Shakespearean allusion and the detective fiction of Georgette Heyer

This essay argues that Shakespearean allusion is a recurrent and important factor in the detective novels of Georgette Heyer. Though the master text for Heyer is Hamlet, a variety of Shakespeare plays are referred to, and mention of them functions in multiple ways. Quotations from Shakespeare reveal truths about the characters and comment on their situations and personalities. They also afford points of entry for people previously unacquainted to talk to each other, and finally they have effects in terms of genre, since their presence can, with equal facility, tend towards comic relief (in line with a tradition in Golden Age crime fiction of using Macbeth in particular to comic effect) or work to add gravitas and resonance. The use of Shakespearean allusion is thus central to Heyer’s technique. This article is published as part of a collection to commemorate the 400th anniversary of William Shakespeare’s death

Adherence to HIV antiretroviral therapy Part II: which interventions are effective in improving adherence?

Interventions to support adherence to antiretroviral therapy (ART) can be classified into four categories: cognitive, behavioural and affective interventions and (modified) directly observed therapy (DOT.) Cognitive interventions improve HIV- and ART-related knowledge, but this is not consistently associated with better adherence. Cognitive interventions that are combined with behavioural or psychological strategies are more effective in improving adherence, especially in patients who previously were less adherent. These include interventions that improve self-efficacy, provide stress management/expressive support therapy or motivational interviewing. As yet there is no evidence for the role of affective interventions and modified DOT to improve adherence to ART. When designing interventions to address adherence, it should be borne in mind that multi-component interventions are more effective than single-focus interventions. A combination of educational, behavioural and affective components is suggested to ensure optimum adherence. In countries with a high prevalence of HIV, such as South Africa, careful patient preparation, rather than selecting patients based on non-clinical predictors of adherence, seems an appropriate method for scaling up ART. South African guidelines focus on comprehensive adherence support to all patients, with additional support to patients with less than 80% adherence. More research on the effectiveness of interventions aimed at improving adherence is urgently needed, especially in developing countries. For full text, click here: South African Family Practice Vol. 48(9) 2006:6-1

Magnetostrictive Neel ordering of the spin-5/2 ladder compound BaMn2O3: distortion-induced lifting of geometrical frustration

The crystal structure and the magnetism of BaMn$_2$O$_3$ have been studied by thermodynamic and by diffraction techniques using large single crystals and powders. BaMn$_2$O$_3$ is a realization of a $S = 5/2$ spin ladder as the magnetic interaction is dominant along 180$^\circ$ Mn-O-Mn bonds forming the legs and the rungs of a ladder. The temperature dependence of the magnetic susceptibility exhibits well-defined maxima for all directions proving the low-dimensional magnetic character in BaMn$_2$O$_3$. The susceptibility and powder neutron diffraction data, however, show that BaMn$_2$O$_3$ exhibits a transition to antiferromagnetic order at 184 K, in spite of a full frustration of the nearest-neighbor inter-ladder coupling in the orthorhombic high-temperature phase. This frustration is lifted by a remarkably strong monoclinic distortion which accompanies the magnetic transition.Comment: 9 pages, 8 figures, 2 tables; in V1 fig. 2 was included twice and fig. 4 was missing; this has been corrected in V

Striations in the Taurus molecular cloud: Kelvin-Helmholtz instability or MHD waves?

The origin of striations aligned along the local magnetic field direction in the translucent envelope of the Taurus molecular cloud is examined with new observations of 12CO and 13CO J=2-1 emission obtained with the 10~m submillimeter telescope of the Arizona Radio Observatory. These data identify a periodic pattern of excess blue and redshifted emission that is responsible for the striations. For both 12CO and 13CO, spatial variations of the J=2-1 to J=1-0 line ratio are small and are not spatially correlated with the striation locations. A medium comprised of unresolved CO emitting substructures (cells) with a beam area filling factor less than unity at any velocity is required to explain the average line ratios and brightness temperatures. We propose that the striations result from the modulation of velocities and the beam filling factor of the cells as a result of either the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability or magnetosonic waves propagating through the envelope of the Taurus molecular cloud. Both processes are likely common features in molecular clouds that are sub-Alfvenic and may explain low column density, cirrus-like features similarly aligned with the magnetic field observed throughout the interstellar medium in far-infrared surveys of dust emission.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRA

Unusually Luminous Giant Molecular Clouds in the Outer Disk of M33

We use high spatial resolution (~7pc) CARMA observations to derive detailed properties for 8 giant molecular clouds (GMCs) at a galactocentric radius corresponding to approximately two CO scale lengths, or ~0.5 optical radii (r25), in the Local Group spiral galaxy M33. At this radius, molecular gas fraction, dust-to-gas ratio and metallicity are much lower than in the inner part of M33 or in a typical spiral galaxy. This allows us to probe the impact of environment on GMC properties by comparing our measurements to previous data from the inner disk of M33, the Milky Way and other nearby galaxies. The outer disk clouds roughly fall on the size-linewidth relation defined by extragalactic GMCs, but are slightly displaced from the luminosity-virial mass relation in the sense of having high CO luminosity compared to the inferred virial mass. This implies a different CO-to-H2 conversion factor, which is on average a factor of two lower than the inner disk and the extragalactic average. We attribute this to significantly higher measured brightness temperatures of the outer disk clouds compared to the ancillary sample of GMCs, which is likely an effect of enhanced radiation levels due to massive star formation in the vicinity of our target field. Apart from brightness temperature, the properties we determine for the outer disk GMCs in M33 do not differ significantly from those of our comparison sample. In particular, the combined sample of inner and outer disk M33 clouds covers roughly the same range in size, linewidth, virial mass and CO luminosity than the sample of Milky Way GMCs. When compared to the inner disk clouds in M33, however, we find even the brightest outer disk clouds to be smaller than most of their inner disk counterparts. This may be due to incomplete sampling or a potentially steeper cloud mass function at larger radii.Comment: Accepted for Publication in ApJ; 7 pages, 4 figure

Review of Oomen, G. (2020) Werk in uitvoering: het functioneren van de Tweede Kamer tijdens, voor en na de grondwetsherziening (1840-1853)

Politics, Culture and National Identities 1789-presen

The Making of the Democratic Party. The Emergence of the Party Organizations of the German Social Democratic Workers' Party, the British National Liberal Federation and the Dutch Anti-Revolutionary Party, 1860s-1880s

Why did people decide to found political parties? How did they convince others to become members of this new organizational model? In the second half of the nineteenth century, the first party organizations differed from previously existing mass political organizations, because they aimed for and had direct access to parliamentary representation. In contrast to previously existing parties that loosely organized the traditional political elite in parliament, the new mass parties were based on an extensive organizational body that included previously excluded social groups in politics. Combining political history with social science theory, this dissertation studies the ideas and practices of political activists who founded the first party organizations. The comparison of three case studies (the German Social Democratic Workers’ Party, the British National Liberal Federation and the Dutch Anti-Revolutionary Party) is based on primary sources including letters, diaries, autobiographies, minutes of meetings, brochures, newspapers and political programs in three different languages.Political Culture and National Identit

Under the cover of education?: The politicization of education movements in 19th-Century Germany, Britain and the Netherlands

Political Culture and National Identit