Cerebrospinal fluid is a significant fluid source for anoxic cerebral oedema

Cerebral oedema develops after anoxic brain injury. In two models of asphyxial and asystolic cardiac arrest without resuscitation, we found that oedema develops shortly after anoxia secondary to terminal depolarizations and the abnormal entry of CSF. Oedema severity correlated with the availability of CSF with the age-dependent increase in CSF volume worsening the severity of oedema. Oedema was identified primarily in brain regions bordering CSF compartments in mice and humans. The degree of ex vivo tissue swelling was predicted by an osmotic model suggesting that anoxic brain tissue possesses a high intrinsic osmotic potential. This osmotic process was temperature-dependent, proposing an additional mechanism for the beneficial effect of therapeutic hypothermia. These observations show that CSF is a primary source of oedema fluid in anoxic brain. This novel insight offers a mechanistic basis for the future development of alternative strategies to prevent cerebral oedema formation after cardiac arrest

Music and Mass Education: Cultivation or Control?

The nineteenth century witnessed the rise of public institutions, affecting the education and welfare of people across the social classes but with most impact on the lower orders. Music was to be found throughout, whether in schools, workhouses of asylums. Its role plays an important part in investigating the balance and tensions inherent in liberal attitudes between controlling the individual and allowing for self-expression and cultural development. In this chapter I investigate examples from public institutions using music for discipline, development and rational recreation. Large pauper institutions such as the workhouse, prison and asylum form the basis for exploring the possible uses of music within the new reforming liberalism. This is followed by a more extended investigation into the role of music within the elementary educational reforms of the 1850s and 1860s, using parliamentary reports, journals and new sources to explore the varying arguments and ideals debated during this period