The Springer-Praxis Popular Astronomy programme covers the latest observations, techniques and discoveries in astronomy, astrophysics and cosmology, selecting key topics designed to fire the imagination of keen astronomers everywhere. Many of the topics selected for titles in this programme are refreshingly new, and away from the accepted mainstream of titles published in this area. Topics inc...

that the dynamic psychology of human behaviour has a part to play in the interpretation and understanding of that behaviour, and an important function in solving its inter-personal inter-national and social aberrations, then we must take note of this growing demand for "popular" knowledge. We must be prepared to put over our knowledge in a way that is helpful and understanding, yet stimulating ...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the effect of Star Wars music (SWM) compared with endoscopist-selected popular music (PM) on quality outcomes in colonoscopy. DESIGN AND SETTING A single-centre, prospective, randomised controlled trial conducted in an endoscopy suite within a quaternary-centre gastroenterology unit, Melbourne, Australia. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES The primary outcome measures were procedur...

OBJECTIVE To analyze the relationship between primary health care utilization and extended health insurance coverage under the Seguro Popular (SP) among Mexican indigenous people. METHODOLOGY A cross-sectional analysis was conducted using data from the Mexican National Nutrition Survey 2012 (n = 194,758). Quasi-experimental matching methods and nonlinear regression probit models were used to ...

In modern societies, cultural change seems ceaseless. The flux of fashion is especially obvious for popular music. While much has been written about the origin and evolution of pop, most claims about its history are anecdotal rather than scientific in nature. To rectify this, we investigate the US Billboard Hot 100 between 1960 and 2010. Using music information retrieval and text-mining tools, ...

Louis Lewin, better known for his popular works on poisons, wrote the first book on Side Effects of Drugs ("Nebenwirkungen der Arzneimitiel") in 1881. In the introduction to the 3rd edition (1899) he postulated: "As valuable as reports on side or after-effects of drugs per se may be, as much the practitioner may benefit from instructions as to how to avoid and treat such effects for his patient...