Rhetorical structure and function in The Anatomy of Melancholy

In writing The Anatomy of Melancholy Robert Burton was working within the system of classical rhetoric as revived in the Renaissance, specifically the epideictic genus. A juxtaposition of the topics, arguments, and tripartite form employed by Burton with the treatment of epideictic in Aristotle's Rhetoric, as well as with aspects of the Roman and Hellenistic rhetorical traditions, shows how Burton has playfully adapted Renaissance conceptions of epideictic rhetoric forencyclopaedic, satirical, andself-expressive purposes. The function of rhetoric in the Anatomy is both to 'dissect' the corpus of knowledge about melancholy and to 'show forth' the author's own melancholic condition. © International Society for History of Rhetoric

The strategies that peanut and nut-allergic consumers employ to remain safe when travelling abroad

Copyright @ 2012 Barnett et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The article has been made available through the Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund.Background: An understanding of the management strategies used by food allergic individuals is needed as a prerequisite to improving avoidance and enhancing quality of life. Travel abroad is a high risk time for severe and fatal food allergic reactions, but there is paucity of research concerning foreign travel. This study is the first to investigate the experiences of, and strategies used by peanut and tree nut allergic individuals when travelling abroad. Methods: Thirty-two adults with a clinical history of reaction to peanuts or tree nuts consistent with IgE-mediated allergy participated in a qualitative interview study. Results: Travel abroad was considered difficult with inherent risks for allergic individuals. Many participants recounted difficulties with airlines or restaurants. Inconsistency in managing allergen avoidance by airlines was a particular risk and a cause of frustration to participants. Individuals used a variety of strategies to remain safe including visiting familiar environments, limiting their activities, carrying allergy information cards in the host language, preparing their own food and staying close to medical facilities. Conclusions: Participants used a variety of allergen avoidance strategies, which were mostly extensions or modifications of the strategies that they use when eating at home or eating-out in the UK. The extended strategies reflected their recognition of enhanced risk during travel abroad. Their risk assessments and actions were generally well informed and appropriate. A need for airline policy regarding allergy to be declared and adhered to is needed, as is more research to quantify the true risks of airborne allergens in the cabin. Recommendations arising from our study are presented.This study is funded by the UK Food Standards Agency under project code T07058

Restauración de las pinturas murales de los cielorrasos y cúpula de la Basílica Nuestra Señora de la Merced

La Basílica Nuestra Señora de la Merced es una de las iglesias más antiguas del Casco Histórico de Buenos Aires. De barro y paja en 1611 fue luego construida de material en estilo barroco en la primera mitad del siglo XVIII. El arquitecto jesuita Andrés Blanchi, hermano coadjutor jesuita, contribuyó con sus ideas en el proyecto. A fines del siglo XIX el Párroco Antonio Rasore encara un proceso de modernización tanto exterior como interior del Templo y encomienda la decoración interior al artista italiano Luiggi de Rossi, oriundo de Boloña. Siguiendo la moda de la época, eligió un estilo neo renacentista con la incorporación de ciertos elementos bizantinos en algunos sectores. En este trabajo se abordará el proceso de restauración de las pinturas murales correspondientes a los cielorrasos del presbiterio, brazos del transepto, tambor, cúpula y linterna y nave central de la iglesia, durante los años 2007 y 2009. Además de pinturas murales, las superficies decoradas presentan extensas áreas doradas, con hojas metálicas (hojas de oro), en combinación en una baja proporción con zonas pintadas; molduras y elementos decorativos aplicados. El objetivo fue la recuperación de estas pinturas decorativas dada la trascendencia histórica, cultural y simbólica de las mismas. La intervención consistió en el tratamiento de las problemáticas originadas por numerosos factores tales como la falta de mantenimiento, el paso del tiempo, importantes y prolongadas filtraciones de humedad, e intervenciones anteriores no profesionales. La labor fue interdisciplinaria conjunta con profesionales de las áreas de historia del arte, arquitectura, bioquímica, y fotografía. Previo a la intervención se llevó a cabo una investigación in situ, realizando una observación minuciosa sobre la naturaleza y la condición de los materiales y técnicas constructivas que componían tanto la estructura como las capas de recubrimientos; y científica a través de análisis físico químicos, sobre la composición de los revoques, pigmentos, aglutinantes, adhesivos, oro, fibras, etc.; el cual fue fundamental para la posterior selección de materiales y procedimientos necesarios para el tratamiento. El proceso fue documentado gráfica y fotográficamente en forma profesional. La intervención se planteó de acuerdo a los criterios teóricos internacionalmente aceptados en la especialidad de la conservación de los bienes culturales. En este proyecto intervinieron un promedio de 16 restauradores profesionales en cada etapa del proceso. El proyecto y la dirección técnica fueron realizados por la que suscribe.Tópico 6: Patrimonio Urbano de los siglos XVIII al XX. Técnicas de Limpieza y de Conservación

Performance Measurement in the Product Development Process

The intention of the programme was to evaluate Product Development (PD) strategies within the automotive industry and to identify areas in which improvements could be made in PD project performance that would also provide a business opportunity for the author’s employer RLE INTERNATIONAL (RLE). The research is principally concerned with the automotive industry but also has broader applications within similar industries. The research was undertaken via three projects. Project 1 involved a study of the structure, drivers and trends within the automotive industry. The aim was to assess the implications for PD in the automotive industry and identify significant issues where opportunities for improvement existed. The outcome was a portrayal of an industry under extreme competitive pressure and waiting for something to change but without a clear future state. What was apparent was that the competitive pressures, and thus the need to deliver more products without significantly increased resources, were not going to abate in the near future. PD has to ‘deliver more with less’ but a definition of success and its associated measures in terms of the PD process is difficult to frame. Therefore, the aim of project 2 focused on performance measurement of the PD process by assessing four internationally diverse development projects carried out by the author’s employer with four discrete customers. The projects were all different in their content and were carried out in different countries, i.e. USA, Germany, India and Sweden. Whilst customer specific and cultural aspects of the projects differed, the significant issue identified via the research was common across all the projects. Traditional Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) of cost, time and scope were used but failed to predict issues in project delivery. The key finding was that if project information did not flow as originally planned then resources were wasted resulting in time and cost over-runs. Project 3 researched alternative solutions to the issue of monitoring information flow and proposes a specific method of indicating the likelihood of success in a project by identifying new PD measurement techniques to be used within the automotive PD process. This new measurement criterion of information flow provides a predictive tool that significantly enhances the project control process. The predictive method of information flow tracking developed is new to the automotive PD profession. It was trialled on an existing project and was shown to identify specific issues with the Work-in-Progress (WIP) not found by traditional project management methods. The resulting indication of issues enabled the organisation’s management to have a substantially different insight and understanding of project performance at a given point in time and therefore enabled immediate changes in resource allocation to improve project performance. The implementation of these changes as a result of the adoption of information flow monitoring resulted in significantly improved project KPI performance. The contribution of this new PD management method has the potential to significantly impact the competitiveness of any company involved in the design and development process. Its benefits include improved understanding of project performance indicators, powerful predictive attributes resulting in better utilisation of company resources and reductions in both project costs and lead times

CONSOLATIONS FOR MELANCHOLY IN RENAISSANCE HUMANISM

This essay explores the role of melancholy within the consolatoryliterature of Renaissance humanism. It begins (sections I-II) with a summary of thethemes and methods of humanist consolationes and their classical models, with particularattention to their moral psychology, and addresses their relationship with scripture andChristian spiritual literature. It then turns to the position of melancholy within humanistconsolations (sections III-VI). It is shown that whilst in many cases moralists andspiritual writers were reluctant invade the territory of the physicians by analysing ortreating a fundamentally somatic condition, discussions of the accidentia animi in Galenicmedicine provided the conceptual environment within which a moral-consolatorytherapy for melancholy could be formulated and applied. Here the role of theimagination was crucial: as the primarily affected part in the disease, it was the faculty ofthe soul that was primarily responsible for melancholic passions, but also the faculty thatpresented the physician and moralist with the opportunity to dispel or alleviate thosepassions. Hence, the imagination was at the centre of a moral psychology of melancholy.The final sections of the essay (V-VI) show that the fullest implementation of thisapproach to the treatment of melancholy was in Robert Burton’s ‘ConsolatoryDigression’ in The Anatomy of Melancholy (1621), which both synthesises the various moral,spiritual and psychological elements of the humanist consolatory tradition, and contains anumber of idiosyncratic and paradoxical features

Moms Behind Bars: Motherhood in Eshowe Correctional Center

Motherhood represents a integral part of human life. In South Africa particularly, mothers are primarily responsible for caring for their families, often with little or no help from a male partner. But what happens to the notion of motherhood when women find themselves separated from their children or raising children in a restrictive and harsh environment? This study looks at the construction of motherhood within Eshowe Correctional Facility for Women. I conducted research as an attachment to Phoenix Zululand, an organization that provides rehabilitation services to inmates in the prisons of Zululand. For two weeks, I lead Phoenix\u27s program “Starting with Us” with a group of incarcerated mothers, focusing on and expanding the sessions that dealt with parenting. The results indicate that incarcerated mothers face myriad difficulties within the prison system. Central to this is there understanding of themselves as mothers. I find that these women are unable to reconcile their imprisonment with their identity as mothers, leaving them with feelings of guilt and inadequacy. I also look at the presence of a mother and child unit within Eshowe Correctional Center and provide suggestions for improvement based on the needs and recommendations of the mothers in prison