933, he took the completed first movement and Scherzo of the symphony with him and played them to Angus Morrison. At this time, too, he learned that Harty had resigned as conductor of the Halle and become conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra. In June, while in Amsterdam for the ISCM performance of Belshazzar’sFeast,he showed the two movements to Foss, who wrote to his wife: ‘Willie’s symphony is most exciting-really on the big scale and in the purest symphonic manner: just like Beethoven and Sibelius and yet very personal. Rather tragic and the second movement scherzo really sinister. I think I have persuaded him to use for the slow movement that ravishing idea he played to us ages ago on 18 October 1931, when he was starting the work .. .’
Violin Concerto, 1938–9
Authors: Kennedy Michael
Published: November 2023

Walton was deeply interested in everything his fellow composers were doing. He had been at all the rehearsals for Vaughan Williams’s new Fourth Symphony in April 1935 and heard Constant Lambert tell Arthur Benjamin on the day of the first performance that it was ‘the greatest symphony since Beethoven’. He also noted the arrival on the scene of a new talent, Benjamin Britten, whose Our Hunting Fathershad its first London performance on 30 April 1937. Perhaps it was Walton’s interest in this astonishingly adventurous and imaginative score that led to their first meeting. Britten’s diary for 28 July 1937 (he was then 23) contains this entry:
Birth of An Opera, 1947–8
Authors: Kennedy Michael
Published: November 2023

In the spring of 1947 Walton went with Alice Wimborne, Alan Bush and Gerald Abraham to represent British music at the Prague Festival. In November he was awarded the Gold Medal of the Royal Philharmonic Society, which was presented to him by Vaughan Williams. But the most significant and far reaching event of the year was the letter written to Walton on 8 February 1947 by Victor Rely-Hutchinson, BBC Director of Music: ‘The BBC has decided to commission an opera and would like you to compose it. I do not at all know how you are placed as regards time, but I very much hope that you will be interested in the idea.’
The Bear, 1964–7
Authors: Kennedy Michael
Published: November 2023

Walton laid aside composition for almost a year while he went on his travels. He visited Israel in July 1963, conducting performances of Belshazzar’sFeastin Tel Aviv, Haifa, and Jerusalem. From there he flew to Chicago, where he conducted three programmes of his music at Ravinia Park, summer home of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. In February 1964 he went to New Zealand, leaving Lady Walton (who had broken her leg) in Ischia. He visited his sister, Mrs Nora Donnelly, at Hastings and conducted his works in concerts in Auckland, Dunedin, Wellington, and Christchurch.
Britten and Bagatelles, 1969–72
Authors: Kennedy Michael
Published: November 2023

Notwrthstanding his chagrin over The Battle of Britain,Walton was busy completing another orchestral commission between August and November 1969. This was his work for the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, commissioned by its benefactor, the scientist Dr Ralph Dorfman, in memory of his first wife Adeline Smith Dorfman. Choice of composer had been left to the orchestra’s conductor, Josef Krips, and Walton was approached (and accepted) in the autumn of 1967. He began work during 1968. On 9 September he wrote to Britten: