Successive Eras Research Articles

Exploring the impact of 'hostile environment' policies on psychological distress of ethnic groups in the UK: a differences-in-differences analysis.

In 2012, the UK government announced legislation changes and heightened immigration controls designed to create a 'hostile environment for illegal migration.' We measured changes in psychological distress among people from minoritised ethnic groups compared to White British controls before and throughout the implementation of these policies. We used the UK Household Longitudinal Survey to estimate difference-in-difference models for six ethnic groups (Bangladeshi, African, Caribbean, Indian, Pakistani, and White British) in three eras: pre-policy (2009-2012); (2) transition (2012-2016); and (3) ongoing policy (2016-2020). We calculated the adjusted marginal mean psychological distress score at each era using the 12-item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ). In the pre-policy era, we found higher psychological distress for the Pakistani, Bangladeshi, and Caribbean groups compared to the White British group. We observed patterns consistent with increasing psychological distress during the transition era for the Pakistani and Bangladeshi groups, with further increases in the ongoing era for the Bangladeshi group. Levels of psychological distress the Indian and African groups were similar to the White British group in the pre-policy era and decreased over successive eras. A small decrease was observed in the Caribbean group across policy eras, while levels remained stable in the White British group. We found evidence that psychological distress increased among Pakistani and Bangladeshi individuals following the introduction of hostile environment policies but did not detect increased distress in other ethnic groups. This finding underscores the importance of disaggregating analyses by ethnic group to capture the distinct experiences.

Constants and Variables of Artworks: A Critical Study

This study discusses and analyses artistic production, explaining its motives, stages, and characteristics. In this context, the study reviewed fine artistic production throughout successive eras and explained the tangible changes. The study discussed and concluded the motives for producing creative works, their origin, their most essential features, and the reasons for their diversity. Based on these conclusions, the most critical constants and variables associated with reading and appreciating artistic works were identified. The study reviewed various artistic trends and schools representing successive eras, explained the mechanism the artists adopted to produce their creative work, and clarified the nature of artistic work and the requirements for reading and tasting it. The study confirmed that artwork recipients- regardless of their level of culture- must consider the foundations and constants of the artistic work identified in the survey so that they can read and taste it. The recipients need to understand these foundations so that they can communicate with the artistic work and have the ability to taste and evaluate it. The study gained importance in this context because of the knowledge developed about the constants and variables of tasting artistic works, representing a communication bridge between the recipient and the creative work. The recipient’s awareness of the constants and variables of reading and tasting works of art produces a positive movement for plastic art and its positive impact on building a complete and ideal society. The civilisation and the sophistication of societies are measured by the extent of their interest in and support of the arts and the positive impact on the citizens’ behaviour towards their culture and environment.

Exploring the Role of Leadership in Art History

Leadership is an integral yet understudied component of art history. This paper explores the role of influential leaders who shaped the course of art movements and genres throughout history. A visual and documentary analysis is conducted to examine how leadership manifests in artistic works and historical texts. The study analyses key art historical figures such as Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Andy Warhol, and others who pioneered new techniques, spearheaded movements, founded institutions, mentored proteges, or galvanized public interest in the arts. Their lasting impacts as champions of artistic innovations and progress are evaluated. Archival letters, journals, articles, and other documents provide insights into leadership styles, relationships with followers, and strategic decision-making. Patterns of patronage linking leaders with wealthy, powerful, or religious institutions are also explored. The visual record reveals how leadership was conveyed symbolically through the content and style of seminal works. The analysis integrates qualitative evidence from both visual and documentary sources to build a historical understanding of leadership's central, multifaceted role in shaping the direction of art. This study aims to highlight leadership as a driving force in art history and understand how leaders profoundly influenced the production, dissemination, and reception of art across successive eras.

Exploring the Value of the Indigenous Knowledge of Ubuntu in Early Childhood Education in South Africa

The dismissal and devaluing of indigenous knowledge during the successive eras of colonialism and apartheid in South Africa compelled the African majority to adopt the colonisers’ values, attitudes, language, cultural practices, morality, and institutions. In education, the consequent neglect of sociocultural contexts inevitably influenced the cultural identities of children negatively and disrupted the intergenerational continuity of core values and traditions especially in the early years of development. Early childhood development is acknowledged as the most critical developmental phase when behaviour, attitudes, and values are learnt and retained. It presents an ideal opportunity to impart rich values and social mores, particularly in the current context of moral and ethical decline in democratic South Africa. Local/community resources and positive cultural values and practices can contribute to children’s holistic development by building strong foundations for essential prosocial values that are embodied in ubuntu. With roots in African traditional society and philosophy, ubuntu espouses the ideal of interconnectedness and interdependence among people. This article reports on the views of a sample of urban, rural, and semi-rural early childhood development staff and community members on the inclusion of ubuntu values and principles in the early childhood development curriculum. The collective support for the inclusion of ubuntu in the preschool phase suggests the potential for developing socially responsible citizens for cohesive co-existence in democratic South Africa.

Pedro de Alvarado, Tonatiuh: Reconsidering Apotheosis in Nahua and Highland Maya Narratives of the Spanish Invasion

Abstract Recent scholarship on the Spanish invasion of the New World has brought under scrutiny the historiographic theme of apotheosis—the notion that Indigenous peoples regarded the invaders as gods or godlike beings and that such beliefs influenced their responses. This article examines the question by focusing on Pedro de Alvarado, a leading member of Hernán Cortés’s contingent, who was known as Tonatiuh—a Nahuatl word that designated the sun, the day, and the sun god. Indigenous peoples in Mexico and Guatemala used the name during the invasion, and Nahua, K’iche’, and Kaqchikel authors employed it frequently in later writings that variously hinted at, endorsed, or questioned Alvarado’s associations with the sun god. Rather than an imposition resulting from Spanish teachings, the association of Alvarado with the sun god derived from Mesoamerican beliefs about the rise and fall of successive eras, which provided Indigenous paradigms to explain the Spanish invasion.

A Cat Can Also Be a Masterpiece: About the Cat in Art and Culture from Antiquity to Modern Times

As Leonardo da Vinci used to say: "every cat, even the smallest one, is a masterpiece." The text is an attempt to show the role of this domestic animal in culture from antiquity to the present day. In comparison to the dogs, they find much less reference in culture, tradition, beliefs or art. Nevertheless, cats do show up in every civilization and culture, playing both positive and negative roles as well over the centuries. In European and Christian cultures they appear much more often in negative contexts and pejorative symbolism. In some cultures they were worshiped, given inviolability, treated as a deity, in others they were ignored or even considered to be the embodiment of Satan. Although the cat does not appear directly in the Bible, it is a common symbolic theme for scenes related to Christ, such as the Last Supper and the Feast of Emmaus. Along with the spread of the cat as a companion-household member of human life, the interest in the cat in art, mainly in painting, increases, as exemplified by numerous works by masters of painting, which this text presents while recalling successive eras. In the course of history, the cat was first worshiped, then it lost its importance, only to regain it in a different form, as a companion of human life, a pet and a household member. The cat has permanently entered the canon of the world art through outstanding works of European painters, and has also found its place in popular culture.

The Influence of Heritage multiplicity on Contemporary Egyptian Painting

The Influence of Heritage multiplicity on Contemporary Egyptian Painting

Large-Scale Patterns in the Agricultural Demographic Transition of Mesoamerica and Southwestern North America

This article examines large-scale spatial and temporal patterns in the agricultural demographic transition (ADT) of Mesoamerica and southwestern North America (“the Southwest”). An analysis of published settlement and subsistence data suggests that the prolonged ADTs of these regions involved two successive eras of rapid population growth. Although both periods of growth were fueled by the introduction or development of more productive domesticates, they had distinctive demographic and social consequences. The first phase of the ADT occurred only in a scattering of favorable regions, between 1900 and 1000 BC in Mesoamerica and 1200 BC–AD 400 in the Southwest. Its demographic consequences were modest because it was underwritten by still rather unproductive maize. During this phase, increased population was confined mainly to a few agricultural heartlands, whereas surrounding regions remained sparsely populated. The second phase of the ADT was more dramatic in the spatial scale of its impact. This “high productivity” phase unfolded between 1000 and 200 BC in Mesoamerica and AD 500–1300 in the Southwest, and it was fueled by more productive maize varieties and improving agricultural technologies. It was accompanied by sweeping social, economic, and political changes in both regions.

مدينة الموصل في مؤلفات الجغرافيين(ق4-7هـ/10-13م) "دراسة تاريخية- حضارية"

The Iraqi city of Mosul occupied a clear geographical and historical importance for a large number of geographers and historians due to its geographical and historical importance, and because of the important historical events that its lands witnessed that changed the political map of several countries Geographers were interested in studying the geography of Mosul, and most of them made it within the geography of the Euphrates island, and this, of course, is due to the nature of the ruling political forces at that time, especially mentioning in successive Islamic eras, as well as the administrative subordination of the ruling Islamic states or emirates at that time. The research addressed the views of an important number of geographers about the city of Mosul, especially those who lived through the Abbasid era and its various stages, in terms of name and location, and the most important geographical and climatic features of this city, as well as the nature of its inhabitants, their buildings, and the nature of their land, and referred to the goods and imports that it was famous for. Naturalization made it self-sufficient, as well as the most important villages and cities near it, which are within its borders. Key words: City, Palm, Basra, Institutions, Country.

منهج النقد الحدیثی فی زمن النبی - صلى الله علیه وسلم – والخلفاء الراشدین بعده

کان الحديث النبوي يروى منذ زمن رسول الله -صلى الله عليه وسلم - وکان احتمال الکذب أو الخطأ عليه من قبل الرواة عنه واردا، ولاشک أن المرويات ينبغي أن يکون قد بدأ مع بداية الروايات؛ فتوجه هذا البحث إلى استخلاص المنهجية النقدية التي کانت مستعملة في عصر النبي - صلى الله عليه وسلم - من خلال دراسة الواقع التاريخي للروايات في عصر النبي - صلى الله عليه وسلم – وأصحابه، ثم تحليل المواقف النقدية التي حصلت في زمنه الشريف، وفي زمن الراشدين بعده، وقد توصل الباحث إلى النتائج الآتية: إن النقد في العصر النبوي کان يعتمد على منهج واضح يتکون من مستويين: ظاهر، وخفي؛ وقد استمر عصر الراشدين على نفس المنهجية، ولکن توسعت تفاصيل هذا المنهج في زمنهم قليلا في المستويين کليهما بناء على التغيرات التاريخية التي طرأت، کما أن النقد الظاهر کان يتمحور حول نقد الراوي، فلا تقبل رواية الراوي الذي لا يؤمن کذبه –الفاسق – وأيضا: إن النقد الخفي کان يتمحور حول التحقق من سلامة رواية الثقة من الخطأ إذا حفت بها قرينة تشير إلى احتمال وجود ذلک، ومن الأدوات النقدية في عصر النبي - صلى الله عليه وسلم -: سؤال الفقهاء من أصحابه عن صحة الرواية؛ لأنهم کانوا أقدر على ملاحظة انسجام الرواية مع ما يعرفونه من القرآن والسنة، وقد استمرت هذه الأداة في عصر الراشدين، کما أنه في عصر النبي - صلى الله عليه وسلم - توفرت أقوى الأدوات النقدية على الإطلاق وهو: سؤال النبي - صلى الله عليه وسلم - نفسه عن صحة ما يروى عنه، وقد فقدت هذه الأداة وعوض عنها الصحابة بسؤال مجموع أصحاب النبي - صلى الله عليه وسلم - وکانوا أعرف الناس بسنته؛ فعصرهم في القوة النقدية يأتي بعد عصر النبي - صلى الله عليه وسلم – وقد ظهرت في عصر الصحابة الأحکام الظنية على الأحاديث في بعض الأحيان، کما ظهر منذ عصر الصحابة اختلاف النقاد في الحکم على المسائل الجزئية، وظهر في عصر الصحابة تفاضل النقاد في بلوغ مستوى الدقة النقدية، وظهر من نتيجة هذا البحث أن المحدثين في عصورهم المتتابعة لم يخرجوا عن حدود المنهجية النقدية التي کانت في عصر النبي وأصحابه من بعده، ولکن فقط توسعت التفاصيل. The Prophetic hadith has been narrated since the lifetime of the Messenger of God (pbuh). Naturally, both unintentional and deliberate mistakes of the narrators were somehow expected. There is no doubt that criticism of the accounts must have started with the beginning of narration. The present research paper is devoted to inferring the critical methodology used at the era of the Prophet (pbuh) through investigating the historical reality of the narrations in the lifetime of the Prophet (pbuh) and his companions. This is followed by an analysis of the critical attitudes that occurred in the significant eras of the Prophet (pbuh) and his rightly-guided caliphs. The study has reached the following conclusions: Criticism of hadith narration in the Prophetic era was based on a clear methodology consisting of two levels: one is explicit and the other implicit; the age of the rightly-guided caliphs continued to follow the same methodology. The details of this approach, however, expanded slightly in their time on both levels, based on the historical changes that took place then. The explicit criticism revolved around criticizing the narrators, so that a report or an account was rejected when its narrator could be someone inclined to lying, or known to be immoral. The implicit criticism was centered around verifying the authenticity of the narration of trustworthy narrators and making sure that one was free from error in the case a mistake was presumed. Among the means of criticism in the era of the Prophet (pbuh) was asking his learned companions about the authenticity of the narration, since they were more capable of observing consistence of the narration with their knowledge about the Qur’an and the Sunnah. This means of criticism continued in the era of the rightly-guided caliphs. In addition, there existed in the era of the Prophet (pbuh) the most efficient critical tool, namely asking the Prophet (pbuh) about the authenticity of narrations that he was reported to say. Although this means of criticism was of course missing after the lifetime of the Prophet (pbuh), the Prophet’s Companions made up for this by asking one another about his tradition, which they knew well. Therefore, their era was second to that of the Prophet (pbuh) in terms of its efficient criticism. In the era of the Companions, presumptive judgments on hadiths were sometimes made. Since their era, hadith critics have differed in judging some particularities of narrations. In the era of the Companions, hadith critics varied in their levels of critical accuracy. The present study concludes that scholars of hadith in their successive eras have not deviated from the clear lines demarcating the critical methodology that was in the era of the Prophet (pbuh) and his Companions after him. Nevertheless, it has expanded in its minute details.

Cahiliye Asrından Abdülkahir el-Cürcani Dönemine Kadar Belağat Gelişimi

Bu çalışmanın amacı,Abdulkahir el-Curcani çağına kadar, belagat ilminin tarihi ve gelişme sürecine genel bir bakış sağlamaktır. Diğer bir ifadeyle tedvinden önce ve sonra belağat ilmi denilebilir.Çalışma, aynı zamanda alimlerin beleğat ilmine dair kaideleri belirlemede dayandıkları usul ve esaslara ışık tutmak hedefi ile, belagat ilminin çeşitli dönemlerde geçirdiği süreci de konu edinmektedir. Belagat tarihini ve gelişme dönemini incelen araştırmacı özellikle son dönem alimlerin önceki dönem bilginlerinin eserlerini inceleme konusunda ortaya koydukları gayreti görecektir. Ayrıca belagat ilminin öncelikle zevk, sonrasında eleştiri ve daha sonra belagatı kaideleştirme olmak üzere üç merhaleden geçtiğini ve belagatın edebi eleştiri geleneğinden doğduğunu görecektir. Araştırmanın önemi, neden ve sonuçlarında kendini göstermektedir. Ortaöğretim, lisans ve lisansüstü eğitimin çeşitli kademeleri sırasındaki derslerde edebi zevkin eksikliği ve zayıflığı fark edilmiştir. Belagatın ihmal edilmesi ve yalnızca genel sanatsal imaja odaklanılması gerektiği iddiasında bulunan veya belagatin Arap kökenli değil de diğer medeniyetlerden alındığını iddia eden ya da batı metodolojisine uygun modern kavramlarla belâgat ilmini güncelleme çağrısında bulunan bazı seslerin arasında bizim kendi öğrencilerimizin birçoğunun eleştiri belagatın zayıflığını saymıyorum bile. Dolaysıyla bu çalışma bilim adamlarımızın çağlar boyunca özgünlük, edebi zevk ve eleştirel açıdan belagatın gelişimini ortaya koymak için yapmış oldukları çaba ve gayretlerini göstermek içindir. Araştırmanın önemi, aşağıdaki hedeflere ulaşmayı amaçlamasıyla ortaya çıkmaktadır. • Belagatın ortaya çıkış tarihi ve çağlar boyu gelişimi üzerinde durmak. • Edebi zevki geliştirmede Arapça gramer, biçim bilgisi ve dil ilkelerini kullanmak • Bilim adamlarının belâgat ilmindeki çalışmalarına vakıf olarak kelimeler ve cümledeki bileşenlar arasında ki farkları ortaya koyma konusunda ne denli mahir olduklarına tanıklık etmek. • Edebi metin örnekleri üzerinde düşünerek okuyucunun belagat ve eleştirel melekesini geliştirmek. Çalışma şairlerin, dil ve kulaklarının aşinalığı sebebiyle doğaçlamaları neticesi çok güzel bir performans sergiledikleri ve yargılarının çoğunlukla bir illete ve sabit belagat temellere bağlı olmaksızın sırf edebi zevkin olduğu İslam öncesi çağda, İslam'ın ilk zamanlarında ve Emevi’ler dönemindeki belagat gelişme aşamalarını ele alacaktır. Doğaçlamaların sağlam olmasından herhangi bir analiz ve eleştirel yargıya ihtiyaç duymadılar, bu da onların tek kabahatidir. Cahiliye dönemi hükümdarlarından en önde geleni “en-Nâbiga ez-Zübyânî”dir. İslam'ın ilk zamanlarında Basra’daki “el-mirbed” ve kûfe’deki “kunâse” pazarları aynen cailiyye dönemindeki Ukâz pazarına benzemekte idi. Bu pazarların en önemli öncüleri arasında Cerîr, Farazdak, zürrumme ve Leylâ el-Ahyeliyye sayılabilir. Edebiyat kitapları, Araplarda kelime ve anlamların doğru seçimlerinden neşet eden edebi güzelliğin ölçülerini gösteren örneklerle dolup taşmıştır. Onlardan bazıları hatip ve şair olarak meşhur olurken, Züheyr b. Ebî Sülma, el-Hutye ve daha başkaları gibi bazıları da kelimelerde doğru seçim, kompozisyon bütünlüğü ve doğru ifade gibi hususlarda ön plana çıkmıştır.

‘The Free-Flying Natural Woman Boobs of Yore’? the Body Beyond Representation in Feminist Accounts of Objectification

This article takes up references to breasts as a key case study to examine white Western feminist debate around embodiment and objectification. Tracking shifting understandings of ‘the gaze’ in these accounts, we find that objectification is often rendered singular, ahistorical and, increasingly, individually internalised. The history of these approaches to objectification helps to explain why during the early 2000s, theorisations of feminist politics-lost were often rhetorically located alongside discussions of surgically modified breasts as a symbol of a new era of ‘fake’ feminism. In contrast, the 2010s saw several feminist movements premised on exposure of flesh and claims to individual recuperation of bodily autonomy. This article contends that both of these perspectives rely on a notion, built over successive eras of white Western feminist thought, that political work can and ought to be done through the body as a site of representational politics. This article subsequently offers a brief insight into how we might queer our approach to breasts to better account for the messiness of experiences of the flesh, considering the personal as political, while not investing in the body as the site where politics must be enacted.

Death after Kidney Transplantation: An Analysis by Era and Time Post-Transplant

Mortality risk after kidney transplantation can vary significantly during the post-transplant course. A contemporary assessment of trends in all-cause and cause-specific mortality at different periods post-transplant is required to better inform patients, clinicians, researchers, and policy makers. We included all first kidney-only transplant recipients from 1980 through 2018 from the Australia and New Zealand Dialysis and Transplant Registry. We compared adjusted death rates per 5-year intervals, using a piecewise exponential survival model, stratified by time post-transplant or time post-graft failure. Of 23,210 recipients, 4765 died with a functioning graft. Risk of death declined over successive eras, at all periods post-transplant. Reductions in early deaths were most marked; however, recipients ≥10 years post-transplant were 20% less likely to die in the current era compared with preceding eras (2015-2018 versus 2005-2009, adjusted hazard ratio, 0.80; 95% confidence interval, 0.69 to 0.90). In 2015-2018, cardiovascular disease was the most common cause of death, particularly in months 0-3 post-transplant (1.18 per 100 patient-years). Cancer deaths were rare early post-transplant, but frequent at later time points (0.93 per 100 patient-years ≥10 years post-transplant). Among 3657 patients with first graft loss, 2472 died and were not retransplanted. Death was common in the first year after graft failure, and the cause was most commonly cardiovascular (50%). Reductions in death early and late post-transplant over the past 40 years represent a major achievement. Reductions in cause-specific mortality at all time points post-transplant are also apparent. However, relatively greater reductions in cardiovascular death have increased the prominence of late cancer deaths.

Contested grounds; the regeneration of Liverpool waterfront

ABSTRACT This paper explores the process by which the regeneration of Liverpool waterfront took place over the past few decades. It adopts a case study method to identify different trends and patterns and to examine their impact on the emerging urban landscape. The research identified three successive eras of post-industrial waterfront regeneration in Liverpool that aimed to tackle different issues and respond to challenges and opportunities. The study argues that although the future of regeneration will be predominantly led by the private sector within a context of weakened public role and extreme urban competition, it is important to uphold the role of the public sector to actively lead the process of regeneration through a shared and comprehensive regeneration strategy. The strategy should be based on urban design and heritage agenda to guarantee the qualities of the urban landscape will not be compromised and new interventions will result in a coherent whole.

A LOOK AT THE ERRONEOUS RESTORATION OF THE HISTORICAL KASBAH OF AGADIR, MOROCCO

Abstract. Architecture represents the cultural and intellectual identity of peoples. It is an authentic wealth of civilization that embodies the creative and aesthetic level that man has reached in various successive eras and historical periods (Al-Zahrani, 2012). It is a heritage that cannot be estimated and a living memory that reflects the extent of harmony between climate and the natural components of the environment on the one hand and, on the other, the economic and social systems on which man depends. Architectural heritage has received substantial attention from various entities, as it is an important historical and national project that contributes to the development of contemporary and future social structure and establishes a cultural policy building responsible community awareness. This so important considering that cultural heritage faces threats mainly related to its deterioration because of failing its preservation or undertaking inappropriate restoration work, as we illustrate by the case of the Kasbah of Agadir. The restorers with insufficient experience committed serious architectural failures in the Kasbah. It is difficult now to restore the state of the building before the restoration. They used materials that had a negative and distorting impact. As a result, these mistakes led to the destruction of the Kasbah’s architectural features.

Dynamics of Intra-Party Organisation in the Digital Age: A Grassroots Analysis of Digital Adoption

Abstract Over recent decades, scholars have explored political parties’ adoption of digital technology. Tracing successive eras of change, scholarship has examined the degree to which digital disrupts or embeds traditional power structures—with many studies finding evidence of ‘controlled-interactivity’. In this article, we revisit debates around the adoption of digital tools from a bottom-up perspective. Moving beyond attempts to categorise elite strategies for digital adoption, we consider practices on the ground to document how, in practice, digital technology is being taken up and used. Using a case study of the UK Labour Party, we categorise a range of different practices, highlighting and theorising the presence of digital adherents, laggards, entrepreneurs, renegades and refuseniks. Discussing the drivers of these practices, we offer new insight into variations in digital adoption and consider the significance of these trends for our understanding of party organisation.

The Language Game in the “Fraudsters’ Literature” from Pragmatic Perspective—The Arabic Maqamat as a Model

The art of cheating is based on the manipulation of the vocabulary and structures used, and the use of images of linguistic performance that convince the speaker, in which the listener is weak and needy, which causes the other party to respond to it. This type represents the manipulation of words and structures in the most beautiful form in the art of Maqamat, which was prevalent in the Arabic literature in successive eras. Due to this, the research aims to find out the cheating language which is used by the fraudsters in terms of its characteristics and its impact on their dealings.

К ИСТОРИИ ФОРМИРОВАНИЯ ИКОНОГРАФИИ СТАМБУЛА В АЗЕРБАЙДЖАНСКОЙ ЖИВОПИСИ

In the visual arts of Azerbaijan, the formation of the iconography of Istanbul is a multi-level and stage process. Its relevance is due to a number of factors of both the socio-ethnocultural aspect, historicism of relations, and creative searches of a personal nature. The purpose of the study of this article is to identify the context and the main priorities of the formation of the pictorial signature of Istanbul in Russian painting at certain stages of its development. The choice of the iconographic method as the main one made it possible to most clearly trace the specific semantics of the city, and also led to an appeal to the iconology of plots and genres associated with the image of Istanbul. The formation of canonical schemes took place against a complex background of a complex of historical mutual influences of related states, which necessitated the use of the diachronic method as one of the main tools. As a result, a rather capacious empirical base was analyzed, which included works of Azerbaijani painting from successive historical eras. Along with them, the initial base was considered, a series of interviews with the authors of the work was conducted. A generalization of the study was the conclusion that the image of Azerbaijani artistic creative consciousness was gradually formed, starting from the Middle Ages, within the framework of canonical art and against the background of constant close historical contact, which also led to periods of recession (Soviet period) in the development of themes. Stable positions during the new time are traditions of European romanticism, and in particular, Orientalism, reflected in the monumental painting of Azerbaijan. The stylistic and genre diversity is rapidly gaining momentum with a period of independence within the framework of both classical and postmodernism.

Progressive improvement in short‐, medium‐ and long‐term graft survival in kidney transplantation patients in Ireland – a retrospective study

It is often quoted that while short-term graft survival in kidney transplantation has improved in recent years, it has not translated into a commensurate improvement in long-term graft survival. We considered whether this was true of the entire experience of the national kidney transplant program in Ireland. A retrospective analysis of the National Kidney Transplant Service (NKTS) database was undertaken to investigate patient and graft survival for all adult first deceased donor kidney transplant recipients in Ireland, 1971-2015. Three thousand two hundred and sixty recipients were included in this study. Kaplan-Meier methods were used to estimate survival at each time period post transplant for the various eras of transplantation. Uncensored graft survival has improved over the course of the program in Ireland at various time points despite risk factors for graft failure progressively increasing over successive eras. For example the graft survival at 15years post transplant has increased from 10% in 1971-1975 to 45% by 1996-2000. Ireland has experienced a progressive improvement in long-term graft survival following kidney transplantation. Whether these trends are attributable to biological or nonbiological factors is unclear but likely involves a combination of both.

3,707 hepatectomies over two decades: continuous improvements in perioperative outcomes despite increased complexity

Introduction: As perioperative care and surgical technique for hepatectomy have improved, the indications for and complexity of liver resections have evolved. The resulting effect on short-term outcomes over time has not been well described. Methods: The perioperative outcomes, including comprehensive complication index (CCI), of consecutive patients undergoing hepatectomy at one institution were compared across three successive eras: 1998–2003, 2004–2009, and 2010–2015. Results: Among 3,707 liver resections, there was an increase in the number of hepatectomies performed in each time period (794, 1402, 1511, p< 0.001). Technical complexity increased over time as evidenced by increases in the rates of major hepatectomy (20%, 23%, 30%, p< 0.0001), two-stage hepatectomy (0%, 3%, 4%, p< 0.0001), need for portal vein embolization (5%, 9%, 9%, p=0.001), preoperative chemotherapy for colorectal liver metastases (70%, 82%, 89%, p< 0.0001) and median operative time (180, 175, 225 min, p< 0.0001). Nevertheless, significant decreases over time were observed in median blood loss (300, 250, 200 mL, p< 0.0001), transfusion rate (19%, 15%, 5%, p< 0.0001), median length of hospitalization (7, 7, 6 days, p< 0.0001), rates of CCI ≥26.2 (20%, 22%, 16%, p< 0.0001) and 90-day mortality (3.1%, 2.6%, 1.3%, p=0.008). On multivariable analysis, hepatectomy in the most recent era was associated with lower incidence of CCI < 26.2 (OR 0.69, 95% CI 0.57–0.84, p< 0.0001). Conclusion: In this single institution review of hepatectomies over the past 18 years, improvements in perioperative outcomes, including a decrease in the CCI, were consistently observed despite a continuous escalation in case complexity.