Social change and the family: Comparative perspectives from the west, China, and South Asia

This paper examines the influence of social and economic change on family structure and relationships: How do such economic and social transformations as industrialization, urbanization, demographic change, the expansion of education, and the long-term growth of income influence the family? We take a comparative and historical approach, reviewing the experiences of three major sociocultural regions: the West, China, and South Asia. Many of the changes that have occurred in family life have been remarkably similar in the three settings—the separation of the workplace from the home, increased training of children in nonfamilial institutions, the development of living arrangements outside the family household, increased access of children to financial and other productive resources, and increased participation by children in the selection of a mate. While the similarities of family change in diverse cultural settings are striking, specific aspects of change have varied across settings because of significant pre-existing differences in family structure, residential patterns of marriage, autonomy of children, and the role of marriage within kinship systems.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/45661/1/11206_2005_Article_BF01124383.pd

Homo Spiritualis : A Comparative study of the anthropology of Johannes tauler...

NetherlandVol 6.,vii, 226 p.; 24 cm

Transfusion of red blood cells after prolonged storage produces harmful effects that are mediated by iron and inflammation

Although red blood cell (RBC) transfusions can be lifesaving, they are not without risk. In critically ill patients, RBC transfusions are associated with increased morbidity and mortality, which may increase with prolonged RBC storage before transfusion. The mechanisms responsible remain unknown. We hypothesized that acute clearance of a subset of damaged, stored RBCs delivers large amounts of iron to the monocyte/macrophage system, inducing inflammation. To test this in a well-controlled setting, we used a murine RBC storage and transfusion model to show that the transfusion of stored RBCs, or washed stored RBCs, increases plasma nontransferrin bound iron (NTBI), produces acute tissue iron deposition, and initiates inflammation. In contrast, the transfusion of fresh RBCs, or the infusion of stored RBC-derived supernatant, ghosts, or stroma-free lysate, does not produce these effects. Furthermore, the insult induced by transfusion of stored RBC synergizes with subclinical endotoxinemia producing clinically overt signs and symptoms. The increased plasma NTBI also enhances bacterial growth in vitro. Taken together, these results suggest that, in a mouse model, the cellular component of leukoreduced, stored RBC units contributes to the harmful effects of RBC transfusion that occur after prolonged storage. Nonetheless, these findings must be confirmed by prospective human studies

Sources of community : mythical groundwork of Early Modern identities

Jakub Koryl’s lengthy chapter, “Sources of Community: Mythical Groundwork of Early Modern Identities”, stands out in terms of its theoretical nature and comprehensive scope. At the same time it goes to the heart of the question of confessional identity and otherness, and thus provides an illuminating perspective on many of the themes covered in both this section and the volume as a whole. Drawing on case-studies from both the Lutheran and Catholic Reformation, Korylseeksto offer a newaccount of confessional-identity building from the late Middle Ages through to the Enlightenment. In particular, he argues that in the early modern period the theme of myth - and especially the rival German and Roman “myths” of Reformation - became the driving force for the creation of new confessional identities, harnessing and uniting into one powerful synthesis, social, intellectual, political and religious forces. Then, following in the footsteps of Hans Blumenberg, Charles Taylor and others, Koryl traces the roots of the modern conception of identity to late medieval Nominalism and its overturning of the medieval analogical and hierarchical understanding of reality. According to Koryl, it was this philosophical move which helped release the creative - and destructive - interplay of forces that shaped the early modern confessional landscape for the next two centuries. Importantly, this situation gave minority views a new voice in European affairs, allowing them eventually to construct their own (secular) myths and take on the dominant, majority role they exercise in the world today