Caligara is a fantasy world like no other existing within the galaxy Anatrickamus. Caligara and its creatures are ancient as the planet rotates differently than Earth, being the size of Jupiter. A brutal war the inhabitants of Caligara are calling the Slaughtering of the Beast War has ended. Humanlike creatures called calayin share their victory with one another, hoping for a bright future after the ceremony of crowning honoring the calayin prince into kingship. When a Caligaren month ends after postwar checkups for calayins and their allies, such as the jet hounds, a young calayin soldier named A-rayin comes home and learns he is destined to escape the life he has always known on a poor farm in a remote village to a higher purpose. However, he runs into trouble with the soulzishou, preventing his way to greatness. This encounter leaves A-rayin behind in catching up with his evil twin brother Ratchet toward a future they both want but only one can fulfill. As news of a series of strange and mysterious attacks in the mountains of Arrow Head alert the wizards of Caligara, A-rayin must learn combat and royal etiquette from his new allies if he is to overcome the obstacles presenting themselves both to calayin and wizard alike. Will Ratchet start a new war that A-rayin needs to stop, or will it be the wizards who once considered themselves allies of the kingdom betray all that is good?

Specialist Periodical Reports provide systematic and detailed review coverage of progress in the major areas of chemical research. Written by experts in their specialist fields the series creates a unique service for the active research chemist, supplying regular critical in-depth accounts of progress in particular areas of chemistry. For over 80 years the Royal Society of Chemistry and its predecessor, the Chemical Society, have been publishing reports charting developments in chemistry, which originally took the form of Annual Reports. However, by 1967 the whole spectrum of chemistry could no longer be contained within one volume and the series Specialist Periodical Reports was born. The Annual Reports themselves still existed but were divided into two, and subsequently three, volumes covering Inorganic, Organic and Physical Chemistry. For more general coverage of the highlights in chemistry they remain a 'must'. Since that time the SPR series has altered according to the fluctuating degree of activity in various fields of chemistry. Some titles have remained unchanged, while others have altered their emphasis along with their titles; some have been combined under a new name whereas others have had to be discontinued.

Fetal Physiology and Medicine: The Basis of Perinatology, Second, Revised Edition documents many of the major advances in fetal medicine, including developmental physiology, pathology, and therapy. This book covers the most important areas of maternofetal medicine and presents different views of the critical problems of development. The various components of fetal metabolism are highlighted to demonstrate how animal experimentation has given a clear view of the interrelationship of the mother, placenta, and fetus. This text is comprised of 24 chapters; the first of which describes the use of ultrasound in antenatal diagnosis of congenital structural anomalies. This topic is followed by a discussion on sexual differentiation, acquired immunity, and endocrine changes, as well as the physiology of breathing, the control of the fetal cardiovascular system, lung maturation, fetal infections, and the effects of hypoxia on the fetal brain. This book also provides comprehensive reviews of fetal regulatory mechanisms, such as the reninangiotensin system, water metabolism, and fetal and placental hormone production. Other chapters focus on clinical applications, such as antenatal fetal heart rate monitoring, the technical aspects of fetal and uterine pressure measurements, fetal acid-base balance, and the prevention of preterm delivery. A section that explores the transition from intrauterine to extrauterine life concludes this book. This source is of great potential value to all students and practitioners of reproductive medicine.

This book examines the sociocultural networks between the courts of early modern Italy and Europe, focusing on the Florentine Medici court, and the cultural patronage and international gendered networks developed by the Grand Duchess of Tuscany, Vittoria della Rovere. Adelina Modesti uses Grand Duchess Vittoria as an exemplar of pan-European 'matronage' and proposes a new matrilineal model of patronage in the early modern period, one in which women become not only the mediators but also the architects of public taste and the transmitters of cultural capital. The book will be the first comprehensive monographic study of this important cultural figure. This study will be of interest to scholars working in art history, gender studies, Renaissance studies and seventeenth-century Italy.

Specialist Periodical Reports provide systematic and detailed review coverage of progress in the major areas of chemical research. Written by experts in their specialist fields the series creates a unique service for the active research chemist, supplying regular critical in-depth accounts of progress in particular areas of chemistry. For over 80 years the Royal Society of Chemistry and its predecessor, the Chemical Society, have been publishing reports charting developments in chemistry, which originally took the form of Annual Reports. However, by 1967 the whole spectrum of chemistry could no longer be contained within one volume and the series Specialist Periodical Reports was born. The Annual Reports themselves still existed but were divided into two, and subsequently three, volumes covering Inorganic, Organic and Physical Chemistry. For more general coverage of the highlights in chemistry they remain a 'must'. Since that time the SPR series has altered according to the fluctuating degree of activity in various fields of chemistry. Some titles have remained unchanged, while others have altered their emphasis along with their titles; some have been combined under a new name whereas others have had to be discontinued.

The rapidly evolving field of Palliative Care focuses on the management of phenomena that produce discomfort and that undermine the quality of life of patients with incurable medical disorders. The interdisciplinary clinical purview includes those factors - physical, psychological, social, and spiritual - that contribute to suffering, undermine the quality of life, and prevent a death with comfort and dignity. Palliative Care is a fundamental part of clinical practice, the "parallel universe" to therapies directed at cure or prolongation of life. All clinicians who treat patients with chronic life threatening diseases are engaged in palliative care, continually attempting to manage complex symptomatology and functional disturbances. The scientific foundation of palliative care is advancing, and similarly, methods are needed to highlight, for practitioners at the bedside, the findings of empirical research. Topics in Palliative Care Series is divided into sections that address a range of issues. Addressing aspects of sumptom control, psyshocsoical functioning, spiritual or existential concerns, ethics, and other topics, the chapters in each section review the given area and focus on a small number of salient issues for analysis. The authors present and evaluate existing data, provide a context drawn from clinical and research settings, and integrate knowledge in a manner that is both practical and readable. The specific topics covered in Volume 5 are Cultural issues in Palliative Care, Palliative Care in Geriatrics, Communication Issues in Palliative Care, Outcomes Research in Palliative Care, Opiod Tolerance; Reality of Myth?, and Pain and other symptoms: Treatment Challenges.

This book is a microhistory study of village settlements in early modern Northwest Italy that aims to expand the notion of place to include the process of producing a locality; that is, the production of native local subjects through practices, rituals and other forms of collective action. Undertaking a micro-analytical approach, the book examines the customs and practices associated with typically fragmented and polycentric Italian village settlements to analyze the territorial tensions between various segments of a village and its neighbors. The microspatial analysis reveals how these tensions are the expressions of conflictual relationships between lay, ecclesiastical and charitable bodies culminating in a "culture of fragmentation" that impacts local economic and political practices. The book also traces how the production of locality survived throughout the nineenth and twentieth century and is still observed today. In this light, the study of practices and policies of locality over time that this book undertakes is an essential tool to better understand the nature and role of these social bonds in today’s society. Archival records and the methods for approaching this source material are included within the text, making it an accessible and invaluable book for students and teachers of social and cultural history.