Books on the topic 'Bod development. eng'

Epilepsy is a common disease of the brain, occurring in roughly 1% of all people, and although repeated epileptic seizures are its clinical hallmark, epilepsy is not just a medical phenomenon, but a social construct, with cultural, political, and financial consequences. People with epilepsy are exposed to stigma and burdened with disadvantages which can be far reaching. There are indeed many remedies, but no cure. This book provides a biography of modern epilepsy in the form of a brief and selective narrative of some of the important developments in medical and social epilepsy research, with its many ups and downs, over the period since 1860. Its anatomy of modern epilepsy in eight chapters is, inevitably in this short book, selective, and intentionally provocative. The book’s main objective is to provide both a survey of the evolution of epilepsy and its treatment in the post-Jacksonian era, and also a critical look at where we are today and how we got there. This book tries to make an effort to separate the wheat from the chaff in the development of better epilepsy care. Good and bad events and concepts of historic consequence are discussed. It is acknowledged that, although the end of epilepsy is in reach of some, there is at present no prescribed scientific path to the end of epilepsy for others. Regardless of the severity of epilepsy, patients, with the support of their physicians and modern medicine, must create their own solutions to the multiple issues they face.

Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) that is tailored to the unique clinical features of body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) is currently the psychosocial treatment of choice for BDD. Researchers have made great strides in understanding the cognitive-behavioral processes that contribute to the development and maintenance of BDD. CBT for BDD is based on this theoretical understanding and has been shown to be highly effective in reducing BDD symptom severity and associated symptoms. The key components of CBT include identifying and rationally disputing maladaptive appearance-related thoughts, and exposure with response prevention for feared and avoided situations. CBT for BDD also integrates educating the patient on the mental and behavioral processes involved in the BDD experience with mindfulness/perceptual retraining (e.g., techniques aimed at helping patients to view their appearance with a neutral, global, and aware perspective) to augment the therapeutic process. Advanced cognitive strategies are used to address negative core beliefs. Because BDD is typically characterized by poor or absent insight, motivational interviewing is often needed to overcome ambivalence towards treatment.

This chapter explains the mechanism by which botulinum neurotoxin (BoNT) causes its neuromuscular paralytic effects, and reviews the developments that led these effects to be harnessed therapeutically. It specifically focuses upon the conditions of dystonia and spasticity. Within the spectrum of these diseases, it discusses those situations where BoNT injections are the treatment of choice. The very accurate targeting of BoNT into specific muscles in many situations is both desirable and crucial in some situations BoNT’s therapeutic neuroparalytic effect may need to be restricted to a single muscle fascicle.. In some cases, an inaccurately placed injection may be associated with unacceptable side effects. In order to achieve accuracy of BoNT injection delivery, intramuscular injections of BoNT aided by electromyography (EMG) guidance allows the very accurate targeting of specific muscles. The practical aspects related to the preparation of BoNT for injection and the methodology and techniques for injecting using EMG guidance are discussed. The importance of good anatomical knowledge and the relevant EMG techniques to target individual muscles are highlighted and applied to injection of muscles in different body areas. Finally, certain diagnostic neurophysiological tests, which may be useful for the management of some neurological conditions that are treated by BoNT are briefly discussed.

The Handbook provides an authoritative overview of current issues and debates in the field of health care management. It contains over twenty chapters from well known and eminent academic authors internationally who were carefully selected for their expertise and asked to provide a broad and critical overview of developments in their particular topic area. The development of an international perspective and body of knowledge is a key feature of the book. The Handbook secondly makes a case for bringing back a social science perspective into the study of the field of health care management. It therefore contains a number of contrasting and theoretically orientated chapters (e.g. on institutionalism; critical management studies). This social science based approach is a refreshing alternative to much existing work in this domain and offers a good way into current academic debates in this field. The Handbook thirdly explores a variety of important policy and organizational developments apparent within the current health care field (e.g. new organizational forms; growth of management consulting in health care organizations). It therefore explores and comments on major contemporary trends apparent in the practice field .

As the United States contends with issues of populism and de-democratization, this book considers the impacts of digital technologies on the country's politics and society. The book provides a Marxist analysis of the rise of digital media, social networks and technology giants like Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Microsoft. It looks at the impact of these new platforms and technologies on their users who have made them among the most valuable firms in the world. The book is concerned with unfreedom and class rule in contemporary American capitalism as seen in the digital realm. Class struggle is the first and last force shaping developments in communication. The book looks at the response of the ruling class to an organic crisis in the United States, and it traces how digital media instruments are used by different factions within the capitalist ruling class to capture and maintain the commanding heights of the American social structure. The book moves on to examine the role of data and whiteness in American social life. It traces the evolving intersection of capital, security and technology to examine the broad trajectory of unfreedom. The book concludes that digital society requires significant restructuring if it is to facilitate greater democratization. Offering bold, new thinking across data politics and digital and economic sociology, this is a powerful demonstration of how algorithms have come to shape everyday life and political legitimacy in the United States and beyond.

The postcrisis flattening of the social order spurred a flurry of anxiety-ridden stories of extralegal endeavors to maintain a middle-class lifestyle against further ruin. Ruin and personal devastation put the white protagonists of Arrested Development, Weeds, and Breaking Bad at the limits of the United States in proximity to the U.S.-Mexican border where crossing over is the final stop on their personal freefall. The border is the end of the line. The southern frontier offers ready symbols for the end of capitalism, signified as a geographical limit. Capitalism reaches its limit when it no longer serves white supremacy, when whiteness loses its value as capital and needs new forms for survival.

This chapter examines how LOHAS salvages its “New Age” focus on self-development or actualization. It examines the Mind Cure, New Thought, and New Age movements in terms of their relationship to capitalism to show how LOHAS extends and expands these movements through the LOHAS category of Personal Development (also referred to as the Mind/Body/Spirit market). In Personal Development goods and services, physical and spiritual self-healing reflects a moral pragmatism by linking self-healing work with that of healing the world. Threaded through the LOHAS discourse is a popular American theme—the power of positive thinking—and this healing modality is put to use in so-called the quantum spiritualities, the latest incarnation of the American therapeutic tradition. The end of the chapter shows how the LOHAS texts use examples of healed selves as testimonials to show that it is indeed possible for individuals to transform themselves to social warriors.

A large body of research in epidemiology and population health has investigated relationships between neighborhood characteristics (e.g., crime rate, density of fast food restaurants, distance to parks) and a myriad of health outcomes (e.g., obesity, mental health, substance use), with an explosion of research within the last decade, which spans a variety of disciplines, for example, anthropology, sociology, criminology, geography, demography, urban planning, medicine and epidemiology. This chapter provides a historical perspective to neighborhood health research. In addition, this chapter provides a systematic survey of new and notable developments in the field of neighborhoods and health as well as provides directions for future research. It also describes the motivation and rationale for this book and guides the reader through the structure of the rest of the book.

Biomechanics, defined literally, is the mechanics of living systems. Human biomechanics involves the study of mechanical aspects of human movement. It is the science studying the internal and external forces experienced by the human and the effects of such forces. Nigg and Herzog (2007) highlight that forces may result in movement of body segments, deformation of biological materials, or biological changes in the tissue(s) on which they act. Thus biomechanics can involve the study of human movement and factors that affect this movement, deformation of biological structures and factors that influence this, and the biological effects of locally acting forces on living tissue (e.g. effects on growth development or injuries)....

Every nucleated diploid cell in the body, with the exception of B and T cells of the immune system, has the same genome as its originating single fertilized egg. During development, this single cell differentiates into a complex multicellular organism composed of various cells and tissues each carrying out specialized functions. Although each cell contains a genome of data it needs to select the relevant information from this genetic blueprint to fulfil its own specific function. ‘Molecular interactions’ shows that proteins must be produced in the right place and at the right time. This requires regulation of gene expression in conjunction with a myriad of bio-molecular interactions to coordinate this.

Exploring the Complexities of Human Action offers a bold theoretical framework for thinking systematically and integratively about what people do as they go about their complex lives in all corners of the world. The book offers a vision of humanity that promotes empathic understanding of complex human beings that can bring people together to pursue common goals. Raeff sets the stage for conceptualizing human action by characterizing what people do in terms of the complexities of holism, dynamics, variability, and multicausality. She also constructively questions some conventional practices and assumptions in psychology (e.g., fragmenting, objectifying, aggregating, deterministic causality). The author then articulates a systems conceptualization of action that emphasizes multiple and interrelated processes. This integrative conceptualization holds that action is constituted by simultaneously occurring and interrelated individual, social, cultural, bodily, and environmental processes. Action is further conceptualized in terms of simultaneously occurring and interrelated psychological processes (e.g., sensing, perceiving, thinking, feeling, interacting, self/identity), as well as developmental processes. This theoretical framework is informed by research in varied cultures, and accessible examples are used to illustrate major concepts and claims. The book also discusses some implications and applications of the theoretical framework for investigating the complexities of human action. The book shows how the theoretical framework can be used to think about a wide range of action, from eating to art. Raeff uses the theoretical framework to consider varied vexing human issues, including mind–body connections, diversity, extremism, and freedom, as well as how action is simultaneously universal, culturally particular, and individualized.

Late Bronze Age tombs in Greece and their attendant mortuary practices have been a topic of scholarly debate for over a century, dominated by the idea of a monolithic culture with the same developmental trajectories throughout the region. This book contributes to that body of scholarship by exploring both the level of variety and of similarity in the practices at each site and thereby highlights the differences between communities that otherwise look very similar. Bringing together an international group of scholars working on tombs and cemeteries on mainland Greece, Crete, and in the Dodecanese, the volume affords a unique view of the development and diversity of these communities. The chapters provide a penetrative analysis of the related issues by discussing tombs connected with sites ranging in size from palaces to towns to villages and in date from the start to the end of the Late Bronze Age. This book contextualizes the mortuary studies in recent debates on diversity at the main palatial and secondary sites and between the economic and political strategies and practices throughout Greece. The chapters in the volume illustrate the pervasive connection between the mortuary sphere and society through the creation and expression of cultural narratives, and draw attention to the social tensions played out in the mortuary arena.

To gain serious traction in the wider world of medicine, the terminal care protagonists needed to move from a loose web of activism to a concerted body of knowledge and practice. This chapter shows how a focus on cancer pain was a key line in this development. Hospice studies explored and pulled apart some of the prevailing orthodoxies about pain relief. A new confidence emerged in the use of morphine and other drugs. The concept of ‘total pain’ was coined by Saunders as a key perspective on the multi-faceted nature of suffering at the end of life. Clinical studies raised awareness of the hospice movement’s ambitions and began to demonstrate its efficacy. This in turn fuelled further investment and a rapid growth in hospice services.

This final chapter in Part II captures the distinctions between autism and other mental disorders (and intellectual disability). Issues and challenges in comorbidity assessment are discussed including development and course of social interaction. Under recognition of autism by psychiatrists and the conditions they tend to diagnose in such cases (depression, BPD, anxiety) are considered. Possible harmful effects of misdiagnosis in clinical contexts and in advice (employers, benefits system, courts, etc.) are discussed. How to differentiate symptoms that might seem to be part of two conditions (e.g. OCD versus RRBs) is discussed as is the possible confusion between autism and other similar clinical presentations. Specific comorbidities covered include ADHD, Intellectual Disability, suicidality, anxiety, depression, and masking issues and any major mental disorder in adulthood. Issues of law are also covered.

The chapter looks at new directions in law and literature from James Boyd White’s 1973 publication of The Legal Imagination to Julie Stone Peters’s 2005 announcement of the end of a movement. It focuses on different institutional spaces in which interdisciplinary work took place, including spaces outside the United States. This period saw developments in questions of politics, ethics, and aesthetics; drama, narrative, and interpretation; equity, sovereignty, and jurisdiction; race, class, and gender; copyright and censorship; torts and contracts; economics, marriage, inheritance, and crime. Thomas compares the rise of various organizations and journals devoted to law, literature, and the humanities with ones devoted to law and society. He stresses the continued need for scholars to engage work done in different spaces and times.

Both overnutrition resulting in obesity and undernutrition leading to protein energy wasting contribute to chronic kidney disease-related morbidity and adverse outcomes. Early in the course of chronic kidney disease, goals should be set for a healthy body weight and lifelong efforts should be encouraged to attain and keep this goal. For patients with progressive chronic kidney disease, the development of weight loss and protein energy wasting is an ominous sign and is a clinical signal for a myriad of adverse catabolic processes that have been associated with poor outcomes including hospitalization and death, particularly for those with end-stage renal disease. Renal nutrition consultation at all stages of chronic kidney disease with frequent visits and education and counselling is needed to intercede early in both ends of the nutrition continuum in patients with chronic kidney disease.

A commodity chain refers to “a network of labor and production processes whose end result is a finished commodity.” The attention given to this concept has quickly translated into an expanding body of global chains literature. Research into global commodity chains (GCC), and later global value chains (GVC), is an endeavor to explain the social and organizational structure of the global economy and its dynamics by examining the commodity chains of a specific product of service. The GCC approach first emerged in the mid-1980s from world-system research and was reformulated in the early 1990s by development scholars. The development-oriented GCC approach turned the focus of GCC analysis to actor-centered processes in the global economy. One of the initial criticisms facing the GCC approach was its exclusive focus on internal conditions and organizational linkages, lacking systemic attention to the effect of domestic institutions and internal capacity on economic development. Other critics pointed to the narrow scope of GCC research. With the huge expansion in global chains literature in the past decade—not only in volume but also in depth and scope—efforts have been made to elaborate the global chains framework and to render it industry neutral, as partly reflected in the adoption of the term “global value chains.” Three key research themes surround these recent evolutions of global chains literature: GVC governance, “upgrading,” and the social construction of global value chains. Existing literature, however, still has theoretical and methodological gaps to redress.

Increased longevity and progressive increases in substance use in older people require clinicians to be proficient in assessing substance misuse in this age group. Assessment requires age-appropriate knowledge, skills and attitudes, taking into account atypical presentations that may challenge conventional diagnostic processes. A greater focus is needed on physical and social aspects of assessment, paying special attention to the influence of comorbid psychiatric and physical disorders. Physiological and pharmacological changes in older people alter the way that substances and other drugs are processed by the body and systemic effects on end-organ function. Such effects can include intoxication, withdrawal, and dependence. Assessment should take into account capacity, elder abuse, cultural competence, and the use of age-appropriate screening instruments. Such an approach will strongly influence treatment options and outcomes. The systematic approach outlined in this chapter is fundamental to the development of a successful treatment management plan.

This chapter looks at the history of the Forty-two Gang and its role in the continued development of organized crime in Chicago. The Forty-two Gang was a group of teenage boys and young men responsible for an endless series of crimes in Chicago's Near West Side between 1925 and 1934. Although they concentrated on auto theft, the group committed almost every other form of crime, from coin-box looting and smash-and-grab burglary to armed robbery and murder. During Prohibition the gang also furnished cars for their elders in the alcohol and bootleg rackets, and even robbed Mrs. William H. Thompson, the wife of the Chicago mayor. Some members of the Forty-two Gang went on to establish various adult gangs in Chicago, including Bugs Moran, Joseph “Red” Bolton, and Al Capone. The chapter examines how the Forty-two Gang contributed to the emergence of the Chicago Outfit as well as the social conditions that fostered the syndicate's recruitment of slum youth. Finally, it considers the factors that led to the end of the Forty-two Gang.

Volume 11 of the Collected Works, with an introduction by the British analyst Professor Steven Groarke, consists of two books of Winnicott’s writings, Human Nature and The Piggle, both published posthumously. Human Nature gathers together Winnicott’s own teaching notes on the subject of human growth and development with other unpublished writings from this period. Winnicott reflects on the vast subject of human nature from his own experience, returning throughout to certain topics of continuing interest for him, including psyche-soma and the mind, health and ill health, the body and psychological disorder, psychosomatics and emotional development, health and the instincts, the depressive position, repression, hypochondria, the inner world, intellectual function, illusion, creativity, the environment in psychoanalysis, withdrawal, and regression. The second half of Volume 11 consists of the case history The Piggle: An Account of the Psychoanalytic Treatment of a Little Girl, in preparation by Winnicott at the end of his life but completed and published after his death. This book includes an introduction by Donald Winnicott, a preface by Clare Winnicott and the British analyst Ray Shepherd, and a foreword by the American analyst Ishak Ramzy, who corresponded with Winnicott and, with his help, prepared and edited the book for publication. The Piggle collects Winnicott’s records of sixteen consultations with a toddler-age child, Gabrielle, and an afterword by her parents. Volume 11 is introduced by the psychoanalyst and Professor of Social Thought, Steven Groarke.

Encephalitis is an inflammation of the brain parenchyma, typically due to a viral infection. Pure encephalitis will lack the signs and symptoms of meningeal irritation (eg, stiff neck and photophobia). New-onset seizures, cognitive deficits, new psychiatric symptoms, lethargy/coma, cranial nerve abnormalities, or movement disorders should alert the clinician to possible encephalitis. It is important to question the patient about foreign travel, immunocompromised state, and potential exposures. Empiric treatment for presumed viral encephalitis is with the antiviral acyclovir. Empiric broad-spectrum antibiotics are also typically given to cover for possible bacterial meningitis. If there are signs of elevated intracranial pressure (ICP), neurosurgical consultation should be obtained for possible decompressive craniotomy. Standard therapy for ICP (ie, hyperventilation, steroids, mannitol, hypertonic saline, and elevation of the head of the bed) should also be considered. The most concerning complication of encephalitis is the development of life-threatening cerebral edema with resultant brainstem compression and herniation.

This is a study of the union of matter and the soul in human beings in the thought of the Dominican Thomas Aquinas. At first glance, this issue might appear arcane, but it was at the centre of Catholic polemic with heresy in the thirteenth century and of the development of medieval thought. The book argues that theological issues, especially the need for an identical body to be resurrected at the end of time, were vital to Aquinas’s account of how human beings are constituted. The book explores how theological questions shaped Aquinas’s thought on individuality and bodily identity over time, his embryology and understanding of heredity, his work on nutrition and bodily growth, and his fundamental conception of matter. It demonstrates how Aquinas used his peripatetic sources, Aristotle and Averroes, to further his own thinking. The book indicates how Aquinas’s thought on bodily identity became pivotal to university debates and relations between rival mendicant orders in the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries, and that quarrels surrounding these issues persisted into the fifteenth century. Not only is this a study of the interface between theology, biology, and physics in Aquinas’s thought; it also fundamentally revises the generally accepted view of Aquinas. Aquinas is famous for holding that the only substantial form in a human being is the soul; most scholars have therefore thought he located the identity of the individual in their soul. This book restores the body through a thorough examination of the range of Aquinas’s works.

This book explores the roots of the classic fugue and the early history of non-canonic fugal writing through the three principal fugal genres of the sixteenth century: motet, ricercar, and canzona. The book begins with the pivot in Western composition from an emphasis on variety to one on repetition, first developed by such Franco-Flemish composers as Loyset Compère and Josquin des Prez toward the end of the fifteenth century. By around 1520 Jean Mouton and his contemporaries had established the classic Franco-Flemish motet with its well-known point-of-imitation structure. Nicolas Gombert proved to be the real pioneer in the further development of this idea in the 1530s when he explored the return of thematic material after its initial presentation, an approach that proved central not only to the motet writing of Thomas Crecquillon and Jacobus Clemens non Papa, but also to the earliest experiments in serious abstract instrumental composition (the ricercar) undertaken by a series of organists active in Venice, most notably Claudio Merulo and Andrea Gabrieli. The most important innovation of the last decades of the century was the creation at the hands of Brescian organists of the fugal canzona alla francese, an instrumental genre inspired not by the sophisticated compositional style of the motet, but by the contrapuntally looser approach of such imitative chansons as Passereau’s Il est bel et bon. By century’s end, composers such as Giovanni de Macque had given the canzona a contrapuntal integrity commensurate with that of the ricercar.

This monograph presents recent advances in neural network (NN) approaches and applications to chemical reaction dynamics. Topics covered include: (i) the development of ab initio potential-energy surfaces (PES) for complex multichannel systems using modified novelty sampling and feedforward NNs; (ii) methods for sampling the configuration space of critical importance, such as trajectory and novelty sampling methods and gradient fitting methods; (iii) parametrization of interatomic potential functions using a genetic algorithm accelerated with a NN; (iv) parametrization of analytic interatomic potential functions using NNs; (v) self-starting methods for obtaining analytic PES from ab inito electronic structure calculations using direct dynamics; (vi) development of a novel method, namely, combined function derivative approximation (CFDA) for simultaneous fitting of a PES and its corresponding force fields using feedforward neural networks; (vii) development of generalized PES using many-body expansions, NNs, and moiety energy approximations; (viii) NN methods for data analysis, reaction probabilities, and statistical error reduction in chemical reaction dynamics; (ix) accurate prediction of higher-level electronic structure energies (e.g. MP4 or higher) for large databases using NNs, lower-level (Hartree-Fock) energies, and small subsets of the higher-energy database; and finally (x) illustrative examples of NN applications to chemical reaction dynamics of increasing complexity starting from simple near equilibrium structures (vibrational state studies) to more complex non-adiabatic reactions. The monograph is prepared by an interdisciplinary group of researchers working as a team for nearly two decades at Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK with expertise in gas phase reaction dynamics; neural networks; various aspects of MD and Monte Carlo (MC) simulations of nanometric cutting, tribology, and material properties at nanoscale; scaling laws from atomistic to continuum; and neural networks applications to chemical reaction dynamics. It is anticipated that this emerging field of NN in chemical reaction dynamics will play an increasingly important role in MD, MC, and quantum mechanical studies in the years to come.

This monograph presents recent advances in neural network (NN) approaches and applications to chemical reaction dynamics. Topics covered include: (i) the development of ab initio potential-energy surfaces (PES) for complex multichannel systems using modified novelty sampling and feedforward NNs; (ii) methods for sampling the configuration space of critical importance, such as trajectory and novelty sampling methods and gradient fitting methods; (iii) parametrization of interatomic potential functions using a genetic algorithm accelerated with a NN; (iv) parametrization of analytic interatomic potential functions using NNs; (v) self-starting methods for obtaining analytic PES from ab inito electronic structure calculations using direct dynamics; (vi) development of a novel method, namely, combined function derivative approximation (CFDA) for simultaneous fitting of a PES and its corresponding force fields using feedforward neural networks; (vii) development of generalized PES using many-body expansions, NNs, and moiety energy approximations; (viii) NN methods for data analysis, reaction probabilities, and statistical error reduction in chemical reaction dynamics; (ix) accurate prediction of higher-level electronic structure energies (e.g. MP4 or higher) for large databases using NNs, lower-level (Hartree-Fock) energies, and small subsets of the higher-energy database; and finally (x) illustrative examples of NN applications to chemical reaction dynamics of increasing complexity starting from simple near equilibrium structures (vibrational state studies) to more complex non-adiabatic reactions. The monograph is prepared by an interdisciplinary group of researchers working as a team for nearly two decades at Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK with expertise in gas phase reaction dynamics; neural networks; various aspects of MD and Monte Carlo (MC) simulations of nanometric cutting, tribology, and material properties at nanoscale; scaling laws from atomistic to continuum; and neural networks applications to chemical reaction dynamics. It is anticipated that this emerging field of NN in chemical reaction dynamics will play an increasingly important role in MD, MC, and quantum mechanical studies in the years to come.

What is the relationship between ontology and modality: between what there is, and what there could be, must be, or might have been? Throughout a distinguished career, Bob Hale’s work has addressed this question on a number of fronts, through the development of a Fregean approach to ontology, an essentialist theory of modality, and in his work on neo-logicism in the philosophy of mathematics. This collection of new essays engages with these themes in Hale’s work in order to make further progress in our understanding of ontology, modality, and the relations between them. Some essays directly address questions in modal metaphysics, drawing on ontological concerns. Others raise questions in modal epistemology and its links to matters of ontology, such as the challenge to give an epistemology of essence. There are also several essays engaging with questions of what might be called ‘modal ontology’: the study of whether and what things exist necessarily or contingently. Such issues can be raised and addressed directly, but they also have an important bearing on the kinds of semantic commitments engendered in logic and mathematics, e.g., to the existence of sets, or numbers, or properties, and so on. It is thus explored in some chapters to what extent one’s ontology—and indeed, one’s ontology of necessary beings—interacts with other plausible assumptions and commitments.

Amid the disintegration of the Kingdom of Italy in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, a new form of collective government—the commune—arose in the cities of northern and central Italy. This book takes a bold new look at how these autonomous city-states came about, and fundamentally alters our understanding of one of the most important political and cultural innovations of the medieval world. The book provides richly textured portraits of three cities—Milan, Pisa, and Rome—and sets them against a vibrant backcloth of other towns. It argues that, in all but a few cases, the élite of these cities and towns developed one of the first nonmonarchical forms of government in medieval Europe, unaware that they were creating something altogether new. The book makes clear that the Italian city commune was by no means a democracy in the modern sense, but that it was so novel that outsiders did not know what to make of it. It describes how, as the old order unraveled, the communes emerged, governed by consular elites “chosen by the people,” and subject to neither emperor nor king. They regularly fought each other, yet they grew organized and confident enough to ally together to defeat Frederick Barbarossa, the German emperor, at the Battle of Legnano in 1176. This book reveals how the development of the autonomous city-state took place, which would in the end make possible the robust civic culture of the Renaissance.

Victorian Poetry and the Culture of Evaluation argues that the dialectic and dynamic relationship between the periodical review and poetry creates a culture of evaluation which shapes Victorian poetic form. The mediation of poetry by the periodical review orients poets towards public readership and reception, heightening their self-consciousness about their audience and generating a poetics of publicness. Using methodologies associated with historical poetics and new formalism, the book examines the dialogues between poets and periodical reviews from the 1830s to the 1860s. It juxtaposes male and female poets and canonical and uncanonical texts. Challenging the critical binaries of fame and celebrity, the culture of evaluation posits a new way of reading Victorian poetry. It illuminates poets’ engagement with the immediacy and inevitability of writing for the present and for the contemporary media through which poetry was read and disseminated. New patterns of reception were created by mass print culture and both poets and reviewers were preoccupied with reaching the newly constituted mass audience. The changes to the material forms of poetry (e.g. through the periodical or gift-book) and the subjection to the commercial imperatives of the literary marketplace encouraged bold experiment with verse. The book identifies three poetic strategies for articulating the preoccupation with a mass audience and the demands of mass media: voice, style and address. Chapters on voice, style, and address explore the development of poetic form in dialogue with periodical reviews.

This chapter gives a rapid overview of the history of Roman public and private institutions, from their early beginning in the semi-legendary age of the kings to the later developments of the Imperial age. A turning point has been the passage from the kingdom to the republic and the new foundation of citizenship on family wealth, instead of the exclusiveness of clan and lineages. But still more important has been the approval of the written legislation of the XII Tables giving to all citizens a sufficient knowledge of the Roman legal body of consuetudinary laws. From that moment, Roman citizenship was identified with personal freedom and the rule of law. Following political and military success, between the end of IV and the first half of III century bce Rome was capable of imposing herself as the central power in Italy and the western Mediterranean. From that moment Roman hegemony was exercised on a growing number of cities and local populations, organized in the form of Roman of Latin colonies or as Roman municipia. Only in the last century bce were these different statutes unified with the grant of Roman citizenship to all Italians. In this same period the Roman civil law, which was applied to private litigants by the Roman praetors, had become a very complex and sophisticated system of rules. With the empire the system did not change abruptly, although the Princeps did concentrate in his hands the last power of the judiciary and became the unique source of new legislation. In that way, for the first time, the Roman legal system was founded on rational and coherent schemes, becoming a model, which Antiquity transmitted to the late medieval Europe.

Bones are multifunctional passive organs of movement that supports soft tissue and directly attached muscles. They also protect internal organs and are a reserve of calcium, phosphorus and magnesium. Each bone is covered with periosteum, and the adjacent bone surfaces are covered by articular cartilage. Histologically, the bone is an organ composed of many different tissues. The main component is bone tissue (cortical and spongy) composed of a set of bone cells and intercellular substance (mineral and organic), it also contains fat, hematopoietic (bone marrow) and cartilaginous tissue. Bones are a tissue that even in adult life retains the ability to change shape and structure depending on changes in their mechanical and hormonal environment, as well as self-renewal and repair capabilities. This process is called bone turnover. The basic processes of bone turnover are: • bone modeling (incessantly changes in bone shape during individual growth) following resorption and tissue formation at various locations (e.g. bone marrow formation) to increase mass and skeletal morphology. This process occurs in the bones of growing individuals and stops after reaching puberty • bone remodeling (processes involve in maintaining bone tissue by resorbing and replacing old bone tissue with new tissue in the same place, e.g. repairing micro fractures). It is a process involving the removal and internal remodeling of existing bone and is responsible for maintaining tissue mass and architecture of mature bones. Bone turnover is regulated by two types of transformation: • osteoclastogenesis, i.e. formation of cells responsible for bone resorption • osteoblastogenesis, i.e. formation of cells responsible for bone formation (bone matrix synthesis and mineralization) Bone maturity can be defined as the completion of basic structural development and mineralization leading to maximum mass and optimal mechanical strength. The highest rate of increase in pig bone mass is observed in the first twelve weeks after birth. This period of growth is considered crucial for optimizing the growth of the skeleton of pigs, because the degree of bone mineralization in later life stages (adulthood) depends largely on the amount of bone minerals accumulated in the early stages of their growth. The development of the technique allows to determine the condition of the skeletal system (or individual bones) in living animals by methods used in human medicine, or after their slaughter. For in vivo determination of bone properties, Abstract 10 double energy X-ray absorptiometry or computed tomography scanning techniques are used. Both methods allow the quantification of mineral content and bone mineral density. The most important property from a practical point of view is the bone’s bending strength, which is directly determined by the maximum bending force. The most important factors affecting bone strength are: • age (growth period), • gender and the associated hormonal balance, • genotype and modification of genes responsible for bone growth • chemical composition of the body (protein and fat content, and the proportion between these components), • physical activity and related bone load, • nutritional factors: – protein intake influencing synthesis of organic matrix of bone, – content of minerals in the feed (CA, P, Zn, Ca/P, Mg, Mn, Na, Cl, K, Cu ratio) influencing synthesis of the inorganic matrix of bone, – mineral/protein ratio in the diet (Ca/protein, P/protein, Zn/protein) – feed energy concentration, – energy source (content of saturated fatty acids - SFA, content of polyun saturated fatty acids - PUFA, in particular ALA, EPA, DPA, DHA), – feed additives, in particular: enzymes (e.g. phytase releasing of minerals bounded in phytin complexes), probiotics and prebiotics (e.g. inulin improving the function of the digestive tract by increasing absorption of nutrients), – vitamin content that regulate metabolism and biochemical changes occurring in bone tissue (e.g. vitamin D3, B6, C and K). This study was based on the results of research experiments from available literature, and studies on growing pigs carried out at the Kielanowski Institute of Animal Physiology and Nutrition, Polish Academy of Sciences. The tests were performed in total on 300 pigs of Duroc, Pietrain, Puławska breeds, line 990 and hybrids (Great White × Duroc, Great White × Landrace), PIC pigs, slaughtered at different body weight during the growth period from 15 to 130 kg. Bones for biomechanical tests were collected after slaughter from each pig. Their length, mass and volume were determined. Based on these measurements, the specific weight (density, g/cm3) was calculated. Then each bone was cut in the middle of the shaft and the outer and inner diameters were measured both horizontally and vertically. Based on these measurements, the following indicators were calculated: • cortical thickness, • cortical surface, • cortical index. Abstract 11 Bone strength was tested by a three-point bending test. The obtained data enabled the determination of: • bending force (the magnitude of the maximum force at which disintegration and disruption of bone structure occurs), • strength (the amount of maximum force needed to break/crack of bone), • stiffness (quotient of the force acting on the bone and the amount of displacement occurring under the influence of this force). Investigation of changes in physical and biomechanical features of bones during growth was performed on pigs of the synthetic 990 line growing from 15 to 130 kg body weight. The animals were slaughtered successively at a body weight of 15, 30, 40, 50, 70, 90, 110 and 130 kg. After slaughter, the following bones were separated from the right half-carcass: humerus, 3rd and 4th metatarsal bone, femur, tibia and fibula as well as 3rd and 4th metatarsal bone. The features of bones were determined using methods described in the methodology. Describing bone growth with the Gompertz equation, it was found that the earliest slowdown of bone growth curve was observed for metacarpal and metatarsal bones. This means that these bones matured the most quickly. The established data also indicate that the rib is the slowest maturing bone. The femur, humerus, tibia and fibula were between the values of these features for the metatarsal, metacarpal and rib bones. The rate of increase in bone mass and length differed significantly between the examined bones, but in all cases it was lower (coefficient b <1) than the growth rate of the whole body of the animal. The fastest growth rate was estimated for the rib mass (coefficient b = 0.93). Among the long bones, the humerus (coefficient b = 0.81) was characterized by the fastest rate of weight gain, however femur the smallest (coefficient b = 0.71). The lowest rate of bone mass increase was observed in the foot bones, with the metacarpal bones having a slightly higher value of coefficient b than the metatarsal bones (0.67 vs 0.62). The third bone had a lower growth rate than the fourth bone, regardless of whether they were metatarsal or metacarpal. The value of the bending force increased as the animals grew. Regardless of the growth point tested, the highest values were observed for the humerus, tibia and femur, smaller for the metatarsal and metacarpal bone, and the lowest for the fibula and rib. The rate of change in the value of this indicator increased at a similar rate as the body weight changes of the animals in the case of the fibula and the fourth metacarpal bone (b value = 0.98), and more slowly in the case of the metatarsal bone, the third metacarpal bone, and the tibia bone (values of the b ratio 0.81–0.85), and the slowest femur, humerus and rib (value of b = 0.60–0.66). Bone stiffness increased as animals grew. Regardless of the growth point tested, the highest values were observed for the humerus, tibia and femur, smaller for the metatarsal and metacarpal bone, and the lowest for the fibula and rib. Abstract 12 The rate of change in the value of this indicator changed at a faster rate than the increase in weight of pigs in the case of metacarpal and metatarsal bones (coefficient b = 1.01–1.22), slightly slower in the case of fibula (coefficient b = 0.92), definitely slower in the case of the tibia (b = 0.73), ribs (b = 0.66), femur (b = 0.59) and humerus (b = 0.50). Bone strength increased as animals grew. Regardless of the growth point tested, bone strength was as follows femur > tibia > humerus > 4 metacarpal> 3 metacarpal> 3 metatarsal > 4 metatarsal > rib> fibula. The rate of increase in strength of all examined bones was greater than the rate of weight gain of pigs (value of the coefficient b = 2.04–3.26). As the animals grew, the bone density increased. However, the growth rate of this indicator for the majority of bones was slower than the rate of weight gain (the value of the coefficient b ranged from 0.37 – humerus to 0.84 – fibula). The exception was the rib, whose density increased at a similar pace increasing the body weight of animals (value of the coefficient b = 0.97). The study on the influence of the breed and the feeding intensity on bone characteristics (physical and biomechanical) was performed on pigs of the breeds Duroc, Pietrain, and synthetic 990 during a growth period of 15 to 70 kg body weight. Animals were fed ad libitum or dosed system. After slaughter at a body weight of 70 kg, three bones were taken from the right half-carcass: femur, three metatarsal, and three metacarpal and subjected to the determinations described in the methodology. The weight of bones of animals fed aa libitum was significantly lower than in pigs fed restrictively All bones of Duroc breed were significantly heavier and longer than Pietrain and 990 pig bones. The average values of bending force for the examined bones took the following order: III metatarsal bone (63.5 kg) <III metacarpal bone (77.9 kg) <femur (271.5 kg). The feeding system and breed of pigs had no significant effect on the value of this indicator. The average values of the bones strength took the following order: III metatarsal bone (92.6 kg) <III metacarpal (107.2 kg) <femur (353.1 kg). Feeding intensity and breed of animals had no significant effect on the value of this feature of the bones tested. The average bone density took the following order: femur (1.23 g/cm3) <III metatarsal bone (1.26 g/cm3) <III metacarpal bone (1.34 g / cm3). The density of bones of animals fed aa libitum was higher (P<0.01) than in animals fed with a dosing system. The density of examined bones within the breeds took the following order: Pietrain race> line 990> Duroc race. The differences between the “extreme” breeds were: 7.2% (III metatarsal bone), 8.3% (III metacarpal bone), 8.4% (femur). Abstract 13 The average bone stiffness took the following order: III metatarsal bone (35.1 kg/mm) <III metacarpus (41.5 kg/mm) <femur (60.5 kg/mm). This indicator did not differ between the groups of pigs fed at different intensity, except for the metacarpal bone, which was more stiffer in pigs fed aa libitum (P<0.05). The femur of animals fed ad libitum showed a tendency (P<0.09) to be more stiffer and a force of 4.5 kg required for its displacement by 1 mm. Breed differences in stiffness were found for the femur (P <0.05) and III metacarpal bone (P <0.05). For femur, the highest value of this indicator was found in Pietrain pigs (64.5 kg/mm), lower in pigs of 990 line (61.6 kg/mm) and the lowest in Duroc pigs (55.3 kg/mm). In turn, the 3rd metacarpal bone of Duroc and Pietrain pigs had similar stiffness (39.0 and 40.0 kg/mm respectively) and was smaller than that of line 990 pigs (45.4 kg/mm). The thickness of the cortical bone layer took the following order: III metatarsal bone (2.25 mm) <III metacarpal bone (2.41 mm) <femur (5.12 mm). The feeding system did not affect this indicator. Breed differences (P <0.05) for this trait were found only for the femur bone: Duroc (5.42 mm)> line 990 (5.13 mm)> Pietrain (4.81 mm). The cross sectional area of the examined bones was arranged in the following order: III metatarsal bone (84 mm2) <III metacarpal bone (90 mm2) <femur (286 mm2). The feeding system had no effect on the value of this bone trait, with the exception of the femur, which in animals fed the dosing system was 4.7% higher (P<0.05) than in pigs fed ad libitum. Breed differences (P<0.01) in the coross sectional area were found only in femur and III metatarsal bone. The value of this indicator was the highest in Duroc pigs, lower in 990 animals and the lowest in Pietrain pigs. The cortical index of individual bones was in the following order: III metatarsal bone (31.86) <III metacarpal bone (33.86) <femur (44.75). However, its value did not significantly depend on the intensity of feeding or the breed of pigs.

It is obvious that the process of developing cancer—oncogenesis—is a multistep process. We know that smoking, obesity, and a family history are strong independent predictors of developing malignancy; yet, in clinics, we often see that some heavy smokers live into their nineties and that some people with close relatives affected by cancer spend many years worrying about a disease that, in the end, they never contract. For many centuries scientists have struggled to understand the process that make cancer cells different from normal cells. There were those in ancient times who believed that tumours were attributable to acts of the gods. Hippocrates suggested that cancer resulted from an imbalance between the black humour that came from the spleen, and the other three humours: blood, phlegm, and bile. It is only in the last 100 years that biologists have been able to characterize some of the pathways that lead to the uncontrolled replication seen in cancer, and subsequently examine exactly how these pathways evolve. The rampant nature by which cancer invades local and distant tissues, as well its apparent ability to spread between related individuals led some, such as Peyton Rous in 1910, to suggest that cancer was an infectious condition. He was awarded a Nobel Prize in 1966 for the 50 years of work into investigating a link between sarcoma in chickens and a retrovirus that became known as Rous sarcoma virus. He had shown how retroviruses are able to integrate sequences of DNA coding for errors in cellular replication control (oncogenes) by introducing into the human cell viral RNA together with a reverse transcriptase. Viruses are now implicated in many cancers, and in countries where viruses such as HIV and EBV are endemic, the high incidence of malignancies such as Kaposi’s sarcoma and Burkitt’s lymphoma is likely to be directly related. There are several families of viruses associated with cancer, broadly classed into DNA viruses, which mutate human genes using their own DNA, and retroviruses, like Rous sarcoma virus, which insert viral RNA into the cell, where it is then transcribed into genes. This link with viruses has not only led to an understanding that cancer originates from genetic mutations, but has also become a key focus in the design of new anticancer therapies. Traditional chemotherapies either alter DNA structure (as with cisplatin) or inhibit production of its component parts (as with 5-fluorouracil.) These broad-spectrum agents have many and varied side effects, largely due to their non-specific activity on replicating DNA throughout the body, not just in tumour cells. New vaccine therapies utilizing gene-coding viruses aim to restore deficient biological pathways or inhibit mutated ones specific to tumour cells. The hope is that these gene therapies will be effective and easily tolerated by patients, but development is currently progressing with caution. In a trial in France of ten children suffering from X-linked severe combined immunodeficiency and who were injected with a vector that coded for the gene product they lacked, two of the children subsequently died from leukaemia. Further analysis confirmed that the DNA from the viral vector had become integrated into an existing, but normally inactive, proto-oncogene, LM02, triggering its conversion into an active oncogene, and the development of life-threatening malignancy. To understand how a tiny change in genetic structure could lead to such tragic consequences, we need to understand the molecular biology of the cell and, in particular, to pay attention to the pathways of growth regulation that are necessary in all mammalian cell populations. Errors in six key regulatory pathways are known as the ‘hallmarks of cancer’ and will be discussed in the rest of this chapter.