The life and work of Thomas Karsten

Review of a book authored by Joost Coté, Hugh O’Neill, Helen Ibbitson Jessup & Pauline van Roosmalen.Boekbespreking van een boek geschreven door Joost Coté, Hugh O’Neill, Helen Ibbitson Jessup & Pauline van Roosmalen

Eclectic za Wilhelmiens. A shared Dutch built heritage in South Africa

Boekbespreking van een boek geredigeerd door Karel A. Bakker, Nicholas J. Clarke en Roger C. Fisher.Boekbespreking van een boek geredigeerd door Karel A. Bakker, Nicholas J. Clarke en Roger C. Fisher

Onbegrepen hoeken in de Nederlanden en overzee. De zoektocht naar het ideaal in de zestiende-eeuwse vestingbouw

The notion of a ‘homogeneity of style’ in the historiography of military architecture carries the risk that those forms that are not directly traceable in modern historiography are too easily dismissed as out of bound or simply as the results of external factors. This article is about fortifications that stand out because the walls between the bastions are not straight but concave. An essay by Renty and Philippeville about structures along the Habsburg-French border and the Portuguese overseas fortifications at Mazagão in Morocco and the São Sebastião fortress in Mozambique demonstrates that this is a recurring element in the ground plans of various sixteenth-century strongholds. The external factors to which this phenomenon has sometimes been ascribed are not convincing in any of these cases, which is why the need for a theoretical foundation arose. An analysis of contemporary treatises on architecture reveals that the concept was discussed and even propagated as an ideal defense system by various theorists, in different variations. Niccolò Tartaglia appears to have been the first author who wrote about the idea of providing covering fire from both the bastions and from inward bending walls. In his treatise Quesiti et inventioni diverse, first published in Venice in 1546, he criticized the traditional square ground plan of fortresses because, in his view, it did not offer the ideal cover and was too vulnerable. The two publications that most extensively discussed alternative concepts were the works by Jacomo Fusto Castriotto Galasso and Alghisi da Carpi, which were published in 1564 and 1570, respectively. Using concave curtain walls can be understood as an attempt to combine the advantages of the tenaille and bastion systems. In particular around the middle of the sixteenth century, when assailants would aim their cannon fire more at the bastions instead of at the well-covered curtain walls, the need for extra cover for the faces arose. Whereas Alghisi’s work remained highly theoretical, Castriotto’s suggestions are of a more pragmatic nature. He referred, for instance, to the fortress at Mazagão, demonstrating how this exceptional ground plan related to theories about building fortifications. The current analysis shows how the bastion system was constantly discussed and refined and how authors of treatises and engineers arrived at different designs. By comparing forms and searching for theoretical foundations, hitherto misunderstood angles can now be explained.The notion of a ‘homogeneity of style’ in the historiography of military architecture carries the risk that those forms that are not directly traceable in modern historiography are too easily dismissed as out of bound or simply as the results of external factors. This article is about fortifications that stand out because the walls between the bastions are not straight but concave. An essay by Renty and Philippeville about structures along the Habsburg-French border and the Portuguese overseas fortifications at Mazagão in Morocco and the São Sebastião fortress in Mozambique demonstrates that this is a recurring element in the ground plans of various sixteenth-century strongholds. The external factors to which this phenomenon has sometimes been ascribed are not convincing in any of these cases, which is why the need for a theoretical foundation arose. An analysis of contemporary treatises on architecture reveals that the concept was discussed and even propagated as an ideal defense system by various theorists, in different variations. Niccolò Tartaglia appears to have been the first author who wrote about the idea of providing covering fire from both the bastions and from inward bending walls. In his treatise Quesiti et inventioni diverse, first published in Venice in 1546, he criticized the traditional square ground plan of fortresses because, in his view, it did not offer the ideal cover and was too vulnerable. The two publications that most extensively discussed alternative concepts were the works by Jacomo Fusto Castriotto Galasso and Alghisi da Carpi, which were published in 1564 and 1570, respectively. Using concave curtain walls can be understood as an attempt to combine the advantages of the tenaille and bastion systems. In particular around the middle of the sixteenth century, when assailants would aim their cannon fire more at the bastions instead of at the well-covered curtain walls, the need for extra cover for the faces arose. Whereas Alghisi’s work remained highly theoretical, Castriotto’s suggestions are of a more pragmatic nature. He referred, for instance, to the fortress at Mazagão, demonstrating how this exceptional ground plan related to theories about building fortifications. The current analysis shows how the bastion system was constantly discussed and refined and how authors of treatises and engineers arrived at different designs. By comparing forms and searching for theoretical foundations, hitherto misunderstood angles can now be explained

Eclectic za Wilhelmiens. A shared Dutch built heritage in South Africa

Boekbespreking van een boek geredigeerd door Karel A. Bakker, Nicholas J. Clarke en Roger C. Fisher.Boekbespreking van een boek geredigeerd door Karel A. Bakker, Nicholas J. Clarke en Roger C. Fisher

The life and work of Thomas Karsten

Review of a book authored by Joost Coté, Hugh O’Neill, Helen Ibbitson Jessup & Pauline van Roosmalen.Boekbespreking van een boek geschreven door Joost Coté, Hugh O’Neill, Helen Ibbitson Jessup & Pauline van Roosmalen

Antiferromagnetic Ising model in small-world networks

The antiferromagnetic Ising model in small-world networks generated from two-dimensional regular lattices has been studied. The disorder introduced by long-range connections causes frustration, which gives rise to a spin-glass phase at low temperature. Monte Carlo simulations have been carried out to study the paramagnetic to spin-glass transition, as a function of the rewiring probability p, which measures the disorder strength. The transition temperature Tc goes down for increasing disorder, and saturates to a value Tc ~ 1.7 J for p > 0.4, J being the antiferromagnetic coupling. For small p and at low temperature, the energy increases linearly with p. In the strong-disorder limit p=1, this model is equivalent to a short-range +-J spin glass in random networks.Comment: 8 pages, 8 figure

Barriers to the use of morphine for the management of severe postoperative pain - A before and after study

Aim To reduce the number of patients experiencing severe postoperative pain by prescribing 10 mg Morphine either as oral solution or by IM injection as an alternative to Tramadol Hydrochloride in an analgesic protocol. Materials and methods Patients who received in-patient oral and maxillofacial surgery under general anaesthesia were included. Complex intervention analgesic protocols were developed including staff education, patient educations and analgesic protocols. 80 patients were treated under the original protocol (tramadol hydrochloride for pain unmanaged by other drugs in protocol) over 4 months. 75 patients were treated under the second protocol (oral or intravenous morphine for pain unmanaged by other drugs in protocol). Patient perceptions to their pain management were then assessed. Results Proportion of patients reporting ‘no pain’ increased from 5% of 80 patients to 28% of 75 patients (p < 0.001). Report of severe pain reduced from 37% to 31% and not significant. Pain duration reduced from 18% to 12% for 75–100% time from surgery to discharge and not significant. Staff used protocols for 96% patients. Nurses provided patient information leaflets for 85%–80% patients. Nearly all patients (96% and 95%) reported overall satisfaction with their pain management. Conclusions The use of morphine given orally or my IM injection rather than tramadol was associated with a significant increase in the number of patients reporting ‘no pain’. However the number of patients experiencing severe pain was not significantly reduced. Despite this, most patients reported high levels of satisfaction which suggested that satisfaction questionnaires should not be used in isolation. Most patients received morphine orally rather than by IM injection but the oral dose may not have been high enough in this study

Onbegrepen hoeken in de Nederlanden en overzee. De zoektocht naar het ideaal in de zestiende-eeuwse vestingbouw

The notion of a ‘homogeneity of style’ in the historiography of military architecture carries the risk that those forms that are not directly traceable in modern historiography are too easily dismissed as out of bound or simply as the results of external factors. This article is about fortifications that stand out because the walls between the bastions are not straight but concave. An essay by Renty and Philippeville about structures along the Habsburg-French border and the Portuguese overseas fortifications at Mazagão in Morocco and the São Sebastião fortress in Mozambique demonstrates that this is a recurring element in the ground plans of various sixteenth-century strongholds. The external factors to which this phenomenon has sometimes been ascribed are not convincing in any of these cases, which is why the need for a theoretical foundation arose. An analysis of contemporary treatises on architecture reveals that the concept was discussed and even propagated as an ideal defense system by various theorists, in different variations. Niccolò Tartaglia appears to have been the first author who wrote about the idea of providing covering fire from both the bastions and from inward bending walls. In his treatise Quesiti et inventioni diverse, first published in Venice in 1546, he criticized the traditional square ground plan of fortresses because, in his view, it did not offer the ideal cover and was too vulnerable. The two publications that most extensively discussed alternative concepts were the works by Jacomo Fusto Castriotto Galasso and Alghisi da Carpi, which were published in 1564 and 1570, respectively. Using concave curtain walls can be understood as an attempt to combine the advantages of the tenaille and bastion systems. In particular around the middle of the sixteenth century, when assailants would aim their cannon fire more at the bastions instead of at the well-covered curtain walls, the need for extra cover for the faces arose. Whereas Alghisi’s work remained highly theoretical, Castriotto’s suggestions are of a more pragmatic nature. He referred, for instance, to the fortress at Mazagão, demonstrating how this exceptional ground plan related to theories about building fortifications. The current analysis shows how the bastion system was constantly discussed and refined and how authors of treatises and engineers arrived at different designs. By comparing forms and searching for theoretical foundations, hitherto misunderstood angles can now be explained