bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Iron Age Hillforts in Britain and Beyond
Authors: Harding Dennis
Published: November 2020

Widely regarded as major visible field monuments of the Iron Age, hillforts are central to an understanding of later prehistoric communities in Britain and Europe from the later Bronze Age. With such a range of variants represented, no single explanation of their function or social significance could satisfy all possible interpretations of their role. While they are conventionally viewed as defence settlements or regional centres controlled by a social elite, this role has been challenged in recent years, and instead hillforts are being considered primarily as expressions of social identity with strong ritual and cosmological associations. Current hillfort interpretations are in danger of reflecting contemporary social sensitivities more strongly than any recognizable Iron Age priorities, and the need for critical analysis of basic archaeological evidence is paramount. Critically reviewing the evidence of hillforts in Britain, in the wider context of Ireland and continental Europe, the volume focuses on their structural features, chronology, landscape context, and their social, economic and symbolic functions, and is well illustrated throughout with site plans, reconstruction drawings, and photographs. Harding reviews the changing perceptions of hillforts and the future prospects for hillfort research, highlighting aspects of contemporary investigation and interpretation.
Function 1: Defence
Authors: Harding Dennis
Published: November 2020

For much of the past two hundred years, a basic assumption has been that hillforts had a primarily defensive function. That they served also as settlements or for community gatherings, perhaps even for ritual or ceremonial activities such as seasonal festivals or inaugurations of kings, has been variously inferred, but it was not until relatively recently that the purpose of community defence within the framework of a hierarchical society was so fundamentally challenged. The reasons, however, were often based upon individual site circumstances, from which generalization hardly seems justified. At the Chesters, Drem in East Lothian (Figure 5.2a), for example, it was argued (Bowden and McOmish 1987) that the hillfort's defensive capability was compromised by being overlooked from the south by higher ground, from which missiles might have been projected into the enclosure. Tactically this seems odd, since the fort's multiple lines of enclosure, especially at its northwest- and east-facing entrances, makes it on plan one of the more complex multivallate hillforts in Britain. Whether these had realistic defensive capability or were intended primarily for display and status remains open to debate. Whilst it is certainly true in individual cases that hillforts were not sited topographically with tactical advantage as a paramount consideration, or that a regional class like the hill-slope forts of the south-west were apparently at a disadvantage from higher ground, or that the area enclosed by some hillforts was so great as to make their defence logistically impractical, equally we could cite hillforts where the enclosing earthworks by any standard would have been a very formidable barrier to assault. Every generation reads its archaeology in the conceptual context of its own time, and it is hardly surprising that a generation brought up with two world wars should have interpreted hillforts in terms of ‘invasions’. Wheeler's (1953: 12) description of Bindon Hill, Dorset, as a ‘beach-head’ could hardly have been conceived by anyone other than the brigadier who had fought through North Africa and the Salerno landing in Italy. Nevertheless it is hard to avoid the conclusion that the current challenge to the defensive role of hillforts stems not so much from individually anomalous sites as from a more general objection to the concept of conflict in prehistory, and is one facet of what has been noted earlier as the ‘pacification of the past’ (Keeley 1996: 23).
Surgical pathology
Authors: Ledwidge Serena
Published: November 2020

Understanding of the fundamental processes of pathology is essential both to the understanding of how many surgical conditions arise and develop and to the vital role of appreciating the principles of how best to treat conditions. For example, the nature and behaviour of infecting organisms determines whether radical debridement of tissue or simple surgical drainage is required; the stage and grade of tumours influence not only the choice of surgical procedure but the use of adjuvant thera­pies. These ‘surgical’ pathologies are often seen as rather ‘old-fashioned’ compared to the emphasis on cell and molecular biology so often found in books describing medical specialities but they form the bulk of the processes of disease suffered worldwide and remain fundamental to the skilled practice of surgery today.
Salivary gland diseases
Authors: Robinson Max , Hunter Keith , Pemberton Michael , Sloan Philip
Published: November 2020

The salivary glands consist of three paired major glands—parotid, sub­mandibular, and sublingual—and the countless minor salivary glands found in almost every part of the oral cavity, except the gingiva and anterior regions of the hard palate. The secretion of saliva is essential for the normal function and health of the mouth, and disorders of salivary gland function predispose to oral disease. Functional disorders in salivary secretion may be associated with primary salivary gland disease but in other cases are a consequence of systemic factors, such as medi­cations, endocrine disturbances, and neurological disease, which are discussed in Chapter 10. Developmental anomalies of the salivary glands are rare. Aplasia of one or more major glands and atresia of one or more major salivary gland ducts have been reported. Congenital aplasia of the parotid gland may be associated with other facial abnormalities, e.g. ectodermal dysplasia, mandibulofacial dysostosis, and hemifacial microsomia. Heterotopic salivary tissue has been reported from a variety of sites in the head and neck region, the most frequent being its inclusion at the angle, or within the body, of the mandible, called a Stafne bone cavity. It is usually an incidental radiological finding and appears as a round or oval, well-demarcated radiolucency between the premolar region and angle of the jaw, and is typically located beneath the inferior dental canal. The radiographic appearances are due to a saucer-shaped depression or concavity of varying depth on the lingual aspect of the mandible, which contains salivary tissue in continuity with the submandibular gland. Accessory parotid tissue within the cheek or masseter muscle is rela­tively common and is subject to the same diseases that may affect the main gland. Age changes can be detected in both major and minor salivary glands. Reduction in the weights of submandibular and parotid glands has been reported with increasing age, associated in the submandibular gland with an age-dependent reduction in flow rates. By contrast, sev­eral studies have demonstrated that there is no significant reduction in parotid flow rates in the elderly.
Medicines Management: Systems and Procedures
Authors: Brack Graham , Franklin Penny , Caldwell Jill
Published: November 2020

By the end of this chapter you should be able to:… ● Understand the responsibilities and accountability of the student and trained nurse with regards to medicines management ● Understand the reasons for policy to support medicines management ● Interpret the role of the nurse in relation to policies and standards for medicines management ● Understand the role of the nurse in relation to key standards and drivers for the safer administration and management of medicines…. The aims of this chapter are to support you to interpret the responsibility that you already carry as a student and will carry as a registrant when giving medicines to patients and to help you to understand what is meant by accountability and how this relates to your role now and in the future in the management of medicines. Medicines management occurs wherever there is a patient and is carried out in a variety of settings which include:… ● acute hospitals ● community hospitals ● care homes, both residential care homes and nursing homes ● the patient’s own home ● schools ● community clinics…. The National Patient Safety Agency (NPSA, 2004 ) has produced guidance for organizations on supporting patient safety. They suggested the implementation of seven steps as follows:… 1 Build a safety culture. 2 Lead and support your staff. 3 Integrate your risk management activity. 4 Promote reporting. 5 Involve and communicate with patients and the public. 6 Learn and share safety lessons. 7 Implement solutions to prevent harm…. When interpreted in relation to medicines management and nursing care this means that the employing organization has a duty of care to its employees and patients to ensure that medicines are dispensed, supplied, and administered safely and that procedures are in place to support this. Managers need to be made aware of anything that might prevent this, and must ensure that checks are in place to prevent harm from occurring. The clear and prompt reporting of concerns, risk, and errors to management is pivotal to patient safety and medicines management in nursing and, from an organizational point of view, patient consultation and involvement is vital. Lessons must be shared in a ‘low blame culture’ and changes made to support the reduction of risk and potential harm. For more on communication and on risk reduction please see Chapters 1 and 10.
The Nurse’s Role in Promoting Concordance
Authors: Brack Graham , Franklin Penny , Caldwell Jill
Published: November 2020

● To support an understanding of the theory of concordance ● Working in partnership with your patient, to relate this knowledge to the achievement of concordance in the consultation process. The NMC code states that when caring for your patient: you must work with others to protect and promote the health and wellbeing of those in your care, their families and carers, and the wider community (NMC, 2008). In the past, nurses would give medicines to patients, and the patients would usually do as they were told and take the medicine without questioning the doctor or health professional. The word used to explain this interaction in the world of medicines management is compliance. This term originates from a traditional biomedical model of care where the patient is viewed as a list of symptoms and it implies that in the act of giving medicines nurses were doing something active to treat the patient’s illness and symptoms. It also implies that the patient was receiving medicines from the nurse; the act of receiving is a passive concept whereby the patient is having something done to them. If they passively followed the instructions that they had been given and took their medicines correctly, then they would get better. The traditional biomedical model of compliance has not proved very effective in terms of patient treatment. If the patient is not given reasons why their treatment is important, or feels that they have not been involved in the decision, the common result is non-compliance. Sometimes this is intentional (the patient decides not to take their medication), and sometimes unintentional (the patient does not know what they need to take, or when). This has cost implications for the National Health Service. If prescribed drugs, often paid for by the NHS, remain unused the patient’s illness may not improve, resulting in the supply of another prescription (or other treatment) that might have been avoided if they had taken the medicine which was initially prescribed. Indeed the World Health Organization identified that less than 50% of patients adhere to their medicines’ regimens (WHO 2003). An American study identified that 33–69% of hospital admissions with ensuing expense to health care delivery are due to poor adherence to medication (Osterberg and Blaschke, 2005).
Early Pioneers
Authors: Brown Jeannette
Published: November 2020

Born into a free black family in the early nineteenth century, Josephine Silone Yates was a pioneering woman faculty member at the historically black Lincoln Institute (now University) in Jefferson City, Missouri, where she headed the Department of Natural Sciences. Yates later rose to prominence in the black women’s club movement of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, serving as president of the famed National Association of Colored Women (NACW) from 1901 to 1905. Josephine was born in 1852 in Mattituck, New York, to Alexander and Parthenia Reeve Silone. She was their second daughter. Her maternal grandfather, Lymas Reeves, had been a slave in Suffolk County, Long Island, New York, but was freed in 1813. Lymas owned a house in Mattituck, and Josephine’s parents lived with him. 1 Josephine’s mother was well educated for the time, and she taught her daughter to read and write at home. Josephine’s earliest and fondest memories were of being taught to read from the Bible while snuggled on her mother’s lap. Her mother made her call out the words as she pointed to them. Josephine began school at age six, where her teachers immediately recognized her preparedness and advanced her rapidly through the elementary grades. At the age of nine, she reportedly studied physiology and physics and possessed advanced mathematical ability. Silone also advanced her writing career at the age of nine, by submitting “a story for publication to a New York weekly magazine. Though the article was rejected for publication, she received a letter of encouragement, which increased her ambition to succeed.” Josephine’s uncle, Reverend John Bunyan Reeve, was the pastor of the Lombard Street Central Church in Philadelphia. Because of his interest in the education of his niece, he convinced his sister, Parthenia, to send Josephine at the age of eleven to live with him in Philadelphia so that she could attend the Institute for Colored Youth directed by Fanny Jackson-Coppin. It was probably felt that Josephine’s education would progress better under the mentorship of Jackson-Coppin.
Chemical Educators
Authors: Brown Jeannette
Published: November 2020

Johnnie Hines Watts Prothro was one of the first African American women scientists and researchers in the field of food chemistry and nutrition. Having grown up in the segregated American South, Dr. Protho became particularly interested in promoting healthy nutrition and diets for African Americans. Johnnie Hines Watts was born on February 28, 1922, in Atlanta, Georgia, in the segregated South. Her parents emphasized the importance of an education and she graduated from high school at the age of fifteen. She enrolled in the historically black Spelman College in Atlanta as a commuter student and received a BS degree with honors in Home Economics from Spelman in 1941. Following her graduation, she obtained a position as a teacher of foods and nutrition—the usual career path for African American women who earned bachelor’s degrees in science during the Jim Crow era—at Atlanta’s all-black Booker T. Washington High School. Watts taught at Booker T. Washington High School from 1941 to 1945, then moved to New York City to attend Columbia University, from which she received her MS degree in 1946. Armed with her master’s degree, Watts became an instructor of chemistry at a historically black Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. She worked there during the 1946–1947 academic year before deciding to pursue a PhD. Watts enrolled in the University of Chicago after researching the doctoral offerings of several universities. She was the recipient of a number of scholarships and awards at the University of Chicago. Among the awards were the Laverne Noyes Scholarship (1948–1950), the Evaporated Milk Association Award (1950–1951), the Borden Award from the American Home Economics Association (1950– 1951), and a research assistantship (1951–1952). Watts married Charles E. Prothro in 1949. It is said that they met in Connecticut, but this is not clearly documented. Watts Prothro received her PhD from the University of Chicago in 1952. Her dissertation title is “The Relation of the Rates of Inactivation of Peroxidase, Catecholase, and Ascorbase to the Oxidation of Ascorbic Acid in Vegetables.”
My Story
Authors: Brown Jeannette
Published: November 2020

Jeannette Brown’s career has included accomplishments in industry, academia, and publishing. Her claim to fame is working in two different pharmaceutical firms, where she was able to contribute her skill to the research teams who produced several marketable drugs. She was also able to mentor minorities to encourage them to enter the field of chemistry, both as part of a corporate effort and as a volunteer. Jeannette Brown was born May 13, 1934, in Fordham Hospital in the Bronx, New York. She was the only child of Ada May Fox and Freddie Brown. She was born in the middle of the Depression, and times were tough. Her father worked a number of jobs in order to feed his family, including shining shoes on the street. Finally, when Jeannette was five, her father got a job as a superintendent in a building in the Washington Heights section of Manhattan. This section of Manhattan was just becoming a home for middle-class blacks moving up from Harlem. Since her father was a super, he had a basement apartment in the building. One of the tenants in the house was Dr. Arthur Logan, who became Jeannette’s doctor when she became very ill. Jeannette was in and out of the hospital many times, and she remembers asking Dr. Logan how she could become a doctor. He told her that she would have to study science. Jeannette was only five or six at the time, but that conversation impressed her and she immediately decided to become a scientist. When Jeannette started school at the age of six, she went to the neighborhood public school, which all children did at the time. The children in the school were mostly black, and some of them taunted her because she was interested in being a good student. Her father decided that the only way that she was going to get a good education was for him to try to get a job as a superintendent in a white neighborhood so that Jeannette could go to the mostly white schools.
Assessment of Endocrine Function
Authors: Hathiramani Sumitha S. , Ghayee Hans K.
Published: November 2020

This chapter describes the various methods used for quantifying concentrations of circulating hormones and thus assessing endocrine function. The paradigm of feedback regulation (for example, of the hypothalamic-pituitary-target gland axis) is central to this assessment of endocrine status. Any disruption in such an axis can cause alterations in trophic and target hormone pairs. High concentration of a target gland hormone coupled with low concentration of the corresponding trophic hormone (e.g., pituitary hormone) suggests autonomous secretion by the target endocrine organ, as is typical in primary hyperthyroidism, e.g., high thyroxine (T4), suppressed thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH). Elevated concentrations of both members of a hormone pair usually indicate autonomous secretion of the trophic hormone, either from the normal site or from a tumor in an “ectopic” (extraglandular) location. For example, excess cortisol production driven by a high plasma adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) level may be due to the secretion of pituitary ACTH or secretion of ACTH by lung tumors. Alternatively, the combined elevation of trophic and target endocrine gland hormones can result from resistance to the action of the target endocrine gland hormone e.g., elevated luteinizing hormone (LH) and testosterone in androgen resistance. Autonomous hypersecretion of the trophic hormone typically results in clinical evidence of target gland hormone excess, whereas resistance to the target gland hormone leads to manifestations of hormone deficiency. Hormones circulating in the plasma were first detected by in vivo bioassays, in which plasma or extracts of plasma were injected into animals and biological responses were measured. Unfortunately, most in vivo bioassays lack the precision, sensitivity, and specificity required to measure the low concentrations of many hormones in plasma, and the assays are cumbersome and impractical for routine use in clinical chemistry laboratories. Great progress in measuring plasma hormone concentrations came with the development of radioimmunoassays (RIAs) in the late 1950s. An unknown concentration of hormone in plasma is estimated by allowing competition with a labeled hormone or analog for specific binding sites on an antibody.
Fertilization, Implantation, and Endocrinology of Pregnancy
Authors: Carr Bruce R. , Beshay Victor E.
Published: November 2020

The complex and coordinated set of events leading to sperm and egg maturation and transport in the female genital tract that culminates in fertilization is one of the most remarkable phenomena in nature. This set of events is followed by the equally important unique processes of implantation, fetal maturation, and parturition. The hormonal changes that regulate these events are dependent on the close interaction of the fetal-placental-maternal unit. Just before ovulation, the egg, which has been arrested in the diplotene stage, completes the first meiotic division and forms the first polar body. The second meiotic division starts at the time of ovulation but ends only after fertilization by a sperm. The process of egg maturation is regulated through a closely interrelated set of hormonal events, most notably involving follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH), luteinizing hormone (LH), and estrogen. At the time of ovulation the fimbria of the oviduct are closely applied to the surface of the ovary. The extruded oocyte and adherent granulosa cells, known as the cumulus oophorus, is collected by the ciliated fimbrial end of the fallopian tube. The transport of the egg into the end of the fallopian tube occurs within minutes and is regulated primarily by ciliary action. The cumulus cells are able to communicate with one another via a network of intercellular bridges through the zona pellucida to the perivitelline space. The cumulus cells have also been reported to play a role in nutrition and maintenance of the ovum. There are three different stages of passage of the ovum through the fallopian tube. The first stage includes the transfer of the ovum from the fimbriated end of the fallopian tube until the egg reaches and is retained at the ampullary-isthmic junction. The ampullary-isthmic junction is a functional block but is not a clearly defined anatomical structure. The ovum remains at this junction for 1–2 days, during which time fertilization occurs.
Causes of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder
Authors: Breslau Naomi
Published: November 2020

The definition of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 3rd edition (DSM-III), and in subsequent DSM editions is based on a conceptual model that brackets traumatic events from other stressful experiences and PTSD from other responses to stress and links the two causally. The connection between traumatic experiences and a specific mental disorder has become part of the general discourse. PTSD provides a cultural template of the human response to war, violence, disaster, or very bad personal experiences. The DSM-III revolutionized American psychiatry. The manual’s editors wanted a symptom-based, descriptive classification and generally rejected any reference to causal theories about mental processes. PTSD was an exception to the rule of creating a classification that is ‘‘atheoretical with regard to etiology or pathophysiological process’’ (American Psychiatric Association, 1980 p. 7), but the exception was not noted anywhere in the manual. Not only did the PTSD definition include an etiological event, but it incorporated a theory, an underlying process, that connects the syndrome’s diagnostic features (McNally, 2003; Young, 1995). In 1994, the American Psychiatric Association published the fourth edition of the DSM. The definition of PTSD, which had already undergone some revisions in DSM-IIIR, maintained the syndrome’s description but changed materially the stressor criterion. The range of events was widened, and the emphasis shifted to the subjective experience of victims. The list of ‘‘typical’’ traumas in the DSM-IV left no doubt that the intent was to enlarge the variety of experiences that can be used to diagnose PTSD beyond the initial conception of directly experienced, life-threatening events such as combat, natural disaster, rape, and other assault. Persons who learned about a threat to the physical integrity of another person or about a traumatic event experienced by a friend could be considered victims. A novel form of PTSD took shape following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, when the entire population of the United States was considered to have been affected by a ‘‘distant’’ trauma, produced chiefly by viewing television coverage.
Qualitative Thinking in the Age of Modern Computational Chemistry, or What Lionel Salem Knows
Authors: Hoffmann Roald
Published: November 2020

The achievements of modern computational chemistry are astounding. It is reasonable today to handle billions of configurations, and to achieve chemical accuracy, kilocalories say, in calculating binding energies and geometries, in ground and transition states of reasonably complex molecules. There is no question that the enterprise of computational theoretical chemistry is successful. Now Lionel Salem and I grew up and developed scientifically in the climate of the very same computer which made all this possible. Russ Pitzer taught me to punch cards; I still miss the sound of the key punch. The extended Hückel method, which several of us developed in the Lipscomb group, would have been impossible without modern computers. But I took a different turn, moving from being a calculator in the framework of semiempirical theory, to being an explainer, the builder of simple molecular orbital models. I was and am still doing calculations, but my abiding interest is in the construction of explanations. And also in thinking up moderately unreasonable things for experimentalists to try. In existing as a scientist, meaning that my work was of continuing interest to other chemists, I was helped in that I moved into whatever part of chemistry I did, just a little ahead of the heavy guns of computational chemistry. So I switched from organic to inorganic molecules just when organic molecules became reasonably calculable. Recently I’ve been less fortunate, for when I moved to solids and surfaces I came back into heavy fire—physicists had been doing calculations on these materials for a long time. And they were (are) hardly likely to believe that one-electron calculations and a chemical viewpoint are of value. I want to make some observations on computational quantum chemistry, perforce influenced by my prejudices. Given the advances in the field, any molecule I can calculate (without geometrical optimization), with the simplest extended Hückel approximation, can be done so much better by most computational chemists. So why don’t I feel threatened; why is there a role for people of my ilk? Or for Lionel. Actually, I do feel threatened and bypassed! But that’s just an emotional reaction, and my aging figures in it.
How Symbolic and Iconic Languages Bridge the Two Worlds of the Chemist: A Case Study from Contemporary Bioorganic Chemistry
Authors: Grosholz Emily R. , Hoffmann Roald
Published: November 2020

Chemists move habitually and with credible success—if sometimes unreflectively—between two worlds. One is the laboratory, with its macroscopic powders, crystals, solutions, intractable sludge, things which are smelly or odorless, toxic or beneficial, pure or impure, colored or white. The other is the invisible world of molecules, each with its characteristic composition and structure, its internal dynamics and its ways of reacting with the other molecules around it. Perhaps because they are so used to it, chemists rarely explain how they are able to hold two seemingly disparate worlds together in thought and practice. And contemporary philosophy of science has had little to say about how chemists are able to pose and solve problems, and in particular to posit and construct molecules, while simultaneously entertaining two apparently incompatible strata of reality. Yet chemistry continues to generate highly reliable knowledge, and indeed to add to the furniture of the universe, with a registry of over ten million well-characterized new compounds. The philosophy of science has long been dominated by logical positivism, and the assumptions attendant upon its use of predicate logic to examine science, as well as its choice of physics as the archetype of a science. Positivism thus tends to think of science in terms of an axiomatized theory describing an already given reality and cast in a uniform symbolic language, the language of predicate logic. (See especially the locus classicus of this position, Carnap’s book.) The authors of this paper wish to question certain positivist assumptions about scientific rationality, based on an alternative view brought into focus by the reflective examination of a case study drawn from contemporary chemistry. Our reflections owe something to Leibniz,2a Husserl,2b Kuhn,2c and Polanyi,2d and draw upon the earlier writings of both authors, Hoff mann3a and Grosholz.3b We will offer a nonreductionist account of methods of analysis and synthesis in chemistry. In our view, reality is allowed to include different kinds of things existing in different kinds of ways, levels held in intelligible relation by both theory and experiment, and couched in a multiplicity of languages, both symbolic and iconic.
Science and Crafts
Authors: Hoffmann Roald
Published: November 2020

I came to Penland to write. The craft s were dear to me; first textiles, especially bobbin lace, which my wife made and collected, and taught me to look at. Then the Japanese ceramics to which Kenichi Fukui and Fred Baekeland introduced me. Followed by the protochemistry of dyeing with indigo from snail and plant sources, to me still the ideal bridge between science and culture. The tribute is to be seen around my house—my children’s inheritance consumed as much by crafts as “high” art. So it was easy to accept an invitation to come to Penland and write. Who knew what would come—I wanted to write poems, perhaps an essay. For the poems I’ve needed nature—not so much to write about as to shake me loose from the everyday worries of the (exciting) daily life I had in Ithaca. Nature was a path to concentration; I expected to find a different nature in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. I would watch the crafts process. Maybe someone would even let me try something. Or ask me to tell them of the chemistry of their craft. I, in turn, would craft my poems out of the green hills. But this is not what happened; here’s what happened: I walk into Billie Ruth Sudduth’s basketry class, and there’s the whole group dyeing their canes, steaming pots of synthetic dye. I ask someone what they are doing, and she says, “Well, I’m getting ready for the upsetting,” and then seeing the puzzled look on my face, patiently explains this old, wonderfully direct basketry term for bending the canes forming the base of a basket over themselves, so that they stand up. I walk uphill to the iron shop, clearly more of a macho place, watch an intense young man, lawyer become sculptor as it turns out, hammer out a hand on a swage block. Ben tells me that it’s possible to burn away the carbon in the steel, and the iron would “burn” too, oxidize, in too hot a flame.
Honesty to the Singular Object
Authors: Hoffmann Roald
Published: November 2020

The theme before us is “Language, Lies, and Ethics.” As a scientist and a writer I could think of the way language is used in science, how it differs from the language of poetry. I could examine the claims of science to approach truth, and how its standards of evidence differ from those of, say, the law. But let me take another tack, and begin by a look at storytelling in science, clearly a process couched in language. The moral implications of narrative will then take me to another place, to consider what ethical lessons, if any, might emerge from normative science. Science tells some rollickin’ good stories. So why are scientists so unappreciative of the necessity of storytelling for the success of their own enterprise? Why do they beatify Ockham’s razor rather than the rococo inventiveness of their hypotheses? Because they are afraid of “just so” stories. The Kiplingesque allusion points to one of science’s historical antipathies—to the teleological. Countered by a human proclivity for exactly that, the teleological, in the telling of scientific stories. Is there also a suspicion of the particularity of language, when scientists are ideologically committed to infinitely paraphraseable universals? Consider first the stories that emerge out of science. So many to choose from—the epics of continental drift, or the way one iron atom in hemoglobin communicates with another. Or amusing ones, like how the amount of vanilla claimed to be natural in French ice cream exceeds by a factor of ten the quantity of beans shipped from Madagascar. Which led to a cat and mouse game between the forgers of vanillin (the flavor principle here) and the scientific detectives who learned to distinguish between the natural and synthetic form of one and the same molecule. Or take a triumph of molecular biology, the working out of the chemistry and function of the ribosome. In Figure 27-1 is a schematic illustration—not an atom in sight in this representation—of this biomolecular “smart” factory.
Intraocular Inflammation and Glaucoma
Authors: Hawkins Anjali S
Published: November 2020

Inflammatory glaucoma is a type of secondary glaucoma that can be either open-angle or closed-angle, or can have components of both. In the setting of acute inflammation, the intraocular pressure (IOP) can either be high due to trabecular dysfunction or low due to ciliary body hyposecretion, and the determination of IOP is often a fine balance between these two physiologic states. These competing mechanisms may also explain why patients with inflammatory glaucoma often exhibit wide swings in IOP. Elevated IOP could be due to active inflammation, secondary to steroid use, or because of chronic or acute damage to the trabecular meshwork. A careful history and physical examination can help determine the cause of elevated IOP secondary to intraocular inflammation. • The clinical characteristics of glaucoma associated with inflammation are listed in Table 6.2. • In general, patients with acute ocular inflammation present with pain, photophobia, and blurred vision. • On examination, the eye is red, with variable signs of inflammation and a high IOP. • Numerous systemic conditions and infections are associated with secondary uveitic glaucoma. • Obtain a history of collagen vascular diseases or previous infectious diseases. • Elicit any history of previous episodes of red eyes and corneal disease. • On slit-lamp exam, look for signs of inflammation: conjunctival injection, anterior chamber infammation, and keratic precipitates (KP) on the cornea. • Look for neovascularization of the iris and posterior synechiae. • The anterior chamber can be shallow or deep, depending on the etiology of the inflammation. • The importance of performing careful gonioscopy cannot be overstated. • There are different etiologies of open- and closed-angle glaucoma. Treatment is based on the etiology and can vary considerably. • Figure 6.1B shows an example of a broad peripheral anterior synechiae (PAS), often seen in uveitic glaucoma on gonioscopic exam. • The algorithm in Figure 6.2 lists diagnosis and treatment options for glaucoma associated with elevated IOP. • For chronic or recurrent uveitis, laboratory tests and imaging may be required. • A complete review of systems should be done and then appropriate tests ordered.
Deltas and Humans
Authors: Bianchi Thomas S.
Published: November 2020

Humans have had a long relationship with the ebb and flow of tides on river deltas around the world. The fertile soils of river deltas provided early human civilizations with a means of farming crops and obtaining seafood from the highly productive marshes and shallow coastal waters associated with deltas. However, this relationship has at times been both nurturing and tumultuous for the development of early civilizations. The vicissitudes of seasonal changes in river flooding events as well as frequently shifting deltaic soils made life for these early human settlements challenging. These natural transient processes that affect the supply of sediments to deltas today are in many ways very similar to what they have been over the millennia of human settlements. But something else has been altered in the natural rhythm of these cycles. The massive expansion of human populations around the world in both the lower and upper drainage basins of these large rivers have changed the manner in which sediments and water are delivered to deltas. Because of the high density of human populations found in these regions, humans have developed elaborate hydrological engineering schemes in an attempt to "tame" these deltas. The goal of this book is to provide information on the historical relationship between humans and deltas that will hopefully encourage immediate preparation for coastal management plans in response to the impending inundation of major cities, as a result of global change around the world.
The Holocene and Global Climate Change
Authors: Bianchi Thomas S.
Published: November 2020

The Pleistocene Epoch, often referred to as the Ice Age, lasted from approximately 2.6 million to 11,700 years ago. The last major ice advance began about 110,000 years ago, and the most recent episode of maximum ice coverage, the Last Glacial Maximum, began about 26,500 years ago and ended approximately 19,000 years ago. Thereafter, glacier retreat began, largely ending by about 11,700 years ago. That marked the beginning of the Holocene interglacial geologic epoch, which continues to the present. During the last glacial period, sea level was much lower because so much water was locked up in ice sheets, largely at the poles. This lowering of the sea level exposed the margins of the continents (the continental shelves) around the world. When the Ice Age ended, sea level started to rise during the deglacial period, a process that continued into the Holocene. Deltaic regions received meltwaters from the thawing glaciers, along with glacier- derived sediments. Of particular note in the late Holocene is a climate episode called the Medieval Warm Period, originally identified by the English botanist Hubert Lamb. The Medieval Warm Period was a time of warm climate in the North Atlantic region and may have also impacted other areas around the world. It lasted from about the years 950 to 1250. Later in this chapter, I will discuss this climate anomaly, along with something called the “Hockey Stick” debate, which relates to exceptional warming during recent centuries of the Holocene (i.e., global warming). In any case, all modern and paleodeltas formed during periods of peak sea level in the Holocene. These new deltas had fertile soils that were constantly irrigated by the flow of fresh water, which promoted early settlement by humans. So, the Holocene started near the end of the retreat of the Pleistocene glaciers, and human civilizations arose entirely in the Holocene Epoch. To view the Holocene, simply look around you today. In this chapter, I will explore the natural and human-induced causes of global climate change and how they impact deltaic regions.
Changes in the Hinterland and Floodplain
Authors: Bianchi Thomas S.
Published: November 2020

As human populations have increased on the planet, so have their effects on the natural landscape. When human-engineered changes in the movement of soils and rocks occur in the vast watersheds of major rivers, they can have dramatic consequences with respect to the amount of sediment needed to “feed” and support large river deltas at the coast. Many of the largest effects of human activity on the surface of the earth have occurred recently—in the past 200 or so years—and they have been so dramatic it has been argued it is time to create a new epoch in the Geologic Time Scale, one called the Anthropocene. That suggestion is being considered seriously. Nevertheless, the first alterations of the landscape began as early as the Paleolithic, approximately 400,000 to 500,000 years ago, when our human-like ancestors Homo erectus are believed to have begun altering the natural landscape with simple dwelling structures. As humans evolved, so did the tools they used, from sticks and animal antlers to wood and iron plows. Although modern humans (Homo sapiens sapiens) had developed in East Africa by about 200,000 years ago, their ability to extensively modify the landscape through agricultural activities did not likely happen for another 120,000 years. Incredibly, there was a rise in agricultural communities about five millennia ago that seems to have occurred simultaneously, yet independently, in six different regions of world (see Chapters 1 and 2 for linkages among human civilizations, deltas, and stabilization of climate in the Holocene). After the invention of the wheel in the middle Holocene, it became much easier to perform earth-moving activities. This was followed by the Iron Age, around 2,500 years ago, during which iron replaced earlier, less efficient copper and bronze tools for moving earth. Amazingly, the first man-made canal, connecting the Mediterranean and Red seas, was constructed before the Iron Age, around 3,600 years ago. Today, humans are the most effective animals on the planet with respect to altering Earth’s surface, and the use of machinery enables earth-moving activities, such as strip- mining, for extraction of valuable mineral resources like copper and silver.
Best Synthetic Methods: Reduction
Authors: Taber Douglass
Published: November 2020

Jaiwook Park of Pohang University of Science and Technology has developed (Org. Lett. 2007, 9, 3417) a procedure for the preparation of Pd-impregnated magnetic Fe nanoparticles. This effective hydrogenation catalyst was attracted to an external magnet and so was easily separated from the reaction matrix. Duk Keun An of Kangwon National University has found (Chem. Lett. 2007, 36, 886) that by including NaOtBu, Dibal reduction of an ester such as 3 can be made to reliably stop at the aldehyde 4. By using the easily-prepared pentaﬂurophenyl ester 5, Panagiota Moutevelis-Minakakis of the University of Athens was able to reduce an acid to the alcohol 6. Lionel A. Saudan of Firmenich SA, Geneva has devised (Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2007, 46, 7473) a Ru catalyst that will hydrogenate an ester such as 7 to the alcohol 8 without reducing an internal alkene. Norio Sakai of the Tokyo University of Science has established (J. Org. Chem. 2007, 72, 5920) what promises to be a general route to ethers 10, by direct reduction of the corresponding ester 9. Hideo Nagashima of Kyushu University has developed ( Chem. Commun. 2007, 4916) a Ru catalyst that effected selective hydrogenation of an amide 11 to the amine 12 without reducing ketones or esters. Alternatively, Jason S. Tedrow of Amgen Inc., Thousand Oaks, CA has found (J. Org. Chem. 2007, 72, 8870) that a protocol developed by Robert E. Maleczka, Jr. of Michigan State University was effective for reducing an aryl ketone 13 to the corresponding hydrocarbon 14 without reducing the amide. The stereocontrolled reductive amination of cyclic ketones such as 15 has been a continuing challenge. Shawn Cabral of Pfizer, Inc. in Groton, CT has reported (Tetrahedron Lett. 2007, 48, 7134) complementary reagent combinations, leading selectively to either 16 or 17. To control catalytic hydrogenation, it is often desirable to control the H2 supply. John S. McMurray of the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston has shown (J. Org. Chem. 2007, 72, 6599) that Et3SiH is a convenient H2 source. Nitro alkanes add to aldehydes to give nitro alkenes such as 20.
New Methods for Functional Group Conversion
Authors: Taber Douglass
Published: November 2020

Yujiro Hayashi of Tokyo University of Science and Teruaki Mukaiyama of the Kitasato Institute developed (Chem. Lett. 2008, 37, 592) a reduction-oxidation method for converting primary, secondary (such as 1, with clean inversion) and tertiary alcohols to sulﬁdes. Peter A. Crooks of the University of Kentucky found (Chem. Lett. 2008, 37, 528) that tetrabenzylpyrophosphate 5 was an effective agent for condensing an acid 4 with an amine 6 to give the amide 7. This protocol, that runs in near quantitative yield in an hour at room temperature, with all impurities readily removable by washing with aqueous base and aqueous acid, appears to be well-suited both for scale-up, and for solid-phase synthesis. Balchandra M. Bhanage of the University of Mumbai reported (Tetrahedron Lett. 2008, 49, 965) the reductive amination of aldehydes, including 8, and ketones to the corresponding amines, using H2 and an inexpensive Fe catalyst. André Charette of the Université de Montréal showed (J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2008, 130, 18) that the Hantzsch ester 12 , in the presence of Tf2O, reduced amides selectively to amines. Esters, epoxides, ketones, nitriles and alkynes were stable to these conditions. Matthew Tudge of Merck Rahway demonstrated (Tetrahedron Lett . 2008, 49, 1041) that Br2 in DME activated NaBH4 , allowing facile reduction of esters, including the congested diester 14, at ambient temperature. David J. Procter of the University of Manchester made (J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2008, 130, 1136) the remarkable observation that six-membered ring lactones such as 16 were reduced to the corresponding diol with SmI2 . Five-membered ring and seven-membered ring lactones were not reduced under these conditions. Bruce H. Lipshutz of the University of California, Santa Barbara devised (Organic Lett . 2008, 10, 289) a convenient and economical procedure for CuH, using Cu and an inexpensive ligand in catalytic amounts, with PMHS as the bulk reductant. The reduction of 18 presumably proceeds by electron transfer, as with dissolving metal reduction, delivering 19 with the more stable trans ring fusion. In the presence of t-BuOH as a proton source, the reduction goes on to the alcohol 20.