Abstract The pilgrimages of Muslims to Makkah (Hajj and Umrah) is one the largest religious gatherings in world which draws millions people from around 180 countries each year. Heat stress during summer has led health impacts including morbidity mortality past, likely worsen due global warming. Here we investigate increasing heat peak months over at present levels warming as well under Paris Ag...

U niversity professors have seasons that, in certain neighborhoods in the vicinity of large research campuses such as where I live, loom even larger than those dictated by our planet's journey around the sun. Right now we are deeply entrenched in the one I call hunting seasonjob hunting, that is. It starts ramping up in early fall with a surge in postings for faculty positions and pilgrimages ...

An area of knowledge creation can be said to come of age when it becomes integrated through publishing a handbook. The readers are the beneficiaries of that act, initiated by the Cambridge University Press in recognition of the vastly growing and socially important area. The world is filled with symbolic places in relation to which meaningful actions – tourist trips, pilgrimages, homecomings,wa...

Labyrinths are among the oldest man-made tools that encourage reflection, contemplation , and transformation. They were created 4,000 years ago, and evidence of their existence has been found in many cultures where they are believed to have been important in rituals and ceremonial dance. In medieval Europe, labyrinths were a symbol of the Christian faith; the labyrinth walk often was a substitu...

THE ACCEPTED theory of bubonic plague among medieval physicians is to be found in the tracts offering defences both prophylactic and therapeutic against plague composed in the years after the Black Death of 1348.1 There it was stated that the abscesses of plague (apostemata, now called buboes) were the sites of poisonous discharges emitted from the heart, liver and brain, after these had been a...

While news of Michael Jackson's death sent shockwaves around the world, it was particularly keenly felt in London, the city that was to have been the site of his much-hyped, and rapidly sold out, " This Is It " comeback concert series. 1 For that reason, Jackson had been locally topical for some months, making London possibly the only place in the world where record stores were prepared (albeit...

This book is a compilation of 40 essays written by many of the most recognized names in the fi eld of travel medicine. It is divided into 9 sections with such topics as the history of travel medicine, vaccines, travel medicine research, pilgrimages, and even space travel. Photographs, tables, and charts enhance the reader’s interest, especially when one spots a familiar person or place. The sty...

To the Editor: Neisseria meningitidis is a gram-negative bacterium found only in humans and is a major cause of serious invasive diseases. Before 2006, in the People’s Republic of China, all meningococcal diseases were caused by serogroups A, B, and C. However, there are >13 serogroups of this organism. Three cases of infection with N. meningitidis serogroup W135 were reported in China during 2...

This book is a compilation of 40 essays written by many of the most recognized names in the fi eld of travel medicine. It is divided into 9 sections with such topics as the history of travel medicine, vaccines, travel medicine research, pilgrimages, and even space travel. Photographs, tables, and charts enhance the reader’s interest, especially when one spots a familiar person or place. The sty...