Return of the Memento Mori: imaging death in public health.

Death has always held a morbid fascination for humans. Indeed, awareness of one’s own mortality may well be one of the defining features of the ‘human condition’ – symbols of death appearing in most civilizations since artefacts have been made. The Latin phrase memento mori, meaning literally ‘remember to die’, encapsulates a rich and varied artistic tradition, dating back to the Middle Ages, of figuring death by symbolizing its literal processes and remainders. From the decomposed effigies of 15th-century ‘cadaver tombs’, to the humorous medieval iconography of the skeletal danse macabre, the works of this genre draw on the destructive physical changes that are a part of our understanding of death. Prolific within its morbid imagery are the use of skull, skeleton and verminous or rotting flesh as ‘trope’ or symbol of the processes that eventually take away the person who lived, and who was once like us. At the height of its popularity between the 16th and 18th centuries, Church walls, tombs, jewellery, paintings, and so on frequently depicted death and decay. The entreaty to ‘remember’ death in memento mori was more than simply a call for ‘therapeutic contemplation’1 or the banal acceptance of the imminence of death; it was a call to piety, to conformity. Damnation would be added to death if the individual transgressed the rules of Catholic doctrine, such that scholars often trace a continuity between the motives of memento mori, and the biblical injunction: ‘Whatsoever thou takest in hand, remember the end, and thou shalt never do amiss’ (Ecclesiasticus 7:36).2 Even within the iconophobic Protestantism of the post-Reformation era, the memento mori trope persisted as a privileged mode of pious warning. In the visually secular effigy monuments of the Elizabethan gentry, inscriptions urging the reader to ‘(r)emember the last things and…not sin again’ signified that death would come to everyone – but only spiritual public health would reduce the risk of eternal punishment and separation from God.3 The memento mori trope survives into the present day, albeit in differing locations. Loosely discernible in the ‘corpse chic’ of contemporary haute couture, and entrenched within the aesthetics of punk and gothic subcultures, the skull and skeleton loom large as Western symbols of cultural rebellion.4 Similarly, the fully enfleshed ‘corpse’ continues to haunt the zone of 2 | P a g e contemporary representation – saturating the realm of Hollywood film and ‘hard news’ reportage alike, and asserting its dominance in forensics-inspired television programmes such as CSI. Representing death, it would seem, has never been more popular. Indeed, depictions of death have emerged as ‘mainstream advertising strategy’4 – their gore and horror satisfying a perverse voyeurism that many would attribute to the alienating effects of mass media saturation. While the ‘pornography’ of suffering5 in contemporary culture appears to have little in common with classical memento mori, if one looks closely, certain elements particular to this once-spiritual genre of death depiction can be unearthed, most notably in the secular arena of public health

Return of the Memento Mori: imaging death in public health.

Death has always held a morbid fascination for humans. Indeed, awareness of one’s own mortality may well be one of the defining features of the ‘human condition’ – symbols of death appearing in most civilizations since artefacts have been made. The Latin phrase memento mori, meaning literally ‘remember to die’, encapsulates a rich and varied artistic tradition, dating back to the Middle Ages, of figuring death by symbolizing its literal processes and remainders. From the decomposed effigies of 15th-century ‘cadaver tombs’, to the humorous medieval iconography of the skeletal danse macabre, the works of this genre draw on the destructive physical changes that are a part of our understanding of death. Prolific within its morbid imagery are the use of skull, skeleton and verminous or rotting flesh as ‘trope’ or symbol of the processes that eventually take away the person who lived, and who was once like us. At the height of its popularity between the 16th and 18th centuries, Church walls, tombs, jewellery, paintings, and so on frequently depicted death and decay. The entreaty to ‘remember’ death in memento mori was more than simply a call for ‘therapeutic contemplation’1 or the banal acceptance of the imminence of death; it was a call to piety, to conformity. Damnation would be added to death if the individual transgressed the rules of Catholic doctrine, such that scholars often trace a continuity between the motives of memento mori, and the biblical injunction: ‘Whatsoever thou takest in hand, remember the end, and thou shalt never do amiss’ (Ecclesiasticus 7:36).2 Even within the iconophobic Protestantism of the post-Reformation era, the memento mori trope persisted as a privileged mode of pious warning. In the visually secular effigy monuments of the Elizabethan gentry, inscriptions urging the reader to ‘(r)emember the last things and…not sin again’ signified that death would come to everyone – but only spiritual public health would reduce the risk of eternal punishment and separation from God.3 The memento mori trope survives into the present day, albeit in differing locations. Loosely discernible in the ‘corpse chic’ of contemporary haute couture, and entrenched within the aesthetics of punk and gothic subcultures, the skull and skeleton loom large as Western symbols of cultural rebellion.4 Similarly, the fully enfleshed ‘corpse’ continues to haunt the zone of 2 | P a g e contemporary representation – saturating the realm of Hollywood film and ‘hard news’ reportage alike, and asserting its dominance in forensics-inspired television programmes such as CSI. Representing death, it would seem, has never been more popular. Indeed, depictions of death have emerged as ‘mainstream advertising strategy’4 – their gore and horror satisfying a perverse voyeurism that many would attribute to the alienating effects of mass media saturation. While the ‘pornography’ of suffering5 in contemporary culture appears to have little in common with classical memento mori, if one looks closely, certain elements particular to this once-spiritual genre of death depiction can be unearthed, most notably in the secular arena of public health

Behaviours preceding suicides at railway and underground locations: a multimethodological qualitative approach

Background: Suicides by train have devastating consequences for families, the rail industry, staff dealing with the aftermath of such incidents, and potential witnesses. To reduce suicides and suicide attempts by rail it is important to learn how safe interventions can be made. However, very little is known about how to identify someone who may be about to make a suicide attempt at a railway location (including underground/subways). The current research employed a novel way of understanding what behaviours might immediately precede a suicide or suicide attempt at these locations. Design and Methods: A qualitative thematic approach was used for three parallel studies. Data were gathered from several sources including: interviews with individuals who survived a suicide attempt at a railway or underground location (N=9); CCTV footage of individuals who died by suicide at a rail or underground location (N=16); and qualitative survey data providing views from rail staff (N=79). Results: Our research suggests there are several behaviours that people may carry out before a suicide or suicide attempt at a rail location including: station hopping and platform switching; limiting contact with others; positioning themselves at the end of the track where the train/tube approaches; allowing trains to pass by; and carrying out repetitive behaviours. Interpretation: There are several behaviours that may be identifiable in the moments leading up to a suicide or suicide attempt on the railways, which may present opportunities for intervention. These findings have implications for several stakeholders including rail providers, transport police and other organisations focused on suicide prevention

The Effect of Agricultural Practices on a Dairy Farm on Nitrate Leaching to 1m

Dairy farms, in Ireland, carry the highest stock densities and use the highest rates of fertiliser nitrogen (N). They constitute the highest risk of nitrate leaching, especially where soils are thin or free-draining. The effect of 4 grass managements on leaching was studied on a dairy farm having free-draining soils overlying Karst limestone. This was a new, farm-comprehensive approach to nitrate leaching which had not been carried out previously

Scaling of Self-Avoiding Walks in High Dimensions

We examine self-avoiding walks in dimensions 4 to 8 using high-precision Monte-Carlo simulations up to length N=16384, providing the first such results in dimensions $d > 4$ on which we concentrate our analysis. We analyse the scaling behaviour of the partition function and the statistics of nearest-neighbour contacts, as well as the average geometric size of the walks, and compare our results to $1/d$-expansions and to excellent rigorous bounds that exist. In particular, we obtain precise values for the connective constants, $\mu_5=8.838544(3)$, $\mu_6=10.878094(4)$, $\mu_7=12.902817(3)$, $\mu_8=14.919257(2)$ and give a revised estimate of $\mu_4=6.774043(5)$. All of these are by at least one order of magnitude more accurate than those previously given (from other approaches in $d>4$ and all approaches in $d=4$). Our results are consistent with most theoretical predictions, though in $d=5$ we find clear evidence of anomalous $N^{-1/2}$-corrections for the scaling of the geometric size of the walks, which we understand as a non-analytic correction to scaling of the general form $N^{(4-d)/2}$ (not present in pure Gaussian random walks).Comment: 14 pages, 2 figure

Effects of 5-fluorouracil on morphology, cell cycle, proliferation, apoptosis, autophagy and ros production in endothelial cells and cardiomyocytes

Antimetabolites are a class of effective anticancer drugs interfering in essential biochemical processes. 5-Fluorouracil (5-FU) and its prodrug Capecitabine are widely used in the treatment of several solid tumors (gastro-intestinal, gynecological, head and neck, breast carcinomas). Therapy with fluoropyrimidines is associated with a wide range of adverse effects, including diarrhea, dehydration, abdominal pain, nausea, stomatitis, and hand-foot syndrome. Among the 5-FU side effects, increasing attention is given to cardiovascular toxicities induced at different levels and intensities. Since the mechanisms related to 5-FU-induced cardiotoxicity are still unclear, we examined the effects of 5-FU on primary cell cultures of human cardiomyocytes and endothelial cells, which represent two key components of the cardiovascular system. We analyzed at the cellular and molecular level 5-FU effects on cell proliferation, cell cycle, survival and induction of apoptosis, in an experimental cardioncology approach. We observed autophagic features at the ultrastructural and molecular levels, in particular in 5-FU exposed cardiomyocytes. Reactive oxygen species (ROS) elevation characterized the endothelial response. These responses were prevented by a ROS scavenger. We found induction of a senescent phenotype on both cell types treated with 5-FU. In vivo, in a xenograft model of colon cancer, we showed that 5-FU treatment induced ultrastructural changes in the endothelium of various organs. Taken together, our data suggest that 5-FU can affect, both at the cellular and molecular levels, two key cell types of the cardiovascular system, potentially explaining some manifestations of 5-FU-induced cardiovascular toxicity

Against strong pluralism

Strong pluralists hold that not even permanent material coincidence is enough for identity. Strong pluralism entails the possibility of purely material objects -- even if not coincident -- alike in all general respects, categorial and dispositional, relational and non-relational, past, present and future, at the microphysical level, but differing in some general modal, counterfactual or dispositional repscts at the macrophysical level. It is objectionable because it thus deprives us of the explanatory resources to explain why evident absurdities are absurd. A second objection is to the suggestion that cases involving artefacts can illustrate strong pluralism. This offends against the principle that gien a complex intrinsic microphysical property instantiated in some regiion, the number of material things possessing it in that region cannot depend on the existence and nature of intentional activity taking place outside it

A Characterisation of Strong Wave Tails in Curved Space-Times

A characterisation of when wave tails are strong is proposed. The existence of a curvature induced tail (i.e. a Green's function term whose support includes the interior of the light-cone) is commonly understood to cause backscattering of the field governed by the relevant wave equation. Strong tails are characterised as those for which the purely radiative part of the field is backscattered. With this definition, it is shown that electromagnetic waves in asymptotically flat space-times and fields governed by tail-free propagation have weak tails, but minimally coupled scalar fields in a cosmological scenario have strong tails.Comment: 17 pages, Revtex, to appear in Classical and Quantum Gravit

Spatial and temporal arrival patterns of Madagascar's vertebrate fauna explained by distance, ocean currents, and ancestor type

How, when, and from where Madagascar's vertebrates arrived on the island is poorly known, and a comprehensive explanation for the distribution of its organisms has yet to emerge. We begin to break that impasse by analyzing vertebrate arrival patterns implied by currently existing taxa. For each of 81 clades, we compiled arrival date, source, and ancestor type (obligate freshwater, terrestrial, facultative swimmer, or volant). We analyzed changes in arrival rates, with and without adjusting for clade extinction. Probability of successful transoceanic dispersal is negatively correlated with distance traveled and influenced by ocean currents and ancestor type. Obligate rafters show a decrease in probability of successful transoceanic dispersal fromthe Paleocene onward, reaching the lowest levels after the mid- Miocene. This finding is consistent with a paleoceanographic model [Ali JR, HuberM(2010) Nature 463:653-656] that predicts Early Cenozoic surface currents periodically conducive to rafting or swimming fromAfrica, followed by a reconfiguration to present-day flow15-20 million years ago that significantly diminished the ability for transoceanic dispersal to Madagascar from the adjacent mainland