The Napoleonic Wars: A Very Short Introduction

Part of Oxford University Press' 'Very Short Introduction' series, this book aims to unpack the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars for readers. It discusses the causes of the conflict in the first chapter, provides an outline of the course of the war in chapters two and three, while the remaining four chapters discuss the ways in which the wars were fought on both land and sea; the experience 'at the sharp end' as lived by soldiers, sailors and civilians; and the ways in which societies were mobilized in the prosecution of the war. The book concludes with some thoughts on the legacy of the conflict. There is an annotated reading list at the end

Edinburgh and Glasgow: Civic Identity and Rivalry, c. 1752-1842

This thesis is the first in depth study that has been undertaken concerning Edinburgh and Glasgow’s identities and rivalry. It is not an economic or a social study driven solely by theory. Essentially, this is a cultural and political examination of Edinburgh and Glasgow’s identities and rivalry based on empirical evidence. It engages with theory where appropriate. Although 1752 – 1842 is the main framework for the period there are other considerations included before this period and after this timeframe. This study provides the reader with a better understanding of the ideas highlighted in the introduction and it also indicates the degrees of changes as well as continuity within the two cities. Therefore, this thesis is not a strict comparison of the two cities and neither does it provide for a complete contextual breakdown of every historical event over the course of every year. The primary focus is kept on an array of primary written sources about the two cities over the course of the period, with only brief reflections about other places, where it is deemed appropriate. The thesis is driven by the evidence it has uncovered in relation to identity and rivalry, and the study uses particular events and their impact on the two cities within a particular historical narrative. As it is a preliminary report of its kind, there are, of course, many gaps which are opportunities for further research. This is something that the conclusion of this thesis returns to. Identity and rivalry are words not attached to any particular corpus of research material but rather are buried in an array of primary sources that are wide-ranging and all encompassing. Most have been uncovered in individual collections and in the literature of the time, including newspapers, guidebooks, travellers’ accounts, civic histories, speeches, letters, and in entries for the Encyclopaedia Britannica and also the Old and New Statistical Accounts. Although historians may have examined some of this material it has not necessarily been employed by them to investigate how the cities’ identities and rivalry evolved. The period was influenced by the ideas birthed from the Enlightenment and Romanticism, by the impact of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars and by the intense processes harboured by urbanisation, industrialisation and by political and social change as the Georgian city became a Victorian one, so consideration of these important aspects must be afforded, as well as the particular historians’ ideas about them and how they affected cities like Edinburgh and Glasgow within a Scottish and a British context

The experiences of patients and carers in the daily management of care at the end of life

Background Home is the preferred location for most people with an advanced disease and at the end of life. A variety of care professionals work in community settings to provide support to this population. Patients and their spouses, who also care for them (spouse-carers), are rarely accompanied by these sources of support at all times, and have to manage independently between their contact with care professionals. Aim To explore how patients and spouse-carers manage their involvement with care professionals in the community setting. Method Interpretive phenomenology informs the design of the research, whereby 16 interviews were conducted with the patients and spouse-carers. Interviews were recorded and transcribed verbatim. Data were analysed using phenomenological techniques including template analysis. Findings Patients and spouse-carers were interdependent and both parties played a role in co-ordinating care and managing relationships with professional care providers. The patients and spouse-carers actively made choices about how to manage their situation, and develop and modify managing strategies based on their experiences. Conclusions When daily management is effective and care professionals acknowledge the dyadic nature of the patient and spouse-carer relationship, people have confidence in living with advanced disease

Gender Specific Disruptions in Emotion Processing in Younger Adults with Depression

Background: One of the principal theories regarding the biological basis of major depressive disorder (MDD) implicates a dysregulation of emotion-processing circuitry. Gender differences in how emotions are processed and relative experience with emotion processing might help to explain some of the disparities in the prevalence of MDD between women and men. This study sought to explore how gender and depression status relate to emotion processing. Methods: This study employed a 2 (MDD status) × 2 (gender) factorial design to explore differences in classifications of posed facial emotional expressions (N=151). Results: For errors, there was an interaction between gender and depression status. Women with MDD made more errors than did nondepressed women and men with MDD, particularly for fearful and sad stimuli (Ps Ps P=.01). Men with MDD, conversely, performed similarly to control men (P=.61). Conclusions: These results provide novel and intriguing evidence that depression in younger adults (years) differentially disrupts emotion processing in women as compared to men. This interaction could be driven by neurobiological and social learning mechanisms, or interactions between them, and may underlie differences in the prevalence of depression in women and men. Depression and Anxiety, 2009. Published 2008 Wiley-Liss, Inc

The impact of shift patterns on junior doctors' perceptions of fatigue, training, work/life balance and the role of social support

Background: The organisation of junior doctors' work hours has been radically altered following the partial implementation of the European Working Time Directive. Poorly designed shift schedules cause excessive disruption to shift workers' circadian rhythms. Method: Interviews and focus groups were used to explore perceptions among junior doctors and hospital managers regarding the impact of the European Working Time Directive on patient care and doctors' well-being. Results: Four main themes were identified. Under "Doctors shift rotas", doctors deliberated the merits and demerits of working seven nights in row. They also discussed the impact on fatigue of long sequences of day shifts. "Education and training" focused on concerns about reduced on-the-job learning opportunities under the new working time arrangements and also about the difficulties of finding time and energy to study. "Work/life balance" reflected the conflict between the positive aspects of working on-call or at night and the impact on life outside work. "Social support structures" focused on the role of morale and team spirit. Good support structures in the work place counteracted and compensated for the effects of negative role stressors, and arduous and unsocial work schedules. Conclusions: The impact of junior doctors' work schedules is influenced by the nature of specific shift sequences, educational considerations, issues of work/life balance and by social support systems. Poorly designed shift rotas can have negative impacts on junior doctors' professional performance and educational training, with implications for clinical practice, patient care and the welfare of junior doctors.4 page(s

Understanding Anthropological Understanding: for a merological anthropology

In this paper I argue for a merological anthropology in which ideas of ‘partiality’ and ‘practical adequacy’ provide a way out of the impasse of relativism which is implied by post-modernism and the related abandonment of a concern with ‘truth’. Ideas such as ‘aptness’ and ‘faithfulness’ enable us to re-establish empirical foundations without having to espouse a simple realism which has been rightly criticised. Ideas taken from ethnomethodology, particularly the way we bootstrap from ‘practical adequacy’ to ‘warrants for confidence’ point to a merological anthropology in which we recognize that we do not and cannot know everything, but that we can have reasons for being confident in the little we know