The human cost of the Gulag, the Soviet labor camp system in which millions of people were imprisoned between 1920 and 1956, was staggering. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and others after him have written ...movingly about the Gulag, yet never has there been a thorough historical study of this unique and tragic episode in Soviet history. This groundbreaking book presents the first comprehensive, historically accurate account of the camp system. Russian historian Oleg Khlevniuk has mined the contents of extensive archives, including long-suppressed state and Communist Party documents, to uncover the secrets of the Gulag and how it became a central component of Soviet ideology and social policy.
Khlevniuk argues persuasively that the Stalinist penal camps created in the 1930s were essentially different from previous camps. He shows that political motivations and paranoia about potential enemies contributed no more to the expansion of the Gulag than the economic incentive of slave labor did. And he offers powerful evidence that the Great Terror was planned centrally and targeted against particular categories of the population. Khlevniuk makes a signal contribution to Soviet history with this exceptionally informed and balanced view of the Gulag.
Long-term exposure to ambient fine particulate matter (≤ 2.5 μg/m3 in aerodynamic diameter; PM2.5) is significantly associated with increased risk of premature mortality. Our goal was to provide an ...updated meta-analysis of all-cause and cause-specific mortality associated with exposure to PM2.5 and to better estimate the risk of death as a function of air pollution levels.
We systematically searched all published cohort studies examining the association between long term exposure to PM2.5 and mortality. We applied multivariate linear random effects meta-analysis with random effects for cohort, and study within cohort. Meta-regression techniques were used to test whether study population or analytic characteristics modify the PM2.5 -mortality association and to estimate the shape of the concentration-response curve.
A total of 53 studies that provided 135 estimates of the quantitative association between the risk of mortality and exposure to PM2.5 were included in the meta-analysis. There were 39 studies from North America, 8 from Europe, and 6 from Asia. Since 2015, 17 studies of long-term air pollution exposure have been published, covering, wider geographic areas with a wider range of mean exposures (e.g. <12 or > 20 μg/m3). A penalized spline showed the slope decreased at higher concentrations but appeared to level off. We found that the inverse transform of average PM2.5 well approximated that spline and provided a parametric estimate that fit better than a linear or logarithmic term for average PM2.5. In addition, we found that studies using space time exposure models or fixed monitors at Zip-code scale (as compared to land use regression method), or additionally controlling for area level socio-economic status, or with mean exposure less than 10 μg/m3 were associated with higher mortality effect estimates.
This meta-analysis provides strong evidence for the adverse effect of PM2.5 on mortality, that studies with poorer exposure have lower effect size estimates, that more control for SES increases effect size estimates, and that significant effects are seen below 10 µg/m3. The concentration -response function produced here can be further applied in the global health risk assessment of air particulate matter.
•PM2.5-mortality effect is significant below 10 μg/m3 and above 20 μg/m3.•Better exposure estimates result in higher effect size estimates.•More control for SES results in higher effect size estimates.•A nonlinear dose-response is seen.•Effects at higher exposures are larger than predicted by the IER/GBD.
Spaniards in Mauthausen Brenneis, Sara J
Spaniards in Mauthausen,
2018, 2018, 2018-05-04, Letnik:
34, 34.
eBook
"Spaniards in Mauthausen is the first study of the cultural legacy of Spaniards imprisoned and killed during the Second World War in the Nazi concentration camp Mauthausen. By examining narratives ...about Spanish Mauthausen victims over the past seventy years, author Sara J. Brenneis provides a historical, critical, and chronological analysis of a virtually unknown body of work"--
"Diverse accounts from survivors of Mauthausen, chronicled in letters, artwork, photographs, memoirs, fiction, film, theater, and new media, illustrate how Spaniards have become cognizant of the Spanish government's relationship to the Nazis and its role in the victimization of Spanish nationals in Mauthausen. As political prisoners, their numbers and experiences differ significantly from the millions of Jews exterminated by Hitler, yet the Spaniards in Mauthausen were nevertheless objects of Nazi violence and witnesses to the Holocaust."
BA moving, deeply researched account of survivors' experiences of liberation from Nazi death camps and the long, difficult years that followed/BBR / BR / When tortured inmates of Hitler's ...concentration and extermination camps were liberated in 1944 and 1945, the horror of the atrocities came fully to light. It was easy for others to imagine the joyful relief of freed prisoners, yet for those who had survived the unimaginable, the experience of liberation was a slow, grueling journey back to life. In this unprecedented inquiry into the days, months, and years following the arrival of Allied forces at the Nazi camps, a foremost historian of the Holocaust draws on archival sources and especially on eyewitness testimonies to reveal the complex challenges liberated victims faced and the daunting tasks their liberators undertook to help them reclaim their shattered lives.BR / BR / Historian Dan Stone focuses on the survivors-their feelings of guilt, exhaustion, fear, shame for having survived, and devastating grief for lost family members; their immense medical problems; and their later demands to be released from Displaced Persons camps and resettled in countries of their own choosing. Stone also tracks the efforts of British, American, Canadian, and Russian liberators as they contended with survivors' immediate needs, then grappled with longer-term issues that shaped the postwar world and ushered in the first chill of the Cold War years ahead.
Lactic acid at sufficiently acidic pH is a potent microbicide, and lactic acid produced by vaginal lactobacilli may help protect against reproductive tract infections. However, previous observations ...likely underestimated healthy vaginal acidity and total lactate concentration since they failed to exclude women without a lactobacillus-dominated vaginal microbiota, and also did not account for the high carbon dioxide, low oxygen environment of the vagina. Fifty-six women with low (0-3) Nugent scores (indicating a lactobacillus-dominated vaginal microbiota) and no symptoms of reproductive tract disease or infection, provided a total of 64 cervicovaginal fluid samples using a collection method that avoided the need for sample dilution and rigorously minimized aerobic exposure. The pH of samples was measured by microelectrode immediately after collection and under a physiological vaginal concentration of CO2. Commercial enzymatic assays of total lactate and total acetate concentrations were validated for use in CVF, and compared to the more usual HPLC method. The average pH of the CVF samples was 3.5 ± 0.3 (mean ± SD), range 2.8-4.2, and the average total lactate was 1.0% ± 0.2% w/v; this is a five-fold higher average hydrogen ion concentration (lower pH) and a fivefold higher total lactate concentration than in the prior literature. The microbicidal form of lactic acid (protonated lactic acid) was therefore eleven-fold more concentrated, and a markedly more potent microbicide, than indicated by prior research. This suggests that when lactobacilli dominate the vaginal microbiota, women have significantly more lactic acid-mediated protection against infections than currently believed. Our results invite further evaluations of the prophylactic and therapeutic actions of vaginal lactic acid, whether provided in situ by endogenous lactobacilli, by probiotic lactobacilli, or by products that reinforce vaginal lactic acid.
Therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) is the quantification and interpretation of drug concentrations in blood to optimize pharmacotherapy. It considers the interindividual variability of ...pharmacokinetics and thus enables personalized pharmacotherapy. In psychiatry and neurology, patient populations that may particularly benefit from TDM are children and adolescents, pregnant women, elderly patients, individuals with intellectual disabilities, patients with substance abuse disorders, forensic psychiatric patients or patients with known or suspected pharmacokinetic abnormalities. Non-response at therapeutic doses, uncertain drug adherence, suboptimal tolerability, or pharmacokinetic drug-drug interactions are typical indications for TDM. However, the potential benefits of TDM to optimize pharmacotherapy can only be obtained if the method is adequately integrated in the clinical treatment process. To supply treating physicians and laboratories with valid information on TDM, the TDM task force of the Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Neuropsychopharmakologie und Pharmakopsychiatrie (AGNP) issued their first guidelines for TDM in psychiatry in 2004. After an update in 2011, it was time for the next update. Following the new guidelines holds the potential to improve neuropsychopharmacotherapy, accelerate the recovery of many patients, and reduce health care costs.
When investigating the impact of air pollution on health, particulate matter less than 2.5μm in aerodynamic diameter （PM2.5） is considered more harrnful than particulates of other sizes. Therefore, ...studies of PM2.5 have attracted more attention. Beijing, the capital of China, is notorious for its serious air pollution problem, an issue which has been of great concern to the residents, government, and related institutes for decades. However, in China, significantly less time has been devoted to observing PM2.5 than for PM10. Especially before 2013, the density of the PM2.5 ground observation network was relatively low, and the distribution of observation stations was uneven. One solution is to estimate PM2.5 concentrations from the existing data on PM10. In the present study, by analyzing the relationship between the concentrations of PM2.5 and PM10, and the meteorological conditions for each season in Beijing from 2008 to 2014, a U-shaped relationship was found between the daily maximum wind speed and the daily PM concentration, including both PM2.5 and PM10. That is, the relationship between wind speed and PM concentration is not a simple positive or negative correlation in these wind directions; their relationship has a complex effect, with higher PM at low and high wind than for moderate winds. Additionally, in contrast to previous studies, we found that the PM2.5/PM10 ratio is proportional to the mean relative humidity （MRH）. According to this relationship, for each season we established a multiple nonlinear regression （MNLR） model to estimate the PM2.5 concentrations of the missing periods.
For the first time, we present, i) an account of decay in the genetic material loading of SARS-CoV-2 during Upflow Anaerobic Sludge Blanket (UASB) treatment of wastewater, and ii) comparative ...evaluation of polyethylene glycol (PEG), and ultrafiltration as virus concentration methods from wastewater for the quantification of SARS-CoV-2 genes. The objectives were achieved through tracking of SARS-CoV-2 genetic loadings i.e. ORF1ab, N and S protein genes on 8th and 27th May 2020 along the wastewater treatment plant (106000 m3 million liters per day) equipped with UASB system in Ahmedabad, India. PEG method performed better in removing materials inhibiting RT-qPCR for SARS-CoV-2 gene detection from the samples, as evident from constant and lower CT values of control (MS2). Using the PEG method, we found a reduction >1.3 log10 reduction in SARS-CoV-2 RNA abundance during UASB treatment, and the RNA was not detected at all in the final effluent. The study implies that i) conventional wastewater treatment systems is effective in SARS-CoV-2 RNA removal, and ii) UASB system significantly reduces SARS-CoV-2 genetic loadings. Finally, PEG method is recommended for better sensitivity and inhibition removal during SARS-CoV-2 RNA quantification in wastewater.
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•First report of the decay of SARS-CoV-2 gene during UASB treatment•Polyethylene glycol method had superior inhibition removal than filtration method.•The viral genetic loading reduction during UASB treatment was more than 1.3 log10.•Higher RNA loading in the influent on 27th May 2020 translated into higher reduction.
This powerful, wide-ranging history of the Nazi concentration camp Mittelbau-Dora is the first book to analyze how memory of the Third Reich evolved throughout changes in the German regime from World ...War II to the present. Building on intimate knowledge of the history of the camp, where a third of the 60,000 prisoners did not survive the war, Gretchen Schafft and Gerhard Zeidler examine the political and cultural aspects of the camp's memorialization in East Germany and, after 1989, in unified Germany._x000B__x000B_Prisoners at Mittelbau-Dora built the V-1 and V-2 missiles, some of them coming into direct contact with Wernher von Braun and Arthur Rudolph, who later became leading engineers in the U.S. space program. Through the continuing story of Mittelbau-Dora, from its operation as a labor camp to its social construction as a monument, Schafft and Zeidler reflect an abiding interest in the memory and commemoration of notorious national events. In extending the analysis of Mittelbau-Dora into post-war and present-day Germany, Commemorating Hell uncovers the intricate relationship between the politics of memory and broader state and global politics, revealing insights about the camp's relationship to the American space pioneers and the fate of the nearby city of Nordhausen.
The daily passenger flow and ride times for subway systems are increasing in many large cities. Understanding the characteristics of carbon dioxide (CO2) and particulate matter (PM) in subway ...stations and train cars is essential in reducing passenger exposure to these pollutants. This study conducted field sampling on two subway lines in Tianjin, China (an old line, L1, and a new line, L6), during the transition season for a period of three weeks. During the first week, the heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems in subway cars were turned off, while during the following two weeks, the systems were turned on. Measurements were conducted in subway cars, in stations (6 typical above-ground and underground stations), and in the ambient environment simultaneously. The CO2 concentrations in the cars were linearly related to passenger density (p < 0.05), yet independent of the HVAC system. When the HVAC system was off, the CO2 concentrations during the morning and evening peak periods were 2016 ± 567 ppm and 1534 ± 498 ppm, respectively, with the maximum concentrations observed at 3849 ppm and 3282 ppm. When the CO2 concentration was higher than 1500 ppm (Chinese air-quality standard), the exposure time were about 37.6 and 26.5 min, respectively, in the morning and evening peak periods. After the HVAC system was turned on, the CO2 concentrations in the cars dropped by 21–27%. Meanwhile, PM1, PM2.5 and PM10 concentrations in subway cars were 11.1 ± 7.6 μg/m3, 23.1 ± 6.5 μg/m3 and 68.8 ± 15.5 μg/m3, respectively. The ratios of PM concentration in carriage/in station (I/O) for PM1, PM2.5 and PM10 were 0.57, 0.53, and 0.42, respectively. Operating the HVAC systems in subway cars reduced the I/O ratios by 28.2–49.2%. The full-screen doors used on line L6 performed better than the half-screen doors used on line L1 in preventing the diffusion of particles from the tunnel to platforms by the piston effect. Based on the sampling results, possible air control strategies for CO2 and particle pollutants were also evaluated.
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