Three Early Modern Magic Rituals to Spoil Witches

This edition of Oxford, Bodleian, e Mus. 173, ff. 37r-v presents three rituals from late sixteenth-century England designed to provide protection from witchcraft and to identify magical assailants. The roots of these texts and the practices they record lie in late medieval rituals to detect theft. They provide useful perspectives the practice of magic, on sixteenth-century conceptions of magic, and how magical practitioners perceived witches

Is Fiscal Policy Coordination in EMU Desirable?

It is widely argued that Europe's unified monetary policy calls for the international coordination at the fiscal level. We survey the issues involved with such coordination of fiscal policy as a demand management tool and we use a simple model to investigate the circumstances under which coordination may be desirable. It turns out that coordination is beneficial when the correlation of the shocks hitting the various economies is low. However, given the potentially adverse reaction by the ECB (as a result of free-riding and/or a conflict on the orientation of the policy mix), fiscal coordination is likely to be counterproductive when demand or supply shocks are highly symmetric across countries and the governments are unable to acquire a strategic leadership position vis-à-vis the ECB.EMU, fiscal coordination, shocks, demand management

Achieving Invisibility and Having Sex with Spirits: Six Operations from an English Magic Collection ca. 1600

Six operations to achieve invisibility are contained in a sixteenth-century manuscript, London, British Library, Sloane 3850, ff. 143–166. This edition explores what may have motivated the scribe to record these texts and how pre-modern readers would have regarded them

Microsatellite typing of avian clinical and environmental isolates of Aspergillus fumigatus

Aspergillosis is one of the most common causes of death in captive birds. Aspergillosis in birds is mainly caused by Aspergillus fumigatus, a ubiquitous and opportunistic saprophyte. Currently it is not known whether there is a link between the environmental isolates and/or human isolates of A. fumigatus and those responsible for aspergillosis in birds. Microsatellite typing was used to analyse 65 clinical avian isolates and 23 environmental isolates of A. fumigatus. The 78 genotypes that were obtained were compared with a database containing genotypes of 2514 isolates from human clinical samples and from the environment. There appeared to be no specific association between the observed genotypes and the origin of the isolates (environment, human or bird). Eight genotypes obtained from isolates of diseased birds were also found in human clinical samples. These results indicate that avian isolates of A. fumigatus may cause infection in humans

A lifetime perspective of biomass allocation in Quercus pubescens trees in a dry, alpine valley

Plasticity of biomass allocation is a key to growth and survival of trees exposed to variable levels of stress in their lifetime. Most of our understanding of dynamic biomass allocation comes from seedling studies, but plasticity may be different in mature trees. We used stem analysis to reconstruct whole-tree growth and biomass allocation patterns in Quercus pubescens trees harvested from a dry woodland in Valais, Switzerland. We identified three distinct growth phases. In phase I, a primary root developed but the aboveground structure did not persist. In phase II, height growth occurred and secondary roots developed. In phase III, height growth ceased and stems and roots only grew radially. Reference trees harvested from a less dry site nearby only showed phase II-type growth. In line with our hypothesis, drought-stressed trees maintained more biomass in roots and less in aboveground woody parts than reference trees. Contrary to our expectation, stressed trees allocated proportionally more resources to leaves and less to roots in the growing season before harvest than reference trees. It appears that sub-seasonal wood anatomical adjustments to water availability minimize hydraulic failure, thus enabling these dry woodland trees to invest preferentially in leaves. Wet years did not see preferential investment in aboveground tissues, suggesting more restricted plasticity in biomass allocation in these mature trees than in seedlings. It is concluded that trees beyond seedling stage show different responses to variation in drought than the better-studied seedling

Figuring out what they feel : Exposure to eudaimonic narrative fiction is related to mentalizing ability

Being exposed to narrative fiction may provide us with practice in dealing with social interactions and thereby enhance our ability to engage in mentalizing (understanding other people’s mental states). The current study uses a confirmatory Bayesian approach to assess the relationship between mentalizing and both the self-reported frequency of exposure to narrative fiction across media (books, films, and TV series) and the particular types of fiction that are consumed (eudaimonic vs. hedonic). This study focuses on this relationship in children and adolescents, because they are still developing their social abilities. Exposure to narrative fiction may thus be particularly important in providing input on how to interpret other people’s mental states for this age group. In our study, we find no evidence for a simple relationship between overall frequency of narrative fiction exposure and mentalizing ability in this age group. However, exposure to eudaimonic narrative fiction is consistently positively related to mentalizing and, for some media types and aspects of mentalizing, more strongly so than exposure to hedonic narrative fiction. No evidence was obtained to suggest that there are any differential effects related to the medium of the narrative fiction exposure (written vs. visual).acceptedVersio

Do activities of cytochrome P450 (CYP)3A, CYP2D6 and P-glycoprotein differ between healthy volunteers and HIV-infected patients?

BACKGROUND: In inflammation and infection, cytochrome P450 (CYP) enzyme activities are down-regulated. Information on possible discrepancies in activities of CYP enzymes and drug transporters between HIV-infected patients and healthy people is limited. METHODS: We used midazolam, dextromethorphan and digoxin as in vivo phenotyping probes for CYP3A (CYP3A4/5), CYP2D6 and P-glycoprotein activities, respectively, and compared these activities between 12 healthy Caucasian volunteers and 30 treatment-naive HIV-infected patients. RESULTS: Among the HIV-infected patients, the overall CYP3A activity (apparent oral midazolam clearance) was approximately 50% of the activity observed in healthy volunteers (point estimate 0.490, 90% confidence interval [CI] 0.377-0.638). The CYP2D6 activity (plasma ratio area under the curve [AUC]; AUC(dextromethorphan)/AUC(dextrorphan)) was essentially unchanged (point estimate 1.289, 90% CI 0.778-2.136). P-glycoprotein activity was slightly lower in patients (digoxin maximum concentration point estimate 1.304, 90% CI 1.034-1.644). CONCLUSIONS: The overall CYP3A activity was approximately 50% lower in HIV-infected patients than in healthy volunteers. The CYP2D6 activity was highly variable, but, on average was not different between groups, whereas a marginally lower P-glycoprotein activity was observed in treatment-naive HIV-infected patients

Dynamics of the land use, land use change, and forestry sink in the European Union: the impacts of energy and climate targets for 2030

A 2030 climate and energy policy framework was endorsed by the European Council in 2014. The main elements are a binding 40 % greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction target compared to 1990, a renewable energy share of 27 %, and an energy savings target of at least 27 % by 2030. In this paper, we assess the impact of these targets on the European land use, land use change, and forestry (LULUCF) sector using a Europe focused global land use model linked with a detailed forest management model. We show that implementing a 40 % GHG emission reduction target by 2030 may only have a small negative impact on the domestic LULUCF sink if the additional biomass demand for energy is mostly met through ligno-cellulosic energy crops rather than forest removals. However, if the increased biomass demand were met through higher rates of forest harvest removals, a more negative impact on the LULUCF sink could be expected

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textabstractIntroduction. Surgery-induced oxidative stress increases the risk of perioperative complications and delay in postoperative recovery. In mice, short-term preoperative dietary and protein restriction protect against oxidative stress. We investigated the feasibility of a calorie- and protein-restricted diet in two patient populations. Methods. In this pilot study, 30 live kidney donors and 38 morbidly obese patients awaiting surgery were randomized into three groups: a restricted diet group, who received a synthetic liquid diet with 30% fewer calories and 80% less protein for five consecutive days; a group who received a synthetic diet containing the daily energy requirements (DER); and a control group. Feasibility was assessed using self-reported discomfort, body weight changes, and metabolic parameters in blood samples. Results. Twenty patients (71%) complied with the restricted and 13 (65%) with the DER-diet. In total, 68% of the patients reported minor discomfort that resolved after normal eating resumed. The mean weight loss on the restricted diet was significantly greater (2.4 kg) than in the control group (0 kg, p = 0.002), but not in the DER-diet (1.5 kg). The restricted diet significantly reduced levels of serum urea and plasma prealbumin (PAB) and retinol binding protein (RBP). Conclusions. A short-term preoperative calorie- and protein-restricted diet is feasible in kidney donors and morbidly obese patients. Compliance is high and can be objectively measured via changes in urea, PAB, and RBP levels. These results demonstrate that this diet can be used to study the effects of dietary restriction on surgery-induced oxidative stress in a clinical setting