Littérature scientifique sur le sujet « Imperial Nurseries »

This article suggests studying princely nurseries as social spaces where important contributions were made to the work of ‘dynastic reproduction’. Given that children born to the ruling house were a highly precious asset for dynastic politics, ensuring their survival was a task of great political impact. The article draws on material from the nurseries of three South German princely courts of different sizes – the imperial court of Vienna, the electoral court of Munich, and the ducal court of Stuttgart – to show how wet nurses engaged in the work of dynastic reproduction at princely courts from c. 1650 to 1750. These women were usually of modest social origin and present in the princely nursery only during the first year of the dynastic offspring's lives. However, they were extremely close to the princely infants and, by sharing their milk with them, were physically involved in their upbringing. This makes the women an interesting focus for a study of the care arrangements established for dynastic offspring. By analysing how court physicians chose the wet nurses of princely children, how courts regulated their work in the princely nursery, and how they remunerated the wet nurses for their service, the article shows that wet-nursing was an important, physical contribution to dynastic continuity at early modern princely courts.

At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries in Russia there was an intensive development of the charitable movement, in which the Grand Duchess Elizaveta Fedorovna took the most active part. Possessing organizational skills, the Grand Duchess was able to involve public and state leaders, clergy and private individuals in implementing her charitable projects. One of the most important areas of her charitable work became aid to the poorest fire victims in Moscow and Moscow province. In 1989 was founded “The Society for the Relief of Moscow and Moscow Province Fire Victims, under the auspices of Her Imperial Highness the Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna”. The society actively carried out educational work among the population on fire-prevention safety. Substantial assistance was rendered in insuring the population against fires, opening nurseries or orphanages for children of working parents, etc. The article analyses the calculation of fire statistics and the causes of fires and the decisions made to counteract the occurrence of fires.

Artificial defoliation of deciduous fruit tree nursery stock is often necessary so that plants can be dug early enough to escape inclement fall weather. In this research, we assessed the efficacy of abscisic acid (ABA) as a defoliant. ABA was applied as a foliar spray at one of three concentrations—500, 1000, or 2000 ppm a.i. Trees were sprayed either once or twice for a total of six chemical treatments, plus untreated controls. The defoliation and growth responses of eight cultivars were evaluated with the cooperation of commercial nurseries in Washington State. While all treatments caused significantly greater defoliation than was observed in untreated trees, ABA at 500 ppm applied once or twice, or 1000 ppm applied only once, was generally sufficiently effective only on `Bartlett', `Gibson Golden Delicious', and `Law Red Rome', but not on `Imperial Gala', `Scarlet Spur Delicious', `Granny Smith', `Braeburn', or `Red Fuji'. Single or double applications of 2000 ppm or double applications of 1000 ppm often produced faster defoliation than double applications of 500 ppm, but defoliation was not always superior after 4 weeks. No pre-digging field damage was noted, but some treatments appeared to reduce trunk diameter increase after replanting, with no consistent trends among cultivars, except with `Bartlett' pear, which was frequently negatively affected. ABA appears to be very promising as a nursery tree defoliant.

ObjectivesTo develop and validate a new allergy-specific patient-reported experience measure (PREM) for children and their parents, and to collect feedback in an integrated care setting.DesignTwo allergy-specific PREMs were produced using focus groups, cognitive testing, two prospective validation studies (collaboration: Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, Picker Institute Europe, Imperial College/London): ‘Your Allergy Care’, for children aged 8–16 years; ‘Your Child's Allergy Care’, for parents of children aged 0–7 years.SettingCommunity event, primary/secondary/tertiary allergy care settings.Main outcome measuresPerformance of PREMs in validation study; reported experience of allergy care.Participants687 children with allergic conditions and their parents/carers.ResultsIn total, 687 questionnaires were completed; 503/687 (253 child; 250 parent) for the final survey. In both surveys, demographic variations were not associated with differences in results. Although 71% of patients reported one or more allergic conditions (food allergy/eczema/hay fever/asthma), 62% required multiple visits before receiving final diagnosis. Overall, patient experience was good for communication with patient/parent, competence and confidence in ability, and 73% felt looked after ‘very well’ and 23% ‘quite well’. Areas for improvement included communication with nurseries/schools, more information on side effects, allergic conditions and allergen/irritant avoidance. Allergy care in primary/emergency care settings was associated with higher problem-scores (worse experience) than in specialist clinics.ConclusionsThese new PREMs will allow allergy-specific patient experience reporting for children and parents and help identification of priority areas for improvement and commissioning of care. Efforts towards better allergy care provision must be targeted at primary and emergency care settings and underpinned by improving communication between healthcare providers and the community.