The conclusion analyzes the rapid decline of residential domestic service in the last decades of the Soviet Union. The disappearance of live-in domestics did not prompt a discussion about who was now doing the housework. Instead, Soviet citizens relied on female part-time “helpers” and “sitters” or unpaid labor of grandmothers to make up for deficiencies in the Soviet service industry. With the growing concern with birthrates and divorces in late Soviet society, the metaphor of a kitchen maid to rule the state lost its revolutionary appeal. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, it now serves to ridicule its original promise of egalitarianism. The book concludes with reflection on the key issues in the study of paid domestic labor as a global phenomenon such as its dependence on inequalities, the importance of government regulation of domestic service, and the potential of socialism to solve the problem of housework.

The needs principle—that certain goods should be distributed according to need—has been central to much socialist and egalitarian thought. It is the principle which Marx famously takes to be that which is to govern the distribution of goods in the higher phase of communism. The principle is one that Marx himself took from the Blanquists. It had wider currency in the radical traditions of the nineteenth century. In the twentieth century it remained central to the mutualist form of socialism defended by Tawney and Titmuss. The principle underlay the development and justification of the modern welfare state—thus the National Health Service is still founded upon the idea that the distribution of medical resources should be determined by medical need, not by ability to pay. One source of the power of the needs principle lies in the fact that it appears to be both a principle of justice and a principle of community or social solidarity. As a principle of justice it is offered as a corrective to the particular forms of unequal distributions of goods that can result from market transactions, and as a principle of community or social solidarity as a corrective to the possessive individualism taken to be the corollary of a market order.

Chapter 5 examines the impact of gender, sexual orientation and civil status on access to ART and the enjoyment of family life formed through ART. Aspiring single parents, women in a relationship with a same-sex or transgender male partner, and men in a same-sex relationship are reliant on gamete donation (as well as, in the case of male couples, surrogacy) in order to have a biological child and are particularly disadvantaged by prohibitions on third-party reproduction. These remain, nonetheless, within States’ margin of appreciation. However, where a child was born following the use of donated gametes or surrogacy abroad, the Strasbourg Court requires measures of protection. Significantly, the relationship of surrogate-born children with the intended non-biological parent is equally protected whether the genetic father has an opposite-sex or same-sex spouse. The chapter criticises, however, the less favourable treatment of commissioning mothers based on a conservative understanding of motherhood as gestational.

Crystalloid electrolyte solutions include isotonic saline, Ringer’s lactate, Ringer’s acetate, and Plasma-Lyte. In the perioperative period these fluids are used to compensate for anesthesia-induced vasodilation, small to moderate blood losses and urinary excretion. Although evaporation consists of electrolyte-free water, such fluid losses are relatively small during short-term surgery.

These fluids expand the plasma volume to a lesser degree than colloid fluids as they hydrate both the plasma and the interstitial fluid space. However, the distribution to the interstitial fluid space takes 25–30 min to be completed, likely due to the restriction of fluid movement by the finer filaments in the interstitial gel. The slow distribution gives crystalloid electrolyte solutions a fairly good plasma volume expanding effect as long as the infusion continues and shortly thereafter.

Isotonic (0.9%) saline is widely used but has an electrolyte composition that deviates from that of the ECF (““unbalanced””). This fluid is best reserved for special indications only. Isotonic saline may also be considered in trauma and in children undergoing surgery. Hypertonic saline might be used in neurotrauma and, possibly, in preoperative emergency care.

The chapter ‘Alexander of Aphrodisias on Concepts’ by Frans A. J. de Haas takes up another aspect of concept theory, that is, the endeavour to define what a concept is. Furthermore, he explores the interactions between the Peripatetics and the Stoics, as they are evidenced by Alexander, on ontological as well as psychological and epistemological issues. De Haas also offers a systematic study of part of Alexander’s rich vocabulary denoting concepts, thoughts, and universals, and of a correspondingly rich collection of verbs referring to the human activities of abstracting or constructing concepts. Importantly, this analysis sheds light on Alexander’s understanding of ennoia and noêma, and on Alexander’s views concerning the epistemic reliability of concepts and the unity of concepts in the human soul.

Karl Popper’s work is of great diversity. It touches on virtually every intellectual activity. But he himself considered his philosophy of science one of his most important achievements. And indeed his achievement here is revolutionary. It destroyed the philosophy of inductivism which held sway over science for hundreds of years.

What I propose to do in this short paper is to outline two different approaches to needs in Greek philosophy. The first is the reasonably familiar approach used by Aristotle, and, in some moods, by Plato; the second is a rather less well-known approach which can with some justice be associated with Socrates, and/or Plato when he is not in an Aristotelian mood (if I may so put it)—and also the Stoics, who seem to have picked up some distinctly Socratic ways of thinking. The Aristotelian line, if not necessarily familiar as Aristotle’s, will be familiar just insofar as it gives some degree of that recognition to needs that most moderns would suppose the idea should be given. What I am calling the Socratic line, by contrast, appears to leave no room for the idea of needs at all (or at least, that will be my way of putting it for now; I shall need a rather different formulation later on). It is this second, ‘Socratic’, approach that primarily interests me, not least because it is non-standard.

Because of the low nurse-to-patient ratio on surgical wards and the intermittent nature of blood pressure spot-checks, there is increasing evidence that hemodynamic deterioration may be overlooked for hours. Several non-obtrusive systems have recently been developed to monitor blood pressure continuously and non-invasively. They may help to free nurses from time-consuming and repetitive tasks and to detect clinical deterioration earlier, decrease the number of rapid response team interventions, ICU admissions, cardiac arrests, and deaths. From a sensor standpoint, wireless wearables are emerging as the ideal solution for monitoring on the wards because they are patient friendly andenable early mobilization,a key element of enhanced recovery programs. Clinical studies are needed to clarify what are the best strategies to effectively respond to early deterioration alerts. Such strategies may include the quick assessment of cardiac function with a POCUS device.