The paper reviews different ways of telling the history of microfinance. We first contrast a mainstream and mostly positive narrative with a radical critique, illustrating differences with reference to India. We then argue for a more inductive and plural account, drawing on a set of doctoral research studies to illustrate variation in the evolution of microfinance experience according to social relations among users, organisational culture of suppliers, and the political economy of regulation. A global narrative of movement towards total financial inclusionbenign or otherwise -will not do justice to this diversity, nor should the history of microfinance be dominated by one overarching global perspective.

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Pyogenic ventriculitis is a rare infection especially when it occurs without any prior central nervous system instrumentation. We present a case of severe Streptococcus intermedius ventriculitis in an immunocompetent host.

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Blast polishing offers an operator-friendly solution to many of the previously encountered polishing difficulties. However, the process lacks studies into the control of key parameters, one of which is viscoelasticity (particularly present in biological based abrasive medias). Together with analytical-empirical models, a vibrational spring-dashpot model is presented, which attempts to characterize the impact force, contact time and damping ratio/coefficient of polishing media upon impact; as well as the effects of damping on contact parameters (stress, deformation, and area of contact). Impact force is shown to decrease dramatically with increasing hydration but increases linearly with an increase in kinetic energy. Contact time results show an exponential increase as hydration is increased and show a logarithmic decrease (to a limit) as kinetic energy is increased. Findings show that higher hydration levels result in lower damping ratios (with all results showing that underdamping is present). Higher kinetic energies show a decrease in damping ratio. Similarly, media damping coefficients decrease with both hydration increases and kinetic energy increases. Results show that contact stress is reduced at higher hydration levels (due to higher contact areas and lower forces) and that hydration acts to prevent brittle failure from occurring on the workpiece surface. The findings stipulated provide a base on which to further characterize the process and will help in development and further optimization of the blast polishing process.