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To assess the performance of a health system, understanding its structures and functions is necessary. This under standing requires an in-depth description and analysis of the health system, which can be facilitated using standardized assessment templates. While many national and international actors work on health systems strengthening, they often struggle to find reliable systematic information on the design and functioning of a health system. At the same time, national policy-makers might seek to learn from experiences from other systems and contexts, but do not always find comparable information on other countries' health systems. Using a standardized guide or template when describing and assessing how a health system functions can support cross-country comparisons because the structured nature of a template simplifies the extraction of comparable information.1,2 Several international agencies, including the World Health Organization (WHO), the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the European Union (EU) and the Commonwealth Fund have developed such templates. We have reviewed 12 of these templates (Waitzberg R, Berlin University of Technology, unpublished material, 2024) and believe that there is much scope for improvement and harmonization (Box 1). Templates were defined as having an overall framework, a list of indicators or topics and instructions for users, while covering the entire health system and the design of the health system, as well as including an assessment of health system performance.

The paper covers a topic that sits between theology and philosophy of language and is based on completely unpublished material. The bulk of the paper consists in the critical edition and annotated translation of a section of an unpublished and anonymous commentary on the Ratnatrayaparīkṣā by Śrīkaṇṭha. This section describes the transition of the indeterminate knowledge to the determined one according to the early Śaiva Siddhānta perspective. The introduction contains parts that are more “philological” or “historical” and others that are more “philosophical”. The paper contains one appendix on the significant variant readings of the mūla text.

Philosophy of science is expanding via the introduction of new digital data and tools for their analysis. The data comprise digitized published books and journal articles, as well as heretofore unpublished material such as images, archival text, notebooks, meeting notes, and programs. The growth in available data is matched by the extensive development of automated analysis tools. The variety of data sources and tools can be overwhelming. In this article, we survey the state of digital work in the philosophy of science, showing what kinds of questions can be answered and how one can go about answering them.

Landscape change and its drivers have been the focus of a growing body of literature in the past years. Our objective is to present different approaches to studying and understanding landscape change. We sketch the way in which different approaches and existing conceptual models are related to spatial scales and epistemological aims, and discuss complementarity and a range of applications with five specific research approaches from a Mediterranean landscape, including approaches at national and European levels. These include an analysis of historical landscape change, an investigation of decision-making processes, public awareness raising, evaluation of landscape services, and provision of policy support with data from published and unpublished material. The findings indicate that on the issue of complementarity, some models work better together with others. A major difference observed is the role that conceptual models and related approaches provide to the “voice” of stakeholders and actors of landscape change, sometimes contradicting, but often complementary. An important issue that comes up is a need for a plurality of research approaches and underlying conceptualizations of human–environment interactions, as the approaches represent different lenses for looking at the human–environmental system that are all abstractions from the full complexity of how decision-making on land use is conducted.

Alexander Baron’s From the City from the Plough (1948) received high praise as the best fictional record of ordinary British soldiers’ experiences during the Second World War. Howard Jacobson’s The Finkler Question (2010) won the prestigious Booker Prize for the best novel of the year. In 2022, each author's memoirs were published: Baron’s Chapters of Accidents: A Writer's Memoir and Jacobson's Mother’s Boy: A Writer’s Beginnings. This article reviews their work and highlights what both memoirs reveal about the authors’ early years and subsequent creative projects. The article also considers other sources, including their writing at school and, in Baron's instance, personal correspondence. Other considerations in the article are an examination of the idea of “memoir” before a discussion of the openings of Baron’s and Jacobson’s memoirs, their differing styles prior to comparing their backgrounds, in Baron’s case the outer fringes of the East End of London, in Jacobson’s the Manchester suburbs, family relations, especially with parents, education, literary achievements, reception of their work including the posthumous growth of Baron’s reputation as a novelist.

Objective: A systematic review of the effectiveness of interventions for adult family carers of people with stroke, and an exploratory examination of the relationship between the conceptual basis of these interventions and their effectiveness. Data sources: Seventeen electronic databases and grey literature sources were searched, including ASSIA, BNI, Cochrane Library, CINAHL, EMBASE, MEDLINE, PsycINFO, Social Science Citation Index and the Science Citation Index, HMIC and the National Research Register. Authors of unpublished material were contacted for data and additional publications. Reference and citation tracking was performed on included publications. Review methods: Inclusion criteria: randomized controlled trials of interventions aimed primarily at adult family carers of people post stroke; carers were the primary sample; primary outcomes reported were for carers. Two independent reviewers screened titles and abstracts to identify publications and extract data. Quality assessment was performed to weight study findings. Results: Eight papers were found reporting on six complex, generally heterogeneous, interventions: caregiver training; education and counselling; social problem-solving partnerships, delivered principally by telephone; a psycho-educational telephone support group; a nurse-led support and education programme; and a support programme, delivered either to groups in hospital or individuals during home visits. Half of the interventions were based on stress-coping theories; the remainder did not identify a conceptual basis for the intervention. Conclusions: Some benefits were reported for all interventions, although trials were generally of low quality, preventing firm conclusions being drawn. The presence of a conceptual basis for interventions does not appear to influence effectiveness.

Objectives To assess the effects of treatments for basal cell carcinoma. Methods Systematic review of randomised controlled trials. Main outcome measure Recurrence of basal cell carcinoma at three years or beyond, assessed clinically. Studies reviewed Randomised controlled trials of interventions for histologically confirmed basal cell carcinoma (published and unpublished material; no language restrictions). Results 25 studies were identified, covering seven therapeutic categories. Only one study of surgical excision versus radiotherapy contained primary outcome data, which showed significantly more persistent tumours and recurrences in the radiotherapy group compared with surgery (odds ratio 0.09, 95% confidence interval 0.01 to 0.67). One study compared cryotherapy with surgery, with inconclusive results at one year. In a comparison of radiotherapy with cryotherapy, significantly more recurrences occurred at one year in the cryotherapy group. Preliminary studies suggest a short term success rate of 87-88% for imiquimod cream in the treatment of superficial basal cell carcinoma, although this cream has not been compared with surgery. No consistent evidence was found for the other treatment modalities. Conclusions Little good quality research has been done on the treatments used for the most common cancer in humans. Most trials have included only people with basal cell carcinoma occurring at low risk sites. Only one trial measured recurrence at four years; recurrence rates at one year should be interpreted with caution. Surgery and radiotherapy seem to be the most effective treatments; surgery showed the lowest failure rates. Other treatments might have some use but need to be compared with surgery.

Purpose>This paper aims to study the organisation and management of grey literature (GL) to select social science libraries. Further, the study is an attempt to make known the types of GL; extent of demand and the frequency of use of GL; GL collection in other languages; workshops or training programmes or seminars for GL; bibliographic control for GL, etc., in select social science libraries.Design/methodology/approach>A survey with the help of a questionnaire followed by interviews was conducted among the social science libraries understudy to explore the issues and challenges involved in organizing and managing GL.Findings>The study finds that 83.3% of libraries have a separate wing for the management of GL and the majority of the GL acquired by the library are accessed through compact disc and are present in digital form access via online public access catalog.Originality/value>The paper explores the organisation and management of GL by social science libraries, which is a unique study on its own as the management of GL is not much popular here in India. The study paves the path for more issues to be explored in the area i.e. GL.

This article is devoted to the history of the World Congress of Families (WCF) and its interaction with Russian partners. The article begins with a story about Allan Carlson’s trip to Moscow in 1995, where as a result of a meeting with sociologists, the idea of creating a WCF was born. The author then analyses the cooperation between the WCF and the Russian Orthodox Church as an example of so‑called “conservative ecumenism,” which partly replaces classical, more liberal ecumenism, such as that presented by the World Council of Churches. Further, this interaction of the WCF with Russian partners is placed in a broader framework of value‑oriented geopolitics and culture wars in Europe, in which the WCF is actively involved. The author concludes that Russia’s turn to “traditional values” is not a reference to the country’s past but rather the reverse: namely, the reflection of value polarization in the pluralist society. The work is based on previously unpublished material, including interviews with activists, as well as archival materials related to the history of the WCF.

Trotsky dejó inconclusas la revisión y edición de su Stalin, la biografía de su verdugo, aquella tarde en la que el sicario Ramón Mercader le dio el golpe mortal. Publicada en 1946, varias han sido sus ediciones posteriores. Restaurado el manuscrito original en ruso, la más reciente fue completada con material inédito, traducida y editada por Alan Woods. Con la visión del historiador, Ariel Rodríguez Kuri analiza aquí la obra, a su protagonista y a su autor.