Books on the topic 'Eye affections'

Giuseppe Occhialini (1907-1993) is an outstanding figure among the Italian physicists that characterised the scientific development of the last century. A great experimenter, tirelessly proposing and implementing new projects, his name is linked to the history of research into cosmic rays, which were, however, far from being his only sphere of interest. In 1987, the physics community in general, and in particular the circle of his colleagues and friends, decided to offer Occhialini a sign of their esteem and affection by organising a commemorative encounter for his 80th birthday. In view of the retiring and crusty character of the scientist it was decided to hold a Conference on other themes: a Seminar on the history of the European Space Agency, followed by a Round Table on the beginnings of the research into cosmic rays. Seen through today's eyes, beyond its delightful fascination, this also appears like an almost magical moment that brought together some of the greatest physicists, of international standing, in one of the most fertile periods of Italian physics.

In the framework of the Terrafirma project, Persistent Scatterers Interferometry (PSI) has be used for mapping land subsidence at basin scale in Gioia Tauro plain (Italy). The investigated area is built over unconsolidated fine-grained sediments, where the increasing groundwater demands for irrigation have caused the natural sediment consolidation to progressively accelerate. Both historical (1992-2001; ERS1/2 images) and recent (2002-2006; ENVISAT images) scenarios are analyzed to solve the spatial variability and temporal evolution of ground displacements affecting the plain. The results show deformation rates as high as 10-12 mm/yr in 1992-2007, with highest velocities occurred between 1992 and 2000 within the central part of the basin, in the area of Rizziconi (5 km ESE of Gioia Tauro). The outcomes of this PSI study could support the future improvement of groundwater management and the implementation of best strategies for land use planning and sustainable use of groundwater resources.

The inflammatory, demyelinating plaques that characterize multiple sclerosis (MS) frequently affect the visual pathways. Lesions of the afferent visual pathway (most commonly optic neuritis) result in problems conveying visual stimuli from the retina to the visual cortices. Lesions affecting the efferent visual system result in ocular dysmotility that impairs visual acuity by disrupting the precision of binocular eye movements or by causing excessive eye movements that prevent adequate foveation (e.g. nystagmus, saccadic intrusions). Significant advancements have been made in the techniques used to interrogate both the structural and the functional integrity of the visual system to dissect the pathobiological underpinnings of multiple sclerosis and to design better biomarkers and clinical trial outcomes. This chapter discusses the neuro-ophthalmic manifestations of multiple sclerosis, revolutionary advancements in optical coherence tomography and visual electrophysiology, and therapies for treating visual dysfunction in multiple sclerosis.

Cystinosis is a rare autosomal recessive disease caused by mutations in the lysosomal cystine transporter cystinosin encoded by the CTNS gene (17p.13.2). Cystinosis is characterized by lysosomal cystine accumulation throughout the body with renal Fanconi syndrome being the most common presenting symptom of a multisystem disorder. It must be distinguished from cystinuria in which formation of cystine stones is the core problem. When left untreated, kidney dysfunction gradually progresses towards end-stage renal failure during the first 10 years of life. The advent of renal replacement therapy allowed cystinosis patients to survive into adulthood, but revealed numerous extrarenal manifestations of the disease, affecting eyes, endocrine organs, gastrointestinal tract, muscles, and central and peripheral nervous systems. The disease mechanism of cystinosis is not fully understood. The administration of the cystine-depleting agent cysteamine slows down renal and extrarenal organ damage, pointing to the pivotal role of cystine accumulation in the disease pathogenesis. Treatment with cysteamine should be initiated as early as possible and continued lifelong, and also after kidney transplantation for protecting extrarenal organs. Cysteamine eye drops are an indispensable part of the treatment of corneal cystine accumulation. Life expectancy of cystinosis patients has substantially improved and is now above 50 years.

Systemic metabolic disorders can manifest in the cornea, lens, or retina with or without affecting vision. In some conditions findings are present from birth, and in others ophthalmic complications develop as the disease progresses. In some conditions in adults (for instance pseudoxanthoma elasticum (PXE), Wilson disease, Fabry and gyrate atrophy) ocular findings are pathognomic and should lead to targeted investigations such as sequencing of ABCC6 in PXE and serum ornithine levels in gyrate atrophy. Early diagnosis and treatment may improve visual outcomes. This chapter will focus on the key conditions in adults that have distinct presentations in the eye.

Ultraviolet (UV) radiation is the principal cause of over 95% of keratinocyte cancers (basal cell carcinomas and squamous cell carcinomas of the skin), the most common cancers in white populations worldwide. UV radiation also causes an estimated 60%–90% of cutaneous melanoma, the cancer affecting the skin’s pigment-producing cells. In addition, UV radiation is the major cause of many eye diseases, including ocular cancers and cataract, the commonest cause of blindness, and is responsible for the underlying changes in skin aging, on which billions of dollars are spent annually in efforts to repair the damage. The sun is the principal source of human exposure to UV radiation. However, artificial sources are encountered in a wide range of industrial and medical settings, and increasingly from commercial tanning facilities. By the late twentieth century, nearly epidemic increases in skin cancer incidence had occurred in white populations, especially in Australia and New Zealand.

Fabry disease is a rare X-linked lysosomal storage disorder in which deficiency of alpha-galactosidase A leads to accumulation of substrate, mostly globotriaosylceramide, which causes a progressive, multiorgan disease affecting predominantly the kidneys, skin, heart, and nervous system. Painful peripheral (‘acral’) neuropathy is characteristic.Key clinical signs are angiokeratoma found by close examination of skin; characteristic eye lesions may be seen; lipid deposits may be seen in urine. Renal biopsy appearances are characteristic and this is commonly where the diagnosis is first made. Increasingly, cardiologists are suspecting the condition in adults with echocardiographic appearances of left ventricular hypertrophy. Diagnosis in men is usually made by measurement of alpha-galactosidase in either white cells or plasma (or using blood spots). Unfortunately, many female patients can have normal enzyme levels so that genetic testing is the only way to confirm a diagnosis. Non-selective screening strategies (e.g. males on renal replacement therapy with uncertain renal diagnoses) have had low yields.

This book unpacks the increasingly complex relationships between food and climate change. Whether you're a chef, baker, distiller, restaurateur, or someone who simply enjoys a good pizza or drink, it's time to come to terms with how climate change is affecting our diverse and interwoven food system. The book offers an eye-opening journey through a complete menu of before-dinner drinks and salads; main courses and sides; and coffee and dessert. Along the way, the book examines the escalating changes occurring to the flavors of spices and teas, the yields of wheat, the vitamins in rice, and the price of vanilla. The story is rounded out with a primer on the global food system, the causes and impacts of climate change, and what we can all do. The book is a celebration of food and a call to action—encouraging readers to join with others from the common ground of food to help tackle the greatest challenge of our time.

Behçet's syndrome is a systemic inflammatory panvasculitis (affecting all sizes of vessels) of unknown aetiology. It is in vogue to include it among the systemic autoinflammatory conditions. Behçet's syndrome is more frequent along the ancient 'Silk Route' across Asia than it is in Western countries. The usual onset is the second or third decade, equally affecting either gender. However, young patients and male patients have more severe disease. Almost all patients have recurrent oral ulceration. Scar-forming genital ulcers, a variety of skin lesions including acneiform, erythema nodosum-like lesions, arthritis, potentially blinding panuveitis, thrombophlebitis, gastrointestinal disease, central nervous system (CNS) involvement, and life-threatening bleeding pulmonary artery aneurysms are seen. The pathergy phenomenon is a heightened tissue inflammatory response. The strongest genetic association is with HLA B51. There are immunological aberrations but not prominent enough to call it an autoimmune disease. Similarly, Behçet's syndrome does not fit easily into the broad concept of autoinflammatory diseases. The histopathology is also non-specific and the diagnosis is mainly clinical. Differentiation from Crohn's disease is very difficult. In more than one-half of the patients the disease burns out in time, thus only symptomatic therapy is indicated in some patients. However, eye involvement, pulmonary vascular disease, thrombophilic complications, CNS involvement, and gastrointestinal disease need prompt recognition and treatment. Brief courses of glucocorticosteroids along with immunosuppressives including the newer biologicals, interferon, and colchicine are commonly used. However, controlled clinical trials are not available for some of these medications especially when thrombophilia, CNS, and gastrointestinal disease are present.

Urticaria is an inflammatory complaint characterized by short-lived skin swellings termed ‘wheals’ or ‘hives’. It can be divided into acute urticaria, where the disease has an abrupt onset, and chronic urticaria, where wheals have occurred on a regular basis for over 6 weeks. Physical urticaria is a subgroup of chronic urticaria where an underlying external/physical trigger can be identified, while contact urticaria arises from contact with a chemical substance on the skin or mucous membranes. Angiooedema represents a similar process affecting the deeper dermal tissue and has a predilection for the skin around the eyes and mouth. It may occur in association with urticaria or as an isolated complaint.

Military robots are affecting both the decision to go to war and the means by which wars are conducted. This book covers the history of military robotics, analyzes their current employment, and examines the ramifications of their future utilization. Robotic systems are the future of military conflicts: their development is already revolutionizing the nature of human conflict—and eroding the standards of acceptable behavior in wartime. Written by a professor who teaches strategy and leadership for the U.S. Air Force, one of the global leaders in the development and utilization of military robots, this book both addresses the history of military robotics and discusses the troubling future ramifications of this game-changing technology. Organized both chronologically and thematically, the book’s chapters describe the development and evolution of unmanned warfare; clarify the past, current, and future capabilities of military robotics; and offer a detailed and convincing argument that limits should be placed upon their development before it is too late. This standout work presents an eye-opening analysis that military personnel, civil servants, and academic instructors who teach military history, social policy, and ethics can ill afford to ignore, and will also provide the general public with information that will correct misconceptions about military robotics derived through popular culture and the news media.

This literary work seeks to highlight the importance of the public school as a real and effective possibility in facing contemporary socioenvironmental problems, using urban parks as non-formal educational spaces for the teaching of Environmental Sciences (ES), especially in Youth and Adult Education (EJA). Among the main intentions proposed in the construction of this material, we highlight the intention to stimulate and intensify Environmental Education (EE) in schools; as well as strengthening the idea and the need for the teaching and learning of ES to be thought beyond the walls of the school, in non-formal learning spaces, such as, for example, forests, squares and urban parks. Other objectives related to the production of this material, refer to the need to establish and strengthen the bond of affection and belonging between human beings and nature. As a theoretical and methodological support, the ebook also provides indications for research in EE and the teaching of ES; suggestions for published books on EE; sites related to the environment and EE; examples of pedagogical practices developed by EJA educators, which were designed as suggestions for teaching ES in natural areas and built in the urban environment.Our wish is that this material, specially designed for you teacher, can contribute significantly to your pedagogical praxis, and that this material serves at least as an inspiring source for many other future pratices in the field of EE and in teaching. for ES.

Doses from interventional radiology and cardiology procedures have risen as techniques have developed and allowed more challenging procedures to be undertaken. The dose levels for individual procedures have increased with the complexity resulting in risks of tissue reactions such as erythema and epilation. The increase in numbers of procedures has resulted in risks of damage to the eyes of interventional staff. Factors affecting patient doses and optimization of patient protection are discussed. Methods of assessing doses to patients’ skin are described. The arrangements that should be in place to identify those patients at risk of tissue reactions through setting of dose trigger levels are explained, and the subsequent follow-up recommended is described. The potential protection that can be obtained through use of shielding devices by staff to reduce their dose is considered, and methods for monitoring staff doses reviewed.

In the blink of an eye, I can redirect my thought from London to Cairo, from cookies to unicorns, from former President Obama to the mythical flying horse, Pegasus. How is this possible? How can we think about things that do not exist, like unicorns and Pegasus? Thinking About Things addresses these and related questions, taking as its framework a representational theory of mind. It explains how mental states are attributed, what their aboutness consists in, whether or not they are relational, and whether any of them involve nonexistent things like unicorns. The explanation centers on display theory, a theory of what is involved in attributing attitudes like thinking, hoping, and wanting. These attributions are intensional: some of them seem to involve nonexistent things, and they typically have semantic and logical peculiarities, like the fact that one cannot always substitute one expression for another that refers to the same thing without affecting truth. Display theory explains away these seeming anomalies. For example, substituting coreferring expressions does not always preserve truth because the correctness of an attribution depends on what concepts it displays, not on what the concepts refer to. And a concept that refers to nothing may be used in an accurate display of what someone is thinking. The book describes how concepts can be learned, originated, and given a systematic semantic description, independently of whether there exist things to which they refer. There being no things we are thinking about does not mean that we are not thinking about things.

Leptospirosis is one of the most prevalent zoonotic diseases worldwide. Pathogenic spirochaetes are shed in the urine of infected mammals to the environment. Humans are infected through contact with contaminated material. Leptospirosis is more prevalent in tropical and subtropical areas, but exists in all continents except Antarctica. The disease is difficult to diagnose and hence frequently neglected. Its clinical picture ranges from a mild flu-like disease to a life-threatening form with pulmonary haemorrhage, liver failure and acute kidney injury (AKI), called Weil disease, which may affect 10% of those with clinical disease. Typically, fever, myalgia and headache progress to nausea and vomiting, jaundice, red eyes, and other manifestation affecting skin, brain, and other organs.Kidney involvement, characterized by acute tubulointerstitial nephritis, is nearly universal. It may be clinically manifested as a tubulopathy with urinary electrolytes wasting, hypokalaemia and hypomagnesaemia and/or as AKI, which is more frequently non-oliguric. Antibiotic therapy may reduce hospitalization time and AKI frequency. Otherwise management is supportive, including timely and adequate dialysis support.

Protecting Your Health Privacy empowers ordinary citizens with the legal and technological knowledge and know-how we need to protect ourselves and our families from prying corporate eyes, medical identity theft, ruinous revelations of socially stigmatizing diseases, and illegal punitive practices by insurers and employers. It's a new era in healthcare. Gone are the day when access to your medical records is limited to you and your doctor. Instead, today, a diverse group of constituencies have interest in and access to your health information. A cascade of changes in technology and the delivery of healthcare are increasing the vulnerability of your medical information. Accordingly, it is now more important than ever to take control over your own health information and take steps to protect your information against privacy breaches that can adversely impact the quality of your health care, your insurability, your employability, your relationships, and your reputation. In clear, non-technical language, privacy lawyer Jacqueline Klosek teaches readers the basics you need to know as an individual healthcare consumer about the ongoing wave of national and state legislation affecting patient privacy: the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) of 2010, the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH) of 2009, and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) of 1996. She untangles the increasingly complex ways by which health care providers, insurers, employers, social networking sites, and marketers routinely collect, use, and share our personal health information. Protecting Your Health Privacy: A Citizen's Guide to Safeguarding the Security of Your Medical Information empowers ordinary citizens with the knowledge and know-how we need to protect ourselves and our families from prying eyes, medical identity theft, ruinous revelations of socially stigmatizing diseases, and illegal punitive practices by insurers and employers.

Sjögren's syndrome is a chronic, immune-mediated, condition of unknown aetiology characterized by focal lymphocytic infiltration of exocrine glands associated with dry mouth and eyes. It occurs in its own right (primary Sjögren's syndrome, pSS), or as a late feature of other rheumatic diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus or scleroderma (secondary Sjögren's syndrome). There is a strong female bias. pSS typically affects women in their middle years with an estimated prevalence of 0.1–0.6%. 75% of patients have anti-Ro and/or anti-La antibodies, often with raised immunoglobulin levels (hypergammaglobulinaemia). In patients without these antibodies the diagnosis can be confirmed by salivary gland biopsy. Treatment is generally symptomatic using artificial tears, saliva replacements/stimulants and good dental hygiene. Three-quarters of patients with pSS report significant fatigue with a negative impact on quality of life. This can be the most disabling symptom. Approximately 20% of patients develop systemic features including persistent salivary gland swelling, cutaneous vasculitis, peripheral neuropathy, interstitial lung disease, autoimmune cytopenias or renal tubular acidosis. Hydroxychloroquine and corticosteroids are the most widely used therapies for systemic features. There is a 44fold increased risk of mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue (MALT) B-cell lymphoma in pSS, typically affecting the salivary glands. On account of abnormalities in the B-cell system in pSS there is current interest in the use of anti-B-cell directed monoclonal antibodies to treat pSS and a number of clinical trials are in progress. This approach is already successfully in use for treating MALT lymphoma in pSS.

Sjögren’s syndrome is a chronic, immune-mediated, condition of unknown aetiology characterized by focal lymphocytic infiltration of exocrine glands associated with dry mouth and eyes. It occurs in its own right (primary Sjögren’s syndrome, pSS), or as a late feature of other rheumatic diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus or scleroderma (secondary Sjögren’s syndrome). There is a strong female bias. pSS typically affects women in their middle years with an estimated prevalence of 0.1–0.6%. 75% of patients have anti-Ro and/or anti-La antibodies, often with raised immunoglobulin levels (hypergammaglobulinaemia). In patients without these antibodies the diagnosis can be confirmed by salivary gland biopsy. Treatment is generally symptomatic using artificial tears, saliva replacements/stimulants and good dental hygiene. Three-quarters of patients with pSS report significant fatigue with a negative impact on quality of life. This can be the most disabling symptom. Approximately 20% of patients develop systemic features including persistent salivary gland swelling, cutaneous vasculitis, peripheral neuropathy, interstitial lung disease, autoimmune cytopenias or renal tubular acidosis. Hydroxychloroquine and corticosteroids are the most widely used therapies for systemic features. There is a 44fold increased risk of mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue (MALT) B-cell lymphoma in pSS, typically affecting the salivary glands. On account of abnormalities in the B-cell system in pSS there is current interest in the use of anti-B-cell directed monoclonal antibodies to treat pSS and a number of clinical trials are in progress. This approach is already successfully in use for treating MALT lymphoma in pSS.

This insightful, on-the-ground narrative looks at how radical Islam is affecting our society and how our own response is endangering the very democratic values we have hoped to spread around the world—and preserve at home. In Radical State: How Jihad Is Winning Over Democracy in the West, author Abigail R. Esman argues that in large measure, it is actually jihad which has emerged victorious over democracy, not only because of the actions of Muslim terrorists, but because of our own response to extremist Islam in the West. With the best of intentions, Western (European) countries have permitted antidemocratic, ultraconservative Islamic beliefs and traditions to flourish in their societies as they've responded to the influx of Muslim immigrants to their shores, largely as a result of the guest-worker programs which began in the 1960s and 1970s across Europe. But this multicultural approach has only backfired, creating cultural wars in which even the most intolerant and undemocratic of belief systems and values have been permitted, as governments have turned a blind eye to such atrocities as honor killings, anti-Semitism, the spread of literature extolling violence, and calls for the destruction of the democratic state. Esman focuses her narrative on the Netherlands, oft regarded as the most free, stable, and tolerant nation in the West, the paragon of democracy and tolerance. Using Holland as an example, she demonstrates the collapse of democratic values that has occurred in other Western countries—including America—as we struggle against radical Islam. In doing so, she shows how the Western response to the threat of radicalization has at times gone to dangerous extremes, counterbalancing the multiculturalists' indulgence of radical Islam with the creation of restrictive, nearly-totalitarian laws and measures that are as destructive and toxic to our future-to free thought, free speech, and equal rights. Radical State uniquely articulates the dissolution of democratic values that have resulted from the actions of both left- and right-wing approaches to the problem. More importantly, the book strives to resolve the critical question of "what went wrong"—because to set things right again requires understanding how it all broke apart—and we must set it right, or jihad's victory over democracy will be complete, and sooner than we may realize.

Nationalism: Past as Prologue began as a single volume being compiled by Ad Akande, a scholar from South Africa, who proposed it to me as co-author about two years ago. The original idea was to examine how the damaging roots of nationalism have been corroding political systems around the world, and creating dangerous obstacles for necessary international cooperation. Since I (Bruce E. Johansen) has written profusely about climate change (global warming, a.k.a. infrared forcing), I suggested a concerted effort in that direction. This is a worldwide existential threat that affects every living thing on Earth. It often compounds upon itself, so delays in reducing emissions of fossil fuels are shortening the amount of time remaining to eliminate the use of fossil fuels to preserve a livable planet. Nationalism often impedes solutions to this problem (among many others), as nations place their singular needs above the common good. Our initial proposal got around, and abstracts on many subjects arrived. Within a few weeks, we had enough good material for a 100,000-word book. The book then fattened to two moderate volumes and then to four two very hefty tomes. We tried several different titles as good submissions swelled. We also discovered that our best contributors were experts in their fields, which ranged the world. We settled on three stand-alone books:” 1/ nationalism and racial justice. Our first volume grew as the growth of Black Lives Matter following the brutal killing of George Floyd ignited protests over police brutality and other issues during 2020, following the police assassination of Floyd in Minneapolis. It is estimated that more people took part in protests of police brutality during the summer of 2020 than any other series of marches in United States history. This includes upheavals during the 1960s over racial issues and against the war in Southeast Asia (notably Vietnam). We choose a volume on racism because it is one of nationalism’s main motive forces. This volume provides a worldwide array of work on nationalism’s growth in various countries, usually by authors residing in them, or in the United States with ethnic ties to the nation being examined, often recent immigrants to the United States from them. Our roster of contributors comprises a small United Nations of insightful, well-written research and commentary from Indonesia, New Zealand, Australia, China, India, South Africa, France, Portugal, Estonia, Hungary, Russia, Poland, Kazakhstan, Georgia, and the United States. Volume 2 (this one) describes and analyzes nationalism, by country, around the world, except for the United States; and 3/material directly related to President Donald Trump, and the United States. The first volume is under consideration at the Texas A & M University Press. The other two are under contract to Nova Science Publishers (which includes social sciences). These three volumes may be used individually or as a set. Environmental material is taken up in appropriate places in each of the three books. * * * * * What became the United States of America has been strongly nationalist since the English of present-day Massachusetts and Jamestown first hit North America’s eastern shores. The country propelled itself across North America with the self-serving ideology of “manifest destiny” for four centuries before Donald Trump came along. Anyone who believes that a Trumpian affection for deportation of “illegals” is a new thing ought to take a look at immigration and deportation statistics in Adam Goodman’s The Deportation Machine: America’s Long History of Deporting Immigrants (Princeton University Press, 2020). Between 1920 and 2018, the United States deported 56.3 million people, compared with 51.7 million who were granted legal immigration status during the same dates. Nearly nine of ten deportees were Mexican (Nolan, 2020, 83). This kind of nationalism, has become an assassin of democracy as well as an impediment to solving global problems. Paul Krugman wrote in the New York Times (2019:A-25): that “In their 2018 book, How Democracies Die, the political scientists Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt documented how this process has played out in many countries, from Vladimir Putin’s Russia, to Recep Erdogan’s Turkey, to Viktor Orban’s Hungary. Add to these India’s Narendra Modi, China’s Xi Jinping, and the United States’ Donald Trump, among others. Bit by bit, the guardrails of democracy have been torn down, as institutions meant to serve the public became tools of ruling parties and self-serving ideologies, weaponized to punish and intimidate opposition parties’ opponents. On paper, these countries are still democracies; in practice, they have become one-party regimes….And it’s happening here [the United States] as we speak. If you are not worried about the future of American democracy, you aren’t paying attention” (Krugmam, 2019, A-25). We are reminded continuously that the late Carl Sagan, one of our most insightful scientific public intellectuals, had an interesting theory about highly developed civilizations. Given the number of stars and planets that must exist in the vast reaches of the universe, he said, there must be other highly developed and organized forms of life. Distance may keep us from making physical contact, but Sagan said that another reason we may never be on speaking terms with another intelligent race is (judging from our own example) could be their penchant for destroying themselves in relatively short order after reaching technological complexity. This book’s chapters, introduction, and conclusion examine the worldwide rise of partisan nationalism and the damage it has wrought on the worldwide pursuit of solutions for issues requiring worldwide scope, such scientific co-operation public health and others, mixing analysis of both. We use both historical description and analysis. This analysis concludes with a description of why we must avoid the isolating nature of nationalism that isolates people and encourages separation if we are to deal with issues of world-wide concern, and to maintain a sustainable, survivable Earth, placing the dominant political movement of our time against the Earth’s existential crises. Our contributors, all experts in their fields, each have assumed responsibility for a country, or two if they are related. This work entwines themes of worldwide concern with the political growth of nationalism because leaders with such a worldview are disinclined to co-operate internationally at a time when nations must find ways to solve common problems, such as the climate crisis. Inability to cooperate at this stage may doom everyone, eventually, to an overheated, stormy future plagued by droughts and deluges portending shortages of food and other essential commodities, meanwhile destroying large coastal urban areas because of rising sea levels. Future historians may look back at our time and wonder why as well as how our world succumbed to isolating nationalism at a time when time was so short for cooperative intervention which is crucial for survival of a sustainable earth. Pride in language and culture is salubrious to individuals’ sense of history and identity. Excess nationalism that prevents international co-operation on harmful worldwide maladies is quite another. As Pope Francis has pointed out: For all of our connectivity due to expansion of social media, ability to communicate can breed contempt as well as mutual trust. “For all our hyper-connectivity,” said Francis, “We witnessed a fragmentation that made it more difficult to resolve problems that affect us all” (Horowitz, 2020, A-12). The pope’s encyclical, titled “Brothers All,” also said: “The forces of myopic, extremist, resentful, and aggressive nationalism are on the rise.” The pope’s document also advocates support for migrants, as well as resistance to nationalist and tribal populism. Francis broadened his critique to the role of market capitalism, as well as nationalism has failed the peoples of the world when they need co-operation and solidarity in the face of the world-wide corona virus pandemic. Humankind needs to unite into “a new sense of the human family [Fratelli Tutti, “Brothers All”], that rejects war at all costs” (Pope, 2020, 6-A). Our journey takes us first to Russia, with the able eye and honed expertise of Richard D. Anderson, Jr. who teaches as UCLA and publishes on the subject of his chapter: “Putin, Russian identity, and Russia’s conduct at home and abroad.” Readers should find Dr. Anderson’s analysis fascinating because Vladimir Putin, the singular leader of Russian foreign and domestic policy these days (and perhaps for the rest of his life, given how malleable Russia’s Constitution has become) may be a short man physically, but has high ambitions. One of these involves restoring the old Russian (and Soviet) empire, which would involve re-subjugating a number of nations that broke off as the old order dissolved about 30 years ago. President (shall we say czar?) Putin also has international ambitions, notably by destabilizing the United States, where election meddling has become a specialty. The sight of Putin and U.S. president Donald Trump, two very rich men (Putin $70-$200 billion; Trump $2.5 billion), nuzzling in friendship would probably set Thomas Jefferson and Vladimir Lenin spinning in their graves. The road of history can take some unanticipated twists and turns. Consider Poland, from which we have an expert native analysis in chapter 2, Bartosz Hlebowicz, who is a Polish anthropologist and journalist. His piece is titled “Lawless and Unjust: How to Quickly Make Your Own Country a Puppet State Run by a Group of Hoodlums – the Hopeless Case of Poland (2015–2020).” When I visited Poland to teach and lecture twice between 2006 and 2008, most people seemed to be walking on air induced by freedom to conduct their own affairs to an unusual degree for a state usually squeezed between nationalists in Germany and Russia. What did the Poles then do in a couple of decades? Read Hlebowicz’ chapter and decide. It certainly isn’t soft-bellied liberalism. In Chapter 3, with Bruce E. Johansen, we visit China’s western provinces, the lands of Tibet as well as the Uighurs and other Muslims in the Xinjiang region, who would most assuredly resent being characterized as being possessed by the Chinese of the Han to the east. As a student of Native American history, I had never before thought of the Tibetans and Uighurs as Native peoples struggling against the Independence-minded peoples of a land that is called an adjunct of China on most of our maps. The random act of sitting next to a young woman on an Air India flight out of Hyderabad, bound for New Delhi taught me that the Tibetans had something to share with the Lakota, the Iroquois, and hundreds of other Native American states and nations in North America. Active resistance to Chinese rule lasted into the mid-nineteenth century, and continues today in a subversive manner, even in song, as I learned in 2018 when I acted as a foreign adjudicator on a Ph.D. dissertation by a Tibetan student at the University of Madras (in what is now in a city called Chennai), in southwestern India on resistance in song during Tibet’s recent history. Tibet is one of very few places on Earth where a young dissident can get shot to death for singing a song that troubles China’s Quest for Lebensraum. The situation in Xinjiang region, where close to a million Muslims have been interned in “reeducation” camps surrounded with brick walls and barbed wire. They sing, too. Come with us and hear the music. Back to Europe now, in Chapter 4, to Portugal and Spain, we find a break in the general pattern of nationalism. Portugal has been more progressive governmentally than most. Spain varies from a liberal majority to military coups, a pattern which has been exported to Latin America. A situation such as this can make use of the term “populism” problematic, because general usage in our time usually ties the word into a right-wing connotative straightjacket. “Populism” can be used to describe progressive (left-wing) insurgencies as well. José Pinto, who is native to Portugal and also researches and writes in Spanish as well as English, in “Populism in Portugal and Spain: a Real Neighbourhood?” provides insight into these historical paradoxes. Hungary shares some historical inclinations with Poland (above). Both emerged from Soviet dominance in an air of developing freedom and multicultural diversity after the Berlin Wall fell and the Soviet Union collapsed. Then, gradually at first, right wing-forces began to tighten up, stripping structures supporting popular freedom, from the courts, mass media, and other institutions. In Chapter 5, Bernard Tamas, in “From Youth Movement to Right-Liberal Wing Authoritarianism: The Rise of Fidesz and the Decline of Hungarian Democracy” puts the renewed growth of political and social repression into a context of worldwide nationalism. Tamas, an associate professor of political science at Valdosta State University, has been a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University and a Fulbright scholar at the Central European University in Budapest, Hungary. His books include From Dissident to Party Politics: The Struggle for Democracy in Post-Communist Hungary (2007). Bear in mind that not everyone shares Orbán’s vision of what will make this nation great, again. On graffiti-covered walls in Budapest, Runes (traditional Hungarian script) has been found that read “Orbán is a motherfucker” (Mikanowski, 2019, 58). Also in Europe, in Chapter 6, Professor Ronan Le Coadic, of the University of Rennes, Rennes, France, in “Is There a Revival of French Nationalism?” Stating this title in the form of a question is quite appropriate because France’s nationalistic shift has built and ebbed several times during the last few decades. For a time after 2000, it came close to assuming the role of a substantial minority, only to ebb after that. In 2017, the candidate of the National Front reached the second round of the French presidential election. This was the second time this nationalist party reached the second round of the presidential election in the history of the Fifth Republic. In 2002, however, Jean-Marie Le Pen had only obtained 17.79% of the votes, while fifteen years later his daughter, Marine Le Pen, almost doubled her father's record, reaching 33.90% of the votes cast. Moreover, in the 2019 European elections, re-named Rassemblement National obtained the largest number of votes of all French political formations and can therefore boast of being "the leading party in France.” The brutality of oppressive nationalism may be expressed in personal relationships, such as child abuse. While Indonesia and Aotearoa [the Maoris’ name for New Zealand] hold very different ranks in the United Nations Human Development Programme assessments, where Indonesia is classified as a medium development country and Aotearoa New Zealand as a very high development country. In Chapter 7, “Domestic Violence Against Women in Indonesia and Aotearoa New Zealand: Making Sense of Differences and Similarities” co-authors, in Chapter 8, Mandy Morgan and Dr. Elli N. Hayati, from New Zealand and Indonesia respectively, found that despite their socio-economic differences, one in three women in each country experience physical or sexual intimate partner violence over their lifetime. In this chapter ther authors aim to deepen understandings of domestic violence through discussion of the socio-economic and demographic characteristics of theit countries to address domestic violence alongside studies of women’s attitudes to gender norms and experiences of intimate partner violence. One of the most surprising and upsetting scholarly journeys that a North American student may take involves Adolf Hitler’s comments on oppression of American Indians and Blacks as he imagined the construction of the Nazi state, a genesis of nationalism that is all but unknown in the United States of America, traced in this volume (Chapter 8) by co-editor Johansen. Beginning in Mein Kampf, during the 1920s, Hitler explicitly used the westward expansion of the United States across North America as a model and justification for Nazi conquest and anticipated colonization by Germans of what the Nazis called the “wild East” – the Slavic nations of Poland, the Baltic states, Ukraine, and Russia, most of which were under control of the Soviet Union. The Volga River (in Russia) was styled by Hitler as the Germans’ Mississippi, and covered wagons were readied for the German “manifest destiny” of imprisoning, eradicating, and replacing peoples the Nazis deemed inferior, all with direct references to events in North America during the previous century. At the same time, with no sense of contradiction, the Nazis partook of a long-standing German romanticism of Native Americans. One of Goebbels’ less propitious schemes was to confer honorary Aryan status on Native American tribes, in the hope that they would rise up against their oppressors. U.S. racial attitudes were “evidence [to the Nazis] that America was evolving in the right direction, despite its specious rhetoric about equality.” Ming Xie, originally from Beijing, in the People’s Republic of China, in Chapter 9, “News Coverage and Public Perceptions of the Social Credit System in China,” writes that The State Council of China in 2014 announced “that a nationwide social credit system would be established” in China. “Under this system, individuals, private companies, social organizations, and governmental agencies are assigned a score which will be calculated based on their trustworthiness and daily actions such as transaction history, professional conduct, obedience to law, corruption, tax evasion, and academic plagiarism.” The “nationalism” in this case is that of the state over the individual. China has 1.4 billion people; this system takes their measure for the purpose of state control. Once fully operational, control will be more subtle. People who are subject to it, through modern technology (most often smart phones) will prompt many people to self-censor. Orwell, modernized, might write: “Your smart phone is watching you.” Ming Xie holds two Ph.Ds, one in Public Administration from University of Nebraska at Omaha and another in Cultural Anthropology from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing, where she also worked for more than 10 years at a national think tank in the same institution. While there she summarized news from non-Chinese sources for senior members of the Chinese Communist Party. Ming is presently an assistant professor at the Department of Political Science and Criminal Justice, West Texas A&M University. In Chapter 10, analyzing native peoples and nationhood, Barbara Alice Mann, Professor of Honours at the University of Toledo, in “Divide, et Impera: The Self-Genocide Game” details ways in which European-American invaders deprive the conquered of their sense of nationhood as part of a subjugation system that amounts to genocide, rubbing out their languages and cultures -- and ultimately forcing the native peoples to assimilate on their own, for survival in a culture that is foreign to them. Mann is one of Native American Studies’ most acute critics of conquests’ contradictions, and an author who retrieves Native history with a powerful sense of voice and purpose, having authored roughly a dozen books and numerous book chapters, among many other works, who has traveled around the world lecturing and publishing on many subjects. Nalanda Roy and S. Mae Pedron in Chapter 11, “Understanding the Face of Humanity: The Rohingya Genocide.” describe one of the largest forced migrations in the history of the human race, the removal of 700,000 to 800,000 Muslims from Buddhist Myanmar to Bangladesh, which itself is already one of the most crowded and impoverished nations on Earth. With about 150 million people packed into an area the size of Nebraska and Iowa (population less than a tenth that of Bangladesh, a country that is losing land steadily to rising sea levels and erosion of the Ganges river delta. The Rohingyas’ refugee camp has been squeezed onto a gigantic, eroding, muddy slope that contains nearly no vegetation. However, Bangladesh is majority Muslim, so while the Rohingya may starve, they won’t be shot to death by marauding armies. Both authors of this exquisite (and excruciating) account teach at Georgia Southern University in Savannah, Georgia, Roy as an associate professor of International Studies and Asian politics, and Pedron as a graduate student; Roy originally hails from very eastern India, close to both Myanmar and Bangladesh, so he has special insight into the context of one of the most brutal genocides of our time, or any other. This is our case describing the problems that nationalism has and will pose for the sustainability of the Earth as our little blue-and-green orb becomes more crowded over time. The old ways, in which national arguments often end in devastating wars, are obsolete, given that the Earth and all the people, plants, and other animals that it sustains are faced with the existential threat of a climate crisis that within two centuries, more or less, will flood large parts of coastal cities, and endanger many species of plants and animals. To survive, we must listen to the Earth, and observe her travails, because they are increasingly our own.