bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Multiple neonicotinoids in children’s cerebro-spinal fluid, plasma, and urine
Authors: Laubscher Bernard , Diezi Manuel , Renella Raffaele , Mitchell Edward A. D. , Aebi Alexandre , Mulot Matthieu , Glauser Gaëtan
Published: January 2022

Background

Neonicotinoids (NN) are selective neurotoxic pesticides that bind to insect but also mammal nicotinic acetycholine receptors (nAChRs). As the most widely used class of insecticides worldwide, they are ubiquitously found in the environment, wildlife, and foods, and thus of special concern for their impacts on the environment and human health. nAChRs are vital to proper brain organization during the prenatal period and play important roles in various motor, emotional, and cognitive functions. Little is known on children’s contamination by NN. In a pilot study we tested the hypothesis that children’s cerebro-spinal fluid (CSF) can be contaminated by NN.

Methods

NN were analysed in leftover CSF, blood, and urine samples from children treated for leukaemias and lymphomas and undergoing therapeutic lumbar punctions. We monitored all neonicotinoids approved on the global market and some of their most common metabolites by ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry.

Results

From August to December 2020, 14 children were consecutively included in the study. Median age was 8 years (range 3–18). All CSF and plasma samples were positive for at least one NN. Nine (64%) CSF samples and 13 (93%) plasma samples contained more than one NN. Thirteen (93%) CSF samples had N-desmethyl-acetamiprid (median concentration 0.0123, range 0.0024–0.1068 ng/mL), the major metabolite of acetamiprid. All but one urine samples were positive for ≥ one NN. A statistically significant linear relationship was found between plasma/urine and CSF N-desmethyl-acetamiprid concentrations.

Conclusions

We have developed a reliable analytical method that revealed multiple NN and/or their metabolites in children’s CSF, plasma, and urine. Our data suggest that contamination by multiple NN is not only an environmental hazard for non-target insects such as bees but also potentially for children.
GOx-assisted synthesis of pillar[5]arene based supramolecular polymeric nanoparticles for targeted/synergistic chemo-chemodynamic cancer therapy
Authors: Wang Jin , Wang Di , Cen Moupan , Jing Danni , Bei Jiali , Huang Youyou , Zhang Jiannan , Lu Bing , Wang Yang , Yao Yong
Published: January 2022

Background

Cancer is the most serious world's health problems on the global level and various strategies have been developed for cancer therapy. Pillar[5]arene-based supramolecular therapeutic nano-platform (SP/GOx NPs) was constructed successfully via orthogonal dynamic covalent bonds and intermolecular H-bonds with the assistance of glucose oxidase (GOx) and exhibited efficient targeted/synergistic chemo-chemodynamic cancer therapy.

Methods

The morphology of SP/GOx NPs was characterized by DLS, TEM, SEM and EDS mapping. The cancer therapy efficinecy was investigated both in vivo and in vitro.

Results

SP/GOx NPs can load drug molecules (Dox) and modify target molecule (FA-Py) on its surface conveniently. When the resultant FA-Py/SP/GOx/Dox NPs enters blood circulation, FA-Py will target it to cancer cells efficiently, where GOx can catalyst the overexpressed glucose to generate H2O2. Subsequently, the generated H2O2 in cancer cells catalyzed by ferrocene unit to form •OH, which can kill cancer cells. Furthermore, the loaded Dox molecules released under acid microenvironment, which can further achieve chemo-therapy.

Conclusion

All the experiments showed that the excellent antitumor performance of FA-Py/SP/GOx/Dox NPs, which provided an new method for pillar[5]arene-based supramolecular polymer for biomedical applications.

Graphical Abstract
Diverse psychotropic substances detected in drug and drug administration equipment samples submitted to drug checking services in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, October 2019–April 2020
Authors: Scarfone Kristy M. , Maghsoudi Nazlee , McDonald Karen , Stefan Cristiana , Beriault Daniel R. , Wong Ernest , Evert Mark , Hopkins Shaun , Leslie Peter , Watson Tara Marie , Werb Dan ,   Toronto’s Drug Checking Service Working Group
Published: January 2022

Background

The overdose crisis has generated innovative harm reduction and drug market monitoring strategies. In Toronto, Ontario, Canada, a multi-site drug checking service (DCS) pilot project was launched in October 2019. The project provides people who use drugs with information on the chemical composition of their substances, thereby increasing their capacity to make more informed decisions about their drug use and avoid overdose. DCS also provides real-time market monitoring to identify trends in the unregulated drug supply.

Methods

Sample data were obtained through analyses of drug and used drug administration equipment samples submitted anonymously and free of charge to DCS in downtown Toronto from October 10, 2019, to April 9, 2020, representing the first six months of DCS implementation. Analyses were conducted in clinical laboratories using liquid chromatography- and/or gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC–MS, GC–MS) techniques.

Results

Overall, 555 samples were submitted, with 49% (271) of samples that were found to contain high-potency opioids, of which 87% (235) also contained stimulants. Benzodiazepine-type drugs were found in 21% (116) of all samples, and synthetic cannabinoids in 1% (7) of all samples. Negative effects (including overdose, adverse health events, and extreme sedation) were reported for 11% (59) of samples submitted for analysis.

Conclusions

Toronto’s DCS identified a range of high-potency opioids with stimulants, benzodiazepine-type drugs, and a synthetic cannabinoid, AMB-FUBINACA. This information can inform a range of evidence-informed overdose prevention efforts.
A method for small-area estimation of population mortality in settings affected by crises
Authors: Checchi Francesco , Testa Adrienne , Gimma Amy , Koum-Besson Emilie , Warsame Abdihamid
Published: January 2022

Background

Populations affected by crises (armed conflict, food insecurity, natural disasters) are poorly covered by demographic surveillance. As such, crisis-wide estimation of population mortality is extremely challenging, resulting in a lack of evidence to inform humanitarian response and conflict resolution.

Methods

We describe here a ‘small-area estimation’ method to circumvent these data gaps and quantify both total and excess (i.e. crisis-attributable) death rates and tolls, both overall and for granular geographic (e.g. district) and time (e.g. month) strata. The method is based on analysis of data previously collected by national and humanitarian actors, including ground survey observations of mortality, displacement-adjusted population denominators and datasets of variables that may predict the death rate. We describe the six sequential steps required for the method’s implementation and illustrate its recent application in Somalia, South Sudan and northeast Nigeria, based on a generic set of analysis scripts.

Results

Descriptive analysis of ground survey data reveals informative patterns, e.g. concerning the contribution of injuries to overall mortality, or household net migration. Despite some data sparsity, for each crisis that we have applied the method to thus far, available predictor data allow the specification of reasonably predictive mixed effects models of crude and under 5 years death rate, validated using cross-validation. Assumptions about values of the predictors in the absence of a crisis provide counterfactual and excess mortality estimates.

Conclusions

The method enables retrospective estimation of crisis-attributable mortality with considerable geographic and period stratification, and can therefore contribute to better understanding and historical memorialisation of the public health effects of crises. We discuss key limitations and areas for further development.
Kuala Lumpur train collision during the COVID-19 pandemic
Authors: Idrose Alzamani M. , Abu-Zidan Fikri M. , Roslan Nurul Liana , Hashim Khairul Izwan M. , Mohd Adibi Saiyidi Mohd Azizi , Abd. Wahab Mahathar
Published: January 2022

Background

Two city trains collided in an underground tunnel on 24 May 2021 at the height of COVID-19 pandemic near the Petronas Towers, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, immediately after the evening rush hours. We aim to evaluate the management of this mass casualty incident highlighting the lessons learned to be used in preparedness for similar incidents that may occur in other major cities worldwide.

Methods

Information regarding incident site and hospital management response were analysed. Data on demography, triaging, injuries and hospital management of patients were collected according to a designed protocol. Challenges, difficulties and their solutions were reported.

Results

The train's emergency response team (ERT) has shut down train movements towards the incident site. Red zone (in the tunnel), yellow zone (the station platform) and green zone (outside the station entrance) were established. The fire and rescue team arrived and assisted the ERT in the red zone. Incident command system was established at the site. Medical base station was established at the yellow zone. Two hundred and fourteen passengers were in the trains. Sixty-four of them were injured. They had a median (range) ISS of 2 (1–43), and all were sent to Hospital Kuala Lumpur (HKL). Six (9.4%) patients were clinically triaged as red (critical), 19 (29.7%) as yellow (semi-critical) and 39 (60.9%) as green (non-critical). HKL's disaster plan was activated. All patients underwent temperature and epidemiology link assessment. Seven (10.9%) patients were admitted to the hospital (3 to the ICU, 3 to the ward and 1 to a private hospital as requested by the patient), while the rest 56 (87.5%) were discharged home. Six (9.4%) needed surgery. The COVID-19 tests were conducted on seven patients (10.9%) and were negative. There were no deaths.

Conclusions

The mass casualty incident was handled properly because of a clear standard operating procedure, smooth coordination between multi-agencies and the hospitals, presence of a 'binary' system for 'COVID-risk' and 'non-COVID-risk' areas, and the modifications of the existing disaster plan. Preparedness for MCIs is essential during pandemics.
Adult patients with ACL tears have greater tibial internal rotation in MRI compared to adolescent patients
Authors: Hong Chih-Kai , Lin Yu-Ju , Cheng Ting-An , Chang Chih-Hsun , Hsu Kai-Lan , Kuan Fa-Chuan , Su Wei-Ren
Published: January 2022

Purpose

To compare the anterior translation and internal rotation of tibia on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) between adult and adolescent patients with anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) tears.

Methods

Patients who underwent isolated ACL reconstruction from January 2013 to May 2021 were retrospectively reviewed. The exclusion criteria included incomplete data, poor image quality, a prior ACL surgery, and concomitant fractures or other ligament injuries. The enrolled patients were divided into two groups based on their ages: an adult group (age > 19 years) and an adolescent group (15 to 19 years of age). Anterior tibial translation and femorotibial rotation were measured on MRI. A Student’s t-test was used for the statistical analysis comparing the adult and adolescent groups.

Results

A total of 365 patients (279 adults and 86 adolescents) were enrolled in the present study. The anterior tibial translation in the adult group (4.8 ± 4.4 mm) and the adolescent group (5.0 ± 4.2 mm) was not significantly different (p = 0.740). On the other hand, the tibial internal rotation in the adult group (5.6 ± 5.0 degree) was significantly greater compared to the adolescent group (4.2 ± 5.6 degree) (p = 0.030). The intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC) of the measured data from two independent observers showed excellent reliability (0.964 and 0.961 for anterior tibial translation and tibial internal rotation, respectively).

Conclusion

The adult patients with ACL tears exhibited significant greater tibial internal rotation compared to the adolescent patients, whereas the magnitude of the anterior tibial translation was similar in both groups. Care should be taken if clinicians plan to establish the cutoff point values for diagnosis of ACL tears using the femorotibial internal rotation angle.
Maternal and early life exposures and their potential to influence development of the microbiome
Authors: Bolte Erin E. , Moorshead David , Aagaard Kjersti M.
Published: January 2022

At the dawn of the twentieth century, the medical care of mothers and children was largely relegated to family members and informally trained birth attendants. As the industrial era progressed, early and key public health observations among women and children linked the persistence of adverse health outcomes to poverty and poor nutrition. In the time hence, numerous studies connecting genetics (“nature”) to public health and epidemiologic data on the role of the environment (“nurture”) have yielded insights into the importance of early life exposures in relation to the occurrence of common diseases, such as diabetes, allergic and atopic disease, cardiovascular disease, and obesity. As a result of these parallel efforts in science, medicine, and public health, the developing brain, immune system, and metabolic physiology are now recognized as being particularly vulnerable to poor nutrition and stressful environments from the start of pregnancy to 3 years of age. In particular, compelling evidence arising from a diverse array of studies across mammalian lineages suggest that modifications to our metagenome and/or microbiome occur following certain environmental exposures during pregnancy and lactation, which in turn render risk of childhood and adult diseases. In this review, we will consider the evidence suggesting that development of the offspring microbiome may be vulnerable to maternal exposures, including an analysis of the data regarding the presence or absence of a low-biomass intrauterine microbiome.
Low frequency of disease flare in patients with rheumatic musculoskeletal diseases who received SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccine
Authors: Spinelli Francesca Romana , Favalli Ennio Giulio , Garufi Cristina , Cornalba Martina , Colafrancesco Serena , Conti Fabrizio , Caporali Roberto
Published: January 2022

Background

Little is known about the safety of SARS-CoV-2 vaccination in patients with rheumatic musculoskeletal disease (RMD). We evaluated the occurrence of adverse events following immunization (AEFI) in RMD patients and heathy subjects who received anti-SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccine.

Methods

We performed a telephone interview collecting any adverse event (AE) following immunization (AEFI) that occurred in RMD patients and healthy controls after the two doses of mRNA vaccine including common local reactogenicity and systemic events (for example, fever, fatigue/malaise, joint and muscle pain). We also investigated the onset of new signs or symptoms of the RMD after the vaccination.

Results

We evaluated 126 patients with RMDs [105 females and 19 males, median age 51(IQR 17)] and 85 controls [62 females and 23 males, (median age 49 (20)]. Seventy patients (55.6%) were taking immunosuppressants, conventional synthetic (n=31, 43.3%) and/or biological [TNF inhibitors (n=49, 68.6%)], and 30 (23.8%) were taking hydroxychloroquine; treatment remained unchanged in 77% of patients. Eleven out of 126 patients and none of the 85 controls previously contracted COVID-19. The median follow-up from the completion of vaccination was 15 (3) weeks both in patients and controls. We reviewed 5 suspected cases confirming mild articular flares in 3 women (2.8) with inflammatory arthritis (2 psoriatic arthritis and 1 rheumatoid arthritis) while no disease reactivation was recorded in patients with connective tissue diseases; the incidence rate of RMD reactivation was 0.007 person/month. Multivariable logistic regression analysis showed similar frequencies of local and systemic AEFI in patients and controls with no effect of therapies or previous COVID-19. Local reaction—pain in the injection site—was the most frequently reported AEFI both in RMD and controls (71% and 75% of all the AEFI, respectively) after the first dose. Overall, up to 66% of patients experienced at least one AEFI at the second dose and up to 62% in the control group. Most of AEFI occurred within 2 days of vaccine administration. Two RMD patients developed pauci-symptomatic COVID-19 after the first dose of vaccine.

Conclusion

The low incidence rate of disease reactivation and the similar AEFI occurrence compared to controls should reassure on mRNA vaccine safety in RMD patients.
Vomiting, electrolyte disturbance, and medications; the perfect storm for acquired long QT syndrome and cardiac arrest: a case report
Authors: Tiver K. D. , Dharmaprani D. , Quah J. X. , Lahiri A. , Waddell-Smith K. E. , Ganesan A. N.
Published: January 2022

Background

Acquired long QT syndrome is an important and preventable cause of cardiac arrest. Certain medications and electrolyte disturbance are common contributors, and often coexist. In this case, we report five contributors to cardiac arrest.

Case presentation

This case is of a 51-year-old Caucasian female patient who presented with vomiting associated with hypokalemia and hypomagnesemia. She subsequently received ondansetron and metoclopramide, on the background of chronic treatment with fluoxetine. She then suffered an in-hospital monitored cardiac arrest, with features of long QT and torsades de pointes retrospectively noted on her prearrest electrocardiogram. She was diagnosed with acquired long QT syndrome, and her QT interval later normalized after removal of offending causes.

Conclusions

This case highlights the importance of proper consideration prior to prescribing QT prolonging medications, especially in patients who have other risk factors for prolonged QT, such as electrolyte disturbances and pretreatment with QT prolonging medications.
Quantitative washout in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma undergoing TACE: an imaging biomarker for predicting prognosis?
Authors: Müller Lukas , Hahn Felix , Jungmann Florian , Mähringer-Kunz Aline , Stoehr Fabian , Halfmann Moritz C. , Pinto dos Santos Daniel , Hinrichs Jan , Auer Timo A. , Düber Christoph , Kloeckner Roman
Published: January 2022

Background

The delayed percentage attenuation ratio (DPAR) was recently identified as a novel predictor of an early complete response in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) undergoing transarterial chemoembolization (TACE). In this study, we aimed to validate the role of DPAR as a predictive biomarker for short-, mid-, and long-term outcomes after TACE.

Methods

We retrospectively reviewed laboratory and imaging data for 103 treatment-naïve patients undergoing initial TACE treatment at our tertiary care center between January 2016 and November 2020. DPAR and other washin and washout indices were quantified in the triphasic computed tomography performed before the initial TACE. The correlation of DPAR and radiologic response was investigated. Furthermore, the influence of DPAR on the 6-, 12-, 18-, and 24-month survival rates and the median overall survival (OS) was compared to other established washout indices and estimates of tumor burden and remnant liver function.

Results

The DPAR was significantly of the target lesions (TLs) with objective response to TACE after the initial TACE session was significantly higher compared to patients with stable disease (SD) or progressive disease (PD) (125 (IQR 118–134) vs 110 (IQR 103–116), p < 0.001). Furthermore, the DPAR was significantly higher in patients who survived the first 6 months after TACE (122 vs. 115, p = 0.04). In addition, the number of patients with a DPAR > 120 was significantly higher in this group (n = 38 vs. n = 8; p = 0.03). However, no significant differences were observed in the 12-, 18-, and 24-month survival rates after the initial TACE. Regarding the median OS, no significant difference was observed for patients with a high DPAR compared to those with a low DPAR (18.7 months vs. 12.7 months, p = 0.260).

Conclusions

Our results confirm DPAR as the most relevant washout index for predicting the short-term outcome of patients with HCC undergoing TACE. However, DPAR and the other washout indices were not predictive of mid- and long-term outcomes.
Biochemical analyses for dental age estimation: a review
Authors: Pillalamarri Maitreyi , Manyam Ravikanth , Pasupuleti Swetha , Birajdar Smita , Akula Satya Tejaswi
Published: January 2022

Background

For various legal and forensic scenarios, establishing an individual’s age, both living and dead, plays a crucial role. Various morphological, radiographic, and molecular methods can be used for age estimation. In children and adolescents, age estimation is based on the established developmental stages. However, in adults, where the development ceases into maturation, the degenerative changes play a role in determining the age.

Main body of the abstract

In the natural aging process, several molecular changes occur most commonly in the long-living proteins and hard tissues like the teeth and bone. These molecular changes gradually lead to alterations in several organs and organ systems, which can be quantified and correlated with age, including aspartic acid racemization, collagen crosslinks, advanced glycation-end products, and mitochondrial DNA mutations.

Short conclusion

Among the above methods, the racemization of aspartic acid can be considered as the most precise method. The main advantage of using aspartic acid racemization is that the sample can be collected from tissues (teeth) protected from various environmental and nutritional factors. If all the confounding factors are stable, the utilization of advanced glycation-end products can also be considered valuable. Environmental factors like lead accumulations may also help determine the age. However, further studies need to be conducted, focusing on providing a more standardized method. This review provides a concise summary of the biochemical techniques that can be used for estimation of age.
Considerations on Integrating Prostate-Specific Membrane Antigen Positron Emission Tomography Imaging Into Clinical Prostate Cancer Trials by National Clinical Trials Network Cooperative Groups
Authors: Schöder Heiko , Hope Thomas A. , Knopp Michael , Kelly William K. , Michalski Jeff M. , Lerner Seth P. , Tawab-Amiri Abdul , Mann Bhupinder S. , Lin Daniel W. , Yu Evan Y. , Chen Ronald C. , Beach Gillian C. , Reeves Steven A. ,   Members of the Working Group, Shankar Lalitha K.
Published: January 2022

PURPOSE

As prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) positron emission tomography (PET) becomes increasingly available in the United States, the greater sensitivity of the technology in comparison to conventional imaging poses challenges for clinical trials. The NCI Clinical Imaging Steering Committee (CISC) PSMA PET Working Group was convened to coordinate the identification of these challenges in various clinical scenarios and to develop consensus recommendations on how best to integrate PSMA PET into ongoing and upcoming National Clinical Trials Network (NCTN) trials.

METHODS

NCI CISC and NCI Genitourinary Steering Committee members and leadership nominated clinicians, biostatisticians, patient advocates, and other imaging experts for inclusion in the PSMA PET Working Group. From April to July 2021, the working group met independently and in conjunction with the CISC to frame challenges, including stage migration, response assessment, trial logistics, and statistical challenges, and to discuss proposed solutions. An anonymous, open-ended survey was distributed to members to collect feedback on challenges faced. Representatives from each NCTN group were invited to present an overview of affected trials. From these discussions, the consensus document was developed and circulated for the inclusion of multiple rounds of feedback from both the Working Group and CISC.

RESULTS

The current consensus document outlines the key challenges for clinical prostate cancer trials resulting from the increasing availability of PSMA PET. We discuss implications for patient selection and definition of end points and provide guidance and potential solutions for different clinical scenarios, particularly with regard to best practices in defining eligibility criteria and outcome measures.

RECOMMENDATIONS

This article provides guidance regarding clinical trial design and conduct, and the interpretation of trial results.
Severe Hypoglycemia Increases Dementia Risk and Related Mortality: A Nationwide, Population-based Cohort Study
Authors: Han Eugene , Han Kyung-do , Lee Byung-Wan , Kang Eun Seok , Cha Bong-Soo , Ko Seung-Hyun , Lee Yong-ho
Published: January 2022

Context

There are few studies focused on the relationship between hypoglycemia and new-onset dementia in patients with type 2 diabetes and no study regarding mortality of dementia after hypoglycemia.

Objective

We investigated the effect of severe hypoglycemia on dementia subtypes and its relation to overall mortality in patients with type 2 diabetes.

Methods

We evaluated incident dementia, including Alzheimer disease and vascular dementia, among health checkup participants aged 40 years or older in the National Health Insurance System in Korea from January 2009 to December 2015. Episodes of severe hypoglycemia were examined for 3 years before the date of the health checkup.

Results

Among 2 032 689 participants (1 172 271 men, 860 418 women), 14 443 (0.7%) experienced severe hypoglycemia, during a mean follow-up period of 6.9 ± 1.7 years. Individuals in the severe hypoglycemia group were more likely to be diagnosed with dementia compared to individuals without severe hypoglycemia (23.3% vs 7.3%; P < .001) and the overall incidence of Alzheimer disease was higher than vascular dementia. Dementia risk rose with increasing number of severe hypoglycemic episodes (1 episode [hazard ratio (HR) = 1.54; 95% CI, 1.48-1.60], 2 or more episodes [HR = 1.80; 95% CI, 1.66-1.94]). Overall mortality was higher in participants with dementia, but without severe hypoglycemia (HR = 2.03; 95% CI, 1.96-2.10) and severe hypoglycemia, but without dementia (HR = 4.24; 95% CI, 4.29-4.40), and risk of death was highest in those with both severe hypoglycemia and dementia (HR = 5.08; 95% CI, 4.83-5.35).

Conclusion

Severe hypoglycemia is associated with dementia, especially Alzheimer disease and mortality; together, they have an additive effect on overall mortality.
What Was Tragedy during the Haitian Revolution?
Authors: Murphy Kieran M.
Published: January 2022

Contemporary actors and, later, historians and critics have long compared the Haitian Revolution to a tragic play. But the model of tragedy they invoke has changed over time. Today the best-known example comes from The Black Jacobins (1963), in which C. L. R. James narrates the events of the Revolution through the lens of a Hegelian definition of tragedy. David Scott has championed James’s “tragic mode of history” for political reasons, arguing that it is better suited to address the challenges of the postcolonial present. But a tragic mode of history can be of use for the postcolonial present only if it is firmly grounded in the world-changing events that it is supposed to illuminate. It should build on what tragedy was in the milieu of Toussaint Louverture and the slave rebels. To lay the groundwork for this critical shift, this essay traces how tragic performances and history intersected during the Revolution and shows how radicalized versions of Voltaire’s Roman-themed tragedies and Afro-Caribbean mythology and rituals played a prominent part in the fight for equality.
Domesticating Decadence: Joris-Karl Huysmans, Pierre Louÿs, and Their Invisible English Translators
Authors: Valentine Colton
Published: January 2022

Decadence eludes definition, but critics tend to concur on the movement’s transgressive and uncommercial status in the British literary field. This essay questions those associations by exploring a current of archetypal decadent French novels translated by and marketed to a mainstream Anglophone audience: Joris-Karl Huysmans’s En Route (1895, trans. 1896) and La cathédrale (1898, trans. 1898) and Pierre Louÿs’s Aphrodite: Mœurs antiques (1896, trans. 1900 and 1906) and La femme et le pantin (1898, trans. 1908). By reading letters, memoirs, and prefaces alongside periodical reviews and a publisher’s archive, the essay sheds light on the novels’ invisible translators and reveals the fiscal and legal viability of “domesticated decadence.” Doing so models how translation studies and book-historical methods can revise deep-set tenets of literary history. These “poisonous” epitomes of the fin de siècle in fact circulated freely across the Channel, reaching more than the happy few.
Microwave-exfoliated Graphene Oxide for High Voltage “Water-in-Salt” Electrolyte-based Supercapacitor
Authors: Yu Sangho , Sano Hideaki , Zheng Guobin , Tanabe Shuji
Published: January 2022

Exfoliated and reduced graphene oxide (MEGO) was fabricated by rapid microwave irradiation. When MEGO was used as the electrode of 17 m NaClO4 “water-in-salt” (WIS) electrolyte-based supercapacitors, the cell exhibited stable double layer capacitant behavior up to 2.5 V, much higher than the electrochemical stable window of water. The MEGO exhibited high energy density of 22 Wh/kg at a power density of 12.5 kW/kg, attributable to fast motion of ion clusters in the large space of exfoliated nanosheets in MEGO.
Single-molecule Fluorescence Kinetic Sandwich Assay Using a DNA Sequencer
Authors: Kawai Kiyohiko , Fujitsuka Mamoru
Published: January 2022

Using an ATP split aptamer as a model system, a single-molecule fluorescence kinetic sandwich assay was performed on zero-mode waveguides (ZMWs). A high-throughput parallel analysis of 150250 ZMWs was demonstrated by using an RSII+ (Pacific Biosciences) third-generation DNA sequencer.
An exploration of the consequences of, and coping with loneliness in an ageing intellectual disability population
Authors: Wormald Andrew , McCallion Philip , McCarron Mary
Published: January 2022

Background: Loneliness has been associated with hypervigilance and sad passivity. The physiological and psychological reactions of people with an intellectual disability to loneliness have never been investigated. This research aims to explore the outcomes of loneliness for an ageing intellectual disability population.

Methods: In Ireland, data from a nationally representative data set of people aged over 40 years with an intellectual disability (N=317) was applied to a social environment model that describes the effects of loneliness in five pre-disease pathways health behaviours, exposure to stressful life events, coping, health and recuperation. The data was tested through chi-squared, ANCOVA and binary logistic regression.

Results: Being lonely predicted raised systolic blood pressure (A.O.R=2.051, p=0.039), sleeping difficulties (AOR=2.526, p=0.002) and confiding in staff (AOR=0.464 p=0.008). Additionally, participants who did moderate activity had significantly higher loneliness scores (F=4.171, p<0.05).

Conclusions: The analysis supports the concept of hypervigilance in older people with an intellectual disability and limited support for the use of coping mechanisms that differ from those found in the wider population. Future research needs to investigate the longitudinal relationships between loneliness and health.
Work and its transformations: from statism-based work to the Gig Economy
Authors: Krzyminiewska Grażyna
Published: January 2022

Motivation: Work as a socio-cultural and -economic phenomenon in the process of Poland’s economic transformation within the last thirty years requires special analyses due to its central role both in individual and social terms. To a significant extent, the traditional approach is based on unhelpful separation of economic determinants from the social system as a whole, which is with detriment to the ability to investigate economic processes. Economic phenomena are not the effect of actions of unrelated individuals and their decisions based on rational calculations, but also arise out of the values rooted in their way of thinking and demonstrated through culture.

Aim: This paper is aimed at describing the evolution of work in the context of the changes occurring on the labour market which result from the transformation of these institutions and of the economic culture of Poles. The aim may be achieved by assuming that the experience of the so-called ‘cultural turn’, a term which perfectly suits to describe the transformation process, requires interest to be taken also in phenomena occurring in everyday life, such as values, attitudes or cultural patterns. The transformation of work and of its meaning for development will be subject to descriptive and comparative analysis in two aspects: (1) with regard to the shift from statism-based economy to flexible forms of employment and the occurrences that accompany that shift and (2) in terms of global economic and technological changes in this regard.

Results: The analyses carried out allowed to describe the changes in the Polish society observed in the area of work. The stages of the changes are identified, and new trends are specified which emerge under the impact of global development and their consequences for the economy and the society.
Unemployment as a determinant of local service-oriented entrepreneurship: a case study of Poland
Authors: Wosiek Małgorzata
Published: January 2022

Motivation: Unemployment is an important entrepreneurship determinant which is captured by the unemployment push/pull hypotheses. Those issues remain underexplored, with only few studies investigating the relationship between unemployment and the sector structure of entrepreneurship, while considering the specificity of the local economy.

Aim: The main goal of the study is to assess the impact of local unemployment rate on the number of newly registered service businesses in Poland, taking into account both the heterogeneity of that sector and the specificities of local economies in 2003–2018.

Results: The research results show that in Poland growing unemployment contributed to the increasing registration of new service businesses, which empirically supports the unemployment-push hypothesis. Both the occurrence and the intensity of the unemployment-push effect were conditioned by territorial factors, with the higher elasticity of entrepreneurship in relation to unemployment changes in lagged local units.
Peculiarities of neuroendocrine and metabolic effects of sulfate-chloride sodium-magnesium mineral waters "Myroslava" and "Khrystyna" of Truskavets’ spa in healthy female rats
Authors: Hrytsak Myroslava , Popovych Dariya , Badiuk Nataliya , Hrytsan Ivanna
Published: January 2022

Background. Earlier we found that the newly created sulfate-chloride sodium-magnesium drinking mineral waters of Truskavets’ spa have similar neuroendocrine and metabolic effects on healthy old female rats significantly different from daily water. The aim of this study is to elucidate the effects of these mineral waters on the neuroendocrine status and metabolism of these animals. Materials and Methods. Experiment was performed on 50 healthy female Wistar rats. Animals of the first group remained intact, using tap water from drinking ad libitum. Rats of the control group for 6 days injected a tap water through the tube at a dose of 1,5 mL/100 g of body mass. The rats of the main groups received the water "Myroslava" and "Khrystyna". The day after the completion of the drinking course in all rats, at first, assessed the state of autonomous regulation by parameters of the HRV. The plasma levels of the hormones of adaptation were determined: corticosterone, triiodothyronine and testosterone (by the ELISA) as well as electrolytes: calcium, magnesium, phosphates, chloride, sodium and potassium; nitric metabolites: creatinine, urea, uric acid, medium molecular polypeptides, bilirubin; lipid peroxidation products and antioxidant enzymes, as well as cholesterol, amylase and glucose. Most of the listed parameters of metabolism were also determined in daily urine. In the adrenals the thickness of glomerular, fascicular, reticular and medullar zones was measured. Results. To identify exactly those parameters, the set of which all four groups of animals differ significantly from each other, the information field of the registered parameters was subjected to discriminant analysis. The program included in the model 8 endocrine and 16 metabolic parameters, information about which is condensed into three roots. The first root reflects directly the SOD and corticosterone and inversely the reticular zone as well as plasma uric acid and glucose. The second root contains information about Nap/Kp ratio, natrihistia, amylasemia, magnesiumuria as well as inversely about kaliemia. The third root reflects directly the triiodothyronine, parathyroid activity, plasma Ca, natriuria and chloriduria as well as urine malondyaldehide. Inversely displays the root information about the testosterone, Ku/Nau ratio, glomerular zone, plasma katalase and Na as well as uricosuria and amylasuria. In the information space of the three discriminant roots, all four groups are quite clearly distinguished. Classification accuracy is 94% (three errors). Conclusion. The newly created sulfate-chloride sodium-magnesium drinking mineral waters of Truskavets resort have specific endocrine and metabolic effects on healthy old female rats with weekly use. This provides a basis for preclinical studies.
Représenter l’irreprésentable : l’adaptation vidéoludique de l’oeuvre d’H.P. Lovecraft confrontée à la question de la figurabilité
Authors: Baychelier Guillaume
Published: January 2022

Cette étude s’arrête sur les adaptations de l’oeuvre d’Howard Philip Lovecraft en jeu vidéo et la difficulté de sa retranscription par l’image. Après une analyse rapide d’un corpus de jeux vidéo empruntant à Lovecraft, ce texte procède plus en détail à l’analyse des jeux Call of Cthulhu (Cyanide 2018) et The Sinking City (Frogwares 2019) afin de cerner les procédés qui y sont employés pour mettre en image les enjeux propres à son oeuvre. Sont dégagés les modes de mise en image et les jeux plastiques destinés à rendre possible la survenue du paradoxe de la visibilité de l’indicible s’imposant nécessairement à toute transcription par l’image des créations d’H. P. Lovecraft. Après le constat des lacunes inhérentes aux méthodes choisies, celles-ci sont ensuite confrontées à des courants picturaux cités directement par l’auteur. Ainsi, le cubisme et le futurisme, à travers les dimensions formelles et conceptuelles qui structurent ces courants, permettent d’envisager la possibilité d’adopter un rapport à la représentation à même de se placer à la lisière entre le représentable et l’irreprésentable, pour résoudre, peut-être, la question de la figuration de ce qui ne peut être montré.
La guerre polono-soviétique de 1919–1921 et le traité de Riga en tant qu’élément stabilisateur en Europe centrale et orientale
Authors: Wołos Mariusz
Published: January 2022

L’auteur de l’article analyse les causes du déclenchement de la guerre polono-soviétique de 1919–1921 et ses conséquences de grande envergure pour la Pologne, la Russie soviétique (plus tard l’Union soviétique) et aussi pour l’Europe. Une thèse a été formulée sur le sens complémentaire du traité de Riga au traité de Versailles. L’auteur utilise le terme « ordre Versailles-Riga », qui existait dans l’Europe de l’entre-deux-guerres et fut finalement renversé en 1939 après l’agression allemande et soviétique contre la Pologne.
Milovan Đilas – polityk, myśliciel, analityk systemu komunistycznego
Authors: Zacharias Michał Jerzy
Published: January 2022

W prezentowanym artykule została przedstawiona ewolucja postawy politycznej, przede wszystkim zaś myśli politycznej Milovana Đilasa w sprawie tzw. nowej klasy i systemu komunistycznego – jego powstania, charakteru i nieuniknionego zaniku. Zwrócono uwagę na poglądy i koncepcje „nowej klasy” w ujęciu jego poprzedników, od Nikołaja Bakunina poczynając. A także na zasadnicze różnice między myślą Đilasa i teoriami Karla Marksa. Niezależnie od posługiwania się marksowską (marksistowską) metodą badawczą i terminologią twórcy Kapitału. Artykuł powstał w oparciu głównie o pisma Đilasa, z Nową klasą na czele, oraz o bardzo bogatą literaturę przedmiotu.
Wybory do Rady Najwyższej Gruzińskiej Socjalistycznej Republiki Radzieckiej w 1990 r. – koniec komunistycznego monopolu władzy
Authors: Furier Andrzej
Published: January 2022

Artykuł analizuje pierwsze gruzińskie wolne wybory parlamentarne przeprowadzone w 1990 r. Autor postawił tezę o kluczowym znaczeniu tego wydarzenia dla rozpoczęcia pierwszego okresu gruzińskiej transformacji ustrojowej, który doprowadził do odzyskania niepodległości. Charakteryzował się on wprowadzeniem na scenę polityczną nowych organizacji i partii politycznych, które zakończyły funkcjonowanie zbudowanego przez komunistów monopartyjnego systemu partyjnego w Gruzji.
The Touch of Intelligence
Authors: Ross Malcolm
Published: January 2022

I have yet to be persuaded that what arts therapists are doing with their clients either actually counts as art—rather than an applied form of occupational therapy—or seems likely to have any long-term effect on easing their suffering, other than by distraction and temporary companionship. I don’t for a moment doubt the relevance of the arts, properly so called, for individual and collective wellbeing—one of the aims of this paper is to spell out what that might mean—butan art practice structured around the conventions of psychoanalysis seems to me entirely mistaken because, as a basis of legitimacy, it favours rationality and modelling over feeling and making good things.Rational, analytical ways of knowing are a direct contradiction to the intuitive and imaginative procedures of art, where touch rather than talk does all the work. The arts offer to effect change in the patient from within rather than from without, via empathetic attunement between the therapist and the patient rather by than argument and persuasion on the one hand or compliance on the other.
Comunidad, inmunidad y tecnología. Una aproximación crítica al transhumanismo / Community, Immunity and Technology. A Critical Approach to Transhumanism.
Authors: Agulles Martos Juan M.
Published: January 2022

El presente artículo tiene como objeto realizar una aproximación crítica a las teorías transhumanistas y posthumanistas y los retos que plantean para las ciencias sociales. Se partirá, para ello, de una historia conceptual del término “comunidad” como opuesto a “sociedad” que forjó “la invención de lo social” como objeto de conocimiento. Se abordarán los presupuestos conceptuales de las corrientes posthumanistas y transhumanistas y su ascesis tecnológica como parte de una teología política neoliberal. Se explorará la polaridad comunidad/inmunidad como herramienta de análisis crítico de estas tendencias y propuesta para una fundamentación alternativa de “lo social” como objeto de conocimiento
La filosofía de la técnica de Éric Sadin: la técnica como un régimen numérico de verdad / Éric Sadin's Philosophy of Technology: Technology as a Truth Numerical Regime.
Authors: Pizarro Contreras Roberto
Published: January 2022

El filósofo francés Éric Sadin (1973) es una de las personalidades más renombradas de la actualidad entre quienes investigan las relaciones entre subjetividad, tecnología y sociedad. En 2013 fue galardonado en Francia con el Prix HUB Awards en la categoría mejor ensayo sobre lo digital. Para Sadin la técnica se corresponde hoy con un fenómeno digital de alcance global, que echa raíces a través de la conexión, vigilancia y computación en tiempo real de los seres y las cosas del mundo, cuya traducción numérica conlleva además un régimen de verdad tal que las prescripciones de los sistemas son consideradas, por su exactitud, superiores a las de cualquier otra entidad social. Así y todo, lejos de ser necesaria, esta forma de la técnica se sostiene ideológicamente sobre un apetito expansivo de la corporación contemporánea y el éxito probado de las nuevas tecnologías. En este trabajo se exponen tres ejes temáticos desde los cuales puede introducirse el lector a la comprensión de este renovado marco interpretativo de la técnica: la genealogía capitalista de la denominada “revolución industrial 4.0”, una reinterpretación de la noción de inteligencia artificial (IA) y, por último, la noción de “antrobología”, que señala una condición humano-tecnológica según la cual técnica y humanidad se influirían mutuamente y que implicaría hoy una transformación de la cognición que pondría en jaque, contra toda apariencia benigna de los nuevos desarrollos tecnológicos, nuestra autonomía
Ciencia, técnica y algoritmos: notas en torno a su a priori ideológico-capitalista
Authors: Quintana Montes Jorge Luis
Published: January 2022

El objetivo del artículo es ofrecer una aproximación crítica a los algoritmos de aprendizaje automático, entendidos como una nueva faceta del dominio ideológico propio del modo de producción capitalista. En este sentido, el artículo se encuentra constituido por tres momentos temáticos: i) definición de algoritmos y de machine learning, ii) el asedio comercial como reproducción de la lógica de consumo del capital y iii) microtargeting político, amparado en la desinformación reinante en la esfera pública en tiempos de campaña electoral
La guitarra flamenca de concierto: el autor, la configuración de su repertorio y su público
Authors: Monge García David
Published: January 2022

Desde que la guitarra española cobra protagonismo «a solo» en los escenarios decimonónicos, encontramos la relevancia del intérprete y «el autor» en un repertorio de aires populares, en el que anteriormente la obra se identificaba más con el pueblo que con el individuo creador. Este concepto de «autor» cobra su sentido en este momento de individuación en la historia de la guitarra española, aunque no tanto de mano de guitarristas propia o exclusivamente flamencos como de los llamados académicos: los Huerta, Damas y Arcas. La reivindicación de los espacios escénicos a través de un repertorio personal solista se muestra en los entreactos de obras complejas y de larga duración, de repertorios y formatos variados, aunque con determinación y significación semántica. Posteriormente, con relación a la importancia del intérprete y su relación con los espacios flamencos, asistimos a conciertos de guitarra flamenca enteramente instrumentales. Es a partir del Romanticismo cuando la individualidad del «genio creador», y a su vez intérprete virtuoso de aires populares, con discurso instrumental propio o ajeno, se manifiesta públicamente como principal atracción de un público de aficionados. Sin embargo, la guitarra flamenca como instrumento de concierto o solista tarda en consolidarse, tanto en su repertorio como en cuanto a formato demandado en los espacios escénicos. Los primeros guitarristas flamencos que realizaron conciertos instrumentales (desde Paco de Lucena y Paco el Barbero hasta Miguel Borrull o Ramón Montoya) apenas aparecen como solistas, sino que todavía los vemos a finales del s. XIX y en las primeras décadas del s. XX dedicados principalmente al acompañamiento del cante y del baile, siendo con la generación de Carlos Montoya y Sabicas con quienes se consolida este formato instrumental.