496 research outputs found
The Victor Perera Papers: The Archive of a Twentieth Century Sephardic-American Writer
No full textThe author shares the circumstances that led to his encounter with the personal archives of Victor Haim Perera (1934–2003), an award-winning Sephardic-American writer, journalist, environmental and political activist, and academic born in Guatemala City. Perera published six books on topics as varied as Sephardic history, the Maya Indians, and the Loch Ness monster, and contributed dozens of articles, short stories, and essays to newspapers, trade journals, magazines, and literary anthologies. This paper also provides an overview of Perera’s life and work and shares information about the Victor Perera Papers collection at the University of Michigan Library. It presents a case study illustrating that library catalogers can improve discoverability of and access to library special collections by expanding beyond their core duties and investigating the contexts behind the materials that cross their desks. The article ends with a preliminary bibliography of Perera’s works
Originalism: Reclaiming the American Promise
No full textOriginalism best reflects the Founding Fathers’ faith in self-government and also best preserves the legitimacy of the U.S. Supreme Court.
Author information: Ayesh Perera arrived in the United States from Sri Lanka in 2014. He graduated (2018) from Miami University with majors in Economics and Political Science, and is pursuing his Master’s Degree at Harvard University
Associations of Neuropsychiatric Symptoms and Antidepressant Prescription with Survival in Alzheimer’s Disease
No full textOBJECTIVE: Depression is associated with increased mortality in community samples. The use of antidepressant medication may also increase mortality, however, it is still unclear whether taking antidepressants before or after a diagnosis of dementia influences survival. DESIGN: Retrospective. SETTING: A cohort with a diagnosis of Alzheimer disease (AD) from a large mental health and dementia care database in South London, linked to hospitalization and mortality data. PARTICIPANTS: Mild dementia (Mini-Mental State Examination ≥18/30) at the point of diagnosis. MEASUREMENTS: We ascertained antidepressant prescription, either in the 6 months before or after dementia diagnosis, and used the HoNOS65+, a standard clinician-rated measure of patient well-being, to determine depression severity and other neuropsychiatric, physical health, and functional difficulties. We conducted a survival analysis, adjusted for potential confounders and addressed possible confounding by indication through adjusting for a propensity score. RESULTS: Of 5473 patients with AD, 22.8% were prescribed an antidepressant in a 1-year window around dementia diagnosis. Of these, 2415 (44.1%) died in the follow-up period [mean (standard deviation) 3.5 (2.4) years]. Prescription of an antidepressant, both before and after dementia diagnosis, was significantly associated with higher mortality after adjusting for a broad range of potential confounders including symptom severity, functional status, and physical illness (hazard ratio 1.22; 95% confidence interval 1.08-1.37 for prescription prior to dementia diagnosis; 95% confidence interval 1.04-1.45 for prescription post dementia diagnosis). In stratified analyses, risks remained significant in those without neuropsychiatric symptoms. CONCLUSIONS: The prescription of antidepressants around the time of dementia diagnosis may be a risk factor for mortality
Polypharmacy in people with dementia: Associations with adverse health outcomes
No full textPolypharmacy has been linked to higher risks of hospitalisation and death in community samples. It is commonly present in people with dementia but these risks have rarely been studied in this population. We aimed investigate associations between polypharmacy and emergency department attendance, any and unplanned hospitalisation, and mortality in patients with dementia. Using a large mental health care database in South London, linked to hospitalisation and mortality data, we assembled a retrospective cohort of patients diagnosed with dementia. We ascertained number of medications prescribed at the time of dementia diagnosis and conducted a multivariate Cox regression analyses. Of 4668 patients with dementia identified, 1128 (24.2%) were prescribed 4-6 medications and 739 (15.8%) ≥7 medications. Compared to those using 0-3 medications, patients with dementia using 4-6 or ≥7 agents had an increased risk of emergency department attendance (hazard ratio 1.20/1.35), hospitalisation (hazard ratio 1.12/1.32), unplanned hospital admission (hazard ratio 1.12/1.25), and death within two years (hazard ratio 1.29/1.39) after controlling for potential confounders. We found evidence of a dose response relationship with each additional drug at baseline increasing the risk of emergency department attendance and mortality by 5% and hospitalisation by 3%. In conclusion, polypharmacy at dementia diagnosis is associated with a higher risk of adverse health outcomes. Future research is required to elucidate which specific agents underlie this relationship and if reduction of inappropriate prescribing is effective in preventing adverse health outcomes in dementia
Colección Mi gran libro
No full textThis is a heavy book with thick covers and 192 pages filled with colorful illustrations, most frequently one fable to a page. The illustration style is that popular in published books these days: colorful and sometimes sentimental sketches including the main characters of the story. The style tends to be adequate to the fables but also to produce, I believe, few memorable images. Still, my favorites here include La zorra y el perro (31), Laz zorras y el río Meandro (135), MM (146), FG (165), and TMCM (192). This edition identifies the author with each fable and gives an explicit moral after each. The book's first page declares Fábulas de Animales. Other sections include Fábulas Fantásticas, Fábulas de Naturaleza, and Fábulas Escogidas. The selection represents a wonderfully wide spectrum of authors, including a number from Eastern cultures. Lessing is sometimes listed with one name and sometimes with three. I am surprised at the Aesopic fable about a dragon on 52. On 64, we find the fable usually presenting a woman who is transformed into a cat, but here it is a man who is transformed. The illustration shows him reaching for a mouse at the wedding! On 81, we find a good representation of Four Friends from Kalila and Dimna, here presented as Popular India. The AI at the end is curious because it works off of Il and La. Almost all of the titles are grouped together under those two initial words.This is a hardbound book (hard cover)Language note: Spanishavec des notes par Mme Amable Tast
Matemáticas, física y metafísica en el pensamiento de Benet Perera (1535-1610)
No full textPrograma de Doctorat en Filosofia Contemporània i Estudis ClàssicsEl objetivo de este trabajo es examinar el pensamiento filosófico del jesuita valenciano Benet Perera (1535-1610), dividiendo dicho examen en tres secciones temáticas, dedicadas a la reflexión de este autor sobre las matemáticas, la filosofía natural y la metafísica. Célebre entre sus contemporáneos por sus monumentales obras de exégesis bíblica, en el latín humanista de Perera se unen una inagotable erudición con la agudeza necesaria para dar cuenta de los grandes problemas filosóficos de su época en consonancia con el espíritu reformista y militante que emana del Concilio de Trento. Su De communibus omnium rerum naturalium, tratado de filosofía natural publicado en 1576, ha despertado últimamente un creciente interés entre los historiadores de la filosofía del renacimiento, no solamente por representar un exhaustivo compendio de las cuestiones filosóficas que constituyen el fermento en el que se fraguó la naciente filosofía moderna, sino también por constituir un texto de referencia para figuras como Giordano Bruno, Galileo o Leibniz. Compartiendo las coordenadas metodológicas y las claves hermenéuticas de las más recientes investigaciones sobre la obra de Perera, en nuestro trabajo hemos tratado de ofrecer una visión integral del pensamiento del valenciano, entendiéndolo como el intento de construir una cosmovisión adecuada a las exigencias religiosas de la Compañía de Jesús. De esta manera, mostraremos cómo la intervención de Perera en la renacentista quaestio de certitudine mathematicarum no sólo responde a un intento de conservar el paradigma aristotélico tradicional, sino que también se debe vincular con las tendencias anti-astrológicas presentes en el proyecto reformista católico. Examinaremos, asimismo, cómo la filosofía natural desplegada en la obra de nuestro autor se construye en franca oposición a lo que podríamos considerar una «física protestante», desarrollada en torno al círculo de Melanchthon. En nuestra tercera sección, en fin, analizaremos de qué modo la disolución de la estructura onto-teológica de la metafísica, que Perera opera al distinguir entre una filosofía primera dedicada al ens y una metafísica consagrada al estudio de la realidad suprasensible, constituye también el reflejo de la estructura jerárquica que la joven Compañía de Jesús trató de imprimir a su visión del mundo. En todo este recorrido, trataremos de rastrear la influencia que las tesis filosóficas de Perera ejercieron en autores contemporáneos y posteriores, con el fin de probar que el peso de nuestro autor en el devenir de la historia de la filosofía justifica con creces la necesidad de estudiar a fondo sus textos publicados e inéditos.The aim of this work is to examine the philosophical works of the Valencian Jesuit Benet Perera (1535-1610) on philosophy of mathematics, natural philosophy and metaphysics. Celebrated among his contemporaries for his monumental works of biblical exegesis, in the humanist latin of Perera an inexhaustible erudition is joined with the acuity necessary to account for the great philosophical problems of his time in line with the reformist and militant spirit emanating from the Council of Trent. His De communibus omnium rerum naturalium (1576) represents an exhaustive compendium of the early modern philosophical issues later used by Giordano Bruno, Galileo or Leibniz. Sharing the methodological coordinates and hermeneutic keys of the most recent research on Perera's work, we offer here a comprehensive vision of his thought as an effort to build an appropriate weltanschauung to the religious demands of the Society of Jesus. We will show how Perera's intervention in the Renaissance Quaestio de certitudine mathematicarum not only aims to preserve the traditional Aristotelian paradigm but must also be linked to the anti-astrological tendencies of the Catholic reformist project. We will also examine how Perera’s natural philosophy is deployed in opposition to what we might consider a "Protestant physics", developed around Melanchthon's circle. Finally, we study how the dissolution of the onto-theological structure of metaphysics, which Perera operates by distinguishing between a first philosophy dedicated to ens and a metaphysics of suprasensitive reality, is also a reflection of the hierarchical structure that the young Society of Jesus sought to print into her world-view. Throughout our work, we will trace the influence that Perera exerted on contemporary and later authors, in order to prove that the weight of our author in the history of modern philosophy more than justifies a careful read of his published and unpublished texts
El manuscrito latino de Harry Luke, cuaderno de viaje de Juan Perera en su peregrinación de Roma a Jerusalén
No full textThe little-known Latin manuscript owned by Harry Ch. Luke, which was translated into English and published in London in 1927 under the title A Spanish Franciscan’s Narrative of a Journey to the Holy Land contains an account of a pilgrimage to the Holy Land that can be dated the mid-16th century and that is very little known. Harry Luke thought that the author could have been a Spanish Franciscan, but its abundant textual coincidences with the «Camino y peregrinación que hizo Juan Perera», published by his nephew Josepe de Sessé in his Cosmographía Universal (Zaragoza, 1619), assures us that the aforesaid Latin manuscript was the travel notebook used by Canon Juan Perera on his pilgrimage through Syria and the Holy Land in 1553. Although the manuscript is unaccounted for today and we know of it only due to the English translation by Harry Luke, it deserves to be studied in relation to the 1619 edition of Juan Perera’s voyage.El manuscrito latino que Harry Ch. Luke poseyó, tradujo al inglés y publicó en Londres en 1927 con el título A Spanish Franciscan´s Narrative of a Journey to the Holy Land contiene un relato de peregrinación a Tierra Santa de los años centrales del siglo XVI y que es muy poco conocido. Harry Luke pensó que su autor pudo ser un franciscano español, pero sus abundantes coincidencias textuales con el «Camino y peregrinación que hizo Juan Perera», publicado por su sobrino Iosepe de Sessé en su Cosmographía Universal (Zaragoza, 1619), nos permiten asegurar que dicho manuscrito latino fue el cuaderno de viaje que utilizó el canónigo Juan Perera en su peregrinación por Siria y Tierra Santa en 1553. Aunque dicho manuscrito se encuentra hoy en paradero desconocido y lo conocemos solo por la traducción inglesa de Harry Luke, merece ser estudiado en relación con la edición de 1619 del viaje de Juan Perera.El manuscrito latino que Harry Ch. Luke poseyó, tradujo al inglés y publicó en Londres en 1927 con el título A Spanish Franciscan´s Narrative of a Journey to the Holy Land contiene un relato de peregrinación a Tierra Santa de los años centrales del siglo XVI y que es muy poco conocido. Harry Luke pensó que su autor pudo ser un franciscano español, pero sus abundantes coincidencias textuales con el «Camino y peregrinación que hizo Juan Perera», publicado por su sobrino Iosepe de Sessé en su Cosmographía Universal (Zaragoza, 1619), nos permiten asegurar que dicho manuscrito latino fue el cuaderno de viaje que utilizó el canónigo Juan Perera en su peregrinación por Siria y Tierra Santa en 1553. Aunque dicho manuscrito se encuentra hoy en paradero desconocido y lo conocemos solo por la traducción inglesa de Harry Luke, merece ser estudiado en relación con la edición de 1619 del viaje de Juan Perera
Association of Cerebral Amyloid-β Aggregation With Cognitive Functioning in Persons Without Dementia
No full textImportance: Cerebral amyloid-β aggregation is an early event in Alzheimer disease (AD). Understanding the association between amyloid aggregation and cognitive manifestation in persons without dementia is important for a better understanding of the course of AD and for the design of prevention trials. Objective: To investigate whether amyloid-β aggregation is associated with cognitive functioning in persons without dementia. Design, Setting, and Participants: This cross-sectional study included 2908 participants with normal cognition and 4133 with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) from 53 studies in the multicenter Amyloid Biomarker Study. Normal cognition was defined as having no cognitive concerns for which medical help was sought and scores within the normal range on cognitive tests. Mild cognitive impairment was diagnosed according to published criteria. Study inclusion began in 2013 and is ongoing. Data analysis was performed in January 2017. Main Outcomes and Measures: Global cognitive performance as assessed by the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) and episodic memory performance as assessed by a verbal word learning test. Amyloid aggregation was measured with positron emission tomography or cerebrospinal fluid biomarkers and dichotomized as negative (normal) or positive (abnormal) according to study-specific cutoffs. Generalized estimating equations were used to examine the association between amyloid aggregation and low cognitive scores (MMSE score ≤27 or memory z score≤−1.28) and to assess whether this association was moderated by age, sex, educational level, or apolipoprotein E genotype. Results: Among 2908 persons with normal cognition (mean [SD] age, 67.4 [12.8] years), amyloid positivity was associated with low memory scores after age 70 years (mean difference in amyloid positive vs negative, 4% [95% CI, 0%-7%] at 72 years and 21% [95% CI, 10%-33%] at 90 years) but was not associated with low MMSE scores (mean difference, 3% [95% CI, −1% to 6%], P = .16). Among 4133 patients with MCI (mean [SD] age, 70.2 [8.5] years), amyloid positivity was associated with low memory (mean difference, 16% [95% CI, 12%-20%], P < .001) and low MMSE (mean difference, 14% [95% CI, 12%-17%], P < .001) scores, and this association decreased with age. Low cognitive scores had limited utility for screening of amyloid positivity in persons with normal cognition and those with MCI. In persons with normal cognition, the age-related increase in low memory score paralleled the age-related increase in amyloid positivity with an intervening period of 10 to 15 years. Conclusions and Relevance: Although low memory scores are an early marker of amyloid positivity, their value as a screening measure for early AD among persons without dementia is limited
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