Emerging medical and engineering strategies for the prevention of long-term indwelling catheter blockage

Urinary catheters have been used on an intermittent or indwelling basis for centuries, in order to relieve urinary retention and incontinence. Nevertheless, the use of urinary catheters in the clinical setting is fraught with complication, the most common of which is the development of nosocomial urinary tract infections, known as catheter-associated urinary tract infections. Infections of this nature are not only significant owing to their high incidence rate and subsequent economic burden but also to the severe medical consecutions that result. A range of techniques have been employed in recent years, utilising various technologies in attempts to counteract the perilous medical cascade following catheter blockage. This review will focus on the current advancement (within the last 10 years) in prevention of encrustation and blockage of long-term indwelling catheters both from engineering and medical perspectives, with particular emphasis on the importance of stimuli-responsive systems.</p

The axial age and the problems of the twentieth century: Du Bois, Jaspers, and universal history

The axial age debate has put big questions of social and cultural change back on the agenda of sociology. This paper takes this development as an occasion to reflect on how social thought works with (and against) nineteenth-century intellectual traditions in its efforts to understand history on a macro scale. Karl Jaspers, who initially formulated the axial age thesis in The Origin and Goal of History, revised the Hegelian account of world history by broadening the scope of the narrative to encompass all civilizations participating in the events of the first millennium BCE that saw the rise of major philosophical and religious traditions. However, his account, like the earlier philosophical accounts he seeks to improve upon, privileges cognitive developments over material practices and social interactions, and as such offers little to those seeking to make sense of how cultural patterns interact with others and spread. Here another social theorist engaging with Hegel, W. E. B. Du Bois, provides a helpful contrast. His account of the development of double-consciousness in "Of Our Spiritual Strivings," the opening chapter of The Souls of Black Folk, helps us to understand experiences of encounter and the perduring historical effects they may have. Du Bois’ relational theory reminds us of the importance of unpacking abstractions and understanding processes in terms of social interactions