Innovation in Byzantine Medicine

Author(s):  
Petros Bouras-Vallianatos

Byzantine medicine is still a little-known and misrepresented field not only in the wider arena of debates on medieval medicine but also among Byzantinists. Byzantine medical literature is often viewed as ‘stagnant’ and mainly preserving ancient ideas; and our knowledge of it continues to be based to a great extent on the comments of earlier authorities, which are often repeated uncritically. This book presents the first comprehensive examination of the medical corpus of, arguably, the most important late Byzantine physician John Zacharias Aktouarios (c.1275–c.1330). The main thesis is that John’s medical works show an astonishing degree of openness to knowledge from outside Byzantium combined with a significant degree of originality, in particular, in the fields of uroscopy, pharmacology, and human physiology. The analysis of John’s edited (On Urines and On Psychic Pneuma) and unedited (Medical Epitome) works is supported for the first time by the consultation of a large number of manuscripts. The study is also informed by evidence from a wide range of medical sources, including previously unpublished ones, and texts from other genres, such as epistolography and merchants’ accounts. The contextualization of John’s works sheds new light on the development of Byzantine medical thought and practice, and enhances our understanding of the late Byzantine social and intellectual landscape. Finally, John’s medical observations are also examined in the light of examples from the medieval Latin and Islamic worlds, placing his medical theories in the wider Mediterranean milieu and highlighting the cultural exchange between Byzantium and its neighbours.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Abajyan ◽  
Narine Dilbaryan ◽  
Anahit Yuzbashyan ◽  
Kristine Harutyunyan

The monograph examines the issues of the historical idiom of the Armenian language, defines the temporal understanding of the idiom, as well as reveals the richness of the idiom of the ancient Armenian language in both independent and multi-genre translated literature. Both semantic and stylistic examination of Grabar phrases has been carried out, which provides a solid material for historical stylistics. A comprehensive examination of the Old Armenian phrases in works of different genres of the Old Armenian bibliography provides a basis for evaluating them as important components of word construction, as well as to present the hereditary connection, commonalities and differences between the Old Armenian and modern Armenian phrases. Grabar’s idioms have not been thoroughly examined up now, and about 400 of the more than 3000 phrases examined in the work are not listed in the Old Armenian dictionaries and are presented for the first time. The monograph is intended for a wide range of linguists, literary critics, translators, as well as specialists interested in phraseology. (in Armenian)


2020 ◽  
pp. 63-72
Author(s):  
Yu. Olefir ◽  
E. Sakanyan ◽  
I. Osipova ◽  
V. Dobrynin ◽  
M. Smirnova ◽  
...  

The entry of a wide range of biotechnological products into the pharmaceutical market calls for rein-forcement of the quality, efficacy and safety standards at the state level. The following general monographs have been elaborated for the first time to be included into the State Pharmacopoeia of the Russian Federation, XIV edition: "Viral safety" and "Reduction of the risk of transmitting animal spongiform encephalopathy via medicinal products". These general monographs were elaborated taking into account the requirements of foreign pharmacopoeias and the WHO recommendations. The present paper summarises the key aspects of the monographs.


Author(s):  
Joshua M. White

This book offers a comprehensive examination of the shape and impact of piracy in the eastern half of the Mediterranean and the Ottoman Empire’s administrative, legal, and diplomatic response. In the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, piracy had a tremendous effect on the formation of international law, the conduct of diplomacy, the articulation of Ottoman imperial and Islamic law, and their application in Ottoman courts. Piracy and Law draws on research in archives and libraries in Istanbul, Venice, Crete, London, and Paris to bring the Ottoman state and Ottoman victims into the story for the first time. It explains why piracy exploded after the 1570s and why the Ottoman state was largely unable to marshal an effective military solution even as it responded dynamically in the spheres of law and diplomacy. By focusing on the Ottoman victims, jurists, and officials who had to contend most with the consequences of piracy, Piracy and Law reveals a broader range of piratical practitioners than the Muslim and Catholic corsairs who have typically been the focus of study and considers their consequences for the Ottoman state and those who traveled through Ottoman waters. This book argues that what made the eastern half of the Mediterranean basin the Ottoman Mediterranean, more than sovereignty or naval supremacy—which was ephemeral—was that it was a legal space. The challenge of piracy helped to define its contours.


Author(s):  
Noel Malcolm

This book of essays covers a wide range of topics in the history of Albania and Kosovo. Many of the essays illuminate connections between the Albanian lands and external powers and interests, whether political, military, diplomatic or religious. Such topics include the Habsburg invasion of Kosovo in 1689, the manoeuvrings of Britain and France towards the Albanian lands during the Napoleonic Wars, the British interest in those lands in the late nineteenth century, and the Balkan War of 1912. On the religious side, essays examine ‘crypto-Christianity’ in Kosovo during the Ottoman period, the stories of conversion to Islam revealed by Inquisition records, the first theological treatise written in Albanian (1685), and the work of the ‘Apostolic Delegate’ who reformed the Catholic Church in early twentieth-century Albania. Some essays bring to life ordinary individuals hitherto unknown to history: women hauled before the Inquisition, for example, or the author of the first Albanian autobiography. The longest essay, on Ali Pasha, tells for the first time the full story of the role he played in the international politics of the Napoleonic Wars. Some of these studies have been printed before (several in hard-to-find publications, and one only in Albanian), but the greater part of this book appears here for the first time. This is not only a contribution to Albanian and Balkan history it also engages with many broader issues, including religious conversion, methods of enslavement within the Ottoman Empire, and the nature of modern myth-making about national identity.


The recycling and reuse of materials and objects were extensive in the past, but have rarely been embedded into models of the economy; even more rarely has any attempt been made to assess the scale of these practices. Recent developments, including the use of large datasets, computational modelling, and high-resolution analytical chemistry, are increasingly offering the means to reconstruct recycling and reuse, and even to approach the thorny matter of quantification. Growing scholarly interest in the topic has also led to an increasing recognition of these practices from those employing more traditional methodological approaches, which are sometimes coupled with innovative archaeological theory. Thanks to these efforts, it has been possible for the first time in this volume to draw together archaeological case studies on the recycling and reuse of a wide range of materials, from papyri and textiles, to amphorae, metals and glass, building materials and statuary. Recycling and reuse occur at a range of site types, and often in contexts which cross-cut material categories, or move from one object category to another. The volume focuses principally on the Roman Imperial and late antique world, over a broad geographical span ranging from Britain to North Africa and the East Mediterranean. Last, but not least, the volume is unique in focusing upon these activities as a part of the status quo, and not just as a response to crisis.


1998 ◽  
Vol 162 ◽  
pp. 100-105
Author(s):  
Andrew J. Norton ◽  
Mark H. Jones

The Open University is the UK's foremost distance teaching university. For over twenty five years we have been presenting courses to students spanning a wide range of degree level and vocational subjects. Since we have no pre-requisites for entry, a major component of our course profile is a selection of foundation courses comprising one each in the Arts, Social Science, Mathematics, Technology and Science faculties. The Science Faculty's foundation course is currently undergoing a substantial revision. The new course, entitled “S103: Discovering Science”, will be presented to students for the first time in 1998.


Metabolites ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (8) ◽  
pp. 481
Author(s):  
Gemma G. Martínez-García ◽  
Raúl F. Pérez ◽  
Álvaro F. Fernández ◽  
Sylvere Durand ◽  
Guido Kroemer ◽  
...  

Autophagy is an essential protective mechanism that allows mammalian cells to cope with a variety of stressors and contributes to maintaining cellular and tissue homeostasis. Due to these crucial roles and also to the fact that autophagy malfunction has been described in a wide range of pathologies, an increasing number of in vivo studies involving animal models targeting autophagy genes have been developed. In mammals, total autophagy inactivation is lethal, and constitutive knockout models lacking effectors of this route are not viable, which has hindered so far the analysis of the consequences of a systemic autophagy decline. Here, we take advantage of atg4b−/− mice, an autophagy-deficient model with only partial disruption of the process, to assess the effects of systemic reduction of autophagy on the metabolome. We describe for the first time the metabolic footprint of systemic autophagy decline, showing that impaired autophagy results in highly tissue-dependent alterations that are more accentuated in the skeletal muscle and plasma. These changes, which include changes in the levels of amino-acids, lipids, or nucleosides, sometimes resemble those that are frequently described in conditions like aging, obesity, or cardiac damage. We also discuss different hypotheses on how impaired autophagy may affect the metabolism of several tissues in mammals.


2013 ◽  
Vol 1498 ◽  
pp. 73-78 ◽  
Author(s):  
N. Gozde Durmus ◽  
Erik N. Taylor ◽  
Kim M. Kummer ◽  
Thomas J. Webster

ABSTRACTBiofilms are a major source of medical device-associated infections, due to their persistent growth and antibiotic resistance. Recent studies have shown that engineering surface nanoroughness has great potential to create antibacterial surfaces. In addition, stimulation of bacterial metabolism increases the efficacy of antibacterial agents to eradicate biofilms. In this study, we combined the antibacterial effects of nanorough topographies with metabolic stimulation (i.e., fructose metabolites) to further decrease bacterial growth on polyvinyl chloride (PVC) surfaces, without using antibiotics. We showed for the first time that the presence of fructose on nanorough PVC surfaces decreased planktonic bacteria growth and biofilm formation after 24 hours. Most importantly, a 60% decrease was observed on nanorough PVC surfaces soaked in a 10 mM fructose solution compared to conventional PVC surfaces. In this manner, this study demonstrated that bacteria growth can be significantly decreased through the combined use of fructose and nanorough surfaces and thus should be further studied for a wide range of antibacterial applications.


2010 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 381-402
Author(s):  
Ingrid Monson ◽  
John Gennari ◽  
Travis A. Jackson

Do not miss Robin D. G. Kelley's Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original, for it will stand as the definitive biography of the great American composer and pianist for many years to come. What distinguishes Kelley's treatment of Monk's complicated and enigmatic life is the sheer depth and breadth of primary research, including, for the first time, the active cooperation and involvement of Thelonious Monk's family. In his acknowledgments, Kelley describes a long process of convincing Thelonious Monk, III to grant permission culminating in a six-hour meeting in which his knowledge, credentials, and commitment were thoroughly tested and challenged. Once he had secured “Toot's” blessings, as well as that of his wife Gale and brother-in-law Peter Grain, Kelley was introduced to Nellie Monk, Thelonious Monk's wife, and a wide range of family and friends who shared their memories and personal archives of photos, recordings, and papers. This is not an authorized biography, however, since Thelonious Monk, Jr. never demanded the right to see drafts or dictate the content. Rather Kelley was admonished to “dig deep and tell the truth.”


2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin Deschamps ◽  
Chris Nester ◽  
Veronica Newton ◽  
Gabriel Gijon-Nogueron ◽  
Engin Simsek ◽  
...  

AbstractFoot orthoses have been used for decades despite uncertainty surrunding their therapeutic efficacy. Orthoses have been used exclusively to affect neuro-biomechanical input and outcome variables, however, there is emerging evidence that therapeutic efficacy may be affected by a psychological stimulus. Critical appraisal of the literature highlights that there is no holistic model upon which foot orthosis practice is taught, practised nor investigated. This paper introduces a conceptual model of foot orthosis practice (Value Based Foot Orthosis Practice (VALUATOR) model) that embraces a broader range of factors that are pertinent to orthosis practice, incorporating contemporary health service behaviours and values into orthosis practice for the first time.Within the VALUATOR model, foot orthosis design and clinical value is considered along a bio-psycho-social-digital continuum that reflects the reality of foot orthosis practice. The model contextualises the variable outcomes that are observed in research and practice within 6 key areas: 1) value, 2) person-centered approach, 3) zone of optimal bio-psycho-social stress, 4) bio-psycho-social assessment, 5) monitoring, 6) primary and secondary clinical strategies.The VALUATOR model is targeted at students, lecturers, scientists and practitioners and includes carefully chosen terminology to support a robust basis for educational and scientific discussion. It is believed that it provides a contemporary viewpoint and a structured conceptual metaphor that builds on existing evidence from a wide range of sources, invites constructive intellectual debate, and is anchored in the experiences of practitioners too. Stress testing the VALUATOR model will help determine its model and support further developments and evolution of orthotic practice in a evidence based way.


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