Time course and regional distribution of cortical changes during acute alcohol ingestion

Behavioral effects of alcohol are known to be greater when the blood alcohol is rising, known as the Mellanby effect; however, research investigating the cortical changes during this period is scarce. The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of consumption of alcohol on cortical activity measured by the electroencephalogram (EEG) during the absorption or rising phase of alcohol EEG signals were recorded using the entire 10/20 montage system. The experimental design consisted of a repeated measures randomized crossover design in which subjects acted as their own control. This involved recording two EEG baseline measures, each of which was followed by a placebo or alcohol condition, delivered over two days for ten subjects. All subjects had a 50% chance of receiving the alcohol first. All subjects were shown to have mean peak blood alcohol concentration (BAC) levels of around .03%. No significant differences were found between the two baselines. Significant increases in EEG magnitude occurred in the theta (4-7.75 Hz), alpha 1 (8-9.75 Hz), and beta 1 (13.25-19.75 Hz) spectrum in the frontal EEG regions, and alpha 1 (8-9.75 Hz) in the central and posterior regions. No significant changes were found in the theta (4-7.75 Hz) or beta (13.5-30 Hz) spectrums in the central and posterior regions. There were also no significant results for alpha 2 (10-13 Hz) in any of the regions. These results suggest that rapid cortical changes occur within the first 35 min after alcohol consumption

AUSTRALIA’S PARTICIPATION AND PERFORMANCE AT THE EVIAN CONFERENCE: INTEGRITY OR SHAME?

This article outlines and assesses the contribution made by the Commonwealth of Australia to the Evian Conference of July 1938. The attitude of the Australian government, it will be shown, was ambivalent from the start, with the Commonwealth not even prepared to attend unless Britain also attended. Having then made the commitment to send a representative to Evian, the Australian government chose a man who was neither an immigration expert nor a man with any foreign affairs expertise. Thomas (later Sir Thomas) White, the Australian Minister for Trade and Customs, was a senior minister in the Cabinet of Prime Minister Joseph Lyons, but the experience required for the task of representing Australia at a gathering such as Evian was simply beyond him. The legalistic and unsympathetic stance he adopted led to despair for many of the Jewish delegates at Evian. Upon elected to the chairmanship of one of the two subcommittees set up at the conference, White employed his position to treat the Jewish delegates with utter contempt. His record at the conference, lauded by many of the officials who were present, was one of the least humanitarian of any that can be attributed to Australian statesmen—hardly a ringing endorsement of Australia’s record at this crucial gathering in which the Commonwealth sought, at an early stage, to express itself as an autonomous nation on the international stage

Stress, ageing and their influence on functional, cellular and molecular aspects of the immune system

The immune response is essential for keeping an organism healthy and for defending it from different types of pathogens. It is a complex system that consists of a large number of components performing different functions. The adequate and controlled interaction between these components is necessary for a robust and strong immune response. There are, however, many factors that interfere with the way the immune response functions. Stress and ageing now consistently appear in the literature as factors that act upon the immune system in the way that is often damaging. This review focuses on the role of stress and ageing in altering the robustness of the immune response first separately, and then simultaneously, discussing the effects that emerge from their interplay. The special focus is on the psychological stress and the impact that it has at different levels, from the whole system to the individual molecules, resulting in consequences for physical health

The Vaccination Model in Psychoneuroimmunology Research: A Review

This chapter explores the reasoning behind using the vaccination model to examine the influence of psychosocial factors on immunity. It then briefly discusses the mechanics of the vaccination response and the protocols used in psychoneuroimmunology vaccine research, before giving examples from the research literature of the studies examining relationships such as the association between stress and vaccination response. It also explores the ways the vaccination model can be used to answer key questions in psychoneuroimmunology, such as the following: “Does it matter when stressful life events occur relative to when the vaccine is received?” “What are the effects of prior exposure to the antigen?” “Do other psychosocial factors influence vaccine response besides stress?” Finally, it briefly considers the mechanisms underlying psychosocial factors and vaccination response associations and the future research needed to understand these better, and indeed to use current and future knowledge to improve and enhance vaccine responses in key at-risk populations

On Lee’s Nazism and Neo-Nazism in Film and Media

Nazism and Neo-Nazism in Film and Media. By Jason Lee. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2018. 200 pp., ISBN 978-9089649362, $20

On Noack’s Veit Harlan

Veit Harlan: The Life and Work of a Nazi Filmmaker. By Frank Noack. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2016. ISBN 978-0813167008, $50 (hb

Episodes from the Genocide of the Native Americans: A Review Essay

The genocide of indigenous peoples throughout the Americas represents one of the greatest and most extensive human catastrophes in history. The pace and magnitude of the destruction varied from region to region over the years, but it can safely be concluded that, in the two-and-a-half centuries following Christopher Columbus’ ‘‘discovery’’ of the Americas in 1492, probably 95% of the pre-Columbian population was wiped out—by disease as well as by deliberate policy on the part of the Spanish, the French, the English, and, ultimately, the American-born heirs of those colonizing nations