Search

This is the history of a remarkable multilingual university and university town on the edge of Europe under four different states: the Swedish Empire (1632-1710), Russian Empire (1802-1917), National Republic of Estonia (1919-1940), and Soviet Union (1944-1991). In every incarnation Tartu University was founded in the throes of a war that reconfigured political boundaries, intellectual ideals, and languages of Europe: the Thirty Years War, the Napoleonic Wars, World War One, and World War Two. Tartu's ever changing political and linguistic identity makes the University that once held the most powerful telescope in the world a good observatory upon the history of Europe and Russia as well as the globe and the cosmos. But ultimately, this is as much a tale of continuity as transformation. At a skeptical distance from all the metropolitan capitals that founded and funded it (Stockholm, Saint Petersburg, Tallinn, Moscow), Tartu stood for an ideal of Europe that was at once more universal and more particular than that of any state that laid claim to its academic culture. In fact, its actual role approximated the Biblical myth of the Tower of Babel: intended each time to help build a new state in a new language (both literal and ideological), Tartu University ended up cultivating other languages for remembering the past, understanding the present, and imagining the future. This was especially true of the Soviet period--the focal point of my dissertation--when Tartu taught Bolshevik ideology in two official languages (Estonian and Russian), but became known throughout the Soviet Union as an "oasis of Europe" with numerous communities of linguistic and cultural study that seemed to stand apart from the state, but from each other as well, each in the bubble of its own literal and academic language.The most famous of these communities was the "Tartu School of Semiotics" led by the Professor of Russian Literature, Yuri Lotman. By situating Tartu University's most famous schola

High levels of readiness to change (RTC) are considered critical to the long-term success of weight management programs including bariatric surgery. However, there are no data to support this assertion. We hypothesize that RTC level will not influence weight outcomes following surgery. In 227 consecutive patients undergoing adjustable gastric banding surgery, we recorded reasons for seeking surgery, and RTC measured with the University of Rhode Island Change Assessment. Scores were blinded until study completion. The primary outcome measure was percentage of excess BMI loss at 2 years (%EBMIL-2); others included compliance and surgical complications. Of 227 subjects, 204 (90%) had weight measurement at 2 years. There was no significant correlation between RTC score and %EBMIL-2 (r = 0.047, P = 0.5). Using the median split for RTC score the lowest 102 subjects mean %EBMIL-2 was 52.9 ± 26.9% and the highest 52.2 ± 28.3%, P = 0.869. There was no weight loss difference between highest and lowest quartiles, or a nonlinear relationship between weight loss and RTC score. There was no significant relationship between RCT score and compliance, or likelihood of complications. Those motivated by appearance were more likely to be younger women who lost more weight at 2 years. Poor attendance at follow-up visits was associated with less weight loss, especially in men. Measures of RTC did not predict weight loss, compliance, or surgical complications. Caution is advised when using assessments of RTC to predict outcomes of bariatric surgery.

Background: Depression and obesity, the two common ailments of modern society, are associated with increased risk of coronary artery disease and raised C-reactive protein (CRP) levels. Are the effects of depression and obesity related or do they influence CRP levels independently? Objective: In 493 consecutive patients presenting for obesity surgery, we explored the relationship between symptoms of depression and raised CRP levels after controlling for confounding factors. Methods and Procedures: Depression was measured using the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI). Confounding variables were age, gender, BMI, waist and hip measures, smoking and alcohol habits, medications, biochemical measures of the metabolic syndrome, and indirect measures of insulin resistance. General linear regression sought variables independently associated with CRP levels. Results: These patients had a BMI range from 31 to 91 kg/m2, participants age ranged from 14 to 71 years, and 76% were women. The median CRP concentration was 7.7 mg/l (interquartile range: 3.9–14), 40% had an abnormally raised concentration (>10 mg/l). The mean BDI score was 17.0 ± 9.0, indicating symptoms of moderate depression. We found five independent factors associated with raised CRP levels. In order of strength of association, these were: higher BMI (β = 0.36, P < 0.001), female gender (β = −0.19, P < 0.001), estrogen therapy (β = 0.18, P < 0.001), higher BDI score (β = 0.11, P = 0.01), and insulin resistance index (β = 0.11, P = 0.01), and with a combined R 2 = 0.24, (P < 0.001). Discussion: In obese patients, symptoms of depression were associated with raised CRP levels after controlling for confounding variables. Obese women on estrogen therapy are at risk of high CRP levels.