The Chymical Capuchins of the Louvre: Seminal Principles and Charitable Vocations in France under Louis XIV.

This article explores the links between chymical medicine, charity, and vocation in the writings and careers of Henri Rousseau de Montbazon and Nicolas Aignan, known as "the Louvre Capuchins" (les capucins du Louvre) because they operated a royally sponsored medical laboratory at the Louvre from 1678 to 1679. It shows that Rousseau and Aignan's hybrid persona as chymical physicians and mendicant friars allowed them to leverage courtly values surrounding charitable poor relief into lucrative patronage under Louis XIV. Aignan in particular developed a detailed theological and natural philosophical defence of this identity, framing it as a recovery of the authentic vocation of the Christian priest-physician, a healer of bodies as well as souls.

What History Tells Us about the Distinct Nature of Chemistry.

Attention to the history of chemistry can help us recognise the characteristics of chemistry that have helped to maintain it as a separate scientific discipline with a unique identity. Three such features are highlighted in this paper. First, chemistry has maintained a distinct type of theoretical thinking, independent from that of physics even in the era of quantum chemistry.

The rise of alternative bread leavening technologies in the nineteenth century.

This article reveals how nineteenth-century chemists and health reformers tried to eradicate the use of yeast in bread, claiming they had devised healthier and more sanitary ways to raise bread. It describes the alternative technological solutions to baking bread, investigating factors that influenced their development and adaptation in the marketplace. A lack of scientific and cultural consensus surrounding yeast, what it was and what it did, fermented during this period.

Being a 'good' parent: single women reflecting upon 'selfishness' and 'risk' when pursuing motherhood through sperm donation.

Drawing upon the narratives of 23 single heterosexual women in the UK thinking about and pursuing motherhood through sperm donation, this paper explores how solo motherhood can be construed as a 'risk' to the identity of a 'good' mother. It shows how, for these women, solo motherhood was a departure from an imagined life of having a child within the context of a stable relationship and was a prospect viewed with much ambivalence and uncertainty. Choosing to become a single mother challenged their conceptualisation of a 'good' mother, someone who puts their child's interests above their own.

Defining the Relationship Between Health and Well-being in Bioethics.

Doctors and psychologists often use 'well-being' and 'quality of life' interchangeably, with quality of health overdetermining both. Insights from virtue ethics and St. Thomas Aquinas challenge this.

Practitioner Perspectives on Child Sexual Exploitation: Rapport Building With Young People.

Young people suspected of being sexually exploited are unlikely to have made prior disclosures before being approached by authorities, and this can make them especially uncomfortable when involved in investigations. Semistructured interviews were conducted with frontline social workers and law enforcement practitioners about their experiences interacting with youth during child sexual exploitation investigations. The findings provided some tentative insights into the processes by which practitioners sought to establish rapport with young people who have been exploited and establish themselves as trustworthy abuse disclosure recipients.

The Capacity of Eye Care Services for Patients with Glaucoma in Botswana.

Purpose: To evaluate current delivery of glaucoma care in Botswana; in particular, the service infrastructure available and glaucoma-related workload.

Methods: A multi-center cross-sectional study was undertaken comprising government eye care institutions and ophthalmic personnel across Botswana. Data on human resources, equipment types and numbers, diagnostic criteria routinely used, treatments routinely provided, and new and repeat glaucoma consultations were obtained through quantitative and qualitative surveys.

p53 shapes genome-wide and cell type-specific changes in microRNA expression during the human DNA damage response.

The human DNA damage response (DDR) triggers profound changes in gene expression, whose nature and regulation remain uncertain. Although certain micro-(mi)RNA species including miR34, miR-18, miR-16 and miR-143 have been implicated in the DDR, there is as yet no comprehensive description of genome-wide changes in the expression of miRNAs triggered by DNA breakage in human cells. We have used next-generation sequencing (NGS), combined with rigorous integrative computational analyses, to describe genome-wide changes in the expression of miRNAs during the human DDR.

A cancer-associated mutation inactivates a region of the high-mobility group protein HMG20b essential for cytokinesis.

Defects in the completion of cell division by cytokinesis have long been proposed to foster carcinogenesis by engendering chromosome instability, but few tumor suppressor mechanisms controlling this process have so far been identified. Here, we identify a carboxyl (C)-terminal region of the high-mobility group protein HMG20b that is essential for cytokinesis, and report that it is inactivated by a cancer-associated mutation. We find that a C-terminal region of HMG20b spanning residues 173-317 is necessary and sufficient not only for its localization to cytokinetic structures, but also for its interaction with the tumor suppressor BRCA2, implicated in the abscission step of cytokinesis.

In vitro bactericidal and TEM study of the interaction of Ag-modified titania with coliform bacteria.

This research aimed to investigate in vitro photocatalytic bactericidal effect of Ag-TiO2 nanocomposite using Escherichia coli as a model organism. Highly dispersed, Ag-TiO2 nanocomposite is used with an average particle size of less than 20 nm. Bactericidal analysis was carried out in Luria Bertani medium on solid agar plates with various illumination time and different concentrations of Ag-TiO2 nanocomposite.

Francis Bacon and the Art-Nature Distinction.

Commentators generally expound Bacon's position on the art-nature relationship in terms of how much it retained or departed from traditional conceptions. This paper argues that an appreciation of the Baconian meaning of the terms "art" and "nature" requires a close examination of his wider cosmogonical speculations. Bacon's cosmogonical account moves from a state of unbridled chaos to the relatively stable system for which the term "nature" is normally used.

Growth hormone hypothesis and development of diabetic nephropathy in Type 1 diabetes.

In Type 1 diabetes, poor glycemic control is the key predictor for the development of microalbuminuria, an established early marker of overt nephropathy. However, the role of other pathways in the development of diabetic nephropathy may also be important. The growth hormone (GH) hypothesis suggests that the GH-insulin-like growth factor (IGF)-1 axis may play an important role in this disease process.

Thai monks and lay nuns (mae chii) in urban health care.

In the process of defining their identity in relation to other social institutions, Thai monks and increasingly, lay nuns (mae chii), have been adopting social and community roles in rural areas. Studies conducted in the early 1980s and repeated more recently indicate that these can be adapted to suit urban situations such as paramedical roles in hospitals in which mae chii may prove more effective than monks as counsellors. But although the young scholar monks whose views were solicited were mostly open to such roles on the part of the mae chii, the majority were opposed to their full ordination as bhikkhuni.