Lesions as Therapy: Rigidity and Parkinsons Disease

Since James Parkinson (1817) first characterized the shaking palsy as a unique condition, significant confusion has remained concerning the causes and treatments of Parkinson‘s disease (PD). Through the 19th century, a wide variety of approaches were attempted in an effort to reduce its cardinal signs – rigidity, tremor, and bradykinesia – but to little effect. Today, approaching 200 years after Parkinson‘s seminal work, this disorder is commonly treated by surgical means, inducing a lesion in one specific portion of a small nucleus in the central nervous system (Desaloms et al., 1998, Lang et al., 1999). The notion of providing a lesion to the nervous system as a therapy for PD, however, began in earnest at the beginning of the 20th century. The first attempt to alleviate the symptoms of PD through surgical means involved a section of the dorsal roots of the spinal cord supplying the affected limb (also known as dorsal rhizotomy).Today, selective dorsal rhizotomy is commonly performed to treat chronic pain (Scrivani et al., 1999) and spasticity in children with cerebral palsy (Vaughan et al., 1998). Thus, for certain types of paralysis, this procedure relieves some measure of rigidity without producing further complications.     

Lesions as therapy: surgical intervention in Parkinson's disease prior to L-dopa

The study of Parkinson's disease has undergone vast changes across its almost 200 year history. Over this period, research scientists have added dramatic detail to their understanding both of the motor system in general and the etiology of Parkinson's disease specifically. This expanded understanding has been facilitated, particularly, by the work of clinicians with the goal of improving treatments designed to ameliorate its symptoms. This article examines the evolution of one particular clinical approach, the production of lesions to segments of the basal ganglia, from its inception, through its "golden era," disuse, and rebirth.     

南京大屠杀前夕南京人口的变化

自20世纪80年代以来,日本右派学一直在南京大屠杀的人数问题上大做章,其中一个特别具有煽动和迷惑性的论点就是,南京沦陷前夕南京居民只有20万,加上5万的守城部队,“怎么会有30万人被杀呢?”日本右派学“20万说”的“根据”究竟为何?南京沦陷之前究竟还有多少人留在南京?对南京沦陷之前南京人口数字问题的解读为何大相径庭?本认为,日本右派学在论述“战前南京人口”时,在史料的选择上,他们只采用对自己观点有利的史料,而摒弃对已不利的一切史料;在论述过程中,他们经常不断置换南京市人口与南京城区人口、南京城区常住人口与南京城内人口等不同概念;在论述立场方面,则一直试图压低战前南京人口数字,以说明屠杀“30万”之不可能。日本右派学对南京战前人口问题的偏向诠释与解读,将不利于两国民众对战争仇恨的化解与共同历史的构建。     

Limits to Radical Intervention: Agricultural Taxation in West Bengal

Agricultural taxation policy formulation under the Left Front government in West Bengal indicates landed interests are now powerful enough to resist enhanced taxation. As the most radical government in India abandoned proposed agricultural tax increases in the face of landowner opposition, and felt obliged to lower land taxes instead, India is not likely to increase land revenue for economic development. This effective landowner veto power over taxation policy indicates significant agrarian reform is not forthcoming in India, and the trend is towards greater subsidies for surplus-producing farmers. The research was conducted through interviews with the policy formulators in West Bengal.     

Assembling Sovereignty: Canadian Claims to the Athabasca District Prior to Treaty No. 8

ABSTRACT

Recent Canadian legal scholarship has emphasised the centrality of treaties between the colonial state and First Nations in the assertion of Canadian sovereignty over Indigenous lands. Historical interpretations, meanwhile, would suggest that sovereignty, rather than asserted, is assembled over time. Historically, sovereignty is understood to be contingent and layered; it is assembled through a series of ‘detours, improvisations and tinkering.’ This paper looks at the historical circumstances of Canadian sovereignty in the Athabasca district prior to the making of Treaty No. 8 with the First Nations. British sovereignty claims to Rupert's Land and the Northwestern Territories (including the area that came to be known as the Athabasca district), were assembled through the practices and activities of the Hudson's Bay Company. These claims were transferred to Canada in 1869 and Canada hesitantly and quietly took measures to further assemble and express its sovereignty in these lands. Canada surveyed and inventoried the Athabasca district's resources, commenced exploratory work on petroleum resources, provided relief from famine, financially supported schools for Indigenous children, and established and enforced a system of law. By the time Treaty No. 8 was negotiated in 1899, Canada had thus taken a series of steps to assemble and express its sovereignty in the district. Rather than establishing, asserting or legitimating Canadian sovereignty, Treaty No. 8 may be better understood as another measure in the process of assembling it.     

Southern African San Rock Painting as Social Intervention: A Study of Rain-Control Images

Many aspects of southern African San rock art images can be understood in the light of nineteenth- and twentieth-century ethnography. San beliefs about different kinds of rain-animals and the secrecy that attended rain-control rites informed different kinds of social relations between rain-controllers themselves and between them and other people. San communities were less egalitarian than is often supposed, though ongrounds that are commonly overlooked. These points are made in reference to a hitherto unknown painted site.De nombreux aspects de lart rupestre sud-africain peuvent être compris à la lumière de documents ethnographiques des dix-neuvième et vingtième siècles. La croyance des San en différentes sortes danimaux de pluie et le secret environnant les rites de contrôle de lapluie ont révélé plusieurs types de relations sociales entre les faiseurs de pluie eux-mêmes, ainsi quentreceux-ci et les autres personnes. Les communautés san étaient moins égalitaires quon le suppose souvent, bien que cela napparaisse que sur des bases généralement négligées. Ces points sont développés en référence à un site orné jusquà présent inconnu.     

From DOPA to Parkinson's disease: the early history of dopamine research

Dopamine is among the most well-researched neurotransmitters at the present time. For the first half-century of neurotransmitter research, however, interest in dopamine was minimal, and only a few scattered groups of researchers studied it. It was their research that stimulated current interest, and provided the background for our present understanding of this important substance. By the late 1950s, it was clear to these individuals that dopamine served an important physiological role in mammalian brains, and that its role was most likely that of a central nervous system agonist. Soon after this, dopamine, or more specifically the depletion of dopamine, was clearly implicated in Parkinson's disease. This paper looks at the early history of the physiological roles of this intriguing compound.     

Prior to Peat: Assessing the Hiatus between Mesolithic Activity and Peat Inception on the Southern Pennine Moors

Palaeoecological investigation of soils exposed by eroding peat haggs on the moors above Tintwistle (Derbyshire) suggests that Mesolithic impact on upland soils between c. 360–500 m OD was not as dramatic, nor as long-lasting, as has sometimes been suggested. Despite evident erosion prior to peat inception, patterning has survived within Mesolithic scatters of artefacts. Neolithic activity is attested by both artefacts and charcoal-rich horizons suggesting intermittent burning of vegetation. Peat finally blanketed these uplands around the start of the second millennium cal. BC.

These results demonstrate radically different scenarios at different altitudes within relatively small distances across the southern Pennines, shifting our appreciation of the chronology of changes in vegetation and erosion, as well as contributing to wider debate on the causes of moorland development, which can inform future land management.     

Congenital Syphilis in the Archaeological Record: Diagnostic Insensitivity of Osseous Lesions

The paucity of convincing evidence for congenital bone lesions of syphilis in the archaeological record led to study of the human remains from the Buffalo site in West Virginia, dated at 550—650 years BP. The diagnosis of syphilis (venereal) in adults was based on previously validated population criteria for the recognition of syphilis and its distinction from among the other treponemal diseases. Among the 151 juveniles (23.3 per cent of the total series), only one had macroscopic evidence of periosteal disease. The low frequency of recognizable osseous stigmata characteristic of congenital syphilis, combined with the conspicuous absence of pathognomonic dental lesions, make such periosteal lesions insufficiently sensitive criteria for the identification of syphilis in the archaeological record. © 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

改革开放30年的先秦史研究

自1978年十一届三中全会确立解放思想、实事求是的思想路线以来,中国的先秦史研究取得了丰硕的成果。其表现首先是围绕着一系列考古发现的新材料,得出了对于先秦历史文化的新认识;其次是靠了思想观念的转变及理论的更新,在走出古史分期讨论的窄胡同以后,学者们的视野更开阔了,研究领域也更广泛了。新时期先秦史研究所取得的成就是巨大的,然而无论在专题研究还是在断代史研究方面,都还存在很多不足,还有一系列的课题需要继续开拓。为此,今后一是要继续坚持解放思想、实事求是的思想路线,坚持反对教条主义和公式主义。二是增进开放意识,加强对西方史学、考古学、文化人类学有关理论的学习和引进。三是加强历史学与考古学的联系,实现二者的整合。四是增进学风建设,提倡扎实稳重的治学方法和治学精神。     

Russia in the Eastern Mediterranean: Intervention,Deterrence, Containment

The Syrian Civil War gave the opportunity to Russia to establish itself as a pivotal strategic element in the region of the Eastern Mediterranean. This can be seen in the Russian military presence in Syria and in the new Russian maritime strategy in the Black Sea and in the Eastern Mediterranean. This articles argues that deterrence is not enough by itself to put an obstacle in Russian regional expansionism and that a new containment policy is required in order for the West to maintain the existing status in the Eastern Mediterranean.     

Resisting RAMSI: Intervention,Identity and Symbolism in Solomon Islands

ABSTRACT The Australian‐led Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands (RAMSI) continues to enjoy high levels of approval amongst Solomon Islanders. However, this approval belies the existence of a minority, but nevertheless important, dissenting perspective, one which has mostly emanated from Malaitan quarters. How are we to interpret Malaitan expressions of opposition to RAMSI? While these dissenting voices can, in part, be seen through a lens of legal and economic rationality, Malaitan opposition to RAMSI must be properly located within a deeper tradition of Malaitan resistance to the imposition of alien and centralised authority. Malaitans have responded to the RAMSI intervention by invoking kastom as a symbol of difference, unity and resistance, just as they have done in the past. It is argued that resistance to RAMSI must be (re)interpreted as having fundamentally cultural and historical underpinnings. Resisting RAMSI is as much about asserting culture and identity as it is about money and power. This argument is drawn out through an historically contextualised analysis of contemporary articulations of Malaitan resistance. The voices examined come from the public statements of prominent Malaitans, the published manifesto of the Malaita Ma'asina Forum, and interviews with former members of the Malaita Eagle Force.     

Feminist Forays in the City: Imbalance and Intervention in Urban Research Methods

In this paper I argue that imbalances and silences persist in urban research. In particular, there is insufficient attention to anti‐racist and feminist theoretical, methodological, and empirical insights. Intersectional and materialist urban analyses that take difference seriously are under‐represented, while patriarchy, privilege, and positivism still linger. As a partial and aspirational remedy, I propose a “Feminist Partial Political Economy of Place” (FPEP) approach to urban research. FPEP is characterized by: (1) attention to gendered, raced, and intersectional power relations, including affinities and alliances; (2) reliance on partial, place‐based, materialist research that attends to power in knowledge production; (3) emphasis on feminist concepts of relationality to examine connections among sites, scales, and subjects, and to emphasize “life” and possibility; and (4) the use of theoretical toolkits to observe, interpret and challenge material‐discursive power relations. My own critique and research centers on North American cities, but FPEP approaches might help produce more robust, inclusive, and explanatory urban research in varied geographic contexts.