Edinburgh Monuments, the Literary Canon, and Cultural Nationalism: A Comparative Perspective

Building on comparative studies of the memory landscapes of cities and monuments, describes three different monument series in Edinburgh, the Canongate Wall at the Scottish Parliament building at Holyrood, the flagstone quotations in Makar\u27s Court near the Writers\u27 Museum, and the grouped herms in the Edinburgh Business Park; discusses how the authors included in each series were selected and how each relates to the formal and informal Scottish literary canon; and briefly indicates what comparative scholarship suggests about the relation of such monuments to the development of cultural nationalism

Replenishing the Earth: The Settler Revolution and the Rise of the Anglo-World, 1783–1939

Review of: "Replenishing the Earth: The Settler Revolution and the Rise of the Anglo-World, 1783–1939," by James Belich

Qualitative and quantitative morphology of lateral rectus motoneurons of the principal abducens nucleus

Nine lateral rectus motoneurons of the principal abducens nucleus, intracellularly stained with HRP, were morphometrically analyzed by light microscopy using a new method for determining motoneuron size. Particular emphasis was placed on devising a method of estimating total dendrite size from the proximal dendritic diameter alone. The dendrites of these cells were divided into three types. One type, the microdendrites, had a consistent diameter of l micrometer, variable but short lengths, and added very little to the overall cell size. The majority of the dendrites on these cells (83) were standard in appearance but they could be separated into two further types. Six dendrites differed from the other 77 in that they were tapering processes which branched minimally, had both a rostrally and a caudally directed secondary dendrite and showed a larger ratio for the sum of the secondary dendrite diameters to the proximal dendrite diameter. The remaining 77 branched extensively and traveled either rostral or caudal in the brainstem. However, the most significant difference was quantitative. The tapering dendrites were approximately 2X the size of the prevalent branching dendrites based on proximal diameter measurements. Correlation coefficients of the relation between proximal diameter and surface area or volume of the entire dendrite increased when the correlations were separated into two types. Therefore, to insure the most accurate total size calculations, the regression lines used for estimating dendrite size were of the separate correlations. Total neuron size was calculated by adding the soma and dendrite surface areas. An intraneuronal comparison of size indicated that the size of the soma was not indicative of the size of the cell and it constituted between 2% to 7% of the total cell size. Comparison of the motoneuron size to the mechanical properties of their muscle units was inconclusive. However, a general tendency for small motoneurons to innervate muscle units of lower force output was observed. The smaller motoneurons were generally more dorsally located in the nucleus

Before Dred Scott: Slavery and Legal Culture in the American Confluence, 1787-1857

Review of "Before Dred Scott: Slavery and Legal Culture in the American Confluence, 1787-1857" by Anne Twitt

“Greedy Merchants and Idle Women: Economic Crisis and Community in the Lower Missouri Valley, 1819-1825”

As a merchant economy emerged in Missouri River towns in the 1820s, so too did a rhetoric about the roles of women in this changing economy. Rebekah Mergenthal examines the debate about changing gender roles in an evolving market economy

How the West Was Drawn: Mapping, Indians, and the Construction of the Trans-Mississippi West

Review of: How the West Was Drawn: Mapping, Indians, and the Construction of the Trans-Mississippi West, by David Bernstein

Literature and music: introduction

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Hitler on the Ballachulish Beat: The Plays of C. P. Taylor

Although seven of his plays were performed at the 1992 Edinburgh International Festival, the Scottish playwright C.P. Taylor (1929-81) is much less well-known than some of this younger colleagues. This is particularly unfortunate as C.P. Taylor’s thematic concerns, and the dramatic vocabulary he employs to voice them, are unique in their contemporary Scottish context, albeit strongly indebted to European, specifically German, Modernism. The article will first provide a brief survey of C.P. Taylor’s life and writing career, focussing on his Jewish background (which informs, for example, such plays as Walter and The Black and White Minstrels), and on the conditions of writing in exile (as a Scot in England). The second part will consist of a detailed, comparative examination of three plays, namely, Bread and Butter, The Ballachulish Beat, and Good. In spite of their considerable differences —Bread and Butter explores the lives of two young Jewish couples in Glasgow, The Ballachullish Beat follows the career of a rock band, and Good discusses the question of euthanasia before the sinister background of 1930s Germany —all three plays are concerned with the responses of individuals to the pressures, but also the allure, of various kinds of totalitarianism. In addition, all three plays associate totalitarianism with music, as a pre- or non- rational form of experience; as a consequence, the role of music in these plays, both as a theme and as a dramatic technique, will have to be explored

Classes of depression symptom trajectories in patients with major depression receiving a collaborative care intervention

Purpose Collaborative care is effective in improving symptoms of patients with depression. The aims of this study were to characterize symptom trajectories in patients with major depression during one year of collaborative care and to explore associations between baseline characteristics and symptom trajectories. Methods We conducted a cluster-randomized controlled trial in primary care. The collaborative care intervention comprised case management and behavioral activation. We used the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) to assess symptom severity as the primary outcome. Statistical analyses comprised latent growth mixture modeling and a hierarchical binary logistic regression model. Results We included 74 practices and 626 patients (310 intervention and 316 control recipients) at baseline. Based on a minimum of 12 measurement points for each intervention recipient, we identified two latent trajectories, which we labeled \u27fast improvers\u27 (60.5%) and \u27slow improvers\u27 (39.5%). At all measurements after baseline, \u27fast improvers\u27 presented higher PHQ mean values than \u27slow improvers\u27. At baseline, \u27fast improvers\u27 presented fewer physical conditions, higher health-related quality of life, and had made fewer suicide attempts in their history. Conclusions A notable proportion of 39.5% of patients improved only \u27slowly\u27 and probably needed more intense treatment. The third follow-up in month two could well be a sensible time to adjust treatment to support \u27slow improvers\u27. (DIPF/Orig.