Rubella in Europe

Postnatal rubella is a mild illness, a disease which was considered to be of only minor importance for many years. The first authors to write about the disease as distinct from other exanthemata were German physicians; they differentiated rubella from measles and scarlet fever in the latter part of the eighteenth century and called the disease Rotheln. Hence the common English language eponym is ‘German measles'. Some consider that the term ‘German' in German measles is probably of literary rather than of geographical significance and that it came from the old French ‘germain' (derived from the Latin ‘germanus‘), meaning ‘closely akin to' measles [1]. That it is not generally called by its German name, Rotheln, is due to Veale, a Scottish physician who in 1866 described 30 cases of rubella in the Edinburgh Medical Journal, and proposed ‘rubella' as a short and euphonius name that could be easily pronounced [2

Beyond patient empowerment: clinician-patient advocacy partnerships in wound healing

Background/Aims: Enhanced clinician-patient interactions can offer benefits for patient care through harnessing shared knowledge, which can help to address challenges in healthcare. This study aimed to explore the relationship between wound care clinicians and their patients in order to understand the challenges faced in wound care as well as the innovative strategies that are used to address them. Methods: A qualitative ethnography of three specialist outpatient wound healing clinics in the UK generated 120 hours of observations of consultations as well as 51 interviews with clinicians, patients and their relatives. Findings: The study found that wounds were considered a low-profile condition in healthcare and a taboo by society. In response, clinicians harnessed their interaction with patients to support wound healing research and education – forming clinician-patient partnerships for wound healing advocacy. Conclusions: In addition to encouraging educated participation in self-treatment, advocacy partnerships offered patients a proactive role in increasing the scientific knowledge regarding wound healing

Structural, magnetic, dielectric and mechanical properties of (Ba,Sr)MnO3_3 ceramics

Ceramic samples, produced by conventional sintering method in ambient air, 6H-SrMnO$_3$(6H-SMO), 15R-BaMnO$_3$(15R-BMO), 4H-Ba$_{0.5}$Sr$_{0.5}$MnO$_3$(4H-BSMO) were studied. In the XRD measurements for SMO the new anomalies of the lattice parameters at 600-800 K range and the increasing of thermal expansion coefficients with a clear maximum in a vicinity at 670 K were detected. The N$\acute{e}$el phase transition for BSMO was observed at $T_N$=250 K in magnetic measurements and its trace was detected in dielectric, FTIR, DSC, and DMA experiments. The enthalpy and entropy changes of the phase transition for BSMO at $T_N$ were determined as 17.5 J/mol and 70 mJ/K mol, respectively. The activation energy values and relaxation times characteristic for relaxation processes were determined from the Arrhenius law. Results of ab initio simulations showed that the contribution of the exchange correlation energy to the total energy is about 30%.Comment: 12 pages, 12 figure

Social partners’ bargaining strategies in Germany and Spain after the introduction of the Euro: a morphogenetic perspective on corporate agency

This article addresses how far wage imbalances in the Eurozone can be imputable to intentional agency by collective bargaining organisations. Using Archer’s morphogenetic approach, we explain the agentic role of social partners in core (Germany) and periphery (Spain) cases, in relation with the respective collective bargaining regimes. We show that the capacity of macro- and meso-level organisations to effect wage-setting practices can be constrained inadvertently by contextual influences with morphostatic properties, generating constrained modes of corporate agency. Yet wage moderation is best understood as a form of agency itself, functioning ‘by being’ rather than ‘doing’, which over time can become more innovative. We contrast this finding with the less constrained capacity of more institutionalized corporate agents, such as transnational business corporations and central state agencies

Index of information and communication technology use in labour administration: its need, its pertinence and its potential use

This article examines the variation in the level of use of information and communication technologies by national bodies of labour administrations across 81 different countries. Extending empirical research on the state of information and communication technology use, it introduces a prototype index of country-level information and communication technology use. The index allows for the exposition of the contributions of sub-dimensions of information and communication technology use, including labour inspection, public employment services and labour dispute prevention and settlement. Graphical evidence showing sub-index and final index formulations for individual countries is given, along with graphical evidence of the country-level ranking and geographical variations of information and communication technology use (including the sub-dimensions of this use). The future potential of the prescribed approach is demonstrated by offering possible explanations behind the results on a sample of countries. Points for practitioners In times of pressure on public administration worldwide for the greater provision of information and communication technology-enabled products and services to citizens, policymakers, public procurers of technology-based solutions and providers of information and communication technology assistance programmes should have access to toolkits for the assessment and comparison of the use of new technologies in and across public organizations. In this article, we offer future value for such practitioners by proposing one such tool. Using global data on the use of information and communication technologies from the field of labour administration, we demonstrate its potential to construct indices of information and communication technology use in selected areas of the public service

Static Dielectric Constant of β-Ga2O3 Perpendicular to the Principal Planes (100), (010), and (001)

The relative static dielectric constant ℇr of β-Ga2O3 perpendicular to the planes (100), (010), and (001) is determined in the temperature range from 25 K to 500 K by measuring the AC capacitance of correspondingly oriented plate capacitor structures using test frequencies of up to 1 MHz. This allows a direct quantification of the static dielectric constant and a unique direction assignment of the obtained values. At room temperature, ℇr perpendicular to the planes (100), (010), and (001) amounts to 10.2 ± 0.2, 10.87 ± 0.08, and 12.4 ± 0.4, respectively, which clearly evidence the anisotropy expected for β-Ga2O3 due to its monoclinic crystal structure. An increase of ℇr by about 0.5 with increasing temperature from 25 K to 450 K was found for all orientations. Our ℇr data resolve the inconsistencies in the previously available literature data with regard to absolute values and their directional assignment and therefore provide a reliable basis for the simulation and design of devices. © The Author(s) 2019

Bennet, J.S. Managing Diabetes: The cultural politics of disease

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