Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Problem of the Fetish, IIIa: Bosman's Guinea and the Enlightenment Theory of Fetishism

In my second essay in Res (Pietz 1987), I traced the origin of the term "Fetisso. "1 I argued that it came to express a novel idea whose fundamental problematic lay outside the theoretical horizon of Christian theology despite its linguistic derivation from Christian juristic discourse as the Spanish and Portuguese word for "witchcraft. " In that essay, the formation of the fetish idea in sixteenth-century Afro-European discourse was explored in terms of a shift in core concepts: the key Christian ideas about witchcraft were "manufactured resemblance" and "voluntary verbal pact," whereas the central concepts of the Fetisso were "personification of material objects" and "fixed belief in an object's supernatural power arising in the chance or arbitrary conjunctions. " Indeed, I argued that what was most marginal and conceptually obscure for the Christian theory of witchcraft? "vain observances" and "veneficia"? became central in the notion of the Fetisso. In the present essay I look more closely at the complex idea of the fetish found in the travelogues written by northern European merchants and clerics visiting black Africa, texts that were read and appropriated by radical intellectuals of what might be called the anti-Leibnitzian moiety among champions of the Enlightenment (a category broad enough to include figures as theoretically diverse as Hume, Voltaire, de Brosses, and Kant). In the first two sections, I reconsider the original idea of the Fetisso, not in order to contrast it with feudal Christian thought as in my previous essay, but in order to grasp its practical and ideological significance for the commerce-minded Europeans who authored the travel accounts. In particular I focus on the 1703 text of the Dutch merchant Willem Bosman and on accounts of the serpent worship at the slave port of Ouidah, for these were, respectively, the great authority on black Africa and the paradigmatic example of a fetish cult for eighteenth-century Europe.2 For merchants like Bosman, as for the clerics who accompanied them, such as the French priest Loyer who first asserted the nontheistic status of African
CSF amyloid β 1-42 predicts cognitive decline in Parkinson disease

Objective: Cognitive decline associated with Parkinson disease (PD) is common and highly disabling. Biomarkers that help identify patients at risk for cognitive decline would be useful additions to the clinical management of the disease. Methods: A total of 45 patients with PD were enrolled in this prospective cohort study and had at least 1 yearly longitudinal follow-up evaluation. CSF was collected at baseline and cognition was assessed at baseline and follow-up visits using the Mattis Dementia Rating Scale (DRS-2). CSF was tested for amyloid β 1-42 (Aβ1-42), p-tau181p, and total tau levels using the Luminex xMAP platform. Mixed linear models were used to test for associations between baseline CSF biomarker levels and change in cognition over time. Results: Lower baseline CSF Aβ1-42 was associated with more rapid cognitive decline. Subjects with CSF Aβ1-42 levels ≤192 pg/mL declined an average of 5.85 (95% confidence interval 2.11–9.58, p = 0.002) points per year more rapidly on the DRS-2 than subjects above that cutoff, after adjustment for age, disease duration, and baseline cognitive status. CSF total tau and p-tau181p levels were not significantly associated with cognitive decline. Conclusions: Reduced CSF Aβ1-42 was an independent predictor of cognitive decline in patients with PD. This observation is consistent with previous research showing that Alzheimer disease pathology contributes to cognitive impairment in PD. This biomarker may provide clinically useful prognostic information, particularly if combined with other risk factors for cognitive impairment in PD.
Animal Models of Osteoarthritis

Osteoarthritis (OA) is unquestionably one of the most important chronic health issues in humans, affecting millions of individuals and costing billions of dollars annually. Despite widespread awareness of this disease and its devastating impact, the pathogenesis of early OA is not completely understood, hampering the development of effective tools for early diagnosis and disease-modifying therapeutics. Most human tissue available for study is obtained at the time of joint replacement, when OA lesions are end stage and little can be concluded about the factors that played a role in disease development. To overcome this limitation, over the past 50 years, numerous induced and spontaneous animal models have been utilized to study disease onset and progression, as well as to test novel therapeutic interventions. Reflecting the heterogeneity of OA itself, no single “gold standard” animal model for OA exists; thus, a challenge for researchers lies in selecting the most appropriate model to answer a particular scientific question of interest. This review provides general considerations for model selection, as well as important features of species such as mouse, rat, guinea pig, sheep, goat, and horse, which researchers should be mindful of when choosing the “best” animal model for their intended purpose. Special consideration is given to key variations in pathology among species as well as recommended guidelines for reporting the histologic features of each model.
Global gravitational instability of FLRW backgrounds—interpreting the dark sectors

The standard model of cosmology is based on homogeneous–isotropic solutions of Einstein's equations. These solutions are known to be gravitationally unstable to local inhomogeneous perturbations, commonly described as evolving on a background given by the same solutions. In this picture, the Friedmann–Lemaître–Robertson–Walker (FLRW) backgrounds are taken to describe the average over inhomogeneous perturbations for all times. We study in this paper the (in)stability of FLRW dust backgrounds within a class of averaged inhomogeneous cosmologies. We examine the phase portraits of the latter, discuss their fixed points and orbital structure and provide detailed illustrations. We show that FLRW cosmologies are unstable in some relevant cases: averaged models are driven away from them through structure formation and accelerated expansion. We find support for the proposal that the dark components of the FLRW framework may be associated with these instability sectors. Our conclusion is that FLRW cosmologies have to be considered critically for their role to serve as reliable models for the physical background.
The influence of prior knowledge on the retrieval-directed function of note taking in prior knowledge activation.

BACKGROUND Prior knowledge activation facilitates learning. Note taking during prior knowledge activation (i.e., note taking directed at retrieving information from memory) might facilitate the activation process by enabling learners to build an external representation of their prior knowledge. However, taking notes might be less effective in supporting prior knowledge activation if available prior knowledge is limited. AIMS This study investigates the effects of the retrieval-directed function of note taking depending on learners' level of prior knowledge. It is hypothesized that the effectiveness of note taking is influenced by the amount of prior knowledge learners already possess. SAMPLE Sixty-one high school students participated in this study. A prior knowledge test was used to ascertain differences in level of prior knowledge and assign participants to a low or a high prior knowledge group. METHOD A 2×2 factorial design was used to investigate the effects of note taking during prior knowledge activation (yes, no) depending on learners' level of prior knowledge (low, high) on mental effort, performance, and mental efficiency. RESULTS Note taking during prior knowledge activation lowered mental effort and increased mental efficiency for high prior knowledge learners. For low prior knowledge learners, note taking had the opposite effect on mental effort and mental efficiency. CONCLUSIONS The effects of the retrieval-directed function of note taking are influenced by learners' level of prior knowledge. Learners with high prior knowledge benefit from taking notes while activating prior knowledge, whereas note taking has no beneficial effects for learners with limited prior knowledge.
Unusual Clinical Manifestation of a Cerebral Infarction Restricted to the Insulate Cortex

Lesions limited to the insulate cortex can manifest clinically in various forms due to the extensive connections in the area. In this paper, we present a 66-year-old patient who presented to our out-patient clinic with complaints of diminished pleasure in taste and persistent taste of rotten melon. These symptoms were linked to an infarction involving the left anterior insulate cortex. The role of the insular region on cortical processing of taste sensation is discussed, together with a review of the literature on insular infarctions.
Conductive Copper-PMMA Nanocomposites : Microstructure, Electrical Behavior, and Percolation Threshold as a Function of Metal Filler Concentration

The copper-PMMA conductive composites were manufactured using different copper concentrations dispersed into the polymeric matrix by hot compression molding in inert atmosphere. The PMMA matrix was analyzed using dilute solution viscosimetry analysis and it did not evidence degradation in its molecular weight. The microstructure was examined by means of SEM and the electric conductivity was measured as a function of the concentration of copper particles in the polymer matrix. The 10 vol% copper composite presented conductivity between 11 and 13 orders of magnitude higher than that of pure PMMA. The experimental results are in agreement with the theoretical model considering the percolation path theory for a segregated structure. POLYM. COMPOS. , 2009. © 2008 Society of Plastics Engineers
Ectopic fat deposition contributes to age-associated pathology in Caenorhabditis elegans[S]

Age-dependent collapse of lipid homeostasis results in spillover of lipids and excessive fat deposition in nonadipose tissues. Ectopic fat contributes to lipotoxicity and has been implicated in the development of a metabolic syndrome that increases risk of age-associated diseases. However, the molecular mechanisms coupling ectopic fat accumulation with aging remain obscure. Here, we use nonlinear imaging modalities to visualize and quantify age-dependent ectopic lipid accumulation in Caenorhabditis elegans. We find that aging is accompanied by pronounced deposition of lipids in nonadipose tissues, including the nervous system. Importantly, interventions that promote longevity such as low insulin signaling, germ-line loss, and dietary restriction, which effectively delay aging in evolutionary divergent organisms, diminish the rate of ectopic fat accumulation and the size of lipid droplets. Suppression of lipotoxic accumulation of fat in heterologous tissues is dependent on helix-loop-helix (HLH)-30/transcription factor EB (TFEB) and autophagy. Our findings in their totality highlight the pivotal role of HLH-30/TFEB and autophagic processes in the maintenance of lipid homeostasis during aging, in addition to establishing nonlinear imaging as a powerful tool for monitoring ectopic lipid droplet deposition in vivo.
Improved Uniqueness Conditions for Canonical Tensor Decompositions with Linearly Dependent Loadings

In this paper, we derive improved uniqueness conditions for a constrained version of the canonical order-3 tensor decomposition, also known as Candecomp/Parafac (CP). CP decomposes a three-way array into a prespecified number of outer product arrays. The constraint is that some vectors forming the outer product arrays are linearly dependent according to a prespecified pattern. This is known as the PARALIND family of decompositions. We provide both uniqueness conditions and partial uniqueness conditions for PARALIND, and show that these are improved and more precise variants of existing conditions. Our results are illustrated by means of examples.
Type of service aware routing protocol in mixed traffic Mobile Ad Hoc Networks

Although several congestion aware routing protocols have been proposed for mobile ad-hoc networks (MANETs) over the last decade, the effect of the different traffic types has not been considered in any routing protocol. Distinguishing different types of traffic that each node deals with in QoS-aware MANETs and responding to routing protocol requests correspondingly can potentially increase the performance of routing protocols and the whole network. This paper explores the effect the type of traffic generated or routed by intermediate nodes has on the performance of routing protocols. We then propose type of service aware (TSA) and type of service and load aware routing protocol (TSLA), two enhancements to AODV that consider the ToS of the traffic nodes in their route selection process. Our simulation study reveals that our schemes considerably improve the throughput and packet delay of both low and high priority traffic under different network operational conditions.
L'intonation des phrases affirmatives et interrogatives, avec inversion en Sarde. Analyse et synthèse

L'article est consacre a l'intonation de la question totale et de la phrase affirmative correspondante, avec inversion du verbe, en sarde. L'analyse acoustique, la synthese et les tests realises a partir de stimuli synthetiques permettent de definir quelques parametres intonatifs caracteristiques.
Induction of interleukin‐1β by activated microglia is a prerequisite for immunologically induced fatigue

We previously reported that an intraperitoneal (i.p.) injection of synthetic double‐stranded RNA, polyriboinosinic:polyribocytidylic acid (poly‐I:C), produced prolonged fatigue in rats, which might serve as a model for chronic fatigue syndrome. The poly‐I:C‐induced fatigue was associated with serotonin transporter (5‐HTT) overexpression in the prefrontal cortex (PFC), a brain region that has been suggested to be critical for fatigue sensation. In the present study, we demonstrated that microglial activation in the PFC was important for poly‐I:C‐induced fatigue in rats, as pretreatment with minocycline, an inhibitor of microglial activation, prevented the decrease in running wheel activity. Poly‐I:C injection increased the microglial interleukin (IL)‐1β expression in the PFC. An intracerebroventricular (i.c.v.) injection of IL‐1β neutralising antibody limited the poly‐I:C‐induced decrease in activity, whereas IL‐1β (i.c.v.) reduced the activity in a dose‐dependent manner. 5‐HTT expression was enhanced by IL‐1β in primary cultured astrocytes but not in microglia. Poly‐I:C injection (i.p.) caused an increase in 5‐HTT expression in astrocytes in the PFC of the rat, which was inhibited by pretreatment with minocycline (i.p.) and rat recombinant IL‐1 receptor antagonist (i.c.v.). Poly‐I:C injection (i.p.) led to a breakdown of the blood–brain barrier and enhanced Toll‐like receptor 3 signaling in the brain. Furthermore, direct application of poly‐I:C enhanced IL‐1β expression in primary microglia. We therefore propose that poly‐I:C‐induced microglial activation, which may be at least partly caused by a direct action of poly‐I:C, enhances IL‐1β expression. Then, IL‐1β induces 5‐HTT expression in astrocytes, resulting in the immunologically induced fatigue.
Estimation of patent ductus arteriosus diameters by colour Doppler echocardiography in children

Abstract Objective To investigate whether accurate estimation of the diameter of the patent ductus arteriosus can be obtained by colour Doppler echocardiography. Methods The minimum and maximum diameters of the patent ductus arteriosus were measured by colour Doppler echocardiography and compared with its angiographic size. Results We studied 40 patients, aged between 4 months and 18 years. The measured pulmonary side diameter in echocardiography was 33.6% larger than that in angiography, and the aortic side was 7.8% smaller. We found a correlation between the measurements of the minimum and maximum size of the patent ductus arteriosus (r = 48.8 and 52.6) by colour Doppler echocardiography and angiographic findings, respectively. Conclusion Colour Doppler echocardiography significantly overestimates the minimum size of the patent ductus arteriosus; therefore, reconsideration of the respective size is suggested.
Time to response in panic disorder in a naturalistic setting: combination therapy with alprazolam orally disintegrating tablets and serotonin reuptake inhibitors compared to serotonin reuptake inhibitors alone.

OBJECTIVE This study evaluated time to response in the treatment of panic disorder with a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) or serotonin norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor (SNRI) combined with alprazolam orally disintegrating tablets (ODT), or SSRI/SNRI alone. DESIGN Subjects were randomized to eight weeks open-label treatment with alprazolam ODT (4 weeks treatment followed by 3-4 week taper) combined with an SSRI or SNRI, or treatment with SSRI/SNRI alone. SETTING The study was conducted under naturalistic conditions at 62 primary care and 34 psychiatric practices. PARTICIPANTS Male or female subjects ≥18 years of age diagnosed with panic disorder, with or without agoraphobia. MEASUREMENTS The primary efficacy measure was time to response, defined as ≥50-percent decrease from baseline Hamilton Rating Scale for Anxiety (HAM-A) total score. Secondary measures included change from baseline in HAM-A scores and the Clinical Global Impression of Improvement (CGI-I) and Patient Global Impression (PGI) scales. RESULTS The intent-to-treat (ITT) population comprised 245 subjects. There was no statistical difference between treatment groups in time to response in the ITT population; however, a prospectively defined per protocol analysis revealed a statistically significant earlier onset of effect in subjects receiving SSRI/SNRI plus alprazolam ODT (P<0.05). Mean change from baseline in HAM-A total score and clinician and patient measures of global improvement also showed statistically significant early advantages for combination therapy compared with SSRI/SNRI monotherapy. CONCLUSION Combined treatment of panic disorder with alprazolam ODT and an SSRI/SNRI may be associated with more rapid improvement in anxiety symptoms compared with an SSRI/SNRI alone.
Bodily Reactions to Emotional Words Referring to Own versus Other People’s Emotions

According to embodiment theories, language and emotion affect each other. In line with this, several previous studies investigated changes in bodily responses including facial expressions, heart rate or skin conductance during affective evaluation of emotional words and sentences. This study investigates the embodiment of emotional word processing from a social perspective by experimentally manipulating the emotional valence of a word and its personal reference. Stimuli consisted of pronoun-noun pairs, i.e., positive, negative, and neutral nouns paired with possessive pronouns of the first or the third person (“my,” “his”) or the non-referential negation term (“no”) as controls. Participants had to quickly evaluate the word pairs by key presses as either positive, negative, or neutral, depending on the subjective feelings they elicit. Hereafter, they elaborated the intensity of the feeling on a non-verbal scale from 1 (very unpleasant) to 9 (very pleasant). Facial expressions (M. Zygomaticus, M. Corrugator), heart rate, and, for exploratory purposes, skin conductance were recorded continuously during the spontaneous and elaborate evaluation tasks. Positive pronoun-noun phrases were responded to the quickest and judged more often as positive when they were self-related, i.e., related to the reader’s self (e.g., “my happiness,” “my joy”) than when related to the self of a virtual other (e.g., “his happiness,” “his joy”), suggesting a self-positivity bias in the emotional evaluation of word stimuli. Physiologically, evaluation of emotional, unlike neutral pronoun-noun pairs initially elicited an increase in mean heart rate irrespective of stimulus reference. Changes in facial muscle activity, M. Zygomaticus in particular, were most pronounced during spontaneous evaluation of positive other-related pronoun-noun phrases in line with theoretical assumptions that facial expressions are socially embedded even in situation where no real communication partner is present. Taken together, the present results confirm and extend the embodiment hypothesis of language by showing that bodily signals can be differently pronounced during emotional evaluation of self- and other-related emotional words.
Vasa vasorum and coronary artery disease progression: optical coherence tomography findings.

Identification of predictors of coronary artery disease (CAD) genesis and progression has been an elusive target for many decades. Classical studies demonstrated that coronary angiography largely underestimates the severity and extent of CAD.1 The characteristic diffuse involvement of the vessel wall by the atherosclerotic process together with the presence of remodelling phenomena explains why coronary angiography fails to detect early stages of CAD.1 Notably, the advent of novel tomographic high-resolution intracoronary imaging techniques has been able to provide novel insights on the diagnosis of the initial stages of CAD.1,2 Cardiac allograph vasculopathy (CAV) is considered an accelerated form of CAD with major implications in the clinical outcome of heart transplant (HTX) recipients.3 Actually, CAV is the main cause of graft loss and death in HTX recipients surviving >1 year. This entity initially presents as endothelial dysfunction followed by diffuse intimal hyperplasia and eventually evolves to more mature plaques developing necrotic core and calcification.3–5 The aetiology of CAV remains elusive, but the condition appears to share features of classic atherosclerosis and also of immunologically mediated diseases.3 In these patients, intravascular ultrasound (IVUS), with a spatial resolution of 150 μm, provides a very attractive tool to identify early CAV.4,5 Accordingly, IVUS has been used in the clinical surveillance of HTX recipients with diagnostic and prognostic purposes.4,5 Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is a novel intracoronary imaging technique with an unsurpassed spatial resolution (15 μm) that provides unique insights of the coronary surface and the underlying vessel wall.2,6 Therefore, OCT is ideally suited to disclose findings of early …