scholarly journals The Transformative Power of Breath: Music, Alternative Therapy, and Medieval Practices of Contemplation

2021 ◽  
pp. 111-129
Author(s):  
Denis Renevey
Keyword(s):  
Fourteenth Century ◽  
Alternative Therapy ◽  
Short Word ◽  
Transformative Power ◽  
Brass Instruments ◽  
Holotropic Breathwork ◽  
Breathing Techniques ◽  
Breath Control

AbstractIn the absence of information about the role of breathing as part of the contemplative exercises of medieval English mystics, this essay investigates instead modern-day breathing practices as advocated by teachers of brass instruments and modern-day spiritual movements. Arnold Jacobs and Michel Ricquier offer information about breathing techniques for the use of brass musicians that share revealing characteristics with proponents of Holotropic Breathwork, itself influenced by pranayama, the art of breath control. The evidence gathered, once applied to the practice of short-word contemplative exercises encouraged by fourteenth-century mystics, provides ground-breaking information on the transformative power of breath in medieval contemplation.

scholarly journals Plague and the Fall of Baghdad (1258)

2021 ◽  
Vol 65 (2) ◽  
pp. 157-177
Author(s):  
Nahyan Fancy ◽  
Monica H. Green
Keyword(s):  
Fourteenth Century ◽  
Thirteenth Century ◽  
Disease Outbreaks ◽  
Epidemic Disease ◽  
Late Medieval ◽  
Western Asia ◽  
Abbasid Caliphate ◽  
Historical Accounts ◽  
A Minor

AbstractThe recent suggestion that the late medieval Eurasian plague pandemic, the Black Death, had its origins in the thirteenth century rather than the fourteenth century has brought new scrutiny to texts reporting ‘epidemics’ in the earlier period. Evidence both from Song China and Iran suggests that plague was involved in major sieges laid by the Mongols between the 1210s and the 1250s, including the siege of Baghdad in 1258 which resulted in the fall of the Abbasid caliphate. In fact, re-examination of multiple historical accounts in the two centuries after the siege of Baghdad shows that the role of epidemic disease in the Mongol attacks was commonly known among chroniclers in Syria and Egypt, raising the question why these outbreaks have been overlooked in modern historiography of plague. The present study looks in detail at the evidence in Arabic sources for disease outbreaks after the siege of Baghdad in Iraq and its surrounding regions. We find subtle factors in the documentary record to explain why, even though plague received new scrutiny from physicians in the period, it remained a minor feature in stories about the Mongol invasion of western Asia. In contemporary understandings of the genesis of epidemics, the Mongols were not seen to have brought plague to Baghdad; they caused plague to arise by their rampant destruction. When an even bigger wave of plague struck the Islamic world in the fourteenth century, no association was made with the thirteenth-century episode. Rather, plague was now associated with the Mongol world as a whole.

scholarly journals A Comprehensive Review Evaluating the Impact of Protein Source (Vegetarian vs. Meat Based) in Hepatic Encephalopathy

Nutrients ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 370
Author(s):  
Umair Iqbal ◽  
Ravirajsinh N. Jadeja ◽  
Harshit S. Khara ◽  
Sandeep Khurana
Keyword(s):  
Hepatic Encephalopathy ◽  
Protein Intake ◽  
Alternative Therapy ◽  
Case Series ◽  
Current Evidence ◽  
Branch Chain Amino ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Protein Diets

Hepatic encephalopathy (HE) is a common neurological consequence in patients with cirrhosis and has a healthcare burden of USD 5370 to 50,120 per patient annually. HE significantly hampers the quality of life and is a major cause of morbidity and mortality. Patients with cirrhosis are at a high risk for protein-calorie malnutrition due to altered metabolism. Current evidence has changed the old belief of protein restriction in patients with cirrhosis and now 1.2 to 1.5 g/kg/day protein intake is recommended. Case series and studies with small numbers of participants showed that a vegetarian protein diet decreases the symptoms of HE when compared to a meat-based diet, but the evidence is limited and requires further larger randomized controlled trials. However, vegetable or milk-based protein diets are good substitutes for patients averse to meat intake. Branch chain amino acids (BCAA) (leucine, isoleucine and valine) have also been shown to be effective in alleviating symptoms of HE and are recommended as an alternative therapy in patients with cirrhosis for the treatment of HE. In this review, we provide an overview of current literature evaluating the role of protein intake in the management of HE in cirrhosis.

Facilitators, challenges and usefulness of an asthma educational programme

2020 ◽  
pp. 001789692098162
Author(s):  
Muhammad Naeem ◽  
Hamad Ghalib Dailah
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Context ◽  
Educational Programme ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Long Period ◽  
Breathing Techniques ◽  
Educational Programmes ◽  
Asthma Patients ◽  
Programme Content

Background: This study explored the role of hospitals, specialised doctors and staff in developing patient awareness, participation and motivation concerning asthma control. It also looked at the challenges that undermine the value of asthma educational programmes, especially in an Arab cultural context. Methods: Semi-structured interviews were used to collect data from 30 asthma patients who had been living with asthma for a long period of time. Results: Findings highlight how an asthma educational programme can increase patient knowledge about the causes of asthma. Following the programme, patients had a better understanding of levels of medication, breathing techniques and rest and relaxation. Awareness of support from health professionals for managing depression and frustration also increased. However, some patients felt that the asthma educational programme content and delivery was not very interactive and was too lengthy. Conclusion: Findings can help policy makers, researchers, hospitals, doctors and the national Ministry of Health improve the content of future asthma educational programmes. They can also inform the development of a research framework to extend understanding of relevant issues in an Arabian context.

LANGUAGE, CULTURE, AND POWER IN GUILLEM DE TORROELLA’S LA FAULA

2021 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-22
Author(s):  
JILL ROSS
Keyword(s):  
Fourteenth Century ◽  
Thirteenth Century ◽  
French Language ◽  
The Political ◽  
Cultural Appropriation ◽  
Cultural Hegemony ◽  
Language And Culture ◽  
The Third ◽  
Cultural Power

This article examines the role of French language and culture in the fourteenth-century Arthurian text, La Faula, by the Mallorcan, Guillem de Torroella. Reading the appropriation of French language and literary models through the lens of earlier thirteenth-century Occitan resistance to French political and cultural hegemony, La Faula’s use of French dialogue becomes significant in light of the political tensions in the third quarter of the fourteenth century that saw the conquest of the Kingdom of Mallorca by that of Catalonia-Aragon and the subsequent imposition of Catalano-Aragonese political and cultural power. La Faula’s clear intertextual debt to French literary models and its simultaneous ambivalence about the authority and reliability of those models makes French language into a space for the exploration of the dynamics of cultural appropriation and political accommodation that were constitutive of late fourteenth-century Mallorca.

scholarly journals Restorative Design for Heritage Requalification: Selected Roman Works

2021 ◽  
pp. 227-244
Author(s):  
Luciano Cupelloni
Keyword(s):  
Human Resources ◽  
Public Space ◽  
Experimental Research ◽  
Common Good ◽  
Urban Systems ◽  
Technological Design ◽  
Transformative Power ◽  
The Public ◽  
New Perspective

AbstractThe theme is the urban re-qualification, applied in particular to the architectural heritage and the public space. The goal is the ongoing challenge of outlining a new perspective aimed at “common good” and sustainability. The instrument chosen is the “environmental technological design,” understood as a cultural, scientific, and social position, that is, as a position on the role of architecture. The contribution reiterates the urgency of restoring the transformative power of the design mission to the project, too often reduced to a set of technical compilation procedures. In the best cases, a position that is lost in the complication of procedures, in the extension of time, in the waste of economic and human resources. A crisis of the project as “anticipation” of progressive scenarios, precisely in the most acute, ever more serious phase, of the urgency of the reorganization of urban systems, with a view to environmental, social and economic sustainability. Not a recent urgency, today only brought to light, dramatically, by the reality of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. Among the solutions, the design experimental research, well beyond the objective of flexibility, up to the notion of “functional indifference,” understood not as shapeless neutrality, but as the maximum functionality of spatial, architectural and urban quality.

scholarly journals Comparison of the effect of two drugs paracetamol with intravenous ibuprofen in patent ductus arteriosus treatment

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (5) ◽  
pp. 690
Author(s):  
Mehrdad Mirzarahimi ◽  
Ramin Emamzadeghan ◽  
Afsaneh Enteshari Moghaddam ◽  
Narges Falsafi
Keyword(s):  
Patent Ductus Arteriosus ◽  
Ductus Arteriosus ◽  
Alternative Therapy ◽  
Cyclooxygenase Inhibitors ◽  
Arterial Duct ◽  
Intravenous Paracetamol ◽  
Liver Parameters ◽  
Intravenous Ibuprofen ◽  
Patent Ductus

Background: Patent ductus arteriosus (PDA) is a common cause of morbidity and mortality among premature infants that affects more than 40% of them. PDA treatment includes medical and surgical treatment. Most drugs used to block PDA are cyclooxygenase inhibitors (ibuprofen and indomethacin). The role of paracetamol as an alternative therapy in PDA ligation has been considered in recent years due to the potential side effects of cyclooxygenase inhibitors.Methods: Patients in the first group were treated with intravenous paracetamol at a dose of 15 mg/kg every 6 hours for three days and the second group was treated with intravenous ibuprofen at a daily dose of 10 mg/kg daily and 5 mg/kg for the second and third days. At the end of the treatment period (day 3), they underwent echocardiography again. If the echocardiographic findings indicated no closure of the arterial duct, patients were treated with the aforementioned drug for another period and rechecked at the end of the third day, and at each stage required information was collected.Results: Arterial duct closure in paracetamol group was 96.7% and in ibuprofen group was 100%. The effects of both paracetamol and ibuprofen were similar in terms of renal parameters but in terms of effects on liver parameters. The effect of paracetamol on all liver parameters except aspartate transaminase (AST) was significant, but ibuprofen was able to affect only bilirubin among liver parameters and had no significant effect on both AST and alanine aminotransferase, parameters.Conclusions: Results showed that both paracetamol and ibuprofen are effective in treating of PDA and had similar impact.

Women Patrons in Medieval Anatolia And a Discussion of Māhbarī Khātūn’s Mosque Complex in Kayseri

Belleten ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 78 (282) ◽  
pp. 475-526
Author(s):  
Patricia Blessıng
Keyword(s):  
Fourteenth Century ◽  
Muslim Woman ◽  
The Dead ◽  
Women Patrons

This article traces the role of female patrons of architecture in thirteenth- and early fourteenth-century Anatolia. At the center stands Māhbarī Khātūn, the mother of the Seljuk Sultan Ghiyāth al-Dīn Kaykhusraw II (R 1237-46). During the rule of her son, Māhbarī Khātūn was active as a patron of architecture, building most notably the Huand Hatun complex in Kayseri in 1238, and several caravanserais. The foundation inscriptions of these monuments, and the funerary inscription on Māhbarī Khātūn's cenotaph in the Huand Hatun mausoleum present the founder both as the mother of the sultan, and as a pious Muslim woman. The insistence on Māhbarī Khātūn's position as the sultan's mother points to her activity in a later stage of life, after the dead of her husband, 'Alā' al-Dīn Kayqubād (R 1220-37), when her status was akin to that of the valide sultan in later Ottoman practice. This article compares Māhbarī Khātūn to other known female patrons, active in Anatolia during Seljuk and Ilkhanid rule, who are mostly recorded in their foundation inscriptions. Thus, the importance of these inscriptions as sources to trace patrons who are marginal in the chronicles and hagiographies of the time, as is the case for female members of the Seljuk court, clearly emerges.

Towards a Renewed Vision of Imperial Authority

2019 ◽  
pp. 237-269
Author(s):  
Florin Leonte
Keyword(s):  
Fourteenth Century ◽  
Political Communication ◽  
The West ◽  
Substantial Body ◽  
Political Messages ◽  
Imperial Authority ◽  
Second Stage ◽  
Two Stages

The chapter discusses how Manuel Palaiologos’ texts reveal not only the emperor’s standpoints in his attempts to answer political challenges, but also a long-term imperial project that sought to establish a system of effective political communication by exhibiting his fatherly concern for his son and co-emperor. This project involved two stages with changing approaches. In the first stage, the emperor strengthened his connections with the literati and frequently chaired theatra. The letters and the dialogic mode of his text on marriage point to the fact that during the last decade of the fourteenth century, the emperor did not have at his disposal too many possibilities of circulating his political messages except for the rather informal meetings in the framework of theatra. In a second stage, which chronologically coincided with the years following the emperor’s return from the West, Manuel attempted to consolidate his ruling position by highlighting in the Foundations and the Orations that he appointed his son, John, as successor. In the absence of a more substantial body of court rhetoricians, the emperor undertook the role of a social-political commentator and accordingly put forward a personal discourse on imperial authority.

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