Political Authority in International Relations:Revisiting the Medieval Debate

In international relations, accounts of medieval political authority are divided between those who see a heteronomous patchwork of overlapping authorities and those who claim that the era of the state started in the twelfth century. How can we overcome this divide? I argue that IR's current difficulties in grasping the nature of medieval political authority stem from shortcomings in how the notion of political authority itself has been conceptualized. Thus, rather than starting from a substantive definition of political authority, I focus on contestation over the categorization and authorization of rule, that is, on how authority is produced in historically specific ways as a result of contemporary contestation over what political authority is, who is authorized, and how rulers stand in relation to one another. This reorientation allows us to appreciate how medieval political authority emerged from the competition between four sets of ordering categories: iurisdictio, potestas, lord/vassal, and magistrate. Each one of these four categories understood authority, rulers, and the relation between rulers in different ways. The problem with existing accounts of medieval authority is that they attempt to find the single ordering principle of medieval international relations. In doing so, they not only fail to capture the features of the time but also reinforce a particular approach to political authority that is unhelpful for understanding medieval and modern politics alike.</p

Reconquest 2.0:the Spanish far right and the mobilization of historical memory during the 2019 elections

This paper brings together the literature on far right parties, medievalism and opinion leadership in order to more closely interrogate the memory politics of the far right. We address two broad questions: what does the mobilization of distant-past events do in far right discourse? And how do these memories circulate online? We unpack one specific case study: the mobilization of the topic ‘La Reconquista’ (The Reconquest) among the computer-mediated networks of one Europe’s newest national-populist parties: Spain’s VOX. First, we show three strategies through which the Reconquest trope reproduced a conservative historiography that creates a transhistorical, exclusionary and Catholic Spanish nation: the creation of memory sites, the glorification of heroes and a specifically antagonistic memory. Second, we show that the one-word nature of the historical narrative, through its Twitter circulation, gave it a crucial ability to mobilize in the context of an election. Finally, drawing from opinion leader theory we show how these Reconquest narratives were put forward by traditional elite actors such as political parties and newspapers, but relied on the role of ordinary citizens to spread and circulate

Introduction:Historical International Relations

Disciplinary International Relations (IR) grew in part out of the discipline of History. Even so, the subfield of Historical International Relations (HIR) is a relatively new one. A mere decade ago, a handbook such as this one would have seemed unthinkable. Sure, there were books about History and IR (Elman and Elman, 1997) and more on the way (Bukovansky et al., forthcoming), people discussed the “problem of history” in IR (Armitage, 2004; Vaughan-Williams, 2005) and it was asked what history could be in IR (Hobson and Lawson, 2008). These takes nevertheless all supposed either the existence of a divide to be bridged or a continuum where the enterprises of History and IR were commensurable. The emergence and institutionalisation of a distinct subfield over the last decade has radically changed that landscape. Writing in 2020, it is obvious that a burgeoning subfield of HIR not only exists within the discipline, but that it has come to age and is thriving. As the ensuing chapters vividly demonstrate, so much material is being produced that a stock-taking exercise is both possible and necessary. This handbook attempts just such a stocktaking

Diabetic and dyslipidaemic morbidly obese exhibit more liver alterations compared with healthy morbidly obese

Background & aims: To study the origin of fat excess in the livers of morbidly obese (MO) individuals, we analysed lipids and lipases in both plasma and liver and genes involved in lipid transport, or related with, in that organ. Methods: Thirty-two MO patients were grouped according to the absence (healthy: DM−DL−) or presence of comorbidities (dyslipidemic: DM−DL+; or dyslipidemic with type 2 diabetes: DM+DL+) before and one year after gastric bypass. Results: The livers of healthy, DL and DM patients contained more lipids (9.8, 9.5 and 13.7 times, respectively) than those of control subjects. The genes implicated in liver lipid uptake, including HL, LPL, VLDLr, and FAT/CD36, showed increased expression compared with the controls. The expression of genes involved in lipid-related processes outside of the liver, such as apoB, PPARα and PGC1α, CYP7a1 and HMGCR, was reduced in these patients compared with the controls. PAI1 and TNFα gene expression in the diabetic livers was increased compared with the other obese groups and control group. Increased steatosis and fibrosis were also noted in the MO individuals. Conclusions: Hepatic lipid parameters in MO patients change based on their comorbidities. The gene expression and lipid levels after bariatric surgery were less prominent in the diabetic patients. Lipid receptor overexpression could enable the liver to capture circulating lipids, thus favouring the steatosis typically observed in diabetic and dyslipidaemic MO individuals.This research has received funding from the Fondo de Investigación Sanitaria del Instituto de Salud Carlos III of the Spanish Ministry for Health and Consumer Affairs (PI030024, PI030042, PI070079 and PI11/01159

Protocol de prescripció d’oxigenoteràpia per a pacients en situació aguda domiciliària, en l’àmbit de l’atenció primària: document de consens

Oxigenoteràpia; Prescripció; Pacients en situació aguda domiciliària; Atenció primàriaOxigenoterapia; Prescripción; Pacientes en situación aguda domiciliaria; Atención primariaOxygen therapy; Prescription; Patients in an acute situation at home; Primary careL’oxigenoteràpia en els pacients adults comprèn el conjunt d’intervencions d’assistència sanitària, tècnica i de formació realitzades de manera coordinada per diferents professionals que configuren un equip interdisciplinari, limitades en el temps i orientades a facilitar el tractament domiciliari de la insuficiència respiratòria aguda i a evitar els ingressos hospitalaris i els desplaçaments als serveis d’urgència evitables. Amb aquest protocol es vol contribuir a la disminució de la morbimortalitat dels pacients amb insuficiència respiratòria aguda, tributaris de tractament amb oxigenoteràpia domiciliària; i a millorar la qualitat de vida de les persones que estan en situació de final de vida i que pateixin un esdeveniment agut

Neurocognitive profile of the post-COVID condition in adults in Catalonia. A mixed method prospective cohort and nested case-control study: Study Protocol

The diagnosis of the post-COVID condition is usually achieved by excluding other diseases; however, cognitive changes are often found in the post-COVID disorder. Therefore, monitoring and treating the recovery from the post-COVID condition is necessary to establish biomarkers to guide the diagnosis of symptoms, including cognitive impairment. Our study employs a prospected cohort and nested case-control design with mixed methods, including statistical analyses, interviews, and focus groups. Our main aim is to identify biomarkers (functional and structural neural changes, inflammatory and immune status, vascular and vestibular signs and symptoms) easily applied in primary care to detect cognitive changes in post-COVID cases. The results will open up a new line of research to inform diagnostic and therapeutic decisions with special considerations for cognitive impairment in the post-COVID condition

Role of targeted therapies in rheumatic patients on COVID-19 outcomes: results from the COVIDSER study

Objectives: To analyse the effect of targeted therapies, either biological (b) disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs), targeted synthetic (ts) DMARDs and other factors (demographics, comorbidities or COVID-19 symptoms) on the risk of COVID-19 related hospitalisation in patients with inflammatory rheumatic diseases. Methods: The COVIDSER study is an observational cohort including 7782 patients with inflammatory rheumatic diseases. Multivariable logistic regression was used to estimate ORs and 95% CIs of hospitalisation. Antirheumatic medication taken immediately prior to infection, demographic characteristics, rheumatic disease diagnosis, comorbidities and COVID-19 symptoms were analysed. Results: A total of 426 cases of symptomatic COVID-19 from 1 March 2020 to 13 April 2021 were included in the analyses: 106 (24.9%) were hospitalised and 19 (4.4%) died. In multivariate-adjusted models, bDMARDs and tsDMARDs in combination were not associated with hospitalisation compared with conventional synthetic DMARDs (OR 0.55, 95% CI 0.24 to 1.25 of b/tsDMARDs, p=0.15). Tumour necrosis factor inhibitors (TNF-i) were associated with a reduced likelihood of hospitalisation (OR 0.32, 95% CI 0.12 to 0.82, p=0.018), whereas rituximab showed a tendency to an increased risk of hospitalisation (OR 4.85, 95% CI 0.86 to 27.2). Glucocorticoid use was not associated with hospitalisation (OR 1.69, 95% CI 0.81 to 3.55). A mix of sociodemographic factors, comorbidities and COVID-19 symptoms contribute to patients' hospitalisation. Conclusions: The use of targeted therapies as a group is not associated with COVID-19 severity, except for rituximab, which shows a trend towards an increased risk of hospitalisation, while TNF-i was associated with decreased odds of hospitalisation in patients with rheumatic disease. Other factors like age, male gender, comorbidities and COVID-19 symptoms do play a role.This Project has been financed by Bristol-Myers Squibb, Galapagos Biopharma Spain SLU, Gebro Pharma, Roche Farma and Sanofi Aventis