(De)Constructing the Madonna’s Cloth of Honor

The present study centers on pieced textiles included in Marian paintings of the Proto-Renaissance era rendered in Tuscany. The complex geometric patterns of these cloths mimic those found in the Islamic textiles that were then being imported into Europe, consumed by the aristocracy, and later imitated by Italian cloth makers. On a basic level, their colors and patterning reference the virtues of the Virgin, her mission to bring about the Incarnation of Christ, her selflessness, virtuous character, and majesty. They also contribute to her humanization since these are material objects that belonged in the aristocratic domestic setting and which were familiar to the patrons who paid for the works. On a deeper level, they provide complex layers of meaning, some of which derive from Moorish iconography. They reference the perfection of God’s creation and the promise of an affable afterlife. They also evoke the remote lands where the lives of the Virgin and Christ unfolded. By inserting pieced cloths into Marian iconography, artists were following a long established tradition of utilizing the piecing technique in Early Medieval sacred practice, an issue that until now has not been recognized.

Role of Pegfilgrastim in the Supportive Care of Heavily Pretreated Multiple Myeloma in Treatment with Pomalidomide-Dexamethasone

Pegfilgrastim is a pegylated long-acting recombinant form of G-CSF that extends the half-life and allows for once-per-cycle dosing, requiring less frequent dosing than nonpegylated G-CSF. The objective of this study was to compare the efficacy and safety of pegfilgrastim in patients affected by heavily pretreated MM, treated with pomalidomide-dexamethasone, in order to determine whether a single subcutaneous injection of pegfilgrastim is as effective as daily injections of standard filgrastim, in terms of haematological toxicity, febrile neutropenic episodes, antibiotic usage and hospedalization duration. 57 patients (31 M and 26 F) were enrolled, median age at diagnosis 69 years (r. 52-84), and median age at start of treatment 76 years (r.56-90) treated with several lines of treatments (median 7, r. 2-12), every refractory to all the drugs previously received, received Pomalidomide-Dexamethasone (P 4 mg for 21 days, D 40 mg days 1,8,15,22, pegfilgrastim day +8) every 28 days, until progression. Since first course, received in domestic setting, with a very good compliance, patients performed blood counts once weekly and received, from day +8 to day +19, prophylactic oral chinolonic antibiotics and anti-fungal drugs. During neutropenia after first cycle, Filgrastim (5 μgr/kg/day for 3 days) was given if neutrophils count was <1500 x 10^9 cells/L. Median number of filgrastim administrations was 4.6 (r. 3-6); nadir neutropenia was registered after a median of 10.4 days (r. 7-14); median of nadir neutrophil count was 1.13 x 10^9 cells/L (r.0.3 - 1.5), with maximum duration of 14 days. From the second course, all patients switched to prophylaxis with pegfilgrastim (6 mg), injected subcutaneously with a single administration on day +3 independently from the neutrophil count at that time. During pegfilgrastim, neutropenia was never longer than 8 days, with a consequent reduction of neutropenia-related infections. Median nadir neutrophil count, evaluated for every patients for at least three courses of therapy (r. 3-6) registered at day +11, was 1.28 (r.0.9-2.2). Only 4 patients needed a supplement of 3 administrations of filgrastim. Pegfilgrastim was well tolerated in all patients: main side effects in our patients were mild fever and bone pain (21.2%). In patients affected by heavily pretreated MM treated with pomalidomide-dexamethasone, pegfilgrastim seems to reduce the incidence of severe neutropenia and infections and may increase the possibility to maintain the scheduled time of treatment. Disclosures Pane: AbbVie; Amgen; Novartis, GSK , Incyte: Consultancy; AbbVie; Amgen; Novartis, GSK, Incyte: Speakers Bureau; Novartis Pharma SAS;: Research Funding; AbbVie; Amgen; Novartis: Other: Travel, accommodation, expenses. Martinelli: Jazz Pharmaceuticals: Consultancy; Stemline Therapeutics: Consultancy; Astellas: Consultancy, Speakers Bureau; Roche: Consultancy; Incyte: Consultancy; Pfizer: Consultancy, Speakers Bureau; Abbvie: Consultancy; Celgene /BMS: Consultancy, Speakers Bureau; Daichii Sankyo: Consultancy.

Optimised environments for horse health and wellbeing: the use of alternative grazing

Despite the role of the horse having changed from working and sporting toward leisure, types of management have remained similar for the past century, with horses still being kept in small stables and paddocks which were predominantly designed for rest and recuperation after hard work. Many of the UK's major equine welfare challenges, such as stress and obesity, can now be traced towards management that does not fit well with horses' ethological needs. Some UK horse owners are now using creative strategies to manage their horses' welfare in a domestic setting, by structuring their turnout areas in ways that are designed around the horses' three key needs of ‘forage, friends and freedom’. Owners suggest that these management systems can be particularly useful for managing some of the most common equine health and wellbeing challenges, including equine metabolic syndrome, laminitis, stress or behavioural issues and arthritis. A better understanding of these systems could therefore be particularly useful to veterinary professionals who commonly need to assist owners in managing those conditions. This article describes the most frequently used alternative grazing systems, and the common advantages and pitfalls of each.

Modern Woolfian Fiction

Virginia Woolf radically transformed the novel of manners, a form defined by a domestic setting, limited emotional range, and the centrality of social codes. Woolf expanded this to include the whole range of human experience, partly through the use of shifting interior voices who meditate on art, marriage, grief, love, ambition, empire, gender, and the sea. With one long beautiful narrative sweep, Woolf turned the novel of manners into a novel of ideas. This expansion has had a profound effect on subsequent novelists such as Ian McEwan, Rachel Cusk, Michael Cunningham, Zadie Smith, Tessa Hadley, and the author of this chapter. These writers have used domestic settings and interior voices to write about the whole of life, laying claim to Woolf’s powerful and elastic new form, the novel-of-both-manners-and-ideas. This chapter examines works by these writers to show how Woolf’s luminous prose and deep empathy, her intellectual control and literary potency, continue to illuminate and vivify the contemporary novel.

The Salt of the Earth or the Murderess? The Problem of Femininity in the Novels of Agatha Christie

Agatha Christie’s outlook on gender, as depicted in her novels, has been described as conservative or even criticised as anti-feminist. However, more recently, a growing number of feminist scholars (Alison Light, Susan Rowland, Merja Makinen) have begun to oppose this view and instead argue that Christie’s approach to the various social phenomena depicted in her novels, including gender, is more nuanced and ambiguous than previously assumed. This paper explores the role of domesticity in general, and of food, eating and cooking in particular, in constructing such ambiguous portrayal of femininity in three of Agatha Christie’s detective novels: Cards on the Table (1936), The Hollow (1946), and 4.50 from Paddington (1957). The novels depict three groups of female characters possessing varying degrees of power and independence: the salt of the earth, i.e., the conservative homemaker, the eccentric, and the murderess. It is the aim of this paper to demonstrate that, paradoxically, it is o en through these female characters’ roles within the domestic setting and their engagement with food that they are able to overcome the limitations imposed on them by patriarchal society and achieve a certain level of autonomy within it.

Emergency Politics After Globalization

Exceptional times call for exceptional measures—this formula is all too familiar in the domestic setting. Governments have often played loose with their state's constitution in the name of warding off an urgent threat. But after decades of increasing interconnectedness and emerging transnational governance, today one sees new forms of emergency politics that are cross-border in range. From the European Union to the World Health Organization, from supranational institutions to state governments acting in concert, the logic of emergency is embraced in international contexts, with Covid-19 the latest occasion. This Forum offers an entry-point into this emerging phenomenon. Taking as its point of departure two recent books, it examines the origins, forms, effects and normative stakes of emergency politics beyond the state. Among the matters discussed are the concept of emergency politics, the historical context of its contemporary forms, the patterns of decision-making associated with it, the implications for the legitimacy of transnational institutions, and the constitutional and political ways in which it might be contained. Transnational emergency politics seems likely to remain a central feature of the coming years, and our aim is to further its study in international relations.

Feeding Roman Silchester: Querns and Millstones in and around Roman Towns

ABSTRACT Querns and millstones were central to the Roman agricultural economy, but are still relatively poorly understood. Using an exceptionally detailed dataset from the Roman town of Silchester as its main case study, this paper explores the supply of querns and the supply of flour in Romano-British urban sites and their rural hinterlands. The first part of the paper focuses on the assemblage of 715 querns and millstones from Silchester as commodities in their own right. It describes the stone types used for querns in the region, how the use of these changed over time, within and outside the town, and how the supply of querns to the town differed to that of the hinterland. These patterns of exploitation are used to make inferences about social and economic behaviour. Querns and millstones are also evidence for the preparation of flour and can be used to help us understand food-supply mechanisms, especially when considered together with archaeobotanical evidence. Analysis of the querns and millstones from closely dated contexts demonstrates that use of hand-powered rotary querns peaked in the town during the latest Iron Age and earliest Roman period. The use of rotary querns decreased significantly thereafter until, by the third century, the use of hand-operated rotary querns within the town was probably confined to a very basic household level in a domestic setting. At the same time, during the second or third century, powered millstones were introduced, with the archaeobotanical evidence suggesting a mill at an out-of-town location. Analysis of querns and millstones from a 20 km hinterland around Silchester suggests that household-level grinding was common, but that centralised milling was operating at a very low level and only to the north-west of the town. It is suggested that some flour was produced at centralised locations further afield and brought into the town ready ground. Supplementary material is available online (https://doi.org/10.1017/S0068113X21000040) and comprises detailed information on the lithologies of the querns and millstones from Silchester (including photographs), publication details of the sites in the town's hinterland and a spreadsheet recording the material.

Electricity induced burns and lung injury: A rare autopsy observation

Electrocutions injuries are frequently encountered in a domestic setting or as an occupational hazard. Electrocutions injuries sustained in occupational settings are often associated with significant morbidity and mortality globally. Autopsy diagnosis of electrocution is mostly based on gross and histopathological changes in the entry and exit wounds. Gross changes in form of entry and exit wounds, however, may not be present in all cases of electrocution. In such cases, histopathological changes in the internal organs along the path of current can be useful. We report a case of fatal electrocution involving a 23-year-old young male in which remarkable gross and microscopic changes were appreciated in the lung due to the passage of electric current through it. Such observations are rarely reported in literature and highlight on the significance of autopsy pathology in the diagnosis of electrocution.