'The Council has been your Creation': Hamilton Fish Armstrong, Paradigm of the American Foreign Policy Establishment?

He was born in 1893 in the New York brownstone house near Washington Square where he lived all his adult life, a member of Edith Wharton's settled, circumscribed world of ordered privilege whose affluent, well-travelled, and sophisticated men and women traced their lineage back to the Founding Fathers and their principles to the American Revolution. His father was an artist who served as Consul General to Italy, and Armstrong was brought up in a milieu which took for granted the fact that there existed a world outside the United States. He died in 1973, as the United States finally withdrew from the Vietnam War, a conflict which deeply distressed him and shattered the foreign policy elite and its controlling consensus, whose creation had been a major part of his life's work. In an obituary notice Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., described him as “a New York gentleman of a vanishing school,” who “treated every one, old or young, famous or unknown, with the same generous courtesy and concern.”published_or_final_versio

A century of international affairs think tanks in historical perspective

This essay surveys the operations of foreign policy think tanks, and how they have functioned to create transnational knowledge networks, since their emergence in the early twentieth century, around the First World War. It discusses how patterns of linkages among foreign policy think tanks changed and evolved over time, and were linked to broader Anglo-American, imperial, and internationalist networks and relationships, and to the changing international political climate and configuration. It suggests some ways in which think tanks contributed to Cold War interchanges between different states, especially to Soviet bloc–Western relations and Asian–Western relations. It concludes by discussing the recent proliferation and frequent globalization of foreign policy think tanks, and suggests how such trends may develop in future. Keywordspostprin

Public attitudes toward mental illness in Africa and North America

Objective: Public attitudes toward mental illness in two widely disparate cultures, Canada and Cameroon, were compared using an experimental version of a survey instrument, the Public Opinion Survey of Human Attributes–Mental Illness or POSHA–MI(e).Method: 120 respondents rated POSHA–MI(e) items relating to mental illness on 1-9 equal appearing interval scales: 30 in English and 30 in French in both Cameroon and Canada. Additionally, 30 matched, monolingual English, American respondents wereincluded as a comparison group.Result: In Canada (and in the USA), attitudes were generally more positive and less socially stigmatizing toward mental illness than in Cameroon. Differences between countries were much larger than differences between language groups. Conclusion: Consistent with other research, beliefs and reactions of the public regarding mental illness reflect stigma, especially in Cameroon. Cultural influences on these public attitudes are more likely important than language influences. Results of this field test of the POSHA–MI(e), documenting differences in public attitudes toward mental illness in two divergent cultures, support its further development.Keywords: Social stigma; Mental disorders; Language; Developing countries; Developed countrie

The pattern of childhood in the western Cape

An analysis of poisoning cases treated at the Red Cross War Memorial Children's Hospital dUring 1987 and of calls received on the poisons line is presented. Treatment of 1116 children was undertaken and 922 telephone calls were logged. Of the patients treated, 60% had ingested a drug and 30% had drunk paraffin. The high prevalence of paraffin poisoning in the western Cape is examined. Constant vigilance must be maintained if childhood poisoning is to be prevented.S Afr Med J 1990; 78: 22-2

Rethinking how external pressure can suppress dendrites in lithium metal batteries

We offer an explanation for how dendrite growth can be inhibited when Li metal pouch cells are subjected to external loads, even for cells using soft, thin separators. We develop a contact mechanics model for tracking Li surface and sub-surface stresses where electrodes have realistically (micron-scale) rough surfaces. Existing models examine a single, micron-scale Li metal protrusion under a fixed local current density that presses more or less conformally against a separator or stiff electrolyte. At the larger, sub-mm scales studied here, contact between the Li metal and the separator is heterogeneous and far from conformal for surfaces with realistic roughness: the load is carried at just the tallest asperities, where stresses reach tens of MPa, while most of the Li surface feels no force at all. Yet, dendrite growth is suppressed over the entire Li surface. To explain this dendrite suppression, our electrochemical/mechanics model suggests that Li avoids plating at the tips of growing Li dendrites if there is sufficient local stress; that local contact stresses there may be high enough to close separator pores so that incremental Li+ ions plate elsewhere; and that creep ensures that Li protrusions are gradually flattened. These mechanisms cannot be captured by single-dendrite-scale analyses

A comparison of visual and semiquantitative analysis methods for planar cardiac 123I-MIBG scintigraphy in dementia with Lewy bodies.

OBJECTIVES: Cardiac I-MIBG imaging is an established technique for the diagnosis of dementia with Lewy bodies but various analysis methods are reported in the literature. We assessed different methods in the same cohort of patients to inform best practice. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Seventeen patients with dementia with Lewy bodies, 15 with Alzheimer's disease and 16 controls were included. Planar images were acquired 20 min and 4 h after injection. Nine operators produced heart-to-mediastinum ratios (HMRs) using freehand and 6, 7 and 8 cm diameter circular cardiac regions. Interoperator variation was measured using the coefficient of variation. HMR differences between methods were assessed using analysis of variance. Seven raters assessed the images visually. Accuracy was compared using receiver operating characteristic analysis. RESULTS: There were significant differences in HMR between region methods (P=0.006). However, with optimised cut-offs there was no significant difference in accuracy (P=0.2-1.0). The sensitivity was 65-71% and specificity 100% for all HMR methods. Variation was lower with fixed regions than freehand (P<0.001). Visual rating sensitivity and specificity were 65 and 77% on early images and 76 and 71% on delayed images. There was no significant difference in HMR between early and delayed images (P=0.4-0.7) although a greater separation between means was seen on delayed images (0.73 vs. 0.95). CONCLUSION: HMR analysis using a suitable cut-off is more accurate than visual rating. Accuracy is similar for all methods, but freehand regions are more variable and 6 cm circles easiest to place. We recommend calculating HMR using a 6 cm circular cardiac region of interest on delayed images

Individualised benefit-harm balance of aspirin as primary prevention measure - a good proof-of-concept, but could have been better ...

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Multifrequency Strategies for the Identification of Gamma-Ray Sources

More than half the sources in the Third EGRET (3EG) catalog have no firmly established counterparts at other wavelengths and are unidentified. Some of these unidentified sources have remained a mystery since the first surveys of the gamma-ray sky with the COS-B satellite. The unidentified sources generally have large error circles, and finding counterparts has often been a challenging job. A multiwavelength approach, using X-ray, optical, and radio data, is often needed to understand the nature of these sources. This chapter reviews the technique of identification of EGRET sources using multiwavelength studies of the gamma-ray fields.Comment: 35 pages, 22 figures. Chapter prepared for the book "Cosmic Gamma-ray Sources", edited by K.S. Cheng and G.E. Romero, to be published by Kluwer Academic Press, 2004. For complete article and higher resolution figures, go to: http://www.astro.columbia.edu/~muk/mukherjee_multiwave.pd

Effects of a museum-based social-prescription intervention on quantitative measures of psychological wellbeing in older adults

Aims: To assess psychological wellbeing in a novel social prescription intervention for older adults called Museums on Prescription, and to explore the extent of change over time in six self-rated emotions (‘absorbed, ‘active’, ‘cheerful’, ‘encouraged’, ‘enlightened’ and ‘inspired’). Methods: Participants (n=115) aged 65-94 were referred to museum-based programmes comprising 10, weekly sessions, by healthcare and third sector organisations using inclusion criteria (e.g. socially isolated; able to give informed consent; not in employment; not regularly attending social or cultural activities) and exclusion criteria (e.g. unable to travel to the museum; unable to function in a group situation; unlikely to be able to attend all sessions; unable to take part in interviews and complete questionnaires). In a within-participants design, the Museum Wellbeing Measure for Older Adults (MWM-OA) was administered pre-post session at start- mid- and end-programme. Twelve programmes, facilitated by museum staff and volunteers, were conducted in seven museums in central London and across Kent. In addition to the quantitative measures, participants, carers where present, museum staff and researchers kept weekly diaries following guideline questions, and took part in end programme in-depth interviews. Results: Multivariate analyses of variance showed significant participant improvements in all six MWM-OA emotions, pre-post session at start- mid- and end-programme. Two emotions, ‘absorbed’ and ‘enlightened’, increased pre-post session disproportionately to the others; ‘cheerful’ attained the highest pre-post session scores whereas ‘active’ was consistently lowest. Conclusions: Museums can be instrumental in offering museum-based programmes for older adults to improve psychological wellbeing over time. Participants in the study experienced a sense of privilege, valued the opportunity to liaise with curators, visit parts of the museum closed to the public, and handle objects normally behind glass. Participants appreciated opportunities afforded by creative and co-productive activities to acquire learning and skills, and get to know new people in a different context