Sculpture, chains and the Armstrong gun : John Bell’s American slave

Discussion of The Greek Slave by Hiram Powers (1805–73) has routinely cited John Tenniel’s famous caricature The Virginian Slave (fig. 1), published in Punch in 1851 as the “fitting companion” to Powers’s statue.[1] Tenniel’s image made explicit the scandal of American slavery and accused Powers, and by extension the United States, of disavowing the reality of contemporary slavery in its imagined pairing with The Greek Slave. What has rarely been acknowledged is that a version of this fitting companion was, in fact, produced: The American Slave (fig. 2) by John Bell (1811–95). Bell’s statue, first shown as A Daughter of Eve—A Scene on the Shore of the Atlantic in plaster at the Royal Academy in 1853, represents a young woman on the shore of Africa, chained and awaiting transportation to the Americas. The title was changed for the London International Exhibition in 1862, in response to the American Civil War. The statue shares the critical politics of Punch, which regularly and forcefully attacked the institution of slavery in the United States, and was intended, like the cartoon, to remind viewers of what The Greek Slave hid from view

Did the strategy of skilled attendance at birth reach the poor in Indonesia?

Objective To assess whether the strategy of “a midwife in every village” in Indonesia achieved its aim of increasing professional delivery care for the poorest women. Methods Using pooled Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) data from 1986–2002, we examined trends in the percentage of births attended by a health professional and deliveries via caesarean section. We tested for effects of the economic crisis of 1997, which had a negative impact on Indonesia’s health system. We used logistic regression, allowing for time-trend interactions with wealth quintile and urban/rural residence. Findings There was no change in rates of professional attendance or caesarean section before the programme’s full implementation (1986–1991). After 1991, the greatest increases in professional attendance occurred among the poorest two quintiles – 11% per year compared with 6% per year for women in the middle quintile ( P = 0.02). These patterns persisted after the economic crisis had ended. In contrast, most of the increase in rates of caesarean section occurred among women in the wealthiest quintile. Rates of caesarean deliveries remained at less than 1% for the poorest two-fifths of the population, but rose to 10% for the wealthiest fifth. Conclusion The Indonesian village midwife programme dramatically reduced socioeconomic inequalities in professional attendance at birth, but the gap in access to potentially life-saving emergency obstetric care widened. This underscores the importance of understanding the barriers to accessing emergency obstetric care and of the ways to overcome them, especially among the poor

Volatility made observable at last

The Cartier-Perrin theorem, which was published in 1995 and is expressed in the language of nonstandard analysis, permits, for the first time perhaps, a clear-cut mathematical definition of the volatility of a financial asset. It yields as a byproduct a new understanding of the means of returns, of the beta coefficient, and of the Sharpe and Treynor ratios. New estimation techniques from automatic control and signal processing, which were already successfully applied in quantitative finance, lead to several computer experiments with some quite convincing forecasts.Time series; quantitative finance; trends; returns; volatility; beta coefficient; Sharpe ratio; Treynor ratio; forecasts; estimation techniques; numerical differentiation; nonstandard analysis

Tri-layer superlattices: A route to magnetoelectric multiferroics?

We explore computationally the formation of tri-layer superlattices as an alternative approach for combining ferroelectricity with magnetism to form magnetoelectric multiferroics. We find that the contribution to the superlattice polarization from tri-layering is small compared to typical polarizations in conventionalferroelectrics, and the switchable ferroelectric component is negligible. In contrast, we show that epitaxial strain and ``negative pressure'' can yield large, switchable polarizations that are compatible with the coexistence of magnetism, even in materials with no active ferroelectric ions.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figures; references added, and minor editorial changes mad

The development of precipitation-hardened chromium-base alloys Final report

Precipitation with refractory metal carbides for creep resistant chromium-base alloy

Psychosocial interventions for improving quality of life outcomes in adults undergoing strabismus surgery

Background: Strabismus, also known as squint, can have a debilitating effect on a person's self-esteem, quality of life and mood, as well as increase their feelings of social anxiety and avoidance behaviour. Strabismus surgery can improve both the alignment of a person's eyes and, in appropriate cases, relieve symptoms such as double vision. However, evidence indicates that not all patients experience a meaningful improvement in their quality of life postsurgery. Pre-surgical psychosocial interventions have been found to improve patient reported outcomes in other long-term conditions. Objectives: To assess the effects of psychosocial interventions versus no intervention on quality of life and psychosocial outcomes in adults undergoing strabismus surgery. Search methods: We searched CENTRAL (which contains the Cochrane Eyes and Vision group Trials Register) (2016, Issue 1), Ovid MEDLINE, Ovid MEDLINE In-Process and Other Non-Indexed Citations, Ovid MEDLINE Daily, Ovid OLDMEDLINE (January 1946 to February 2016), EMBASE (January 1980 to February 2016), Latin American and Caribbean Health Sciences (LILACS) (January 1982 to February 2016), PsycINFO (January 1967 to February 2016), the ISRCTN registry (www.isrctn.com/editAdvancedSearch), ClinicalTrials.gov (www.clinicaltrials.gov) and the World Health Organization (WHO) International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (ICTRP) (www.who.int/ictrp/search/en). We did not use any date or language restrictions in the electronic searches for trials. We last searched the electronic databases on 15 February 2016. We also manually searched the British Orthoptic Journal, proceedings of the European Strabismological Association (ESA), International Strabismological Association (ISA) and published transactions from the meetings of European Strabismus Association (ESA) and American Association for Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus (AAPOS). These were searched from 1980 to present. We also carried out handsearches of Psychology and Health, British Journal of Health Psychology, Health Psychology and Annals of Behavioral Medicine. Selection criteria: We planned to include randomised controlled trials (RCTs), including cluster-RCTs, in which effectiveness of a psychosocial intervention had been evaluated in patients due to undergo strabismus surgery. Data collection and analysis: Two review authors independently reviewed the search results for eligibility. Main results: None of the 88 studies we identified met the inclusion criteria of this Cochrane review. Authors' conclusions: We found no evidence that evaluated the impact of psychosocial interventions on patients undergoing squint surgery. We believe future research should focus on developing and evaluating the use of targeted psychosocial interventions to improve a patient's quality of life after strabismus surgery

Volatility made observable at last

International audienceThe Cartier-Perrin theorem, which was published in 1995 and is expressed in the language of nonstandard analysis, permits, for the first time perhaps, a clear-cut mathematical definition of the volatility of a financial asset. It yields as a byproduct a new understanding of the means of returns, of the beta coefficient, and of the Sharpe and Treynor ratios. New estimation techniques from automatic control and signal processing, which were already successfully applied in quantitative finance, lead to several computer experiments with some quite convincing forecasts

Rapid activation, desensitization, and resensitization of synaptic channels of crayfish muscle after glutamate pulses

Completely desensitizing excitatory channels were activated in outside-out patches of crayfish muscle membrane by applying glutamate pulses with switching times of approximately 0.2 ms for concentration changes. Channels were almost completely activated with 10 mM glutamate. Maximum activation was reached within 0.4 ms with greater than or equal to 1 mM glutamate. Channel open probability decayed with a time constant of desensitization of 2 ms with 10 mM glutamate and more rapidly at lower glutamate concentrations. The rate of beginnings of bursts (average number of beginnings of bursts per time bin) decayed even faster but approximately in proportion to the glutamate concentration. The dose-response curve for the channel open probability and for the rate of bursts had a maximum double-logarithmic slope of 5.1 and 4.2, respectively. Channels desensitized completely without opening at very low or slowly rising glutamate concentrations. Desensitization thus originates from a closed channel state. Resensitization was tested by pairs of completely desensitizing glutamate pulses. Sensitivity to the second pulse returned rapidly at pulse intervals between 1 and 2 ms and was almost complete with an interval of 3 ms. Schemes of channel activation by up to five glutamate binding steps, with desensitization by glutamate binding from closed states, are discussed. At high agonist concentrations bursts are predominantly terminated by desensitization. Quantal currents are generated by pulses of greater than 1 mM glutamate, and their decay is determined by the duration of presence of glutamate and possibly by desensitization