Cambridge University Research Articles

War, higher education and development: the experience for educationalists at Gaza’s universities

AbstractThe 2014 Israeli war on the Gaza Strip was described, as the ‘longest’ and ‘most violent’, compared to previous wars since 2008. This paper reports on this war experiences for educationalists (academic staff and students) at two of Gaza’s universities. It draws on 36 in-depth semi-structured interviews with educationalists in the Gaza Strip, which I conducted via Skype and mobile/phones from the UK, for my PhD research at the University of Cambridge. Theoretically, the inductive study uses insights from Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed and Bourdieu’s work on symbolic violence, retrospectively. Findings from this research show the impact of the war on Gaza’s educationalists has varied between vulnerability and resilience. The memories of loss, fear, and dehumanization continued to affect educationalists, even after the war came to halt. Some of Gaza’s universities buildings, and facilities were also damaged. Consequently, Gaza’s universities found themselves in a dilemma on how to manage immediate needs, with developmental prospects. This paper documents the history of Gaza’s universities, enhancing our sociological understanding of the experiences of higher education in the Gaza Strip, and the challenges for its development. The research widens the geographical scope of research on conflict, and education, by including the experiences of educationalists in the occupied and besieged context of Gaza, which is significantly under-researched. Insights from this research could be useful to inform the process of reconstruction of higher education in the Gaza Strip, after Israel’s ongoing war on the Gaza Strip, since 7th October 2023 comes to end.

Maternal exposure to violence and early child behavioural development in Tirana, Albania: Methods, challenges, and fieldwork reflections

This article delineates the methods of the author's PhD in Criminology, carried out at the University of Cambridge from 2019 to 2023. The main aim of the PhD was to explore the pathways between maternal exposure to violence and the behavioural development of two-to-three-year-old children in Tirana, Albania. To achieve this, the author spent 10 months in Tirana collecting data from a sample of 328 mothers and 59 nursery teachers in eight diverse socio-economic research sites. The purpose of this article is to reveal the details of the methodological approach, the meticulous planning, as well as the obstacles faced when implementing the PhD project. It provides a thorough description of the research design, sampling strategy, measurement tools, ethical considerations, data collection challenges, and fieldwork experiences.

From being disrupted to being a disruptor: How university presses are helping to drive positive change

Key points Digital disruption is not new and there are plenty of examples of university presses embracing radical change to help achieve our goals. Cambridge University Press has shown the benefits of moving from being disrupted to being a disruptor in early open access (OA) transition. University presses are well positioned to be part of the collaborative, systemic change now required to fulfil OA ambitions. Being focused on the real needs of our communities enables us to see even major disruptions, including artificial intelligence, as just part of our development.

Kody W. Cooper and Justin Buckley Dyer: The Classical and Christian Origins of American Politics: Political Theology, Natural Law, and the American Founding. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2022. Pp. xii, 238.)

Kody W. Cooper and Justin Buckley Dyer: The Classical and Christian Origins of American Politics: Political Theology, Natural Law, and the American Founding. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2022. Pp. xii, 238.)

Valentina A. Grasso, Pre-Islamic Arabia. Societies, Politics, Cults and Identities during Late Antiquity , Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2023, 265 p.

Valentina A. Grasso, Pre-Islamic Arabia. Societies, Politics, Cults and Identities during Late Antiquity , Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2023, 265 p.

“The question of dimension at every level”: An Interview with Ali Smith on Companion Piece, Contemporaneity, and Crisis

An interview with Ali Smith about her latest novel Companion Piece (2022), its relationship to her Seasonal Quartet (2016 –2020), and responding to contemporary society through fiction. In particular, Smith discusses how Companion Piece came out of Seasonal and writing fiction in relation to its own time and questions of both contemporaneity and history. This conversation also spans both recent and recurrent concerns throughout Smith’s writing, including: language and narrative, art in contemporary society, technology and capitalism, environmental crisis, and the COVID-19 pandemic. This interview was held in-person on 24th June 2022 in Trinity College, University of Cambridge. The conversation transcript has been lightly edited and condensed for length.

Rational surfaces with a non‐arithmetic automorphism group

AbstractIn [Algebraic surfaces and hyperbolic geometry, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2012], Totaro gave examples of a K3 surface such that its automorphism group is not commensurable with an arithmetic group, answering a question of Mazur in Section 7 of [Bull. Amer. Math. Soc. (N.S.) 29 (1993), no. 1, 14–50]. We give examples of rational surfaces with the same property. Our examples are Looijenga pairs, that is, there is a connected singular nodal curve such that .

Comparative Approaches to Persianate Modernity: Forum on Alexander Jabbari’s The Making of Persianate Modernity: Language and Literary History between Iran and India (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2023)

Comparative Approaches to Persianate Modernity: Forum on Alexander Jabbari’s <i>The Making of Persianate Modernity: Language and Literary History between Iran and India</i> (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2023)

EHospitals and Parkinson’s disease care: audit insights from an EPIC-integrated Hospital

Abstract Introduction Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative condition that affects approximately 145,000 individuals in the UK. PD symptoms are managed primarily through medications such as levodopa and dopamine agonists. Delays or omissions in administering these medications is the primary reason for increased length of stay in up to 73% of emergency admissions.1 This audit investigated the management of PD medications at Cambridge University Hospitals to identify areas for improvement in clinical practice. Aim This audit aimed to evaluate the pharmacological management of PD patients admitted to Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Trust. Specifically, it sought to assess the accuracy of drug histories, the quality of medication administration, and adherence to standards set by Parkinson’s UK ‘Get it on Time’ campaign and NICE.2,3 Methods A cross-sectional audit was conducted, reviewing the records of PD patients admitted over a three-month period. The sample included patients with a confirmed diagnosis of idiopathic PD who were prescribed at least one PD medication. Data were collected retrospectively from the electronic patient records, focusing on ten performance standards. Ethical approval was not required as the study involved a retrospective review of existing clinical records. Results The audit included 63 admissions, predominantly male (65%) with a mean age of 78.5 years. A significant portion of patients (81%) had their drug histories completed by a doctor after clerking, and 90% had orders for their regular treatment generated immediately post-clerking. Pharmacy staff completed drug histories within 24 hours for 81% of patients, though discrepancies between medical and pharmacy histories were noted in 70% of cases. Medication reconciliation within 24 hours was achieved for 83% of patients, yet only 29% received their PD medications on time for every dose. Additionally, 76% did not miss a dose or had a valid reason recorded for missed doses. 83% had PD listed in their electronic problem list after clerking. Alarmingly, just 5% were assessed for Self-Administration of Medicines (SAM), and 76% were assessed by a PD specialist during their stay. Discussion and conclusion The audit revealed substantial gaps in PD medication management, particularly regarding discrepancies between medical and pharmacy drug histories and delays in medication administration. The low rate of SAM assessments and inconsistent PD specialist consultations were also significant concerns. These findings highlight the need for improved documentation practices, such as standardized templates within the EPIC system, and increased pharmacy involvement during early stages of admission. Appropriate staffing levels and better interdisciplinary coordination are essential. The audit identified critical areas for improvement, emphasizing the need for better documentation, timely administration, and enhanced interdisciplinary coordination. Future audits should aim to randomize patient selection over a longer period to minimize bias and provide a more comprehensive assessment of medication management practices. The audit was limited by its retrospective design and the specific three-month timeframe, which may not fully represent broader trends. The exclusion of admissions shorter than 24 hours and the focus on a single hospital trust also limit the generalizability of the findings. Future studies should consider a larger, more randomized sample to validate and expand upon these results.

Spike Gibbs. Lordship, State Formation and Local Authority in Late Medieval and Early Modern England Cambridge Studies in Medieval Life and Thought: Fourth Series. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2023. Pp 280. $100.00 (cloth).

Spike Gibbs. Lordship, State Formation and Local Authority in Late Medieval and Early Modern England Cambridge Studies in Medieval Life and Thought: Fourth Series. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2023. Pp 280. $100.00 (cloth).

Nadja Durbach. Many Mouths: The Politics of Food in Britain from the Workhouse to the Welfare State Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020. Pp. 363. $46.99 (cloth).

Nadja Durbach. Many Mouths: The Politics of Food in Britain from the Workhouse to the Welfare State Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020. Pp. 363. $46.99 (cloth).

Teaching the Historical Jesus in Continuing Education: Of Ghosts and Groundhogs

Abstract This article reflects upon the author’s twenty years of experience in teaching undergraduate-level courses in the study of the historical Jesus outside of a traditional university context as part of the programmes offered by the Institute of Continuing Education of the University of Cambridge. It identifies a number of distinctive pedagogical challenges faced in teaching adult learners, and strategies for addressing them, as well as the wider implications for the field that arise from such teaching activity.

On probabilistic and causal reasoning with summation operators

Abstract Ibeling et al. (2023, Annals of Pure and Applied Logic, 103339) axiomatize increasingly expressive languages of causation and probability, and Mossé et al. (2024, The Review of Symbolic Logic, 17, 106–131) show that reasoning (specifically the satisfiability problem) in each causal language is as difficult, from a computational complexity perspective, as reasoning in its merely probabilistic or ‘correlational’ counterpart. Introducing a summation operator to capture common devices that appear in applications—such as the $do$-calculus of Pearl (Causality. Cambridge University Press, 2009) for causal inference, which makes ample use of marginalization—van der Zander et al. (The hardness of reasoning about probabilities and causality. In Proceedings of the Thirty-Second International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence, IJCAI-23, E. Elkind, ed., pp. 5730–5738. International Joint Conferences on Artificial Intelligence Organization. Main Track. 2023) extend these earlier complexity results to causal and probabilistic languages with marginalization. We complete this extension, fully characterizing the complexity of probabilistic and causal reasoning with summation, demonstrating that these again remain equally difficult. Surprisingly, allowing free variables for random variable values results in a system that is undecidable, so long as the ranges of these random variables are unrestricted. We finally axiomatize these languages featuring marginalization (or more generally summation), resolving open questions posed by Ibeling et al. (2023, Annals of Pure and Applied Logic, 103339).

Henry J. Miller. A Nation of Petitioners: Petitions and Petitioning in the United Kingdom, 1780–1918 Modern British Histories. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2023. Pp. 310. $110.00 (cloth).

Henry J. Miller. A Nation of Petitioners: Petitions and Petitioning in the United Kingdom, 1780–1918 Modern British Histories. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2023. Pp. 310. $110.00 (cloth).

Susan R. Grayzel. The Age of the Gas Mask: How British Civilians Faced the Terrors of Total War Studies in the Social and Cultural History of Modern Warfare. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2022. Pp. 288. $34.99 (cloth).

Susan R. Grayzel. The Age of the Gas Mask: How British Civilians Faced the Terrors of Total War Studies in the Social and Cultural History of Modern Warfare. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2022. Pp. 288. $34.99 (cloth).

The Making of Slab Breakoff

We have been invited to reminisce about how the “Slab Breakoff’ concept came about. We use this opportunity to reflect how this hypothesis arose from pure coincidence when we met as young postdocs at Cambridge University. At that time, we would have never anticipated the overwhelming application of this hypothesis. Today, when we type “Slab Breakoff” into Google Scholar, we receive 20,000 hits. From our personal perspective we review how the idea was originally developed. We then provide our view looking back from our role as spectators, given that we have left the topic after the design of the hypothesis in the 1990's.

Między platonikami z Cambridge a empirystami z The Royal Society - zarys filozofii Josepha Glanvilla

The article's purpose is to present the views of the 17th-century English philosopher - Joseph Glanvill. They are placed around two main intellectual tendences present in early modern English philosophy. Neoplatonism from the University of Cambridge and the empiricism of the early Royal Society. Discussing the first pool of inspirations, the author points to the typically Platonic elements in his system and the characteristic features of Glanvill’s philosophy, which may place him in the broad tradition of English Latitudinarianism. He then presents the specifics of Glanvill’s skepticism and empiricism. Glanvill’s spiritualist proposals seem to mediate between Cambridge Neoplatonism and the philosophies of the early Royal Society. They were inspired both by the specific understanding of spirit found in More’s Neoplatonic metaphysics and by certain thoughts present among early modern naturalists. In general presentation, Joseph Glanvill’s philosophical views appear as a synthesis of elements characteristic of these two approaches.

Wittgenstein and Toulmin’s Model of Argument: The Riddle Explained Away

AbstractThe article undertakes the problem of a Wittgensteinian background of Toulmin’s model of argument. While appreciating the original character of the investigations set out by Toulmin in The Uses of Argument, Wittgenstein’s ideas taken to be forerunners of both Toulmin’s philosophical method and the particular elements of the model of substantial argument are traced backward, to Toulmin’s earlier books: The Philosophy of Science (Toulmin, The philosophy of science. An introduction, Hutchinson University Library, London, 1953) and An Examination of the Place of Reason in Ethics (Toulmin, An examination of the place of reason in ethics, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1950). The technique of pinpointing the constituents of that model in the books preceding The Uses of Argument is superposing the layout of Toulmin’s model on the crucial arguments concerning the earlier books: the scientific one based on Newtonian optics and the moral one concerning keeping promises. Such a procedure allows identifying backing for warrants and argument fields with the methods of representation in The Philosophy of Science and with modes of reasoning in An Examination of the Place of Reason in Ethics. The former is traced to passages 6.3 ff of Wittgenstein’s Tractatus, while the latter—to the concept of word-games (the later Wittgenstein’s language games). The claim regarding Wittgenstein’s background is that in Toulmin’s view of Wittgenstein, some parts of Tractatus concerning representing are in line with Wittgenstein’s later reflections on language games; as well as that the overall method of The Uses of Argument goes along with Wittgenstein’s therapeutic approach to philosophical problems that have to be placed in the context of their ordinary use.

Analysis of the evolution of placental oxidative stress research from a bibliometric perspective.

Research on placental oxidative stress is pivotal for comprehending pregnancy-related physiological changes and disease mechanisms. Despite recent advancements, a comprehensive review of current status, hotspots, and trends remains challenging. This bibliometric study systematically analyzes the evolution of placental oxidative stress research, offering a reference for future studies. To conduct a comprehensive bibliometric analysis of the literature on placental oxidative stress to identify research hotspots, trends, and key contributors, thereby providing guidance for future research. Relevant data were retrieved from the Web of Science Core Collection database and analyzed using VOSviewer, CiteSpace, and the bibliometrix package. An in-depth analysis of 4,796 publications was conducted, focusing on publication year, country/region, institution, author, journal, references, and keywords. Data collection concluded on 29 April 2024. A total of 4,796 papers were retrieved from 1,173 journals, authored by 18,835 researchers from 4,257 institutions across 103 countries/regions. From 1991 to 2023, annual publications on placental oxidative stress increased from 7 to 359. The United States (1,222 publications, 64,158 citations), the University of Cambridge (125 publications, 13,562 citations), and Graham J. Burton (73 publications, 11,182 citations) were the most productive country, institution, and author, respectively. The journal Placenta had the highest number of publications (329) and citations (17,152), followed by the International Journal of Molecular Sciences (122 publications). The most frequent keywords were "oxidative stress," "expression," "pregnancy," "preeclampsia," and "lipid peroxidation." Emerging high-frequency keywords included "gestational diabetes mellitus," "health," "autophagy," "pathophysiology," "infection," "preterm birth," "stem cell," and "inflammation." Over the past 3decades, research has concentrated on oxidative stress processes, antioxidant mechanisms, pregnancy-related diseases, and gene expression regulation. Current research frontiers involve exploring pathophysiology and mechanisms, assessing emerging risk factors and environmental impacts, advancing cell biology and stem cell research, and understanding the complex interactions of inflammation and immune regulation. These studies elucidate the mechanisms of placental oxidative stress, offering essential scientific evidence for future intervention strategies, therapeutic approaches, and public health policies.

Teaching Pathographies of Mental Illness.

This paper describes the content and evolution of a fourth-year course for medical students on teaching pathographies of mental illness. (It is a follow-up to Nathan Carlin's Pathographies of Mental Illness that appeared as an Element in the Bioethics and Neuroethics series published by Cambridge University Press.) The course originally centered on classic (and some contemporary) memoirs; however, responding to student evaluations, newer material now ensures more diversity, with material written by women and people of color, and describes the difference that can make.