Photo-Museology Adams, Mark; Thomas, Nicholas
2023, Letnik:
7
eBook
Ethnographic museums, now often rebranded as collections of 'world cultures', appear permanently problematic, even as their contexts and the orientation of their activities change. Across Europe and ...elsewhere, curators and other museum staff are committed to dialogue and collaboration with the peoples from whom collections were made. But their vast assemblages of artefacts, removed from countries of origin primarily during the colonial period, and assumed, mostly inaccurately, to have been looted, seem always in question. Photo-Museology arises from an art project undertaken over 25 years. From the early 1990s, Mark Adams and Nicholas Thomas together investigated sites of cross-cultural encounter in the Pacific and associated places in Europe, ranging from Captain Cook memorials to ethnographic museums. Some of those museums still exhibited colonial symbols and forms of knowledge, others had attempted to displace such histories, foregrounding more inclusive or progressive stories. Complementing the academic studies in the Pacific Presences series, this book offers what John Berger referred to as 'another way of telling'. Through photography, it revisits the places collections were made, and the places they ended up in. It is a meditation on presence and absence.
A previous efficacy trial found benefit from inhaled budesonide for COVID-19 in patients not admitted to hospital, but effectiveness in high-risk individuals is unknown. We aimed to establish whether ...inhaled budesonide reduces time to recovery and COVID-19-related hospital admissions or deaths among people at high risk of complications in the community.
PRINCIPLE is a multicentre, open-label, multi-arm, randomised, controlled, adaptive platform trial done remotely from a central trial site and at primary care centres in the UK. Eligible participants were aged 65 years or older or 50 years or older with comorbidities, and unwell for up to 14 days with suspected COVID-19 but not admitted to hospital. Participants were randomly assigned to usual care, usual care plus inhaled budesonide (800 μg twice daily for 14 days), or usual care plus other interventions, and followed up for 28 days. Participants were aware of group assignment. The coprimary endpoints are time to first self-reported recovery and hospital admission or death related to COVID-19, within 28 days, analysed using Bayesian models. The primary analysis population included all eligible SARS-CoV-2-positive participants randomly assigned to budesonide, usual care, and other interventions, from the start of the platform trial until the budesonide group was closed. This trial is registered at the ISRCTN registry (ISRCTN86534580) and is ongoing.
The trial began enrolment on April 2, 2020, with randomisation to budesonide from Nov 27, 2020, until March 31, 2021, when the prespecified time to recovery superiority criterion was met. 4700 participants were randomly assigned to budesonide (n=1073), usual care alone (n=1988), or other treatments (n=1639). The primary analysis model includes 2530 SARS-CoV-2-positive participants, with 787 in the budesonide group, 1069 in the usual care group, and 974 receiving other treatments. There was a benefit in time to first self-reported recovery of an estimated 2·94 days (95% Bayesian credible interval BCI 1·19 to 5·12) in the budesonide group versus the usual care group (11·8 days 95% BCI 10·0 to 14·1 vs 14·7 days 12·3 to 18·0; hazard ratio 1·21 95% BCI 1·08 to 1·36), with a probability of superiority greater than 0·999, meeting the prespecified superiority threshold of 0·99. For the hospital admission or death outcome, the estimated rate was 6·8% (95% BCI 4·1 to 10·2) in the budesonide group versus 8·8% (5·5 to 12·7) in the usual care group (estimated absolute difference 2·0% 95% BCI –0·2 to 4·5; odds ratio 0·75 95% BCI 0·55 to 1·03), with a probability of superiority 0·963, below the prespecified superiority threshold of 0·975. Two participants in the budesonide group and four in the usual care group had serious adverse events (hospital admissions unrelated to COVID-19).
Inhaled budesonide improves time to recovery, with a chance of also reducing hospital admissions or deaths (although our results did not meet the superiority threshold), in people with COVID-19 in the community who are at higher risk of complications.
National Institute of Health Research and United Kingdom Research Innovation.
Entangled Objects Thomas, Nicholas
1991, 1991., 19910101
eBook, Book
Thomas takes up issues central to modern anthropology: the cultural and political dynamics of colonial encounters, the nature of Western and non-Western transactions, and the significance of material ...objects in social life. He raises doubts about any simple "us/them" dichotomy between Westerners and Pacific Islanders.
•Small RNAs can transfer from pathogens or parasites into their interacting hosts.•Plant and animal hosts can deliver small RNAs into interacting pathogens and parasites.•External RNAs can be taken ...up by fungal cells and plant cells and induce RNAi.•Spray-induced gene silencing represents an innovative disease control tool.
Small RNA (sRNA) induces RNA interference (RNAi) in almost all eukaryotes. While sRNAs can move within an organism, they can also move between interacting organisms to induce gene silencing, a phenomenon called ‘cross-kingdom RNAi’. Some sRNAs from pathogens or pests move into host cells and suppress host immunity in both plants and animals; whereas some host sRNAs travel into pathogen/pest cells to inhibit their virulence. Moreover, uptake of exogenous RNAs from the environment was recently discovered in certain fungal pathogens, which makes it possible to suppress fungal diseases by directly applying pathogen–targeting RNAs on crops and post-harvest products. This new-generation of RNA-based fungicides is powerful, environmentally friendly, and can be easily adapted to control multiple diseases simultaneously.
To describe the relationship between type 2 diabetes and all-cause mortality among adults with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in the critical care setting.
This was a nationwide retrospective ...cohort study in people admitted to hospital in England with COVID-19 requiring admission to a high dependency unit (HDU) or intensive care unit (ICU) between 1 March 2020 and 27 July 2020. Cox proportional hazards models were used to estimate 30-day in-hospital all-cause mortality associated with type 2 diabetes, with adjustment for age, sex, ethnicity, obesity, and other major comorbidities (chronic respiratory disease, asthma, chronic heart disease, hypertension, immunosuppression, chronic neurological disease, chronic renal disease, and chronic liver disease).
A total of 19,256 COVID-19-related HDU and ICU admissions were included in the primary analysis, including 13,809 HDU (mean age 70 years) and 5,447 ICU (mean age 58 years) admissions. Of those admitted, 3,524 (18.3%) had type 2 diabetes and 5,077 (26.4%) died during the study period. Patients with type 2 diabetes were at increased risk of death (adjusted hazard ratio aHR 1.23 95% CI 1.14, 1.32), and this result was consistent in HDU and ICU subsets. The relative mortality risk associated with type 2 diabetes decreased with higher age (age 18-49 years aHR 1.50 95% CI 1.05, 2.15, age 50-64 years 1.29 1.10, 1.51, and age ≥65 years 1.18 1.09, 1.29;
value for age-type 2 diabetes interaction = 0.002).
Type 2 diabetes may be an independent prognostic factor for survival in people with severe COVID-19 requiring critical care treatment, and in this setting the risk increase associated with type 2 diabetes is greatest in younger people.
IMPORTANCE: Recurrent urinary tract infection (UTI) is a common debilitating condition in women, with limited prophylactic options. d-Mannose has shown promise in trials based in secondary care, but ...effectiveness in placebo-controlled studies and community settings has not been established. OBJECTIVE: To determine whether d-mannose taken for 6 months reduces the proportion of women with recurrent UTI experiencing a medically attended UTI. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: This 2-group, double-blind randomized placebo-controlled trial took place across 99 primary care centers in the UK. Participants were recruited between March 28, 2019, and January 31, 2020, with 6 months of follow-up. Participants were female, 18 years or older, living in the community, and had evidence in their primary care record of consultations for at least 2 UTIs in the preceding 6 months or 3 UTIs in 12 months. Invitation to participate was made by their primary care center. A total of 7591 participants were approached, 830 responded, and 232 were ineligible or did not proceed to randomization. Statistical analysis was reported in December 2022. INTERVENTION: Two grams daily of d-mannose powder or matched volume of placebo powder. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES: The primary outcome measure was the proportion of women experiencing at least 1 further episode of clinically suspected UTI for which they contacted ambulatory care within 6 months of study entry. Secondary outcomes included symptom duration, antibiotic use, time to next medically attended UTI, number of suspected UTIs, and UTI-related hospital admissions. RESULTS: Of 598 women eligible (mean range age, 58 18-93 years), 303 were randomized to d-mannose (50.7%) and 295 to placebo (49.3%). Primary outcome data were available for 583 participants (97.5%). The proportion contacting ambulatory care with a clinically suspected UTI was 150 of 294 (51.0%) in the d-mannose group and 161 of 289 (55.7%) in the placebo group (risk difference, −5%; 95% CI, −13% to 3%; P = .26). Estimates were similar in per protocol analyses, imputation analyses, and preplanned subgroups. There were no statistically significant differences in any secondary outcome measures. CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: In this randomized clinical trial, daily d-mannose did not reduce the proportion of women with recurrent UTI in primary care who experienced a subsequent clinically suspected UTI. d-Mannose should not be recommended for prophylaxis in this patient group. TRIAL REGISTRATION: isrctn.org Identifier: ISRCTN13283516
Myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) comprise a heterogeneous group of disorders characterized by ineffective hematopoiesis, with an increased propensity to develop acute myelogenous leukemia (AML). The ...molecular basis for MDS progression is unknown, but a key element in MDS disease progression is loss of chromosomal material (genomic instability). Using our two-step mouse model for myeloid leukemic disease progression involving overexpression of human mutant NRAS and BCL2 genes, we show that there is a stepwise increase in the frequency of DNA damage leading to an increased frequency of error-prone repair of double-strand breaks (DSB) by nonhomologous end-joining. There is a concomitant increase in reactive oxygen species (ROS) in these transgenic mice with disease progression. Importantly, RAC1, an essential component of the ROS-producing NADPH oxidase, is downstream of RAS, and we show that ROS production in NRAS/BCL2 mice is in part dependent on RAC1 activity. DNA damage and error-prone repair can be decreased or reversed in vivo by N-acetyl cysteine antioxidant treatment. Our data link gene abnormalities to constitutive DNA damage and increased DSB repair errors in vivo and provide a mechanism for an increase in the error rate of DNA repair with MDS disease progression. These data suggest treatment strategies that target RAS/RAC pathways and ROS production in human MDS/AML.
Type 1 diabetes is typically considered a disease of children and young adults. Genetic susceptibility to young-onset type 1 diabetes is well defined and does not predispose to type 2 diabetes. It is ...not known how frequently genetic susceptibility to type 1 diabetes leads to a diagnosis of diabetes after age 30 years. We aimed to investigate the frequency and phenotype of type 1 diabetes resulting from high genetic susceptibility in the first six decades of life.
In this cross-sectional analysis, we used a type 1 diabetes genetic risk score based on 29 common variants to identify individuals of white European descent in UK Biobank in the half of the population with high or low genetic susceptibility to type 1 diabetes. We used Kaplan-Meier analysis to evaluate the number of cases of diabetes in both groups in the first six decades of life. We genetically defined type 1 diabetes as the additional cases of diabetes that occurred in the high genetic susceptibility group compared with the low genetic susceptibility group. All remaining cases were defined as type 2 diabetes. We assessed the clinical characteristics of the groups with genetically defined type 1 or type 2 diabetes.
13 250 (3·5%) of 379 511 white European individuals in UK Biobank had developed diabetes in the first six decades of life. 1286 more cases of diabetes were in the half of the population with high genetic susceptibility to type 1 diabetes than in the half of the population with low genetic susceptibility. These genetically defined cases of type 1 diabetes were distributed across all ages of diagnosis; 537 (42%) were in individuals diagnosed when aged 31–60 years, representing 4% (537/12 233) of all diabetes cases diagnosed after age 30 years. The clinical characteristics of the group diagnosed with type 1 diabetes when aged 31–60 years were similar to the clinical characteristics of the group diagnosed with type 1 diabetes when aged 30 years or younger. For individuals diagnosed with diabetes when aged 31–60 years, the clinical characteristics of type 1 diabetes differed from those of type 2 diabetes: they had a lower BMI (27·4 kg/m2 95% CI 26·7–28·0 vs 32·4 kg/m2 32·2–32·5; p<0·0001), were more likely to use insulin in the first year after diagnosis (89% 476/537 vs 6% 648/11 696; p<0·0001), and were more likely to have diabetic ketoacidosis (11% 61/537 vs 0·3% 30/11 696; p<0·0001).
Genetic susceptibility to type 1 diabetes results in non-obesity-related, insulin-dependent diabetes, which presents throughout the first six decades of life. Our results highlight the difficulty of identifying type 1 diabetes after age 30 years because of the increasing background prevalence of type 2 diabetes. Failure to diagnose late-onset type 1 diabetes can have serious consequences because these patients rapidly develop insulin dependency.
Wellcome Trust and Diabetes UK.
It remains unclear to what extent reductions in urgent referrals for suspected cancer during the COVID-19 pandemic were the result of fewer patients attending primary care compared to GPs referring ...fewer patients.
Cohort study including electronic health records data from 8,192,069 patients from 663 English practices. Weekly consultation rates, cumulative consultations and referrals were calculated for 28 clinical features from the NICE suspected cancer guidelines. Clinical feature consultation rate ratios (CRR) and urgent referral rate ratios (RRR) compared time periods in 2020 with 2019.
Consultations for cancer clinical features decreased by 24.19% (95% CI: 24.04-24.34%) between 2019 and 2020, particularly in the 6-12 weeks following the first national lockdown. Urgent referrals for clinical features decreased by 10.47% (95% CI: 9.82-11.12%) between 2019 and 2020. Overall, once patients consulted with primary care, GPs urgently referred a similar or greater proportion of patients compared to previous years.
Due to the significant fall in patients consulting with clinical features of cancer there was a lower than expected number of urgent referrals in 2020. Sustained efforts should be made throughout the pandemic to encourage the public to consult their GP with cancer clinical features.
A list of classic movies containing chemistry-related scenes is provided for instructors to use when introducing a variety of general chemistry topics. Most of these movies have not been previously ...discussed in this context. The scenes can be legally copied for use in classroom PowerPoint lectures, and steps for doing this are discussed. The clips can be used alongside suggested activities for demonstrations, laboratory experiments, classroom discussions, and problem-solving or essay assignments to complement the film scenes.
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