Book review : The history of the Central Asian republics

Review of Peter L. Roudik, The History of the Central Asian Republics. The Greenwood Histories of the Modern Nations. London & Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2007, xixþ212 pp., £25.95 h/b.

Book review: Pitch your tents on distant shores: A history of the sisters of the Good Shepherd in Australia, Aotearoa/New Zealand and Tahiti

This book is a comprehensive history of the Good Shepherd Order in the Pacific region, and the author is able to draw on substantial archival collections. Catherine Kovesi and the Sisters of the Good Shepherd are to be congratulated for the high standard of the book, its careful research and writing, and for its design and illustrations. The book is especially important as there are few substantial published histories that explore the ethos and work of Catholic women’s orders in Australia.

Book review : every assistance & protection : a history of the Australian passport

Book review of Every Assistance & Protection: A History of the Australian Passport by Jane Doulman and David Lee.

A brief introduction to the history of the ß-amyloid protein (Aß) of Alzheimer's disease

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common cause of dementia in the elderly. Typically, the disease progresses in a prolonged, inexorable manner [1]. Patients initially show symptoms of mild cognitive impairment, which may include some memory loss. As the disease progresses, more severe memory loss occurs (e.g., retrograde amnesia) leading to confusion and lack of orientation. The patient is often institutionalized in this period, as it becomes increasingly difficult for family members to cope with the constant requirements of care. In later stages of the disease, apathy and stupor can occur, and the patient becomes bedridden.

Migration exhibitions and the question of identity: reflections on the history of the representation of migration in Australian museums, 1986-2011

Museums and Migration explores the ways in which museum spaces - local, regional, national - have engaged with the history of migration, including internal migration, emigration and immigration.

Late Paleozoic depositional history of the Tarim basin, northwest China: an integration of biostratigraphic and lithostratigraphic constraints

This study provides the first detailed lithostratigraphic and biostratigraphic constraints for improving stratigraphic resolution for hydrocarbon prospecting and exploration in the Tarim basin. A total of 49 stratigraphic units (38 formations and 11 members), ranging in age from the latest Devonian to Permian, are reviewed or redefined in terms of nomenclatures, lithology, age constraints, and lateral distributions based on the detailed field works or newly published data. Of these, the Piqiang Formation (new formation) is proposed to include the reefal carbonates of Asselian-Sakmarian age from the northern Tarim. The subsurface upper Paleozoic stratigraphic framework of the desert areas of the basin is also established for the first time. The high-resolution, basinwide stratigraphic correlations reveal that the sedimentation of the basin in the late Paleozoic was extremely uneven. Of these, the Famennian to Changhsingian successions are completely recorded in the south-western margin areas of the basin. Here, five eustatic sedimentary cycles are well recognizable, suggesting the sedimentation was more eustatically controlled and little affected by local tectonism. The late Paleozoic successions of both Kalpin and Taklimakan regions are commonly interrupted by major hiatuses at various horizons, suggesting that the sedimentation was apparently modified by local tectonism. Of these, the northward movement of the Tarim block and its subsequent collision with the Yili microcontinent (part of the Kazakhstan plate) may be principally accountable for the discrepancy in the sedimentation of the various regions in the basin in the late Paleozoic.