Search results for ""virus""

Found near the small village of Shunga in Russia, the remarkable mineral known as shungite formed naturally more than two billion years ago from living single-cell organisms. Used in Russian healing therapies since the time of Peter the Great, shungite contains almost the entire periodic table of the elements as well as fullerenes, the hollow carbon-based molecules that recent research shows are able to slow both the growth of cancer cells and the development of the AIDS virus. Citing many double-blind scientific and medical studies on shungite, Regina Martino explains its many protective, healing, and detoxifying properties, including its ability to counteract the harmful effects of electromagnetic fields and radiation from computers, cell phones, Wi-Fi, and other electronic devices and appliances. Acting as a natural antioxidant, immune booster, pain reliever, and allergen suppressant, shungite and "shungite water" can be used to treat skin ailments and musculoskeletal diseases, accelerate the healing of cuts and wounds, cleanse internal systems, and increase the body's intake of vital energy. Detailing shungite's many microelements and biologically active substances, Martino reveals how the stones have been proven to purify and revitalize water. Exploring the energetic properties of shungite, she reveals how it facilitates energetic transfers between the chakras and higher energies outside the body and can be used to harmonize living spaces. Truly a marvel of the natural world, shungite offers protection against the perils of our modern technological world and healing for both body and spirit.

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The author of the acclaimed City Poet returns with a searing memoir of life in 1980s New York City-a colorful and atmospheric tale of wild bohemians, glamorous celebrity, and complicated passions-with cameo appearances by Madonna, Robert Mapplethorpe, William Burroughs, and a host of others legendary artists. Brad Gooch arrived in New York in the late 1970s, yearning for artistic and personal freedom. Smash Cut is his bold and intimate memoir of this exhilarating time and place. At its center is his love affair with film director Howard Brookner, pieced together from fragments of memory and fueled by a panoply of emotions, from blazing ecstasy to bleakest despair. As both men try to reconcile love and fidelity with the irresistible desire to enjoy the freedom of the age, they live together and apart. Gooch works briefly as a model in Milan, then returns to the city and discovers his vocation as an artist. Brookner falls ill with a mysterious virus that soon has a terrifying name: AIDS. And the story, and life in the city, is suddenly overshadowed by this new demon plague that will ravage a generation and transform the creative world. Gooch charts the progress of Brookner through his illness, and writes unforgettably about endings: of a great talent, a passionate love affair, and an incandescent era. Beautifully written, full of rich detail and poignant reflection, recalling a time and a place and group of friends with affection and clarity, Smash Cut is an extraordinary memoir and an exquisite account of an epoch. Illustrated with 30 black-and-white photographs.

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The Lost Thing uses the house as a metaphor in which the various rooms are images of mental states, memories and displacements. The catalogue accompanying the exhibition is structured as a labyrinthine wandering from room to room showing an experimental exploration of installation art’s ability to articulate existential issues through a poetic architectural adaptation. Hanne Tyrmi (1954) is a Norwegian artist who has been active in the art scene since the 1980s. As an artist, she is totally unafraid of using a variety of visual languages to make her point: she is a sort of “polyglot” with a reputation for creating sculptures, installations, videos and photographic works that invade our emotions like a benign virus. Her work is infectious and any contact with it sets in motion a metamorphosis that brings about a healthy resistance to the emotional malaise of our time. A strong sense of adventure can be felt in her works, something she learnt from her travels around the world, without fear and with an open mind. She lived and worked in Brazil, South Africa and India for years; more recently she moved her studio from Oslo to Xiamen in order to work in Chinese workshops. Hanne has ventured into the world of art fearless of its conventional canons and she is willing to address issues and subjects many artists would shy away from. Her curiosity is focused on how one’s mind and body behave when confronted by certain images and environments, i.e. on the emotional reactions of the viewers.

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Book 2 in The Raven series Three years ago the world ended when a group of rogue scientists unleashed a virus that awakened long-dormant strands of human DNA. They awakened the bestial side of humankind: werewolves, satyrs, and all manner of bloodthirsty creatures. Within months, nearly every man, woman, or child was transformed into a monster…or slaughtered by one. A rare survivor without special powers, Dez McClane has been fighting for his life since mankind fell, including a tense barfight that ended in a cataclysmic inferno. Dez would never have survived the battle without Iris, a woman he’s falling for but can never be with because of the monster inside her. Now Dez’s ex-girlfriend and Iris’s young daughter have been taken hostage by an even greater evil, the dominant species in this hellish new world: Vampires. The bloodthirsty creatures have transformed a four-story school building into their fortress, and they’re holding Dez’s ex-girlfriend and Iris’s young daughter captive. To save them, Dez and his friends must risk everything. They must infiltrate the vampires’ stronghold and face unspeakable terrors. Because death awaits them in the fortress. Or something far worse. FLAME TREE PRESS is the imprint of long-standing Independent Flame Tree Publishing, dedicated to full-length original fiction in the horror and suspense, science fiction & fantasy, and crime / mystery / thriller categories. The list brings together fantastic new authors and the more established; the award winners, and exciting, original voices. Learn more about Flame Tree Press at www.flametreepress.com and connect on social media @FlameTreePress.

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Book 2 in The Raven series Three years ago the world ended when a group of rogue scientists unleashed a virus that awakened long-dormant strands of human DNA. They awakened the bestial side of humankind: werewolves, satyrs, and all manner of bloodthirsty creatures. Within months, nearly every man, woman, or child was transformed into a monster…or slaughtered by one. A rare survivor without special powers, Dez McClane has been fighting for his life since mankind fell, including a tense barfight that ended in a cataclysmic inferno. Dez would never have survived the battle without Iris, a woman he’s falling for but can never be with because of the monster inside her. Now Dez’s ex-girlfriend and Iris’s young daughter have been taken hostage by an even greater evil, the dominant species in this hellish new world: Vampires. The bloodthirsty creatures have transformed a four-story school building into their fortress, and they’re holding Dez’s ex-girlfriend and Iris’s young daughter captive. To save them, Dez and his friends must risk everything. They must infiltrate the vampires’ stronghold and face unspeakable terrors. Because death awaits them in the fortress. Or something far worse. FLAME TREE PRESS is the imprint of long-standing Independent Flame Tree Publishing, dedicated to full-length original fiction in the horror and suspense, science fiction & fantasy, and crime / mystery / thriller categories. The list brings together fantastic new authors and the more established; the award winners, and exciting, original voices. Learn more about Flame Tree Press at www.flametreepress.com and connect on social media @FlameTreePress.

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Too many of the most prominent management gurus today make steel-clad guarantees, based on claims of irrefutable research, promising to reveal the secrets of why one company fails and another succeeds, and how you can become the latter. Combining equal measures of solemn-faced hype and a whole body of delusions, statistical and otherwise, these self-styled experts cloud our ability to think critically about the nature of success in business. Like a virus, these fundamental errors of thinking infect much of what we read, whether in leading business magazines, scholarly journals, or management bestsellers. Central among these delusions is the Halo Effect, the tendency on the part of the experts to point to the high financial performance of a successful company and then spread its golden glow to all its attributes: clear strategy, strong values, brilliant leadership, and outstanding execution. But should the same company's sales head south, the very same attributes are turned on their heads and derided for poor decision making across the board - suddenly the strategy was wrong, the culture was complacent, and the leader became arrogant. The Halo Effect not only points out these delusions that keep us from understanding business performance, but also suggests a more accurate way to think about leading a company. This approach - focusing on strategic choice and execution, while recognizing the inherent riskiness of both - clarifies the priorities that managers face. Irreverent and witty, Rosenzweig is uncanny in his ability to puncture the pretentious balloons of some of our most sacred management cows.

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On 12 March 2003, the World Health Organisation (WHO) issued a global alert on the outbreak of a new form of pneumonia-like disease with symptoms that are similar to those of the common flu. This illness, officially known as severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), is potentially fatal and highly contagious, and has spread quickly to many parts of the world in a matter of a few weeks. Aided by globalisation and the ease of air travel today, the disease has now been reported in many countries, such as China, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Singapore, Canada, the US and some parts of Europe, with a large number of infections and a significant number of deaths.In this book, the global SARS outbreak is traced and described, with a focus on the regions where the most infections have been identified. An overview of the whole saga is presented: how the disease spreads; how governments react; how societies and people cope and how health experts work fervently to identify the virus and search for a cure.In addition, the book contains guidelines on what a person or organisation can do to reduce the risk of contracting the deadly illness. It includes precautionary measures disseminated by various health authorities and preventive herbal concoctions recommended by Chinese physicians, presented in an easy-to-read manner. Furthermore, insights of experts are provided.This book aims to give critical information on SARS. It is a must for people who want to find out more about the disease and how to reduce the risk of contracting it.

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'A remarkable and important guide to effecting change in our individual lives, businesses, societies - and beyond' JONAH BERGER, bestselling author of ContagiousHow did movements like the Arab Spring and Black Lives Matter take off when they did? How did Lord Kitchener recruit 2,000,000 volunteers at the start of World War I?Why did Twitter take hold while Google+ has failed?What surprising lessons can we learn from Covid 19?From the spread of Covid-19 to the rise of political polarization, from implicit bias to genetically modified food, from NASA to Netflix - it's time to think differently about how change works.Professor Damon Centola is the world expert in the new science of networks. His ground-breaking research across areas as disparate as voting, health, technology and finance has highlighted powerful and highly effective new ways to ensure lasting change. In this book, Centola distils over a decade of deep experience into a fascinating new theory that challenges previous assumptions that new ideas are either contagious or not. Change shows that beliefs and behaviours are not transmitted from person to person in the simple way that a virus is. The real story of social change is more complex and much more interesting. When we are exposed to a new idea, our social networks guide our responses in striking and surprising ways. Drawing on deep-yet-accessible research and fascinating examples, Change presents a paradigm-shifting new science for understanding what drives change, recognising our blind spots and how we can change the world around us.

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'Orson Scott Card made a strong case for being the best writer science fiction has to offer.' - The Houston Post on Xenocide'The novels of Orson Scott Card's Ender series are an intriguing combination of action, military and political strategy, elaborate war games and psychology.' - USA TodayTOGETHER THEY STAND - BUT CAN THEY PREVENT AN ATROCITY?Ender and Valentine Wiggin: brother and sister whose lives have shaped history. Valentine is 'Demosthenes', whose subversive, incendiary writings fight the monstrous power of Starways Congress, masters of the Hundred Worlds. And Ender. . . As a child, Ender commanded a warfleet that wiped out a planet. The triumph of his life could be his fight to stop it happening again. It might be his tragedy that he cannot.Congress has sent a warfleet to Lusitania, home to Ender, his family, two alien species and the deadliest virus ever known. The warfleet carries an order to destroy. To commit xenocide.A sequel novel to the science fiction classic ENDER'S GAME - soon to be released as a major motion picture starring Harrison Ford, Ben Kingsley and Asa ButterfieldBooks by Orson Scott Card:Alvin Maker novelsSeventh SonRed ProphetPrentice AlvinAlvin JourneymanHeartfireThe Crystal CityEnder Wiggin SagaEnder's GameSpeaker for the DeadXenocideChildren of the MindEnder in ExileHomecomingThe Memory of the EarthThe Call of the EarthThe Ships of the EarthEarthfallEarthbornFirst Formic War (with Aaron Johnston)Earth UnawareEarth AfireEarth Awakens

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Contemporary visual and performance artists have adopted modern medical technologies such as MRIs and computer imaging—and the bodily access they imply—to reveal their limitations. In doing so they emphasize the unknowability of another’s bodily experience and the effects—physical, emotional, and social—of medical procedures.In The Scar of Visibility, Petra Kuppers examines the use of medical imagery practices in contemporary art, as well as different arts of everyday life (self-help groups, community events, Internet sites), focusing on fantasies and “knowledge projects” surrounding the human body. Among the works she investigates are the controversial Body Worlds exhibition of plastinized corpses; video projects by Shimon Attie on diabetes and Douglas Gordon on mental health and war trauma; performance pieces by Angela Ellsworth, Bob Flanagan, and Kira O’Reilly; films like David Cronenberg’s Crash and Marina de Van’s In My Skin that fetishize body wounds; representations of the AIDS virus in the National Museum of Health and on CSI: Crime Scene Investigations; and the paintings of outsider artist Martin Ramírez.At the heart of this work is the scar—a place of production, of repetition and difference, of multiple nerve sensations, fragile skin, outer sign, and bodily depth. Through the embodied sign of the scar, Kuppers articulates connections between subjective experience, history, and personal politics. Illustrated throughout, The Scar of Invisibility broadens our understanding of the significance of medical images in visual culture.Petra Kuppers is associate professor of English at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and the author of Disability and Contemporary Performance: Bodies on Edge.

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Since the early days of the AIDS epidemic, many bizarre and dangerous hypotheses have been advanced to explain the origins of the disease. In this compelling book, Nicoli Nattrass explores the social and political factors prolonging the erroneous belief that the American government manufactured the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) to be used as a biological weapon, as well as the myth's consequences for behavior, especially within African American and black South African communities. Contemporary AIDS denialism, the belief that HIV is harmless and that antiretroviral drugs are the true cause of AIDS, is a more insidious AIDS conspiracy theory. Advocates of this position make a "conspiratorial move" against HIV science by implying its methods cannot be trusted and that untested, alternative therapies are safer than antiretrovirals. These claims are genuinely life-threatening, as tragically demonstrated in South Africa when the delay of antiretroviral treatment resulted in nearly 333,000 AIDS deaths and 180,000 HIV infections-a tragedy of stunning proportions. Nattrass identifies four symbolically powerful figures ensuring the lifespan of AIDS denialism: the hero scientist (dissident scientists who lend credibility to the movement); the cultropreneur (alternative therapists who exploit the conspiratorial move as a marketing mechanism); the living icon (individuals who claim to be living proof of AIDS denialism's legitimacy); and the praise-singer (journalists who broadcast movement messages to the public). Nattrass also describes how pro-science activists have fought back by deploying empirical evidence and political credibility to resist AIDS conspiracy theories, which is part of the crucial project to defend evidence-based medicine.

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Clive Wearing has one of the most extreme cases of amnesia ever known. In 1985, a virus completely destroyed a part of his brain essential for memory, leaving him trapped in a limbo of the constant present. Every conscious moment is for him as if he has just come round from a long coma, an endlessly repeating loop of awakening. A brilliant conductor and BBC music producer, Clive was at the height of his success when the illness struck. As damaged as Clive was, the musical part of his brain seemed unaffected, as was his passionate love for Deborah, his wife.For seven years he was kept in the London hospital where the ambulance first dropped him off, because there was nowhere else for him to go. Deborah desperately searched for treatments and campaigned for better care. After Clive was finally established in a new special hospital, she fled to America to start her life over again. But she found she could never love another the way she loved Clive. Then Clive's memory unaccountably began to improve, ten years after the illness first struck. She returned to England. Today, although Clive still lives in care, and still has the worst case of amnesia in the world, he continues to improve. They renewed their marriage vows in 2002.This is the story of a life lived outside time, a story that questions and redefines the essence of what it means to be human. It is also the story of a marriage, of a bond that runs deeper than conscious thought.

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Barebacking - when gay men deliberately abandon condoms and embrace unprotected sex - has incited a great deal of shock, outrage, anger, and even disgust, but very little contemplation. Purposely flying in the face of decades of safe-sex campaigning and HIV/AIDS awareness initiatives, barebacking is unquestionably radical behavior, behavior that most people would rather condemn than understand. Thus the time is ripe for "Unlimited Intimacy", Tim Dean's riveting investigation into barebacking and the distinctive subculture that has grown around it. Audacious and undeniably provocative, Dean's profoundly reflective account is neither a manifesto nor an apology; instead, it is a searching analysis that tests the very limits of the study of sex in the twenty-first century. Dean's extensive research into the subculture provides a tour of the scene's bars, sex clubs, and Web sites; offers an explicit but sophisticated analysis of its pornography; and, documents his own personal experiences in the culture. But ultimately, it is HIV that animates the controversy around barebacking, and "Unlimited Intimacy" explores how barebackers think about transmitting the virus - especially the idea that deliberately sharing it establishes a new network of kinship among the infected. According to Dean, intimacy makes us vulnerable, exposes us to emotional risk, and forces us to drop our psychological barriers. As a committed experiment in intimacy without limits - one that makes those metaphors of intimacy quite literal - barebacking thus says a great deal about how intimacy works. Written with a fierce intelligence and uncompromising nerve, "Unlimited Intimacy" will prove to be a milestone in our understanding of sexual behavior.

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The Dead is the second book in Charlie Higson's jaw-dropping zombie horror series for teens. Everyone over the age of fourteen has succumbed to a deadly zombie virus and now the kids must keep themselves alive. A terrible disease is striking everyone over the age of fourteen.Death walks the streets. Nowhere is safe.Maxie, Blue and the rest of the Holloway crew aren't the only kids trying to escape the ferocious adults who prey on them.Jack and Ed are best friends, but their battle to stay alive tests their friendship to the limit as they go on the run with a mismatched group of other kids - nerds, fighters, misfits. And one adult, Greg, a butcher, who claims he's immune to the disease.They must work together if they want to make it in this terrifying new world. But when fresh disaster threatens to overwhelm London, they realize they won't all survive...'Lord of the Flies with zombies...tons of nail-biting action' Rick Riordan, creator of Percy Jackson'Higson has got the balance of blood and gore just right' Daily MirrorCharlie Higson is the author of the bestselling Young Bond series of novels for young readers, including Silverfin and Double or Die, and the spine tingling, teen zombie-horror series The Enemy. Can't wait for the next instalment? This edition contains the first chapter of the thrilling third book in the series The Fear.Check out www.the-enemy.co.uk for more blood, more zombies and more terror.

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The walls were closing in on Bruce and Maggie Tate. Isolation forced on them by the pandemic, combined with America's growing political factionalism, threatened their bonds with community and family. Something had to change. Maggie's surprising answer: buy a boat, learn to pilot it, and embark on the Great Loop. For nine months Bruce and Maggie navigated rivers, coastal waters, lakes, locks, and loss. Against all odds, they conquered the Loop, and along the way found common cause across political divides with new friends while blowing the walls off their world. Bruce and Maggie Tate were spiraling downward. Normally outgoing and cheerful, Maggie was broken down by pandemic isolation. Bruce, facing asthma, heart disease and Covid-related professional issues, was sure that the virus and his comorbidities would kill him. And the plant-based diet he had just started made him wish it would hurry up. Meanwhile, their country seemed to be crumbling into warring factions. That was when Maggie made a life-changing decision. With no experience, knowing little about seafaring, inboard motors, or navigation, she and Bruce and the family dog decided to take on the Great Loop, a six-thousand-mile journey down inland rivers, around the Gulf and Atlantic coasts, and across the Great Lakes. They had to navigate canals and locks, were threatened by dangerous seas, and even had to deal with heartbreaking loss. But along the way, they made new lifelong friends and were forever changed. When, in a time of great divisiveness, two broken people took on the challenge of their lives, against all odds they found common cause across political divides and made themselves whole again.

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Design has a history of violence. It can be an act of creative destruction and a double-edged sword, and yet professional discourse around design has been dominated by voices that only trumpet its commercial and aesthetic successes. Violence, defined here as the power to alter circumstances against the will of others and to their detriment, is ubiquitous in history and in contemporary society. In recent years, moreover, technology has introduced new threats and added dramatically to the many manifestations of violence. Design and Violence is an exploration of the relationship between the two that sheds light on the complex impact of design on the built environment and on everyday life, as well as on the manifestations of violence in contemporary society. Published to accompany an online experiment launched by The Museum of Modern Art in Autumn 2013, it brings together controversial, provocative, and compelling design projects with leading voices from a variety of fields. Each invited author responds to one object chosen by the curators – ranging from an AK-47 to a Euthanasia Rollercoaster, from plastic handcuffs to the Stuxnet digital virus – and invites dialogue, comments, reflection, and active, occasionally fierce, debate. Examples of questions posed include: Can we design a violent act to be more humane? How far can the state go to ‘protect’ its borders from immigration before it becomes an act of violence? Is violence ‘male’? These experimental and wide-ranging conversations bring together voices from the fields of art and design, science, law, criminal justice, ethics, finance, journalism, and social justice, making Design and Violence an invaluable resource for lively discussions and classroom curricula.

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Share the results of 45 years of front-line medical research!This valuable book covers varied organ pathology in a wide range of syndromes induced by viral infection and toxin exposure. Enteroviral and Toxin Mediated Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Other Organ Pathologies discusses such lethal problems as cardiomyopathy, liver failure, pancreatic cancer, brain tumors, and renal disease, as well as the debilitating disorders of myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome and other post-viral syndromes. This essential text is profusely illustrated with photographs, photomicrographs, charts, EKGs, X-rays, and graphic depictions of other medical test results.With case studies of individual patients and whole families, Enteroviral and Toxin Mediated Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Other Organ Pathologies brings you the benefit of seeing the patients and their illnesses in the context of their lifestyles, work histories, and family medical history. Not a retrospective survey using medical records alone, this unique book is the result of Dr. Richardson's more than 45 years doing research with the prestigious Newcastle Research Group while engaged in General Family Practice. The scope of this book includes: the complex relationship between host and virus the aftereffects of viral illnesses on various systems, including the cardiovascular, nervous, and endocrine discussions of varied effects of viral syndromes on different family members consideration of viral effects on mother and fetus during pregnancy ideas for treatment and further research Enteroviral and Toxin Mediated Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Other Organ Pathologies provides both powerful case studies and exciting theoretical considerations based on research. It is an essential tool for family physicians as well as researchers into post-viral syndromes and the effects of toxin exposure.

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Organized crime is spreading like a global virus as mobs take advantage of open borders to establish local franchises at will. That at least is the fear, inspired by stories of Russian mobsters in New York, Chinese triads in London, and Italian mafias throughout the West. As Federico Varese explains in this compelling and daring book, the truth is more complicated. Varese has spent years researching mafia groups in Italy, Russia, the United States, and China, and argues that mafiosi often find themselves abroad against their will, rather than through a strategic plan to colonize new territories. Once there, they do not always succeed in establishing themselves. Varese spells out the conditions that lead to their long-term success, namely sudden market expansion that is neither exploited by local rivals nor blocked by authorities. Ultimately the inability of the state to govern economic transformations gives mafias their opportunity. In a series of matched comparisons, Varese charts the attempts of the Calabrese 'Ndrangheta to move to the north of Italy, and shows how the Sicilian mafia expanded to early twentieth-century New York, but failed around the same time to find a niche in Argentina. He explains why the Russian mafia failed to penetrate Rome but succeeded in Hungary. In a pioneering chapter on China, he examines the challenges that triads from Taiwan and Hong Kong find in branching out to the mainland. Based on ground-breaking field work and filled with dramatic stories, this book is both a compelling read and a sober assessment of the risks posed by globalization and immigration for the spread of mafias.

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The return of the famous shared-world superhero books created and edited by George R. R. Martin, author of A Song of Ice and Fire. For decades, George R.R. Martin – bestselling author of A Song of Ice and Fire – has collaborated with an ever-shifting ensemble of science fiction and fantasy icons to create the amazing Wild Cards universe. In the aftermath of World War II, the Earth’s population was devastated by an alien virus. Those who survived were changed forever. Some, known as jokers, were cursed with bizarre mental and physical mutations; others, granted superhuman abilities, became the lucky few known as aces. Queen Margaret, who came to the English throne after the death of her sister Elizabeth, now lies on her death-bed. Summoning the joker ace Alan Turing, she urges him to seek the true heir: Elizabeth's lost son. He was rumoured to have died as a baby but, having been born a joker, was sent into hiding. Margaret dies and her elder son Henry becomes king and at once declares he wants to make England an 'Anglo-Saxon country' and suggests jokers be sent 'to the moon'. Dangerous tensions begin to tear the country apart. The Twisted Fists – an organization of jokers led by the Green Man - are becoming more militant. And Babh, goddess of war, sees opportunities to sow strife and reap blood… This marvellous mosaic novel, featuring the talents of Mary Anne Mohanraj, Peter Newman, Peadar Ó Guilín, Melinda M. Snodgrass and Caroline Spector, follows KNAVES OVER QUEENS – the first ever Wild Cards novel set in the UK.

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A charming illustrated introduction to the pangolin—the shy, scaly-skinned creature scapegoated for the coronavirus outbreak. Pangolin. You've seen the name on the news ticker. You've read the headlines. You've typed it into your search bar. Maybe you know how for centuries, poachers and traffickers have targeted these enigmatic mammals, selling their trademark scales for use in traditional medicine and folk remedies. And that today, pangolins bear an unwieldy burden as the long-snouted face of the COVID-19 virus, as they have been identified as a possible link in the spread of the disease. But what is a pangolin? A mythical creature? A dinosaur? How could it have started all of this? And what can a pangolin teach us about surviving sickness, attacks, and isolation?With heartwarming images and witty revelations, this book will set the record straight: teaching you about these elusive introverts, the dangers they may or may not present to humans, and the threats that they face as an endangered species. This illustrated manifesto will clear up the tabloid misconceptions and reveal time-tested pangolin beliefs, including: Looks can be deceiving (pangolins are more closely related to cats and dogs than lookalike reptiles like armadillos). It's okay to be a loner—especially in a global pandemic. Your worth is not skin-deep. You deserve protection, even if you're different. Curling up into a ball is always the best defense. Through the delightful drawings and clever captions that fill the pages of It's Not My Fault: A Pangolin’s Manifesto, animal lovers of all ages will laugh, cry, and learn that even the most misunderstood members of the animal kingdom are worthy of a second look.

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"A perfectly pitched medical mystery that will captivate you from page one."—Wes Ely, MD, MPH, author of Every Deep-Drawn Breath, winner of the 2022 Christopher Award for Literature.A suspenseful, authoritative account of how the battle against a mid-century polio epidemic sparked a revolution in medical care.Americans knew polio as the "summer plague." In countries further North, however, the virus arrived later in the year, slipping into the homes of healthy children as the summer waned and the equinox approached. It was described by one writer as "the autumn ghost."Intensive care units and mechanical ventilation are the crucial foundation of modern medical care: without them, the appalling death toll of the COVID-19 pandemic would be even higher. In The Autumn Ghost, Dr. Hannah Wunsch traces the origins of these two innovations back to a polio epidemic in the autumn of 1952. Drawing together compelling testimony from doctors, nurses, medical students, and patients, Wunsch relates a gripping tale of an epidemic that changed the world.In vivid, captivating chapters, Wunsch tells the dramatic true story of how insiders and iconoclasts came together in one overwhelmed hospital in Copenhagen to save the lives of many polio patients dying of respiratory failure. Their radical advances in care marked a turning point in the treatment of patients around the world—from the rise of life support and the creation of intensive care units to the evolution of rehabilitation medicine.Moving and informative, The Autumn Ghost will leave readers in awe of the courage of those who battled the polio epidemic, and grateful for the modern medical care they pioneered.

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Meet Doctor Jens.She hasn't had a decent cup of coffee in fifteen years. The first part of her job involves jumping out of perfectly good space-ships. The second part requires developing emergency treatments for sick aliens of species she's never seen before. She loves it.But her latest emergency is also proving a mystery: Two ships, one ancient and one new, locked in a dangerous embrace. A mysterious crew suffering from an even more mysterious ailment. A shipmind trapped in an inadequate body, much of her memory pared away. A murderous virus from out of time.Unfortunately, Dr. Jens can't resist a mystery. Which is why she's about to discover that everything she's dedicated her life to . . . is a lie.Praise for Elizabeth Bear'Like the best of speculative fiction, Bear has created a fascinating and complete universethat blends high-tech gadgetry with Old World adventure and political collusion' Publishers Weekly 'This is certainly the best science fiction novel I've read in 2019 so far and I look forward to see how Bear develops the characters and her impressively rich universe' (POPULAR SCIENCE)'Elizabeth Bear is just as comfortable writing steampunk and fantasy as she is hard science fiction, and Ancestral Night, first half of a duology, brims with heady concepts and sleek far-future hardware. There is a mordant wit at work' (FINANCIAL TIMES)'Awesome, awe-inspiring space opera. Fittingly, it shifts from weighty themes to lighter humour with dexterity, grace and crackling dialogue' (Daily Mail)'Bear has constructed a fascinating, absorbing universe populated with compelling and intelligent characters who conform to neither clichés nor stereotypes. It's sci-fi of the top order' (popmatters.com)

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America is in trouble—at the mercy of a puzzling pathogen. That ordinarily wouldn’t lead to catastrophe, thanks to modern medicine, but there’s just one problem: the government supply of Dormigen, the silver bullet of pharmaceuticals, has been depleted just as demand begins to spike. Originally published before the COVID-19 pandemic, The Rationingis set in the near future, and centers around a White House struggling to quell the crisis—and control the narrative. Working together, just barely, are a savvy but preoccupied president; a Speaker more interested in jockeying for position—and a potential presidential bid—than attending to the minutiae of disease control; a patriotic majority leader unable to differentiate a virus from a bacterium; a strategist with brilliant analytical abilities but abominable people skills; and, improbably, our narrator, a low-level scientist with the National Institutes of Health who happens to be the world’s leading expert in lurking viruses. Little goes according to plan during the three weeks necessary to replenish the stocks of Dormigen. Some Americans will get the life-saving drug and others will not, and nations with their own supply soon offer aid—but for a price. China senses blood and a geopolitical victory, presenting a laundry list of demands that ranges from complete domination of the South China Sea to additional parking spaces at the UN, while India claims it can save the day for the U.S. Political backstabbing, rank hypocrisy, and dastardly deception reign in this delightfully entertaining debut that presciently anticipated the COVID-19 crisis.

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Found in two-thirds of the world, rabies is a devastating infectious disease with a 99.9 percent case-fatality rate and no cure once clinical signs appear. Rabies in the Streets tells the compelling story of the relationship between people, street animals, and rabies in India, where one-third of human rabies deaths occur. Deborah Nadal argues that only a One Health approach of “interspecies camaraderie” can save people and animals from the horrors of rabies and almost certain death.Grounded in multispecies ethnography, this book leads the reader through the streets and slums of Delhi and Jaipur, where people and animals, such as dogs, cows, and macaques, interact intimately and sometimes violently. Nadal explores the intricate web of factors that bring humans and animals into contact with one another within these urban spaces and create favorable pathways for the transmission of the rabies virus across species. This book shows how rabies is endemic in India for reasons that are as much social, cultural, and political as they are biological, ranging from inadequate sanitation to religious customs, from vaccine shortages to reliance on traditional medicine.The continuous emergence (and reemergence) of infectious diseases despite technical medical progress is a growing concern of our times and clearly questions the way we think of animal and environmental health. This original account of rabies challenges conventional approaches of separation and extermination, arguing instead that a One Health approach is our best chance at fostering mutual survival in a world increasingly overpopulated by humans, animals, and deadly pathogens.

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On 12 March 2003, the World Health Organisation (WHO) issued a global alert on the outbreak of a new form of pneumonia-like disease with symptoms that are similar to those of the common flu. This illness, officially known as severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), is potentially fatal and highly contagious, and has spread quickly to many parts of the world in a matter of a few weeks. Aided by globalisation and the ease of air travel today, the disease has now been reported in many countries, such as China, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Singapore, Canada, the US and some parts of Europe, with a large number of infections and a significant number of deaths.In this book, the global SARS outbreak is traced and described, with a focus on the regions where the most infections have been identified. An overview of the whole saga is presented: how the disease spreads; how governments react; how societies and people cope and how health experts work fervently to identify the virus and search for a cure.In addition, the book contains guidelines on what a person or organisation can do to reduce the risk of contracting the deadly illness. It includes precautionary measures disseminated by various health authorities and preventive herbal concoctions recommended by Chinese physicians, presented in an easy-to-read manner. Furthermore, insights of experts are provided.This book aims to give critical information on SARS. It is a must for people who want to find out more about the disease and how to reduce the risk of contracting it.

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With more than 99.2 million cases and 2.13 million deaths worldwide (figures for January 2021), the new Coronavirus COVID-19 has spread to nearly every country in the world since it first emerged in China in early 2020. Coronaviruses are a family of viruses that cause disease in animals – seven of which, including the new virus, have transferred to humans, with most just causing cold-like symptoms. COVID-19 is closely related to severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) which swept around the world in 2002/2003. Another coronavirus is Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS), cases of which have been occurring sporadically since 2012. COVID-19 is different to these two coronaviruses in that the spectrum of the disease is broad, with around 80 per cent of cases leading to a mild infection. There may also be many people carrying the disease and displaying no symptoms, making it even harder to control. Scientists in China believe that COVID-19 has mutated into two strains, one more aggressive than the other, which could make developing a vaccine more complicated (The Telegraph). This book offers clinicians a guide to the epidemiology and virology of COVID-19, explaining its clinical features and diagnostic and management techniques. With the evidence that the disease has more adverse effects in the elderly and those with comorbidities, the text includes guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of COVID-19 in patients with gastrointestinal disorders, diabetes and obesity, kidney disease, pulmonary disorders, cardiovascular disease, and geriatrics. Pulmonary and haematological manifestations of the disease and ICU support are covered in separate chapters.

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'A match for end-of-the-world classics like Stephen King's The Stand' - New York Times Review of Books As this world ends, a new one begins. From number one New York Times bestseller Nora Roberts - an epic, apocalyptic tale of good and evil, love and loss.With one drop of blood, the old world is gone for ever. And in its place, something extraordinary begins...They call it The Doom - a deadly pandemic that starts on a cold New Year's Eve in the Scottish countryside. There's something mysterious about the virus and the way it spreads. As billions fall sick and die, some survivors find themselves invested with strange, unexpected abilities. Lana, a New York chef, has the power to move things and people with her will. Fred can summon light in the darkness. Jonah, a paramedic, sees snatches of the future in those he touches. Katie gives birth to twins, and suspects that she has brought fresh magic into the world, along with new life. But The Doom affects people differently. Along with the light, a dark and terrifying magic will also rise. As the remaining authorities round up the immune and the 'Uncannies' for testing, Lana, Katie and others flee New York in search of a safe haven. The old world is over, and Year One has begun.'Nora Roberts weaves a powerful story of a deadly plague in this gripping, movie-like narrative' - Good Housekeeping'A deadly pandemic known as The Doom kicks off in the Scottish countryside. Who doesn't want to read this?' - Emerald Street

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Dependence on computers has had a transformative effect on human society. Cybernetics is now woven into the core functions of virtually every basic institution, including our oldest ones. War is one such institution, and the digital revolution's impact on it has been profound. The American military, which has no peer, is almost completely reliant on high-tech computer systems. Given the Internet's potential for full-spectrum surveillance and information disruption, the marshaling of computer networks represents the next stage of cyberwar. Indeed, it is upon us already. The recent Stuxnet episode, in which Israel fed a malignant computer virus into Iran's nuclear facilities, is one such example. Penetration into US government computer systems by Chinese hackers-presumably sponsored by the Chinese government-is another. Together, they point to a new era in the evolution of human conflict. In Cybersecurity: What Everyone Needs to Know, noted experts Peter W. Singer and Allan Friedman lay out how the revolution in military cybernetics occurred and explain where it is headed. They begin with an explanation of what cyberspace is before moving on to discussions of how it can be exploited and why it is so hard to defend. Throughout, they discuss the latest developments in military and security technology. Singer and Friedman close with a discussion of how people and governments can protect themselves. In sum, Cybersecurity is the definitive account on the subject for the educated layman who wants to know more about the nature of war, conflict, and security in the twenty first century.

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THE SUNDAY TIMES AND NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER 'Superb ... It is tremendous fun, tremendously told' The Times 'A fluid intellectual thriller' Daily Telegraph From the global bestselling author of The Big Short, the gripping story of the maverick scientists who hunted down Covid-19 'It's a foreboding,' she said. 'A knowing that something is looming around the corner. Like how when the seasons change you can smell Fall in the air right before the leaves change and the wind turns cold.' In January 2020, as people started dying from a new virus in Wuhan, China, few really understood the magnitude of what was happening. Except, that is, a small group of scientific misfits who in their different ways had been obsessed all their lives with how viruses spread and replicated - and with why the governments and the institutions that were supposed to look after us, kept making the same mistakes time and again. This group saw what nobody else did. A pandemic was coming. We weren't prepared. The Premonition is the extraordinary story of a group who anticipated, traced and hunted the coronavirus; who understood the need to think differently, to learn from history, to question everything; and to do all of this fast, in order to act, to save lives, communities, society itself. It's a story about the workings of the human mind; about the failures and triumphs of human judgement and imagination. It's the story of how we got to now. 'Lewis is a master of his form' Sunday Times

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“Follow the science” is what they said. “Follow our politics” is what they meant. In Panic Attack, nationally bestselling author and physician Nicole Saphier uncovers the hypocrisy and hysteria which has characterized so much of the American pandemic response. While journalists trumpeted the importance of following science to “flatten the curve,” they praised Governors Andrew Cuomo and Phil Murphy, who sanctioned ill-equipped nursing homes to take COVID-positive patients, leading to an enormous death spike for New York and New Jersey. Plus, the old guard medical establishment captured by Dr. Fauci proved to be far too rigid during a health care emergency. While some state legislators are still concealing accurate records of nursing home deaths, many others have made anti-science decisions regarding re-opening plans; all of which fuel distrust and civil unrest. Democrat mayors like Bill de Blasio openly admitted that their decisions to keep schools closed were fueled by a “social contract” with teachers (that is: teachers’ unions), despite hard science saying this would be harmful. When anti-science measures are continuously implemented, the long-term consequences of such actions will likely stay with us for years to come. The pandemic has resulted in a failure of government, much of which is unavoidable in a unique disaster scenario. However, the rampant politicization of science, from the origin of the virus to the simple concept of wearing facemasks, has hopelessly muddied the water, divided the country, and knee-jerk anti-Trumpism made it all worse.

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The first anthology of its kind in Wales, which finally sheds light on a largely hidden queer cultural history with the careful selection of over 40 short stories (1837-2018) including work by John Sam Jones, Sian James, Rhys Davies, Deborah Kay Davies, Aled Islwyn, and Kate North. New translations of Kate Roberts, Mihangel Morgan, Jane Edwards, Pennar Davies and Dylan Huw make available their compelling stories for the first time to a non-Welsh speaking readership. An accessible but scholarly introduction places the writers and their stories in their historical and literary contexts. In these stories gender refuses to be fixed: a dashing travelling companion is not quite who he seems in the intimate darkness of a mail coach, a girl on the cusp of adulthood gamely takes her father's place as head of the house, and an actor and patron are caught up in dangerous game-playing. In the more fantastical tales there are talking rats, flirtations with fascism, and escape from a post-virus 'utopia'. These are stories of sexual awakening, coming out and redefining one's place in the world. Release and a certain heady license may be found in the distant cities of Europe or north Africa, but the stories are for the most part located in familiar Welsh settings - a schoolroom, a provincial town, a mining village, a tourist resort, a sacred island. The intensity of desire, whether overt, playful, or coded, makes this a rich and often surprising collection that reimagines what being queer and Welsh has meant in different times and places.

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In June 2016, the UK voted to leave the European Union. The decision plunged the five million EU residents in the UK into a toxic abyss of fear, anger, shock and shame. Suddenly they were ‘citizens of nowhere’ in a country they regarded as home and faced having to move back to their country of origin and start life again, often without their British partners and children. In 2019, a virus born in a little-known Chinese city over-ran the entire world, causing many millions of deaths and bringing national economies and people’s usual ways of life to a standstill. So much of what we took for granted crumbled to ashes as countries locked down and families mourned their dead. In this book, leading existential theorist and practitioner Emmy van Deurzen explores how we handle such existential crises, and how and what we can learn from them to better prepare ourselves psychologically for the future. Inevitably, we will face many more such calamities due to climate breakdown and the consequent international instability, she warns. One of those five million EU citizens, Emmy had to fight for her right to stay. Here she draws on her personal experiences of such crises, the accounts of others and on her extensive clinical, theoretical and research knowledge to argue that such events need not spell the end of life as we know it. Rather, they can open the door to different, richer and more thoughtful, relational ways of being in the world.

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Organized crime is spreading like a global virus as mobs take advantage of open borders to establish local franchises at will. That at least is the fear, inspired by stories of Russian mobsters in New York, Chinese triads in London, and Italian mafias throughout the West. As Federico Varese explains in this compelling and daring book, the truth is more complicated. Varese has spent years researching mafia groups in Italy, Russia, the United States, and China, and argues that mafiosi often find themselves abroad against their will, rather than through a strategic plan to colonize new territories. Once there, they do not always succeed in establishing themselves. Varese spells out the conditions that lead to their long-term success, namely sudden market expansion that is neither exploited by local rivals nor blocked by authorities. Ultimately the inability of the state to govern economic transformations gives mafias their opportunity. In a series of matched comparisons, Varese charts the attempts of the Calabrese 'Ndrangheta to move to the north of Italy, and shows how the Sicilian mafia expanded to early twentieth-century New York, but failed around the same time to find a niche in Argentina. He explains why the Russian mafia failed to penetrate Rome but succeeded in Hungary. In a pioneering chapter on China, he examines the challenges that triads from Taiwan and Hong Kong find in branching out to the mainland. Based on ground-breaking field work and filled with dramatic stories, this book is both a compelling read and a sober assessment of the risks posed by globalization and immigration for the spread of mafias.

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In 2020, the novel coronavirus gripped the world in a global pandemic and led to the death of hundreds of thousands. The source of the previously unknown virus? Bats. This phenomenon—in which a new pathogen comes to humans from wildlife—is known as spillover, and it may not be long before it happens again. Prior to the emergence of our latest health crisis, renowned science writer David Quammen was traveling the globe to better understand spillover’s devastating potential. For five years he followed scientists to a rooftop in Bangladesh, a forest in the Congo, a Chinese rat farm, and a suburban woodland in New York, and through high-biosecurity laboratories. He interviewed survivors and gathered stories of the dead. He found surprises in the latest research, alarm among public health officials, and deep concern in the eyes of researchers. Spillover delivers the science, the history, the mystery, and the human anguish of disease outbreaks as gripping drama. And it asks questions more urgent now than ever before: From what innocent creature, in what remote landscape, will the Next Big One emerge? Are pandemics independent misfortunes, or linked? Are they merely happening to us, or are we somehow causing them? What can be done? Quammen traces the origins of Ebola, Marburg, SARS, avian influenza, Lyme disease, and other bizarre cases of spillover, including the grim, unexpected story of how AIDS began from a single Cameroonian chimpanzee. The result is more than a clarion work of reportage. It’s also the elegantly told tale of a quest, through time and landscape, for a new understanding of how our world works—and how we can survive within it.

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Covering the entire spectrum of this fast-changing field, Diagnostic Imaging: Brain, fourth edition, is an invaluable resource for neuroradiologists, general radiologists, and trainees-anyone who requires an easily accessible, highly visual reference on today's neuroimaging of both common and rare conditions. World-renowned authorities provide updated information on more than 300 diagnoses, all lavishly illustrated, delineated, and referenced, making this edition a useful learning tool as well as a handy reference for daily practice. Provides authoritative, comprehensive guidance on both pathology-based and anatomy-based diagnoses to help you diagnose the full range of brain and CNS conditions Features thousands of extensively annotated images, including a large number of full-color illustrations-greatly expanded since the previous edition Details 31 new diagnoses, covering key topics such as critical illness-associated microbleeds, autoimmune encephalitis, multinodular and vacuolating tumor of cerebrum, calcifying pseudoneoplasm of neuraxis (CAPNON), uremic encephalopathy, gadolinium deposition and associated controversies, ataxia-telangiectasia, and Zika virus infection Reflects updates from the most recent WHO Classification of Tumors of the CNS, which presents major restructuring of brain tumor categories and incorporates new entities that are defined by both histology and molecular features Includes updates to the 2016 WHO Classification of Tumors of the CNS by cIMPACT-NOW based on recent and ongoing advances in molecular pathogenesis Covers recent neuroimaging advances, such as 7T MRI scanners and dual-energy/dual-source CT imaging Uses bulleted, succinct text and highly templated chapters for quick comprehension of essential information at the point of care Enhanced eBook version included with purchase. Your enhanced eBook allows you to access all of the text, figures, and references from the book on a variety of devices

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This comprehensive and in-depth study delves into the life and works of one of modern films most celebrated, successful and intriguing auteurs, Christopher Nolan.‘What is the most resilient parasite? Bacteria? A virus? An intestinal worm? An idea. Resilient…highly contagious. Once an idea has taken hold of the brain it’s almost impossible to eradicate.’ - Cobb, Inception How has Nolan become this leading director? Is he the new Kubrick? What do audiences get out of his games? Visually, he offers a steely science-fiction noir with the highlights of big stars and a magician’s flourishes, whether he is tackling Victorian London or the far reaches of outer space. In narrative terms, his films twist and turn, provoking as many questions as they answer. This book will look to crack open the magic box of Nolan’s twisting universe. As a character, he eludes easy answers. Veteran film author Ian Nathan’s research will lean into deciphering his cryptic pronouncements and motivations alongside the history and making of his films. Examining both the making of and the inspiration behind his many, many hit films, from The Prestige (2006) to the hugely successful Batman films, through to his mind-bending science fiction works such as Inception (2014) and Tenet (2020). And just released in 2023, Oppenheimer,starring Cillian Murphy as the film's titular American scientist and his role in the development of the atomic bomb. Filled with fascinating insights and illustrated throughout with cinematography from his visually stunning ouvre, this book offers a unique, important and unmissable insight into the mind of this most brilliant of directors.

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A compelling history of the Black Death that scoured Europe in the mid 14th-century killing twenty-five million people. It was one of the worst human disasters in history. ‘The bodies were sparsely covered that the dogs dragged them forth and devoured them…And believing it to be the end of the world, no one wept for the dead, for all expected to die.’ Agnolo di Turo, Siena, 1348 In just over a thousand days from 1347 to 1351 the 'Black Death' travelled across medieval Europe killing thirty per cent of its population. It was a catastrophe that touched the lives of every individual on the continent. The deadly Y. Pestis virus entered Europe in October 1347 by Genoese galley at Messina, Sicily. In the spring of 1348 it was devastating the cities of central Italy, by June 1348 it had reached France and Spain, and by August England. At St Mary’s, Ashwell, Hertfordshire, an anonymous hand carved the following inscription for 1349: ‘Wretched, terrible, destructive year, the remnants of the people alone remain.’ According to the Foster scale, a kind of Richter scale of human disaster, the plague of 1347-51 is the second worst catastrophe in recorded history. Only World War II produced more death, physical damage, and emotional suffering. Defence analysts use it as the measure of thermonuclear war – in geographical extent, abruptness and casualties. In ‘The Great Mortality’ John Kelly retraces the journey of the Black Death using original source material – diary fragments, letters and manuscripts. It is the devastating portrait of a continent gripped by an epidemic, but also a very personal story, narrated by the individuals whose lives were touched by it.

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There is a mental malaise creeping through the collective human mindset. Mass psychosis is becoming normalized. It is time to break free... One of the key problems facing human beings today is that we do not look after our minds. As a consequence, we are unaware of the malicious impacts that infiltrate and influence us on a daily basis. This lack of awareness leaves people open and vulnerable. Many of us have actually become alienated from our own minds, argues Kingsley L. Dennis. This is how manipulations occur that result in phenomena such as crowd behaviour and susceptibility to political propaganda, consumerist advertising and social management. Mass psychosis is only possible because humanity has become alienated from its transcendental source. In this state, we are prisoners to the impulses that steer our unconscious. We may believe we have freedom, but we don't. Healing the Wounded Mind discusses these external influences in terms of a collective mental disease - the wetiko virus (Forbes), ahrimanic forces (Steiner), the alien mind (Castaneda), and the collective unconscious shadow (Jung). The human mind has been targeted by corrupt forces that seek to exploit our thinking on a grand scale. This is the `magician's trick' that has kept us captive within the social systems that both distract and subdue us. In the first part of this transformative book, the author outlines how the Wounded Mind manifests in cultural conditioning, from childhood onwards. In the second part, he examines how `hypermodern' cultures are being formed by this mental psychosis and shaping our brave new world. In an inspiring conclusion, we are shown the gnostic path to freedom through connecting with the transcendental source of life.

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This open access edited volume is a comparative effort to discern the short-term educational impact of the covid-19 pandemic on students, teachers and systems in Brazil, Chile, Finland, Japan, Mexico, Norway, Portugal, Russia, Singapore, Spain, South Africa, the United Kingdom and the United States. One of the first academic comparative studies of the educational impact of the pandemic, the book explains how the interruption of in person instruction and the variable efficacy of alternative forms of education caused learning loss and disengagement with learning, especially for disadvantaged students. Other direct and indirect impacts of the pandemic diminished the ability of families to support children and youth in their education. For students, as well as for teachers and school staff, these included the economic shocks experienced by families, in some cases leading to food insecurity and in many more causing stress and anxiety and impacting mental health. Opportunity to learn was also diminished by the shocks and trauma experienced by those with a close relative infected by the virus, and by the constrains on learning resulting from students having to learn at home, where the demands of schoolwork had to be negotiated with other family necessities, often sharing limited space. Furthermore, the prolonged stress caused by the uncertainty over the resolution of the pandemic and resulting from the knowledge that anyone could be infected and potentially lose their lives, created a traumatic context for many that undermined the necessary focus and dedication to schoolwork. These individual effects were reinforced by community effects, particularly for students and teachers living in communities where the multifaceted negative impacts resulting from the pandemic were pervasive. This is an open access book.

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The pandemic has deepened existing trends in the international system, in particular the readjustment of alliances between nations and between regions. As spheres of influence disintegrate and reform, so national and regional security policies will change in unforeseen ways notwithstanding that individual state self-preservation will dominate policy choice. Three major dimensions are addressed. The first dimension is International Relations and Economy. The coronavirus has accelerated a global economic crisis comparable to those of 1929, 1987 and 2008. Are the major economic trading blocs moving to a war economy, and who might win or lose in this context? The second dimension of analysis is the growth of Information Communication. Hybrid and fragmented, especially in terms of the use of social media, the use of veiled threat and promoting discord in the form of providing provocative information on topics of the day can lead to conflict consequences and all its negative impacts. The third dimension is Geopolitical Reconfiguration. While world powers are always manoeuvring for an enhanced military and economic position, the pandemic offers new opportunities to capitalise on the changing power balance. The editors and contributors engage with the differing power polarities between China, the United States, India, Brazil, Russia, and the European Union. This book is one of the first to present research on the effects of COVID-19 on national public policy. Cross-cultural analysis of its effects, and the way in which different societies have addressed the fight against the virus, provides insight into the relations between states and possible solutions in the international arena. The work is essential reading for all those involved in international affairs and policy-making.

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Despite being least affected by the virus itself, children and young people bore the brunt of Covid-19 pandemic restrictions. When schools were closed, playgrounds taped up and play outlawed, children’s lives were closed down. The catastrophic impact on children and young people’s education, mental health, wellbeing, and life chances is becoming ever clearer, with the most disadvantaged suffering disproportionately. In May 2020 Liz Cole and Molly Kingsley founded UsForThem to advocate – in an often hostile climate – for children to be prioritised during the pandemic response. Having heard from thousands of families, and having often clashed with policymakers, they have a unique perspective on how the state’s response to the pandemic has affected our children. Here they document their shocking findings: how completely children’s health and welfare were sacrificed for that of adults; how policymakers appeared to disregard the harms they were causing; and how adults charged with protecting the young stood by and watched as children visibly struggled or slipped out of sight altogether. This dereliction of duty should haunt us for decades to come. With exclusive testimony from academics, politicians, scientists, educators, and parents, as well as former Children’s Commissioners, the book exposes the problems at the heart of policymaking which led to the systemic and ongoing betrayal of children. From public health to politics, and from media discourse to safeguarding, the authors show how children were too often used as the means to further adult interests. Ahead of the public inquiry, the authors call for an honest appraisal of what went wrong, and commitment from stakeholders to reimagine – not just recover – childhood.

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A complete guide to the key statistical concepts essential for the design and construction of clinical trials As the newest major resource in the field of medical research, Methods and Applications of Statistics in Clinical Trials, Volume 1: Concepts, Principles, Trials, and Designs presents a timely and authoritative reviewof the central statistical concepts used to build clinical trials that obtain the best results. The referenceunveils modern approaches vital to understanding, creating, and evaluating data obtained throughoutthe various stages of clinical trial design and analysis. Accessible and comprehensive, the first volume in a two-part set includes newly-written articles as well as established literature from the Wiley Encyclopedia of Clinical Trials. Illustrating a variety of statistical concepts and principles such as longitudinal data, missing data, covariates, biased-coin randomization, repeated measurements, and simple randomization, the book also provides in-depth coverage of the various trial designs found within phase I-IV trials. Methods and Applications of Statistics in Clinical Trials, Volume 1: Concepts, Principles, Trials, and Designs also features: Detailed chapters on the type of trial designs, such as adaptive, crossover, group-randomized, multicenter, non-inferiority, non-randomized, open-labeled, preference, prevention, and superiority trials Over 100 contributions from leading academics, researchers, and practitioners An exploration of ongoing, cutting-edge clinical trials on early cancer and heart disease, mother-to-child human immunodeficiency virus transmission trials, and the AIDS Clinical Trials Group Methods and Applications of Statistics in Clinical Trials, Volume 1: Concepts, Principles, Trials, and Designs is an excellent reference for researchers, practitioners, and students in the fields of clinicaltrials, pharmaceutics, biostatistics, medical research design, biology, biomedicine, epidemiology,and public health.

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The Internet is almost synonymous with change - that's one of its charms, and one of its headaches. You may think you know the Internet, but are you really up to speed on internet telephones, movie and TV downloading, blogging, gaming, online banking, dating, and photosharing? This utterly current book covers: Getting Online - readers will have all the information they need to decide what kind of broadband connection works best for them, which browser they should use, and what kind of spyware-fighting and virus-and spam-protection measures they need to protect themselves; Finding Information - Google may be the leading search site, but it's certainly not the only game in town. This book introduces a diverse and useful collection of sites that help uncover everything from health care information, to shopping, travel and finance, to dependable reviews and ratings; and, Movies, music, and photos - the Web's teeming with entertainment - and not just the sort of postage-stamp sized videos that only a geek could love. Learn where to download movies, watch TV online, listen to music, play games, and post and share photos with friends. It also covers: Keeping in touch - email's only the beginning. This book introduces readers to the many tools that make the modern Internet such a great way to stay connected. From Web-based discussion groups to instant messaging programs, and from blogs and podcasts to Internet-based phone calls, this book will help you join the conversation. Ideal for anyone just venturing into cyberspace, this book is also perfect for more experienced users who could use an update to today's most exciting internet applications.

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At the tips of our forks and on our dinner plates, a buffet of botanical dalliance awaits us. Sex and food are intimately intertwined, and this relationship is nowhere more evident than among the plants that sustain us. From lascivious legumes to horny hot peppers, most of humanity’s calories and other nutrition come from seeds and fruits—the products of sex—or from flowers, the organs that make plant sex possible. Sex has also played an arm’s-length role in delivering plant food to our stomachs, as human handmade evolution (plant breeding, or artificial selection) has turned wild species into domesticated staples. In Sex on the Kitchen Table, Norman C. Ellstrand takes us on a vegetable-laced tour of this entire sexual adventure. Starting with the love apple (otherwise known as the tomato) as a platform for understanding the kaleidoscopic ways that plants can engage in sex, successive chapters explore the sex lives of a range of food crops, including bananas, avocados, and beets, finally ending with genetically engineered squash—a controversial, virus-resistant vegetable created by a process that involves the most ancient form of sex. Peppered throughout are original illustrations and delicious recipes, from sweet and savory tomato pudding to banana puffed pancakes, avocado toast (of course), and both transgenic and non-GMO tacos. An eye-opening medley of serious science, culinary delights, and humor, Sex on the Kitchen Table offers new insight into fornicating flowers, salacious squash, and what we owe to them. So as we sit down to dine and ready for that first bite, let us say a special grace for our vegetal vittles: let’s thank sex for getting them to our kitchen table.

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The current book attempts to give a glimpse of the scientific life of Michael Rossmann. The book begins with his very interesting and moving autobiography. His enormous energy must have been evident already from early childhood when he and his mother had to emigrate from Nazi-Germany to England, via The Netherlands. Starting school with a new language was a challenge that he managed well with the assistance of understanding teachers. Crystallography soon became the tool to explore new worlds, unknown to everybody. With a skill for mathematics, he realized that the transform of a molecular structure in the diffraction pattern could be used for analysis of both symmetry and structural relationships. This method, molecular replacement (MR, also the initials of his name) became one of his great successes of his career. The previous book by him in this series (Selected Papers by Michael G Rossmann with Commentaries) covers his main contributions in this area.With an interest in symmetry, viruses became obvious objects to study. Rossmann attacked these monstrously large molecular assemblies with his unfailing energy and his appetite for real challenges. The amazing variation of molecular arrangements with icosahedral symmetry is truly amazing. This book includes a selection of reports of the structures of some giant viruses. As always, knowing the structure enhances the understanding of function greatly, in the case of viruses the mechanism of infection is a key problem. Rossmann has contributed many central insights in this area.Thus, this book is of interest both as an interesting personal story but also for research into viruses that repeatedly plague all living organisms on the planet, right now in the form of the corona virus pandemic.

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Ineffective haematopoiesis in bone marrow and peripheral cytopenias are features of bone marrow failure and related syndromes. These diseases can progress to myelodysplastic syndrome, acute myeloid leukaemia, and other malignancies. Acute myeloid leukaemia is a heterogeneous complex malignancy characterized by proliferating myeloblasts in the bone marrow and a diverse range of recurrent molecular aberrations that occur in many different combinations. More specifically, the authors explore the McDonough strain of feline sarcoma virus-related tyrosine kinase 3 receptor mutations present in about 30-35% of acute myeloid leukaemia patients. The way in which the Wnt signalling pathway plays an important role in normal haematopoiesis and its deregulation associated with acute myeloid leukaemia is also discussed. This compilation also explores the importance of residual leukemic cells in disease relapse prognosis, as the new definition of the European LeukemiaNet for complete remission includes minimal or measurable residual disease negativity. Mutations detected in patients with clonal haematopoiesis are addressed, including those which most commonly affect DNMT3A, ASXL1, TET2, JAK2, SF3B1, SRSF2, and TP53 genes that had previously been identified as drivers in various myeloid neoplasms. The authors provide an overview of the roles of extracellular vesicles in multiple myeloma, their capacity as emerging biomarkers, and implications for liquid biopsy for detection and monitoring. The penultimate study focuses on toll-like receptors, which play an essential role in the recognition of invading pathogens via specific microbial molecular motifs, forming a bridge between the innate and adaptive immune responses. In conclusion, this compilation explores PROTACs, proteolysis targeting chimeras, which mediate the degradation of proteins of interest by hijacking the activity of E3-ubiquitin ligases for POI polyubiquitination and subsequent degradation by proteasome.

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'A raw, honest rollercoaster that touches the heart' *****'Kate and her family's courageous battle is told with such candour' *****'Written from the heart with the will never to give up hope' *****........................In March 2020, Kate Garraway's husband, Derek Draper, contracted Covid-19 and was placed in a medically-induced coma. Thought to be the UK's longest-fighting Covid-19 patient, he spent more than a year in hospital before returning home to be with Kate and their children, Darcey and Billy. However he continued to suffer the devastating after-effects of COVID and passed away at the start of January 2024.In this intimate book, Kate shares her deeply personal story. As well as recounting how the illness took hold of their lives, she writes about coping with uncertainty, how she's supporting her children through this traumatic time, how she has found strength in community and how she strives to hold on to hope even at the darkest of times. Covid-19 has affected everyone across the country in so many ways and Kate hopes that by revealing her own personal experience, it will give comfort to others. By sharing the lessons she has learnt along the way, it will help us all begin to try to re-build our lives.Kate's exceptional courage, positivity and warmth shine through on every page, making The Power of Hope a truly inspiring read that will resonate with all of us whose lives continue to be touched by the virus.WRITTEN IN 2021 THIS EDITION WAS UPDATED IN 2022 WITH NEW MATERIAL ABOUT CARING FOR DEREK AT HOME.

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For all our hubris, humans can be felled rapidly by an invisible enemy - viruses. All around us are minute entities that can damage and kill: the millions of viruses that pervade the natural world. Our bodies harbour many that we have long tolerated, but a new one, that jumps into humans from another species, can be lethal - as we have seen most recently with the virus responsible for COVID-19. But what are viruses, how do they cause disease, and how can we fight them? In Viruses: The Invisible Enemy, a brand new edition of her classic work, virologist Dorothy Crawford explores these questions. She takes the reader on a journey through the past to show how, as the human race evolved from hunter gatherer to farmer to our present urban, industrialised society, viruses have taken advantage of each lifestyle change to promote their own survival. We have acquired many new viruses along the way, some spreading globally and causing killer diseases. But now, in the 21st century, as humans increasingly encroach into and exploit the natural world, the rate of emergence of novel viruses is accelerating. Already we've had a flu pandemic, large epidemics from SARS, Ebola and Zika viruses, and most devastating of all, SARS-CoV-2, which swept around the world in 2020-21, causing the COVID-19 pandemic. The response of scientists has been rapid, producing vaccines in record time. But we can expect more such challenges in the future. This book discusses why and how SARS-CoV-2 and other killer viruses emerged, and how we can win the battle against such an enemy.

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