Alexandra Smith

Cardiorespiratory Fitness after Stroke: A Systematic Review:

Cardiorespiratory fitness programs are increasingly used in stroke rehabilitation. Maximal oxygen uptake is the gold standard measurement of cardiorespiratory fitness; however, no recent publications have collated evidence about maximal oxygen uptake levels following stroke. We therefore performed a systematic review of maximal oxygen uptake in stroke survivors, aiming to observe changes in levels over time, and associations with severity of stroke. We searched Medline and Embase until April 2011, and included cross-sectional studies, longitudinal studies, and baseline data from intervention trials. Studies had to recruit at least 10 stroke survivors, and report direct measurement of maximal/peak oxygen uptake. We then compared maximal oxygen uptake with published data from age and gender-matched controls. The search identified 3357 articles. Seventy-two full texts were retrieved, of which 41 met the inclusion criteria. Time since stroke ranged from 10 days to over seven-years. Peak oxygen uptake ranged from 8 to 22 ml/kg/min, which was 26–87% of that of healthy age- and gender-matched individuals. Stroke severity was mild in most studies. Three studies reported longitudinal changes; there was no clear evidence of change in peak oxygen uptake over time. Most studies recruited participants with mild stroke, and it is possible that cardiorespiratory fitness is even more impaired after severe stroke. Maximal oxygen uptake might have been overestimated, as less healthy and older stroke survivors may not tolerate maximal exercise testing. More studies are needed describing mechanisms of impaired cardiorespiratory fitness and longitudinal changes over time to inform the optimal ‘prescription’ of cardiorespiratory fitness programs for stroke survivors.

The experience of interdisciplinary peer-assisted learning (PAL).

Background:  The importance and benefits of interdisciplinary practice in health care have been well documented. Despite this, few medical schools have developed formal curriculum opportunities for interdisciplinary teaching. Here, as an example of medical and nursing students teaching and learning together, we describe a novel approach to interdisciplinary peer‐assisted learning led by students on fluid and electrolyte balance.

Twentieth-Century Russian Poetry

This is the authors accepted version of a chapter published in Twentieth-Century Russian Poetry: Reinventing the Canon, available via the DOI in this recordAuthors version of chapter from Open Access Book.The final published version is available from Open Book Publishers via the DOI in this record.

1. Introduction: Twentieth-Century Russian Poetry and the Post-Soviet Reader: Reinventing the Canon

This is the authors accepted version of a chapter published in Twentieth-Century Russian Poetry: Reinventing the Canon, available via the DOI in this recordAuthors version of chapter from Open Access Book.The final published version is available from Open Book Publishers via the DOI in this record.

Twentieth-Century Russian Poetry : Reinventing the Canon

This is the authors accepted version of a chapter published in Twentieth-Century Russian Poetry: Reinventing the Canon, available via the DOI in this recordAuthors version of chapter from Open Access Book.The final published version is available from Open Book Publishers via the DOI in this record.

The Transcendent Power of the Image: Marina Cvetaevaʼs Vision of Russian Icons and the Mother of God in the 1910s-early 1920s

Abstract The article explores Tsvetaevaʼs treatment of the image of the Mother of God in the light of the re-discovery of Russian medieval icons in the 1910s-1920s. It highlights Tsvetaevaʼs links with intellectual and aesthetic trends of the modernist period and argues that Tsvetaevaʼs iconophilic outlook was shaped by the debates on the representation of Russian cultural identity and history as manifested in artistic and literary works of the 1910s-1920s. The article demonstrates that Pavel Florenskii and Vladimir Solovʼev influenced Tsvetaevaʼs treatment of sacred visual images and religious themes.

Russia's Own Orient: The Politics of Identity and Oriental Studies in the Late Imperial and Early Soviet Periods

the final volume. Some of this choppiness probably resulted from editorial decisions intended to reduce the size of the book. A desire to shorten also seems to be behind the unfortunate omission of page references in the copious footnotes. The general quality of the copy-editing is poor, at times making the book difficult to read. Paragraphs in the narrative passages frequently discuss events out of chronological sequence. Transliteration is not consistent (for instance ‘chervonets’ and ‘chervonetz’ in successive sentences on p. 66) and words are missing or repeated frequently enough to be irksome (for instance, ‘Voronezh, Voronezh, Tambov, Khar’hov [sic], Saratov, . . . ’ on p. 132). The frequency of noticeable editorial errors in the text calls into doubt the accuracy of the generous and otherwise very informative tabular material, in which errors are not so easy to identify. This is an enormously frustrating book. It has the courage to tackle a broad comparative subject on a scope that has not been attempted for at least a generation. The author’s inside access and combination of skills as historian and economist made her well fitted to undertake such a large-scale analysis. But imperfect organisation, too short a space and numerous editorial issues greatly reduce its value. I hope a corrected, revised and expanded second edition will be forthcoming.

Nikolai Evreinov and Edith Craig as Mediums of Modernist Sensibility

Nikolai Evreinov (1870–1953) was a Russian playwright, director, and theorist of the theatre who played a leading part in the modernist movement of Russian theatre. Evreinovs 1911 monodrama The Theatre of the Soul ( V kulisakh dushi ) was staged by the Crooked Mirror theatre in St Petersburg in 1912. It was also performed in London (1915) and Rome (1929), and inspired Man Ray to create his aerograph The Theatre of the Soul (1917). In this article Alexandra Smith links Evreinovs play to Russian modernist thought shaped by the atmosphere of crisis associated with the Russo–Japanese War and the first Russian Revolution. It demonstrates that Edith Craigs production of Evreinovs play suggests that the philosophy of theatricalization of everyday life might enable modern subjects to overcome the fragmentation of modern society. Craigs use of the montage-like techniques of Evreinovs play prefigures cinematographic experiments of the 1920s and Marinettis notion of synthetic theatre. Alexandra Smith is a Reader in Russian Studies at the University of Edinburgh and is the author of The Song of the Mockingbird: Pushkin in the Works of Marina Tsvetaeva (1994) and Montaging Pushkin: Pushkin and Visions of Modernity in Russian Twentieth-Century Poetry (2006), as well as numerous articles on Russian literature and culture.