Oxidative stress and inflammation underpin most diseases; their mechanisms are inextricably linked. For example, chronic inflammation is associated with oxidation, anti-inflammatory cascades are linked to decreased oxidation, increased oxidative stress triggers inflammation and redox balance inhibits the inflammatory cellular response. Whether or not oxidative stress and inflammation represent the causes or the consequences of cellular pathology, they contribute significantly to the pathogenesis of non-communicable diseases. The incidence of obesity and other related metabolic disturbances are rising, as are age-related diseases due to progressively aging populations. Interrelations between the mechanisms of oxidative stress and of inflammatory signaling and metabolism are, in the broad sense of energy transformation, being increasingly recognized as part of the problem in non-communicable diseases.

The book "Oxidative Stress and Inflammation in Non-communicable Diseases: Molecular Mechanisms and Perspectives in Therapeutics "is an update on the latest research on the molecular basis of non-communicable diseases and the search for possible therapeutic alternatives. The authors of this monograph are experts in their fieldand the book as a whole, provides an overview of the biochemical alterations underlying diseases such as cardiovascular disease, cancer, obesity, renal disease, neurological diseases and diabetes, emphasizing those aspects that they share in common. We hope that this book will be useful for researchers in biomedicine and also for physicians interested in finding the root causes of the disease, as well as for post-graduate students in biochemistry, molecular biology, nutrition or medicine."

The twenty-five papers in this volume arise from a conference jointly organised by the British Archaeological Association and the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya in Barcelona. They explore the making of art and architecture in Latin Europe and the Mediterranean between c. 1000 and c. 1250, with a particular focus on questions of patronage, design and instrumentality. No previous studies of patterns of artistic production during the Romanesque period rival the breadth of coverage encompassed by this volume - both in terms of geographical origin and media, and in terms of historical approach. Topics range from case studies on Santiago de Compostela, the Armenian Cathedral in Jerusalem and the Winchester Bible to reflections on textuality and donor literacy, the culture of abbatial patronage at Saint-Michel de Cuxa and the re-invention of slab relief sculpture around 1100. The volume also includes papers that attempt to recover the procedures that coloured interaction between artists and patrons - a serious theme in a collection that opens with 'Function, condition and process in eleventh-century Anglo-Norman church architecture' and ends with a consideration of 'The death of the patron'.